Waiting for sunrise

Early morning in Earlscourt Park

A few days ago I got the drone up and running. Having odd sleep hours I was up before sunrise, way before sunrise.  I woke at 03:00, sunrise being around 07:50.  This is not something new if you've been reading this blog, I've been keeping really non-standard hours when I've not working.

The day I got the drone out I left the apartment too early in the morning, flew around just before the light broke over the horizon.  As the temperature has been cold these last few days, battery life was pretty low which made flying time really short.  I actually missed flying when the sun was coming up because all three batteries were spent by that point.

The sunrise was spectacular!..  and I didn't capture it.  So the next few days I woke up early went out at the proper calculated time and went to shoot.  But like most things that happen outside, nature doesn't always play along.  Clouds, and lots of them.  I managed to get some really nice dark blue clouds at the expense of freezing my hands and fingers for a few minutes but no sunrise photos.

It wasn't until today and the forth try that the sun started to peak out from behind the clouds just enough to give me an orange sky.  (see picture above),  I'll take it.

The VR meetup

Noel Chaput and I at a Virtual Reality meetup

Today was kind of a write off.  I had woken up at 01:30, stayed awake until just before sunrise to realize it was snowing out, fell asleep and stayed asleep until 15:30.  Half asleep I did laundry and read the book of faces.  Then by the time I had to leave for the grocery store I realized I had to be at a VR meeting at 07:00.

The VR meeting was a bunch of nerds getting together to talk about the latest virtual reality technology to come out of this year's CES show in Las Vegas.  It had been a while since I had been to a tech meeting and I have to say, I fit right in.  Talking to other people about nerdy applications and making the odd computer related joke that everyone around me seemed to get.  Yes, I was in my element. 

It also helped that I was carrying around my theta (m-15) 360° camera.  Having gear that people had only really read about made me into a nerdy rock star.  I showed off the device with flair while trying to stay humble.  I was the kid with the cool toy at show and tell. 

Fly, be Free

The Bebop Parrot in action

So today I continued this year's tradition of setting tiny goals for myself.  My goal was to go outside and fire up the drone.  Maybe shoot some stuff, maybe not.  The main thing was to get the drone up and running.  It had been almost eight months since using it and I just wanted to see if it still could fly.

The park nearby was all brown and green, there was no snow.  An odd thing for this time of year.  Probably one of the warmest winters I could think of since I've been here (there was that one year I lived in Boston).

I set up and had the drone in the air.  One of the batteries was faulty, I'll have to replace it.  After a few minutes I realized my hands were getting numb.  It was cold.  Despite no snow the temperature was 0°C.  Of course it was.  It had been in the plus temperatures for the last few weeks until today, the day I wanted to fly the drone with no gloves.  Sheesh.

I drone in the end flew and I figured out what things I needed to replace/repair, today's goal accomplished!

Rice Krispie Clumps

I woke up at 03:00.  I slept through new year's day, all 24 hours of it.  It never existed.  I didn't even stay out that late the night before.  I guess I was tired, more so than usual.  Some people being the superstitious sort might say this was a bad omen to start off the new year like this.  A pattern will emerge and continue throughout the year.  Luckily I'm not the superstitious type.  I just enjoyed a good sleep.

It wasn't like I had big plans for the day or had to work.  Actually I had absolutely no plans. No plans at all.  If my blog in any indication the first few days of January are generally pretty dull and non-eventful.  Could be the winter blahs as I push off depression.

The main highlight of the day was to venture out and buy groceries. Yes, not that exciting, baby steps and all that.  I went out to go outside and to acquire the ingredients to make rice krispie clumps™.

The goal was completed, the day was a success!  Maybe doing small goals like this is a good start to the year?  Uh, yay me!


Rice Krispie Clumps™



Ingredients

• 3 tablespoons butter
• 3 cups of marshmallows
• 3 cups of Rice Krispies

Directions

1. Melt butter in pot on low heat.
2.  Add marshmallows.
3. Stir until marshmallow butter mixtures is smooth and consistent.
4. Add Rice Krispies.
5.  Stir until rice krispies are evenly coated.
6. Transfer contents of pot into a casserole dish.
7. Let cool.  Eat.