Bees again

Almost a month later, and I'm still working on the bees (that originally showed up in a tree more than a year ago).

As the humane approach, I've avoided any kind of insecticide, after all there are a lot of bee deaths out here in California as humans encroach upon their habitat. And we really need them to pollinate the plants, like all of that fruit that grows in the valleys to the south of us... Got a nation to feed, after all.

What I have done is stuff plastic bags into the holes at the base of the olive tree. A few years ago, I had tried the expanding foam thing, you know, the kind of stuff you can buy at the hardware store to "seal" up the cracks around your door moldings, etc. To keep energy costs in check... Bees just love this stuff, after it drys and hardens, they just eat right through it, sort of like ants and their tunnels.

So this year, I've tried the plastic bag trick, but I have to do this in the early a.m., when I can see by daylight, and the bees are still cold and not moving around. Evening, well... let's just say, I'm too tired to do much after about 8pm...

My results are mixed, in that the bags have a natural sort of expanding mechanism that on their own must be tied to some kind of mechanical property of the plastic itself, you know, sort of like those "memory" metals that remember their shape. I'm not saying that the bag wants to be a "bag" again, only that it doesn't want to be a "hole plugger". Anyway, give the bees an inch, in that the bag expands out a little, and those little industrious bees, they push like heck until they find a little opening, and BAMM! they are Free!

I'll keep you posted.

**** Update: I really jammed the plastic in the hole, it's staying. That's the good news... The bad news- they have found a crack higher in the tree trunk for ingress/egress...

Where do those socks go?

check out this great story at 365tomorrows.com

http://www.365tomorrows.com/05/26/now-we-know/

of course there is always this story

http://www.familydaze.com/sample06.txt

Towel Day is this Friday

Towel Day is celebrated every May 25 as a tribute by fans of the late author Douglas Adams.

More information can be found at wikipedia.

The event was first held in 2001, two weeks after Adams' death on May 11, and since then annually. On this day, fans carry a towel with them throughout the day. The towel is a reference to his popular science fiction comedy, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.

Domestic Violence Awareness

Earlier this year, one of the people that works in a call center for a wireless carrier in Rancho Cordova, CA lost her life to domestic violence. This employer is/has been committed to remember her and to take further action to promote domestic violence awareness, they have:

• Awarded a grant to a Sacramento-based domestic violence prevention agency, in her memory. The funds will be used to develop and offer domestic violence awareness training at local businesses.
• They have Offered workshops on campus, including both grief and awareness sessions.
• Posted the EAP and National Domestic Violence Hotline numbers in break rooms.
• Provided an easy way for employees to make matching grants to the same agency, in her honor.

Violence at the hands of a loved one, or former loved one, remains a part of the lives of too many.

You too can make a difference:

• Be observant. Offer your support and concern if a coworker exhibits possible signs of domestic violence and any EAP program, which usually offers confidential assistance.
• Urge anyone who confides in you to call #HOPE from a Verizon Wireless phone. It’s a free call to the National Domestic Violence Hotline. They can also call from any phone to 1-800-799-SAFE (7233)
• Encourage the coworker to also speak to his/her supervisor. They can help if they are made aware.
• Recycle your old phone through HopeLine to help support efforts to end domestic violence.

Ophone

You are probably going to laugh at this one...

Comes in 3's

Today when I came home from work

1. The bees in the tree in the far corner of my property took up residence in the base of a tree right next to the garage.
2. I started to flood them out with water, delivered by garden hose, but noticed that the water pump was running start-stop; a clear sign that my new air-volume control is not keeping enough air as a cushion/spring in the water tank. The easy way to resolve this is to turn off the water and allow the tank to drain to about half-way.
3. I told my wife I was "adding air to the water tank" and it would be about 30 minutes... About 10 min later she tells me that she didn't make the connection between my statement and the literal fact that the water would be off, as she was brushing her teeth and couldn't rinse her toothbrush off.

Later, water back on, flooding recommences, bees are mad again; I'm keeping my distance.

Cake

I helped the wife deliver a cake to a baby shower today. She is making cakes for the experience, she puts a picture of each of them into her "portfolio" which she takes with her on her job interviews.

She has other photos from school HERE
my personal favorite

Overheard while standing in line

Boy: Hey, what do you have on your iPod?

(wait for it)

...


...


Girl: Songs.

(is this something girls have to train for?)

Free E-Book

Here is a free ebook, from a new author, since 9-11 making his name in the pod-o-sphere. It is horror, so you may not like that genre, but if you do, right click this link and download and save to your computer.

This book goes on sale on Amazon.com on April 1, for $20 (correction, $13.57) and as the author says, this "free" distribution "... will tick off the suits at the big publishing companies." From his website, Scott Sigler writes:

"En route to a rousing final episode, Ancestor was the #1 literary podcast on iTunes and every other podcast index, including Morpheus, FeedBurner, Podiobooks.com and Podcast Alley. The book's popularity caught the attention of the broadcast world, and was the first audiobook broadcast on Sirius Satellite to the company's 4.3 million subscribers.

ANCESTOR SYNOPSES

On a remote island in Lake Superior, scientists struggle to solve the problem of xenotransplantation -- using animal tissue to replace failing human organs. Funded by the biotech firm Genada, Dr. Claus Rhumkorrf seeks to recreate the ancestor of all mammals.

By getting back to the root of our creation, Rhumkorrf hopes to create an animal with human internal organs. Rhumkorrf discovers the ancestor, but it is not the small, harmless creature he envisions. His genius gives birth to a fast-growing evil that nature eradicated 250 million years ago -- an evil now on the loose, and very, very hungry.

You can also download or capture the podcasts, for free, and listen to the book as an audio book. So if you have a commute and are looking for a horror novel to keep from falling asleep while you drive, this is it!

You can do this from the podiobook website via this link.

Enjoy!

Astrophysics is simple

Checkout this video from the Daily Show




and avoid Black Holes

Downtown SF

Google Maps is, of course, putting a mosaic of pictures of the earth together for the final product we use. Sometimes you get an interesting result. (Look Ma! I can jump across Market Street)

---

Spend our way to a better economy?

There are some interesting points being made here

This podcast via Ron Kaufman deserves a listen.

Spam Vegetable Strudel

This does not even sound interesting to eat... Link here

Visit from Japan and some Karate-do history

Shihan Shinichi Nagayama (left) visited Renshi Mike McGowan's family for the holidays this year. Renshi Mike asked and subsequently we jointly trained together with Shihan Nagayama at Shihan John Choi's dojo in Walnut Creek. It was great to train together. Shihan Nagayama is from Japan where he trains in Hanshi Eishu Takahashi's style, Yoshinkan.

Our two styles have their origins in the same master, Kanken Toyama (b.1888, d.1966), who had opened his first dojo in 1930 in Japan. The dojo was called Shudokan (The hall for the study of the Way). It is believed that Toyama did not name his style of karatedo, rather referring to it simply as Okinawa Seito Karatedo. Some have written that he believed that all of karate was one. Because of the name of the place of training, eventually Shudokan became used to refer to the name for Toyama's training. But it is said that Toyama considered Shudokan to be more of a place for training than any one particular style. The Shudokan Dojo was a major training center for senior students of Karate-do from all over Japan and Okinawa.

In 1966 Toyama died without naming a successor. Many of his senior students have since established their own styles; a partial list:

• Toshi Hanaue maintained the original Shudokan;
  
• Eizo Onishi established the Koeikan in 1952;
• Michio Koyasu founded the Soryu in 1967;
  
• Isao Ichikawa founded the Doshinkan (The Heart of the Way style) in 1969 and
  
• Eishu Takahashi started the Yoshinkan Dojo in Tochigi, Japan in 1974.

These last two students, the late Hanshi Ichikawa and Hanshi Takahashi, have maintained the values of "traditional" martial arts by not introducing competitions or tournaments. They have preserved the spirit and traditions of Budo in their dojos, as did their teacher before them and the Shihan, Renshi, and Sensei who follow them. Doshinkan today is lead by the late Hanshi's brother, Hanshi Nobuo Ichikawa.

Happy New Year!

All the best to you and your family

Snow - got enough of it?

Joke about Jerks

Don't forget to enjoy some humor from time to time, this item I remember from 5 years ago and it still leaves you smiling

LINK

As Barbara says in her post,

Though constantly wronged by those about us, our hands are tied as seeking to get even is frowned upon in our society -- we're supposed to be civilized! Consequently, tales of vengeance appeal to a wide audience. ...

Think Outside the Box

You are driving along on a wild stormy night. You pass by a bus stop, and you see three people waiting for the bus:

1. An old lady who is about to die.
2. An old friend who once saved your life.
3. The perfect man (or) woman you have been dreaming about.

Which one would you choose, knowing that there could only be one passenger in your car?

This is a moral/ethical dilemma that was once actually was used as part of a job application.

1. You could pick up the old lady, because she is going to die, and thus you should save her first; or
   
2. you could take the old friend because he once saved your life, and this would be the perfect chance to pay him back.
   
3. However, you may never be able to find your perfect dream lover again.
   

The candidate who was hired (out of 200 applicants) had no trouble coming up with his answer.

WHAT DID HE SAY? - Think for a minute



He simply answered:

"I would give the car keys to my old friend, and let him take the lady to the hospital.

I would stay behind and wait for the bus with the woman of my dreams."

Sometimes, we gain more if we are able to give up stubborn thought limitations.

Think "out of the box."


(this msg from an email I received about 5 years ago)

Minnesota

(Somebody wrote that this was too damned long and too damned funny, but its too good to keep under wraps.)

• Minnesota became the 32nd state on May 11th, 1858 and was originally settled by a lost tribe of Norwegians seeking refuge from the searing heat of Wisconsin's winters.
• The state flag of Minnesota consists of a blue background upon which sits a design best described as "how a 7-year-old city girl would draw a picture titled "Life on the Farm".
• Minnesota gets it's name from the Sioux Indian word "Mah-nee-soo-tah", meaning "No, really, they eat fish soaked in lye".
• The state song of Minnesota is "Someday the Vikings Will... Aw, never mind"
• The Mall of America in Bloomington, Minnesota covers 9.5 million square feet and has enough space to hold 185,000 idiot teenagers yapping away on cell phones.
• 
• Madison, Minnesota is known as "The Lutefisk Capital of the World". Avoid this city at all costs. ("Lou T. Fisk" picture to the right)
  
• "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" was set in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was Mary's first real acting job since leaving the "Dick Van Dyke Show". The show, about a single woman's struggle to find happiness in the big city, was originally titled "Life Without Dick", but that was changed for some reason.
• The state motto of Minnesota is, "Where even a man who wears a feather boa can grow up to be Governor."
• Downtown Minneapolis has an enclosed skyway system covering 52 blocks, allowing people to live, work, eat, and sleep without ever going outside. The only downside to this is that a Norwegian occasionally turns up missing.
• Cartoonist Charles M. Shultz was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and was the only artist to accurately depict the perfectly circular heads of Minnesota natives.
• The Hormel Company of Austin, Minnesota produces 6 million cans of Spam a year, even though no one actually eats it.
• Water skis were invented in 1922 in Lake City, Minnesota by Ralph Samuelson. Sadly, he drowned shortly afterwards, as the motorboat hadn't been invented yet.
• St. Paul, Minnesota was originally named "Pig's Eye", after French Canadian whiskey trader Pierre "Pig's Eye" Parrant . Its "twin city", Minneapolis, was known as "Pig's Colon".
• The stapler was invented in Swingline, Minnesota by a chubby, mumbling man named Milton in 1899. The city was mysteriously destroyed by fire later that year.
• Pelican Rapids is home to a 16-foot-tall concrete pelican, which subsists on a diet of 4-foot-long concrete fish.
• In 1973, Olivia, Minnesota erected a 25-foot tall fiberglass corn cob to celebrate its rich, agricultural heritage. Then in 1974 it was eaten by a 50-foot statue of Babe the Blue Ox.
• Yes, Minnesota has a LOT of problems with statue cannibalism.
• Minnesota license plates are blue & white and contain the phrase "Blizzards on Independence Day - You Get Used To It."
• Frank C. Mars, founder of the Mars Candy Co. was born in Newport, Minnesota. His 3 Musketeers candy bar originally contained three bars in one wrapper, each filled with a different flavor nougat - chocolate, Spam, and lutefisk.
• The first fully automatic pop-up toaster was invented in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1926, Minnesota's stringent bread-control laws currently only allow residents to own semi-automatic toasters.
• Tonka Trucks continue to be manufactured in Minnetonka, Minnesota, despite the thousands of GI Joe dolls killed by them annually in rollover accidents. No airbags, no seat belts. These things are DEATHTRAPS, I tell ya!
• Author Laura Ingalls Wilder was born in Walnut Grove, Minnesota, and was famous for writing the "Little House" series of books, as well as inventing the "Spam Diet" - which consists of looking at a plate of Spam until you lose your appetite. Much like the " Lutefisk Diet".
• The snowmobile was invented in Roseau, Minnesota so as to allow families a means of attending Independence Day picnics.
• Singer Judy Garland was born in Grand Rapids, Minnesota. All gay men are required by their religion to make a pilgrimage there at least once in their lifetimes.
• Minnesotans are almost indistinguishable from Wisconsinites. The only way to tell them apart is to ask if they voted for Mondale.

New Job

This is just a short note to let you know that in late October, I started working at VerizonWireless.

I am working in the Technical Development group, largely involved with the data side of the wireless network. If you've connected to the internet via your mobile phone or used some of the services that the data network supports, like VCast, you'd be touching the technology that I'm involved with.

Please keep in touch, whether we have business or personal dealings. I will continue to write here and in my technology blog, and I appreciate your comments.