Texas Master Naturalist

Posted on November 8, 2011 by Brian Gallimore

The local chapter of the Texas Master Naturalist (The Blackland Prairie Chapter) meets 8 minute from my house, so it is very easy to get there for their monthly meetings if I get home in time. A very friendly group of people, and they line up interesting speakers too. Their mission statement:

To develop a corps of well-informed volunteers to provide education, outreach, and service dedicated to the beneficial management of natural resources and natural areas within their communities. Many communities and organizations rely on such citizen volunteers for implementing youth education programs; for operating parks, nature centers, and natural areas; and for providing leadership in local natural resource conservation efforts. In fact, a short supply of dedicated and well-informed volunteers is often cited as a limiting factor for community-based conservation efforts.

It fits right in with all the permaculture stuff I’m already interested in. The offer two classes per year, and unlike the Master Gardeners, they do the class in the evenings so that normal people can participate. I already turned in my application!

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The True Political Spectrum

Posted on November 6, 2011 by Brian Gallimore

The left/right labels we normally use to describe political camps are flawed. A better (or additional) judgement is to use a scale between total power and zero power. The graphic here shows this very nicely. (note the ‘you are here label’ too)

The video “Overview of America” by the John Birch Society explains more about these different forms of government from a slightly different point of view:.

[a few new graphics found Jan 2016 below]

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Gardening, Food, and Sustainability Presentation

Posted on November 5, 2011 by Brian Gallimore

I was asked to give a 15-minute presentation about Sustainability and Gardening. Here is the slideshow for that presentation:

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Halloween Pictures

Posted on October 31, 2011 by Brian Gallimore

Bryson wore the most excellent cowboy costume that Nana bought Shaun back in the day.

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[Show slideshow]
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Hardware Virtualization

Posted on October 30, 2011 by Brian Gallimore

    I’m a big fan of open source software, especially the GNU/Linux system, and I’ve been using it at home on my main computer for years now.  I’ve found excellent alternatives to (almost) every piece of software I used under Windoze with the exception of the neat little free 3D CAD software package from google called SketchUp.  Open source CAD software options seem to still be lacking in the GNU world, so I wanted a way to use this program when I wanted to.  Rather than setup a multi-boot situation (which prevents you from using all your normal apps while you are booted in the ‘other’ OS), I decided to try to setup a virtual machine.
A quick scan of the available software in the Ubuntu repository made me think VirtualBox looked popular, so I clicked ‘install’ to see what would happen.  After it installed (and I’d like to mention how amazingly easy installing Linux software has become — literally a single click from a menu and you are done — can’t believe it has progressed this far from the days of nightmarish dependency problems and configuration file hell).  When you run VirtualBox, you can create a new machine, and you specify how much memory and hard drive space to dedicate for it, then you install whatever OS you want on it.  I had an unused WinXP license, so that is what I created.  It figures out when your keyboard clicks and mouse motions are supposed to control your host OS or the guest machine.  Everything worked without a glitch, which was a very nice surprise.  Now, anytime I have the desire to use the evil OS which still has 85% of the desktop market share, all I need to do is turn on VirtualBox, tell it to boot up my WinXP machine, and boom, I have a Windoze box running right on my desktop, where I can still have all my nice, comfortable, better-society-friendly open-source applications running!

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SureFire Flashlight Clones

Posted on October 25, 2011 by Brian Gallimore

Several people have asked about the excellent and inexpensive flashlight that I have, so I figured it was time to compile the ‘best of’ information that I had.  Most/all of the research comes from my friend Mouth.  The flashlights we decided to go with have these features:

  • Use a Cree XM-L LED (this is the best LED I know of)
  • Use a “P-60” style drop in – size of reflector / lamp assembly, which is the most common  (this is a clone of the SureFire 6P lamp assemblies)
  • Use an 18650 rechargeable lithium ion battery (best battery I know of) which is roughly the size of 2 CR123 batteries.

Candlepower forums has a wealth of information if you have time to wade through the mountains of posts.

There are endless options when looking at these gadgets:

  • Modes: refers to how many brightness levels or flashing modes the light has.  For most of the P60’s, you can adjust, program, or change out a part to have a 1 mode (on or off), a 3 mode (3 brightness levels), or a 5 mode (3 brightness levels, strobe, SOS flash)
  • Orange Peel – Smooth: refer to the texture of the reflector.  Orange peel randomizes the light beam some.
  • Tail Switch / Foward Clicky, Reverse Clicky / Momentary / Tactical:  refers to how the switch works (if the mode selection is made on the on stroke or off stroke).  Some buttons are recessed so the light can sit upright on a hard surface, some are poking out so you can easily squeeze them with your thumb.
  • Protected Cell:  The rechargable cells are offered with a built in circuit to prevent overheating / charging too fast / discharging too fast.  These cells are a little bigger and sometimes don’t fit in bodies that aren’t over sized just a bit.
  • T6 and U2: refer to the ‘bin’ the LED was sorted to after manufacture.  The U2 is slightly ‘better’ quality.
  • Operating Voltage: be sure you match the power supply requirements with the battery combinations being used.  A single 18650 battery is 3.7 volts, but you might someday be tempted to use 2x CR123 batteries if your rechargeable cell is dead, which would be 6 volts.  If you used 2 rechargeable cells, the voltage would be 7.4 volts.

We decided to go with the L2 series from Solar Force.  They have a good reputation for a high-quality products and good prices.  There are also cheaper knock offs of the Solar Force products that are being sold… I suspect I have one of them (purchased from kaidomain), and the quality of it is good also, but not as good as the real deal (and the real deal is a copy of the Sure Fire).  The flashlights can be pieced together or purchased as a complete unit.  Here are a couple of good options:

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Hoodlums Fall Gathering 2011

Posted on October 24, 2011 by Brian Gallimore

Last week I realized that I could actually make the Hoodlums fall gathering this year.  I’ve been so busy with so many things that I assumed I’d miss out.  Bryson and I drove down to central Texas Friday afternoon and met the group for a fun weekend of camping, cooking, relaxing, and learning.  There were lots of kids this time, and I think they all had a blast too.

Bryson in a tree

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