14 November 2008
Northern Exposure
...part completely dark room, part exterior lights, part red cell phone with blue screen, part crazy guy jumping up and down in front of the camera for 15 seconds...
13 November 2008
An HDR Sunrise
Have you ever tried to take a picture of a sunset or a sunrise, but the picture never quite did it justice? Chances are your picture ended up looking like one of the smaller photos below. You either captured the foreground but the sky was washed out, or you could see the colors in the sky but nothing else.
That's because the human eye is amazing. It can capture changes in light, color, contrast, etc at the same time, something cameras can't do by themselves. Enter HDR. The basic concept is to take about 3 pictures at different settings and to let the HDR software program blend them all together to re-create what the scene really looked like since one picture can't do it justice.
This morning I took two quick shots of the sunrise through a window with my new camera at different settings. They are the smaller two pictures below. I then generated them together using a trial version of Photomatix Pro, and made some minor adjustments. The large photo is the final product. Of course, it's not perfect because I only used 2 pictures, probably over-exposed one of them, took the shots through a window, and quite honestly don't exactly know what I'm doing yet.
Anyway, this was first attempt. I think the results are pretty obvious. The generated image looks a lot better and a lot more like what I saw this morning when I woke up. With some more practice and effort, I'm sure my future attempts will be much better.
That's because the human eye is amazing. It can capture changes in light, color, contrast, etc at the same time, something cameras can't do by themselves. Enter HDR. The basic concept is to take about 3 pictures at different settings and to let the HDR software program blend them all together to re-create what the scene really looked like since one picture can't do it justice.
This morning I took two quick shots of the sunrise through a window with my new camera at different settings. They are the smaller two pictures below. I then generated them together using a trial version of Photomatix Pro, and made some minor adjustments. The large photo is the final product. Of course, it's not perfect because I only used 2 pictures, probably over-exposed one of them, took the shots through a window, and quite honestly don't exactly know what I'm doing yet.
Anyway, this was first attempt. I think the results are pretty obvious. The generated image looks a lot better and a lot more like what I saw this morning when I woke up. With some more practice and effort, I'm sure my future attempts will be much better.
12 November 2008
10 November 2008
Fun With Video
My Christmas present arrived today...a Canon Powershot SX110 IS!
In addition to taking pictures, it takes pretty good video. Since Julia wanted to cuddle with Mommy tonight instead of sleeping, I was able to capture this short clip on my new camera. Talk about hilarious.
In addition to taking pictures, it takes pretty good video. Since Julia wanted to cuddle with Mommy tonight instead of sleeping, I was able to capture this short clip on my new camera. Talk about hilarious.
07 November 2008
06 November 2008
Library Fun With Grandma
I thought you would like to see some pictures of what Julia does on Mondays…library super fun time! Actually, I’ve never been but you can obviously tell from the look on her face that she loves being there. One thing I noticed from these pictures is that she’s grown quite the skullet!
05 November 2008
Illinois State Lottery
The winning Illinois state lottery numbers on November 5, 2008 for the evening pick 3 game were:
6 6 6
A crazy co-incidence?! You bet. Still... If you don’t believe me, click on the numbers and it will take you to the Illinois state lottery page.
6 6 6
A crazy co-incidence?! You bet. Still... If you don’t believe me, click on the numbers and it will take you to the Illinois state lottery page.
04 November 2008
We Voted...
...barely.
I left work yesterday at about 3:45 to vote. I picked Stacey and Julia up at our house, and we headed to our polling location located only 1/2 mile away at the middle school nearby. The line wasn't too long, so we immediately went inside and found different tables with different precinct numbers on them. Not entirely sure which precinct we were in (this is our first time voting since moving here), Stacey pulled out the voter registration card she had received in the mail so that we would know what table (and line) to get in.
Precinct 379. Uh-oh. There were no tables with this number on it. The card said the address for the 379 location was off of Mark Scheffel road! We were a bit confused, considering that this polling location is literally a stones-throw away from our house. We asked an attendant to be sure, and he told us that this location was not for precinct 379. I was sure that this was our location to vote, considering that I had looked it up only a few days before. Skyview Middle School...that's supposed to be our location but this card says were under another precinct...379.
We concluded that maybe it was like a school district, and proximity didn't necessarily matter. Growing up I went to Rampart, but the kids feet from our house on the other side of Dublin had to go all the way downtown to Palmer even though it was much farther away. They have to draw the line somewhere, so we thought we were probably right on the other side of the line. So, we hopped in the car and drove half-way to Kansas to our polling location.
We arrived to find the end of the line out the door. I went in to make sure there was a precinct 379 table at this location and that we were in the right place. Check. 379. Unfortunately, 379 was the table that everyone else had come for as well. There were 4 different precincts at this location, but they each had one table and 2 workers, despite the volume of voters. Later on I found out that 379 had a line like ours since 7 a.m. straight. You would think that they would have started another table for 379 to match the demand, but the 1 book per precinct of voters probably prohibited that. So, we got in line.
After a few minutes a voting judge came by and I asked him if he had any infomation on where the precinct lines were. It was more out of curiousity then anything. He took me over to a vague map on the wall. It had Powers, Woodmen, and Mark Scheffel on it, and that's as detailed as our location got on the map. Looking at it, I couldn't tell exactly where we lived, and it could very well be that we were just on the other side of the line somewhere in one of the many precincts in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out if we were really in the 379 book until I got to the front of the line...since that's where everyone's names were registered.
So, we stood in line for an hour and half before finally getting to the front. We handed the lady our identification. She flipped back, then forward, then back again. She looked at the name on the i.d. again. We weren't in her book. We were sent over to the provisional table and after doing some research in the "voter bible" the guy told us we could cast provisional ballots here, but that our polling location was at Skyview Middle School, precinct 365, where we went the first time. His words when telling this to us were, "don't kill me, but"... I didn't kill him, but I did say, "I already know what you're going to say".
Long story short...the "genius" that sent us our voter registration card put the wrong information on it!
Meanwhile, Julia started having a meltdown since she had been dragged around for 2 hours. We left this voting location and listened to Julia scream bloody murder all the way home. We got home at about 6 p.m., and I dropped her and Stacey off. I raced back over to the middle school and found no one was there except a few people. I was in and out in 5 minutes (literally). I came home and put Julia to bed while Stacey went to the school and voted. In the end, we got to vote...but I'm still questioning whether or not it was really worth it.
If the clerk's office hadn't screwed up our information, I estimate we could have both voted in about 20 minutes (instead of 3 hours).
I left work yesterday at about 3:45 to vote. I picked Stacey and Julia up at our house, and we headed to our polling location located only 1/2 mile away at the middle school nearby. The line wasn't too long, so we immediately went inside and found different tables with different precinct numbers on them. Not entirely sure which precinct we were in (this is our first time voting since moving here), Stacey pulled out the voter registration card she had received in the mail so that we would know what table (and line) to get in.
Precinct 379. Uh-oh. There were no tables with this number on it. The card said the address for the 379 location was off of Mark Scheffel road! We were a bit confused, considering that this polling location is literally a stones-throw away from our house. We asked an attendant to be sure, and he told us that this location was not for precinct 379. I was sure that this was our location to vote, considering that I had looked it up only a few days before. Skyview Middle School...that's supposed to be our location but this card says were under another precinct...379.
We concluded that maybe it was like a school district, and proximity didn't necessarily matter. Growing up I went to Rampart, but the kids feet from our house on the other side of Dublin had to go all the way downtown to Palmer even though it was much farther away. They have to draw the line somewhere, so we thought we were probably right on the other side of the line. So, we hopped in the car and drove half-way to Kansas to our polling location.
We arrived to find the end of the line out the door. I went in to make sure there was a precinct 379 table at this location and that we were in the right place. Check. 379. Unfortunately, 379 was the table that everyone else had come for as well. There were 4 different precincts at this location, but they each had one table and 2 workers, despite the volume of voters. Later on I found out that 379 had a line like ours since 7 a.m. straight. You would think that they would have started another table for 379 to match the demand, but the 1 book per precinct of voters probably prohibited that. So, we got in line.
After a few minutes a voting judge came by and I asked him if he had any infomation on where the precinct lines were. It was more out of curiousity then anything. He took me over to a vague map on the wall. It had Powers, Woodmen, and Mark Scheffel on it, and that's as detailed as our location got on the map. Looking at it, I couldn't tell exactly where we lived, and it could very well be that we were just on the other side of the line somewhere in one of the many precincts in our neighborhood. Unfortunately, I couldn't find out if we were really in the 379 book until I got to the front of the line...since that's where everyone's names were registered.
So, we stood in line for an hour and half before finally getting to the front. We handed the lady our identification. She flipped back, then forward, then back again. She looked at the name on the i.d. again. We weren't in her book. We were sent over to the provisional table and after doing some research in the "voter bible" the guy told us we could cast provisional ballots here, but that our polling location was at Skyview Middle School, precinct 365, where we went the first time. His words when telling this to us were, "don't kill me, but"... I didn't kill him, but I did say, "I already know what you're going to say".
Long story short...the "genius" that sent us our voter registration card put the wrong information on it!
Meanwhile, Julia started having a meltdown since she had been dragged around for 2 hours. We left this voting location and listened to Julia scream bloody murder all the way home. We got home at about 6 p.m., and I dropped her and Stacey off. I raced back over to the middle school and found no one was there except a few people. I was in and out in 5 minutes (literally). I came home and put Julia to bed while Stacey went to the school and voted. In the end, we got to vote...but I'm still questioning whether or not it was really worth it.
If the clerk's office hadn't screwed up our information, I estimate we could have both voted in about 20 minutes (instead of 3 hours).
03 November 2008
Julia's First Steps
Julia took her first steps this weekend, so we decided to get it on video. In the first part of the video she's mostly interested in the camera and kitty. After we busted out the "puffs" she started to walk since she had some "motivation".
I don't know a lot about babies, but I do know that Julia has been beating the "averages" as far as firsts go. She's only going to be 11 months old on Friday, so this seems pretty early to be taking steps.
Anyway, it's all so exciting! If you don't want to watch the entire video, you'll get the idea after a minute or two. Make sure the volume is up so you can hear her talking to kitty.
I don't know a lot about babies, but I do know that Julia has been beating the "averages" as far as firsts go. She's only going to be 11 months old on Friday, so this seems pretty early to be taking steps.
Anyway, it's all so exciting! If you don't want to watch the entire video, you'll get the idea after a minute or two. Make sure the volume is up so you can hear her talking to kitty.
02 November 2008
The Tottenham Insider
Where to begin? About 10 days ago I made a post stating that I had put Tottenham on notice and until they got their act together, I was boycotting (in the most supportive way possible) watching them play. Apparently, the Tottenham chairman reads my blog. The very next day he gathered the manager, coach, and director of football together and fired them all. The worst start to a league season ever (126 years and winless) and being last in the league had something to do with it. However, you can’t deny the sequence of events and so I’m going to maintain my blog was the final straw that caused these major changes at the club.
Tottenham announced that same day that they had successfully lured Harry Redknapp away from Portsmouth and that he was our new manager. For those who don’t know, Portsmouth is in the same league as Tottenham. Fast-forward 3 games. Since Redknapp has arrived, we’ve gotten 7 out of 9 possible points (2 wins and a draw). The difference in results is as noticeable as the difference in play on the field…but I guess those usually go hand in hand.
We tied our arch-enemy Arsenal 4-4 by scoring 2 goals in the last 3 minutes. Then, we took on league leaders and undefeated Liverpool, and thanks to an own goal, 2 posts, and another goal in the last minute we won 2-1. Although we have been very fortunate (ok, lucky) since Harry arrived, I’ll take it. We’re now out of the basement and amazingly enough, only 6 points out of a UEFA Cup spot!
I do have to offer a formal apology to Matt though, because he and I were watching the Tottenham Liverpool game together. When Spurs scored the late winner I went silly. Somehow I went from one couch to the floor to the other couch, past Matt, up over the couch, hit my head on the ceiling, over the coffee table, and on to the floor, all while yelling. It all happened so fast, I don’t know what came over me. I think it was probably just months and months of pent up frustration finally getting out.
Tottenham announced that same day that they had successfully lured Harry Redknapp away from Portsmouth and that he was our new manager. For those who don’t know, Portsmouth is in the same league as Tottenham. Fast-forward 3 games. Since Redknapp has arrived, we’ve gotten 7 out of 9 possible points (2 wins and a draw). The difference in results is as noticeable as the difference in play on the field…but I guess those usually go hand in hand.
We tied our arch-enemy Arsenal 4-4 by scoring 2 goals in the last 3 minutes. Then, we took on league leaders and undefeated Liverpool, and thanks to an own goal, 2 posts, and another goal in the last minute we won 2-1. Although we have been very fortunate (ok, lucky) since Harry arrived, I’ll take it. We’re now out of the basement and amazingly enough, only 6 points out of a UEFA Cup spot!
I do have to offer a formal apology to Matt though, because he and I were watching the Tottenham Liverpool game together. When Spurs scored the late winner I went silly. Somehow I went from one couch to the floor to the other couch, past Matt, up over the couch, hit my head on the ceiling, over the coffee table, and on to the floor, all while yelling. It all happened so fast, I don’t know what came over me. I think it was probably just months and months of pent up frustration finally getting out.
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