Geeky Ramblings

Today was our first full day on Maui … I woke up really early … around 2am Hawaiian time (due to the time change). Dinked around with the computer a bit (of course I brought it along). Around 4am I made coffee for Ginny and I and we watched the day break.

Ginny and I went for a walk on the beach with our cameras … nothing amazing to see though. Ginny decided to go to church, so I was on my own for a few hours. I sent for another walk on the beach with my camera … tried to get some longish exposure shots of the waves breaking over rocks. I haven’t downloaded those pictures though … so I’m not sure how they came out.

After Ginny got back we went snorkeling … the water was kind of rough by then, but we gave it a go. It was kind of cloudy in the water, but not too bad. I managed to get a really cool video of a turtle though.

(sidenote: A bit of an observation … this is the first video I’ve uploaded to YouTube … and I noticed that, in a lot of the similar videos (of turtles in Maui), the videographers got REALLY close to the animal. This is expressly forbidden by the Fish & Wildlife authorities in the islands.)

After snorkeling, and rinsing off, we wandered around Kihei and grabbed lunch. Then it was back to the condo for some serious relaxing.

For dinner we’re going to try and grill some fresh tuna we bought at Safeway yesterday.

For those of you who aren’t aware … the 17 year Cicada are out again.

Here’s what they look like … lovely, aren’t they?

Oh, it gets better … they are very well known for the amount of noise that they make … care to listen?

Download link

The sound is their mating call … not sure what the attraction is, but I guess the lady Cicada’s like it.

The picture and sound were both recorded at the Morton Arboretum .

I took this picture of Riley this weekend … I was going for the depth of field with Riley in the background, slightly out of focus, and his cat toys in the foreground.

Came out pretty well, I think. I’m need to play around with that stuff a bit more … but I’m getting better at getting the picture I’ve got in my head.

[tags]Cat, toys, depth of field[/tags]

I was talking to my friend Steve today, asking him if he had gotten an email I sent him, when he responded …

Ah cr@p, I started to answer that yesterday, and the dog rang.

Most people, of course, would think that he mistyped and was saying that the Phone rang … but this would be wrong. The dog did indeed ring.

Steve & Ruth got a really cute dog a few weeks ago (photo forthcoming) … named Polly (short for Polygon, I think) … and they’ve trained her to ring a bell by the kitchen door when she needs to go out.

So while most people would more often get interupted by a phone ringing, Steve & Ruth will get interupted by the dog ringing.

Update: Added a picture of Polly.

’nuff said.

Ladies & Gentlemen … It is my great pleasure to introduce to you … Mr. Riley Gibbs.

Riley is a brown tabby domestic short hair cat … about 5 years old.

He was adopted from PACT Humane Society at the Petsmart near Woodfield.

He is currently exploring his new domicile and figuring out where everything is.

[tags]cats, humanesociety[/tags]

Ok, so this picture isn’t all that good (it came from my phone) … but you might be able to detect a small bundle of fur in Ginny’s arms. No, we didn’t get a cat … yet.

Ginny has been in a serious funk when it comes to furry four legged friends lately. We were contemplating getting a dog, but the amount of work required for canine maintenance just doesn’t seem like something we are willing to deal with.

So, after some discussions the last few days, we’ve decided to get another cat. We’ll probably adopt from PACT Humane Society in the next week or so.

We had our friend Jill’s dog, Katie, stay with us this weekend … Jill went out of town and we volunteered to take care of her.

Katie was, of course, quite well behaved and fun to have around. She even put up with Ginny and I taking a lot of photos of her.

This picture was taken of her on our dark brown leather couch … she really loved the red pillows. Using my external flash I was able to bounce the light nicely off the ceiling to get the rich, warm, tones I was looking for.

Have I mentioned that Ginny and I are contemplating finding a new four legged friend … perhaps of the canine variety? We need a fence around the back yard first, however.

[tags]Dogs, Animal, Photography[/tags]

U.S. scientists have managed to revive dead dogs to life, by using a technique similar to cryogenation, in which the dogs’ blood was drained and replaced by a cold, saline liquid. A couple of hours, their blood was replaced, and an electric shock brought them back to life with no brain damage. The technology will be tested on humans within the next year.

- Slashdot | U.S. Scientists Create Zombie Dogs

This just gives me the hebe-jebies.

I found this link on Dennis’s blog … and of course I had to share it with Ginny.

‘course now she’s going to spend the next hour looking at the pictures and cooing and saying ‘So cute’.