A Troop of Monkeys Crosses the Road
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 photography featured 💬 2
Over the last week in Nicaragua I’ve seen a lot of new and interesting wildlife. I spotted a fearless pygmy owl on my first day here that let me get within 10 feet while shooting photos! Last night we went to a beach to watch some sea turles lay their eggs, that was pretty cool too. But it’s hard to beat the mantled howler monkey.
How great is community college?
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 astronomy 💬 0
Pretty great.
I recently began taking classes at Cabrillo Community College in Santa Cruz California out of interest in astronomy. The college offers an AS that is pretty impressive: it requires an (expected) amount of physics classes but also includes many astronomy specific classes dealing with planetary science, cosmology and observational astronomy. I was surprised and impressed after I took a look at the catalog - it didn’t take me long to enroll.
Observations on observational astronomy
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 astronomy 💬 0
Astronomy: So hot right now.
We have the a spacecraft rendezvousing with a comet right now for the first time in history and in a year we’ll get our first look at the has-been planet Pluto with the New Horizons spacecraft. In about 3 years, we’ll be treated to a total solar eclipse right here on the west coast.
I’ve been doing a bit of astronomy myself. While I’ve always had an interest, it never occurred to me that amateur astronomy could be a realistic hobby. I wrongly assumed even the cheapest telescopes would be thousands of dollars, ones powerful enough to see anything interesting at least. How wrong I was.
I decided to craft some clickbait. What happened next will shock and disgust you
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 code 💬 0
As evidenced by this website, every once and a while I’ll write something. Although my regular readership approaches nil when you take my mother, google bot, and myself out of the running I’ll still post a link to facebook and see if I can get some clicks. Usually I’ll get 10-20 visits (thanks guys!) and I’ll leave it at that.
Getting the Time Right in Python
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 code 💬 9
I hate time. I especially hate dates. There is not a single data type I hate working with more.
I think the problem boils down to the fact that they seem so arbitrary. The Gregorian calendar just doesn’t translate over well to binary systems. Ideally, there would be 100 seconds in every minute, 100 minutes in every hour, 100 hours in every day, etc. But no. We must deal with weird numbers like 60, 24 and 31 (but sometimes 28, or maybe 30) and all the inconsistencies they cause.
</rant>
I’m going to lay out some of the modules and function in Python relevant to working with time.
Shralping Shredona (The Weirdest Place to Ride in the World)
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 cycling 💬 0
There are a few places in North American that, if you know a mountain biker, will probably hear about at least once. They are places where the riding is so legendary, so obscenely epic (we’re talking Sail by AWOL levels here) that they are worth traveling to the obscure corners of the country that they are usually located. Sedona, Arizona is one of those places.
Photo Of the Day
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 code 💬 0
Ride Slower Next Time
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 cycling 💬 0
Sometimes it becomes far too easy to get caught up in the distractions of being heavily involved in a sport like Mountain Biking. There’s the constant guilt of staying in shape, the ever changing and evolving equipment industry, and of course the big question: “Am I fast enough?”
Now riding for team Lost Coast MTB
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 cycling 💬 0
Thats right, I’m on a real bike team now. I’m not talking about a team like Team Dirtbag I’m talking about a full legit bike team with kits, sponsors and free stuff, bro.
First Foray into Video Editing: Dusty Sweetness
🖊️ Austin Riba ⌚ 🔖 cycling featured 💬 0