Remembering PRESTAGS

Orroral Valley fire

saw plume while driving. went back to take some photos.

wish that ice age would hurry up and arrive ....

Advent

One week until Christmas.

Our decorations are up.

Christmas tree, Sir Lance's bird cage and a Christmas wreath on the door.

The world needs Christ more than ever, but there is so much rejection of Christ and hostility to Christ in the world. Our Saviour is betrayed everywhere, even by some in His own Church.

Could have been embarrassing ...

got up for Mass in a hurry, pulled on my pants.

About to go out the door, and my rear end feels very airy ...

Huge hole in seat of pants. Explains why it was feeling a little airy last night.

Better at home than at Mass though ...

Integration

 

Pride

 

System

 

Inevitability

 

Aggregation

 

 

Wisdom

Rejection

 

Comfort

 

 

Despair

 

Security

 

Serenity

Emptiness

 

Resolve

 

Uncertainty

 

Persistence

Up

down

Up

FUQn down

One more

Unresolved

Sanguinity

Contentment

Contemplation two

This photo also seeks a title that speaks of the despair of a man who hears "FMW", "FMW", "FMW", yet knows that none is organised!

Contemplation

Old and Fat but Happy

I wonder why?

I had a fantastic birthday.

Good Friday

Crux fidelis inter omnes arbor una noblis

Nulla silva talem profert, fronde, flore, germine

Dulce lignum, dulce clavos, dulce pondus sustinet

Faithful Cross above all other, one and only noble tree.

None in foliage, none in blossom, none in fruit thy peer may be.

Sweetest wood, sweetest iron, sweetest weight is hung on thee.

(Venantius Fortunatus, d 609 AD)

 

Ecce lignum crucis

Venite adoremus

 

The timing of the Good Friday Liturgy in this Church generally gifts us the illumination of the cross with beautiful autumn afternoon light, as if heaven shines on the commemoration of Our Lord's passion and the cross which is now our trophy.

Coleman Lakeside 4

the two lakeside 4 tents.

cream & blue

 

green and green

Steering Wheel Shake - the Movie

First multi-media post (2nd attempt cos I pushed the wrong button and lost my opus magnus and had to start again)

And I can't work out how to embed a video but hopefully the files are uploaded and you can download them.

so I know you guys think the shake in my White Camry's steering wheel is just in my head.

But swapping between cars, I am convinced it is real, and it leaves my fingers tingling.

Googling has given some possible causes but also indicated that such phenomena are not paranormal.

There is a field of academic study for it (see below)

From googling, my hypothesis is engine mount(s). I also found a neat way to provide a visualisation of the vibration - with the help of a bottle of water.

So this afternoon I did the experiment. Red Camry = control, White Camry = experiment.

 

 

A Frequency Weighting for the Evaluation of Steering Wheel Rotational Vibration J. Giacomin F et al https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/1440891.pdf 

Frequency dependence of perceived intensity of steering wheel vibration: effect of grip force https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/4145150

Driver estimation of steering wheel vibration intensity: questionnaire-based survey http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/viewdoc/download?doi=10.1.1.426.2931&rep=rep1&type=pdf 

Dinner Monday - ol'timer's disease

Running multiple lines of food preparation on Monday night ...

Thought I had served them all up.

Then part way through dinner, I could smell burning ...

AAGH! The wedges were still in the oven ...

Monday Morning Breakfast

Back to the fine meats at the Lebanese Restaurant next to the surgery. Not at work, eating meats, surrounded by women in scarves, I thought I must have died during the op and gone to Muslim heaven!

Dinner tonight

Who is Maypис Maнeши?

What can possibly be in this package?

Why is there a black van parked outside my home?

Friendships and Lemons

When you want fruitful relationships, you have to engage in some tough love! I got a good crop of Lemons this year, but not an excellent one.

My mandarin tree was similarly not very fruitful three years back, so I gave it a good prune. I appears to have forgiven me.

This year it is the turn of the lemon tree. It had a lot of leaves in spring.

Lets see if this helps.

Next weekend I might catch up with my unfruitful mates. I shall bring my pruners.

Life Finds A Way

The Marigold flower in the pot did not survive the hot Australian summer while we were in Europe.

Five months later, and winter in Australia, it has emerged from the ground next to the pot.

Life finds a way.

The pot is the current state of Ireland. Let's hope the future brings life and not death.

Did Paul cancel his S&T subscription too early?

The other possibility is that she-who-must-be-obeyed advised him that he did not need any more American Civil War games. It is possible that a man can have enough American Civil War games? What if a man is no longer a man? Is this the game that finally reveals the unstoppable spirit of the south?

The force pools look pretty equal. The map looks pretty comprehensive. It also works with a bottle of single malt scotch!

It could be that the scope of play is more than Paul can imagine:

Perhaps Paul does not believe there is anything more to say on the American Civil War after S&T #43, or that Joseph Miranda cannot design a wargame.

Of course the true answer is that Paul does not like games where the Union wins by losing some battles at the start!

If work actually does suck, perhaps Paul needs a reward; a light. But more likely, he now prefers the punishment of work against the ambiguity of an unowned wargame!

Where have the Quelch Icy Poles gone? & observations on the 21st century.

Quelch freezable icy poles made by Berri have not been available at Woolies or Coles for a couple of weeks now. No signs on the shelves, just disappeared.

They are a 'staple' for Carl. They were the only ones made from fruit juice. The other options are about 15% sugar. Some of them are made in China (go figure!).

So I tried to find out what's going on online - nothing.

Sent emails to Coles and Woolies via there websites.

Found the website of the home company of Berri.

Guess what? Although they have a website, there is no online mechanism to contact the company - post and phone are the only options provided:

I find that hard to believe for a firm in Australia in the 21st century - surely if you have a web presence you have to be able to receive customer feedback via the web?

Lent is upon us

 The blessed palms from last year's Palm Sunday are burned on Shrove Tuesday to make the ashes.

 

 

The Putting on of Ashes From the Initial "M" in the Introit of the Mass of Ashes on Ash Wednesday From the Missal à l'usage de Saint-Didier d'Avignon  c. 1370  

 

 

           

 

For many centuries, the Roman Liturgy on Ash Wednesday took as the Gospel reading Mk 6:1-6, 16-18, which presents Jesus’ teaching on the inseparable elements of  almsgiving (mercy), prayer and fasting

 

In one of his Discourses, Saint Peter Chrysologus wrote:

""These three things, prayer, fasting and mercy, are a single thing, each drawing life from the others. Fasting is the soul of prayer and mercy the life of fasting. Let no one divide them, because alone they do not survive" (Saint Peter Chrysologus, Discourse 43: PL 52, 320).

some text and missal image borrowed from http://idlespeculations-terryprest.blogspot.com.au/2012/02/memento-homo-quia-pulvis-es-et-in.html 

Anticipation of endorphins - Steam status

Just one more turn. Game or addiction?

So, Thygo is sitting here, checking his email, and checking it again, and again, and again.

"There are no new emails"

Now he's checking Steam to see if Python is online ...  'Offline for 12 hours'

Yes, Thygo is addicted to the internet, and PBEM games in particular.

And this is obviously not a unique situation judging by the number of images that came up on a search for 'just one more turn'.

Almost human ...

Cockatoos eating apples on the neighbour's carport.

 

An unexpected visitor

So, tonight I'm sitting alone at my laptop, radio's on behind me, when I hear a sound from near the front door.

The sound is sort of familiar but I think 'noone here but me'

Then more of the sound - the memory clicks - sounds like a dog breathing/panting/snuffling.

And lo, standing at the front (screen) door is a dog, looking a bit lost. No collar on.

Very gentle old boy, he comes in, wanders about a bit. He seems deaf and I suspect the cloudiness of his eyes mean he is partly blind too. I find a halter and lead and try to take him for a walk to see if he leads me home. That doesn't show much promise, and people a few doors up haven't seen him before, so I come back.

Puddle around on the RSPCA website. Discover the lost and found postings are on Facebook (only grrrrrrrr). I take a photo of the dog. I muck about a bit longer, joining Facebook. Then can't work out how to post anything. Give that up as a bad joke.

Have another look in the shed for Banjo's collar. Find that and think - I'll just see if the cafe owner across at the shops has seen him before. Nope.

then a lady is walking down the street with a torch - and Deo gratias, it is her dog.

And it turns out she lives across the road from the people who hadn't seen him, about 40 metres away from me. I hadn't seen him before either (or if I have it hasn't registered - probably he's never out the front). She thinks he got out after one of their cats stepped on the garage door remote ...

A nice happy ending. And, yes, I miss the idea of having a dog. But in the present circumstances that probably isn't a good idea.