Big Frank's Blog Spot

I was out driving...

2010-05-04T22:38:00.000-07:00

...and I decided to find something to shoot (with my Nikon). The day was nice and I found a few woodland creatures to film.

Sometimes when shooting wild animals, you get them to cooperate and sometime you don't. the deer was young, and was not too shy, the rabbit, not so much. he ran away and turned his back on me.

As always, click on the photos to enlarge.

The Spring wild flowers are blooming, and I will get some other photos of them here soon. Here is a taste until then. -Frank

Just stuff...

2010-05-02T21:48:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I use the internet at work. Maybe I'm a bit spoiled by my internet at home. It's not blazingly fast, but but it runs around 4-5Mb/sec. But the net at work is provided by Hughesnet. Wow, what a turd that thing is. Here is a screen shot of it on a good day! Notice the ping rate...

Click to enlarge

Here are a couple of photos that I took last year when we went to Lassen Park

Click to enlarge

Click to enlarge

And one of a friend John when I was messing around with zoom exposure. Trippy!

Click to enlarge

That's it for now. Back later...

Here we go...

2010-04-26T18:25:00.000-07:00

So here I am. Back to my blog after many months of not posting.

A few things have and will be changed. First off, I have a new avatar. As some of you might know, it's from the Culpepper flag. The basic design is also on the Gladsen flag as well as inscribed permanently on my upper left arm.
It seem that our present government has decided (for us, by the way) that we should give up what we have and let others less fortunate (read, people that don't want to work) have what we have. I'm against it. Just wanted to put that out there for the record...

And while I'm on the subject of changes, you may have noticed that I have intentionally left out political talk in the past from my blog. That is another change that you will see here. I'm done with all of the political correctness. It's ruining our country. Again, just putting it out there for the record. If you don't like it, there is a little red X in the upper right corner of your screen.

So, getting that stuff out of the way, what's new in my life? Well for the last 3.5 months, I have been working at a camping resort type of facility. It's a long way from home, 82 miles round trip, and it doesn't pay much, but at least it's a job. It pays about half the bills or a bit more. Gotta go hustle the rest by selling stuff I have and such. Maybe this November we can get some new blood in and get the economy working again. I sure would like to go back into my real job of construction so I can get out of poverty.

Getting ready to sell my Mustang Cobra. If you haven't seen it, you can see photos here it's a wicked supercharged '93 SVT Cobra. Crazy fun to drive. If you are interested in it, get a hold of me here.

I will also have an '03 Ford F-250 with the 7.3 Powerstroke diesel for sale here soon. Crew cab, XT package, Etc. it has 4" exhaust and a Edge with Attitude programmer and some other aftermarket stuff on it. Runs great.
Where's the photos, you may ask... Well I have tons to post, just nothing right at the moment ready for the blog. Here is something to keep you occupied while I dig out some others.

Everyone likes ducks!

(Click photo to enlarge)

Okay, enough jabbering for now. Must leave something for later....

I'm still here...

2010-04-23T00:19:00.001-07:00

Okay, I'm a bad blogger. I never send anything to my blog, even though I like to see it updated on a regular basis.

Tonight, I was reading my email and got a message from an old friend and a link to a photo of him and a nice red rock cod. I wanted to send him a photo of a nice halibut I caught last year, but didn't have the photo on my notebook. so, knowing it was my blog avatar, I went over to Blogger to snag it.

Lo and behold I look at my dashboard, and see a couple of friends blogs listed that I follow (not very regularly in the recent past though) and I clicked over and read them.

My buddy John's blog, HERE always has some insightful words, mixed with his usual matter of factness. I enjoy reading it because it's real world, and frankly, I like the way he writes. Thanks John...

My other buddy Davester, HERE. What can I say, he is dedicated. He blogs everyday, always with good content, always with a good message, and a good video or two. He spends lots of time on it and it shows. Excellent blog if I say so myself. Thanks Davester!

So why make a fuss over all this. Well, after reading these two blogs I got inspired. I really enjoy blogging, but rarely think about it. I really need to change this. So, best I can do is try and get to blogging again. Hopefully, I can get back into the swing of things and make this blog into something.

Frank

Hey, Battered, and TANC Project

2009-07-01T20:54:00.000-07:00

Hey All!

Been AWOL again. Work has been very slow and I have been off work for a full month. I really have to find some work here soon. Even looking outside the construction industry.

Battered and Bruised!

Found this article today about the guy that should have never messed with this ex-boxer. I love these kind of stories! Story here...

TANC Project info

If your not informed about the TANC transmission product then here is what it's all about..

In a nut shell, some of the larger (and not so large like Redding Utilities) have gotten together and are trying to put 2 more 500kv electric lines through the North state. they claim that it will help with bottlenecks and that they are going to tie into "Green" energy. What it's basically all about is that they are trying to get some of the Obama stimulus money and in reality, there is no plan for an "Green" energy to tie into.

The proposed lines are going from Santa Clara to Ravendale and stopping. We have been fighting it for sometime. If you live anywhere in our valley, you could be affected by this project.

There are three proposed routes that are all on the valley floor. If you end up on one of the routes, you may have to have high power line towers on your property. Don't like the idea of that? Tough! they are planning on taking the property they need through Imminent Domain. Yo will be paid a small price, and they will put towers on your land, and you will have to live under these lines. Your property values will drop significantly and you will be stuck.

DON'T LET THIS HAPPEN TO YOURSELF OR YOUR NEIGHBORS!

Come out and helop the fight, or at least get informed. There will be a meeting in Redding at the Cascade Theater on July 8 at 5:30 PM. There is also plans for another meeting in Red Bluff later in the month.

If you need more info in this travesty, you can get it at this website or you can leave me a comment here and I'll get back to you.

Still MIA, Ansel Adams

2009-06-16T08:00:00.000-07:00

Sorry all, still MIA. But now back in town and ready to do some blogging here soon.

A quick quote from one of my favorite photographers...

"Sometimes I do get to places just when God's ready to have somebody click the shutter." - Ansel Adams

Another Day in Berkeley, Car stuff, Work

2009-05-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

Still working down here, though getting closer to finishing. Currently sitting in a Peet's Coffee shop hammering their Internet and having a cup of decaf so I do get ballistic on the Berkeleyites.

Finally picked up a couple of small jobs in town. Haven't had much of that in awhile.

Not much else going on right now. I have some good car show photos from the Corning car show that I have to get off my camera and onto the blog. It's a nice little car show that I like to attend. Will be heading to the Restomods in Reno show next month. I have never been to that one, so I'm looking to go. Plus the ride to Reno/Tahoe should be a fun one in the Cobra.

Need to do some repairs on the Cobra here soon. One of my door lock actuators went bad and need to replace it. Got a window motor getting bad also. And possible will be doing a clutch in the near future. Always something...

Working, Car parts and Car show weekend

2009-04-23T19:50:00.000-07:00

So I have been back working in Berkeley (hence the reason I have the Berkeley photos) and have been working on the Lobby of the Hotel Shattick Plaza, which is a large hotel remodel.

Here is a photo of part of the lobby we are working on. The white and black checkerboard is white marble and black granite. Should look pretty nice when it's done.

Been doing some work on the Cobra. Has some stuff polished and installed new performance rotors and brake pads. Made a big difference in braking power. Got a smoking deal on a set of cryo treated rotors on Ebay. Still can't understand how the guy can sell them that cheap, but I'm not going to complain. Here is a photo of what they look like...

Previously, I mentioned that I went to Knotts Berry Farm to a huge car show last weekend as well as a show and shine and a photo shoot of a friends car that will be in Muscle Mustang magazine. I will be posting photos of this in the days to come.

Here is one that I took when I visited the Kenne Bell shop in Rancho Cucamonga on Monday. They built the supercharger that is on my car. I parked my Cobra in front of their shop and snapped a few photos.

Back, More Berkeley Fun and some Car Stuff

2009-04-22T20:03:00.000-07:00

So I'm back! I hope I can get back into the swing of things and post here daily if possible. I have lots of material and photos to share that I have been collecting as of late.

So, getting back into it, I have a new installment of "Only in Berkeley!" We will start out with this photo that I took of a business that had just moved.

But as I pull back with the camera, this is what someone decided to add to the scene...

And for all my car and truck friends, here is a video of a way cool Ford lightning sent to me by my friend Billy in Colorado Springs.

That's it for today. I have some really good photos from a giant car show I went to over the weekend at Knotts Berry Farm with over 1700 cars! Stay tuned...

Sorry all, new notebook,

2009-04-07T21:46:00.001-07:00

I have been long gone from my blog as of late. I will try to make it up to you with some photos and stories here soon.

Been working out of town and have been busy.

I am going to try and put an RSS link here on the blog so everyone can just subscribe to it and then you will be able to get updats without having to check with the blog all of the time. Should be a good addition.

I purchased a new notebook a couple of weeks ago. It an HP Pavilllion dv-7 and seems to have all of the bells and whistles that a person would need. It's my first Windows Vista machine, although I have set up one or two for other people. I like Vista so far, but it seems a bit bloated and memory hungry. But wioth 4GB of RAM, a fast SATA hard drive and Vista 64bit, it seems to run good.

Don't give up on me. I'll be back here with some new stuff.

Frank

Weather, Only in Berkley and Why I carry a Gun

2009-01-14T20:25:00.000-08:00

The weather has been incredible. It's the middle of January and it was near 80 degrees the last couple of days. Soon the crawly creatures and flowers will be out and I can ply my skills at macro photography with my new Nikon 60mm micro Nikkor lens. Bring it on!

While in Berkley this last time for work, I spied this interesting graphic scratched into the concrete around the corner from the job. While this isn't the only city you might see it in, it certainly could be seen "Only in Berkley!"

(click photo to enlarge)

I visited with a friend, David who has a technology business in Corning called California Technologies He also does photography using Nikon equipment as I do. We were doing some testing with external flash units and wireless connections. I have to say, the Nikon flash units work very well. I am thinking of getting another flash so I can use the wireless function for some portrait work and off camera macro work.

I got this in my email a couple of days ago and thought it was good.

Why I Carry a Gun

My old grandpa once said to me, "Son, there comes a time in every man's life when he stops bustin' knuckles and starts bustin' caps and usually it's when he becomes too old to take an ass whoopin'.

I don't carry a gun to kill people. I carry a gun to keep from being killed.

I don't carry a gun to scare people. I carry a gun because sometimes this world can be a scary place.

I don't carry a gun because I'm paranoid. I carry a gun because there are real threats in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I'm evil. I carry a gun because I have lived long enough to see the evil in the world.

I don't carry a gun because I hate the government. I carry a gun because I understand the limitations of government.

I don't carry a gun because I'm angry. I carry a gun so that I don't have to spend the rest of my life hating myself for failing to be prepared.

I don't carry a gun because I want to shoot someone. I carry a gun because I want to die at a ripe old age in my bed, and not on a sidewalk somewhere tomorrow afternoon.

I don't carry a gun because I'm a cowboy. I carry a gun because, when I die and go to Heaven, I want to be a cowboy.

I don't carry a gun to make me feel like a man. I carry a gun because men know how to take care of themselves and the ones they love.

I don't carry a gun because I feel inadequate. I carry a gun because, unarmed and facing three armed thugs, I am inadequate.

I don't carry a gun because I love it. I carry a gun because I love life and the people who make it meaningful to me.

"Police Protection" is an oxymoron. Free citizens must protect themselves. Police do not protect you from crime; they usually just investigate the crime after it happens and then call someone in to clean up the mess.

Personally, I carry a gun because I'm too young to die and too old to take an ass whoopin'."

Remember the average response time to a 911 call is over 4 minutes.
The average response time of a 357 magnum is 1400 FPS.

Weather, Freak of Nature and Valkyrie

2009-01-05T09:23:00.000-08:00

The weather has turned bad today. Rainy and gloomy. Not much fun when you have a day off. The forecast is for a bit clearer Sky's tomorrow, but I'm not sure if I will have the day off to do anything fun. We shall see...

I had a few photos sent to me by one of my friends. I thought this one was interesting. I have seen albino deer before, and there is actually a strain of white dear. But I have never seen one like this whitetail buck in my life! Freak of nature, or something that is more common than most think? who knows...

(click photo to enlarge)

Over the weekend I went to the movies and seen Valkyrie with Tom Cruise. Since I have not studied World War II, I was not aware of this story, or the other 14 attempts of Hitler's life.

The movie was good, and the story line (based on a true story) was well written. I thought Tom Cruise did a good job in the movie. The sets and wardrobe were excellent also. Venture out to see it if you like this type of movie.

Photo Gear, Ninjas, and Drag Racing

2009-01-02T16:42:00.000-08:00

I finally got around to getting a new camera bag. It's a Lowepro Nova 5. About 3 times the size of the bag I originally had been using. Much more room and protection for my gear. A couple of cool features with this bag is that it has a built in rain flu that you can pull out of a hidden pocket and cover the bag in case of inclement weather. The rain fly stays attached to the bag so you can't loose it. It also has built in belt loops in case you feel the need to install it on your belt (it's much too large for that) or buy Lowepro's harness set and wear it like a fanny pack, which may work okay. Here are a couple of shots of it...

click photos to enlarge

A friend sent me this photo today and I thought I would share it. You have to be carefull these days as Ninjas are everywhere!

A few months back I went to the Redding Drag Strip to try my hand at drag racing. I have always wanted to try it, but never had the opportunity. Now that I have a car that is worthy, I gave it a try. While the car is worthy, I'm not as a driver. But I had a blast, and that's why I went.

Here you will see me and my teal Cobra running against a friend with his black 03 Mach 1. Can't wait until the track opens again for the street legal drags and test and tune nights...

New additions today, Weather, Range

2008-12-26T22:15:00.000-08:00

Today I added the Ansel Adams picture of the day in the right hand column and also a new favorite links addition of "The Obama Clock"

The weather was very nice today. Most of the day it was nice and sunny, but still cool in the low 50's. Headed out to the range to practice some. Headed out again tomorrow with a bunch of friends. Should be a blast!

Merry Christmas, Mustang and only in Berkley

2008-12-25T19:05:00.000-08:00

First of all, I would like to wish all my readers a Merry Christmas. Here is a bit of joy I snapped last week for you enjoyment.

(click for larger view)

Most of you know that I'm a Mustang guy. I found this on the net and thought I'd share..

'Twas the night before Christmas and in the garage,
There wasn't a trace of a Chevy or a Dodge.

The presents were wrapped and the lights were all lit,
So I figured I'd mess with the Stang for a bit.

I popped the release and I lifted the hood,
When a deep voice behind me said "looks pretty good."

Well, as you can imagine, I turned mighty quick,
And there, by the workbench, stood good ol Saint Nick!

We stood there a bit, not too sure what to say,
Then he said "don't suppose that you'd trade for my sleigh?

I said "no way, Santa" and started to grin,
"But if you've got the time we could go for a spin!"

His round little mouth, all tied up like a bow,
Turned into a smile and he said "hey! Let's go!!"

So as not to disturb all the neighbors' retreat,
We pushed the Mustang quietly into the street,

Then, taking our places to drift down the hill,
I turned on the key and I let the clutch spill.

The sound that erupted took him by surprise,
But he liked it a lot, by the look in his eyes.

With Hoosier`s a' crying and side pipes aglow,
We headed on out where the hot rodders go.

And Santa's grin widened, approaching his ears,
With every up shift, as I went through the gears.

Then he yelled "can't recall when I've felt so alive!",
So I backed off the gas and said "you wanna drive?"

Ol Santa was stunned when I gave him the keys,
When he walked past the headlights he shook at the knees!

Then the big block exploded with side exhaust sound!
Santa let out the clutch and the tires shook the ground!

Power shift into second, again into third!
I sat there just watching, at loss for a word,

Then I heard him exclaim as we blasted from sight,
"Merry Christmas to all...........what a great night!!!"

While working in Berkley, I spied this contraption. Sort of a rolling Obama shrine. Certianly something you would "only see in Berkley!"

(click for larger view)

MIA again, Only in Berkley, and Ide Adobe Days

2008-12-22T00:06:00.000-08:00

Well as you can see, I have been missing in action again. Had other things going and just haven't gotten over here to do some updating on what's going on. I have been collecting material for the blog, so I should have some stuff to read here now.

Since I have been working in Berkley (or Bezerkley as many call it) I have gathered some good tales and photos I will share here in my "Only in Berkley" on going posts.

Today, I have a photo of a guy I ran into in Berkley the other day. He seemed like a Kool Kat and was certainly a working man...

(click photo for larger size)

Yesterday, we had our annual Ide Adobe Days. I stopped by to take some photos and get there just before they were finished. I have posted the photos over at my website. You can see them HERE

New lens and New Photos

2008-12-07T19:27:00.000-08:00

I purchesed a nedw lens for my camera. It's a Nikon AF 105mm Micro Nikkor. A nice prime lens for macro work. Unfortunatly, it's been cold and foggy here and the micro creatures that I watn to photograph are all in hibernation. It will have to wait until warmer weather I guess.

I did get out to our local shooting club today. It was our end of year dinner and shoot. We also do a Toys for Tots toy drive for local kids. We had about 65 or 70 people out today, which I believe is about 20-25 less than we had last year. All in all, it was a good day after the fog lifted some. A good time was had by all. I took some snapshots a t the event, and you can view them here
TSA end of year shoot and dinner

Weather, Christmas Parade and Thanksgiving

2008-11-30T19:27:00.000-08:00

The weather has been un-seasonably warm here. It was around 70 degrees the whole weekend. I'm beginning to wonder if we are going to have a Winter this year...

We had our Christmas parade last night. It was warm and clear, so I decided to go out and snap some photos and see if I could figure out how to shoot the parade without using a flash. I did get some photos without the flash, but some I had to use it. That's okay too as I needed the practice with the SB-600 Nikon Speedlight. It works great! You can view the Photos here. As always, you can view them as a slide show if you scroll down to the bottom of the page and click on "slide show".

www.bigfranksworld.com/frank/events/rbchristmas2008/

We had a nice Thanksgiving. Good food and some time off from work. Unfortunately, I didn't think about taking a photo of the Thanksgiving table fare. Maybe next year...

Sorry, work

2008-11-28T17:00:00.000-08:00

Sorry all. I have been MIA for the last while. I had some out of town work and didn't have a chance to add to the blog in awhile. I'll try and work that out in the future.

Back to work, Shoot the moon and crazys

2008-11-15T22:42:00.000-08:00

We I have finally gone back to work...sort of. I worked a full week this week, but probably won't next week. We are waiting on materials, but once here, we should be good for awhile. After having more than 5 months off this year, it almost feels funny working a full week.

I got a chance to do show photo work tonight. Thought I would try and learn how to photo the moon. It's not as easy as it would seem, Many, many bad photos later ( like 70-80 ) I finally got one that I liked. Here is the one I like the best...

Taken with the Nikon D50 and 70-300mm Nikor ED lens

I worked in Berkley, Ca. this last week. What and eye opener that city is. They drive like maniacs, and also act like them too. I'm really WAY out of my element there to say the least. Luckily, I spend most of my time there either on the job, or at the motel.

The highlight of the week was getting flipped off by some crazy bull-dyke. A wonderful place indeed!

Thank You and a Question

2008-11-11T21:28:00.000-08:00

Thank you veterans for all you do. Godspeed....

Question of the day?

At what point does Liberalism become Socialism?

A slow weekend, pictures and cash in the news

2008-11-09T18:34:00.000-08:00

It's been a slow weekend. Not much going on. The weather was bad on Saturday, so not much to do. I did drive down to Corning and visited with David which was nice. Don't get down that way all the much to visit. Last night we had thunder and lightning and rain.

Today, Sunday, the weather was beautiful! I got a chance to drive the Cobra and do some tuning on it. It runs great now that I have the new mass air sensor on it. Soon I can go wide open throttle with it and see what it will really do!

I had taken some photos of the kid next door practicing Mototcross. Wanted to try the shutter priority mode on the Nikon D50. I learned a few things, but the pictures didn't come out too well. Never the less, if you do some post production editing, and apply some suitable filters via ThumbsPlus, you can get some cool abstract pieces. This is the one that I liked. Sort of different from the same old stuff.

In the news... (submitted by Billy Haynes)

Seems a contractor found some old cash in a wall, and it has turned into a crazy story.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20081108/ap_on_re_us/house_hidden_money

Fishing, weather and hard drive

2008-11-07T19:44:00.001-08:00

Got a chance to head out to the lake today. The weather was great. Nice and sunny. The fishing was good also. Not stunning, but well worth it. We ended up with 6 trout and 1 bass in the boat, and lost almost that many. Any day on the lake is better than one in the house. Here is a photo of my buddy JP and the big fish of the day. 18", 2lb-6oz. Shasta Lake rainbow trout.

Here is the big fish for me today. Not nearly the size of JP's fish...

And of course, the obligatory Mt. Shasta shot. Peeking from behind the lesser hills of the lake.

I didn't have the Nikon D50 today. I shot these with the Sanyo CG6 that goes with me when I'm fishing and hunting. It's a perfect camera for what I use it for. And I don't have to worry about taking the Nikon and hurting it.

Tonight, while going to get my camera in the other room, I managed to get my Maxtor 500 gig USB external hard drive's cord wrapped around my my big foot and pulled the drive down to the floor with sufficient force to be felt on the richter scale. I thought for sure it was a gonner. Brand new drive (with tons of files on it) lost. I plugged the USB wire back into it and into the notebook's USB port. To my surprise, the drive booted up and indexed the files and I was able to access it. I guess drive technology, at least as far as durability, has come a long way.

Old Glory, PT 658 and fishing

2008-11-06T19:42:00.000-08:00

While up in Redding today, I managed to get some photos of the large flag near Interstate 5. I have always wanted to take some photos of it, and now that I have the D50....Here is one of the shots I took today.

A big thanks to all our vetrans for keeping her flying!

I was sent the link to this video from a friend today. Interesting story. Took these guys 15 years to rebuild her. Amazing!

http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docid=-7693407296698216570&hl=en&fs=true

Hope to get out for a couple of hours and do some fishing. I need to get out and have some fun and maybe get this whole election thing out of my head for awhile. With luck, we may have some good fishing photos here tomorrow.

Hmmm

2008-11-05T21:09:00.000-08:00

Not much for today. Still reeling from the election results. Still can't imagine that the American people would actually elect a non-military person in war time. Not to mention all the other crap that that went on with him during the election. Maybe I'll get used to it, but I wouldn't bet on it..

Still no work on the Cobra. Bad weather is keeping me from finishing the tune and water/meth injection on it. It needs front brakes, but until I get back to work, that 's a no go.

I shut off my satellite radio a couple of days ago. I miss it already. Not that big a deal. I'll get it back when works pick up. Went 47 years without it before! :)

I was thinking of sending out some photos to get printed, but last time I sent them to Walmart, the 8x10's I had done looked like crap. The smaller 4x6's looked okay, but on the 8x10's, the color was all wrong. I printed out an 8x10 here at home that came out much better than what Walmart did. I don't have a large format printer any longer, so that is about the biggest I can go. While the print looked good from the new HP OfficeJet J6480, I was not that impressed with the Kodak high gloss premium photo paper that I used. It looks good if you view the photo straight on, but at any angle, the paper looks lumpy. I have some HP paper, as well as some Epson photo paper and some Jet Print Matte photo paper. I also have some Georgia Pacific matte photo paper that is 46lb and is really nice, I just haven't tried it yet either.

If any of you have some suggestions on paper you have used that has worked good for you, please let me know. I"m printing high quality color digital photos on it. I would also like to do some black and white work here soon.

So now what?

2008-11-04T18:37:00.000-08:00

44 years ago, this puss bag knew the eventuality of it all. Today, 44 years later, the socialists have pulled the wool over enough people's eyes to get into power. It's a sad day for this country...

The Socialist Party candidate for President for the United States, Norman Thomas, said this in a 1944 speech:

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism, but under the name of liberalism, they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program until one day America will be a socialist nation without ever knowing how it happened."

Hp notebook, disapointed and are you ready?

2008-11-03T18:42:00.000-08:00

HP

I finished setting up the HP notebook for some friends. It's a nice computer and the first I have used with Windows Vista.

My first impression of the setup were good. Great 17" screen, full number pad, lots of RAM and hard drive space, and the slickness of Vista. For the sale price of $699, I think it was a steal!

While I really like Vista, it seems a bit bloated and slowed this computer down some. I hear it's fairly crash proof, which is more than I can say for XP. I think I will like it on my next computer.

Here is a photo of the notebook. For it's size, it fairly light. So light, it even appears to float!

Disapointed

I reciently re-joined the local builders exchange in Redding so I could get back into bidding some comercial work. I quickly found out that they have an online plan room which is nice for looking at plans that are online only, as well as plans they have in their plan room. Unfortunatly, if you are there and need to look at you saved information in their software, they don't have internet access in their building. This to me seems rediculus! To offer online access, yet not spend $100 for a router so the members can have access when there using the plan room. Come on guys, we pay $400/yr. to me members plus other fees. Spend a buck on a router. You already have net access in the building.

And today, I go there to get some plan copies, and their plan copy machine is down. No "contingency to get plans copied, just "we'll call you when your plans are ready." Unfortunatly, I have to make a 80 mile round trip drive to pick them up, which is like $25 in fuel. Grrrrr.....

Are you ready?

Less than a day left.

More weather, more photos, work

2008-11-02T16:39:00.000-08:00

Today we had more rain. The most in one day so far. I still don't have the weather station up, so I'll have to go check on the net to see what we got. Needless to say, it was wet. Didn't get anything done outside. As a matter of fact, didn't go out much at all today..

Still reading and working with the new (to me) Nikon D50. Took some pictures of our friend's dog yesterday. Of the few I took, this is the one I liked the best...

Still loving the camera. It can do so much. I think I'm going to pick a shooting mode and work with it until I learn it, then move to another, working my way down to manual mode. That way I won't be jumping around not really learning anything. I may even take some classes or join a photography club so I can learn from the experienced.

Looks like one more week off, then I should be back to work. I have had 5 months off this year. It's tough to pay the bills with that much time off. Hopefully, work will start and continue through at least the end of the year.

Happy Holloween!

2008-10-31T21:00:00.000-07:00

The weather turned colder today with some rain. I didn't get much done except to chase down some plans in Chico for some possible future work, which is always good.

I don't drive the Cobra in the rain, so no progress on that front. I'm sure the drag races will be canceled tomorrow night because of the wet weather. That's a bummer because it's the last race of the season and I was hoping to get some pictures and video of a couple of friends cars on the track. It will have to wait until next year...

I did get to take a few pics in Chico this morning while there. It's such a photographic city, especially when the colors are changing. This is my favorite of the ones I took today.

4 more days until the election. Any comment on who will win?

Here comes the rain again, new equiptment, in the news

2008-10-30T15:11:00.000-07:00

It looks like it is actually going to happen. Rain! We haven' t had any in quite some time. though I'm not a big rain fan, we really need it. The lakes here are hurting bad for water. Shasta lake is over 160' below the top and dropping like a rock. Luckly, there are a couple of lakes in the area that never get too far down. You can actually boat in them without hitting shallow objects...

As some of you may know, I like to take pictures. I haven't shot any 35mm film in a long time. I have mostly shot digital photos with either a Kodak EasyShare Z720 (now my wife's camera) and most reciently a Sanyo Xacti cg6 snapshot/video camera.

Well today, that all changes. It's been a long time coming, but I finally stepped up to a digital SLR. A friend and fellow blogger David Louis Harter (http://www.dlhweblog.blogspot.com/) emailed me (thanks Davester!) about a killer deal on a Nikon D50 with tons of gear. I scrimped and scraped and managed to scratch up enough dough to pick up this jem of a camera.

It came with the D50 body, Nikor 18-70mm 1:3.5-4.5g ED lens, Nikor 70-300mm 1:4-5.6d ED lens, Nikon SpeedlightSB-600 accessory flash, 2 Li-Ion battery packs, charger, 2 camera bags, and a Bogen 3205 Professional tripod, as will as software and camera strap. It's a used camera, but was owned by a life long photog and it looks and runs like a new camera. It's only two years old, and since the guy had 10 other digital cameras, it was only used occasionally. I think I'm going to love this camera!

On the car front, I got the new mass air sensor (actually a replacement for the one I had) in the car and am currently tuning it. Once tuned, I will complete the water/methanol injection system and test it. Unfortunately our local drag race track is closing for the season after this weekend, so it may be sometime before I can totally complete the testing. Wish I knew someone with a private air strip I could use...

In the news...

Boy shocked by campaign sign
Thursday, October 30
(updated 2:32 pm)
By The Associated Press
CHAPEL HILL (AP) — Shawn Turschak of Chapel Hill was tired of someone stealing McCain-Palin campaign signs from his yard.
So the man with a degree in electrical engineering hooked up a third sign to a power source for an electric pet fence Monday. Turschak also put up a surveillance camera.
The News & Observer of Raleigh reports that Tuesday, a 9-year-old boy with an Obama-Biden sign grabbed the McCain-Palin sign and got a jolt.
The boy's father, Andrew Noble, then showed up at the Turschak's door, upset his son had been shocked. Soon an Orange County sheriff's deputy also showed up at the Turschak's home.
Noble says his son just wanted to see how the sign was put together. Turschak says the boy intended to swap out the signs.

Sheriff Lindy Pendergrass said he doesn't plan to file charges.

Watch the video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BBcasl2b0Ug

Another day

2008-10-28T10:01:00.000-07:00

Sorry all, I got busy yesterday and didn't make it over here to post.

Well it looks like another typical day for me. The norm has been no work. I have had about 5 months off this year. And with the ecomony in the dumps, there is no end in site in the near future. Thinking about taking a job in another line of work until the construction trade gets back on it's feet...

It seems the government isn't doing anything to help the econony out either. They are willing to spend $700+ billion, but not to help the average joe. More pocket lining, less help for the average person. Certianly Joe the Plumber was right...

Yesterday I worked on the Cobra for awhile. And today I will finish up what I started which was the install of the water/methanol injection system and the re-installation of the mass air sensor. That will get me back on the road for now. I need to do the front brakes, and already have the parts, but need to get the rotors turned, and that is money I can't spend right now. If you haven't ever seen my Mustang Cobra, here is a pic of it.

1993 Mustang Cobra 1of 4993 made

I have been cleaning up my notebook computer. It was so full of unused programs and "stuff", that it was almost unusable. I pulled over 5 gigs of programs off of it, and defragged. That made a big difference in the speed. And since I use it instead of my desktop now, I need it to run right.
My desktop computer lost a 7 port powered USB hub the other day. It was a Belkin. This is the 2nd Belkin item I have had go bad in the last year or so. I will not buy from them again.

Getting ready to add some more photos to my webpage of when we went to PINKS all out at Infinion Raceway, and some from a car show that I went to in Stockton a couple of weeks ago. I have been also asked to post some fishing and hunting pics pictures and I will get to that as time permits. For now, here is my last big catch...

42# California Hallibut, SF Bay

First Post

2008-10-26T11:56:00.000-07:00

Well I did it! I finally got around to getting a blog up and running.

Since work is slow this year (and the economy is in the toilet) I may have time to spend on this and my web page I just put up. You may not see new post every day, but I'll try.

Mostly what you will find here are my random thoughts and opinions. Maybe even some useful information on occasion. I will be adding features to the blog as time permits, so check back often, and please post comments if you have time.

Today, I am working on my 1993 Mustang Cobra. I'm getting ready to install a water/methanol injection system. It works by injecting a 50/50 water/methanol solution just before the blower, which will cool down the air charge, and up the octane from 91 to around 115 octane. Since the car has a twin screw blower on it (Kenne Bell) I need some help staving off detonation. Once I get it installed, I will write a review on the system and post it on my website.

Thanks for looking...