Eating: Peeling Hard Boiled Eggs

via LifeHacker

Guitar: Werewolves Of London

GeekDad shows easy "Werewolves Of London." Good Halloween tune.

Fields of Sunflowers

Sunflowers to remind us of the beauty yesterday, the beauty today, and the beauty to come. Brings fond thoughts of our family compound, veggie gardens, animals, flowers, and love swirling around the trees. Beautiful.

Besos y Abrazos.

Love for my Beloved Boys

http://amolife.com/image/romance/love-is.html

"Love is like pi - natural, irrational, and very important."

Enjoy the rebirth of the new season and be sure to stop to love those dear to your heart.

Besos and Sunshine,
- D -

Art: Tilt-Shift Van Gogh

Check out this remarkable slide show of Van Gogh art with the tilt-shift affect applied.

Here's "Starry Night Over the Rhone."

Reading: 100 Best Opening Lines

American Book Review has compiled a list of the 100 best opening lines in a novel. Here are some of my favorites.

8. It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. —George Orwell, 1984 (1949)

22. It was a dark and stormy night; the rain fell in torrents, except at occasional intervals, when it was checked by a violent gust of wind which swept up the streets (for it is in London that our scene lies), rattling along the house-tops, and fiercely agitating the scanty flame of the lamps that struggled against the darkness. —Edward George Bulwer-Lytton, Paul Clifford (1830)

54. A story has no beginning or end; arbitrarily one chooses that moment of experience from which to look back or from which to look ahead. —Graham Greene, The End of the Affair (1951)

64. In my younger and more vulnerable years my father gave me some advice that I've been turning over in my mind ever since. —F. Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (1925)

78. The past is a foreign country; they do things differently there. —L. P. Hartley, The Go-Between (1953)

Ukulele: Bohemian Rhapsody

While playing this weekend, somebody ask me, "the ukulele only has 4 strings, how hard can it be?" I believe Jake Shimakuburo originally used this as a warm-up tune. via LiveUkulele.

Drawing: Line By Line

NY Times series about learning to draw again. This article should appear each Friday.

This week's lesson covers "The Frisbee of Art," the ellipse. They give a circle dimension. Notice the ellipse in these paintings.

Quote: Whistling for a Friend

Good quote from Thoreau, much more interesting analogy than making lemonade from lemons.

When a dog runs at you, whistle for him.

Also, good advice about making friends and meeting people. Denise is trying to teach this skill to Isaac; I'm not very good at it myself (but we make a good team). from Stuff No One Told Me.

Movie: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Sounds like a fun event for the day after Halloween. BTW Harry, your voice is beginning to get too deep for a high school student.

Birthday: Happy Birthday Brian

Brian, it turns out you also share a birthday with Frodo and Bilbo Baggins!

Here's Mr. Spock singing joyfully about Bilbo.

Birthday: Happy Birthday Brian

Happy Birthday Brian! It seems you share you birthday with the celebration of Elephant Appreciation Day.

In Thailand, the elephants even play soccer.

Geography: Nevada Geyser

Wow! Check out National Geographic's picture of a fly geyser in the Black Rock Desert of Nevada.

DIY: Random LED Ball

Fun and easy. via Maker.

Ideas: Great Ideas

from gapingVoid.

Art: Lunch Walks

Article from the NY Times, a series on how to draw or "Getting Back to the Phantom Skill." Everyone was an artist in elementary school, let's make art as adults also!

Here's my attempt at art. Pictures taken on my phone during walks at lunch in downtown Houston. Check back, I should be adding more to the set in the future (I have to eat lunch, might as well make some art).

Education: Educate To Innovate

I love the name of this presidential campaign, "Educate to Innovate."

Also a helpful quote of the day. Easy to get caught up in this line of thinking, but better to look forward.

It's a poor sort of memory that only works backward. Lewis Carroll

Chimps: Jane Goodall

National Geographic has digitized their collection of stories about Jane Goodall and her work with chimpanzees. She's been performing her research for 50 years.

Guitar: Geek Guitar Lessons

Guitar lessons from GeekDad. Here's Rocket Man.

Gratitude: Thanks Sun

This blogger (THXTHXTHX) writes daily thank you notes on post-it pads. This one seems especially poetic, "Thank You Sun." Especially enjoy the audio analogy, "...accompanied by a silence so complete, it too hummed like neon."

Games: Mario Timeline Images

Mario certainly plays a prominent role on our DS machine. Interesting to see the progression of his likeness. GeekDad says he's celebrating his 25th birthday.

Knots: World's Fastest Shoelace Knot

Stop wasting time tying your shoe laces. Here's the world's fastest knot.



After learning it, I find it isn't particularly tight (this is my favorite for knots that need to stay tight, such as rugby boots).

Coaching: Go That Way Really Fast

Coaching advice from "Better Off Dead."

Database: SQL Query XML Datatype

It turns out to be possible to write views which query the XML datatype fields in SQL and returning multiple rows. The trick seems to be using the CROSS APPLY keyword. It seems to act like a join.

If this is your XML stored on a table named XMLTable in a field called XMLField.

<Services>

<Service>

<name>Mark</name>

<serviceID>45</ServiceID>

</Service>

<Service>

<name>Nancy</name>

<serviceID>46</ServiceID>

</Service>

<Services>

Here's the best SQL query I found for returning the multiple Service records.

SELECT
i.value('data((name)[1])', 'varchar(50)') as XMLName,

i.value('data((serviceID)[1])', 'varchar(50)') as XMLServiceID

FROM XMLTable

CROSS APPLY XMLField.nodes('/Services/Service') S(i)

The query should return two records, one for Mark and one for Nancy, from a single database record.

This site from Microsoft seemed to help the most on this newest learning adventure.

Games: Quick Hit

Quick Hit is described in TechCrunch as a Football RPG. Sounds interesting.

Software: Web Farm Framework and Micro Framework

A few work articles to consider. Microsoft Web Farm Framework and Micro Framework.

Web Farm seems to try and automate web farm and load balancing applications. This would be a handy trick, and better than hand typed batch files.

Micro Framework article has many links on developing hardware in .net.

Video: Parkour

Cool parkour video, followed by the obligatory "don't do this at home" outtakes.





via neatorama.

Video: Midichlorian Rhapsody

Combination of a few of our favorite things.
via Netorama

Maps: Pedernales Hike Map

I used the "My Tracks" Android application to track our recent hike at Pedernales Falls. Google Maps provided an embedable map, which is shown below. You might also want to check out this satellite map, which has photos from other people inside of it.


View PedernalesHike in a larger map

Also, here's the data the application collected. You can see it shows total distance and other points. As Nancy commented, "that's a cool pedometer." Indeed!

Pictures: Brough Crew at Perdernales

Nancy, Denise got several good pictures of your crew. Thought you might like a separate set for them. Thanks for a great time.

Pictures: Perdernales Labor Day Hike

Went back to Perdernales with Mom, Nancy and her family. Completed a seven mile hike. We definitely enjoyed the lower humidity, but suffered through the prolonged elevation.

Science: Symphony of Science

There is real poetry in the real world.
Science is the poetry of reality.

Pictures: Dallas Cowboy's Training Camp

Made to San Antonio for Cowboy's training camp with Nancy's family. However, the training camp in Houston with the Texans the next day was a bit more entertaining. They let us stand right next to the drills to watch.

Pictures: Coach, Singing With Tia Marie

As you might notice by the pictures of Isaac after practice, the coach's most important job is serving up some "high quality H2O." Also, singing Beatles Rock Band with Tia Marie.

Games: Brick Hole

Looks like 360 Tetris.


via Woot.

Pictures: Summer Training, Leo, and Rugby

Pictures of our experiments with a parachute for speed work. hmmm, I'm still slow, but Isaac looks good with the parachute.

Isaac took the rugby pictures. They are of a Memorial Rugby Tournament we went to at Sam Houston University. An old friend passed away to young. You can see the players (who won the tournament) with his son, paying tribute.

In they final game, they let his son take the kick-off for a try. Who says these guys don't have a soft side?

Pictures: Isaac's 2010 Summer Football Camp

Clearing out the pictures on our SD card for the next few days.

Here's Isaac's two day summer camp at the local high school. So intense, these kids.

Books: Goat Song

Maybe check this one out as night time reading.

from the publisher:

Goat Song is the story of a year in the life of a couple who abandoned their one-bedroom apartment in New York City to live on seventy-five acres in Vermont and raise Nubian goats. In poetic, reverent detail, Brad Kessler explores our ancient relationship to the land and our gradual alienation from the animals that feed us. His fascinating account traces his journey of choosing the goats and learning how to breed, milk, and care for them. As Kessler begins to live the life of a herder, he encounters the pastoral roots of so many aspects of Western culture—how our diet, our alphabet, our religions, poetry, and economy all grew out of a pastoralist setting, a life lived among hoofed animals.

Music: Fist Full Of Mercy

Check out this "super-group" Fist Full Of Mercy. They are Joseph Arthur, Dhani Harrision (George's son), and Ben Harper.

Fantastic harmonies reminiscent of another super-group Crosby, Stills, and Nash.

Here's the radio station's website in case the embedded code doesn't work.

Games: Sketchy Physics

This application is an add-on for Google SketchUp. Apparently it is a physics engine to run against your sketches. Isaac plays with this quite a bit, we'll have to give it a try.

Mash-up: Marvin Gaye and Weezer

Fantastic mash-up video. Everyone needs a little healing sometimes.