Ted’s essays

getting less ugly

Lucky us. I found what I needed to de-ugly the website. This new skin is a good step in the right direction, but I do not love it thoroughly. I will keep looking for The Right One. Meanwhile, this is a lot easier on the eyes.

This Is An Ugly Website

The theme, skin, or framework I have been using for this website has been out of date for a long time. But I liked it a lot better than any current ones I had been able to find, so I kept it. Something changed and I am now cornered into slogging through hundreds of choices, trying various ones out until I find The One to get this website look back the way I want it. I wasn’t short of things to do, but I expect I never will run out of interesting, rewarding or necessary projects. Anyway, I apologize for the ugly looking website. Even if you agree with me that this form is hard on the eyes, C’mon back […]

dogsled race support

I helped provide comms for the Darby Dog Derby sled dog races and skijourning this weekend. A club engineer set up 7 old-school GMRS radios with a suitcase repeater to handle a set of races with 8-dog teams doing 24-mile route and the 6, 4, 2 and 1-dog teams doing less. Only 1 other HAM was willing to join me. Fortunately my GMRS license covered the entire team for legality sake. We all learned a lot. The snowmobile club providing primary logistical support now appreciates some of the value 2-way radios bring. The sled dog club LOVES us and are now thinking about how useful radio is for what they do every weekend, not to mention the huge value we […]

Bounding Beagle

I LOVE my Canon Power Shot SX710 HS camera! It has been a decade or so since my backpack full of Canon camera gear served any useful purpose. Fresh 35mm film that delivered true colors simply became unavailable. End of a favored hobby. A friend gave me a show-n-tell on his Canon Power Shot and I was convinced I could come reasonably close to having the best parts of my old hobby back. There are some things it doesn’t do quite as well, but almost everything is far better with the technology they packed into this little pocket powerhouse. A lit box in the screen on the back of the camera outlines where the camera is focusing. It automatically sets […]