Author Archives: Mark

I went flying!

My plane

Austin skyline from the air

Me in a plane

I came across a 1/2 coupon for a flight lesson from 365 things to do in Austin and decided to try it out. It was definitely fun! Although not what I thought was going to happen. There was no instruction beforehand. I jumped into the left seat and the pilot went into the right seat. The pilot started explaining how everything worked, and we just took off. Taxing to the runway was somewhat easy. As was taking off. But it was rather slow compared to a commercial jet. Flying was interesting. I liked how things were multi-dimensional. If you wanted to make a left turn, you would lose altitude and start to speed up. So you had to account for many different variables. We flew out to the downtown and then turned around and landed. Not a very long flight.

New Orleans, again


Stickers in New Orleans

I went to New Orleans again this year. I had a blast! I spent days walking around the French District taking pictures. First, I walked down every street running SW-NE. Then, I walked up every street running NW-SE. This time I was fascinated with stickers. There were a bunch of cool looking stickers placed everywhere. I wonder how many people do that kind of thing: stick arty stickers as graffiti.

On Wednesday, I stopped in Lafayette at Julien’s Po-Boys Cajun Style. I had the Gator Po-Boy. I then drove to New Orleans and stayed in La Quinta. Ugh. It was horrible. The shower’s water pressure was almost unusable. I should have switched rooms. For dinner, I went to K-Paul’s Louisiana Kitchen and ate pan fried flounder with shrimp Marigny, and a three cheese sausage for an appetizer. It was delicious as usual and, by far my favorite restaurant in New Orleans.

On Thursday, I went to Cafe du Monde for breakfast. Man, I can eat here every morning. And I think I did when they were open (Unfortunately, they close during Christmas). For dinner, I went to The Palace Cafe on Jeff’s suggestion. I had a Lime Daiquiri, Barbecued Shrimp, Grilled Gulf Fish Panzanella (substituted tuna), and White Chocolate Bread Pudding. It was okay.

On Friday, (Christmas eve) I went to Camellia Grill for breakfast. I had the Western Omelette with cheese and orange juice. For lunch, I went to Mother’s Restaurant and had the 2/3rds Famous Ferdi. I am not a fan of these po-boys. But, when in Rome… For dinner, I went to the Gumbo House and had Seafood Gumbo. I like this restaurant. And many other people do since there always seems to be lines here.

On Saturday, I went to Oceana and had the Grilled Mahi-Mahi étouffée. It’s a shame that most everything closes down on Christmas. Stoopid holidays.

On Sunday, I went to the Cafe du Monde for breakfast. For lunch, I went to Johnny’s and had the Crab cake po-boy. For dinner, I went to NOLA Restaurant. I had the Garlic crusted Drum (sauce beurre rouge) and succotash. For desert, I had the Banana pudding layer cake.

On Monday, I went to Mr. B’s Bistro for dinner. I had the soups 1-1-1 (Gumbo Ya Ya, Seafood gumbo, sweet potato and chorizo), Shrimp & grits, and Profiteroles & chocolate sauce.

On Tuesday, I went to Irene’s Cuisine for dinner. This place was crazy busy. I lucked out and was able to walk in and get seated relatively quickly at a tiny table. I had the Winter Caprisee salad, the Soft-shell crab linguine, and the pecan praline bread pudding.

Fun rental car


Fun rental car

My car was in the shop and I lucked out in the loaner car department! A new Z4 hard-top convertible. Woo woo! It was a fun car to drive. And, of course, nothing was going to stop me from driving with the top down. Not even the cool weather. I just blasted the seat warmers and the heater to high to compensate… It would be a fun car to own. But the only negative thing to say about it is that the trunk space is minimal to non-existent. I would need to rent a car to go on long trips to carry my luggage.

One reason for constant lighting


Ziplock Caramel

I wanted to take a picture of the bas-relief Ziploc logo. Since I am used to taking pictures of food with a flash, I whipped them out. However, capturing the minute detail is hard. Especially when you cannot see the results immediately. How does changing the angle of the light affect the image, or the camera positioning, or the light levels? This process takes time. Which was enough to allow for condensation to mar the smooth surface of the caramel. So I put the caramel back in the refrigerator and took a time out.

When I went back to it, I used my large, diffused led bank. Now I had real-time feedback as I moved the subject around the camera. So, for a time-constrained image use some bright, and constant, lighting.

A short hike

Nick was up for a hike around Lake Georgetown. Initially, I wanted to do the entire 26 mile loop in one go. But eventually decided to try an 11 mile segment. We started at 9:30 here. We finished at 13:40 here. Well, according to the mile markers. I suspect that they lie though.

BGG.con 2010

Well, for this con, I had wanted to take portraits while playing boardgames. I brought the camera and accessories and packed them in a nifty travel carry-on luggage. Which I then lugged around the con but never got up the nerve to use. Sigh.

So, instead I will post about landmarks/sights on the trip up:

And the boardgames that I wanted to buy after playing them at BGG.con:

  • Master of Economy – This game is a interesting economic engine game in two parts. You build up your production capabilities and sell goods on the market. And you buy/sell shares in the four companies in the game.
  • Troyes – This is a dice game. But there are ways to mitigate the randomness of the dice roll. It’s a meatier To Court The King.
  • Navegador – The new rondel game. It’s thematic as well.
  • String Railway – This is a cute filler game. You get the feeling that you are building a Japanese subway system at the end.
  • Poseidon – A lighter/introductory 18xx game. The theme is ancient Greece.
  • Alien Frontiers – Another dice game. I definitely want to try this again.
  • Dominant Species – A meatier evo game. This game has many agonizing choices. Perhaps too many.
  • 1865 Sardinia – Another 18xx game. The artwork is gorgeous (done by 18AL’s Koyro).

VNC/KVM/RHEL/Win


VNC KVM RHEL Win

I got a new laptop for work today. A ThinkPad W510. It came preloaded with a version of Windows with customized work software on it (such as Lotus Notes and a back-level IE). I deleted it and started from scratch. I first installed Red Hat Enterprise Linux version 6.0. Then I downloaded a bootable CD image of a lifeboat rescue installer. This will reinstall the work versioned Windows if you ever lose your hard-drive. I then created a new virtual machine with KVM. I attached the iso image as a virtual CD and created a 40 gigabyte blank file to act as a virtual hard drive. I then booted into it and waited a long while as it downloaded the necessary files and installed Windows. I did all this from home as my laptop was sitting in my office thanks to a remote desktop sharing protocol called VNC.

Isn’t technology cool now adays?