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Awesome. Unfortunately, I'm lacking the time, creativity, patience, and talent to do anything like this, so I must simply respect in awe the work of others. This one's way up there.

P.S. I'll check out the "making of" page later, too.

And of course, just as I post about the (incorrect) speeds, Time-Warner's RoadRunner service goes down from Friday afternoon until early Monday evening.

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A shortened version of the original:

1. Experiment
2. Check the background
3. Hold the camera straight (contrary to #1; can be done in software later)
4. How to hold a camera (carefully! :-))
5. Get in close
6. Take lots of photos
7. Strive for balance between people, place, things
8. Find a point of interest
9. Rule of thirds (probably not when they're four years old, though)
10. Review pictures together
11. Learn the half-shutter press (or whatever you do to focus on your camera)
12. Learn different modes (most adults don't know how to do this, cripes!)
13. Exposure settings (see previous parenthetical note!)

As one commenter says, the best tip was left off the list: have fun!

Another good one from the comments is "take care of the camera." 🙂

My "Crew" picture is on the photoblog today. I don't attribute the success of that image to anything but luck. 😉

But anyway, check it out if you get the chance - and then download a desktop-sized version if you want.

It's not as easy to see as this one, but Burger King will apparently allow you to upgrade from french fries to apple fries for the low, low price of less than 7/10 of a penny.

Stop the madness!

A few days ago, one of the hard drives (or perhaps the hard drive) on my server died. Though it took MediaTemple about 13 hours to notice the dead disk ((I called them as soon as it completely failed. In some respects, it was quite spectacular: I could SSH in, but I couldn't edit files or do much else because the disk reported that it was read-only.)), replace the hard disk, and restore my data, I was impressed that not a single bit of data was lost, including up-to-the-minute databases. I didn't have to do anything except wait.

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Good news: I'm employed for another year. Woohoo! Nothing beats sitting at home making money in your boxer shorts. And I'm intentionally leaving that sentence just the way it is.

With the range nearly complete, Whispering Woods released their 2009 price list. Membership rates are quite low! Surprisingly low, in fact:

Individual (25-59): $2100
Family (same household): $2850

Senior (> 60 as of 04-01-09): $1900
Junior/College (16-24): $1500

Foursome Special: $8000

Corporate (Primary): $2100
Corporate (Secondary): $1650

All rates include green fees, use of the practice range facility (and a discount on the golf balls), and golf carts.

Let this post serve as a bit of a kick in the pants for me: JPG Mag Themes. I'd like to use them to perhaps spur a little creative spell - I wouldn't mind getting an image in JPG.

We'll see.

Today I dropped off my PA voter registration form. I'd previously been registered to vote in FL, and voted by absentee ballot in the last presidential election.

I don't care much for politics, and I never really have. I understand the importance of being involved in the decision-making. I had a lot more free time in 2004, so I took the time to educate myself a little bit beyond what people said and what commercials I'd seen (admittedly few, given the power of TiVo…).

This time around, I haven't really had the time or opportunity to do the research. Perhaps this post will kick that off for me - I have a month. I do think it's interesting that we're either going to have a black president or a woman vice president.

I don't care about Palin or Biden. The vice presidency doesn't seem to matter much at all, though I realize Cheney may have changed that. And even if the VP matters, they're not going to go against the express desires of the President, so for me it comes down to the two men: McCain and Obama.

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For some reason I'd heard several things about the Roku box within the past few days. I finally got around to checking it out and, well, I won't be buying one because… the Xbox 360 will support Netflix streaming with the fall update. Duh - I'd forgotten about that.

Woohoo!

The picture on today's photoblog is one of my favorites (today, a small version appears to the right as well). If you get the chance, drop by, subscribe, and rate the image.

I do think this is one of my best photos ever, but in sharing that thought with a friend the other day, I said "that's pretty pathetic." It was a comment laced with "if this is your best ever, and it's not very good, well then your body of work must be really terrible." Never one to take a compliment well, I have a hard time giving myself compliments too. Instead I prefer to focus on the ways I can improve. It's a tactic that's far more efficient than focusing only on the things that are good about something, but less than the ideal: recognizing both what's good and bad.

And really, that's almost how I approach my whole life. Terrible with compliments, always looking at what I can improve about myself, never really taking much pleasure in the positives, but still somehow enjoying most of each day with the people I love and who love me.

Any time I see a sign like this, I'm tempted to try to take the people up on what they're offering, perhaps by giving them a penny and insisting that they "keep the change."