Can I dry ice in the oven?

After hearing about the ICE! Exhibit from my friend Angel, I decided that since Orlando was on the way to the NYE weekend camp out that I would go check it out. I talked to Mammaries into attending the event with me since I knew she wouldn't be leaving her veterinary clinic until just before we got to Orlando anyway and found that Kiddie and VC were interested in going as well since they were riding with me to the campout (and probably just didn't want to stay in the car while were were inside). The tickets and parking (yes, we had to pay for parking!) were a little expensive, but overall the experience was worth it! We stopped by a Walgreen's store on the way to the show and picked up some coupons that we used and gave the extras to some other folks in line [for good karma].

The exhibit was created by artisans from China mostly using hand tools for all the carvings. It takes 30 truckloads of ice produced in Georgia to put together the material needed for the event. Besides the different clear and pure ice that uses hyper filter de-ionized water, there are ten different colors of ice that make up the displays. After witnessing this, I am sure that I would love to someday see the Harbin International Ice and Snow Sculpture Festival in China that is hundreds of times larger than this small event. I really enjoyed the different displays and was particularly impressed with the use of all the different colors. Fortunately when reading my friend's blog post about the event I was able to best prepare by bringing extra hats and gloves as well as my own coat that had pockets for the hands, since the provided parkas lacked those. Since I was dealing with the camera, I gave my gloves to someone else but found that even at 9 degrees I wasn't too cold except for the hands after a while. At the end there was even an ice slide that I decided to wait out and try. After we left we got some hot chocolate at the resort and walked around to enjoy the grandiose decor, gator exhibit, and overall atmosphere of the resort (though I couldn't take any photos since it took an hour for the condensation in the camera to dissipate after leaving the cold air for the humid environment).

If you want to see most of the photos I took at the exhibit, then go to: http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.937lxfr7&x=0&y=-3bci7d

Hanging with a cool jolly guy.


Ice ice baby.

Leaving the ICE! exhibit. Goodbye from 'chilly' Florida!

Kayakers do it hard, flip over, and do it again.

I had to work on Thursday but got back just early enough time to get ready for the hash run and drag Jason out of the computer room. Houston residents Finger in the Dyke and Goldilocks (old time Tampa hashers) were haring the trail in South Tampa. One what was promised to be an easy trail, Goldi lead us on another 4-5 mile death march that I actually enjoyed since I hadn't been running in a couple of days and needed the exercise anyway. We all convened at Tiny Tap and had a really good turn-out (~38 folks showed up) with several visitors as well. We didn't get to stay too late and really hang out since we had to get up early in the morning for a trip to Crystal River for some manatee viewing and kayaking.

It was a bit tough to get myself up at 4:30 so I could load up the kayak gear and take off some of the extra kayaks from the previous week's trip downtown. I finally got everything together at we took off around 5:30AM. With no traffic and the Veteran's Expressway, it took a lot less time to get there than I had expected. We parked at a hotel/marina right across from Banana Island that is the place where most people go to see the manatees. We paddled over to the island (only a few hundred feet) and swam around for a while with the manatees. I took a small 40cf decompression bottle and regulator so I could swim around the cavern for a little while and not have to deal with all the dive gear. I did get a few strange looks from divers when I swam to with just a tank, light, and dive reel in my hand without any other dive gear in the back of the cavern, but otherwise the cavern was empty of anyone else. This was the site where I did my first open water training dives so many years ago, so it was nice to be back for a bit.

After playing around Tarpon Spring, we decided to leave the packed area and head around King's Bay a bit. I had never really had a chance to explore the area, so I really enjoyed paddling among the various islands in the bay and checking out the local wildlife. I've always wanted to check out several other numerous springs in the area. Unfortunately, I don't have a depth finder, so finding a particular fifty foot hole (Shark Sink) in the middle of the bay somewhere is a bit hard. Since Jason was done with swimming, I didn't want to take a lot of time to keep jumping in the water in a search. We paddled around toward the Three Sisters springs where I happened to run into my friend Jon and his son. I liked paddling around the area but had to leave sooner than I would have wanted since Jason had already headed back to the truck to rest. I'd definitely love to come back and spend the day when there are no crowds around (the place was quite packed later in the morning with dozens of people). We got back by 2 o'clock, so I had time to run several errands. I had to run to a body repair shop to collected the personal effects in a friend's car that unfortunately got totaled just before they left for a month's trip. I then had to head to the garage in Brandon to take back all the kayaks and then load up the camper for the weekend's events. After getting a quick hair cut I got home with just enough time to have a great dinner, pack some personal clothes, and get some well needed sleep.

Life is a roller coaster, you have your ups and downs; unless you fall off.

The weather today was great, so after a good breakfast at IHOP, we decided to hit Busch Gardens for the day since I wanted to use my pass once more before it expired at the end of the year. Unlike the trip to the Aquarium yesterday, I remembered to bring the flash card from the camera. We hit all the major spots such as the Myombe Reserve for some ape viewing and then on to the Edge of Africa for some walking safaris. I forgot to bring the telephoto lens but was glad to get a chance to play with the camera a bit while Jason was doing the same with his own (a Christmas present from his mother), though all I got was some cereal and toilet paper (my friend's have strange senses of humor).

Since Jason didn't want to do any of the roller coasters, we tried to hit a lot of the other attractions such as the Pirates 4-D show, bumper cars, carousel, and animal exhibits. There were some nice fireworks around 7:30 as the park got dark and we had an enjoyable time at the park with the evening ambiance. I used to really love going to the park an hour or so before closing (since I live a few hundreds meters from the park anyway) and liked the overall look of the place when it was near empty. While there were a lot of people around, it was still a great time and we finally got to see pretty much everything that we wanted.

So far the week has been a great release, but unfortunately I have to spend most of the day Thursday at work preparing for the end of the year accounting. I recently realized that it will soon be a year since I started blogging. When I get back from the New Year's Eve Campout next week, I'll probably put together some 'year in review' and see what lessons I have learned, what changes I should have made, and what I plan to do in in the future. I'm sure there are some realizations that I'd recognize and maybe even some I haven't determined yet. Overall, I think this year had been among the best of my life, and a lot of that is due to the fact that I set out so it would be that way. sure there are some things i wish that occurred differently, but I suppose if I can walk away with just one major regret, then maybe it was all worth it. After all, good judgment comes from experience, and experience in turn comes from time of bad judgment.

If thanks were fishes, I'd buy you an aquarium.

Since it was a bit cold and rainy, we decided to head over to the Florida Aquarium instead of doing Busch Gardens. since we couldn't go for some reason last time Jason was here, we went to check out the Victory class merchant ship, 'American Victory' that is berthed behind the aquarium complex. Since it was relatively late in the day, we pretty much had the ship to ourselves and after paying the entrance fee went off to explore the many areas of the ship. I've always been enthralled with old places such as historic ships, old factories, hotels, tunnels or warehouses for a little 'urban spelunking'. It is a shame that these places are either so closed up due to liability concerns or destroyed by transients that don't allow the curious to really appreciate them.

The difference between this ship and those found at Patriot's Point in Charleston is that this is still an operating vessel that does tours and trips in the area as well as working as an educational platform. Very little of the ship was actually blocked off from access, and we took that to our advantage in really getting a chance to explore. Besides all the different rooms, this was my first chance to really check out an engine room since most exhibits are all closed off because it is so difficult to block the numerous small nooks and crannies. After bypassing a few signs that I figured would not apply to us, being natural explorers and all, we found ourselves in many great spots, including tall ladders heading up the smokestack and into the bottom areas of the ship. We were found out by one of the custodians of the ship, however he seemed more pleased that we were enthralled with the ship and really curious than he was annoyed and left us to continue the 'self-guided tour'. Since it was near closing time we quickly checked out the bridge area and the front portions of the ship before heading out. Prior to leaving, we did a brisk walk through all the aquarium exhibits.

Afterwards we headed home to check out the movie show times and decided to go see 'Eragon' at the theater. While the acting and graphics were good, the storyline/plot was really, really lacking of anything decently substantial, so I wouldn't recommend getting thus until it becomes a DVD rental, even if then.

A radical is a man with both feet firmly planted in the air.

The weather Christmas Day precluded being able to go to Busch Gardens since the forecast was rain for the while day so instead Jason and I went with some friends to MOSI to check out the 'Monsters of the Deep' exhibit. The exhibit spans 360 million years and included prehistoric reefs to the whales, sharks and turtles that inhabit today’s oceans. The exhibit also included life-size specimens of whales, aquatic reptiles from the prehistoric, as well as the giant squid.

After going through the exhibit and part of the Disasterville exhibit, we headed over to the IMAX dome to see another movie, this time the commercially released 'Happy Feet'. I was pleasantly surprised by the film and thought it was a nice story with some decently funny lines. After the show Jason and I walked around the museum a bit more to play on ..er.. learn from some of the displays. Then it was back to the house where I cooked up some chicken/pork chops, spaghetti, green bean dish, and watch a movie for a while. While I was disappointed to not be able to enjoy the park today, I still think it was a relaxing way to enjoy the remaining opportunities.

Man is not the creature of circumstances; circumstances are the creatures of men.

After sleeping in today, being exhausted from the paddling Saturday, Jason and I decided to hit the IMAX dome theater at MOSI to check out one of the movies. since we're planning on seeing the 'Monsters of the Deep' exhibit by the end of the week, we figured this would be a good preliminary exposure. The movie was produced by James Cameron and covered a short story of marine biologists and even astro biologists diving to the ocean's bottom (e.g. 3,500 meters) to explore life in the most harsh of environments of chemicals and physics where there are extreme pressures and temperatures within inches (where many of these creatures thrive) ranges from freezing to boiling. The show ran a bit longer than most of the IMAX films tend to do and was quite enjoyable and interesting. There were so many great displays of some wondrous and truly amazing creatures. It would be amazing to see the kind of things that the human imagination would barely be able to conceive. A good point was made in that the study of these creatures would be vital in learning about life that is so detached from our own, such as may be the case if anything is ever found on other planets, for example Europa. Visits to the deep such as that really can color the imagination.

Kayaker Philosophy: Turn over and smell the fishes.

My old high school buddy Jason is in town for a couple of days. When he get in on Thursday we were able to meet up with another friend that had just gotten to town for a couple of days. We had dinner at the local Ale House and a quick game of darts at another nearby sports pub before heading home for the night. On Saturday morning I noticed that where was going to be an electric boat parade downtown and decided to go check it out. After a few phone calls, I found a few friends interested in joining as well. Marianela and her sister had a cousin from DC visiting, so I was fortunately able to get enough gear together for everyone. Jason and I headed to Brandon and loaded the 4 kayaks and gear and drove down to the public boat ramp and unloaded the gear before the rest showed up. After a brief false start (when the nice marine patrol officer reminded us of the need for lights [doh!]) we headed towards Channelside where the boats were hanging out. As we headed up Garrison Channel we were able to enjoy the line of boats as they followed the Starship Dining Yacht on their way back out. There was a short drizzle of rain for 10-15 minutes, but it was light enough to not be a pain. after it passed the water was like glass and the air temperature quite comfortable. After some hard paddling, right at 5 miles for the entire loop, we headed out to get some food. We just missed the operating hours of every place that we could find on Davis Island, so we ended up heading to Channelside for some food goodness at Bennigan's.

Overall, it was a great way to enjoy a comfortable evening, get some exercise, and experience some different perspectives on the water.

The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat it.

The week was spent at the office trying to catch up on some insanely neglected accounting and paperwork with my evening working at the office until 1:30 in the morning Friday night. I overslept a bit and had to rush to get out the door to run through Orlando to pick up a friend to head over the Melbourne on the east coast to attend a holiday party (more of a pub crawl, but holiday themed at least). The event itself was a lot of fun, but I unfortunately left my camera in the truck when we changed vehicles, so do not yet have any pictures to share. We hit a couple of different spots with the end being an old theater called 'The Metro' that has a couple of different screens where they show independent and other artsy movies. There was food waiting for us as well as the hash tags and other give-aways. although not as many people showed up as were expected, it was a fun time.

After the hash group's time was up, apparently the next group was more of a gothic toned crowd with some S&M kind of displays. Apparently the highlight was a half-clad girl getting covered in plastic wrap and whipped cream so people could pay to lick it off. That was pretty much as boring as it sounds, so I went to the other side where a few bands were playing. I walked in half-way though the set list of a band called 'Lennex'. Apparently they came in fourth on some recent reality show called 'Rockstar Supernova'. I was really impressed with the vocals and music and enjoyed sitting there for a while listening. I wish they were coming through Tampa so I could hear the whole set, but unfortunately Orlando is as close as they'll be. AP was kind enough to house us for the evening and even made waffles in the morning!

I came back Sunday afternoon with just enough time to get to the TBPAC to see the performance of 'The Serpent' that was produced by the Jobsite Theater Company. Being more of an abstract performance art piece rather than a typical play with a dialog, plot, and other normal aspects, it is hard to provide a synopsis, so if interested just check out some of the links. Since we hadn't done anything in a while, I invited my dad to join me, though I'm really not sure what he thought of it since I do not think that he had never really been previously exposed to something like that. After the show I walked around downtown for a while enjoying the wonderful weather while I waited for a friend to finish errands to meet at Channelside for some sangria at Tinatapa's. Overall it was a great way to end the weekend. The past couple of weeks have been really stressful with work and other aspects, so I really needed that chance to relax and wind down.

My old high school friend Jason will be coming down from Charleston for a week's stay at the end of the week. Besides some of the usual stuff, we'll probably take the kayaks over the Crystal River one morning and do some swimming or paddling with the manatees.

The thrill is not just in the winning, but in the courage to join the race.

I suppose I can no longer say that I have never won anything. I received a call today from Creative Loafing (publisher of the 'Weekly Planet') to say that I won two tickets to a performance at the Tampa Jobsite Theater for Sunday afternoon. It'll be nice to be able to check out a new performance, especially after I promised myself a few weeks ago to start attending more productions after enjoying the play in St Petersburg a few weeks ago.

Rumour has next shuttle mission carrying several cows. It'll be the 'herd shot round the world'.

After what has been one of the best years ever, I suppose it was time for my karma to be a bit depleted. I was planning on checking out the shuttle launch last Thursday, but the weather and other things had darkened the sky too much, so it had to be scrubbed. I was hoping the weather would stay bad through the weekend since I already had plans, but apparently it cleared up enough on Saturday for what i heard was a pretty spectacular liftoff. I suppose misfortune is really the kind of fortune you just cannot miss. I have been in Florida for 10 years and have yet to see any kind of smoke or light plume from a launch. Hopefully if things go well, they will have more missions and not wait another 4 years before the next launch.

Still not sure what is going on this weekend. There are a few outdoor events in South Tampa that might be interesting. I'm still planning an Everglades trip for the end of the month since the new sea kayaks I picked up a few months ago are looking lonely hanging on the garage wall. I'd like to do the 100 miles, 6-7 day trip between Everglades City and Florida City, but have to somehow work out the logistics of getting back to the start. I figure it'll be a good way to get away for a while and enjoy the environment for a bit.

Great musical clip.

Here is a great clip from one of my favorite shows this season, 'Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip'. This is great intelligent comedy that is well written, which means that it'll probably be canceled since those that cannot get it will not watch, and thus kill the ratings. Anyway, the basic storyline was that a lot of displaced NOLA musicians had wound up in Los Angeles. Since they were not union certified, they couldn't find jobs, so a lot of band players were calling in sick so they could get temporary gigs to send some money home for Christmas. The producers figured it out and got several of them together as the musical act for the show. The video has some of the show's dialog in it, but it really doesn't detract from the overall effect (and I actually received some inspiration from it). I didn't want to embed it in the profile or blog (since I figure it is cramped enough as it is already), so just use the YourTube link below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXT83g7wsOs


In the least I recommend you download and listen to the uninterrupted music that was released on the NBC website.

http://www.nbc.com/Studio_60_on_the_Sunset_Strip/music/studio_60_o_holy_night.mp3

Ninja Sminga! Bet you can't karate-chop a bullet.

Don't forget, today is 'Day of the Ninja'. Those Pastafarian Pirates may help global warming, but they just cannot be as cool as the ninja. So, the epic battle between the two groups continues to be waged. If you want to learn more, then simple Ask A Ninja!

How is it one careless match can start a forest fire, but it takes a whole box to start a campfire?

This was the weekend of the annual Tampa Campout. Everything really seemed to come together this year in terms of weather, the folks that came, and logistics. The event tends to be one of the biggest hash events in Florida every year and we probably had 120-130 people there throughout the weekend. Friday morning was spent getting things packed up and ready to go. There was a little stress when the call came in that the truck that was bringing the 12 kegs and refrigerator trailer had a smoking transmission, however after a while, they still made it in.

One of the draws for the site, besides a general open area, was the foam party in the dance area. There was a trail on Friday evening that basically circled the camp pond a couple of times (with numerous stops at various tents for shots of different variety) and ending at the foam party by the pool. There we pretty much danced and chatted for unknown hours. When the party died then people gathered around the camp fire for general conversation and chatting. Though most people don't carry watches at a camping event, I did eventually hear a call out of 5AM and decided it was time to go to bed since I was the hare for the trail the next morning.

When I woke up around 9:30AM, I just had time to get a little breakfast and drop off the extra flour along the trail at some predetermined points. Though I was fortunate enough to get a volunteer to help me, I had to scout and pretty much set most of the trail. Let me tell you, it wasn't extremely fun to sprint off running carrying 5-7 pounds of flour on a 'live trail (meaning nothing was pre-marked) for the 3-4 mile hash. Things were going pretty well for the first half, however my co-hare apparently got sick and got left at the first beer stop to ride with the beer truck. I didn't realize this since I was pretty far ahead and waiting for a while until I really had to take off. I was a bit limited in what I could do since the start an stopping point were pre-determined since I had to lead the pack to a bar about 3 miles down the road, but overall it was a lot of fun and I think they enjoyed being taken through the various areas. We finished at a local 'Moose Lodge' (kind of like the Flinstones Water Buffalo club) where they had lunch cooked up and free flowing beer. After returning to the camp site I crashed for a few hours of well needed sleep. In the late afternoon there were plenty of Hash Olympic games to play that provided a wealth of entertainment; Chubby Bunny, Izzy Dizzy, etc. After dinner there was yet even more foam partying, a midnight trail around camp with more shot stops, and great late night conversation.

Sunday was mostly recovery with a few events. My favorite part of the camping tends to be when everyone just sits around for the final hours of the morning and afternoon to relax and chat. There are so many awesome stories to share and just hearing all the constant laughter is refreshing. Based on past experience, I decided to take Monday off to recover, so I took my time throughout the day to pack up and clean since I decided to stay one final night instead of rush home. As usual I took a couple of pictures during the weekend, so you can check them out if you'd like. I cannot wait until next year! What a great way to wrap up such a wonderful year for me. I've met so many great folks and had several fun adventures and am starting to plan more for the coming year.

I wonder what is next.

http://www.kodakgallery.com/I.jsp?c=vnlbugz.1qj3pmwj&x=0&y=e8fkul