Educator. Engineer. Experimenter.
Today I did some maintenance at Camp Boggy Creek, seal coating the lakeside fire pit benches and stage with a regular volunteer and my dad. Camp Boggy Creek is a 230 acre non-profit camp and preserve dedicated to terminally ill children and their families. It was started and primarily funded by Paul Newman and…
At Sky Craft the other day, I found some fun little electronics kits for my son (and me :)). If you’ve never been, Sky Craft is the greatest brick-n-mortar electronics depot in Orlando since 1974 (note they are finally moving soon, though only a mile or two down the road). One kit was a “mouse”…
I got the urge to build a spice rack out of a discarded shipping crate today lol My wife is coming home from vacation soon and I wanted to do something for her (cooking related). We’ve needed to organize our spice situation for a long time. I wanted our spices to be within reach and…
My neighbor altered me to a baby bird (hatchling? / nestling?) on the ground in his front yard and was in immediate danger of being eaten by cats. In fact the parents were swooping down and attacking the cats to protect the baby for hours. Eventually they tired and he had to pick the bird…
Recently we’ve been cooking some Japanese food. I’ve mentioned before that I was once an exchange student in Japan many years ago. So Japanese food has always been one of my favorites. I didn’t cook it for many years. Takuan (たくあん) made by hand. Basically pickled daikon radish. It’s one of many pickled dishes called…
Today I helped my dad and former coworkers renew the horse/pony loading ramp at Give Kids The World (Keaton’s Korral). The older ramp was worn out and potentially dangerous at this point. After the maintenance crew gutted the rotted wood, we replaced a few framing beams along with ALL of the deck boards. It was…
I wanted to post about a topic of growing interest to me over the last few years, urban forestry (or micro-forests). They are small, dense forests cultivated in urban areas that provide various benefits. The most popular method of cultivating them is called the Miyawaki Method, after Akira Miyawaki, who pioneered it. Here is a…
Happened upon a beautiful white moth today at Stetson University. I have no idea which species it is, but if you do, please feel free to contact me.
Fascinating 🖖. This is what a tangerine looks (and feels and sounds) like after being left undisturbed on an office desk for roughly 1 year. It was left on my desk pre-pandemic and found almost a year later sitting in the same spot untouched. It wasn’t rotten or mushy but extremely hard and light, I…
Greg Parnell with Per Danielsson and Greg Zabel once again supporting jazz locally here in Orlando, FL. We saw him today at the Blue Bamboo for a 3pm show (they play two shows today, and at least one a month around Central Florida). Lots of great tributes to various greats: Oscar Peterson, Chick Corea (who…