No Flamingo Flocking Wednesday (12/23) or Sunday (12/27). Merry Christmas!

Sorry about the lack of updates, I’ve been swamped with school. Don’t expect anymore soon, I’ve got finals next week. But after that I’ll be an evil little code monkey for two weeks (what else would I do with that Christmas break?).

In the spare moments I have had, I’ve churned out some very useful stuff: the fmath module. It has all the usual math functions a 2d game could ever need (distance, distance squared, polyline simplification, etc) and a 2d Vector class, which is invaluable for the engine.

Head on over to the repository to check out the latest version. The library won’t work correctly if you just download everything to the installation directory. You need to add the installation directory to PYTHONPATH or navigate to the directory (usually Python26\Lib\site-packages\flamingo) and type:

svn checkout http://flamingoengine.googlecode.com/svn/trunk/flamingo "" flamingoengine-read-only

I should probably setup the repository more conveniently in the future, but that’s for another time.

I have officially been on the island for seven weekends, and out of those seven, I have worn my flamingo hat three times. Don’t get me wrong, this has more to do with circumstance than it does desire. The first time was a pre-Halloween bash at the local fire hall, the next weekend was officially Halloween, and last weekend I was really excited when I heard a message on our machine inviting Jay and I to a 30th birthday party down in Skidegate, and while the message was a bit choppy,  I was pretty sure I heard them say it was a “fancy pants” party. This got me pretty excited and I could almost hear my three pairs of neglected heels vying for their chance to make it out on a Saturday night. I immediately call our friends back to confirm the time, place and that indeed it is a fancy pants event.

My excitement fizzles when Richardo corrects me, “No, its a fancy hat party”. I feel my shoulders drop in disappointment, and simultaneously as the picture pops in my head, he continues, “Hey, you should wear your flamingo hat!”. “Oh, yes, what a great idea.” I can barely make the words sound enthusiastic.

How many times can I wear that damn thing? Of course, I haven’t brought anything else, so not wearing it isn’t really an option. I am starting to get concerned that I am making a name for myself.  “Verena” is tricky enough for a lot of folks to remember… please don’t get a nickname with flamingo in it!

the bird

Jay and I make sure we are late enough to not be the first ones there but not too late that we pass people going out the door. Of course, Jay being cool-hand Luke wears some trendy tweed hat leaving me to fend for myself. We walk up the stairs into a kitchen and living room full of heads with hats – varying from homemade paper hats, to 50s feather creations, to over-sized sambreros, and no other birds to speak of. I am consoled by the fact our friend James had made his own hat moments before leaving the house. James had grabbed an old Elmer Fudd type hat, gone to his shop and drilled a pair of deer antlers into his hat. He looks hilarious… so I fly over to him to balance out the bird.

The bright fuschia hat is a beacon and soon I am getting side looks and glances as a new crew of people try to make something of this new girl with the XL bird on her head. Then I realize that the hostess and birthday girl is asking everyone to vote for their favourite hats. Oh no.

Time flies (haha) and soon we are singing happy birthday to a gorgeous young woman wearing a white top hat, and rosy wine cheeks. Her dad comes up from downstairs to sing in the grand occasion. His name is David…. Suzuki. I admire the man’s work tremendously and would love to strike up a conversation, but I realize that I actually don’t know the ’status’ of flamingos and in this moment feel frozen by my lack of knowledge. Are they endangered? At risk? In trouble? Worried? Do they only live in Florida (the image of the theme song to Miami Vice pops in my head). And before I have conjured up the nerve, or the knowledge, he’s gone. Next time Dave.

Towards the end of the night I have congregated with a flock of women, talking about womanly things like how we met our partners and other such “romantic” antics, and I drop the question, “So, if there was a fancy pants party, would you dress up? In heels?” There is a split second pause before they all answer in unison with an enthusiastic ‘yes’. I beam with the idea of the next party at our house with fancy appies, silly drinks and yes… high heeled shoes.

I win a prize for the most original hat, and while the other winners are called in by name, I am “Uh the winner is… ‘Flamingo’”. I raise my wing and graciously accept the small prize – a special pen to write on car windows. At home, I put the flamingo in the closet of the spare room, thanking her for being the conversational piece I needed to build some new friends. I let her know that she has completed a job well done, and deserves a well-earned rest.

Pearl Izumi 2009/10 Women’s SuperStar Short Sleeve Cycling Jersey – Flamingo – 0837-2RI Review

Feature

• Sensor-Stretch fabric
• Three ergonomic entry rear pockets
• Cap sleeve construction

Overview
Our Superstar Jersey is loaded with greatdetails, including textured fabric, three backpockets, reflectivity and a feminine collar. Textured stretch Sensor fabric offers great style, great fit, and quick wick drying.
Specifications

Dec 02, 2009 14:30:07

Tropical waterfall

Burke Brothers of Wyndmoor, Pa., will take us to Brazil for the 2010  Philadelphia International Flower Show, “Passport to the World.”  Their exhibit is titled “Floresta Amazonica,” which means Amazon rainforest in Portuguese.

 Burke Brothers manager Michele Rich says one of the biggest challenges this year is working with plants that come from a vastly different climate and environment, one that’s dark, lush and tropical.  

“We’re used to designing for Montgomery County,” she says. 

Which is why some of the designers took a trip down to Florida to find the perfect plants to represent the lush Brazilian rainforest. 

Burke Bros. design team and Flower Show staff in Florida. From left: Sam Lemheney (from PHS), Jonathan Troisi, Vivianne Englund-Callahan, Sean Burke, Laurie Clabbers (of Burke Brothers), John Story (Meadowbrook Farm), and Michele Rich (Burke Brothers).

 She says the design team picked out brilliantly colored bromeliads, birds-of-paradise, ficuses and philodendrons. 

“We’re trying to make it as naturalistic as possible,” says Rich. 

They’ll represent the dark side of the Amazon with dense vegetation and representations of the savage wildlife.  

“We’re planning a moving alligator topiary with eyes that light up, and maybe a panther,” says Designer Lori Clabbers.  She’ll also use carnations to create pink flamingoes wading under waterfalls. 

Bromeliads ready for shipment.

       Almost all of the plants will be shipped from Florida right before the Show, including massive 14- to 16-foot palm trees. With almost 800 tropical plants, the exhibit will transport visitors to an exotic and exciting corner of the world. 

For more information about Burke Brothers Landscape Design, call 215-887-1773 or visit their website http://www.burkebrothers.com/

an overdue birthday gift

Last year, a friend of mine asked me to make a drawing or painting for her birthday.  As usual with these things, I started and then never finished.  But, FINALLY, a year later I managed to finish it and she got it for her 20th birthday instead.  I think shes happy

She had asked me to include a few things in the artwork – a wrought iron bench, a pink flamingo, a cherry blossom tree, herself and a toucan.  I took a bit of artistic license here an there – stylising the wrought iron bench and transforming the toucan into an owl…but I think the final result suits her.  Hope you like.

what did you dream in youth?

as this traveling dance closes to an end

did you stop on the journey

did you even notice if you moved

the steps you planned

i’m fairly certain you didn’t

but

surely that is the best dance

of all…

Day Dreamin’ Exotics recently moved it’s home from Salt Lake City to Las Vegas with the first tour rolling down the famous Las Vegas Strip in September.

A spin with DDE means three hours of fast action, adrenaline pumping excitement behind the wheel of some of the world’s most sexy and exotic cars on a three hour scenic tour.  The cars we drove were a Ferrari 360 Modena, Lamborghini Gallardo, Aston Martin Vantage, Porsche 911 Twin Turbo, and Dodge Viper SRT10.

The tour begins and ends at the Flamingo Casino & Hotel at the corner of Flamingo and Las Vegas Blvd. Customers drive five cars for approximately 90 miles “Euro-caravan” style (all in a line following the pace car) on open roads through the Red Rock Canyon and Spring Mountain Peak west of the city, finishing up with a cruise down the Las Vegas Strip. The tour host leads the way in the pace car with pit stops every 20-30 minutes for drivers and passengers to switch cars.

My favorite car was the Lambo but the Skyline GTR was surprisingly the fastest – 60 mph in 3.8 secs!

Visit their website to get the whole scoop www.daydreaminexotics.com

The reasoning behind the switch from Opossum to Flamingo is pretty simple. Think about Opossums. They’re hairy, smelly, disgusting, and unwanted. That’s how I felt about my engine. The more I added the more  locked in it became, the opposite of how I envisioned it at the start. I needed a clean slate. I needed something elegant, something unconfined, something faster, something pink.

At it’s heart Opossum was a sketchpad. It was a test. And now that I’ve learned what does and doesn’t work, I’m ready to build the real thing. Extensive planning has gone into the project already. Here’s a summary of how things are going to work for the most part in the final product:

Coordinates

There are two coordinate systems in Flamingo: the rendering coordinate system and the physics coordinate system used by box2d. The first step to understanding how everything fits together is figuring out how the two coordinate systems work together.

Opossum used native SDL rendering which made mapping coordinates a mess. (0,0) was in the top-left corner of the screen, so all of the physics had to be done in the IV quadrant and then the y-value had to be flipped for each entity before rendering. This caused a lot of headaches.

Flamingo will be migrating to OpenGL rendering. Luckily (0,0) is on the bottom-left of the screen in OpenGL, so most of the physics and all of the rendering coordinates will be positive.

In addition there are World coordinates and Local coordinates. World coordinates are relative to the origin and local coordinates are relative to an entity’s central point.

These coordinate systems are combined to form RW, RL, PW, and PL.

Sprites

Next is the concept of a Sprite, which I’m sure you’re all familiar with. A Sprite is simply an image that is blitted (drawn) to the screen. Sprites are grouped together in SpriteGroups and are all blitted together. Every Sprite instance is in at least one Master SpriteGroup. Sprites are positioned with RW coordinates.

Objects (subclass of Sprites)

An Object is a sprite that updates it’s position and rotation based on a box2d body (If you are unfamiliar with Box2d, I suggest reading the wiki). These can be either rectangular or circular and use PW coordinates.

Compound Objects

A Compound Object is essentially a collection of Objects that act together as a unit. They can be attached with joints or not.

Viewport

A viewport is a rectangular or circular area in RW coordinates. These are the “cameras” that let you see the world. Whatever is inside of these areas is blitted to the screen. These can include custom drawing functions to make things like Radars.

Map

A map is a collection of images, sounds, and scripts all bundled together with the MapEditor. These are saved as .fmap files and loaded directly into the Game. All of the resources are tied up in the map file, so distribution is extremely easy.

This is one of the core aspects of Flamingo. All of the scripts are offloaded into the map files themselves. All you have to do is load map and the scripts are loaded with it. Doing the scripts in this way makes development much easier; you no longer need to add a bunch of specific map code to the core source files themselves, eliminating all the headache associated with it. In addition it makes it very easy for the players to create and distribute their own maps.

Character

A character is a specialized Compound Object with sounds, scripts, and animations. They are created with the CharacterBuilder, saved as .fchar files, and loaded into the Game. Characters follow the same script philosophy as Maps.

An estimated 19.2 million people watched Donny Osmond last night win “Dancing With The Stars” — the smallest audience for the show’s finale since the first season – and take home the show’s traditional mirrored ball trophy in the season finale of the ABC TV contest reality program. 

Helping push Osmond over the top was the tango he performed Tuesday with his professional dancing partner, Kym Johnson. Judge Carrie Ann Inaba hailed his performance as “artistry in motion.” It earned the top score of the final performances. 

Osmond, the former teen pop star of the iconic singing Osmond family, said the show has been a highlight in a career of ups and downs.  

The 52-year-old showbiz veteran, who headlines at the Flamingo in Las Vegas with his sister, Marie, has been performing almost all of his life, but said that there’s a difference between cutting albums and selling records and dancing competitively. 

Donny Osmond now holds the distinction of being the first Las Vegas headliner to win “Dancing’ while having a show on the Las Vegas Strip. 

He competed during the show’s finale Tuesday against singer Mya and Kelly Osbourne, daughter of rock star Ozzy Osbourne. 

Mistakes on the dance floor during the season weren’t the only missteps of ABC’s live broadcast. At the top of Tuesday’s show, as highlights from Monday’s show ran, the video froze on shot of Miss Piggy, prompting host Tom Bergeron to remind viewers that the broadcast was live and send the show to an early commercial break. 

This was the ninth edition of the contest, one of television’s most popular shows. The Nielsen Co. says ratings have been down all season for the show, an indication that viewers weren’t as attached to the contestants as they had in the past.

South Beach with Flamingo Towers & Capri, originally uploaded by AshtonColeman.

South Beach real estate with Flamingo Towers & Capri

Nearly 6 months ago I started working on an open-source, 2d game engine with 3 things in mind:

1. Written in Python
2. Easy to Understand
3. Versatile

What I came up with I called the Opossum Engine. Though far from being done, it satisfied all of the requirements above. The problem was it was a bit bulky and some things clearly needed an overhaul. Much of the engine was (thoughtfully) hacked together, and it accumulated quite a bit of cruft. In addition, I was stuck with design choices made in the beginning of the project (like native SDL rendering instead of the faster OpenGL), which I regretted later. I decided it was time to scratch the idea and start over completely, using what I’ve learned so far in the making of Opossum.

And thus Flamingo was born. It’s being built from scratch, based on the original work from Opossum. It will be designed with speed and simplicity in mind, while remaining as versatile as possible. Many features and concepts will remain the same in this change. A more substantial overview will be posted in the future, but for a quick overview:

• Python (based on pygame)
• OpenGL rendering
• Extensive sprite system
• 2d Physics based on Box2d
• Versatile Audio Mixer with unlimited number of simultaneous sounds
• Advanced Maps (levels) and Characters (with physics-based animation) built in specialized editors
• Scripts in Python, which are mostly bundled with the Maps and Characters

Flamingo obviously has quite awhile to go before being released, but initial development should be rapid.

The original Opossum Engine will be released soon, though it is extremely far from being production ready. Check here or the Pygame website for the release details.

On my return flight back to Toronto from Los Angeles, I figured what better way to get this blog rolling than with a story about my recent travels to Las Vegas, Nevada and Redlands, California.

I’m just going to dive right into it.

Las Vegas (the parts I’m allowed to tell):

Yep, the madness actually started before I even landed. About two hours before landing (probably somewhere over Utah) the flight attendants decided to get the passengers involved in the game “Lucky Bucky” where each passenger would put their seat number on an $1 American (although at the time I believe it was close to parity with the Canadian bill so I was tempted to scribble 15A on a loonie, but let’s face it, it would have no chance against those soft, floating dolla bills) into a clear plastic bag and then they would bring the bag of money too the front and choose the winner.

So we all waited and the lady flight attendant who organized the whole thing went to the front (I believe there were 129 George Washington’s in the bag) and of course didn’t pull up my Georgie Peorgie (although the person who won it was within a couple rows so I got a good close up look at the bag of ones. Let me tell you this: hilarious! Such a ridiculous amount of bills in the bag.

So yeah. I lost money before even touching down in Vegas. Sick.

NIGHT 1

I arrive in Las Vegas a half hour earlier than scheduled. So far, so good.

Immediately, its apparent to everyone that the sterotypes that you can gamble anywhere in Vegas are 100 per cent. Slots as soon as you walk off the airplane, slots in the bars on your way to baggage carousel, slots beside the baggage carousel. I resisted. After a long day of travel I wanted to find my friends who were already in Vegas gambling away (although I later heard that the “Wheel of Fortune” slots the airport can turn $5 into $50 as soon as you step off the plane. I’m gonna try that next time for sure!).

I find my bags, which includes my set of golf clubs (which I thought might be a big pain in the ass to lug around the west coast, but later turned out to be a good idea) and make my way to the shuttle bus.

The bus driver let’s out a bit of a groan when he sees my clubs. I’m not sure if it’s a groan of not wanting to lift my clubs or a groan of jealously that I’d be hitting the links in the near future. Nonetheless, I promise him a good tip just to stop him from acting like a damn baby.

There’s only a handful of passengers on board so I think I’ve lucked out. Wrong!!! I’m, of course, last to be dropped off and not only that my hotel, the Palms, is a friggin’ 15-minute walk to the main strip (and hence and reason why I’m last off the bus)! Actually, on the way over to the Palms, I thought the driver forgot about me and was headed back to the airport because we had to cross over the highway to get to the Palms from the main strip.

Whatever, didn’t really matter. I’m in Vegas! I’m on vacation! I’m ready to rock out!

There's my hotel (left tower) and the strip beyond it in the background

I eventually track my boys down at Lawry’s steakhouse, a certified meat factory no more then a 20 minute walk from the main strip. Finding this place was actually a bit tricky for my cabbie as he ended up getting us lost approximately 50 feet from the restaurant.

I enter the place and notice right away, like everything in Vegas, the place is huge! High ceilings, huge rooms and the place is just bursting with activity. I mean gamblers have to eat eventually right? Anyways, I find the guys at the bar and right away we get seated.

I don’t know what to expect from the menu, but I’m starving and feel I can dominate any item on the menu. Or so I thought. I know one thing, I’m getting the steak so I ask for recommendations and get the unanimous decision: get the ‘Beef Bowl Cut.’

Here’s how Lawry’s describes this piece of meat: a double sized cut with the rib bone, as served to Rose Bowl and Cotton Bowl teams. Huh? I’m eating something that would satisfy a 300-pound linebacker? Wow.

Here’s how I would describe it: at nearly two inches thick with my dinner plate barely able to handle the sheer size of the monster. This cut could scare the flannel off a lumberjack!

When I finally finished having my way with my slab, the pool of blood that remained looked like I had sacrificed the beast myself over the table.

Believe it or not, it actually tastes better then it looks

Alright… I’m now fed, checked in, a couple beers deep and surrounded by men. Clearly time to gamble!
Ironically, I ended up at the Flamingo, one of the few casinos I gambled at the only other time I’ve been to Vegas back in September of 2002 (the other being Treasure Island, which was the hotel I stayed at).

Learning my lesson from that ‘time,’ I sat back and observed my boys take over a craps table while my buddy Matt filled me in on how to play. I think this started to annoy one of the dudes running the table to the point where he had to shove a “Rules of Craps” card in my face. Honestly, the card just confused the hell out of me. Besides I was learning a lot more by watching my friends as Matt explained. Eventually some hack rolled a sever, crapping out everyone.

Watching my friends lose money actually kind of made me want to lose some. Strange feeling once the power of Vegas starts to grip your wallet. But I just wasn’t feeling it inside the Flamingo. So I took off for next door at crazy Bill’s Gamblin’ Hall and Saloon. Definitely not the nicest casino on the strip and probably one of those places where the main players in Vegas couldn’t wait for the lease to run out so they could blow Bill’s up and build some 80,000 room place made of actual gambling chips. But seriously, there was a dive bar selling dollar beers right by Bill’s that had a sign that read “Still 19 years left on our lease.” Hilarious!

Drop a little $$$ around this area

Funny story while I was losing my chips at Bill’s. At this one blackjack table, this 40-something-year-old lady sat next to me and a buddy. Right away I thought she was your run-of-the-mill cougar (more about them in my Redlands section) waiting to prowl on my bones, but she was actually spoiling her newly turned 21-year-old son with a trip to Vegas. Not a word of a lie, this kid actually waiting until 12:01 a.m. and then sat down beside his mom at the table. He was immediately carded and that’s when everything was revealed.

Next few hours went something like this:
-I would bet some chips
-get dealt some cards
-would either (i) bust or
(ii) lose to the dealer’s frequent hands of 20 and 21
-bet more chips
-eventually lose all my chips through the sequence described above.

Good times. I guess.

Anyways, we all eventually made it back to the Palms for a couple more drinks and eventually called it a night around 3:30 a.m. (which of course felt like 6:30 a.m. to my east coast ass). Needed my beauty sleep for the next day.

It has to be said that we love this place.  We are members and have visited so many times this year that I’ve lost count.  People often ask why we go so often as “surely things don’t change so often”. Well they do and seeing the zoo at different times of the year is one of the joys of being a member. It also meant that when we visit we don’t need to cram in everything in one day.  Take for example this visit; we went in to see the orangutans and saw beautiful creatures behaving wonderfully.  With the glass and the low light it’s not a great place for photography but that simply does not matter as it’s more important to us to just observe them.  This is a popular exhibit and during the busy summer months it gets very crowded so we avoid it, knowing that we will come back and see them on a day when the zoo is less busy.  This approach works well for us as family as it allows us time to stroll around and let the children have fun rather than briskly moving from one animal to the next.

No matter how many times we have seen the same animals there is alway something new to see; a new enclosure, an new behaviour, or new animal themselves like Franka the spectacled bear or Orla the new Rothschild giraffe.  And now that the winter months are closing in and the weather is colder and wetter we have the added bonus of eating in the zoo cafe areas.  I have to admit that it’s unsurprisingly expensive although that is eased with the 20% discount for members, but it is surprisingly good food.  Our children ate everything put in front of them and that is no mean feat at all. Of course, now that the zoo is quieter on the visitor front it is a much more pleasant experience eating in there as you can actually get a table to eat at.

One thing we always seem to do at the zoo is make 2 or 3 passes of the flamingo enclosure. Often they are still and at rest but many times you are treated to a flurry of activity.  This shot was taken as the flock was moving a towards us with a beautiful yet menacing noise.  It’s a very under appreciated attraction in my opinion as these are quite magnificent birds indeed.

If you follow us on Twitter you may have seen me mention that it’s great to find a photo your thought was not so good actually turned out really well.  Well here is the shot. We were stood watching this gibbon making the most amazing call out across the zoo from its high perch and it wasn’t until we started to head off that I though to take a shot, at pace I fire off a quick shot without thinking about it too much.  I am really pleased with how it turned out with the low winter sun casting a beautiful glow across this animal and the gorgeous tone of the unseasonal blue sky behind.

So I’ll wrap up this post with a couple more of my favourite shots from the day.  First, as ever, it the stunning lioness Asha. She is amazing but at the same time saddening as at the start of the yea she had her beautiful son running around with her before he was tragically taken from us all. The last shot is one of the Californian Sea Lions and after so many visits trying to capture a shot of them as they made their brief yet also dazzling appearances above the water line I found this big chap just relaxing in the shallows with his head glistening in the sun light.

I think we will be having one more visit to the zoo between Christmas and the New Year and after that we’ll be posting a “best of 2009″ gallery from our many trips to this great place.

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No checks, please.

So what is the confusion about scooters in the news? Scooter sales top drive consumers struggling with fuel costs for treatment. Over the past 5 years we have seen gas prices almost twice as many motorists believe that they had no choice but to pay the high costs of commuting to work. Resourceful drivers have to find ways to reduce fuel costs and this has led to an increase in sales of scooters.

Gone are the days of small underpoweredScooters that have little more than being a fun toy. Manufacturers are listening to consumers and the construction of scooters that can travel almost anywhere, that you drive a car. Scooter 50cc and smaller engines are still available and continue to sell well, but more recent, larger scooters are all the rage. With engines over 100cc and features such as windshields, radios, and larger tires, this new generation of scooters consumers new opportunities when it comes toto personal transportation.

Here’s a few things that you need to look for when buying a Motor Scooter:

Engine Size

Engine size quite possibly the most important factor in deciding on a motor scooter as this will dictate where you will ride your new scooter. If you buy a small motor scooter with an engine size below 100cc, then you will want to stay away from highways and in many areas may be prohibited from driving on the highway. If you plan to use your motor scooter on main roads, you want to find a model above 100cc, and perhaps as large as your budget allows. The larger the engine, usually the faster it will go. If you do not want the feeling of power is not enough, go for the larger displacement.

Features

This in turn, will depend on what you do with your scooter. If you spend a lot of time to ride scooters planning to opt for a model with a reasonable amount of storage, is an advanced suspension system,larger tires, a radio and a windshield. Also make sure that the seat is properly shaped for the body type and that with sufficient support for a long journey.

Cost

Usually cost is one of the most important factors in choosing a scooter right for you. If you only have one Scooter cheap, there will be from point A to point B, a model off-shore are likely to fit in well preserved. Models manufactured in China are available on the Internet for less than $ 1,000 and willmade for the really price conscious consumers. If you spend a bit 'of money more, opt for a mainstream model as a Vespa, Honda or Yamaha. Finally, if you will, "the mother of all scooters, you can easily spend over $ 5000 and you get a Suzuki Burgman. The larger the size of a normal bike, but offer the uniqueness of being a scooter.

How long you keep it?

The last factor to consider is the length of time you plan to keepScooter. If you intend to maintain for a number of years and I want to take a final decision, with the ability to travel thousands of miles to a bigger model engine. Larger engines are more suitable for high mileage, and a small scooter cheap, it would be better to occasionally travel or just for a while. Many students buy scooters as a means of reliable and economical to drive during the summer months and a tiny 50cc model would be well suitedPurpose. Mark is also in determining the quality of a scooter.'ll Notice that there are so many scooters on the streets that were built in the '70s and '80s and are still strong. Just like everything else, if it is properly managed, it will take much longer.

I hope that I will have a number of things available to consider before buying a scooter.

ScanCafe continues to impress me! I received an e-mail this morning at 8:21 a.m. stating that my order was ready for review. They were seven days early from their original date of December 18. They allow for up to 50% of your scans to be “deleted” and you’re not charged for those, believe it or not! I reviewed the files and decided not to delete any. I paid the remaining balance and less than 30 minutes later, I had a link to go download the .sit file with all the images. A DVD with the images will be sent with my original slides shortly. It took me a little over an hour to download a compressed file with 400 images—thank goodness for high speed Internet access.

Now begins the (most pleasant!) task of going through the images, processing in Photoshop (still have to teach myself Lightroom 2, though), and determining which ones are worthy of blog exposure. Some of these slides date back to the late 70s—obviously non-digital days—shot with various SLR film cameras ranging from my father’s Yashica (model unknown; he loaned it to me to shoot a high school football game and never got it back!), graduating to a Pentax K1000 purchased at Sears as a present from my dad, then on to my first Nikon—a Nikon N2020, then moving up to a Nikon N90s (followed by another N90s backup body), and ending with my ultimate dream camera (at the time)—a Nikon F5, which I still own.

Yes, I will still be shooting new stuff as my schedule permits and assignments arise, but I hope you’ll enjoy this nostalgic trip (with no particular chronological order) into the world of Kodachrome, Ektachrome and Fuji Velvia!

Photo note: I believe I shot this image of (Greater Flamingoes?) at the Gladys Porter Zoo in McAllen, Texas. I’ve always loved this composition, and it was one of my first images I selected to sent to ScanCafe. I did a 24×36 pastel/conté drawing of this image for my sister, Debbie, as a gift one Christmas many years ago. In fact, that drawing is still hanging in her foyer—unfortunately, it’s framed in an in-vogue-at-the-time (but certainly not now) shiny and modern metal frame—in hot pink (to match the flamingo legs, of course). Yowza! I should also mention that it is on the wall behind the front door when you enter, so it can’t easily gather a flock of admirers around it. Hey, I know it’s still there. Good on ya, Deboo.

LATE-BREAKING NEWS: In his recent comment, my father reminded me that I didn’t include one more film camera that was in my repertoire—my medium format Mamiya 645! Dad bought me this camera while I was still living in Texas, shooting portraits and weddings for extra cash. I had it for several years, then sold it when I moved to the Washington, D.C. area so I could buy my Nikon 2020 and various lenses to get back into shooting 35mm. I put an ad in the Washington Post and sold it for about $900, to the best of my recollection. Many years later, during one of my jaunts to Infinite Color (a local lab) to get slides processed, I started chatting with a photo techie guy who was manning the front counter that morning. One thing led to another and I discovered that he was the guy I had sold the camera to (about 8-9 years earlier). He was still using it at the time and loved it. He waxed rhapsodic over its virtues and I left the lab wishing I had kept the camera! I wonder if ScanCafe does medium 2-1/4 negatives and slides…hmmm…I sense a future project coming on!

Akwaaba, the fair trade label which releases music from Africa and the diaspora, are giving away a free track from Kuduro producer Killamu.

Flaminguinho is built out of butchered horns and fractured chants, muted cow bells and taut snares. Its a bit more minimal than a lot of kuduro but the rolling vibe is still present and correct; listen and grab it below.

Killamu – Flaminguinho (Akwaaba records)

The tune comes from Killamu’s forthcoming album which is due to drop on January 12th so if you like this make sure you cop it and make sure to add the Akwaaba blog to your reading list while you’re at it.

Posted by Unknown Soulja

As we were driving home last, I thought about our house being one of the few without Christmas lights.  I had every intention of putting lights up, but we still haven’t.  I have a few strands of lights on the garage, however it would look like I had a few random strands unless I got really creative with them.  Last year I wanted to use flamingos as reindeer and a lawn chair for a sleigh.  I posted on Facebook that I was looking for flamingos.  Amy Nemeczky bought me a cool ceramic one, and we fondly named him Chris.  Thad also bought me a whole flock of plastic flamingos and two skelemingos.  Since they arrived right before Christmas, I never got a chance to carry out my plan, not that my neighbors would have thought anything out of the ordinary had I created this landscape scenerio after Christmas.  Oh, and the photo of Skelly is him on vacation with me and the boys.  That was a rabbit trail, hey?

I’m also one of the few houses in Frisco with mature trees.  When we had that crazy snow flurry about a week ago, all of the yards were covered with the untouched white snow, all but one, our house.  The enchanted forest in my front yard has a beautiful canopy of trees covering every square inch, protecting my yard from the portrayal of winter.  I did have the trees trimmed, so if we did add lights to the house, you would be able to see a lot of them.

So why haven’t I put lights up?  It just hasn’t been a top priority, or any priority for that matter.  Since starting the 25 days of Christmas blog, yesterday was the first day I had the feeling of being too busy.  My Christmas and work to do lists are long, but all of the items on them are very important.  Shopping is not on the list.  The tiny amount I had to do has been done for weeks.  At least this year busyness is an improved kind over last year.  It’s about helping others, letting our friends and family know that we appreciate them and not participating in the consumerism.

The lights may not be a priority, but carrying on a tradition my boys and I started last year was of great importance.  We did our annual ‘boo’ last night.  Now I know what you’re thinking.  If you live around here, you know that booing someone is a Halloween thing.  If you don’t live around here, Texas has a lot of things that don’t make any sense to people outside of this big star-shaped land mass.  We made our candy boo bags a week ago, finished assembling them last night and attached our mysterious Christmas gift  in a tiny envelope taped to the front.  Nope, I’m not telling you what that is yet.

We made our hot chocolate with more marshmallows than chocolate, loaded up our gear and took off in our very old Infiniti sleigh.  We spent two hours driving all over Frisco until we ran out of bags.  We’ll have to make a lot more of these next year.

I drove the sleigh, pulled up in front of the target house and turned off the lights.  Next, the boys took turns, dropping a bag by the front door, ringing the doorbell and running to the car quickly so we could drive off before being caught.  And those of you with babies, we knocked instead of using the doorbell, as to not wake them.  We aren’t as experienced as Santa, or we would have just come quietly down the chimney.

Now ‘boos’ are supposed to be anonymous, and last year we were, yet somehow people knew who it was.  Go figure.  This year these little bags have some mystery, but ultimately our friends can go online and see what we are up to, because we are always up to something.

This Christmas I am trying to plan things ahead of time and get things done early.  When my ADHD and OCD collide, that usually means that events happen spontaneously, but everything is more than prepared and ready for it.  Sometimes doing things last minute is the motivation I need, so it works for me.  It seems to stress other out to the point that they won’t make eye contact with me, in hopes that I won’t ask them to be involved.  The funny thing about it?  I apparently do this to others, as I did it yesterday in a staff meeting.  Just for the record, it didn’t work, I have to make a bunch of vinyl signs for Christmas Eve.

I suppose what I experienced yesterday is that busyness, no matter if it’s good or bad, takes away from the Christmas spirit.  Is slowing down to experience the joy of the season really possible?

Okay, it’s time to share a few more ‘Santa shoot’ photos.  See if you can recognize the light scenarios.