ET's Info-Stew

Finally, after over eight months, I climbed back into the left seat of a Cessna 172. Tom from Centennial Flyers checked me out in N6346D, a Cessna 172M. We did three circuits in the pattern, the first a touch-and-go, the second a go-around, and the third a power-off emergency simulation to a full stop. Both landings were pretty darn good. But I was a little rusty in some procedures. The go-around took me off guard and I neglected to apply full power, the #1 thing you need to do. The soft-field approach (which preceeded the go-around) wasn't really soft-field technique.

Okay, so a gaming accessory is not necessarily a required component of my new system. But, it is something that I can use now, so I went out and bought a Belkin n52te Gaming Keypad. I've tried it out only briefly, but I can already tell that it is going to be a lot easier to use and more comfortable than my laptop keyboard.

Yep, it gets pretty cold here, apparently. When we open the back door to let Champ go to the bathroom, he looks up at us like "Are you kidding me?" Just a little treat for friends in family in CA.

There is one bad thing about Colorado: the closest Fry's Electronics is in Texas. Luckily I recently found something similar to it, Micro Center. There is one that is about 20 minutes away. It is smaller than your typical electronics store, but it is more like a Radio Shack for computers with lots of component parts. They have decent deals probably comparable to Fry's, though you can always find the best deals online. And just walking around the store and listening to how they were helping customers I could tell the staff was very knowledgeable (i.e. geeks). I have a feeling I'll be visiting that store a lot.

Today I started off my Noob Fragger by buying a computer case. I didn't want just any case, I wanted one that would work well for high performance computing. Heat is a big problem with high performance computers, which is why computers have fans. Some may think that fans serve to blow cool air on components to cool them down. Actually the fans in a computer serve to draw warm air away from the components. That's why, for example, you feel air coming out of laptop fans.

Micro Center has some December deals going on, so I was able to purchase the Antec Nine Hundred for $80, which is about $30 cheaper than from Newegg.com. It has pretty good reviews.

It comes with three 120mm fans (two in front, one in back) and one huge 200mm exhaust fan. Two more 120mm fans can be put in if more airflow is needed. In general, all those fans are supposed to really keep the temperature manageable. There are two things I'll have to look out for. One, there isn't a great deal of length (front to back) so the long video cards are going to be snug. Two, the power supply will be mounted on the bottom, which means that the power cords to the motherboard will probably need to reach farther, so that is something to keep in mind when purchasing a power supply.

Here are some of the pictures. Click to see bigger pictures and from there you can click to see all the pictures of the case.

Over the next several weeks to several months I'm going to be building a computer from scratch. The good old laptop (Gateway NX860XL) is great for mobile computer and work, but lately I've found it lacking in the online gaming department. So this new computer will be my next big toy. I want to chronicle my progress as I put it together because it might be interesting or useful to others.

It's been late in coming, but we're finally getting some good snow here. Champ just loves it! If it is actually snowing, he'll try to catch snowflakes out of the air. Or he'll be running and kick up snow, and he'll chase after the snow he kicked up, making him go faster and kick up even more snow. He also likes to eat the ice under the snow. He got freaked out by a snowman we made.

Driving in snow is certainly interesting. Neither of us have had much experience with it so we go slow. Yet, it's good to see other drivers going slow too. Everyone is driving extra carefully. I'm not taking my Sentra out of the garage while there is snow on the ground. It's been sitting for a month. I don't really need to go anywhere, so that works just fine for me.

Here are some pictures. Click on one to see it bigger, and from there you can browse to the other pictures in the gallery.

I haven't posted anything new in a while, so here is what's going on.

Since last year Jenny and I have been discussing when we'll be getting another dog. Lassen was a huge loss for us and his passing left a huge hole. Today we've picked up the newest member of our family: Champ Thomas. He is a 12-week-old Toy Fox Terrier Miniture Pincher mix. He's only 3.5 pounds, and he's expected to reach 7-9 pounds. So he is a small dog.

The story of how we got him is a little amusing. Jenny and I wanted to wait until our travel was done toward the end of August. While I was on travel Jenny visited the pet store, found Champ, and fell in love with him. She even went as far as to put a $100 deposit on him, though she didn't tell me. She sent me pictures and told me his history. When I got home from travel she said she wanted me to go see him the next day, and that's when she said she already put down the deposit. When I met him I fell in love with him right away. He seemed to like me too, even though I accidentally dropped him when he tried to jump from my arms in the holding pens. So we ended up getting him. At first we decided to call him Jack. But then when Liz came over with Bailey, we decided to change it to Champ, like the Broncos player.

He was bred by a breeder and given to a mall pet store to be sold. The rest of his litter had already been sold and he was the only one left because he had pneumonia his first couple weeks at the store. We have his breeding history, some medical records and his shot records (he only has a rabies shot left).

He is a spunky dog, always on the move. We are clearly going to have a chewing problem during his puppyhood, so we'll need to keep him busy with lots of chew toys. I love his high level of activity, because it means I can play with him a little rough.

We intend to raise him differently than we did Lassen. Since we have a house and I work from home, potty training him should be much easier. We're also going to start obedience puppy training right away. Lastly, we'd like to crate train him, which can be used to keep him tame and under control when the situation calls for it. I'd like to get him on a natural food diet, not just dog food. I felt bad for Lassen always having to eat his dry dog food.

Here are a few pictures from his first day home.

23:28 - This morning I awoke at about 8 AM after a pretty good night of sleep. At 10 AM we hit the trail back to the car. Because Carl was carrying about 55 pounds with that 15 pound bowling ball rock, I expected we'd hit the car at about 2 PM. Well we set a good steady pace and hit the half-way point at 11:20 AM! 3.5 miles in 80 minutes is pretty good considering our shape and the terrain.

Last night's sleep wasn't as good as the first night, but it was decent. I got up at about 7:30 AM, ate breakfast, and thought about what I wanted to do today. Bill and Carl left for the south side of Rockbound for fishing, so I decided I would hike up to Rubicon Reservoir.

I left camp at about 10:30 AM and made it to a ridge more than a mile further in that overlooked Rockbound, Rubicon Reservoir, and Fox Lake. Seeing how close Fox Lake was I figured I'd go check it out after a swim in Rubicon Reservoir.