Searchlight Casting

A Mind is a Terrible Thing...

2009-04-25T12:53:00.000-07:00

To the Q to the A what can you say...
She's got a Masters in Stats
But she's wearing a cardboard engineer's hat!
2 years in cube land, time for an intervention.

Good Ol' Grateful Dead

2009-04-15T17:18:00.000-07:00

April 12, 2009 finds the Dead back on the road (sure as you're born). Phish, the Dead, String Cheese incident in Michigan, wow, the jams are coming fast and furious this year. Anyhow, I downloaded the soundboards from the Greensboro, North Carolina show (first of the tour) and I was suitably impressed with the sound. I listened to it on the way to work today, and kept listening while pounding out some code. Of course, first shows after long hiatus could be fraught with peril, but I must say, the boys sounded good. Highlights include a pretty juicy New Potato Caboose, Estimated Profit, and He's Gone. Well actually, it was good to hear the tunes again. Formation seems tight, and outside of a few lyric mishaps, I found myself happy to slip back into the Grateful Dead mindset.

Here's a clip of the parking lot scene before the show:

And here's a clip from the show. Touch of Grey, only "smash" this band had, but I've always liked the song, even before it made it big, and I think it's ringing true as the days go by. I heard this once before at an Atlanta show in 2004:

Get Your Game Face On!

2009-03-23T09:50:00.000-07:00

These up and coming stars are getting ready to shine. Don't they look nice! So wholesome, well-mannered, and climbing the corporate ladder!

Phish - 2009 - Kickin' It Live, Again

2009-03-20T16:50:00.000-07:00

Phish is back on the road, making lots of folks happy and bringing light to a weary world. They were kind enough to provide free soundboards of their 3 night run at Hampton Virginia to their devoted fans. The music is great, electrifying, and a pure joy to listen to. Thanks Phish!!

Now here's some sights and sounds from the shows:

Mothership Lot:

Rollerblade reporter:

Hi you First Tubers, here are the boys cranking out First Tube, much to the delight of the phans:

Lies Beijerinck - Deep Space

2009-03-08T18:10:00.000-07:00

Since I'm on the yidaki kick, here is another amazing virtuoso. This time, we're merging the Aussie art form with the intricacies of a South-Asian sitar raga. Lies is part of an interesting yidaki fusion project called 3ple-D. She is an amazing didgeridoo artist. Check out this peformance:

Primordial Vibration

2009-03-07T16:54:00.000-08:00

Check out this over the top yidaki (didgeridoo) performance by Mike Jackson. It features a multitude of simultaneous rapid fire yidaki techniques performed flawlessly and effortlessly. I've been playing for less than a year so Mike and others provide lots of inspiration and are kind enough to supply tips and suggestions. So let's get on this train:

Operation Migration - Whooping Crane Flyover

2009-01-17T10:18:00.000-08:00

Operation migration (http://www.operationmigration.org/) brought 7 young Whooping Cranes to the St. Marks Wildlife Refuge today. The hope is to establish migration and winter residency patterns for the amazing birds. We drove down to St. Marks from Tallahassee before the sun rose to get a good vantage spot. Coldest temperatures of the year (low 20s) so until the sun came up, we shivered. Lots of folks turned out (several thousand) to see the 3 ultralights lead this formation of birds to the winter hangout. Quite a remarkable sight, to see humans and animals working so closely together. Please visit their site (above) and help offset the non-trivial costs of this operation. We tried to take a few photos and a little video. Everything happened so fast, and we were shooting into dazzling sunlight, but hopefully you can get a sense of this.

Pictures:

Whooping Crane Flyover

Video:

Free

2008-12-09T17:34:00.000-08:00

Phish is my favorite dish, and here's a taste....

Tropical Storm Fay - Tallahassee - The Day After

2008-08-24T11:12:00.000-07:00

Overall, much better today, but we still get periodic torrential downpours. They don't last long, and don't have much wind, but we really don't need any rain at all, probably for at least a month. Luckily it doesn't rain much in Tallahassee in August and September (sarcasm). I went out to look at our property and numerous trees. Luckily I didn't see anything ominous, but when I walked into the backyard, I sank above my ankle in what is effectively now a swamp. We're super-saturated. Keep your fingers crossed that we get some dry calm weather, and NO tropical systems for a while.

Tropical Storm Fay - Tallahassee

2008-08-23T18:54:00.000-07:00

I've lived in Tallahassee for 14 years, seen quite a few tropical weather events, but honestly, the sheer deluge of Fay was absolutely unbelievable. The real "interesting" weather started about 5 pm last night (8/22) and continued unabated, and actually crescendoed around 24 hours later. When all is said and done we probably got close to 24 inches (THAT'S 2 FEET) of rain. It was mind numbing. We watched the inevitable collapse of Leon County infrastructure as the rain and wind systematically pounded Tallahassee. We were actually lucky in the sense that we live on high ground and because we have underground electricity, managed to keep power on during the whole event. A lot of folks in lower parts of the county were not so lucky. I would like to comment on what a great job the City of Tallahassee and Leon County government did to fix utility problems, especially under these very dangerous conditions.

Anyhow, I have put together a set of short video clips and some pictures from the storm.

First, here is a set of clips showing what the rain was like. While they may not look that amazing, you have to remember that it had been raining like this for more than 15 hours when I took these shots. The ground was soggy, wind was blowing, and we were looking at our huge pine trees and live oak with more than a little fear:

And finally, for you Weather Channel geeks, here's a tricked out Doppler with all manner of NWS warnings:

Finally, here are a few pictures, mostly from web captures, but also some showing storm damage:

Sunset - Full Moon Kayak Trip Wakulla River

2008-08-16T15:26:00.000-07:00

On Friday evening, August 15, I was fortunate enough to have gone on a really incredible kayak trip down the Wakulla river. The Wakulla river is a spring-fed, crystal clear jewel of a river that empties into the Gulf of Mexico. It passes through a lush environment of pines, swamp, saw palmetto and finally classic oyster encrusted Florida estuary. Along the way, we enjoyed a really peaceful evening as we paddled about 6 miles down the Wakulla towards our destination in St. Marks. As the sunset faded we were treated to mirror smooth waters that reflected a gorgeous harvest moon that lit the evening part of our journey. We saw Herons, Egrets, an Eagle, several alligators, and even some Manatee. If you are ever in the Tallahassee area and want a great adventure, please give the Wilderness Way a call. Here is a slideshow of this remarkable trip:

Do you want to disco?

2008-08-06T17:43:00.000-07:00

During these often difficult and trying times, there is nothing so bad that a little disco won't cure. Please take the lead from these fine folks. This first version is from a hipster shoe commercial, the second clip is the original. The second clip is somewhat longer, but the end is worth every minute of it. Special thanks to blondebuttercup....

Here is the original:

STS-124 Slideshow

2008-08-02T17:37:00.000-07:00

Here is a slideshow of the trip we took to watch STS-124 (Discovery) launch from Kennedy Space Center, May 31st, 2008. I'd never seen a shuttle launch in person. Hope you enjoy:

Start of Tallahassee summer rainy season

2008-08-01T13:36:00.001-07:00

Rainbow via cell phone

2008-08-01T13:32:00.001-07:00

Tried to catch the fading light of a pretty nice rainbow!

Morning rush hour

2008-08-01T13:32:00.000-07:00

Storm rolling in off the Gulf of Mexico. I liked the dramatic lighting and interesting contrail. Sweltering, humid late July morning in Tallahassee.

Here Comes Sunshine

2008-03-06T16:42:00.001-08:00

Sometimes the light's all shining on me...

Once in a while you can get shown the light, in the strangest of places if you look at it right.

Sunshine daydream, walking in the tall trees!

Another picture from the magic parking lot, although the rays had receded a bit by the time I found a decent spot for the picture.

Happy Contrails

2008-02-28T12:38:00.000-08:00

Here's my first attempt at posting from a cell phone. Crystal clear December Day in North Florida.

If My Words Did Glow

2008-02-26T18:09:00.000-08:00

Hey Now! Calling out, around the world! Thanks to my good friend blondebuttercup for pushing me into this new realm. Now, hopefully I can find something to say. As some of you may have guessed, I have a favorite band and may weigh in with some thoughts on them as the days go by.