total.pardo

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

this is the compromise - a wide 24 incher and a 20 inch regular.  less overall width, great resolution, and the convenience of the dual screens.

call pardo happy.

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

the above picture is a shot of TWO TWENTY FOUR INCH wide screen dell monitors…they take up entirely TOO much space on my desk at work…time to find a compromise….

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

Published by Rockstar Games, Grand Theft Auto IV is a violent, intelligent, profane, endearing, obnoxious, sly, richly textured and thoroughly compelling work of cultural satire disguised as fun. It calls to mind a rollicking R-rated version of Mad magazine featuring Dave Chappelle and Quentin Tarantino, and sets a new standard for what is possible in interactive arts. It is by far the best game of the series, which made its debut in 1997 and has since sold more than 70 million copies. Grand Theft Auto IV will retail for $60.

Grand Theft Auto IV: Dystopian Liberty City - New York Times

even the NYT is getting into the act - and throwing out champagne words like: dystopian (An imaginary place or state in which the condition of life is extremely bad, as from deprivation, oppression, or terror.)  my thoughts on nico’s life in liberty city will be published soon - something tells me there won’t be deprivation, maybe  a healthy dose of terror.

been looking forward to this title for some time.  and today is the day.

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

today, ole pardo turns 38 (+9 months).  i look forward to the apparent random choice of poem garrison keillor uses on the writer’s almanac (a podcast from apm).  today, he chose:

To the Virgins, to Make Much of Time

Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,
Old Time is still a-flying:
And this same flower that smiles to-day
To-morrow will be dying.

The glorious lamp of heaven, the sun,
The higher he’s a-getting,
The sooner will his race be run,
And nearer he’s to setting.

That age is best which is the first,
When youth and blood are warmer;
But being spent, the worse, and worst
Times still succeed the former.

Then be not coy, but use your time,
And while ye may, go marry:
For having lost but once your prime,
You may for ever tarry.

i know herrick was reminding young women that beauty is fleeting…but this makes me feel older.  i hate becoming older.  some of you that read me are older, sure, and have come to terms with all the heart-ache and the thousand natural shocks that flesh is heir to…but, the rub for me is a lament for departed youth, devoutly to be wished, indeed.

i think why i try to do 13 things at once, why i employ CPA (continuous partial attention - read about CPA on the about.pardo page), and attempt to pepper my mind with as much useless knowledge (to others, at least) is because i am gathering the poetical rosebuds.  as many as i can, as long as i can.  i am the same age now as my mother when she died.  i have her genes.  and, in my best kevin bacon acting as jack swigert in the ron howard movie apollo 13, i say:  "i can add."  i prefer not that consummation - at least for now - while the lamp of heaven still shines.

let them eat static.

original source unknown.  if this photo is yours, please email me so i can credit.

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

ke2xc and i took two vx7r’s and tried the cloning feature.  ke2xc build the 2.5 mm jack cable and we both obtained the ct-91 adapter cables from the new castle HRO.

the cloning process worked flawlessly, changing all the memory entries on my ht to his.  all radio settings remained intact.

next up - the vx-7 commander software from KC8UNJ

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

another view of the remaining artifacts at the Brickworks in Mays Landing.  photo shot from the iPhone through a window in the back of the 400 building.

posted from iPhoneSlide.com

the view from the back of 400 building at the Brickworks complex in Mays Landing, NJ 

this site:  http://njpinelandsanddownjersey.com/photos/album257/DSCN0038_001 has a photo of the same complex before the commercial buildings where added.  the same domain has a paper on the site:

http://www.njpinelandsanddownjersey.com/open/index.php?module=documents&JAS_DocumentManager_op=viewDocument&JAS_Document_id=255

every once and a while, an internet forum poster will relieve himself of a precious gem - the unique turn of phrase that fits better than any ever.

a “crayon eating ass clown” is derived, perhaps, from the cult favorite “Office Space” when michael refers to his namesake nemesis michael boulton as a “no-talent ass clown.“  the image of some fool eating crayons while dressed as a clown really does it for me.  the insult that insults…

maybe its like the man said, “…these aren’t the droids we’re looking for…”

thanks to my friend John Saracen, WB2DFB, i am now the proud owner of a 1968 6 - 6BA6 tube ha-700.  its no Sony ICF-SW7600G, but it sure is a handsome rig.  to this day i lament the loss of another donated radio - a hallicrafters s-53a that burned up on me a year after i received it from the wife of an old friend.  in a few ways, the 90 dollar 1955 radio reminds me of this classy ha-700.  this Lafayette is in choice condition and has been recapped.  it was kept at BB62 for quite some time, i, in fact, worked on the radio sometime last fall, adding a chassis mounted SO-239 connection.  here is a photo:

now, since i had worked on the rig, i know it was working without issue.  the most important specs are listed below from a scan of a djvu file via:  http://bama.sbc.edu/lafayett.htm

so i put up an antenna to test the radio - using some recently purchase 450 ohm ladder line, pictured here:

nothing.  no reception on any band.  all tubes hummed away flawlessly.  the operative spec for the alert reader is 450 OHM.  if you read the specs, you’d see that the max impedance on the antenna is 400 OHM.  i also connected both sides of the ladder line, one to the antenna input and the other to the not so well marked ground. 

my thinking is the impedance is too high.  being also that the rig is very close to my grounding system, i should have run a short jump to earth ground.

i am going to pull the ladder line and put up a single wire to see what i can hear.

in other news, the IC756 is humming along nicely.  After testing output on a bird meter at the ship, we determined the outputs to be spot on - ke2xc and i found a few shorted coax jumpers in the array that may have been the issue.  all bands are humming now with the semi-permanent 20M dipole i have up.  the MFJ 949 tuner needs some looking at now.  so far, i hear what i should be hearing and a few contacts we made over the weekend on 20M during the massive contests. 

i discovered the use of serial numbers in contacts.  i had (and am still unclear why they are used) been unaware of the need to call out the contact number sequence with the RST report.  maybe someone with more experience will chime in here and elmer me on this.

from http://icanhascheezburger.com/