Spring Break Cruise to Mexico Pictures

Here is a slideshow of pictures from our Spring Break cruise to Mexico. We went on Princess Cruises on the Golden Princess. It is a nice ship, but I will disucss that more later...

So what is up with big oil profits

Okay, I am not a conspiracy theory person, mainly because I don't think there is enough intelligence to pull off a conspiracy on a grand scale. But, how can gasoline skyrocket in price and oil companies all of a sudden make huge profits? And more importantly, why? I started to think that there may be more to this than just big dollars for "good friends" and others. What if this is all part of a big plan? We have enraged the public at large, making it difficult to go to work, recreate, and stressed us to the point of breaking with gas prices. The common theme I hear, it is a supply shortage. So if there is such a huge shortage then how do you make record profits?

My thoughts on this, scare the American public into near pandemonium, then swoop in with a saviour. Sounds good, right? So, where is the saviour? Alaska! 400 billions barrels of oil just going to waste and the only thing getting in the way, the environment. We know at least 40%, maybe 49% of the country seems to support drilling for oil in Alaska (completely anecdotal). Now that we have strangled the economy, the middle class, and even the poor, how many of us are ready to say screw the risks, start drilling?

So once again, what are the chances of a consipiracy of this size? I use to think it was too complex but I can only wonder now. I would predict that before the end of the year we will be drilling in ANWR. The oil companies are primed to spend a fortune on research and it is "good" for the economy. It sure sounds like a win-win but unfortunately we will be blinded by economic rage to think clearly and away we go. If we could just put half the effort into finding alterative solutions we would be considerably better off in the long run. I guess only time will tell...

Welcome to our newest member of the Family, Calvin

Merry Christmas

Wow, it has been quite sometime since my last post. I just wanted to say Merry Christmas to everyone! More pictures to come soon...

Lightning Pictures 7-10-07

Green Gorillaz Soccer Highlights

Here are some highlights from the end of the year tournament for the Green Gorillaz.

Mothers Day Poem

Happy Mothers Day! Forrest, our 13 year old son wanted to write a poem for his mom this morning. He once again wrote a very touching poem and I wanted to share it, so here it is:

MOM by Forrest G. (c 2007)

It doesn't seem easy,

being a mom,

'cause you got to be every where at once,

and everything got to be jus' right,

with little time to relax,

having so much to do,

with too short of a deadline,

which make me wonder...

Why do we have only one day for moms?

I hope you liked it as much as we did...

Cinco de Mayo is coming

OK, it has been quite awhile since I have had a chance to post anything, so I just wanted to remind everyone that Cinco de Mayo is coming up in a week and want to make sure that everyone is taking this as serious as my dog! More to come shortly....

This Show Socks

Pretty funny!

Dell Outlet changes checkout. Is it for the better?

Dell Outlet has recently introduced a new screen to the selection of a system for purchase and checkout. This means that every time you want to purchase a system (or multiple systems) then you need to enter a verification code on what they call the "Add to Card Validation". Here is what Dell says about the page:

"Why do I need to type characters from a picture before I add a product to the cart? Typing the characters from a picture helps ensure that an individual, and not an automated program, is adding a product to their cart.

This is important because hackers use harmful programs to try to reserve large amounts of inventory, which then means inventory is unavailable to our customers. To protect the integrity of your purchase, we ask you to take this step. In most cases, an automated registration program can't recognize the characters in the picture."

You are then prompted to enter an eight digit alpha code. For all those "retailers" using scripts to grab large amounts of inventory and then sort through them while in your cart this will hopefully level the playing field for the rest of the regular users. In general this seems like a step in the right direction as I have purchased many systems off of their web site and have been frustrated more than once to see a system, selected it to add to cart to find out that it and all the rest of the items are all of a sudden gone. I only wonder if you are too slow on typing in the verification code if someone else can grab the system out from under you.

All in all I think this is a good step for Dell and I applaud them on this effort. Now if they can work on their support side I will be one happy camper!

Very Cool Stop Motion Movie

Ok, this was just too cool not to post! These guys have some real talent! Enjoy...

Another Aerial Photo

This one is for all the golf fans out there. This is an aerial shot of the Rogue Valley Country Club in Medford, Oregon. I wonder if anyone ever thinks about this stuff in advance. And for what its worth, this is not a doctored picture, it is right off of an aerial photograph used by the City...

Google Earth Image and others

My son was asking me about Africa and we were using google earth to look at the area. We came across this cloud and I thought it was pretty cool. What do you think?

Sunrise in Ashland

I just got my early Christmas present (Canon EOS 30D) a few days ago and then this morning this is what I saw outside my window. I decided I better get a few quick snaps before it changed. Sure enough, within minutes of capturing the shots, everything went very grey and dark as the sun rose above the clouds. It was quite spectacular to see in person, hopefully these pictures represent just a little of what the eye saw. These pictures were taken from my backyard at approximately 7:15 AM. The lens used was a Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L lens. The particulars of each shot are slightly different but for the most part I shot around an f/5.0 with an ISO of 400. Unfortunately I was in such a hurry that I did not get to shoot at an ISO 100 with an f/2.8. So far I am really impressed with the camera and the lens, thought the lens is quite heavy. I am now in search of a good prime lens, maybe a 14-70mm f/2.8 or faster. Might have to save a little and wait until after Christmas for that one, but it will be nice.

Ronaldinho!

Damn this guy is good! The U.S. misses out on some pretty good soccer throughout the year...

A Ride up the Palm Springs Aerial Tramway

If you have ever been to Palm Springs you will notice that it is usually warm, if not down right HOT! But high above the desert oasis are the San Jacinto Mountains and an aerial tram that will take you to the top. But don't be fooled, even in the middle of summer it can be quite a bit cooler at the top. Spring is an amazing time to go there though; the mountain has snow and clear skies but the valley is quite warm. Here are some pictures from the top. There are a few nice hikes at the top along with snow camping if one desires.

The first two pictures are looking back down the aerial lines as we climbed up the mountain. In this second picture, you can see a little bit of snow beginning to show up as we are past the halfway point. This shots are taken through the tramways plexiglass windows, so clarity is not quite what you would see at the top.

Once at the top, we found plenty of snow. Luckily we came prepared with sweatshirts and closed shoes (it was sandals for the rest of the week in the valley). The next few shots are from the top as we hiked around.

All shots are taken with the Canon EOS Digital Rebel. The lens used was either the stock lens or an EF 75-300 that is quite econmical but does not have quite the glass that one would need to really capture some of the finer details. Also, shooting in the snow is always challenging for white balance. Most of the shots are at an f/8.0 which gave a nice balance of depth of field and plenty of light.

This last pictures reminds me of why we have a timer on cameras. There are a lot of good uses for a timer, especially when there is no one else around to snap a picture. I also find timers to be very handy for long exposure shots on a tripod. Typically when I reach up and push down to release the shutter and then let go, I seem to create some movement that creates blur. So whenever I have a long exposure, I just set the timer, push the button and move away. This is of course a lot more difficult than a remote shutter release, but it works.

Well, that is it for now. I have to start to dial in my new mountain bike, maybe some pictures of that soon. The bike is starting to feel like it will be a sweet ride....

A day at Home

Here is a video of a day at my house, shot once every 60 seconds.

Olbermann blasts Bush and Fox News

Ouch!!!

Microsoft Windows Live Drive

So I have read some speculation on Microsoft's upcoming program that is a tagged to be called Windows Live Drive. It appears that this will be an extension of the Windows Live services that Microsoft has currently in beta. The speculation is that Microsoft is creating an online storage system that will be available anywhere on the internet. It will also compete with Google's rumored product, GDrive.

This is somewhat old news (Wikipedia and Fortune both have articles on it) but it has got new attention since a developer posted a blog about it on MSDN Blogs. It was then abrutly pulled. Here is a link if anyone wants to read it.

So the speculation starts up again that Redmond is going to have this ready soon and that it will be just online storage. But I think there is something else besides online storage. I think that Microsoft is going to tie this into the XBOX360 and the livingroom that they so badly want to be a part of in the world. Sure it could be a great way to store and share files on the internet, but think about being able to share your picture slideshow or video of you kids first step with your grandparents across the country. Ofcourse this would mean that your grandparents would need an XBOX360, and thus why I think it could easily expand to something more.

There are also rumors around that Microsoft is planning to expand the offerings of the XBOX360 and this could also tie into those rumors. This is just my $0.02, but tell me what you think...

Something from the Archives ~ Hangtown 1999 Nationals

Well I thought this would be interesting to post since 1999 was a good year for Ricky Carmichael, on 125's. He won this race at Hangtown along with Kevin Windham in the 250 class (beating the King, Jeremy McGrath). I wonder if Kevin is going to call it quits soon as well...