Return of Chickenfoot

DPC: Free Study (May 2009)

2009-06-07T23:12:00.002-05:00

Brought to you by April Showers

DPC: Darkness 2

2009-05-14T08:36:00.000-05:00

black strings mix

Halftime

2009-05-11T08:53:00.004-05:00

That's "Dr. Meyers" to you

Sonya graduated from UIC, an event which marks the halfway point of her journey toward being an Anesthesiologist. Four years of residency at nearby Loyola begin for her later this summer.

DPC: Free Study (April 2009)

2009-05-07T23:06:00.003-05:00

Steps

Backwards Reasoning on Science Friday

2009-04-21T10:24:00.007-05:00

I often listen to NPR's Science Friday podcast; the show covers a wide variety of science topics, without a lot of nonsense. Every once in awhile though, something like last Friday's episode is released..

In a segment about whether science and religion can "get along," a caller stated as fact the Anthropic Priniciple, basically that the universe was "tuned" to support life, and the Science Friday host let this assertion go unchallenged. This is backwards reasoning, much like noting a hole in the ground being "tuned" to hold the water which fills it.

We know from observation that most of the universe does not support life, that there are only small regions which might contain a planet which itself might have some kind of life. Organisms evolved over millions of years to fit their environment. Similarly, water fills a hole in the ground to make a puddle, it's no coincidence that the hole "fits" the puddle.

As to the idea of science and religion getting along, they can't. Religion rests on faith, or accepting as truth assertions not based on (or in the face of) evidence. Science is based on evidence and reason, claims you can observe and test. These two ideas do not overlap; there is no common ground. If a claim is supported by evidence, you don't need faith to "believe" it. If a claim is not supported, there is no reason to accept it.

Update: The geologic column shows ample evidence of life adapting to the environment, rather than the other way around. As the environment changed (grew warmer, colder, etc), life forms either adapted or perished. Humans change their environment; heated homes in the winter, AC in the summer, etc; to make more of the world habitable. Ask a homeless person in the midwest in winter, when temperatures can reach -30F, how well his environment is "tuned to support human life."

"You will be shot"

2009-04-20T13:31:00.006-05:00

Two posts, from unconnected blogs..

Over at Atheist Revolution, the Idiot of the Week is republican/Fox News "journalist" Joe the Plumber, with this incredible quote:

"Let me give you another extremist view, 'In God We Trust.' Say that too loud in some parts of America and you will be shot. It's terrible."

What parts of the country are these? In this country, non-Christians (especially atheists) are vilified and wrongly blamed for all manner of tragedies. A Christian student takes a gun to school and shoots dozens of kids? Must be because of atheists! Muslim terrorists fly planes into buildings? It was brought on by the ACLU!

In the real world, however, Alonzo Fyfe on Atheist Ethicist pointed out a real ad from a Christian group calling for violence against atheists. It's chilling. Mr. Fyfe correctly notes that:

"It grants a moral permission to kids with guns to go ahead and kill atheists.

If it is morally permissible to kill atheists, then other activities less likely to bring the police and courts into the matter, must also be permissible. Assault, vandalism, bullying, intimidation, theft, an "accident" in the school yard, some name-calling, withholding honors and inviting ridicule . . . if the use of a gun is permissible, these must be acceptable as well."

Here is the ad:

Tea Bagging Protest

2009-04-15T16:15:00.003-05:00

I had the misfortune of walking passed the "Tea Party" protest, filled with people angry as hell about a black Muslim foreign socialist spending government money (but who were all strangely silent when it was a white Christian republican running up a huge deficit).

Even to my untrained eye the group in Chicago didn't appear all that organized, and as far as protests go their numbers were a tiny tiny fraction of the number of people who marched in protest of US Immigration policy. The best comment I've seen:

I’ll bet they’re wishing they had a COMMUNITY ORGANIZER now.

Culture of Victimization

2009-04-14T12:37:00.003-05:00

This was too good not to share:

And then there are the activists who are looking forward to tomorrow because they think the president is a secret Muslim fascist/socialist who wasn't born in the U.S. and intends to impose a global currency on us while building concentration camps with FEMA money.

Banned Books

2009-04-14T12:03:00.002-05:00

Celebrate your first amendment rights by reading a banned book before religious groups have them pulled from your libraries and bookstores.

An American Patriot

2009-04-13T11:59:00.002-05:00

Happy Birthday Thomas Jefferson!

For Jefferson, separation of church and state was a necessary reform of the religious "tyranny" whereby a religion received state endorsement, and those not of that religion were denied rights, and even punished.

Having a secular government is just as important today as it was when this country was founded.

Heliocentric Heathens!

2009-04-09T23:30:00.002-05:00

The Scourge of Keplarism

It is time to quit discriminating against geocentrists in the public schools just because of their beliefs, and to teach not only the children but the school administrators themselves to respect the diverse views of the teaching community.

Hilarious stuff, Atheist Ethicist author Alonzo Fyfe nails the bigotry directed at atheists and scientists.

DPC: Free Study (March, 2009)

2009-04-08T08:43:00.004-05:00

Rites of Spring

We took Jason to a farm museum in one of the northern suburbs of Chicago. It didn't have much more to offer than the farm section of the Lincoln Park Zoo, but since we were already in the area it wasn't so bad.

Jason didn't fall off the swing, in case you were wondering.

Game Night Recap

2009-03-29T23:46:00.003-05:00

We had just enough turnout (4 players, including 2 out of 3 Sarah's) to be able to play all of the really fun games. The previous night, our friend Ruby helped us make a batch of tamales, and Sonya made peach ice cream (non-dairy!). And despite the naysayers on Facebook, people thought the food was delicious.

We played:
    Blokus
    Uptown
    Quirkle
    Puerto Rico
And then hit the Wii for Guitar Hero and the latest Raving Rabbids game.

The next game night will likely be on April 25th.

Doctors!

2009-03-26T23:41:00.005-05:00

There's something screwy here..

The family got a G10 camera for me for a birthday present, so I would have a camera that could keep up with the boy when we're out and about. It is much more portable than the 5D, and does an adequate job with the little lens it has. I like it! Now if only I could find a small camera bag for it..

Dreams

2009-03-17T23:46:00.003-05:00

Yes, I still have this recurring dream, usually about one of my non-technical classes which I didn't give much attention to in the first place.

By the way, you should be reading XKCD every day. Go back through the archives. It's not like you're working right now anyway.

Protests

2009-03-16T21:34:00.003-05:00

Sometimes the best response to bigotry is to mock it. Last year, at FAnime, a group of fundamentalists showed up to inform the rest of us cartoon fans we were all going to hell. Various individuals tried to confront them with logic and reason, but that only bolstered the fundamentalists' faith. Once they got rickrolled though...they hung their heads in defeat and left. It was glorious.

It had to be done..

2009-03-04T23:41:00.000-06:00

LOLcat Bible

DPC: Grey

2009-02-08T23:13:00.003-06:00

dismal winter skies

One of my few entries not to get any comments during the voting week.

DPC: January Free Study

2009-02-07T23:04:00.000-06:00

windmill

DPC posts

2009-02-02T13:36:00.002-06:00

I saw that my image links for my DPC entries were broken; as far as I know I've fixed them all.

DPC: A Single Tree 2

2009-02-02T08:51:00.003-06:00

Alone at the End

I found this stump during our second trip to the Arboretum. Finding a "single" tree there, other than something like this, just wasn't going to happen.

Managing Expectations

2009-01-29T12:02:00.003-06:00

This morning, after I asked Jason to get ready for school while I made his breakfast, he told me:

Make sure nothing explodes or burns.

Now, I'd like to know which of my so-called friends has been feeding Jason these lying lies about my cooking ability! I'm looking at you, Hamster!

Morton Arboretum (Revisited)

2009-01-26T22:58:00.004-06:00

We had so much fun hiking around last weekend we went back for more. It was colder this time, but that didn't deter us from hiking around in the snow.

Morton Arboretum

2009-01-20T14:43:00.001-06:00

DPC: Bokeh 5

2008-12-24T09:38:00.003-06:00

Typo

Sonya gave me the title for this shot (my first take was "one letter off"). The color is a little flat; the ambient light was filtered through heavy clouds, and I was trying to get the snow exposed correctly.

Gnome Trains!

2008-12-14T22:29:00.002-06:00

Well, not really Gnome trains, but both trains and gnomes were on display at the Morton Arboretum. We took Jason primarily to see their train setup, but we had more fun trying to find all of the hidden gnomes around the park. Our recent warm weather melted most of the snow, making this kind of scavenger hunt more enjoyable.

DPC: Free Study (November)

2008-12-07T23:56:00.004-06:00

Patriarch

My grandpa, on Thanksgiving. This shot didn't score well in the "Free Study" challenge, but I thought I got the effect I was aiming for. Click on the image to see my notes on how I set up the lighting for this one.

Santa's Gmail screenshot

2008-12-04T10:35:00.002-06:00

Fun stuff, seen over at DPC.

Speaking of DPC, I have an entry in the November Free Study which isn't doing great, but it's a picture I like. I'll post it once voting has finished on the 8th.

Noodles

2008-11-20T08:57:00.003-06:00

Last night I did a product shot for a parent of another child at Jason's school. It's really my first "commercial" shoot, and I got noodles and sauce (and photography credit) in exchange.

The company is Aldente Pasta, located up in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

I set up my DIY backdrop (a sheet on a PVC frame held with clamps) on the kitchen table, added a couple lamps to even out the light, and tried to remember all the techniques I learned through DPC and the CDP meetup classes. I was hoping to shoot with my camera tethered to my laptop, but I didn't have the right cable for that.

Starting from Scratch

2008-11-11T12:42:00.003-06:00

With Jason home recovering from pneumonia*, and no sane daycare provider willing to take a child with the contagious strain of pneumonia, I'm spending the day helping him learn how to write. I used to teach programming classes at U.C. Berkeley as a teacher assistant (I led discussion sessions, labs, etc). Motivating college students is only slightly easier than motivating a four year old, but the tasks Jason's learning now are more about muscle memory in his fingers than complex problem solving.

* I'd like to thank all of the scientists, researchers, and doctors who studied this disease and developed antibiotics and treatments to make pneumonia an annoyance instead of a tragedy. I encourage everyone to contribute to the National Center for Science Education, so the next generation's doctors and scientists will have the right knowledge and skills to keep making the world better for everyone.

Which Classic Arcade Game are you?

2008-11-06T12:57:00.003-06:00

Which Classic Arcade Game Are You?

No surprises here. I still enjoy that DigDug was a game where you INFLATE your enemies until they EXPLODE, but everyone gets all bent out of shape about GTA and fighting games being too violent.

Myths about Democrats and Spending

2008-10-15T21:49:00.002-05:00

I watched one CNN's "analysts" explain how independents might be afraid of Democrats spending too much, and I knew this wasn't grounded in reality. Going back to the Kennedy administration, and not even counting the massive Wall Street bailout, here's actual data. Take a few minutes and read the whole thing, but here's the part I wanted to bring to your attention:

The twenty years of budgets prepared by Republican presidents increased the national debt by $3.8 trillion. The average yearly deficit under Republican budgets was $190 billion.

The twenty years of budgets prepared by Democratic presidents increased the national debt by $719.5 billion. The average yearly deficit under Democratic budgets was $36 billion.

DPC: Free Study (September)

2008-10-08T11:31:00.003-05:00

Lakeside Parking

I took this shot from outside the Chicago Field Museum last month while I was on my way to the planetarium for the fireworks show.

City of Inspiration

2008-09-20T00:11:00.005-05:00

Fall Fireworks at Navy Pier

Looking north from Roosevelt St bridge

Photographic inspiration, that is. While the family is away, I've been able to head downtown a couple nights with my camera and have fun being a photographer. I have some of my better images in my DPC portfolio, here and here. I got myself signed up for a portrait class taught through the Chicago Digital Photography meetup.com group, which I'm excited about.

Earthquakes

2008-09-07T23:40:00.002-05:00

Jason, born in Hayward, ended up playing for a team named "Earthquakes" here in Chicago. I'm not making this up, and I had no input on the team name. His first real game is this coming Saturday.

Barack's Speech

2008-08-29T06:45:00.000-05:00

Geeky Networking

2008-08-27T19:39:00.003-05:00

Yep, that's a Twitter widget on the right. As I post "tweets" (essentially very short blog posts) they'll get copied to the widget. I've also been pulled into Facebook (my page). Stalk me like celery!

The Eyes have it!

2008-08-18T00:51:00.003-05:00

LeapPads are all fun and games until someone LOSES AN EYE, or at least gets a painful poke in the eye with the Leap Pen. Such was my fate sitting next to the boy, while he struggled to do something with that damn pen with his left hand. I'm hardly blameless in this I guess, since I've often said I'd give my right eye to have a lefthanded son..

Indiana Sand Dunes

2008-08-10T22:27:00.004-05:00

Jason likes sand, so in a cruel twist of fate I took him to a place with so much sand he hated it. We trekked over to Indiana to Mt Baldy, along Indiana's sand dune park system. The "mountain" is about a hundred feet tall, and offers some nice views (which would be nicer without so much cloud cover casting shadows on everything).

I hear the refinery in the background spews out so much radioactive waste that locals have grown gills and can swim like fish!

We picked a good day to not be in Chicago, as when we looked out over Lake Michigan we could see Chicago was submerged!!

This is what we get for not taking mass transit to the sand dunes. Fortunately, traffic was heavy and with the delay getting home Chicago had time to dry out.

Eggs?

2008-08-08T13:16:00.001-05:00

It reminds me a bit of Schoolhouse Rock, but in a kids anime style.
I love eggs

Preseason Thoughts: Chiefs vs Bears

2008-08-08T09:37:00.003-05:00

I caught most of the Chiefs/Bears preseason game last night, tuning in to catch Grossman's missteps. Hadie looked really good, showing some pocket presence avoiding the pass rush, and making good decisions and fairly accurate throws. Some caveats though:
1. It's preseason. Teams are playing to see which players are worth keeping, not so much to win the game.
2. It's the Chiefs, not exactly a dominant team.
3. It wasn't even the Chief's starters on defense against Hadie. Then again, he didn't have the Bears starters on offense. It's hard to tell sometimes with the Bears, since their offensive players are, well, offensive.

I'd like to see Hadie get some more time in the next preseason games. From what I saw last night, he shows more potential than both Orton and Grossman. Those other two "starters" really lower the bar for what we in Chicago want from our quarterbacks. If Hadie ends up being below average, it would be a huge step forward for the team.

Floods in Iowa

2008-07-22T00:12:00.005-05:00

If you lived there, you'd remember last month some severe flooding in the midwest. Last weekend we visited my Grandpa in northeast Iowa, and we didn't have to travel very far to see some spectacular flood damage: ruined fields, collapsed bridges, washed out roads.. I got a few pictures.

These pictures, and a few more, are also up on my DPC portfolio.

The Internet is for Sick People

2008-07-14T08:34:00.002-05:00

When I was in high school, we had a physics program that let students create objects by joining blocks with springs and applying forces at various points. I'd made a person looking thing and send him tumbling down a flight of stairs, followed by a large ball (think: Indiana Jones), into a spiked pit.

I see I'm not the only one to put simulators to good use.

How to Abuse Rollercoaster Tycoon 3: Massacre

Big Bugs!

2008-07-13T23:45:00.004-05:00

This weekend we discovered the Morton Arboretum just outside of Chicago, and caught the Big Bug exhibit. We had a blast, and maybe only saw a tenth of the park. We'll be returning often, especially in the fall.

Traditional Anniversary Gifts

2008-07-12T14:51:00.004-05:00

New 7th Anniversary Gift: Matching iPhones!

Yep, I stood in line for four and a half hours at the Apple store on North Michigan Ave in Chicago, but unlike many people (particularly those at AT&T stores) I did not come home empty handed. I was surprised there were no hot dog or other food peddlers feeding people in the line; they would have made almost as much money as Apple did that day.

DPC: Urban Landscape 3

2008-07-08T23:10:00.005-05:00

Financial Giants

See, I told you I'd have a better picture to show tonight. This is looking up from Adams St, and yes, that's the Sears Tower on the left. I don't know what the building on the right is called.

Supported by SCIENCE

2008-07-08T12:19:00.001-05:00

There's only one right way to spool toilet paper!

DPC: Free Study (June)

2008-07-07T23:10:00.004-05:00

Martian Flora

This was a poor shot of a glass bowl at the Museum of Science and Industry's Glass exhibit. Tomorrow I'll post a better entry, I promise.

Birthdays and Board Games

2008-06-30T13:56:00.004-05:00

This last weekend we celebrated Sonya's birthday. I know better than to post her age (suffice to say "old enough to know better, young enough to still have fun"). We had some of her friends over for Wii games and (amazingly!) board games! The board game fest started off with Fearsome Floors, then we worked into Uptown and had a truly cut-throat game of Blokus.

Jason and I saw Wall-E yesterday, and we both enjoyed it. As I expected, it didn't take long for right wing whackjobs to criticize the movie for not glamorizing consumerism.

We also picked up Rock Band and Aerosmith Guitar Hero for the Wii yesterday. The timing of the guitar controllers is slightly different between the two games, but not so much that I'm unable to do well with both. The drums are going to take some getting used to.

I'm hoping to get some good fireworks pictures next weekend.

Happy Father's Day

2008-06-15T23:54:00.003-05:00

Just Grandpa and Me

With my wife's help, my son got me a stack of Buckethead CDs (Pepper's Ghost is amazing!) for my Father's day. We picked out a Chicago Bears bean bag toss for my dad, and Jason got his first bike. Yeah, he's not a father yet, but he was ready for a bike and I was in a generous mood (especially after listening to all that Buckethead).

First Bike

Grandma Visits

2008-06-09T22:28:00.001-05:00

"Nonny" came to visit us last weekend! The picture is at a moon rock outside of the Shedd Aquarium.

DPC: Free Study (May)

2008-06-07T23:24:00.002-05:00

Fallen

For the first time on DPC I got two entries in a row that scored over 6! This didn't do as well as Death below, but still finished in the upper 17%.

DPC: Female Portrait

2008-06-03T23:11:00.002-05:00

Death
The comic book character the girl is portraying is Death from the Sandman series. While I did get 9th overall, I think I might have scored higher if I picked a better title. Many of the voters didn't recognize the character.

FAnime 2008!

2008-05-30T23:18:00.004-05:00

My FAnime pictures are up at anywhere.generic.org. There are some that are probably not "work safe", so if you get into trouble over your web surfing it's your own fault. I warned you.

Fast Fingers

2008-05-28T14:32:00.002-05:00

Think Speedracer and head over to typeracer.com. Sadly, my typing speed (and accuracy) had diminished greatly since high school.

FAnime 2008

2008-05-27T22:33:00.001-05:00

Last weekend I took my annual trip to San Jose, CA, for FAnime. For four days, I photographed hundreds of people in costume, many very eager to model and pose for the camera. Some of them are either trained or natural models, and can pose themselves well.

Surprisingly, there were some people who recognized me from last year. I'll grant that I don't carry around the most common point and shoot camera, but there are nearly as many photographers as there are people to shoot. This year I came prepared with actual business cards with my name and website address instead of pieces of scratch paper.

I had studied more portrait photography techinques in the weeks leading up to this event, and modified my own style of setting up a shot. I brought a reflector meant to bounce light up as fill light, hoping to brighten up the faces of my models posing outside. For the first time in my life I set my flash to manual mode, and adjusted flash power and aperture to try to isolate my subjects.

All told, I took nearly 1600 pictures over three days (Monday was a loss; the hotel wasn't staffed to handle everyone leaving on the same day), compared to about 600 that I took last year. I'm much more comfortable having my flash on manual, and am glad I just jumped in the deep end in that regard. I only took short breaks to sleep for a few hours, eat with my anime-fanatic friends, and even watched some myself. I was able to do some very basic processing of my pictures where I could take advantage of Aperture to automate simple tasks. My laptop lacks the RAM to quickly do more--those corrections will have to happen once I get home. Sometime over the next few days I'll be uploading many of my images to anywhere.

DPC: ABC...XYZ

2008-05-19T08:00:00.004-05:00

Help, I'm Juxtaposed!

The challenge was to present a picture with a title that started with consecutive letters. I was contrasting the bright blue and yellow of Jason to the flat green of the waterfall scene.

DPC: Every Picture Tells a Story

2008-05-11T23:09:00.002-05:00

Tradition

Korea Culture Day

2008-05-04T22:38:00.004-05:00

Jason and I went to the Korean culture exhibition at the Children's Museum.

DPC: Negative Image 2

2008-04-22T23:10:00.002-05:00

Aquarium

DPC: Water 3

2008-04-20T23:05:00.002-05:00

Eels in the Red Sea

This was taken at Shedd Aquarium, last time I went with Jason.

Another Presidential Debate

2008-04-19T23:06:00.002-05:00

Abraham Lincoln vs Stephen Douglas, from Obsidian Wings, putting ABC's horrific moderation into historical context. Hilarious!

Just an observation

2008-04-17T23:50:00.003-05:00

Taking macro pictures of one's eyeball is really difficult. If I could do it I'd post some shots. Maybe I'll try again after my eyeball recovers from camera flash.

DPC: DNMC

2008-04-08T23:40:00.004-05:00

Naked Ambition

"DNMC" is shorthand for "does not meet the challenge," in the humble opinion of some voter who can't think creatively. I thought a Woody shot would do well, since the voters hate those things, but my entry was found lacking.

Support Science

2008-04-08T21:15:00.003-05:00

Make a donation to the National Center for Science Education. I learned about this organization from the Atheist Ethicist post on Expelled and "Truth Tickets", and strongly agree with his argument about supporting evidence based thinking.

Make the world a better place.

DPC: Free Study (March)

2008-04-07T23:06:00.002-05:00

Missing California

Jason was the only kid in the playground this early day in March. It had started to snow heavy flakes, so called "heart attack" snow to the people who shovel it.

DPC: Patterns

2008-04-01T23:21:00.001-05:00

Get Into a Groove

Field Museum

2008-03-22T15:18:00.004-05:00

Didn't I just post about rites of Spring? Yesterday about six inches of snow dumped on Chicago! I had the day off, and had plans to take Jason to the Field Museum. Yesterday's weather gave too many other people the same idea, and it was crowded like a weekend afternoon.

Even though we had just been to the museum recently, we were still able to spend hours there and not see anything that we saw on our last visit. The Field Museum is just that big and that impressive!

DPC: Blurry Mess

2008-03-18T23:07:00.004-05:00

Quantum Crash

This was taken from the back of a mostly empty CTA bus, with a long exposure time while I twisted the camera around the lens axis. I adjusted the color map a bit in Photoshop until I found ones that I liked.

Rites of Spring

2008-03-16T21:19:00.003-05:00

Warm weather the previous week deluded me into think winter was over. It didn't snow this weekend, but not because it wasn't cold enough for snow. Undeterred, I opened up the grills and cleaned both out, and grilled up salmon and steaks for dinner tonight.

I didn't realize Buckethead had a song on Guitar Hero 2 until last night. That alone was enough to convince me I needed to get that game for my PS2 (and thus get another guitar controller).

Apple Pie Tamales

2008-03-15T21:21:00.002-05:00

Today I made a new variant of the tamale recipe. In true "old school" fashion, nothing was measured precisely, nor was any of this written down. It was a small batch, only about 35 tamales, but that was enough to keep me busy all afternoon. They turned out great (obviously!), and I'll probably make these again. As far as tamale recipes go, this one was less labor intensive. Dicing apples is much easier than dicing raw meat.

DPC: Silverware

2008-03-11T23:16:00.004-05:00

Forbidden Lovers

My first idea for this challenge was to get a fork and a spoon wrapped around each other at the "neck" of the handle, but I knew better than to do that with our own utensils, and couldn't find malleable ones at any of the discount stores. Fortunately, my cooperative model was up to the task of some dinnerware erotica.

Lately

2008-03-11T22:44:00.003-05:00

I took the family up to Iowa recently, and totally forgot to blog about it. Apparently I'm too far removed from the days of working for a search engine company or an email startup. I'm sometimes surprised I manage to get more than a couple posts on this blog each week.

You've probably noticed the "Worth Reading" sidebar. You should be reading those articles. I only share the good stuff because I like you.

This week's challenge for DPC was Blurry Mess, and it was a lot of fun to shoot for it. You can expect to see my entry for that after voting ends next Tuesday.

Chemistry

2008-03-10T21:20:00.001-05:00

HIgh school chemistry was never this much fun.

10 chemical reactions.

Toys Reflecting Reality

2008-03-03T12:19:00.002-06:00

I found this through a link on BBSpot. Read some of the comments, they're hilarious.

DPC: Pet Portrait

2008-03-03T01:43:00.003-06:00

"Don't listen to those voters, my freaky pet. I still like you."

I've been on a roll with the "Woody" shots for DPC lately. A few of the voters mistook me for one of the prominent personalities of the site, which more than makes up for almost getting last place in the challenge.

Remember, clicking on these pictures will take you to the actual DPC page, where you can see what other DPC types thought of it.

DPC: Bread

2008-02-19T23:08:00.004-06:00

Expecting

Yep, a bun in the oven. This did as well as I thought it would; the "woody" figures aren't all that popular on DPC but I like using them. They're so much more cooperative than 4 year olds sometimes..

Guitar Zero

2008-02-16T22:36:00.002-06:00

Since my trip to California in January, I've been spending a lot more time on the Wii. Taking the vaulted place of Madden and Lego Star Wars has been the rotation of Resident Evil, Guitar Hero 3, and Raving Rabbids (the first one). Even Sonya sneaks in a game or two of Guitar Hero during study sessions.

I think my neighbors might be interested in a Wii party now that I have some party games.

DPC: Free Study, January 2008

2008-02-08T08:38:00.001-06:00

Forgotten Benches

DPC: Architecture 4

2008-02-05T23:06:00.002-06:00

Tale of Two Bridges

Dreams do Come True

2008-02-03T22:00:00.000-06:00

The NY Giants shocked the world tonight, ending the Patriot's perfect season. I have to admit to being a "Patriots Hater" since they were caught cheating in week 1, and if they could only lose one game I'm glad it's the Superbowl. Maybe this will slow down some of the "greatest dynasty ever" talk from obnoxious Boston fans. Of the 18-1 teams, based on how well they played in the postseason, this year's Patriots are the worst (though 18-1 is nothing to sneeze at).

Diversey Hill

2008-02-03T00:29:00.000-06:00

All that cold weather and snow we had the last couple of days, coupled with a nice day today, made for some excellent sledding conditions on The Hill. Sonya was even able to join us this time! We have a two of those disc sleds, and the three of us had a blast.

Tomorrow of course is the Superbowl. We don't have any plans to watch the game with other people (yet), and Sonya has to work at the hospital all day. Jason and I will play in the snow at home during the day most likely, and watch the game here.

I think the Patriots should sell "Official Team Camcorders" on their website..

Best Superbowl Commercial

2008-02-02T01:16:00.000-06:00

It took some creative searching to find this (it wasn't on superbowl-ads.com 2004 collection).

Dropped 50!

2008-01-30T22:02:00.000-06:00

The "Ugly Fountain" at Embarcadero in San Francisco.

It dropped about 50 degrees yesterday afternoon, from around 46 to -4, and the wind chill made it worse. While I was visiting the Bay Area last week, my aunt apologized for it raining every day (as if she controlled the weather). At the time, I thought rain was great, it meant it was warm enough to rain! I'd look up Chicago weather, and see numbers like "1" or "5", and think about how happy I was to not be in the middle of it. Winter decided to start without me, but there was plenty left for me to enjoy when I got back home.

During my vacation, I got in some quality Wii game time with my friend George. Resident Evil was fantastic as a two player game, and the Lynx Crossbow game that comes with the Wii Zapper was fun to power through. Mario Galaxy didn't excite me, but then the only Mario title that did was MarioKart64. We tried out Geometry Wars and Alien Syndrome; those played alright for filler games, but when we were done taking a break it was back to Resident Evil.

I'm finally able to get my car repaired from when I got rear-ended in November. Unfortunately, I have to drive this rental in the meantime that doesn't even measure up to the lofty standards of the 1979 Toyota Corolla I drove in high school. I didn't know modern cars were built without power locks! It handles exceptionally poorly on snow dusted roads, and doesn't even get decent gas milage.

In other news, I will be at FAnime this year.

Jason 4.0

2008-01-18T09:04:00.000-06:00

Happy Birthday Jason!

Tonight we're flying to California to spend some time with my mom, have a birthday party for Jason, and try to get caught up with our friends in the Bay Area. It doesn't hurt that Castro Valley will be at least 50 degrees warmer than Chicago on Saturday. All we need is a break in the storm tonight so we can escape.

And Happy Birthday to Me

2008-01-07T23:00:00.000-06:00

Today was my birthday (and, technically, Dhane's). We didn't do much out here; the realities of work and the cold unfeeling scheduling of medical school deferring any celebration for another night. Today at work was one of those days where everything went wrong (but most of it wasn't my fault), and unexpected construction added too much time to my commute home. Once I picked up Jason and got home, my day did improve. I made one of my favorite family recipes, which isn't tamales, for us, played some Madden on the Wii, and relaxed in the evening.

Before Jason was born I didn't do much of anything on my birthday. One year Sonya and I had several people over for a board game night--several people who should have known it was my birthday. Weren't they all surprised when Sonya came out with cake!

Since Jason's birthday is also in January, I celebrate with him. Sonya's birthday is easier to celebrate separately; hers is in June, and people are more eager to come to birthday parties when the temperature is above 20F.

Happy Birthday Dhane!

2008-01-06T21:11:00.000-06:00

Saturday we trekked out to Rockford for my nephew Dhane's second birthday at an indoor water park. The lines were short, the slides fast, and who would have thought I'd be on a waterslide in Illinois in January? Jason had fun in the wading area, and braved a couple of the kid-sized slides.

DPC: Textures

2008-01-02T22:18:00.002-06:00

I got a decent close-up of Sonya's cat "Tiger" while we were visiting her mom in California.

Happy New Year

2007-12-31T23:20:00.000-06:00

Last week I learned the smell of redwood trees can make me homesick for the Bay Area, which is particularly sad given I wasn't in the Bay Area, but near a small grove of those trees near Sonya's mom's place in Yorba Linda.

Jason's uncles learned they're ready for a few boys of their own.

We were lucky that both our flight out and our flight home weren't affected by storms in Chicago; the day before and the day after each flight had storms so severe flights out of O'Hare were cancelled. California was so much fun to visit, I think we'll go back next month!

Pork!

2007-12-21T08:40:00.000-06:00

PORK.

Watch for the cool part at the end.

Ten Percent of Toys Tested were Unsafe

2007-12-19T14:37:00.000-06:00

Wow. Just..wow.

Read more about this here.

Granted, this was a small random sampling of toys, but this is ridiculous.

My Sister's Graduation

2007-12-17T10:22:00.000-06:00

My sister graduated with a Masters degree last weekend, making me the least educated of my siblings. Given that I have a BA, this is not as bad as it might sound.

The picture is a little dark and grainy, a side effect of what I had to do to get a quick enough shutter speed to not have so much blur. I shot at 1600 ISO, under exposed by 2 stops, and had my aperture open to 2.8.

Volleyball

2007-12-10T13:38:00.000-06:00

Last night I went out to join a "Meetup" group for some volleyball in the suburbs. It's safe to say I didn't have quite as much game as I did when I played in Berkeley.

Volleyball was one of those sports I picked up in high school, where I found I could be a pretty good player despite not being tall and not all that strong. I was quick, and had pretty good reflexes, and that carried me a long way. In high school, we'd play at lunchtime on the outdoor concrete basketball courts, and being quick on the ground meant I didn't have to dive as often to dig out a spike.

At Berkeley I actually took an intro volleyball class, and found I had game. Of the four main skills: serve, bump, set, and spike; I was ok with the first two and awful with the others. After that class, I had a fantastic serve, was very good with bumps and sets, and could usually manage a decent spike. I could hang with the players in the level 3 (out of 4) class, which met just after the level 1 class let out. I could consistently hit the back line with my serves, keeping them fast and low with top-spin. It wasn't uncommon for me to score several points in a row just from the other team not being able to handle those serves.

My highlight of Berkeley volleyball happened at the little grass court outside of the CS building. I was working as a TA for a C++ data structure class taught by a theory professor who didn't know C++, and for whatever reason decided he didn't like me. Late in the summer we were both in an "undergraduate vs graduate/instructors" game, and I dug out his spike, got the set back to me, and spiked right at him.

Having the level 3 players think I was in the level 4 class was pretty cool too.

Years later, I coerced some coworkers into an evening league while I was at Scale 8. Most weeks we didn't get enough people to show up and had for forfeit, but we'd play anyway. I was the only one to attend all of the games. On the last week, we had several people show up, and I was the one booted from the team to make room for a guy who was making his first appearance of the season. The other team let me join them (they were short one), and while my coworkers mocked my aggressive play style--diving for digs, covering a lot of the court with quick lateral movement--I helped the other team soundly beat them. And yeah, I got to spike on the new guy who took my spot on the team.

After that, I'd play a few times at the sand court at Yahoo, but my knees don't take well to shifting around in the sand, and I had to give up volleyball for awhile. Last night my body reminded me how I was not in my early 20s anymore. My game had regressed to where it was before I took that class at Berkeley. I had moments where my serve had movement, and times where my bumps and sets were accurate with a soft touch, but the timing of the spike was gone. I did manage to play for two and a half hours, and didn't embarrass myself, but didn't play up to my own expectations.

I'd like to play more often, but it turns out I found this group at the end of their season. Last night was the last game I'd be able to attend for the season. There are other Chicago based groups which play indoor volleyball, but they still play on sand, and my knees still can't handle that.

Kedzie Bridge (again)

2007-12-09T13:40:00.000-06:00

I joined a local Meetup photography group to get pictures of the Kedzie Street bridge at twilight. I knew it'd be cold, but I was hoping for some snow falling to add to the picture. It felt like it was about 10 degrees out, and after an hour of waiting for the light to become ideal, I decided I was done for the night.

Afterward it rained, ruining any plans I had to go sledding with Jason the following morning.

Almost winter

2007-11-27T19:16:00.001-06:00

After a fairly warm Fall we're starting to consistently get days around or below freezing, but even if we get a whole month of days around 0F, it'll be easier than last winter. Why, you ask? The answer is simple: diapers, or the lack thereof. Yes, no more "this has to go out right now" trips through arctic conditions to get a stinky diaper out to the garbage cans.

DPC: Duotones 3

2007-11-19T08:21:00.001-06:00

Late Autumn

We took Jason out to North Pond park to enjoy the last leaves of Fall.

Rats with Fluffy Tails

2007-11-14T14:43:00.000-06:00

I was out taking pictures of Jason and Sonya, and let me tell you the city squirrels here are not afraid of people at all.

DPC: Something Old 3

2007-11-08T17:20:00.001-06:00

"Memories For Sale"

I actually got through the entire voting period without getting a single comment from any of the 119 people who voted on it.

"We got BUMPED!"

2007-11-07T23:12:00.000-06:00

That was Jason's reaction to a minivan rear-ending us on our way home earlier tonight. He hit us hard enough to push me into the car in front of me, even with my foot firmly on the brake. Nobody was hurt, and the minivan was the only vehicle to look like it had been in an accident. There weren't any marks or dings from my tapping of the front car, and just a couple dings on the back hatch door of our SUV. The minivan? It had to be towed. As it hit us its bumper went underneath mine, and my steel frame smashed his grill into his engine. The people in the van had to push it to get it out of the middle of the road.

Iowa Visit

2007-10-30T18:12:00.000-05:00

My mom and Bob came out to visit last weekend, and we took a trip up to West Union. Bob had never been there, and it had been about 25 years since my mom's last visit. She even got to sleep in her old room! We took a drive up the Mississippi to Lansing, then back down on the Wisconsin side, and all the trees were showing off their fall colors.