Where the hell did the blog go?

"It's been forever since there was a blog up date by Brian, where did he go?"
"Is he still doing the 365 thing?"

Yes, I am still doing the 365 thing. I'm sorry to say I've missed a few days here and there though.

Where did I go?

I went to Africa....



No words today, just images...


This is Sierra Leone, Africa:

Pics O' The Week #23: The Weekend Project

So today's pictures are both a record of what I've been working on this weekend, and an explanation of why I don't have something more interesting to show ya.

We've been in this house a little over a year, and the lawn has always been a bit of a challenge. It wasn't in great shape when we moved in, and the dry winter combined with our property manager's decision to have our sprinklers shut off the second week of September last fall meant that most of the grass didn't survive the winter. So, as a bit of an experiment I'm trying to reseed part of the yard.

It may not look like much, but this is the result of four trips to Lowe's (and there goes my time to get out and take pics of something that's not the yard), one big bag of seed, an hour with a rake to clear off the dead stuff, and seven bags of cow manure. Well, ok, what you see here is only six bags of manure, I used a bag on the patch in the front yard.

It's kind of hard to tell scale here, but trust me, this is not a particularly small area.

Ah, yes, and the fencing...as long as there's nothing terribly interesting on the other side of the fence, it should be adequate to keep the dogs off of the new grass. However, should there be a bunny on that side of the yard....well....stay tuned for pics of Sera tearing around the yard dragging 40 feet of plastic netting!

Pics O' The Week #22

Last Friday one of our dogs learned a very important lesson:


Sometimes it's easier to get up than it is to get down.

I had gotten home from work a bit early, and the weather was finally nice for a change, so I left the patio door open. The dogs like to wander in and out, or lounge on the patio in the sun if they get the chance.

I was inside, minding my own business, when I heard a slight dog whine. Sera's a bit of a whiny dog, so I didn't pay much attention. After a few moments she whined again, this time a bit more urgently, so I figured I had better check it out. This is the sight that greeted me in the back yard - I have no idea how she got up there without making a sound, but she had no idea how to get down!

She looked a bit perturbed when I told her to "wait" and headed back inside for the camera, but I think our dogs understand by now.....pics first, THEN you get helped. Gotta have priorities.

Pics O' The Week #21

I'd like to introduce my new little friend....a birthday gift from my parents that they got in Albuquerque. The trick is that there isn't one drop of paint on this little guy - the patterns you see are produced by mixing, folding, and stretching polymer clay to create the design. There's a better description of the technique on the artist's website at www.fimocreations.com - it's pretty amazing.














After the formal photo shoot I let him out in the yard for a more natural look.

Pic O' The Week #19

More catch-up....this was actually taken a week ago, at my mom-in-law's house. Just a smudge of spring green, as the trees finally decided that it was safe to leaf out.

Pic O' The Week #20

Yup, playing catch-up here - even a picture a week is proving challenging!

The weather has just been goofy this year....winter was dry dry dry, spring has been cool and dry, and we are just now (this is May, mind you) getting the warm wet spring snows that we should have been getting in March or mid-April. I guess it's better late then never, though, and the dogs love snow regardless of the time of year.



Maybe that's the lesson from the dog for today....if it's sunny, enjoy the sun, and if it's snowy, enjoy the snow!

Project 365, Day 114. Digital slight of hand.

So I'm in Dubai...

I'm at the offices of the company I am working for, outside shooting a couple of quick pics, which happen to be at the airport.

Well, they don't permit photography at the airport.

I got hauled in to the security office and was asked to delete the images. Fine, at least they didn't try to take my camera.

So I pushed the "format card" button on the camera, which erases every image on the card. Look, see? No more pictures.

Fine, everyone is happy. Except me...

Thing is, I had some images I shot while I was at the hotel that I wanted. They were the only images I shot for the previous day and had to be used for my project.

Not a problem. The second I got done formatting the card and left the security office, I took out the card out of the camera and switched it for another one.

You see, I have invested a few dollars in data recovery software. As long as the card isn't overwritten by new data, the deleted pictures are still on that card. It just LOOKS like they aren't on the card.

Now you see them, now you don't.



Now you see them again.

Turns out the pictures I wanted to use didn't really turn out how I was hoping, but some of the ones security wanted gone sure did...

The software did a good job, there appears to be no degradation of the images or data quality. In fact, I stitched together a panorama from the deleted images and Photoshop was able to accomplish it without difficulty.