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.

Ball-slinging

The dogs got a 4-ball Hyperdog slingshot/ball launcher for Christmas, so today we spent a drizzly half hour or so at the dog park trying it out. It comes with 4 tennis balls, so it's ready to go out of the box.

Hyperdog ball launcher with 4 dog-tested and approved balls

According to the product description, it'll launch a ball up to 220' (67m). I'm pretty sure I could have cleared the dog park from end to end with it pretty easily. Even with a short pull back you can launch the ball a good distance. Nala definitely had a good time running after the ball. Simba didn't quite figure it out yet, because all he saw were the balls in the launcher, rather than the one that was launched.

Business end of the Hyperdog slingshot. Convenient ball storage.

It's pretty comfortable to use, with a padded arm brace to absorb some of the pressure of pulling the ball and pouch back. The product description also boasts hands-free pickup, but this tended to be somewhat awkward because of the slingshot arms. I ended up finding it easier to just pick up the ball with my hands.

If you're squeamish about picking up dirty and slobbery balls, you'll probably want to stick with a regular Chuck-it or something similar for true hands-free play. If you have a dog that likes to run after balls and want to be able to send something far downrange, it doesn't get much better than a Hyperdog launcher. It's best in large, wide open fields and where the density of people/dogs is relatively low. Launching a ball and beaning someone in the head probably wouldn't make for a good dog park experience. It would be perfect for the dog park at James Island County Park or Palmetto Islands County Park. It'll work fine in smaller areas too, but you'll have to be careful about how far you pull back and the launch angle.

I think the next thing I'll do is replace the regular fuzzy tennis balls (hate how gooey and nasty they end up getting) with some Chuck-it rubber Ultra balls. They're a little heavier, don't get quite as dirty or gooey, and are easier to see in grass than a dirty tennis ball.

Gone to the birds

Today's volunteer shift at the Aquarium started off with one of the barn owls jumping on my head as I was cleaning out the exhibit. This was the first time one of the barn owls has come after me since they've been on exhibit, but not the first time they've gone after people. The male is quite protective and doesn't like it when people get too close to the nesting box, especially if the female is in there. Today I guess I got closer to the box than he wanted me to be. Fortunately no damage done to my head.

The rest of my shift finished without further incident.

Then it was off to The Center for Birds of Prey. It was a pretty cool afternoon for being outside, and the stiff breeze out at the Center made the temperature feel even cooler. By the end of the afternoon even I was ready to head in to some place warm.

This was my first trip out to the Center, and definitely won't be my last. It's a pretty cool facility to have around here, and lets you get up close and nearly personal to a lot of birds of prey that you probably wouldn't be able to otherwise. In addition to the birds on exhibit, they also treat and rehab injured birds in their medical facility. Our tour guide, Monty, said this past year they treated over 300 injured birds.

Took 370 photos out there and ended up with 16 really good ones that I posted to the gallery. A few more may go there after I make a second pass through my photos. I had my camera on burst mode most of the time, so there were a lot of duplicates and triplicates of photos. Next time I head out there I think I'll bring my tripod.

While we were wandering around Owl Wood, one of the Center staff came out with this Lanner hawk and gave us a preview of the flight demonstration that we'd be seeing later on.

There were flight demonstrations with 4 birds, which was pretty amazing to see.

This bird swooped down to grab a piece of meat sitting on his finger.

The Center for Birds of Prey is located a short drive outside Charleston on Highway 17N and is well worth the visit.

January chills

Woke up to a chilly (for here anyway) -4°C morning. Despite the protests against the cold from the locals, for me the weather is still pretty mild.

(27°F vs 4°F for my non-metric friends)

-15°C with a high of -11°C today is actually pretty mild for early morning, even for back home.

Forecast is to get to a nice balmy 6°C (43°F) later today. Good weather for the dogs and for spending the day at the dog park.

Bowen's Island meetup

The cold weather put a bit of a damper on the oyster supply, so the much anticipated oyster binging became a tray of oysters. The oysters were still really good though.

The cold didn't put a damper on the socializing though. I think there were around 14 that showed up for last night's meetup. Had a lot of fun.

I didn't get there quite as early as I wanted (seems I never can), but did get some nice dusk shots.

Unboxing

I finally cavedbroke downsuccumbed to the pressure and got myself a cell phone. I did it under protest. I was given an ultimatum: either pick out a cell phone myself, or have one picked for me.

DO NOT WA...Ooooh, look, shiny!!

Ok, what geek can resist an unboxing. Fortunately for me, UPS guy made a second trip to deliver the phone, saving me a trip to the UPS place tomorrow. What a nice guy.

Inside the box

The phone, a Motorola Cliq

The back

The contents of the box: Wall wart, USB micro cable, headphones, battery, SIM card and manuals.

Plugged in and charging

If I get to the point where I actually remember what the phone number to this thing is, I may even share it with people.

Now to start the task of migrating all my contact info from my T3.

Ted's 2010

Sausage & Baguette Stuffed Pork Loin with Tomato Butter / Smoked Local Farmers Market Ratatouille / Potato & Sage Gratin / Pavlova with Local Kiwi Couli & Cayenne Chocolate Ganache

Loved the pork loin, and the smoked ratatouille was excellent, as was the gratin.

Had no idea there were kiwi fruits being grown locally. The pavlova was pretty sweet and not quite to the liking of my dinner companions, but I liked it.

The pictures were taken with the new phone. They turned out fairly decent. The noise is definitely noticeable in the full resolution images, but not unexpected because of the low lighting.

Heading into decade 5

The past 10 years, upon reflection, have been pretty interesting (in that "Chinese proverb kind of way":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayyouliveininteresting_times). Thanks to the blog, events of at least 6 of those years have been "reasonably well documented":http://blog.imabug.net/archives.

Among the notable events:

• Started off the decade settling into a new job in a new city
• Got married
• "Added":http://blog.imabug.net/archives/2004/11/the-wife-and-i.php a furry 4-legged family member
• "Bought a house":http://blog.imabug.net/archives/2005/01/i-think-we-foun.php
• "Moved":http://blog.imabug.net/archives/2005/05/20/ into new house
• "Added another":http://blog.imabug.net/archives/2006/04/a-new-addition.php furry 4-legged family member
• Expanded my social circle with things like "Lowcountry Bloggers":http://www.lowcountrybloggers.com/, "Twitter":http://twitter.com/imabug, "Identi.ca":http://identi.ca/imabug/, "Facebook":http://www.facebook.com/eugenem, "Friendfeed":http://friendfeed.com/imabug, "CSCLUG":http://csclug.org/ and other social things.
• "Fostered":http://blog.imabug.net/cgi-bin/MT4/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=12&tag=foster&limit=20 several other furry 4-legged kids
• "Started a PhD":http://blog.imabug.net/cgi-bin/MT4/mt-search.cgi?blog_id=12&tag=phd&limit=20

Like previous decades, 4 had ups and some big downs (which are not documented), not unlike the economy. Heading into decade 5, PhD work will probably dominate the first half, although I'm looking forward to a lot of other fun things to go on as well.

So far it's starting off on a pretty good note.

Brightkite me

Foursquare too.

Google Chart API and QR codes

Google's Chart API is pretty cool. I just discovered it can also be used to create QR code graphics.

Cool.

Morning crescent

Southeast Linuxfest 2010

In case you haven't heard, the second annual Southeast Linuxfest is happening June 12-13 in Spartanburg, SC at the Spartanburg Marriott at Renaissance Park.

There's a lot of work going on behind the scenes to make SELF 2010 even better than last year's event. SELF is currently accepting proposals for talks on all things FLOSS.

Registration will open soon, but you can make your hotel reservations now if you need to.

Spread the word! Let us know if you're interested in helping out, having a booth or being a sponsor.

Clipper Club do

For my birthday last week, I decided to indulge myself a little bit with The Clipper Club's Lifesaver package: shampoo, head/face/neck massage, hair cut and another shampoo.

It's a very relaxing process. Sit back and relax with a hot towel wrapped around your face while you enjoy the head and neck massage. Afterwards, you get a fantastic haircut and then another shampoo to wash out any loose hairs.

The Clipper Club is located just off Maybank Highway behind Wappoo Cuts (just past Mustard Seed and Boulevard Diner). It's a place I've walked past many times before, but never noticed until recently when Clipper Club got on Twitter.

Not only did I get to enjoy a nice relaxing massage, I also received one of the better haircuts I've had in a long time. It's also within walking distance of home, which makes it easy for me to get haircuts a little more regularly than I used to.

So glad I discovered the place. Now I wish I had known about Clipper Club earlier.

Ted's Friday night dinner 15-Jan-2010

Another really good Friday night dinner at Ted's Butcherblock. Happy chickens make for very tender chicken fricasse it seems.

Smoked Pimenton Chicken Fricasse with Pan Jus / Local Baby Maroon Carrots & Turnips with Truffle Honey Butter / Creamed Black Italian Kale / Carrot Cake

One of the best carrot cakes I've had in a long time

Charleston Eats: Zia Taqueria

Beef barbacoa enchilada platter with boracha bean soup and mexican rice from Zia Taqueria.

Cliq: Week 1

It's been a week now with the new ball and chainphone. I've already done a factory reset on it once, but overall it hasn't been too bad. Not great, but not horrible.

Pros:
As a handheld gadget it's pretty cool. Lots of apps to help you stay even more connected to the interwebs. If you're into the whole social media scene, there are plenty of apps to let your stalkersfriends know where you are and what you're up to. The MotoBlur interface Motorola slapped on top of Android lets you see what's going on in your social network at a glance.

The slide open keyboard is nice, and the bumpy keyboard is pretty easy to type on. The screen only reacts to finger presses and not fingernails or other stylus type devices so I find using the on screen keyboard pretty slow.

It's nice and compact, about 3/4 the width of my T3. Nice sharp and bright screen.

5MP camera takes reasonably decent photos. Like with any other tiny camera, don't expect great results in low lighting.

Cons:
It's a cell phone.

As a PDA/PIM tool, it (Android) kind of sucks (at least compared to my Palm based PDAs). Calendar comes from the 'cloud' (Google Calendar and/or MS Exchange) which is fine but what happens when you have no data or wireless service? Kind of hosed there in that event. Contacts come from all the accounts you set up MotoBlur with, which means you end up with a long list of contacts and probably more than a few duplicates from various sources. Multiple contacts belonging to the same person can be linked together, but that means going through a long list of everybody. ToDo and Notes have to come from third party sources, which aren't too hard to find in the Android Market. Basic PIM functionality can be replicated, but there's no integration between them. So now I've gone from a formerly state-of-the-art PDA with great PIM capabilities to a state-of-the-art cell phone/gadget with fairly rudimentary PIM capability. Two steps forward, one step back.

Ships with Android 1.5. Android 1.5 doesn't give me the wi-fi configuration options (without rooting the phone) to connect to the encrypted wifi network at work, options that are (should be) standard on any wi-fi device. They're options I have in WinXP on my 6 year old laptop. What's up with that?

It's a pig on battery. I probably need to spend some more time doing some optimization and figuring out what apps I don't need and can turn off. Still, you probably don't want to be very far away from a source of power with this thing though.

Dryer maintenance tip

Clothes dryer just doesn't seem to be drying things the way it used to? Clothes still feeling just a tiny bit damp after going through a dryer cycle?

Check the dryer vent where it exhausts to the outside. Maybe it's all plugged up with several months (maybe even years) worth of lint like mine was.

It'll also keep your dryer from becoming a fire hazard.

Charleston Eats: MUSC

After 6 long months of construction and eating outside in the big white tent, MUSC has a shiny new cafeteria. Personally, I think the highlight of the cafeteria is the nifty rotisserie. You can stop by in the morning and have a look at what's being rotisserie'd for lunch later on.

Today it was ribs. For cafeteria fare, the ribs were pretty decent.

Charleston Eats: Jim 'n Nick's

Feeling rib-y again after lunch, so it was a half rack at Jim 'n Nick's BBQ at tonight's CHSTweetup.

Geek badges

How real geeks do name tags

Musseling at Ted's

I just love mussels. It was a big bowl full of them for tonight's Friday Night dinner at Ted's Butcherblock. So delicious.

P.E.I. Mussels with a Saute of Local Salsify, Baby Greens & Parsley Pesto Butter / Pan con Tomate / Chocolate Ginger Custard with Shortbread

Charleston Eats: Halo

Across the street from MUSC where Blend used to be, a new place called Halo has opened up shop.

There's a pretty wide selection of items on the menu from breakfasty things to sandwiches, salads and desserts.

And they have wi-fi too.

Prices are pretty reasonable with most of the sandwiches priced around the $8 mark.

Open faced meatloaf sandwich topped with mashed potatoes

Half of a jumbo slice of key lime pie

Charleston Eats: Halo (again)

Halo was good enough to warrant another visit for lunch today, this time with my good camera.

Today I went for the Maryland Crab Cake sandwich. This is now my new favourite sandwich.

Almost all crab, with just enough filler to hold things together and carry the seasonings. For $8 you probably aren't going to find a better crab cake in the Charleston area (I haven't encountered one yet). Comes with house-made potato chips, pickle and topped with a pickled okra. The crab cake comes in a large round pretzel roll which makes eating it sandwich style kind of tricky without having crab cake smoosh out the sides. I just ate it piece by piece, starting with the top part. The crab cake is delicious, and something you'll want to take your time savouring. The relish and crab bits that fell out were wrapped up in the lettuce burrito style. Then polished off the bottom half of the roll.

If you're in the area, it's a great place to stop for lunch. It gets pretty busy around noon for the lunch rush, but you can always call ahead and place your order. There's plenty of seating upstairs where it's a lot quieter.

Ringed moon

Some thin high clouds this evening gave the moon a pretty cool effect. My camera doesn't even come close to doing justice the view tonight.

The small reddish star-like object to the left is Mars.

Ted's meatloaf

Beef & Pork Baby Meatloaf / Rosemary & Bacon Smashed New Potatoes / Local “Rita’s Roots” Roasted Vegetables with Garlic Butter Swiss Chard / Rocky Road Blondie with Chocolate Ganache

CSCLRC Supported Entry 2010

I've been going to the CSCLRC's Supported Entry Lab Retriever show for the past 4 years now, ever since we got Nala.

Each year it has rained before or during the show (and not just a light sprinkling), a trend that remains unbroken for this year's event. It was a cold and damp event, but the dogs didn't seem to mind one bit.

Have a couple hundred photos from today to go through, but so far this is my favourite photo.