Recycled Electrons - Blog of Keith Horowitz

A picture from Sunday of Pikes Peak. This morning on my way to work at 6am, the sunrise had lit up the foothills. I debated stopping on the way - but pushed on to work to take a few pictures from the parking lot. The view of the quarry seemed to have come out the best. I almost wished I stopped on the way - when the colors were more orange. Snow and Quarry on Rampart Range at Sunrise this Morning Pikes Peak this Past Sunday

My son dug up a game I'd played before: Roller Coaster Tycoon 2. My son asked to play. So I installed it on the kid's computer. Then he and I play a couple of scenarios the two previous nights. I forgot how fun it was. :) We also got the PC game Robots - based on the movie - for our youngest. I tried to install it on the kid's PC, but it wouldn't run the game. Besides the CPU being a little underrated, which I doubt was the problem, the video card doesn't have enough memory. And it is a new video card! I had spent $40 on a new 32M card for my eldest son to be able to play Age of Empires. I had debated spending a little more on a 64M card, but decided that there were no games that would need that much memory any time soon. I guess I was wrong! So the only computer that can run it is my laptop. I'm not in love with the idea of him playing on my laptop. Maybe if I get a USB keyboard. But I also need to clean up some files. I'm in the process of mo...

Sunday we decided to take a hike. The trail from the North entrance to the Air Force Academy was a nice hike for out-of-towners. North Entrance Air Force Academy North Entrance AFA Zoomed Beaver Dam Spillway Mixed Clouds over the Path Snow moving in

My in-laws were in town the weekend before last. We planned a day-trip with them up to Boulder on Saturday. First stop was the butterfly pavillion Butterfly - on a branch Butterfly - Looking up Butterfly - Eating Butterfly - On a leaf After we went to see about the Celestial Seasonings Tour. But it was pretty much filled up. So we decided to go back later. We drove by a museum of the Old West. There were a bunch of old cars parked in the lot. We headed over for Mexican food. Yum! As we were finishing up lunch, these old cars started streaming in. The jus kept coming and coming. There must have been 30 or 40 of them. They were coming into have lunch at the mexian resturant we were leaving! Turns out there were a Model-A club. Model A Club Model A Club #2 The we went to the Museum of the Old West. Free admission! :) I got a few pictures before the enter-person came up and told me no pictures were allowed. Museum in Boulder Museum in Boulder - Outs...

So I got around to going to the eye doctor last week. Big surprise, my eyes have gotten a little worse. And I'm entering the range of reading glasses or bi-focals. Well I knew that for a while. Most of the time it isn't really a problem. I've already noticed it in the past - when doing fine electrons - like robots. I bought myself a pair of reading glasses for that work. That is the only time I've used them. The only other time I've noticed that I'm getting into reading-glasses zone is when I have to read some really fine print - like on some medicine bottles. So I declined the honor of getting bi-focals for now. I don't need them for casual reading or work, so I'll do without for now. But I did ask about contacts. I haven't worn contacts in 7-10 years. Party was cost. Partly was the last time I tried them, I couldn't get them to settle down. I think the big problem with getting them to settle down was allergies. But my allergies have b...

Visited States : create your own visited states map or check out these Google Hacks. " I visited a lot of states on a teen tour when I was 14-15: I-80 to CA and back via the Grand Canyon. And as a family we have driven a number of places over the years: NJ to MA (many, many times) NJ to VT (skiing) NJ to FL (multiple times). NJ to Canada (North of Montreal). NJ to CO (moved). CO to TX. CO to CA. CO to FL to NJ to CO. CO to SD. CO to NM to NV to UT to CO. Most trips, included a number of states on route as well - some just driving through - some stopping to visit/stay. Thanks to Tank's Girl at Mi Vida Loca!

Snow on The Mountain We had a couple of days of snow. Just enough to have a 2-hour delay to school 2 days in a row. This morning it was sunny and cold. I took these pictures on the way walking into work. It is always amazing to see the snow covering the mountains and foothills.

Picture Theme: Faces Distored faces looking in a shiny coffee caraffe For Photo Friday Challenge: Faces

Tuesday I woke up to a warm, clear morning. The sun was pink on Pikes Peak - I ran back in for my camera and got this picture: (Sunrise on Pikes Peak) As I was driving to work, it seemed a tiny bit cooler, and there were some clouds coming over the mountain. Then it snowed: (view down from outside my cube at work) Then it stopped for a while. Then it snowed the same way again. I debated moving my car to the lower level of the garage so I wouldn't have to clear snow or ice of the car. But I never got around to it. Then when I left work, it was clear again. The snow had melted, and there were just a few small puddles left. It may seem schizophrenic - but I like Colorado weather! :)

Sand Castle on Sanibel Island One of my obsessions is sand castles. I am obsessed with making them almost every time I'm at the beach or sandy areas. I've even been known to made formations in the mulch at playgorunds. I've come up with a technique to make a mound very quickly, using my foot to push sand up, leaving a moat around. See 3 other sand castle pictures to get an idea of what it looks like. For Photo Friday Challenge Obsession

Wow! What a neat site! OLD-COMPUTERS.COM ! I built an Imsai 8080 with my dad back in 1977 - I have it out in the garage right now. The Challenger 4P was the first real computer that I had. About 1980. I even modified the case to have the cassette storage built in. I let it go when we left NJ. I inherited a ZX81 from my dad, but the keyboard connector had cracked. So I rewired a junk full-sized matrix keyboard into the unit. I even made a few special keys that did multi-key presses. Thanks to Trinity for posting OLD-COMPUTERS.COM : The Museum

10 poular pictures that have circulated the internet. See if you can tell which are real pictures and which are faked (real pictures with fake stories still count as real pictures)

Popular flash video that is going around the schools. Nerdy guy lip syncing to he web cam with a *lot* of energy. Flash - Numa Numa

Picture Theme: Ghostly The ghostly remnants of a few train cars that looks like they slid off the tracks sometime in the past. At first it just looks like an old wall that is mostly hidden, but when you look closer, you can see some pieces that tell you it had been part of a train . This is along a popular path that follows a wide stream. I managed to catch a picture of the ghost train cars as a freight train was passing above on the tracks. Posted for Photo Friday challenge: Ghostly

What is faith? Most people think about religion when you talk about faith. And many would say people don't have as much faith as they used to. Well, it seems to me, at least in part, people's faith has changed over time. One of the biggest bits of faith a lot of us face everyday and don't even think about it. We get in our cars and drive. How is that faith, you ask? You may not want to think about it, but I have: you get in these metal machines. You turn a key to start exploding extremely volatile fuel in what is effectively multiple specially capped cannons, burning the fuel at thousands of degrees. You carry a whole bunch of this volatile fuel with you. You have faith that these cannons won't fail you and that the fuel will only burn in the cannons. Then you start driving. You pull out onto the road, on top of 4 thick walled balloons that you have faith won't pop. You drive sometime in excess of 50 miles an hour, with cars going the same speed in the other direc...

OKCupid! presents: The Commonly Confused Words Test Advanced You scored 87% Beginner, 80% Intermediate, 87% Advanced, and 61% Expert! You have an extremly good understanding of beginner, intermediate, and advanced level commonly confused English words, getting at least 75% of each of these three levels's questions correct. This is an exceptional score. Remember, these are commonly confused English words, which means most people don't use them properly. You got an extremely respectable score. Silly, huh? :)