Friends are very very important………
November 18th, 2008
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……and that’s all I have to say about that.
Categories: Life in the USA, Other
Archive
Archive for the ‘Other’ Category
Traffic Part 2.
May 28th, 2008
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Traffic lights.
For the most part, they are all LED, which, to a geek (doubly so bald ones) is just a pretty thing to watch.
Generally, the yellow is not LED, cost saving no doubt, and little power savings to be seen, so why replace it? Besides, not having it, only shares the LED goodness of the red and green!
For the most part, they are all LED, which, to a geek (doubly so bald ones) is just a pretty thing to watch.
Generally, the yellow is not LED, cost saving no doubt, and little power savings to be seen, so why replace it? Besides, not having it, only shares the LED goodness of the red and green!
The most interesting thing about the lights here is that there is only one set per intersection, and they are on the far side of the intersection. So, more than once in our past trips here, and once or twice this time round, I have found myself coming to a stop at the stop light, only to relies that I am stopped in the middle of the intersection!
I’m still used to the Australian way of having a set at the start of the intersection and a set at the far side of the intersection.
More cost saving no doubt, and probably very sensible, it does not seem to cause any problems for any one, and I’m getting used to it pretty quickly after the 5 weeks we have been here.
The pedestrian lights are different here too. They do not show if you can walk or not until you hit the button. That takes some getting used to, its red, you hit the button, and often as soon as you hit it, the red hand will change to a little white LED man that always reminds me of the little guy out of the LodeRunner computer game I grew up on. (Showing my age big time with that one I know, but it is a fond memory playing that game in the computer lab after school while living in Darwin). When you are half way across the road the little loderunner guy will disappear and show a red flashing hand, beside which will show a counter. It counts down from 20, its like a timer to give you the hurry up, which is a bit weird really, because the other real different thing about the traffic here is the way they treat pedestrians…….
To start you off in how much power the average pedestrian has here, you need to know one of the road rules…….
If a pedestrian is crossing the road, and even if you have right of way, you must wait till the pedestrian is two full lanes past your lane before you can move. Think about that for a moment, you are in the car, sitting there, waiting for this person to walk past another two car lanes past the one you are in before you can move!!!
So, knowing that, you can now get an idea how ’silly’ it is to have the little count down timer….I mean whats that about?? If you run out of time crossing the road, dont panic, you can hold up three lanes of traffic just by walking at your normal pace.
If you are walking on the footpath (sidewalk here), and even look like you are going to step into the traffic, it will stop, even if there is no crosswalk there.
Its pretty crazy and one thing I cant get used to just yet. In Australia as you all know, pedestrians are fair game, you squeeze past them in a heartbeat all the time….. Lets just say that there are few people in Temecula that have a few more gray hairs since I have moved into town!
The last thing about the traffic lights is that you can turn right on a red light. For Australia, thats the same as turning left on a red light.
Think about that for a moment. You are sitting at the lights at, say, the corner of Humphy St North and Mair St, you know, just past the mail center, and you want to go down the hill, you are facing a red light, there is nothing coming past Bi Lo, so, you can turn and go. The traffic moves so much better.
Now and then I find myself sitting there, but the guy behind me usually reminds us, actually, thinking about it, no one has beeped me yet. I usually remember before that. Its so cool.
Categories: Other
Mountains and stars.
May 28th, 2008
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My sister (thanks for the kind words about the blog Sue) reminded me that I had not posted anything about our trip up the mountains that I was excited about……..
Guess I got sidetracked with the traffic…… Anyway, it was a nice day, not worth getting up at 3am, but nice……..
You drive out of town and it pretty soon gets into a bit of a run down section. Not really developed, not really empty, not new, not old, its odd sort of feel. Before you get too carried away with that you find yourself in down town Hemet. Nice little place, lots of wide streets and all the shops you would ever need.
Before you know it, you have entered your first sweeping bend and the nose of the car points up!
Here is where we really have to slow down, puke boy in the back soon announces that he turning green……
Never mind, we were not in a hurry anyway…….. It was fun watching the altitude signs on the side of the road go up and up, we passed the 5000 foot one and soon found ourselfs in Idyllwild. Its a nice little mountain community, lots of quirky little shops and the place is just throbbing to the sounds of motorbikes. Clearly it was the place to ride to on a Sunday morning!
Here is where it gets a little hard for me as there was a 1997 Goldwing for sale out the front of one of the shops, it was in perfect condition, very low miles, and had it been blue rather than red, I would have caved I think.
Anyway, we walked around the shops, did not buy anything, did not take any photos (remember it was a recon trip) and had a very pleasant morning. It was nice and cool up in the mountains and a beautiful breeze was blowing. It was nice to just forget about most things and just hang out.
On our way out of town we saw a road side stand where the guys were carving bears out of logs with chainsaws. We stopped and watched for a little while, Freddy was really interested in it.
From there we wanted to take the back way home so we did not do the same roads there and back. The back way was a lot straighter, up till I decided we take a turn that took me down a road I was interested in seeing….. It was a twisty road on the map, I though that meant mountains. It turned out to be the most amazing motorbike road I have every seen. Not so much mountains as hills, but the road was one of THE MOST demanding roads I have every driven. I am glad (for the first time in ….. well, ages) that we had puke boy in the car, he kept me slow enough that I was able to keep the car on the road. I so wish I could ride that road on my old bike, it would be so much fun! I would love to ride it every day twice a day! I could do it for years and not get board. I am seriously going to drive it with Freddys camera on a tripod in time lapse mode so you can all get a feel for it. Wont be as good as a video camera on the bike, but it will give you a taste.
From the end of that road, we were pretty much home.
It was a nice day, we are going to try and go back the long straight way, longer, but we think smoother, so we might even get there quicker. We will let you know.
Guess I got sidetracked with the traffic…… Anyway, it was a nice day, not worth getting up at 3am, but nice……..
You drive out of town and it pretty soon gets into a bit of a run down section. Not really developed, not really empty, not new, not old, its odd sort of feel. Before you get too carried away with that you find yourself in down town Hemet. Nice little place, lots of wide streets and all the shops you would ever need.
Before you know it, you have entered your first sweeping bend and the nose of the car points up!
Here is where we really have to slow down, puke boy in the back soon announces that he turning green……
Never mind, we were not in a hurry anyway…….. It was fun watching the altitude signs on the side of the road go up and up, we passed the 5000 foot one and soon found ourselfs in Idyllwild. Its a nice little mountain community, lots of quirky little shops and the place is just throbbing to the sounds of motorbikes. Clearly it was the place to ride to on a Sunday morning!
Here is where it gets a little hard for me as there was a 1997 Goldwing for sale out the front of one of the shops, it was in perfect condition, very low miles, and had it been blue rather than red, I would have caved I think.
Anyway, we walked around the shops, did not buy anything, did not take any photos (remember it was a recon trip) and had a very pleasant morning. It was nice and cool up in the mountains and a beautiful breeze was blowing. It was nice to just forget about most things and just hang out.
On our way out of town we saw a road side stand where the guys were carving bears out of logs with chainsaws. We stopped and watched for a little while, Freddy was really interested in it.
From there we wanted to take the back way home so we did not do the same roads there and back. The back way was a lot straighter, up till I decided we take a turn that took me down a road I was interested in seeing….. It was a twisty road on the map, I though that meant mountains. It turned out to be the most amazing motorbike road I have every seen. Not so much mountains as hills, but the road was one of THE MOST demanding roads I have every driven. I am glad (for the first time in ….. well, ages) that we had puke boy in the car, he kept me slow enough that I was able to keep the car on the road. I so wish I could ride that road on my old bike, it would be so much fun! I would love to ride it every day twice a day! I could do it for years and not get board. I am seriously going to drive it with Freddys camera on a tripod in time lapse mode so you can all get a feel for it. Wont be as good as a video camera on the bike, but it will give you a taste.
From the end of that road, we were pretty much home.
It was a nice day, we are going to try and go back the long straight way, longer, but we think smoother, so we might even get there quicker. We will let you know.
I finally got time to do a MAJOR photo upload. So be sure and check out the albums.
There is a few new ones and some new photos in some of the old ones.
Have fun viewing them, and we are looking forward to telling yous about our weekend (after its over!).
Categories: Other
Stuff is stuff and we are having a little party.
May 28th, 2008
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Not a whole lot to add at this stage. All 51 boxes are accounted for and there is nothing broken.
One box had a real bad crease in it, it was the box with the wine glasses in it, but the crease happen between the stems and the head of the glass, if it had been 2 inches higher, we would have lost my Grandfathers wine glasses, but there was not a crack to be seen….. So that was really good.
It was nice to have a stout out of a real beer glass last night, and we are all loving eating with metal flatware (what the Yanks call cutlery) rather than the plastic (the splines on the forks are too thick to stab stuff with!). Terry and I are still hanging out for the time when we can order some titanium sporks from Think Geek (the main reason we have not ordered them is because, well, you cant order just two sporks can you…….look at all that other neat stuff!!!!).
The other neato thing (for a geek) is the computer has arrived! Yah!!
Few things that have happen, 1. the computer to person ratio has finally got a little better (really need one more). 2. The kids know that they are not to touch my computer, ie no more closed tabs in FireFox (SwiftFox now that I have MY computer back). 3. I can start messing with my internet controlled telescope, allsky camera, weather station and humming bird camera….. Trust me, all this is a good thing……
One box had a real bad crease in it, it was the box with the wine glasses in it, but the crease happen between the stems and the head of the glass, if it had been 2 inches higher, we would have lost my Grandfathers wine glasses, but there was not a crack to be seen….. So that was really good.
It was nice to have a stout out of a real beer glass last night, and we are all loving eating with metal flatware (what the Yanks call cutlery) rather than the plastic (the splines on the forks are too thick to stab stuff with!). Terry and I are still hanging out for the time when we can order some titanium sporks from Think Geek (the main reason we have not ordered them is because, well, you cant order just two sporks can you…….look at all that other neat stuff!!!!).
The other neato thing (for a geek) is the computer has arrived! Yah!!
Few things that have happen, 1. the computer to person ratio has finally got a little better (really need one more). 2. The kids know that they are not to touch my computer, ie no more closed tabs in FireFox (SwiftFox now that I have MY computer back). 3. I can start messing with my internet controlled telescope, allsky camera, weather station and humming bird camera….. Trust me, all this is a good thing……
But thats not why we are having a little party……. we are celebrating because Freddy got her drivers license………!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Not that we doubted for a moment that she wouldn’t, but she was pretty nervous. Thing is, there is a glitch…..there is always a glitch.
She went down to the DMV, all phyced up, and they turned her away. No SSN (Social security number (try and keep up with the acronyms)) and the computer was rejecting the same visa number that they accepted a few weeks ago…… They sent her home to get her Passport and rescheduled for 1/2’s time. Thats when her nerves went into over drive.
Passport in hand, the computer still was not happy, so they (all 4 people working on it) said ‘take the test and leave it with us’…. So, she aced the test and we wait. Hopefully they can get it sorted and in a few weeks she will get her license.
I go for mine on the 13th, next Tuesday (Wednesday in Aust). I have a SSN (but we all know how useful thats been of late!), so it should be just a matter of passing the test.
Closing comment. I am going to take this opportunity to install a new hard drive into the Linux computer and move to the latest build of Ubuntu, so it will be some weeks before I am back on the air. Many thanks to Dan for hosting my site for this whole time.
Categories: Other
Traffic. Part 4.
May 28th, 2008
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Big and new.
It seems to be a local thing, but a lot of the pickup trucks (over sized utes) here are jacked up…… Not just straight lifted mind you, no, a lot more silly looking than that, they just jack the front end up and leave the back stock…….So these big tough looking trucks drive around looking like total dorks with 4 tons in the back of the thing….. Its all very silly and all too common.
Don’t get me started about what the handling of the thing must be like.
Its very common to pull up at the lights, hear a truck next to you, look out your window and only see a tire and shock absorbers. The bottom of their door still is level with the roof on our little car.
These things have anywhere between about a 5 liter up to 8 liter is the biggest I have seen written on the side (and it sounded like an 8 liter too!). Its just nuts. Of course not EVERY truck is like that, there are a lot that just fit over sized tires, jack the whole thing up, some are lowered with bling bling rims, but they seem to be few and far between.
It seems to be a local thing, but a lot of the pickup trucks (over sized utes) here are jacked up…… Not just straight lifted mind you, no, a lot more silly looking than that, they just jack the front end up and leave the back stock…….So these big tough looking trucks drive around looking like total dorks with 4 tons in the back of the thing….. Its all very silly and all too common.
Don’t get me started about what the handling of the thing must be like.
Its very common to pull up at the lights, hear a truck next to you, look out your window and only see a tire and shock absorbers. The bottom of their door still is level with the roof on our little car.
These things have anywhere between about a 5 liter up to 8 liter is the biggest I have seen written on the side (and it sounded like an 8 liter too!). Its just nuts. Of course not EVERY truck is like that, there are a lot that just fit over sized tires, jack the whole thing up, some are lowered with bling bling rims, but they seem to be few and far between.
Its nice to see that cars are generally of a standard size. The old ‘yank tank’ days are finally coming to a close, which leads me to my next point……..
New. Most cars on the road here are new. It was pointed out to us by about everyone we mention it to that people in SoCal rarely keep their cars longer than about 2 years. In fact leasing is very common, so most people are in effect renting their cars, hence the 2 year turn over.
No place is this ‘new’ effect more clearly shown than in the car park of your average high school. Because kids can get their licenses at 16 here, kids get new cars and drive them to school. The car park looks like a new car sales yard, its pretty amazing.
Old bombs, like our ‘98 Falcon we sold, are few and very far between.
Part of the ‘new’ thing can also be put down to the weather, cars do not get dirty here, there are no dirt roads (relax, I found one!), there are no dirt patches on the sides of the roads to blow dust on their ‘new’ cars (they water the weeds on the freeway verges to keep them nice and green). Also people are obsessive about keeping the cars clean, most afternoons there is a que at the drive though car wash, and weekends there is a que at the hand wash joint. Part of this is because of the whole leasing thing, you need to keep your car looking sharp so that when you take it back at the end of the two years, it looks good, the lease is then not docked as much.
There is of course a huge range in the models and makes of cars and trucks. Pull up at the lights and its pretty rare to see the same type of car twice. Sure, you might see two Honda’s, but pretty rare they are the same model.
So, the trucks are new and silly looking, the cars are just new.
Categories: Other
Training and maps.
May 28th, 2008
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Was in with the training class all day today. Tom took it and he covered the rest of OptoControl (the programming side) and started on OptoDisplay (the graphical user interface side). It was really good seeing the guys light up when they understood what was going on. A few times Tom had to leave the class, thankfully for only about 5 minutes max, I would just step in and take over where he left off. I have never done it before, so I could only go so far…… I would end the short section where he was and then give a ‘real world example’ about what stage we were up to….it was a lot of fun, but I think it will be a while before I can take a class. I dont know how the instructors manage on their own, its a lot of working keeping 9-10 people progressing at at the same pace. A lot of the time I would be working one on one with some of the guys, catching them up on any bits they missed. Its pretty mentally tiring keeping track of where Tom is at and catching up as needed! During the short breaks some of the guys would come up and want input on their applications at their work places, its neat working out the best way for the Opto gear to make life better for them.
For lunch we are in the board room three times and we go out once. Each time in the board room we have someone from Opto22 come in and talk to the group about some aspect of Opto. Yesterday it was me, I spoke about the importance of having small delays in your chart to keep the system throughput at its best. Today, it was John. He is the illustrator for Opto22 and hes done a great OptoDisplay demo (you can down load it from the web site…..plug plug
He went though that today, the timing was perfect as we started OptoDisplay after lunch.
Since I have never done this before, I look forward to seeing what we cover tomorrow, I think Kelly, Alexi and Tom are all there tomorrow for some of it, so it will be a full house!
For lunch we are in the board room three times and we go out once. Each time in the board room we have someone from Opto22 come in and talk to the group about some aspect of Opto. Yesterday it was me, I spoke about the importance of having small delays in your chart to keep the system throughput at its best. Today, it was John. He is the illustrator for Opto22 and hes done a great OptoDisplay demo (you can down load it from the web site…..plug plug
He went though that today, the timing was perfect as we started OptoDisplay after lunch.Since I have never done this before, I look forward to seeing what we cover tomorrow, I think Kelly, Alexi and Tom are all there tomorrow for some of it, so it will be a full house!
Here is a link to my Google Map page.
As we trip around the place I will add markers in. Relax, you don’t need to keep checking it like this blog page….. I will probably post here when we do travel and will let you know that the map has a new marker on it.
It only has a few in it at the moment, but a few people (ok, only Gary, but it sounds like a lot of people care when I word it like that!) have asked where these places are….. Enjoy! I am looking forward to getting better the whole maps thing, I think I can attach photos to the markers, that would be fun (if I ever figure it out!).
Categories: Other
You can’t get them until you have one, and when you get one, you still can’t get them.
May 28th, 2008
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April 8th, 2008
Long title for this blog, but then its getting to be a long story….. and not a happy ending in sight so far…….
When we arrived it was becoming clear that we needed to have some way for the locals to contact us, so we thought we would get some cell phones for the family, and I would get mine when I started work.
We went to the local shop and in a nut shell we were told, ‘No social security number, no phone’. True, we could have bought a pre-paid thing, and we still might, but I just found it hard to believe that it was that hard to get a phone on a plan.
My social number arrived yesterday. The kids were excited to get their phones before they start school. So, off we went after work back to the phone shop…… ‘I’m sorry, that social number is too new, you will needed to get a letter from the department of social services that verifies that the number is correct.’ Said the nice smiling sales man.
So, thats were we are at. No phones, a nice new social number, thats a little too shiny new, and back to the web to get proof that the number I have is the number they gave me a few days ago……..
When we arrived it was becoming clear that we needed to have some way for the locals to contact us, so we thought we would get some cell phones for the family, and I would get mine when I started work.
We went to the local shop and in a nut shell we were told, ‘No social security number, no phone’. True, we could have bought a pre-paid thing, and we still might, but I just found it hard to believe that it was that hard to get a phone on a plan.
My social number arrived yesterday. The kids were excited to get their phones before they start school. So, off we went after work back to the phone shop…… ‘I’m sorry, that social number is too new, you will needed to get a letter from the department of social services that verifies that the number is correct.’ Said the nice smiling sales man.
So, thats were we are at. No phones, a nice new social number, thats a little too shiny new, and back to the web to get proof that the number I have is the number they gave me a few days ago……..
Apart from that things are going fairly well.
We can not get the kids started in school until they have been tested for tuberculosis. So there will be a few days delay while Freddy gets that done. They also need proof that they have had chicken pox. Generally Auzi parents don’t go to the doctors for that, so we have no proof at all that both of ours have had it. It was before the days of me having a digital camera too, so I don’t think there are any photos of it either. Not sure what we will do about that one. I think Freddy is planing on getting the TB done and trying to bluff them on the pox.
Returned the rental car yesterday. I walked to work this morning. It took exactly half an hour. Not too bad in the spring, but would be pretty tough in the summer. I am thinking one of those over sized electric skateboards would be the bomb, the price will put me off for a long time, but I think it would be better in some ways than the bike. It is a little too fast for the footpath (sidewalk in America btw), and I’m not sure I want to mix it in the traffic on the push bike. The skateboard on the footpath would be about the right mix…..
Anyway, its cheaper than a car, and less time and sweat than walking. We will see.
Categories: Other
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