Exploring The World

I LOVE playing around with my fuzzy little camera phone. It's nothing fancy, in terms of pixels or resolution or ability to maintain focus, but it's got to be one of my favorite pieces of technology ever. The ability to easily take digital photos is something I think I've always wanted to be able to do. It's better than my iPod (probably 'cause I have a first-generation iPod Shuffle, which is cool, but not as cool as my camera phone)

Anyway, while driving back from NY over the holidays, I was sitting in the passenger seat with my phone on and one leg bent in an unusual angle, and this image came across the screen: 

I just really liked the curves and shadows, the textures and the whole vibe. So, taking a cue from Keri Smith's fantastic book "How To Be An Explorer of the World," (go buy it, please!), I took the shot and began looking around for other opportunities to take interesting little photos from the front seat of the van. Here's the result:

And just to mix things up, I took this one from out the side window, of my favorite mountain wall along I-87:

Scene from the Cadyville NY Post Office

During my recent visit to NY, I had a slightly surreal experience at a small post office in Cadyville NY (population 2781).

I walked into the tiny post office on a snowy, cold day right around new years (Temp: 6 degrees F). Nobody was behind the desk, which was alright since I still needed to address my packages. An older lady shuffled in while I was still filling out the address labels.

"Good morning, Jim!" she said as she approached the desk. 

Jim was still hidden from sight, so she must have just known he was working that morning. Jim came out from the back office, greeted her by name and the two of the chatted about grandchildren and the holidays.

I marveled at the quaintness of it all, the cozy small town feel, where everyone is on a first name basis with the post office guy.

Then the lady said "This package is going to Australia," and my brain sort of exploded.

2009 Reading List

Here's a quick look at what I'm reading these days:

Making Comics and Understanding Comics, by Scott McCloud.

Watchmen (Graphic novel), by Alan Moore and David Gibbons

Presentation Zen, by Garr Reynolds

(It's really interesting to read those four at the same time)

How to be an explorer of the world, by Keri Smith (Thanks to Summer Pierre for the recommendation!) 

Outliers, by Malcolm Gladwell

Zeno's Paradox, by Joseph Mazur (finally, I'll get to "unlock the ancient mystery behind the science of space and time)

2600 - a hacker magazine

The Dark Visitor, by Scott Handerson (It's about Chinese hackers. My copy is from school and it's marked "For Official Use Only" - but apparently you can buy it at Lulu too)

Live Without A Net (a sci-fi anthology)

Less Fuzzy Camera Phone

It turns out, my fuzzy little camera phone had something smeared on the lens.

I wiped it off and the images got much clearer. Can you spot the difference?

Hmmm... I wonder how long that stuff had been there...

LtCol Select!

For those who haven't heard via phone, email, Facebook or smoke signals, this morning the AF released the Lieutenant Colonel Promotion Board results and I'm on the list! And for those who have heard, here are some more details.

For those who aren't familiar with the military promotion system, once we're selected for promotion, we get to pin on the rank in order of seniority. Everyone gets a "line number" and my line number is 710 (probably out of 1000 or so). 

The year group just ahead of mine isn't quite done pinning everone on. They should finish by March, and I'm hoping my year group will begin in April. The previous group has been pinning about 114 each month, so it looks like it'll be at least October before I pin on.

But the big news is that I'm on the list and have a line number. As the kids say these days, "woot woot!" 

Also as the kids say "Gosh, LtCol's are old!"

Hacking My Brain

For Christmas this year, I got a little "Sound and Light Machine" kit, some assembly required. In fact, some soldering required - too fun!

I hadn't soldered anything since college, and fortunately my little brother got a soldering iron for Christmas (interestingly, that was from me - little did I know when I bought it that I'd have a chance to use it myself!). 

Anyway, I've started putting the circuit board together - some photos below. Since I don't have a soldering iron, I haven't figured out yet how I'm going to finish it. I'm sure some of my geeky friends can hook me up. 

When it's all done, it'll be a set of goggles and headphones that is supposed to "hack my brain," make me see pretty images and even help me meditate. We'll see...

I love Christmas presents that you get to put together, particularly if there's heat and electricity involved. I'll keep you posted on the progress, and once it's done, I'll let you know how the SLM brain hacking goes!

Sunrise, Sunset

Here in Ohio, we're on the western edge of the Eastern Time Zone. New York is much closer to the eastern edge. Visiting NY over Christmas time, I was struck by how early the sun sets this time of year (and how early it rises) when compared with Ohio.

This morning, the sun won't rise here until nearly 8am (compared to 7:20 in NY). Of course, it won't set until 5:30pm, almost an hour later than the NY sunset.

NYC Photos

A couple shots from my recent trip to NY City, compliments of my handy little fuzzy camera phone. I particularly like this one - when I think of NYC, this sort of image comes to mind:


Sort of like Texas, everything is big in New York City. I snapped this picture of a huge Spiderman, climbing down the wall near the Sony Wonder Technology Lab (which gives free tours - very fun!). We did a lot of free stuff that day.

Speaking of big, while we were waiting to get into the Sony lab, we ate these big pretzels I bought from a street vendor (I'm a big fan of street vendor food for some reason). I must admit, the pretzels had a smokey flavor that wasn't entirely positive, but I ate the whole thing anyway. Maybe they taste better in the summer?

Driving in the city is a nightmare. But walking is another experience entirely. I really enjoyed walking around, and snapped this shot of a little gargoyle on some building we walked past. I have no idea where I was - I just liked the gargoyle. I think it was on a restaurant, but it might have been a hotel or an apartment building. I'm sure someone will leave a comment and let me know.

Happy 2009!

I'm back from a long and fun visit to NY, ready to launch out into the new year. Christmas was great - hope yours was full of family and fun and joy.

2009 promises to be an eventful year. I'll graduate in March, start a new assignment in April and move in June. With any luck, I'll even get promoted (they should release the list any day now).And of course there's the new president coming in, plus the continued excitement with the economy.  Who know what other surprises and adventures the new year will hold! 

We live in very interesting times. I hope you all have a wonderful year!