2015 – Page 4 – If we had a Marriage, These Would be its Thoughts

Monterey Bay 2015

September 5, 2015 9:09 pm

We went down to Monterey for the weekend of August 21, 22, and 23.

I took that Friday off from work and we drove down mid-day to avoid morning rush hour traffic. When we got there we grabbed lunch at Point Pinos Grill, which was considerably nicer than I was expecting considering the prices. After lunch we walked across the street to the Point Pinos Lighthouse.

This picture would have turned out better if the sky weren't so heavily overcast, but not much I could do about that.

After touring the lighthouse we headed to our hotel room at Asilomar Conference Grounds. Once we were checked in we walked down to the beach (Asilomar State Beach) to do some playing.

I dug a hole, because why not?

And Heather stood in it, because why not?

We hung out in our little beach shelter (which worked fairly well overall):

We walked along the beach and dabbled in the water:

This was Heather's usual reaction to the waves coming in:

I tried to take some artsy pictures of the waves stacked up as they came in:

Then we headed up to the room for a dinner of hastily retrieved McDonald's; eaten on the floor (there never seems to be a good place to eat food in a hotel room).

Saturday we eventually made it out the door and down to Monterey's main drag. We ate breakfast at Coco's which was....not a highlight of the trip. It could have been a smoother experience, but the food was fine.

With food taken care of we walked down to Monterey Bay Aquarium to spend most of the day. Public Service Announcement: Buy your tickets online and print them out. We walked straight in the door while a line down the block was waiting to buy tickets.

Heather got to see some baby moon jellies up close as we walked in.

Heather, Jess, and Corinne sat in a giant clam:

And some more jellies, because they seem to make the most successful pictures at aquariums for some reason:

After completely wearing everyone out at the aquarium we headed to a local pizza joint, Gianni's, for dinner. It sounded like a sit-down and order kind of place, but it turned out to be a place-an-order and seat yourself kind of place. Which would have been fine, except they were packed and there was nowhere to sit. And Heather was DONE with the day and couldn't take being in the restaurant. So we converted our order to takeout and I took Heather back to the van to decompress while Jess waited for it to be ready.

Once it was ready she called me and we drove around to pick it up (couldn't drive up earlier because there would have been nowhere to park). That worked well for Heather and we had another dinner on the floor of our hotel room. The food was good though. Probably would have been better not stuffed into takeout containers and driven across town though.

On Sunday we got up and eventually got packed up and out of the hotel. We headed down to Carmel-by-the-sea for breakfast at Em Le's. They have famous deep-fried french toast:

Em Le's is just a tiny little restaurant tucked into the corner of a building. There's only seating for maybe 25 people at a time. The food was really good; give it a try if you're in the area.

See with the Point Pinos Grill, Gianni's, and Em Le's? I tried to find unique, local places to eat; but it's tough not knowing what to expect when you have little kids. Don't want to unintentionally go somewhere too upscale or non-kid-friendly (Em Le's was close on these criteria, but we didn't have any problems).

After eating we went down to Carmel Beach for a few hours, but didn't take any pictures this time around. Then we loaded up into the van and headed home. Which took much longer than it should have. I was expecting weekend traffic heading back into the Bay Area so we left at like 2, but it was terrible. So try to avoid that. We ended up needing to stop for food so we found a Habit Grill (which is a chain, but I hadn't seen one before) which was decent.

Heather's World

4:22 pm

Heather has been using her Nabi Jr. tablet for awhile now. It has a camera on it that can spin from front-facing to back-facing. I configured it to automatically sync the pictures to the computer.

With the pictures all in place I created a time-lapse of Heather's past year. If you don't care about the nerdy details of how I made it, jump to the bottom to watch the video.

It started with the 925 pictures she took over the last year. I ran them through ImageMagick to pad them to a consistent size:

$ cd /home/heather/Pictures
$ mkdir ~/Desktop/tmp
$ find "./2014/12 December 2014" "./2015" -name "*.jpg" -exec mogrify -gravity center -background black -extent 1600x1600 -path ~/Desktop/tmp {} \;

Then I, again, used ImageMagick to interpolate 3 transition frames between each picture so it's less jumpy (still pretty jumpy though):

$ cd ~/Desktop/tmp
$ mkdir morphs
$ convert *.jpg -morph 3 ./morphs/out-%04d.jpg

Okay, that's a little bit of a lie. ImageMagick's convert tool currently (version 6.x) reads in all input before doing anything. When it tries to load in the 925 images it uses up all the memory in my computer and then dies. So I had to break it up into batches (IM 7 supposedly fixes this problem). I used batches of 100 which still used about 7 GB of RAM:

$ ls *.jpg | head -n 100 | tail -n 100 | convert @- -morph 3 morphs/a-%04d.jpg
$ ls *.jpg | head -n 200 | tail -n 101 | convert @- -morph 3 morphs/b-%04d.jpg
$ ls *.jpg | head -n 300 | tail -n 101 | convert @- -morph 3 morphs/c-%04d.jpg
# .... all the way through head -n 900 .....
$ ls *.jpg | tail -n 26 | convert @- -morph 3 morphs/j-%04d.jpg

Doing it in batches results in a duplicate frame between each batch, so at this point we have to delete b-0000.jpg, c-0000.jpg, d-0000.jpg, etc. (but keep a-0000.jpg).

Now we're ready to run them through mencoder to produce our video:

$ cd morphs
$ mencoder mf://\*.jpg -mf w=1600:h=1600:fps=16:type=jpg -ovc lavc -lavcopts vcodec=mpeg4 -of lavf -lavfopts format=mp4 -oac copy -o ~/Desktop/output.mp4

I tried doing this with ffmpeg/avconv, but it kept cropping my images and I couldn't make it work. I also spent hours trying to get all this to work without using intermediate files, but ultimately failed. This process is a little more arduous (I might get around to writing it all into a script at some point) but it does work.

Here's is the view from Heather's world from December 2014 through September 2015 (there's no audio):

Or right-click and "save as..." to download it here: Heather's View - Dec 2014 - Sep 2015 (small)

If you watch closely you'll see Christmas, Jess being very pregnant, Corinne appears, Grandma visits, Kyle's birthday, and a lot of wandering around the house.

It's not super exciting, but I think it's kind of an interesting insight into Heather's world.

Carputer!

August 15, 2015 1:22 pm

One of the features in the Honda Odyssey that I've been looking forward to making use of is the auxiliary audio/video inputs located in the third row on the driver's side. There's also a standard AC power outlet back there next to them. This combination allows me to wire up a Raspberry Pi as an in-car entertainment system which is infinitely more useful than trying to swap DVDs up at the front console. This is especially true if one parent is sitting in the back with the kids because they won't be able to reach the DVD slot to switch discs and having the driver do so is not a great plan.

Also, it allows us to avoid the awfulness of DVDs: menus, previews, ads, FBI warnings--blurgh what a terrible experience. Boot this up, select a show, and you're watching it instantly.

We've got some road trips coming up so I wanted to get this set up beforehand. First I imaged an SD card with OSMC, an OS built around Kodi with the goal of making setup trivial. And it really was trivial: Install the OSMC installer on your computer, run it, insert your SD card, click some options and you're good to go. Pop out the SD card and plug it into the RPi.

Then I copied a bunch of movies and TV shows to a 64GB USB flash drive and plugged it into the Raspberry Pi (version 1 model B). To get things started I hooked the RPi up to the network and the TV in the house so it could download updates and the appropriate metadata for the videos. After initial setup I took it out to the van for a trial run.

IMG_20150815_123543as — The Raspberry Pi and associated cords fit nicely in the cup-holder.

I plugged everything in and turned on the car electronics. The RPi booted up and was ready to roll in just a couple of minutes. To control it I'm using this wireless keyboard/mouse combo by Lenovo which works great in this application.

Heather helped me out by watching a few minutes of Finding Nemo. She declared it the best thing ever.

The 4 purplish lights you can see above the screen are the infrared LEDs that transmit the audio to the wireless headphones. This allows the rear passengers to listen to the movie through the headphones while other passengers do something else--a sanity-saving feature for the adults in the vehicle.

Book Reviews 2015

August 11, 2015 4:03 pm

I haven't taken the time recently to provide reviews on the books I've been reading. So here's a quick update.

During the past year I had been in the national security classes so I didn't have much time for leisure reading. I did get some done during the Christmas break between semesters and once my last class ended, and after a recuperative period, I started in on some fiction. The classes pretty much burned me out on non-fiction for a little while.

The Martian - Andy Weir

The Martian is one of the most enjoyable books I have ever read. It's smart, it's witty, and it's just fun. Weir went through a lot of effort to get the science right which, for me, really makes the experience stand out. I'm certainly no expert, but I do know a little chemistry, physics, biology, orbital mechanics, etc. So when I'm reading a book where those topics are important to the story line I really appreciate them being correct.

I really enjoyed that the story is driven by the intelligence of the characters and not their ability to shoot things or punch things. I am extremely excited for the movie coming out in October. The previews suggest they captured the spirit of the novel. Next month Weir will be visiting the Lab so I'll have a chance to get a signed copy of the book.

The Synchronicity War - Dietmar Wehr

The Synchronicity War is a four-part series set during the time period shortly after humanity's first foray into interstellar space travel and colonization. I enjoyed it. It was light, fast-paced reading. The story involves some time-travel (well done, in my opinion), alien encounters, space combat, and the development of sentient artificial intelligence. I thought the story was cohesive though bordering being over the top at times. If you can look past the occasional blatant deus ex machina it's a fun read if you're into sci-fi, action-adventure stuff.

Dune - Frank Herbert

Dune is widely considered to be one of science-fiction's foundational works. At just shy of 900 pages it's a commitment to read. Honestly, it's a slow starter. I think it's 150 pages before the story line starts to pick up. There's a lot of foundation laid and I felt like it could have been cut down without much loss. However, once the story picks up it keeps moving rather steadily. It's well written and the story is well put together with good interlocking details. I did enjoy it overall. One oddity for me though was that it felt more like fantasy than science fiction. Sure there are space ships and advanced technology, but the themes and surrounding narrative felt a lot like Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time.

Ready Player One - Ernest Cline

Ready Player One is another quick, fun, read. No, it's not serious writing about serious subjects. It's not trying to be Dune. It's just trying to be entertaining. And it is. The story is cyberpunk obsessed with 1980's nerd/geek computer/game culture. I'm not exactly a 80's fanatic or big into MMORPGs (Massively Multiplayer, Online, Role-Playing Games), but I know enough about them to enjoy the book. If you know nothing about those topics the story may be rather unimpressive to you. I think Ready Player One's following and popularity is fueled by a very successful appeal to nostalgic charm and that's fine. I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Hugh Howey Short Stories

Peace in Amber

This story is a bit of an oddity. My understanding is that Howey was asked to write some kind of a mixin with Kurt Vonnegut's writing and this is what he came up with. If you're unfamiliar with Vonnegut's writing half the story might seem really bizarre, but I don't think it matters much. The interesting aspect of this story is Howey tells his experience of being in New York City on September 11, 2001. He was working on someone's yacht at the time and was in the harbor. He spent hours using that yacht to ferry people out of Manhattan.

The Box

The Box was alright. Not one of Howey's stronger works. But somewhat interesting still. Definitely still carrying his strong theme of the right to self-determination.

Glitch

Glitch was a bit predictable, but not every story has to be full of twists and turns. Well written and enjoyable and, again, heavy on the self-determination theme.

Second Suicide

This one was unique. I really enjoyed it. There's not much I can say that wouldn't simply spoil the story. Definitely worth a read.

The Plagiarist

The Plagiarist highlights Howey's ability to take something that looks predictable and turn it on its head. I think the way he does this in many of his stories causes things like Glitch and The Box to feel like lesser works as I think they're missing this element. Also definitely worth a read.

Flowers for Algernon - Daniel Keyes

Flowers for Algernon is another deemed classic of science fiction writing. Perhaps I had read too much hype about it before actually reading it, but it didn't live up to expectations. Incredibly well written and executed. The unique story telling style would be difficult to pull off but Keyes manages it. An unarguably interesting story.

Dunes Over Danvar - Michael Bunker

Bunker is an indie author with a growing number of good stories. I'll be keeping my eye on his future work. Dunes Over Danvar is set in Howey's Sand universe (I believe Howey is working on a sequel!). It's an enjoyable adventure story set during the same time period as the events of Sand, but with unique characters. This story caused me to pick up another of Bunker's stories, Pennsylvania.

Pennsylvania - Michael Bunker

Pennsylvania certainly presents a unique universe. The only way to categorize it is "Amish Sci-Fi." I know, how could such a category exist? Well, you can read this and find out. Bunker wrote the story in several pieces, but you can buy an omnibus at this point. While the universe has some compelling features and story line was enjoyable, I felt like Bunker didn't really know where he was going with it overall. It feels a bit strung along. And the ending does not really wrap anything up. Presumably he's working on a sequel. But even so, unless he has a master plan that he's working towards I think it will continue to feel strung along and lacking depth. It really begins to feel like back story, details, and explanation aren't being provided not because they need to be for the story to unfold a certain way, but because he can't decide what they should be and doesn't want to start fixing elements in place.

Kyle's Instant Pudding Faux-mousse Recipe

July 12, 2015 1:47 pm

(Updated Oct 2021 to change the name from "ganache" to "faux-mousse.")

A few months ago we had a pint of whipping cream in the fridge that needed to be used and I pondered what would happen if I added chocolate pudding mix to the whipping cream for some kind of chocolate whipped cream.

So, what happens? Something amazing is what happens.

IMGP3529a — Instant Pudding Vanilla faux-mousse

I refined my technique over a few trials and now present my recipes for Instant Pudding Chocolate Faux-Mousse and Instant Pudding Vanilla Faux-mousse. (I had originally referred to this dessert as "mousse" or "ganache" but not really either of those. It's closest to a mousse, but stiffer and has no eggs.) The recipes are almost the same, but some slight adjustments between the two are necessary. We used the vanilla faux-mousse as the filling for my chocolate birthday cake this year and it was tasty.

Instant Pudding Chocolate Faux-Mousse

1 pint whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 5.9oz package of chocolate instant pudding

Chill metal bowl and whisk in freezer as if preparing to make whipped cream.
Remove 1 tablespoon of chocolate pudding mix and discard (there is just a bit too much in the package).
Begin whipping 1 cup of the whipping cream as if making whipped cream.
As the cream is whipping, in a separate bowl mix the milk, remaining whipping cream, and instant pudding mix. Work quickly to mix in the pudding mix, it sets fairly rapidly.
When soft peaks form in the cream being whipped pause and add the pudding mixture then resume whipping.
Continue to whip until the mixture becomes fairly stiff and the pudding has been fully incorporated; scrape sides with rubber spatula as necessary.
Spoon into serving dishes (we have 6 dessert cups, but it's rich and could easily be split into more servings) or keep in a bowl, cover, and chill at least 10 minutes before serving. Keeps in the fridge for at least a few days, probably longer, but it's always gone after only a few days around here.

Instant Pudding Vanilla Faux-mousse

1 pint whipping cream
1 cup milk
1 5.1oz package of vanilla instant pudding
1 tsp vanilla extract

Chill metal bowl and whisk in freezer as if preparing to make whipped cream.
(Unlike the chocolate recipe, there's no need to remove any pudding mix for the vanilla.)
Begin whipping 1 cup of the whipping cream as if making whipped cream, add 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.
As the cream is whipping, in a separate bowl mix the milk, remaining whipping cream, and instant pudding mix. (The vanilla mix doesn't set as quickly as the chocolate, so speed isn't as critical.)
When soft peaks form in the cream being whipped pause and add the pudding mixture then resume whipping.
Continue to whip until the mixture becomes fairly stiff and the pudding has been fully incorporated; scrape sides with rubber spatula as necessary.
Spoon into serving dishes (we have 6 dessert cups, but it's rich and could easily be split into more servings) or keep in a bowl, cover, and chill at least 10 minutes before serving. Keeps in the fridge for at least a few days, probably longer, but it's always gone after only a few days around here.