December 2006 Archives

Sun. Dec. 31, 2006 - Happy New Year's Eve!

Sat. Dec. 30, 2006 - View of the bay and Catalina Island at sunset from a party in a house on the beach in Long Beach. Due to network issues, I was unable to post this until today.

In order to keep up the the Storey-Haugheys, I present a list of the cities that I have visited this year.

Given my goal of traveling to all 32 counties on the island of Ireland this last summer, I will spare you a run down of every town and village that I visited. Technically, in Ireland, a city is defined by does it have a cathedral church or not, if only a parish church even if big then it is just a town. Cathedral = city.

Thus the Cities that I visited or occupied from Jan 1, 2006 to Dec. 31, 2006 (chronological order, so some repeats):

Long Beach, Calif, USA
Huntington Beach, Calif, USA
Los Angeles, Calif, USA
Dublin, Ireland
Kildare, Ireland
London, England, UK
Chicago O'Hare Airport (should be its own country)
Austin, Texas, USA
Dublin, Ireland
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
London, England, UK
Sevilla, Andalucia, Spain
Granda, Andalucia, Spain
Cordoba, Andalucia, Spain
Barcelona, Catalon, Spain
Dublin, Ireland
Belfast, Northern Ireland, UK
Armagh, Northern Ireland, UK
Limerick, Ireland
Los Angeles, Calif, USA
Huntington Beach, Calif, USA
San Jose, Calif, USA
San Francisco, Calif, USA
Dublin, Ireland
Galway, Ireland
Wexford, Ireland
Waterford, Ireland
Letterkenny, Ireland
Omagh, Northern Ireland, UK
Sligo, Ireland
(et al and many other places in Ireland)
Brighton, England, UK
Salisbury, England, UK
Dublin, Ireland
LA/LB/OC, Calif, USA
San Francisco, Calif, USA
Palm Desert, Calif, USA

The brief version is California, Ireland, Texas, UK, Spain. And back again a few times.

The design-o-sphere is in a twitter about the Photoshop CS3 Beta icons, but I am here to tell you that icons be darned, the real problems of the beta version is in the interface with one's Wacom tablet.

The tracking between my Wacom's pen tool and the actual mark made on the Photoshop CS3 beta image is faulty at best. I have spent two nights drawing on my Wacom tablet with Photoshop CS3 Beta and making a lot of messes, as 1/4 of the time the mark is made at least 30 pixels from where the pen was previously. A big jump with no lifting of my hand.. I have cross tested on Fireworks 8 and Photoshop CS2 with no troubles. Hopefully, Adobe will have this ironed out before CS3 goes to market.

On the good side of CS3: the glory and heavy lifter of the Photoshop CS3 Beta is the "Quick Selection Tool". Drool. Knock out whole sections of unwanted bits and then use the "Magic Wand Tool" for the fine tuning of your selection. Happy days.

Photo Friday :: Best of 2006

"Seaweed" is my favorite of the year. "Seaweed" was previously posted here at Black Phoebe and at Around Ireland back on Aug. 27, 2006 from the beach at Burtonport, Co. Donegal, Ireland, but is getting trotted out again as my favorite photo that I took this year with my camera phone.

To me this photo is a great example of why I love camera phone photography, constraints and all. Yes, my Nokia N80 has a 3 megapixel Karl Zeiss lens and so I am able to capture good high resolution photos, but I would not have been able to take this photo easily and without changing the environment around the seaweed with my Nikon FM-3A SLR camera or a big digital SLR.

I noticed this clump of seaweed in the tidal zone, I leaned over, put my camera phone on level with the seaweed, snap!, moblogged it to this site and Around Ireland right then, and when I viewed it in a browser a couple of days later, wow! I was able to leave the beach with nothing more than a few footprints and a great moblogged photo.

The more I moblog from my camera phone, the more I love the immediacy of deciding which shot is to be blogged right as the photos are taken rather than downloading them to my computer and photoshopping them into perfection before posting them. I like the constraint of no on board / on phone photo editor. What you see is what you get. Unaltered. Unfiltered.

Either I get the composition, the light, and the subject right at the time of snapping the photos, or I don't. Camera phone photography and moblogging the photos within 5 minutes or so, has forced me to hone my eye and decision making process.

My other favorite moblogged photos from 2006 and 2005 can be found at this flickr photoset. Thank you to my beloved Nokia N80.

Somehow I surfed / researched from the BBC's 100 things we didn't know last year item #32* to Behind the Name.

At Behind the Name, I have discovered that the good, solid, stoic, old fashioned name of Alfred, means Elf Counsel in Old English. This makes my day.

Furthermore, Algar means elf spear, Alvar means elf army, and Alvin (or Alwyn) is elf friend. Please name your boy children accordingly.

Metafilter at its best yesterday, "Pony Express for the Damned" Me-Fi'ing on The Post-Rapture Post:

I am hiring myself out as a post rapture cat-sitting service for the saved. Seriously. You wouldn't believe the Venn diagram intersection of suckers, cat owners, and Christian fundamentalists. - Slarty Bartfast, commenter

I am officially outing myself as a Panmillennialist. Yes, folks, it will all pan out in the end.

What up with the obsession for the end of the world? Premillennialists*, why your desire, nee desparate need, be apart of your own cool crowd - overriding Jesus's call to first love the Lord, your God, and then love your neighbor?

Both Scruffy and Belle have had an exceptionally hard day of sleeping in the car from Bishop to Huntington Beach, thus the need to be all zonked out by 10:30pm.

Driving south on the US 395 between Big Pine and Independence, the whole of the "Big Boys" of the Sierra Nevada Mountains (the 12,000 - 14,000 footers) were completely covered in clouds and obscured by falling snow. Other than a few raindrops, we had no problems driving home.

A great quote on Thomas Merton from today's LA Times article on Huston Smith, "Religion 'rock star' turns his eye inward":

And he [Huston Smith] recalled the time he asked Christian mystic Thomas Merton to explain what the life of a monk was like.

"It's very nice," Merton responded.

"I'm surprised by your response," Smith said, "given what I know about the three vows."

"Oh, those," Merton said. "Poverty is a snap. Chastity more difficult, but manageable. But obedience — obedience is a bugger."

Preach it, Brother Merton, obedience is a bugger.

My young cousin Katy loves all things horses.

At Ranch 99 Market.

Stuck in traffic on the 15 northbound, traveling towards Bishop for Christmas.

Karl Izumi and Hector Martinez came to the Royal Crown Revue show at Alex's. Yeah, Karl!

I have been tagged by Lauren to answer the 5 things that folks wouldn't know about you unless you posted them on your blog.... here it goes:

1) I got a final whole class grade of 105% in Typography. My only A+ in my whole academic career.

2) Really drunk people scare me. Anyone out of control scares me, but esp. drunks. I don't show it, but I get very agitated and upset inside. That makes my stint as the stage manager and door girl at Alex's even odder...

3) My hair, my ass and my boobs are all real and all mine. Several times recently someone has put their hands up the back of my hair and exclaimed in surprise, "It's your OWN hair! I thought you had extensions! ha ha ha..."

Yes, I grow my own hair. My ass is all my own muscle and fat; shape compliments of my dad's mom's side of the family and that may also be where my bosom came from.

4) In 1998 & 1999, I worked on Mars at JPL.

5) I am dreadfully allergic to pot and hash smoke, just a wee bit in an enclosed space will trigger a migraine. In 1992, I lived in Amsterdam for 3 months in the spring and 1 month in the late summer; I avoided the Red Light district and "cafes" like the plague.

I now tap to post 5 things about themselves that we would not otherwise know:
Liz
Allison
El
Megan and Murray
I am going to join Lauren in double-tapping Erika, because she really does not blog enough!

For many of us caught up in Hannukah (Happy Hannukah!) or Christmas preparations or figuring out how to squeeze out a few more days of holiday time or going to pick up more heart meds or a martini after negotiating the mall parking lot, we quite often let a very special day pass by us. But if you are SAD, it is today is the day to celebrate!

Yes, it is that time of the year again, Mr. Sun* will start showing his face around the Northern Hemisphere a little bit more each day after Dec. 22, 2006 at 00:22 UT (aka 12:22am GMT) or for those on the West Coast of North America that means today, Dec. 21, 2006 at 4:22pm. Happy Winter Solstice!

Regardless of your religious persuasion, be it Jewish, Christian, Consumerian, Buddhist, Republican, Aetheist, or Scientific, here are a few links to help you get in the spirit of the shortest day of year, go out and celebrate with good cheer:

Wikipedia on the Solstice(s)

Equinoxes and solstices

Common Holidays in Relation to Equinoxes, Solstices & Cross-Quarter Days

Ancient Origins: Solstice

Trapping Christmas

Happy Holidays. Thanks, SixApart, for the laugh!

I suppose I should have put the soft gift in a box to have a nice, clean wrap, but no... ;o)

Per usual, I find out about the "Reveal Your Blog Crush" meme one day late, but I am going to post it today anywhoo...

In no particular order:

plasticbag.org - Tom is smart, funny, and sharp. Tom would also qualify as my top "Hot Brain".

little.yellow.different - Most of Ernie's blog posts make me snort whatever liquid I am drinking out of my nose as I hee haw in laughter.

Ben Hammersley - gorgeous photos, great layout, love it.

Mirabilis.ca - I love the mix of archaeology, historical finds and notes, and brainy trivia. Great blog.

[daily dose of imagery] - My favorite photoblog.

JDD - for his mix of photography and software blogging.

Metafilter - How can you not have a crush on the big blue? At times infuriating, at times baffling, at times extraordinary, but never boring.

Yesterday, a scrap metal collector was touring the neighborhood in front of the trash truck to see if there were any good pickings on the curb. My brother saw him cruising in his truck and Joe went out and got him before the metal guy left the track.

Joe has been collecting, holding, or storing broken construction and auto equipment for friends or himself telling himself that he will repair them and use them. The full auto jack from 2000, still in the garage. The Steinbock mini-forklift (above) from his friend's shop, in the backyard. Etc., etc., etc.

Joe showed the scrap metal guy the forklift and the jack and the fellow said, "Caro...." in a sweet drawn out voice. He announced to my brother that he would be back at 7am on Saturday with a bigger truck for the various bits of equipment.

The photo above was taken about 10:30am this morning after much effort on the part of my brother, the metal collector and his friends/colleagues, to get the forklift in the bed of the truck. They were heaving and ho-ing using chains, leverage, and brute force, but the extra heavy little forklift was being quite recalcitrant.

The scrap metal collector was smiling through out the whole operation and so was my brother, Joe.

Wed. 12/13/06 - Julie Wanda at bowling practice. Yes, it was Barflies.net's One Pin team's first bowling practice of the season in prep for Punk Rock Bowling 2007!

Bonsai at the Huntington Gardens.

Today, I met up with my mom, we had brunch at the Harbor House Cafe, went to CompUSA for Xmas shopping (geek shopping!), to Wild Oats, and then took the dogs for a walk in two different parks.

Both parks were in the Jet Blue flight path and I kept trying to get a photo of a blue bottom of a jet plane with the blue sky in the background. In park #2, we encountered many, many, many waterfowl and lots of fouled sidewalk...

On the floor at the Anaheim Pond (now Honda Center ((bah!)) ) during the Andrea Bocelli concert intermission.

Ever notice that folks driving BMWs believe and act on the belief that they are the only driver on the road and that they own said road, much to the determent of anyone within 100 feet or so? Imagine what happens when 10,000 of those sorts are all trying to get into the parking lot of the Anaheim Pond for the Andrea Bocelli concert. The Pond's, now "Honda Center", parking lot was the great leveler in a way that Marx could have never conceived of. It was beautiful.

All the BMW's had to wait their turn, all the lanes were full and inching along, so none of them could blast forward and cut another one off. And they were all cranky, cranky, cranky.

Thanks to Mr. Bocelli for having a concert and my brother for buying the tickets, so that I could watch the Ultra-Alpha BMW's get their comeupance.

Yesterday's snow is now today's patches.

Silver Pleather and Purple feathers - Punk Rock Bowling here we come!

As I was riding my bike over to get the LA Times about 20 minutes ago, I saw folks making snow at the local park. Big blocks of ice went in the back side of the extra large slushy making machine and snow was blown out under a tree on the other end. Kids were throwing snowballs at each other while wearing shorts.

The Silver Princess' battery was recently recalled by Apple and they kindly sent a new one. The new battery is performing admirably, lasting much longer without a charge than the old, but it has one flaw... it makes a lousy lap warmer. The old battery would warm your lap quite nicely and it would at times get quite hot, which is why I think it was recalled. Maybe it is time to turn on the house's heater...

Databases are funny things. They can be quite robust and tick along nicely with tons of posts and calls for a long time. Or they can crumble and corrupt out of nowhere for no reason. After last summer's database debacle on a private community blog, I will never use Word Press again (sorry to all WP fans, but WP without a database is a website with NO posts whatsoever. Thank God, for Movable Type's static pages). And after last summer's Word Press database meltdown, I religiously backup the databases for my Movable Type installations, even though I also back up the static files every month. Just to be safe.

Every seen someone's Flickr icon and thought, "Wow, that person is cute." So, you add them as a contact, read their profile to see if they are single, and then if they have good photos and their website is intriguing you add them to your RSS feed reader?

Yep, you know you've done it.

A bit blurrier than I had hoped, but it was dusk and the two cars with the palm trees looked fabulous in the rear view camera.

**I just started a new Flickr group entitled Prius Rear View Camera to celebrate photos that one takes of the rear view camera screen...**

Local rose has gone all hippy, seen whilst walking the dogs.

Lesile Harpold's Advent Calendar 2006 (via Rebecca's Pocket)

The Online Advent Calendar (via Making Light)

Erika's reflections on the Advent Season

My question is where can one find an Advent Calendar with dark chocolate? ;o)

Update:
The Geek Advent Calendar - 24 ways (via Clagnut)

I never watch TV or movies. I just read the reviews. And think about seeing a movie or so a year.

Tonight, after years of thinking I wanted to, I am watching "High Fidelity." I borrowed the DVD from Sandra and Justin today.

The first 9 minutes caught me, especially in minute 9 when Jack Black's character, Barry, starts a fabulous musical fight. I have to go with Jack bouncy monday morning music rather than Dick's Belle and Sebastian...

I have always loved independent record stores, esp. the used ones, and the knowledgeable fellows working behind counter. My fave is Bionic Records on Bolsa Chica.

I am laughing.

Update: 1:12 hours into the film, Tim Robbin's character, Ian Raymond, is the Cami Sigler of men. The two alternative scenarios in the record store were hysterical.

Update, II: 1:20 hours into the film. "Some people just feel like home." - Rob Gordon. I have experienced this, then he went on to get married. Good bye, home. Hopefully, like moving, one can find home again.

Update, III: 1:48 hours into the film. This was a good movie. I am glad I borrowed it from Justin and Sandra.

At the Dodgen annual Christmas party. Thanks, Jeremy & Judy for the lovely party.

As seen by Black Phoebe the Prius's rear view camera while backing up.

Black Phoebe the Prius now has her own Cheeky Monkey.