Manecke.com

This past week I was in Atlanta for the Military Open Source Software working group. The event was hosted by the Georgia Tech Research Institute which is on the campus in Atlanta. Mil-OSS.org is an organization that promotes the use of Open Source software for DoD applications.

On Wednesday night, dinner was on the top of the parking garage outside. It was a great location. At first I thought it might be a bit too hot, but the weather really wasn’t all that bad. As you can see from the picture, we had a great view of the city.

The next one is planned for sometime in the Spring on the west coast.

I have a problem at my cabin in the woods in West Virginia lately. Something’s been chewing on the wood in places. I first noticed about two years ago that something was chewing on unfinished deck railings. Generally once I put WOODguard on them, they were no longer as tasty and it stopped. I saw a large critter once or twice, but never up close as I scared it away too quickly. Recently I noticed new attempts to eat the place where the wood was treated.

Having bugs, animals and such eating and generally doing harm to wood structures is pretty common around here. Talking with neighbors, squirrels and porcupines were the most common theories.  One neighbor’s dog recently tangled with a porcupine in the woods between us and had to go the vet.  There are also plenty of squirrels around but they seem too small for the damage.

Now I know. A few days ago I heard wood chewing sounds coming from outside. Through the basement window I saw this guy chewing on a pile of scrap wood. I managed this and another picture before he left. So now I need to figure out what animal this is and if there’s any good ways to stop him.

I took this picture of the Sydney Opera House from the top of the southeast pier (pylon) of the Sydney Harbour Bridge. It’s featured now as a header image for the page. Taking pictures on a nice day in Sydney is so easy, because there’s incredible views everywhere. Almost every picture you take could be a postcard.

There is a museum with an outdoor observation deck on the southeast pylon.

This storm rolled through a few days ago at about 5PM. It featured dark clouds with green showing through. It looked mean.

I posted on flickr some pictures I took at the NCAA Frozen Four tournament. The games were April 9 and 11 at the Verizon Center in Washington DC. As a Capitals season ticket holder, I had the opportunity to get seats.

The four teams playing were Bemidji State, Miami of Ohio, Boston University and Vermont. I didn’t have a particular rooting interest, though I favored, in order, Vermont, Bemidji State, Miami, BU. Even though my least favored team won, the tournament was still a great time.

The games were much different than Capitals games at the Verizon Center in a lot of good ways. A quick list of what I liked about them:

• the PA volume was adjusted to a reasonable level, vice blaring, and there was no ear-splitting music being pumped out constantly to supposedly “get the fans excited.” If the arena was loud, it was from people cheering, not manufactured excitement.
• each team had a band that played fight songs and led cheers for their fans. Each team had a group of fans there.
• no hockey-clueless suits entertaining clients. These are the ones at NHL games that sit in seats on the glass, come in and out during the game, and incessantly talk to their guests about everything but the game. Sad part in Washington is that some of these people are Capitals owners.
• the speed of the game was a little slower and there were mistakes. I could watch this game and see myself doing some of the things I saw on the ice. Not necessarily as fast-paced and exciting as NHL, but as a rec-hockey player, I could relate to these games.