For What It's Worth

Master Bath Renovation

2011-10-30T15:12:00.005-05:00

History
Some people take "Do it yourself" too far. I count Andrea and I among that group, and this renovation as Exhibit 1. So why do it? Mostly, it saves a lot of money. But, there is also a sense of accomplishment. It's fun to learn new skills (sometimes). You can do things at your own pace. And, you have more control over how the work gets done.

There is also a strong history of this kind of thing in Andrea's family. Her parents built their house in Illinois, and built another one once they moved to Atlanta. And when I say built, I mean they did most of the work with their own hands, except specialty work like bricklaying. My father-in-law, Ron, is always a key part of our renovation work, and has helped us on countless projects, including this one. Andrea's brothers August (Gus) and Dave are also major do-it-yourselfers. Gus, with help from Dave, built all the cabinetry for this renovation...from raw lumber.

We did all of the work, including design, sourcing all the parts, carpentry, plumbing, electrical, etc. except:

Our handyman Eddie helped with drywall, painting, and insulation
We hired Robert to install the wall tile: http://www.atlantatilecontractor.com
The counter company installed and cut the counter in-place
The windows were from Pella (to match the ones we'd replaced in the rest of the house)
The mirrors were custom made from a local shop
As I mentioned, Andrea's brothers Gus and Dave built the cabinets

We were very happy with all of the vendors we used, so let us know if you're looking for good people.

The Old Bathroom

Before, there was a "powder room" area with a sink, and a small bathroom with sink, toilet, and a tiled shower, but no tub. Andrea is a bath kinda girl, so this just didn't work. She used the guest bath, down the hall, and I used the master bath. But even for me, it was a tiny room, and just didn't match the rest of the house.

And with that, I'm going to let the photos tell most of the rest of the story.

Before

View from the bedroom. The built-in cabinet on the left is one of two we will replace as part of this renovation. The master walk-in closet is behind the cabinet. The "powder" room is in the small hall in the middle, and the actual bathroom is through the door to the right.

Another bedroom view, with the bathroom door closed, showing the powder room area with sink. The master closet is through the door to the left. It will remain mostly as-is. The door will be replaced by a sliding pocket door.

The view into the tiny bathroom from the powder room area. After the renovation, there will be a window in the far wall.

The built-in tiled shower. I was amazed how much concrete, blocks, metal mesh, and other stuff was under there.

The original sink and cabinets.

For the record, I didn't actually mind the design of the bathroom. It was just way too small and cramped.

Design

We spent a lot of time on the new layout. The first easy decision: combine the powder area and bathroom into one larger room by removing the inner wall (after confirming it was not load-bearing). We explored a few other ideas, such as reconfiguring the closet, but decided against those. Another early idea was to add a window to the far wall, and we stuck with that. Then it was just a matter of deciding how best to configure the bathtub, toilet, and sink.

I used Visio to experiment with a few configurations, but we quickly narrowed it down to one: sink and toilet on back wall, and bathtub to the right on the inside wall. To make the best use of the space, we also decided to install two pocket doors: one for the closet, and one for the main bathroom door.

The next step was to choose the main fixtures. Andrea wanted to go for a more modern look. Our house is a "mid century modern" design (1960), and she has really taken to the style. The tub was the most challenging, because it had two sides facing into the room. We considered a regular tub with one open side, but that would have required a wall or knee wall to cover one end, and we did not want to lose more floor space. After a lot of searching online, and visiting some local stores, we settled on a specific brand and model line for the tub and other fixtures. All of them have clean lines with no ornamentation, and feature large curves. As you'll see, we decided to use simple curves as a design element throughout.

Once I knew the layout and look of the key parts of the space, I jumped into Google Sketchup to create a model of the room, and custom models of all the fixtures. The Sketchup models were useful for visualizing, to help Andrea and I make decisions on other elements of the room, including tile, colors, lighting, and other aspects. The model was accurate to the inch, so I also used it to calculate dimensions of the fixtures and for other detailed estimates.

Below is a sampling of the various models I developed as the project evolved.

First draft...

After we'd selected the curved fixtures, and planned to use mini tiles for the floor.

More refinements.

Nearing the end, as we were trying to decide on colors and patterns for the countertop.

A model showing the dimension lines, and another variation on the counter pattern.

Top-down view.

This is one of the last models I did, and as you'll see, it looks pretty close to the final design, except for the colors of the walls and other minor details.

Demolition: January-February, 2011

Well before we made the final design decisions, I got started on the first phase of actual work: ripping the old room out, down to the bare studs.

January 31, 2011, 7:19PM: Powder room almost gone. This was probably the easiest part of the demolition, or at least it seems like it in hindsight.

And if someone told me at this point "You'll be working on this for the next 9 months." I probably would dropped my hammer, grabbed a beer, plopped in front of the TV, and forgotten about the whole thing.

Starting on the middle wall, and getting a good look at all the concrete behind the tile.

Sink and cabinets gone from the bathroom, and old water lines closed off.

More of the middle wall removed. Much of the electrical wiring was in that small middle wall and had to be re-routed, and is still in place in this photo.

Floor tile and inside tile wall done. The rubble in the shower gives a sense of what I found in the shower floor and the built-in bench. It took a lot of full-on sledge swinging to take it down.

Down to the original flooring, which had several badly damaged areas from previous leaks around the old shower. It was clear we would need to replace all the old flooring to create a sound base for the new bathroom.

Final Demolition and Rebuilding (February)

The next set of photos captures the process of turning what was two smaller rooms into a single, larger bathroom. We started by replacing the old, uneven flooring. Later, we installed the new pocket doors.

Feb 22: The demolition is almost done, but more importantly, the rebuilding has begun. The old middle wall is completely gone. All of the old drywall has been removed, including the ceiling. The old insulation had deteriorated and fallen down in places. The drywall and insulation removal was probably the messiest job of the entire project. The old electrical wires are bundled near the ceiling. Other new wiring will be added for new wall lights, wall heater, and GFCI outlets.

The closet with its new pocket door frame. I don't have photos, but installing the pocket doors required us to build temporary walls, remove the old walls and headers, and install new ones. Also, as you can see, for a while the closet turned into a temporary tool room.

The ceiling. We decided to re-use all the existing can lights, but we moved them slightly for the new bathroom layout. All the wires were re-routed, or replaced, and run to the inside wall near the bedroom doorway.

From inside the bedroom, showing the doorway header and pocket door frame. The paper tacked to the far wall is a printout of my Sketchup model.

Removing the rest of the old flooring and preparing to install the new plywood floor. It's hard to see the light at the end of the tunnel when you're sleeping next to this.

The new subfloor is done, and the drain for the toilet and tub are in. This seemed like a big step at the time.

Plumbing, Electrical, and More (March)

You can think of a house as having layers. The bottom layer is the foundation. Above that is the skeleton - the wood structure. And then inside the walls go the essentials of modern life: plumbing and electricity.

The next set of photos captures some of that work. I didn't get photos of all the plumbing work below the floor, which was extensive.

We also installed a breaker-box in the closet for the wall heater, re-using a 50-amp service from a hot tub that we had removed a while ago.

The rough-in fixtures for the tub and shower. We built this custom box to anchor it all in place.

The back wall, showing the plumbing for the sink, the old cast iron air vent for the drains, the toilet drain in the floor, and some of the rough electrical wiring.

Another view of the rough electrical, including the box for the wall heater on the far wall. We also cut the old HVAC duct and moved it near the floor to make room for the new window. When we took the dry wall and insulation out, we found an old wall vent fan (half of it is showing at the top of the photo) and an old box for a medicine chest (top left).

The existing can-lights, slightly re-located, with the new wiring running to the inside corner wall.

Detail of the main light switch box, which will eventually contain two dimmer switches for the wall and ceiling lights, a separate shower light switch, and the ceiling fan switch.

Detail of the sink faucet rough-in.

Windows and Walls (March-April)

Window frame, including extra bracing added to the left. Below it is the box for the new wall heater.

Clean up crew! Andrea was there through most of this, and did way more than just carry a dustpan.

Insulation going in.

The bathroom renovation seeped out into the bedroom, where we decided to add a window above the bed.

A rare photo of the men at work: my father-in-law Ron and I, preparing to install the bathroom window. It's a leap of faith to cut a big whole in the side of your house.

Also in this photo: the drywall going up, thanks to our handyman Eddie.

"Yep. There's definitely a hole in this wall. Feel that draft?"

We had to cut the siding back from the edge of the window hole to accommodate the fins on the replacement window. We would later add trim around the windows to fill in that gap.

Fast forward, and here is the window after we got it installed.

Bathroom window is installed. Drywall installed over the pocket door frame. Bedroom has a hole, waiting for the window.

Trimming the hole from outside.

Window installed!

We knew we made the right decision about the windows when we saw how much more light they let in. In fact, that was obvious as soon as we cut the holes in the walls.

Drywall mostly finished. Eddie did a great job connecting back into the existing skylight surround.

Tile, Cabinets, Fixtures (April - July)

Bathtub and first section of floor tile installed. None of us had installed these mini-glass tiles, so it was a real learning experience. Although they come in 12" squares, all the individual little tiles float and shift a bit, so there was a lot of tweaking to get them to line up. Also, rather than starting in the middle of the room, we started at the doorway to the bedroom to be sure we got a nice clean line. The room was not at all square, so it was challenging to get everything to line up.

Tile finished, but not yet grouted.

Toilet installed. The light switches got installed at some point, so we no longer had to use that floor lamp.

Once the walls were finished and the plumbing was done, we could do final designs for the cabinets. I created layouts like these for Gus using Visio. In spite of the detail, they were really intended as a rough guide for him.

And here is the final cabinet design, in walnut. We continued the curved theme from the fixtures with the inset handles. The countertop company delivered it and cut the sink hole on site.

The back wall is painted, and the window trim is finished and painted.

The wall tile going in - we hired a contractor for this detailed work: Robert at http://www.atlantatilecontractor.com

And about now, I realized I had made a grievous miscalculation about how much tile we needed. I was short by about 15 pieces. We couldn't find this style of tile locally, so we'd ordered it online. And when we called to order more, they, and everyone else in the US, were OUT OF STOCK. Long story short: we ended up working with the manufacturer in Italy, who sold a box of tile to us at cost and shipped it DHL. That mistake set us back about 6 weeks.

Final Result: October 2011

A few more items linger, mostly to do with trim. But they are so minor that you don't even notice them unless you're looking.

The new view from the master bedroom. (One of the remaining items: the toe kick under the vanity.)

Peeking around the corner.

From the inside corner, looking back toward the bedroom.

Sink detail, showing the many curved elements.

Sink faucet detail.

Looking out from the closet.

View from bathtub corner.

Bathtub detail.

Tub faucet detail.

Wall sconce detail.

Floor tile detail.

Vanity detail.

Along with the bathroom renovation, Andrea wanted to update the built-in cabinets in the bedroom. Gus built them at the same time as the bathroom vanity, based on our designs.

The End
And, I thought I'd end on a whimsical note...with a detail of the ceiling, showing the original skylight. At some point we'll need to re-do the roof, and will install a glass skylight to replace this plastic one.

Cicada Killer Wasp

2009-07-12T19:20:00.002-05:00

I was working in the yard and heard an occassional loud buzzing sound. I assumed it was a carpenter bee or something similar, until I saw this scene:
a Cicada Killer Wasp hauling her prey up the gutter on the side of the house. They are truly a sight to behold, not only because of their size (I'm guessing this one was 2 inches long), but also because of their impressive hauling ability. The cicada is about the same size as the wasp. She eventually managed to get airborne and sailed around the side of the house, off to a burrow someplace.

For more info: http://ww2.lafayette.edu/~hollidac/cicadakillerhome.html

Woodworking

2009-02-17T19:16:00.030-05:00

My brother-in-law has gotten really good at building things from wood. Whether it's nature, nurture, or adaptive behavior on his part, the fact that my father-in-law built two of their homes from the ground up probably explains some of Gus's aptitude.

He started out building custom products such as rabbit display stands for PetsMart. He has since amassed an arsenal of power tools and the skills to use them. Their family recently finished building a house south of Atlanta, and all of the woodwork -- from the cabinets to the doors -- was built in their shop in the basement. Yeah, they're hard core.

These days his main product is custom fish tank stands which he sells to Atlanta-area stores and individuals. He has also built a few things for family members, including bed frames. So when we started a search for new bedroom furniture, we were excited when he agreed to build it for us.

As with other design decisions, it took a while for Andrea and I to agree on a style. After a long online search for ideas, we narrowed it down to a handful of designs that had both modern and traditional elements.

Once we had a direction, I returned to my trusty Google Sketchup and for the first time tried my hand at furniture modeling. I was going after something very simple and clean, inspired primarily by Shaker styles.

Below is one of the final design concepts that I explored and shared with Gus. We decided to do night stands as well. He recommended a few changes and adjustments, mostly to do with the practicalities of putting it together.

Once we agreed on the basic design, he and Andrea went to shop for wood. We decided on walnut for its dark color and grain patterns. Gus specifically looked for unusual swirls and coloration to give the piece a unique character.

After that, he went down to the shop with the raw lumber and worked his magic!

Here is the headboard in mid-construction:

And here is the final result. He really did an amazing job. Furniture of this quality is rare these days.

I have to add this caveat:
Andrea is still looking for a complete set of bedding for the room, so I did the best I could with what's there. The funkadelic pillows are stolen from the living room. I figured they were an improvement over the plain white pillow cases. But maybe not?!

Don't Touch This

2008-09-21T10:21:00.004-05:00

I've often thought I could have been an entomologist. E.O. Wilson, co-author of "Journey to the Ants", is a hero of mine. The fascination with bugs started young, growing up on a farm in Illinois where I spent a lot of time exploring fence lines and turning over rocks. So now when others are ready to squish them underfoot, I am just as likely to scoop a bug to a safe leaf out of harms way.

Apparently, my good will is lost on them.

In spite of a lifetime of fondness and acts of insect rescue, I have not been rewarded with sufficient good karma to shield me from their defense mechanisms. Maybe it's my lack of compassion for some insects, such as mosquitoes.

Cases in point:

A few weeks back I learned the hard way that the wheel bug can inflict a really painful bite. It looked innocuous to me, and so naturally when I saw it in the road I tried to move it to the yard. I won't be rescuing wheel bugs in the future.

Yesterday while doing some yard work, a screw fell out of the saw I was using. As I reached down to find it, my hand brushed some leaves on a shrub and I got another painful zap. After putting some ice on my hand to reduce the pain and swelling, I went back to find the bug that bit me. I knew I'd found the culprit as soon as I saw this:

It's a Saddle Back caterpillar, one of several types of stinging caterpillars. In these closeups he does look quite fearsome (and alien), but he's actually quite small, about 3/4". The hairs on his back are connected to venom glands.

I wish I had seen him sooner, because like other potential predators, his bright colors and imposing appearance would have told me to "stay away." The technical word for these adaptations is aposematism .

I struggled to get sharp photos here.
I think I should have used a tripod and a smaller aperture for more depth of field.

Domestic Prototyping

2008-09-17T20:30:00.001-05:00

It's been about a year since we moved into our "new" house - a 1960 mid-century modern in Atlanta. Since then we have slowly ticked off a long list of to-do's, starting with mundane things like chimney repair, gutters, and other essentials. Now we're finally able to turn our attentions to more of the fun stuff.

While we see eye to eye on many things, when it comes to design, Andrea and I have somewhat different aesthetic sensibilities. To help us work through high level decisions, I often use software to create prototypes of options. (It turns out prototyping is also a big part of my day job in user experience.)

When we were planning to repaint rooms in the house, I took photos and then used Adobe Photoshop image editing software to play with different color scheme ideas:

Green

From InteriorPhotos_Aug08

Blue

From InteriorPhotos_Aug08

The next big project is the back patio area. I've been learning Google SketchUp, an application for building 3d models. I built a model of our house and backyard so I can experiment with patio, landscaping, and furniture ideas.

Here are examples of views of the actual house compared to the SketchUp model. I "built" most of the objects myself, including the house, deck, pool, grill, and hottub. The trees, chairs, and table were from freely available object libraries.

From New Patio Concepts

From PoolPatio_Sept08

From New Patio Concepts

From PoolPatio_Sept08

Flittering Frenzy of Feathers

2008-08-25T20:48:00.002-05:00

My inlaws live South of Atlanta, away from the city on some acreage. They have four hummingbird feeders, and go through up to a quart of the sugar water each day. I thought they must be exaggerating when they described the scene outside their windows, but this weekend I saw it for myself. As usual, my photos don't do justice to the real thing. Video would have been better. (Another toy to add to the wish list.)

My conservative estimate is that there are 12 individual birds visiting their feeders. In spite of the overabundance of feeding options, they are constantly squabbling and fighting and engaging in amazing feats of aerial combat, all the while buzzing like giant bumblebees and emitting high frequency chittering sounds. There were frequent storms the day we visited, but not even a deluge of rain would keep them away.

There are 7 birds visible in this photo (and an 8th one that is mostly hidden). Can you find them all?

It may not be obvious, but the bird sitting on top is by far the heaviest of the lot. Why? He spends most of his time sitting in that spot, chasing all the other birds away, and the rest of the time draining that feeder. He's definitely at the top of the pecking order in this flock.

I'm a rock. Move along.

2008-08-20T20:54:00.007-05:00

On a hike last weekend at my favorite Chattahoochee River Rec area, I heard rustling in the weeds near a creek. Pulling aside some leaves revealed the critter you see here. (Most likely a Southern Leopard Frog.)

I think he went into "I'm a rock" mode, hoping that somehow I wouldn't notice him. His apparent stupor meant I was able to take quite a few shots. When I backed away a bit to switch lenses, he decided to make a break for it and sprang into the water.

I like how the markings on his side blend into the coloring in his eye.

Southern Idaho... who knew?

2008-05-18T21:00:00.018-05:00

All photos link to full versions on my Picasa site.

Since she became a bonafide road warrior, planning vacations with Andrea means going to Delta.com and Hilton.com trolling for the best frequent flier and hotel points. I can make light of it now because this process resulted in one of my all-time favorite vacations.

We wanted to see the coastal redwoods, but since our travel dates were only a few weeks away she couldn't put together a trip with her honor points. So she started looking for other travel options, casting the net in ever widening circles from our original Northern California target.

One night, after a few days of searching, she popped into my office and said something like:

"So, how do you feel about..... Boise?"

And my reply was roughly:

"What the heck is in Boise?"

But by then I was desperate. We were running out of time to plan, and I was ready to go just about anywhere.

OK, cut to the punchline:
We did in fact head to Boise. And to my surprise, I was really taken with Southern Idaho. It far exceeded my expectations with its sweeping vistas and starkly beautiful landscapes.

We did mostly sightseeing with Boise as our base, taking road trips between there, Sun Valley, and Twin Falls. The photos here are a small sampling from the five days we were there. The weather was fantastic, and certainly gets some credit for the great time we had.

I can't mention this trip without sharing another happy coincidence (the first was that we found our way to Idaho at all). Our first day there happened to be July 4th. We never miss fireworks, so we followed the crowds and the signs to the county fairgrounds to see how Boise does Independence Day. Pulling into the parking lot I heard what sounded like a full rock band. Once we got sight of the stage, I realized it was actually one guy and a drummer.

The guy, it turns out, was musician Marcus Eaton, an Idaho native and icon of the local music scene. We watched his whole show, engaged by his music and his stage presence. He does some amazing things with a few stomp boxes and a guitar. If you're into guitar-oriented pop-rock, check him out.

A few more bits of Idaho trivia before I wrap-up the write-up:

Twin Falls Idaho is a somewhat bizarre yet touching indie movie about Siamese twins who both fall for the same girl. It turns out that the movie really has nothing to do with Twin Falls, Idaho. But if you're up for an offbeat moody flick, I recommend it.

In 1974, Evil Knievel made a failed attempt to jump the Snake River Canyon near Twin Falls. (See photo of Snake River at sundown below.)

Napoleon Dynamite was filmed in and around Preston, Idaho, in the southeast corner of the state. Gosh!

And with that, more photos, taken with my prior camera, a 2MP Canon A40.

Twin Falls Bridge over the Snake River

Shoshone Falls, near Twin Falls

Silver City

Snake River

Single engine plane flight

2008-05-06T08:18:00.002-05:00

My friend/co-worker Alan is a private pilot, and offered to take me up on a flight. We finally made it happen last Friday - he and his friend did a round trip from Atlanta to Knoxville and I got to go along.

Below is a slideshow of some of the photos I took. Roll over the window to view the controls that let you pause the slideshow, or move between photos. I'm trying something new with this thing - I think you need to have the Macromedia Flash plug-in installed to see it.

Florence, Italy

2008-04-19T08:07:00.010-05:00

I recently had the wonderful opportunity to attend CHI 2008, the primary conference for people whose work focuses on human-computer interaction. In addition to attending the conference as a fellow practitioner in the field, I was also there in my new role as VP for Chapters of ACM/SIGCHI, the hosting organization for the conference.

All this is by way of explaining why I was in Florence (Firenze) in early April. I spent a week, but didn't finally go out to do sight seeing until the last couple days. Unfortunately by then the sunny breezy days that greeted me on my arrival had given way to mostly gray blustery skies and periods of rain. Even so, I enjoyed experiencing the historic city and some of its famous sights, and of course did my best to capture some of it with photos. I got to see Michelangelo's David as well, but photography was not allowed.

OK, enough intro - on to the pics:

Ponte Vecchio
The bridge in the distance is the Ponte Vecchio, an icon of the city. It spans the Arno river and has shops arranged on both sides. According to Wikipedia, it is estimated that the first bridge was built in this location by the Romans in 996. The current structure dates to the mid 1300's.

Santa Maria Novella
A friend invited me on a walk to see this Renaissance church on a hill overlooking Florence. My photos don't do it justice - it is just amazing, inside and out. Work began in the mid 1200's and was completed in 1360.

Firenze Skyline
The view from Santa Maria Novella, including the Ponte Vecchio (left) and Duomo (right).

Basilica di Santa Maria del Fiore (aka "The Duomo")

The Duomo is one of the must-see sights of Florence, but it's also hard to miss. The cathedral is roughly 500 feet long, and the dome soars to over 300 feet and is by far the most prominent visual feature of the city.

The dome itself is an architectural marvel. Construction of the main structure was begun without a final design for the dome. Filippo Brunelleschi was the winner in a contest to select the dome's architect. Because his design was so advanced, he also had to develop his own innovative tools and techniques for its construction.

There is a railed platform encircling the outside top of the dome which provides some of the best views of the city.

View from the dome - Giotto's Belltower is to the left.

Getting to the platform involves a claustrophobic climb up 400+ stone stairs that wind along the inside shell of the structure. The stairway itself is a feat of engineering.

On the way to the top there are two levels of walkways that encircle the inside of the dome which provide views to the cathedral below. Look at the tiny people down on the floor to get a sense of the vastness of the place.

A poor photo of the artwork on the inside of the dome, a rendition of the The Last Judgement. The lowest level corresponds to Capital Sins and Hell, and includes some truly horrific but also fascinating imagery. (It's difficult to get a clear photo from the walkways due to high plexiglass walls.)

Other photos of the Duomo:

All of these photos were taking in my last 24 hours in Florence, and it left me wishing I'd had more time to enjoy and appreciate the city.

A new little person is in the world

2008-03-06T19:59:00.004-05:00

I got to meet my niece in Germany a couple weeks back. I'll sound like a typical uncle if I gush about how cute she is, but seriously - is she not?

She was just over two weeks old and wee small. Never ceases to amaze me - we all have such humble beginnings.

Of course I took a ton of photos - this one came out best. My sister wanted me to try doing an "artsy" black and white. With such a terrific model, it was easy.

It was a relaxing time hanging out with them. We did just a little sightseeing - Nuremberg and Munich. I plan to post some photos soon.

Micro Closeup

2008-01-01T19:38:00.000-05:00

"Feed me, now...or suffer the consequences."

Smells like Cheese Cliché

2007-12-27T17:57:00.000-05:00

OK, I'm finally posting a new piece of music. This one is quite different from the last one.

It's an instrumental orchestral snippet I whipped up recently to test some new sound samples:
Triumphant Orchestral

I dabble in these "soundtracky" pieces on and off. It ended up sounding like the intro to a cheesy adventure TV show. Yes, there is clearly a cliché John Williams influence happening here, no doubt from years of watching Close Encounters, Star Wars, Jurassic Park, and other movies with his handiwork.

Happy New Year all!

Do you cook? Well, there is this one thing...

2007-12-23T17:41:00.001-05:00

Whenever I'm asked "Do you cook?", I sometimes wish I could reply with something like "Why yes! I'm currently exploring Alsation cuisine, after a long fixation with Northern India." OK, so I can't even fabricate a believable response. Truth is, I rarely cook.

But there is one dish, a dessert, that I look forward to making each year. It's a steamed pudding recipe called Sailor's Duff. It was handed down to my Mom from my Grandma, "Baba" Sabadosh. We made it each year around Christmas, and I loved it so much that I adopted it and have carried on the tradition ever since. It's now also become required at Christmas dinner with my inlaws.

The "pudding" is not like the Jello stuff, but rather more like a heavy, rich cake flavored with molasses, and topped with a heavy whipped cream sauce.

It comes out slightly different every year, but it's a forgiving recipe. Here's what it looked like Saturday for our holiday dinner:

And for anyone who wants to try it, below is the full recipe. The only other thing you'll need is a pudding mold and a pot to steam it in. We used to make it in a coffee can, but it always cooked unevenly. Then one year while Christmas shopping, we found this "steamed pudding" mold, shaped a bit like an angel food cake pan with a hole in the middle. We've used that ever since and it works wonderfully.

Sailor's Duff Steamed Pudding

Beat:
2 eggs
4 Tbsp sugar

Add in order:
1 c molasses
4 Tbsp melted butter
1 1/2 tsp baking soda in a little water
3 c flour
1/2 tsp salt
1 c boiling water

Pour into greased pudding mold and steam for about 75 minutes.
Check for doneness using a spaghetti noodle or wooden skewer - it should come out dry.

The Sauce

Beat together:
4 egg yolks
1 1/2 c sugar

Fold in:
1 c whipped whipping cream
2 tsp vanilla

Happy Holidays!

More fauna from Flemington Rd

2007-09-16T07:35:00.000-05:00

I think our new house closer to town may have more critters than our place up North. I guess I'd expect less diversity since it is closer to areas that are more densely populated. But maybe age of neighborhood has more to do with it? Not sure...

In any case, I found this fat fella on our driveway yesterday while talking to a guy about gutter estimates. I knew he was unusual (the caterpillar...not the gutter guy), but I just figured out that he is an Actias luna caterpillar, the Luna Moth, a truly exotic insect. The sleeping pill Lunesta uses the Luna Moth as its icon.

He wasn't very active, so I suspect he may have fallen to the driveway and wasn't doing too well. This photo was staged. I placed him up in the branches of a nearby tree and hope he was just moving slow due to his girth.

Spider snaps

2007-09-05T22:12:00.000-05:00

Some quick snapshots of a striking spider whose web I destroyed while walking around the patio this weekend. I moved him/her to a low traffic area, but have not since it since.

And by the way, I hope that this ends my LONG hiatus from blogging! We are moved in, my office is somewhat settled, and I expect to have a bit more free time now to start posting again.

New house

2007-06-29T15:58:00.000-05:00

Here's the house we're in the process of buying - these are the photos from the realty site. I should note that the design sensibilities of the current owners are much more appropriate for the home. I'm afraid it's not going to look as hip after we move in.

Changes are afoot

2007-06-23T07:27:00.000-05:00

After over 10 years of 1-way commutes that average 45 mins to an hour, I'm tired of it. For a while I convinced myself it was forced downtime, a time to reflect while I get from point A to point B. I either listen to NPR, my iPod, or sometimes just the noise of the road. The thing is, driving in Atlanta traffic is anything but relaxing. In fact I'm sure each drive shaves just a little time off the back side of my life, not to mention the impact on my carbon footprint. (Hehe. I'm *so* current.)

So, after I got my new job at the CDC last fall, which is closer to downtown Atlanta where most other people our age seem to live, we began the search for a new place. We started scouring realtor.com as early as December 06, and since then have spent many weekends doing drive-bys, open-houses, and in general getting a feel for potential areas to drop anchor. The Harry Norman website has a great search feature. It allows you to create multiple search agents that email you when new homes are added. I set up several agents and have spent a lot of time tracking the new listings. I know other sites offer these tools as well, but this one seemed the most flexible and user friendly. And it's free.

Style of home is a big decision point for us, and Andrea is by far the more opinionated. (I know, hard to believe.) At first we thought we might get a good old brick ranch - something sturdy and low-maintenance with some of the older style architectural features that Andrea likes. But all along our eyes were drawn to what we now know is called mid-century modern (MCM) style.

It turns out that MCM is really popular these days, as we found when we went to see a house this Spring. It was the first house we toured with a realtor, and Andrea loved it and was ready to buy on the spot. We figured it was ours since it had only been listed for a few days. As we walked around the yard, the neighbor came by to inform us that the owners were at the closing - someone else had beat us to it!

Downtrodden but determined, we were not going to let that happen again.

So, flash forward to Tuesday night last week. I check my email and see a new MCM home has been listed, and it's about 10 minutes from my office. Wednesday morning we were at the house. It had most of the things we want, and few of the things we don't. So we applied our lessons learned and made an offer and signed a contract before leaving. The next day the buyer accepted and claimed he'd been flooded with inquiries. If we had been there an hour later, we might have missed it. The inspection is next Friday - once that's over, I'll feel like the deal is real. If all goes well, we close mid August.

Once the inspection on the new place is complete, I'll be comfortable enough to post some photos of it. Stay tuned.

An interesting spin on all this is that we (seller and us) are both representing ourselves - no realtors involved. He's using a flat-fee listing service from Century 21.

Now we're in the throes of putting our own place up for sale. We already put considerable work into it this Spring in preparation. We just have minor cleanup and a few fixes to make. Like the seller of our new house, we are using a flat fee listing service. It saves a lot of money, but I'm sure it will require a lot of work.

I mostly dread the lifestyle changes that will be required to keep the house show-ready. I'm not a make-the-bed-every-day-before-work kind of person.

Cavemen, information visualization, and electronica

2007-06-07T18:18:00.000-05:00

I realize I'm not exactly current with this post, but I just love the Geico cavemen ads. So well executed on every level.

It's not the funniest one, but my favorite is the moving walkway in the airport.

I think it's a combination of the framing of the shots, the acting/directing, and the music. But mostly the music.

I like the music so much I had to track it down, which of course took all of 15 seconds once I got to my computer keyboard.
The song is "Remind Me" by Norwegian duo Royksopp.

And that lead me to this amazing video:

I like the darker feel of this version of the song. Anyone into information visualization will be struck by how much this video looks like an Edward Tufte book come to life. The video won the 2002 MTV Europe Music Award for best music video.

But, back to the cavemen. Have you heard they're turning it into a TV show? I'm beyond disappointed. The trailer is painful to watch. I'm not sure how to explain why it bugs me so. It's like someone told you a joke that took 20 seconds and left you weeping with laughter, and then, inexplicably, they decided to spend the next 30 minutes analyzing the joke, picking it apart to explain WHY it was funny. As I'd commented on Spunlogic's blog, I think (hope?) this one jumped the shark before it aired.

What I'd really like to know is how effective all Geico's ads have been at generating sales. Do the ads appeal to the right demographic? Or maybe they were trying to reach a new demographic?

And in spite of all my interest in their advertising, I know next to nothing about the product or the company.

A different kind of music sharing

2007-05-25T22:00:00.000-05:00

A screenshot of Cakewalk Project 5, a tool I use for creating electronic music.

I listen to NPR's Morning Edition every work day, almost without fail. Once in a while I try listening to something else, but inane chatter and commercials inevitably drive me to scramble for the "1" preset button. NPR may be dry, but it doesn't make me feel stoopid.

Yes, I realize this attitude puts me into a fairly narrow category of people.

Anyway!

Last week there was a feature on websites for music collaboration. I visited the sites they mentioned and decided to try one called Indaba Music. I created my profile, uploaded a demo song, and then created a couple of "sessions" with song sketches. The sketches are incomplete - the idea is that other musicians can upload their own additional tracks and add them to the session, layering up to form a complete song.

It's a great idea - since many people have their own PC-based studios, it makes sense to connect with others on the Internet like this. If anything interesting happens I'll let you know.

You can visit my profile page here: Nick on Indaba

2007-05-17T20:42:00.000-05:00

American Museum of Natural History, NYC

2007-05-17T20:12:00.000-05:00

Illusions

2007-04-09T20:53:00.000-05:00

I'm trying to get into the habit of blogging more often. Apparently I'm not trying hard enough. My hit rate is pretty low.

While I'm working on a more regular blogging schedule, here's a little nugget to tide you over.

I have always been fascinated with visual illusions. For some reason it amuses me that my vision, which plays a fundamental role in my life and on which I rely in the most intense way, can be fooled so easily.

This is one of the most profound examples that I have encountered.

Here is a video of a paper cutout.

"Sure sure," you say. "This is some clever video editing." Or maybe you just think the dragon is a puppet or something. Wrong, and wrong. Honest. It's a piece of paper.

It's one thing to see this in a grainy video. It's another thing entirely to experience this with your own eyes - well, eye, to be precise. It only works if you close one eye, because stereo vision destroys the illusion.

You can download a copy and make it yourself like I did.

I tried it this weekend and truly didn't expect it to work. But it works amazingly well. I couldn't stop looking at it. It looks for all the world like this little dragon head is craning his head and sneering at you. And you'll see this without any enhancers of any kind.

This is one of those things that can be a bit tricky to see - not as bad as those Magic Eye images, but similar. Andrea, try as she might, just can't see the effect. But I brought it into to work today and my co-workers got it pretty quickly.

If you liked this, you might also enjoy the Grand Illusions site.

There is more I want to say about not trusting what you see, or sense, but I need more time to think through all that.

Maybe Shokai will do it for me. That seems to be right up his alley.

Saunter, Swagger, Shuffle

2007-03-15T16:26:00.000-05:00

Have you been in that situation where you see someone coming toward you from a long way off, but you know who it is even with few visual cues? I was in this situation frequently when I worked in a large building with long, dimly-lit halls. I realized that one of the cues I used was the person's gait.

There are many colorful words to describe how we walk. Amble, lope, waddle, sidle, strut... each conjures a unique motion, one that you would recognize even if all you saw was a silhouette. I had a hunch that if I created stick-figure animations of the gaits of each of my co-workers, I would be able to identify each person.

I got into a chat about this with my friend Melissa, and she recalled some specific research that related to this topic. She pointed me to this fascinating simulation that models how people walk.

Biomotion Lab Point-Light Walker

You can adjust the value of several parameters (sex, weight, nervous/relaxed,happy/sad) to see how each affects the gait of the animated stick figure.

2007-02-01T10:58:00.000-05:00

Berries on a wild vine near Puddin Head Lake at Fred Gannon Rocky Bayou State Park. Taken on our November 06 trip to the Destin, Florida area.

I'm NOT being chased by a lion, I'm NOT being chased by a lion...

2007-01-29T23:48:00.000-05:00

Like many people, I have spent days and sometimes weeks feeling a bit strung out. Several years ago I went through a phase where that sensation just never seemed to go away, and it started to take its toll on me. On some level I was aware things were getting worse, but it wasn't until I started having physical symptoms that I realized the mind was affecting the body. Clearly I needed to make some kind of change.

While I knew there were things about my life situation that weren't ideal, I also recognized I could use an attitude adjustment, a sharpening of my coping skills.

I reluctantly started skimming some self-help books. Rabbi Harold S. Kushner and Dr. Wayne Dyer had some words that resonated with me. Dyer has since turned me off, but I got what I needed from him at the time.

The main concept that I internalized was obvious and simple:
You can choose how you respond to situations.
Sometimes someone has to say the obvious before you realize how it applies to you.

Pop Quiz

When a car cuts me off in traffic, I:

a) Engage my defensive driving skills and calmly apply the brake to avoid a collision
b) Slam on the brakes, close my eyes, and grip the steering wheel very tightly
c) Pound on the horn with one hand while offering helpful finger gestures and verbal commands to the other driver

OK - hold that thought:

Now we're going to talk about a guy who is an expert in such matters and a personal hero of mine, Robert Sapolsky, PhD . He is John A. and Cynthia Fry Gunn Professor of Biological Sciences and Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford University. He's also a celebrated author, and in general a really fascinating guy with a truly unusual life story and a lot to say. (2001 Salon article)

Sapolsky has spent decades making an annual pilgrimage to study tribes of wild baboons in East Africa. His research of those social primates has provided evidence of the toll that stress takes on baboons. Because people can be very much like baboons, one can easily make inferences about human stress as well.

While living in primitive camps alongside the baboon troops, Sapolsky has come to know them like family. He knows all the cliques, the rivalries, the trysts, lovers quarrels, and turf wars. He knows who is respected and who is reviled, who is feared and who is forgotten. And perhaps most critical to his work, he knows where each baboon falls in the hierarchy of dominance. Yes, baboon society is as rich as this.

The real insights happen when Sapolsky uses his self-taught blowdart skills to anesthetize them (about one each day) and draw vials of blood. He analyzes the blood to track the levels of various stress hormones. Armed with these field data and more from his lab research, Sapolsky has mapped out the linkages between social situations, stress, low-level bodily processes, and the resulting impacts on overall health.

On my self-help quest, I had the good fortune to find his book:
Why Zebras Don't Get Ulcers.
He delivers the results of his great work in a witty, accessible form.

This book was what turned my life around and got me out of my stress cycle. Somehow this one reached me. I think part of it is that I found myself identifying with Sapolsky. It also helps that he's a funny guy. Not har har funny, but clever, insightful, warm-hearted funny.

I knew I was stressed, I knew roughly why, and I knew it was affecting my body. But what I needed was to see how the dots connected, to understand the mechanisms at work. This book did that for me.

Here's a quick nutshell of the lessons I've learned:

You will indeed become sick if you are constantly in some level of fight-or-flight mode. When a zebra is being chased by a lion, its body shuts down all non-essential systems and puts all the energy into getting away. When the chase is over, things go back to normal. Because zebras don't sit around all day worrying about the next lion attack, their bodies don't stay in flight mode. Hence, no zebra ulcers. (har har)

Human bodies have similar reactions to stress. However, unlike zebras, our own thought processes can extend and magnify the stressors. If you react as if you're being chased by a lion when a deadline is looming, or when you get cut off in traffic, or when she/he doesn't call, or when the grocery store lines are too long, your body will respond to the level of your stress. If you are in that state day in and day out, your systems will stay in some level of fight-or-flight mode. Energy will constantly be directed away from those crucial processes that keep you healthy in the long run.

Sapolsky saw direct evidence of stress on his baboons. Whether it's high levels of aggression in the alpha male or the stress of being cast out of the group, the body pays the price. Immune system depression, increased blood pressure, and increased ratios of bad cholesterol are just some of the ailments that plague the chronically stressed.

The real "aha" for me was when I realized my reaction to external events was literally causing me physical harm. If I choose to get really pissed off when somebody cuts me off in traffic, it's as if I've decided to beat myself up.

I wish I could say I've internalized these lessons and that I always react appropriately to every situation. That's not what has happened. I still get irritated at random events, knowing full well that my irritation is doing nothing but taking time off of my life. However, I think it happens less often now. I also talk myself out of stupid reactions, especially when I consider where I want to expend my energy.

More recently I discovered another book with the very blunt title Feeling Good, by David D. Burns. While it's not nearly as enjoyable as reading about baboons, it does drive home the point that you can decide how to respond to situations.

I'd love to hear your thoughts on these topics. Each of us has different ways of coping, and learning what works for others can help.

(One more plug for Sapolsky. A Primate's Memoir is full of the sometimes-harrowing trials and tribulations of Sapolsky's life in the bush in Africa.)

What big ears you have

2006-12-01T21:37:00.000-05:00

So, fast forward a few weeks, and on the right you'll see the new and improved (?) Micro (aka RocketButt). To his left is his long-lost litter mate, Puck. (Yes, that is his real name. Not my fault. Blame my brother-in-law.)

These two played to exhaustion over the Thanksgiving holiday. Puck, who was always larger than his brother, has now clearly eclipsed Micro both in weight and in fur coverage. Micro is still showing his post-molt condition (tho, since this shot was taken, we've been boosting his feeding regimine, and I think he's sprouting more hair.)

So, The Feline Formerly Known as Micro has a new name.
Ready?

Chigger Tigger

Eh? Eh? How do ya like that one??

How about if I add the tagline?
"A small annoying cat that gets under your skin."

That's the formal name, of course. "Chigger" is the simpler/familiar version. The naming process was grueling, and this is the one that stuck.

Anybody visiting, I encourage you to provide feedback on the name (or anything else for that matter).

Gulf Shore Sunset

2006-11-20T22:02:00.000-05:00

Chasing Summer

2006-11-19T18:52:00.000-05:00

I start a new job tomorrow. I also "start over" with vacation time. In an attempt to squeeze in a little RnR, we went to the Gulf Coast for a long weekend. It was a welcome break, but the temps weren't what I'd hoped for.

Yes, I know, it's November...what do I expect? But this was cold even for this time of year down there. The South experienced some nasty cold fronts, and Destin didn't escape it. While we avoided the dangerous tornados that struck some areas, it wasn't ideal holiday weather. Daytime highs usually made it to the 60's and it was sunny. But with gusty winds all four days, we spent much of the time bracing against the elements in our winter coats.

Saturday was the one exception. We took the hour-long drive East to Panama City Beach to visit St. Andrews State Park. The wind let up and it got warm enough to shed the heavy layers.

I took photos of course. I cropped this one a lot to remove the boats and other background distractions that were in the original. I took a few shots as we walked along the marina near Destin while the sun was setting.

I plan to post more photos soon.

And now, a little music

2006-11-11T21:33:00.000-05:00

As I probably said in an earlier post, I have a lot of hobbies...maybe too many. I'm a dabbler. I'll pick up something and get really into it for a while - a week, a month, a few years - but then I'll move on to something else. I like learning and trying new things.

Music is one hobby that has stood the test of time (photography is another). I've been playing some kind of instrument since I was in preschool. My Mom encouraged me in formal training, starting with Suzuki violin lessons when I was about five. Later would come piano lessons. For a brief mildly traumatic period in 4th grade (...wait for it...) I was taking accordion lessons. HEY! My family liked polkas, OK?!

In 5th grade I started playing alto saxophone in the school band, and I continued with sax through my second year of college. I got to be pretty good, and was first-chair tenor sax in the All State band my junior year of high school. I played in concert bands mostly, but also jazz band, marching bands, pit band for high school musicals, saxophone quartets - you get the idea.

In addition to my sax playing, I was composing and recording songs as early as grade school. Back then I was only composing instrumental pieces, at first on the piano, then later on keyboards, synthesizers, and drum machines. During high school and college I recorded hours and hours of songs and song fragments, often at the expense of class work. I was in a rock band for a couple years in college - that's when I learned some guitar and tried my hand at pop lyrics.

After I left college for the "real world", my music productivity plummeted. Lately much of my music time is spent either creating short song sketches or reworking previous recordings. I keep planning to really focus on music and create an album's worth of produced songs, but I have yet to do that.

Without further ado...

Here is the most polished song I've done, to give you a taste:
Just the Same
You can click the link directly, or right-click to save it to your computer. (It's a 5mb mp3 file.)

This song grew out of the guitar riff heard at the beginning, something I'd been toying around with for years. My friend Bruce came over one afternoon and I played the riff for him. He played it a bit and came up with the idea for the chord progression at the end, and the rest of the song evolved from there.

I performed and recorded everything in my home studio (the photos in this post are some of my gear). You'll hear acoustic and electric guitars, computer-based synthesizers for all the other instruments including drums, and a few layers of vocals.

So what about the lyrics? They came after I'd already developed the basic song elements. I would play the instrumental song ideas in the car, and then hum along searching for melodies. The humming gave way to words, and then to phrases, and so on. The topic is vanilla guy-got-girl/guy-lost-girl fare. I aspire to do stuff with more depth, but that wasn't really my goal with this one. I was mostly focused on trying to see if I could create something that even remotely resembled a professionally recorded pop song with the gear I have. I'm happy with the outcome, but now I need to do more.

I have a handful of other full pop songs that I'd like to record, most of them from my college days. I also have an assortment of instrumental tracks I've done, some "soundtrack" pieces and some electronica/techno. I'm gradually extending some of them into complete songs which I could share.

The plan is that putting one song out there will give me incentive to publish more. We'll see how that pans out.

Spooky

2006-10-31T18:05:00.000-05:00

Halloween has always been my favorite holiday. Growing up in Illinois, I enjoyed the autumn season - crisp dry air, the wintery smell of burning leaves, and the holiday of ghosts, goblins, witches, and things that go bump in the night.

I used to put quite a bit of time and energy into costumes, tho not so much lately. Here's a photo of a costume I did about 11 years ago. The X-Files was my favorite show at the time, and this was my attempt at an homage. I was supposed to be Fox "Spooky" Mulder being towed along by aliens. It was my one and only attempt to incorporate papier mache into a costume. It was also one of the few costumes where my face wasn't covered, which I realized made it much easier to drink a beer and enjoy another fun aspect of the holiday.

Happy Halloween!

Rocket Butt

2006-10-11T20:53:00.000-05:00

This is the newest member of the household, and the third feline. He's also a Devon Rex, same breed as the other two. He's about 11 weeks old...I think.

He has no name yet. The idea is that we'll figure out his personality, and then give him a name that fits. He does have placeholder names however: Rocket Butt, Squeak, Micro, Kitty (hey... it's apt), and Stink Pants (which was actually the nickname of another kitten in the extended family...and a name which he inherited somewhat unjustly.)

I plan to do a longer blog on the cats in the future. But I haven't done an update in so long, I decided to fall back on the photo of the zany looking kitten.

The Tortoise and the Shroom

2006-08-25T21:05:00.000-05:00

An Eastern Box turtle that we happened upon on a recent walk at the Johnson Ferry Chattahoochee Park. The red eyes mean he was a he. The white thing near his nose is the mushroom he was munching on before he was interrupted.

Word of the Day: Anachronism

2006-08-22T20:01:00.000-05:00

anachronism

Main Entry: anach·ro·nism
Pronunciation: &-'na-kr&-"ni-z&m
Etymology: probably from Middle Greek anachronismos, from anachronizesthai to be an anachronism, from Late Greek anachronizein to be late, from Greek ana- + chronos time

1: an error in chronology; especially : a chronological misplacing of persons, events, objects, or customs in regard to each other
2: a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place; especially : one from a former age that is incongruous in the present
3: the state or condition of being chronologically out of placeb

Our contemporary home is filled with a variety of antiques, a mix of family heirlooms and items we've won at local auction houses. A few years ago Andrea decided it would be fun to have a black art deco phone hanging in the kitchen.

I'm a fan of retro technology (I restored a late 60's pinball game...a blog for another day), so I was happy to help. I hit the internet and starting sending her photos of options. She quickly honed in on the AE-50 "jukebox" model, but refurbished ones were going for $200-400 dollars. Heck with that, says I, I'll just refurb one my dang self.

So off to eBay, and I was soon the happy owner of a really beat up old Strowger phone. But after a few weekends of puttering, tinkering, polishing, and a replacement mouthpiece (ANYthing you want, it's out there... I found a store that specializes in replacement parts for vintage phones), the house was filled with the raucous ringing of a way cool old phone.

Then last year, in our ongoing quest to reduce recurring monthly bills, we decided to cut ties with Ma Bell (BellSouth). We subscribed to Vonage, one of the internet phone companies.

What's Vonage? In simple terms, you connect a regular phone to a special gizmo (a VOIP router), then connect the gizmo to your internet connection. When you talk on the phone, you're talking over the internet. AKA voice over IP (internet protocol), or VOIP.

At the time I assumed you could only connect one phone to the Vonage box. The sad result was that the retro phone was once more reduced to nothing but an unused relic, hanging oh-so quietly in the kitchen.

Fast forward to a couple weeks ago. I finally got around to exploring the idea of connecting the Vonage adapter directly into the house phone wiring. One test call and I instantly knew it had been a success when the old Strowger phone jangled back to life!*

What amuses me is that I've got this old phone that looks like something from a Frank Capra movie that's connected to the latest mainstream form of home telephone technology. It's a testament to the fact that while the "back end" systems may have changed drastically, the basic user experience hasn't changed much at all.

* Footnote: While we can receive calls on the old phone, regrettably the Vonage gizmo doesn't know what to do when you try to use the rotary dialer.

Looking out

2006-08-05T17:13:00.000-05:00

My Mom's barn, 2003

Visualizing spam and Mozart

2006-08-05T06:15:00.000-05:00

Alex Dragulescu is a Romanian artist who uses software to create images of fantastic fictional sculptures, blossoming anemone beds and impossible Frank Lloyd Wright cantilevered architectures.

The pieces themselves are amazing, but how they are created is the real story here. He has developed custom analysis algorithms that convert collections of data into the parameters that drive the visual attributes of the sculptures.

Works that have drawn recent attention (CNet) have to do with email spam. "Various patterns, keywords and rhythms found in the text are translated into three-dimensional modeling gestures."

He's taken the same approach to visualizing a Mozart piece.

Part of what intrigues me about data visualization is that by distilling something to its essential attributes, you also manipulate another parameter: time. Instead of experiencing a Mozart trio as a linear series of events that requires minutes to digest, you can "see" it all at once.

Or can you? Although it is one object, now you have something that looks different from every angle.

Which leads me to another thought: I wonder if Mozart experts could learn to identify his songs just by their shapes? If so, how much detail would they need? What resolution, what "sampling rate" would be necessary to represent each song uniquely?

I did some related work in college, although it had far less merit artistically. As a researcher in the engineering psychology lab, I was studying how behavior patterns of pilots varied in a simulated cockpit with increasing levels of workload or stress. I spent most of my time creating different charts or graphs to visualize the patterns, but it seemed difficult to detect the subtle variations in the patterns.

Then, having read about a similar approach, I tried something new: by mapping the discrete behaviors to musical notes (pitches and durations), I could listen to the data. It opened up a whole new perspective on the analysis. During routine flights, you could hear melodies or motifs, such as four notes repeated 3 times, and then a 5th note flourish, and back to the four notes. When we introduced an emergency situation, the familiar melody started to break down. You could hear as the subject struggled to keep the "song" going, and then ultimately abandon it. More experienced pilots would recover with a new pattern, a different tune that was adapted to the new situation.

It gave me an appreciation for how our different senses vary in their ability to detect patterns.

My first job was at Maya Design in Pittsburgh. They later spun off MAYAViz who specialize in data visualization for decision making in a range of industries.

Yosemite: Mist Trail and Vernal Falls

2006-07-16T10:20:00.000-05:00

It is by far the grandest of all the special temples of Nature I was ever permitted to enter.

~ John Muir, in an 1868 letter to his lifelong friend Jeanne C. Carr, after his first visit to Yosemite

Part II of photos from our July '06 trip to California. (Click for full-size photos)

A beautiful view of Yosemite Valley from Inspiration Point, on the road into the valley

View from inside a Yosemite bus. To help address traffic congestion, there are buses that run a circuit to the various sites in the valley. We were there on July 3rd, one of the busiest times of the year.

Token critter photo: A Yosemite squirrel. We saw many of these well-fed, fat-cheeked varmints on the trails

Downstream from Vernal Falls on the Mist Trail

Mist Trail, looking away from the falls. There is a strenuous climb up many granite steps to reach the top. You can see from this photo where "Mist Trail" gets its name: the falls crash on rocks below creating plumes of mist that are blown across the trail. You get drenched going up and back down.

A double-rainbow at the base of Vernal Falls

At the top of Vernal Falls

This is the view from the top of Vernal Falls. In the lower left of the photo, you can see people walking along the Mist Trail down below.

50% chance of rain

2006-07-10T18:57:00.000-05:00

Don't know why there's no sun up in the sky
Stormy weather
Since my gal and I ain't together
Keeps rainin' all the time
...
(Ted Koehler/Harold Arlen )

Oldest known photograph of a tornado
Location: 22 miles southwest of Howard, South Dakota
Date: August 28, 1884
Courtesy of the NOAA Photo Library.

Another of my interests is the weather, or to be more pathetically dorky: meteorology. When I was going through that "what do I want to be when I grow up" phase (1987 to present), Meteorologist was a serious contender. I've been a sky watcher ever since a tornado passed within 5 miles of our Plainfield, IL farmhouse. It turned the sky a greenish yellow and hurled winds so strong they almost picked me off the ground. You know those Tornadoes!!! videos you see in the discount racks? I'm the kind of person who buys them. I also want to go on a Tornado Chasing tour someday. Seriously.

(If your skin is crawling, feel free to surf someplace less geeky. I'll understand.)

I love storms with pounding rain, thrashing winds, booming thunder and blazing lightning. I'm fascinated by tornadoes, dust devils, hail, and the myriad forms that clouds take. But recently I realized that in spite of my enthusiasm, I really knew precious little of the details about the weather, much less was I able to understand forecasts that mentioned "capes" and what was happening "aloft." So now I'm on a mission to be better educated on such topics.

I went where I usually go when I want to explore a new topic: Amazon. I stumbled on a book about Luke Howard, the gent who proposed the scheme of naming the clouds that is still in use today: cumulus, stratus, cirrus, nimbus...and combinations thereof:
The Invention of Clouds: How an Amateur Meteorologist Forged the Language of the Skies.

The story is fun to me because the author captures the feel of the late 1700's/early 1800's in Britain, at the height of an era when science and scientists were discovering and inventing at an amazing pace.

So I'm reading this book and enjoying it, but it's only partially fulfilling my need to learn more about weather in general. A trip to the local library turned up Weather for Dummies. While it's a bit simplistic and repetitive, I am learning a lot from it.

Which brings me at last to the title and point of this posting:

Have you ever had that conversation with someone about the forecast for precipitation? Goes something like this:
"So! They say there's a 50% chance of showers today. I guess it'll rain half the day then eh?"
"Or does it mean there's a 50/50 chance that we'll get any rain at all?"

It's closer to the second version, but more complicated and less useful. This precipitation forecast is something I've always wondered about, and on page 20 of the Dummies book it's explained (which I'll paraphrase here):
When they say "50% chance of rain", it's really a combination of two values: the likelihood of precipitation in the broadcast area and the percentage of the area likely to get it. More specifically, it's the chance of .01 inch or more in the next 12 hours.

Continuing to borrow from Weather for Dummies, here's an example that shows the problem with interpreting these predictions. If they predict a 50% chance of rain in the forecast area, and 50% of the area is expected to get rain, that translates into a 25% chance of rain (50% of 50%). You still don't know how long it will rain, or how much. And, you don't know if your area will be targeted.

So for the past few years I've gotten in the habit of looking at radars in loop mode to see exactly where it's raining and which direction it's heading. I also don't use weather.com or other commercial sites because I hate the advertising.
I recommend weather.gov instead.

Or, the easier option is to carry rain gear when there's any chance of rain.

Seeing big trees

2006-07-09T09:02:00.000-05:00

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is prest
Against the earth's sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;
A tree that may in Summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair;
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.
~Joyce Kilmer, "Trees," 1914

As the poet said, "only God can make a tree" - probably because it's so hard to figure out how to get the bark on.
~Woody Allen

Last week Andrea and I took a trip to central California. As with our trip to Northern California last year, we were on a quest to see big trees - the Sequoias. Here is where we went:

Sequoia & Kings Canyon National Park
Yosemite National Park

We'd heard Sequoias were the "biggest" living things on the planet and were compelled to seek them out for that reason. The problem with superlatives like "biggest" is that they are open to interpretation. By big, do you mean height? Or girth? Or weight?

Until recently the General Sherman Sequoia tree in Sequoia National Park had the title of Biggest Living Thing on the Planet. Now it seems other organisms are vying for this title as well. There was the headline about the giant fungus sprawling mostly underground across some 2200 acres in Oregon and estimated to be 2400 years old. And then there's Pando, the huge Quaking Aspen colony in Utah which is purported to be the biggest organism by weight (6,000 tons). It's also claimed to be the oldest living organism: age estimates range from 80,000 to 1 million years.

So, ok... now the question is, what is an organism? Or, for me...what is an organism with which I can relate?

I think it's easier for people to identify with a single big tree like General Sherman. He's got a name. You can go visit him and sit next to him. There is an emotional attachment to big old trees: they are resolute, proud, steadfast, mighty, majestic. They represent hope, peace, faith, endurance, perseverance. General Sherman and other trees in those groves have been growing there since 300+ BC. Being there with them connects me with history because they lived through it.

Here are General Sherman's stats, which are very impressive by any measure:
Estimated age: 2300-2700 yrs
height: 274.9 ft
Circumference (aka girth) at ground: 102.6 ft
Max diameter at base: 36.5 ft
Diameter of largest branch: 6.8 ft
Volume: 1487 cubic metres (in 2002)

Coming back to the meaning of "biggest": if you're talking volume, then General Sherman is the biggest tree in the world. And while he's old, General Sherman is still growing at an astounding rate: Each year he adds enough wood growth to make a 60-foot-tall tree of usual proportions.

And now back to our trip:
Here is the first installment of photos, this time focused on the big trees. Future posts will include other photos from this amazing part of the US. (click for large versions):

A large Sequoia in front of the Lodgepole visitor center

Standing with the biggest tree (by volume!) on the planet: General Sherman

Among a group of trees named The Senate

Andrea holding a very large pine cone. It's not from a Sequoia, but from a Sugar pine. Sequoia cones are relatively small, about fist-sized

A grouping of Sequoias...and teeny people

A view of the Sierra Nevada range on the road to Sequoia National Park

A closeup of the shaggy bark of a Sequoia

For the record, using Andrea's Hilton Honors points, our home base was a Hampton Inn in Fresno, CA, in the middle of the huge agricultural region known as San Joaquin Valley. While it was about as central a location as you could get for the 3 parks, we ended up driving 830+ miles in 6 days , much of which was winding roads up and down the Sierra Nevada mountains. Also, like much of the country, the region has been in a heat wave: it was 95+ each day. If I had it to do over, I would stay in or near the parks themselves.

More quotes about trees:
- The Quote Garden
- The Spirit of Gardening

Word of the Day: "Silt"

2006-06-27T16:00:00.000-05:00

So, this post is really more true to the spirit of the origins of this blog. I tend to throw words or phrases into conversation that some people don't know or recognize. I don't do this to seem smart or anything...clearly not...given the number of times I misuse words. While I frequently abuse them, I like words and enjoy learning correct definitions, etymology, and other word-facts. So, this is the first of what I hope will be a running series of such posts.

Which brings us to today's word: silt

We were talking about Tee's new silver Mazda3. I don't recall exactly but I said something like: "Oh yeah, my car is silver too, which is great because it hides all the silt." Which was quickly followed by Leen saying something like "Silt?! What the heck is that?" And then I tried in vain to explain what the word was, and why I'd thought of it...but the conversation was well out of my hands by that time.

So, why did I say "silt" when I could have just said "dirt" or "dust"?
We'll probably never know for sure, but here's one explanation:

1. I get accused of being fastidious with respect to car cleanliness. The last few months there has been extensive construction directly adjacent to the office parking lot, and I've noticed a lot of extra filth build-up on my car from this site. (Keywords: car, dirt, construction)

2. My wife is an environmental auditor, and when we're driving around she tends to point out violations of environmental codes. Specifically, there are rules about stormwater runoff and windblown dust from construction sites. To control the amount of soil that washes away in a storm, companies are supposed to install silt fences to block it. They're also supposed to spray water on the ground to control wind erosion. (Keywords: construction, dirt, silt fence)

The case I'm trying to make is that when I thought of why silver is a good car color, I was thinking about the recent buildup of dirt from the construction site. That dirt, in some contexts, could be called "silt."

So of course, the important thing is: Was I right?

"Silt" is usually associated with water. For example, silt is what builds up at the mouth of a river to form a delta. At construction sites, the stuff that washes off during a storm is usually called "silt."

However, I'm going to go with the Wikipedia definition, since it implies my use of the word "silt" was perfectly acceptable:

Wikipedia definition of silt:
"Silt is soil or rock particles of a certain very small size range (see grain size). On the Wentworth scale, silt particles fall between 1⁄256 and 1⁄16 mm (3.9 to 62.5 μm), larger than clay but smaller than a sand."

Even if you insist that silt is a water-related term, I was still close: when it rains, the dirt on my car hits the pavement and, ta-da, turns into "silt"!

Homes that heat and cool themselves

2006-06-19T08:49:00.000-05:00

My "twinkle" post prompted my friend Brian to comment on our lack of reliance on that huge ball-o-potential-energy in the sky. His post reminded me of something I found out about back when Andrea and I were first looking into buying a house:

The approach to maintaining a livable temperature in the typical home is to build a box, insert a powerful HVAC system to push the right temperature air into the space, then wrap the box in fancy insulating materials to separate it from the outside elements.

If this tactic sounds simplistic, you're right. Not only that, it's amazingly inefficient. Pollution from heating and cooling buildings exceeds that from cars. Building, maintaining, heating and cooling single-family homes are major sources of pollution and a drain on natural resources.

There are many better ways to accomplish the goal of indoor climate control while also reducing overall resource consumption, and here is a fantastic example:
Enertia Building Systems

Enertia sells log-style kit homes that are designed to use the natural heating and cooling of the Earth and Sun. In simplistic terms, they use the cool air from the previous night to cool the house during the day and the heat of the sun to warm the house at night. The primary building material is renewable pine logs. Not only do logs make a low-maintenance exterior, they also serve a practical role in Enertia homes because they absorb the sun's heat.

The enertia website is full of great information on sustainability, reducing reliance on fossil fuels, as well as detailed photos of their kits homes.

Some Enertia owners build their homes to be completely independent of both fossil fuels and the power grid. Their homes are therefore said to be "off the grid." They rely on solar cells, hydroelectric, wind turbines, or other natural energy systems.

While some people might assume log kit homes would be visually unappealing, the photos show that just ain't true. I personally love the contemporary style and abundance of windows.

Jaw-dropping

2006-06-06T20:01:00.000-05:00

If you appreciate computer animation...
If you are into artificial life...
If you just want to see something magical...

then go see what these guys are up to:
1st Ave Machine USA, Inc.

(Click Projects, then click the thumbnails on the right. They do amazing CGI. Web usability? Could use some work.)

The clip that really wowed me is the first one, "Sixes Last."

The first time I saw that clip, I literally felt like I couldn't close my mouth.

(What is with that? That jaw-drop reflex? What possible purpose does it serve? A quick Google search turned up nothing. Anyone? Ideas?)

I'm not the only one who's impressed. 1st Ave Machine are #25 in Fast Company's 2006 Fast 50 List. The list is a fun read too.

Session 2 with Shokai

2006-06-04T16:23:00.000-05:00

Steve and I got together again this weekend to continue our exploration of creating music. I'm pleased with what we produced in just a few hours. He wrote a thorough summary that includes a link to the song we created and some background explaining how we approached this session - please stop by his blog (Shokai) and check it out.

I've been creating music on my own since I was young, but I really enjoy composing with someone else. I had years of music training, and I think that actually tends to limit me in some ways. I try to consciously "break" the rules, but old habits die hard. These sessions with Steve help me think about music in new and different ways. On a practical level, he was asking me to do some things I'd never tried with my music software, so it forced me to explore new tools and techniques.

As he mentions, we'll be taking a forced hiatus from collaborating. We both have other things going on over the next few weeks. He's planning to get some music software set up at his place, and I'm eager to see what he creates!

Twinkle..but not forever

2006-06-03T09:21:00.003-05:00

Image courtesy of NASA

Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are.
Up above the world so high,
Like a diamond in the sky.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!

When the blazing sun is gone,
When he nothing shines upon,
Then you show your little light,
Twinkle, twinkle, all the night.
Twinkle, twinkle, little star,
How I wonder what you are!
...
Jane Taylor, 1806

I have fond memories of American astronomer and astrobiologist Carl Sagan, who died in 1996. In the early 80's he hosted a PBS series called Cosmos which won Emmy and Peabody awards, and was reportedly the most popular PBS series of all time. He was also a leading promoter of SETI (Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence), and wrote the novel Contact, upon which the 1997 movie starring Jodie Foster was based.

I was 13 and already tumbling full-speed down the path to geekdom when Cosmos was broadcast. Sagan was like a wise uncle who was so excited to share what he knew of the universe, and I was an eager pupil. The 13 episodes covered an amazing range of topics, from black holes to the origins of life on earth, all delivered with Carl's unique eloquent voice. While it was a "science" program, he always brought it back to the human condition. I like to think he taught people to consider the "bigger picture" and to better appreciate and respect the world around them.

I internalized much from Sagan back in those days, but at least one specific tidbit stuck with me...and it has to do with the Sun.

In moments when I feel a dose of perspective is warranted, or maybe just some healthy cynicism, I throw out a pet phrase: "Well, of course you know the Sun is going to swallow the Earth at some point. So, factor that into your plans." Lately this phrase comes to mind when people talk about global warming. Har, har.

Point is, this piece of knowledge really had a profound effect on me: Someday, the Earth will be no more.

The Sun, while very special to us, is a fairly common type of star with a fairly well-understood lifecycle. Eventually, it will burn out. Well before that, it will go through what is known as the Red Giant phase. The nuclear fuel in its core will become depleted, and it will expand... a lot. It will get very, very big. As it goes through these death throes, this star which had been essential to life on our little blue planet will ultimately cause its destruction.

Now sure, we're talking about something that won't happen for 4-5 billion years. But in the Grand scheme of things, fact is, humans will not be inhabiting this planet forever.

So, there you go.

Does this fact have much impact on my daily activities? No. Very little. Except that when I bring it up in conversation, it tends to be a bit of a buzz kill.

Twilight

2006-05-30T19:11:00.000-05:00

Since I was young, I've had a fascination with twilight, that time when it's still light enough to see but dark enough that some things go hidden. In the past I have tried, with limited success, to take photos that capture the way the world looks as the sun's light fades.

Well, this photo isn't high art, but I'm excited that my new camera (Canon EOS Rebel XT) has the capability to create an image like this. And I'm inspired to try more.

Click for full size version.

In the woods again...

2006-05-29T10:33:00.000-05:00

And more closeups of critters:

Although the photo makes it look huge, this spider was quite small...maybe 3/4 inch all the way across. It was upside down in its web, under side facing up.

If the critters don't come to me, as Brian pointed out in a previous comment, I seek them out. Turn over any piece of bark, and you are bound to find a little thriving ecosystem.

This two-inch beetle and another were under the thick bark of a tree stump. It appears they were chewing away at the soft wood, leaving long beetle-size grooves. I think this might be the female of a type of Stag beetle.

While trying to ID the beetle, I found this fun site for bug fans: http://whatsthatbug.com/index.html

Music With Shokai

2006-05-28T17:46:00.000-05:00

After discussing it for years now, my friend Steve and I finally got together at my place so I could show him my music recording setup. Among his many varied interests, Steve is a music aficionado, and I thought it would be fun if he and I tried to collaborate on something. While he isn't a musician, I had a sense he would pick up on it quickly.

Well, it went far better than either of us expected. Steve jumped right in, picking out rhythms on the keyboard, and in no time we had the skeleton of a song sketched out with the percussion parts. Not long after that, he was playing chords on a lush synth pad.

The goal was really more about familiarizing Steve with the tools and exploring what was possible. But in the process we managed to churn out a respectable little composition...which is more than I've done on my own in a while!

So now Pandora's box is open, and Steve is sending me new ideas for what we'll record next time. Stay tuned...

You can read his account of our session and download the resulting MP3 at his blog here: Water Dissolves Water

Walk In the Woods

2006-05-07T13:21:00.000-05:00

Finally... a weekend with no big deadlines hanging over my head! So, I took a leisurely walk in one of the Chattahoochee parks yesterday (Johnson Ferry North). Aside from just unwinding for a few hours and enjoying the outdoors, I brought my camera to brush up on my skilz. I'd hoped to find some critters as subjects and was pleasantly surprised.

I'll let the photos speak for themselves. (Click for a bigger version.)

Here's the main site for the Chattahoochee parks:
http://www.nps.gov/chat/pphtml/maps.html

Pilgrimage to the Redwoods: Part II

2005-09-26T21:35:00.000-05:00

See Part I for the introduction. http://nicksab.blogspot.com/2005/09/pilgrimage-to-redwoods-part-i.html

Photos: Second Set

A flock of shorebirds. I love watching these little guys as they run up shore, picking morsels from the sand and twittering amongst themselves. If a big wave hits, they fly up to avoid it, then plop down again and resume their dashing up the beach. They caught my eye when they were a ways off and coming towards me, so I positioned myself in their path and sat quietly hoping they'd come close, which they did. I wanted to get them in flight but it just didn't happen.

I always spend some time reading about the animals we might encounter on a trip. This time, there were frequent mentions of the Banana Slugs - they are mollusks that live on land with no shells, feeding in the detritus on the forest floor and helping with decomposition. They're the second largest slug on Earth, growing to 10" in length. The name "banana" is derived from their coloring - yellow, with brownish spots.

We were amazed when we first saw the slugs. We'd hiked a fairly steep trail into higher elevations on our first day and came across several of them. That's where this photo was taken (it's Andrea's shoe, size 5). As our trip continued, we saw more and more, and realized they weren't as rare as we had guessed. They're fascinating to watch, and make fairly good time sliming their way along. I never got a very good photo, but they have pronounced antenna which they would withdraw when we just moved a hand toward them. Apparently the antenna have tiny light-sensing organs at the ends, so I'm guessing that is how they knew when we were approaching them. If you really bother one...say by prodding lightly with a stick...it bunches up into a thick lump.

This lighthouse was about 1000 ft from our hotel, same side of the beach. You can only walk to it at low tide. We went and walked around the base of it where we saw a large spotted starfish in a tidepool (no photo tho).

The head of this snail looks a lot like the heads of the banana slugs, with the two sets of antenna. We only saw two of these on our hikes, although they are much better camouflauged than the slugs! This one was roughly golfball sized.

One of two Red-legged Frogs we saw in the woods. Striking colors!(Frog, not toad. Toads have bumpy skin that usually looks dry.)

Many of the redwoods have outgrowths, but this one seemed to be made of them!

Flowers by the roadside. Not much more to say about that - I don't know what kind they are. Andrea said she thought she'd seen them in Home Depot.

A huge sandbar at the mouth of a river with the Pacific on the left. The sun was starting to break through and break up the heavy fog bank.

I am one who prefers to avoid the business end of a camera (that's why there's a sour look on my face :), but here's one shot to show that I was in fact there.

We'd hiked for about an hour and eventually found our way to this stream. With night coming on and odd rustling in the woods, we decided it was time to go...but we got some nice photos before we left.

Pilgrimage to the Redwoods: Part I

2005-09-18T09:59:00.000-05:00

For years Andrea and I have wanted to visit the redwoods, the tallest trees on earth. While we are both unabashed lovers of nature, of flora and fauna great and small, this time we were on a quest to experience the grandest plant in all of plantdom*. The next two blogs are a photo-diary of our trek to Northern California to see these awe-inspiring wonders of the Pacific Coast. (Click the images for larger versions.)

First, some statistics about Coast Redwoods:

Scientific name: Sequoia sempervirens. (The first part was likely named in honor of a Cherokee leader, Sequoyah. Sempervirans means “ever living.”)
Height: Tallest living things on Earth, some over 360 feet tall. Average 270-300 feet.
Age: Average 500-700, but some are as old as 2,000 years!
Range: A narrow 450-mile strip along the Pacific Ocean from central California to southern Oregon. This location provides the moist, mild climate required by the redwoods.
They suffer no known killing diseases and are unphased by bugs.
Seed size: Tiny, like a tomato seed. New trees can also start from the base of existing ones.
Roots: Their root system goes only 10-13 feet deep, but spreads from 60 to 80 feet out.

*NOTE: The Giant sequoias are cousins - they grow larger in overall bulk and girth, but not height. They can also live longer, up to 3,200 years. We'll be visiting them on a future trip - they are also found in California, in a range further South and inland.

Itinerary

September 17th, we flew from Atlanta to Eugene, Oregon, via Salt Lake City. After stopping the first night in Medford, OR, we drove to our target destination, the coastal town of Crescent City, CA. Our "home base" was a Hampton Inn right on the coast - this was the view off of our balcony.

We stayed through Thursday, then drove back to Medford so we would be a short distance from Eugene to catch our 6:30am flight. We arrived on time at the airport, only to discover the flight had been canceled. Long story short, the best option was for us to rent another car, drive 2+ hrs North to Portland, and catch a noon direct flight back to Atlanta - a crazy end to a fun trip.

Photos: First Set

We spent most of our outdoor time hiking and walking in the woods or near the ocean. The state and national forests in the area have wide, well-kept trails. Some of the ones we took were flat and level winding along streambeds, others serpentined down the coastal hills.

It goes without saying, but these images do not do justice to the sensation of being in the midst of these giants. You can at least get a sense of the sheer scale of them.

A chilly gray morning at the beach outside of Crescent City. My understanding is that these fogbanks are very important to the growth of the redwoods, the huge ferns, and other members of the Pacific Coast ecosystem.
In the other direction on the beach was a group (correct plural noun is a "wake") of vultures dining on a sea lion that had apparently washed up on shore. Interesting, but perhaps not something most people want to see!

Walking around these woods we got the sensation that we were on a movie set...that the plants and rocks and trail were crafted by hand to look like that, then carefully placed and lit, and offstage someone has turned on a fog machine.

Our second day out we're driving up through thick swirling fog on Highway 101, winding up into Del Norte Coast Redwoods State Park. We round a bend and are stunned to see sun rays shooting down through the trees through the mist. Of course I had to stop - I know, it looks cheesy. The thing is, this is exactly what it looked like. No filters here. I guess this is probably a daily occurrence out there, but I still think it's an amazing scene.

Most times I could only get a small fraction of a tree in the camera frame. This tree was no different - I took several shots and stitched them together in PhotoShop. That tree has probably been growing in that spot for over 1000 years.