Rob the Fiddler

I gotta admit, this was not the best growing year for me. From what I can tell, its not just my yard. The Richardson wildflowers that grow all over were pitiful. Im usually overrun with sunflowers and now I just have one.  Worst of all, I was hit with some kind of mosaic virus that infected the squash and morning glories.  The tomatoes were ok, but none of the the big ones came out.

I did edit up with plenty of cherry and small tomatoes though…so its not a big loss.

Onions were small too….but I picked enough of them along with a few peppers to make some chili.

Pitiful compared to 2005

Good weekend.  On Friday a friend too me to see my first Rough Riders game. She had season tickets too, pretty much behind the plate. A lot more fun than a Rangers game.  I might have to try minor league hockey next.

Other than that, it was a relaxed weekend. The O’s and Romp Almighty did a block party in Richardson. I tagged along. Richardson is pretty cool.

See real front porches…old ladies enjoying lemonade (or Whiskey?)

Seven Mart

501 West Davis

Taco Tuesday #2

This time I tried driving into OC from 35. I forget exactly where I got off…I was lost around 8th and 35.

Ultimately found myself in the Bishop arts district when 12 minutes came up. The next visible taco stand was the Seven Mart.

Tacos were a dollar and a few items that I did not recognize were on the menu.

I asked what Deshebrada meant. I was told it was beef….shreaded..and spicy.

Ok, not a lot to go with, but at the same time…enough to be in my belly.

I ordered two fajita, two pastor and one deshebrada.

Turns out I think I got one pator and two of the shredded beef.

Those were  my favorite. It was was like hot spicy, but was kinda green chili-ish. Maybe had the taste of a Chorizo-egg taco? Still, great!  The grilled onions and sides were tasty.

Certainly much greasier…by a landslide. The fajitas were a little odd. They were colored red on the edges. Almost artificial looking. It still had a grilled tasted as if it was was carne asada flame broiled….but of the three, it was my least favorite.

I bit into the Jalapeno and had to find a big gulp afterwards.

When I started working downtown, I had big plans of taking all kinds of little trips to Oak Cliff for tacos.

Dallas LOVES tacos. They are pretty much everywhere, and come in all sorts of shapes and sizes (including tortas, gorditas, and BBQ brisket on a flour tortilla) . They are easily found in the  the back corners of gas stations and mini marts. Even bars like Vickery park and Lee Harvey’s have great tacos. Even in East Plano, you can find plenty of taco places here and there.

The first time I had real tacos was when I started playing music in Deep Ellum on a regular basis. There is a taco stand called Taco Pinocho which is open until at least three. I knew enough spanish to know what  lengua meant. It was amazing. Greasy, spicy…tasty…but all you need are a few.

At the same time, there was a taco stand in an old Airstream across from the Green room in Deep Ellum. I heard that it was basically the same kitchen as the Green Room. They served al pastor tacos with a slice of pineapple! Yum.  Omegas occasionally had a little stand too.

So the plan was to do “Taco Tuesdays” where I go and try a new place and take notes. Im not particularly a good food critic, so do not expect much.  Alas, I never really got around to doing it because I was paying for parking on a daily basis.  I found a monthly lot at 40 bucks a month and have no excuses!

Turns out, there is a fairly popular website going that is doing Taco Brackets!  I might have to check that out too, but the current criteria for choosing a taco stand is based on time. Drive from work into the OC for exactly x minutes and then when that time has passed, go to the next place I see.

Since Im still not all that familiar with the streets of Oak Cliff, its been interesting.

Here is what I have so far.

Tacos King

2535 Fort Worth Ave
Dallas, TX 75211

Was not sure how even to approach this whole “drive into oc” for 12 minutes thing, so I took a horrible route. Turns out there are a lot more taco on Davis that worth…but its about the exploration right. Timer dinged and the next place I saw was Tacos King.

Not bad. Actually not greasy at all. The tortillas were not dipped in oil. A practice my mom abhors! Things were a little slow so I hopped next door to get an empanada for later.

The presentation was impressive.  Grilled Jalapeno!  Wow.  Classico! It came with two sauces too. One was a Guacish/Cream thing. Ill have to learn more about this.  Plenty of onion and cilantro.

Two Fajita and two Al Pastor.

The al pastor were far superior.  In both cases, the meats were kinda stewy. Cubed and stored in a container. Kinda average. Ill admit, part of the fun is to see them take a chunk of meat, chop it up a bit and then place it on a tortilla. Alas, I was nest door getting dessert to say how it was prepared. Im sure it was flash seared on the grill which was well cared for. I saw them grilling some sort of torta thing which looked like awesome in a bun! Im going back for that.

I only got one bite into the Jalapeno before I had to make a stop at 7-11 for a big diet coke! Turns out a few sips of sugar coke can clear the hotness before filling the cup with diet which does NOTHING to clear hot.

Had a great run with the garden early in the spring.  Tons of radishes and lettuce plants.  I have a habit of not thinning things out enough though and there still was some crowding .

Its a strange year though.  Going back on pictures of previous years, this year bites. Usually I have sunflowers growing at waist height and tons of stuff growing.  This year I have like two sunflowers and nothing else on the side of the house.  Even the Queen Anns Lace (Wild Carrots!!!!)  did not come up. Ive read that these are good for tomatoes too.

The one wildflower (perennial of some kind) that shows up every year by my mailbox did come out again. I started to mow my lawn and the neighbor across the street came over with a shovel and a pot thinking she was going to save that feller. Bless her heart. I assured her that it comes up every year and was practically family. Heck…I saved seeds from the patio of a Taco Cabana using those very handy salsa containers. I’m not mowing over a perfectly awesome plant.

Im cool with digging up stuff thats going to get mowed. I had a verbena last year that really wished survived the cold. (not good in pots.)

Turned out well with the lettuce. I had thick clumps of greens that survived over the summer so I broke them up and planted them in the spring. Still, I didn’t spread them out enough. I had lettuce growing in every corner of the yard.  Now the temps have risen and they have all bolted.  Was sweet at the time.

This year I ended up eating pounds of beet greens (yum), radish greens (meh), and chard (sweet!).
The chard were survivors from the fall garden that never really took off until spring.

Lessons learned: Lettuce grows fine in Dallas. Plant in the ground in fall and if it never really takes off, let it be. With all the freezes and snows, they still did fine. Chard grows great in pots.

I hope this Tomatillo produces.

Had great luck with Rosa Radishes.  (Chinese rose??)  I found the seeds at North Haven Gardens I think. Check these one out.

French Breakfast were good until they turned woody.  Beets worked out great too.

Tomatoes are coming in iffy as are everything else. They had a good start with lots of love and Highwood Worm Farm compost.  My special mix of worm casings, egg shells and beard clippings assured plenty of nitrogen. Still, they could e growing better. They sell nice size early girls at the farmers market.  Been thinking about doing that.

Dang birds love tomato juice. Poor Patio tomatoes never really look good. They put out some fruit and lose all their leaves.  I gave them generous pots too. (From the hydroponics store cuz they know pots!)

Here is a great example of bad patio tomato plants. These look like something out of a Dr. Seuss book! (note the mosaic virus on the beans behind..more on that to come)

First BLT

Why, yes that is a big bowl of bacon.  I also made Rice Krispy Treats with Bacon for a work themed event. They turned out ok but they would have been better if I

• didn’t burn the heck out of the bacon
• had used bacon grease rather than butter

Now for the bad news. It appears that I have some kind of mosaic virus in just about everything. The tomatoes appear OS, but those always are susceptible. Ill post some pics later, but its EVERYWHERE. You can see it in the pic with the green tomatoes.

This means I really have to rip out everything that is affected (and aphid friendly). Its a shame because the Morning Glories were going to rule!.

So, this weekend I clear cut all legumes and Squash. Bites! Guess the remaining growing season is just maters n taters.

So I came across the circuit for the Joule Thief on Evil Mad Scientist. Such a fun website. Its amazing how much a YouTube video and a little hand waving can get you excited over an academic topic. Bill Nye, your the guy. SCIENCE!

The name is a fun play on words an another example that a catchy name will sell just about anything. The purpose of the circuit is that you can drive an LED on a 1.5 AA battery to the point where the battery is incredibly dead. (Jewel - Joule).

This is pretty cool because already takes more than 1.5 volts to make just about any color of  LED light up.  You cant light a blue LED with a AA because LEDs are diodes and require a minimum voltage to light it up.  1.5 volts will not do it.  Just break open any blinky shamrock or pumpkin you get with a Coors or Bud logo on it and you will see it takes TWO button batterys to operate. (most all button batterys are 1.5 volts.)  Ok thats a strange example, but not for me considering that I smash every blinky alcohol-ad related widget I come across just…well..because…..umm…..SCIENCE!

So it takes more than what a AA can provide to to see an LED light up. How does it work and what kinda science can I walk away from this post with?

Its all about inductors.  Ever wonder how a “converter” can plug into the wall and drop 120 volts AC to the 9 volts that you can charge your ipod works?  Inductors!  You take  a piece of metal (or metal like substance) and wrap wire around it.  Bill Nye would show that this makes an electromagnet..but it also can be used to bring up or drop down a voltage swing.

Take a ring of metal and wrap a pair of wires around it. If the number of loops of the “primary” outnumber the “secondary” you will drop down the voltage swing. Likewise, if the secondary loops outnumber the primary, you will step up the voltage.

This works well with Sine waves which are the “Steady Eddys” of nature. Its a nice ebb and flow. It ramps up and ramps down and all is good. Its the delta in the voltage that translates to higher voltages.

With the Joule Thief, the oscillations are a bit more spikey.  With fast spikes (fast deltas) come wider voltage swings and the ability to step up voltages to the point where you can light up the LEDS.

Anyways, this little circuit was the focus of my amusement over Christmas vacation.

I found it interesting because I have never really dealt with inductors outside of power supply applications.  In the old days, capacitors and inductors were kinda the Yin and Yang of electronics. Transformers are still around, but most filters are constructed as active filters. Capacitors are cheaper to make and op amps have eliminated the need for inductors. I never dealt with them in College and I graduated with a EE degree!

I had a blast rooting around the garage with my dad over Christmas looking for torrids to play with this circuit.  Pretty educational.

Back to the circuit.

This guy seems to claim to have coined the term, but the circuit is nothing new.   Here is a  guy has a blog that deals with the circuit at an obsessive level.  Another website here does a pretty good job of explaining the whole thing as well.

Of course…its not any fun without pictures.  Here are my completed circuits.

OK, its been forever since I updated my site. I suppose Ive been kinda busy with work and work. Its been nice to have projects that keep my mind running in overdrive.

I’m currently working at a company called Interlegis doing Java programming. I hope to post examples of things I have learned, but I’ll do that soon after our next release. (Strategic information for now…hush hush).

What I can share is my new found study of visualizations. There are tons of neat projects that focus on Data_visualizations. Basically, I was already fascinated with blinky lights, buttons, colors, charts and the like. This just formalizes into a paying job.  Nice.

In short, data visualization takes a LOT of information and puts it into a graphic from which you can derive useful conclusions. Neat stuff. The nickle tour is Jeffs website.  And by nickle I mean you can take his entire course (Stanford) online by just browsing his site.

Here are some sweet platforms that do this.

Prefuse

Axiis

So Ive sold you on pretty charts…but your asking, how can I use this in my day to day life?

Here is a great example of data visualization. Check out these Wurdle visualizations of my site and JDs and ask yourself….which blogger studied more Math versus English.
(hint…my word cloud is big on “one” and “good”.  Wait..I meant to call it an excellent example)

ME

versus JD