| Friday, July 22, 2005 |
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Arial Photography
by brian @ 20:28:30 - [perma-link]I made a bracket to carry my Sony U-20 really tiny digital camera on
my RC plane, and mounted a servo on the bracket to press the button.
Now when I'm flying, I can click the "gear" switch to take photos. These are the first pictures I've taken. They're mostly blurry,
except for the one of my car in the parking lot. There was a lot of
wind on that flight, and the airplane battery was low. If I hadn't
accidentally left the camera in "Play" mode on the first flight,
there might have been more, better pictures. |
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| Monday, July 18, 2005 |
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Waverunner
by brian @ 17:05:37 - [perma-link]Connie got a new toy. Its a blast. We cruised it around on the
river a few days ago. I can't wait to go on it again! |
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| Friday, July 15, 2005 |
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Connie and Brian's 2 year old yard
by brian @ 17:41:46 - [perma-link]I grabbed Brian's camera to take some pictures of our "Bird Girl"
when I decided to take a bunch of pictures. Things have changed a
lot since the last time I posted pictures of our yard. Let's face
it, it was looking pretty pathetic. I power washed the front walk
and porch and the backyard deck. What a difference! It looks so
good. That was a lot of work though. Brian and I hung a bunch of
copper lights from the arbor in the backyard. It really makes it
look cool out there at night. Oh yeah, we also got a kick ass new
bird bath. Check it out... Connie |
   
   
   
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| Thursday, July 14, 2005 |
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Cat Mac
by brian @ 23:46:52 - [perma-link]I've had a pad on my desk for the cats to sleep on for a while. The
pad fit nicely in the old iMac shell. Its taken about 8 hours, but
oscar finally seems to have warmed up to it, and he's sleeping in it
now. |
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| Monday, July 11, 2005 |
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Weekend Flying
by brian @ 14:16:58 - [perma-link]Josh and I went to the hobby shop yesterday and I picked up another
RC airplane. This one is a bit more durable than the "profile" plane
I got last week. The profile plane, so-called because of the flat-
foam fuselage, wasn't very durable. The motor would snap off a few
inches of the body whenever it crashed; 3 short flights, 3 crashes.
The profile plane is on hold until it is repaired and I am more
skilled as a pilot.
The "Slow Stick" is much more durable, as you can see in the video.
It went together pretty quickly, and survives nose-landings with
minimal damage. The first flight ended with a dead battery, but I
managed to drop it on the gear. The next flight was with a stronger
battery. It had more power, which gave it a strong climbing
tendency. The controls were still off a bit, so after a few stall
practices (ha!), it plowed into the earth. The prop-saver did its
job, but I lost the o-ring that holds the prop.
The final flight yesterday, which was not recorded, had the prop
bolted on solid. I also adjusted the control rods with the intent of
giving it more rudder throw. Unfortunately I moved the connection
the wrong way giving even less throw, for approximately no steering
control, just up and down (and mostly just up). The crash landing on
that short flight ended up snapping the prop.
I need to get more o-rings and fix the controls, then it will be
ready to fly again.
Click to watch the video
ps - I had another flying lesson (in a real plane) this morning. My
landings are getting really smooth, even with the crazy wind at
Scappoose today. |
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| Monday, July 4, 2005 |
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Happy Fourth of July
by brian @ 19:22:28 - [perma-link]Some friends of ours came into town for the long weekend. Today we
went out on our boat to do some wakeboarding. Unfortunately we left
the wakeboard at home in the garage, so it was just an afternoon of
tubing behind the boat. It was a blast. Chris took some videos.
click to watch the video. |
   
   
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| Wednesday, June 29, 2005 |
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Large is the new Medium...
by brian @ 17:38:13 - [perma-link]Jack in the box has small, medium and large drinks. I ordered a medium.
Its huge.
I filled it up, then looked for the right lid. "Quencher", Large,
Regular. No "medium".
The Large lid fits the Medium. Excellent. |
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| Friday, June 24, 2005 |
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Scorned Woman salsa
by brian @ 11:29:06 - [perma-link]Lol |
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Best pizza in Savannah
by brian @ 13:22:05 - [perma-link]Isser and Ava told us about this place when they gave us a quick tour of
downtown last night after dinner. It was the only restaurnt they had
anything positive to speak of, but their a tad biased since their sons
recently opened up a fabulous restaurant downtown. |
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| Tuesday, May 31, 2005 |
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Another Video
by brian @ 01:07:44 - [perma-link]We went over to Josh & Nikki's today. Go figure.
The weather was nice, so Josh and I tried out the RC airplane
Connie's parents sent me a while back. I'd only tried it a couple of
times before, but there wasn't a big enough space by my house to fly
it. It flies great over in the giant field by the school.
Unfortunately it was too far away in some of the shots, and the mpeg
compression squished it right out of view.
While the plane was charging, I tried using the camera riding the
skateboard. I still need more practice aiming (or is it framing?)
while trying to navigate on wheels.
And of course, a few shots of the dogs. They had a blast chasing the
plane around the field.
I put this one together really quickly. There wasn't really much to
work with. I thought going back and forth between the rough skating
sound and the quiet of the plane flying sounded cool, but I don't
think I pulled it off in any artistic way ;).
Click to watch the video. |
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