A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
I’ll admit it – I have a yard full of kayaks. I’ve got three Perception Torrent sit-on-top whitewater boats that I’ve had for over ten years now. In the past year I’ve bought two decked recreational kayaks, and have been storing my nephew, Chip’s boats, as well. I’ve been paddling the Old Town Dirigo 120 and the Wilderness Systems Pungo 120 for about a year now, and have come to some conclusions about them. Ultimately, I think I like the Dirigo better, and here’s why…
It was the second Saturday of the month, which means it was time for another adventure with the guys from Lowcountry Unfiltered. For this trip we were headed to the Beaufort area, where we would be doing some fossil hunting on the north end of Lady Island, along the Intracoastal Waterway.
I headed down Friday evening, taking off a few minutes early from work so it wouldn’t be too dark when I got into town. I found a place to stay in Beaufort, had a so-so seafood dinner, then crashed after the long drive.
Early Saturday morning I drove over to Lady Island and to our meeting spot at Brickyard Creek Landing. While I was waiting for the rest of the guys, a man walked up and started chatting. He had lived on the island his entire life, and declared it to be the one remaining bit of paradise left on the Carolina coast. He was happy to see that I had a kayak, and not one of those noisy motor boats.
Yesterday I presented readers with a problem – Can you tell the approximate time of day an image was created in Google Earth? Using the image above of Cherrydale Shopping Center in Greenville, I pointed out some clues and some strategies for making a guess. Here’s another, sure-fire way of figuring out the problem…
Here’s an interesting activity you can do with students using Google Earth. It helps if you use the actual program (or the satellite view in Google Maps) instead of a static image so that students can zoom in and out…
The above Google Earth image is of the Cherrydale Shopping Center in Greenville. Using only clues from the image, can you tell me the following:
Good luck!
I’m no stranger to smart phones. I’ve had a Blackberry for several years now for work. Not being tied to a computer just to get e-mail seems normal now, and as it should be. However, it has it’s good and bad points. I’ve started referring to the device as my “leash” since it keeps me tied to the office where ever I go. Even though it would be useful while I’m out and about exploring, I’ve to where I leave it at home when I’m not on duty. To me, it represents work, and occasionally I’d like to escape. Laura had wanted to get me a new smart phone of my own at Christmas, but that didn’t work out. I recently got a bit of cash from a singing gig, and decided that now might be the time before we start some summer traveling.
After some debate and research, I decided upon the HTC Incredible. Since we are on Verizon the iPhone wasn’t an option. At first I was intrigued by the Palm Pre. I liked its ability to act as a WiFi hub for multiple devices. However, I wasn’t as sure about the availability of apps for Palm. That narrowed it to either the Motorola Droid or the brand new HTC Incredible. While I really liked the Droid’s physical keyboard, the speed and overall specs of the Incredible won out, especially since they were the same price.
I won’t go into a detailed review of the Incredible. Others have done a much better job. However, these are my impressions so far, and my impressions about smart phones in general.
I’ve been accused of having too many gadgets. I confess, I have quite a few. However, I’m not one to rush out and buy the latest just because it’s new. I need to have a purpose for the gadgets that I get – not just so I can have something shiny. Yesterday, however, I met … Read More “The Tech Guru” »
Today was the day. After having them for not quite two years, my braces came off. It was a strange experience, but I’m glad to have moved on to the next phase of this project. Of course, the timing wasn’t great. This was our big concert weekend, and the Hebrew and Italian were sometimes painful … Read More “Metalhead No More” »
This past weekend the Greenville Chorale joined forces with the Greenville Symphony for a concert entitled “Inspiring Voice” featuring the works of Leonard Bernstein and Guiseppi Verdi. It was probably one of the most enjoyable and stirring concerts we’ve done, and I think all went very well. Local music critic Ann Hicks had this to … Read More “The Chorale Does Verdi and Bernstein” »
This is a concert weekend for us. The Greenville Chorale is performing a selection of works by Leonard Bernistein and Giuseppi Verdi. The first performance last night went very well (more on that in a later post).
The repertoire called for some unusual instruments, including two brake drums hit by standard hammers for Verdi’s Anvil Chorus, and a sheet of metal struck to simulate thunder in Verdi’s Witches Chorus from Macbeth.
However, the instrument that really puzzled us and caught our attention was the cimbasso. As shown in the photo at the top of this post, it looks like a cross between a trombone and a tuba. It turns out that is pretty much it’s function, too. It fills a niche by providing an instrument in the bass range of a tuba, but with more of the tonal qualities of a trombone.
Google Earth is now accessible through a browser via the Google Maps page. The plug-in for Google Earth has been available for quite some time now, so this is only a natural progression. On the Maps page there is now an “Earth” view in addition to Map and Satellite. Terrain has been relegated to the … Read More “Google Earth Meets Google Maps” »