Skip to content

Random Connections

A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.

  • Home
  • About Us
  • Photos
  • Resources
  • Other Voices
  • Post Archives
  • Podcast

Library Encounters and Dilemmas

Posted on April 4, 2008 By Tom 1 Comment on Library Encounters and Dilemmas
Local, Miscellaneous

I popped by the main branch of the Greenville County Library this morning, ostensibly to see if they had a recording of Brahms’ Ein Deutches Requiem, since I’m performing it in two weeks. As frequently happens when I visit, I find other things that catch my attention. This time it was a set of CDs … Read More “Library Encounters and Dilemmas” »

No Smoking @ Gene’s

Posted on April 4, 2008 By Tom 1 Comment on No Smoking @ Gene’s
Local, Miscellaneous, Restaurants

This past week the South Carolina State Supreme Court upheld the City of Greenville’s ordinance banning smoking in restaurants and other public establishments within the city limits. While I’m delighted that the ban has been upheld, I got to see another side of it first hand this morning. I tried to go out for breakfast … Read More “No Smoking @ Gene’s” »

Geotagging Lessons Learned

Posted on April 3, 2008 By Tom 2 Comments on Geotagging Lessons Learned
Gear, Geocaching and Maps

I had taken a couple of pictures at Furman the other day, and geotagged them. I was distressed to find that my RAW files had been corrupted, and I couldn’t use them at all. My trek through Laurens County was the first test of my new Qstarz BT-Q1000 GPS tracker. I clipped it onto my … Read More “Geotagging Lessons Learned” »

Exploring Laurens County

Posted on April 3, 2008 By Tom 1 Comment on Exploring Laurens County
Local, Photography

Laurens County Courthouse

It’s Spring Break this week, and the weather stinks out loud. Monday and Tuesday were cloudy and wet, so I spent the first part of the week on home maintenance, specifically, oiling our unfinished knotty pine paneling with linseed oil. It was a smelly job, so by Wednesday I really needed to get out of the house. Wednesday was also the only day this week predicted to have good weather, so it was now or never.

As with most of my photo drives, I only had a rough idea of where I wanted to go. I knew that I wanted to check out the Gray Court-Owings Historical Society’s new display area, and I wanted to visit some sites for genealogy purposes, but apart from that anything was open. Originally, I had planned to load my mountain bike in my truck and check out the Enoree Passage of the Palmetto Trail. However, with the weather not cooperating, I abandoned that idea.

Read More “Exploring Laurens County” »

A Concert of Remembrance

Posted on March 30, 2008 By Tom No Comments on A Concert of Remembrance
Music

This afternoon the Greenville Chorale presents Music for Life – Celebrated & Remembered. The concert will be at First Baptist Church at 3:00 pm, and will feature the Durafle’ Requiem, Brahms Nanie, and several shorter works. This year our concert season was thrown off a bit with unusual scheduling. This left and opportunity for a … Read More “A Concert of Remembrance” »

One More GPS Tracker – Qstarz BT-Q1000

Posted on March 30, 2008 By Tom 2 Comments on One More GPS Tracker – Qstarz BT-Q1000
Gear, Geocaching and Maps, Photography

After the miserable failure of the i-gotU GPS tracker, I decided to ship it back and purchase the Qstarz BT-Q1000 instead. The preliminary tests I’ve run on the unit just bear out the old adage – you get what you pay for. The i-gotU was around $50 and the Qstarz is nearly double that.

This is the updated unit to the one we bought Chip for his birthday. He had been very pleased with its performance, and I had read several other favorable reviews. This unit has double the memory capacity, but otherwise functions pretty much the same way and has the same features.

Qstarz comparison

As can be seen in the photo above, the Qstarz (middle) is a good bit larger than the i-gotU, but still smaller than my Garmen eTrex. It’s still small enough to slip into a pocket, and it comes with a protective cover that has a belt loop.

Read More “One More GPS Tracker – Qstarz BT-Q1000” »

Easter Flight

Posted on March 24, 2008 By Tom 2 Comments on Easter Flight
Miscellaneous, Travel

It turned out to be a more exciting Easter weekend than we had planned. Chip had invited us for lunch after church, then John Ellenberg offered to fly us from Greenville to Newberry in his twin-engine Beechcraft Baron to visit the parents. Glynda, Chip, and I took John up on his offer. We took off … Read More “Easter Flight” »

Early Easter at Fourth

Posted on March 23, 2008 By Tom No Comments on Early Easter at Fourth
Miscellaneous, Music, Religion

I had written several weeks ago about this being the earliest Easter any of us were ever going to see. With temperatures dropping into the 30’s at night and flowers just now opening, it does seem like Easter is too soon. Regardless, we decided that early must be the theme, so we went to the … Read More “Early Easter at Fourth” »

Congaree Swamp Hike

Posted on March 23, 2008 By Tom No Comments on Congaree Swamp Hike
Local, Travel

Laura and I wanted to get out and about this weekend, and we decided we would visit the Congaree National Park. We drove down Friday night so that we could get and early start the next morning. We had a nice dinner in Columbia’s Vista neighborhood, then spent the night in one of the rattiest … Read More “Congaree Swamp Hike” »

i-gotU GPS Tracker – Summary Review

Posted on March 20, 2008 By Tom 8 Comments on i-gotU GPS Tracker – Summary Review
Gear, Geocaching and Maps, Photography

UPDATE: This review was for the i-GotU GT-100. Mobile Action has contacted me and asked if I would try out the new GT-120. I’ve tested it, and posted the new results here. So far it’s worked much better than the GT-100 reviewed here, which has now been discontinued by Mobile Action. I’m leaving this review … Read More “i-gotU GPS Tracker – Summary Review” »

Posts pagination

Previous 1 … 179 180 181 … 298 Next

Categories

  • EdTech (197)
  • Entertainment (202)
  • Family (124)
  • Gear (114)
  • General Technology (98)
  • Geocaching and Maps (208)
  • History and Genealogy (276)
  • Internet (142)
  • Local (459)
  • Miscellaneous (561)
  • Music (202)
  • Paddling (268)
  • Photography (782)
  • Podcast (23)
  • Rambling (234)
  • Rants (162)
  • Recipes (37)
  • Religion (48)
  • Restaurants (165)
  • Science (48)
  • Things Overheard (29)
  • Travel (413)
  • Uncategorized (144)
  • Washington Sabbatical (113)
  • Weirdness (61)

Recent Posts

  • Carolina Ghost Towns – Judson, North Carolina
  • Carolina Ghost Towns – Madison, SC
  • A Trip to Lando
  • Carolina Ghost Towns – Fort Motte, South Carolina
  • Carolina Ghost Towns Season 3 Trailer

Recent Comments

  • Lisa on Mystery Cemetery
  • Charlton Hall on The Temple of Health: Ground-Truthing in Antreville
  • Kristen Anderson on Carolina Ghost Towns – Shelton, SC
  • Tabby on Exploring The Jungle of Lake Moultrie
  • Virginia Pepper on A Trip to Lando

Tags

blogging cemetery Christmas Columbia Edisto River edtech Entertainment family Flickr Florida Furman Furman University gear Georgia geotagging Ghost Town Ghost Towns Google Earth Google Maps GPS Greenville Greenville Chorale history Instructional Technology kayaking Lake Jocassee LCU Lowcountry Unfiltered maps Music North Carolina Paddling Photography rambling restaurant Restaurants review singing social networking South Carolina time-lapse Travel video Washington Washington State
February 2026
S M T W T F S
1234567
891011121314
15161718192021
22232425262728
« Jan    

Copyright © 2026 Random Connections.

Theme: Oceanly by ScriptsTown