Imablog Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.

Through my eyes into my physics brain

This is the kind of thing that I see when I look around at things

Force vectors

Energy

Images and visuals pop into my head when I look at stuff. When I look at waves on the water, whether it's in a pond, a river or out in the ocean, "Fourier Transform" always pops into my head. There are equations of motion when I look at moving objects., density and phase changes when I see crowds, the flow of air moving around something, sound waves bouncing off surfaces, electric and magnetic field lines (and all kinds of associated EM equations). I don't see them in a literal sense, but in my head I see the patterns overlaid on top of what I see.

Activities like playing pool are an interesting exercise, although I have to say it hasn't really helped improve my pool playing skills.

Ted's Friday night dinner

Another totally awesome dinner at Ted's Butcherblock tonight.

Burgundy Braised Beef Short Rib with Sun-dried Tomato & Preserved Lemon Gremolata / Hand Rolled Black Pepper Oriecchetti with Tuscan-style Kale, Fennel and Garlic infused Bacon / Mushroom Demi-Glace / Carrot Cake with Coffee Caramel & Sweet Fromage Blanc

BarcampCHS BFS part 1

The bottom half of BarcampCHS's BFS

Outlined

First coat of paint applied

Now hopefully I'll be able to make the top half line up with the bottom half.

<Monday>

Taking a break from studying for my Biomaterials midterm to take a cruise through the Lowcountry blog-o-sphere. LCB barfed on me while I was in the middle of writing this so I'll post it here and then repost it at LCB when it gets better.

Time for another giveaway over at Home-Ec 101! This time it's a copy of The Taste of Home Cookbook, Cooks who Care Edition.

Ok, seriously, I thought the mosquitos and palmetto bugs were big around here. WTH is this thing?

Look how big it is compared to the cell phone! We are not sure what it is, but he found it in someone yard while he was working and decided to bring it home to us. (so much for flowers....sweet, huh?) So, he took pictures of it & then let it go in the yard. Im hoping to never see it again!

According to ParkWestPalooza, the FTC is getting ready to revise rules regarding endorsements and testimonials to catch up with blogging and social media.

The F.T.C. said that beginning on Dec. 1, bloggers who review products must disclose any connection with advertisers, including, in most cases, the receipt of free products and whether or not they were paid in any way by advertisers, as occurs frequently. The new rules also take aim at celebrities, who will now need to disclose any ties to companies, should they promote products on a talk show or on Twitter. A second major change, which was not aimed specifically at bloggers or social media, was to eliminate the ability of advertisers to gush about results that differ from what is typical - for instance, from a weight loss supplement.

Tartlette back from a trip to San Francisco shares some of the photos of her trip. You may want to cover up your keyboard for this.

Over the years, I've learned that the Charleston area is just full of interesting people that do all kinds of things. Meet the dean of College of Charleston's Graduate School.

Nikki highlights some changes that CARTA is bringing.

After having caught a lot of negative feedback from local residents, CARTA has been making headlines lately in a good way. Their newest adventure is the proposed North Charleston Regional Intermodal Center which will expand existing services and could potentially serve as a one stop shop for Amtrak, Greyhound, local buses, and even light rail! If you have thoughts on this project, CARTA will be hosting a public information meeting regarding the proposed Center at the North Charleston City Hall, 3rd Floor Buist Room, 2500 City Hall Lane, N. Charleston, SC on Thursday, 10/08/09 from 6PM to 8PM. My first suggestion... pick a sexier name.

Earl has a few things to say about Gov. Sanford's Employment roundtable

WildFlour sounds like a place worth checking out the next time you're wandering around the bottom of King St and feel like snacking on something sweet.

North Charleston is looking for it's 2010 Citizen of the Year. Know anybody worthy of the honour?

It's autumn, so that means it's time for pumpkin food. Pumpkin spice muffins by Cottage Industrialist.

There are a few fun events coming up the next couple of weekends. There's Blognic '09 October 17 at Wannamaker County Park. Come on out to share an afternoon at the park with fellow bloggers! Meet over at the picnic tables near the kid's playground.

The next weekend, October 24, is Charleston's very first Barcamp! Come on out and be prepared to learn a few things, and maybe even teach some people the stuff you know.

BarcampCHS planning

From this evening's Barcamp Charleston planning session at Madra Rua.

Spider Dinner

Spotted this guy yesterday at the Deerpark horse barn at The Biltmore

I was wondering what kind of bug with wings this was, but then when I looked closer at the picture, I realized it was a spider with a fly it had caught for dinner.

Thanksgiving turkey

A group of hen turkeys we spotted on our carriage ride at The Biltmore yesterday.

I thought it was quite fitting considering Monday is Thanksgiving (in Canada).

Scarecrow family

Hanging out with the scarecrow family at River Bend Farm on the Biltmore Estate.

A visit to Asheville and The Biltmore

Made a road trip up to Asheville this past weekend just to see what it was all about. I hear a lot about what a cool place Asheville is, so we made a weekend road trip out of it.

We stayed at the Carolina Bed and Breakfast, just a short way out of the downtown Asheville area. I had never stayed at a B&B before, but after this weekend I think it's now my new favourite type of accommodation. It's not like a hotel where you check in, maybe have the occasional awkward elevator ride with other guests and other wise never see anybody else. Staying at a B&B becomes a very social thing. I think it has to do with the fact that it's like staying at a friend's house. You get to meet and talk with the other guests over breakfast, or socialize while hanging out in the living room. It's just a lot of fun. Breakfast was really really good too. B&B's are definitely the way to go I think. Sure, it can be a little more expensive, but it's a nice comfy, homey and fun way to stay. If you're headed to Asheville, I highly recommend Carolina B&B. It's a great place to stay.

Spent the first day in Asheville visiting the Biltmore Estate, which was only a short drive from where we were staying. We started off the day driving to an area called Deerpark, where the trail and carriage rides were based. We managed to get lucky and had the whole 11AM carriage ride to ourselves. It made the ride a whole lot of fun and much more enjoyable. The carriage ride takes you along a trail that winds through the woods, and finally to an area just behind the Biltmore House where you can see it the back of the house. It was a pretty awesome ride.

After the carriage ride it was off to the River Bend Farm and Winery. At the winery, you can go on a self guided tour to learn about the wine making process at the Biltmore. Grapes are harvested from the vineyards on the estate and then shipped off to another nearby facility to be turned into wine. After the tour is the wine tasting, where you can sample the Biltmore's wine offerings and figure out which ones are your favourites. Then it's into the wine shop where you can purchase said wines if you like.

Next door over at the farm, you can get in and pet the animals and see a little bit of what early 20th century life on the estate might have been like. You can also wander through the gardens and see what kinds of vegetables and herbs are grown to support the farm.

Afterwards, it was off to the house to wander through the extensive gardens.

Unfortunately the battery in my camera died so I didn't get any photos from our garden wanderings. I did get some photos of the stunning views out the back of Biltmore House though.

The next day we went back and did the tour inside the house. No photography allowed in the house though, which is kind of a bummer. Check out the rest of my Biltmore photos in the gallery.

Midterm exam

Last Thursday I took my first midterm exam in, oh about 15 years or so, in my Biomaterials class.

I think one of the hardest things so far about taking classes again is that I have to actually learn and remember the stuff I'm reading, instead of just getting the major points and then remembering where to find it if I need more details. It's getting back down into the dirt again after being used to the high altitude overviews for the past 15 years.

The midterm was 20 long answer questions that covered more about polymers and ceramics than I studied for. It was basically two hours of dumping just about everything I could remember from the past 6 weeks of classes.

I don't think I completely bombed the exam, but I know I definitely could have done better.

BarcampCHS BFS part 2

Work begins on the top half of BFS

And the second coat of paint goes on the bottom half of BFS

Chez Ted

At Ted's Butcherblock this evening.

Garlic Roasemary Roasted Chicken with Honey-Mustard Jus / Bacon Braised Greens / 5 Spice Glazed Carrots / Cinnamon French Toast with Praline Sauce & Whipped Cream

The cinnamon french toast looked so good, I forgot to take a picture of it before digging in.

BarcampCHS BFS

I present to you...

<drumroll />

BFS!

Doesn't look very big, does it? Here it is next to my car

Honestly, I'm pretty surprised BFS turned out as well as it did. I impress myself.

Now all that needs to be done is to put a few coats of polyurethane over everything, figure out a way to connect the two halves and make the whole thing stand up.

Also got my BarcampCHS shirt today

A cool Blognic '09

The weather was a little on the cool and grey side with a little bit of sun peeking out here and there. Attendance at this year's Blognic was light, but the company and conversation was good.

Calvin makes some pretty tasty lumpia.

Of course the dogs didn't mind the cool weather at all. Even spending an hour running around at the dog park didn't even make a dent in their energy level.

Showing a little grey

Nala's starting to show a little bit of grey in her muzzle these days. She's turning grey young, just like her old man.

CHS Tweetup

Had a lot of fun meeting new people at tonight's @CHSTweetup organized by Christina (@ErgonomixPR) and Kristin (@chasrunner) and held at Bambu over in Mt. Pleasant.

There was some of the usual blogger/Twitter crowd, but also a bunch of new Twitter faces, and even some non-Twitter users (who were of course educated on how interesting and useful Twitter can be). It's always nice to associate new faces with the Twitter handles.

The rest of the photos from yesterday's meetup..

BarcampCHS badges

I haz dem. Lots of dem.

Welcome to BarcampCHS!

Friday date night at Ted's

Cuban-Style Braised Pork / Smoked Anaheim, Chipotle & Monteray Jack Potato Gratin / Tomato, Black Bean & Cilantro Salad / Cinnamon Raisin Bread Pudding with Apple Caramel

A pretty good dinner this week, although I think I would have enjoyed it more if I had remembered to say hold the cilantro.

BarcampCHS success!

By pretty much all accounts, BarcampCHS turned out to be a resounding success. From some of the initial estimates, it sounds like there were between 150-200 people that showed up for the inaugural event.

Lowcountry Innovation Center turned out to be a great venue and provided an astounding amount of support to help us pull off BarcampCHS.

Some sessions were standing room only

This is what Barcamp is all about: sharing knowledge with others

Barcampers assemble! After lunch, we shoo-ed everybody outside for a group photo. It was not unlike herding cats.

My Barcamp day ended with all things bacon, put on by Ted from Ted's Butcherblock.

Thanks to everybody for showing up at BarcampCHS, the sponsors for making everything possible and the organizers for putting everything together. BarcampCHS would not have been the success it was without everybody that organized, sponsored and came to the event.

My collection of BarcampCHS photos.

You can see even more photos in the BarcampCHS Flickr group. If you have some BarcampCHS photos on Flickr, share them to the group!

Political bumper sticker

Politics is not the world's oldest profession, but the results are the same

Caring for your Introvert

Caring for your Introvert

This is an article I remember seeing a while back, and then recently bubbled up again when someone else posted it into their Friendfeed stream. It's a pretty good article that I enjoyed reading the first time, and again the second time it popped up.

How can I let the introvert in my life know that I support him and respect his choice? First, recognize that it's not a choice. It's not a lifestyle. It's an orientation.

Second, when you see an introvert lost in thought, don't say "What's the matter?" or "Are you all right?"

Third, don't say anything else, either.

Update: James (@willia4) pointed me to The Nerd Handbook which is also a pretty amusing read.

How do I get off this ride?

This combination of work, school, research and regular life is starting to seriously kick my butt.

I think I've reached the point where I go "What the h*** was I thinking?!"

There are too many things going on. It's tough trying to keep track of it all.

I have a tendency for being absent minded and having tunnel vision when I work on things. Normally it helps me focus on the task front of me and get things done. Lately it's been getting me into trouble.

I'm involved in too many activities. The introvert in me is off in the corner whimpering.

To be fair, much of it is self-induced. I know I'm not working as efficiently as I can, and I'm not using the tools I have the way I should be to stay organized.

I have no plans on quitting anything. I have however reached the stage where the need to do things differently is finally hitting home. It's one of those things that I knew I'd have to do, but was like "I can handle it. I'll see how things go for now".

"If you knew you'd have to do things differently, why didn't do it from the beginning?" Yeah, I'm dumb like that.

I need simple again.

Fair photowalking

In the 10 years I've been in Charleston, I have never gone to the Coastal Carolina Fair.

This year I'll be going for the first time, and meeting some fellow photographers there for some photowalking action through the fair on Hallowe'en. It's bound to be an interesting time and I'm sure there will be lots of things to photograph.

Looking forward to having some fun out there and playing with some long exposure shots. Just need to remember to take my tripod with me.

If you're interested in joining, meet me at the main gate (or just inside the gate) around 5PM Saturday (Hallowe'en). It'll be fun!