Month: November 2006

Posted on

More Thanksgiving




Not much more, really. Basically just some photos. Not enough time to compose an eloquent essay of our trip. We had a really great time. The kids did too. They seem to appreciate seeing family. (Maybe Shannon or Marilyn will tell about Lex’s spontaneous hug of Shannon.)

And we loved checking out Shan’s piece of America. Nice choice, Shan.

BTW, Sorry for the long loadtime on this post. The blog isn’t working correctly (making corrupt resized images) and I had to tweak the html manually to get these posted. If I have time I’ll fix it.

Posted on

African Water Hole Webcam

Click here for a live webcam that’s focussed on a water hole somewhere in Africa.

When I first went to the site about 8PM yesterday I was convinced it had to be a fake. There were literally about a hundred water buffalo wallowing in the water. I couldn’t believe the moment that I would pick the webcam would just happen to be the time the place was full of animals so I figured it had to be a tape. I kept looking at the thing trying to detect if it was looping (I also fully expected some screaming face to appear on the screen making me jump out of my chair). But it looked real to me.

I even logged off and logged back in to see if the scene would start all over anew at the beginning shot. Nope. It really did appear to be live. The shots had that eerie night vision look that’s so common on the cops and robbers reality shows but they sure seemed real.

Not wanting to look like an idiot if I immediately posted it here, I decided to wait a while and investigate a little further.

My research uncovered that it really is a live webcam. It’s located in the Sabi Sands Private Game Reserve, in South Africa. South Africa is eight hours ahead of Eastern Standard time so when I was looking at the water hole it was about 3AM. I have since learned that from that time on, i.e. the early morning hours over there, is really the best time to probably see some wildlife (second best time is supposedly around dusk).

I have gone back to the site about a half dozen times today to check it out. About half the time the camera has been on something. Once I saw a deer or antelope drinking and the camera followed him around as he nervously left the pond. The camera is obviously controlled somehow – most likely remotely (in fact I found one site that indicated that the cam could be controlled by the viewer but I haven’t found details of how that works quite yet) but the mikes sometimes pick up ambient noises that make me think that someone is there (oops – the camera just zoomed in one some birds curiously standing on one leg in the water).

I have also been able to determine that the camera is somehow affilated with the Nkorho Bush Lodge. How close the water hole is to the lodge I haven’t yet figured out.

Hope you enjoy it as much as I did and let me know if you see anything unusual. I’m dying to get back on tonight but I’ll be at a basketball game during prime viewing hours.

Posted on

Fall Family Champion

There is a new champion. Ron, Steve B, Nick (Ex champion), and I played Tuesday. We had three pretty nice days of weather here. Anyway, we played a points game. Six points for low man, 4 for 2nd, 2 for 3rd and zero for 4th per hole net.

Nick started slowly taking only 2 points in the first 4 holes, but made a charge on the last 4 holes of the front nine. I believe he picked up around 17 point for those holes. He was still trailing Ron and I, but was defending valiantly. Unfortunatly, he started the back nine about the same way. With five holes to play Steve B. and Nick were pretty much out of it. I was trailing by about 5 points and could have jumped to the top of the leaderboard if I was just able to knock down a couple of putts on the next 2 holes. Too bad for me, I wasn’t up to the task. On 16 I pretty much handed the championship to Ron by knocking 2 tee shots OB, but Ron let me back in the game by moving a 20 ft chip about 1 foot. He took 3rd on the hole for 2 points. I got zero.

Two holes to play and I was down 5 points. (By the way this is all by memeory so I may be a little off.) Ron bogeys the hole to lock up 2 points. I have a 6 foot parr putt to tie Nick to give me a much needed 5 points. MISS AGAIN, DAMN. I tie Ron and we both get 3 points. I need a miracle on 18. It doesn’t happen. Ron wins and is now the proud owner of 2 shirts and a hat. We still need the 2nd shirt embroidered Ron. Congratulations to Ron.

Get ready for your chance next year boys and girls. You know you can pretty much depend on an opportunity to win this coveted title at The Battle of Battle Creek. For those not aware I beleive The Battle will become a mandatory 4 day event next year.

Posted on

I figured out photos!


Now that I’ve figured out that the photo feature doesn’t like when there is punctuation in the name of the file, I can upload pictures of the house. Unfortuately, a lot were lost when my camera phone bought the farm. Here’s one of me ripping down wallpaper and plastering in one of the rooms in the house (I torn down wallpaper in 6 rooms). I think it’s my bedroom.

Posted on

Calling all Contacts


Hello All,

It has recently come to my attention (thanks, Mom) that I may have some serious media contacts within my reach through you guys! If you are comfortable with it, could you please email me their names and email addresses? At this particular moment, I need contacts on the Eastern Seaboard, preferably in the D.C. or Baltimore area. My work email is shannonatbissonbarcelona.com.

Thanks!

Posted on

Not quite a zombie but close…

Since I still haven’t been resurrected by the PSU Alumni Association, I thought I’d get some life out of it. My original idea was to be a zombie but I couldn’t find any costume that I really liked. Then I stumbled across this one:

Here’s one of those freaky strange moments that happen every now and then (really odd that it should happen on Halloween). When I stopped into the Tavern, Pat told me that he had just come from listening to Natalie Berrena sing at the Allen Street Grill (on Tuesday’s she sings at the Grill in a duet separate from her bands – actually I should say bands since she’s singing in two of them). Pat described Natalie’s costume (see photo below) as “a cowgirl riding a horse”. I decided to head up to hear a couple of songs and on the way thought that I’d walk in and jokingly ask her to sing “Wild Horses” by the Stones. I didn’t even know if it was in their repertoire but thought it would be funny anyway. Sure enough, when I walk in, she’s singing it. Downright eerie….

Here’s Nat and her Tuesday night singing partner, Ted McCloskey.

For more of my Halloween photos, check out my Flickr account.