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Category Archives: Fun
Music Inspired by Richard Dawkins
Richard Dawkins is a great man. From the first book of his I picked up, River Out of Eden, to the last one I read, The Greatest Shown on Earth, I’ve never ceased to be amazed by how his passion of biology and his talent at articulating the grandeur of nature ooze out of every single page.
Dawkins is the person who helped me find my atheistic voices in the vocabulary of evolutionary biology. And for that I’ve dedicated many work of art to the great man. For instance, The Lost Cause was wholly inspired by the dozen of books on evolution penned by the man that I’ve read. Similarly, I have written Wikipedia articles on some of his books, such as River Out of Eden and The Ancestor’s Tale, to help guide those who are still searching for their voices.
Here, however, I collect music I have written that are inspired by Dawkins’ work.
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HHAMS 2015 Field Pictures
This article shows pictures taken in 2015 at HHAMS field events. These pictures were processed after I posted 2016 field and plane pictures. Maybe I’ll get to 2014 pictures after this one.
The picture of the year 2015 was not taken by me. I don’t recall who sent me this picture. It is not of high-resolution, unfortunately. If you are the photographer, please send me your original. The picture shows Eugene and Paul working on a plane in front of the shed.
Unusual Oculus Roomscale Setup
I have been patiently waiting for the day the era of Snow Crash arrived. A few weeks ago I received my Oculus Touch, to complement the Oculus Rift I got in June. What a world of difference the Touch made. I now proclaim the era of virtual reality to be upon us!
But Touch doesn’t work “as is” for me, sadly. It is designed primarily for people who sit on a desk against a wall, looking at the monitor. You see, the thing is, I have a non-standard room setup. My man cave looks like nothing of the sort during the day when I roll up the shades. When the lights are off, however, a projector sitting atop the bookshelf projects the entire screen onto a white wall, across the room. My game PC lives in a corner of the bookshelf alongside other equipment, behind my recliner throne.
I set out to mount the Oculus sensors on the wall and to bury cables behind the drywall. It turned out to be a challenge in many ways. But I now have what enthusiasts call a “roomscale” setup for virtual reality applications. Continue reading
Posted in Fun
Tagged active USB 3.0, extension cables, hdmi, headset, oculus, oculus cameras, oculus rift, oculus sensors, oculus touch, projector, roomscale, roomscale setup, VR
8 Comments
Hot Air Balloons in Search of a Landing Site
Flipping through pictures on my iPhone, I found a few interesting ones taken in August 2015. They were from an unexpected encounter with hot air balloons while I was visiting Lancaster, Pennsylvania. It turned out that they were from a balloon ride tour agency with a misleadingly official name, The United States Hot Air Balloon Team. Nonetheless, I found the ground crew to be professional, and the pilot to be knowledgeable and helpful. I uploaded some of these pictures to Wikimedia, as I often do with useful pictures taken in my free time. Continue reading
Posted in Photography, RC Planes, Travel
Tagged Bird-in-Hand, Hot Air Ballooon, Kodak Moment, Landing, Pennsylvania, Travel pictures
1 Comment
Winter Ice Skating at Mohonk Mountain House
The Mohonk rink is comparable in size to the Winter Village rink at Bryant Park in NYC. This rink does expand greatly the variety of possible winter activities, at the mountain resort where TVs are conspicuously absent in guest rooms. A single rink alone provides three different types of activities. There is the traditional “I just want to skate” type of activity. More inspired folks try the role of chariot horses. But in this case they are more like mules than horses, and push chariots from behind. Less mobile folks may play chariot drivers, except they have little control over their destiny, and must rely on verbal signals which mules may or may not honor.
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Posted in Ice Skating, Travel
Tagged chariot race, Ice Skating, ice skating rink, mohonk, mohonk mountain house, Travel pictures, winter
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Pictures of Planes Sighted at the Aerodrome in 2016
I have highlighted some pictures of main HHAMS events in HHAMS Pictures of the Year – 2016. But I have plenty additional pictures of planes, mostly taken at the field. Here is a complete list of all of them. You can click on each one to see the image at the resolution I uploaded them which is enough for most online viewing. But the majority of these were taken at 4 times the uploaded resolution. Ask me if you want a particular picture in its full resolution for other purposes.
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HHAMS Pictures of the Year – 2016
I sorted through, in the comfort of my home, pictures I’ve taken related to model aviation in 2016 on my iPhone. All of them were about HHAMS (Hempstead Harbor Aero Modelers Association). As “the” picture of the year, I nominate Ben’s Ironman plane.
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What Exactly is a Peeled Extreme Beef Tenderloin from Costco?
This short article of mine is not about butchering a whole tenderloin. It’s about not having to bother with butchering a whole tenderloin. It turns out that Costco sells processed tenderloin, albeit at a much higher unit price. I found the increased price well worth paying for. This processed version is called “Peeled Extreme Beef Tenderloin”. Continue reading
Oxtail Steak a la Sous Vide
I was talking to a friend about my oxtail steak I once plugged at r/sousvide. I was telling him how I got mostly negative feedback along the lines of “an oxtail is an oxtail is an oxtail – you stew it”. Retelling this story reminded me of pictures I took while undertaking that 24-hour endeavor.
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Battlefield 1 Soldier Uniforms from all Factions
To avoid committing friendly fires, players now need to learn to tell friends from foes, based on mere fleeting glimpses. This is a herculean task, as most soldiers look alike on the screen, in tiny images and mostly shown in suboptimal lighting conditions. It does not help that online resources showing soldiers from all combat classes and all countries are nowhere to be found. I’ve been waiting for more than a week now, but no such resources have spontaneously spawned. So I decided to take matters into my own hands.
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Posted in Fun
Tagged 3D spotting, all classes, Battlefield 1, combat uniforms, comparison, dice, friendly fire, friendly markers, friends vs foes, hardcore, hardcore mode, HUD, identify soldiers, military uniforms, outfits, recognition, recognize soldier, soldier uniforms, team kill, world war 1
4 Comments
Xinhai Dude 
