It’s official!
In case there are any of you out there that haven’t heard the news yet, I apologize. Omega and I have been making phone calls steady for the last few days, enlisting the help of our Mom’s and Dad’s to help spread the word, but I am sure we have missed some of you out there. It wasn’t intentional, just a lapse of memory in all the excitement!
So, after about a year and a half of trying, we are finally pregnant! We are so excited right now that I can’t even really put it into words! The baby is due on Feb. 4th, 2009 and we can’t wait!
Again, for those that we may not have had a chance to call yet, we apologize! But we will keep you posted the best that we can as to how this new chapter of our lives is unfolding!
Stay tuned!
Ironic, humorous or just plain sick…
Last night my wife and I decided to take a little drive over to Virginia and hit up one of the many local Chinese Buffets in the area. After enjoying a typical meal and leaving with that nicely full feeling that you know will never last longer than an hour, we left and hopped into my car for the brief drive home.
As we were getting ready to back out of our parking spot, my wife noticed the small sign on the door of the business right next to our buffet. She was totally grossed out by it, yet I found it strangely comical.
What was this mystery business you ask?
None other than a small, local…
Taxidermy shop.
My how time flies…
Well, it’s been quite a while since I have sat down and posted anything. I guess partly because I haven’t had a whole lot to say, a little because I’ve been pretty busy, but mostly because when I do have time I have been more interested in snapping photo’s with my new camera, the wonderful Nikon D300. I made a big leap from the Canon that I had previously and honestly I have not come anywhere near scratching the surface of the potential of this amazing camera. You could say that I have been on a bit of a crash course trying to learn my way around it so that when we go on vacation in June up to Canada for a week, I will know at least the basics of what I need to be able to hopefully capture some awesome photos.
I know this is a very small and very quick update but I just wanted to say hi and let you know that I am still around out here, even though I haven’t been writing much on here. For what it’s worth I have been writing a fair amount in a couple of trusty old notebooks, working on the art of writing in the memoir style, along with trying my hand at a bit of poetry. Yet since I am not at this point ready to share any of that here on the site, I suppose it doesn’t really count for much.
Check out my Flickr site to see a few of the new images I have been able to capture with the new camera and let me know what you think. For those that really care about it, I am also in the process of putting together 2 new book projects through Blurb. The first is going to be a collection of my “finest” work, at least in my eyes, with my trusty old Canon S3 IS. The second will be a themed book, Minnesota nature and wildlife, as seen through the lens of my Nikon. Although a third project may take over briefly after my two vacations to Canada this summer. Once on a weeklong fishing/camping trip and once for a wedding, which should be including a day trip to the Canadian side of Niagra Falls!
Take care and I’ll talk to you soon(hopefully!)
Each feather, it fell from skin
I have been absolutely addicted to the album, “The Crane Wife” by The Decemberists.
Lyrically they are amazing and their music has an easy folk/rock feel that you just sort of latch onto. It was an acquired taste, taking three to four listens through the album to begin “getting it”, but now it is a full blown addiction.
I thought I would post up a brief musical thought for today as I have not posted in some time. When we last met I was anxiously awaiting the arrival of my first book from Blurb. Since then I have recieved the book and am totally blown away by the quality! I have also gotten some rave reviews from everyone that I have shown it too, including comments such as “the way the words and pictures compliment each other is amazing, it just gives me goosebumps”, to “you shouldn’t be here in northern Minnesota, you should be out showcasing your work in some fancy art gallery out in New York”.
So to all of you that have seen the book and enjoyed it, I thank you so much for the kind words and I am happy that you enjoyed the finished product, as I loved creating the images!
Well, it’s off to pack up and get ready for the second night of the “tour”. We are playing up at the “Old Muni” in Cook, MN and I need to start heading up that way shortly.
Have a great Easter everyone!
Testing Windows Live Writer
So basically here, I am just posting up a small little nonsensical post to test out how Windows Live Writer works.
Supposedly it will post here to my site from a standalone program and everything will work out smoothly. I guess we will have to see.
Oh, as a side note, my book that I created using the Blurb site should arrive in via UPS tomorrow! I am excited to see how it will turn out. It was an added bonus since it wasn’t supposed to even be ready to ship until tomorrow, which would have meant an arrival of sometime next week!
I’ll keep ya posted!
Musician and an Author?
So I have been home sick with some sort of flu for the last 3 days, which has been boring as all get-out. But today I ventured into a little program I had downloaded back in June called Blurb.
Blurb is a pretty cool company where you can create your own books and then have them published in either hard or soft cover and then put them up for sale online, which is pretty sweet.
Anyway I have not yet had a chance to mess around with this program until today. I figured that since I had nothing much else to do besides coping with the flu, I would put together my first little book.
It is titled “Back Roads and Side Streets”, and it includes a very random smattering of photos that I have taken over the last couple of years. It isn’t a lengthy book at all, a mere 28 pages, however I think it turned out fairly well considering I only put one afternoon into it and didn’t really lay anything out before hand. My copy will be arriving in about a week and a half, so I am pumped to see how they turned out.
If you are interested in purchasing your very own copy of my very first book just click on the link to the right or the link below!
Lacking words…
I guess you could say that lately I have been a bit quite here.
Not that I haven’t had a million thoughts go through my mind about different things that I wanted to write about here, but I just have not had the ambition to write for a little bit.
Of course now that I have the ambition I need, my mind is void of all of those great thoughts that I had wanted to get to. Instead it is mostly a cloudy haze of discomfort due to what seems to be a bout with a flu of some sort. It is kind of strange and basically as long as I am not moving around much I feel at least somewhat ok, however when I get up and move around at all I start feeling like I am going to..well, nevermind.
Being sick sucks…..
Seamless
Last night I was listening to a little music before drifting off to sleep and decided to hit up a little bit of “The Essential Simon and Garfunkel”. I’ve listened to my fair share of this legendary duo, although I not a superfan by any stretch of the imagination. But last night as I was listening in the solitude of my headphones, where you can really hear the music, when I noticed how incredibly tight those two were vocally. The harmonies are amazing, but what blew me away was how seamlessly they would swap harmony parts.
When you aren’t listening closely you just hear the high and low harmony, however when you listen closely you will notice that they will swap parts in mid-word phrases and never miss a beat. Everything just blends so perfectly together.
I’m sure that there will be those fans of this duo that will be reading this going, “no kidding genius”, but it was the first time that I was really able to truly hear and appreciate the genius of this duo.
For the record, my favorite song from the pair is actually one that is based on an old poem. I don’t remember who wrote the poem, but the name of the song is “Richard Cory”.
How would you describe it?
I was listening to a little Rush and I have been struck by this section of lyrics from the “2112″ album. It is from the title song, act IV if you will, which is called “Discovery”.
They lyrics talk about how one of the characters in the song has discovered an old guitar, he doesn’t know what it is but he learns that he can use it to make music, his own music, which is such a big deal because in this futuristic age all music is controlled by the “Priests of the Temple of Syrinx”. They decide what music get’s heard and the general population is not allowed to learn to create their own music. I thought it was a very cool explanation of how someone would react and think about discovering this instrument, never having heard of it before.
Here are the lyrics:
“What can this strange device be?
When I touch it, it gives forth a sound
It’s got wires that vibrate and give music
What can this thing be that I found?
See how it sings like a sad heart
And joyously screams out its pain
Sounds that build high like a mountain
Or notes that fall gently like rain
I can’t wait to share this new wonder
The people will all see its light
Let them all make their own music
The Priests praise my name on this night”
Simply a great viewpoint on a very common instrument that we all have had some exposure with.
Do you have your tickets?
I wanted to share one good experience from the past weekend.
Again I ask, do you have your tickets yet?
That’s right, do you have your tickets to the gun show!
Sorry for the bad joke there, I just couldn’t resist.
On a bit lighter note, one of the bright spots this weekend was that I spent a few hours last Saturday with my Dad and we went to a Gun Show in a nearby town. Ironically, the Gun Show was held in the same community center where my wife and I got married which also happens to be the same building in which the area Sheriffs have a headquarters.
Anyhow, the show was a good time and I wish I would have brought my camera because I have never seen so many fat men wearing full bib coveralls proudly. There was some pretty cool guns to see and it still amazes me that the most popular guns, the guns that draw the crowds, are the biggest waste of time there is. They are the guns that are absolutely useless, things like military weapons, AK-47’s and things like that.
I did manage to snap a few shots with my cell and I will try to get them up as soon as possible. They aren’t the greatest quality, but I think you will enjoy.
All in all things went pretty much as expected. I saw a few guns I would have liked to be able to buy, but as usual with a gun show most of the guns were poorly maintained and extremely overpriced, so we left empty handed.
That was ok with me though as it was just a good time to spend an afternoon with Dad where we could enjoy one of our many shared interests. I am very lucky to have the parents that I have, simply put, they rock.
I guess the soundtrack to this experience would have to be some sort of twangy country music, given the general make-up of the crowds there! hehe
