Arachnophobia

Rather, Arachno-teamwork!

Went for a hike, had the spectacular 105mm macro with me, and came across this spider and web stretching across the trail. (It was actually quite an impressive web!). Luckily, I had a swarm of black flies around me. Lunch time for the spider! While these images are creepy to stare at, I encourage you to try, because some of the detail you can see is just amazing!

In this picture, you can see: 

-Hair on the spider's leg (not the black spiky things, look closer at the white part of the spider's leg close to it's body)

-The spider has already wrapped up one black fly and is in the midst of wrapping up another. You can see the silk it's wrapping around the second fly! Look how it's using it's front legs to assist in spinning the web.

In this picture, you can see:

-The spider has wrapped up one fly, and is on to the next. It was incredible to see how fast the spider responded to vibrations in the web. Evolution is an incredible thing.

-Look how it's 'holding on' to the web with it's left rear leg while the others are in motion. Amazing! Looking back, I wonder if a faster shutter speed would have been better, but I think not. Anyone have opinions about this?

-The spider may be a bit embarrassed that I've shown this picture, it's web there in the center is a little deranged. Look at the clump of silk...let's try to be neater next web spider. Ok? Thanks. But maybe his web was messed up from the wrapping of that black fly...then it's cool, function over form, I get it man...good work!

In this picture, you can see:

-You can see the spider excreting silk from it's abdomen, (is that what it's called? I'm not sure). Ass, we'll say. Look at him excreting silk from his ass while wrapping the black fly. :)

And here's our guy, or girl, up close (I don't know which, I'm not a spider expert). Thanks to the swarm of black flies I had surrounding me, he/she now has food for a while. You're welcome. And thanks to my 100% deet, the black flies were just interested, but couldn't commit to biting me. Well done, deet!

Here's a shot of the web, as I continued my hike. I apologize for not using a larger aperture, I'll correct that next time. This was f/10. Should have dialed in F/2.8. Next time I see a spider's web crossing a trail, while I have my D90 with the 105mm f/2.8 macro, and a swarm of black flies following me...I'll take this shot at f/2.8. Yep, this shot will be better next time. ;)

Hotel room - Rochester, NY

And so I continue with the pointless habit of taking (and sharing) pictures of the hotel rooms I stay in. Here's the one from Rochester, NY, and it was kind of a dump. There was duct tape to seal the window, and the toilet never stopped running. Anyway, it was a place to sleep for the week I was there, and that's really all I need.

The next hotel I stay in will be niiiiice :)

Half a century ago

Alan Shepard went to space and back, being the first American to enter space. Here's a replica of the capsule he rode in (from my visit to the space center in Florida). That thing is tiny!! Must have been a rush to ride.

I wish I was around for the space race, must have been an awesome thing for an engineer to witness. Hopefully we'll have something like that in my lifetime.

A train ride through Germany

I took a video on the train through Germany. I decided to play some piano in the background. Enjoy the scenery!

Hotel rooms - Germany

For some strange reason, I tend to take pictures of all the hotel rooms I've stayed in. These two are from my Germany trip, and there is a massive difference between the two. Here's the first, the one I stayed in for work. This was nice. It may have been the best hotel room I've ever stayed in. It was a resort/spa type place. Unfortunately I was so busy with work, I didn't have time to enjoy any of that. On top of that, it was only 80 euro a night!

And here's the second, I stayed in for the Nurburgring. I think my bed sheet in the second room was made from a fabric that is one step above burlap. It was rough...

Not like it mattered though, I had the autobahn and the Nordschleife to keep me happy! Speaking of, I should put at least one interesting picture in this post. 

Look at this, it's an Audi R8 (race prepped) with a Lamborghini Gallardo Superleggera in the background! (Glad I had a small aperture for that picture!) Both just finished a lap on the Nordschleife (I drove that track too!!). So awesome. I could live in Germany, or at least somewhere within driving distance of Germany. Formula 1 teams, I'm waiting on your call.

Second Germany trip...

...was better than the first! The work was harder and more stressful, but the fun was more fun. Which is really all that matters because in the long run, I won't remember much of the troubles of the work, but I'll for sure remember all of the awesomeness that was my Nurburgring weekend!

I'll be posting things from this weekend for a while. At the start of this post, I wasn't sure which thing to post first, but I'm just going to pick a video to start. This is one of a few videos I have, and I'll probably post more of them. Enjoy my terrible German, bad jokes, random movie references, over exaggerations, and sarcasm....I know I did, haha!



I realize that a few things that I say may surprise/offend a few people. I usually try to censor myself around some people to avoid offending anyone, but I was by myself in the car so no need to censor anything. If the video offends you, my apologies; but this is me, and I'm not apologizing for that :) !

Learning keyboard: Ep. 1

The first of many (or the first and last) video of me trying to play keyboard. What I have difficulty with is coming up with other background tracks for a melody. Don't worry, I know I'm not good, just trying to show progress (I've only had the keyboard for 2 months). Hopefully I'll be able to look back on this in a few years and laugh at how bad I was. After all, everything is always more fun when you're able to laugh at yourself.

Download here (right click and save as...)

I'll try to make the future ones shorter so I can upload them to YouTube. I just got carried away with the length of this one. Too much fun!

(Edit 9/25: this was a limited release)

Formula 1 '11::Race 01

This is going to be a great year for Formula 1. Some highlights and things to look for in the coming races:

• Before the start of the race, the 747 flying under the helicopter was a really cool shot! I don't know if that was planned, or an accident, but either way, it was sweet.
• Getting rid of the double diffuser made an absolutely massive difference. For overtaking, you don't need DRS (Drag Reduction System). You don't need KERS (Kenetic Energy Recovery System). You need clean air to the front wing! Did you see how close all the guys were racing? Wow, exciting stuff to come this year.
• Rubins needs to retire. Seriously. He has become a product placement guru; not a professional race car driver. Whenever he sees a camera pointing at him, he is more concerned about getting his sponsors seen than getting on with his job. Was he hoping the Mercedes he took out was Schumacher?
• Here's Alonso talking about the new button on the steering wheel for this year to control the DRS. Contrasted with what Webber had to say. How people like Webber, I'm not sure...what's he going to complain about next? Enjoy your $6.2 million a year and drive! (or retire?)
• "You have to understand that in qualifying we’re using it every single time we’re at full throttle, so it’s pretty busy. I’m on for a challenge. I’ve done Formula 3000 races round Monaco with a gear stick, so we can drive with one hand, this is not the problem." ~Alonso
• "For us to have to get used to the overload, it’s just an added bit of tummy-tapping, head-rubbing, multi-tasking which is a fraction unnecessary for qualifying, maybe." ~Webber
• Vettel is an impressive driver in an impressive car. He tends to have the same mindset as Alonso. He drives, doesn't complain and enjoys himself. I like drivers like this.
• Speaking of the Red Bull and Vettel...Are we seeing the beginning of dominance similar to the Schumacher-Ferrari days? Let's hope not!
• Well done Petrov, Perez, and di Resta. 

That is all for now. Next race Malaysia, April 10th.

Headlight restoration

With as nice as the weather has been recently (relative to how it's been for the past 4 months), I've been doing a lot more with my car. Last weekend I changed the rear brake pads. This weekend, I cleaned the interior and used the Mother's headlight restoration kit to take the yellow out of my headlights (or at least that was the sales pitch from the commercials). I took pictures before and after, so I could see how well it worked. Here's the result.

Before

After

It is an improvement, but maybe not as drastic as I hoped. Granted, in all it took me 30 minutes, so it's not bad for such little effort. I should be able to improve them more, but I need to wait for my cordless drill battery to recharge, then convince myself that it would be worth the effort.

Next weekend's car task: replace the exhaust manifold gasket. Maybe I'll get an aftermarket uppipe while I'm at it, haven't decided yet...more research required.

Fire!!!...

...in the picture! I had to be careful not to char the front of the lens, but other than that, I think it was pretty safe. Some cool shots, which required little effort/skill. I'm loving this lens! Be sure to check these out full size, it's pretty impressive.

The full flame/frame, un-cropped

1:1 crop!

From the top! Was a little worried for the lens on this one, but worth it!

Possibly the best lens ever?

...I'm not asking sarcastically either. I have a lot to learn about this lens, and photography in general. This lens is currently way out of my league. But anyway, here's my first attempt. 

Can you guess what this first picture is of?

Hint: it has the opposite effect of the drug found in this.

The later of which doesn't help when playing this.

This is a 1:1 crop. Look at the individual pixels!!!

Difficult choices

Went skiing with my sister and brother in law last weekend at Killington. Had a great time, even though there was a little bit of rain. Had a difficult decision to make when we stopped for lunch at the top.

More snow!

The past couple of weeks it felt like the winter was nearing an end. The past few days reversed that feeling. We have gotten a lot of wet, heavy snow. Good for snowballs, bad for shoveling. The problem now is that I need to lift every shovel full of snow over my head to get it on top or over the pile I've built on the side of my driveway. Here's a picture of me (to help you get a sense of the scale) sitting on the side of my driveway in the massive snowbank.

Don't bother zooming in on this picture. I'm not in focus, which is a little embarrassing.

I guess all the snow has an added benefit. Better home security! The door heading out to my backyard would take a while (not to mention a lot of effort) to open by a would be thief (not like we have those around where I live).

Discovery's final flight

The final launch of the space shuttle Discovery was successful! I'm so proud because I know I was instrumental in it's success. After all, could they have repaired it in time if I didn't take a picture of it from a mile away back in November? I think not! I've posted the picture before that was clearly instrumental to the success of the launch today (notice the expert analysis, where I pointed out that the shuttle is very big).

Here's a picture from my trip back in November. It's hard to believe that these tiles are able to protect the shuttle during reentry. They look so fragile.

I was able to watch the launch today live at work because nobody walked in my cubicle while I was watching it (it was only 5 minutes anyway). If you didn't get to see it, and want to, here it is!

      

Pale blue dot

I'm not sure why, all of a sudden, I'm coming across more and more space/planetary size comparisons. But I'm loving it! Here's the latest one, comparing the planets of our solar system to our star and others.



It's hard to even imagine how big the universe is, but it's fun to try!

That video reminds me of this picture, described by Carl Sagan himself in this video.

Learning to Cook

If I had anything else to add to better describe my cooking habits, I'd write them here. But, this flow chart sums it up perfectly. I'm about at the "I should cook more!" phase right now. It's only a matter of time until I buy ingredients and put some in a pan!

http://xkcd.com/ for more comics like this. Although be warned...the disclaimer at the bottom of the page reads "Warning: this comic occasionally contains strong language (which may be unsuitable for children), unusual humor (which may be unsuitable for adults), and advanced mathematics (which may be unsuitable for liberal-arts majors)."

Editing marathon done!

I've been working, slowly but surely, on editing pictures from Christmas. Spent a few hours this morning to power through the last of them. Out of the 619 pictures I took, 79 of them made the cut to be edited and shared. Maybe about 15 of those I'd consider really, really good. Glad I'm not shooting with a film camera, this hobby would get expensive quickly.

Here is not one of those pictures. It's actually a picture of the room I had when I went to Germany last year...random, I know, but I was going through some old pictures and thought this would be an interesting one to post.

Jupiter is massive!

Look at this video of what the other planets would look like if they orbited at the same distance as our moon. It's incredible to imagine how it would be if we saw these planets rather than the moon in our night sky. Simply amazing. I love anything like this that sparks my imagination. This is just our solar system in our galaxy in our universe, and it's breath taking. The possibilities are endless in other solar systems, galaxies, and (perhaps) other universes. Is there someone somewhere who has a Jupiter sized object filling their night sky, wondering what it would be like if their planet was orbited by a small moon sized object?


Scale from Brad Goodspeed on Vimeo.

888 - 430 = Perfection

Let me tell you, I am in love with the Ferrari F430. It's really an amazing car; just perfect really. There's nothing that would keep me from buying one if I had the money. Who could explain this better than Jeremy Clarkson...



Well, there's one thing that would keep me from buying it. The new 458. Brace your jaw so it doesn't hit the floor as you watch this clip. I was not prepared, and now I have a bruise on my chin. And yes, you want to wait for the 1080p version to buffer; it's worth it.



...Youtube needs a infinite repeat option

Birthday present

I've gotten into a habit of buying myself a birthday present once a year. Last year I got my camera, this year I got a keyboard (much, much cheaper than the camera)! Just hit the place order button on Amazon, it should be here Thursday! I love getting new toys, especially the ones that present me with a challenge. I don't play the keyboard, I've never tried to play the piano, but I did play trombone...so, there's that. Haha, this should be interesting...hopefully I'm able to teach myself without too much difficulty or frustration.

From my parents, I got a real coffee grinder (a burr grinder to replace my cheap chopping style 'grinder'). Had the coffee for the first time this morning, and it was really good. Now all I need is some whole bean French vanilla and I will be set. Now that I think about it, I should have gotten that with my keyboard order on Amazon.

As for the picture for this post, here's my parents dog enjoying the Christmas day snow (yep, it snowed down there, and yes, the whole city shut down).