The Fishing Trip and Fallout 3
I'm one night later with this entry than I wanted to be, but at least I'm getting it in.
The trip with my dad was okay. We ended up leaving last Monday and came back on Friday. We didn't do well on the Mississippi, but we did catch quite a few trout on Turkey Stream about 30 miles to the northwest of where we were staying. We each caught our limit of trout, which is 5 per person per day. The worst part of the trip for me was trying to fish a different stream about 30 miles north northeast of the Turkey. There we had to wade through the water at times and go through some slippery terrain, and because of the plants there I ended up with some cuts on my right foot. I also almost fell into the stream one time. My dad caught five fish that day but I only caught two. As far as the Mississippi River itself went, my dad caught three striped bass and I caught and released a largemouth bass. That's all we caught through three days of river fishing.
I have to say that the one thing I dislike the most about taking trips like this with my dad is that he seems to treat me like I'm still 14 years old by ordering me to do little errands like fetching him water or throwing out the garbage. It's not that he wants to do these things that bothers me, but rather how he asks me to do them, which is to say he doesn't, but rather tells me to. Also, I don't usually do things like putting things away in the truck on my own because it always seems like he has a certain space for whatever object I'm putting away and I'm afraid if I pick the wrong spot he's going to tell me it's wrong and get on my case about it because I didn't know, and he seems to be annoyed when I ask him where something goes. Not having to deal with this is the main reason why I'm glad to get back home after one of these trips.
Lately I've been playing Paul's copy of Fallout 3 until I take it with me to Winnipeg tomorrow. For those who don't know, it takes place after a nuclear war which, among other things, pretty much leveled Washington, D.C. The remains of that city are the setting for this game, around 200 years after that war. Interestingly just about everything in the game has a 1950s America motif, right down to the device you use to view stats and maps, use items, see notes you've picked up, etc. I'll have to rent it after I get back so I can make some more progress because I'm really liking the free-range feel of it, even though I said to myself that I was getting sick of media that involved a crapsack world as it's starting to become a depressing cliche. Fallout 3's saving grace here is its (seeming) non-linearity, or at least offering several options on where to go and what to do.
The biggest news as far as amateur radio goes is that I built my own dipole antenna. Unfortunately I don't have the means to show the results right now, but that will probably change once I get into Winnipeg, as I'm taking it with me and Brian has a digital camera. Basically it consists of nothing more than two stranded 14-gage lengths of wire and an insulator that I got from John (same guy I mentioned in my last entry). I built the antenna for the 2 meter band (144-148 MHz), as I wanted to use the radio that Jay had given me for that band, as opposed to the one I described in my last entry, which I"ll need to upgrade my license to use fully (legally) anyway. The hardest part was soldering the wires to the logs on the insulator, a task which I needed Viktor's help for and which I ended up burning some small holes in and melting the glue for one of the lugs since I used too much heat for too long. As for how well it works, I tested it on the aforementioned radio as well as my 2 m and 70 cm (420-250 MHz) handhelds. Nothing melted or exploded, so that was a good sign. As for actual coverage, that remains to be seen. I'm looking forward to trying it in Brian's high-rise apartment.
That's all for now, as I really should be getting to bed. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon or evening I"ll be in Winnipeg with Brian, enjoying my first day there.
The trip with my dad was okay. We ended up leaving last Monday and came back on Friday. We didn't do well on the Mississippi, but we did catch quite a few trout on Turkey Stream about 30 miles to the northwest of where we were staying. We each caught our limit of trout, which is 5 per person per day. The worst part of the trip for me was trying to fish a different stream about 30 miles north northeast of the Turkey. There we had to wade through the water at times and go through some slippery terrain, and because of the plants there I ended up with some cuts on my right foot. I also almost fell into the stream one time. My dad caught five fish that day but I only caught two. As far as the Mississippi River itself went, my dad caught three striped bass and I caught and released a largemouth bass. That's all we caught through three days of river fishing.
I have to say that the one thing I dislike the most about taking trips like this with my dad is that he seems to treat me like I'm still 14 years old by ordering me to do little errands like fetching him water or throwing out the garbage. It's not that he wants to do these things that bothers me, but rather how he asks me to do them, which is to say he doesn't, but rather tells me to. Also, I don't usually do things like putting things away in the truck on my own because it always seems like he has a certain space for whatever object I'm putting away and I'm afraid if I pick the wrong spot he's going to tell me it's wrong and get on my case about it because I didn't know, and he seems to be annoyed when I ask him where something goes. Not having to deal with this is the main reason why I'm glad to get back home after one of these trips.
Lately I've been playing Paul's copy of Fallout 3 until I take it with me to Winnipeg tomorrow. For those who don't know, it takes place after a nuclear war which, among other things, pretty much leveled Washington, D.C. The remains of that city are the setting for this game, around 200 years after that war. Interestingly just about everything in the game has a 1950s America motif, right down to the device you use to view stats and maps, use items, see notes you've picked up, etc. I'll have to rent it after I get back so I can make some more progress because I'm really liking the free-range feel of it, even though I said to myself that I was getting sick of media that involved a crapsack world as it's starting to become a depressing cliche. Fallout 3's saving grace here is its (seeming) non-linearity, or at least offering several options on where to go and what to do.
The biggest news as far as amateur radio goes is that I built my own dipole antenna. Unfortunately I don't have the means to show the results right now, but that will probably change once I get into Winnipeg, as I'm taking it with me and Brian has a digital camera. Basically it consists of nothing more than two stranded 14-gage lengths of wire and an insulator that I got from John (same guy I mentioned in my last entry). I built the antenna for the 2 meter band (144-148 MHz), as I wanted to use the radio that Jay had given me for that band, as opposed to the one I described in my last entry, which I"ll need to upgrade my license to use fully (legally) anyway. The hardest part was soldering the wires to the logs on the insulator, a task which I needed Viktor's help for and which I ended up burning some small holes in and melting the glue for one of the lugs since I used too much heat for too long. As for how well it works, I tested it on the aforementioned radio as well as my 2 m and 70 cm (420-250 MHz) handhelds. Nothing melted or exploded, so that was a good sign. As for actual coverage, that remains to be seen. I'm looking forward to trying it in Brian's high-rise apartment.
That's all for now, as I really should be getting to bed. Hopefully by tomorrow afternoon or evening I"ll be in Winnipeg with Brian, enjoying my first day there.