The other pacific

I was in Seattle for SNAME, a ship-builder's conference. It was pretty rad. People were excited about Strand7 and that made it worth it. I didn't have time to see friends which I regret. And I miss living in West Seattle. Mostly I just hung around Bellevue. I got Pagliacci's and wandered around a mall...

I waited in line for 4 hours to vote. I still haven't checked the results.

Temescal LA

I biked 18 miles today to Temescal Canyon, where I spent some time growing up.

Here's my childhood pool, where I failed my first swim test by going sideways. It's since been filled with sod. On these very steps I received a board game for good behavior. I also found a Battle Beast (rabbit, brown, purple, gold, white) which had a liquid crystal chest piece which displayed it's power element when held. I think it was earth, which I thought was pretty ordinary.


The Santa Monica pier at sundown was really nice; I got chilli-cheese fries. The cashier called them back in spanish all except for the "chilli-chees fries" part. Apparently it's not authentic Mexican.


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Los Angeles Haloween

In prep for today's ride to Temescal Canyon, I redied my sister's old bicycle and rode down Venice Beach at sunset. The hills in the background is where I plan to make it today.

On my way home I passed though the canals district and all the kiddies were farming candy. It made me feel like the US was still vibrant and relatively communal.

Thanksgivings

'Tis the season indeed

The waves here were really big last week.


Just look at this wave. Then look at the zoom in at right - see the guys head at the top of the wave?


I had a great nap on some rocks in the sun, woke myself up with a comfort twitch.

These are Portuguese Man-O-War jellies (Bluebottles) washed up with the storm.

Mid October Spring

We went to the Powerhouse museum recently... Too many screaming kids. But some cool exhibits, including an 80's exhibit which makes me feel old but also "special."

Here's a solar car that someone threw some trash on. I saw this race in a National Geographic when I was a kid.

Idea for compressing/storing nuclear waste. Look closely for the microcracks which formed through the 2cm thick bottom cap.

And this is Yahoo Serious' guitar (from Young Einstien).

This is our new place.

I broke Karin's surfboard within 10 minutes of messing around so now I'm fixing it.

We bought tickets to Malaysian Borneo last night so ... time to work out and stuff.
Oh, and I got an unjust parking ticket.
A list of things I am up to and must make time for:

• SpringThing3D - OpenGL version of SpringThing
• Fix Lady Krustium's surfboard more
• Go diving
• Be sociable

Things which have fallen by the wayside:

• ROMS visibility simulation
• SpringThingME - (Java Mobile Edition SpringThing stopped at v0.1.2)

Work has been good. There has been a military build-up at my desk. All those really fly! We have an empty room next door to fly in for now.

The Container Wall

It was a cloudy day. We had planned it for months. The container wall.

We set off from the dock for the unknown, passing the dredging outflow like a puking industrial sea snake. Nearly out of the narrow passage next to the runway, we sputter out of gas due to a disconnected fuel line. The fuel filter had just enough gas to drag us out into danger. We drifted into the forbidden zone next to the runway, eventually touching the concrete barrier with the "$5000 minimum compulsory fine" sign. Frantic paddling got us off the wall but only in time to be filmed by a cadre of bored security blokes. Some of them seemed to be smiling. "At least the cops aren't here..." -- "um, those are the federal police." It didn't help that we all had black wetsuits on.

We got a tow back to the dock after tying ourselves to a hazard marker, fixed the boat and headed back out. We were persistent boat people, fleeing persecution on dry land.

We splash in. I instantly realize what I've jumped into as shark soup. Can't see my fin tips. Can't see the bottom. "I want back in the boat. Now." --- "Let's just go down to the bottom and see..." some nagging and we were down.


This was a seriously creepy dive. Really dark and murky, with heaps of caves and not much interesting life. We did find a large Sydney Seahorse on a rope.




One sea slug this dive.


Then we went trawling for science.