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06:57 pm
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Pranzo Italiano!
Mmmmm... Gnocci is very filling... and very good! :9
Current Mood:  full
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09:30 pm
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Smoke Gets in Your Eyes
We had a fun workshop at my camera club meeting today...
It was a workshop on "tabletop" and macro photography, using a variety of lighting and subject creation techniques.
My favorite from the various setups we had to work with was photographing smoke.
Very simple setup... a black background, a powerful strobe providing light from the left side, a bundle of sticks of incense to provide a smoke source, and assorted tricks to produce a little bit of turbulence, and the results were sometimes very striking.
Here are a few of the images I got:
( More Blue Smoke and Mirrors ... (just kidding about the mirrors) )
Current Mood:  artistic
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09:01 pm
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New Toy!
Im geeking out with my new laptop! :D
My old IBM Thinkpad T23 is beginning to die a slow, painful death, so I bit the bullet and bought a new one. I considered several, including Acer, ASUS, HP, Toshiba, and Sony, but my fondness for the reliability, durability, and tech support of the Thinkpad (as well as having the little "nub" pointer in the keyboad in addition to the touchpad that I've never been particularly fond of) led me to a Lenovo Thinkpad SL410 with Windows 7.
I'm parked on the couch, watching "Survivor" on my DVR (I was busy when it was running live) and posting via my WiFi network.
Fun stuff! :D
Current Mood:  geeky
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08:31 pm
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PWNED!
Cliff Lee was absolutely dominating tonight! Cruised to a 6-1 complete game victory over the Stankees! Would have been a shutout if not for that throwing error.
Way to initiate the House that Swinebrenner replaced the House that Ruth built with into the World Series!
Current Mood:  happy
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05:29 pm
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Still here... just been otherwise occupied
Man... I hadn't realized it had been so long since I wandered in here!
The past couple of months have been busy and I got out of the habit of checking in here, and as a huge creature of habit, sometimes a long time will pass before I break a current pattern.
Things that have had me preoccupied:
Family stuff (Niece starting her senior year of college, nephew graduating HS and going off to his freshman year of college outta town)
Sports (baseball season winding down, football season cranking up, basketball on the near horizon)
Fantasy sports (fantasy baseball playoffs -- both of my teams currently embroiled in the championship match, fantasy football beginning ... preparation for drafts, taking part in live drafts, and managing my teams. 7 of 'em. Yes... Seven.)
Photography (I belong to two camera clubs, and photo shoots, projects, workshops, and other activities have kept me hopping)
Just pure laziness! (Warm, humid weather just makes me lazy... I veg out a lot more than during milder weather)
I'll definitely try to catch up with my LJ buds more often than I have lately. See y'all around. :)
Current Mood:  lazy
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06:00 pm
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Amazing 3-D Murals
If you're a fan of the art of trompe l'oeil (trick of the eye), as I am, you will marvel at the work of artist John Pugh.
You can find more of the images in this article in the Daily Mail
Current Mood: impressed
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03:27 pm
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Laguna Niguel: "Say NO to Crack!"
... From the "Only in California" files ...
The coastal California city of Laguna Niguel intends to crack down on on the annual mooning of Amtrak.
LAGUNA NIGUEL, Calif., July 10 (UPI) -- The city of Laguna Niguel, Calif., says it is "saying 'NO' to crack" by discouraging participation in an event known as "Moon Over Amtrak."
The Saturday event, which local legend says began in 1979 when a patron at the Mugs Away Saloon offered to buy a drink for anyone who would moon a train from the Camino Capistrano road, brought between 8,000 to 10,000 people to the city's streets last year to drink alcohol and expose their rear ends to Amtrak trains, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday.
Read all about it here...
Current Mood:  amused
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12:24 am
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Holy Crap, I take a lot of Pictures!
Tonight, I spent some time taking backups of my personal files on the computer, including all of my photos, personal as well as for my camera clubs.
As I write this, I'm on my 10th DVD, with at least one, and possibly two more to go.
When I'm done, that will be somewhere between 45 and 55 GB of just my images!
Now, granted, that includes the originals out of the camera (which I leave untouched as my "negatives"), my Photoshop "working copies" will all layers intact in case I want to fiddle with them and do more fine tuning, and one or more "final versions" tailored for the application I'm using it for... small (800x600-ish for web posting and email, 1024x768-ish for projection, full resolution for printing) of the "pick of the litter" that I selected for various uses.
It's definitely a good thing to back these up, because if I had a HD crash and lost them, I would probably beat my brains out on the top of my desk for being an idiot and not doing so.
... Final tally: 12 DVD's... 50+GB of pictures. Yikes! I take a freakin' lot of pictures! :O
Current Mood: shocked
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10:09 am
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The Desktop Wallpaper Meme
Inspired by ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) pasticcio
1: Anyone who looks at this entry should post this meme and their current wallpaper at their LiveJournal.
2: Explain in five sentences why you're using that wallpaper.
3: Don't change your wallpaper before doing this. The point is to see what you had on (jeans and t-shirt).
It's the "Fantasy Moonrise" image I created in PhotoShop for a camera club project. It took first place in the project competition. Later, I entered it in open competition, where it scored an 8 (out of 9) points. It's one of my favorite images. I use it because I think it looks cool!
Current Mood:  hungry
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11:14 pm
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Going to the Dogs -- For the Birds
This week's photo outing was a trip to Dog Beach to shoot the seagulls (yeah... I've wanted to shoot the @#$%!!!'s a few times myself... but I digress...).
Here are some of the shots from the session:
( More pictures behind the cut )
Current Mood: artistic
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10:13 pm
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San Juan Capistrano
A couple of weeks ago, I visited Mission San Juan Capistrano with my camera club for a photo shoot. I finally got around to processing some of the pictures and here are a few that I thought y'all might enjoy. :)
( More of the Mission Behind the Cut )
Current Mood: artistic
Tags: california, flowers, photography
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12:54 am
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The old adage is wrong...
The quickest way to a man's heart isn't through his stomach...
... it's just below the sternum, angled slightly upwards! XD
Current Mood:  mischievous
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11:39 pm
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Bienvenido a California
Today we had a special election in California.
When I went to the polls early this afternoon, I went through the usual rigamarole, signed in, got my ballot, and went to one of the voting stations to fill it out.
When I opened it, I was a bit surprised, and mildly amused, to see that I had been given a Spanish language ballot!
Since it was a fairly short ballot, far different from the massive ballots we usually have for general elections, and because I know enough Spanish to deal with reading written Spanish (trying to keep up with a conversation is another matter entirely!) I didn't make an issue of it and just filled it out and cast my ballot en Español.
Now, if I'd gotten one in Cambodian or Vietnamese, I'd have had a problem... XD
Current Mood: amused
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02:20 am
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To Boldly Go Where Several of My LJ Friends Have Gone Before!
Following in the esteemed footsteps of sawguy and tenaya_owlcat...
Your results:
You are Geordi LaForge
| Geordi LaForge |
| 60% |
| Uhura |
| 55% |
| Jean-Luc Picard |
| 50% |
| Deanna Troi |
| 50% |
| An Expendable Character (Redshirt) |
| 50% |
| Chekov |
| 45% |
| Beverly Crusher |
| 45% |
| Will Riker |
| 45% |
| Data |
| 44% |
| Spock |
| 42% |
| James T. Kirk (Captain) |
| 40% |
| Mr. Scott |
| 40% |
| Worf |
| 40% |
| Mr. Sulu |
| 35% |
| Leonard McCoy (Bones) |
| 30% |
|
You work well with others and often
fix problems quickly. Your romantic
relationships are often bungled.
 |
Click here to take the "Which Star Trek character am I?" quiz...
Seems fairly reasonable...
Without my glasses I am pretty much blind as a bat! XD
Current Mood: geeky
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12:12 pm
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Just another day at the DMV...
Anyone who's ever dealt with a trip to the DMV will appreciate this classic "Taxi" clip:
What a great show and cast that was!
... and never forget, there are actually people like this driving amongst us!
Current Mood: amused
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03:59 pm
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Son of Flower Fields
Here's a follow-up post of pictures to my earlier Flower Fields post:
( Which showers bring April flowers? )
Current Mood: artistic
Current Music: Caoeneadh Cu Chulainn - Davy Spillane
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03:20 pm
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LJ Debut
Prompted by sawguy, shoo and others, here's my very first LJ post...
Big whoop... :P
My first post of substance came the next day with this one.
Current Location: My messy desk
Current Mood:  nostalgic
Current Music: Danny Boy
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02:41 pm
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Carlsbad Flower Fields
I went up to the Carlsbad Flower Fields today and shot the Rununculus and some other flowers.
Here are a few of the shots I got today:
( A few more behind the cut )
Current Mood: artistic
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09:25 pm
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Some Blog memes I've seen going around
Inspired by posts from pasticcio, sunrae, sawguy, et.al.
Yeah... that sounds pretty close.
| You Are Basil |  You are a mild mannered person. People feel naturally calm around you.
You are warm hearted and loving. You have a close knit circle of friends and family.
You have the courage to be who you are in life, even if others disagree. You're proud of your uniqueness.
You are good at caring for and healing others. You are naturally soothing. |
"... like falling in love with a best friend...", that's always been my philosophy: The best relationship is when you fall in love with your best friend.
| You Are a Light Pink Rose |  You represent sweetness and grace.
Your vibe: Kind and gentle
Falling in love with you: is like falling in love with a best friend |
I always did have a way with words...
... and am often a wordy bastard! XD
| Your Vocabulary Score: A+ |  Congratulations on your multifarious vocabulary!
You must be quite an erudite person. |
Current Mood:  tired
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06:24 pm
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A couple more "Motion Blur" shots
Here are a couple more shots from my "Motion Blur" workshop a week ago that I posted about
A skateboarder leaping an obstacle (I believe it was the top of a trash receptacle that he'd adapted for the purpose)
Another cyclist doing a leap between the bowls
Current Mood: artistic
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