What a BuzzKill

I’ve been kept busy enough with my 365 Day Photography project that I’ve let my blog languish out here in the cold expanse of cyberspace (does anybody really call it that anymore?!?) for far too long.

The photography project is moving along just fine and life has settled into a nice even rhythm, for the most part. After today’s visit to the doctor I’m feeling some added motivation for getting into better shape. My blood pressure is higher than it should be, but not dangerously so, and I’m about 20 pounds too heavy. I admit to having beome a bit lazy and not as active over the last year or so – and my eating habits probably aren’t the healthiest either (but oh, so tasty!). So that’s something that’s gotta take a higher priority for me than it has been lately.

Today I took a picture of Rece that I’m quite proud of:

It was fun to see an idea for a photo in my head and to actually make it work. This did take some effort, but I really like the result. I learned a lot while doing it, too!

Anyhow, that’s my update for now.

_{This entry almost forgot how a proper entry should behave!}

I’ve been following this guy’s YouTube videos for awhile now. He takes clips from Star Trek (and other sources) and creates some bizarre and hilarious shorts from them. Here’s his latest:

_{This entry loves Star Trek mash-ups.}

Here’s another video done by the same guy that did the monster truck video that I put on my blog not too long ago. This one has a story to it and I think it’s fan-damn-tastic! Click the full screen icon on the video to see it better.

Bathtub IV from Keith Loutit on Vimeo.

_{This entry likes tilt-shift!}

Our office got a call from one our clients today reporting a problem. We checked and quickly learned that their Internet connection was down. Nam took the call and immediately went to their office to help them get it back up.

15 minutes later, I get an email from one of the other users in their office:

Subject: Internet not working

Message: Our internet is not working

Obviously Nam was successful in quickly restoring their connection.

I replied back to the user to let them know that a phone call was the best way to report loss of internet, since an email won’t get sent until their internet connection is restored.

_{This entry got a good chuckle.}

Week 1 of 52 has passed and I’ve taken at least one picture a day and uploaded it to my 365 Day Flickr set. I’m slowly working on expanding what I do with my photos and have been happy with what I’ve come up with so far. What’s been a (pleasant) surprise to me is how much easier this project feels than the previous Month of Pictures project did.

Here are my favorites from week one:

One thing I find that I’m fighting is my tendency to (over)use familiar techniques and post-processing effects. So it’ll be interesting to see what I can come up with over the next 51 weeks.

_{This entry has caught the shutter bug!}

Watch out! There’s a new blogger on the loose!

Rece has officially started his own blog today and I wanted to congratulate him on creating his first post!

It’ll be interesting to see what he comes up with.

_{This entry wants its own blog, too!}

I started with a light switch, but it turned out looking like crap. Then I tried a corner of the ceiling in my bathroom … hmm … not interesting enough to start off the project. Sitting next to my computer I spied a spindle of CD-R discs, the light reflecting off the top one, which got me thinking. So after taking 24 pictures all over my apartment, I finally came up with one I liked:

It’s not amazing, but I think it’s pretty and rather interesting to look at. I’m positive that I’ll have days where I don’t give a shit and end up taking a lame picture of something stupid, but I’m looking forward to being pushed like that – outside my comfort zone is often where I tend learn something completely new.

I’ve added a link to the right side-bar to my 365 Project Flickr set. Buckle up, it’s going to be a wild ride!

_{This entry ate a meatloaf sandwich for dinner!}

I want to take at least one photo, every day for
an entire year, and post the photo(s) online.

Honestly, I’m nervous about even posting about this idea. It’s as though by announcing it, I don’t have any choice but to actually go through with it. I guess that’s why I’m putting it out there.

The month of photos project I did this past December turned out to be a rather interesting experiment. It helped me feel more comfortable about taking my camera with me wherever I went, made all the manual settings on the camera less scary to me, got me to start seeing the world a bit differently, got my creative juices flowing (why does that read so gross?), expanded my knowledge of Adobe Photoshop, and it helped improve my photography skills.

That month-long experiment did teach me that putting some reasonable limitations on myself is probably a good thing, though. So here are the general guidelines for the project:

• Take one or more photos every day for a full year (365 days)
• Post the photos online (to my Flickr account) a minimum of once a week, but try to post them every day or two – when possible
• Include at least some detail with each photo (below the photo on the Flickr page); be it an observation, description, and/or a story to go along with it
• Post a blog entry about the photos only when I feel like it – but not necessarily to accompany every picture or group of pictures I post to Flickr (this was the part that gave me the most trouble last time and I don’t want it to become an unreasonable obstacle to the core project)

So there you have it. I’ll start tomorrow … no, wait – I guess that would be later today, now that I notice the time!

_{This entry is intersted in seeing how this turns out!}

I was helping a client today troubleshoot their Internet connection. Their office is over 600 miles away, so on-site support was out of the question. I had to work with one of the 2 people that works in their office and walk them through checking cables, indicator lights, resetting things, etc. This is part of our conversation:

Client: OK, so what am I looking for again?

Me: A network cable.

Client: Oh, OK. They’re the fat phone cord looking ones, right?

Me: Yes. The ends look like large phone cord connectors.

Client: All right … (sounds of her moving things around for about 30 seconds) .. Oh! Here’s one.

Me: Great, now let’s follow it to one end and see where it’s connected.

Client: This is a long sucker, must be almost a hundred feet.

Me: Are you sure it’s a network cable? It should be just like the ones we were connecting to the router, but longer.

Client: Yeah, this looks just like those.

Me: Good. Are you able to trace it back to where it’s connected?

Client: Yeah, I think so … it’s pretty tangled up, though.

Me: All right. When you find where it plugs in, unplug it and plug it back in until you hear or feel it click to make sure it’s connected properly.

Client: Ah! I think I found it *click*

Me: Hello?

Just another day in tech support.

_{This entry still can’t stop shaking its head.}

We’re finally back and trying our best to unwind from the trip and get ready to slip back into the normal swing of things. The last couple of days have been all driving, so I’m rather beat. We didn’t end up stopping any place other than a couple of rest areas and places to eat. We stayed overnight in Sacramento and then continued driving this morning. I wish I had something more interesting to write, but I really don’t.

We had a great time on our trip and got to see so many interesting things along the way! The 3 nights we stayed in Seaside were relaxing and much appreciated. Sam and Rece are growing up so fast, so trips like these are all the more important. They might act as though they didn’t find much of it exciting or interesting now, but speaking from the experiences of my own youth and the many trips our family took, they’ll remember these trips as being mostly fun and something worth repeating the with their own kids.

With so many people living in their own isolated little worlds, it’s good to know that Rece will grow up knowing that not every street is paved. That cell phone service wasn’t available everywhere. That sometimes not being able to do much more than stare out the window and watch the passing scenery is actually a good thing. Most of all, he’ll grow up knowing that people are different and that it’s not only OK that they are, but that it’s one of the best parts of living.

_{This entry remembers staring out the car window, too.}