Tellus Science Museum

I didn't even know the Tellus Science Museum existed until yesterday morning. After finding out that it had a planetarium, I decided that it would be a good idea to take Mom and Dad there for an impromptu visit. The place is actually very interesting. It's much, much bigger than I expected. It felt like there was more overall exhibit space than at Fernbank in Atlanta. I don't know if many other people know it's there either since it was mostly empty. If you're looking for something educational to do, I'd say it's definitely worth a visit.

Dad really liked this very large dump truck. It's tough to tell how big it is from the picture, but imagine that each tire is about the size of a small car.

Dear Porsche, Bring It!

You can see Porsche's North American headquarters from my office.

This morning we noticed an airplane flying around with a banner reading "Dear Porsche, Bring It! Love, MINI."

Apparently MINI is laying down the gauntlet. I guess Porsche won't race them.

Nice Box

This is a box used to ship two discs from CD Baby. It's a nice box. I really like how with two neat cuts and strategically placed perforations the box can be made to accommodate from one to four discs with a minimum of waste and adhesive.

William Tell

We have someone at work that does a pretty good impersonation of William Tell. Just before this shot he knocked a cup off of another coworker, landing the cup in a trash can to her right and the rubber band in a trash can to her left. Unfortunately I wasn't quick enough with my camera for that shot, but I did capture this one. The mostly willing volunteers were not harmed.

Cable Connector Quiz

The Cable Connector Quiz



Score: 100% (10 out of 10)

It would have been a disgrace if I had not scored 10 out of 10 and matched Grant.

B20? Not today.

I was excited to make my way to Refuel Biodiesel today to fill up with some B20 for the first time. I didn't really need any fuel, but I thought it might be a good idea to find the location of the pump before I really needed it. Unfortunately, they were completely out. There are only two pumps there; one for B20 and one for B100. I didn't even try the B100 since it's not really great for cold weather and it's starting to get a little chilly around here. So instead I stopped off at RaceTrac on my way home. They sell B5. It's not as "green" as I would like, but it's a start. Since Monday when I picked up my car I averaged 36.8 MPG in a mix of city and highway driving. The efficiency should improve as the engine breaks in. I'll post some better pictures of my new, fuel-sipping ride once I've had a chance to give it a proper washing and polishing.

On My Way To The Hot Lips Hustle

A really great sunrise greeted me on the way to the Hot Lips Hustle 5K this morning. Today it was for the run, but I'm up and about most days long before dawn. It's not really because I'm a morning person by nature; my loathing of sitting in traffic just trumps my desire to stay in bed.

This is reason enough to get out of bed early, though.

I Am A Centrist Social Libertarian

No surprises here.

My Political Views
I am a centrist social libertarian
Right: 0.01, Libertarian: 4.15


My Foreign Policy Views
Score: -4.82


My Culture War Stance
Score: -4.12


Political Spectrum Quiz

Dad Finds A Turtle

Dad found a turtle hanging out in the backyard today. He made a little cage for it to stay until I could get home to see it. The turtle is now safely back at the creek next to my house.

Fireworks!

Last night was the first time I've specifically gone out to watch a fireworks show in several years. I forgot how much fun it can be! I went with some friends to view the show put on at Indian Hills. It seemed like a good time to test out the video recording capabilities of my iPhone 3GS, too. Other than having some trouble holding the phone still after 20 minutes, I think it turned out pretty well.

Chocolate?

I should be used to this by now, but I'm not. I walked into the kitchen at work this morning to find an empty chocolate wrapper and box sitting on the table. The garbage can is about 6 feet away. It's NOT THAT DIFFICULT to throw away your own trash!

iPhone 3G S Day

It's that time of year again. Yes, Apple released a new iPhone so I bought it. Fortunately this year I didn't have to deal with any lines since I pre-ordered from the AT&T store. As you can see from the above picture there was nobody knocking down the doors. I walked right in during lunch and picked mine up without a wait. I've heard of folks having to wait nearly 4 hours today at the nearby Apple Store, though.

My primary motivation in buying this year (like I really need much of a reason) is the upgrade to 32 GB of storage. What can I say? I like a lot of space. The CPU speed bump is nice, too. The device really does feel snappier in general. The 3G performance, however, is kind of disappointing (but in line with what I expected). Last year when I brought home my iPhone 3G on launch weekend, I was testing out at up to 1800 kbps transfers. Over the course of the year I observed performance gradually dropping until last week when I was lucky to see 500 to 800 kbps. With my new 3G S today I consistently saw 1000 - 1300 kbps again. I think it's going to be a constant battle between how many iPhones join the AT&T network and how fast they can add bandwidth.

I expect that next summer they should be releasing a 4G version. I'd really like to see a 64 GB storage option, too, but that might be pushing it. I'd settle for a multi-core CPU and real-world 4G speeds in the 3 to 5 mbps range. A new case design would also be welcomed. Sign me up.

Cheese Toast

I'm not the only one who loves Brick cheese. I brought back three bricks to share with the folks in the office. Grant has been making cheese toast in the mornings with it. We'll all be sad when the supply runs out.

Wind Farm

I was very surprised and pleased to come across the Mendota Hills Wind Farm today. This was my first time seeing a wind farm up close and personal. This is one of my ideal scenarios; the land under the turbines is still used for crops (producing all sorts of vegetarian delights, I'm sure) while the turbines produce clean energy. The sound of the facility was pretty cool, too. It was a sort of gentle "wooshing" sound. I recorded some video of the turbines in action, but I'll have to upload that later (maybe). We should be doing this everywhere!

Ladysmith Welcomes You!

We arrived in Ladysmith yesterday afternoon. On the way I observed that Wisconsin has both some of the smoothest and roughest roads ever, but at least everything is paved now. It rained the entire drive. Fortunately, the rain broke for a few minutes when we arrived at the cemetery. After paying our respects we drove through Ladysmith so Dad could do some sightseeing. Unfortunately a tornado that came through a few years back destroyed a lot of the old buildings that he could remember, including their old house in town. We then went to visit Aunt Irma at her farm. She seemed to be doing well and is planning to participate in a motorcycle ride in a few days.


The Voss farm is located just down County Road P from the cheese factory where Dad's family lived and worked when he was kid. The gas pump above was the pump they had there. I believe Uncle Fred moved it to his farm sometime after the old cheese factory stopped operating.

Brick Cheese

Brick cheese is one of the only things I miss about living in Chicago. When I was a little kid I didn't really like lunch meat (big surprise), but I loved cheese. In particular I loved this cheese. I saw some in Jewel today and had a Brick and Lorraine Swiss cheese on rye sandwich for lunch. Yum! Shopping in Jewel, by the way, is complete chaos. The aisles are small and there isn't any obvious traffic pattern.

Morning Walk

Dad likes to find stuff on the ground. This morning while he was taking Simon for a walk he found this piece of concrete and a clover patch. The concrete reminded him of Uncle Ralph who invented some form of concrete for use on skyscrapers; I'll need to investigate this further. The clover reminded him of how he picked clover with my brothers and sisters when they were kids. They'd eat the flowers.

Rental Cars

My nephew recently commented that my blog appeared to be dead and wondered if I had any interesting trips planned. I take that as a subtle sign that I've been slacking.

Under my original plan I would right now be driving in a rented minivan to Chicago instead of writing this blog entry. I was late picking up the rental yesterday and learned the hard way that they don't hold the vehicle for longer than an hour after the scheduled pick-up time. Now I know not to be late again.

I searched for comparable vehicles, but there is nothing available until tomorrow morning. Fortunately my travel plans are flexible enough to absorb the delay. On the bright side, I will now be able to attend Bear's Memorial Day party this afternoon.

The plan for the trip is to take Mom and Dad back to Chicago (and Wisconsin if bodies and time permit) to revisit places where they met, grew up, visited as a young couple, etc. and record as much information as possible. I consider it to be a mini-documentary project with the goal of producing a DVD / Blu-ray that I can share with the rest of my family. I'll try to post short entries throughout the week to keep my nephew from getting bored.

No Sense Of Quality

Grant mentioned this to me last week. I just got around to reading an article about it. Essentially, it appears that younger people are preferring at an increasing rate the crappy sound of low quality MP3 music. My hope is that this is a passing anomaly since the new iTunes Plus standard is 256 kbps AAC. At least with that codec at that setting the lossy version is audibly indistinguishable from the CD version. Maybe kids will start to appreciate high quality audio again. Otherwise, this is just another indication that we're on the path to Idiocracy.

Kitten Milestone

Last Sunday I reached a major milestone with Frances and Angie (mostly Frances). She finally decided it was okay for me to pet her without having to use food as a bribe. It seems like only 8 months ago they were both ferocious little man-eaters. I think it may now just be a matter of days before Frances decides to become a lap cat. Angie is still a little less personable. She's the one lurking in the shadows in the picture above. To her credit she rarely runs away unless I get closer than about 10 feet; she might need a few more months to warm up.