Cumberland Island
Make Cheap Steaks better with salt.
I don't care if anybody reads this. I just want to be able to find this article later.
PS: Don't try this with thin steaks. They'll taste like a salt block.
Magnolia Plantation
A random pond out at Magnolia...
New Grandparents
There aren't many ways to get more grandparents. Although there are a few ways to have less. I guess I'm happy to get more any way I can.
And I did when I said I do.
Amber's Grandparents and Great Aunt+Uncle came down our way last week. We had a good time getting to hang out and get to know one another a little better.
I learned how to play dominoes. I taught them to play 42.
They took us to Hymen's Seafood. We talked them into JB's Smokeshack. They bought us dinner there too after a quick jaunt to the Angel Oak.
They toured the Yorktown and Magnolia Plantation.
We went to work and school.
A big thanks to them for dropping by. I loved spending some time with the new fam.
Car shopping
I know graduation is still more than a year away, but if anyone wants to contribute to my next ride I'm more than happy to accept a little gift. (Dear Mom, that's a Ferrari)
Shem Creek
Bridge Run 2
The second time lapse video. It's a start.
Bridge Run Cleanup
My first time-lapse video. The cleanup crew is getting started after the bridge run.
Time Lapse Photography
How to turn a TI-86 into an Intervalometer
For some time, I've wanted to do a little time lapse photography. Very high end cameras have time lapse features built into the software. Some low end cameras do too; however, our Canon XTi doesn't. The only way to take time lapse pictures with the Rebel series is to rig an intervalometer yourself.
There are many ways to create an intervalometer, but this method doesn't require any soldering.
Parts:
TI-86
Canon XTi
2.5 mm double ended cable
tape
paper for labels
Tools:
Wire strippers/cutters
Write the Program
Disp "Interval in seconds"The program asks for a number. With full batteries, an input of 450 takes a picture every 3 seconds. It will be slower if the batteries are worn out.
Disp "x 100"
Prompt A
While 1
For(H,1,A,1)
End
Outpt("CBLSEND",A)
End
Alter the Cable
The XTi has a 2.5mm remote input that is simple. The 2.5mm plug has three sections. Shorting the middle section with the base makes the camera focus, and shorting all three makes the camera take a picture.
The TI series graphing calculators also use 2.5mm jacks for their communication port. Someone wrote a program using the TI-89 as an intervalometer. Someone else wrote one for the TI-83. I combined a little of each in order to get the TI-86 working.
This will create a one-way cable. Using the cable in reverse will not work.
Label one 2.5mm jack as the Camera side. Label the other side as the TI-86 side. Cut the cable in half and strip the wires to expose about 3/8" of bare wire on each side.
Combine the red and white wires from the camera side with the red wire from the calculator side. Simply cut off the white wire from the calculator side--it will not be used. Connect the ground wires from each side.
All that's left to do is start the program and connect the camera to the calculator with our new cable.
Shortly after the end of the Civil War a Georgia pharmacist named Pemberton invented a carbonated concoction in his back yard.
Somwhere along the way, Coca Cola marketed itself with the phrase: "Nothin' like the real thing." Or is that a clause?
Anyhow, there really ain't nothing like the real thing. I got by during my Harding years on cheap Sam's Cola and various other bottom of the barrel knockoffs. But fake coke has now taken a back seat to the real stuff because the real stuff tastes better.
Amber and I went to the Mt. Pleasant La Hacienda today and splurged on some caffeinated goodness--but it just didn't taste right. After sipping down a full glass (and making a sour face after each sip and slurp) I finally pinned down what it was that I was choking down through a plastic straw--Cheap coke knock-off.
I'm through with La Ha...
The Best $50 I ever made
I turned 25 in March. On that wonderful day, I got to celebrate joining the rest of the world with reasonable car insurance rates. Unfortunately, 25 is also the age that Mom and Dad's health insurance gave me the boot. It was nice while it lasted. I signed up for my own, and I got a message that my premium was going up 10% because I'm getting older. (Correction: I procrastinated until Amber got so frustrated with me that she signed me up for some health insurance. I just signed the paperwork)
I've started attending lunch lectures on topics such as the two kinds of disability insurance
and financial solutions for starting your practice.
It hit me just the other day. I've never earned a real paycheck. Sure I've had a few summer flings with employment here and there, but I've never worked a real job.
I had an opportunity to bring in the big bucks Friday and today. One of the regional dental licensure testing agencies came to town to offer their "services" to the senior class. To say that those students were a little tense would be an understatement. Failure means that they loose an exorbitant test fee, and more importantly, they have take the test in another state before graduating.
The whole set-up was pretty controlled. Obscure paperwork flows from room to room. Examiners are not permitted to see the dental student who performs the work. I and my fellow minions escorted patients from the operatories to the examiner's secluded floor where they poked, prodded, and scrutinized each student's work.
In the meantime, I prodded and scrutinized how each examiner did his diligent duty. At some point, somebody asked why I'd do the such a monotonous job on my three day weekend. "It's simple" I told her. "I'm getting paid to gather intelligence." The testing agency offered me $50 per day to assist the examiners in the scoring area and watch exactly how they did their job.
The money won't go far, but at least I got to know the "enemy."
The Bachelor
Amber left me and left town to stay with her parents for a while. That leaves me to hold down the pad. Suddenly, the couch feels bigger, and dinner is a lot lonelier.
I'm going to watch TV shows with lots of explosions and not cuddle and then I'll play video games all night.
Then I'll get fast food for dinner, and eat junk food until my stomach hurts.
Oh man do I hate spring break when it's not my spring break.
March Madness
My 2008 bracket isn't looking so good....
PBC
It's official. Amber and I are going to camp this year. I had to beat our dean of clinical affairs in a jello wrestling match in order to get the time off, but I'm free for a week and we're off to PBC. Now... what to do with all this jello...
Home Alone in a Flat World
For one of the first times since we've been married, I'm home alone for the weekend. As much as I'm enjoying not fighting for the covers, I can't wait until Josh comes home tomorrow. 
Anyway, while he's been gone, I've been catching up on some reading. I've been hearing about Friedman's The World is Flat for a while now, but with the job situation last semester I didn't have time to sit down and read the book.
I've only made it through a couple of chapters, but the premise of the book is that technology is leveling the playing field. My biggest question as I read is what does this mean for me and my students? Though we teach our students to use Word and remind them to never use Wikipedia (ha!), I'm not sure we're really teaching them the skills they need to make it in the world. In fact, many of my students know little about computers other than how to get around the firewall!
I'd love to get some input from others on what our students need to know when they enter college and the "real" world:
1) Should we be blocking technologies like Skype in our schools? We could be talking to experts around the world, but instead we block any type of chat or webconferencing tool for the safety of our students.
2) Which software programs (including web-based apps) are most important for our students?
3) What was most useful for you in high school? Which skills do you still actually use?
4) What are the essentials students need to know to get a job (and keep it)?
Color Pencil Gazebo
I like this version better. Color pencil filter everywhere but the gazebo.
Gazebo at White Point Gardens
I'm on Spring Break, so I thought I'd take some time to learn a little photoshop. This is my first attempt. I wanted to partially turn a picture into a line drawing. I'm not entirely happy.
FedEx Stinks
Fedex sent my goodies from Texas to California. Wrong way, geniuses. Now I don't like them.
Ransom Note
Jacob Metcalf
It's been a long time since I heard a song that I loved the first time I heard it. Well, until 3 minutes ago it had been a long time.
Then I stumbled onto jacobmetcalf.com . Jacob lived down the hall from me when I was a freshman at Harding, and we'd talk every week or two. I always admired the way he always had a happy, yet calm outlook on all the happenings in our lives. I don't know what you call it, but he always came up with just the right way to look at things.
I'd tease him about his sister. We would sit and ponder our futures. I'd tease him about his sister some more. He always insisted she wasn't interested in me, but I knew he was really just trying to trick me. He'd walk the halls and serenade anyone who would listen....and some folks who wouldn't.
Click "Tunespeak" and check out "Bend." I don't know what genre you're supposed to call this stuff. Maybe just, "good." And it's coming from that guy from down the hall who had a hot sister (who was a nice girl).
You're missing out if you don't check out his stuff. Jacob, I give it a 10, just like your sister.