0 SteveMule

Monday, January 05, 2009

The Holidays are over!!! Let the Men Dance and the Women Sing!!!

Hi Everybody!
Well I finally got off my butt and got my Christmas presents put away and the desks moved around and living room cleaned up and ... a whole lot of other stuff done. I still have a lot of stuff to do, stuff that hasn't been done since I moved here; and has needed doing since I moved here but it's waited this long it can continue to wait. And wait it shall. In the meantime ...
I generally have found the holidays; Christmas and New Year's, to be a colossal pain the butt. However, this year was different. I was able to get together with family and have a really good time. I was surprised that I enjoyed it as much as I did. I had to work Christmas Day so my actual "Christmas" didn't happen until the following Sunday when I went up to Manhattan KS where my Mom lives for Christmas dinner, presents and all that. I rode up with my brother, Butch, and we had a great time on the trip.
We didn't go the most direct route which is Hwy156 to I-70 to Manhattan. Once we got to Ellsworth we turned and went down old Hwy40. I asked Butch to go this way because I wanted to see and stop at the the "Little House on the Prairie."

This is, believe it or not, a real, Gen-U-Wine, honest-to-God, homestead! I'm not sure when it was built but it was in the 1800's and settled under the Authority of the 1863 Homestead Act. When it was abandoned I have no idea. If you look close you can see a kitty cat in one of the windows. It was rather friendly, altho a passing car spooked it and it ran away. I'm afraid some one abandoned it there, which really upset me.

Here's another picture from a different angle. The kitty cat is the white blob in the window on the right. It came back but it wouldn't let me get close to it again.

Here's what driving down old Hwy40 looks like. It's real, uh, "Kansasy" looking which is why this is one of my favorite roads to travel. After leaving the "Little House on the Prairie" we traveled to Brookeville and there turned off of old Hwy40 and drove north to I-70 and from there zoomed to Manhattan and the family Christmas Celebrations.

Well, that's it for now, I'll have more later. I'm getting hungry and so I'm going to cook something and try to get some thing else on my to-do-list done, maybe one those things that have needed doing since I moved here. Maybe ...

Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 2:07 PM 0 comments links to this post

Friday, December 26, 2008

Oh, the Power of Love! Ya Gotta Love It!!

Hi Everybody!
I was going to write about something else and post some pictures, and I'll get around to that soon enough, but I was scouring the web I came across this and ... you know I just had to had to say something about.
As most of you are aware the situation in Afghanistan is deteriorating as we speak. The 'Official' government, the one we, the United States of America, put in place is about as effective as screen doors on submarines and about as popular as flat feet. It is corrupt and so bad that the Taliban has been able to make a serious and popularly supported come-back.
However ...
Let's hear it for the Red, White and Blue!!
The CIA has discovered and been using for awhile, a secret and effective weapon/tool for gaining popular support. This weapon/tool is VIAGRA!! No kidding! It seems they've been giving it to the older clan leaders and so on and ... well you can read all about it here in a recent article I found in the Washington Post.
Wow, who would'a thought that all you needed to win against some dicks like the Taliban was a hard dick? It's good to see the CIA getting things to rise to the occasion. I say it's great they can beat their enemies, the Taliban, with this instead of beating, oh ... whatever.
Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 8:48 AM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

My Digital Cameras

Here are the digital cameras I've been using. I've acquired these over the years from here and there and so on. Not shown are my 35mm SLR film cameras. I haven't bothered with them in quite a while and probably won't until the weather warms up.
The first picture shows my Kodak EasyShare V530. This is a really neat little camera. The more I use it the more impressed I am with it. I do have a few quibbles against it though. One is that the battery is very temperature sensitive. I can leave it on the charge all night, go out in the cold to take pictures and by the time I get back to the house the charge is practically gone! The second thing I don't like is also one of the things I like about it and that is its size. It rather small, about 2 X 4 inches or so, which makes it very easy to carry around with me wherever I go. It also makes the buttons and settings very difficult to use or change when the temp is in double digits and the windchill is down below zero!

Here, shown in the next photo are my two Mavica FD73 cameras and my cheapie Wal-Mart camera. I like the Mavicas because they are much easier to handle and change the settings on as the picture taking environment changes. What I don't like is that you have to remove the battery in order to charge it. This necessitates having to go back reset the date/time and so, every time you have to recharge the batteries. Why I have two of them is a long story. It is related to my losing the charger for the first one (the one on the left). I'll not bother you with that story here. The one on the right is the newer one (at least to me) both work excellently and take great pictures. The older one does have a broken battery cover, hence the duct tape on it.

The little silver camera in the middle is the Wal-Mart cheapie. You should know that Wal-Mart is having a pre-Christmas push on these. They have a ton of them and big displays set-up in the aisle by the electronics department. At least the one here in town does. They are available for $19.95 each. Can't go wrong with that considering the price I suppose. But that's about all it has going for itself. It use this really dorky "PhotoShop Express" software to down load the photos you take and it takes a while to figure out how to navigate through all the "cutsie" stuff - add labels, make calendars, cards and so on, just to get the pictures in a directory on your computer. However, for twenty bucks you can put up with all that.
The Mavicas and the Kodak are really easy, compared to the Wal-Mart. The Mavicas use 3.5" floppies. Just use the floppy like a you would a roll of film and when it's full you stick it in your computer and copy/paste off the disk into whatever directory you want.
The Kodak uses a SD memory chip (I'm using a 1G but they make bigger ones). The Kodak has this complicated (complicated to me since I've never used it) system using a docking port/station thingy and/or a special cable that plugs into a special Kodak Printer and ... I bought a SD/MMC USB Converter drive thingy and I just put the SD chip in that and then plug it into a USB port on my computer at which point it's as simple as using a flash drive. Here's a picture of it:
Its a pretty cool arrangement. When my sister gave me the Kodak all I got was the camera itself and the charger and nothing else. I downloaded the instruction manual off the web and printed it out and that has been big help. Then I went to Wal-Mart and bought the SD chip and the converter drive. It's worked pretty good since and all in all I'm pretty happy with it.
The Mavicas a little more troublesome but that's only because my computer doesn't have a 3.5" Floppy drive. So I have to use my old laptop to transfer the pictures onto a flash drive and then to this computer. But that's the only hassle there is.
Well that'll be it for now. I'll be doing some more posting later this morning but right now I want to get some coffee and get this messy room cleaned up. The place looks terrible and it has finally reached my threshold of disgust. So until later ...
Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 7:06 AM 0 comments links to this post

Monday, December 22, 2008

The Other Shoe Falls ...or flys ...or something like that.

Recently I posted about the Iraqi Reporter that threw his shoes at President Bush. Well ...

It turns out the shoes were made in Turkey and the shoe maker is cashing in on the notoriety that his product has gained. "We have been producing that specific style, which I personally designed, for 10 years, so I couldn't have missed it, no way," said Ramazan Baydan in Istanbul. "As a shoemaker, you understand." Of course, I understand, I mean, who wouldn't? Right?
Here's the entire article as published by the International Herald Tribune. It goes into some detail concerning the shoes, including the interesting fact that the actual thrown shoes were destroyed. Yes, destroyed, not, mind you, to prevent them from being bronzed and placed in the Al-Queda Museum Hall of Fame, the Bush Legacy Traveling shoe-a-thon, or DNC HQ or anywhere else. No, "Explosives tests by investigators destroyed the offending footwear." Well, that'll teach 'em! And, it will serve as an example to all future footwear that ever gets it in their soles to offend!! What a bunch of heels ... serves them right, huh?
Why do I get the feeling that we represented by, lead by, and protected by amateur level idiots?
"Explosives tests by investigators destroyed the offending footwear." What did they think they would find?? Plastic explosives masquerading as toe jam?? Maybe they were worried that the fuses weren't laced correctly?? What morons. But it's the PRESIDENT! You can't be too careful! Yes, that is so true, with this one you really can't be too careful. There's no telling what he'll screw up next.
Finally, it should be noted that business has picked up substantially for Mr. Baydan. "A new run of 15,000 pairs, destined for Iraq, went into production Thursday, he said. A British distributor has asked to become the Baydan Shoe Co.'s European sales representative, with a first order of 95,000 pairs, and a U.S. company has placed an order for 18,000 pairs. Four distributors are competing to represent the company in Iraq, where Baydan sold 19,000 pairs of this model for about $40 each last year"
At least President Bush is helping some one's economy. Too bad the Turkey hasn't done as well with ours, huh?
I'll see if I can find an address where you can order your own pair of "Bush Shoes." If I find it I'll post it.
UPDATE here's the Ducati-Baydan Group webpage. There's a link for ordering on the left of the page. Please bear in mind that I don't know what the custom fees are or anything like that. I doubt they'll require "explosive testing" but you never know.
UPDATE It seems that Mr. Baydan has had to hire 100 new employeees to keep up with the demand.
Hmm ... if throwing shoes at President Bush increases shoe sales and results in new hiring ... suppose we threw eggs ... would that improve the poulty business, a significant part of American Agriculture ... what if we threw cow dung ... would that improve the Beef Industry ... explosive tests could be fun ... hmm ... just wondering ... I don't suppose we should throw things at the real President ... wouldn't be prudent ... BUT what if someone were to organize a throw something at a cardboard cutout figure ... and charged a fee ...
Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 10:54 AM 0 comments links to this post

Differences and Contrasts

When I left Knoxville the only Digital Camera I had was a Sony Mavica Digital Still Camera MVC-FD73. Well, somewhere between Knoxville TN, and Kansas I lost the camera's battery charger. While I was able to take some pictures of my Niece's wedding I was pretty much sunk after that as the camera's battery was depleted.
A few weeks after moving here where I am now, I went to Wal-Mart and purchased a really cheap camera for about $20. It wasn't much to brag about but it worked ... well enough I suppose. Any I used it for awhile and even took it with me on my first visit back to my old hometown of Ellsworth KS, and a visit to Mom's in Manhattan. [I will eventually get around to posting those pictures] It was during that trip to Mom's that my sister gave me her old camera, a Kodak EasyShare V530. Most of the pictures I've posted to this blog have been taken with that camera.
I was interested in comparing the two and here side by side (well ... actually bottom to top of each other) are two pictures taken of the same thing, at the same time (~5:30AM). I think you can see the difference. The first is the Kodak, the second is the Wal-Mart cheapie

I was surprised the difference was so noticeable. Even here on the blog page it really comes through. In MS Photo Editor the difference is stark and obvious! 1716 x 2576 pixels, 481 Kb versus 480 x 640 pixels, 42.8 Kb!!
Since this difference is so great I probably won't ever do more much with the Wal-Mart camera. After the batteries (two regular AAA types) go out I'll just put it away and forget about it.
Well, that's it for now I guess. It's Monday, I'm not working, so I'm going to get dressed and go out and try to get some good Crack of Dawn pictures.
Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 5:16 AM 0 comments links to this post

Something Rather Unusual

Last Wednesday, the 17th, as I was leaving work I spoted this in the back of a customer's pickup truck. Why it was there I have no idea, how it wound up dead is anyone's guess, how it wound up frozen was probably due to the weather (it was very cold) and the fact that it was dead. Anyway, it was so unusual, something that I, at least, don't see everyday, that I had to take a picture of it. So here it is in all its Glory (and/or Infamy) a dead, frozen Racoon:

It was just so strange ...

Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 5:05 AM 0 comments links to this post

Tuesday, December 16, 2008

Snow Fun is No Fun!

Well, it started snowing last night, just after midnight. I first noticed it when I woke up and needed to go to bathroom at about 4Am. While I was up I took the photo to the right, outside my frontdoor looking directly across the way to the neighbors apartments.
I called Love's later after I woke up to stay up and Katie who was working the graveyard shift told me that it started snowing about 12:15AM. Big fluffly flakes at first and then about 1AM or so they changed to the smaller, rounder icier flakes.

This is what looked like just outside the front door. Yikes! After this I went back to bed, it was just too cold. This one and the first one were taken at about 4:05AM.




I woke up again at around 8:30AM, went to the bathroom again, put some coffee on, get dressed (sort'a) and went out side around 9AM and took the rest of these.

This one is looking east across the Hyw 281 By-Pass.

This one is looking west toward Frey Street. You can see my car in the parking lot.

This is looking southeast, around the corner of the apartment

This is looking toward the eat again, I zoomed in on the building that you can see in the earlier photo taken in this direction.
Let me add - it is COLD! It C>O>L>D cold! 7 degrees and with windchill it feels like 10 degrees below zero! No if, ands, or buts, about it I'm staying inside today. I have to walk to work this evening but I'm not going to talk, or think about it.
The snow plows are out and I just missed a chance to get a photo of one in action but that's the way it goes. Oh well, huh?
I'm going to go ahead and wrap this up and quit fro now. I might post some more later but I have a few things I want to get done before I have crash out this afternoon in preperation for going to work. I've a sneaky feeling I won't be too busy. SO ...
Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 9:04 AM 0 comments links to this post

Monday, December 15, 2008

Gas Prices The Rise and Fall and Rise Again?

Well, I finally got off my butt and got all my Gas Price photos organized and posted here. This shows the Rise & Fall of gasoline prices at Love's from late August until December 14, 2008. I don't know what they are now. Today is Monday, my day off and where I work is the last place I want to be on day off and besides it's cold outside - blistering 10 degrees! With wind chill factored in it's -2 degrees!! My little, young butt is going nowhere but here. And that's a fact.
Now as you look at these keep in mind that I really didn't intend to make or keep a running record of the gas prices at Love's. It just sort'a, kind'a happened. My sister gave me a Kodak EasyShare V530 digital camera and I was just looking for stuff to photograph. The Gas Marque at Love's was available and ... well, it just sort'a, kind'a happened. Before then my camera had been a Sony Mavica Digital Still Camera MVC-FD73. Quite adequate for my use but somewhat bulky to lug around everywhere unlike the Kodak, which easily slips into any available pocket.
Also, keep in mind that until recently the Date/Time function on my camera was not properly set. Consequently, the dates I have given to these photos is only slightly better than an educated, carefully calculated wild-ass guess.

Anyway ...


August 29, 2008.

September 17, 2008

September 19, 2008

September 20, 2008

September 24, 2008

September 27, 2008

October 1, 2008

October 3, 2008

October 3, 2008. This was a Friday. Friday's are payday and the price change between this photo and the one above happened after I had left that morning at 8AM and before I returned that afternoon to pick up my paycheck.

October 4, 2008, in the wee hours of the morning.

October 4, 2008, later that evening ~11:50PM, as I was going to work, just before I walked in the door and clocked in. This price changed happened earlier in the day.

October 5, 2008. This price change happened just before I left work and went home ~7:30AM or so. I seem to remember this because if I'm remembering correctly I had to go back out and fix a booboo I had made on the other side of the marque - I had one of the 6's backwards.

October 8, 2008

October 10, 2008

October 12, 2008

October 15, 2008

October 16, 2008. There wasn't any change ... oh, well, huh? This was taken in the wee hours of the morning.

October 16, 2008. I took this later that day. I can't remember what I was doing there at that time. This was a Thursday ... maybe I was buying gas ... hmm ... who knows?

October 17, 2008.

October 18, 2008

October 19, 2008. Notice the funny numeral "2" in the premium price. We ran out of number "2"s so we used a backwards/upside down "5" to fill in.

October 20, 2008.

October 24, 2008. Things went back up a bit. Also, notice the upside down "3" in the 232 for the NoLead Plus! I never noticed it before now. I don't think anyone else ever did either, or at least not that I ever heard about.

October 25, 2008.

October 26, 2008. Back down to where we were on the 20th.

October 29, 2008. At about this time everyone was starting to wonder if the price would go below $2 a gallon.

October 30, 2008

October 31, 2008. Regular gas goes down under $2 a gallon!!

November 4, 2008. The price of gas continues to go down and Barrack Obama is elected the 44th President of the United States. I also took this night off from work and stayed home and got drunk.

November 5, 2008. No Lead Plus goes under $2 a gallon too!

November 13, 2008
November 15, 2008

November 16, 2008

November 22, 2008

November 27, 2008

December 5, 2008, another day shot, another payday Friday.

December 6, 2008

December 7, 2008

December 10, 2008. Looks like the price sort'a hovered at this level for a few days.

December 11, 2008

December 12, 2008. This was the lowest point that the gas prices reached.

Decemnber 13, 2008. The pain returns!

December 14, 2008. The pain lessens but ...

Yesterday, my brother and I went to lunch together and then went to WalMart were I did some Christmas shopping. I was in such a hurry to leave WalMart that I forgot to buy food. I discovered this oversight earlier this morning. Well, I called Butch today (December 15, 2008) at lunch and told what I had done (or not done depending on your point of view) and asked him to run me back out to WalMart after he got off from work. At about 5:05PM tonight he came and got me when he got off work and we took off. As we turned off of Frey Street onto 10th, I looked back at Love's to see the gas prices and ... Regular Unleaded was at $1.54 and NoLead Plus was at $1.64 and so it begins again ...
I hope you enjoyed this, it took more to put together than it looks like. I've got some complaints about blogspot because of this experience. At some point in the future I'll tell you about them. For now I'm going to wrap this up and go to bed.
Take Care, Be Good, and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 3:23 PM 0 comments links to this post

Happy Trails to You -- NOT

Here we see an Iraqi sharing some love (and a pair of shoes) with our President.

I suppose there's a lesson here. However, I won't elaborate since there isn't a need. President Bush is simply very, very unpopular with everyone, both here and abroad. By "here" I mean the United States as a whole. In the land where the Deer and the Antelope play it's a little hard to gauge. I think a lot of the President's residual support resides here. Why this is so is beyond me but it does seem that way to me.
I was going to avoid politics and political discussion here on my blog. When I first started it back in Knoxville that was its purpose. However, I soon discovered that others could and did blog better and I had trouble keeping up with my blog. Eventually, I simply let it wither on the vine, so to speak.
After moving here I was given a Kodak EasyShare V530 Digital share camera by my sister. The size and capability of this camera was such that I started carrying it around with me and taking pictures of this that and the other thing. Now, it goes with me everywhere. Leaving it at home is like leaving my wallet or cellphone at home -- totally unthinkable. I'll have more to say about all this later.
Anyway ...
I was taking so many pictures I was at a loss as to what to do with them other than download them off the camera and store them on the computer. After a while I thought of starting a new blog and posting them there. Earlier this month I finally got off my butt and started getting this done. It was while doing this that I discovered that this blog still existed and that I was still able to log back on this blog ... and ... well, I thought it was just easier to go with this rather than start a whole new blog.
Since moving here I have been unable to get involved in local politics, mostly due to my work hours, and lack of disposable income. Because of this I was going to avoid politics and political discussion. There's also the fact that I know almost nothing about local and statewide politics. I'm learning about all this but I still need to learn more before I start talking about it.
However, when I saw this happen to President Bush I just had to saw something. This guy (the President) is so ... so ... full of BS that he's almost delusional. I'm not a political analyst, pundit or any kind of expert but ... really, are we better off as a nation because of this clown's presidency?
Well, that's it for now ...
Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 6:27 AM 1 comments links to this post

Saturday, December 13, 2008

We Knew It Couldn't Last - Didn't We?

Hi Everybody!
Before I get started let me show you this:
I saw this little guy yesterday just before I went to bed. I had just finished yesterday's blog post when I heard a strange sound just outside the front door. It wasn't a very loud noise though it did seem close by. I opened the door and saw this little guy jump from the roof of my apartment into the tree in the front yard, or what passes for a front yard.
When I moved in here my brother told me that squirrels lived in the attic (the space between my ceiling and the roof - I don't know what else to call it) and their running around up there used to drive him nuts. I've heard them before but I've never seen them until now. Regardless, they've never bothered me. In fact, I think it's pretty cool. It's like having pets I don't have to feed or take care of.
Well, we knew it couldn't, wouldn't last, didn't we?!? Yesterday the gas prices went up. They went up almost 20 cents in one day.
It took them two weeks go down twenty cents. I looked to see if I had any photos of that but the only one I could find was from December fifth when the price was $1.46 & 9/10.

Here's today's Crack of Dawn photo's:

The first one was taken at 7:20AM and the second one a few minutes later with the camera's flash turned off. I hadn't realized what a difference it made. I wish I would have had the time to just sit there and catch everything as it changed but I was at work and you know how that goes.
This next one was interesting. I call it Moon over Southard. Remember the movie Moon over Parador? One of the guys that was in Jaws was in it - anyway that's where I got the idea for the title from. The bright object you see in the middle is the moon. I thought it looked pretty and so I gave being "Artsy" another shot. It came out better than I expected. One thing, though is the red glow. I have no idea what is causing it.
Well, that's all I got today. I'll have some more tomorrow and Monday. Until then ...
Take Care, Be Good and Don't Play in the Street!

posted by Steve Mule at 11:38 AM 0 comments links to this post