Vox Hunt: Oh Canada!

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 15:36:38 -0400

In honor of Canada Day, show us your favorite Canadian.

Born in my hometown, on my birthday (although 51 years before I was..), I would have to say Jim Chamberlin is my favorite historical Canadian.

Jim was an engineering genius and visionary who was able to see past the limits of what had come before him in the fields of aircraft and aerospace technology and built instead what he innately knew was the best design. Jim has many interesting attributes to his fame, but among them which I will always be in awe are:

Exercising his ability to perform 'wind-tunnel' testing in his brain, helped make the Avro Arrow into a legend among aircraft.
He became the first Canadian to trigger the scientific and engineering 'brain drain' from Canada to the U.S. when Canadian PM John Diefenbaker thought it was a good idea to chop up the prototypes and burn the plans for the above-mentioned Avro Arrow.
Although an unpopular philosophy at the time, Jim fully supported the LOR (Lunar Orbit Rendezvous) method for travelling to the moon and back. He was certain that it was the safest, cheapest and possibly only way the 1969 historic lunar landing could have been done and was heavily involved in the design of the Lunar Lander.
He is the only person to ever have been the sole-designer of a manned spacecraft (the Gemini capsule).

AvroArrow1

748px-Gemini_6_7

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Vox Hunt: Sixth Grade Serenade (repaired)

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 13:47:26 -0400

Share a song you listened to in 6th grade.

This might explain a little about me.. ;O)

Sweet - Sweet F.A.

Sweet

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Not bad for a Wednesday

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 12:31:24 -0400

Things I just didn't expect for a Wednesday

I don't know what it is with me and deer. For some reason I am perceived by deer to some kind of kindred brother, or maybe I am part deer. I can remember hiking around Mara Hill in Kamloops and seeing deer bouncing their way across the ravines almost every time I went there. Those guys weren't as friendly as the ones in Mount Dufferin, though.

Every day in the summer of 2002 I rode my mountain bike through the winding trails of Kenna Cartwright park on Mount Dufferin and every day I saw one or more deer, usually in the same spot. When I first started seeing them, they would take off at the first sight of my bright blue helmet and trailing dust cloud. However, I think they started to get to know me somehow.

I remember the first time I was 'recognized', I was approaching the spot where I had seen deer before and was on the lookout for them. I spotted them before they spotted me and I watched them start to do their usual jackrabbit routine of bouncing away into the forest, but then do a double-take. Realizing it was me, they stopped running away and resumed their grazing. I was amazed that I had somehow 'connected' with them!

I continued seeing them in that spot, and in other places on the trails, and each time they would look at who was coming down the trail they would see it was me and go back to their business, knowing that I was not a threat.

Last night after work, I rode the Owl's Roost trail a few times. I'd seen a few deer on this trail before and they usually didn't run away from me, either. Last night was quite amazing, though. I came around a corner and saw on my right there was a deer, quite close to me, and not running. I slowed to a stop and look at him while he looked at me. Then I noticed that there was another deer on my left standing almost beside me!

Both deer carried on with eating whatever it is that deer eat, and to my astonishment the deer on my left came so close to me that I could have reached out and touched it. I stood there, leaning on a tree and having a drink while watching these two deer be completely comfortable in my presence. It was quiet and kind of magical.

Unfortunately, Owl's Roost is fairly busy and before long another rider approached scaring them off, but that didn't take the moment that I had shared with them away. And I'm sure I will see them again.

Fuel additives. Nothing to do with deer. I drive a Saturn with almost 90,000 miles on it and it was starting to show. The power was down, it idled rough and the fuel economy was down (a result of the power being down, I'm sure, as I am a bit of a lead-foot). Now, I'm not really a Ford or a Mustang man but I saw Carroll Shelby selling zMax one night while I waited for the Formula One race to start. I'm usually pretty skeptical about stuff like that, but I also thought it might be neat to try something that, according to Carroll, soaks into metal. Weird. I probably paid too much for it, but I picked some up and put one bottle in the gas and another bottle in the oil (I only use synthetic), as per the directions.

It has been one tank of fuel, and that was enough to make me a believer! Fuel economy went up, power went up and the idle problem is gone. I was getting around 28MPG before adding the goo and now I'm getting 35MPG! That means, I will be saving at least $430 over a year!

Making friends with a family of deer and saving $430 in fuel costs this year.. not bad for a Wednesday.

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Vox Hunt: In the Neighborhood

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 12:06:43 -0400

Show us a glimpse of your neighborhood.
Submitted by [Susan].

Around the block

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Some links..

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 14:47:12 -0400

Some of my other domains.. click em and make me happy :O)

http://freshpettreats.com/
http://flyingwright.com/
http://betterbatteryprize.com/
http://jesus4vr.com/
http://naturalselectionatwork.com/
http://saywords.mobi/
http://xenonpwned.com/
http://stoicform.com/
http://wrecklessdriver.com/
http://teadolls.com/
http://swagoo.com/
http://scrapbookcraft.net/
http://lolcatstuff.com/
http://jimchamberlininspace.com/
http://jemflyer.com/
http://ilivetobaccofree.com/
http://glimpseofthefuture.com/
http://fuelfromhemp.com/
http://endforeignoil.com/
http://consolegamesource.com/

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UNCG Campus Pictures

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Fri, 20 Jun 2008 08:55:49 -0400

Some pix of the campus where I work. I'm not the photog..

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Lemonade Stands and Air Fare

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 10:48:47 -0400

Opposite ends of the financial spectrum

I have my iGoogle page set to show me the "WikiHow of the Day". Sometimes they're helpful, usually they're fairly obvious and sometimes they're quite amusing. Today's, for example, is "How to Compete with Other Lemonade Stands".

Anyone who was brought up through school with computers as part of the curriculum will probably remember the economy/marketing game "Lemonade Stand". This old classic was done on every platform, for every computer, at one time or another. There's probably even a version that runs on the Apollo Guidance Computer. The idea of the game is to teach kids (and adults..) how to price their product, manage inventory, and market their wares.

My point is.. running a Lemonade Stand is pretty straightforward. In fact, it would actually be a pretty sweet job (no pun intended). I was packing up my desk, with visions of sitting road-side until retirement brewing lemonade and selling to passers-by until I got down to the last line in the How-To:

"Stay in school. It's not easy to make a real living selling lemonade."

Now they tell me..! I guess its back to being a web usability analyst for me.

On another note, I check air fare prices to my home town from time to time and always get a kick out of how much more it costs to fly directly to Kamloops compared to flying into nearby Kelowna. Check out these identical search requests from Expedia, differing only in the destination city:

Flt2

Flt1

That's a whopping $1592.00 dollar difference!! For those that don't know this already, the distance from Kamloops to Kelowna is 131 miles (210 km). I've gone on about this problem before, but this difference is the widest that I have ever seen.

I guess airlines don't want people going to Kamloops.

UPDATED: "Lemonade Stand" in Flash!

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That's all I'm worth..?

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 19:35:06 -0400

They just have to get to know me better.

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It's hot..

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 14:20:55 -0400

.. and it isn't a dry heat!

Hotday

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QotD: Life is Short

nobody@vox.com(biking chad) — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 12:12:13 -0400

If you had to write your autobiography in 6 words, what would you write?
Submitted by mitzie.

I came. I saw. I pedalled.

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