blev's tech notes @blevotroid - Tumblr Blog

I don't hate the new Photos app, but I do love the old Windows Photo Viewer.

I had to do the ugly registry hack, but it’s back now and profanity has lessened.

Zucchini Stromboli

1 large zucchini (can substitute 1 large catfish in a pinch, no please don’t) 1 small zucchini 12 mushrooms 1/2 medium onion, chopped 1 pkg Jenni-O Turkey Italian Sausage 1 tomato chopped or several cherry tomatoes 2-3 tablespoons oil Classico pizza sauce to taste Mozzarella or other pizza cheese to taste Salt, pepper, garlic powder to taste

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Mix a few tablespoons oil with some salt, pepper and garlic powder. Cut ends off the zucchini and cut in half length-wise. Scoop out some of the center, including any seeds and send to compost bin. Brush the zucchini on all sides with oil. Place in pan lined with foil or silicone. Roast to desired tenderness, 20-30 minutes. If you want to have two stuffed zucchini take them out while they are still firm. If you want to make more of a filled, stromboli-like structure then let them get pretty soft. While the zucchini is roasting, chop the mushroom, onion and small zucchini. Heat 1-2 tablespoons oil in large saute pan. Saute all the veggies to desire softness. Reserve to bowl or plate. Brown the turkey sausage and return the veggies to the pan to reheat. The zucchini halves should now be roasted and out of the oven. Fill one half of the zucchini with the meat-veggie filling. Optional: Top with pizza sauce and cheese. Flip the other zucchini half on top of the first half. Place back in oven for a few minutes to melt the cheese and warm the sauce. Enjoy!

Here are my top 10 golden rules for becoming a better programmer

Some of these are nice and universal.

#programming

Bill’s Black Bean Burgers

We are just making a bean loaf or a savory bean pancake here. Rough measurements, make it how you like it.

1 15 oz. can black beans 1/2 cup ground oats 1/2 cup bread crumbs (I used panko) 1 tsp cumin 1/2 tsp paprika Big pinch of salt 1/3 cup finely chopped onion 1 minced garlic clove 2 eggs 1 tbsp oil 2 tsp sugar (cuz ‘merica)

Rinse the beans and mash half of them in a medium bowl. Add the rest of the beans and everything else. Stir well; if needed add a bit more bread crumbs to make it thick enough to form patties. Heat a little oil in a large skillet over medium heat. When forming patties, it may help to wet your hands since this is fairly sticky dough. Cook for six minutes per side. Makes 4-6 burgers. Pretty good for a pseudo burger.

#blackbeanburger

Bacon Braised Green Beans

3-4 cups green beans, just out of the gah’den is great 1 cup baby carrots 3-4 small or medium potatoes, your choice, halved or quartered Half an onion, diced 4 slices bacon 4-5 cups chicken broth

Brown the bacon until you have some fat to work with. Add the onion and saute until you get some browning in the bottom of the pan. A cast iron dutch oven works great for this. Add the chicken broth and bring to simmer over medium heat. Wash and break the beans. Shell any that have grown to be stringy. Add them to the simmering broth. Cover and cook 10 mins or until they just start to get tender. Add the baby carrots and potatoes and cook until desired tenderness (7-10 mins). These timings should get the beans softer than crisp tender so if you like them crisper back off the initial bean cooking time. And if you halve the potatoes, add them a little earlier and a few minutes before adding the carrots so things don’t get mushy. Keep an eye on it and check the various veggie components for desired tenderness. Thanks to my grandma for feeding me this classic so many times!

This blog entry has steps to get a nice overlay that shows topo quad boundaries and topo maps within Google Earth

Utah has a variety of beautiful mountain ranges and hills that make for a great pastime. If hiking is your thing, check KSL.com each Mondaymorning for the Hike of the Week to get new ideas of where you can go exploring.

#moab redrock

Bill's Digiscoping Notes

I've been fiddling around with digiscoping for several years. So a year or so back I finally bought a decent setup. Digiscoping is where you attach a digital camera to a spotting scope.

I found the Vortex brand of scopes is cheaper than the crazy expensive Leica and Swarovski scopes, but it still breaks the bank a little. You get your money's worth, however. Also the cost of the camera adapters is cheaper than the higher-end brands while still being decent quality. This setup allows you to get some fairly sharp shots at long distance so birds or other animals aren't disturbed too much.

This is the scope.

http://www.opticsplanet.com/vortex-razor-hd-20-60x85-spotting-scope.html

The two adapters needed to attached a small point and shoot camera.

http://www.vortexoptics.com/product/vortex-razor-hd-spotting-scope-digital-camera-adapter

http://www.vortexoptics.com/product/vortex-ps-100-attachment-for-razor-and-viper-digital-camera-adapters

The previous version of the camera below is the one I'm using. It has full HD video and enough manual settings to allow adjusting for tough lighting conditions. The kind you get when shooting birds, where it can be really dark or back lit. I've gotten good results with cheaper cameras too.

http://www.amazon.com/Canon-PowerShot-Digital-Optical-Full-HD/dp/B00EFILNV8/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&qid=1402540954&sr=8-4&keywords=canon+-+powershot+s110

Some type of sturdy tripod is a must. I have an old Bogen tripod I got off an astronomy auction site and I'm sure there's plenty on ebay. The one I have is a back-breaker and one of these days I might save up and get a carbon fiber tripod that I could carry longer distances.

Well that was quite a book. Hope it gives you food for thought and maybe some inspiration to get a closer look at nature.

P.S. One of my favorite captures so far is this silly gopher snake.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bbo5omBx21M&list=UUZk0yKzTqsJjW04xDEloiEw

#digiscoping

Long-billed curlew luring me away from it's nest.

#SoundCloud #bill blevins #birds #wildlife #nature #parabolic

Great solar weather site and their android app is decent too.

#spaceweather #solar #h-alpha

I've been on the fence about what framework to learn for mobile development. To see a phonegap game with such popularity is inspiring, since it is very accessible using a common web skillset.

#mobiledevelopment

The processing of a large batch of my time lapse shoots from 2013 is under way. A few were taken at the flight park at point of the mountain above Draper, UT. I'm not sure if these will make it into the final reel, but the stills were fun!

#paragliding #timelapse #hdr #utah

Broccoli Greens

Here on the Winter Solstice I cooked some broccoli leaves that I pulled from the garden before a very hard freeze a few weeks ago. I didn't have a lot so it was a small batch. One could double or triple the recipe. Good stuff!

2 cups chopped broccoli leaves 1/4 - 1/2 cup chopped onion 1 tbsp oil of your choice 1-2 tsp. bacon fat, keep it in the fridge after cooking bacon, it's gold. 1-2 cups chicken broth

Heat the oil and bacon fat on medium heat in a large sauce pan or skillet.

Add the onion and cook for 3 minutes.

Add the leaves and cook for a few minutes until somewhat wilted.

Add the chicken broth, return to simmer, reduce heat to medium low, cover and cook 20 minutes, add water as necessary to keep from boiling dry.

Check for desired tenderness after the 20 minute are up and cook longer as needed.

Enjoy! Would've taken a photo, but ate it too fast.

#broccoli greens

Stashing here, will make soon.

#nomz #chocolate #bread

Good Comet Hunting Opportunities, November 2013

It's time to drag yourself out of bed before dawn and grab a pair of binoculars. At least one comet is near naked-eye visibility while ISON looks to be fizzling. Check here for details on Comet Lovejoy:

http://comets.skyhound.com/

Also if you have a mobile device or tablet, get Sky Safari to learn the night sky and find all those pesky fuzzballs.

http://www.southernstars.com/index.html

The app has many useful features, I just went to Search, typed in Lovejoy and tapped Center. The object was shown below the horizon so I used the app's feature that allows you to advance time by minute, hour, etc. This let me pinpoint the time when the object would be over the horizon. Great tools, great views to be had.

#astronomy #comet

Add photoreal images, abstract designs, and animation to your long exposure photos and timelapse.

#funlight

Great post on getting the best out of your costco prints.

#photoprints

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