October 2004

A.O.T.M. 9 - Stump 2

Name: Stump 2
Where: Camp Minsi, Pennsylvania
When: 2000
Print Available?: No

OK, I promise to avoid stumps for a while after this. ;)

The emphasis on this "Stump" differs from the first one in that here it's on the rocks under the water rather on the wood jutting out. I like how it turned out, but to tell the truth, that wasn't my intent.

If you look closely on the left hand side there's a small spider web that can just barely be made out. It was my original goal to capture that on film, but fortunately for me there were other things which stood out more.

A.O.T.M. 8 - Stump 1

Name: Stump 1
Where: Camp Minsi, Pennsylvania
When: 2000
Print Available?: No

My week at Camp Minsi in 2000 was a great time for me. I was no longer a Boy Scout as I was over 18, and as a leader in the troop I ironically had fewer responsibilities. I went to camp planning (and succeeding) to spend more time working on my art - drawing, photography, and even writing.

This pic here is one of several I took on a nice calm morning. The lake was like a sheet of glass, giving a very nice effect all over.

A.O.T.M. 7 - Angel

Name: Angel
Where: Kutztown, Pennsylvania
When: 1998
Print Available?: Yes

This statue was a grave marker for an 11 year old girl who died just before 1900. For the longest time after I took this picture I believed this to be the best photo I had ever taken
Now, I'm not so sure it's the overall best ... but it's still one of my favorites. I think it's because of how the sky and a good portion of the statue are so bright, thus really defining the shadows that exist.

A.O.T.M. 6 - Road 4

Name: Road 4
Where: Maryland(?)
When: 2001
Print Available?: No

Every now and then I like to take pictures at night without a flash. When I do this, especially when I'm in a car, the lights form some really nice patterns.

I find it interesting when I can take a media known for it's realism and use it to create art that borders on the abstract. This was not the first time I took a shot like this, and it will be far from the last.

One of these days I'm going to rig up a camera mount to the windshield (or better yet, the hood) and see just how many pictures I can take.

Today is not that day, but it will happen.

Vote Early, Vote Often!

... And if you happen to have iTunes, you can download all three Presidential debates and the Vice Presidential Debate for free.

A.O.T.M. 5 - Slum 2

Name: Slum 2
Where: Baltimore, Maryland
When: 2004
Print Available?: Yes

In spite of the name, this is not in fact a slum. The back of the building looks like this because the businesses in the front see no reason to keep the rest of the place looking nice when nobody sees it.

This shot, along with many others that I feel no need to place online, was taken from a parking garage owned by the University of Maryland Medical Center - one of the most beautiful buildings I have ever had the pleasure of walking through. It is unfortunate that my wife had to be a patient there in order for me to see the place.

Yes, I used the "cutout" filter found in Photoshop for this one. At the time I was using a very poor resolution digital camera and I thought this would be an easy way to increase the quality and edit out some of the clutter at the same time. Now that I have a better camera I still like it this way I don't mind adding quick filters like this so long as I avoid becoming a one-trick pony.

More News Rantings

Just when you thought it was safe to use Mozilla...
Security Flaw in Browsers Poses Phishing Threat! Lucky for me I have a Mac and am therefore immune to all but the smallest percentage of security issues.

Speaking of which...
There's a worm now for OS X, although anyone/thing trying to install this puppy on your computer needs to already have root access. (In other words, unless your system's ALREADY compromised.) The threat's very minor, so long as you've got a password for your main (root) account.

Got a digital camera and a good eye?
The end of this article mentions just how cheap it is to get a decent custom photo book printed up for you - some of them in hardcover, no less! Christmas shopping just got that much easier. :)

Well it's about darn time!
The FTC is starting to take down the spammers, starting with this peddler of unsolicited garbage.

Say What?
I'll leave you tonight with a quote from this article on human hypocrisy:
"Myanmar's military ruler Senior General Than Shwe met with the Indian leadership saying democracy was the only path to peace and prosperity, just days after he sacked the country's premier."
Hello, I'm stamping out democracy in my country and would like to start a democracy in my country. WHAT?!

A.O.T.M. 4 - After the Muck Hike

Name: After the Muck Hike
Where: Camp Minsi, Pennsylvania
When: 2000
Print Available?: No

Some of my fondest childhood memories come from when I was a Boy Scout. I enjoyed it so much in fact that when I turned 18 and could no longer be a scout I decided to become a leader.

I was in fact a leader when this picture was taken, following the Camp Minsi tradition of going on a long hike through the local swamp. The Minsi Swamp, appropriately placed alongside Lake Minsi, is over five feet deep in some places. Some of these boys were not quite four feet tall, as shown by how much mud is covering their bodies.

I think I displayed fine decision making processes throughout this event. In other words, I took "before" and "after" pictures while never actually going on the hike myself.

This was summer camp, after all. The showers weren't that accommodating.

A.O.T.M. 3 - Sky

Name: Sky
Where: Point Lookout, Maryland
When: 2002
Print Available?: No

Yesterday's picture may have been an example of me keeping my camera with me at all times, but this pic is from a time when Kelli and I deliberately went out to sight-see.

At the time we were living in St. Mary's County, so Point Lookout was a mere 30 minute drive from our apartment. We took many a sojurn to those not-so-fabled shores, and my photographs from there even predate my use of digital photography.

One thing I've noticed about southern Maryland is how much the weather changes. When you're almost completely surrounded by water, you get a lot of percipitation - and I mean a LOT!

It can roll in pretty fast from the ocean as well, as those clouds in the photo actually did. Soon after I captured this image, we were headed for the car to aviod the impending cloudburst.

Guess who has 'Net access?

Kelli does! She doesn't always get to go online, but she just updated her LiveJournal. Boo-Ya!

A.T.O.M. 2 - Fog

Name: Fog
Where: Behind my school
When: 2002
Print Available?: Yes

I know, I know, this pic is really old - but I still like it.

Pictures like this are the reason I take my camera everywhere with me. The only reason I was there was to go to work, not to look for pretty pictures. If I hadn't had my camera with me this scene of aesthetic beauty would have been lost in time forever.

Now, I can use it to suck away at your precious bandwidth! Heh. :)

Thingamablog

As you may or may not know, I like having things in a somewhat centralized location when I can. For that reason I switched to a program called iBlog when my .Mac account was giving it away for free. Alas, a year after I started using it the program inexplicably died on me and I came back here.

Now I've found a cross-platform program called Thingamablog and it's showing some promise. It doesn't integrate with .Mac as well as iBlog did, but it allows for customization and RSS feeds - two things that I was really looking for in a blogging app.

Best of all, it's FREE!

I'm currently giving it a trial by fire to see if it's worth my time, and aside from the learning curve of getting used to a Java app I've only noticed one glitch. Apparently if you try to add 30 or more entries at once without closing the program it begins to run veeeerrry slllooooooowwwwwly. Other than that, it's spiffy! :)

A.O.T.M. 1 - Candle

Name: Candle
Where: My in-laws' kitchen table
When: 2003
Print Available?: Yes

This is the first pic I ever posted to DeviantART and I still like to stare at it from time to time.

You can't see it in the photo, but my Mother-in-law always had a pile of stuff on the kitchen table. Papers, coupons, notes, whatever, it was always cluttered.

In spite of that, the lit candle in the center of the table looked wonderful in the dark like that. It's almost like her life, actually. They always had one problem or another, but I never thought of Kelli's Mom with anything but respect and admiration. She was a great woman, and a light in the darkness.

In the news today

It's a two post day it seems...

Why I use a Mac...
The thing about Windows is: Even when they try to fix a problem, they can't fix it correctly! Wasn't Service Pack 2 supposed to put all the spyware protection people out of business because it was so good?

Why we shouldn't have bothered helping France ... TWICE!
Muslim Girls Expelled Over Wearing Head Scarves - A big deal over something so trivial, yet it was still wrong for us to attack terrorists. Explain?

Stupid criminals:
Calgary pair found guilty - When beating up the homeless after abusing alcohol and huffing hairspray, make sure you record everything on video so the trial can move along faster.

Put the fun back in funeral

My sister Gretchen sent me this:

-=-=-

February 3, 2003:
What with all the sadness... and trauma going on in the world at the moment, it is worth reflecting on the almost unnoticed death last week of a very important person.

Larry La Prise, the man who wrote "The Hokey Pokey", died peacefully at home. He was 93.
The most traumatic part for his family was getting him into the coffin.
They put his left leg in... and then the trouble started.

-=-=-

I have spent the last two minutes laughing. May you fare the same. ^_^

Programs that have sucked away my soul, er, I mean bandwidth.

Hello, my name is Blake, and I'm a tech junkie.

(Everyone else says: "Hi, Blake!")

I have a few programs I've been enjoying lately so I thought I would share them with you.

NewsFire - Free RSS reader for the Mac
RSS is pretty cool, since it means those of us that get our news off the web don't have to actually load a whole web page (complete with ads) to get the news. There are RSS readers for every platform, but I like NewsFire because it's free.

iPodderX - RSS reader for audio - and more! (shareware)
Ok, apparently this guy had the bright idea that since RSS format supported attachments it shouldn't be too hard to write a program that downloaded mp3 files and moved them right to your iPod, or iTunes, or any other mp3 player you might have. (If his name sounds familiar, it's because he was one of the early MTV VJs.)

The idea took off, and multiple versions of his original program improved by 3rd parties (for all platforms) are linked on his website. I learned about this killer of bandwidth from Leo Laporte, who uses RSS and Podcasting on his website now.

I've one more thing to plug, but it's an art museum so I'll talk about that on my DeviantART page.

Back Pain and Birthdays

Let me start off by saying I LOVE MY JOB!!!!

I was in rare form today, laughing and joking with the kids while they made wonderful artworks (and learned at the same time, but don't tell them that). My smock acquired a couple new "battle scars" from the 1st graders when the painting lesson went awry, but 'twas all in good fun.

Yesterday was .. not so good. My back hurt for most of the day, and as a result I was a little more snippy than I should have been. Yesterday I taught all the 6th grades and I think that might have made matters worse, as I don't always "click" with that age group. I don't know why ... maybe they just remind me too much of high school.

Kelli is doing well - she has a new special (expensive) boot to help bend her right foot back into it's correct position. The docs say her left foot is too out of shape to fix without surgery, but they said that a month ago and have yet to tell us WHEN they intend to do this.

Her birthday's on November 1st, BTW. I've some ideas for what I want to get her (just looking for the best price before I buy) but I'm still looking for other things keeping in mind that Kelli will still be in the hospital at that time.

Good News / Nad News

Bad News: The brownies I made taste funny. ;_; I think the mix was stale or something.

Good News: Kelli's time that she's allowed off the respirator has been increased to 24 hours. That's right, she's off it COMPLETELY! WOO HOO! HUZZAH! BOO-YA! INSERT NONSENSICAL EXCLAMATION HERE!

Now, she still has a stream of oxygen being blown at the hole in her neck (she still has a tracheostomy - that's sorta like a tracheotomy except the only difference I can discern is the inclusion of a letter "s"), but she is in fact breathing on her own 24/7 now.

One step closer to coming home.

Don't lick the bowl.

I made brownies tonight, because I could. I remember back when my Mom baked cookies & stuff I got to lick the beaters, etc. - this was before I heard of those two slackers named Sam and Ella.

But now I do know about them and I can't afford to get sick, so some nice looking brownie goo went down the drain. :( At least the finished product looks good.

If this batch survives long enough I'm bringing some in for Kelli.