Stan's Blog

Spring Fling is May 5

Stanley Turner — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 02:55:41 +0000

Come to the Cabin 2012 Spring fling event. Bring Food, Good times other stuff. There will be music (Don’t know who, or What). A Raffle (Don’t know what or how much). A Pot luck (Don’t know how much or what kind [but maybe a smoked something]) Bee There. I will be there on Thursday.

Gotta Bee down my neck

Stanley Turner — Tue, 27 Mar 2012 01:03:46 +0000

I was spending time alone at the cabin doing my thing when I decided to eat the last piece of chicken from my cooler. So I took that good looking chicken and went next to the creek to eat it. I was pulling pieces of skin off and throwing them to the hungry fishes. When suddenly a bee flew into my collar and got stuck there, buzzing next to my skin. It hadn’t stung me yet but I knew a sting was imminent if the bee felt threatened. I tried not to panic and used my floppy hat to try to brush it out from my neck. I failed. I started doing the funky dance which consisted of lots of shaking my shoulders and twisting my body while arching my back to give room for the bee to fly free. This succeeded in getting the bee to fall further down inside my shirt. The bee was happily buzzing around in my shirt which was not helping me to relax. I decided to keep dancing. While continuing this enthusiastic funky dance, I dropped my yummy piece of chicken which rolled down and dropped into the creek. The bee was still buzzing in my shirt but since I now had two hands free, I carefully unbuttoned my shirt while trying not to pinch the bee against my back which might lead to stinging which would thusly make my solo woods dance meaningless. By thrusting my shoulders back and arcing my back I released the shirt from my manly torso and the bee flew off into the wilderness without her stinger fulfilling the purpose that nature created for it. My communion with nature was now complete but I was still hungry and my last piece of chicken was now at the bottom of the creek. I could see it down there and I think my dance had scared off the fish. Not enough time had passed for the crawdads or turtles to go after it. So I took my shoes off and rescued my chicken. It looked clean and I shook the water off of it. I ate it. It was good. I didn’t get sick. Dumb bees.

The Virginia Falconers’ Association was at the Pole Barn

Stanley Turner — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 02:53:36 +0000

The VFA came to the Pole Barn to hunt Bunnies with Hawks and Falcons.

GyrFalcon at the Pole Barn

They stayed all day but no kills were made. The bunnies cooperated. One even ran between Nick’s legs, but the Hawk ignored it.

He posed for pictures

Nicks Dog Boo tried to get the falcon. I have video of it.

Boo Tries to kill Falcon

I got my Hair Cut today

Stanley Turner — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 01:21:01 +0000

Eddie and I went and got a Haircut today. My hair Cutter-ist wanted to trim my beard which I declined. But she also wanted to do something to my Eyebrows. I have never done anything to my eyebrows other than trimming long hairs that poked me in the eyes. I don’t know what she would have done to me. Maybe shave my eyebrows to those thin little lines that models get. Or maybe they shave them off and draw them in with an eyebrow pencil. I guess I should have asked her what was wrong with my eyebrows. Now I will never know.

I bricked my Android Phone

Stanley Turner — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 02:31:46 +0000

I have a Samsung android Captivate phone which I have had for about a year. I upgraded my iPhone 3G to get it. AT&T have been VEERRRYYY slow in updating the phones operating system and my phone is now 3 versions behind. I really need my latest Bios fix. The new Bios is supposed to add many special features an make my battery last longer. So I decided to use one of the available internet solutions that a very active group of people have created to update their Bios’s. After much reading and research, I downloaded various installation files and development kits. I had backed up my phone so that I could put all my apps back with their data after I “Flashed” my phone (It means to put a new Bios on the phone). The first step was to Flash my phone back to its stock configuration as it came from the factory. That went well. I had to push buttons on the phone in a special way while powering up to put it in Download mode, hooked it up to the laptop and started the program. When it was done, all my apps were gone and its screen looked like it had just come new out of the box. I tested my backup program and put back most of my apps. So that worked. I decided to go for it and Flash to a newer Bios called Gingerbread. I put the phone in download mode, hooked it to my laptop and started the Gingerbread Bios update program. Everything looked good for the first couple of minutes. But then nothing happened. I waited. Nothing continued to happen. I waited some more. Nothing happening seemed to be all my phone wanted to do. After about 20 minutes of nothing happening, I gave up. I unhooked the phone. The screen went blank. I pushed buttons. My phone would lock up with a new set of Icons I had not seen before. This required more research. The research said to push buttons in various different ways. The phone would only show the new Icon and ignore my button pushes. My phone was in a state referred to as being “Bricked”. Meaning the phone was now only useful as a brick. After lots more research it seems that Samsung phones can be in 2 forms of Brickie-ness. There is a “Hard Brick” which means the phone is a total loss. And there is a “Soft Brick” which might be a total loss. My phone was in a Soft Brick state but could change to a Hard Brick. To replace my phone would cost a lot. After more research, there is a potential cure for Soft Bricked phones, but it requires that I create a special USB connector with a 300k OHM Resistor wired in a special way. So I grabbed a spare USB cable, took it down in my basement and attacked it with my Dremel to expose the pins on the USB connector. After much grinding and cutting I determined that my USB connector did not have the proper connection for me to attach the resistor. All my other USB cables looked to be the same style. Bummer. It seems I could buy one of the connectors from Ebay for about $9, but that would take a week or more. I might be able to get the parts from Radio Shack, but it is not normally stocked. This is where I stand on Monday November 7. I went to work today without a phone. I was sad. I missed my phone. Then I realized that I could pull my Android Sim card and go back to the dark side and put it in my iPhone 3G. When I tested it, I now had an iPhone that worked as a phone on the AT&T network again. Once I get my USB thingie, I will try to fix my android. More information to follow.

Nov 14, 2011

My research sent me to a web site which sent me to an electronics parts site which had a mini USB test thingie. I ordered it and should have my test thing tomorrow. I found in my basement electronics stash an 300k Ohm resistor. So once it arrives i hope to wrap the resistor thru the holes and plug it into my phone. If I am lucky, it will go into download mode and i can unbrick it. Wish me luck.

My blender is sharp

Stanley Turner — Sun, 25 Sep 2011 00:36:14 +0000

At my new place of employment I have been spoiled because they had a Starbucks in the cafeteria where I got my caffeine fix each morning. But at $2 a pop I decided to start making Coffee in my Cubicle. At home I had a large container of Coffee beans. But I did not think it would be a good idea to grind coffee beans in my cubicle each morning. Therefore I decided that to grind my beans at home and take the grounds to work. During my investigation of how my coffee grinder worked, I noticed that it had little tiny blades just like my the ones in my blender, only the blenders ones were bigger and since I had a LOT of beans to do, I decided to use the blender to grind my beans. So I dump about a half cup of beans in the blender and switch it to grind mode. Things spin around and the blades spin real fast but not all the beans have get ground up. So I turn it off and grab my special silicon spatula thingie and poke it into the blender to stir things up. I fire up the blender again and more beans are ground up but I need to stop it and stir things up. A couple more times and I have some grounds to go in my coffee ground container. I still have a lot of beans left so I dump a bunch more beans in the blender and start it up. Lots of grinding occurs and it needs stirring again. I decide to save time and leave the blender on when I stick my black silicon stirrer thingee in the blender to move things around. I figure since the silicon is so flexible that I could stand up to a little beating by the blender blades. At first, things work as expected and I push beans into the spinning blades. Occasionally the blades hit the rubber silicone spatula and it makes a loud noise but the silicone is strong and survives without damage. I start to grind my 3rd set of beans and just plan to use the spatula the whole time. Towards the end of the grinding process, I really push the spatula into the blades many times. Suddenly the sound changes as the blender finally succeeds in ripping my fancy black silicone spatula to shreds. I now have lots of little silicone particles mixed up in my coffee grounds. Since I really don’t want to waste any of my coffee grounds, I decide to add the whole coffee ground/silicone mix into my coffee ground stash. I figure that since the silicone is inert to about 500 degrees, that it would not hurt things because the coffee filter would keep the silicone out of my coffee. Also, the silicone is black and does not distract from the color of the coffee grounds. So I happily take my container of coffee grounds to work and have been making coffee all week.

I need a new Laptop

Stanley Turner — Tue, 24 May 2011 00:28:24 +0000

I was watching TV and browsing the web on my laptop, when the laptop made a kind of fizt, pop sound and the screen went dark and it died. It was an old laptop, it only had 80 Gb of disk. But until 5 minutes ago, it was a good laptop. I wasn’t suprised tho. So now I have to shop for a new one.

You know you have been coughing a lot when….

Stanley Turner — Wed, 15 Dec 2010 04:01:27 +0000

For the last week, I have had a cold with sneezing, a runny nose and lots of productive coughing. While I was cleaning up after dinner in the kitchen, I had to cough a lot. Laura was helping and we were talking. I had a fit of coughing into my hand then I did some stuff and noticed that my hand was sticky. When I looked at my hand it was covered with some red slime and I think “Oh S#%t”, I have just coughed up some blood. As I examined the red goo, I tried to think about what it meant. I remembered from some stupid television hospital drama that you could tear your esophagus from too much coughing. I figured that blood from my lungs probably was not going to be good for my evening relaxation and I didn’t want to show my red gooie hand to Laura. So I calmly walked over to the white paper towels to wipe my reddish problem up and get a better look at it. I don’t know why, but I licked the white paper towel and rubbed my teeth to see if there was any blood in my mouth. There wasn’t any. The red stuff on the paper towel just did not look right so I started thinking about what I had been doing. I remembered that before I had done that last cough, I had put something in the refrigerator. When I looked in the fridge, I saw that it was a jar of mild red Salsa. It seems that I had not done a good job of pouring the salsa out and it had dribbled down the side of the jar. It got on my hand when I put it in the fridge. I should learn to be neater in the future. Maybe I will increase my medical insurance coverage.

I hit a Deer with my Prius

Stanley Turner — Sun, 24 Oct 2010 01:21:33 +0000

As I was driving along Vale road at high speed in my Prius with my family. I noticed that there was a Deer on the side of the road. As I came near it, it decided to cross the road. I started to hit my brakes and I saw that the Deer saw me as it put its foot on the road. I figured, “Ah Ha!” it will not continue onto the road and I could stop hitting my brakes. I was wrong. It decided to “Go for it”, trusting in its speed to cross the road. Stupid deer. It timed its crossing so that I would be forced to hit it. I hit my brakes harder as the deer was running broadside so it would be easier to hit. My anti-lock braking system started to do its buzzing thing as I hit the brakes really hard. My left front bumper struck the deer with a loud THUMP which sent the deer sliding on its side across the road. I watched its legs kicking the air as it tried to get back on its feet. I figured that I had broken its back legs and I was about to witness something horrible as it tried to stand up. It finally got its feet under itself and started running towards the woods as I failed to see any dangling appendages on the deer. But it seemed uninjured and disapeared into the woods. So I kept on driving down the road to my destination where my car did not show any damage.

OctoberFest 2010 is Coming

Stanley Turner — Mon, 20 Sep 2010 00:29:28 +0000

OctoberFest Is Comin from October 7-12. With most things happening on Saturday October 9th. Remember that Monday is a holiday. Come see the updated George Pavilion. It is now twice as big. All the normal things should happen. Lots of camping. Pot luck dinner. Don’t forget to bring the best kind of junk for the Raffle. We might also have a live band. Bee there.