We went over to Brian and Nikki’s for dessert and Christmas decorating tonight. Rowan’s getting pretty big, and he doesn’t particularly like to smile, but I got some pictures of him anyway. I’m just getting warmed up for the thousands of pictures I’m going to take of my kid, though...
By my math, we have about 3,000 lights on the house. Putting the icicles on the roof was an exercise in treachery—especially the back corner of the house (the far right in the picture). Sitting on that downhill slope while leaning over to clip on lights was a bit terrifying. Although, I have to admit, it was worth it—and it will be much easier next year. I couldn’t have done it without you, crazy multifunction ladder.
I was doing some research on the impending birth of my first child, and I came across these parenting tips. Take them to heart. (Click through to see the picture.)
If we can’t do it in real life, I’ll do it on the Xbox. College football ’07. 3 punts returned for touchdowns. 2 pick-sixes, including one with 17 seconds left in the game. 2 safeties. Several one-play drives. 110-17. It was epic.
We’re almost done decorating the house for Christmas. It looks pretty awesome, and there will definitely be pictures coming. Katie definitely has an eye for this stuff.
In the meantime, I caught Molly taking a nap on one of our new Christmas pillows. Fortunately this time, unlike most times, she actually stayed asleep long enough for me to run upstairs and get my camera.
You wouldn’t know it from the name, but What The Duck is a webcomic about photography and photographers. Every once in a while, a strip will seem particularly appropriate. The strip above reminds me of this weekend, when some lady at the state XC meet saw me with my (borrowed) 70-200 f/2.8L and (borrowed) Gitzo carbon fiber monopod and asked me if I was with a newspaper or something.
Because if you post pictures to Facebook, that’s what you’re doing. Here’s an excerpt from the Facebook User Agreement, emphasis mine:
“When you post User Content to the Site, you authorize and direct us to make such copies thereof as we deem necessary in order to facilitate the posting and storage of the User Content on the Site. By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing. You may remove your User Content from the Site at any time. If you choose to remove your User Content, the license granted above will automatically expire, however you acknowledge that the Company may retain archived copies of your User Content.”
I figured a cute dog would get your attention. I’ve updated the 2008 photos page with almost everything I’ve shot this year, so head over there and take a look. I’ll post again as I continue to fill up the archives.
The girls of Kingwood Park dominated the 4A girls’ Cross Country meet, scoring 35 points and coming in first in the state. They also had 4 runners in the top ten. The gallery of entirely too many pictures is right here.
When he was preparing for them during the Democratic primaries, Obama was recorded saying, "I don't consider this to be a good format for me, which makes me more cautious. I often find myself trapped by the questions and thinking to myself, 'You know, this is a stupid question, but let me … answer it.' So when Brian Williams is asking me about what's a personal thing that you've done [that's green], and I say, you know, 'Well, I planted a bunch of trees.' And he says, 'I'm talking about personal.' What I'm thinking in my head is, 'Well, the truth is, Brian, we can't solve global warming because I f---ing changed light bulbs in my house. It's because of something collective'."
Few experts in our society could pull off saying:
Emergency!!! We will suffer terribly if you don't spend a trillion dollars right now overpaying for stuff from our friends! No, you don't have time to study the problem, nor will we present an analysis for your review. No, other experts in our field cannot actually see this problem, and there will never be data showing the problem really existed. You just have to trust us and give us the trillion right now!!
"Hello. I'm calling for John McCain and the RNC because you need to know that Barack Obama won't stop repeating those stupid Chuck Norris facts. For example, before the third debate, Barack opened a bag of Lay's potato chips. My friends, I knew what was coming. I've been tested. It was either a Chuck Norris joke or a Seinfeld double dip. John McCain gets it. Chuck Norris can only eat one. But don't be fooled. Barack Obama was just pandering to the Florida vote. But you need to know that Barack Obama was for the cancellation of Walker, Texas Ranger before he was against it. And he also hates Everybody Loves Raymond. That's not reaching across the aisle. That's changing the channel on small-town American values. Not on John McCain's dial."
Ihnatko: "Finally got Vista on my MacBook's new 320 gig drive. Seeing a Mac running Vista fullscreen is like spotting your dad in drag."
(Via Twitter / Ihnatko.)
"I slipped an 8GB stick into the Cybershot without thinking. No matter how many photos I take, they will rattle around in that cavern of memory like a pea in a cathedral."
It's technically in the same department, but it's definitely a different job. I no longer have daily phone shifts, which I'm pretty excited about. Now, I get to work very closely with our sales, marketing, R&D, and systems engineering departments. As a "test-side" AE Specialist, I'll mostly be doing proof-of-concept work for our sales force when they are trying to sell a big system; after all, big systems almost always include a whole lot of PXI. My first assignment is a unique challenge: I'm building a system with a giant PXI chassis connected to other hardware and a ridiculously-fast quad-core server, but it's for a company that builds and disassembles NUCLEAR WEAPONS, so I don't get to know much more about it than that.Howdy!
