Having Fun

The Casio Fiasco

If you read my earlier post you know I'm having trouble with my Casio camera. Well after several days of trying to actually speak with someone from Casio in Canada I have been informed warranty does not apply because they think the camera was "bumped". I tried to pin him down on just what "bumped means and why that would void warranty but it was like pulling teeth. They did a firmware update and returned it without any explanation So I am now stuck with a camera that reads "Lens Error #2" and takes blurry pictures. Apparently as explained to me by a fellow from Casio Canada the camera is considered fixed even while still displaying an error. I was told in no uncertain terms that nothing else will be done. While I enjoyed the camera while it worked I will never buy another Casio based on the two month fiasco I just went through. Sometimes your the windshield some times your the bug. I'm a firm believer in voting with my wallet.

Food For Thought

Don't ever take a fence down until you know the reason it was put up.

G. K. Chesterton

I Tried I Really Did....

I own a Casio camera. It broke. It has been hellish trying to get it fixed. I have sent it for repair twice and it has been returned to me again with the same error message that I sent it for. Now I am being asked to send it to a different depot for a third try. I'm thinkin Canon is looking good right now.

I Can't Resist

"People who fight fire with fire usually end up with ashes."
--- Dear Abby (Abigail vanBuren)

Justin gets a lesson

Daves Lid

This is Daves lucky helmet..... hum well it's his fav helmet.... well it's his helmet. And he has had it a long time.

Harold Buzzing Speargrass

We took a little trip up to Speargrass and I caught Harold coming by.

Flying Mara

More from Mara

Ya Got yer A's and Ya Got yer C's

A little road trip to Mara Lake was in order. We arrived to so-so conditions but all flew. For Harold and I it was the first launch at this site. I managed to get above launch on my second flight and milk it for a while. 40 minutes I would guess. This picture is me doing pre-launch sort of my lines. More to come

Flying, Flying, Flying

Ed getting his self cooked. Some times we wonder if repeated passes over the tower is any good for us.

Graduation day has finally arrived for my youngest daughter Kristine. She graduated with straight A's and grand in scholarships. Way to go Kris.

OpenSuse 11 Has Arrived

Here is a Screen Shot of the the new Open Suse 11. It is a very nice distro. The is the Gnome GUI. It is also available in KDE. Click to enlarge the image.

Fathers Day 2008

All the pilots gathered at the Little Dome LZ for a flight and man it was a flight. I was in the air for over 2 hours and got to 8000 ft.. I could see the Rocky Mountains to the west and all up and down the valleys. Man what a great day. Ed took the day 3 hours and 10,000 ft. All flew and all landed safe. A truly epic day for me.

Ed gets Yanked

Fly out at Deadmans launch near Savona. Conditions where very unstable and ...

Linux Mint 5 (Elyssa)

Wow Wow Wow. Mint 5 has arrived and it is very, very nice. It is very clean and elegant. And seems to work well. This is a screenshot of a fresh install.

Sweet Stuff

The golden opportunity you are seeking is in yourself. It is not in your environment; it is not in luck or chance, or the help of others; it is in yourself alone.
Orison Swett Marden

Pilots and Weather

Norm and Derek are discussing the finer points of unstable weather. A shot I took at Deadman's launch. A little Photoshop here and there.

Sigrid and Willy gettin some sky time. Sigrid I hope I spelled you name correctly

Sigrid At Hullcar

We took a little trip down to Hullcar and got a flight in. Les Martin was kind enought to catch my launch.

Things I find here and there

"In my own life, I am now looking back, and I can tell you that there's a wonderful moment that comes when you realize, 'I'm not striving for anything.'
"What I'm doing now is not a means of achieving something later. After a certain age, there's not a future, and suddenly the present becomes rich and it becomes a thing in itself which you are now experiencing." Joseph Campbell

Justin Has Gone Home

Sadly our grandson has returned to his fathers home in Calgary. We will miss him deeply and hope to see him return here for the summer.

Little Dome

Well We all (pilots) gathered for what we thought was going to be a great day for flying and it was a flop. You just never know what the weather is going to do. In the end three of us got off. And I had my second high flight. The air was very active but manageable. We all got down safe. Can't wait to go again.

Puppy Linux 4.0 "Dingo"

It's confirmed. This little Distro has to be the most fun I have ever had with Linux. It has booted on anything I have ever tried it on. My latest is installing it to a 1 gig SD card. It is extremely fast and the latest incarnation is under 90 megs. This includes the OS and all the basic software to get going. And if your looking for something a bit flashier. There are a multitude of variants. I just loaded a Version call "Fire Hydrant" There are four variations. The one I chose was about 200 megs complete with Java and Flash. It looks great and performed very well. If speed is your thing then try a version of Puppy Linux. The OS runs from ram, if you have over 128meg. And it flies. Also give Teenpup 2008 a look. It has everything but the kitchen sink and weighs in around 500megs.

Gallbladders and Grandsons

Just sitting here with an aching bellybutton. I had my gallbladder out last Mon. and I think I have and infection. Bell is getting very sore and red around the button. Off to the Dr. tomorrow. But Just have a few minutes to let you know we have our Grandson living with us. Justin arrived last week and we have been getting settled in together. He arrived under some difficult circumstances but we are going to try to help him find his way.

Vista SP1 Woes

Say what you will about Vista but besides being an absolute resource hog and some file transfer issues it has performed OK. Having said that though I will add that any OS that needs 600+ megs just to load is needless bloat ware. But alas I digress. I have tried to install SP1 about 9 or 10 times. My first few attempts where on my own and searching the net for solutions. The last few have been with email help from Microsoft. After 4 more tries with solutions from them I am beginning to find it all just a little bit much. No service pack should give you this much grief. There is nothing special about my machine. Acer 5630 Core 2 Duo 1.66 2 gig ram 160 Nvidia Go 7300. The only thing unusual is perhaps that it dual boots Linux Mint. At this point I am waiting for a reply from Microsoft after sending some log files. My wife runs a Mac Book with Parallels and had no issues installing the SP. It must be embarrassing for Redmond to have to create a whole team to help us "common folks" install their patch. I have been working with "Gillian" he answers back every fews days with a few more "solutions" to help me have a safer more enjoyable computing experience. Can't wait to see what they come up with next.

The Mission

This is where I work.

Saturday Afternoons & New Floors

Well I'm just surfing the net around looking out the window. The weather has turned ugly with 40kmh + winds and just below zero temperatures. It was snowing last night. I just finished laying my first floor. We chose a new product. There vinyl planks that are simply laid down over and solid sub-floor or in my case an old tile floor (we ripped up old carpet). I was a little nervous to start with but it was really quite simple. The only tools I needed where a good solid 36 inch ruler and a sharp knife to cut and score the planks. I would recommend this product to anyone wanting to upgrade with simplicity in mind. The product is called Trafficmaster "Allure" It looks good and has a 25 year warranty.

Vernon Reserve Clinic

We headed down to Vernon to do a reserve repack clinic. Of course we also got some air time in. Here is a couple of shots of things we saw. I will be posting more pictures at my web album.

Here is my new Grandson

We spent a few hours parawaiting at Little Dome. Not much to report

Here is Bryce and his new wife Quyen. In Vietnam a few months before the wedding

Wedding Bells

My Friend and co-worker Bryce Kowalsky recently married in Vietnam. Here is the happy couple

Ayden Damon Shpak

I'm way late but I must let you all know of the arrival of my newest grandson. He came into the world late Valentines day. Much to the approval of his brother Xavier. He was born in Quesnel B.C. and is the pride and joy of his mom and dad.