Since I was asked why Roatan, the real answer was that I had a trip planned to Turks and Caicos as my first diving trip to the Carribeans, but the boat cancelled the charter on us less than a month from departure, and by then Arturo and my calendar didn't have a lot of room left, so we had to find a liveaboad during the same week, figured we'd keep the same general area, and ended with Roatan.
I'll start with a quick review first, Roatan had interesting soft coral, even if not to Fiji standards, but the fish life was on the lower side compared to most other places I've dived at. It wasn't bad, but ont a top destination I'd say. The boat itself was reasonably big, but ended up with the smallest cabin on the boat and the smallest cabin I had ever had on any liveaboard: there was no room to put belongings anywhere, so I left them in my luggage on the same bed I slept on, not the best but oh well.
Apart from that, the weather was warm, actually kind of too warm and hummid on land, but thankfully more bearable on the boat once at sea. The weather was nice, and viz was good to very good on most dives. Water was between 28C, up to 30C, very comfortable (albeit not ideal for corals that don't like it that warm).
Here is our trip:
not a lot of rays during this trip, but found a few
we did find huge crabs
crashed plane
and prince albert wreck
almost no hard coral, but some nice enough soft colar
Our safety stop between the first 2 dives was very nice, big french key:
After those 3 dives, Arturo and I went to board the Aggressor, big enough looking boat, but the dive deck was bigger than it needed to be and in turn some cabins like the one we got, were super small
dive deck was spacious
dolphins came to race us a few times, but never saw or heard any during the dives
The next day, we started our 5.5 days of diving, 5 dives a day every day but one. Night dives were worth it overall, but it was unfortunate that the boat's schedule put the night dives after dinner: never had the chance to properly clean up/dress up for dinner, and it was hard to eat when you were going right back to the water (of course, also no wine with dinner).
Day #1:
Day #2 started with a shark feeding, didn't see any of those sharks during any dive except that feeding:
big groupers also came to join
multiple kinds, even
saw a few small turtles
We got lucky to see squids at night, they were curious:
Day #3:
Without our guides, we'd have missed a lot of things, like this burrowing fish:
Thanks to the guides who found us some sea horses I would have missed:
interesting starfish like animal that moved quickly
On the 4th day, we went by Cannery Bank, which had very friendly nurse sharks since they get fed:
during the next dive, the nurse sharks came to see us many times
I mentioned earlier that I didn't think there were lots of fish in Roatan compared to many places I've been to, but we did get schools on 3 dives, including this school of barracudas:
Roatan did have some amount of Manta shrimps, they were fun to play with:
And I even found a squid in daylight, which we followed for a while. It as not thrilled, we got it out of breath :)
it tried to turn into a weed :)
Day #5 started with a wreck:
found a nurse shark sleeping in the rocks
Even found a somewhat rare slipper lobster:
Day #6 was only 2 dives left at the same 40ft point dive site we had done the first day:
Let's end with a turtle eating:
And that was it. Did all the dives from the trip, 29 out of 26 :)
While the boat offered plenty of dives (26), the last day we could have done at least 2 more, but we went back to port and were invited to get off the boat and do land activities. This was fine, but I wish they had made it more clear since we would have used that time to do land activities we had done on previous days by arriving a day earlier. Oh well, so, we did a brewery tour which was ok-ish and a way to kill a few hours until the evening celebrations and dinner (at our cost at the yacht club):
As part of diving in Roatan, an island north of Honduras with direct flights to the US, we arrived a few days early to do some land tours and a day of land based diving. We flew from Houston and it was a reaosnably short flight:
We didn't do the entire island, but close to it:
Our tour guide picked us up at the airport, and we went to our first location to go ziplining:
Then we got visit and to play with monkeys:
Then was time for the monkeys:
After that we went to a Rum and chocolate store and we were able to visit a nice little village:
and dinner
The 2nd day we started our day tours with an ATV tour. Of course it drove at speeds that were not much fun for me, but the guide nicely agreed to let me drive ahead on the way back Arturo told me later that he regreetted it when he saw how fast I drove. He was kind of worried for both me and his ATV :) While I had fun and pushed a bit, nothing happened though, my basic skills of staying on a road, even full of holes and gravel, kicked in.
Arturo trying to catch up :)
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on the way back, I went ahead and waited at each intersection
Next stop was another park with sloths, parrots and monkeys:
the monkeys were much less trained and looking for trouble :)
and then we got to hold sloths:
cute :)
After that we had a drive across the island to our next point, the mangrove tunnel, which was beautiful:
We were then dropped off for lunch at a restaurant by the water:
We then finished with an iguana farm, that also had crafty parrots:
we watched it take the lock off and open it
hungry iguanas
Cool to see them running around and being so hungry:
While in Houston for a half day, visiting the downtown aquarium was the easiest thing, so here it is. All in all, it's a pretty basic aquarium, but still fun for a couple of hours.
After having seen the space center and nearby natural history museum on a previous trip, there was less to see for this quick stop in Houston, so Arturo and I went to the downtown aquarium, quick downtown walk and a walk through Rice University.
The downtown aquarium (on its own page) is honestly not one of the best ones I've seen, but it was still fun enough for an hour or two. Playing with the small rays was fun, though:
After that Arturo and I walked around downtown Houston which is a bit small but has a few buildings and views:
After that we had some time to burn, so we got a nice dinner:
and then went to Rice University for an art piece that lights up with sunset, unfortunately the grass also gave me invisible critters that proceeded to eat my legs for the next 2 days, oh well:
It's hard to get numbers, I'm not sure if it was as many people as last year, or even more, but the shuttles sold out in pre-sale and the event looked quite packed.
Glad to be back, as always:
30 years!
The Grounds:
Great to have a look around to see all the art installations:
Random things:
if you party way too hard, you can actually get an IV :)
Loved pixel forest again:
loved the pixel forest tunnel again, so good
Lots of run rides:
The rave hangar was also fun althought it filled fast, and there were other dancing rooms:
VIP even had a sky dome that was pretty sweet:
For downtown EDC, the most fun place was by far the Kandi Casino:
plus several other small dance floors and attractions:
and you could get EDC married or real married:
And the artist village was also beautiful:
Skydeck was also super nice:
not cheap, though :)
As always, a good way to see EDC, is from higher up, and the ferris wheels are the best way to do it:
Great to see the LED Acrobats again, great show as always:
Fireworks
No drones this year, oh well. The fireworks were still super pretty:
Fireworks of all last 3 days:
The People
As always EDC has been great because of the people who attend and the many friends I made over the years:
TFSF + TFLA meetup
The Insomniac entertainers were fantastic as always:
Still happy to see other people bringing LEDs :)
who are you guys? didn't get your info
And it was so much fun to be able to meet favorite DJs as always:
fantastic to see my friend Chris perform at EDC
But anyway, let's get on with the festival:
Day #1
Took an uber on the first day to get there early since the shuttles get stuck in commuter traffic on fridays, and went to enjoy the grounds. The first day was the only time opening at 17:00 this year (why?) and given the shuttle mess this year (midstrip shuttles cancelled due to road closures and other roadwork), taking an uber was easier. As part of that, got a tour of the camping grounds for those staying there.
and finally arrived to see the welcome sights:
everyone was coralled in Cosmic Maedows until 19:00
rest was empty
I spent most of the day at Quantum Valley for trance:
above and beyond unfortunately conflicted with Blastoyz :(
back to QV for Blastoyz
Video Summary:
Day #2
Day #2 was more trance at Quantum Valley, finishing with our friend Triode:
dope visuals
Video Summary:
Day #3
Day #3 was the wildcard day, no trance at QV anymore, so that was an excuse to go around and check out the grounds and other stages:
Armin played a good set
While it was a bit disappointing not ot have trance at QV on day #3, the blow was softened by the Dreamstate pre-party at Area15 before EDC.
After Armin, there was some time left to enjoy the grounds, and catch a shuttle that wasn't too late, so as to arrive at the airport in time for the return flight.
jag
Video Summary:
Should you go? Would I go Back?
EDC Vegas is probably the most impressive EDM Night Festival in the world. Tomorrowland is a rival but it's not a night festival as much.
Decors are just fantastic, along with so many performers. That's the best part about EDC
Like other insomniac festivals, all the staff truly cares and goes all out. Many small details that get sometimes missed elsewhere, are usually flawless
Security is more than reasonable as usual, thank you
19:00 to 05:30 is 10:30h of partying for 3 days, lots of fun!
So many free carnival rides, lots of fun.
So many stages also, more than 10 if you could the art cars.
Is it worth flying across the world for? Yes, absolutely. Do it!
Conclusion
Another year. This one was quite busy, maybe the most people at EDC ever? Some complained of over crowding, and it's unfortunate that the shuttles sold out so quickly.
Thoughts about this year:
People complained it was a bit cheaper than usual, a few things missing (minor in my opinion), no drone show, people complained about the lineup being weaker (the trance lineup sure was and was only 2 days)
Some new installations like the Kandi Casino were absolutely awesome
All the insomniac staff and entertainers were top notch as always
Kinetic field was beautiful again, the face with eyes and hands moving was really well done
The original pixel forest tunnel from 2019 was back, it was my favorite
The added multiple signs with directions, which was good for people who get lost
People complained about bigger crowds and less Plur, that might be true, but at the same time it's hard to avoid and happens with everything. Burning Man has the same problem.
The visuals on all stages were top notch again. Nothing beats EDC there.
Thank you to everyone at the insomniac team who put so much effort into making so many details right all over the place, with the great result that we all got to enjoy..
Given that EDC 2023 only had 2 days of trance this year at Quantum Valley, it was nice to have a little Dreamstate Pre-Party at Area15. Area15 itself however had good enough sound and visuals, but their staff was not stellar at the timed (they got better later for future events).
It was of course great to see our favorite friends and DJs:
Despite the challenges, nice evening and warmup for [EDC 2023|/perso/clubbing/post_2023-05-19_Another-Big-EDC.html
Video summary:
Just before going to EDC, I found out about Transfix, which displays a good amount of Burning Man art pieces. It was a bit tight to fit a visit during EDC week, but was able to go on Thursday just before going to Dreamstate at Area15. I came well dressed for the event :)
It was a quick visit, but it was enjoyable. Glad I was able to see it.
π
2023-05-17 01:01
in Arduino, Clubbing, Electronics, Festivals
This is an upgrade of v5, keeping the same panels and controller, see LED Pants and Shirt v5 on ESP32 and Raspberry Pi with P2 RGBPanels and Wifi for how that part works.
Version 5 was a bit upgrade with my P2 run rPi run RGB Panels for a resolution of 128x192 per side. The oldest part of the outfit at this point were actually the Neopixel strips I've had for about 5 years, and despite being more reliable WS2813B with backup data line, the PCB traces would break and the chips solder points would eventually break too. The amount of time I've spent fixing and replacing LED strips is more than I'm willing to talk about, but there was just no good alternative, until now.
In the past, flexible LED strands with wires between each pixel did not have enough density, maybe one pixel every 5cm, which was not acceptable for my use. And after many years of waiting, a company finally made P15 flexible strands, one LED every 1.5cm, which looks much better and is even a bit more dense than my previous strips that were P16.6.
Here there are: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256804447608449.html . Update, don't buy these, they are shit and broke within hours. See at the bottom
While I was at it, I added a small programmable 16x32 panel to my fanny pack, because why not (the existing fanny packs didn't have sufficient storage, so I ended up decking out mine), and here is the end result:
I have no idea how reliable the strips will be, and unfortunatley they are WS2811 without the backup data path that WS2813 had, but time will tell. I'm bringing it to EDC and we'll see what happens :)
Update: these broke within hours, they were crap.
Version 6.5.1: Ray Wu Strips
Update #1: after the terrible failures of the first strip from the first vendor (the internal wires broke almost instantly), I picked this new one from Ray Wu: https://www.aliexpress.us/item/3256805296356090.html
It ended up being more solid, but the flexing and occasional pulling on the bare strips that were attached with safety pins (I didn't want to glue or sew because it would then be unwashable), eventually caused the strips to fail, although it was more slowly. It worked for 4 festivals in Europe and required some resoldering, but it was not terrible. Still, it wasn't a long term solution either.
Version 6.5.2: Full LED Tubing Protection
So, I tried one more way to do it, this time I put the LED strings inside water tubing of the exact right diameter (fishing them in was a bit tricky), hot glued them on each side, especially the side they are soldered to RC servo connectors which I use for all the electrical wiring.
The next challenge was how to fasten this, and clothes safety pins didn't do the trick, so I used rolls of velcro cut to the right size, and the glue is so good that I was able to glue the velcro strips directly to the fabric. If somehow it won't hold, I'll superglue it.
End result looks like this:
This is now going to burning man, I hope it will hold, especially with lots of biking :)
Joel Robuchon is the other michelin 3 star restaurant in Vegas, and has a fancier tasting menu than Guy Savoy in Vegas, so I was happy to be able to get a reservation this time around and share it with my TFSF friend who was also attending EDC:
some expensive bottles in there
Just the bread cart was great
my personal selection :)
the best part is dessert
it was hard not to choose them all :)
Yummy dinner it was, super happy I was able to go.
It had been many years since I last saw Ka, so I was happy to see it again, and be marvelled again at the machinery and all the technical details involved in the show. It was beyond awesome when it was built 18 years ago and still super cool today. The best part though is that I got a private tour of backstage after the show, and that was beyond cool.
This year I got a room at the Bally's, now Horseshoe. Half decent view of the strip. The pricing has gone way up though, not sure if it will be worth it next year:
Quick walk through Vegas at Night is a bit easier when it's not as warm:
The next day, went to fremont experience and did ziplining:
Could not be in Vegas without going to at least one buffet. Given that the Ceasar's was too hard to get to, Bellagio was also ok and good enough and had the conservatory:
Also went to visit Transfix at Resorts World, cool burning man art pieces for more people to enjoy (click on page for more):
Amazon, you suck, I'm sorry, you just suck.
If I buy an Ebook to do trip planning I want to cut and paste from it into a doc, just small bits, you know, because retyping is kind of stupid. No, I'm not trying to pirate copy the book, simply to use a few bits for my personal use, the trip I'm planning. https://github.com/ccimpoi/ACRExtensions made it clear that all the extensions that went around the copy and paste restriction, won't work anyomre, I quote "I checked the new reader and they totally moved everything server side. Client gets only images and highlight is done using empty DIVs with server side provided coordinates. Looks like the end of the road... :-("
So sure, you can still screenshot each page and OCR them, something pirates will do, so that doesn't stop them, but for legit personal use, it's just too much work.
I guess I'm now going to get my kindle book refunded, because fuck this, and avoid them in the future.
This year was definitely a snowy year, the most I have seen in my life. Thankfully Vail agreed to close Heavenly on May 7th, and Kirkwood on May 15th (although it was fri-sun only for KW).
Got up at 4:40, in hindsigh shoudl have been 20mn earlier to get first liftat 09:00 (including a 10-15mn charging stop on the way up), but close enough :)
Saw Sierra on the way up but it was already closed
the base of SLT looked somewhat snow free
Heavenly CA parking lot was fairly full for a wednesday
let's get to work :)
fairly good powder at the top of sky
found Ovidiu on the way
did I saw powder, in May?
Yes!
we rode to Killbrew gates (all closed)
Nevada side only had Dipper running but that was good enough
plenty of snow still, signs are still buried
Had a bit of a view from time to time:
so much snow to be enjoyed
Arturo and I went to check out the beach, which I seldom get to see :)
Day #2, we went back to Heavenly but it was a bit icy in the morning, until more snow came, and the resort got closed for lightening:
vis went downhill quickly
there was still decent snow
I took roundabout to the bottom:
the bottom forest snow was warmer
it did start snowing hard
Day #3, we went to Kirkwood when it just re-opened that day (friday). Thankfully the recent snow didn't melt and freeze, so the conditions were awesome:
one thing that sucks about kirkwood is that they are now down to one charger left (from 10)
