Published

For the first time, one of my pictures was actually published in a real print magazine!

A couple of months ago, I was contacted right here through my blog by Jonathan Wright of Peoria Progress about using a picture I took of the LST-325 while it was docked here in Peoria in late August - Early September.

This is the shot he was interested in:


The new edition just came out and you can see it in both the print and web versions. I am listed with all the other photographers in the front of the printed publication.

Oh, and here's the direct link to where my shot appears in the web version. And here's a link showing where you can pick up the print version.

Anyway, it was exciting for me, since I consider photography a hobby. :-)

Since Christmas....

What's been happening since Christmas???? Let's see......


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Went to Zooks' home game...I was the first to bust out and had zero success in the cash game which followed.


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For the first time in several years, had no plans for New Years Eve. I heard of several parties, but didn't garner an invite. That didn't slow me down, though!! Connie decided that we should go sledding! I hadn't been sledding since...well, grade school. With the fresh snow that day, the timing was perfect! We headed to Detweiller Park since that's the only decent hill I could think of (the shelter area where the Jaycees hold their annual Easter Egg Hunt). We get there and the road is chained off with a sign stating "sledding area closed".. I didn't even know it was an official sledding area...who knew!!??!! haha! Anyway, we decided the only thing we could do is give up and go back home. Ok, not really, we completely disregarded the sign/cable and walked back to the hill. Being New Year's Eve, and very cold out, we had the entire hill to ourselves! Such is the life for the outlaw! Anyway, we had a blast! Even landing in the woods wasn't enough to dampen our spirits!

New Year's Day, I followed through with a tradition I picked up from my mother and made Ham and Beans (and of course, cornbread). I think it was the best batch of ham and beans I've ever made!!


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The other day the neighbor came over asking for help setting up his new laptop. He (and his parents) were absolutely clueless! He couldn't even answer what he needed set up (was he trying to set up an Internet connection, a specific piece of software/game, etc...). His questions were along the lines of "how do I turn it on/off" and "where do I plug it in (power)", etc.... I got things as far as a registration error from Insight and told him he needed to call them to figure out why the system errored on registration. I'm just hopeful that this doesn't turn into an ongoing support situation.


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This past week, I traveled to my office in Sterling. I hadn't been there in a really long time. The techs there are well experienced and pretty much handle things themselves. Most of the time any special attention can be handled through e-mail or the phone.

I had the back seat of my truck filled with equipment I was transporting (the reason for my trip). The first thing I notice since my last trip is all the windmills. There is a rather large wind-farm that stretches between Tanner's Orchard and Bradford! I had seen windmills in the far distance along Rt 40, but, these were all new since my last trip! I was amazed all these were up since my last trip!

Anyway, about 15 miles outside of Sterling, I had a tire go down. Damnit!! It was the first time I've had to change a flat tire on my truck...that's over 6 years with nothing more severe than a slow leak. Where's the jack??? Under the back seat! So, here I am, it's something like 26 degrees, the wind is piercing, and I'm emptying all the equipment out of the back seat to get to the jack! It sucked!!! LOL After I figure out how to get the spare tire out (there's a cable on a wench that you lower using an extension and tire iron which is accessed through a small hole in the bumper), it was fairly smooth sailing. Except the fact that the spare tire was half flat as well. Oh well, it was enough to get to town and an air pump.


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Tucker's home game...at least I didn't bust out first!! haha! It was really kind of sad....Gordo was excited because we had a lot of new players that we had never faced (or maybe once). He loves trying to figure out new players and trying to keep them guessing about his play. So, what happens, Gordo gets sat at a table of almost all familiar players.....then ends up getting taken out first. What a bummer! Myself, I ended up finishing one off the bubble. Out of 3 full tables, I finished 7th and top 5 got paid. All night I was pretty card dead. The best hand I got was AKo which I got 3 times and only hit once. Not one single pocket pair and even the decent hands were very few and far between. By the time I busted, the cash table was full, and it was about 11:00 so I headed home...I guess I'll have to wait for Tucker to post the results.


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What I haven't been doing is taking any pictures. I hate the cold and have a hard time being inspired at this time of the year. I was looking over pictures from the past several years and confirmed what I already knew. I have taken very very few (if any) pictures during the Winter...particularly Jan - March. I really need to force myself to find something interesting this time of year....

Christmas 2007

I hope everyone had a great Christmas! This year, I decided to stay here instead of going to my folks' house. I go down most years, but, not all. Chels was not going to be there (poor thing is in Jamaica...so sad!), and I was just down in Sept. and Nov. so, decided to just relax at home.

I did talk to mom and dad and everyone seems to have had a good holiday. There was one change this year....instead of cooking, mom ordered dinner from 17th Street Bar and Grill....several slabs of ribs and a couple pounds of pulled pork, etc... I'm sure it was tasty!!

Christmas afternoon, I had to go to Connie's for the gift she got me because "it won't fit in [her] car". hmmmm.... I'm completely lost... Unlike myself, she didn't ask for ideas or a list or anything. So, I have no idea what to expect, let alone what could be so large to not fit in her car. I get there and it's covered up in the living room....I still have no clue!! Maggie tried to tell me it was "thin screen" TV... You know, they're the next big thing!!!! LOL Anyway, I "unwrap" it and Tada!!!!!

She got me a smoker!!!!! In our random conversations, I had mentioned it would be cool to learn how to do ribs / bbq..have an all day cookout, etc.., but, I'd never done that and didn't have a smoker. One thing I've noticed over the years, she's a great gift giver!

As I mentioned above, I had to ask for a list (I think clueless pretty well describes my gift giving abilities). :-) This was one of the things on Connie's wish list.

She *says* this is her favorite. She's nice like that. :-)

Oh, and Mary who reads my blog but never comments....I also got a bottle of UV Blue!! LOL

Anyway, it was a great Christmas! I hope yours was as well!

Happy Festivus!

Some groups consider today to be the day to celebrate Festivus. So, Happy Festivus!!

There is actually a lot more to Festivus than most probably are aware. For one, there is the traditional celebration of Festivus that the Seinfeld episode "The Strike" was based. Some traditions are different than that on Seinfeld, others seem to be similar. But, in any case, feel free to "air your grievances" here! :-) "I got a lot of problems with you people!!!"

The Week In Review

Last Friday, I went to Tucker's home game and for once, I didn't bubble out!! Actually, I went out one before the bubble!! LOL Early on, I was doing well, catching cards, etc... Then, when we combined tables, I went card dead, and missed when I had a decent starting hand. Finally, I hit a hand or two...then back to missing everything.. I was getting short stacked and picked up a middle pair. Raise! Of course, the big stack of mr. runner runner didn't go away...he re-raised (minimum) and I pushed the rest in. So, it's my 77 against AJ. The flop comes, and I'm still ahead, but mr. runner-runner has a ton of outs....turn...7, ok, trips!!! River....runner-runner hits his flush (again)!!! Damnit!!! Poker is a cruel cruel game!!

After that beating, I was so depressed (not really) that I basically hibernated the rest of the weekend! Actually, I did get out a bit on Saturday afternoon and cleaned out the garage a bit so you could actually park *in* the garage. The Ice that was forecast scared me. :-) That evening, Connie came over and I made dinner and Italian beef for Sunday (and Monday and the rest of the week...yes, it was an enormous roast)and we watched movies and football the rest of the weekend. What better way to spend a Winter weekend than that???

Monday night, I met up with a couple of flickr folks and we took some pictures downtown. It was chilly, but still a good time.

The courthouse plaza with Christmas lights


Spirit of Peoria and Bridge

So far, Lily hasn't posted any of the same shots that I posted (the advantage of being the first to post). :-) Actually, between Jason, Mike, Lily and myself, none of the shots are really even close even though we were all within a couple hundred feet of each other the entire time. It's always cool to see what others come up with in the same situation.

Tuesday and Wednesday...not much happened. Work, home, work, home.... Thursday night, was the last day of photography class. :-( So, unfortunately, I doubt you'll be seeing any other corn-poo pictures in the near future. ;-) But, there is another class planned in the Spring that I'm interested...we'll have to wait and see once the schedule is posted.

Tonight is the Jaycees Christmas party. Always a good time!! So, my agenda today includes buying a gift for the gift exchange. I have no idea what I'm gonna get this year. I guess I'll know it when I see it.

Photography Class

A couple of weeks ago, well....several weeks ago, now...we got an assignment in photography class to take pictures of an item which we were given. We were to take pictures in interesting / unexpected locations, interesting compositions, etc...

My subject was an ear of corn. Now, what the hell am I going to do at this time of year??? I thought of a few ideas that I thought would be cool during the Summer...say in a bean field, or on the grill, etc.... But, at this time of year, I was having a tough time coming up with ideas (also, note that there really isn't much fresh corn on the cob around right now). Add to that, the fact that I didn't get around to shooting for a couple of weeks and the corn I was given, was looking a bit past its prime.

I asked at work if anyone had ideas, and shared my first idea with them. Louis came up with the following as a concept.


Stabbed corn, bleeding butter...I thought it was a cool idea, and this was fun to play with. I only wish I could have found those real cheap plastic corn-shaped holders...instead, I had to use these "fancy" ones which was the only thing I could find at the store.

Next, you have the first idea that came to mind when I found out I had an ear of corn for a subject.


I thought about how no matter how much you chew corn, it seems to reconstruct itself in your digestive tract and comes out in whole kernels in your poo. I just carried it one step further. :-)

Birthday Weekends

I already wrote about Thanksgiving weekend, which was the weekend before my birthday. It was a pretty good weekend, starting with Wednesday night at the Rec Room, and continuing with Thanksgiving, dinner, new curtains, etc.....

Then, on my actual birthday, I got to work in Macomb at midnight!! yay!!!! Couldn't even go to Math Club that night.

But, the following weekend was pretty awesome! Gretchen took me to see Sugarland here at the Civic Center. Actually there was a group of us....6 chicks and me! Nice ratio, huh?? :-) The show was great and we had a good time. Then, we went to the bar for a couple of drinks and to try to score some autographed stuff, which some in our group did....just not me. But, on the up-side....my bitches bought me drinks in honor of my birthday, so it's all good!! Thanks bitches!!! LOL It was a great night!

But wait...there's more!!! I also got an LCD HDTV for the computer room and a blackberry cobbler and ice cream from my girl! Those rocked!! The pie was awesome as usual (not such a huge fan of cake) and I just finished the last piece last night. The TV is sweet! It's the first HDTV I've had, and I was shocked at the difference it makes. LCD's are sharper than regular CRT TV's in the first place, and the digital nature of an LCD really shows the shortcoming of regular broadcast programming...but the HD channels are freakin' sweet!

Saturday night, Jeff, Tucker, Toby, and myself all went to Zooks' home game and had a good time. Jeff played well and took first, Tucker 3rd, and I was the bubble boy, which is pretty amazing considering I was 175 away from doing out with blinds being 100/200 (Toby caught up on the river and killed my stack). But, we still had a good time. I ended up making back a few bucks during the cash game, but, ended up down overall for the night. Oh well, cheap entertainment with good friends...or is it the other way around??? hmmmm... :-)

Sunday was spent doing laundry and crap and watching football IN HD most of the day. :-) All in all, a great weekend!