Hope everyone had a safe and happy Independence Day. Our neighborhood had a little parade and then we went out to dinner.

There were an abundance of outlaw fireworks here in the neighborhood. :-)

It's gritty ISO400 but with this subject matter it works for me. I like the way the sunset is reflecting in the windows. I need to get backpackable tripod for when I travel.

Tags: business travel, photography, sigma sd14

Spock was a Montrosian Long-Hair and he truly was a breed apart from anything else, before or since.

We didn't adopt him, he adopted us. We named him Spock because he was so smart he could trick you into doing things for him with his incredible cat logic.

We were living in the Montrose on Greeley street when he showed up one day and demanded to be let inside. Spock was crazy. He would go next door to Robin's Nest Bed and Breakfast and trick the guests into letting him in. Robin fed him as did four or five other neighbors as he made his nightly rounds.

One night he spent the night at Robins and slept in the bed with a couple from France. A true bohemian.

He loved shoes and if you took a shoe off in front of him he would bury his head inside and inhale a giant huff of "sneaker air." Then he would either drift off to sleep clutching his shoe or take off howling like a banshee chasing imaginary "ghosts" and trying to climb the walls.

If he wanted out and you didn't get up to let him out he would stand on his hind legs, grab the door knob with both paws, and try to turn it.

Spock was a bit of a Tom before we adopted him so there was a period of time after we had him neutered where he would spray. I guess he had a taste of the good life and craved it because for many years he "raped" our other cat Savannah. (who was also fixed)

Every night around sunset he would go to the middle of the great room and howl loudly at the moon.

There will never be another cat like Spock. It was an honor to share so many good times together.

Goodnight sweet prince. We miss you.

Tags: cat, montrosian long-hair cat, sigma sd9, spock
Current Location: Houston TX
Current Mood: touched

Unlike other book clubs the majority of the recommendations on my list are going to be books that I would like to read if I can find the spare time.

Let's kick things off with a new one from O'Reilly

Your Brain: The Missing Manual
By Matthew MacDonald
First Edition May 2008 (est.)
Pages: 274
Series: The Missing Manuals
ISBN 10: 0-596-51778-5 | ISBN 13: 9780596517786

Why should I read this? Well, I never thought about how to properly care for my hearing until I was thinking of becoming a pilot. During my flight physical, after the hearing test, the doctor was able to show me on a graph exactly where my hearing was being damaged by loud noise. Things like guns, concerts, and a massive subwoofer in my car stereo. Ever since then I've been a lot more careful. The loud car stereo is gone and I always wear ear plugs when shooting. It's amazing how much more relaxing the yard work is when you shut out all the noise. I've even gone so far as to buy some really good headphones so music sounds good at much lower volumes.

When I saw this book this morning I realized that I'm protecting my hearing but I haven't given much thought at all about how to keep my brain sharp. I should get this book and read it. It also looks like it's going to be a fun read.

Comment below if you've read this book or you have some book suggestions for the Obscura Book Club.

Tags: geek, o'reilly, obscura book club, your brain: the missing manual
Current Location: Houston, TX

Nickbot's time-lapse camera from Obscura on Vimeo.
Hacking a point and shoot to turn it into a time-lapse camera would be a challenge for most folks. But we didn't stop there! We strapped it to a bike for some night motion time-lapse photography.

Mission: Test Nick's hacked time-lapse camera.
Recommendation: Conduct further tests using a higher ISO setting and less time between exposures.
The camera has exceeded all expectations and we expect to deploy it often on future rides.
This ride also featured a pre-flight dinner of blackened fish tacos and chips with peach salsa. It was nice to get an early start for a change. Thanks to all who attended.

Tags: bicycles, firmware hacking, obscura fm, obscura mobile wing, summerwood, time-lapse photography
Current Location: Summerwood, TX
Current Music: Chris & Cosey - Synaesthesia

Obscura Mobile Wing - 15 May 2008 from Obscura on Vimeo.
Mission: Test video using the Flip Video Camcorder on a night ride in Summerwood Texas.
Recommendation: Flip cams added to the list of standard equipment for all pilots.

Tags: bicycles, flip video camcorder, night, obscura, obscura fm, summerwood
Current Location: 77044
Current Mood: accomplished
Current Music: The Boggs - Arm in Arm (Shy Child Remix)

The fine folks over at The Photo Binder Studio organized a mega Bluebonnet Photo Shoot in Brenham Texas at the height of bluebonnet season.


(more photos, please be careful not to trample the flowers)

With a beautiful location like this you can't help but have fun. Got some great shots and learned how an assistant with a reflector can do amazing things to even out harsh shadows.

Tags: bluebonnets, photography, sd14, sigma
Current Location: Brenham Texas
Current Music: Boards Of Canada - Julie And Candy

I've been working on some video stuff at work and decided to try to roll my own streaming server on patton.

This is a test of the embed feature.

If you want to experiment you'll need Flowplayer and a php script that handles the streaming.

Tags: flowplayer, flv, video
Current Music: Goldfrapp - Train

THEY'RE MADE OUT OF MEAT by Terry Bisson has been one of my favorite short stories ever. Now it's been made into a short film.

Tags: sci-fi, short film, short story, they're made out of meat
Current Music: Sunosis - Leap

So I've got this old computer named Igate. It's a really old like 1995 or 1996 old. It's a Pentium running at a blazing 75Mhz! I think it's got 32MB of RAM. It's been running for almost a decade now as a Linux firewall built by my friend Will Wagner. It's awesome.

Well tonight we had a power failure and Igate did not come back up. No lights, no sounds, no nothing.

I figured it burned up another power supply. It's on it's second or third one and well beyond it's half life. I've even got a spare ready for when it dies.

Before tearing into it I wanted verify that it was indeed the power supply. I unplug everything but the power cord and hit the switch. It lights up! Hmmm.. Power supply is good.

I plug the network cables back in and hook up the fifteen year old IBM monitor. I go to plug Model-M keyboard back in and notice that the insulation on the cord is crumbling in my hands.

I dug around looking for another Model-M cable with an AT connector. Nope. Imagine that.

Tried booting without a keyboard. BIOS hung up on a keyboard error. (duh!)

I did have a KVM switch equipped with both AT and PS2 connections. I plug an AT patch cable into igate and a PS2 cable into the seventeen year old Model-M and I'm back in business.

I had better get on eBay and buy a couple of spare Model-M cables. Looks like that's the part that eventually dies.

Edit: Unicomp has new cables for $7.25.

Tags: linux, model-m, pentium 75mhz
Current Music: Ulrich Schnauss - Knuddelmaus

The fine folks over at TexasPhotoForum.com invited me to shoot at the Houston Texas Urban Trash Tthe Dress Megashoot.


(more megashots)

This thing was mega in every way. Over 60 photographers, more than 30 models, and more fun than I've ever had on a photo shoot. If you've got a dress you want to trash or if you want to do an urban shoot get in touch with me and lets make it happen.

Tags: houston tx, photography, trash the dress, urban
Current Location: Houston, TX
Current Music: Electric Skychurch - Heaven

(more pix from the shoot)

Every year I do a Christmas Portrait shoot to raise some cash for Lone Star Boxer Rescue.

On behalf of all the boxers, Thank You to everyone who came out and had their photos made.
Special thanks to Kay Hill who helped in many ways to organize the event. :-)

Tags: boxers, lone star boxer rescue, pet portraits, photography
Current Music: Static - Turn On Switch Off (Starring Valerie Trebeljahr)

Be careful driving near those crosswalks.

Tags: crosswalk, prank, school zone, tunnel
Current Music: Proclaimers - I'm Gonna Be (500 Miles)

Current Music: Banabila - Mono Metro