JesseParker.com

Up close A caterpiller and a Horned Beetle

I almost forgot to post this. . . After climbing Mount Rainier we had the great idea that we were going to drive all the way back to Missoula. Part of the reasoning was that our sleeping bags were packed in our backpacks which were packed behind everything else in the full back of the pickup, and we had no interest in extracting them. So it was midnight and we had just taken a little rest stop on the top of lookout pass 100 miles outside of Missoula. We saw a bunch of trucks and a Uhaul pulling a car go by as we were reentering the interstate. Right after the pass there was a couple-mile long section of 10% grade. One side was under construction so traffic was being routed up and down the other lane, and there was concrete Jersey Rail on either side of it. Shortly after heading down this we started to see burning debri on the road. That's right, there was burning debri - pieces of styrofoam, slicks of oil etc. - on the road. It was on fire. Strangely, probably due to the ext...

A nice break from writing.... now back to Microsoft Word..

Thunderstorm over Hartford Valley in North Conway, NH

Yesterday I was getting ready for work when I decided to go for a quick ride before beginning the grind. It was pleasantly cool out and breezy. The minute I rode out of the garage it started sprinkling. The advantage of all these trees is the canopy blocks the rain quite nicely. I got a bit wet on my way into the forest, but once under the leaves things were perfect, slightly damp and tacky. I rode a loop I've probably been on a hundered times before. It's funny, I know every rock and root on that trail but can't seem to remember to brush my teeth in the morning or bring my thermos home after work.. Priorities I guess.... The trail begins with a climb up "horsbarn hill" past the rabies sign .. Good thing I pet this little guy earlier.. Well, I'm not foaming at the mouth so I guess it's ok. After reaching the top of the hill, there's a small farm road that leads into the woods past a cornfield. This is feed corn so I imagine it tastes terrrible,...

Been carrying my camera around since I got it.. I'm sure I'll get over that soon... Maybe when I finally get a lens cap and strap that doesn't say "lumix" on it (my roomies)..

Ok, so I decided I needed to get myself one of those fancy digital SLR cameras like all the cool kids at school have. I went to ebay and bid on a Nikon D40 , which is the least expensive out there, and pretty respectable to boot. This particular one was an unused display model so it had no battery charger or lense cap. No problem, a few more minutes on ebay and I had some of those coming for a fairly paltry fee.. I considered my work done and went home to bed. The next morning I get an email from the guy who I bought the camera from... He accidentally shipped me the wrong camera. Instead of the Nikon, he shipped me a Canon Rebel XTi, or 400d. Where the Nikon is an excellent value for the money and very capable, this camera is in arguably a different league. The guy asked me to ship the canon back as soon as I got it and he'd have the nikon ready to overnight to me when the canon was back. I asked him if he would consider selling me the canon for a bit more since shipping fo...

It's magnetic particles suspended in mineral oil. Put it in a petri dish and put a strong magnet undertneath and a combination of the magnetic fields and the surface tension of the mineral oil causes it to form these crazy spikes. Without the magnet it resembles motor oil. You can buy it on ebay with a rare-earth magnet for $15 .

Saw some redwing blackbirds too.. Don't see many of those 'round these parts.. I also saw a bobolink , but no pictures.. damn bird..

So if you type jesse parker in yahoo (no quotes) I'm second on the list. If you put it in quotes I'm first. Cool huh? In windows live search I'm eighth without quotes and 7th with. As for google , I'm much less popular. The first thing that shows up without quotes if a comment I made on a Matlab site all the way on page six of the search results. The way google ranks depends on how many other sites link to mine, as well as how many sites link to those sites... There are a bunch of equations and stuff here if you care.. If you use quotes , I'm number four. That's all, back to work..

Nice ride around the neighborhood. Only saw two others in three hours, and a bunch of nature. I saw a garter snake, a little toad, a mommy mallard with chicks, some whitetails, and all sorts of birds. Oh, and mosquitoes, lots of mosquitoes. The good thing about bike riding is that they can't land on you as long as you don't stop moving.. But when you get a flat.. boy do they come in force. The great blue that used to hang around the river hasn't been around this year.. I wonder where it went....