In the spirit of trying something new, I attended the Excessive Noise Concert in the Fine Arts Library at UT. It was fun, and all the musicians were great!
Author Archives: earthrobert
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Sculpture
On my rainy walk through the campus of The University of Texas this evening, I stopped to admire the sculpture of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
“Freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.”
The sculpture had more meaning after recently watching the film “Selma”.
Royers Pie Haven
What better to eat on a cool, rainy day than some pie? My destination was Royers Pie Haven near the University of Texas campus. The pie slices were yummy (although a bit small for a filling lunch). No problems, I’ll just order two – the Margherita Chicken Pizza Pie and the Chicken Pot Pie. The staff is so sweet, they decided I also needed a complementary tiny slice of Ann’s Pecan Pie for dessert. Their little pie shop is a busy one, and I can see why.
Mesa Rosa
Lunch today was at Mesa Rosa Mexican Restaurant. Their bar is pretty cool looking and one day I need to stop by for happy hour. Today’s feast was chicken fajitas along with chips and their creamy jalapeño sauce. Most excellent!
Turkey Creek Trail – Hike
This trail can be found on the right just as you round a bend and cross over a narrow bridge on City Park Road. The trailhead parking is before the ranger booth for Emma Long Metropolitan Park. The hike consists of several creek crossings, and a climb to the top of a small ridge. The area is currently leash free, so expect to encounter lots of wet dogs roaming the trail. I tried – and mostly succeeded – to keep out of the creek while hopping from rock to rock. I got to see the sunset from the ridge top and then had a dark hike while trying to find my way out. I didn’t get eaten by monsters, so all is good. 🙂
Turkey Creek Trail – Trail Map
After work today, I rushed over to Emma Long Metropolitan Park with the intention to complete the Turkey Creek Trail hike before it got too dark. I goofed around with my camera a little too much and completed my nearly 3 mile hike in the dark. It was a fun evening!
Lyve
I am testing a free App called Lyve on three of my devices so far – iPad 3, Samsung Galaxy S4, and iPod Touch. There are different sets of pictures on each device, and Lyve has connected to each via the magical interwebs to pull them all into one view sorted by photo date. I’m adding some screenshots so you can get the idea of how it all looks. The first screenshot is the home page when you open the App with my most recent photos, the second is me selecting photos from my visit to Zion National Park back in September 2013, and the third is me selecting one of my favorite photos to send in an e-mail with full resolution. So far, I am pleased with how this App pulls everything together.
If you research their products on their website, you will also see a $300 device that will collect your photos and store them on a 2TB hard drive as long as it is connected to the wireless internet. I’m not sure about spending that kind of dough, but I am researching it in case part of my tax refund needs to be spent on technologies. I need a simple, organized, flawless, inexpensive, automated backup process for my photos, and I haven’t fallen in love with any of the cloud options out there. I could envision having one device at home and one device at work so you could show off all your super cool photography abilities to your groovy coworkers.
If anyone from the Lyve Team wants to provide me with a free trial device, I would be willing to give it a go for you (shameless plug for my highly marketable skills at testing and breaking techie stuff). 🙂
Point of Focus
Texas deer like to tease you. They are all like, “Here we are. Come take our photo while we munch on some tasty grass.” Then they run away laughing at you and your blurry collection of “wildlife” photos.
Austin Skyline
Here is a different view of Downtown Austin than what you are used to me posting. It is from a secret location that I might be willing to share with you, but first you must hazard a guess. 🙂
Robocup Soccer Exhibition
One of my most anticipated events at the Artificial Intelligence Open House was to witness the Robocup Soccer Exhibition. One of the teams was from The University of Texas – The Austin Villa Robot Soccer Team. The goal is to “build fully autonomous cooperative multi-robot systems that perform well in dynamic and adversarial environments.” How much fun it was to watch these little guys roam the soccer field, chase the ball down, tumble around and get back up on their own, pass the ball, and score goals. The robots are all a Standard Platform (identical except for programming and jersey color) and “Aldebaran Nao” robots. They receive no programming assistance while on the field, but must find the ball and play soccer on their own. Too much fun!
earthrobert 