David’s Ramblings

How in the world can a journalist write a story like this, especially one that works for CNN?
Here’s a link to the story… it may get ’silently corrected’ so I’ve copied it below for your enjoyment…
“(CNN) — A man climbed to the top of a nearly 60-story skyscraper in downtown San Francisco, California, on […]

I’ve finally started tiling the fountain… still a lot of work to do on this project, it’s been a long road, but I’m getting close to putting it into operation…

The tiles look nice…

At the outset let me say I am a software developer, and have been for over 30 years. So I’ve done my share of stupid things.
But it seems that over the years that software has become dumber and more cluttered. One thing in particular that most programmers just don’t get is input focus.
…you […]

Wow amazing upbeat Motown sounding soul R&B all packed into one… can’t wait to buy the album…

I’ve inserted an image which is a link to Youtube since Google has broken the old way of embedding… ‘do no evil’ yeah greed gets in the way of good intentions always…

I just got back from a very busy vacation in New Mexico…
For the first few days I was doing some WWII reenacting as the commander of the German forces for the March on Rome event at Fort Stanton near Ruidoso.

Here I am trying on a panzer III for size…
After the event Lyn and I […]

I started laying down more of the walkway around the base of the fountain. Man this is taking forever and was way more work than I envisioned at the start of this project. But is turning out to be a really nice piece and a focal point of the side yard. This will be […]

I was out at Fort Stanton this weekend on a recon mission for the March on Rome Event. In addition to being an old West US Army fort the post served as a TB sanitarium, mental hospital and during WWII first as an internment camp and then as a POW camp for German “Hard Cases” […]

Well the surrounding wall for the pool is at least. Set the pump in the bottom and tested how the water would flow and sound. Looking forward to sleeping with the window open and listening to the fountain. It sounds wonderful…

We took a couple of days off during Spring break and on one of these we traveled down to San Antonio. I picked up a really nice hand woven blanket from Guatemala! It’s now on the back of the couch in the living room and looks like it was made for the room. I also […]

My regular FM radio station bit the dust a couple of months ago and I’ve been forced to migrate the dial looking for another station that isn’t too irritating. Funny how that’s the criteria, find one that sucks the least… you know there is something unsustainable and rotten when that is the criteria used to […]

Sometimes the view out the window of my home office isn’t a cheery and nice as usual. Today it’s been grey, rainy and cold all day long. At least the indoor scenery can remind me of Spring approaching…

I know I want a nice little netbook like the Yoga and an E-reader like the Skiff. The money is ready to jump out of my pocket.
But the brakes come on every time I read about this hot new gadget it is accompanied by some text like this… “the Skiff is optimized for newspaper and […]

Since I won’t be able to do much work over the holidays here is a short set of shots of the current state of the work…

I’ve been working on the fountain pool lately…
it’s coming along nicely…

I took my Peace Officer certification exam yesterday and passed. I am now licensed in the State of Texas!

For you out of state officers that wish to make the transition (like me) here’s the agency;
Texas Commission on Law Enforcement Officer Standards and Education

I started stacking the sections of the fountain now that I’ve made the centre pad to set the base of the fountain on. The base sits perfectly level. I cannot lift the bottom basin by myself since it’s over three feet across and solid concrete. So I temporarily set the top basin in it’s place […]

and I’ve started to build the lower wall of the bottom of the fountain using native rock from the property…
Shows the bottom piece of the fountain on the centre pad and a bit of the start of the rock wall…

Valentina supervising…

The fuente itself was delivered last night.
Now I gotta finish the base and lift it into place…

Father Charles Coughlin denounces FRD’s New Deal… sounds just like the Repugnicans on FOX spewing disinformation and invoking the specter of Socialism, Communism and outrageous taxation…
Give it a listen, the big money business folks were wrong then and again now…
Father Charles Coughlin denounces FRD’s New Deal

One tired albañilo… We finished digging the hole for the fuente and I filled the bed with gravel and leveled it.
Smoothing the gravel…

Next step rebar…

Mixing and pouring concrete…

We spent a long day cutting trees, removing the old patio and digging the base for pouring the concrete foundation. Major progress, but still a long way to go!
Tired albañila…

Started on the fountain project yesterday… today it’s raining so no work outside instead I’m warm and dry listening to Julieta Venegas’ “Andar Conmigo” on the speakers while I do computer work.
Here’s a photo of the side yard where the fountain will go… It’s right outside of the dining area and living room.

In the […]

It’s getting cooler at night and also I received a book that renewed my interest in looking at the night sky. Lugging the telescope out into the front yard for a peek…

The Stargazing Year book…

The full moon…

Well not me, I missed this years trip, but Val and Karyn are in Nova Scotia and have sent me some photos to show me what I’m missing.

Flowers on the hillside at Hall’s Harbour…

The Lunnenburg shorline…

A fisherman’s building on the South shore…

John brought us some very cool films; Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, and Pretty in Pink.

Some photos from the California Babybar…

William and Gloria in front of the hotel after a long grueling day!

David and Gloria in front of the hotel, William traded places and he’s the photographer…

Interesting Art Deco building across the street from the hotel…

While working in the garden tonight… watering I turned to see that I had an audience… well they do follow me everywhere!

Well day after tomorrow is it! Taking the FYLSE … it will be 8 weeks for the results…

I’m in California doing a baby bar prep course… it’s four days of intensive learning and practice. I’d highly recommend it the instruction is priceless… I’m attending Fleming’s Fundamentals of Law

We’ve had some good rains lately and the garden is really shaping up well…
Almost everything is in bloom…

Even the Bougainvilleas are looking up…

A resounding yes, because most would score low I think…
U.S. Rep. Steve Austria, Ohio Congressman said about the economic stimulus package; “When Roosevelt did this, he put our country into a Great Depression,” Austria said. “He tried to borrow and spend, he tried to use the Keynesian approach, and our country ended up in a […]

I loved Taleb’s book, Fooled by Randomness.
Taleb’s top life tips…
1 Scepticism is effortful and costly. It is better to be sceptical about matters of large consequences, and be imperfect, foolish and human in the small and the aesthetic.
2 Go to parties. You can’t even start to know what you may find on the envelope of […]

I was traveling up I35 through downtown Austin the other day, don’t often get up that way, as I usually travel up Lamar… saw a terrible sight. There used to be a small place called Angie’s Mexican Restaurant… just an old converted house with wonderful food. Tortillas de maiz to die for… chuletas de puerco […]

Well now I’m digging into 2L law. Courses this year are Criminal Procedure, Agency, Real Estate and Remedies. Hoping I can maintain or improve my 3.0 GPA. Just signed up for the California Baby Bar Review course in May with Flemings… and I’ll tackle the BB in June.
Lots of work to do… but one […]

Tonight the moon, Saturn and Jupiter are all close together in the Western sky. From mi balcone it is a spectacular view I have the telescope out and the view is wonderful!

Well did my final exams the day before Thanksgiving… whew, three hours of essay and application of torts, criminal and contract law… my brain hurts but I’m glad I’m done. The coming weeks will see if it passed…

Next week I’m taking finals for first year law. I cannot believe how fast the time has gone. My head is filled with rules, decisions, maxims, mnemonics to remember rules… whew. Well wish me luck!
David

I know this has been around the net several times… but I just love this video! From WherTheHellIsMatt.com It makes me smile.

Well I’ve succumbed and I have an iphone now. It’s nice and I have to say I was primarily driven to purchase by my invention being available on it.
However I am very underwhelmed by a few really stupid features…
Alas programmers continue to let me down… first the spell checker feature… it’s fixing words for […]

As a part of my conversion to rain water I’ve converted another item in the house to use less water. I changed one of the other toilets to use a European style two flush tank. It’s nice, sleek and works quite well!
I’m satisfied with the change…

El Grito de Dolores Long live independence! Long live America! Death to bad Government!
Watching the celebrations en Zocalo on Galvision, looks like a lot of fun. Happy Independence Day Mexico!

Wandering around one finds all sorts of things here… at low tide in the harbour there is a lobster boat forlorn, high and dry.
Who named it the Mango?

Walking the trail on partridge Island yesterday we helped ourselves to blackberries fresh off the bushes.

Blueberries are plentiful too, but they are a cash crop so no picking!

Plenty […]

between what we are thinking and what we say
between what we feel and what we do
between what we think […]

I wrote about watching the full moon on the ranch page… but I have to rave about this movie of the same name; La Misma Luna is a wonderful movie… If you have a chance see it. A refreshing change from the xenophobic anti immigrant crap on the nightly news and in the political ads.
La […]