Activities and Goals for Wherever's Next

A few posts ago, I talked about my Hampton Roads To-Do List. Beyond the things that were specifically related to Hampton Roads itself, I developed a list of some other stuff I wanted to do that didn't have anything to do with Hampton Roads. Of course, one item that I identified was to go to Aberdeen and get my master's degree, so that's already off the list. Anyway, I'll be developing a list once I found out where it is that I'm headed, but I've also been revisiting some of the other non-Hampton Roads prospects I looked at.

I took an anatomy and physiology course in high school, and didn't really work very hard at it. My friend Sister Hippy Chick took it in college, and I've thought since then that it would be a cool course to take, but I never had the time or need in my academic program to take it. So, I might look into taking it at a local college if it's available. I also once considered an Master of Arts in Military History from Norwich University, and I might investigate that possibility again if I find myself flush with cash and with a great deal of free time on my hands.

I've talked about my Arabic language study before. When I was in Virginia, I think that Old Dominion University offered an Arabic language course, but it didn't fit with my schedule or budget. One might think I could have more luck wherever it is that I go. At the very least, though, I want to continue using the resources I have to study independently and take a proficiency test.

I enjoyed the astronomy courses I took in college, and it might be nice to take an entry level astronomy course just for fun.
BR> I wanted to go get a bunch of climbing certifications from the Virginia Beach Rock Gym, so I'd like to look for a similar facility. (It's also a good prospect for physical fitness.) I've also wanted to take and complete an Accelerated Freefall skydiving certification course since at least 2010. Part of what's held me back is that there's a weight limit - not that I'm extremely fat or anything, but I've got a genetically-engineered belly and I also happen to be fairly tall, so I need to drop some weight before I can learn how to jump out of perfectly good airplanes. Last year, I took a close protection course. I'd wanted to take similar courses from Academi (née Xe (née Blackwater) when I was living in Virginia, because it was right across the border outside Moyock, North Carolina. At this point, the course I'm most interested in taking is their AR-15/M-16 carbine armorer course. They occasionally offer their courses in other locations besides Moyock, so regardless of where I go, I'll keep my eye out for a good opportunity to take the course.

I'm always looking for opportunities to practice my land navigation skills, often by going geocaching. Hopefully, wherever I wind up next will give me some opportunities to do both that don't involve less danger than my adventure on Unst.

My pictures of it got corrupted, but I accidentally germinated garlic in Virginia, and I've thought it might be neat to try it again, plant it, and see if I could grow my own garlic in a planter or a pot or something. This might be easier in some places than in others.

And, as I mentioned earlier, I wanted to try my hand at assembling both shortwave (1, 2) and AM (1, 2, 3) radio kits. That can be done just about anywhere, and it's a fairly cheap weekend project, so this might be one of my early activities. Buuuuuut, all of that is up in the air at the moment. We'll see what happens. I'm developing plans that I can execute regardless of where it is that I'm actually headed, so it's just a matter of finding the right opportunity and then following through on it. So, as I'm fond of saying, more to come.

Culinary Adventures: Making Paneer

It's no secret that while I was in Scotland, I ate a lot of Nepalese food. One of my favorite foods was motor/matar paneer from the Gurkha Kitchen. Since Nepalese cuisine isn't widely available in the United States, I decided to look into preparing it myself. It turns out that one of the ingredients, paneer, is actually pretty easy to make. Paneer is a sort of Indian/Nepalese cottage cheese, and it's the base for many dishes. So, I did what any good denizen of the Internet would do: I looked up the recipe, and then found a video on YouTube.


So, I decided to try to make it. The first recipe I saw called for either lemon or lime juice, so I went with lime juice. With a quarter cup of lime juice and a half gallon of what I think was whole milk. The entire process took about an hour, half of which was just letting the paneer cool down. I also used only half of my cheese cloth, so I can make some more. Truth be told, the stuff doesn't taste fantastic, but I don't think it's supposed to since it's meant to be used as an element in other recipes. I haven't looked for a motor paneer recipe yet, and if it's too involved, I may just shortcut the whole process with a jar of marinara sauce and a can of peas.

So... Achievement unlocked: make paneer.

Feedly and Pulse

I've been a bit busy this week. I've talked about various RSS aggregators before, and rather than reproduce my latest post on the topic, I'm just going to link to it. If you're a newshound like I am, go have a look.

On Jimi Heselden

I'm pretty sure that everyone has heard of the Segway Personal Transporter. Even noted Internet comedian Maddox has poked fun at it. I'd heard a few years ago that Segway inventor Dean Kamen had died while riding his Segway, but subsequent attempts to confirm it proved it to be inaccurate. However, while looking it up for some reason on Sunday, I discovered the truth (and, most likely, the source of my own confusion): it wasn't Kamen who died, but the owner of the Segway Company. What makes it noteworthy for me is that the deceased, Jimi Heselden, was also the owner of HESCO Bastion, a company that makes blast barriers used around the world, notably in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Shortwave Radio: Links

Here are some shortwave radio links. I'm serious, folks, it's really cool.

Wikipedia: Shortwave

Wikipedia: Numbers stations

Clandestine Radio

Passport to World Band Radio

Build a Crystal Shortwave Radio

Build Your Own Crystal Shortwave Receiver

Shortwave Crystal Receiver

Build a Multiband Shortwave Antenna

John Batchelor vs. Jiminy Glick

Fair warning: this post is going to be ungraciously jocular in nature.

A few years ago, elsewhere, I opined that renowned actress Julia Roberts may have been a descendant of Akhenaton, the legendary Egyptian pharoah who is suspected to have suffered from Marfan's syndrome. Various friends claimed that I was being unkind, and I answered their protests by making jokes about Julia Roberts walking into a bar, only for the bartender to ask her, "Why the long face?" At any rate, I think I may have stumbled upon another relationship that nobody seems to be talking about, in part because the individuals in question are so obscure.

On some occasions, I find myself listening to the John Batchelor Show in the car. I've come to the conclusion that John Batchelor looks and sounds remarkably similar to Jiminy Glick. Here's a clip of John Batchelor...



And you can watch one of Jiminy Glick.



One of the comparisons that I find most entertaining is that John Batchelor tends to ask his guests about things that he seems to have very little knowledge of, but which seem sensational when he interjects them into conversation. Jiminy Glick does the same thing, although the comedy comes from the fact that Glick asks ridiculous questions and interjects interesting "facts" that aren't remotely accurate. Could they be secret relatives... ?

Of course, Jiminy Glick is a fictional character played by Martin Short, while John Batchelor is a real person. And, while I find John Batchelor to be a bit ham-fisted as a radio personality, he does seem to care deeply about national security, and he's obviously fairly well informed on the topic. Still, the resemblance is hard to shake once you've considered it.

The Hampton Roads To-Do List

I spent more than three years living in Hampton Roads, Virginia. (They call it the "Seven Cities of Hampton Roads", but I sort of call shenanigans on that - it's one big city.) In 2010, I had resigned myself to the idea that I was going to be stuck there until at least the end of 2011, so I started putting together a list of stuff that I wanted to do in order to keep myself occupied. These are things I should have been doing all along, but hadn't.

Most activities were based in Norfolk. There was the Chrysler Museum of Art, the Hermitage Museum and Gardens, the Douglas MacArthur Memorial, Nauticus and USS Wisconsin, the Norfolk Botanical Garden, Old Dominion University, the Virginia Zoo, and Norfolk Tides and Admirals baseball and hockey games. (One of my biggest regrets was not attending a movie on the fantail of USS Wisconsin in 2010, but it was Friday, I was beat like a drum, and it was so hot.)

In Portsmouth, there was the Elizabeth River Ferry, the Portsmouth Naval Shipyard Museum and United States Lightship Portsmouth, and the prospect of taking some artistic photos of Olde Towne Portsmouth photography - not to be confused with the rest of Portsmouth, which is pretty dodgy. While I lived in Hampton Roads, I actually really enjoyed Olde Towne Portsmouth, and have fond memories of the Bier Garden; I even saw Star Trek at the Commodore Theatre in 2009 with my buddy M@.

Virginia Beach boasted the Military Aviation Museum, and I also wanted to take some classes at the Virginia Beach Rock Gym. (One thing I'm glad I did was to go to a bunch of concerts down at the beach with my buddy Ken, and I'm also glad that I took Captain John and Household 6 to Joint Expeditionary Base East, formerly known as Fort Story, to see the site of the first landing of the Jamestown settlers in 1607.) Hampton had the U.S. Army Transportation Museum and the Virginia Air and Space Center. Newport News had the Mariner's Museum and the Virginia Living Museum.

I also thought I might check out Colonial Williamsburg and the Jamestown Settlement and Yorktown Victory Center. There was an inlet in the Outer Banks called Oregon Inlet, and I thought I might head down there to check it out. I also wanted to practice my land navigation skills and do some geocaching, and I wanted to try my hand at assembling both shortwave (1, 2) and AM (1, 2, 3) radio kits. Oh, and I had accidentally germinated garlic in my refrigerator, so I thought maybe I'd try to actually grow garlic deliberately.

I actually accomplished very few of these goals, as my time in Virginia was cut short by the cancellation of the project to which I'd been assigned. I visited the Mariner's Museum with Big Brother Caleb on the 5th of September 2010 (pictured), and rode the Elizabeth River Ferry on 25th September 2010 on a first date with a young lady. I attended a bunch of baseball and hockey games, most of them before that particular list came into play. I'd visited Nauticus and USS Wisconsin in March of 2009 with Captain John and HH6. That's about it.

So, why am I bringing all of this up? Well, at some point in the foreseeable future, I'll be leaving "home" and heading somewhere new. Once I get there, I want to put together a list of similar local attractions, and try to visit at least one per month during my tenure in my next temporary digs. At some point, I'd also like to visit some or all of these Hampton Roads attractions, but unless I wind up in Hampton Roads again, that will have to wait. I sort of feel like I tend to squander my time in the various interesting places to which I gravitate, and I'd like to be a bit more proactive in the future.

I also had a handful of professional development goals, but that's another story...