Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas

Spending Christmas and New Years 2015 with my family at the top of the world in Alaska.  This is truly a Winter Wonderland, with temperatures down to -40 degrees (actual temp no wind chill factored in), and just enough snow to know that it is wintertime.  A full moon, at night when it is not overcast and an added delight of natures fireworks, the Northern Lights!

This is Santa's backyard and his Christmas of Ice presentation at North Pole, Alaska (just outside Fairbanks) is a splendid event with world class ice sculpture.  I have captured it on video for all to enjoy.

So, from the top of the world, a Very Merry Christmas!!!

Here is the YouTube link to view the video...


 https://youtu.be/z_-XHh4bGbc

Tuesday, November 10, 2015

40 Years After The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald

This underwater photo of the sunken SS Edmund Fitzgerald was taken by an unmanned submersible robot, as a research team investigates the wreck site 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point, Mich., on August 24, 1989. The 729-foot ore freighter sunk on November 23, 1975, during a severe storm, taking its load of iron and the crew of 29 men to the bottom of the Lake Superior.
This underwater photo of the sunken SS Edmund Fitzgerald was taken by an unmanned submersible robot, as a research team investigates the wreck site 17 miles northwest of Whitefish Point, Mich., on August 24, 1989. The 729-foot ore freighter sunk on November 23, 1975, during a severe storm, taking its load of iron and the crew of 29 men to the bottom of the Lake Superior.
ASSOCIATED PRESS



November 10, 2015 marks a 40 year milestone to remember the tragic sinking of the Great Lakes iron ore carrier Edmund Fitzgerald.  It went down in Lake Superior and took all 29 crew members with her.  The winds of November have been the most tragic time for Great Lakes shipwrecks, as 40% of all Great Lakes shipwrecks, over the last 300 years, have occurred in the month of November.

Canadian folk singer & songwriter, Gordon Lightfoot, wrote a song about the Edmund Fitzgerald after Lake Superior swallowed her whole and forgave nothing.

...and so, on this day, we remember the 29 shipmates and the mighty Edmund Fitzgerald.


https://youtu.be/hDb3mly47gQ








Thursday, September 3, 2015

Delete


delete  [dih-leet]



verb (used with object), deleted, deleting.

1.
to strike out or remove (something written or printed); cancel; erase;expunge.
Delete, like to erase recordings on audio tape or remove written material form an email.  Bob Woodward, investigative reporter of the famed Watergate incident involving President Nixon, says that Hillary Clinton's handling of her emails as Secretary of State reminds him of the Nixon Watergate tapes.  
It was the erased 18.5 minutes of audio tapes, out of the thousands of hours of White House recordings, that ultimately forced Nixon to resign the Presidency.  
We should hold our leaders feet to the fire for accountability, and Hillary has been allowed to evade the American People on how she has handled her emails.  

If it was bad for Nixon to delete important government information, than Clinton should be accountable to the same standard as a key US Federal Government Leader. 
So, for the record, here is Bob Woodward's response about Clinton's emails.

Wednesday, September 2, 2015

Westboundkid Report

A few interesting things for this week.  Trending video, golf, a blast from the past and a nice video from my long time buddy in Michigan, Doug Edwards.

Enjoy...and don't take things too serious!!


Friday, August 28, 2015

Water Dogs

Dogs love the water and we love watching them play in it.  All you need is a couple of dogs, a GoPro camera, some green grass, a sprinkler, some H2O and stand back to watch the fun.  My sister-in-law, Wendy, has a Boston Terrier and our friends Sharon and Frank have a Pug.  Together they mix it up on while the irrigation system is running!  What a blast!

Watch and enjoy.....

 


You can also enjoy this video on YouTube

Wednesday, August 26, 2015

‘Ninja’ roamed Sun City neighborhood



A camera, set up by a Sun City resident to capture images of wildlife, caught what appeared to be someone dressed as a ninja walking through his yard and those adjacent in the last few days.
The camera captured two such incidents late at night — the first at 2:09 a.m. Aug. 21 and the second at 11:04 p.m. Aug. 23.
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Living a few blocks from Riverview Golf Course, Don Jerde and his wife see a variety of wildlife in their yard, including coyotes, rabbits and quail. However, this is the first time the camera photographed a person.
“Our son-in-law bought the camera so we could send him pictures of the wildlife,” Mr. Jerde said. “We set it up 5-6 times per year.”
Motion activated, the camera captured a number of animals, both day and night, before it clicked on the neighborhood ninja. Mr. Jerde said the series of photos from the first incident shows the “ninja” getting close to one of his neighbor’s homes that is for sale.
Concerned about the safety of the community, the Jerdes called Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office after each occurance.
Chris Hegstram, MCSO spokesman, said there was no indication of any criminal activity in this case, but MCSO investigators do want to identify and talk to the person pictured. Residential properties do not have to have no trespassing signs for a person to be charged, but Mr. Hegstram stressed investigators do not believe a crime was committed in this case.
“We have not seen anything like this in Sun City that our investigators are aware of, certainly not in the last two years,” he said.
However, Mr. Hegstram said there has been evidence that homes are cased by burglars.
“But we cannot connect that with this case or any of the burglaries we have investigated in Sun City,” Mr. Hegstram said.
The Jerdes remain concerned about the incident.
“We put up a motion-activated light and we are seriously considering putting up a block wall,” Mr. Jerde said.
He added there had been a series of burglaries at home a few blocks from his, but he is not aware of any that were perpetrated on his street.
“Someone roaming through a yard and dressed like that is a little shocking,” Mr. Jerde said.
While they believe no crime was committed, MCSO and Posse officials urge residents to take steps to protect themselves and their property.
“We tell people to try to think like a thief,” said Art Jenkins, Posse spokesman. “If you were going to steal something, break in, whatever, how would you do it..
He also advised residents to lock their doors, including the security door; trim bushes next to the home that provide hiding places for criminals; have a peephole in their front door; and install motion-activated lights.
    Independent Newsmedia, Inc. USA

Friday, August 21, 2015

FOMO - Is This For Real?

Our world of social media has now created a new ailment called FOMO.  That is fear of missing out!  Really, I'm going to become jealous of my family and friend's activities they post on Facebook, 'cause I'm not there or it is something that I cant do or afford at this time?  This is a whole new category of mental health.  I can see it now,  our companies will begin "social media adjustment" classes designed to help you understand yourself and not miss any work over it!

For me, I may just have to re-think my social media use.  But in the meantime, you will just have to deal with my posting of the great life I'm enjoying!  Get over it!


Wednesday, August 19, 2015

...It's Hump Day!

Through the power of mass media and the social internet; we all know the answer to this famous question.  Clever and genius and most people even know the name of the advertised service.  Well, enjoy and I hope this puts a smile on your face.  Remember that the rest of the week is downhill from here!

 

Tuesday, August 11, 2015

Golf Practice - Driving

Well I'm no golf pro.  Hell, I'm not even a very good golfer!  But I do love the game and want to do it better and keep up with those here in Sun City who play daily.  I would settle if I could play "boggy golf" and even happier if I could consistently shoot par.  The truth of the matter is that I get my golf score mixed up with my bowling score, if you know what I mean?

I went out the other day and hit a bucket of balls on the driving range.  It felt good to just focus on the driving aspect of the game and to be aware of my alignment, stance, grip and follow through.  The video was a good tool for me to do this.  (next time I will align the video camera so my head is not cut off!)

Here is my completed project "Golf Practice - Driving"
Who knows I might be the next Rory Mcllroy?



Monday, August 10, 2015

Tecnology is Changing Terminology

This just in from our live news desk...Facebook announces that we shouldn't "LOL" anymore, as we see in this report from the horses mouth!

'Haha' has killed 'lol,' says Facebook


If you still "lol" at jokes online then you might be in the minority. A new report from Facebook into how users express laughter shows that "haha" and its variants are by far the most common terms used on the social network. They accounted for 51.4 percent of mirth in the anonymized comments and posts looked at by Facebook's data team, with laughter emoji claiming 33.7 percent, and "hehe" and its cognates 13.1 percent. The once-mighty "lol" only appeared in 1.9 percent of the text sampled by Facebook — a pretty staggering fall for an expression that was once synonymous with online txt speak.
EMOJI WERE MORE POPULAR AMONG FEMALE USERS
Although not surprising for such a venerable term, "lol" proved slightly more popular with older users. Differences between generations were not heavily pronounced, but it was emoji that were most popular with users with the youngest median age, while "haha," "hehe," and "lol" were favored by progressively older individuals. The data also showed that emoji were more popular among female users, with "haha" showing a small male bias, and "hehe" distributed nearly evenly among the genders. Not may people were regular chortlers though: in the week's worth of data Facebook looked at, 46 percent of those that laughed in the seven days did so only once, with the vast majority — 85 percent — laughing fewer than five times.



Two graphs showing laughter preference by age (left) and by gender (right). (Facebook)
Facebook's data team also examined how users deployed variants of these laughter terms, looking at whether they hehe'd more than they hehehehe'd, for example. An article in The New Yorker that inspired Facebook's analysis suggested that we use "ha"s and "he"s as building blocks, adding up these lexical units to convey everything from polite recognition ("ha") to no-really-I'm-going-a-bit-mad-with-laughter ("hahahahahahahaha"). Although interpretation of these different strings can be quite subjective, Facebook's data showed that even letter counts were more common than odd ones, suggesting that we do indeed stack up these two-letter phonemes like Lego bricks
"THE LOL ALMOST ALWAYS STANDS BY ITSELF, THOUGH SOME RARE SPECIMENS WERE FOUND."
As Facebook's researchers explain: "The most common are the four-letter hahas and hehes. The six-letter hahaha is also very common, and in general, the haha-ers use longer laughter. The haha-ers are also slightly more open than the hehe-ers to using odd number of letters, and we do see the occasional hahaas and hhhhaaahhhaas. The lol almost always stands by itself, though some rare specimens of lolz and loll were found. A single emoji is used 50 percent of the time, and it's quite rare to see people use more than five identical consecutive emoji." However, Facebook's data scientists should probably look at Instagram, where long strings of Face With Tears Of Joy emoji are more common. And judging by the demographics of the two social networks, this is how laughter online is likely to look in the future.

Friday, August 7, 2015

Obama calls Trump to give debate advice

Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!!!

Obama gives Trump advice for the GOP Presidential Debate.




Monday, August 3, 2015

Sunset on the Golf Course

We live on the west edge of Sun City Arizona and the sunsets are magnificent.  Even with having to view them through the high tension power lines that run along the Agua Fria Riverbed!  This time of year (August) the sun is still high to the north, although each day moving further south, which can be easily tracked daily by the various peaks of the White Tank Mountains. 

The Riverview Golf Course in Sun City is under major reconstruction.  With the re-alignment of the 18 hole course, making the back 9 the front and vice versa.  Our "Sun Down" holes will now be the premier center piece greens on Riverview with the new #4, a par 3 to a grand and challenging new green, leading up to the new #5 tee box and fairway that runs parallel to the western edge of Sun City.

The course is currently closed but is expected to re-open on November 1, 2015.  We can not wait to play the newly revised course and it will no doubt continue to be our most favorite in Sun City!



Friday, July 31, 2015

Arizona...the Grand Canyon State

So earlier this year we had visitors form the east.  (Well, Michigan that is!)  Our oldest son, J his wife Dianna, along with the grand daughters Julia & Sam, all came out to Arizona for a visit.  We all ended up viewing the south rim of the Grand Canyon for our first times.  It is a breathtaking view and the day we were there it was a bit cool and windy, but it did not diminish our expectations of the canyon!

Here is a quick clip of the kids and a view of the Grand Canyon.


Dogs Are Always Winners for TV Commercials

This has got to be the funniest tv commercial I have seen in a long time.  Of course, the fact that it has nearly human Yellow Labs and Golden Retrievers in it, gets your attention.  In the end, not sure if you can remember the product, but you will for sure remember the ad.


Thursday, July 30, 2015

Gold Sunset in Arizona

An Arizona sunset from my backyard!