Day: September 1, 2009

Some differences (and some similarities) noted while vacationing on the west coast.

North Carolina lacks sidewalks, soda can eating machines, gas station attendants and Douglas Fir trees. Oregon lacks sweet tea at convention, accents and y’alls, churches, and square rocks. North Carolina has BoJangles, Biscuitville and Chick-Fil-A. Oregon has Baja Fresh, Burgerville, and Elmer’s. North Carolina is humid. Oregon is wet. Oregon does not have Kitty Hawk, but North Carolina does not have Crater Lake. North Carolina houses have garages on the side. Oregon houses have garages in front. North Carolina rednecks are loggers. Oregon rednecks are loggers. North Carolina hippies live in Chapel Hill (or so I’ve been told) Oregon hippies live in Oregon. Real Oregonians are Beaver fans. Real North Carolinians are into Nascar or something. I’m not sure. All I know is that they’re definitely not Tar Heel fans. Barbecue is a specialty of North Carolina. Marionberry jam is an Oregon specialty. Harris Teeter and Safeway are very similar, but Safeway has better Chinese food, and Harris Teeter has free cookies.

Alberstons and Fred Meyer are Oregon stores. Food Lion and Lowes are North Carolina stores. Ginger Rogers and Beverly Cleary and Herbert Hoover are from Oregon. Dolly Madison and Andy Griffith and Michael Jordan are North Carolinians. Krispy Kreme was founded in Winston-Salem, but Nike’s headquarters are in Beaverton. They cancel each other out, don’t they? Oregon state motto: She flies with her own wings. North Carolina’s motto: “To be rather than to seem”  Both Oregonians and North Carolinians seem to like country music.  Oregon has mountains. North Carolina has hills. North Carolina is very neighborly, only all across the state, not just in the small towns like in Oregon.  Both North Carolina and Oregon grow great peaches.  North Carolina has a history full of pirates and explorers and indians. Oregon has a history full of cowboys and pioneers and indians.

I’m sure there are many more differences and similarities. Feel free to add anything you like!!

I have been trying to figure out how to combine our fish barrel project with the GaugeCam project on which Christian and I work with NCSU.  The object of that project is to measure the level of water in rivers, lakes, barrels, etc.  Eventually, we will want to measure the surface velocity of the water with cameras, too.  Right now, we always have to get the images we want to evaluate from the server Christian set up in the Ag Engineering lab.  It would be kind of nice to have a setup of our own.  I think we can kill two birds with one stone.  The idea I have is to set up two half barrels that hold goldfish.  We could put a series of bamboo troughs and pipes between them and use a camera measure the water level in each of the barrels and our little Arduino controller to control the movement of water between the two barrels.  It would have an appearance with sufficient aesthetic appeal for Lorena to allow us to put the thing on the front porch.  I like it.  We could even put some lily pads in it!