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.

Dog TCO: 5 years

With Nala turning 5 and Simba turning 4, I figured an update to my previous Dog TCO post was in order. Here's the breakdown from 1-Jan-2005 through today.

In case you haven't bothered to click on the graph for the large version, some of the bigger chunks are food in blue (22%), vet in light green (17%), pet supplies in burgundy (20%), meds in green (10%), kennel expenses in yellow (13%) and other (11%).

There hasn't really been too much change from the last analysis in the way expenses are distributed. Food, supplies and vet expenses continue to be the biggest chunks of the pie at 22%, 20% and 17% respectively. The total for the past 5 years (2005-2009) is just over $22 300, or about $4 460/year.

I typically don't skimp too much when it comes to the dogs, so I probably spend a little more than most people do. They're worth it though.

Cliq: Almost month 2

Aside from the area code, still don't remember the phone number.

Recently got a firmware update pushed down for the phone. Battery life is much, much improved. Now I can let it sit all day and it's only down to 90-95% battery from a full charge.

Word is the Cliq will be getting Android 2.1 sometime after April, which should bring some cool new features and capabilities.

The vibrating alarm thingy isn't very strong. Clipped to my pants, it's faintly noticeable and easily ignored when I'm distracted by something. Clipped to a belt I can barely feel the Cliq when it starts buzzing.

Would still like a decent calendar app. I've been spoiled by using Datebk for the past 5 years or so. Doing everything with Google Calendar is ok, but is lacking in a few areas.

Started using it as an e-book reader with Aldiko. Lots of free e-books available to download, and plenty of O'Reilly titles to drain my bank account. Uses the ePub format, which is pretty standard.

For now, still a high end PDA. I may even put some effort into remembering what the phone number is sometime soon.

Charleston Eats: Charlie's Grocery

In the middle of the Radcliffeborough neighbourhood is a tiny little unassuming corner store called Charlie's Grocery. It doesn't look like much on the outside and it's the kind of place you probably wouldn't notice driving by.

I walked over there for lunch to meet fellow blogger Andra Watkins, who told me there were really good falafels to be found here.

Walking inside brought back childhood memories of being in the corner store dad used to run. Charlie's is a lot smaller than that store, but has almost the same kind of feel (I don't remember Dad selling wine or beer though). In the back of the store is a little lunch counter where you can place an order for a variety of subs or sandwiches, including the sought after falafels.

We placed our order, and about 15 minutes later walked out with falafel in hand. Along with a Diet Mt Dew, lunch was just over $5.

The falafel was pretty good. Warm balls of mashed chickpea, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers and sauce stuffed into a half pita.

Yes, oh so tasty. It's only a short walk from work, so it's definitely going on the list of nearby lunch spots.

New hardware

Time for a major technology refresh.

Just bit the bullet and bought myself a new computer to replace my old frankenputer (2001 vintage). Its been resurrected a few times and probably should have been retired 5 years ago.

Most of what I usually do isn't very demanding so I tend to keep computers for a while. However, with the number crunching and Monte Carlo simulations I'm anticipating on running for my PhD project, I need something that will be able to handle it.

The new computer isn't quite as high end as I would have liked, but it's still pretty decent and more state-of-the-art than any other computer I've ever had. Core i7-930, 12GB RAM, 1.5 TB storage (500 GB and 1 TB drives) and nVidia GTX 260 video card.

After the new computer arrives and gets set up, the old computer will likely live out the rest of its days in quiet retirement as a file server.

Lowcountry Dog Park Tour on Gowalla

Do you have a dog? Are you on Gowalla?

Then pack up your dog(s) and take the Lowcountry Dog Park Gowalla Trip! Go explore the area dog parks with your best friend and discover a few new places to go.

Two months of building

If you've been around the MUSC campus at all in the past year, you know there's a whole lot of constructing going on. In the past two months, the two new buildings being built (for bioengineering research and drug discovery) have gone from this

to this

While watching some of the construction going on yesterday, the thought occurred to me that the entire sum of human existence can be summarized in a few words: transforming one form of dirt into another form of dirt.

Charleston Eats: Closed for Business

Pork Slap Sandwich and fries

Going to have to go back again and get a better photo.

Charleston Eats: Bacco

Proscuitto Crudo at Bacco

Albuquerque Eats: Pueblo Harvest Cafe

In Albuquerque, NM until the end of the week for an MCNP training course, so I've been taking advantage of exploring New Mexico cuisine.

Today it was a stop at the Pueblo Harvest Cafe at the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center.

Nambe Rellenos, two giant poblano chiles stuffed with chicken and cheese and covered in blue cornmeal.

Now why can't I get rellenos like that in Charleston?

MCNP light bulbs

The MCNP training course I'm in is starting to set off some light bulbs in my head now.

It's been a pretty good course so far. Being able to work on example problems under guidance has really helped and I think I've figured out more about MCNP in the last three days than I have in the last three months of going through the manual. It's also helped with being able to make more sense out of what I've read in the manual so far.

*ding*

*ding*ding*ding*ding*

Fortunately it hasn't been all work. I've been able to get out and explore some eating destinations around Albuquerque and check out a few area attractions like the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center and the Sandia Peak Tramway. Tomorrow I'm planning on a quick lunchbreak visit to the National Museum of Nuclear Science & History.

Giant Red Arrow

Browsing around Gowalla to see what interesting things there were around for my last night in Albuquerque. I found this giant red arrow, so I went to see.

It's this giant red arrow at the corner of a Whole Foods parking lot. Not entirely sure what it's supposed to represent, and there aren't any descriptive plaques or anything that talks about it. There it is though.

So much for plans

My time in Albuquerque is over. I was hoping for an uneventful flight back to Charleston, but those have been dashed so far with a delayed flight out of ABQ. Because of a short layover time, I'll probably end up missing the connecting flight and end up getting stuck in overnight in Houston.

So my plans to do the bridge run this year will probably be dashed.

Migration planning

Finally made it back from Albuquerque this afternoon and found my luggage had somehow beat me here. Albuquerque was a pretty nice place, but it's good to be back home.

New computer arrived while I was away, but is out of the box now and ready to be used (unboxing post will come soon). First I need to plan out how I'm going to partition the drives and then work out a reasonably painless way to move stuff over from the old computer, then find time to do it all. I figure I should have it up and running in a couple of days or so.

Woohoo!

Unboxing the new computer

The computer came in a big box containing several smaller boxes with all the bits and pieces. Well, one large bit and several smaller pieces.

The Thermaltake Element T case. The dogs were quite intrigued.

First thing I had to do was crack it open and check out the inside. Had to get past the packing foam first.

The inside of the case is quite spartan compared to what's in my current computer. A nice roomy case.

After poking around in the BIOS to see what there was, I set about installing Fedora 12 onto the machine. With Hyperthreading enabled, it shows up as 8 processors of computing goodness.

Shiny :)