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

 

Gracie and Matt

 

Matthew Richard Wolff

 

Hannah Marjorie Wolff

 

I got a new camera today -- a Nikon D50. I was going to take it back (I've been suffering from a fairly serious case of buyers remorce) but after seeing the pictures it takes, I simply must keep it. 

Great resource for string formatting in C# http://radio.weblogs.com/0106479/stories/2002/12/10/stringFormattingInC.html

September 28th, 2005

My birthday today. I had lunch with Kevin at the Tecate Grill (my favorite Mexican restaraunt). When I got home, Erin had one of my favorite meals prepared, and Gracie surprised me with a bag of Skittles. Matt kept repeating "happy birthday", almost like he was trying to sing the song, but couldn't quite get the tune.

We went for a walk after dinner (around the loop), Matt and Grace took turns riding in, then pulling the wagon. At one point Graice was pulling the wagon down a hill, Matt was walking well ahead of her -- when all of the sudden Grace lost control of the wagon and had to let it go by itself down the hill. Wouldn't you know, as it gained speed, it formed a perfect line to Matt, and would have ploughed him over had it not been for a bump on the pavement that knocked the wagon just enough off course to only brush up against Matt's right side. Erin and I were anticipating a major catastrophe -- fortunately most of the crying was about the possibility of the wagon going down the hillside of the ravine.

Grace has been having a difficult time riding the bus lately. She's pretty good about going to school, but she gets teary coming home. She loves school, but the bus ride is intimidating. So many loud, older kids.

We went to a 1 hour presentation given by Gracie's kindergarten teachers (Mrs. Janzen and Ms. Jocelyn) last night. They're amazing. I am so glad that Gracie's first experience with school is with these two instructors. We're really fortunate to live in a place when our children can be educated by some of the finest teachers. Gracie's also got lots of friends at school. Makenna Kwasney, Julie Gedlaman, Kayla Lee, Sydney Taylor, Nathan Kearl, Rian McMullen (I'm sure there are others).

Icons

In addition to the icon set that shipped with VS.2005, I found this free icon set that may be of some use.

http://www.famfamfam.com/lab/icons/silk/preview.php

Monday September 26, 2005

Had a busy day at work, and came home to sick, crying kids. Erin took Matt to the doctor today, and he confirmed that Matt's got an ear infection. Erin pointed out that Matt is getting old enough that he can communicate what part of his body hurts. This is the first time he's been sick, that he's been able to say what's bothering him.

Gracie didn't go to school today. She's been sick a bit also -- just sick enough that she couldn't overcome her anxious feelings about riding the bus. When I got home from work, I took Grace and Matt off Erin's hands and went for a walk. Gracie and I talked about going to school and riding the bus, and she told me that she would go to school tomorrow. She's really growing up.

While we were out walking, we passed by the Harker's house. They happend to be out picking vegetables out of thier garden, so we stoped for a chat. Shelly was kind enough to send us on our way with a bag of carrots. When we got home, Erin cleaned off the carrots, and Matt and Gracie dipped them in ranch dressing. They really enjoyed it.

The Webdeveloper's Handbook

I found this site the other day -- it's got tons of very good web development links.