Our hobbies

LD,Nice stuff! I particularly wouldn't have put that top one in Alaskan waters!Mark

Mittens scarf, half finished

That's what I've been up to these days, combining cheap hardware discoveries to make cool stuff.I started with hacking a cheap CVS camcorder. See, CVS Pharmacies sell this "one-time-use" camcorder, it holds 20 min of digital video and then, theoretically, you send it in for processing and you get a DVD back with your 20 min of video. Not especially impressive.But there's a series of connectors inside the camera, to which you can solder the wires of a USB cable and connect the thing directly to your computer and grab the videos. So your one-time-use cam is now a many-time-use cam, and it's completely solid-state (and only $30) so it works great for "camera-hazardous" operations.A while back I traded in some video games for a little 5-inch GameCube LCD screen; pleasingly, you can drive the screen off 12v DC and it accepts composite video. My next project is to combine that (or an old overhead projector LCD) and the parts of an overhead transparency projector to create my own rear-projection gaming table, kind of like this. only bottom-up instead of top-down.Well, we'll see. It may not have the resolution to be especially useful.Edited by crashfrog, : No reason given.

Many know that I have become interested in the work of Georgi Gladyshev since posting a hope that EVC could help discuss how to "Darwinize" his work . Georgi Gladyshev
mentioned EVC in book form back then.This has been hobby for some time, but now I think I have LITERAL EVIDENCE (it is not a question of a piece of paper anymore) of what even he took only as an analogy. If that is this case, then my hobby of posting on EVC turned into a finished object few others have probably experienced from simply "texting" others.The critter I am trying to indentify, in addition to the central green gut shown has two lateral green areas of smaller dimensions. Daphnia are known to have two projections from the gut into the head.This diverticulated ceca has a membrane that some claim prevents food particles from entering. It is suggested that they may provide enzymes for digestion. They are also called "livers". It is however the case that toxins can enter this tissue. If this is the same structure only enlarged in my critterthen it would not be the case "food" does not get in here. The membrane and this liver may actually BE the chromatographic column imagined by Dr. Gladyshev,

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"it is possible to regard an organism's tissues as systems containing a multitude of micro-chromatographic columns. Moreover, the nature of both the stationary and mobile phases of these columns differs substantially. At the same time, the effectiveness of such natural micro-columns must be extraordinarily high." published in Russian in 2002 (THERMODYNAMICS OF BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTION AND AGING).

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thus it may no longer be possible to "regard" an organism's tissues as systems of micro-columns but rather they ARE such.The diverticulated ceca provide the stationary place of mobile locations, passing by, where the Gibbs/Helmhotlz function applies.It has been observed that Daphnia expel toxins and food a different rates. These kinds
of studies (pic of Daph disposing waste"" stuff) could be investigated to quantify and isolate macrothermodynamic theory.Edited by Brad McFall, : spellingEdited by Brad McFall, : link to EVC

I would have to say that, aside from EvC, playing the drums is my hobby. I love it... I unfortunately had to sell my second set before moving to Portland, OR, and did not play for over 2 years.Thankfully, within a month of moving out to L.A., I was able to afford a brand new set, and better than the previous two. I'm still building my kit. Its always a work in progress.Unfortunately, the drums is one of the most expensive musical instruments to buy and to maintain, because you have to constantly change out old heads or replace symbols.I still haven't figured out how to upload photos on to EvC. When I do, perhaps I'll get some pics, or better still, maybe I'll make a Youtube entry. (Gotta figure out how to do that too).

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"Whatever weakens your reasoning, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes away your relish for spiritual things-- in short, if anything increases the power and the authority of the flesh over the spirit, that to you becomes sin, however good it may be in itself." -Suzanna Wesley

A gentleman who had kept honeybees has become a new member of our church. In August a hive which became overcrowded did it's thing when half the bees with the old queen moved out. They moved into our bedroom wall, several thousand of them. Calvin, the bee buff came and vacuumed them out hoping to save them in a hive but it didn't work out. I watched the whole operation. The bees were quite non-aggressive and with a little smoke from his smoker he did all the work with neither mask or gloves. This all has inspired me to order a hive and bees next spring, God willing, and maintain a hive. It amazed me how these bees had constructed layers of beautiful yellow comb and how much wild flower honey they had stored in just two weeks.I buy honeycomb wildflower honey from a local bee man and it's wonderful. If this works out I look forward to delving into this new hobby and enjoying the honey.

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BUZSAW B 4 U 2 C Y BUZ SAW.
The immeasurable present is forever consuming the eternal future and extending the infinite past.

As the husband of an entomologist, I heartily endorse your apiatic endeavor.Watch out for mites. They're wrecking hives left and right all over the country.

Are you sure this isn't just the way the video is and has nothing to do with concentration?If I stare at it awhile and get her to go the other direction, then when I look away and then back, she should be going the original direction and she doesn't.I can wait until she changes direction, then close the link and reopen it and she will be going the same direction as when I closed it.Seems fishy.

Completely sure. I can make her bounce from one direction to the other without completing revolution, I can make her go in one direction for a while then at will change it. Usually she goes anti-clockwise when I open it up, but some find she defaults to clockwise. If you are deeply suspicious open up the .gif file and break the animation down and see for yourself.At first though, it took ages for me to get her to change directions. And then she would stubbornly persist in going in the new direction for another long period of time.

I spend some of my time knitting like Nator does and I also enjoy dressmaking, especially designing my own stuff then trying to make the darned things.My main hobby, however, is anything to do with horses. Most of the time it feels like my hobby is just "spending money on horses", but I do get a chance to enjoy them.My previous horse, Phoenix, was a wonderful boy, but sadly I had to give up my share in him. This is a piccie of me riding him for the first time he had been ridden since I backed him. He's being lazy here! I have a new girlie since I stopped sharing Phoenix and she is ALL MINE!!! She's a Haflinger cross and is very strongwilled, but a joy to ride. Yes, I know she's fat in the piccie, but I will be working to get her fit as long as the vet confirms she isn't in foal!I have an IDxTB cross called Hermes who is a loony and I haven't ridden him since the summer due to the front of his hoof falling off! He's almost sound now and will be brought back into work slowly. I also have two 3 yr old Welshies who will be backed next spring - they're called Mouse and Walter (don't blame me for the names, this is down to a conspiracy batween small son and my friend). If I can find my photos of the last three I'll post them.

I always build my own, unless I could find a better deal on a whole computer. I've never spent more than a few hundred bucks on a computer.
My current computer is a 1800 athlon, and a 5600 ultra video card, 1 gb ram.
Tiger direct, and or newegg.com , they have great bare bones deals, and you can get legitimate copies of the operating systems, something I've decided to do, and not pirate stuff anymore, too much hassle, plus it is just wrong to do.As far as Halo 3 goes, it is a great game. I don't play it that much, but my son is kicking some major ass. I think the next thing we buy is going to be PS3, my brother has that, the internet is free on it (provided you have an internet connection) and the graphics are incredible. I have a 1080p 40" LCD TV, and I will be able to watch blue ray discs, and play games in 1080p. PS3 also includes most of the extras, that you would have to pay for with XBOX.

While I have built computers for other people, I have never built one for myself. The one I am using is 7 years old. You have me beat here. Let just say that one time I installed a friend's game (total war) and tried to play it, all I saw was a black screen. that's how old my video card is. I have 512 ram. I played it once with a friend. However, this friend could finish the whole thing in 30 minutes. He knows all the tricks and shortcuts. Ha! I never went beyond the original nintendo. In fact, I still play it every once in a while.

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Disclaimer:

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Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

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He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

Haven't been into games for a loooong while, but recently I found something that is really neat. It's like a time-machine, sending you to the mid-70's to late 80's videogame era.Check out MAMEdev.org | Home of The MAME Project for MAME (Multi-Purpose Arcade Machine Emulator). It's an emulator for arcade games. Meaning that it is able to run the ORIGINAL arcade cabinet games on your PC, or in other words a 100% genuine experience.Well, the ROMs (the actual games, downloaded straight from the originals) are not included as that is illegal. But we all know the Internet, Google and search terms... I've relived some memories (OUTRUN! Space Invaders! Asteroids! Defender! 1942! PackMan! Sega Ralley! Track and Field!!!! etc..) with this one. And it gives you quite a good sense of how far computergraphics have come in 20 years. I can vividly recall how I dreamt about having a home-computer that would run games THIS beautiful and detailed, instead of that simple Commodore 64 with watered-down graphics.Who of us didn't dream about Michael Jackson's private videogame room back then, lol? (the guy WAS smart!!!)

Um... I never had a dream about Jackson's private game room... now that I know better I'm glad I never had such dream...

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Disclaimer:

​

Occasionally, owing to the deficiency of the English language, I have used he/him/his meaning he or she/him or her/his or her in order to avoid awkwardness of style.

​

He, him, and his are not intended as exclusively masculine pronouns. They may refer to either sex or to both sexes!

I've been running a lot of the old games from my childhood in emulation on my MythTV box, but I came into video games in the Nintendo days (and was never really a Sega fan) and that's what I've been mostly focused on.