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WEEK 17 2004

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Saturday 24 April 2004

Saturday - Riley the cat was trying to save little Timmy, it was clear (Lassie long being retired). Each time that I would move or glance his way his stance would change to one of demand and earnestness, he'd turn, trot towards some distance goal whilst looking over his shoulder at me.

"Timmy is down!" the look said. "A tree, burning in that forest fire, fell on Timmy, trapping him on the tracks, directly in front of that train loaded with dynamite!"

OR, maybe his food bowl was empty.

In other news I almost finished painting the east side of the house, while up on a ladder, over the cacti. If you went by sides of the house then I am only 3/4 of the way done. But if you go by actual square footage of paint required then I am probably 90% done. Part of the remaining south side I've already completed. But it's the highest part of the house, needing lot's of ladder work, which makes it slow going.

In the evening I finished a biography, Bull Halsey, by E.B. Potter. It was a fairly light biography, but interesting and a good read. I had no idea that Halsey had gone around the world with the Great White Fleet for example. The bulk of the book concentrates on the fleet actions in World War II of course, and addresses the three great 'mistakes' Halsey made: the chase after the Japanese diversionary fleet at Leyte, and twice steering his forces into full scale Typhoons. The storms did as much damage as battles with the enemy and probably came closest to destroying his career it seems.

Potter also has biographies of Admirals Chester Nimitz (whom my father met while in the service in WWII) and Arleigh Burke that might be good reads as well.

Friday 23 April 2004

Friday - just working away, not a lot to say. The wind has died down quite a bit, I may do some planting/painting tomorrow I think...

I was talking to my friend Dave today, who had called me on his cell phone. Then in the middle of the conversation he says "...whoa. Land Rover turned over on the 101 ahead..." We agreed that drivers were crazy in LA. Some of them use cell phones on the 101....

Yahoo! Maps will now show local Wifi hotspots if you click on the link on yahoo maps page

- link. Generally they seem to be either a Starbucks or a hotels, with the odd other entity...

Here's the Antelope Valley:

Yeah, that's one measly spot, at the local Starbucks

wifi hotspots in oxnard

Oxnard has lots of hotspots. Here I've clicked on a link for details...Channel Island Harbor, cool.

Thursday 22 April 2004

Thursday - working away, not a lot to say. Trying to get a visualization tool working for someone, and a CFD testcases going, and documenting some CFD software.

Dinner was at "The Silk Thai" downtown, across from the theater, and it was decent enough food. We were excited about their buffet, but it turns out that the buffet was shut down because the health code mandates a certain distance between the serving tables and eating tables - and the place was too small. Durn. It's a good policy I suppose.

Wednesday 21 April 2004

Wednesday - working on some file I/O issues and looking at the CFD code a bit. There are some issues here and there...

Lancaster is windy today- a steady 31mph from the west, gusting to 39mph.

Tuesday 20 April 2004
Tuesday - cleaned up some cactus in the side yard. I wore denim jeans, a long sleeved shirt, gloves, and watered down the overgrown cactus bed before starting. I still ended up with needles in my skin, after three large trash cans full of cactus were removed. There is still more to be done, but I've run out of space to put the trimmings, so it'll have to wait a bit.

Worked down at Sand Canyon. There were some visiting aerospace students from my old school, Cal Poly Pomona, and I spent a bit of time showing them how to generate a grid and run a CFD job - the manual is thorough, but not designed as a pedagogical tool.

Monday 19 April 2004

Monday - Working away on stuff. Not a lot to say. Mowed the lawn...

Sunday 18 April 2004

Sunday - feeling better. Went to the Lancaster Poppy Festival with some friends. In all my years in Lancaster I'd never gone to the festival grounds - the poppy fields yes, but not the festival itself. It was fun. Lots of education booths, food booths, various and assorted craft booths. We particularly enjoyed the "Celtic Corner" area.

The cactus pictured below was for sale, at a booth there. I didn't buy any as I have enough cactus of my own.

Picture of the Week

Photo Notes: In keeping with my recent botanical theme, here is a cactus that is flowering. Yes, cactus have flowers...

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