Check out http://www.lucasarts.com/games/legostarwarssaga/
This is the website for Lego Star Wars the Complete Saga. "Kick some bricks in I through VI." If you haven't played this game before - make sure you have a long weekend, or a summer vacation ahead if you really want to play it right. It took me six months to get through all six movies - with six chapters per movie. And I still need to go back and 'free play' the levels to be able to get all the hidden items and other goodies not available on the first play through.
So - check out the website. You can watch a game trailer, or take the Character Quiz. Find out what Star Wars character you are... It is not a very good quiz - many questions have no realistic answers. Then again - what did I expect?
Anyway - here is my character (not quite me...but I did the quiz).
Saturday, July 04, 2009
Star Wars the Complete Saga
Thursday, June 25, 2009
2009 Tigard Festival of Balloons
This past weekend was the Tigard Festival of Balloons. We have never actually gone to Cook Park to see the fun. Usually we just go out the back door and watch the balloons float by. This works out if the winds are from the north or northeast. If the wind is blowing from the south, the balloons head off into Beaverton or Portland. Not good - as a test flight on Thursday had a not-so-good landing in Beaverton.
Friday morning started out with dissappointment. Due to possible rain and winds - no balloons flew. We decided to go there Friday night and see the night glow. We actually didn't think through how long we would be there. We got there at 5pm so we could get dinner, and then we planned to walk around until the night glow. Well - that wouldn't be starting until 9pm or so...
At around 8:30, they announced that due to possible rain - they would not be doing the night glow, but rather just 'candlesticking.' Apparently when weather causes problems, I guess they just setup the gondola's without the balloon and fire up the burner. I bet this is just to prevent riots from all the people who really wanted the night glow. We decided we didn't want to wait around for another 30-45 minutes - so we called it a night.
Saturday saw the launch of 19 balloons. Connor and I sat out in the Tualatin Elementary field and saw at least 17 of them. The wind was coming from the northwest...so the balloons didn't fly overhead, but rather off the the east. No landings near us...
Saturday night, we headed back to Cook Park and saw the night glow. We didn't want to pay the $5 parking - so we decided to park at the Tualatin Community Park, and walk to Cook Park. We had biked this before - but it was a good walk - probably a mile or so. And - we didn't think about the walk back until we were almost there...this path has no lights.
There were seven balloons setup, and it looks pretty awesome when then all fire at once. The wind was picking up a little, but there were no real problems. Fun stuff! The walk back to the car was fine - but we had to watch carefully for slugs. The path was full of those guys - not sure where they were trying to go.
Sunday morning - I was up alone to watch for the launches, as we didn't get home Saturday until after 10pm. When the first two balloons went up - they took off almost due east. Not a chance that they would fly near our house, so I jumped on my bike and took off. Less than 10 minutes later I was at Cook Park - just as the last balloon took off. So I took a few photos and headed back home.
We still keep an eye out for balloons throughout the summer. Sometimes we can see them off towards Sherwood.
Housekeeping - Yard Work #13 was June 19th. The grass is starting to look less green, as the rains have slowed down. We water the front yard some because of the flowers. The back yard doesn't get much - and now with a inflatable pool out there - we'll soon have dead patches.
Only about four weeks until the Tour de Cure ride. Still time left for your donations!
Saturday, June 13, 2009
Digital is now the standard
Good morning.
Welcome to the world of digital TV broadcasting.
Without a converter box, this is your TV today - and forever.
Friday, June 12, 2009
Friday Afternoon Traffic
Just checking Google Maps to see what traffic looks like before we head out "Over the river (Tualatin & Willamette) and through the woods (Stafford Area around I-205)" for a strawberry waffle night at the Larsons.
Not starting out good this Friday. At least we are not on I-205 South....looks like an accident.
Yard Work #12 - June 9th. Less grass to cut - either the growth rate is slowing down, or the less hardy grass plants are giving up. Not much rain recently.
Saturday, June 06, 2009
Tour de Cure - Team Tegan Promotional Video
Just playing around with the technology I've got available. This is what I used recently...
- Nintendo Wii - fun stuff, no matter how old you are.
- Lego Star Wars: The Complete Saga - I've completed all six levels on episodes 1, 2, 3. I'm ready to move on to Star Wars - A New Hope! See the original Star Wars movie trailer here! "A billion years in the making...and it's coming to your galaxy this summer"
- Sony VCR SLV-N750 - This lets me watch the Wii action on the TV, as well as provides the necessary video out for recording by my camcorder. Soon - the VCR will only be recording channel 3 - after June 12th, all over the air TV will be coming through our digital TV converter box - the DTVPal, TR-40 - now sold out!
- Sony Digital Handycam DCR-TRV310 - This is almost ancient in the video world - it is circa 1999 technology - it actually uses a 8mm tape! But it has Firewire, and it connects easily for transfer to computer. It also allows you to record video/audio from RCA ports. So this is my analog to digital conversion tool.
- Windows Movie Maker - There are probably better movie editing software out there, but this came with Windows XP. So I used it. Pretty intuitive - but don't try and make a slideshow type movie using 30 to 40 JPEGs....it crashes every time.
Here it is. Nothing really fancy...just watch and enjoy. After watching - I'll bet you really want to go purchase Lego Star Wars...or maybe even donate to the Tour de Cure!
Thursday, June 04, 2009
We had a tree climbed
We had a guy over to climb our tree this week. Actually, we didn't have the guy over. Dave, a remote control airplane pilot hired the guy to climb our large tree in the front yard. Dave was flying his plane in the large field over by Tualatin Elementary, and he had a mayday event happen. His plane crashed into our tree about 50-60 feet up.
The tree itself might be climbable by an adventurous youngster. Having been a tree climber in my earlier years - it is definitely doable once you reach the first branches 14 feet up. Straight climb up, with branches every four or five feet. However - I am much older and hopefully wiser now. And the kicker - my body has a lot more mass. Something that falls under Newton's Second Law of Motion. That law that I can experiment by throwing different balls up into the air. Something I won't prove by falling out of a tree. Also - it wasn't my $300 plane up there. I had no incentive to risk my life.
So anyway - there was a professional tree climber who ascended the tree and retrieved the airplane. He also threw down a couple of loose branches. Good thing too - because today we had a nice windy storm pass through. This image is supposed to be an animated GIF - but I don't think blogger likes it.
Final note - yard work #11 was June 2nd. The grass keeps growing - and this storm helped with the watering.
Saturday, May 30, 2009
Are you ready for this?
Are you ready for this?
June 12th - your analog TV stops receiving over the air analog broadcasts. The long talked about and delayed transition from analog to digital TV occurs in just under two weeks. Do you have your digital TV tuner? Or a new HDTV? Or maybe you subscribe to cable or satellite - you don't need to do anything yet, because they probably provide a device which outputs an analog signal to your good old Channel 3.
Remember when TV was simple?
Housekeeping note - Yard Work 2009 #10 - May 25th. A little later (and thus the grass was longer) than needed due to the Memorial Day Weekend. Now - we're in a stretch of warm without rain - maybe the grass growth rate will slow down. If you compare the your current 'weather' with your expectations due to the 'climate' of where you are - it seems that it is never normal. Right now is just about Rose Festival time in the Portland area - and that usually means rain on your parade.
For an interesting book on how we as humans deal with randomness in everyday things like the weather - check out The Drunkard's Walk - How Randomness Rules Our Lives by Leonard Mlodinow. Not too mathy for those of you without a math degree. Interesting ways to think about experiences and how our brain classifies them. Like - with ten checkout lanes at the grocery store - why do you always pick 'the slowest line'?
Just how random are these letters? Did your brain run a randomness test? Probably not. I'll bet even unconsciously you are looking for patterns. One pattern is highlighted for you.
Can you find your name in these letters?
- What if your name was John Twelve Hawks?
What symbol is made by following the letters in a word you can make up?
- What does that mean?
Why are six hearts visible?
- Does that have anything to do with six letters in 'random'?
If the letters are random - there is no meaning there. But what if they are carefully placed on the table, and not just poured from a container? Did someone hide a clue for you to find? Or is your brain trying to make sense of randomness?
Fun stuff!
Monday, May 25, 2009
Wednesday, May 20, 2009
Tour de Cure 2009
http://tour.diabetes.org/goto/TeamTegan2009
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Yard Work 2009 #9
May 14th - break in the rain, and a jump start on the weekend. Lawn work number nine of 2009.
May 16th - my neighbor mows his lawn for the first time this year. Guess what his yard looked like before he accomplished that task....
The previous week, our other neighbor had a yard service come in and trim some bushes, pull some weeds, and lay down some nice bark dust. Her yard was looking pretty good - and now I didn't have to think about the bushes growing through the fence. A few days later - up goes the For Sale sign. Not quite sure why she is moving - she has only lived there a year and a half, and we really don't see her much at all. Maybe it is the mortgage crisis...
Maybe the work involved in keeping up a house was too much for her. It sure ain't no picnic. She did have woodpeckers knocking on her chimney. For a while - we had the same problem. They land on the chimney cap and hammer away on the metal cover. Inside the house it sounds like a machine gun in the fireplace. We solved this problem by putting a small 'dome' of chicken wire on the cap. The woodpeckers could no longer land where they wanted to - so they moved to the neighbor's house.
I don't have any woodpecker photos - but here is a squirrel that was chirping away quite loudly yesterday morning. He wasn't happy about something. Maybe he had been talking to Woody...
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