Miscellaneous
Rene Decartes walks into a bar and sits down. The bartender asks him if he would like a beer. Decartes replies, "I think not", and promptly vanishes.
Paddling
The Time Lords were not happy. However, it was an accident. I didn’t mean to bring Sunday’s paper into the house before it was actually Sunday, and when I recognized my mistake, I quickly stepped back out and left the vile thing on the bench outside until Sunday arrived. However, the damage had been done. … Read More “South Saluda Run” »
Local, Photography
One of the cameras in our arsenal is an old 1956 Nikkormat that had belonged to Laura’s father. Usually attached to it is his favorite lens, a Nikkor 50mm f1.4. I decided to try that lens on my new Nikon D50 just for kicks. In some ways, it’s easier to use much older manual lenses … Read More “Back to Basics with Lenses” »
Miscellaneous
Since 1998 Beloit College has released its Mindset List for the incoming Freshman Class. It was intended to provide faculty and staff at the college a guide for relating to the new students and understanding their perceptions of the world. I think now it has long since left that goal, and now serves as blog … Read More “Mindset List” »
Things Overheard
…They say they’re going to open up the baseball field at 7:30 for kids. You know, with all those blow up toys that kids can jump on. Plus, there’s going to be a bunch o’ people camping out to make sure they get their tickets… …There’s also gonna be that triathalon thing. They gonna start … Read More “Big happenings in Duncan” »
Rants, Restaurants
One of our favorite Thai restaurants is located right next door to a Papa John’s Pizza place. Sometimes it’s nearly impossible to find a place to park because all of the spots are taken by pizza delivery cars. The photo below clearly shows the joint’s attitude toward their own customers (see inset). You can imagine … Read More “Pet Pizza Peeve” »
Restaurants
Two drive-through coffee shops have made an appearance in Duncan in the past year. Both offer similar products, but apart from products, the two couldn’t be more different. The first to make its appearance was Curbside Coffee. Curbside moved into a defunct Dairy Queen located right next to a huge truck stop right at I-85. … Read More “Two coffees to go” »
Gear
I’ve discovered a major drawback with PDAs that include phone capabilities, such as Treos and Blackberries. First, you can’t multitask. There’s no good way to look at your calandar while you’re on the phone. More importantly, I find it hard to view data on my screen because of ear prints. I may have stop making … Read More “Please, no wax” »
Geocaching and Maps, Local
On Saturday the Upstate South Carolina Geocachers Association (USCGA) held a Cach In, Trash Out (CITO) event at the South Carolina Academic Learning Environment (SCALE). How’s that for a bunch of acronymns with links? SCALE is our district’s outdoor classroom. It’s roughly in the shape of South Carolina, and is designed to be a scale … Read More “Cache In, Trash Out” »
Miscellaneous
Laura got some very good news yesterday. She and three other women chemists have been awarded a $500,000 grant from the National Science Foundation to development mentoring programs for women professors in the sciences. It sounds like an excellent program, but it also sounds like she’s going to be doing quite a bit of work … Read More “Congratulations to Laura!” »