Here’s what you do. Go buy the best pair of headphones you can find. Not earbuds – not even those fancy-schmancy Sennheisers – get a good set of over-the-ear cans, although noise-canceling on-the-ear phones will also work. Set aside a couple of hours, and find a comfortable chair. Then go to the iTunes Store and… Continue reading The Civil Wars || The Civil Wars
Barn Swallow Sibs
The second brood of front-porch barn swallows has hatched and has become the avian equivalent of teenagers, meaning that they’re trying to simultaneously be completely free to do their own thing while expecting their parents to do all the important stuff for them. This has become increasingly difficult because, as far as I can tell,… Continue reading Barn Swallow Sibs
Shoe Blues
I put on my cycling shoes yesterday and, boy, was I surprised to look down and see this: Shocking, right? They just don’t make shoes like they used to. Where’s the pride of craftsmanship, the burning desire to create goods that stand the test of time? I mean, if a pair of cycling shoes will… Continue reading Shoe Blues
A Tale of Two LCDs
Think there’s no real difference between one brand of LCD computer monitor vs. another? Think again, after viewing the following images: These are screenshots of the same image as it appears on the two monitors currently residing on my desk at home. The one on the left was taken from a 10 year old 19″… Continue reading A Tale of Two LCDs
Garden Shots
I strapped on the trusty macro lens yesterday afternoon and spent a very hot half hour shooting some of the plants my wife has done such an excellent job of nurturing through our continuing drought. Below are images of hibiscus, bougainvillea, and lantana. I’ll leave it to you to figure out which is which.
Little Porch of Horrors: Return of the Bling
Experimentation with animated GIFs continues, this time with some selective desaturation* and background blurring. *Desaturation is just a fancy way of saying removal of color. But you knew that.
Little Porch of Horrors: The Sequel
I’m not going to quit until I get this right. Or something. I tried my hand at a timelapse sequence of a blooming hibiscus about a week ago. The sequence was OK, but my camera’s battery pooped out before the bloom opened completely. Yesterday, a new camera housing arrived, one that will allow me to… Continue reading Little Porch of Horrors: The Sequel
Chicago: 40 Years Later
On Tuesday night we went to the Chicago concert at the WinPAC, along with however many other people it takes to fill that venue (oh, it’s 1,827 folks, according to the technical specs). The show was announced as a sellout and while I did see a few scattered empty seats, I’m sure it was due… Continue reading Chicago: 40 Years Later
Little Porch of Horrors
We had one of those rare mornings with not a breath of wind, and I noticed an unopened bloom on the hibiscus on our back porch. I decided this was a great opportunity to create a time lapse using the GoPro Hero 3 camera so I grabbed the tripod and camera and set things up.… Continue reading Little Porch of Horrors
Flight Behaviors in Young Animals: More Questions Than Answers
I observed a couple of instances of unusual behavior on the part of some young animals this week, and they made me wonder about whether such behavior was learned or instinctive. My drive to work each day takes me for a mile down a street called Mockingbird, the length of which on one side is… Continue reading Flight Behaviors in Young Animals: More Questions Than Answers