Monday, February 28, 2011

Y0utub3: Embedded

Gratuitous self-promotion--sort of; actually just testing pasting the 3v1l "Embed" code into my regular blog post.

Lesson: do it in "Edit HTML" and don't lean over the railing when the whale dives under the boat--get smacked in the kisser!

Friday, February 25, 2011

When apples go bad

Last halloween, in addition to carving a ferocious flaming skull out of a pumpkin, I got out my Sharpie and created a cheerful smile (for an ogre) on a small green apple.  It was really too cute to be scary for halloween.

That was four months ago.

Now he's scary.
...and just think what he'll be looking like by next halloween!

LOL Chickens

Write your own caption...

I CAN HAZ DONUT?

Personally, since I didn't see any dogs, I think that they've been replaced.  The "DO NOT PET" still applies though.

Seen outside the Folsom zoo in Folsom, CA. Photo by Jess.

They have a zoo in Folsom?  That's funny too!

Monday, February 21, 2011

Aerobile: "Arrowplane"

http://www.impactlab.net/2010/08/25/history-of-the-flying-car-part-3-the-waterman-aerobile/

I think it didn't do well because with a name like Waterman people were expecting a boat--or at least a flying boat!

Registered as a motorcycle in CA?

I'm impressed with the tail-less design. It looks like a hangglider, although that technology was developed later, and hanggliders are controlled by shifting the weight of the pilot... does the arrowplane's fuselage hang from the wing and tilt? It wasn't clear to me how stable the thing was without a tail or canard...

There are public-domain plans out there for a similarly-sized fixed-wing glider, simply called the "Goat" ...of which there are powered variations too, but the Arrowplane is way cooler! Makes me wonder if there are public-domain airframe blueprints out there--did Waterman release the blueprints to the public at some point in time, or has his copyright expired? ...his plane is in the Smithsonian and he showed a version to the "Bureau of Air Commerce"--blueprints in public records?

...I want one too, but the only way to get one may be to make your own!
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Waterman liked puns, he variously called his creations Aerobile, Arrowbile, and Arrowplane.

Someone else wants one too! Their post is here: http://www.crowndot.com/arrowbile-test-flight

Friday, February 18, 2011

Chips! (Or "crisps" ...but actually dried fruit!)

I've seen Jackfruit, and not knowing what it was, called it, "big-green-lumpy fruit"...!
These chips come from the local Korean supermarket. It's packed in LA, and I'm going to guess that's Vietnamese ("mít sâ'y khô") ...but where did the fruit come from?--no sé! It is dried fruit, but apparently it is fried in vegetable oil too--not greasy and kind of like banana chips. Mmmmmm!

As an aside: I'm still trying to get the blog-thingys to work right. This should be on ElTristan on both posterous and blogger.
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Monday, February 14, 2011

Like Fireworks

...the tree's blossoming petals are.

This is the same tulip tree with flowers as: http://eltristan.posterous.com/warming-up ...just a couple days later, for comparison.

I think I will be using posterous infrequently from now on.
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Happy Valentine's!!!

...I remember when I used to be single and bitter. Now I'm all stressed with reservations, flowers, gifts, the card, etc--what happened?!