An interesting Photo Essay

One thing about the internet, is you can always find something interesting out there. Well I found something interesting, that also made me smile. A Photo Essay of a Gentleman thinking about fatherhood, so he spends a morning with his sisters son.

Boys will be Boys

So first thing, I have to say my Beautiful Wife is amazing. She gets that boys will be boys. That we aren't acting up to make her look bad, we are just playing. Tomorrow the Little Boy will be home from school, so we thought getting some videos to ease him into the weekend was a good idea. So the Little Boy and I were a little onery. We played in every isle of the video store (You know that one that starts with Bloc and ends with uster). I chased him down one isle and around the other. Met him in middle of the next. He grabbed my ankles, and I picked him up and held him on my shoulders and walked through the store. We check out and of course the Boy and I are still playing, he is on my shoulders and checker asks if we need a bag, and I says "sure, do you have one he will fit into?"

Video Games just might save your life

So this afternoon on the way home from my Folks' house, I had one of those near misses that make you have to change your drawers. I'm going south bound in the fast lane of a four lane street. Three cars are lined up to turn left in to the supermarket on the northbound side. Well, this person in third position doesn't see me and decides that he can just turn left in the the secondary driveway, and pass up the "hold up" (hold up being, good drivers waiting for it to be clear to turn left).  He pulls out, I see him, and stomp on the brakes (Toyota's awesome antilock brakes, but I still got them to lock up) and went to where he had been in the median. So I missed him by about two feet, and had to steer back in to my lane because of oncoming traffic. This all happened in a millisecond.  So how did I know what to do? Video Games, pure and simple! I credit video games for my evasive manuevering skills. The hours I've spend honing my driving and reactions on video games sure paid off this afternoon. So if you think your skills could use a little refinement, might I suggest Colin Mcrae Rally 2005.

Self-Portrait

I took this the other night. If you are what you eat then this is me, a Vanilla Coke, and wheat free pretzels with seasame seeds. 

Is your car running?

This post is an actual story that one of my friends from the train told me. This actually happened to him. The fact this story is completely true makes it that much funnier. To protect the innocent we will call him "Artist guy". As his name implies, Artist guy is an artist. He works for one of the cartoon studios in southern california. I could tell you which one, but that would be like name dropping, which of course I only reserve to impress people in person. But I digress, while Artist guy is very well, artistic, he admits that his mechanical talents are not at the same level as his artistic ones. So when his Dad comes to visit from somewhere back east, some city that's windy. His Dad helps him take care of all of his home and auto repairs, as well as helping him organize his tools and such.

Well one day Artistic guy got home pretty late, 2am or so, and after pulling into his garage, he turns the key to turn the car off. He pulls the key, and  opens the door, but, the car is still running. So he looks at the car, and looks in the key in hand, and goes, that's not right. So in a little bit of a panic he calls roadside service. Of course, they ask if he was stuck on the side of the road, of which he wasn't, so they said "Sorry, we can't help you." So, he switches to plan a2, he calls the Auto Club, but, pretty much gets the same response from them. Well, now it's about 3am, however it's 5am where his Dad lives. So he calls his Dad and of course his Dad knows just what to do.

Artistic Guy: Dad, My car keeps running, I turned it off and have the keys in my hand, but its still going.

Artistic Guy's Dad: Okay, so what you'll need to do is disconnect the battery.

Artistic Guy: How do I do that?

Artistic Guy's Dad: Don't worry, I will talk you through it. First, you're going to need your cresent wrench.

Artistic Guy: Do I have a cresent wrench?

Artistic Guy's Dad: Yeah, it's in the second drawer on the left in the kitchen, right next to the screwdrivers.

Artistic Guy: Oh, I do! Cool, okay I got it.

Artistic Guy's Dad: Now you'll need some gloves.

Artistic Guy: Do I have any gloves?

Artistic Guy's Dad: Yes, They are in the second floor bathroom in the cabinet under the sink.

Artistic Guy: How do you know this?

Artistic Guy's Dad: I'm a Dad, I'm suppose to know these things, now lets go out to the car disconnect the battery.

Artistic Guy: (Going out to the garage, and reaches inside and pops the hood) Okay, I got the hood open.

Artistic Guy's Dad: Umm, the battery in your car is in the trunk.

Artistic Guy:(Opens the trunk) Okay, at the trunk.

Artistic Guy's Dad: Now take the battery cover off, and you'll see two terminals, one with a plus sign and another with a minus sign. You have to take one of them off. (Artistic Guy reaches for the plus sign terminal) you want to take off the minus sign on.

Artist Guy: (taking the terminal off the battery and the car stops running) Hey, it stopped! Thanks Dad.

 

Whatca Readin?

"Whatca Readin?" This is how Tom and I would start most of our conversations. I was thinking about this today at his memorial. I was thinking about the first time we started chatting with each other, and it was about reading.  I was on his train heading towards downtown and I was reading  "Essential Chaucer", The Canterbury Tales, to be exact when he asked me what I was reading. So I told him, and share a line I had just read that I thought was brillant. It was easy to tell that Tom loved books. Tom always read great books. He would tell me about books he just got, or when the next book fair in glendale or pasadena was going to be.  Pretty soon we started lending each other books. It was really nice, because I would love what he recommended and loaned me and he would love what I gave him to read. It was so nice to just sit on the train and talk about how Kerouac described food so well that you could see it and taste it. Or how Orwell described being "down and out" so well that you could feel it.  Tom turned me on to so many great books, that I would always carry a note book with me to write down the titles of what he recommended. He loved the fact that he could read at his midday break for 2 to 4 hours. I remember him saying, "The only thing beter than reading is reading on company time".

At his memorial, there were at least 500 people. It was so packed that a couple hundred of us had to stand in the church courtyard for the service. It was nice to hear people tell stories about Tom, and how he had shown them kindness or generousity in his own special way. They told about how he loved to have water fights with his Grandkids, and how even the house was not a safe zone. It was obvious the people that truly knew him, because they couldn't get through their tale without having to pause and collect themselves. Every metrolink conductor I had ever met or seen as well as the Glendale, Fire Department and Police Department were there. It was nice to see such a large turn out for such a very ni, that I thought so highly of.

I remember how the train would pull into the station, and I would see Tom, hanging out of the car as i was pulling up, and I'd wave, and he would always waved back before the train had stopped just to let you know he was happy to see you. I'd get on the train, and after hearing him announce the that the train was departing he come over to his station to which I would sit next to and in is Olkahoma draw, ask "Whatca Readin?". I'm really going to miss hearing him ask that, and I am really going to miss him. Oh, by the way, I am starting to read James Joyce's Ulyesses, Tom recommended it.

Lost a Friend

I found out last night that a friend of mine Tom was one of the people that died in the train derailment that happened on Wednesday Morning. Tom was a conductor for metrolink and just an all around good guy. We had our own little Metrolink book club going. Tom would lend me some Orwell and I would let him some Kerouac. He loved books and loved to read. I never knew anyone that read as much as Tom. He is really nice person, and he is going to be missed.

Picked a good day to drive

 So I can count the days that I drive to work on one hand. Today was one of the days. Most of the time I take the metrolink in to work. Well if you've seen the news, you know that today was a much better day to drive than to take the train. If you haven't seen the news, there were two metrolink trains collided and derailed. If I had been on the train today, I would of been on the train after this incident, because I take the same line. One of my co-workers was on train after that one and has been trying to get to work for a couple hours now.

Anyhow here are some links to the info about it.
Article
Photos
Video
Metrolink Trains

What ever happened to the Album

This evening I was listening to KCRW and Elvis Costello was the in studio guest. He was talking about how his new album "The Delivery man" did have a concept behind it, but because of the way that people buy and listen to music now that it is kind of an open ended. So I was thinking about this and it is completely true. 10 years ago, how an album was put together meant something. Songs were components of the Album, but for the piece to be whole, you listened to the entire album to experience how the artist intended.

However now in the iPod generation, with just an internet connection, and a credit card, you can get just about any song you want within minutes. I remember when you would hear something on the radio, and there was an investment in time to go and get the album. You would listen to it for the first time all the way through. You understand the connections between each song, and you could get a sense of the concept behind the album. I think back to listen to Clebanoff "Strings Afire in Spain" in Grandpa K's livingroom. Of course we listened to the album in it's entirety. It was a vinyl album, there was no fast forward or next track on the remote, there was no remote. It was really fantastic. There is something about listening to the album in order, where, you know and expect the next song, so that even when you hear it on the song on the radio you expect to hear the next song on the album after the song is finished.

So fast forward to earlier this week. I had a song stuck in my head, from an album I use to listen to with my Dad, Pancho and Lefty, by Merle Haggard and Willie Nelson. Well within in 30 seconds I had the song found, paid for and downloaded. But I downloaded just the song, not the whole album. I thought at the time that I would go back and get the rest of the album later and I probably will, but the single song does prove the point. It is really easy to find the music you want and play it in the way and order you want to, not how the artist intended. Playlist make it so easy, to just throw a "mix" together. I have ones for all kinds of things. From relaxing to high energy for work. Infact the latest iPod is the "Shuffle". The slogan is "Life is Random". I have to admit, kind of want one of these.

So in this customer centric music purchasing and listening era, how can or will an album, or concept album survive? The kind of albums that you just had to listen to whole. What will keep albums from turning in to just a collection of songs? (Greatest Hits Albums, are of course excluded from this questions.) So I guess as a music fan it is up to us to make sure we put aside the time to listen to the entire album.

Playing with Picasa 2

Yesterday I downloaded and started playing with Picasa 2. I had actually just started to get in to using the previous version I had installed, which was 1.68. Well I am happy to say that version 2 is a big improvement. It struck me that when I first started using Picasa that google had really put together (bought) a good product. Picasa, is the Windows version of iPhoto. Now that is a good thing. Apple makes great software and there is a huge gap between what Apple users have and Windows users have available. Yes, there are more "titles" for the PC, the got to have applications that just work on the Apple usually don't have an PC equivent. I mean, Apple ended up writing iTunes for PC. I brillant move if you ask me. Anyhow back to Picasa. What I really like about this program is that is will just go and auto-discover all of your digital images, group them in a album for you, and then let you do what you want from there. It does a lot of the heavy lifting if Digital Photo Managment. One of the new features is captions. This is really a nice feature, because ther are certian images that I refer to by a title or a caption. I don't know about you, but I usually never call an image by it's file name. The creators of the program know that, so not only do you have captions, you also have keywords. Now keywords were in the previous version of the program, and were seemingly easier to add, because there was a keyword button near the image you were working on. Well once you get use to control + k when you want to add a keyword, it is the same interface as the previous version and just as quick. I like the addition of a search field in the upper right hand corner of the screen. This search works just the way I like it do. It shows results as you type. X1 for windows, and the next version of Mac OS X  spotlight as well as iTunes use this same method and to me this is the ideal way of searching. Another big add to the applications is support for RAW file format. RAW is the file format used by some of the new higher end digital cameras. In short google has given us a really nice PCE version of iPhoto that is really usable, and in which you don't have to have a B.S. in computer science to use, oh, and the best part, it's free!

Sunday Night Lights

Now, I know it is Wednesday, but I'm going to talk about Sunday, mostly because I just got the pictures back. Sunday was another one of the rain hard all day and leave you feeling cooped up for days, days. For those of you that don't know, here in the Los Angeles area we have gotten more rain in the past two weeks then we did all of last year. Oh, and all those jokes you hear about Californians not being able to drive in the rain. They are all compeletely true. I will never understand how someone in a lowered SUV with 20 inch rims and 4 video screens can thing that if they just drive fast enough that they can out run the rain drops. But I digress.  So sunday night I get the camera out knowing  I want to take pictures of the rain but not sure how or what. My Beautiful Wife takes me over to the kitchen window and shows me the rain falling off the flood lights in the backyard. I thought that would me a great picture once out there, I looked at the backdoor and loved the reflection I saw in the window. Both shots were taken at f8 on asa 200 film. The timing was the only thing that was different. The reflection of backdoor, had a shutter speed of  1 minute 30 seconds, and out the back door had a shutter speed of  24.7 seconds.  I now carry a stopwatch in my camera bag, it saves me from counting out loud and waking up the neighbors.

Reflections of the back door on a cold rainy night 

Out the back door on a cold rainy night  

A little Change

Well, Dad the other day asked me to change the sort order from newest to oldests, instead of oldest to newest. Welp, Its Done! There you go Pops.

Fun with a 20 buck camera

Lately, I've been taking some photos with my recently aquired Pentax spotmatic II and having fun with it. It's a great old camera that is almost as old as I am. For some reason, I really like that about it. It's completely manual, apature, shutter speed, everything, so it's had a learning curve, but it's been a lot of fun. Well, like I always do, I did a google search on the camera, and found some photo blogs that used it, or displayed images that I admired and aspire to be able to take one day. Well one of these photo blogs, Shutterbug in the about section, listed a camera, I had never heard of. So of course, I figured it was some high-end camera that I couldn't hope to ever use let alone own. A holga! Well, I googled searched holga, and found some interesting stuff.

What's a Holga
In short, a holga is a plastic toy camera, that uses medium format film. The long of it, a holga is a camera constructed almost completely of plastic, with the shutter mechanism being the only exception. It's made in the Peoples Republic of China. The shutter only has one speed 1/100, and there is "two" apature settings, f8 and f11, but actually, it's just f8. Yes, the lens is plastic too! The lens cap is a rubber plastic, that feels like the top of a can of peanuts, just not as thick. Being that a holga isn't construction from "exotic" materials, like aluminum and glass, they are really pretty inexpensive. I got my from HB Photo including shipping (USPS 1st Class) for $20.65. Not bad for a "Medium format camera". (Side Note, I don't know how it worked, but I got the cheapest shipping that HB Photo offers and the holga showed up in two days! I ordered it tuesday around 10am and it got to the house thursday at 11am.)

Why a Holga
Holgas take some very interesting and beautiful pictures. There is something about the way the images taken with the holga vignette around the edges. Or the way that that images seem to have a nostalgic feel to them. And for the prices, it seemed like a great way to get to play with medium format film, and just play with photography. The more I looked into it, the more sites I found on modifying your holga. I loved this, it's 20 bucks, and you get to modify it! Sign me up! From what I read, you really need to modify your holga to get some consistent results. For example, there are two little holes in the top of the inside of the camera that leak light. Also the inside of the camera is fairly shiny, so it needs dulled down a little bit. Also, if you don't have velcro, or a rubber band or something that back of the camera can fall off.  I loved that! The fact that you had to modify it, even better!

Modifying my Holga
I found many sites on how to modify your holga. So armed with some web tutorials, a holga and some hobby tools I went to it. First thing was my holga needed a tripod mount. Armed with a cordless drill , a 1/4 by 20 nylock nut and some epoxy, and ten later my holga had a tripod mount. So feeling pretty good about this, I kept going. Next I "flocked" the inside of the camera. Basically this is painting the inside of the camera with ultra flat black paint. Now it's starting to look like a real holga, well from what I saw online anyway. Next I had to modify the shutter. Now with a normal camera there is no way, I would even thing of it, but this is a holga. After some google searches, I found this article on modifying the shutter. Basically, if you can use a piece of wire coat hanger to switch between shutter speeds of 1/100 and "bulb" (the shutter stays open as long as you hold the shuter button down). I also added velcro to the sides and back to keep the back on, and a piece of velcro for over the exposure window for light leak control. I also modified the film gate so that the camera with take pictures in a 6'X6' exposure. Now, I did have one part that didn't go so good. There is a modification to make the camera have two apature settings. Well, I used a little too much epoxy on the back of the apature arm, and it broke the first time I tried it. This is where the holga being a 20 buck camera comes in to play. I just said, well, I guess I don't need it, and just pulled the arm out. It was a lot of fun. It was like putting together a model car when you were a kid, except after you are done you can take pictures with it.

If you don't want to perform surgery to get your holga to work, Holga Mods offers holgas modified in ways you wouldn't think possible, with good prices.

In the end, I find this camera to be a lot of fun. It looks like a toy camera, so you can't take it or yourself to seriously while using it.

Code Generation out of Visio...Sort of

Okay, so I have been planning to write this post for awhile now, and for some reason, I just haven't been able to sit down and do it. That being said, I have to warn you from the start, this is going to be fairly technical. With that being said, I've always liked the idea of code generations. It has always surprised me that code generators where not more integrated in to tools like Visio in the past. I know that next version if Visual Studio is going to have a strong tie into Visio, and that the current version if VS can reverse engineer your project in to Visio UML, but that just wasn't quite what I wanted. You see our current process is to use UML to in Visio to define the class structure of our projects. This is really nice because it helps you to think through your code before you start writing anything. You think through the data relationships, and how different parts of the project will interact with each other. Using this method, you create a model of the code, complete with classes, properties, variables and methods. The are all named and have their elationships created. Now here is where the disconnect was for me, after that is done, you have to write all the code that does that. So you have to retype every class name, property name, variable name and method name. Well, like any developer worth their salt, I am lazy in a good way. (In the way that makes you figure out how to not do repeatitive tasks over and over again, not the way where you sit on the sofa and order your children to do your choirs and drink too much beer kind of way.)

 So in looking for a solution to my dilema, I turned to google!. After some searching, I found nothing that worked like I imagined it should (darn imagination always getting in the way). But I did find somethings that worked in their own way, and I just kind of merged them. One of the first articles I came across with how to export UML to XMI, (Note that is XMI, not XML). While this was on the way to what I wanted it just handled a small part of it. So the article I rain into was on the Microsoft site. The article UML to XMI Export Functionality did get me on my way. I do have to warn you though, this one isn't for the faint of heart. You have to complie C++ code, and Add a Add-on in to Visio. Basically, if you don't think you are going to use this, don't download it.

Now I am thinking great, I have my UML exported to XMI, now I just need to convert the XMI into XML. As it turns out, converting XMI, in to XML isn't that bad. I found an article about converting XMI, in to HTML, and I figured, well if they can convert it to HTML, I can convert it to XML. Well the article was so helpful, I basically just rewrote the XSL, that they used to create the HTML, to create XML. One thing to note, the uml.dtd file that they supply in the download, is so valuable. You can't create the xml file without it! The article was very well written and laid out, I was able to create my xsl transform on the train ride in.

So now I have XML from my UML, and it only took two terrifying steps. (if you don't count, the compiling of code and installing stuff in the visio directory that really could of goofed it up, if I had done it wrong and make me have to unistall and reinstall Visio.) So now, I just need something to write the code right. Well that will be handled by Eric J. Smith's great product "CodeSmith". Honestly, if you develop applications in .NET, CodeSmith is a must have. Now with CodeSmith and this great article from The Code Project on Business Objects for CodeSmith. The nice thing about this article, is that the code examples are wonderful, and there for you to extend. Which we have, we can now pick between generating code for C# and VB. Of course there is so much that can be done with this framework. Now with everthing together we are able to generate code from Visio... Sort Of.

Next Clothing Purchase

Okay, I think that I have found my next clothing purchase. It is sublime, yet understated, with a dash of truth.

The Drool Kitty

When you are typing on the keyboard it somehow always makes the Rufus want to come up and drool all over you.






 

Lead us not into temptation

So this is my first real attempt at photography at night (althought it is the second exposure). I took it on the way in to work at around 5:45am in the morning. It was all light up, and was the only thing that had activity. So I parked, pulled out the tripod and the camera, set up the camera, and the cable release, and set the apeture at f8 and set the shutter speed to "B" bulb. I held the shutter open for a count of twelve.

I titled this photo "Lead us not into temptation" . Mostly for comedic affect. As you all know, I am allergic to wheat, so doughnuts are double trouble for me.

  

Train Song

So there is one song that I keep listening to over and over again on the train ride into work.  It makes me think of all of the things I see each day and want to share with my Beautiful Wife but cant', because I can't describe what I see well enough to paint the mental picture, or life gets in the way and makes me forget. 

3X5 by John Mayer

I'm writing you to
Catch you up on places I've been
You held this letter
Probably got excited, but there's nothing else inside it

Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world with both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm
In the mood to lose my way with words

Today skies are painted colors of a cowboy's cliche'
And strange how clouds that look like mountains in the sky
Are next to mountains anyway

Didn't have a camera by my side this time
Hoping I would see the world with both my eyes
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to lose my way
But let me say

You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
It brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
Just no more 3x5's

Guess you had to be there
Guess you had to be with me

Today I finally overcame
Tryin' to fit the world inside a picture frame
Maybe I will tell you all about it when I'm in the mood to
Lose my way but let me say

You should have seen that sunrise with your own eyes
It brought me back to life
You'll be with me next time I go outside
No more 3x5's
Just no more 3x5's