YARDCRAP

H E L L O

 

Welcome to my blog. 

This is my BLOG, so expect it to be about me. 

Click on the photos for a better view. 

Post comments if you choose, and I might respond.

   -------------YardCrap---------------

W E A T H E R

                           

Growing things in the yard is easy. Just do nothing, and over time, Mother Nature will plant, choose and grow things in your garden.

If you want to choose the things growing there, you have to adjust your garden environment to the plants you choose. One of the main ways to adjust is with water. It is easy to research a plant's needs, but trying not to put too much or too little gets you into the hobby area.

A couple up years back, I got a clock that gives me temps inside and out. Soon I expanded and got a rain gauge that sent signals inside. For the last couple of years, I have used that to keep a daily log on rainfall in my yard. My yard is tucked in near the Blue Ridge which shields me from weather hitting the weather stations in my area, to the point where just 10 miles in any direction makes a big difference in things like wind and precipitation.

So …. after may hints, Santa brought me a real weather station.

I put it on my dock so I could also monitor wind. Here in the garden, I am shielded from wind, but on the lake it can be rough, and to fish on those days, one must adjust.

Setting this thing up was not too bad. Soon I was getting constant updates at my house. Trying to get it up on the internet for you and people in this area to use has been tough (as in days of hair pulling, and I have little to spare). About an hour ago I got it going – I think. I also thought that yesterday.

I have just thrown up a web view of my station, and this is by no means the end, just a beginning. I hope to get up real time radar and etc before long. Surely I can make it all more interesting to look at. By Spring, I might even have a web cam up. I am sure I can improve all this on the visual side, but until then, here is the bare bones site --> Yardcrap Weather

If you click anywhere on the page, there is little history yet as this is new, but it will accumulate.

Thoughts and suggestions will be appreciated. It is now 35.5 degrees here on the deck. I suspect those Silicon Valley guys never work in my conditions. They also don't enjoy my view !!!  
If you live in my area, you can put this up as a screen saver as it uploads every couple minutes.

I will soon be accepting advertisements here in exchange for free beer.

Yard Crap

SHERLOCK HOLMES

 

There is a new SHERLOCK at the movies. Apparently many people are flocking to see it.

As a young boy, I had many super heroes to choose from. There are many more now, but some of the new ones are crap, and many of the old ones have been recast to be crap.

I suppose SUPERMAN is the ultimate superhero, even though for the last few years SPIDERMAN has been bigger to the public, and maybe BATMAN. Batman actually has no real superpowers, but is "super" in many other ways. On the surface, that might seem true of SHERLOCK HOLMES, but – not true as SHERLOCK is much more than that.

SHERLOCK is indeed a "superhero". He has two great things going for him. His mental powers enable him to study the old, experiment with new, and use the human powers of "reason" and "observation" as no one else can. He was also fortunate to have writer, Arthur Conan Doyle, who is clearly the superstar of all who have written of super heroes.

After more than 100 years, SHERLOCK remains extremely popular to the point that every second of his life has been dissected and argued over for decades. Many people have devoted their lives to SHERLOCK HOLMES, and quite a few have made a good living off it all. It is all quite remarkable as the guy never actually existed. For every word ACD wrote about SHERLOCK, others have written millions.

The stories are timeless.   I read them many years ago, and still own them all today. Video put a new shine on it, and many movies have been made.   I have enjoyed most, including some made in jest. It seems each new generation finds a favorite Sherlock. As a quiet, shy guy, I love the books, and I prefer the videos made as true to that as possible. To that end, it is impossible for me to believe that SHERLOCK could ever be portrayed better than in the British series created by John Hawkesworth and starring Jeremy Brett. The scenes and atmosphere are incredible, and Brett portrays SHERLOCK perfectly.   Whatever else he may have accomplished, Jeremy Brett became SHERLOCK HOLMES

Now hollywood has made HOLMES an action figure. He was always that, but not in the way this movie tells it.  I hate it!!  I don't mind the actual movie, and don't care if they make many more like this. I do hate that a generation that seldom reads will believe this is SHERLOCK HOLMES, and miss out on the real character Sir Arthur first shared with all in 1887. This new crap is related to the genius of OCD in name only.

It almost makes you glad Jeremy Brett is not here to see this abomination.

 

YardCrap

WINDOWS 7

Windows 7 has been out a while now and I suspect you have been waiting to get advise from YardCrap as to whether or not to buy it.
I got the free trial versions of it, and have messed with it for about a year.  I started with Windows 98 in the 90's, and 7 is a lot better than that.  Actually, I have it on two of my computers, including this one on the deck.  This post proves it can work in the dark at 38 degrees.

Actually, 7 is very good, and if you are buying a new computer, do not go with the cheaper "VISTA" model.  I am still running VISTA on my main commuter, but it took me forever to get it to a user-friendly level.  I should upgrade, but redoing that "big guy" would take a lot of time, and somethings I would loose.  VISTA is OK, but I suspect that is true only for the geek crowd, or lazy guys like me.  If you are running VISTA and are OK with it, stay with that.  If you want VISTA to play nice, go to Black Viper .  No matter what OS you use, go there and read a little.  This is a safe site I have relied on for years, but read and choose.

If you are running XP - it most likely means you are either a geek or you have been too cheap/poor to upgrade.  Most people just use a computer to email, message, and maybe do a little music and photos.  If that is you, and you are doing it on XP - hang on to it and never change.  My experience is that XP is faster and more friendly than VISTA or 7.  Why would you ever pay money to give that up for less of what you need?

Still, things change.  All the new programs will be written for "7".  Until they upgrade, some of your favorite XP programs will not work with "7", but mostly the VISTA stuff will.  Yea, I know there is a way to make them run in "7", but it is awkward, and 99% will never go there.

Here is the YARDCRAP conclusion:

- XP is faster and better than 7 or VISTA if it can work with programs you need
- VISTA and 7 do a lot of things better than XP.
- 7 is a lot better than VISTA -> much better
- if you are OK with your OS, no need to change.  Someday you will need to, but not today.

If you do upgrade, don't be lazy.  Don't buy the "upgrade".  Buy the OEM which is cheaper - (about 100 dollars on NEWEGG).  It wipes your system clean and you clear out all the cobwebs and start fresh -> very important!  Just dump all your files on another drive and you will just loose the software files which probably need an update anyway.  Actually, a fresh install is a good thing even if you just reinstall the OS you have now.  That will take your computer back to that day you brought it home and were amazed.  It takes me about a day to reload all my stuff, but you may have less.  I find myself doing it all the time - no big deal if you think of your computer as a game and not something important.

A new OS is not a simple choice.  If you do more than email with your computer, it is a waste not to put 64bit on it.  In the future, everything will be 64bit - but not today.  I have been running 64bit for a couple of years with no real problems (not counting today).

So ....  if you are happy do nothing.

If you are not, buy 7 OEM and start new.  I see no reason not to load 64 bit.

YardCrap

'TIS THE SEASON

                               

I fished all morning.  The weather was much to good to waste working.

What I actually did was drag several tasty lures at different depths for a few hours.  The lake water is colder now, and on the boat the air got up to around 50 degrees, much higher sitting in the Sun.  There was no wind, and the lake was like a sheet of glass.  It is a beautiful day.  Today reminded me of why I moved here.  In 4 hours of trolling, I did not see another boat. 
On my boat, (small pontoon) it was not lonely.  My Bride came alone and read in her book sitting in the cold sunshine, and of course both of my dogs were there.  I suspect my Beagle might love the boat more than she loves me.

Nothing is perfect - the music (mostly Lynard Skynard and Southern Rock) was too loud, and the beer (mostly Guinness) was too cold.  I hate to drink early, but someone has to do it or the tradition will be lost.

Now after all that fishing, I get to sit out here on the deck and watch my gold fish swim as the Sun sets.

This week, I did my Hanukkah celebration.  What I like about Hanukkah is it goes on for days.  You get to sit in the dark with candles and great music. I do miss the Jewish food treats from my the neighbors I left behind.   Not being a Jew, I kinda bend the rules and light all the candles every night. 
At the end of it all, I suspect I am more Jewish than most Jews.  Hanukkah is not actually a major Jewish holiday, but is more fun than the official ones.  History shows that Hanukkah, as we know it, kinda became more popular as Christmas grew popular in the USA.  Christmas "as most observe it", is actually an American invention, as is Hanukkah.  They are quite different as they celebrate very different things in similar ways.  I have put away my dreidel ( דרײדל) till next year when the fun will start again. 


Last night I did Winter Solstice.  
  I have a tape I made in 1998 for a gathering of friends on a hill, and I have enjoyed it every year since.  I build a fire, play the music too loud, and fire off a few sky rockets - great fun!!! 


Now I am ready for CHRISTMAS.  I have my music playing right now as I sit outside in the garden and post this.  My favorite is "CAROL OF THE BELLES" and I have several versions of it. 

My garden is glowing with Christmas cheer.  My 8 foot star honoring the night JESUS was born lights the night from the roof of my round house.  All the celebration in the past days has my place TURBO CHARGED! 


Tomorrow my email will be full of people telling me I am going to Hell.  Maybe - but I can't give up all these good party days.

Good food, good music -->so me and the Beagle party hard in December.  Try to make it next year if you can.

YardCrap

COME ON CHRISTMAS

               

Like many, I love Christmas.

For Christmas when I was in the 8^th grade, I got a stereo record player and some records. My Mom mostly picked those out. I got some Johnny Cash, and Running Bear. Over the years I bought a lot more. That record player was the focal point in my room at Clemson. The Supremes, Bruebeck, Mancini, Mathis, ruled the room.

Later in the Army I bought a lot of records to ward off being homesick. There I had a Gerrard hooked to the amp in a tape recorder. It was great and kept me from going insane.

Here on the lake I have an excellent music system that was not available to me before now. I use it most everyday. I understand that many do not enjoy a stereo as much as I do, but many still do. All the ipods and the TVs in the world will never entertain like a good stereo unit can.

Like you I have a lot of CDs. Actually, if you are average, I have a lot more than you do, and I play them more than you do. Recently I was sitting on the deck with my many Christmas songs on “shuffle”. Ernest Tubb came on off a 'Various Artist' album singing “BLUE CHRISTMAS”.  Ernest Tubb is a favorite of mine. I always thought that if my Pop sang, he would sound like Ernest Tubb. I cranked up the web to buy an Ernest Tubb Christmas album (already have all his other stuff) only to find no CDs were ever made. On ebay, I found it on vinyl.   
Over the last several years I have bought vinyl records, but mostly for the covers. I ordered this Ernest Tubb record, and when it arrived, was surprised to find I no longer owned a record player.

So I got one. It took me days of research to do that. Just looking at it now makes me proud and excited! Record players preceded things like TVs and played music much better than the AM radios of the day. My Pop brought me my first record – a 78rpm of Gene Autry. One side had “FROSTY”, and the other “RUDOLPH”. I have a great system now, and I can't just plug anything into it. Record players are special, and all sound different. I found an old Pioneer made in 1978. It appears as good as new. Actually it is better that as apparently some past owner replaced almost everything on it. Just looking at it is enough to make me wet my pants, and the sound from it is amazing. The trouble is that I have a million CDs, and now I find that they are crap when compared to the music coming off this turntable. I play the record, then the same CD, and they are not the same.

This all means that my Christmas came early, and I looking at a great new year as I re-explore vinyl.   

MORE RAIN TODAY

After a year of drought, my yard has been getting a lot of rain for a couple of months.  The lake is about two feet over full pond.  This time last year it was over 20 feet below full pond.
Today out here at 3 oclock, it is 41 degrees with light rain.  The birds are everywhere, working to find energy to get them through the cold night ahead.

It seems most of my garden efforts are divided between trying to get things to grow, and then pruning them back when they grow too well.  The growing season is over, and now that the yard has endured a couple of killing cold nights, the entire place needs a good cleaning.  That will take weeks!  I try to put in things for "Winter interest' so all is not lost.  In fact, the yard looks pretty good - at least to me.

   
I need to dig up my Canna bed on the next clear day.  I should wait a month, but I have been putting that off for two years now.  Several years back a neighbor (Wild Willie) gave me some extra rhizomes he dug up.  They have prospered, and now need to be thinned.  Then I can pass on the extra to others.  The Canna is an excellent plant.  It grows several feet tall, looks great, and flowers until frost.  You just put it in and forget it.  Like many plants, it prefers good rich soil and full Sun, but seems to do just as well in poor soil and partial shade.   It never needs water, and thrives in drought.  It also grows great in my pond with constant wet feet.  Yea, I know some people call those 'water cannas' but they look the same to me.    It is truly a good plant for a garden klutz like myself.  All the ones in my yard are red, so I am going to move a few yellow ones over there from my pond,
and maybe add a red one to the pond.  Hummingbirds and butterflies love Cannas.  Stick one into your place and give a try.  Put it in as much Sun as possible, but otherwise, just stick the rhizome in a hole and forget about it.  In a few years, you will be thinning them out and sharing the bounty with friends.  Here in zone 7, they over Winter with no problem.  I generally just push down the dead top growth to mulch and protect the rhizomes.  If you are in a colder place just dig them up after frost and toss them in the crawl space untill spring.

ASROCK

I have spent hours on the web searching for what I hope to be my perfect “Deck Top” computer. There are so many options to consider.

Yes, I do understand that in “computer time' the best product will arrive next month (or tomorrow) and be cheaper and better than what I can get today. My search criteria has been :

1- 'free' if possible, but that means stealing it from your house and maybe me going to jail if caught.

2- 'small', as my space is limited out here in my 6X10 foot space cause I have too much good junk out here already.

3 – 'good for music', as one of my hobbies is trying to reproduce audiophile level music outside. I understand that is not possible, but what the hell - I improve all the time and while it might not meet your standards, it entertains me.  Some guys who know more than me now believe 'less is more' when playing tunes.  I mean from the music server of course.  After that I run it through a DAC, preamp, great Carver amps, and excellent speakers.  I have a good stuff here on the deck, and most of it I got on ebay cheap when real audiophiles move into better crap.  Next year when they improve, I get their old stuff cheap.

4 – 'Green' as this tiny computer will need to run 24/7 to update my weather station to the web every 2.5 seconds. I don't mean 'AlGore green' but just not using too much power so some green will be left in my wallet to buy that Pilsner I like in those lovely green bottles.I suspect this one will run at about 15 watts most of the time when I am not sitting here - amazing!!

I read reviews, looked at specs, and changed my mind a lot. At the end of the search, one stood out – ASROCK 330.

1- AsRock is very small – not as small as one I leaned toward made in Israel, but that one will not be out till the new year, and a few emails to the guys there told me theirs will not support 64 bit, which the AsRock does. I have no problem with 32 bit, but why go there? I have been running 64 bit on other computers for a couple years, with more happy than grief. 64 bit can handle more memory, and actually, I find few programs that I use that will not work with it.

2 – AsRock uses an external power source. This computer will live on the deck. In the South Carolina Summer, it is often over 100 degrees. Getting the power source outside the case will help with heat build up, and more importantly, not be buzzing inside the case where my music will be hoping for a quiet atmosphere.

3- With the 330 chip, this computer is a step above most now on the market. We are not talking real power like the Shuttle it will be replacing, but I believe for the tasks I do out here I will see no decrease, and actually expect an increase. It is no big deal though as when I finally get to rest here and end my day – I am in no hurry.

4 – As small as this computer is, you can still cram two hard drives (2.5 inch) into it. I am puzzled there. It would be good for raid, but I don't need that. I have a 128 gig OCZ SSD to stick in. That will make no noise, handle all heat, and be very fast but it will not hold my music. My choices are to stick an additional spinning hard drive inside, or to hook that drive up externally. The AsRock has an external esata port, so I can see no reason to put the music hard drive inside the case where it will be causing heat and noise. - Still, I need to bounce this choice off some guys who understand it better than me. That sounds silly, but it is the fun of computer music. On this topic alone, I suspect many experiments have been conducted, and thousands of pages written with opinions.

As you might guess, I decided on the AsRock. There are a few versions of it available. My needs were best addressed by the “pro” version which ships with no hard drive, no memory, no operating system. Some versions come with all that, and things like WiFi, and Blue Ray. I just need the bare bones system as I have enough extra crap lying around to fill up a few of these things.

Having made my choice, last night at 3am, I decided to click and buy. All versions on NewEgg, Amazon, and other places were – SOLD OUT. A guy on ebay is sending me one from Hong Kong at a cheap price $299, and promises to ship quickly. ++

I LOVE EBAY !!!

Below you can see how small this is compared to the CD.              

              

COMPUTER MURDER

                                 

Many believe my YardCrap blog has been going on for too long. I suppose I never post anything here that interests anyone but me, but I warn of that fact in the banner. Few post in the comments, but I am amazed at the many emails, and the traffic this blog now receives. Feel free to add your thoughts. I have made many internet friends (a few not-friends) here.

This blog ain't much, but has been entirely composed on a 6X10 porch me and the Beagle build off the deck. We put on a roof, and it is now quite cozy. We put in a nearly audiophile music system here served by a computer and a 24” monitor. We have heat, fans, plants and even a small refrigerator. This might be the best spot in the world.

Last night my computer died. I am working on it, but I think when I was washing things down, I fried the motherboard. Tonight, I have my net book hooked in, so all is up and going except my music is mp3 instead of Flac due to the smaller hard drive. The old computer was a Shuttle I built from really good parts I had lying around the house, and probably exceeded the computer most own.

Actually, out here I don't need a lot of computer. I just do web stuff and play music with the computer. Audiophile studies are showing that less is more when it comes to playing music. A silent computer with few things running gives the best sound.

With that in mind, I intend to put together a “tiny” computer that may exceed the good job the Shuttle was doing, and use less power. By New Years Day, I hope to have my weather station up. To broadcast local weather to the world, the new computer will have to run 24/7 through all types of weather, and still play my music to perfection.

I'll let you know soon on my choices. Till then, this Net Book is rocking the speakers with Christmas tunes.

B I R D C O U N T

1 - Titmouse
2 - Chickadee
3 - Turkey Vulture
4 - Gold Finch
5 - Golden-crowned Kinglet
6 - Red-bellied Sapsucker
7 - Purple Finch
8 - Song Sparrow
9 - Canada Goose
10- Cardinal
11- Carolina Wren
12- Chipping Sparrow
13- House Finch
14- White-breasted Nuthatch
15- Downy Woodpecker
16- Sharp-shinned Hawk
17- Red-bellied Woodpecker
18- Fish Crow
19- Blue Heron

20- Blue Bird

21-

I Sat down here on the deck in the cool (52degrees) sunshine at 3:30 and started a bird count.  I like to do this from time to time to list what I can see from this chair.  I am too lazy to walk about like most bird observers.

As interesting as the ones I see today are the ones I don't see.  So far my Winter flock of White-throat Sparrows, Juncos, and Pine Warblers have not arrived, and only one Song Sparrow. 

                  

BLACK BOOKS

                      

For most of my life I have always been late to watch the best TV shows.  Working made it hard, and working shifts made it impossible.  I do catch up, and by then I get to see a series all at once as opposed to week to week with commercials.  Cheers, Raymond, Seinfeld, etc. -> never saw them live, not even the BUNDYS, but I eventually catch up and enjoy them.

 

This week I am into “My Name Is Earl’. 

                  
That is so funny!  They make fun of us RedNecks, and do it really well.  The woman playing ‘Joy’ was born in NC, raised in California, but has ‘West Virginia’ down so well, it almost seems like the work of the Devil.  She is excellent -> accent, looks and all.  That girl is actually just a copy of one of my best friends.

 

Many of the best sitcoms were done in England, as were most of the best mysteries.  I recently discovered ‘BLACK BOOKS’ on NetFlix.  
I mostly watch TV in the middle of the night, and I laugh so hard at this I often wake the Beagle. Give it a try, and then email me with your thanks.

 

YardCrap