Source: Hubblesite.org
In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth.
Genesis 1:1 (NIV)
Check out http://soundslikebaloney.blogspot.com/ for other pairings of photographs and scripture.
Monthly Archives: January 2010
Optimus: Praetorian Guard by P.M. Prescott
I just got through reading this book. It is historical fiction about Sextus Cassius Optimus of the Praetorian Guard who was assigned to guard the Apostle Paul who was under house arrest while awaiting trial in Rome.
Optimus was a fierce man with much blood on his hands and a debauched lifestyle. His life is changed by his conversion after he met Paul.
The book is fascinating. Not only is the story line very well done and paced but there is lots to learn about Roman history, culture, government, war fighting and much much more.
Mr. Prescott fleshes out Paul and Luke as well as various Roman emperors.
In short this is one awesome book.
I give it 3.5 stars out of 4.
The author has a blog that is also interesting.
Oklahoma Snow and Ice
We are getting a little snow here in Tulsa today. I mean we are glad we are getting snow, we thought we were getting ice. Okies don’t like ice. Lots of things can happen with ice and none of them are good. You can wreck your car, you can lose your power. Then you get to sit in the dark freezing listening to your neighbor’s generator roaring away. That can be pretty irritating.
We got a little bit of ice. Not a whole lot. Snow is a relief.
Hey bird, go South. Whattaya doing sitting in that tree?
I thought one of our neighbors had icicles. He did, Christmas lights, augmented with real ice.
Did you see my other neighbors yellow Christmas lights in the tree. We have a lot of Christmas spirit in our neighborhood. I have not taken ours down yet either.
I’m thinking about keeping up for Valentines Day. Do you think I should?
Our neighbor’s willow tree is leaning over again to say hello.
Lets do macro for a second.
How is your weather?
Astropornography
I got my National Geographic Magazine today. They had an article about the Hubble Space Telescope. Do you realize that in April it will have been in orbit for 20 years? Wow! What is even more exciting is that it was given a comprehensive upgrade in May 2009 and is more capable than ever.
NASA aimed its Infrared camera at an empty spot in the sky and has discovered features from 13.1 billion years ago. The universe is only 13.7 billion years old. So we are getting closer and to the beginning of the universe. It boggles the mind. Here is an online version of the article. Here is a better article about it from Discover Magazine.
Check out the Hubble Site here. It is one of the most astonishing sites on the internet. I mean next to this blog.
There are photographs of constellations and galaxies and other amazing things. I call it astropornography. I get hooked and just can’t quit looking.
Cat’s Eye Nebula
Source: Hubblesite.org
Jupiter – with shadows from its three moons
Source: Hubblesite.org
Saturn
Source: Hubblesite.org
Omega/Swan Nebula
Source: Hubblesite.org
NGC3603 (Boy those astronomers have a knack for naming things!)
Source: Hubblesite.org
When I was a kid, space was the frontier. It was the Big Idea. Are there any more Big Ideas? What do you think?
Skywatch Friday – Haikey Creek Park
We have a storm coming, ice. I hate ice. I can see it on the various weather maps inching closer. But I got photographs from last weekend. We went to Haikey Creek Park near Tulsa for a family outing. No ice that day.
Trees in the winter are beautiful. Pretty sky also.
Notice the moon?
SuperPizzaBoy rode his Triton. Off behind him is Sweetie and our two mutts.
Then we went to another park and did a little geocaching.
None of that right now. Now we are getting ready for a storm. The Governor declared an emergency yesterday before it even hit the state.
I’m having trouble convincing LJ of the seriousness of the situation. He doesn’t seem worried about it all. What do you think is wrong with him?
Check out other views of the sky at Skywatch Friday.
Boys Night Out – Joe Momma’s Pizza
Sticky Notes
Elote Cafe
Big treat on Friday. Sweetie tore herself loose from her busy schedule and came downtown. We went to lunch at the Elote Cafe. It’s been downtown at the old Nelson’s Buffeteria location for at least a couple of years but I had not been there yet.
My loss, the food is good and very reasonably priced.
I had the Sweet Potato Tamales.
The tamales had a sweet potato filling and they were tasty! They were not overly spicy but had enough heat to be satisfying. The sweet potato gave the tamale’s a nice flavor and they were not overy filling. I don’t usually eat the rice and beans at Mexican food places but I did here. The black beans and rice tasted fresh and were not too filling. It was a very satisfying lunch.
Sweetie had the Puffy Tacos. The man taking the orders said it was their signature dish.
She let me have about a third of one taco. It was great. That’s what I’m getting next time.
The place is a great place to eat.It’s not overly fancy but is a pleasant space. The staff are hustling butt because they have a lot of people eating there but take time to make sure that everything is ok.
So I’ll be eating lunch at Elote’s from time to time now. I give it four stars out of four.
They have a great web site. Check it out. They take pains to be a “green” restaurant.
They are downtown at 514 South Boston Avenue, their phone is 918 582-1403. They are not just a lunch spot, they are open for dinner until 10PM Tuesday through Saturday.
That’s my World – Trip to Houston
I went on an overnight business trip to Houston to last week.
Sunrise at the Tulsa Airport.
Ugly duck on campus of a customer.
I went on a walk from our hotel to do some geocaching before dinner. I came upon this bus stop. It may be the most expensive bus stop in existence. Lots of structure but seats for only two or three people and not much shelter from the rain. What’s up with that? Also look at the sidewalk. My walk from my driveway to the front porch at home is wider than that. Not many people use the sidewalks anyway, service workers from the local hotels and restaurants and geocachers.
While I’m picking on Houston it is almost impossible to cross the streets. See the stripes in the road? In most cities that would designate a pedestrian crossing in Houston I think its a bonus points area. Look at the pipes oaring over the boulevards. I don’t know, are they unfinished pedestrian bridges or are they bridges for acrobats? Or is it a benefit project for unemployed welders and pipefitters? Or maybe they are actual pipelines and its cheaper to span the road than go underneath? I need to know.
Below is the intersection a pedestrian is supposed to use. Me, I think its for the birds. A pedestrian trying to use this to cross the street would be the frog in Frogger.
Below is Williams Tower in the Galleria area. It’s over 900 feet tall and is supposed to be the tallest building in the country outside an urban core.
One customer we called had a model of a production platform in their lobby. The model was very impressive. I would love to see the actual facility. My educated guess that the total package including the platform, topside facilites, and the drilling and completion of the wells cost around one gazillion dollars. About the same as the bus stop.
If you didn’t like that, they had their own inhouse jungle nearby. No geocaches though. They need one. Be nice to look for a jungly cache with no snakes.
Time to head back to Tulsa.
For views of planet from all over the world please check out That’s My World.
The Eight P’s of Geocaching and Life
Friday after work I had a few hours to myself as SuperPizzaBoy was staying overnight with a friend and Sweetie and her Mom were attending a church function. I thought about going home and scrubbing the floors but decided against since I had already done that Wednesday and had worn the bristles on my scrub brush clear off and had not bought a new one yet.
So I did the next favorite activity, Geocaching. So I fired up my Garmin Nuvi 500 crossover GPS, specially made for geocaching, and guess what. I had been to Houston earlier this week and when I downloaded the Houston caches it deleted the Tulsa caches. Bummer!
So I fired up my Lowrance Ifinder H2O. Well, it was taking the evening off. It wouldn’t synch with the satellites. Double Bummer!
I realized that I had ventured out in the world with only one backup GPS. So now, what do I do? I guess I’ll go geocaching without a GPS and hope the Lowrance decides to sober up and play ball.
Off I went. I knew the general location of two caches close to downtown. First stop was the Meadow Gold sign on 11th street.
So I didn’t know exactly where the cache was but I knew it was in this general vicinity. So I started looking. Soon I had several helpers. They were all out of money. Some had had it stolen; a couple more needed money for a bus ticket to go see their sisters. One sister lives in Saint Louis, the other guy’s sister lives in Dallas. What is it about these guys and their sisters? It seems that there is an ongoing nationwide reunion of brothers going to see their sisters. I think there is an ad campaign in there somewhere. I think there is a social movement going on. JenX is supposed to keep me posted on stuff like this. Jen, what’s the deal? I need a report!
What these guys need is my Aunt Baloney. She’d get them squared away and each with a checklist in hand on how to find employment. They could go buy their own bus tickets. She’s organized! No more of this shuffling up and down the street panhandling, they would have some direction! Aunt B is great that way.
I finally found it. It was like a needle in a haystack.
Nice color huh? Purple is Sweetie’s favorite color. Do you think if I told her that there are purple geocaches that she would go along on my geocaching trips? Yep, fat chance. Hey, do you like my wedding ring? Yellow gold and white gold. I love it. I’ve had it for 20 years, I’m very proud of it.
I’m also proud, but not a billionth as much though, that I found a cache without a GPS. I’ve found a few before but not many. It makes me feel guilty. Why? Because the taxpayers of this country have financed billions of dollars of military satellites so that I can go find hidden stuff. So bypassing all that investment and finding a cache without it is not very respectful. My fellow Americans, I apologize. Really.
But hey, I’m fired up. Lets go find another one. Right nearby. It’s in the general vicinity of this.
I’m not sure what it is doing there. I think it might be some way for Brit Expats to teleport to and from Great Britain. Lots cheaper and faster than flying. Hmm, I bet that is how down on their luck Brit guys go visit their sisters. I bet that is why I’ve never had a Brit guy hit me up for money to go see their sisters. They can do it for free. Wow. Maybe Sarah can explain it to us one of these days.
Anyway, there is a cache in the general vicinity. Guess what, I found it! Didn’t have any helpers either. Here is a picture of it and my still non synched Lowrance I Finder H2O.
Oh no, as I look at the log I can see that I dated it 1/22/09. That makes the Generation Xers shake their head. I can just hear them thinking, “When is that Boomer loser going to step aside so I can get the cubicle with the river view?” Sorry dudes I can’t do it yet. If I do step aside, don’t be giving me the cold shoulder when I ask for bus money so I can go visit my sister in Colorado Springs. I mean, everybody else is visiting their sister, why can’t I?
Wow, I’m on a roll. Lets go find a third. So I went nearby to a little park commemorating Tulsa’s first post office. I got there and guess what? The GPS is synching!
So I started looking but the GPS unsynched before I could get a good fix. I think it is in one of the cedar trees nearby. Hunting a microcache in cedar trees when you are not sure if is there or not is pretty much a waste of time. So, time to call it quits.
Oh, I almost forgot, the Eight P’s of Geocaching and Life. Do you know what they are? Here it is!
Proper Preparation and Prior Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance.