Chris Howard's Writing & Art

Ketchup and Crows

I pulled into work this morning--I park a pretty good distance from the building--and someone over the weekend had tossed out a bunch of ketchup packets from McDonald's.  A murder of crows had found the ketchup before I got there.  "Murder" is definitely the coolest collective noun for any group of things--way better than herd or flock of crows. (Although a herd of crows sounds like it could be more dangerous to humans, especially if they stampede). The crows were already tearing open the packets to get at the ketchup and I just parked and watched them for a while.  They had it down, standing on one of the packet and ripping open the other with their beaks.  Amazing.  What's funny, is that they didn't move when I drove in. They just watched me--hoping for some fries maybe? They didn't seem too concerned until I rolled down the window and took a few pics of them. Then they each picked up their ketchup packets and walked further down the parking lot.

Bet you didn't know about...

The War of Jenkins' Ear 

Nine years of war and I've never heard of it? And with such a wild cool name?  How is that possible?

It was a "conflict between Great Britain and Spain that lasted from 1739 to 1748, with major operations largely ended by 1742. Its unusual name, coined by Thomas Carlyle in 1858, relates to Robert Jenkins, captain of a British merchant ship, who exhibited his severed ear in Parliament following the boarding of his vessel by Spanish coast guards in 1731."

Here's Wikipedia entry, have at it!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_Jenkins%27_Ear

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SD Card adapter

For the Express Card slot on my MacBook Pro--so I can install and run Ubuntu 10.04 on a 32 GB SD Card.  I'm using Parallels VM, already running Windows and Ubuntu 11.1, but the parallels tools don't install with the latest Ubuntu.  Should work fine with 10.

Sent from my iPhone

iPhone 4s

Alice and I went up to the AT&T store in Newington yesterday morning, and walked out with a pair of iPhone 4s's.  There was a bit of a line, but they had things flowing smoothly.  You know I'd swear they've done this before...

This is my third iPhone. Pretty soon I'll have enough boxes to build a fort.

Cephalopod Awareness Day, it's right around the corner

Wait, there aren't any corners in a Cephalopod's world, right?  Cephalopod Awareness Day is on the 8th of October, of course.  Here's my contribution--take and post at will. 

Sigh...I remember my first Cephalopod Awareness Day like it was yesterday... Actually it was only a few years ago--2007. I think I heard about it first on Pharyngula.

 

A New Paper City Every Year

My son and I took a walk around the backyard to check on the progress of our paper-nest-building neighbors, thousands of Baldfaced Hornets (Dolichovespula maculata) They're actually wasps--not real hornets, related to yellow-jackets, and they build these absolutely beautiful homes of paper, a new one every year. 

The nest is at the base of a small tree a couple hundred feet from the house.  Apparently these guys are aggressive, but my son and I got within a foot or two of the nest, taking pics, and they didn't seem to care.

Early morning photography

I got up around 4:30 and the sky was so clear after Irene passing through that I had to get out my camera and tripod to shoot it.  I was wandering around in the backyard and the dogs didn't even get up--too early for them apparently.

Here's one of the constellation Orion, around 4:45 AM, f3.5 at 30 seconds (the starlight is just starting to shift at 30 secs). Camera: Nikon D3100, Nikkor 18-200 lens.  Facing east--those are PSNH's transmission lines up the hill from us.

 

Goofing with QR Codes

I've created a QR code for SaltwaterWitch.com (black and white) that works just like it's supposed to, but I started playing around with colors and how far I could distort the code and still have it readable.  I got pretty far.  If you have a QR code reader on your phone let me know if any of these don't work. They all worked with mine, although I had a bit of trouble with the last one.  I suspect I'm getting to the edge of what's readable.

Skateboard Technology: Method is at the edge

A man is a method, a progressive arrangement; a selecting principle, gathering his like to him; wherever he goes. And wherever he goes it'll be on a Method skateboard.
  --Ralph Waldo Emerson

Very true. Awesome words by Ralph. Well, except that last line. I added that, but it's implied.  Come on. Emerson was a longboarder from way back.

Method Skateboard out in California is breaking ground and rolling smoothly over it with their negative camber trucks. "NC Truck takes advantage of a well known racing enhancement called a Negative Camber Angle (NC). Camber angles are used in the design of high performance vehicles like the Formula 1 and drifting motorsports rides".

Check out Method Skateboards and their variety of decks, longboards, hand-crafted decks, performance trucks, completes, wheels, hardware, and more.

The Conspiracy line of decks "are made with the highest quality cold pressed laminated Canadian Maple.  Decks are formed into custom concave and convex cambers with a variety of nose and tail kicks to choose from.  Each deck includes custom positoned wheel wells, high quality screen transfer graphics and custom grip tape.  These are great boards for campus cruising, concrete surfing or a late night parking garage session"

Oh, by the way, I designed one of the Conspiracy Decks, so of course this is my favorite: ZEV Zero Emisions Vehicle, smoke - complete

Emerson sidewalk surfing--old school:

Blog award!

Awesome! Deirdra of A Storybook World gave me and my corner of the Web a Creative Blog Award! Deirdra is a writer, illustrator, blogger, ebook revolutionary, interviewer, and award giver. Go check out her books and art.

http://astorybookworld.blogspot.com

I'm going to stick my award in the sidebar to it's permanently attached to my blog!