steve alvesteffer online

What these guys are doing is simply incredible.

wingsuit base jumping from Ali on Vimeo.

2003 Topps Red Backs #TRB37 Carlos Delgado

A recent trend in baseball cards has been to issue new cards using old designs.  It’s an interesting concept that collectors generally seem to like.

This week’s Pull of the Week is a 2003 Carlos Delgado, in the style of 1951 Topps Red Backs.

The Linesville Spillway in Linesville, PA was recently featured on NPR.  It looks like a fun stop for a summer road trip.

January 1, 2003

The icy mountains of Alaska, as viewed from a plane heading towards Japan.  If you look closely, you can see Sarah Palin taking her dogsled out to the grocery store.

I got a Garmin eTrex HC personal GPS navigator for Christmas and went geocaching for the first time today.

Geocaching is basically a treasure hunt using GPS navigators.  People hide boxes of “treasures”, then post the GPS coordinates of the boxes online so geocachers can find them.  When a geocacher finds a cache, she would typically sign the logbook inside, take something from the cache, and leave something new behind for other geocachers.

I found the two geocaches closest to my home today.  I forgot the camera, so I just took a picture of the GPS navigator I used along with the two “treasures” I brought home from the caches:

I left an unopened pack of 1989 Topps baseball cards in one cache and a lenticular World Series trivia card in another.

The camera is definitely coming with me next time.

BYE BYE…

HELLO…

I’m unhappy about the way the popular web photo-sharing software Gallery has turned into ugly bloatware, so I’m ditching it.  The one I had installed on this site was about 60 MB, even though it only had a couple pictures uploaded to it.  It took me about 15 minutes just to delete the files from the server.  The interface is ugly and confusing as well.  Good riddance.

Luckily, a replacement wasn’t too hard to find.  I went down the list of photo gallery software in Wikipedia and found one that has most of the features I want, yet is not too bloated or ugly.  It is ZenPhoto, and it is a free download (free, as in GPL).

I’ve installed it on this site and uploaded a few test photos.  Watch it action!  Much nicer than Gallery!

I was drinking a Dundee India Pale Ale today and began wondering, why is it called “India Pale Ale”?  Naturally, the first (and only) place I looked was Wikipedia.

It is called India Pale Ale, or “IPA”, because it was a pale ale that was popular among East India Company traders in the late 18th century.  It was a hoppier, more bitter pale ale that the traders liked bringing along with them on their voyages to India.  Because of this, it also became quite popular in India.

The common story that India Pale Ale was specially formulated to survive a long ocean voyage to India is probably false, because the Porter beers of the time survived the trip just fine.  India Pale Ale probably got its name simply because so much of it was being sent to India that people started calling it India Pale Ale.

2009 will be here in a couple days.  New Year’s Day offers everyone a psychological clean slate for starting new habits and breaking bad ones.  This is also a good time for me to reorganize my mess of websites and hastily assembled content that make up StevesNotebook.com.

For starters, I’m going to reclaim this blog and start posting random thoughts and rants again.  I’ll keep posting pictures, but maybe not every day.  We’ll see.

Anyways, here’s an archive pic from December 27, 2004.  I’m on a plane leaving Detroit.

2003 Topps Record Breakers #RB-TH Todd Helton

“In his epic 2000 season, Helton led the NL in hits (216), total bases (405), RBI (147), doubles (59), batting (.372) and slugging (.698).  Despite all that bashing, he also walked 103 times, leading to an NL-high and Rockies-record .463 on-base percentage.  In August, Todd hit .476 with a .548 OBP.“

December 26, 2004

Driving through the snowy streets of Blacksburg, Virginia.

December 25, 2007

The Festival of Lights in Newport News, Virginia.

December 25, 2004

Merry Christmas, from your local fanatical holiday decoration neighbors!

December 24, 2005

Celebrating Christmas Eve under a well-stocked tree

December 24, 2002

Happy Holidays, brought to you by Coca-Cola!

December 16, 2005

Honestly I can’t remember whose graduation this was… but it’s definitely a Virginia Tech graduation

2007 Topps Hit Parade #HP1 Barry Bonds

Steroids or not, there’s no denying that Barry Bonds has more home runs than anyone else.  Maybe they should make a separate league where every player is jacked up on steroids and performance enhancing drugs.  That might be interesting to watch.

December 20, 2003

I’m not really sure how this picture came to be.  The train is in jail with houses visiting.  There is a dog pulling a cart.

December 19, 2002

What better way to celebrate the Holidays than going to the Bear Symphony?

This is in the Valley View Mall in Roanoke, Virginia.

December 18, 2002

Silhouette in front of the big Christmas tree near the War Memorial pylons at Virginia Tech, Blacksburg, Virginia.

December 17, 2004

Attending a cousin’s graduation from Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia

December 16, 2001

Students of Tae Kwon Do preparing to be tested

December 14, 2003

Today was almost 70 degrees here in Alexandria, Virginia.  Global warming?

Today’s picture was Blacksburg, Virginia around this time 5 years ago.

1995 Topps #588 Cal Ripken

Cal Ripken, “Iron Man”, one of the most sought-after cards in the 1995 Topps set.  What makes him so great?

The back of the card says, “Cal is the majors’ all-time leading HR hitter among shortstops“.

And then all you have to do is look at the “G” column of stats on the back of his card (the left-most column, representing games played).  Red ink represents leading the league:

He didn’t miss a game since 1982.  His streak ended in 1998.

December 13, 2002

The snow and ice melting in Blacksburg, Virginia

December 10, 2002

A field of ice-coated snow gleaming in the sunlight somewhere in Blacksburg, Virginia.

December 11, 2006

An old-fashioned omelette made with a whole tomato (not made the easy way with bottled salsa)

December 10, 2004

The pronunciation of Brazil’s national mixed drink, the caipirinha, sounds really bad if you understand Taiwanese.

October 27, 2006

Mmmm, chicken corn chowder… this reminds me, I better make more soups and bake more while the weather is cold outside.

October 13, 2002

It was so awesome to have a painting studio to go to after class in college and paint the night away.

2000 Topps #238 Cal Ripken (Magic Moments)

The Cal Ripken Magic Moments card is one of the most sought-after cards in the 2000 Topps base set.  It comes in five variations: 400th Home Run, 2131st Consecutive Game, Consecutive Game Streak Ends, 1982 AL ROY, and 1991 MVP.  Obviously, I have the Consecutive Game Streak Ends variation.  From the back:

“Cal finally took a day off on Sept. 20, 1998, when, 30 minutes before the Orioles’ final home game of the season, he asked manager Ray Miller to remove him from the starting lineup.  Thus, when rookie Ryan Minor took over at third base, Ripken’s consecutive game streak ended at 2,632 games.  Four years and 501 games after he broke Lou Gehrig’s record in ‘95, it was the first time since May 29, 1982, that Cal did not play.  After sitting out, Ripken played in each of the club’s final seven games.”