Blog – Page 52

Bryson Picture Book of Fort Worth Water Gardens

March 18, 2009 by rickety 4 Comments

	Bryson, Your Guide Are you all set for an adventure? Today we will be going into Fort Worth to tour the Water Gardens. You will need to stick close to me so that you won’t get lost. I will be your guide. Call me Bryson.
	A Cooling Oasis in the Concrete Jungle We are headed to the south end of downtown Fort Worth. Next to the Fort Worth Convention Center are the 4.3 acres of the Water Gardens, built in 1974. It was designed by New York architects Philip Johnson and John Burgee and was dedicated to the City of Fort Worth by the Amon G. Carter Foundation. Now stay close, Fort Worth can get messy.
	Hungry Work Being a guide in the city is hungry work. After Gerber Bananas this Sirloin Burger Combo from Jack In The Box is my favorite meal. I was planning on showing you the zoo afterwards but there are so many people headed there that the traffic is horrible. Now eat up and we will be on our way.
	Fort Worth Water Gardens This is a good sign, there’s not many people in the park so maybe we’ll be able to dip our feet in the cool water. The people here are my assistants, Jill and Rick. They are also my grandparents visiting from Utah. It’s as well that they are with me or they would really get lost. Grandpa says he checks his GPS but all it does is talk incoherently back to him. Annoying.
	The Active Pool The first of three pools is the active pool that you see here. The water cascades 38 feet down the terraces and steps into the pool at the bottom. As we roam about the park be sure to notice the over 500 species of plants and trees.
	Drownings The active pool was originally built for people to be able to walk down the terraced steps and experience the water tumbling around them. It was closed to the public after four people died there on June 16, 2004. Two children and one adult tried to save a child that had gone swimming in the pool. All were drowned. The water was unusually deep due to a recirculating pump malfunction and heavy rains.
	Step into My Pool The park was reopened in March 4, 2007 after being made safer by reducing the depth of the main pool from 9 feet to 2 feet. I’ll have my assistant Jill lead the way down the steps. It is quite safe now. There is just enough room to get past those people coming up, especially if you are my size.
	The Pool This is a pretty sight as all the water flows into the pool. Did you know that part of the film Logan’s Run was filmed here in the active pool in 1976? The pool is also featured briefly at the end of the 1979 television adaptation of The Lathe of Heaven. Before my time of course.
	The Vents Here is a close up of one of the vents that discharges water into the pool. I’m tempted to cool my feet but we need to move on. By the way the coordinates at the Water Gardens are 32°44′52″ North 97°19′36″ West.
	Photographs This is a great place to take photographs. The cascading water makes a great backdrop. I like how there is enough moving water to give a great effect but not too much spray that moisture gets in my camera. For this photograph of yours truly I had my Mom lift me up.
	The Quiet Pool Here you will experience the sensations of growing bigger and smaller. I can only grow bigger. The small stairway leading to the pool will make you feel bigger than your surroundings. After entering the pool area, you will suddenly feel smaller; any objects of human scale have been removed, giving you the feeling that you have suddenly entered a giant’s house.
	The Trough This trough that my feet are in is 650 feet long and releases 450 gallons of water a minute down the 22 foot high wall and into a moat at the bottom. If you are going to put your feet in the trough I recommend that you have your mother hold you.
	The Aerated Pool The pool is a visual illusion, giving you the impression that you can walk across the pool on tiles made of spraying water. I don’t recommend that you try it. The nozzles spray at the same height as the walkway, without spraying you, so that the water collapses on itself, looking ultimately like panels. The pool is 40 feet below ground with 40 nozzles spraying 871 gallons of water per minute.
	The Mountain The mountain is designed to give you the sense of the real thing. Its twenty inch steps cascade into one another, creating the sensation of mountainous topography. The mountain rises twenty feet off the ground. Now listen up, if you fall off of this mountain it will feel like the real thing.
	High On The Mountain Top At the top you can wave to all the world. That’s my grandma looking up at us. You know it is interesting that the mountain is 20 feet high using 20 inch steps. The aerated pool is 40 feet below ground level and has 40 nozzles. I’m 5 months old and it’s been 5 hours since I last ate. Let’s move!
	The Stage Sit down for a few minutes on the grass. Good. I have been pleased to be your guide today around this interesting park where 19,000 gallons of water flow every minute through 10 miles of pipe and flows past seven miles of retaining walls. Now that you have your feet wet you can go exploring Texas by yourself. And remember — If it’s big, It came from Texas!

The Book

You’ve just read the blog post Bryson Picture Book of Fort Worth Water Gardens. How about the real picture book Fort Worth Water Gardens by Bryson Moss? No need to buy one, the book is exactly the same as the blog post. Lulu is my publisher. Click on my nose to get a high resolution version of me (1.5 MB).

Water Gardens Video

Some have asked for video of the Water Gardens. One would think my book would be quite sufficient. Really, the young people today are very demanding.

Assassination on Elm Street

March 17, 2009 by rickety Leave a Comment

Window from where Kennedy was shot

Elm Street

On Monday I asked what significant event in history is marked with an X in the road. The X is located on Elm Street in Dallas and marks the location where President Kennedy was shot. Just before 12:30 p.m., Kennedy’s limousine entered Dealey Plaza and slowly approached the Texas School Book Depository. When the Presidential limousine turned and passed the Depository and continued down Elm Street, shots were fired at Kennedy.

Morbid?

As I was looking at the X a woman and her companion came up by me. The woman took a really good look at the X. As she turned away she remarked to her companion, “This is really morbid, all these people looking at where President Kennedy was killed.” To me it was history. I was excited to be at this famous spot. I made sure I had some photographs. Years ago when I visited Gettysburg, where 50,000 men were killed in three days, I didn’t think it was morbid. Lessons can be learned from Little Round Top and Pickett’s Charge. History is a great instructor if we will listen.

Assassination

As President Kennedy waved to the crowds on his right, a shot entered his upper back, penetrated his neck, and exited his throat. He raised his clenched fists up to his neck and leaned forward and to his left, as Mrs. Kennedy put her arms around him. The final shot took place when the Presidential limousine was passing in front of the John Neely Bryan north pergola concrete structure. As the shot was heard, a fist-size hole exploded out from the right side of President Kennedy’s head, covering the interior of the car and a nearby motorcycle officer with blood and brain tissue.

Kennedy parade route

GPS Coordinates

Within minutes of me asking the meaning of X, Jewel of Layton, Utah wrote in the comments that it is where JFK was assassinated and that the GPS coordinates are 32.77903, -96.80867. Jewel, alias Steven, my son, knew we were in the Dallas-Fort Worth area but so did everyone else.

The Window

Howard Brennan, who was sitting across the street from the Texas School Book Depository, notified police that as he watched the motorcade go by, he heard a shot come from above, and looked up to see a man with a rifle make another shot from a corner window on the sixth floor. In the photograph I took it is the second window from the top on the right. Brennan had seen the same man minutes earlier looking out the window.

The First X

The X where I stood on Monday was the second location where President Kennedy was shot. The first location is a few yards along Elm Street. Jill is standing on the spot in the road. The red building to her right is the Dallas County Annex. In Kennedy’s day it was the Texas School Book Depository where the shots were fired from.

Lee Harvey Oswald

Lee Harvey Oswald, reported missing to the Dallas police by his supervisor, Roy Truly, at the Depository, was arrested an hour and 20 minutes after the assassination for killing a Dallas police officer who had spotted Oswald walking along a sidewalk in the residential neighborhood of Oak Cliff. He was captured in a nearby movie theater. Oswald’s case never came to trial because two days later, while being escorted to an armored van for transfer from Dallas Police Headquarters to the Dallas County Jail, he was shot and killed by Dallas nightclub owner Jack Ruby.

Jill standing on the first X on Elm Street

An X in The Road of History

March 16, 2009 by rickety 2 Comments

X marks the location of…?

I have for you this evening a small puzzle. In the photograph I took today you see some feet and a large X in the road. The feet are mine and the X marks a significant event in history. The puzzle is to tell me what the event was.

I can tell you that the X is not the site of buried treasure. It is not part of a giant noughts and crosses game. And it isn’t where my cat was run over.

All will be revealed later this week in a post where I will include the best responses.

Update

17 Mar 2009 Here is The Answer.

Missionary Dan Email #6 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

March 15, 2009 by rickety Leave a Comment

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s sixth email from the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission.

Daniel’s district with members

It sounds like the family is doing great. Great job on the talks, Sarah and Derek, you both have always been good at that kind of thing. It looks everyone is staying busy and happy. :) We are still here as English teachers for our Visas but we are able to talk to people openly about the church. My companion and I still ask about their family and things as we have found that is more effective in getting a referral

This week has been crazy busy. If I didn’t have the Lord’s help it would have been very hard to do. My English classes have increased to 10 hours a week. On Tuesday I teach for 4 hours. We have to run sometimes in order to be on time. I taught probably 6 different classes this week. At one school they have me teach many different levels of English. I don’t teach grammar, the government wants me to get the people speaking English. So depending on how well the class is at introducing themselves I then adjust my lesson accordingly. Most of my students are my around 16-18 years old right now. They are sometimes not very interested in speaking English. So I put a lot of energy in being very energetic and smiling. After awhile they are chatting away in English — it is great! :)

[Read more…]

Kaysville to Keller

March 13, 2009 by rickety 1 Comment

View Larger Map

Today Jill, Paul, and myself left Kaysville, Utah at 5:25am for Keller, Texas. We went with a longer route (1,379 miles) that is supposedly faster (19 hours 55 mins). Except for a few miles, the whole route is entirely freeway — that would explain the faster. If you’ve never traveled from Utah to Texas then this post will probably be of no interest to you. However, if you have gone this way before let me know what route you prefer and why. Perhaps I can amend my return plans with your suggestions.

We entertained ourselves (when we weren’t driving) with a cell phone, a Blackberry, two laptops, GPS navigation, two MP3 players, a CD audio book, and several movies. We can’t tell you what the countryside looked like. :) After traveling 950 miles in 13 1/2 hours we stopped over in Salina, Kansas. Time to get out the laptop and blog!

Update

17 Mar 2009 The next day (14th) we left at 6:30am and took 5 1/2 hours to drive the remaining 429 miles to Keller.
21 Mar 2009 We left Keller yesterday morning utilizing an alternative route back to Kaysville suggested by Derek. This time I had my GPS collect data as we drove straight through. At 1,236 miles, this route was 143 miles shorter. Our moving average was 67.8 mph with a moving time of 18.16 hours. This compares with a moving time plus all stoppages (minus overnight stop) of 19 hours for the longer route. If stoppages were added in for the shorter route, the longer route would actually be faster, though not by much.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

March 12, 2009 by rickety 7 Comments

In 1985, the Church issued a new hymn book containing 341 hymns entitled Hymns of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Some new hymns appeared, which had not been published by the Church before, such as How Great Thou Art. Others were left out of the book such as Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing. The Church did not give reasons for leaving out any particular hymn, just saying that the spirit was followed in the selection and there were too many hymns to be included into one book.

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing is a Christian hymn composed by the 18th century Methodist pastor and hymnist Robert Robinson. He was born 27 September 1735 in Swaffham, Norfolk, England. Robinson’s widowed mother sent him to London at 14, to learn the trade of barber and hair dresser. However, after hearing a Methodist sermon he turned from his life of recklessness and hooliganism and became a Methodist minister. He later moved to the Baptist church and pastored in Cambridge, England. In later life he encountered a woman who was studying a hymnal. She asked how he liked the hymn she was humming. In tears, he replied:

Madam, I am the poor unhappy man who wrote that hymn many years ago, and I would give a thousand worlds, if I had them, to enjoy the feelings I had then.

Robert Robinson died 8 June 1790 at Showell Green, Warwickshire and is buried in Key Hill Cemetery, Birmingham, England.

There is a curious phrase at the beginning of verse 2: Here I raise my Ebenezer. How many times have I sung that without knowing what it means? Apparently it refers to 1 Samuel 7:12:

Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.

Samuel took a lamb and made an offering to the Lord asking that He would help the Israelites defeat the Philistines. When the Philistines were beaten, Samuel erected a stone and called it Ebenezer so as to remind Israel of what the Lord had done. The Ebenezer stone is a source of inspiration and reminder to many, as witnessed by The Heart Of The Matter, A Life Worthy, and Another Think. There is even a blog called Ebenezer Stone.

The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings the hymn as follows, in an arrangement by Mack Wilberg. It is essentially the modern hymnal version, except that verse 2 is split into two parts and the last half of verse 3 is appended to each part to form two verses. See this Wikipedia article for the different versions, including the original. Here is the Mormon Tabernacle Choir singing Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.

Also consider Mark Mabry’s spiritual journey to recreate and photograph the life and ministry of Jesus Christ. Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing is rendered in his Reflections of Christ video.

1. Come, Thou Fount of every blessing,
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace;
Streams of mercy, never ceasing,
Call for songs of loudest praise.
Teach me some melodious sonnet,
Sung by flaming tongues above.
Praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it,
Mount of Thy redeeming love.

Robert Robinson

2. Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

3. Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

4. O to grace how great a debtor
Daily I’m constrained to be!
Let Thy goodness, like a fetter,
Bind my wandering heart to Thee:
Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,
Prone to leave the God I love;
Here’s my heart, O take and seal it;
Seal it for Thy courts above.

I Refuse To Participate In This Recession

March 10, 2009 by rickety 7 Comments

Over at Unit Interactive they have the audacity to announce that they “refuse to participate in this recession.” Furthermore, they are behaving like the good times are back again:

We’ve raised pay for our staff. We’ve hired experts, not low-wage warm bodies. We’ve purchased additional computer equipment, furniture, and additional software licenses. We’re growing our business by making good business decisions. We’re doing what businesses are supposed to do to keep the market healthy and we’re crafting our own market results. That’s how the market is supposed to work.

Following their lead I have patterned my post title after their excellently phrased recession refusal. You may well ask, “So big deal, what have you done to show your non-participation?” Well, not much, but doesn’t the thought count? I’m not a business so I can’t give my non-existent employees a raise. How about that I received a 4% raise? I think that loading up my Roth IRA with stocks last month should either be viewed as complete folly or as someone at least pretending that there is no recession. And today I moved the last of my government treasuries into the market. Now I haven’t bought a house but I have been toying with acquiring another home and join my neighbors who have already purchased foreclosed properties. And thinking about loans, I am still increasing my portfolio at Lending Club. As for acquiring goods, though not much, maybe this qualifies as a recession rebuffer:

Rickety with his new computer — some assembly required

You are a hard person. So difficult to convince. What about my upcoming nine day trip to Texas. Not all the family can go but Jill, Paul, and myself will be driving to Keller. Ahhh, now you are smiling. What’s that? Only a fool would vacation with the economy in the dumps? Well, all I can say is, “I refuse to participate in this recession.”

Update

12 Mar 2009 I’ve been asked what operating system I am running, how big a hard drive did I buy, and how much did it all cost. I am running Ubuntu 8.10 on two 640 GB drives that are configured as a RAID to give me fast 1.3 TB storage. I used the Alt CD installer for the RAID. System cost, including monitors, was $1298.83 with $34.71 shipping, all from Newegg. The two Asus 24″ monitors were $279.99 each, with free shipping.

And all through the system, not a Microsoft was stirring, not even a mouse.

Missionary Dan Email #5 from Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

March 10, 2009 by rickety Leave a Comment

Presented here are portions of Elder Daniel Willoughby’s fifth email from the Mongolia Ulaanbaatar Mission.

Daniel when he first arrived in Ulaanbaatar

Elder Daniel Willoughby in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia

Thanks family for all the great things you sent me. I really enjoyed the pictures. Looks like you are staying busy. Thanks Dad for the great example you were to me. I love you. Thanks Mom for always telling me what’s happening. It is always fun to get updates. Thanks for teaching me how to clean. Could you send me some recipes, maybe?

I’m going to start cooking more. This week was very busy. English class was great. My class are all about 16. They all stand up when I come in and I say, “Sit.” :) They show good respect. The Lord blessed me with an idea to get them involved and they were speaking a lot of English. This next week I have been given three more classes. Some I think will be older, college students. I’ll get to plan my lessons some time today. It’s very busy, it’s wonderful. I am learning so quickly and so much. I’m going to learn as I go along and trust in the Lord.

The Mongolians are very kind and considerate. The Lord has blessed Altangerel and I so much. We have witnessed His wonderful work go on this week at a rapid pace. I will try to express the great things that have happened this week. The Lord has truly blessed me. We were able to receive many referrals this week through talking to people on the street. The Mongolians are very receptive to the Message and I am almost every time blessed with someone who will listen to me every time.

We were able to visit two less actives. Batgerel said he would quit smoking tomorrow after he felt the Holy Ghost. Xerlen, his brother is the Assistant to the President. The spirit gave me the words to say and this Sunday he came back to church and received a calling. The branch has made so many improvements. The sacrament meeting was so quiet that people all around turned off their cell phones because they didn’t want to disturb the peaceful feeling. I could not stop smiling and I still constantly do. It is the best feeling when we’re worthy to have the Holy Ghost in our companionship. We had three investigators come to church by simply calling them. Mongoh Od I think ran to church because he was out of breath when I talked to him. He is a great investigator. Purebbat came with his two children and contributed to the lesson. During priesthood meeting, the branch president was asking questions like, “Does the Elder’s Quorum secretary need to have the Melchizedek priesthood?” They are all so willing to improve the branch and it was this week that the Lord did marvelous works for them. The branch is now holding weekly activities.

Altangerel and Daniel at church

Many Mongolians are doing great things. I am very happy to have watched the Lord use me as His instrument. He knows exactly what people need to hear. He has spoken fluent Mongolian to many to where they are astonished. I know that it was the Holy Ghost and the Lord using our companionship. I was able to go on an exchange with my district leader Saturday. He taught me some great ways to plan lessons. We also were blessed with the opportunity to meet with the branch president where Elder Wright was able to teach him everything he had prepared for the transfer in one meeting. The Holy Ghost was there and made the time very effective. I am constantly given words to say that spark their interest. I am humbled by such a great blessing it is when the Lord uses me.

To Jake: Thank you so much for the thoughts. I wrote it down and will reflect on it. I have seen that when I have faith the Lord does amazing things. He first tests our faith, then if we remain faithful through the trials, light always follows. Great blessings. He lives, I know he does and this is God’s work. I have no doubt of what He can do for His children that He loves.

To Kelsey: Happy birthday this Friday! I sent a letter, I have no idea how long it will take. Keep smiling and working as best you can. Kelsey, you have great talent and will be so wonderful. Enjoy your getting older. :)

Love, Elder Willoughby

If anyone wishes to ask Daniel a question or to send him a message, write it in the comments and I will make sure he receives it.

List of Daniel’s missionary posts.

Comparing Lending Club with Prosper

March 8, 2009 by rickety 2 Comments

The following information may help you in your peer-to-peer investing decisions.

The Comparisons

A useful comparison of Lending Club and Prosper would be to invest the same amount of money in each company and review the progress a few months later. And that is just what I did. However, an exact comparison was not possible because first Lending Club and then Prosper were in quiet periods. So while my Lending Club loans span only four months, Prosper’s cover eight months. Also my Prosper loans cannot be re-invested because of their quiet period whereas Lending Club has no such restriction. Note too that Lending Club tends to have lower interest rates thus giving a lower return.

The Numbers

	Lending Club	Prosper
Total investment	$4,100.00	$3,000.00
Date of first loan	28 Oct 2008	09 Jun 2008
Active loans	115	34
Interest rate — lowest	8.00%	11.50%
Interest rate — highest	15.37%	30.00%
Interest rate — average	11.34%	17.46%
Net interest	$158.54	$422.29
Loans paid in full	5	5
Late loans — number	0	1
Late loans — grade	N/A	B (1)
Late loans — value	N/A	$74.28
Loans in collections — number	3	6
Loans in collections — grade	B (1) and C (2)	AA (4); A (1); B (1)
Loans in collections — value	$161.07	$576.47
Cost of auctions	$60.72	N/A
Profit (interest minus losses)	-$63.25	-$228.46

Table last updated: 16 July 2009
.

In the table Net interest includes late fees, collections, and administration fees. I have counted Loans in collections as well as Late loans. However, there have been some small collections made and frequently loans that are late are caught up.

The Conclusions

Even though Prosper has the higher earnings its losses are greater. Bear in mind the loans on Prosper have been running twice as long as my Lending Club loans, hence more opportunity for loans to fall behind. My losses on Prosper have been aggravated by my having one loan of $200 in collections and the rest that are behind all at $100. The idea is to invest no more than $50 a loan. My mistake. Over time I believe my Prosper profit will go into the black but I see Lending Club giving a better return. I have thought for awhile that Lending Club does a better job of rating the risk on the loans and these results tend to confirm it. Consider that four out of five of my Prosper late loans are rated AA and the remaining loan is rated A. One would never have thought that these higher rated loans would be the first to cave.

When Prosper reopens I probably will not resume investing but will in the near future pick up the pace with Lending Club. If you are going to try peer-to-peer investing plan on losing some of your money. But with a little more care than I exhibited you should still make a better return than with a Certificate of Deposit.

Looking over these numbers what do you conclude?

Updates

7 Apr 2009 Updated the table.
23 May 2009 Since I last updated the table I have added another $1,100 to my Lending Club account. Although small, Lending Club is now reporting a loss. In a change of direction, today I put up for auction five of my $100 loans. It is time for me to move out of peer-to-peer lending and put more into my FDIC insured rewards checking accounts that return a steady 5%.
16 Jul 2009 Updated the table. Late in May I liquidated all my Lending Club holdings except for the 3 loans in collections. Over a period of three days I placed and auctioned off all the loans. I paid 1% commission on the selling price. I also discounted the price by 1/4%, 1/2%, or 1%. They were purchased very quickly because almost all the good loans are not discounted. The total cost to sell my loans of $4,048.13 was approximately $60.72. This makes early withdrawal very fast and relatively painless. I was happy with the result.

Shepherd Blogger

March 4, 2009 by rickety Leave a Comment

Shepherd Blogger by Wondermark

Christmas is over and it is way too early to begin this year’s celebrations but the Christmas card to the right really does capture the blogger mindset. On the inside of the card is the message, “Here’s hoping your holidays are notable” — emphasis mine, in case you missed the continuation of the blogging theme. There are several other greeting cards to choose from in The Wondermark Goodsery. There is also a Wondermark blog.

What do you think the other shepherds said in response to their blogger brother?

Yeah right, there’s no wi-fi way out here.

This is big! I told you to get an AdSense account.

If the angel comes back again make sure you get his picture.

You can do better than rickety old me. What do you think the other shepherds said to the blogger?

Bryson, Your Guide

A Cooling Oasis in the Concrete Jungle

Hungry Work

Fort Worth Water Gardens

The Active Pool

Drownings

Step into My Pool

The Pool

The Vents

Photographs

The Quiet Pool

The Trough

The Aerated Pool

The Mountain

High On The Mountain Top

The Stage

The Book

Water Gardens Video

Elm Street

Morbid?

Assassination

GPS Coordinates

The Window

The First X

Lee Harvey Oswald

Further Reading

Update

Update

Update

Related Posts

The Comparisons

The Numbers

The Conclusions

Updates