January 30, 2006

Keri and Cade appeared on MSN Messenger last night -- they got a webcam, and we had a serendipitous video conversation. The kids loved it. We got the whole family in front of the camera -- it was a blast.

It was Gracie and Dad's birthday last week. Grace had a bunch of her friends over, and really enjoyed herself. We had family over the next day (Sunday the 22nd) for a family party.

Webservices

http://www.webservicex.net/WS/default.aspx

Why I like Photography

I've always enjoyed taking pictures (I think most people do), but until today, I couldn't really articulate why. Of course it's fun to take the photos, and fun to look at them after -- but why exactly?

I played squash today with Eduardo and Karl, and as I was watching them play, I thought to myself that I should bring my camera next week and get some great action shots. Then I thought that perhaps I should bring my video camera. But that just didn't seem like it would be as much fun. I don't think I'd ever plug in the video camera and watch the video of Karl and Eduardo playing squash -- but I most definately would look at the pictures again...somtime. There's something fun about catching the action, and freezing it in a photo.

I've heard my father (who at one time was a semi-professional photgrapher) say, that a photograph "freezes a moment in time". I recently heard a proffessional wedding photographer say that there is no such thing as a perfect picture, only a perfect moment.

It occured to me that perhaps why I would rather capture a squash game in a still photo rather than a moving picture (and subsequently why I like still photography more than I like video) is because when I look at a photo my mind re-creates the moment in the way that I want it to be created, not necessarily how the moment actually took place. In other words, though the reality of the precise moment that the photo captured has forever vanished, when I look at that moment on film (ie: a picture), my brain re-creates that moment in whatever way it so chooses. It makes up what it wants to see. It embelishes.

A video doesn't allow any room for embelishment. You simply sit back and relive a segment of time exactly how it happend. Your brain doesn't embelish -- it just sits there and recieves what it's been given. No fun.

Karl's First Act of Stupidity

I was greeted after lunch by Karl today with the words, "Scott, you will wittness the first stupid thing I ever done".

Karl bought a notebook lock & cable to secure his notebook at work -- and somehow managed to lock it in such a way that he cannot remove the lock -- at all.

Here's a photo of him trying to surgically remove the lock.

January, 18 2005

Yesterday when I arrived home from work, Erin greeted me with a surprise. I must say, I haven't been this surprised in a very long time (years no doubt).

She reached into her pocket and presented me with my wedding ring. I haven't known where my wedding ring was for at least the past two years, probably more. As it turns out, Matt droped a small safety pin in between the cushons of the couch up stairs, and when Erin went to retrieve the pin, it clinked against something. More interesting still is the fact that last Saturday, Erin and I took the vacum to the inside of the couch and it out -- entirely.

Erin has instructed me never to take my wedding ring off again. I obeyed the instruction for about 2 hours, until it became so uncomfortable that I just couldn't stand it any longer.

Web Standards with Visual Studio 2005

A great article on creating web standards applications.

Smartest Guy

 

Erin And Hannah

 

Erin And Matt

 

Gracie and Hannah