A Witness and a Warning

“I fully believe that we can turn things around in America if we have the determination, the morality, the patriotism, and the spirituality to do so.

I testify to you that God’s hand has been in our destiny. I testify that freedom as we know it today is being threatened as never before in our history. I further witness that this land—the Americas—must be protected, its Constitution upheld, for this is a land foreordained to be the Zion of our God. He expects us as members of the Church and bearers of His priesthood to do all we can to preserve our liberty.

May God bless us that, with His help, we will not fail to bring to pass His purposes on earth.”

Ezra Taft Benson, “A Witness and a Warning,” Ensign, Nov 1979, 31

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NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) Mission

A United Launch Alliance Delta II (Delta 347) ...

Image via Wikipedia

For as long as I can remember I’ve had an interest in space and astronomy.

Though I’ve never really taken the time and put forth the effort to learn about the sky to any great depth, I have had various pairs of binoculars and small telescopes over the years.  I even had the opportunity at one point to utilize the observatory on the Tidewater Community College Virginia Beach Campus.

Despite the interest and the help, I’ve still never taken the personal effort to do it right, learn the constellations, and sort of “dig a little deeper” into the details.

However, the recently released pictures taken from NASA’s Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer (WISE) mission are absolutely incredible and just might reignite the spark.  Taken in the infrared spectrum, the pictures are a veritable gold mine for sky enthusiasts and provide some neat insights into the universe in which we live.

Aside from that, they’re also pretty cool…go take a look if you get the chance :)

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Life at Sea (Repost)

Not sure who authored this originally, but it’s truly a classic.

Some Ways to Simulate Being in the Navy

  1. Lock all friends and family outside. Your only means of communication should be with letters that your neighbors have held for at least three weeks, discarding two of five.
  2. Surround yourself with 200 people that you don’t really know or like: people who smoke, snore like Mack trucks going uphill, and use foul language like a child uses sugar on cereal.
  3. Unplug all radios and TVs to completely cut yourself off from the outside world. Have a neighbor bring you a Time, Newsweek, or Proceedings from five years ago to keep you abreast of current events.
  4. Monitor all home appliances hourly, recording all vital information (ex. plugged in, lights come on when doors open, etc)
  5. Do not flush the toilet for five days to simulate the smell of 40 people using the same commode.
  6. Lock the bathroom twice a day for a four hour period.
  7. Wear only military uniforms. Even though nobody cares, clean and press one dress uniform and wear it for 20 minutes.
  8. Cut your hair weekly, making it shorter each time, until you look bald or look like you lost a fight with a demented sheep.
  9. Work in 19-hour cycles, sleeping only four hours at a time, to ensure that your body does not know or even care if it is day or night.
  10. Listen to your favorite CD 6 times a day for two weeks, then play music that causes acute nausea until you are glad to get back to your favorite CD.
  11. Cut a twin mattress in half and enclose three sides of your bed. Add a roof that prevents you from sitting up (about 10 inches is a good distance) then place it on a platform that is four feet off the floor. Place a small dead animal under the bed to simulate the smell of your rackmate’s socks.
  12. Set your alarm to go off at 10 minute intervals for the first hour of sleep to simulate the various times the watchstanders and nightcrew bump around and wake you up. Place your bed on a rocking table to ensure you are tossed around the remaining three hours. Make use of a custom clock that randomly simulates fire alarms, police sirens, helicopter crash alarms, and a new-wave rock band.
  13. Have week old fruit and vegetables delivered to your garage and wait two weeks before eating them.
  14. Prepare all meals blindfolded using all the spices you can grope for, or none at all. Remove the blindfold and eat everything in three minutes.
  15. Periodically, shut off all power at the main circuit breaker and run around shouting “fire, fire, fire” and then restore power.
  16. At least once a month, force the commode to overflow to simulate a ‘black water system’ boo-boo.
  17. Buy a gas mask and smear it with rancid animal fat. Scrub the faceshield with steel wool until you can no longer see out of it. Wear this for two hours every fifth day especially when you are in the bathroom.
  18. Study the owner’s manual for all household appliances. Routinely take an appliance apart and put it back together.
  19. Remove all plants, pictures and decorations. Paint everything gray, white, or the shade of hospital smocks.
  20. Buy 50 cases of toilet paper and lock up all but two rolls. Ensure one of these two rolls is wet all the time.
  21. Smash your forehead or shins with a hammer every two days to simulate collision injuries sustained onboard Navy ships.
  22. When making sandwiches, leave the bread out for six days, or until it is hard and stale.
  23. Every 10 weeks, simulate a visit to another port. Go directly to the city slums wearing your best clothes. Find the worst looking place, and ask for the most expensive beer that they carry. Drink as many as you can in four hours. Take a cab home taking the longest possible route. Tip the cabby after he charges you double because you dress funny and don’t speak right.
  24. Use fresh milk for only two days after each port visit.
  25. Keep the bedroom thermostat at 2 deg C and use only a thin blanket for warmth.
  26. Ensure that the water heater is connected to a device that provides water at a flow rate that varies from a fast drip to a weak trickle, with the temperature alternating rapidly from -2 to 95 deg C.
  27. Use only spoons which hold a minimum of 1/2 cup at a time.
  28. Repaint the interior of your home every month, whether it needs it or not.
  29. Remind yourself every day: ‘it’s not just a job, it’s an adventure!’
  30. Mix kerosene with your water supply to simulate the distilling plant on the ship picking up JP5 in the intake — if a lit match thrown into your coffee pot doesn’t ignite it, add more kerosene.
  31. Stand outside at attention at dawn and have the poorest reader you know read the morning paper out loud. Be sure to have him skip over anything pertinent.
  32. Every four hours, check the fluid level in your car’s radiator. Check the tire pressure and replace air lost from excessive pressure checks. Be sure to place red tag on ignition stating “DANGER: DO NOT OPERATE” while you perform these checks. Inform your neighbor as to the results of these checks, have him tell you to repeat the checks because he did not see you perform them.
  33. Paint your house grey (exterior) include windows except for rooms you do not frequent, paint your car grey, paint your driveway a different shade of grey.
  34. Wait outside your dining area as a family member eats a meal, then have that person serve you a meal prepared several hours earlier.
  35. Shut all blinds and doors at sunset.
  36. Clean your house ’till there’s absolutely not a speck of dust anywhere. Call on a stranger to come inspect your house. Ensure stranger sees dust that has collected in the time it took to find him. Stranger cannot leave until he finds irrational fault with your house/belongings.
  37. Hang Christmas lights in June. When the neighbors ask, say, “deceptive lighting.”
  38. Hang white lights when relatives visit. When neighbors ask, say, “friendship lights.”
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Reflections of Christ

At this time of year the thoughts of many of us tend to shift from the worries of the rest of the year and turn to things of a more eternal perspective.  Mark Mabry and his crew have produced a wonderful exhibit described at his website, Reflections of Christ, that focuses on Christ in, what I consider to be, a most thoughtful and extremely touching manner.

This first video looks at Christ’s birth, death, and glorious Resurrection and recreates some of the stories and scenes we remember from the New Testament.

This second video focuses on Christ’s visit to the Americas, following his Resurrection, as described in The Book of Mormon.  Just as in the first video, the emotions expressed by those being photographed are so real and genuine that I think it’s hard to not feel the emotions yourself.

I hope that you will enjoy these videos as much as I do.

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas!

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the JoshMeister on Security: How to Preview Shortened URLs (TinyURL, bit.ly, is.gd, and more)

On many social networks, it’s a common practice to use shortened redirect URLs rather than linking directly to the (often much longer) original URL of a page. This is especially common when character limits are imposed, such as Twitter’s 140 character maximum.

This is a great article with short & quick guidance on how to be safe when utilizing URL shortening services.  They are terrific tools but must certainly be used with caution…

Source: the JoshMeister on Security: How to Preview Shortened URLs (TinyURL, bit.ly, is.gd, and more).

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2011 Toyota Tacoma Ham Radio Installation

Control Head Mounted in ConsoleWell, the project is done and I think it turned out pretty well.  I wasn’t able to take any “in process” photos but I did take a series of pictures after completion and I’ve posted them on Picasa at the link below.

I was able to complete the install without doing any “permanent” changes to the vehicle aside from the hole drilled in the roof for the NMO mount.  The cup holder insert and the storage compartment in the back are both replaceable if ever needed.Fully Stocked Storage Compartment

Toyota makes some nice little plastic retainers for cable routing that are installed under the kickplates.  Using a flat blade screwdriver I was able to pop them open and route my cables through with no problem.

The GPS antenna receives a good signal on the back window and is mounted with the same Radio Shack SuperLock I used for the radio body.  I also mounted the 12VDC accessory outlet temporarily with SuperLock until I come up with a solution I like better.

All in all the installation went very well.  Some may feel that the control head is mounted too low to be very useful but I’m happy with it.  I wired the audio directly into the sound system, mainly because it was there, but it has actually worked out very well for me.

Hopefully there is another Ham out there that will find this useful.  If you have any questions I didn’t cover, please ask!

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