It’s to early for Maple Surple, too late for Loudon!

Posted on August 22, 2006May 7, 2022 by George Kasdorf

Back in beautiful New Hampshire for a couple of weeks, with time out on the weekend.

Unfortunately it is still to early for the leaves to change color (1 minute away),
snow to ski on (30 minutes away) or maple syrup time (darn there is a cool “sugar shack” out the road a ways if I can get a picture of it. (ten minutes away).

It’s also to late for the NASCAR race in Loudon (ten minutes away) and way past

“Bike Week” when all the drunk bikers visit Laconia and Weirs Beach. (twenty minutes away).

Okay, so I was out cruising around and saw this giant tree. Amazingly larger than life, surely a genetic mutation caused by some type of exposure to random redwood tree genes. Anyone have the cell phone number for the National Arbor Day group so I can report this?

Regardless of all this, the area is very nice, at least until the snow flies. The week should be pleasant, if the current weather holds, and home at a reasonable time on Friday!

Until there is no snowfall in New Hampshire in January,
George

Back to Toluca Mexico

Posted on August 17, 2006December 4, 2022 by George Kasdorf

FMEA for those that are not in Automotive Quality is Failure Mode Effects Analysis. A method to review product designs and production methods before you start production, to eliminate quality issues before hand.

What’s that you say, well I mention because that is why I am back in Toluca Mexico this week. The place I mentioned earlier that is 8,790 or so feet above sea level. Higher than a lot of small planes fly. Hopefully this will be a relaxing week since I am the Host, not the trainer for the week. I escorted a group of eight down from Detroit to show them how to hop a bus and hail a taxi in Mexico, and then hopefully get them all back home safely Saturday.

Wednesday our host Dagoberto took the entire group to La Destileria, a Tequilla themed restaurant. (Sorry, the web page has an English version, but not for this location.)

I had been here last year, but most of the others have not, so it was new to them and everyone enjoyed themselves, except maybe Mary who was given the “Birthday” drink poured down her – like it or not. (Not!)

Thursday’s entertainment was
– guess what – dinner = more food! We went to Cambalache Restaurante. A restaurante specializing in Argentina style foods. While it was siimilar to a Brazilian Churrasco, it had differences.

Exactly what are “sweet breads” anyway? (Okay I looked it up = A sweetbread is the thymus gland of lamb or calf, but in cookery, veal sweetbreads only are considered. ) I am relieved I was thinking something lower and rounder….. The other thing on the plate the waiter would only say “Is the bull’s parts”… oh…. a very long and slender sausage, interesting flavor, saucy with a hint of field grass and subtle undertones of reproductive organs. Let me look for the picture I took.

Until all the Agave is gone and the spit stops turning,
George

Gaucho Bar-B-Que = Churrasco

Posted on August 11, 2006May 3, 2022 by George Kasdorf

Glad I do not listen to the news often, or I may not be so happy to have gone out for some great barbecue this week.

If I had heard of the bombings, robberies and so on may not have been quite so fun. The host here, who has the great name “George”, treats his guests “the best”. While we worked hard all day, normally getting to the plant at 8 am, and working until 8 pm… afterwards “it’s the bomb” as I have heard said.
One night out to Skye a very trendy upscale place, as close to all the rich and beautiful people as I have ever been I think. Another night at Barbacoa Then to be able to rate the two best barbecues, a trip to Fogo de Chão Now all I have to do is spend then next two weeks (2 weeks – maybe 2 months!) at the gym trying to get rid of the 76 bazillion calories consumed this week!

There are a series of Fogo de Chao restaurants in the US, and having been to the one in Washington DC the ones in the states are very authentic, so if you have a chance to go, and if you like beef, go. (Actually even those not liking meat can dine well the salad bar is huge.)
Now I get email telling me about the plot uncovered in England about the terrorists that were planning on attacking airplanes again. Great, going to make travel difficult again. Not complaining about the security measures, I want everyone to be as safe as possible, but at everyone who is leading this on both sides.

But, George says he keeps a list, never taking his guests to the same place twice, unless they request to return to a particular restaurant. Seems Sao Paulo Brazil has many excellent restaurants to try yet. I must say having made my seventh trip here in as many years he is doing a pretty good job of staying true to his word!

Have to run, I hear the pepto bottle calling me….
George

The next day, Friday: Oh, great todays news, 5.6 earthquake in central Mexico. Guess where I am headed off to on Monday….. Mexico City. Not sure anymore if there IS a safe place to travel to any longer. Then the candidate that lost the Mayor’s election in Mexico City is still causing unrest….

South of the Border

Posted on August 3, 2006May 7, 2022 by George Kasdorf

Well, here is one reason why I do not even think about getting a car when I travel to Mexico.

It is always a thrilling ride from the Mexico City airport to any where out of town.

Since street signs are rare, traffic lanes are clearly ignored, I can never tell who has the right of way, people drive backwards on one way streets in front of the police and the law would throw me in jail if I slightly bumped anyone’s car.

I don’t even think about driving here.

Fortunately the bus’es are actually pretty great. TV, movies, air conditioned so it is way more relaxing to take them and leave the traffic to the professionals. You know the cable cars in San Francisco, and the ringing of the bells which has been elevated to an art form, well the bus drivers have all mastered the “Art of the Horn” here. I have yet to be able to discern the different air horn blasts, whether is it a “get out of my way scum”, from a “Man you are one nice looking woman in front of us”, from a “thanks for letting me cut in front of you”, from a “watch out I am cutting across three lanes RIGHT NOW!”, from anything. This trip I rode with “Mr. Horn” who was a master of the craft. Amazing. Just about gave me a headache, inside the bus.

So where did the bus end up? Why Toluca Mexico, where else?
“Nestled 8,790 feet (2,679 meters) above sea level, Toluca has earned the name “The Altitude Capital” of Mexico. Well connected to the heartland, it is a provincial town updated by industrial progress. Businesses such as Nestle, Dupont and General Motors maintain offices here providing many job and internship opportunities.”

Note the 8,790 feet, much higher than Denver CO. The first day at this altitude is sort of miserable, at least for me it is. I walked up a flight of stairs and felt like I ran… 50 feet. (Okay I admit I am not in marathon trim.) It does leave you gasping though, even at night.

Gosh, other than all this, it has been a heck of a fun trip!

I can hardly wait for the trip back tomorrow!

Until the last horn is tooted,
George

Don’t you just hate it when……

Posted on July 26, 2006December 4, 2022 by George Kasdorf

We went on a field trip. Had a good time. Took lots of pictures. Wrote a fantastic blog entry all about it, created links, added numerous witty comments (?) and all that. Then closed down WordPress editor…. guess who had not bothered to do a save yet.

Another one of those things you should not do late at night.

Some day I may learn.

Last weekend the weather was cooperative, not 90+ degrees, not raining, beautiful clouds. (as was pointed out by the tour guide repeatedly.) Having just gotten back from a week long road trip I didn’t really feel like driving all that far so we decided to take in some local attraction. Two places we have been wanting to go for some time are Henry Ford’s Greenfield Village, and Henry and Clara Ford’s home “Fair Lane”… sorta like the car… a Ford.. get it?

We took off late morning, not knowing which one to go to, but both were in the same direction, so it didn’t matter all that much. Since it was getting late, we stopped for lunch, and afterwards decided that since Greenfield Village closes at 5 pm there was not enough time left fo a leisurly visit. We opted for Henry Ford’s home. It was a good choice. We enjoyed ourselves and did not have to rush. One set of pictures have been posted, and eventually more will follow.

View the album, see if you can get all three of the “mystery” items identified before you get to the last slide.

Ah, you will notice I am back to the old album style, the new one just didn’t seem to work out for me. It has cool features, but was having some technical problems and could not get any support. So enjoy the consistency of the old style, it works, I’m used to it, so guess I will just stay with it… until the next great thing comes along… oh have you ever looked a JAlbum!

Until the last generator turbine spins down,
George

Excitement! Well, for me anyway.

Posted on July 22, 2006September 1, 2022 by George Kasdorf

Two new small features being added to Kazology.

A search engine that I have on the server
A new flash photo album created

I have worked off and on for months to get Google (and other search engines) to index the entire site. Seems like with all the genealogy pages that exist it just will not do it. In part because there are only a few “back links” to Kazology it does not rate very high in priority. (So if you want to put a link to www.kasdorf.net in your page somewhere feel free!)

There are so many names in the genealogy section it is difficult to find a particular person, so it really needs this feature. Since I am not getting “Googled” I started looking for another means. Is Google going to be our next door neighbor? New office a mile away is rumoured to be Google’s new Ann Arbor location!

I searched and found one by APB Search. It uses CGI scripting to create an index on the server, which is then used when a search is performed by the user. It is pretty fast unless you pick a very frequent word, but even then it is not to bad. I currently have the most of the actual genealogy pages in the index, but not the PDF files, photo albums and so on. The site currently has over 18,000 pages and even the “free” version of APB Search is choking. To be fair it is not the APB Search program, it is the server timing out. The server only allows CGI scripts to have six seconds of CPU time per operation. Apparently this is just not enough to get the job done. I believe there is a way around, which involves purchasing the full version which can add directories one at a time after the initial index creation. I have tried performing searches using both Google and APB Search, and am getting more results every time with APB, so I like it. You can try out the search now if you like. It is way down in the right column in small font. Once I get it the way I want it, it will be moved to a more prominent position.

The other new feature is a flash photo album Paul located. It is by Atomix Technologies Limited and is called JetPhoto. It creates pretty cool albums with flash effects. Only one concern seems to be it is not well known and not well supported. Templates are limited at this time. So may have to learn PHP to do some editing.

It is also available down in the “test” area in the lower right hand column. Only one quickly created album there to test it out on.

NOTE: This never panned out as a photo album maker. I have used “Jalbum” almost exclusively for years now. Still highly recommended. Updated 12/21/2012. George

Until the final web page is indexed,

George