Category: flying

12/27/14 09:32 - ID#59693

The new drone

(e:mike). the drone you gave (e:Paul) is fucking awesome.

Yesterday we flew the drone (AR Drone 2.0) out at the church. its very difficult - you fly it using your phone, looking through the HD camera on the drone. Plenty of crashes, and thankfully it takes a beating.

Today we flew it with Jeremy - it turns out that since my phone was in German, we missed the settings for indoor vs outdoor flight, and calibrating the accelerometers on flat ground. He was a lot better at it.

I really think there's so much potential for this. There's an SDK and you can also preprogram flights. Imagine flying around and getting a birds eye view of the neighborhood, or following your bike ride. (e:libertad) thinks we could even inspect his roof.

I need to practice this. Much better than driving a car.

Testing Paul's new drone:

Permalink: The_new_drone.html
Words: 153
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/28/14 05:26

Category: christmas

12/25/14 11:27 - ID#59686

VR Robots and nut butters

After Christmas eve, we decided to open presents. (E:Paul) and I got (e:terry) a PlayStation. They got me a new case of nut butters. And (e:terry) and I got Paul the Samsung VR goggles. I have a feeling we will never see his face again - the glasses are so cool.

Permalink: VR_Robots_and_nut_butters.html
Words: 57
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/25/14 06:20

Category: buffalo

12/22/14 02:14 - ID#59678

Canalside rinks

(e:terry) and I took a wintry walk downtown to the new canals while (e:paul) went out to hang with (e:hodown). It was also winter solstice which means it only gets brighter from here on out!

Waste of power!

The new ice canals are so freaking awesome. I want to a get a season pass for four people - only $75. Plus (e:yesthatcasey) could ride the ice bikes. If we got skates it'd be so easy to go down there and it looked a lot nicer than the Rotary Rink.

Terry and I ran back and forth up to the concrete phallus that used to be HSBC. It's super trippy to look up at something so big from it's plaza.

The creepiness of the Sahlen's place is about as creepy as a hot dog is if you think about it.

Permalink: Canalside_rinks.html
Words: 149
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/23/14 10:15

Category: going out

12/21/14 02:40 - ID#59677

Bachelor party

(e:terry) and I headed out to Kallie's brother Curt's bachelor party at Big Orbit Gallery. I talked a bunch with a country bro and we got to watch two drunk people fall in slow motion.

I think we were up until 5, at some point (e:yesthatcasey) and (e:masumi) got a nice tap on the window.

Permalink: Bachelor_party.html
Words: 60
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/22/14 11:16

Category: cars

12/21/14 02:39 - ID#59676

My own personal hell

We went Christmas shopping with (e:mike) at the Galleria. I think it approaches what I'd consider hell.

(e:terry) and I got to go see the animals at the pet store while Mike and Paul went to the craft store. If anyone was struggling to find a calender of guinea pigs playing sports, they sell one.

Permalink: My_own_personal_hell.html
Words: 61
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/21/14 11:16

Category: holiday

12/21/14 02:39 - ID#59675

Festivus for the rest of us

Friday my family came over along with (e:yesthatcasey) and and Masumi to celebrate Festivus.

We had calzones, salad, a giant snickers, and baked apples.

The best part is probably the airing of grievances, where basically everyone gets
to yell at each other for minor issues. I feel like it's a real family bonding experience.

Masumi inspecting some of our Squeaky Wheel prizes.

Permalink: Festivus_for_the_rest_of_us.html
Words: 69
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/22/14 10:04

Category: religion

12/21/14 02:38 - ID#59674

A scientologist christmas

Do the Scientologists not find anything weird about having a christmas tree in their window?

I was surprised no one came out to chase me about taking a picture here.

Permalink: A_scientologist_christmas.html
Words: 33
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/21/14 10:58

Category: food

12/16/14 10:10 - ID#59662

Cafe 59 chickpeas

We eat at Cafe 59 almost twice a week lately. I am so obsessed with the Moraccan Spiced chickpeas. It's almost the only thing I ever order there - spiced chickpeas, on warm greek yogurt, with a salad.

Most of the times the portions are huge enough to make my stomach hurt. If you consider I've been working at Roswell for 23 weeks, at at least two cups of chickpeas a serving, probably averaging 1.5 times a week - it's too many chickpeas (69) or 25000 calories worth of them. I also think I'm the only person who ever orders them. The waitress knows I'm going to order it when I get in.

This week at work I've started orientation. The classes are not very useful at all and it'd probably be much more worth it if I was programming during them, but I did meet a researcher from Germany who I want to try out my German on.

After work (e:paul) and I went to (e:terry)'s new office to help straighten out the networking situation. We wanted to move the office off of using their desktop Windows server as a DNS and on to openDNS, but we couldn't figure out to log into the switch, only the firewall. Eventually Paul found the switches address over nmap and surprise, it was the default password. Success though!

Terry made a freaking delicious soup for us by the time we got home.

Permalink: Cafe_59_chickpeas.html
Words: 239
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/21/14 02:36

Category: pets

12/15/14 01:14 - ID#59660

Animal errands

Sunday was a lot of errands. (e:paul) and (e:terry) went to go help Paul's parents with setting up their Chrismas tree, and I went to be IT at my parents.

Before we set off we stopped for lunch at the new Balkan Dining restaurant on Kenmore Avenue. The portion sizes were ridiculously huge and cheap. We had leftovers for everything except for my vegetable mousaka.

Sleepy Mid - wiped out from a walk

Ferrets are so freaking cute

After Paul and Terry came back and picked me up, we went to Markham Pets to get Basra hay. The last time I was there in 2003, I was getting a guinea pig and it was disgusting. i remember bugs and fleas everywhere in the rodent cages.

This time it was much cleaner.

Basra's smaller counterpart if he weren't such a dirrrty tortoise. He also had way less space.

Little Meerschweinchen hiding in their house. I wanted to pick one up so bad.

We went to Feel Rite after to use up Paul's scam insurance card. Why can't they just lower the premiums by $250? Anyway,we a got a lot of granola bars and questionable brain supplements. I don't really trust much in the store with the amount of woo - like the homeopathy and steroids. I don't put much stock in these pills except they may give you a little buzz.

The tour finished with Terry getting the Note 4 before we went home. Paul and I brogrammed the rest of the night.

Permalink: Animal_errands.html
Words: 261
Location: Buffalo, NY
Last Modified: 12/17/14 12:07

Category: mike

12/14/14 06:41 - ID#59656

Mike blows

Friday night, we headed over to (e:mike) and (e:libertad)'s place to hang out. We got to see their new floors upstairs and a lot more of the house as it looks unpacked. It's really looking great.

The highlight of the night though was Mike's blowing showing off his blowing skills with a pinwheel.