Author Archive: George Kasdorf

Oh.. misBehave.. It’s Las Vegas Baby!

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Welcome to Las Vegas!

For a long time Paul has been wanting to get back to Las Vegas Nevada. While I always contended it was because his friends at the Bunny Ranch were missing him. He claims he just likes the “Glitter of the Gulch”, the casinos and especially the monster buffets!

Well, I like the same things, so we decided a road trip was in order. Having a long 4th of July weekend we caught a flight out early Saturday the 1st. and arrived before noon. Picked up a car with GOOD air conditioning and headed to the hotel to check in. Since we were a little early decided to hit our first buffet. Bellies full we returned and checked in. Took a nap and headed out into the desert sunset.
Played a few slots.. naturally.
One of us was a winner......and one of us was a loser............. you figure it out.

Paul pulls the crank looking for the downpayment on his new Phaeton.

Played a few slots, yes we did.

One of the highlights was going to the Anthony Cools Experience which is a “Adult Oriented” hypnosis show. His web site is a little outdated, since he is at the Excalibur now. I just know I am very glad I did not volunteer to be hypnotized! It was far to funny, and only a few pictures from this show can probably be posted.

A visit to the Hoover dam Sunday morning while it was still cool, every day was over 105 degrees there.
107 was not the highest temp we saw.... but it is a DRY heat so it's okay.
Photo taken inside our car.

If you want to do good panorama views you should really carry a tripod… but even by hand it did an okay job… except for the final two frames which did not align very well. Hoover Dam panorama. Look closely for the yellow crane which is putting in the new highway to bypass driving over the dam. Note this is pretty big so it will take a few minutes to download, but making it smaller loses to much detail. Tip 2: In the lower left is a – and + symbol. Use the – to go as small as it will, then you can use the + to zoom in on an area.
Tips on using the Panorama MOV features.Using the panorama zoom feature.

You may also enjoy this short video compilation (in Flash) about the building of the dam.
You may need to click on the green arrow to start the movie.
Flash player controls.

I am not going to detail everything we did here, look at the photo albums and the captions when we get them posted. Suffice it to say I had very tired feet, legs and back. We must have walked 15 miles over the three day before we headed home Tuesday morning, pennyless and tired.. but fully fed and relaxed until the next trip.

Wonder where it will be next?
I’m thinking South to Georgia in the fall.

Coming up next locally is the NASCAR race at Michigan International Speedway. Hope to get lots of good pictures since we have Pit Passes this year to tour the infield and garages before the race…. maybe the Budweiser Girls Race Car with Dale Jr. will be there.

Until they turn off the lights on the Vegas Strip,
George

Second time’s a charm… wait maybe this WAS my third time.

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Headaches be gone! I found where the “Save as size” is at in my stitching program. It was defaulted to 9% – I went to 50% and it looks pretty good. I tried 75% in the program that makes the movie from the panorama, but it seems to choke on a 14 megabite input file.  May try it on another computer at another time..  (I have an old one I put all the “test programs” into to see if they are going to do something ugly to my system and it does not have a lot of memory.  )
Let’s try this again!

It’s a wrap!
George

There’s no beginning – There’ll be no end*

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Dizzy, I’m so dizzy
My head is spinning
Like a whirlpool
It never ends
And it’s you girl
Making it spin
You’re making me dizzy**

I have been playing with the camera, tripod and some software to make panoramic movies ’cause I think the ability to spin a panorama around is quite cool. So this is my attempt. If you have never played with a Quicktime Movie, put your mouse on the picture, hold down the left button and start waggling the mouse back and forth… once you get dizzy, slow down. The further the mouse is from the center the faster the picture moves in that direction. You could also go up and down, if I had made it that way. You can also use the “+” button to zoom in, and the “-” button to zoom back out. Kewl… I am dissapointed in the resolution that I am getting, being way to grainy for me. I have set the compression down to “1” which is supposed to be the best quality, but not much change. It is taking a series of 17 pictures, each about 800K and the final version is only about 55K. I believe it is in the “stitching” software, so will look for something else and keep trying.

Learning some small things as I go:

  • Do not let the camera strap hang in front of the lens – it makes a big black stripe on the pictures. (Oh man how “noob” is that!)
  • Don’t screw the tripod mount into the camera body to tight – it turns it off – I was starting to wonder if it was going to fire up again!
  • Don’t have neighbours walk over to see what you are doing – they appear in some frames and not others, although it does give a very interesting “disappearing” effect…. OOoohhhhHHH… ghosts.
  • Bright sun is not good since you are doing a 360 degree circle with the camera at one or more points you are shooting into it causing some spectacular sun spots!
  • Dark days are not good…. some of this one is pretty dark.
  • You may want to wait until the neighbours have garage doors closed, trailers stowed and signs out of their yards.

    • Hey, it’s just for fun, but could add an all new dimension to the photo pages.

    Until my pictures spin as smoothly as the world.
    George

    PS I almost forgot! This requires the Quicktime Player. A free download, although it has the annoying habit of adding iTunes to your computer also. You can go in and turn off the “system tray” icon though.

    * Troggs – way cool group
    **Thanks to Vic Reeves and The Wonder Stuff

    M.A.S.H. & Toledo Ohio & Hot Dogs

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    Some people seem to enjoy going the the same comfortable restaurant time after time, and there is something to be said for having a few good “favorite” haunts.  However we always enjoy finding new places to eat. One fun place to go for the occasional out of town trip is Tony Packo’s in Toledo OH.

    Click on the picture to see a larger image.
    Tony’s started in 1932 with a $100 loan, and now has six locations in the area (I think.). The claim to fame is more than 1,500 hot dog buns signed by various celebrities.
    There are sports stars, movie stars, famous and perhaps infamous politicians (I would contend they should ALL be classified as infamous!) past and present.

    Click on the picture to see a larger image.

    The real boost to their fame came from the TV show “MASH” in which Corporal Klinger (Jamie Farr) mentioned the hot dogs at Tony Packo’s in Toledo in several episodes.
    Click on the picture to see a larger image.
    A while back they added a new hot dog called the “MOAD” which is Mother Of All Dogs, and it is a bitc, er mother of a dog to eat!
    Click on the picture to see a larger image.
    Unfortunately I was raised as a full fledged member of “The Clean Plate Club” which means you have to eat everything put in front of you… regardless. Which I believe nowadays is something mothers are encourgaged NOT to promote. Leads to obesity or something I guess. I was also raised not to quit on something I start, so feel totally compelled to consume what I order and is put in front of me.
    Click on the picture to see a larger image.

    I managed to keep the values intact.

    Now I have to explain to my doctor in a couple weeks why the blood tests don’t look so good. Oh well, salads for lunch this week at work.

    George

    .. and not a single Dunkin Doughnut “Bavarian Cream” doughnut in sight.

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    Having a long week end and no special plans the crew needed a “mini vacation” AKA “Road Trip”. The activities chairman found a “Ironjack Lumberjack Competition – As Seen on TV” that was putting on a competition nearby, so Saturday morning the vehicle was loaded with a glass of ice and some cookies and the trip was underway. Frankenmuth Michigan is only about an hour drive from Ann Arbor, so we got there quickly and spent time touring the town. We had been to Frankenmuth a few years back, but it must have been during the off season since the town was quite deserted during that visit. We had carefully reviewed the Ironjack competition schedule and decided with the temperature approaching 90 and crystal clear skies that if we sat through both the afternoon and evening sessions there would be an excellent chance of going home mimicking “crispy critters”. Therefore we did what any sane person would do… went shopping and eating. We toured the shops enjoying specialties such as “chocolate and peanut butter cheese” (actually it was quite good, not sure how good for you though) a variety of sausages (samples abounded in the stores) and spent time reviewing a great variety of imported beers. Some all time favorites are labeled with Elvis Presley… apparently a good percentage of people that visit here are also Elvis fans with James Dean pulling a close second. (Purse’s, postcards, street signs, movies, wine, beer, about anything you can put an Elvis or James picture on…)

    Having worked up quite the appetite from walking about town, and not having seen any foot long hot dogs, corn dogs or even an Elephant Ear stand in sight when we checked out the competition area we decided on going to an early supper prior to the competition.

    Would you believe over 2 MILLION chicken dinners a year!

    The specialty of the town is the chicken dinners with “Over two Million served yearly” according to the literature, so we opted for the veggie burger…. not really, we may have been escorted out of town for such blasphemy, so we stuffed fried chicken into our faces until we couldn’t squeeze in one more small wing. (Family style, all you can eat dinners).

    Click on the picture to see a larger image.

    Note the bright red medical alert wristband they provide when you order the all you can eat chicken dinner. (Actual uncropped photo taken only minutes into the feeding frenzy.)

    We successfully waddled back through town to the competition arena, and found a seat in time to watch the activities. There are a few pictures, and maybe some day I will add a quick movie I took of one of the events. The competition was not huge, but still pretty cool to see up close, and the smell of fresh cut wood added a great atmosphere so we thoroughly enjoyed ourselves. World’s largest Christmas oriented store.

    We did not have time before the event to visit Bronners, so after leaving the arena we drove down the road to the store. Well, don’t you just know they close at 6 PM until June! So we missed visiting the store, but had time to get a couple great photos around the building before the security team came and tried to taser Paul for feeding the penguins which was strictly prohibited.

    Click on the picture to see full size.

    Finally we packed up, taking our tired legs and feet, sunburned faces and overly full stomachs back to Ann Arbor.

    Until all “the chips that fell where they may” are cleaned up,

    George

    News from other Kasdorfs looking for Kasdorf’s

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    Back in February I heard from Uscha Graber who sent an email from Germany. She was very interested in the Kasdorf family line and was going to contact a person I had corresponded with for some time a couple of years ago, Ines Kasdorf, and they were going to get together and visit some of the churches in the Glendlin area. Hopefully the meeting happens and they may find some new information they will share, or perhaps pictures of the church’s and records they find. Watch this space for any news!  

    George