Going to the Chapel

Our good friend, Lyanne, got married this past weekend. Her Dad is a farmer, this explains their unique mode of transportation from the church, where the ceremony was held, to the reception site.




Congratulations!

Packing it in Redux

Jennie and I took her sister and her husband, Courtenay and Joe, on a packing trip to White Ranch this past weekend. This was our second attempt, thus we are now experts that have it all figured out. Hah! Not really.

Initial packing. We did a much better job packing this time. We needed only one additional packing bag even though there were two more people. Our pack saddle outfit came with three bags.





It was very windy and cold during the afternoon and evening.

Jennie led the way with the horses while the three of us hiked in. Notice the canvas bag on top of Anne, we didn't use it on our first trip.





Pit stop. Cody carried the horse food while Anne carried almost everything else.



This time we chose campsite #4 because it is very close in proximity to the provided corrals.




For dinner we planned on having Lucky Bean soup and hamburgers. The buns got left behind, so we ended up having flat, round, patties of ground beef instead.






Heading Back




I rode Cody and led Anne most of the way home this time.





Courtenay gave it a try too. Great job!

Robocode

One of my colleagues at work is facilitating a Robocode competition. Robocode is a Java-based framework for developing virtual robots. Once developed, these robots are placed in a “battleground” where they attempt to defeat each other. Please see http://robocode.sourceforge.net/. We are going to have a bracketed competition of 1v1 this coming Friday and then a meelee competition where everyone is put on the board.




I've spent close to 25 hours so far learning how it works and developing my robot. The hardest part so far has been the geometry that is required to direct the robot, interact with the surroundings, run the radar, and aim its gun.

Have you looked at a Unit Circle lately? Do you remember the Law of Sines/Cosines (SSS, SAS), the Pythagorean Theorem? I sure haven't. My math knowledge after many years of non-use has declined to a horrid state. The programming I do at work doesn't involve any geometry so this exercise has been enjoyable. Jennie even sat down and helped me with one problem that still vexes me.

I've decided on a way-point sytem for the bot to used during its navigation. Basically I picked a bunch of spots on the battlefield, put them in an ordered collection, then when the bot starts up it merrily goes on its way from point to point. Nothing fancy, but it will appear at first to be random and I doubt anyone here has put in the time to do pattern matching yet. I still need to add code to retreat in the opposite direction if the realizes it is going to get too close to the other bot.

In addition to the gun, the bot has a radar providing it with information about opponents when the radar pings them. This also must be controlled by code I've written.

My bot's name is 'UnderDog' I don't feel it will do very well as there are some very smart people in my office. We'll see though. I did 'pimp' my bot by adding some short audio clips that will be played at the appropriate times. One of my favorites is: here

Here's a quick video of another persons bot.

It Finally Happened

Well it finally happened. I had avoided it up until this point. Have you figured it out yet? Probably not. Well, this evening, after a great session of wake boarding with my friend Justin and his dad at Sloan's Lake, we stopped at Starbucks and I had my very first coffee concoction. I believe it was a venti Espresso thing with caramel and milk. It was pretty good, but I should have gotten the decaf.

Packing it in

You'll never guess what we did this past Sunday.

Jennie and I went on our first camping trip with our horses: Cody and Little Anne. We spent one night at the Equestrian campground at White Ranch Park in Jefferson County.

After owning a packing saddle for 4 years we finally used it!

We took a packing and outfitting course at CSU before we purchased the saddle. We learned about tying knots and hitches (which are ways of securing the load to the horse), preparing a horse for a trip and his care during it, how to plan a packing trip, and setting up camp. Our instructor, Chuck Peterson, was a character and good teacher.

We left our home on Sunday with the panniers, the bags on the horse I'm standing next to, all packed. One of the keys to a successful trip is to have them weighted the same. This keeps the horse balanced and helps prevent sores from developing on its back. I used our foot scale to weigh the panniers, they each weighed close to 42 pounds.




When we started out Jennie ended up leading Little Anne because we all weren't accustomed to our tasks yet. Our rig spent the night in the parking lot that is just over the hill in the background.



The hike in from the parking lot was around 1.6 miles. Not too far, but Little Anne asked for some breaks on the way. By the time we got there our nerves were rattled a bit, but we made it in one piece.



After unloading the horses we setup camp.




The campground was free to use, but we had to make a reservation with the county. This was the Sourdough Springs Equestrian Camp. You can see the hitching posts in the above picture and the corral below. In addition to these facilities there is a toilet, firewood, and a pump.


Our site was surrounded by woods like these. It was very peaceful.



For dinner we cooked our hamburgers on the grill. Before going to bed we put our food up to keep it away from the bears and them from us.


Sleep didn't come easily at first because our horses were bored for lack of something to do. We were greeted by this site in the morning.




Breakfast was also done on the grill since Zac didn't check the fuel level in the stove we brought. It was a 2 hour, 3 course meal!


After breakfast we did a little hiking and then we packed up and headed back home. This time Little Anne was more cooperative so we were able to lead her while on Cody's back.



The trip was a blast, but it had its frustrating moments. We agreed though we'd be doing it again and hopefully sooner than later.





Thanks for coming along.