The Turning Of The Leaves

Fall is here (even though it's still 100 degrees) and with it comes the turning of the leaves.  Which in and of it self gives way to some pretty fantastic photo-ops.  But first let's get into why leaves turn in the first place.

Leaves are essentially the food manufacturers for their corresponding plants.  During the warmer seasons the leaves are full of chlorophyll, which is what causes their predominantly green color.  Chlorophyll is the magic ingredient that makes photosynthesis possible.  It does this by converting sunlight into solar energy which it then uses to manufacture the plant's food, simple sugars, from carbon dioxide and water.  During the growing season, the plant itself replenishes the chlorophyll, which keeps the leaves looking green and masks the reds and oranges that already exist within the leaf.  As daylight and temperatures dwindle, the leaves' veins begin to close themselves off reducing water and mineral intake to the leaves.  Thus reducing the amount of chlorophyll, or green coloring, in the leaves.  With the absence of green in the leaves, the once hidden yellows and oranges take center stage.  These colors come from the ever present cartenoids, which are also responsible for giving carrots their color.  The shades spanning from red to purple are a result of anthocyanins. 

Now that you've gotten your botany lesson for the day, we'll move onto the fantastic photo-ops, or leaf peeping, as it's called.  If you're fortunate enough to live on a street lined with maple trees then you don't have to travel far to get a beautiful picture.  Whether it's a single leaf, a tree across the street or kids playing in a freshly raked pile of colorful leaves, you are guaranteed a gorgeous shot.  If you chose to venture out, you'll need to pack a little gear.  With the shorter daylight hours and the shooting options ranging from vast landscapes to up close shots, I suggest a camera backpack that has room for all of your gear.  Make sure to pack a few different lenses, a sunshade, lens filter and because of the shorter hours a solar charger that doubles as an LED flashlight to keep your camera charged and light your path home. 

Planning a Halloween Party

A couple of years ago we had an epic Halloween party.  Tons of people dressed to the nines, great music, great food, games, drinks, etc.  All of those things combined would make for a great party but what pushed it over the edge into epic territory were the decorations.  We were fortunate enough to personally know the prop master for the hit show Dexter, yeah that one!  The floors were completely covered in clear plastic with random pools of blood and strategically placed limbs, including a gruesomely realistic severed head on the counter.  All of these items were actual props that were used on Dexter. 

While you may not have that kind of hookup for your decorations, here are some suggestions for your own epic Halloween bash.

Get ready early!  Start gathering decorations beforehand so you're not still decorating when your guests arrive.  You can turn this into a pre-party event by having friends and family help you decorate.  You can also set up a pumpkin carving station where everyone can carve pumpkins that you can light up the night of your party.  If you're on a budget, second-hand stores are a great place to find decorations or knick knacks to make your own.

One of the best parts of a Halloween party are the costumes your guests arrive in.  To encourage everyone to be creative, set-up a costume contest and make sure you mention it on the invitation.  You can have different categories like most creative, best couple, etc.

To keep every ones energy up make sure to have plenty of "finger foods".  You can actually find molds in the shape of skeleton finger bones, severed fingers, etc.  These make great candy molds.  There are also Halloween themed recipes all over the Internet.  

Finally, music.  No Halloween party would be complete without the creepy soundtrack of creaky doors and screeches.  If you really want to set the tone I suggest you get a couple of portable speakers and set them to play whatever the horrifying sounds are in their location.  Example, we had one speaker hidden by the front door that was the creaky door and screeches to set the tone for the pools of blood and severed head that greeted our guests upon entering the house.  We had another speaker playing ghostly groans and rattling chains in the fake graveyard on the side of the house and lastly we had speakers inside and out playing actual music.

Zombies and NyQuil Don't Mix

In preparation for the upcoming Season 3 premiere of The Walking Dead I decided to finally get around to finishing the second season, thank you Netflix instant for making that possible.  Unfortunately I also have a stubborn lingering cold that is feeling more like the bird flu since it won't go away.  Yes, I get dramatic when stricken ill.  So I took a dose of NyQuil too.

So here's what happened, SPOILER ALERT!  In Episode 17 entitled "Judge, Jury, Executioner" the group tries to help a questionable individual named Randall, who they end up holding prisoner because of the possible threat he may pose.  From what he confesses during his torture sesh with Daryl we find out that the crew he rolls with is bad news.  This revelation only serves to further convince members of the group that executing Randall may be the most sensible thing to do.  This is when every one's reminder of what a pre-zombie apocalypse father, Dale, was steps in to remind everyone that executing Randall would only serve to kill what little humanity they have left in themselves.  While Dale is going from person to person trying to sway the vote, our little friend Carl is playing Cowboys and Indians in the woods.  Outfitted in dad's big hat and a stolen gun, Carl stumbles upon a Walker that's stuck in the mud.  So he does what any kid does, throws rocks at him.  Which is all fun and games until the Walker starts to get unstuck.  Carl tries to kill it and fails so he runs back to mom.  Don't think I'm hating on Carl either, stuck-in-the-mud Walker was particularly creepy and shirtless to boot.  I would have run to mommy too.  Now its dark and Dale hears an animal in pain.  Always the humane one, he finds a cow that's been ripped apart and dying.  Just then the extra creepy shirtless Walker, who is also a cow thrasher, attacks Dale ripping him open just like poor Bessie.  Now our last vestige of humanity is put down like the animals we've become when Daryl puts a bullet in Dale, who is now the agonizing beast.

This was an especially difficult episode to watch, even though it was on my smart phone screen with a little portable speaker so I could actually hear what was happening.  All made even more difficult because I took a dose of NyQuil before the opening credits.  By the end of the episode I was well on my way to a deep sleep in an effort to vanquish this cold.  Unfortunately the combination of zombies and NyQuil proved to be exhausting since I spent the entire night dreaming that I was awake and that zombies were coming towards my house in the middle of the night.  To the point that in my delirium I heard distant car alarms and assumed that it was Walkers stumbling into parked cars.

Moral of the story- Don't take NyQuil before a zombie show.  Especially if it turns out to be real.

California Allows Self-driving Cars

So on Sunday I got my first ticket in over a decade, for talking on my cell phone.  I know that it was a completely irresponsible act on my behalf and a well deserved infraction.  To the point that before the officer reached my window I had already admitted to him that he caught me red handed.  This will be one of those things that you chalk up to a pricey life lesson, very pricey.  I mention this less than flattering personal episode to highlight that no matter what the law says, we as human beings will always try to multi-task.  Whether it's using the time behind the wheel to catch up with loved ones, eating lunch at your desk while replying to emails, or chewing gum and walking at the same time, we just don't seem to be made to mono-task (just made that up).  Maybe it's just a survival trait from our caveman days that will remain ingrained.  If so, then Google is a step ahead in enabling that trait.

On Tuesday September 25th California Governor Jerry Brown paid a little visit, with pen in hand, to Google HQ and signed into legislation a law that will allow for the testing of self-driving cars on California roads.  That means that Google's fleet of autonomous vehicles have the green light to be stuck in traffic just like the rest of us.  But that doesn't mean that it's a dead end of sorts.  On the contrary.  The testing will pave the way for safer roads and safer automobiles by removing human error from the equation.  Which is, after all, the largest factor in any accident.  Not only is the idea to make driving safer, but also to enable transportation for the disabled, blind and let's not forget the intoxicated. 

This, of course, brings me back to my less than flattering admittance above and something that Google has in mind as well.  If our cars can drive themselves, than we are at liberty to use our commute time to our liking.  Soon you'll be able to let your car do the driving while you read a book, play a video game, get some work done, or even talk on your phone.  This, of course, won't be an option for about another decade so in the meantime I recommend a hands-free option and yes, I will be taking my own advice on that.  On a side note, when the officer asked for a phone number I could be reached at I gave him my cellphone number and warned him that if they called while I was driving that I would not answer.  At least I made him laugh, even though it didn't get me out of a ticket.  Also, I apologize for the puns in the second paragraph. 

Record Temperatures or Summer Overtime?

 If you're the type of person to always have a space heater and lap blanket at your desk then this might be good news.  If you happen to be the one with the mini fan always on, then not so good news.  So here it is.  This year will almost definitely be the hottest year on record for the contiguous United States.  That will be the fourth time that records have either been totally broken or almost broken in the last 14 years.

Tomorrow is the first day of fall with the Autumnal Equinox happening at 6:49 a.m. EDT, yet it still feels just as hot as it did in the middle of summer.  This is like the groundhog seeing its shadow making for a longer winter, but now it's a longer summer.  If this keeps up we'll have to come up with some animal mascot and tradition.  Maybe a prairie dog in Arizona can be the unofficial judge.  Personally I look forward to autumn with the turning of the leaves, crisp breezes and harvest moons, but I think all of those things will come a little later this year.

For those of you who might be part reptile, you thrive in this lit-up aquarium type climate and I envy you on days like this, but that is beside the point.  That being said you have been gifted Summer Overtime.  Now you have a few, maybe more, extra weekends to spend at the beach, poolside or having Summer Overtime BBQ's.  So take advantage of the warm (hot!) sunny days and balmy nights with your favorite people, food and most importantly music to celebrate the first day of fall like it's the first day of summer. 

A Brief History of the iPhone

The year 1980 gave us one of the greatest films ever made entitled The Gods Must Be Crazy.  In the film the San, or bushmen, of the Kalahari Desert have their peaceful nonmaterialistic existence disrupted when an empty coke bottle falls from the sky (a littering pilot).  Since the coke bottle was unlike anything the San had ever seen they thought that it might be a gift from the gods to help them.  Everyone in the kinship found a unique use for the glass bottle and thus it became an indispensable tool.  That is of course until they all began to feel an individual sense of ownership, which caused the following 2/3 of the movie.  If you want to find out what happens next I highly recommend the film, a wonderful watch.

I use that opening as an example of what the world must have been like in the summer of 2007 when the masses got their hands on the iPhone.  Even when it was first announced in January of the same year the media referred to it as the "Jesus phone" and have since revered Apple and its wares.  The following year saw the release of the iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS in 2009, iPhone 4 in 2010 and the iPhone 4S in 2011.  Each successive year saw changes, additions and improvements.  These included USB 2.0, voice control and a sassy assistant by the name of Siri who has some fantastic comebacks.

On Wednesday, Apple fans waited with bated breath to see what the minds of one of history's leading companies would present as the iPhone 5.  Now that the announcement has been made the frenzy will commence as Apple fans clamor to get their hands on the newest can't-live-without tool.  Already the iPhone 5 pre-orders are over, they sold out in one hour!  So hold tight, it's just a matter of time before you will be able to sing the praises of what is already being called the best iPhone ever.  Remember, good things come to those who wait.

Which candidate will you choose?

It's time to weigh the candidates.  No, not the Presidential candidates, the tablet candidates.   The current leader is the Apple iPad which has been the leader in tablets since it's release in 2010.  Many slates and tablets from several companies followed soon thereafter but none has come close until now. 

This week Amazon announced the new line of Kindles including the all-new Kindle Fire HDs.  Typical reaction would be cheers for improved ereaders and high-quality, affordable media devices, which it was, but this time Amazon showed up to the game with an ace up it's collective sleeve.  That ace is the Kindle Fire HD 4G LTE.  Go ahead and grumble that a Kindle is no iPad but see the facts and then decide.  So let's compare the two and weigh our decision.

Apple's iPad has a 9.7 inch display with 264 ppi, Kindle Fire HD is slightly smaller at 8.9 inches with 254 ppi.  Kindle wins in storage by offering 32GB for the same price Apple charges for the 16GB iPad.  Both offer 4G LTE data services with Kindle offering one year of LTE service at $50 a year for 250MB a month.  Both iPad and Kindle support Wi-Fi, but Kindle has MIMO (multiple input/multiple output).  MIMO increases the number of antennas at both the transmitter and receiver, which transfers more data without the need for more power or bandwith, making for less dropped connections and faster streaming.  Kindle has a 1.52Ghz dual-core chip, where as Apple runs an Apple dual-core A5X.  Camera and battery life are still up in the air since Amazon has yet to release specs.  Apple, as always, wins in apps.  But here's where it gets good.  The starting price for a new iPad 4G with 32GB of storage, same as the Kindle Fire, is $729.  Compare that to $499 for the Kindle Fire 4G LTE. 

When it comes to choosing your new tablet weigh your options and keep in mind that choosing between these two will make you part of either Android's OS or Apple's IOS party.