Fun and Games Dept

This is my second attempt at this blog entry. Alas, blogpress is still a woefully horrible app on the iPad. Unfortunately, it’s the only one that has any sort of decent functionality when using the Bluetooth keyboard.

I like taking photos. I like taking photos of the ordinary things or to a further extent, things that most people don’t notice. The problem with taking photos is that I am lazy. While Apple provides a decent amount of “ease of use” through iPhoto, iCloud syncing and the like, their software just doesn’t feel intuitive to me. I find it somewhat clunky. It’s trying to do too much for my needs.

Enter Adobe Carousel.

Adobe Carousel is a subscription based service and application that syncs your photos between your Mac and iDevices. It has some of the niceties of Photoshop Elements and Lightroom built into it and more importantly, it syncs over both WiFi and 3G. This is important when you’re a blogger that likes to spend time on the road. At $59.99/year or $5.99/month (introductory prices that are going up at the beginning of the year), I find the amount of cash laid out to be worth what I’m getting: simplicity.

I’ll probably be taking more photos and sharing them here.

I find myself most inspired on my morning commute. There are so many times that I want to stop and take a photo but I don’t have enough time or the laziness of syncing and all that kicks in. I have resolved to leave for work at least five minutes earlier starting today. Hopefully, this will give me time to engage in the inspiration that strikes me.

This morning I found the sunrise photo worthy. A good sunrise always puts a smile on my face, so I snapped this photo:

With just a bit of tinkering in Adobe Carousel to make the colors really pop, I was quite pleased with this photo with minimal effort. This was the first thing that my day off to a good start.

The second thing that contributed to my smile was the unseasonably warm temperatures:

For those that are relatively observant, you will notice that these two photos were taken while the vehicle was in motion. I don’t tinker or save the photos while driving, that would just be stupid. I snap the photo and put the phone down. I do the tinkering and the like when I am spending a few moments at a traffic light or stop sign.

The third thing of this smile trifecta was the fact that Earl and I made the cut last night.

Like nearly a million other Bank of America customers, we have decided that the fees and the other outrageous business practices of this ridiculously large financial institution is not in the best interest of us or our country. It was quite satisfying to cut the cards, change the direct deposit information and close the account. Good riddance.

It’s not often that I start my work week with a big smile on my face, but being creative has put a smile where there isn’t usually one early on a Monday morning.

The change is not unpleasant.

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

And back to our regularly scheduled program… After 24 hours of dealing with a security issue here on the web server, things seem to be buttoned down and ready to go.

It was weird not being able to write a blog entry at lunch today. I had to spend the lunch hour cleaning up files that had been hacked.

I’m still not comfortable with things because I haven’t figured out how the hacker got into my blog, but at least things are cleaned up.

I decided not to listen to the news/talk stations on the way into work this morning. Usually I tune into Sirius/XM’s POTUS, “Politics of the United States, for the people of the United States”, but I can listen to Herman Cain stammer and stutter his way through changing his story about the sexual abuse allegations so many times before I want to barf. For someone that has claimed that he’s not like other politicians, he sure is trying his best to spin his way out of this latest political bru-ha-ha. The ironic thing is, when I showed Earl the recent ad he released, the one where his chief of staff smokes and Herman himself looks at the camera and then smiles devilishly, I remarked to Earl that he looked “sexually creepy”. Like stalker creepy.

From the reports that have been lighting up the air waves lately it sounds like my assessment wasn’t too far off base. How’s the sanctity of marriage and holier-than-thou thing working for you, Mr. Cain?

Here I have devoted two paragraphs to what I wasn’t listening to. I must have been distracted.

So as I avoided the Herman Cain buzz, I opted to listen to 70s on 7 and 80s on 8. I tried to listen to that new Studio 54 channel but as a club DJ I was taught that you NEVER play a 12-inch single in it’s entirety, and that’s exactly what the Studio 54 channel is doing. I miss, I love France Joli’s “Come To Me”, but the 15 minute version of the song wears thin on even the most jovial of us. Marimba solos rock, but not at that great length.

Flipping between the two decades I listened to great gems such as “I Saw The Light” by Todd Rundgren and more importantly, “They Don’t Know” by Tracey Ullman. I especially enjoy the latter tune, it’s retro sound even back then is spot on when it comes to the vocals being in tune with the backing track. The “baby” at the end of the bridge is actually sampled from the original version of the song by Kristy MacColl (Kristy sings backup on Tracey’s version) and the video is awesome, especially the gong guy at the beginning, the cameo by Paul McCartney and Tracey’s varying looks, including one part where she uncannily resembles Gloria, a woman my mother hung out with right around the time this song came out.

Here’s a link to the video.

So today is Halloween. It is your typical Halloween here in these parts, with a chance of snow flurries in the evening but otherwise a crisp, magical breeze blowing through what’s left of the leaves on the trees.

The folks at work planned a costume contest for this morning, but I’ve only seen one person in costume and I wasn’t quite sure if she was really in costume or not since she often has her own brand of attire. Today she is wearing what looks like a Witch’s hat wrapped in a Christmas tree skirt, with lots of frilly things cascading down. It might have been her winter hat for all I know, because it was quite chilly today. She also dons her car in reindeer antlers and the like for Christmas so it’s kind of hard to decipher what’s going on sometimes. I like her spirit.

On one hand dressing up in a costume at work seems like it could be fun but on the other hand it smacks against my own personal work ethic. Plus, I still have memories of being some sort of roller skating beach bum in high school and losing control going down the ramp between the hallway and the cafeteria and wiping out a dozen or so students carrying lunch trays. That was fun, even when I got yelled at by a guidance counselor. It’s funny how these things stick with us through our adulthood.

I briefly considered dressing up for work in a respectful and tasteful yet scantily manner and insisting on being referred to under my porn alias of Tater O’Plenty, but I’m not sure I want to share that much information or skin with my co-workers. At least not face to face. So today I am dressed in my civilian clothes.

I wasn’t really feeling like going out to Halloween parties this past weekend, but Earl and I drove through the hopping college town of Oswego on Saturday night and there were a lot of people in costume roaming the cold, windy streets at 11:00. They looked like they were having fun. I have to admit that I might dress up tonight (but not as Tater O’Plenty) and go to the store in costume or something just because I can get away with it.

Once in a while it’s kind of fun to be someone else.

This is the second time I have written this blog entry. I hope it is as well crafted as the original version. You know I’m going to tell you what happened: blogpress on my iPad crashed again and took my blog entry with it. Someday I’m going to conquer the world with a decent blogging app for the iPad.

I could have easily doubled the length of my morning commute. You see, last night we got our first snowfall of the season. I was like a little kid driving along this morning when I first saw the snow. Our house seems to be at some arbitrary point of demarkation because all the houses up the road from us had snow on their lawn but the houses in the other direction did not. I did notice that the A-frame across the street was torn down yesterday; all that remains is the actual floor of the first story and the foundation/basement supporting it. Earl and I are going to go snooping around (like Mrs. Kravitz, complete with an empty cup that needs sugar) so that we can read the fine print of the construction permit posted on a stick in the front lawn. We’ve heard that you need a construction permit to do demolition work and we’re curious as to what’s going on with the house since the interior was burned last year.

My commute afforded me the opportunity to see many snow covered hilltops here in the foothills of the Adirondacks. The sky was brilliantly clear and full of sunshine, and it all made for a beautiful backdrop for the fresh snow. I could have easily taken a thousand photos and that’s what my heart was telling me to do, but the clock was telling me that I would have been mighty late for work. Perhaps I follow my head too much and I need to follow my heart more.

I did manage to take one photograph with my iPhone (above). I snapped this shot before a surly school bus driver apparently tried to run me down. The mood would have been ruined had it not been for the horse drawn buggy that followed behind. The kind folks in the buggy waved hello. I was hoping they would have some pies but they don’t sell them at this time of year.

What a wonderful way to usher in the weekend.

The snow was gone by lunch, but rumor has it it’ll be back this weekend. Some say no snow, some say six inches, I guess it depends on who’s trying to generate the most ad revenue.

Either way, it’ll all be enjoyed.

Dearest Power Almighty,

Please grant me the strength to not beat the hell out of anyone that refers to any amount of snow, whether small or large, as a “snowpacalypse” this winter. While I will have the urge to shove a the handle of a snow shovel up the rectum of those that behave thusly and utter this entirely hysterical, offensive phrase, please grant me the strength to findeth my way to calm in an effort to avoid calamity.

Fondly,

– Posted using BlogPress from my iPad