Monthly Archives: April 2010

Photo Friday: Sexy

I had just commented the other day on how much I loved this photograph. And then Friday shows up and I’ve got a chance to use it. This is for Photo Friday and this week’s theme is Sexy.

sexy-IMG_2008.jpg

This photo was taken last summer on Lake Huron on the Canadian side.

PS – Did you notice the conflicting product placement..?

cRaZy times at the Kennedy Space Center Vistor’s Center

So when I went to the launch of the Space Shuttle a few weeks ago it was pretty strange. The launch was at 6:21am but my parking placard (permit) said to be there by midnight. So there was a lot of time to kill before the launch. I had causeway tickets, but the (shuttle) buses don’t even start running until 3:30 am.

The visitor’s center was crazy place. It’s just like if you went there in the daytime and everything is open: IMAX, gift shop, the “rides”, just about everything (not the bus tours around the space center). Excepts it’s dark and people are sleeping on the lawn and on benches and wherever (made me think of refugees).

Here’s the direct link and it’s also in HD.

It was just an interesting experience to be there for. I’m sure the video doesn’t share the experience properly. I didn’t get any footage of the people on the lawns, if I find some I’ll add them to the post.

Here’s a clip that I shot a minute later on the way to the car; I guess I was pretty excited when I got there, duh?!?

FYI, tickets for STS-132 go on sale in the morning at 8:45a ET on Monday, April 26, 2010. The causeway will be gone a few minutes after 9, I bet the visitor’s center will be gone by 9:30 (I think they’re about $65 and $40 each).

It’s not my fault, is it?

So I ran out of gas. But check out this video as to where the warning light is. They couldn’t have hidden it better unless they tried! I knew I was low, but I hadn’t realized that low.

Direct link to the video.

I did manage to coast the car down to the bottom of an exit ramp, but I wasn’t anywhere near a gas station (or anything else). I had to call and wait for a tow truck to bring me some gas.

I’ve probably run out of gas five times in my life: three of those were rentals, once I coasted into the gas station, and the other time I had said “make sure we get gas as soon as we get in the car, I’m really low” (we both forgot).

Can you believe I’m actually blogging about cats?!?

I thought this video of the cat playing with the iPad was pretty funny. Actually it’s pretty slow at the beginning, if you click here it should start a minute in the video.

Here’s the direct link to the Cat iPad video (in case I screwed up the links above trying to start them).

Merrit Island causeway

A nice path off the Merrit Island causeway.

Click for the direct link to the video

I spent some time roller blading here today.

Photographed (as a half-dozen individual photos), stitched (with AutoStitch), edited (with ReelDirector), uploaded and blogged ALL on my iPhone. It scrolls too fast, I’m only given 8 seconds for the maximum pan with the ReelDirector app (not sure why there is that limit).

Shuttle Crawler path – panorama

This is the path the shuttle takes when it’s on the massive crawler and has to go from the VAB (vehicle assembly building) to one of the launch pads.

It’s the wide dual dirt/gravel roads (with the grass strip in the middle) towards the back.

The launch pad all the way to the right is 39A and the other (a little to the left) is 39B.

If you click on the photo you now get the huge version which is 3,900 pixels across and 700 pixels down (if it only shows up as wide as your browser, click again, then you can scroll right and left). You can click for a more normal 1024 pixel size too. Sorry, I appear to have problems uploading the huge version of the panorama from my phone. I’ll fix later at hotel.

I’m getting pretty excited about the Shuttle launch!

So I’ve been in Florida for a few hours or so. There was an incident at the airport where they closed down baggage claim and car rentals so I had to wait a little bit to get a car (they bypassed the luggage and got that to us); I heard they were bringing in the dogs (to sniff for something?) but never saw them from where I was sitting. So I got my car, picked up a few essentials (a case of water and a 6-pack of Coca-Cola).

The weather is awesomeI’ve already had my Easter dinner so now I’m heading to check in the hotel, grab a shower, get my stuff organized and then head over to the Kennedy Space Center. I have to be there by midnight to catch the 6:21am launch of STS-131 the Space Shuttle Discovery!!! Very excited about this. I’ll have hours and hours but it’ll be dark so I’m not sure what I’ll have to post but some photos or videos might show up while I’m there goofing around…

My McEaster Dinner

So this is my Easter dinner and I’m pretty excited about it. We haven’t had McRib sandwiches in Michigan for the longest time. I heard rumors of them in Florida but we couldn’t find them anywhere we looked when I was here last summer.

mcrib-easter-IMG_0583.jpg

I heard these were in the Orlando area and I didn’t even have to hunt for one. Teresa called around for me and found this one in Daytona Beach. My McRib has no pickles on it (yuck!) and it’s awesome!