Things have been rather vacuous here, so I thought I'd regale a story I posted to the RASC Halifax mailing list way back on March 3rd just after the total lunar eclipse
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I haven't done any observing for many months, for a whole variety of reasons (some good, some not so good), so I was particularly excited about the lunar eclipse tonight. I watched the moon rise over the past few days and it turns out that when it was to hit totality, it would be just above the trees right off my front porch.
My daughter, who is only 22 months old, is completely fascinated by the moon. For several months now, whenever she sees the moon, she goes completely bananas. "Moon, daddy, moon! Oooooooo!" She stares up and points at it and oohs and ahhs. A budding astronomer, to be sure. My plan is executing perfectly *cackle*.
I really wanted her to see the eclipse, so I hoped and hoped for the past couple of days that the weather would hold out, and I believe that we were suitably rewarded.
As soon as it got dark, I grabbed my binoculars, camera, and tripod and got set up because I wanted to try to get some umbral pictures. Overall, the views were magnificent and I got a couple of really nice pictures of totality (unfortunately, I had the multi-focus setting wrong, so my umbral pictures are pretty fuzzy). But that certainly was NOT the highlight of the evening for me.
While I was waiting for totality, my wife comes out, with my daughter all bundled up, and we watch the eclipse together. My daughter was absolutely amazed at the moon. She definitely noticed that something was different about it, although we really couldn't explain it all that well. We watched and watched and I took zillions of pictures. It was wonderful.
Eventually I packed things up and we headed back home. We were facing west, so she immediately saw the big, bright "sparkly" shining over our house.
"Daddy, spark-y!"
"That's right, hon. That's VENUS. Can you say Venus?"
"Nee-us"
"That's right, sweetie!" She giggled.
All in all, an incredible evening and an amazing event. Oh yeah, the eclipse was pretty neat, too.
My brain is in a constant state of noise. I never seem to think about one thing at a time, and the subject matter is extremely diverse. I plan to use this as a dumping ground for whatever happens to be passing through my head.
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Friday, May 25, 2007
Tourist - with a capital T
I've been in Beijing for a DSLForum conference all week. I've done a bit of sightseeing when I've had the chance, but the conference kept me pretty busy during the week. The only time I really got to see anything was when a group of us would go out for supper after the day's meetings were finished.
The conference ended on Thursday and with my flight not leaving until late Friday afternoon, I found myself with some time to kill. There were several things that I absolutely wanted to do while I was here - see the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. Anything else I managed to squeeze in would simply be a bonus.
I managed to see the Great Wall earlier in the week, leaving me only with Tiananmen Square. That certainly wasn't going to take all morning, so I needed something else to do to fill the time.
All week, my colleagues have been going to various places and buying the "famous" Chinese knock-off watches. I've been to China (Shanghai) twice before and was used to being accosted by the street vendors peddling the watches. I had absolutely no interest in them - 1) I already have plenty of watches and 2) these watches are known for becoming non-functional shortly after purchase. As such, I blew the whole thing off day after day.
Every day, someone would show up and say, "hey, I bought a Rolex last night" or "check out the Tag I just got!" The whole thing started to become rather intriguing and, unfortunately, I caught the bug and decided that I, too, needed to do the ultimate in tacky tourist behaviour and buy myself a knock-off. Everyone in my group was managing to get the watches for $25 or less, so if I figured that if the thing manages to survive a couple of weeks, I'd certainly get $25 of entertainment value out of showing the thing off to my friends.
With the extra time to kill, I decided to go to the YaShow Market (Yaxiu is the correct pinyin spelling). Most of the watches I had seen were bought there so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon.
It was absolutely insane.
The "vendors" had every model of every luxury watch brand you can think of. They have huge catalogs listing them all. If you don't see the one you want, you simply ask for it and they either pull out a case with more watches in it or go out back somewhere to produce the desired piece. What is the most amazing thing is that, quality of the movements aside, these watches look identical to the real thing. In many cases, the differences are so subtle that you'd never really know the difference.
Once you've selected the watch (or watches - they try to sell you as many as they absolutely can), you begin the negotiation process. I knew what people had paid for several watches that interested me, so I went into the process knowing exactly the maximum that I would pay.
I started looking at some Breitlings, which I really liked the look of. I picked out a Rolex for Andrea and a TAG Heuer for a friend (who had asked me to get something interesting if it wasn't too expensive). The vendor came up with an opening bid of about 2500CNY.
Now, since I was really only willing to pay a maximum of 500CNY for three watches, I was a little concerned that I wasn't going to be able to get them down that far. Thinking that maybe the Rolex and Breitling were going to be a little too expensive, I replaced with a second TAG and a Bvlgari. Indeed, the price came down, but I don't know if it was because the watches were "cheaper" or because the vendor was trying to "entice" me.
And so the really hard bargaining began. They offered about 2100CNY, which I countered with 400CNY. They completely laughed at me, which I totally expected. Still, I stuck to my guns.
"400. That's all I'm going to pay."
"For one watch, yeah?"
"No, for all three. 400. That's it."
They came back with some other completely insulting number - something like 1800. I laughed.
"Ok, ok. 450."
"Why only 50? Come on, that for one watch. 450 for each."
"Absolutely not. 450 for all three."
There were a few more exchanges, but they really wouldn't come down past about 1500. It was time for some hard ball.
"500 is the absolute best offer I can give you. 500 for all three watches."
No budging.
"Look, my friend bought this exact watch here yesterday for 150. If I were to buy 3 of them, that would be 450, so you're actually getting an extra 50."
"No way! No way! Can't sell to you."
"500 for all three. That's my final offer."
Nothing.
"500. Last chance."
It was clear they weren't going to accept that. So I did what you always do in this situation. I started walking away.
I got about 10 feet away and, without looking back, called out, "500, going once!".
I walked a few more feet. "500, going twice!"
"Ok! Ok! 500!"
And so I got my three watches for 500CNY. Knocking them down to 20% of the original offer certainly seems like a good deal, but I know that I still got taken to the cleaners. :) If I had pushed, I probably could have gotten the whole lot for 400. However, I knew that I was willing to spend 500CNY and that's what I did, so I don't feel too bad about the whole thing.
When I got back to the hotel, I did some research into the Breitlings. It turns out that the ones I was looking at were about the same price as the TAGs that I ended up with (for the real deal, of course), so I probably could have gotten the one that I had originally wanted. I do take some solace in the face that the Rolex and Breitling I picked had the link straps and a colleague had regaled some stories about having problems with the strap on his watch a couple of days previous. The watches I ended up with have rubber and leather straps, so that's at least one less thing to go wrong with them. :)
So, I ended up buying about "$7500" worth of watches for about $70. Like I said before, if I can get a few weeks of entertainment out of them, it'll be worth the money.
The conference ended on Thursday and with my flight not leaving until late Friday afternoon, I found myself with some time to kill. There were several things that I absolutely wanted to do while I was here - see the Great Wall and Tiananmen Square. Anything else I managed to squeeze in would simply be a bonus.
I managed to see the Great Wall earlier in the week, leaving me only with Tiananmen Square. That certainly wasn't going to take all morning, so I needed something else to do to fill the time.
All week, my colleagues have been going to various places and buying the "famous" Chinese knock-off watches. I've been to China (Shanghai) twice before and was used to being accosted by the street vendors peddling the watches. I had absolutely no interest in them - 1) I already have plenty of watches and 2) these watches are known for becoming non-functional shortly after purchase. As such, I blew the whole thing off day after day.
Every day, someone would show up and say, "hey, I bought a Rolex last night" or "check out the Tag I just got!" The whole thing started to become rather intriguing and, unfortunately, I caught the bug and decided that I, too, needed to do the ultimate in tacky tourist behaviour and buy myself a knock-off. Everyone in my group was managing to get the watches for $25 or less, so if I figured that if the thing manages to survive a couple of weeks, I'd certainly get $25 of entertainment value out of showing the thing off to my friends.
With the extra time to kill, I decided to go to the YaShow Market (Yaxiu is the correct pinyin spelling). Most of the watches I had seen were bought there so I figured I'd jump on the bandwagon.
It was absolutely insane.
The "vendors" had every model of every luxury watch brand you can think of. They have huge catalogs listing them all. If you don't see the one you want, you simply ask for it and they either pull out a case with more watches in it or go out back somewhere to produce the desired piece. What is the most amazing thing is that, quality of the movements aside, these watches look identical to the real thing. In many cases, the differences are so subtle that you'd never really know the difference.
Once you've selected the watch (or watches - they try to sell you as many as they absolutely can), you begin the negotiation process. I knew what people had paid for several watches that interested me, so I went into the process knowing exactly the maximum that I would pay.
I started looking at some Breitlings, which I really liked the look of. I picked out a Rolex for Andrea and a TAG Heuer for a friend (who had asked me to get something interesting if it wasn't too expensive). The vendor came up with an opening bid of about 2500CNY.
Now, since I was really only willing to pay a maximum of 500CNY for three watches, I was a little concerned that I wasn't going to be able to get them down that far. Thinking that maybe the Rolex and Breitling were going to be a little too expensive, I replaced with a second TAG and a Bvlgari. Indeed, the price came down, but I don't know if it was because the watches were "cheaper" or because the vendor was trying to "entice" me.
And so the really hard bargaining began. They offered about 2100CNY, which I countered with 400CNY. They completely laughed at me, which I totally expected. Still, I stuck to my guns.
"400. That's all I'm going to pay."
"For one watch, yeah?"
"No, for all three. 400. That's it."
They came back with some other completely insulting number - something like 1800. I laughed.
"Ok, ok. 450."
"Why only 50? Come on, that for one watch. 450 for each."
"Absolutely not. 450 for all three."
There were a few more exchanges, but they really wouldn't come down past about 1500. It was time for some hard ball.
"500 is the absolute best offer I can give you. 500 for all three watches."
No budging.
"Look, my friend bought this exact watch here yesterday for 150. If I were to buy 3 of them, that would be 450, so you're actually getting an extra 50."
"No way! No way! Can't sell to you."
"500 for all three. That's my final offer."
Nothing.
"500. Last chance."
It was clear they weren't going to accept that. So I did what you always do in this situation. I started walking away.
I got about 10 feet away and, without looking back, called out, "500, going once!".
I walked a few more feet. "500, going twice!"
"Ok! Ok! 500!"
And so I got my three watches for 500CNY. Knocking them down to 20% of the original offer certainly seems like a good deal, but I know that I still got taken to the cleaners. :) If I had pushed, I probably could have gotten the whole lot for 400. However, I knew that I was willing to spend 500CNY and that's what I did, so I don't feel too bad about the whole thing.
When I got back to the hotel, I did some research into the Breitlings. It turns out that the ones I was looking at were about the same price as the TAGs that I ended up with (for the real deal, of course), so I probably could have gotten the one that I had originally wanted. I do take some solace in the face that the Rolex and Breitling I picked had the link straps and a colleague had regaled some stories about having problems with the strap on his watch a couple of days previous. The watches I ended up with have rubber and leather straps, so that's at least one less thing to go wrong with them. :)
So, I ended up buying about "$7500" worth of watches for about $70. Like I said before, if I can get a few weeks of entertainment out of them, it'll be worth the money.
Wednesday, May 09, 2007
EA 84 A7 52 30 CC 92 A6 6D FD B8 1D F5 D5 6D 06 FTW!
As a self-professed geek, I spend lots of time on geek websites. In particular, I try to read slashdot every day. Sure, it's a haven for fanboyz and zealots, but reading through the comments can be kind of funny some times.
Anyway, today they had a posting about an article from "Freedom to Tinker" about owning your own 128-bit integer. The idea is that they will generate a 128-bit number for you and use it to encrypt a copyrighted haiku that they deliver to you. By doing this, apparently the number then falls under the DMCA. As such, if some organization (say MPAA or RIAA) tries to use the number, which could be used to decrypt the haiku without my permission, I can release the hounds.
So, here's my number - EA 84 A7 52 30 CC 92 A6 6D FD B8 1D F5 D5 6D 06.
Some people have waaaaaay too much time on their hands. And I just love it!
- Mike
Anyway, today they had a posting about an article from "Freedom to Tinker" about owning your own 128-bit integer. The idea is that they will generate a 128-bit number for you and use it to encrypt a copyrighted haiku that they deliver to you. By doing this, apparently the number then falls under the DMCA. As such, if some organization (say MPAA or RIAA) tries to use the number, which could be used to decrypt the haiku without my permission, I can release the hounds.
So, here's my number - EA 84 A7 52 30 CC 92 A6 6D FD B8 1D F5 D5 6D 06.
Some people have waaaaaay too much time on their hands. And I just love it!
- Mike
Saturday, April 21, 2007
Best damn birthday party ever!
Olivia officially turned two years old back on the 18th. We had a smallish party for her then with a cake and some presents. But that was nothing compared to what we had in store for her today...
Back in February, we went to PEI for their 3rd annual Jack Frost Children's Festival (I'd provide a link, but all of the links that turn up in Google are broken). One of the highlights of that trip was the hours and hours we spent playing in a variety of bouncy castles. Olivia absolutely loved them, especially when I climbed in with her (having someone my size jumping around causes all of the kids to go flying, which they all love).
The bouncy castles made quite an impression and Andrea was determined to get one for Olivia's second birthday party. She did some searching and came up with Glow Parties (also known as Glow Promotions). They rent out those black signs with the bright pink, red, green, etc lettering. They also have a big list of various bouncy castles that they rent out.
The pirate ship looks absolutely amazing, but it's really big (waaaaaaaay too impractical for the yard) and cost something like $475 for 3 hours. Although we love Olivia to death, that's a tad much for a kid's birthday party. Instead, we settled on the blue castle. The picture doesn't really do this thing any justice.
So, for $150 they come out, set the thing up, leave us all kinds of instructions and safety tips, and head out. Two hours later, they come back, pack everything up, and leave.
The weather has been really crummy for the past few weeks, so we were pretty worried about the whole thing. We were able to cancel out on the bouncy castle on the day of the event, should it be raining, so we weren't worried about that. What we did fret about, however, was what we would do with a house full of kids should the weather be bad.
Olivia knew that we were getting this thing for her and she was pretty excited over the last few days. When the truck finally arrived this morning to set things up (just shortly after 10! Yay!), she started squealing with excitement. "My party's here! My party's here!!" It was all we could do to keep her out of their hair while they set stuff up. When it was finally set up, her and I went in and she squealed endlessly. Money well-spent, I would say.
This all happened rather early. The party was scheduled from 11am to 1pm, but the castle was set up by 10:15. We gave Olivia a bit of time to herself in it (it was for her, after all), and then started calling people to come over early, if they wanted.
Without a doubt, the kids absolutely LOVED the bouncy castle. And when they grew tired of that (which they eventually did, however briefly), we've got a huge fort/picnic table/swing set thing in the front yard as well that kept everyone occupied.
There were hotdogs, chips, veggie trays (mostly for the adults), presents, cake, loot bags, and hats. Everything that a rockin' party needs. And everyone absolutely loved it. Olivia was having so much fun that she didn't want to open her presents - she wanted cake instead. Can you imagine that?? Of course, it was a totally cool Dora the Explorer cake (pink and green, just as she requested), but still... weirdo.
As always, all good things must come to an end. Eventually the Glow people showed up to take back the bouncy castle. That was not a particularly happy moment for most of the kids, who had found their way back in. There wasn't too much fuss, though, which is surprising given how tired the kids surely were.
At that point, people began packing up to go home. By about 2pm, Olivia was absolutely beat. The last stragglers headed out and we took a VERY tired little girl up to bed. No fighting this time. We laid her down in bed and she immediately rolled over and went to sleep. We never heard a peep out of her until just before 5!
All in all, an incredible success! It simply was not possible for the party to have been any more perfect. Perfect weather, good friends, good food, great entertainment, presents... what more do you need?? Of course, the big joke now is, "well, how are we going to top that next year?"
- Mike
Back in February, we went to PEI for their 3rd annual Jack Frost Children's Festival (I'd provide a link, but all of the links that turn up in Google are broken). One of the highlights of that trip was the hours and hours we spent playing in a variety of bouncy castles. Olivia absolutely loved them, especially when I climbed in with her (having someone my size jumping around causes all of the kids to go flying, which they all love).
The bouncy castles made quite an impression and Andrea was determined to get one for Olivia's second birthday party. She did some searching and came up with Glow Parties (also known as Glow Promotions). They rent out those black signs with the bright pink, red, green, etc lettering. They also have a big list of various bouncy castles that they rent out.
The pirate ship looks absolutely amazing, but it's really big (waaaaaaaay too impractical for the yard) and cost something like $475 for 3 hours. Although we love Olivia to death, that's a tad much for a kid's birthday party. Instead, we settled on the blue castle. The picture doesn't really do this thing any justice.
So, for $150 they come out, set the thing up, leave us all kinds of instructions and safety tips, and head out. Two hours later, they come back, pack everything up, and leave.
The weather has been really crummy for the past few weeks, so we were pretty worried about the whole thing. We were able to cancel out on the bouncy castle on the day of the event, should it be raining, so we weren't worried about that. What we did fret about, however, was what we would do with a house full of kids should the weather be bad.
Olivia knew that we were getting this thing for her and she was pretty excited over the last few days. When the truck finally arrived this morning to set things up (just shortly after 10! Yay!), she started squealing with excitement. "My party's here! My party's here!!" It was all we could do to keep her out of their hair while they set stuff up. When it was finally set up, her and I went in and she squealed endlessly. Money well-spent, I would say.
This all happened rather early. The party was scheduled from 11am to 1pm, but the castle was set up by 10:15. We gave Olivia a bit of time to herself in it (it was for her, after all), and then started calling people to come over early, if they wanted.
Without a doubt, the kids absolutely LOVED the bouncy castle. And when they grew tired of that (which they eventually did, however briefly), we've got a huge fort/picnic table/swing set thing in the front yard as well that kept everyone occupied.
There were hotdogs, chips, veggie trays (mostly for the adults), presents, cake, loot bags, and hats. Everything that a rockin' party needs. And everyone absolutely loved it. Olivia was having so much fun that she didn't want to open her presents - she wanted cake instead. Can you imagine that?? Of course, it was a totally cool Dora the Explorer cake (pink and green, just as she requested), but still... weirdo.
As always, all good things must come to an end. Eventually the Glow people showed up to take back the bouncy castle. That was not a particularly happy moment for most of the kids, who had found their way back in. There wasn't too much fuss, though, which is surprising given how tired the kids surely were.
At that point, people began packing up to go home. By about 2pm, Olivia was absolutely beat. The last stragglers headed out and we took a VERY tired little girl up to bed. No fighting this time. We laid her down in bed and she immediately rolled over and went to sleep. We never heard a peep out of her until just before 5!
All in all, an incredible success! It simply was not possible for the party to have been any more perfect. Perfect weather, good friends, good food, great entertainment, presents... what more do you need?? Of course, the big joke now is, "well, how are we going to top that next year?"
- Mike
Friday, April 20, 2007
Greetings, Facebook people
Since I've added the URL for my blog to my Facebook page, I figured I'd better add a recent post welcoming anyone who might wander this way.
Not a whole lot to see here, mostly because I'm lazy. I've got tons of things that I should write about, but I seem to lack the motivation necessary to get it done. Oh well...
Not a whole lot to see here, mostly because I'm lazy. I've got tons of things that I should write about, but I seem to lack the motivation necessary to get it done. Oh well...
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