Enoch’s Thoughts

March 29, 2010

Scything?

Filed under: Uncategorized — etblog @ 9:12 am

Early Friday I drove down to my childhood home to sit with Mom, my sisters, and MA while my Dad had some minor surgery. The surgery itself was quick, but there was lots of waiting time before and after, and I began to craft a posting about some of the things I was pondering during the waiting time, particularly my relationship with my father.

After he was back home and “normalcy” was restored, I drove back to my home and watched my nephew play a Friday high school baseball game. We had a nice Mexican dinner out with more family. Saturday we worked in the yard with help from daughter, boyfriend, and 3 granddogs. Saturday night was another dinner out in the Hispanic tradition, Cuban this time. Sunday morning was lazy, Sunday afternoon continued the laziness with an extended episode of Columbo (the pilot I think, the first-season DVDs having been a Christmas gift), and I closed out Sunday with a 3-hour long chat with a friend over Jasmine tea and Thai appetizers about everything from scything as a meditation technique (bonus: makes a cool Halloween prop) to deep technical details about 3D rendering (warning: don’t get me started).

Breakfast this morning at Kia-Ora included background chatter about the fact that T-Mobile cell phone service was down (thankfully, not my problem), Leonard Cohen’s inspirational Walkin’ in Memphis, and the arrival of the Masada Bakery truck (“Fulfilling your basic kneads since 1981”), at whose wheels I was tempted to kneel in adoration. But I resisted.

This morning I finally concluded that an adequate posting about the relationship between me and my Dad will take more time and thought that I can supply today. (Quick summary: Father-son relationships are often challenging, but I am very grateful for the love and support he has always provided his family, especially me.) It’s an important topic that I don’t want to treat lightly, so it will have to wait for another weekend.

For anyone with a technical thirst, I offer the following cool items from the April issue of Technology Review:


  • Zomm: Key-fob device that sounds an alarm if you get more than a few yards (meters, if you are in Canada) away from your cell phone. zomm.com
  • AR Drone: Flying toy that is controlled by iPod/iTouch over WiFi, complete with camera feedback. ardrone.parrot.com
  • Hydrofill: Personal hydrogen refueling station that uses AC or solar panels to charge metal hydride cartridges, which in turn can be used to supply power to portable devices. horizonfuelcell.com
  • Pocket radar gun: $250-dollar device for coaches and athletes. pocketradar.com

No Comments »

No comments yet.

RSS feed for comments on this post. TrackBack URL

Leave a comment

Powered by WordPress