Ragnar Relay

If I could find 11 friends and a big van, this might be fun to try one year... a 196 mile relay race from Chattanooga to Nashville. I had not realized how much of the time you would be running alone. That would be a dramatically different experience from the Buddy's Race Against Cancer this last week-end with 2,800 participants on the 5K.

Cheap eBooks

George R. R. Martin announced a sale of his Wild Cards eBooks. Four of the books are available for $2.99. Basically, they want to sell a few and get you hooked on the series. It may work with me. I bought one last night and have already been burning through the electronic pages.

Wouxun.US is now ImportCommunications.com

I guess it is official now. I'd figured it out a while ago - not that it was a big secret as far as I could tell. But I have no idea why Ed didn't make some sort of announcement. He could have changed his e-mail signature with a little note or something without even having to do a post about it to the UV-3R or Wouxun Yahoo Groups.

In any case, if you go to ImportCommunications.com, it will forward you to Wouxun.us.

I think the new name makes sense. He can sell radios from more manufacturers now without being locked in to the Wouxun name.

I've mentioned before that I bought a radio from him and was very pleased with his service. Best wishes to Ed with Import Communications!

Now Hiring

Speaking of companies that are hiring... you may have given up on being a professional baseball player or a fireman, but it's not too late to be an astronaut.

Apply here.

Via Slashdot.org

The Most Interesting Engineer

Are you the world's most interesting engineer? If so, apply at Scopely, get hired, and receive:

• $11,000 cash - wrapped in bacon
• Spear gun
• One year's supply of Dos Equis
• Beard grooming oil
• An oil painting of yourself
• Fancy tux
• Sex Panther cologne
• Cuban Cigars

Via news.cnet.com

Tauren Poole

wesrucker247 TPoole: "I don't know if there is much of a legacy, man. I just don't know if people are going to remember this class. We didn't do much."Tue, Nov 15 14:26:03 from TweetDeck

wesrucker247 TPoole: "It's not happened like I thought it would (at UT), but I wouldn't want to be anywhere else. That's the truth. I'm glad I'm here."Tue, Nov 15 14:27:33 from TweetDeck

wesrucker247 It's been a pleasure covering Vols Sr RB Tauren Poole. One of the classiest guys I've covered. Kid will be successful in life, for sure.Tue, Nov 15 14:30:23 from TweetDeck

I think his legacy will be tied up in the next year. If the Vols improve, then these are the guys that laid the foundation and got us through the tough times. If the Vols continue .500 (or worse!) football, then they will fade as just one more mediocre class.

One Year of Brick O'Lore

One year ago today I started this blog with a post about Financial Commitment Sunday at my church. At the same time I was contemplating a purchase of some radios and guns. Well, I got some radios (IC-7000 and UV-3R), but I never did get the AR or the Glock. And now I've been leaning towards the M&P9.

When I was writing that entry, I was thinking that I would blog for a year and then see if I wanted to keep doing it. I plan on continuing the blog, but I feel less pressure now. I've had various undocumented goals - three posts a day, so many a week, etc. None of which I've consistently met. I blog when I feel like it - which is fairly frequently. I had envisioned longer, more thoughtful posts (like Linoge and others), but it turns out that I'm closer to being a linker. As far as the personality of my blog, it was going to be some guns, ham radio, technical, commentary on society, etc. It turns out I was going to post quite a bit about a little radio and the page views would go up dramatically.

As you will see in the stats below, some how this became a Baofeng UV-3R blog. It all started with a simple post about a Yaesu VX-3R knock-off.

As of late yesterday, the blog had 112,231 page views for its first year. I've made 856 posts in that time.

The single largest referring URL was Say Uncle - primarily for the Ninjas in my House post with 1,850 views.

However, the single most visited post is the Baofeng UV-3R software instructions at about 7,000 views.

The single most visited page is the Baofeng UV-3R summary at almost 11,500 view for the year

Google.com is the largest referring site at about 12,500 pointers to the blog. If I add in the referrals from Google in Germany (2,500), the UK (2,200), Italy (2,100), Netherlands (1,200), Spain (600), and Canada (400), then Google is responsible for 21,500 views. Most of the hits from Google are from searches for the UV-3R.

Feedburner tells me I have a few RSS subscribers. Google Analytics tell me that I have lots of people who get here by way of the Baofeng searches and they click through to another post between (roughly) 30% to 60% of the time depending on the particular starting page. People average 2.93 pages and 3.15 minutes per visit.

So, where do I go from here?

More of the same I suspect. The UV-3R has been a great learning experience for me - both as a ham radio and as a blogger. I've got too many interests and not enough time. I think you've see that here... radios, running, tablets, guns, prepping, computers, reading, etc. Toss in a wife and an almost three year old - time is my limiting factor for sure. The Radio Amateurs Code reminds hams that playing with the radio is a hobby and that the ham should be balanced - never letting it interfere with "duties owed family, job, school or community." I might add church to that, but it still sums up where I am.

Let's see what the next 365 days bring. Some goals... pass the Extra Class exam, keep running - maybe a marathon, earn a WAS award, pay off my student loan, finally pick up that plastic pistol, and blog a little.

Thanks for reading.

Interference and Airbags

Bad - Radios pick up interference from a GPS and gets noisy.
Worse - Airbag picks up interference from a mobile phone and is disabled.

Buying

I like to think I am pretty smart when it comes to spending my money. I like to think that, but it probably isn't true. I'm influenced in more ways than I will ever realize.

Heck, the Harbor Freight ad in the Sunday paper always makes me "want" stuff - an $8 mover's dolly, a $3 digital multi-meter, a $2 tarp, a $260 surveillance system with four camera, etc. I didn't see it this time, but there are usually some solar panels I must have for a project.

Star Trek + Firefly

Like Star Trek?
Like Firefly?
Then click!