A Pirate's Life For Me...

2009-12-16T12:27:00.003-06:00

Seriously? Someone is putting out an app so that you don't run into something while you're walking and texting? Here. I'll let you read for yourself.

Taking the danger out of stupidity.

Come on folks. If the text is that important and you're concerned about running into something (or someone)...JUST STOP!

Today's obvious statement is provided by the number 3 and the letters "D", "U", and "H".

Quick Preview

2009-05-22T11:41:00.002-05:00

I've been pestered by a few of you to update my blog recently.

And instead of my standard answer of "GET OFF MY BACK I'M BUSY!", I've decided to be generous and giving and selfless and...

WAIT! Come back! Sheesh...no sense of humor.

Anyway, among all the faire stuffs and vacation stuffs and work stuffs over these past several months, I managed to find time to photograph Kristen and her fiance Tim. They called them "Engagement Photos"...I called them "Hey can I practice on you two?".

Here is a very brief preview of the photos I took of them in Tower Grove Park this April.

Hopefully a few more will be on the smugmug site soon.

And by soon I mean "by the end of the year".

A Little Late

2009-03-20T18:00:00.003-05:00

I figured it was finally time to post a few of those fall pictures I promised oh....back in November.

It will also give me a chance to try out a new way of posting a photo here.

Back at the end of last October, Preston and I went to Pere Marquette State Park in Illinois. The colors were fantastic!

These are what resulted.

Seriously gorgeous colors.

If you want to see the rest of them follow this link.

A New Gallery!

2009-03-19T10:38:00.002-05:00

Let's see a show of hands, who here has a Flickr site?

What about Picasa?

Or maybe Walmart or Walgreens?

I've tried them all. And I hate them all. (Well, with the exception of Walgreens since it's private and I only use it to have photos printed)

I also used to have a Yahoo photo site. But they closed that one down. (and I never really liked it much anyway)

My biggest complaint usually had something to do with uploading. It was a HUGE pain to upload to Yahoo and it is to Flickr too. I usually would try to start one of these sites and get too impatient. So my Flickr site sits mostly empty and unused. I also don't like the aesthetics on ANY of these free sites. If I'm going to display my photos for the world to see, I want them to look GOOD. (well...as good as possible)

Enter SmugMug.

Several photographers I know use this site and I had the chance to get a discount back when they closed Yahoo. But at the time I didn't feel the need for a pay site. It was pretty but I was still just getting into the photography thing. Over the last year or so I've posted more pictures on this blog and that format has been fine for me.

However, I've lately wanted to be able to post my images on some photography forums. Blogger doesn't want you to embed the images they're hosting for you on another site. I understand this...I'm not paying for image hosting so I'm happy to go along with their rules. (just wish their policy had been a little easier to find) This meant I was back to looking for an online photo gallery. Most people suggested Flickr (no thank you!) and a few suggested Photobucket (puke!), but I wanted something more.

I wandered back over to SmugMug, did some more looking around, and signed up for the free trial. Within one day of using the site I was in love! Uploading is a breeze, organization is nice, and best of all...my photos look great on this site! It's important to me that the people that come to view the photos have both a user friendly and an ATTRACTIVE interface. And did I mention my photos look great here?

With several levels of service, the price is reasonable for a beginner like me. And I can upgrade any time I want.

So, check it out and let me know what you think! I'll have a new photo post up soon.

http://ivorygirl.smugmug.com

I've been looking for these!

2009-03-06T14:49:00.008-06:00

I went on a hunt for some of these photos from 2006 today. I thought I had posted them here but I certainly can't find them.

So here are a few of my shots from our trip to Oregon in 2006. As you'll see, they are from a lighthouse we visited.

This is not the lighthouse.

Not to be confusing or anything.

Anyway. Here is the inside of the lighthouse.

How would you like to see the inside of a Fresnel Lens?

And here is the side of that lens.

Guess what these are for? And check out how old they are!

Yup. They're for letting light into the lower levels of the lighthouse. Kinda nifty!

And now for the TRIVIA! Can anyone tell me what they're called? First person with the correct name for these cool little gadgets gets a pat on the back from me!

Thus concludes our mini tour of some lighthouse in Oregon that I can't remember the name of...carry on.

Happy Halloween!

2009-03-05T15:38:00.018-06:00

Hmmmm? What's that? It's not Halloween?

You know...if I had my druthers, Halloween would be every day!

Since you asked so nicely, I'll tell you why. (don't think I can't hear you on this side of the computer)

It's because I get to capture pictures like this:

Ah Janice. Ever the rock star. These photos are from several years ago and we all went to a neighborhood block party. For the life of me I can't remember what I dressed as. Probably a pirate.

And now, meet Maxi Padwell.

Maxi has been to several events over the last couple of years, but I must say her inaugural Halloween was priceless.

And then we have the lovely Kristi dressed as Amy Lee.

Hey Kristi...I said I was going to be posting EMBARRASSING pictures. Not sexy ones. So knock it off.

Let's move on to the following year's Halloween. At least, I think it was the following year.

I know what you're thinking right about now. You're thinking, "Why in the world are they doing that weird 'sexy pose thing' in that hallway?". I'll tell you why.

I have absolustely no idea. Seriously! No clue. But look I did it too!

Ok, and on to the final year of Halloween pictures I found on my old hard drive.

After I stopped doing "Pirate" for every Halloween the only option really left open to me was "Gothish". Since I don't plan ahead and all.

Whew! Someone needs to blend a little better!

This was our first attempt at the Crow. He was pleased enough with it that he's used the costume for two more years.

This is the Preston that makes me die laughing. I LOVE this!

And where did he get the glasses you ask?

I think I probably just sacrificed my friendship with Steph for that last photo. I hope you all are happy.

Steph? Don't hate me. Larry? Feel free.

Now for some reason I do not have pictures of everyone that was there with us that night. I'm sad about that. I must get better at capturing ALL the costumey goodness.

For example, I missed Emo Chris. And I didn't get a picture of Janice except for this:

Janice, I'm sorry that I didn't get a better pic of you. But check out the goldmine in the background there. What I was originally focusing on.

That's right my friends. THAT is the Crow raising the roof.

Cleaning out the old hard drive

2009-03-04T15:20:00.010-06:00

Many of you know that back in the day I used to write this blog on an old Compaq laptop. Most of you also know that the old Compaq, workhorse that it was, finally gave out on me after over seven years of service. A few of you know that I removed the hard drive, which was only about a year old at that point, so that I could get the info off and use it as backup storage.

However, we all know that many of my "projects" don't come to fruition in what would be considered a reasonable amount of time. I have far too many other "projects" getting in the way. I've had a new computer for over a year and after one failed attempt at hooking up the old hard drive it sat collecting dust.

Until yesterday.

I finally hooked that bad boy up and started to explore. Most of what I wanted was in the "My Documents" folder.

Me: click click

Hard Drive: "Access Denied"

Me: No really. click click

HD: "Folder is not accessible. Access is Denied"

Me: Ehem. Hard drive? This is my My Documents folder. Really. click click

HD: "You do not have permission to access this folder. Access Denied."

Me: PERMISSION!? It's MY folder! Who are you to give and take permission Hard Drive?? CLICK. CLICK.

HD: maniacal laughter "You suck and shall never open these files ever again. Access Denied."

Me: Oh I don't THINK so! googles how to fix this problem AH HA! Those files are mine again! Take that stupid hard drive!

HD: "Our apologies great Master. Here are the files you requested."

So, I was successful in retrieving the files after a little work. What I'll be sharing with YOU over the next couple of days are a few pictures I found. And in order to celebrate that IMMENSE level of geekyness I just spewed, here are some camera phone pics I took of all of us enjoying some lightsabers.

That's right. I said lightsabers.

Hey Co-Bin, thanks for letting us be HUGE nerds and play with your toys.

What. It's not like any of you are SURPRISED or anything.

Anywhoo. Moving along. I also found a few pictures from a trip my parents made out here to St. Louis. We visited Grant's Farm and the Botanical Gardens. (we did other stuff too but I guess I only took pictures of these two events)

And then someone captured a picture of me at the Gardens. I think it may have been Kristi.

So I had to get her back. Here she is headin' out west!

And because I'm the photographer, they all have to listen to me when I go "SHEEP!!".

Stay tuned! Up next are more embarrassing photos! There are several years worth of Halloween pictures that were found...so if you've partied with me on my favorite holiday you are not safe.

Steph...just stop reading now. Don't ever come back to this site again.

Seriously.

Because she wouldn't bribe me

2009-02-20T14:06:00.005-06:00

I've been promising a new post for quite some time. I've been pretty busy but there hasn't been much that's newsworthy...so I have to fall back on this.

Or, more appropriately, THESE.

These are pics that Steph asked me to take a little before Christmas to give as gifts to her Grandmother.

And this one is my absolute favorite.

Even though it's Steph's least favorite.

And no...I don't have any idea why either.

I Heart Faces - Pets

2009-02-03T08:54:00.007-06:00

So I recently started following a photography blog on Twitter. It looks like a nice low-key community of people that are looking for inspiration and maybe a little friendly critiquing as well. And since we all know I could use some unbiased input I thought it might be a good site to follow. It's called:

Well I'm finally getting around to entering one of the weekly "contests". The theme for the week is "The Eyes Have It". And since there is now a pet section the following photo just had to be submitted.

Yes, I know the couple of you that read this blog have seen it before. But since it's of my lovely Pandora I'm sure you don't mind it being posted again. And it IS cropped a little differently. Here, take a look at the original if you doubt me. For anyone interested in following an interesting new photography community, the website is www.iheartfaces.com.

For the rest of you, I promise I'll have a completely new post up soon.

And by soon I mean in the next millennium. Or something.

No Laughing Matter

2008-12-18T13:44:00.004-06:00

Dear Coca-Cola,

When redesigning a product, it is wise to test said product before releasing it to the general public. Your new 20 oz. bottle design is severely lacking when it comes to one very important function.

Opening it.

The new cap design is shorter and smoother. Thus, it is very difficult to get the proper torque needed. And for those of us with handicaps (hey, I broke my wrist and it's never been the same), your new design is more than just frustrating.

It causes a Coke related emergency.

I'm not playin' around here. This is serious business.

Please don't make me do this again.

Sincerely,

A Frustrated Coke Drinker

Oregon - Part 2

2008-12-10T09:28:00.020-06:00

Welcome back bad photography fans!

Hmm...maybe I should re-word that. Like, "Welcome back fans of bad photography!" That would be more clear right? Otherwise you might think I was calling you both bad AND a photography fan. And I wouldn't want to be confusing.

Right. So. Alternate titles to this post anyone? How about:

"Does your camera enhance the yellow or are you shooting through lemon pie?"
"Getting the knack of catching people with strange looks on their faces."
"Can you find the focusing point?"

The terrible pictures didn't stop at the coast. I took terrible photos all through this Oregon trip. It was as if I forgot how to use my camera.

On to round 2!
I'll begin with two decent shots. These were taken inside at a wine tasting room. They're still a bit dark and yellow, but they're passable for a family photo album.

First we have my Dad and Preston.

Wait, did I say TWO decent shots? I meant ONE decent shot and another shot where we get to see how chubby Tracie is getting.
Winter = Food = Hibernation = Chubby.
Now go away.

Good God. With those cheeks you would think my brothers' names are Alvin, Simon, and Theodore.

What's that? You're surprised to see me at a wine tasting room? You're new around here aren't you...

On to my cousin's wedding rehearsal. The church LOOKED well lit at first glance...but I quickly discovered one had to be very near to a window to get any usable light.

And here is our first instance of "Find The Spot Tracie Is Focusing On". The danger of the lens I was using is when I have the aperture open all the way, the depth of field is SOOO thin. So, even though Ron is in focus (Hi Ron!) Tate is not.

Say hello to my Uncle Bob.

What's the matter Uncle Bob? You look...uncomfortable. Oh! You're just trying to figure out why I'm shooting through a lemon pie aren't you? Although, I think in this case it's a lemon raspberry pie.

Our final shot from the rehearsal is one of Julie and her Dad practicing their walk down the aisle.

It's actually kinda sweet...

And this final group of photos feature my mom and some of her friends. Let's take a look and see if you can figure out what they're doing.

Figure it out yet? No, it's not bridge. Or bingo.

This is my Mom and an old friend. Wait...not "old". A friend that's been a friend for a long time. Sorry Joel. Apparently my grammar is confusing today.

Hey Mom...what conspiracy are you cooking up here? You really should stop talking behind peoples' backs.
(is that punctuation even close to being correct??)

So have you figured it out yet? Will this help?

If you guessed anything other than square dancing...well, I can't help you.

That's right. My mother square dances. And these are a few of her friends that square dance with her.

Don't they look like they're having fun?

She'll likely kill me for posting these photos.

I don't see why though. Aren't they cute?!

Hi Mom! I'm glad you don't read this unless I tell you to!

And I'm certainly not going to tell you at least until after Christmas.

Look out! The paparazzi has been caught!

(Is paparazzi the plural form of something? Like paparaz or paparazza? Is there a singular form of the word to indicate only ONE crazed and annoying photographer?)

I had to run away at this point. Old people don't like their picture taken.

Did I just say that out loud?

Kidding Mom! (and all you crazy square dancin' folk) See why I'm not telling you about this until after Christmas? I don't want coal!

So, did I successfully distract you from how bad those pictures actually were? I tried. Though, looking at all of those yellow pictures makes me want some lemon pie now.

Stay tuned (if you dare) for Oregon - Part 3!

AKA "The only halfway decent photos from the Oregon trip so it'll be a short post cause there weren't that many."

Oregon - Part one

2008-12-09T16:49:00.027-06:00

Alternate titles:

"How NOT to photograph the Oregon Coast."

"The worst pictures I've taken since I bought my camera."

"Clean your sensor lady!"

So remember when I told you I would be sharing photos of my trip to Oregon? The post where I said that I just had to do some minor adjustments before posting them? Well, that's only true if:

Minor Adjustment = Totally New Pictures

The only reason I'm still going to post these is so you all can see how NOT to take a photograph. My settings were so out of whack (apparently seawater affects my brain) that most of these are barely suitable for viewing on the interwebs.

But since I'm all about honesty, we'll see a few of them anyway. Just don't say I didn't warn you...

Now. Let's go exploring.

What is that? Can anyone tell? Is that a rat?

I think... I think...

This lovely seagull was probably sleeping until I started bothering it. But once I explained that I was taking its picture to illustrate our first lesson, it was more than happy to pose all pretty-like.

Lesson #1 - Fill your frame with your subject. We weren't even sure what it was in those first couple of photos. I would have liked to have gotten even closer but was afraid for my eyes.

Moving on...

At first glance that photo isn't awful right? Not great but passable. Look again. (Don't be afraid to click on them and make them bigger...makes it that much easier to see the flaws)

Lesson #2 - Keep your sensor clean. Ok ok, so you don't have to really worry about this with a handy dandy point-and-shoot. But for those of us that change lenses on a frequent basis...obviously this is a necessity.

Here. Another example.

It's kinda like a seek and find game!

Except the answers are glaringly obvious.

Woah! What is that thing! Is that a giant squid!?

No no...relax dear readers. It's just a large clump of bull kelp. I LOVE this stuff. The kelp have little "floaters" or air pockets. Once it's washed up on shore, you can step on those air pockets and they snap very satisfyingly. Kinda like giant bubble wrap.

You think I'm joking? Ask anyone that's been to the coast with me. They'll affirm the amount of child-like joy I get from the simple activity of jumping on the kelp air pockets.

Alright. Here is one where my subject is less than thrilled.

Just a side note. I love those sunglasses. (I don't care WHAT you say Larry)

What I DON'T love is this. See? That seagull shaped blur in the sky? Well, sometimes it looks like a bird. Maybe I'll just claim it's a plane.

Oh NO! Look out Preston! That giant squid is going to get you!

Heh. Sorry. I couldn't resist.

How about this picture? It's great right?

Gah.

Lesson #3 - Don't be afraid to edit your images. This one would actually be pretty simple. I could easily crop that stupid smudge out of the photo and it would probably be better for it even in all around composition. Though I kinda like the expanse of sky in this one...

The following simply suffer from a lack of proper exposure. Sure, you can edit things later...but these were barely usable.

Seriously? I HATE that thing!

Lesson #4 - Learn how to use your camera!

This next one is a perfect example of our fifth and final lesson.

Lesson #5 - Mid-day = bad lighting on a beautiful sunny day. Trust me. See their faces?

Exactly.

Ok and this next one...

Wait a sec. How did a decent one make it through? I'm sorry, apparently we have 6 lessons today.

Lesson #6 - Even the blind squirrel finds a nut now and then. In other words, a little luck is necessary when you disregard all of the rules of photography like I did.

If you take one thing from this post I hope it's an understanding of the fact that I did no justice to the Oregon Coast in these photographs. If you take two things from this post I hope the other is that I'm in no way a professional photographer and you probably shouldn't follow my advice.

I mean, I certainly don't.

Stay tuned for Oregon - Part two!

(or "How NOT to photograph in low lighting")

I swear, it's not what you think!

2008-11-26T11:40:00.004-06:00

Our affair began early in life.

It began slowly and unexpectedly, as many affairs do. We spent time together when I was a child. Though it was limited, you left an impression on me that never faded. As a child, my parents would limit our exposure to each other. Most often I only saw you on special occasions. Birthdays, Easter, Christmas, and maybe the odd camping trip or family outing. You weren’t necessarily considered a bad influence on me…just an influence that needed limiting. Remember those couple of times I went so far as to sneak you in? You were my own guilty little secret.

As the years progressed I changed. You also changed, though it seemed you began changing with every season. And although you looked different from time to time, you were still the same inside. I stopped looking at you as a guilty secret though I realized my parents were right in limiting our exposure. You could so easily take over me and I would be in too deep before I knew it. Hours turned to minutes and minutes to hours when I was with you. I had to keep you at a distance that was safe for me. There were times that I couldn’t have you, and then the cravings would nearly do me in. Yet, your presence is comforting to me.

And then, yesterday, we met again in Wal-Mart.

Oh Oreo, you have my heart now more than ever.

I'm not alone

2008-11-25T10:28:00.002-06:00

Just so you don't all think I was the only one with the Google/lack of a pirate theme thing, I submit to you the following link.

Pirates Unite!

Ha! Take that Google.

Because Pirates just ARE, ok?

2008-11-21T11:01:00.004-06:00

Ahoy Google Crew,

We be writin’ t’ let ye know how disappointed we be with the newest update t’ Gmail. Yar, it be true yer crew has provided helpful updates t’ this popular email program in the past, but we feel ye ‘ave missed yer mark this time. Aye, we be greatly distressed t’ see the inclusion o’ a Ninja theme but a lack o’ a Pirate Theme available with the other new themes. It may e’en be enough t’ make one think that the Google Crew is pro-Ninja.

As ye may be aware, the' battle between Pirates and Ninjas be still bein' waged. While we understand that thar be individuals that will pick sides, we caution ye t' be careful which side ye choose. While the question o' who be better, Pirates or Ninjas, be not easily answered, we hope that ye will understand that leavin' Pirates out o' yer theme choices be a grave business mistake.

Not only have Pirates been around longer than Ninjas (thar have been pirates since the first person built the first boat), Pirates be far more commercially successful than Ninjas. Take, for example, the recent success o' a certain group o' movin' pictures. These stories followed the' legends o' me brethren in the' Caribbean and were such a success we have had trouble with the' sheer number o' impersonators.

When was the last time thar was such a successful Ninja movin’ picture? Let alone three. Ninjas only be havin’ a few teenaged turtles that talk. In our opinion, turtles are good fer nothin’ but soup.

Yar, while Ninjas be admittedly good at hidin', a Pirate has no need t' skulk around in the shadows. We be open about our business and people fear us enough t' surrender merely upon the sight o' our flags upon the horizon. This, me buckos, be true intimidation.

We implore you t' end this discrimination immediately. The Pirates be demandin' thar own theme as well. We think we’ve made more than enough o' an argument t' prove our deservedness. We thank you in advance for your consideration and hope that when we pass you in the street we’ll be able t' give you a buckoly “Ahoy Mate!”.

The wind be always in yer sails,

PANSY
(Pirates Against Ninja SupremacY)

Google has made a grave error in the new themes that they offer. They've designed a ninja theme...but no pirate theme.

That hurts Google...that really hurts.

Where Tracie stirs the pot...

2008-11-17T15:26:00.006-06:00

A friend of mine recently posted her thoughts and feelings about gay marriage on her personal blog. My first reaction was "What is she doing!? This will start a fire storm of controversy between all of her friends!". But after reading her well composed post I applauded her for standing up for what she believes in. Granted, she believes differently than I do but hey, isn't that why our Nation is so great?

After reading her post, I began to compose my comment. I mean heck, since 99% of you that read this know me, you know I can't ever leave well enough alone. I just have to throw my $.02 in. But as my comment started approaching novel length, I thought it would probably be more respectful to do my OWN post instead of crashing her site with a wordy comment.

First things first. Here is her post in its entirety. Go read it THEN come back here.

(or don't. whatever. I can take it)

First of all, let me just say that there are definitely points to her argument that I agree with and believe. Just like I believe that abortion is wrong. BUT, I believe that it's wrong for ME. It doesn't mean that I think people shouldn't have a choice. Which should lead you to the obvious conclusion that I think people should have a choice when it comes to who they want to marry.

While I DO completely agree with Kristi's description of a holy marriage, (hey, it's the way I was raised yo) one would be assuming that everyone holds "marriage" to the same standards. Basically, one would be assuming that everyone that wants to get married, wants to get married by Christian/Catholic standards. However, I know many people that don't have traditional wedding ceremonies (hand-fastings, non-religious ceremonies, etc.) and they still consider themselves "married". Heck, my own wedding is going to be pretty non-traditional. (shh...don't tell my parents yet) Besides, marriage isn't just about love and commitment...it's a LEGAL STATUS.

In other words, I don't think we can consider the religious argument when discussing whether or not same sex marriages should be legal. We all have the right to believe what we want to believe. And there is that whole "separation of church and state" thing too. The issue here is whether or not people can LEGALLY get married. That their union can be recognized by the state...or better yet the entire country. So denying someone the right to marry because it doesn't fall in line with our religious beliefs is kind of forcing our beliefs on them.

So essentially, most of Kristi's argument comes down to a semantics issue. I mean the word "marriage" has, over the years, been used to describe a union between a man and a woman right? It's recognizable not only between states, but between countries as well. When someone flashes a ring at you in a bar and says "No thanks, I'm married.", you automatically know they are committed to someone else. Do you automatically know that they're a Christian? Absolutely not. They could subscribe to any manner of belief system...or none at all for that matter. My point is this. Why should the word "marriage" be used only to describe the Christian values of the union? Should people that don't have a religious wedding ceremony have to start saying "No thanks, I'm civil unionized."?

Strangely enough, this topic actually came up at dinner a couple of nights ago. And one of the points that was given was that "gay couples can have a civil union. They still have rights!". When I mentioned that it makes it more difficult for a couple when a partner gets sick or dies unexpectedly I was told "well they can will their belongings to their partner". Now while this is all true, the amount of money that it would cost to draw up a current will on a regular basis, designate power of attorney, and whatever other legal documents one would need would cost FAR more than a marriage license. And a legally married spouse automatically gets those things. Besides, wills are contestable in court and don't always hold up. Wanna see a list of some of the rights that married couples have? Ask and ye shall receive. I know it's Wikipedia but you don't have to take it for gospel. Just a good representation of some of those benefits you might not think of off the top of your head.

Also, civil unions are only good in the states that they are given in. For instance, if I had a civil union in Missouri (which they don't actually allow but I'm speaking hypothetically here people) and then needed to move to Illinois for a job, suddenly my union would no longer be considered legal. All those benefits I had in Missouri would just be gone. Also, since the federal government doesn't recognize civil unions, forget tax breaks or filing jointly.

Another point that Kristi brings up has to do with children and the fact that God intended children to have a mother and a father. She says a "child is denied the right to a family as God designed it" when a gay couple has children. What about single adoptive parents? Or a family that has lost a father or mother and the remaining parent decides not to remarry? Doesn't the child then only have either a mother or a father? Does that mean that a single parent shouldn't be allowed to adopt just because they never married? Or a widowed mother or widower father should be forced to find another parent for their children? Isn't one parent better than none? And to be honest...I have both two moms AND two dads. Boy is my family messed up right? Heh.

In all seriousness though, I completely understand where Kristi is coming from here. The idea is that you want kids to grow up in a "normal" loving family. But again, we believe that "normal" means "a mom and a dad" because it's what our religious beliefs designate as a "normal" family. Is that wrong? Nope. Remember that statement I made up there? We all have the right to believe what we want. But that goes for ALL of us. Not just the Christians (or Muslims, or Jews, or Mormons, or Buddhists, or whatever). I mean it's not like we're talking about the right to SELL a child or something. I say again, aren't loving parents (regardless of their sex) better than no parents?

All in all, it's a complex issue that is only made more difficult by the unclear ideas of "separation of church and state". The biggest arguments against it are all religious or moral arguments. (and I'm not saying that there aren't any NON-RELIGIOUS arguments against it...just that the religious ones are the largest) In my opinion, that just isn't fair. We all have free will. It's how we were designed. And if someone wanted to take my free will away...well, lets just say I would be pretty darned mad about it.

Heck, look at you! You just exercised your free will by reading all of my drivel. No one forced you to do it. And no one kept you from it either.

You may now throw your rotten fruit/vegetables in my general direction. I'm hungry anyway. Don't judge...I didn't have lunch today.

Don't Forget to Vote!

2008-11-03T09:43:00.008-06:00

With a title like that you're probably expecting this post to be all about the upcoming presidential election right? However, seeing as how most of us are completely sick and tired of this election season, I will not be subjecting you to any political machinations.

Instead, I intend to utilize this space for a purely selfish cause that involves voting for a completely different reason.

I meant to post earlier (like before the contest was over) about voting for Kristi's portrait. But I never got around to it. Ah well. Sorry Kristi. It's still a great pic of you!

But speaking of contests, I threw another photo in the mix for a different contest. No opinion poll this time...I just entered in one of my favorite photos. Not everyone is going to like it but hey that's art right? Heh. I have SUCH a hard time calling my snapshots 'art'. Seems so pretentious doesn't it? As if I really know what I'm doing here? I mean, what really makes art art anyway? Besides, can you even tell what it is? Heh, I love this photo but I also took it...so I know what it is. I have NO idea if it's that clear to anyone else. (and...remember how much I love motion blur? so I'm a sucker for this photo)

Since it IS election week and you're already geared up to vote, up there in the right column is a link to vote for my photo. There are a TON of really fabulous photos if you would rather just go take a look around. (I think you have to click the 'join the contest' button to see them) Go on, click the link and be amazed by some pretty talented amateur photographers. (oh...did I not mention that this contest is restricted to true amateurs? Heh...not that it gives me a better shot at winning anything)

As for me, I will continue to frequent the site and try to learn as much as I can. My photos have improved greatly just over the last couple of years. And ultimately, I just do this because I enjoy it. Not because I actually know what I'm doing. It's one of my favorite hobbies. In the next couple of days I'll share some fall pictures with you. The colors this year have been incredible. Here's a little preview.

And yes. I am fully aware that I have not yet posted the photos from Oregon. Hey, I'll get around to it.

Maybe.

I need your help.

2008-10-22T12:21:00.013-05:00

*Update* - I know I do this site for my own enjoyment and don't attempt heavy traffic here, but seriously? Only 7 votes? I KNOW there have been about 5 times that many people here in the last two days. To those of you that have voted, thank you. I know you are the few that are actually here on purpose. To the rest of you that have stumbled here, whether by accident or because you were just that bored, I welcome your opinions too! Please help me out by clicking one of the options. I swear it doesn't hurt.

Alright guys. There may be a contest going on over at Photrade. And I may be thinking about entering it.

Now I know for a fact that there have been over 1000 entries since just the other day. I'm sure by the end of it there will be more than 2000. I also know that with all the other talented photographers out there that would love to get their hands on this sweet prize, my chance of winning is slim to none. I would bet for me to even get noticed my image would have to really resonate with one of the judges for some reason. But hey, I've got to start somewhere.

ANYWAY. The point of this post is not to convince myself how amateur I am. The point of this post IS to gain your help. I need to know what image appeals the most to YOU.

If you'll kindly look over there to your right, (your other right Larry) you'll find a nice little poll. You don't have to leave a comment (unless it's to tell me to get over myself and that I shouldn't be entering a photo contest)...all you have to do is click the name that corresponds with the portrait you like best.

If the poll breaks for some reason you can leave a comment. Even anonymously if you really want to. So. Some of these you have seen, and some of them you haven't. They are, in my opinion, the best portraits I've taken. Do with that what you will. On with the pictures.

In no particular order*:

1. Ben

2. Kristen

3. Kristi

4. Mia

5. Preston

6. Rico

7. Steph

Alright folks! My success fully depends on you and your choice of the entry portrait! (see how I turned that around there?)

Thank you for your input. Your opinion matters greatly to us.

*actually, I just discovered that there IS a particular order. It's called alphabetical. And I so totally meant to do that.

Yes I did.

Seriously Folks?!

2008-10-17T08:36:00.002-05:00

This is an excerpt from one of the blogs I read on a regular basis. The author is a Canadian writer and has recently gone on a book tour. The entire post can be found here but I'm not taking anything out of context.

"I congratulate myself for not being even a little rude of violent before now, even though coffee is the link to life, and I haven't had one. (The lines are long at security and I did them coffeeless. This makes me double proud- especially when someone in airport line sees the Canadian flag on my suitcase and takes the time out of their own busy line waiting to tell me that I live in a socialist hell that is doomed to failure. I somehow managed, yay verily though I was COFFEELESS, to thank them for taking the time to share."

Reading this part of her post made me sick. As most of you know, I stick to the funny stuff on this blog...but I just can't help it. Maybe it's my own lack of coffeeness showing, (I've only had a half-cup so far and it hasn't sunk into the blood stream yet) but I HAD to post this.

I seriously can not believe that anyone in this country would point a judgmental finger at another country's government right now. AND to say that another country is doomed to failure? I guess misery loves company right?

Hello, America? I think we still have room in our hand basket...and can you guess where it's going?

A friend yesterday made the mistake of engaging me in conversation about the Presidential debate. My cynicism has really begun to show (as it does in every election year) and though he took it well he got the chance to see what I truly think of our government.

This country has become the proverbial overbearing rich uncle. You know the one. The one who shows up to every family reunion and is loud and obnoxious. The one that asks you how your job is and then proceeds to tell you that you would be more successful if you just did THIS THIS and THIS. The one who gives lavish Christmas presents to everyone just to show off how much money he has then gets his credit card denied buying a $3.00 pack of smokes. The one that gambles all his money away and then expects the rest of the family to fix the problem. The one who, without invitation, inserts himself in an argument between you and a sibling because he "knows how to fix this problem". The one that says he's going to take you to dinner then "forgets" his wallet.

And guess what. NO ONE in the family likes that uncle.

You know? My frustration isn't as much about where this country is headed. It's more about the fact that I personally can't do anything about it. That the average citizen really doesn't have a say.

And all that crap about "but your vote counts!"? Yeah THAT'S a bunch of naive crap. Besides, does it really matter when the 'Powers That Be' have narrowed down your choices to something you never really wanted anyway?

It's like saying "Here we have your two least favorite foods. This one will make you sick immediately and this one will make you sick in an hour. Pick what you want for dinner. Yes, you HAVE to pick something."

So, Canada? Can you save a place for me? I figure a "socialist hell that is doomed to failure" has got to be better than what we've got going here right now.

A conversation through text message...

2008-10-15T16:13:00.002-05:00

These texts have been reproduced in their entirety. No embellishment was added because none was needed.

P: Morning, dear. Sleep well?

Me: Yeah just not enough of it. I'm gettin too old for this. How are you?

P: Had a weird dream that would make a funny movie.

Me: Oh yeah? I want to hear about that! :)

P: "Attack of the cannibalistic Republican spider people"

Me: Ewwwwwwww! I think I'll skip that movie!

P: Do Republicans scare you that much?

Me: Lol. Funny funny. It's the spiders and you know it! :)

P: They don't look like spiders, they just wrap their liberal prey in cocoons to eat later!

Me: Lol! You seriously had this dream!!?

P: Yeah, it was pretty scary at the time, but now I think it's funny!

Me: Hilarious! So would you mind if I blog about this particular string of texts?

P: Go ahead, and I'm going to talk to Eric W. and Scott T. about the idea!

Me: awesome! I know someone else out there has to think this convo is as hilarious as I do.

I can't make this stuff up people.

While I wait for my keys...

2008-10-13T23:27:00.006-05:00

...you'll get a preview of the Oregon trip.

These are just a few to get you started.

I don't have access to my normal editing software so I apologize if these look a little funny. I was giving Photoshop's online software a test.

And yes. The title IS "while I wait for my keys...". You didn't read that incorrectly. My keys decided to take a bit of a detour and did not make it home with me.

More on that later. Maybe. Definitely more (and better edited) photos to come.

Stay tuned.

How I Saved the World - Part II

2008-09-29T22:40:00.008-05:00

For over two years I've believed the world to be safe from Evil Samurai Crickets.

Last night my dream of a peaceful existence, free from hoards of Evil Samurai Crickets, was shattered.

The following is a true account of what transpired one early fall night in my basement.

After more than three weeks of a packed schedule, I had more than enough laundry to keep me occupied for several days. I was completely exhausted but knew it had to be done and dragged my tired body to the laundry hamper. I gathered a load of dirty clothing and clicked the front door closed behind me. The ominous chill raised bumps on my bare arms but I attributed it to the fact that fall had finally decided to make an appearance instead of the warning that it was.

I carefully placed one tired foot in front of the other. Each step ached as I made my way down a full flight of steps to the entry of the basement. When I reached the basement door I used the archaic key to turn the lock. As the mechanism retreated into the door it made a loud 'snick' that echoed in the empty hallway. With a loud squeak I wrestled the door open and my eyes attempted to adjust to the gloom of the basement.

And then I heard it.

The ancient language that I had hoped to never hear again. A language feared by young children and seasoned warriors alike. It was the language of the Evil Samurai Crickets and it assaulted my ears in a wave of unintelligible horror.

In an instant I knew that an entire army of Evil Samurai Crickets were waiting for me at the bottom of those unassuming basement steps. The cacophony was deafening. I knew they were here to destroy me. I knew they were here for revenge. And I was completely unprepared.

The electric glow of the bare bulbs blinded me temporarily when I flipped the switch. My hope had been to frighten them off but their voices didn't falter. As my vision cleared my ears were assaulted by what could have only been the taunts of my enemies. Although I did not speak their dark and evil language I knew that they were screaming their challenges at me. My past victory was nothing to them.

With white spots dancing in front of my face I looked to the bottom of the stairs. It was as I feared. No less then seven Evil Samurai Crickets were staring up at me...the tension palpable as they waited for me to make a move. Their hate radiated off of them in waves. I could feel the heat of it and the atmosphere nearly crackled with the barely contained energy.

It was purely coincidence that I had my trusty Samurai blade Phlip Phlop with me that night. And blind luck that I had its mate Theong Sandile. I carefully set my laundry on the steps in front of me. I would only have one chance at a diversion. One chance to distract my enemies enough to give me an advantage. The seven Evil Samurai Crickets were edging closer to the bottom of the steps. I knew my time had run out. With a fierce cry I upended the laundry basket down the stairs and lept into the air.

With just the tips of my fingers I was able to grasp onto a ceiling beam and flip myself over the seven Evil Samurai Crickets. The laundry had entangled two of them but the other five were already following my graceful arc through the air. As I landed softly on the balls of my feet, the soreness forgotten, the five Evil Samurai Crickets launched themselves at me. Their razor sharp legs flailed at lightning speeds and it took everything I had to protect myself with my dual blades. Arms and Evil Samurai Cricket legs blurred in this high speed dance of life and death as I spun and parried and thrust and defended. Suddenly, without warning, a gash was opened on my upper arm. One of the five Evil Samurai Crickets had made it through my defenses.

I screamed my defiance, smashed his head and did a mighty leap over the remaining four Evil Samurai Crickets. I hung in the air for what seemed like forever, targeting the two Evil Samurai Crickets that had been entangled in my laundry trap. Their heads were just breaking out of the top of the pile when Phlip Phlop and Theong Sandile snuffed them out.

I whirled around to face the remaining four Evil Samurai Crickets. Each heartbeat pounding through my veins was magnified and my breath burned in my lungs. But they were not going to give me a chance to rest. The four Evil Samurai Crickets launched themselves at me as one, screams of rage pouring from their Evil Samurai Cricket mouths. I dodged them and skipped across the tops of the dryers. I had to gain the advantage! With an amazing twist I landed behind them.

And before the remaining four Evil Samurai Crickets knew what had happened, my twin Samurai blades came smashing down upon them. The seven Evil Samurai Crickets had been vanquished. I wiped the stinging sweat from my eyes and surveyed the carnage. Razor sharp legs twitched in the electric glow but these evil beings would no longer threaten the world.

I gathered my laundry but left my enemies as a warning to any other Evil Samurai Crickets.

I had learned my lesson. I must remain vigilant in order to keep the world and its population safe from a threat it doesn't even know about...

The icing on my cake.

2008-09-23T15:20:00.019-05:00

How about a reenactment for you today? A few have asked what got me so down in the dumps yesterday, and while this is only the crowning moment of a spectacularly bad day, it was the only thing I could illustrate very well here.

As any good reenactment should, names and places have been changed to protect the innocent. However, the situation has not been changed to protect the ~~idiot~~ victim. (psst...that's me)

Let's begin.

This is our victim's car in a parking lot.

Imagine, if you will, that this parking lot belongs to a large bulk super-store type place. See? There is the entrance right there.

Also, lets imagine that this parking lot is much larger with quite a few more cars in it.

And yes, they DO all look the same.

Shove it.

So there our scene is set.

Picture in your head a beautiful sunny afternoon. Our victim had a couple of errands to run and the first one was to check tire prices at this local store. Our victim got into the store before realizing she had forgotten to write down the tire size. And so the victim headed back to her car.

As our victim traipsed back across the parking lot she had no idea what was in store for her.

Our victim hopped in the driver's side seat and popped open the glove box.

After writing down the tire size, our victim neatly put everything back in the glove box and closed it.

Our victim hit the lock button and stepped back out of the car.

As she swung the door shut, the world seemed to slow to a molassian* pace . Something wasn't right.

The door clicked shut and our victim's vision was immediately sucked to the front seat of the vehicle.

What was that in the front seat?

Oh look! You can see me in the reflection! Hey can anyone tell what kind of camera I use?

Oh right. ehem. Sorry, back to our story.

There, lying neatly on the front seat of her newly locked vehicle, were our victim's keys.

Let me repeat that.

Her KEYS.

Please pay no attention to:

Our victim's car get's vacuumed on a regular basis. If by regular you mean biannually.

But that's not the point now is it!?

Let me repeat.

However, this story ends better than it could have. At this point it was very possible for our victim to break down into tears. Or into a raging bout of curses only fit for the saltiest sea dog's ears.

It would have been completely logical for our victim to run screaming around the parking lot like a crazy person.

Or to try and break in the car herself.

Luckily, a hero of a locksmith came to our victim's rescue. And now she owes him a HUGE favor.

*whether or not the word molassian is truly a word or not is beside the point. So you just hush. You knew what I meant.

This post deserves no title.

2008-09-16T13:31:00.019-05:00

In the midst of Pirate Fest...how about some randomness for you. It's been a while since I've been random.

Stop it. Yes it has been.

HEY! I. Said. Shut it.

Anyway.

Spent a few days in KC a couple weeks ago. Remember how I said I was taking my camera everywhere I went now? Uh yeah. Well, I guess that just means to work and the wineries.

Stopped by Les Bourgeois on the way home. It was a beautiful evening.

I just couldn't seem to drag the camera out all weekend.

But the vineyards were so pretty in the setting sun.

Not that I was really able to capture it very well here. Photography class anyone?

Oop. There I go with the photoshop again.

So, next bit of randomness.

Take a look at what I did the other day. Can you tell what it is?

No, it's not a medieval torture device.

Here's a little bit more of a clue.

I taught myself how to knit with double pointed needles the other day. I had some time to kill at lunch.

Seems I have a lot of time to kill on this job. Or at least more time to kill on any other job I've had. My boss likes to give me 'jobs' to do that only seem to require me to sit and watch the real workers do their thing.

So this is how I pass the time. It's very constructive of me.

And, for the last bit of randomness, because I can't leave you with all that structured nonsense up there, here are a couple of photos that have no relevance to each other whatsoever. Wow. 'Whatsoever' actually doesn't trigger the spell check. Who knew?

Most of these have been shown on this site before...in one form or another.

They've all just been slightly more modified this time around.

Ok. Some more than just 'slightly'.

Leave me alone. I'm going to go nurse my Photoshop addiction now.

I just can't help myself!

2008-08-29T12:17:00.010-05:00

From the Missouri Botanical Garden's website:

"Founded in 1859, the Missouri Botanical Garden is the nation's oldest botanical garden in continuous operation and a National Historic Landmark."

Here is a photo from that time period.

No really!

I swear it...ok, ok. Maybe it's not.

I admit, it's from a couple of weeks ago. We visited for the last show of the Whitaker Music Festival.

Here is the original photo.

But I think I like this version better.

Sometimes it's hard to know when I get out of control with Photoshop. How much is too much?

Anyway. The light didn't really last long enough to get many shots. The setting sun made for some great reflections though.

There I go with those burned edges again...

I also tried to get a few shots of the moon...but didn't have the correct lens with me that night. Ah well.

These next couple of shots? Oh my. Kristen's is fine, but Rico? I'm sorry. But I had to. I LOVE the shot of you.

Thanks for being such a great sport and letting me blind you with my flash in the name of 'art'. Or at least in the name 'fun'.

Disney Is...

2008-08-20T16:13:00.017-05:00

...the place where all your dreams come true. Right? It is if your dreams include getting a horribly nasty sickness (I don't know what I had) while you visit. Luckily, my mom was there to take care of me. I sure as heck wasn't going to stay in the room on my 30th birthday trip. So mom drugged me up and off we went. My lovely hacking cough was quite handy in keeping people away from me.

However. The side effect was that I really didn't feel like taking a bunch of pictures. I got a few. And these are them.

We'll start with Epcot. This is, hands down, my favorite place in the Disney World Complex.

All of these photos were taken at the Japanese Pavilion in the very back of the park.

I loved that when I took my camera out to shoot this, I suddenly had 15 people whip their point-and-shoot cameras out to try and capture the same image. Yep. I'm a leader. Little did they know I would be using Photoshop to re-create how it looked to the naked eye. Oh, and to get rid of the hair that was on my lens. (though I didn't do such a great job of that...)

Next, we move to Animal Kingdom. I was feeling better this day, yet still didn't take a lot of photos. The place was packed. It was a bit too much of a hassle.

These were taken on the "Safari". It's actually a pretty nice animal park and I enjoy seeing the animals in an environment that looks much more natural.

The "Safari" guides are of course humorous. They're scripted that way. But I don't think he bargained for my mom to play along as well as she did. She was all kinds of ready to become his official navigator.

You really do have to hand it to Disney. They do a spectacular job creating amazing realism in everything they do. (I'm pretty sure these trees were concrete but look close and you'll see the bird that just may have been fooled too)

These guys were awful cute. Talk about effective camouflage too! Just lay down and you look like a rock!

The third and final place we'll be visiting today is MGM Studios. Er, pardon me, Disney's Hollywood Studios. I guess they can't use the 'MGM' name any longer.

The only thing I photographed here was a stunt show. Have I mentioned in the past that I really want to learn to drive like this?

Anyway. The premise was that they were shooting a film and they were going to show you how some of the driving stunts were done. The red car is the 'Hero' car and the black cars are the 'Villains'.

The stunts really were quite impressive. These guys could drive!

I would like to take this opportunity to tell you that had there been a volunteer portion of this show...I would have thrown myself down there. It would have been embarrassing how quickly I would have shoved the little kids out of the way.

But totally worth it.

Uh...as long as I didn't have that guys job.

Shoebill

2008-08-14T14:31:00.008-05:00

Charon and Joan were correct. The prehistoric looking bird is a juvenile Shoebill. But don't worry Larry and Kristi, you two were closer than you probably thought!

The Shoebill is related to the Pelicans, or at least as far as they can tell with DNA testing. I won't bore you with taxonomy but I will tell you that this awesome bird confused scientists for quite a while.

Some felt that it should be classified with pelicans. Others thought it was closer to a heron or a stork. A huge battle broke out between these two groups of scientists! It was unlike any battle you've ever seen! They were hurling things like mitochondrial sequences and COI barcodes and morphometric results at each other!*^{see below}

It was incredible.

And the last scientist standing was the one with results pointing towards pelicans. And the Shoebill was happy.

ANYWAY. It's a pretty impressive bird. African in origin, it feeds mostly on fish. Check that beak out. I was pretty glad I wasn't a fish.

*scientific terminology disclaimer: I have no idea what any of that actually means. I may have been a biology major but I did not study genetics. As a matter of fact, I think the TA for my genetics class would have to agree with that statement. I certainly did not study genetics.

Where we conclude our trip to Dallas World Aquarium

2008-08-08T09:31:00.016-05:00

Welcome back fellow Adventurers!

We'll begin our overland journey with this cute little fellow. I don't remember exactly what he is, but he was either a huge ham for the camera or really concerned we were going to take over his territory.

Nearby to him was this amazing view.

I love the manual settings on my camera.

Lets move on to our friends the flamingos.

I'm sure you all know why the Flamingo is pink right?

Near to the flamingos was this beautiful lady.

A Black Panther!* I thought she looked a bit like my Pandora. She remained asleep the entire time.

*this classification seems to be a bit like the great soda/pop debate. If I remember correctly, there was a bit of a...disagreement regarding the term "Panther" while we were looking at her. Here in N. America the term panther is used to refer to Cougars AKA Mountain Lions. In other parts of the world it is used synonymously with Leopard. Consequently, this was a Melanistic Leopard.

For those of you that I haven't bored to death, here is a funny little guy.

Note, I've referred to this turkeyish creature and the monkey as male when I really don't have any idea. I'm merely basing it on how aggressive both of them were. They were both tirelessly protecting their territory from something they perceived as threatening. Here is the aggressor in action.

Over the top of the leopard cage was this fun little statue. It's so Mayan in style since that was the theme of this particular area.

Venturing back outside, we find these adorable fellows.

They had a sweet little setup and were happy to pose for a few portraits.

While checking out the penguins, I looked up into some greenery above my head. There was a bit of a rocky outcrop that had some fencing around it. This is what was staring back at me.

What the!?! What in the world IS that thing? Oh, you want a closer look? Well ok.

Downright prehistoric looking isn't it! I actually had to find an employee to identify it for me.

So, can any of you tell me what it is? First one to guess the right answer wins a prize! (ok, so that prize *might* only be a pat on the back but hey, you'll look SMART!)

I'll have the right answer and some more great shots of him next week.

Well that concludes our little safari. We hope you've enjoyed yourself. If you've lost any family members along the way, please report it to the game warden.

Be sure to exit in an orderly fashion.

Thank you.

Where we take a trip below the surface

2008-08-01T13:36:00.015-05:00

Funny thing. I was going through some photos and realized I never posted about an attraction we went to in Dallas last February.

The Dallas World Aquarium is a fantastic little place. It doesn't look very big from the outside but holy turtles does it pack the features in!

Today we will visit the water creatures. And I might throw a few other random photos in. Maybe.

Tomorrow (AKA the next time I post) will be creatures that live above the surface.

First up on our undersea adventure are some of the smallest creatures.

Yay for coral! Unless you're walking across it barefoot. Ooh! And can you see what's living amongst the coral?

That's right! A giant clam. The largest species of mollusk. Did you know there are some people that are afraid of them because they think if they get close to one it'll clamp down on an arm or leg and drown them? I can't make this stuff up people.

Next we'll visit a fantastical creature that looks as though it's straight out of a fantasy novel.

This, my friends, is a ~~slightly out of focus~~ beautiful Leafy Sea Dragon. Like the seahorses they're related to, the Leafy Sea Dragon reproduces in an unusual way. It's the MALE of the species that becomes 'pregnant' and houses the eggs in his tail until they are ready to hatch. What a dad!

And speaking of seahorses...

I love seahorses.

You know what else I love? Cuttlefish.

Like some other creatures, these can change color very quickly. It's like watching liquid color. Mesmerizing.

This little guy was sittin' here minding his own business, colors playing across the surface of his (or her...I really can't tell) skin, when a big ol' mean fish swam up. I didn't get the fish, but I got his reaction.

He was pissed! Just look at that color change.

Next we move on to the larger animals. Mr. Turtle says "HI!".

And now on to a face that only a mother could love.

Woah! Did you see that monster fish!? Yee Gads! That thing looks almost as big as the manatee!

All right, maybe not THAT big.

Well, my fingers and toes are all pruney from our oceanic trip. It's time to wave goodbye to the fishes (and mammals, and reptiles, and polyps, and mollusks, and...well you get the idea).

Join us next time for a journey above the sea!

Where the Wild West Is Still Alive

2008-07-25T10:11:00.022-05:00

When thinking of vacation places so many folks tend to imagine tropical beaches, quaint European villages, and a myriad of other exotic locations. But how many of us have really seen all the U.S. has to offer?

I've been to a good many states but truthfully? Most of the time I was just drivin' on through. I've only been to a few states/cities where I took the time to check out the sites.

Recently we spent some time in Fort Worth. Texas is such an...interesting...place. Heh. I mean, it WAS a country of it's own at one time. And I think more than a handful of Texans still have a bit of that mindset. But...I digress. On with the pictures. These are a representation of one of our days in Fort Worth.

Preston's stint as a cowboy was short lived.
(I couldn't get him to stay behind the cutout for more than two pictures)

The cutout was located in a part of the Fort Worth Stockyards. Pretty facinating place. If you look closely at the left side of the above picture, you'll see the train tracks that run down the middle of the building. It's where they used to sell off the sheep and hogs.

I thought to myself, "Wow! It would be so cool if they still had a train come through here!".

This was a pretty cool train. You could ride from Grapevine, TX down to the Stockyards in Fort Worth and back again. Looked like uber fun!

After watching the train pull through a building full of people (there were no guardrails or ropes to hold someone back) we stepped outside to see what other dangers we might encounter in the scary land of Texas.

What the!?

That's right folks. They're longhorns. Being herded down a street packed with parked cars and people.

What do you think would happen if they decided to stampede? Yikes.

Moving on...we then decided to see a Wild West show that was billed as a reenactment of the old Pawnee Bill show. Umm...not quite. But it was still very entertaining!

Here is "Pawnee Bill" riding on two horses around the ring.

Have I mentioned that I love motion blur? Yeah yeah...I know I said I love lens flares...but I love motion blur almost as much.

This guy was shooting at that balloon behind him. Using a mirror.

Pawnee Bill is back with some fancy whip work.

He missed the first time but came back around and got it the second.

And if the guys weren't daredevil enough for you...check out THIS lady!

So we enjoyed the show and made our way out of the arena back into the hot sun. Feeling tired and thirsty we headed into downtown Fort Worth to visit the Flying Saucer. (I didn't think to take pictures of this)

We passed by the Bass Performance Hall on the way.

Yep. All of my angel shots were grossly underexposed. Which is why the lighting in that picture above looks so weird. My Photoshop skills only go so far.

Speaking of Photoshop. I leave you with a portrait. This woman fascinated me and and I wish I had her job.

Grant's Farm

2008-07-21T12:55:00.009-05:00

A few weeks ago we visited Grant's Farm. With the Impending Doom...er...I mean InBev buyout, I wonder if Grant's Farm will remain.

I would be sad if it didn't. Look at the fun we had! (and I somehow managed to not take pictures of the fun BEER we drank)

First of all, my favorite thing to do (besides the free beer of course) is feed the goats. I convinced Preston to join me and these are the results.

He seemed to attract quite an unruly bunch of goats.

I, on the other hand, managed my goats with grace and ease...

Wait a second. What's that goat doing!?

Feasting on my camera bag!?! Back you evil goats!

Yipe!! Mayday mayday!

Whew! I think we barely made it out intact. Those suckers are ruthless!

Maybe they should take the InBev folks to Grant's Farm and lock them in the goat pen for a few hours. It just might change their minds...

Portraits

2008-07-17T13:13:00.010-05:00

Friends...Lovers...Enemies...

...you decide.

Though...many of them might be enemies after seeing this post.

And Kristen...you get two. But that's only because this following picture inspired this whole mess.

What the heck is that thing?!

2008-06-30T14:49:00.006-05:00

Pirey?

Fairet?

That, my friends, is me dressed as a Pirate Fairy. No, not a Fairy Pirate...that's something entirely different. A Pirate Fairy is one of the most feared fairies in all the....uh yeah. The wings are giving me away aren't they.

In all seriousness, while this costume pushed me into behaviors entirely unfamiliar to me, it was really a lot of fun. The kids LOVED it and everyone loved the wings.

Yep, they're made to look like sails. Preston's idea. Brilliant.

Thanks Dee for forwarding these pictures to me. If I get around to asking others for copies of the ones they took I may post more.

In the meantime...YAR! (umm...can someone help me get this glitter off?!!)

There IS an explanation

2008-06-19T12:20:00.021-05:00

Now that the craziness that is Faire has subsided temporarily, I had the time to go through a few old photos. I hope to get a Disney World post up sometime soon, but until then, here are some fun pictures that my mom insisted I take.

See, my mom is hilarious. She doesn't just send easter baskets to me...Kristen, Kristi, and Stephanie get one too. This year she sent us some of the best easter baskets I've seen. Sure, they were cute little bunnies. But they were cute little bunnies that we could color!

Yes. We're 7.

Along with the baskets, she sent us all bunny ears. And mom wanted pictures.

Now...a normal person would do this activity in the privacy of her (or her friends) own home. But, as you all know, normalcy is not something I bother with. That and the fact that I was REALLY busy. So, since everyone was getting together at Riley's one evening I figured it was the perfect time to break out the easter baskets.

The following is pictorial evidence of the silliness that ensued.
*disclaimer: I hate flash. Hate it hate it. But in a dimly lit bar, it's a bit of a necessity. I apologize in advance for the poor lighting.

This is the main cast of characters. Rico did a great job as stunt double for me.

So, they couldn't hold that serious pose for very long. They were cute for trying though.

Rico and I did the ol' switcheroo so mom wouldn't yell at me for not getting a picture of myself in the bunny ears. We really don't want mom to yell...

So, before getting down to business...

...we had to get some beers in us. It's really the only way to properly wear bunny ears in a bar.

I have a cuter pic of Steph than this one, but she would kill me if I posted it here. Seriously. Kill. Me. So, you get the more typical Steph pic instead.

Then we got down to business.

Yep. That's right. We were sitting in a bar, with bunny ears on (significantly after Easter if I might add),coloring our bunny easter baskets.

Rico and I shared...

...so we could take turns on the camera again.

Luckily only minor injuries were sustained.

And then the finished products were reveled. I think Steph has some issues she needs help working out. Any volunteers?

Can you believe I didn't get a picture of Rico/My finished bunny? Sorry mom.

And while we were all having fun with our ears and our markers, Preston joined us on a break from playing music. See how thrilled he was to put on the bunny ears?

Psst. Don't let him fool you. THIS is more like it.

Just don't tell him I posted that picture. Or he's going to kick my butt.

HAHAHAHA...haha...Uh...ehem. I'm sorry, *snicker*, I just can't be frightened of that!

Maybe THIS.

But not that.

Grey

2008-05-13T18:06:00.003-05:00

What do you mean I'm WAAAAAYYYY late in posting this? So it's been a month since I posted. So I'm way behind on my color blogs. Doesn't look like anyone else is doing theirs either!

You wanna make something of it?

I didn't think so.

Anywho...

Grey is the only color I actually had planned when this thing started. Does anyone remember the Grey Squirrel song from our camp days? Some had slightly different lyrics but it mostly went something like this:

Grey Squirrel, Grey Squirrel, shake your bushy tail. Huh!
Grey Squirrel, Grey Squirrel, shake your bushy tail. Huh!
Put a nut between your toes,
Wrinkle up your little nose,
Grey Squirrel, Grey Squirrel, shake your bushy tail. Huh!

*and just a note for those "Huh"s. With each one you had to do that 'arm pump' thing where you made a fist, wrist pointed towards the sky, and brought your elbow in to your side. I don't know why. We just did.

The lyrics I learned were slightly different. Of course, they were learned from the kids I was camp counselor for. Where it says "Grey Squirrel" we actually said "Squirrelly". And where it says "Wrinkle up your little nose", we said "shove it up your little nose". And as a counselor I laughed every time. What, me? Encouraging juvenile behavior?

Now, in doing some brief research, I found THIS site. From Google I clicked the link (because it said it had an MP3 and I want to share the joy of this song with all of you) and I about sprayed my screen with ~~wine~~ totally non-alcoholic grape juice when I started reading. HILARIOUS.

Please click the song lyrics to hear it. But the videos are even better (click 'launch external player' if you don't have the plugin). You'll see several incarnations of the song.

Now, you ask, what is it that gave me the 'Grey Squirrel' idea for the color Grey?

This.

This little squirrel had no interest in nuts. Ahh...the urban jungle.

Turquoise

2008-04-03T15:40:00.006-05:00

I'm a week behind. It's not that I don't want to continue this color blogging thing. I love it! I've been busy ok? But I already have Grey all planned out. Random question...how do YOU spell the color Grey?

So...Turquoise. I hated this color growing up. Being a redhead, it was one of the colors that my Mom used to always tell me was 'appropriate' for me. That and orange. And coral. I've come to terms with orange. Orange and I are best buds. Coral and turquoise? We're still working things out.

Instead of photos...this week you get to see a new project I've been working on. Over the next few weeks I'm going to try to learn a little more about HTML and CSS and how they work. I've only done a teeny bit of reading so far and only on basic HTML. But these little form actions I learned about are fun! Here. Take a look.

So what exactly IS Turquoise?

Then I learned how to make a button!

Check boxes are fun...

But radio buttons are even more so!

Ok ok...as you've by now figured out the button, drop down menu, and radio buttons don't actually do anything. But hey...I know how to build those elements now. Oh...and pssst. That comment form? THAT one actually works (well, at least it pulls up good ol' Outlook so you could send an email...but I haven't actually tested it)...I'm just sayin.

I'm going to have fun with this...

Magenta

2008-03-31T10:16:00.009-05:00

What is it they say about the best laid plans?

Anyway. Magenta. Other than this being Steph's favorite color...what else does Magenta have going for it? Well my friends, Magenta is actually a pretty important color! Remember our old friends the Primary colors?

Good ol' RED, YELLOW, and BLUE.

*hee hee...did you read those by the color on screen or by the text? :) err...sorry. Back to Magenta.

Do you remember what used to happen when you would combine those good ol' primary colors?

Red + Yellow = Orange
Blue + Red = Purple
Yellow + Blue = Green

And so on and so forth. But being the amateur color mixers that we were, we couldn't mix much more than that. Remember how everything would just turn into a brownish blob of color?

Did you know that this is why printers use the colors Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black? (better known as CMYK *bonus points if you know what the 'K' stands for*) These four colors combine to make a FAR larger range of colors than the old Red, Yellow, and Blue when it comes to pigment mixing. Since I only use the free version of Photoshop, I don't have the option of printing in CMYK. But the average person probably isn't going to be able to tell the difference. If I ever start printing out my photographs...that will be a different story.

Recently, at the North Texas Irish Festival, I discovered that stage lighting can make use of similar colors. Meet Angus. He's here to help us illustrate this point.

Angus is the frontman for a great little indie band called Brother. I caught them for the first time two years ago and was glad to see them back (albeit one member shorter) this year. They play a variety of instruments which really gives their music a unique sound.

These pictures were an experiment as I'm not a concert photographer and don't really have the proper lenses for this type of lightning situation. When I took them I thought "What the heck. It's not like I'm wasting film or anything." Surprisingly, I actually came out with some decent shots.

But I digress. The shots you get to see today are the shots that are illustrating the use of Magenta in stage lighting. (i.e. not necessarily the best shots I took) In looking at the following picture I (being a huge nerd) went "Hey! That's CMY! Cool!". Take a look:

See it? For those of you that are less nerdy than me and wouldn't notice the color separation from the lights on the shirt of the lead singer while listening to a rockin' awesome band...here it is a little clearer:

(click on that pic to get a closer and more readable version of the photo)

Here it is one more time...but with a different focus. Say hello to Drew. He plays the didgeridoo real awesomeish!

So there you go. Magenta DOES have a purpose! And maybe I'll post more of the concert pics sometime soon...

Gold

2008-03-20T17:18:00.005-05:00

When I first set out to do this post, my original intention was to do one similar to the silver post. I figured it would only be appropriate. I mean, gold is kind of opposite of silver right?

(I've always thought they were mortal enemies...but hey. That's just me)

So while mulling this around in my head, instead of working, I looked over at the hell beast. She was lying in the sun all sleepy-eyed and I realized...Holy Turtles she's got pretty gold eyes!

In typical cat fashion, her eyes change color a bit. But primarily, they're gold.

This got me realizing. There is another in my life that has color-changing eyes.

Pandora's eyes are usually either gold or green. They match my light green quilt perfectly when she is laying on it.

All this realizing made me realize something else.

Thats right. It made me realize I should lay off the cheesy Photoshop techniques.

Silver

2008-03-17T14:45:00.021-05:00

Once again, I'm behind.

Silver is a tough one. I tried and tried to come up with something Silver that was important to me. Yeah yeah, several of you assumed I would do jewelry but I've already POSTED about the stuff I made in my metalsmithing class so long ago. And I certainly haven't done any MORE of that recently.

As I sat and looked around my house for inspiration, I began to realize that silver is so...utilitarian! There are TONS of things around the house that are silver. There was only one problem. It was after dark and I HATE the on-board flash on my camera. It washes things out something fierce! Often to where I can't repair them with my limited Photoshop skills.

BUT! I had been looking for a good excuse to try this (ok, you're right, I don't need an excuse to TRY it...just an excuse to use the time to fiddle with it). It didn't work quite as well as I would have liked but it did improve things significantly.

So. On to all things silver! Er...at least, in my house.

First up was the test shot with the film canister diffuser. As I happened to catch two...count them TWO!...silver objects in the shot, it's included by default. Those are scissors and an X-Acto knife for you craft impaired people.

Next is the ladder (thanks Mom!) I used as a 'tripod' when I took these photos.

As I wandered past the ladder I caught a glimpse of these in the bathroom.

There wasn't really anywhere to go from there, so I headed towards the kitchen. On the way, I passed the old desktop computer. This is the old broken down mouse that doesn't work right.

The left button performs the function the right button should and the right button doesn't do anything at all.

The wheel still opens links in a background tab though!

I found this on my fridge. Who in the heck is Bruce?

Just kidding. This clip came from an old place of employment and this clip used to hold jobs for Bruce.

Now it just holds my butter recipes. And a Cracker Jacks prize.

There is my silver accented coffee pot. (thanks Mom!)

Eww. I really need to wipe the waterspots off the top of that. And NO! That is NOT a wine bottle hiding back there. Really. What are you trying to suggest?

And next to the silver coffee pot is a high window.

In that high window sits the pepper shaker.

WHY is it there? Pshaw. I certainly have no idea!

The kitchen holds such a myriad of silver items. Here is my deadbolt. It does not turn in the direction one would think a deadbolt should turn.

Took me a year to get used to that...

Of course there is a silver item nearly everyone has in their kitchen.

No. Besides the silverware.

You shouldn't ever be caught without it.

That and toilet paper. But I digress. What else can I find around here that's silver?

Oh look! There's the salt shaker!

Oh. Oh my. Do you see what's next to it?

No, not the Karo syrup! On the LEFT side of the salt. That's the fancy shmancy disposable pepper grinder.

Shallow salt shaker. Only hanging with the pretty condiments.

Moving right along, here is the lawn chair that Jeremy left behind after the Mardi Gras celebration in Soulard.

Hey Jeremy! Finders keepers!

Oh! I almost forgot!

It was hiding here in the corner. THIS is certainly a (mostly) silver object that is meaningful to me! (Again...thanks Mom!)

Seriously. Have any of YOUR moms ever bought YOU a sword? Huh?

Alright. Since I could go on forever like this (there are a TON of silver items in your house when you start looking!) I'll give you just one last picture.

I use this more and more frequently. It's my grandmother's sewing machine that my Mom lugged all the way from Oregon for me. (Once AGAIN...thanks Mom!)

I think I should have named this post "Things my Mom has given me".

Workplace Dangers

2008-03-12T09:05:00.010-05:00

There are many jobs that are considered dangerous. High-rise construction, crewing a crab boat in Alaska, firework technician, customer service for the local utility company...

My job is hardly considered dangerous. Unless you count paper-cuts and carpal tunnel. Except for two things. There are two very serious dangers at my place of employment. Prepare to meet the first!

See how she stalks her prey!?

There's nowhere to hide!

She WILL find you...

And voice her displeasure in your attempt to escape.

She is always watching.

Always.

The other danger in the office is a danger of a slightly different sort. While the previously mentioned ferocious beast keeps you on your toes, the following furry ball of cuteness lures you into a false sense of security. I believe they're working together.

That is plotting my friends...not sleeping.

He sneers at your attempts to resist his cuteness.

In all seriousness. How in the world am I supposed to get any work done with these guys around? They're a constant form of entertainment and distraction.

Don't tell the boss though...

Brown

2008-03-07T12:24:00.007-06:00

Upon a hilltop in a land
of Rainbow colors out of hand,
there lived a stone of little hue,
he wasn't red or green or blue.

In this land of multi-tone
unhappy was this little stone.
The reason for this you shall see
was that he thought he was ugly.

The other stones were bright and gay
lighthearted in the games they play,
the lonely stone was left alone
his name even was quite unknown.

Like sparkling jewels among the sand,
or diamond rings upon your hand,
shone all these stones of brilliant sheen,
the red and yellow, blue and green.

And trapped within this land of cheer,
he tried to hold back just one tear.
The reason that he was so down,
his color was a boring brown.

In younger days he tried to play,
with even just the stones of grey.
He looked for friendship joy and love
and something to be a part of.

They told him not to come around,
for no one liked his boring brown.
With weighty heart and heavy sigh,
he chose to let life slide on by.

For years and years he sat so still
that no one saw him on his hill,
and though his spirit seemed to break
there'd come a day when he would wake.

The years of sun revealed a glow,
new colors that began to show.
Copper, bronze, and even gold
were there like treasure to behold.

No longer was he plain and round,
a change had happened on the ground.
The wind and rain and Divine art
had shaped him to a lovely heart.

And this, my love, is how I found
a lovely stone so bronzed and brown,
no longer lonely now you see
because I brought him home with me.

Of all the stones within that land
no other did I take to hand.
The brown one was no doubt my prize,
the brilliant color of your eyes.

Black

2008-03-05T10:06:00.010-06:00

As you may have noticed, I'm nearly a week late on this post.

Last Wednesday I blissfully posted my pictures from the lunar eclipse and went on my merry way. The very next day I was alerted to the fact that the next color on the list was black.

Seriously!? I just posted all those great nighttime pictures a DAY BEFORE the color posting day AND didn't title it 'BLACK'? Brilliant.

Steph suggested I scurry back and re-title it but you know...I just couldn't do it. I figured those pics deserved a better title than 'BLACK'. So. Now that we have seen how unobservant I am...on to the actual color post.

There were many things I could have written about here. Black is an important color to me. Much of my wardrobe is black, my camera and camera bag are black, my cat is black, one of my favorite/most frustrating horses growing up was black...seriously, I could go on forever here.

I also thought about writing about how black is a truly misunderstood color. I thought you might be interested in the science of black. It's always bothered me that people assume that black is the 'absence of light' when it really is ABSORBING the entire spectrum. So in reality, since black absorbs light, it's really FULL of light where as the color WHITE would be an absence of light. Makes you think about the traditional meanings of color doesn't it? But, since your eyes are already glassing over, I won't write about the science of the color black.

Instead, I'm going to show you one of the most important black objects in my life.

Here you see my car. My lovely wonderful car. This car was the car that I had my first (and only) accident in; it's the car that goes through starters like a four year old goes through Lucky Charms; and it's the car that functions not only as transportation but as a personal storage space, closet, and food pantry. This car has been with me for...five years I think?

Oh how I love snow. It hides a multitude of sins. Here are the things you DON'T see in this picture:

The dent on the rear quarter panel from where I scraped a pesky telephone pole while trying to be nice to a girl that was looking for a parking spot the night before Mardi Gras three years ago.
The dent and gouge in the back where I mowed over a dumpster that had the audacity to jump right behind my car just as I was backing out.
The missing plastic thingy that goes right behind the front driver's side tire that fell off sometime in the last three weeks.
The various orange peels, chip bags, soda cans, and random pieces of mail littering the floorboards and back seat.
The giant crack in the windshield that I've had since February of '03. Or was it '02? How do you normal people keep track of what years certain things happened? I have no sense of normal time passage.
The general unwashed state of the car. I won't lie. It's filthy. But hey, think of it this way. You can write all those cute and clever messages on it like "Wash Me" and "Ridin' Dirty" and...wait. Those aren't cute OR clever. So knock it off.

Anyway, there are a few of the things you DON'T see in that picture up there. But something you DO see?? All that snow!

That's right my friends. I moved to Canada! Check it out!

That's a Canadian solar powered traffic signal changer. Those Canadians! They're so eco-friendly!

And that's obviously a Canadian truck. Parked on the side of a Canadian street. That was plowed by a Canadian plow.

And this is the Canadian road to my new Canadian house.

Isn't my new Canadian house just beautiful? It came with the snow. Free of charge. Cause we're in Canada.

And last, that's my new Canadian back porch.

What do you mean it looks like my back porch in St. Louis? And that that house looks nothing like mine? You're crazy.

This is SO Canada.

Shadow of the Earth

2008-02-27T10:11:00.010-06:00

There are some things in this world that you should make every effort to see. Even if you have to brave frigid temperatures to do so.

The lunar eclipse of last week was one of those things.

You all know me, so I'm sure you've been expecting this post for a week now. I, of course, couldn't resist trying to take some pictures of the eclipse. Mind you, this was no easy task. It went down a little something like this:

*driving home from a lovely dinner I'd had with my co-workers
In catching a glimpse of the moon while pulling into my alleyway I thought to myself "Oh look! The lunar eclipse has started! I should get some pictures of that!".

I rushed upstairs and took my camera and zoom lens out of the bag. At this point I realized...I didn't have a tripod. "No worries!" I thought, "I'll just run out and hold my breath while I take the shot." Yes, I was purposefully neglecting the fact that the zoom lens magnifies the slightest movement and that there would be NO way for me to hold still enough. Regardless, I ran down and took a few of these shots:

*oh but look at that beautiful beautiful lens flare! Yes. I know I have a problem.

Now to be fair, I also didn't have the shutter speed set correctly. I had never tried to take pictures of the moon before. That sucker puts out a LOT of light! Anyway, I quickly realized that even dialing up the shutter speed was not going to give me the sharpest picture I could get. So upstairs I went. I was on a quest. There HAD to be something in my apartment that would take the place of a tripod.

I looked at empty cardboard boxes (not tall or sturdy enough), a stool (really not tall enough), a broom handle (hey, a monopod is better than nothing), and a folding chair (I was getting desperate). Then, low and behold, some little voice in my head spoke up and said "YO! Dude. You have a ladder. A lovely four foot ladder." And I rejoiced.

I grabbed said ladder and one of those boxes (to prop under the front legs of the ladder so I could get the proper angle) and tromped back downstairs. All the strange looks I got from people driving by (I had to stand near the street in the front of my building...and later even IN the street) were worth these pictures:

Sadly, I don't have the equipment that would have allowed me to take a picture of the total eclipse. This was the closest I could get. Ah well. Maybe in another two years.

Purple

2008-02-21T21:46:00.009-06:00

"I love you, you love me..."

Should I continue? Or do you all know exactly where this is going?

That's right. This post is all about our favorite dinosaur. Did I say favorite?

Let me explain...

I met Barney a couple of years ago here in St. Louis. He's actually a really cool guy! He's been known to play some really great music, tell some really funny jokes, and I've even heard that he may be a pirate. Ok ok, so maybe I don't know BARNEY...but I know someone that's been in that suit.

Our story starts with this little band called The Bilge Pumps. At one time, Preston was a member of said band along with several other people...including Patrick. According to Preston, he and Patrick had some pretty crazy times together with everyone in that band. (if you haven't already, ask Preston about the fudgesicle incident and the 'fun with black powder' adventure) Patrick came to St. Louis a couple of years back while on tour with the Barney show and we got the chance to hang out with him for a bit.

*I don't really know how he ended up as Barney...and I don't think I really want to know. But I digress.

We had heard that Patrick wasn't feeling so well, so Steph and I (and I say 'I' very loosely here it was ALL Steph's idea, I only encouraged it) decided to cheer him up by coloring these:

*these aren't the actual pages Steph printed out for us to color...but it's been a while. I don't remember which pages we actually did. And I'm pretty sure we captioned them inappropriately too...

Yeah, we knew we were risking looking like the complete dorks that we are...but heck. Why waste time on trying to look like we weren't dorks. We then presented them (quite proudly if I remember correctly) to him.

So, what's the point of this story? Other than the fact that this week's color is purple and Barney is THE purple dinosaur?

I just wanted you all to know that I (and a few very select others) are now the COOLEST kids on the block. That's right. WE know Barney.

Blue

2008-02-16T16:27:00.004-06:00

Yeah, I'm late. BIIIIIIGGGGG surprise right?

So. Blue. Blue is for bucket.

That's right. I said bucket.

This is the story of a Walrus and his bucket.

This one is my favorite but I can't seem to get it to post...

Seriously guys.

Stop.

Me.

I'm so addicted to this stupid site that it's bordering on obsession.

I even found this dictionary the other day. Remember when I said I couldn't stand the 'internet speak' that they were using? It's grown on me. And I find that very, very frightening.

Did you know that they even have one of these sites for dogs?

Even my computer is trying to make an intervention. I can't seem to keep it connected to the internet...

Ah well...we all have to have at least ONE vice right? (yes, some of us have many...you hush!)

If

2008-02-11T10:01:00.000-06:00

I stole a fun little meme from another blog I occasionally read. What IS a meme anyway?? I mean, I know that it is typically a list of questions to answer or a silly quiz, but where did the name come from? And how in the heck are you supposed to pronounce it? Ohhh. Ok, check it out if you were curious too. If not, well...then don't. It's your choice. Live your life in complete intellectual darkness. Hey, it's no skin off MY back.

Anyway. I don't usually do these, but I liked the idea behind this one. It's called the 'CD Cover Meme' and it's fun! Here's the deal:

"The CD Cover Meme group has only three rules: (1) The first article title on this random wiki page is the name of your band, (2) the last four words of the very last quote on this random quote page is the title of your album, and (3) the third picture here, no matter what it is, will be your album cover."*

*The picture thing is a bit more complicated than that. It takes a bit more tenacity to find one that is not 'all rights reserved'. What you need to do when you get to the flickr page is:
1. Click on the third picture
2. Scroll down and look on the right hand side of the page.
3. Look for the copyright. It will say either 'all rights reserved' or 'some rights reserved'
4. If it says 'all rights reserved', back up and click the reload button
5. Repeat 1-4 until you find one that is 'some rights reserved'

Now, I'm certain that we have all been guilty of posting pictures that are technically 'all rights reserved' in the past. I know I have. But since flickr allows us to see this information easily...well, there is just no excuse.

There ARE photos you can use...it just takes several minutes of clicking to find one that works.

In any case, on to the results. If I were a rockstar...

This band name totally speaks to me. It reminds me (in length at least) of a little band Kristi and I will someday start called The Fuzzy Armadillos and the World Symphony Orchestra.

To give proper recognition for the photo, THIS is the talented person that took the original shot.

Alright guys. Have fun with this if you choose to do it. (and you don't have to have Photoshop...use this as an excuse to try GIMP)

Green

2008-02-08T14:55:00.001-06:00

Green is the color of...

MUCOUS!

That's right my friends. I said it. Last weekend I came down with the Plague of '08 and let me just tell you...it was not pretty. And I had the milder version than most people seem to be getting.

So. Since we all know that I don't like to do a post without pictures these days, I've included a few below. Check it out!

Ok. I'm kidding. Did you really think I was going to take a REAL picture of mucous?? Eww. That's gross.

Instead, here are a few pictures of some of the things I needed to get through a day of the plague.

Kleenex. Unarguably the most important item.

Why most important? Trust me. You really want these around for when you suddenly need to sneeze.

Chapstick.

This stuff is completely necessary for your poor nose after all the above mentioned kleenexes. What's that? You thought it was for your lips? Well, if your lips need it too...please do us all a favor and use a different stick. Cause that's just nasty!

Sudafed.

I don't take cold medicine. But my head was so clogged up by the third day of this thing...I had to do something! And I don't really know how old this stuff is...can you even buy it over the counter anymore??

Cough drops.

These were donated by a co-worker. Was she concerned for ME or just concerned my coughing would infect her??

Juice.

I don't like orange juice. Period. BUT, I do like tangerine juice. And since I didn't have a lot of choices where I got this from...I figured a mix was ok. AND did you know that Juicy Juice is one of the only choices (and the ONLY one at the store I was at) that doesn't add high fructose corn syrup to their juice? AND I was going to cut it with this...

Diet 7-up.

This is my favoritest sick drink of all time. I drink peppermint tea too...but I love this stuff. I think it's because it's what my mom gave me when I was little. And it's the only way I'll drink orangy-type juice. Oh yeah. And it's green too.
*yes, that is the Christmas version of Diet 7-up. I guess the store I went to doesn't re-stock very often.

Thermometer.

The fever was the part that made me feel the worst. Luckily I didn't have anything over 99.7. It was just enough to make me sluggish.

Affirmation Orange.

This is seriously my favorite. I bought these little beauts the other day, having no idea they would help raise my self esteem when I was sick and feeling nasty. But look at that!

Now, several weeks ago Steph told me that there was a very simple way to get rid of excess mucous. It's called a Neti Pot. Steph is crazy.

I think this guy has the right of it though.

So there you have it. Those were a few things I needed to get through a day at work while sick this week. Minus the Neti Pot crazy Steph. Oh...and do you want to know what else is green?

I know I promised I wouldn't post anymore pictures of my feet on this site. But I lied. Deal with it.

Besides, I had to! This is one of my favorite sock combinations. The argyle and stripe combo. And look! They're both mostly green today! (the stripes are green if you can't tell by the picture)

So that's it. Sorry if I grossed you out with the whole mucous thing. And the foot thing. Huh. It's interesting...there seems to be a lot more 'gross' stuff on this site lately. I promise I'll do better to make the next post pretty. Ok?

Ok.

You say Pancakes, I say Crepes

2008-02-05T10:05:00.000-06:00

Most of you know that today is Fat Tuesday. And since it has been established that I am usually the last to know things, I'm going to assume that you also know that it's Pancake Day. But do you know WHY it's Pancake Day?

Shrove Tuesday, or otherwise know as Fat Tuesday to many others, is celebrated in several countries including the UK, Ireland, Australia, and Canada. As it is the day before Ash Wednesday (and hence the beginning of Lent) people needed a way to get rid of the foods they wouldn't be eating over the next 40 days. What better way to get rid of butter, eggs, and sugar than making pancakes?

Ok, right about now I know Steph is scratching her head. She's saying to herself, "What the HECK is Tracie doing a post about pancakes for?!". You see, we've discussed how I don't like pancakes. She even made me cry when she called me a freak. It scarred me for life. Ok. Not really. But I did pout for a minute.

Well, I figured what better time than Pancake Day to make a pancake related confession? So. Deep breath. Here goes.

I like pancakes.

Whew! Oh man, I'm so glad to get that off my chest. Whats that? Didn't I just say I DON'T like pancakes? You want to know what the deal is?

When I say the word 'Pancake', what immediately comes to mind? It's probably these:

Most think of these fluffy buttermilk style pancakes...or flapjacks as some call them. You know the ones. My mom used to make them with Bisquick. Blech. A GOOD one is light and fluffy. A bad one is heavy and sticks to the roof of your mouth. They're the ones you have to drink a full glass of milk just to choke one down. You might as well forget the rest of the plate. I decided long ago that when presented with a choice, I'm a waffle girl. Nice golden crisp waffles. But I digress.

Now THESE...

...these make my heart sing. These can cure any ill. These can do away with world hunger. Or promote world peace. These could even stop global warming.

Ok. Maybe I'm getting a little carried away. But seriously. I love crepes. Or as mom used to call them, thin pancakes. I've also heard them referred to as Swedish pancakes, German pancakes, and Dutch pancakes. And of course there are many minor differences in each recipe and what toppings you can put in or on them.

So. I DO like pancakes. Just not American pancakes.

Oh, and another little tidbit for you. IHOP joins in on what THEY call 'National Pancake Day'. They'll give you a free short stack of pancakes and encourage you to donate to Children's Miracle Network. Of course, they didn't want to compete with Super Tuesday so they changed it to February 12th. Cause we here in America don't have to follow the rules! Yeah, uh...so...

Anyone wanna go for some free flapjacks? Course...I won't be eating them. Even when they're free I just can't do it. But I'll have me some Swedish pancakes. Who's in?

Yellow

2008-02-01T10:14:00.001-06:00

Yellow is the color of CAUTION. Let me provide you with a few examples:

You see? C.A.U.T.I.O.N

Caution: Stupid people may be reading your sign. Be sure to prepare for this.

Caution: Learning might occur at the end of this trip.

Caution: We will taste nasty.

Caution: With proper use, some cleaning will be accomplished.

Caution: Is only useful as a booster seat for small children.

Caution: This street marking is not valid in Missouri. Proceed at own risk.

Caution: Increase speed or risk not making it through this intersection.

Caution: For decoration only. Not intended for actual use.

So remember. Be cautious around anything yellow. It's just safer that way.

This Is The Day...This Is The Day... *

2008-01-30T19:47:00.000-06:00

...to delete your myspace page I guess. Happened across this blog entry and had a nice little chuckle. Sounds like this guy arbitrarily decided to make January 30th "National Delete Your Myspace Page Day". It's funny, I almost did this on my own last Sunday.

On his original post about it, he gave some reasons you might want to delete your account. Here are a few I thought were funny:

4. You visit someone’s Myspace profile only to suddenly have music start blasting out of your speakers. Bonus points if it happens to you while you’re at work.

This usually isn't a huge issue for me. I keep my speakers off most of the time. But if you're surfing myspace at work?...kinda serves you right don't you think?

6. You visit someone’s profile only to have your eyes bleed because of terrible page layout with non-matching designs and font colors.

Haven't I talked about this before? Oh yeah. Here it is. This is a serious serious problem people. Don't you ever visit your page and see what it looks like to the rest of us??

9. You’re frustrated with the fact that Myspace doesn’t allow you to post your contact info, meaning to contact someone you can only use Myspace’s glitchy Instant Messenger, message/email system, or wall commenting.

Ok. It's going to start sounding like I'm sticking up for myspace here or something (and that's not what I'm doing at ALL) but doesn't everyone know the reason you don't put actual contact info on a very public web page? I mean aside from the fact that you'll get a CRAPload of spam...it's dangerous folks. And if you REALLY want to post your email address?...um, you all know that workaround right?

10. You’re tired of seeing Tom stare out at you from millions of friends lists and just wish he would change his f***ing profile picture. **

Tom has always cracked me up. Maybe I was a little hasty when I immediately deleted him from my friends list...but hey. I didn't know the guy. He wasn't my friend. Why has everyone kept him around? Are they really that desperate for the largest number of 'friends' they can possibly come up with? Yeesh.

Now don't get me wrong. Myspace has its uses. I have several music friends that swear by it for networking. And thats great. But boy am I tired of having to pick my "top" friends. Or all those stupid bulletins.

I may not have jumped on the bandwagon THIS January 30th...but there's always next year.

One of these days Myspace...

...one of these days.

*who can finish the good ol' Sunday School tune the title came from?

**curse word omitted to protect the innocent. After all, this is a family friendly site folks.

We're not in Kansas anymore...

2008-01-29T18:14:00.000-06:00

Crazy wind! Just lost power briefly. Another reason laptops rock!

Today's high was somewhere around 60 degrees at sometime around 12 or 1ish.*

The temperature now? 20 degrees.

And windy as CRAP!

After being TOO warm in my sweater around 12:30 this afternoon, this is the site that greeted me when I left the office at 3:30 this afternoon to do an inspection:

That's snow. I wish I had had my good camera in hand when I walked out the door instead of the work camera.

*correction. Kristi's right. The high was actually 73 today. Sheesh.

Time I'll never get back

2008-01-28T15:06:00.000-06:00

I stumbled across this site today. Hilarious stuff. But I have one major problem with it.

Whoever captions those things should be hung upside down by their toes and slapped silly with a herring. I'm not sure if the person really has no grasp on the English language or if they're trying to make the statement that the animals have no grasp on the English language.

Regardless, it's highly annoying. So annoying in fact, I almost stopped looking after the first couple of pictures.

Almost. I'm currently on page 16. Someone stop me...please?

Here are a couple of my favorites. And I'm sorry to whoever runs the site...I HAD to take the link off the bottom of each picture. "moar funny pictures"? Really.

Has anyone seen The Illusionist? I seriously can't figure this one out...

Can I get one of these for the office? Does anyone know what the current version is?

Kittens=World Peace

Seriously people. Go waste a good hour and a half of your day on this site. What's that? You want to waste MORE of your day?

Hey. That's entirely your prerogative.

Orange

2008-01-24T14:21:00.001-06:00

Knock Knock.

This is where you say 'Who's there?'.

Banana

That's you again. 'Banana who?'

Knock Knock.

'Who's there?'

Banana

'Banana who?'

Knock Knock. giggle

'Who's there?'

Banana

'BANANA WHO?' now look, there's no reason to shout.

Knock Knock.

*cricket cricket

psst. That's you.

*cricket cricket

ehem. Hey! Come on. Just say 'Who's There?' There you go! That wasn't so bad right?

Orange

'Orange who?'

ORANGE you glad I didn't say banana?

Ok, for any of you still reading this, I was going to stop there and let that be my orange post. But you all know me. I need to post photos. NEED to. And since orange is one of my favorite colors...I couldn't let this one just go by. So, without further ado:

Orange is...

...the color of my hair. According to Steph that is. She says it isn't red. So you can all start calling me an 'orangehead' from now on.

Actually. Please don't. And my response to Steph for pointing out that my hair 'isn't actually red' is this:

Why YES! I am mature. Thanks for noticing!

...one of the colors of my mom's favorite football team. (Look, the horse and I have the same color hair!)

...the color usually associated with my favorite month.

...the color of the headers and link text (like mine!) on the GIMP home page.

This is free image editing software. It appears to have some similar features to Photoshop and since it's open source, people are continuously working on developments. I'm not actually actively looking for new editing software, but I had heard of this one several times and finally decided to check it out. Since it's free, there's no risk. Maybe I'll download it and try it out some time.

Please don't tell Photoshop that I'm thinking of cheating on it. Oh, but did I mention it's free??

I could go on and on an on with this...no really, I could.

Instead, I leave you with this: (and I'm really sorry about that joke thing up there)

Let's Play Jeopardy!

2008-01-24T08:30:00.000-06:00

The answer is:

Seven degrees below zero.

Don't forget...you must answer in the form of a question.

Enough is Enough

2008-01-21T14:42:00.000-06:00

Lately my apartment is suffering from a severe case of high entropy. Actually, there's no lately about it. This problem has been ongoing for years. As a matter of fact...since I learned about the second law of thermodynamics, I've used entropy as an excuse for my messy ways.

The basic idea (for those of you that didn't take the time to wade through that wiki site) as it was explained to me back in high school is that a system is constantly working towards 'perfect internal disorder' or equilibrium. At its simplest, entropy is the measure of the system's change from order to disorder.

Now, it gets WAY more complicated than that but the simplified explanation was given in order to get the general concept across to our puny high school brains (with out them exploding). Here's the best part though. One of the examples that was given to illustrate how a system is constantly moving towards disorder was a dirty bedroom. That's right. The idea was that when you cleaned your bedroom that 'system' was at it's lowest level of entropy, or its most ordered. Two weeks later your room was at its highest level of entropy (or most disordered) when the floor was strewn with dirty socks, the bed wasn't made, and books were falling out of the bookcase. Got it?

This concept really stuck in my (as previously mentioned) puny high school brain. When accused of having a dirty bedroom, my answer would inevitably be "Oh no, my bedroom is just returning to its naturally disordered state. You see, this is a spontaneous change of state regardless of how ordered I would like for it to stay. I'm sure you understand that I would be disrupting the balance of the universe if I were to return it to that ordered state."

As I'm sure you could figure out, this response was not usually received well and got old. Fast. And my (as previously mentioned) puny high school brain figured it was perfectly fine to pick and choose which parts of the physical laws worked best for me. I really had no idea what entropy really was until college, and even then (and now) it still boggles my mind when I think about it. Physics is a crazy crazy science.

Aaaanywho...

Since my living-space always seems to want to return to that naturally disordered state, and since that really isn't socially acceptable, I've decided that I need some thing to help combat the Evil Entropy. Enter, storage containers. I spent the weekend going through some old boxes and...stuff...in an attempt to get more organized.

I thought about posting some before and after pictures...but that would be far to embarrassing. So, instead, here are a couple of pictures of the storage containers that will be helping me become more 'ordered'.

First I bought two of these for my craft stuff.

Funny thing though. That didn't even put a dent in the craft stuff that needed a place to live.

So, I got one of these yesterday.

I'm sure I'll be getting another in the near future.

In addition, I would like to get several of these for yarn and fabric.

And yay! They're stackable.

So there you go. Next time someone accuses you of having a messy house, just tell them (with complete confidence) that it's just entropy taking over.

They'll think you're smart. Trust me.

Properness

2008-01-18T15:43:00.000-06:00

As previously mentioned, the temperatures during the early part of January were quite balmy in relation to how they should have been.

With the temperatures returning to more "normal" levels this week, I figured it was only fair to show everyone how proper feet should be attired in St. Louis during the month of January.

However, most people don't like a random stranger photographing their feet. You could get labeled as a 'pervert' or 'freak' or some other such name. Not that I've ever attempted to do that or been called those things. And today was not the day to start.

Because of the above listed reasons, I was only able to use my feet as an example. And for those of you that do NOT know...my feet are anything but proper.

Case-in-point:

Take a look at those shoes. I mean, they're in despicable shape. You would think I could have taken the time to at least Photoshop some polish on the toes. But hey, they do have ONE thing going for them. They're the 'inside out' version of Steph's. (don't ask)

But THIS just takes the cake.

Again, for those of you that DON'T know, I rarely (if ever) wear matching socks. The only time they match is when the planets are aligned, the stars stop shining, karma reverses itself, and...well, you get the idea.

I also do not set out to make any specific combinations. As long as they are the same weight and close to the same length, I will wear them together.

Today's combination tickled me though. Funny how one foot managed to get the black and white sock and the other foot managed to get the most colorful sock in my drawer. As if my feet are polar opposites. As if they spend the day in constant argument or debate.

Of course...there are always two sides to every coin.

I have NO idea what that means. Just nod your head and make that 'mmmmHMMMM' noise. People will think you're smart.

Trust me.

And I promise to stop posting pictures of my feet on this site.

Scouts honor.

Red

2008-01-17T20:26:00.000-06:00

There are many things that come to mind when I think of the color red. But I'm sure, as many of you know, there is one thing that is currently at the top of that list.

That's right. You guessed it.

It's my new laptop! And hey, can you guess what color it is? Heh.

It's all shiny and pretty. And a fingerprint magnet! But that's beside the point...

I looked for several months and did a TON of research. This little machine was a GREAT deal for the features it has.

*Lets not even get into that vista thing right now...

Thanks to my wonderful family and my boss, I was able to get enough money to purchase this little beauty.

I don't know what my fascination with red electronics has been lately...

So, by a show of hands, who was surprised THIS was my choice for 'Red'?

WHY?!?

2008-01-16T11:47:00.000-06:00

Why? This question is most likely going through your mind after viewing the above picture. Some of you might even be asking "What in the...?". Both of these are perfectly logical questions my friends. I'll answer the second one first.

What are they? Technically speaking they are temporary dreadlocks made from either synthetic material or wool. They're dyed in a variety of colors that could be a natural hair color or something far more funky! They can then be attached to hair by way of braiding or weaving in (like any other 'permanent' hair extension) or by way of elastic hair ties or combs. So. There you are. I've answered the 'What?' question.

Now for the 'Why?'...

The majority of you are most likely thinking "Why in the world would someone attach weird multi-colored woolly things to their heads??". They're definitely attention grabbing and, for most people, more than weird looking. But this is not the 'Why?' I'm asking myself. My 'Why?' is:

"WHY do I want some of these!?!"

Seriously...I want some. I have no idea why. I mean, where would I wear them?? I don't go out dancing much anymore, don't participate in any strange anime/live role playing/goth groups, don't belly dance (they're huge with the belly dancers), and didn't even dress up for Halloween this year! (although that last is going to change next year, mark my words!)

But inexplicably...I want some. Here are a few pictures of some I have run across and really like.

This one is one of the crazier falls...very full...but I like the colors even though they wouldn't really be appropriate for my hair color. They can be found at Cleo Wolfus Designs' Etsy shop.

Here is a view from the back.

And from the same designer:

*you can't see the elastic bands...but I'm pretty sure they're there. And I love the braided ends to cover where you've put them in your hair.

This color combo is, without a doubt, my favorite.
These are from SomethingDread.Full's Etsy shop.

Seriously. These make my fingers creep toward my wallet. They make me want to email her and ask if she'll hold them for me till Friday. They make me want to buy a new wardrobe so I can have excuses to wear them. (by the way, there are actually two in the set...) I mean, imagine these with my hair!

I don't know why. And if someone can answer my 'Why?' question, I would be extremely grateful.

However, for the following picture...I'm right there with the rest of you on "WHY?!?"

*that's from exoskeletoncabaret's Etsy shop. Wicked cool photography and wearable art...

Ok. Now that I've told you about some weird desire that I have...it's YOUR turn.

Wait. Maybe that's not such a great idea... I take it back. I don't want to know.

KiP, Oregon, and Color Blogging

2008-01-15T10:58:00.000-06:00

Knitting in public is a subject I've been contemplating for a while. I've read other entries on other blogs about it. I've seen other people doing it. I've even done it a couple of times.

But there is just something...something that hangs me up when I think about knitting in certain places.

There are normal places to knit or crochet. You know 'em. The bus/metrolink/other public transportation, in the doctors office, waiting for your car, ok...practically any waiting room. I enjoy knitting or crocheting in these places. It's a way to pass the otherwise potentially boring time with something productive. Knitting/crocheting in public also seems to have a duality when it comes to social interaction. Pull out your yarn craft and people suddenly become interested and talkative. BUT, it's also a way to avoid interaction with potentially scary people that might be waiting with you. You can always feign total concentration.

So...lately I've been wanting to knit in other public places. On several occasions I've been tempted to take a project to the local pub. When I mentioned it last weekend the response was "Who takes knitting to a sports bar??" So...I didn't. Although I DID discover that it is not a good idea for me to try and knit while riding in the car...ugh.

Maybe I'll get brave enough to ignore the strange looks I would get in a bar. I did read an interesting observation from someone that knits in bars though. A knitter's bar tab is less since your drink isn't always in hand...

In other news. Remember when we did the A,B,C-along? Steph came up with a new and brilliant idea. We'll be Color Blogging. Once a week we will post about a pre-determined color. Anyone else want to join in? Stay tuned for my first post either today or tomorrow...

So. Since this has been a photo-free post so far...and we wouldn't want that...I'll leave you with a few photos from my last trip to Oregon. Can't believe I haven't posted these yet.

This was taken on the way out. You know, when I was little, I used to look for the Care Bears when I was on the plane... Don't these clouds look they would be so fun to bounce on?

Have I mentioned I love lens flares?

I was there to visit my family. Kind of a semi-family reunion. Sorry Ben. Since YOU made the goofy face, YOU get to represent the family here. *good thing you don't ever see this...

One of the things we did as a family was visit the "Lava Caves". *please say this in a menacing, dangeresque type voice...it's much more exciting that way. See where the sign says "Bring a jacket and a flashlight?". Yeah. I forgot both. It's very cold and very dark down there.

These tubes were made from old lava flows that hardened on the outside while lava was still flowing under the surface. This one was a little over a mile long and had a nice sandy bottom. It was a little disconcerting to watch the light completely fade.

You know I had to try and get at least one shot in the dark. We carried good old fashioned lanterns to guide our feet.

The lovely Oregon Coast. One of my favorite places on the planet.

There is always plenty of wild life. Those are sea lions. But you're smart. I'll bet you knew that. But WAIT...

...what is THAT?? Awww. It's a whale! All those years living near the Oregon Coast and THIS was the first whale I have ever seen. So COOL!

Ok. I'll stop.

I swear.

Labels

2008-01-14T23:07:00.000-06:00

Today I decided that it would be terribly useful to be able to separate the posts on this site. Now, you might ask "Gee Tracie, why would we need these posts to be organized in any specific way?".

Well...

Yeah. I got nothin. So...I was bored today and thought it would be kind of fun. Little did I realize that this blog really IS random.

I'm going to have to be very careful to NOT do one of two things:
1) Label every post either 'random' or 'photos'. Or 'random, photos'.
2) Label every post with a completely new label. (I think I already have 15 different labels...)

I've already gone back and labeled the old posts up to where I switched over to the new template. We'll see if I go back and label the ones older than that...

Is that really necessary anyway?

*After all that...I forgot to put labels on this post. Heh. Maybe this really ISN'T such a good idea.

Rockstar Photographer

2008-01-09T16:38:00.000-06:00

Last Sunday Kristen had the chance to do a live radio show on 89.1 FM. She invited P along to do some percussion. I tagged along because, well, because I could damn it! And since I don't seem to go anywhere without my camera plastered to my face...here are the results.

*psst. Click that link up there for more information on her upcoming show

Do I get a press pass?

The radio show was called The Bones Headphones show. Yep. That's Bones.

After a brief introduction and the first mentioning of her CD and upcoming show...

...and some quick tuning...

...she launched into the first of the live performances.

They played very well together.

A good time was had by all.

Now, because I am who I am (and most of you probably know where this is going) the following pictures are (as SOME would say) 'artsy fartsy'. But, you know me. And you know that I know that you know me. So you know that I know that you know that I of course had to post these.

Now, the following picture is not and I repeat NOT for the faint of heart. If you are easily frightened, nauseated, or brought to tears...please do not continue. You have been warned.

Sunday, Monday, and most of Tuesday were above 60 degrees. It was beautiful. So...this was the most exciting piece of my wardrobe for those three days...

*you can still turn back!

Flip Flops!! Oh Hallelujah for a pseudo spring!

Yes. I just posted a picture of my feet on this blog. I'm completely, madly, deeply, sincerely, truly sorry.

But if you cried or screamed like a little girl...hey, I warned you.

Wicked Cool!

2008-01-04T15:03:00.000-06:00

Last night was a wonderfully fun night of Wicked!

Thanks Kristi, for thinking of me when you had that extra ticket. I loved it!

Stop Post Pollution!

2008-01-04T14:48:00.000-06:00

Stumbled across this today. It's a brilliant concept!

*caution - the following site may cause a sudden 'well duh' moment.

This one is going on my sidebar...

If Blogger was my boss...

2008-01-02T14:47:00.000-06:00

I would immediately start sending out resumes. Seriously. Wait. My boss is kinda like blogger. Makes my life WAY more difficult than it should be. I've spent the majority of my day trying to figure out how to properly format pictures in a post. Looks like there is no good way to do that.

I peeked at my blog from my house last night and discovered that my finely crafted post (that previous one y'all loved so much) was all wonky.

*Yes. I said "y'all". Whatcha gonna do about it??

So, after discovering that the post did not view the same on my home computer, I started wondering what it must look like on everyone else's computer. I was up all night agonizing over it. There was much teeth-gnashing and cloth-rending. Ok, maybe not. But it WAS bothering me.

So. Enter Google. I figured there MUST be some way to fix this. I couldn't be the only one that wanted to sometimes post a picture on the right and then get crazy and post a picture on the left. All in the same post.

After a quick search of the internet (read 2 hour), I started playing around with the CSS code. Cause I'm a CSS code guru. Betcha didn't know I wrote the BOOK on CSS. Umm, can anyone tell me what CSS stands for? Please?

Anyway, after much fooling around and some lucky guesses, I think I have it figured out. I should be able to continue bringing you posts that not only have images in them, but have images artfully arranged on both the left AND right sides of the page.

Heaven forbid I ever decide I want some centered.

I think I am...

2007-12-31T10:03:00.001-06:00

Well it's that time of year again. That time of year when we all take a step back, a deep breath, and a good look at ourselves and what we've accomplished over the last year. Right?

So, in the spirit of the season, here are some things I have discovered about myself this past year.

I think I am...

...a yarn snob.

A couple of years ago, when I finally picked up crocheting for real, I was perfectly happy with acrylic, novelty, and other 'cheap' yarns. I blissfully crocheted away with said yarns for more than a year, perfectly content to do my yarn shopping at Michael's or Hancock or Hobby Lobby. And then...something happened. I don't know when it happened or how it happened. I think it may have been my introduction to knitty (which I blame on Stephanie because of these), but I suddenly realized that there was a whole big yarn world out there. And I HAD to explore it. I began by making a small order from kpixie. And then I visited one of my local yarn stores (LYS). And before I knew it, I didn't want to crochet or knit with those 'cheap' yarns anymore. I had to have the super soft cottons or the pretty wools. I even spent a pretty penny on hand spun and hand dyed yarns at the Kansas City Renaissance Faire.

One issue though. Since I am first a crocheter and second a knitter, I have run into several knitters with a bias against crocheters. This bias usually manifests itself at the LYS in a situation that goes a little something like this:

Seemingly friendly knitter: "Oh hi there! Blah blah blah. So what project are you working on?"

Me: "Well, I've been trying to finish these great crocheted mittens for a friend of mine."

SFK: "Oh." *with a poorly disguised look of disgust*

Wait. What just happened there. Why did Seemingly Friendly Knitter suddenly become Bitch With Needles? Why did that one word...crochet...turn her against me? I mean, we both work with yarn to create some sort of garment or accessory, or any number of other things. They are both challenging in their own respective ways.

My theory? It's because there are far more knitters that appreciate their yarn choice just as much or even MORE than their pattern choice. For some reason, and I've said this before, crocheters seem to have the most horrid taste when it comes to yarn type and color. And here to illustrate my point, we have the following pictures:

Are there really any words for this?

Can anyone tell me what this is? No, it's not a 1970's wedding cake. That, my friends, is the most hideous child's sweater known to man.

Ok, I don't even know what this is. Seriously. WHAT is this thing? The mystery almost distracts from the eye-gouging color choices. It frightens me.

Ok, so the color choices aren't awful on this (to be fair it's a variegated yarn) but....why?? Is the soap dispenser cold? Maybe embarrassed to be naked? Is there something offensive on its label?

And last, but certainly not least, is this little...um...beauty? I will be making one for Steph. And she will be forced to wear it. That is all.

Crocheters of the world, PLEASE STOP! You are giving the few of us that have a decent sense of style and ability to combine natural colors a bad name! Seriously. And if you can't pick good colors, please at least pick a good pattern.

I think I am...

...obsessed with Photoshop.

Yeah. I know you are all SO surprised. But I can't help it. And it's only been within the last year that I've REALLY taken the time to play with the pictures more.

What's that? You want to see some before and afters? Hmm, well, I think I can do that.

Before...

...and after.

Before...

...and after.

We now interupt these regularly scheduled Christmas Tree pictures with...

Pandora before...

Pandora after...

We now return you to your regularly scheduled Christmas Tree pictures...

Before...

...and after.

And here's a fun one.

Before...

After...

Heh. I should have waved.

I think I am...

...addicted to technology.

It's not that I've purchased a lot of new technology this year. Just that I've wanted it. I think the only thing I've actually purchased is this:

And only cause it was on sale. Well, and cause I wanted one.

As you all know, I want one of these.

And my next big purchase will be a new one of these:

Or possibly one of these:

Of course, that being said...can it really be considered an addiction if one can't actually satisfy said 'addiction'?

I think I am...

...turning this into a REALLY long post.

Hmm. Just think. That's five minutes of your life you can't get back.

I sincerely apologize. No really.

I HEART Photo Posts

2007-12-21T11:12:00.000-06:00

However, I'm not too thrilled with blogger's ability to manipulate photos within the post. It's really starting to annoy me. Attempt #2 for this post:

Meet....our Christmas Tree. No seriously, it is. Can't you see the lovely evergreen needles and the pretty ornaments. I mean, just look at those lights!

You aren't buying this are you?

Alright alright...you caught me. It's our Christmas FICUS. The tree was somehow damaged in the basement between last Christmas and this Christmas. And we certainly can't not have a Christmas Tree!

*yes, I DO realize that was a double negative up there. If the grammar police come and get me...please send cakes with files baked in the middle. And coffee.

So HERE is our Christmas Tree. It came pre-installed with lights and those cute ornaments. It's ginormous. It must be almost a foot and a half tall.

These are Jeanine's pretty birthday flowers. Do you think her birthday gets forgotten this close to Christmas? No WAY! This lady knows how to work it! As a result, we have eaten out three, count them three, times this week for lunch. Don't let her fool you, all three times were for her birthday. Would I lie?

Next is evidence of the project I've been working on for over a week. I thought I was disorganized. Twenty five years of a terribly designed key system means a TON of work for me. Ok, so maybe I'm slightly obsessive with these types of things.

What's that you say? You want to get a closer view? Well OK! I think I had a dream that looked something like this...

Ok, what else can we find?

Hey! What is that?

It looks kind of like a light fixture cover...

Yep. It's definitely a light fixture cover. What is that inside? Leaves? Let's get closer...

Wait a second. Those aren't leaves! Oh my!....it's a graveyard!

I know you're just dying to take a closer look!

*Please don't hate me for this. I really did find this fascinating.
I swear I am not doing this to torture any of you bug haters out there.
Well, not totally at least...

Woah! Would you look at that! See that little stripy moth there in the center. I thought he was pretty...

Well hello there Mr. Beetle! Or should I say...Mr. Beetle's Butt. I mean really. How rude.

Ooooh. Check out those iridescent wings!

Aren't you glad I showed all of those to you! It's ok. You can thank me later.

Who the...?

2007-12-19T15:47:00.000-06:00

I think someone is using my pens. On the sly. I, admittedly, am a bit of a pen-aholic. And I have certain pens I like to use on a daily basis. Others sit unused on my desk for weeks, sometimes months, at a time. Three of these pens are now empty.

See?

And on a completely unrelated note...which of the above photographs do you like better? I have an unnatural obsession for lens flares, so I'm automatically partial to the one on the left... I almost didn't post the other one because it didn't really appeal to me, but then thought I was possibly biased by the lens flare one. And what the heck do I know anyway. Yes yes, I know they're only empty ink cartridges and not very interesting...but work with me here people!

Oh, and just in case you were wondering, this is what a full cartridge looks like.

But back to the problem of people using my pens...maybe I have an office gnome that is related to my spoon gnome.

This was going to be my "My Thanksgiving" post...

2007-12-10T16:13:00.000-06:00

...but it's a little late. So it's going to be more of a "here are a couple of cool photos" or "why I need a fast lens" post instead.

Hope you don't mind. And if you do, in the words of The Amazing Stephanie, "Suck it up". (yes Steph, you can have that title forever and ever)

I was very blessed this year to be welcomed by The Wonderful Kristen (I'm all about titles today) and her family for Thanksgiving this year.

Here is example #1 for "why I need a fast lens". I hate flash. Hateithateithateithateit. But notice the fuzzy focus in this picture. How disappointing! Le sigh. Anyway, this picture really captured the mood of the whole weekend. FUN!

Example #2 for "why I need a fast lens". See the motion blur? My shutter has to be so slow to get these photos! Please ignore the bad focus too. The depth of field makes focusing SO difficult! (yes, this post will be rife with excuses...get used to it!) Heh. Anyway, what you see here is the family tradition of stealing the bits of turkey while it's being carved. Watch your fingers!

So the first decent shot in this post was taken by Kristen. I was helping unload a truck bed full of wood and decided it would be SO much more fun to ride than walk! She kindly shot this picture of me laughing my butt off.

Oh how I love my zoom lens!! There are some lovely bird feeders right outside 'the conservatory' at the house. I spent almost an hour one morning photographing the birds. This little guy looked like he was just waiting for me to take his picture.

Again with the zoom lens. And I SO did NOT mess with this in Photoshop! I did not! I DID NOT!! Everyone knows that when you photograph a cardinal the background is automatically black and white.

We spent an afternoon at the Festival of Trees. Doesn't this one look like it's glowing from the inside out!?

Again at the Festival of Trees. Kristen, you're such a natural! :)

Example #4 for "why I need a fast lens". The kids were so much fun to photograph, but how frustrating is it when you figure out your focus was just that smidge off? YARG! Still a cute photo...

This last photo did not come from my Thanksgiving weekend. But I wanted to include it since I love it so much. I happened across this rainbow while leaving work the other evening. It wasn't raining...it just looked like there was enough moisture in the clouds to set this thing off. Too bad it was already fading by the time I got my camera out.

Oh...oh my goodness...

2007-12-04T14:14:00.000-06:00

There are no words for this.

A bonfire isn't a bonfire...

2007-11-19T08:31:00.001-06:00

...when there's no one to share it with.

This is a wonderfully blurry picture (hey, I didn't have my camera with me...only my phone) of the burn pile I spent several hours watching yesterday. Faire site needed some clean-up and what is the best way to get rid of evidence...er...trash? That's right! Burn it! But back to the blurry picture. I think it looks like lava. What do you think? Maybe if I had gotten closer, it REALLY would have looked like an erupting mountain! I couldn't get any closer though...that sucker was HOT!

Man, it was really goin' there for a while. Of course, I didn't think to take a picture of it until everyone else had moved on to different jobs and I was left watching the fire. By this point, it was almost out. I was wishing I had marshmallows.

Oh, and the giant stump there in the middle? Yeah, it's still in the ground. And boy did that thing stay solid! Apparently we're going to have to try a different removal method.

My car is so embarrassed

2007-11-07T15:29:00.000-06:00

I was rummaging around in my glove box the other night looking for...actually, I don't remember what I was looking for. But it was quite dark and I might have been driving.

I glanced over the next morning and saw this piece of tissue hanging out. How embarrassing for my car.

Do you think the other cars are trying to signal mine that there is something hanging out of its glove box?

Regional Quirks

2007-11-01T08:36:00.000-05:00

Ok St. Louis. I have to know. What is it with your Halloween traditions?

I went over to a friend's house last night and we sat out in the front yard with the fire pit, drank some beer, and handed out candy. But something wasn't quite right... Where I grew up the kids spent at least a month thinking about what they were going to be on Halloween and when the day came they all got dressed up, visited every house in the neighborhood, said 'trick or treat', got their candy and left. Boy is it different here.

First of all, I was shocked at how many kids either weren't dressed up at all or really hadn't made much of an effort. I saw plenty of young teenage girls in pajama pants, a few polyester 'tattered' robes (you've seen 'em, they're standard Halloween issue), and quite a few that were dressed in jeans and a sweatshirt with a meager attempt at 'scary' face makeup. The only ones that really had costumes to speak of were the youngest kids since their parents dressed them up.

Another thing that threw me was the 'trick FOR a treat'. The first time my friend asked a kid if he had a joke, I really didn't think much of it. But after the next five or six, I was beginning to see a pattern. I finally asked about it and was informed that "of course every kid has to tell a joke or do something for the candy". We never had to jump through hoops to get our candy. And correct me if I'm wrong but it's Trick OR Treat, is it not? I was taught that it went something more like this. When I say 'trick or treat', I'm telling you that you have a choice. You can give me a treat, or I can play a trick on you.

I don't know. I guess I've found several things about St. Louis that are different from the West Coast. This is just another in a long line of regional differences. See, diversity is fun!

Spooky!

2007-10-31T15:26:00.000-05:00

So for this year's Halloween post, you will all be treated to a picture of something my co-worker and I received from our boss towards the beginning of the month. I was trying to describe them to Steph today, but they're seriously too hideous for words. Heck, even pictures don't really do them justice.

Alright, I apologize for the terrible picture. I only had a moment to sneak in a photo before someone was going to ask me what I was doing. Anyway...

They're hats. Yes. I said hats. The orange one is mine, and yes, that's a veil. The purple one with the GIANT spider on it is my co-worker's.

And we were expected to actually wear them! AND NOT JUST TODAY!

Have you seen those pictures of pets that people put hats on? The ones where the expression of the animal says something to the effect of "when you aren't looking, I will poop in your shoe!"? Have you seen those. Had I been forced to wear this...that would have been my expression.

Because I was challenged...

2007-10-30T16:21:00.000-05:00

I'm not going to say who challenged me, or really that it was even a personal challenge.

All I'll say is that you DON'T have to be a professional to enjoy playing around with Photoshop.

Oh, and that you don't even have to have the expensive version to have some fun. These are all done with the FREE Photoshop LimitedEdition software.

So, on to the before's and after's. You don't have to like them the way I do...but I'm of course interested in what you DO like. So have at it. I had fun playing around with them anyway.

Here is the before...

And the after!

Now I'm sure that some will say that I 'popped' the green a little too much. But I kid you not, it was really that green! It just happened to be lower light than my camera likes under all that canopy.

Here is another.

Before.

And After.

So, I may have taken a bit more liberty with this one. I really wanted to see how much I could punch up the violet/blue. But look at how much sharper it is! (I did not use any kind of Unsharp Mask with this, it was all done with color balance, saturation, and brightness/contrast)

Before.

After.

Photoshop layers were utilized with this photo. So, there was a little more technique to it than just adjusting levels and color balance/saturation. But it was still done in less than half an hour. And if I were to actually print this out, I would probably bring the blue back down a little more. But I was trying to make a point...

Last one.

Before.

After.

Yep, I got a little more creative with this one. I don't know why I wanted to highlight the yellow dresses...but it seemed appropriate with the color balance a bit to the sepia side. I was having fun.

Which brings me to my point. You don't have to be a professional to use Photoshop. Obviously, in a professionals hands these would look even better. My photos turn out better than they would if I didn't go in and change a few things. Have fun with it people! Let the creativity show!

Who needs The Club?

2007-10-30T12:07:00.000-05:00

A co-worker's sister had her car stolen recently. She was quite put out by this since she had taken precautions against theft. She had even installed a Club for goodness sake! Seems the pesky thieves had just cut the steering wheel, removed the club, and drove away.

She was quite happy when her car was found, relatively undamaged, and vowed that it wouldn't happen again. Her solution? A new paint job.

How's that for a theft deterrent?

A brief lesson in...

2007-10-26T11:00:00.000-05:00

...judging a book by it's cover.

There are certain types of phone calls that I receive almost every day. There are the typical information gathering phone calls from normal people looking for apartments. There are the phone calls from residents who are having a problem. There are sales calls, and contractor calls, and calls just to say hello. But my favorite are the people that think they can find an apartment by only looking at the outside of a building.

First, when they call it's because they have seen a sign in the neighborhood that looks like this:

Ok, maybe it doesn't look quite like that. (How's THAT for Photoshop skills!) But what does that sign ultimately say to you? More on this later...

This is a phone conversation resulting from someone seeing the sign:

Caller: Yeah, I would like more information on the apartment you have at *insert address here*.

Me: Oh, you've seen a sign. We actually don't have an apartment available at that address, just one of our permanent signs.

Caller: Ummm....oh. Well...

Me: What kind of apartment are you looking for?

Caller: Oh a *insert type of apartment here*.

Me: *Proceeds to tell caller about whatever apartment is available in the criteria that they are looking for*

Caller: Ok, well I'll drive by and look at it and then call you back.

This is where I'm always dumbfounded. How in the hell can you tell what an apartment is like on the inside based on what it looks like from the outside? I always offer to show the inside of the apartment and 9 out of 10 times I'm told "No, I'm just going to drive by first." Now, I would understand if the apartment is located in a different neighborhood or something.

For example, lets try something here. I'll show you three pictures of the outsides of three buildings. We'll call them 1, 2, and 3. Yes, I know I'm original. Then, I'll show you three photos of the insides of those apartments and we'll call them A, B, and C. It will be your job to match the correct interior photo with the correct exterior photo. Got it?

Here is 1

...2...

...and 3.

And now for the interior photos.

Here is A.

And B.

And C.

Lets see how well you do matching the interiors with the exteriors. I'll post the results tomorrow.

Oh, and back to that sign. I also have a very similar copy running in the newspaper. It's amazing to me how people see what they want to see.

"Yeah, I'm calling about the one bedroom apartment you have listed in the newspaper."

WTF? Does that thing not say "1, 2, & 3 bedroom apartments and houses"?

It's like a patch for my addiction...

2007-10-25T10:44:00.000-05:00

I had posted a couple of days ago about a blog that Steph introduced me to. Last week I started reading the archives thinking "Well, when I get bored of this, I'll just stop reading." Problem was, I never stopped reading. I read through every back entry on that site. Yesterday was a dark day for me. I finally reached the end. No more posts. I think I cried a little.

So. To help soothe my addiction (I hope), I am borrowing the style that this post will be written in from PW. Granted, her photos are WAY better than mine...but you guys will just have to deal.

I'm sure that you (and by 'you' I mean the two people that still read this from time to time) have just been dying to know what I do on a day to day basis. So I'm going to satisfy your curiosity. All of you know about the "showing apartments" aspect of property management. Yesterday I focused on the other aspect of the company.

One of the things my company does is rehab old historic buildings. This is one of two that we are currently be working on. It will have two very nice apartments in it soon.

There's the tile that will be going in the kitchen and bathrooms.

These front doors used to be yellow. Big Bird yellow. No joke.

This is the kitchen. No really! Ok, it WILL be the kitchen once all the construction equipment is out, the floor is down, the cabinets are up, the appliances are...ok. You get the idea.

This is a new bathroom layout for us. In the past, our bathrooms have all had a tub/shower combo. Like most standard apartments. In this particular apartment, we are trying out a separate shower and tub arrangement. (I just wish we had put a bigger tub in...I mean, if you're going to separate them the only reason to use the tub is for a bath right? That tub barely looks big enough for me!)

Then I got distracted. LOOK! I can see my shutter move! Ok, actually, I was just checking to see that I wasn't getting too much dust on my lens. But when I turned the camera over, my finger hit the button. Oh so flattering. Hey, do I have anything in my nose? Guys? Hey guys?

This happens a lot at our construction sites. Not really sure why...

And finally, here is the next building in progress. That whole front wall had to be torn down and re-built. Funny, as soon as I pulled my camera out all of the masons seemed to disappear. Weird.

So there you go. Don't you feel better now? Breath a sigh of relief and go about your day with renewed purpose. You're welcome.

Stay tuned tomorrow for another "A Brief Lesson In...".

A Pirate's Life For Me...

Quick Preview

A Little Late

A New Gallery!

I've been looking for these!

Happy Halloween!

Cleaning out the old hard drive

Because she wouldn't bribe me

I Heart Faces - Pets

No Laughing Matter

Oregon - Part 2

Oregon - Part one

I swear, it's not what you think!

I'm not alone

Because Pirates just ARE, ok?

Where Tracie stirs the pot...

Don't Forget to Vote!

I need your help.

Seriously Folks?!

A conversation through text message...

While I wait for my keys...

How I Saved the World - Part II

The icing on my cake.

This post deserves no title.

I just can't help myself!

Disney Is...

Shoebill

Where we conclude our trip to Dallas World Aquarium

Where we take a trip below the surface

Where the Wild West Is Still Alive

Grant's Farm

Portraits

What the heck is that thing?!

There IS an explanation

Grey

Turquoise

Send me a comment on how you feel about Turquoise.

Magenta

Gold

Silver

Workplace Dangers

Brown

Black

Shadow of the Earth

Purple

Blue

If

Green

You say Pancakes, I say Crepes

Yellow

This Is The Day...This Is The Day... *

We're not in Kansas anymore...

Time I'll never get back

Orange

Let's Play Jeopardy!

Enough is Enough

Properness

Red

WHY?!?

KiP, Oregon, and Color Blogging

Labels

Rockstar Photographer

Wicked Cool!

Stop Post Pollution!

If Blogger was my boss...

I think I am...

I *HEART* Photo Posts

Who the...?

This was going to be my "My Thanksgiving" post...

Oh...oh my goodness...

A bonfire isn't a bonfire...

My car is so embarrassed

Regional Quirks

Spooky!

Because I was challenged...

Who needs The Club?

A brief lesson in...

It's like a patch for my addiction...

I HEART Photo Posts