Today, I saw the first flakes of snow for the season. Apparently, there was some snow earlier in the week, but I wasn't there to see (so it never happened--you know the tree falling thing). Of course, the snow is not going to accumulate; it is still to warm for that.
Whenever the snow stays around long enough for me to take a picture, I'll post it to the blog.
By the way, no one indicated their toothpaste of choice for the last post. That says a lot for my readership.
Sunday, October 29, 2006
Sunday, October 22, 2006
All the leaves are...
Mama Cass said it best according to Denis Leary. The leaves they are a-changin'.
At the same time, The Weather Channel keeps teasing Ithaca, NY with the possibility of snow in the near future. It seems that we may see a few flakes within the next week.
On a completely different note, when I flew to Atlanta a few weeks ago, Frank was asked to surrender his toothpaste because the container exceeded the allowed size. However, the security official acknowledged that the tube was less than half-full, an amount which is permissible. Meeting that criteria was apparently insufficient, and Frank was offered the option to check a bag or put it in my car. We declined both options and surrendered the tube toothpaste. What I want to know is who would take the option to check a bag to save a tube of toothpaste? First of all, if you can afford to fly, you probably can prematurely part with your favorite tube of toothpaste. I know, it would be a difficult farewell, but I believe that Rite-Aid probably has a close cousin available for purchase. Perhaps older passengers prefer not to discard perfectly useful tubes of toothpaste and follow the path of greatest work, checking luggage, on mere principle. The humor would emerge if the checked bag were lost, meaning far more useful items--clothes, shoes, etc.--have been lost. Nevertheless, we should remember that this heightened security was established because of an event that never saw the light of day. Trying to play the offense, imagined plans could rewrite the existing security protocol.
Speaking of toothpaste, look through the Wikipedia link for toothpaste. Near the bottom of the entry, the method to create striped toothpaste is given. Apparently, there was once a more elaborate design with the tube that would mix two colors of toothpaste. It seems that filling the tube with striped toothpaste is more common.
What is your favorite type of toothpaste? Post a comment with your response.
At the same time, The Weather Channel keeps teasing Ithaca, NY with the possibility of snow in the near future. It seems that we may see a few flakes within the next week.On a completely different note, when I flew to Atlanta a few weeks ago, Frank was asked to surrender his toothpaste because the container exceeded the allowed size. However, the security official acknowledged that the tube was less than half-full, an amount which is permissible. Meeting that criteria was apparently insufficient, and Frank was offered the option to check a bag or put it in my car. We declined both options and surrendered the tube toothpaste. What I want to know is who would take the option to check a bag to save a tube of toothpaste? First of all, if you can afford to fly, you probably can prematurely part with your favorite tube of toothpaste. I know, it would be a difficult farewell, but I believe that Rite-Aid probably has a close cousin available for purchase. Perhaps older passengers prefer not to discard perfectly useful tubes of toothpaste and follow the path of greatest work, checking luggage, on mere principle. The humor would emerge if the checked bag were lost, meaning far more useful items--clothes, shoes, etc.--have been lost. Nevertheless, we should remember that this heightened security was established because of an event that never saw the light of day. Trying to play the offense, imagined plans could rewrite the existing security protocol.
Speaking of toothpaste, look through the Wikipedia link for toothpaste. Near the bottom of the entry, the method to create striped toothpaste is given. Apparently, there was once a more elaborate design with the tube that would mix two colors of toothpaste. It seems that filling the tube with striped toothpaste is more common.
What is your favorite type of toothpaste? Post a comment with your response.
Saturday, October 14, 2006
Atlanta, GA for ICIP 2006 and more...
For the first part of the week, I attended the 
International Conference on Image Processing in Atlanta, GA. Tuesday night we went to the Georgia Aquarium before the conference banquet. The aquarium was opened to conference attendees for an extra hour, so we had free reign of the exhibits. It's quite an amazing place. I have included a few pictures that I took with my cell phone. Unfortunately, I did not have my regular digital camera; there were plenty of opportunities for some wonderful photographs.
Frank and I found a pretty good local beer called SweetWater. Specifically, we had the 420, a pale ale. Luckily, the banquet had an open bar, so we were able to try the beer for free! Since the banquet was at the aquarium, there was a special drink called a Tidal Wave offered for the first 30 minutes. The bartenders did not reveal what was in the drink other than vodka--but you could not taste the vodka. Anyway, it was a pretty good "tasty drink." Several Tidal Waves presumably would knock you out, but the opportunity to find out was not given. I found a recipe for a Tidal Wave that sounds pretty good, but I doubt it is the same drink.
Many posts back I mentioned that I submitted an abstract to HVEI 2007, which is a conference for Human Vision and Electronic Imaging. The conference accepted my abstract, and I will be presenting my research as a poster. In the past, I had the mentality that poster presentations were less impressive than lecture presentations. However, attending ICIP last week changed my perspective. The lectures tend separate the presenter from the audience. This is probably due to the poor quality of many presentations--several presenters just read the slides to the audience. Posters, on the other hand, offer a more personal discussion with the authors. So, I will just have to see how this perspective fares for HVEI in January.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I was presented an award for my presentation at the Western New York Image Processing (WNYIP) workshop in Rochester, NY. This was quite a shock, since it was nearly the eleventh hour when I finally understood my own research. The reward for my presentation is a textbook, which I have yet to receive. However, I will be sure to say something in the future about it when I do actually get it.
By the way, Ithaca, NY did not get a flake of snow yesterday unlike Buffalo and Rochester. Nevertheless, the temperature is dropping very fast, and I am sure that the snow is just around the corner.
International Conference on Image Processing in Atlanta, GA. Tuesday night we went to the Georgia Aquarium before the conference banquet. The aquarium was opened to conference attendees for an extra hour, so we had free reign of the exhibits. It's quite an amazing place. I have included a few pictures that I took with my cell phone. Unfortunately, I did not have my regular digital camera; there were plenty of opportunities for some wonderful photographs.
Frank and I found a pretty good local beer called SweetWater. Specifically, we had the 420, a pale ale. Luckily, the banquet had an open bar, so we were able to try the beer for free! Since the banquet was at the aquarium, there was a special drink called a Tidal Wave offered for the first 30 minutes. The bartenders did not reveal what was in the drink other than vodka--but you could not taste the vodka. Anyway, it was a pretty good "tasty drink." Several Tidal Waves presumably would knock you out, but the opportunity to find out was not given. I found a recipe for a Tidal Wave that sounds pretty good, but I doubt it is the same drink.
Many posts back I mentioned that I submitted an abstract to HVEI 2007, which is a conference for Human Vision and Electronic Imaging. The conference accepted my abstract, and I will be presenting my research as a poster. In the past, I had the mentality that poster presentations were less impressive than lecture presentations. However, attending ICIP last week changed my perspective. The lectures tend separate the presenter from the audience. This is probably due to the poor quality of many presentations--several presenters just read the slides to the audience. Posters, on the other hand, offer a more personal discussion with the authors. So, I will just have to see how this perspective fares for HVEI in January.
Finally, a couple of weeks ago, I was presented an award for my presentation at the Western New York Image Processing (WNYIP) workshop in Rochester, NY. This was quite a shock, since it was nearly the eleventh hour when I finally understood my own research. The reward for my presentation is a textbook, which I have yet to receive. However, I will be sure to say something in the future about it when I do actually get it.
By the way, Ithaca, NY did not get a flake of snow yesterday unlike Buffalo and Rochester. Nevertheless, the temperature is dropping very fast, and I am sure that the snow is just around the corner.
Monday, October 02, 2006
Apple Harvest Festival
The annual Apple Harvest Festival was held last weekend in Ithaca, NY. We made the long, ten minute journey to the Commons for the celebration. Check out Julia with Nora, Frank and Mary's 4 month old, in the picture to the right.One vendor offered "Hot Cider" without the "Hot." Apparently, the power to his heater was sporadic. But, rather than remove the false advertising, he shared the information while you pulled out your cash. No surprise--we all know that people in Ithaca are a different breed!
Another guy was using a chainsaw to carve sculptures into logs. One of his interesting pieces is pictured to the right.
In addition, I have included a picture of "Jason" practicing his art, but that doesn't really fit well into this short note. Maybe he'll creep in at a later date, but probably not!The weather was a little cool, and the sky was not really clear. A couple of pints of beer cured that ailment. By the way, the Ithaca Ale House is a great place to grab a beer. They have quite a large selection of beers on tap, and they seem to do a great job of rotating beers for the different seasons.
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