A Morning to Remember

An hour and a half ago I got to work two hours late. I have now worked 15 minutes so far today. That must be that "new" math or something...or, maybe I just slept in and forgot my laptop at home and had to go back and get it...fun stuff.

As long as I am logged into Blogger, I'll post about these two items as well:

1.) Allofmp3.com is shutting down. No more $0.15 songs...it's back to the $0.99 iTunes. Actually, I have had a couple quality issues with Allofmp3 and I buy almost all my music on iTunes.

2.) TV and movie companies might actually be starting to get a clue that this whole "downloading movies" thing could be a money-maker. I have been saying that for years now, but who am I? The TV and movie industry is ready for an "iTunes" type revolution. Millions of TV shows and movies are being downloaded illegally right now, much like music was being downloaded in the Napster era 7 or 8 years ago. Someone needs to come in and do it right. iTunes and their $1.99 for a 20min TV show is ridiculous. Someone, please, see this opportunity and do something brilliant like iTunes was for music. Oh, yeah, this article sparked this ;)

Well, I should get to work. I'm 4 hours behind schedule now. Oh well, things will still get done and nothing has fallen apart...

Carbonite - 224 Hours Later

16% uploaded after 9 1/2 days...ok, I give up on this one. From what I have read though, this is a great service. I would recommend this for the 5-10GB and under crowd. 100GB is just rediculous to try and backup this way. Oh well, I tried. Now on to other ideas...I'll post more about those later.

I'm not alone!

http://www.seopher.com/articles/29_8_of_xp_users_may_move_to_linux_over_vista

"As can be seen in the results the majority of (law abiding) users will stay on XP for the foreseeable future with 38.6% of the vote. However, 10.5% said they would probably convert to using a Mac, 21.1% showed confidence and declared an intent to upgrade to Vista while a strong 29.8% expressed an interest in converting to Linux."

It's always nice to know that you aren't totally out in left field with your thoughts/ideas...

Me and My OS

Okay, about once every 12-18 months I get this urge. It's an urge to ditch all things Microsoft. If I had $3500 laying around, I would get a Mac. Today, however, I don't. Linux is the next best option.

Linux has come a long way since I first installed it in high school. Back then a graphical installation was something rare. Today, there are so many flavors of Linux and pre-packaged installations that anyone can install it.

I have tried to "go Linux" many times before. The same things always stop me. I can't give up some of my applications. Photoshop, a good RAW converter, Poker, World of Warcraft, etc.. For the most part, there are Linux equivalents out there for almost anything you would want to do. This page has many great applications listed. But, there is no substitute for some applications.

Many people have these "must have" programs that they can't live without. There is still hope for those users. First, dual boot Linux and Windows. Just go into Windows for those rare things you need to do in a Windows app. Well, that's not ideal, because sometimes it's an application that is used everyday. WINE has come a long way since it first came about in 1993. However, 13 years later they are still not to a version 1.0 yet. Thelatest version is 0.9.24, released 2 days ago.

WINE can now allow Photoshop CS, World of Warcraft, Online Poker, and more to be run in Linux. It takes some tweaking, but blogs and forums across the net attest that it is possible.

So, is it worth it to spend all the time and energy trying to do in Linux what I already to on Windows? Absolutely. The viruses, spyware, Windows bugs, Explorer.exe crashing, blue screens, etc. all make me want to get away - far far away. The scripting possibilities and automating of everyday tasks attracts me too.

Well, I embark. Not on my "main" machine, but my secondary machine. If I can get everything running smoothly on it, I might finally escape the clutches of M$. Or, I spend 3 weeks trying to get it to work and then end up back on Windows for another 12-18 months. We'll see. Wish me luck or send me an e-mail with helpful links or software that I might not know about on Linux.

Extreme Diet Coke & Mentos Experiments II - The Domino Effect

The guys from EepyBird are back, with 251 bottles of Diet Coke and over 1,500 Mentos mints. In Experiment #137, they did a mint-powered version of the Bellagio fountains. This time, it's one giant Coke & Mentos chain reaction that has to be seen to be believed.

My Idea For a Backup

First of all, I need to say that if anyone knows of something like this that already exists, please e-mail me! I'd love to start using it. But, I don't think anything like this exists. If I had the brains, time, and motivation then maybe I would try to create it myself.

I am amazed by the bit torrent network. Downloads have never gone so fast. Linux distributions have picked up on this as well as many other companies. Blizzard uses this method of distribution for it's patches of World of Warcraft. It is beautiful because of the bandwidth savings by letting "peers" and "seeders" share the bandwidth load. I think the uses of this technology are widely overlooked and underused.

Why not utilize the same kind of peer to peer network for backups? I give up X amount of space on my hard drive in exchange for X amount of data to be backed up (plus a fee). I create my own encryption key (using some easy to use tool provided by the company offering the peer to peer backup), choose what I want backed up, point the program to a space on my hard drive where it can use for storage, and then hit the go button. It would take my encrypted files and distribute them across the peer to peer network of other users of the network.

Now, I know, there are a lot a questions to be answered and a lot of holes in my simplified idea in the paragraph above, so before you flame me in the comments, know that I know that. However, the basic idea of taking your backup and distributing it over a peer to peer network, is one I have never seen addressed.

So, ideas? Questions? Comments? Links to existing services I don't know about? Please, comment or e-mail me!

Happy Birthday Zach!

Enjoy one of the most famous moments in history for the song Happy Birthday. Click here to watch/listen to Strong Bad Sings! Towards the end it talks about a special offer where Strongmad forgets the words to his favorite songs. Pay attention to the Cheat playing the piano.

Happy birthday!

Microsoft Windows 1.0 Commerical

This is really funny!

Carbonite - 12 hours after install

Anyone who knows me well knows that I am a little paranoid about backups. After nearly losing an entire wedding photo shoot due to a Windows mishap, I will never be the same. That was about 5 years ago. Some call me crazy, but at least I know my data is safe. Well, sort of.

I say "soft of", because at this moment if my house caught fire and burned to the ground, I would be in a sorry state. There would be a LOT of stuff gone. I'm not talking about physical things, but 1's and 0's. Cameras, furniture, computers, toys - those can all be replaced. But the photo of my daughter with purple lip gloss smeared all over her and the bathroom can never be replaced. I took all steps to guard against hardware and software failure (I have RAID 5 setup on one computer and all my photos also stored on an IDE drive in another computer - automatically synchronizing in real time), but I have very little "off-site" storage. If something happened that took out my computers at home (burglary/fire), I'd be crying.

So, how does one protect against the dozens, or even hundreds in my case, of gigabytes of precious data? I'm hoping it is online backup. A service that backs up my data in real time to a server...somewhere. These services have been around for a long time, but only now are they affordable for everyone.

Carbonite is an online backup company. They backup all your precious data on their servers (encrypted of course) and continue to keep that backup up to date from a tiny little app that sits on your desktop. The best part about it is that it is for "unlimited" backup - for $5/mo. (or $50/year)! Whoa!

I am very skeptical, so I am trying it. They have a 15 day trial and I'm going to see if I can get that extended, because by my calculations it should take about 60 days for my data to be backed up. This initial backup takes a LONG time, but the subsequent updates each day will happen much faster. In the last 12 hours I have uploaded 1GB of data - I have 123GB left. Maybe it will speed up, but I doubt it. Carbonite tries to be unnoticed. Their goal is for you to set it up and never have to think about it again. This is great, but I'd like to see a feature that allows me to bump up it's bandwidth priority.

I will continue to post updates about this service as I go. If it really is what it says it is, then I think anyone with a PC and broadband should sign up. $5/mo. is a VERY small price to pay for knowing that your data is secure. Is it the ideal solution for everyone? No, but it's better than doing nothing.

I still have yet to see implemented my idea for remote/online backups...but that's another blog entry.

I Tried IE7 and...

Less than 5 minutes after I opened it for the first time... I'm going back to Firefox. Click here to download a real browser. IE is worse now than ever before. Don't download IE7.

Closed

Last Saturday we took the girls down to riverfront park with a couple friends. The girls had a lot of fun playing on the play equipment. There was a slide that Lily just sat down at the top of and wouldn't come down for about 10 minutes. Anyway, we thought that the carousel was open until 9pm so we were going to do that after playing outside. Well, the girls were very disapointed when we saw the big "closed" sign in the window. They closed early for maintenance. Try to explain that one to an excited 3 year old...not fun times. I did manage to get this picture of the girls and their friend Scott :)

A Funny Song

I like Weird Al. I have for a long time. Every now and then one of his songs really strikes me funny - even more than usual. With his latest album (Straight Outta Lynwood), he released one of these wonderful songs that just struck me right. The title of this song is Don't Download This Song. Ironically, you CAN LEGALLY download this song! Here is the link:

http://www.dontdownloadthissong.com

In this masterpiece, Weird Al speaks out as an artist against pirating music...kind of. In a way that only Weird Al can express, he uses sarcasm to show how blown out of perspective downloading mp3s has become today. Here are a couple of excerpts that give a taste of the song:

But deep in your heart you know the guilt would drive you mad
And the shame would leave a permanent scar
'Cause you start out stealing songs and then you're robbing liquor stores
And sellin' crack and runnin' over school kids with your car

So don't download this song
The record store's where you belong
Go and buy the CD like you know that you should
Oh, don't download this song

It doesn't matter if you're a grandma or a seven year old girl
They'll treat you like the evil hard-bitten criminal scum you are

For all the lyrics, visit XVR27's Weird Al Homepage:

http://www.com-www.com/weirdal/dontdownloadthissong.html

Other songs on the album I recommend are: White And Nerdy, Canadian Idiot, Confessions Part III, Weasel Stomping Day, and Trapped In The Drive Thru. This is one to not buy through iTunes though, because the CD has extras. It has animated music videos for several songs.

40

Shadowform + Horse = W00T!

First Day in Seattle

Long day! I'll be short tonight because I'm tired :) Work sent me to Seattle for Kodak software training. I have class Monday and Tuesday this week. I am really looking forward to it. It was a stretch to be able to leave for this great opportunity, but Zach is covering for me (thanks Zach!). I hope to bring back valuable information about this software for use in our lab.

Well, driving on my own, I made it from Keizer to Seattle without any stops. I think I drove it in about the average time it usually takes our family to get to Olympia :) I miss my girls and Krista already and it's only the end of my first day :(

I am not directionally blessed. I drove, zigged, zagged, up hills, down hills, through neighborhoods and all kinds of stuff and finally ended up where I was happy taking photos. I photographed downtown Seattle for about an hour and a half. I wanted sunset and night shots. Hopefully tomorrow night I'll post more. I took 260 photos today. I have 3 up on my flickr account:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/englishw/

I probably won't blog again from Seattle, but be sure to check out my flickr page - I will upload more pictures. Don't know if I'll have time to stitch my panoramas I shot, but we'll see :)

Accepted & Flickr

Is it odd that I just created my Flickr account yesterday? I know it's been around for awhile, but I just haven't used it. Well, now I'm on Flickr:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/englishw

Also, my second panograph attempt was accepted and I was invited to the Panography group on Flickr! That was exciting!

Second Panograph

Well, my first panograph was rejected by the Panography Flickr group. This is what they had to say:

Hey,

thank you for your picture. But at least this is no panography.
Panographies are wide angle pictures that make up the vision of reality seen like a person would when looking around from one point of view and unconsciously putting the pictures together in their head.
Your photo could also be done with a wide-angle-lens.
Please try "crazier" angles that look more interesting and please: Apply again! Thank you!

This is my second attempt. I think I like it better than the first. I went out to shoot the capitol building and this was just a stop on the way back. I really like it. Again, here are desktop background sizes:

1600x1200 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600

First Panograph

Okay, I posted earlier today that I was inspired to try panography. Here is my first attempt. I have sized them if anyone wants a desktop background version. I am very happy with how it turned out! Can't wait until Tuesday when I can print it out at work :)

1600x1200 1280x1024 1024x768 800x600

Inspiration From Panography

Okay, first off, I'd like to say sorry for not posting much in the last several months. I am still working 50-60 hour work weeks, but those are about to end - hopefully. I may even be able to work four 10 hour days later this month for a couple months. That would be a nice change.

Every now and then I see something REALLY cool in photography that makes me want to go out right then and try it. Today I had that inspiration: Panography. Check out this link:

http://www.flickr.com/groups/panography/pool/

Panography is taking dozens of individual photographs and merging them together to make one larger photograph. I have done panoramas this way, but always with the intention to make it look like ONE photo...not an artistic composit like these.

It's funny, because just last night I was at a friends' house who had done something very similar with 4x6 prints - laying them out so they matched to look like one large photo made up of 15-20 smaller ones. Very cool.

I don't know when (or if) I'll ever come up with anything as cool as in the slideshow link above, but be sure that is my next photo project and I will be posting progress!

8 Years Ago

8 years ago I had a wish. I wanted to get and send e-mail from a portable device I could have with me anywhere. I never dreamed of instant messaging, web browsing, etc. on my portable device…let alone that it would double as my phone! But, for me that day has arrived.

A couple weeks ago I started an unlimited data plan with Cingular. My Blackberry device acts as my phone and data device. It has a qwerty keypad and works very smooth. I was able to downgrade my cell phone plan at the same time, so I end up paying $20/mo. more than before – and that’s for UNLIMITED data traffic! Simply amazing.

I now have Google maps, my e-mail, message boards, instant messaging, and all the web browsing I desire – on my cell phone. I am loving it!

I know I’m a little behind – this isn’t ground breaking technology or anything, but for me, it’s the first time it has been affordable. I highly recommend RIM’s Blackberry devices and Cingular’s data service. For a cell phone, it is very fast!

*Happy Dance*

7:20PM - Where I Am

[UPDATE: I was able to leave at 9:30pm]

Yeah, I'm still at work. Someone accidentally highlighted the contents of thier "C:\" drive and hit "Delete" (while in an FTP application). I am spending my evening recovering documents and rebuilding their computer. Zach is on his way over right now with a 4-patty BK Stacker meal for me - I am very excited about that!

Today marks the end of my first week as the sole network administrator. It has been crazy. Last week was pretty much 5am to 5pm. I'm sure things will settle down, but just when I think I might be getting control of things, something like this happens.

Despite the long hours and the stress of situations like this one, I am loving my job! I am in the industry I want to be in, I am doing what I love to do, and I am gaining valuable experience! The people here are great and the work is challenging. I will say that I am looking forward to production's busy season (Fall) when I can go down to 40hrs/week and maybe take a vacation :o) That will be nice!

Well, the data recovery application is asking for input, so I'd better sign out of Blogger, I just thought it would be fun to do a "real time" update...even though you all are probably reading this weeks after it happened because you gave up on me updating my blog :o)

Couldn't Let It Go A Month

Tomorrow will be one month since I last blogged. I just couldn't let my blog go that long without activity, so I decided to post a quick one.

We've been busy lately with VBS and work, so my blog has been pretty much last on my list. I do have one fun thing to share; my Picasa Web Album:

http://picasaweb.google.com/englishw

If you don't have one already, go get a Picasa web album, download Picasa, and start posting free web galleries! It is great fun!

~ Bill ~ 

Princess Prep Post 2

And for photos from the actual party Mikayla went to, click here for Krista's blog! 

Princess Prep Post 1

Mikayla went to a "Princess Party" today...here is the first set of photos - more to follow.

We had to bribe Mikayla with chocolate to keep her head still while Krista did up her hair...


 

Our Little Princess

 

Bottom's Up!

 

Lilly & Papa

Lily greatly enjoyed the focused attention Memorial Day since Mommy and Mikayla stayed home. She was very happy to see them after a long day, but it was a special time. Thankfully, Mikayla is feeling better now. Not 100%, but probably at least 80% ;o) 

Something Different

Just playing with my camera more... 

I think I'll be posting more photos while I play with this new camera :)

 

Brush Your Teeth!

Lily has seen all the pain that daddy has had to go through with this root canal and has decided that she is going to brush her teeth for about 20 minutes every hour or so. Of course, half the time or more she has the tooth paste tube in her mouth instead of the brush.

Tooth update: no Vicodine or any pain killers of any kind today! I have a light ache in my jaw, but that's all. My neck and back are feeling the affects of the last couple weeks though. I get to see my chiropractor in a week and a half - and I can't wait!

Camera update: after 457 photos (in less than 4 days), I am very happy. I will be blogging about noise levels as soon as I finish my tests. The image above was shot at ISO 1000. There is noise, but not NEARLY what my D30 had! I have continued to be amazed by this new body.

Another "Horse Stick" 30D Photo

Mikayla absolutely loves her new "horse stick". She is finding all kinds of uses for it. She has even put its (note the correct usage of "its", Mom) head on a pillow and covered the stick with a blanket so it could nap while she naps :) 

Love'n It!

It's late and I really need sleep - especially after the last couple weeks. I'll write more soon, but for now I had to share the excitement I have of my new camera. I bought a Canon EOS 30D yesterday - and I am love'n it! Moving to Canon's (new) 5th generation digital SLR from their 1st generation digital SLR is a huge step. My D30 (yeah, watch the placement of the 'D's) served me very well for the last 3 years. I couldn't be more happy with it. Every senior portrait session, every snapshot I've taken - has been with that camera. It is a very reliable, solid, amazing camera. However, I did start bumping into its limitations, both knowingly and unknowingly. The ability to blow up a portion of an image and make a print from it is huge and something that only an 8MP camera can deliver (my D30 is a 3MP). There are many more great features with this new camera that I am exploring, but those will have to wait for another entry. It is very late and I am very tired.

My tooth/jaw/mouth are recovering. Each day is better than the last. I was able to work half a day on Saturday and enjoy a mother's day celebration today. Hopefully a full day of work awaits me tomorrow. I have Vicodin to last me through tomorrow, so I hope the pain subsides completely by then.

Goodnight

Wishing & Hoping

The last couple weeks have been rough. Last Monday (May 1st) I had a tooth that hurt so much I had to leave work and make an emergency dental appointment the next day. Turned out that I needed a root canal. Fun. Well, they said it was a two-step procedure, so they opened the tooth up and dug around for awhile and packed stuff down in the tooth to kill whatever was left, put a temporary filling in it, and referred me to an oral surgeon. What they didn't tell me was that there was going to be a lot of pain until I could have the rest of the root canal done (must have slipped their minds).

Well, Wednesday of this week I went to the oral surgeon to have the rest of the root canal done. He was a nice guy and things started off alright, except for the fact that he was drilling down into my tooth, but then he said something that no patient would like to hear; "Wow. I only see one of these about every 10 years." He was referring to the way my root of that tooth grew. I guess it split and curled and that's not normal. Well, he finished up and was very happy with it. I went on my merry way expecting when my mouth woke up for the pain to be gone. I was wrong. My mouth woke up later that afternoon and my jaw was in serious pain. Not knowing if that was normal, I took Advil and tried to sleep. I ended up calling the dentist that night and getting Vicodin. That helped a little, but it completely rendered me useless.

Thursday I was not able to go into work. Today when I woke up and wasn't any better. I called and the dentist thinks I have an infection, so along with more Vicodin he prescribed an antibiotic. Well, turns out I'm allergic to that antibiotic. I had to call and get another antibiotic...and pick up some Benedril to combat the rash that has developed all over. So, now, hopefully...the rash will subside, the infection will go away, and my mouth along with my hopefully dead tooth with be happy.

On a positive note, I have been home for the last two days. I got to sleep, take some pictures of the girls, sleep, sleep some more, watch TV, and do a little more sleeping. Did I mention Vicodin makes me sleepy? :o) 

6 New Apple Commercials

These are GREAT! My favorite has got to be the "iLife" one. Watch them all, they are only 30 seconds each. VERY funny!

http://www.apple.com/getamac/ads/

Software & Photography

Well, as I have posted before, I am now working at Excel Photo (a professional photo lab in Salem) in I.T.. I get to spend all day around photography and yet I am in the computer field. It is more than I could have ever asked for.

As part of my job last week, I was asked to test some new imaging technology. Athentech Imaging has released new technology to enhance a photograph, pixel by pixel. It corrects color and tint and beyond. Currently, the only software vendor utilizing this technology in consumer-level software is Bibble Labs. Bibble 4.7 has this "Perfectly Clear" technology in the form of a single checkbox. Simply check the box and the photo magically is enhanced. Better than that, images can be batch processed to save time. I am simply amazed by the technology and in awe of the results.

Below is a sample of the advantage of shooting in RAW format and then utilizing "Perfectly Clear" technology. I took the first image (yes, that is exactly how it came from my camera) and converted it from RAW to a JPG using Capture One. At the point of that RAW conversion, I bumped the exposure compensation up to brighten the image. After that I opened in up in Bibble 4.7 (Click here to download the 2-week trial) and applied the "Perfectly Clear" correction as well as a couple other options in Bibble. The bottom image is the final result. A printable and usable image. Download the trial and try it for yourself. You will be amazed!

FYI: Bibble 4.7 is $70 to $130 depending on your needs. Capture One is only for RAW images and there is a "LE" version available for $99. Yeah, they are more that free software like Google's Picasa2 and Gimp, but they are a must have if you find yourself shooting in RAW and using a PC. Apple's Aperature would be the Capture One equivilant on the Mac. I would still recommend Bibble on the Mac. They have both PPC and Intel Mac versions and you get a lot of bang for your buck.

The Death of an Essential Tool

Well, it happened. I plugged in my 4GB ArcDisk USB flash drive into my computer to copy over a photo I had edited at work and nothing happened. It had been slow, needing to seek for long periods of time and getting a little warm when in use. I thought a low-level format was in the near future, but I was wrong. I took it apart and found that the media it used was none other than the innerds of an iPod mini - a Hitachi 4GB Microdrive. At first I thought this was good news. This meant that I could try and read the CF card in a card reader, my camera, etc. and maybe get the data off and use it as a 4GB CF card. Well, the problem was not in the $5 USB connector with plastic shell, it was with the $150 CF card. Major bummer. This is a tool that I use daily. I carry things back and forth from my home desktop and laptop to work, church, friends and family's computers that I backup/restore/fix. I had many software tools and data that I have come to rely on in my pocket wherever I went.

So, I am in the market for a replacement. At the moment I will be using any possible media I can find as a poor substitute. If anyone has any suggestions on good reliable smallish USB drive, please e-mail me.

My New 27.4 Megapixel Camera

No, I didn't go out and buy a new camera. I shot a roll of film in my Canon EOS AE2. Yes, that's a film camera. Work gave me a roll of Kodak professional film and will develop anything I shoot for free. We have a couple Kodak film scanners that are amazing at work. I was curious just how large of an image it could scan and I was amazed. It can scan 35mm film at 6333x4332 (about 27 megapixels). What does that mean? Well, it means that you could print an 8x10 of a very small percetage of an image. No, I don't plan on shooting everything film now, but it was a fun experiment. Here is a link to the Easter day photos I shot in film:

http://www.ouralbumonline.com/easter/

You'll need the flash player to view them, but according to Google Analytics, 96% of you have a suitable version of the flash player already, so if you have no idea what I'm talking about, chances are high that you have no need to know :o)

Mikayla's Easter Photo Shoot - Take 42

Click to enlarge.

Mowed the Lawn in a Stained Shirt Today

Yup. Went to work in the same shirt too. That's what happens when you get up at 4:45am and try to get ready for work in the tired darkness. Thankfully, it was just my white undershirt that was stained yellow badly. I noticed it when I looked in the mirror after I had been at work for 5 1/2 hours. I quickly buttoned my Excel Photo denim shirt that I was wearing unbuttoned and untucked. It went through the dryer and it is small for an XL. Either that or my body has gotten bigger. Probably a little of both. Anyway, all is well now. I just know now to look in the mirror one last time before leaving the house.

While I was at work today, I got the following e-mail from Krista:

" Just to prepare you - I've heard lawn mowers all day, the grass is decently dry, and this is supposedly our last sunny day for quite a while. *hint, hint* "

Needless to say, the lawn got mowed. It was a very nice day today and even though it was mowing the lawn, I enjoyed getting outside.

Well, it's 9:30pm right now...time to head to bed...

Mikayla with Flowers

This is another shot of Mikayla from our first photo shoot. More will come, I promise. And yes, grandma, there will be plenty with color ;o)

It's hard getting up at 4:45am. It is 10pm right now and I feel like I am going to drop. I am trying to post more regularly, but once the girls are in bed and I have time, the computer is not my first choice. I really like the schedule, it's just going to take some getting used to. I love being home before 3pm!

Enjoying a Saturday at Home

This morning I got my camera out and took some pictures of the girls. After Mikayla's nap, we put her in her Easter dress (thank you grammy for fixing it) and took some pictures. We will call that shoot #1 of many. I have a Gary Fong Lightsphere on order that will help a LOT with lighting, so we may wait until next week or weekend to do shoot #2.

Sparrow & an update

Well, it's been awhile since I blogged. Lots has been going on! I have been at Excel Photo for a little over a week now and I'm loving it! I am going to get to do a healthy mix of web development, software development, hardware/software support, and be trained in networking. It is a little different than I thought, since they have asked the existing Network Administrator to stay now, but it's all good.

In the last 2 weeks I have photographed 4 seniors. I am working all afternoon and evening most days this week to get caught up with my editing and photo orders. My goal is to be caught up to these 4 new ones by April 1st. We'll see.

I love my new hours. I am working 6am to 2:30pm. I am home by 2:45!!! It is great!

This last weekend we visited Krista's parents and Bob and I got to go out shooting for a while. It was grey out and started raining, but I did manage to get this one shot of a sparrow. It was fun to get outside and take some nature photos.

I hope to blog more regularly again, but it may be a week or two at least. Lot's of projects and I go to bed early now :o)

The New Job

Yesterday I accepted a job offer from Excel Photo, a professional photographic processing lab. I am going to be their next Network Administrator. I am very excited! It is very obvious that God led me to this position. There were so many “random coincidences” that led up to it.

Yesterday I gave my two weeks notice at my current job. It was very hard to do. I love the people that I work with and this is not going to be easy for them. We are a very small office and now 3 of the 6 people that will be there when I leave have worked there for less than 6 months (1 has only been there a week).

I enjoyed the people that I worked with and being able to see the results of my efforts immediately. I really enjoyed helping members of the Credit Union. It is very difficult to leave that.

However, I am leaving it to go back into the CS/IT field. I will be supporting a 90+ computer network as their only IT person. The possibilities for growing and learning are tremendous. I will get to build computers, repair computers (fixing software and hardware), network, program, and do web development. All this at a photographic processing lab. I can’t think of a better match of my skills and interests that this job.

Thank you to everyone who helped along the way! Kathy, for first e-mailing the job link, Krista, for the encouragement, Ben, for recommending me for the position, and everyone else who prayed and encouraged me. Thank You also to God, because this is so obviously His provision.

So, I am excited, terrified, happy, sad, and still in shock. Wish me luck. These next 2 weeks are not going to be easy for me.

Casualty of War

The battle for toilet training has been going very well. Mikayla is doing wonderful! However, we have not escaped unscathed. At 6:40 PM yesterday my chair received a near-lethal wound. I guess it could have been worse...I am glad the accident only had to do with #1, not #2 ;o)

But no, really - Mikayla is doing VERY good! Accidents are few and far between. See Krista's blog for more potty training updates.