Category Archives: Random

Country Mouse

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I have a friend… O.K, I’ll wait for the laughing to die down.

I have a talented friend… Yes, yes peanut gallery, settle down. This means you too PSU peeps…

I have a talented friend who is working at getting published. She currently teaches English in a town in Maine I’m familiar with, and I’m guessing is a daily challenge. She has always had a far better command of the English Language then anyone I ever knew, and yet was always friendly and down to Earth. I remember, before time and distance took it’s toll, how we would all sit and listen as she would tell a story about anything one of use would make sound mundane. We would anxiously await the conclusion, and when it came, often an uproar of laughter ensued.

Recently, with some apprehension, she joined the blogsphere. Taking a tip from a now retired literary advisor she knows , ‘Country Mouse’ forged forward with her own blog. You eagle eyed visitors will note I added a link to the blogroll yesterday, but I wanted to bring more attention to her blog, http://magrendel.blogspot.com/.

And for those of you suspect of this post, given that it is April 1st, no foolsies, this is legit, and I’m trying to give a friend that ole’ Brickblog bump. So this goes out to my one visitor out there, click through and check out her writing!

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UPDATE: Oh yeah, my blog. . .

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I’ve been focusing more on photography again and neglecting my blog. I’ve been chasing after wildlife, and trying to get my gigs of photos at home sorted, tagged and uploaded to flickr. When I first started, I didn’t have a good plan for keeping my photos sorted, so now I’m paying for it. Thanks to Adobe Bridge CS3, I’m making short work of it.

I’ve also been experimenting with geotagging, or the correlating of GPS data with the exif data of photos. I think I have a semi working method involving a laptop in the car running Delorme Street Atlas 2008 and some great software available on both Mac and PC. There are much better ways to do it, but this method used existing hardware/software to my inventory to proof the concept without paying out any monies.I’ll elude to writing something about it at a later date, but don’t wait holding your breath, o.k.?

Finally, I’m angrily waiting for the Amazon Associates program to pay me for the referral fees from you folks shopping through my store. For 4 straight months now I have far exceeded the minimum amount for payment, and received no payment to date. I’ve been fed “We’re looking into it” for 2-3 weeks now and latest inquiries have gone unanswered. I’m sure an in depth write up will occur soon as well.

As far as the Dude you’re getting a Dell story, things turned out ok in the end. Anonymous got the machine, albeit by driving from Concord to Portsmouth to pick it up at the DHL location the Saturday before Christmas. Where he was in line with other folks picking up their Dells. A long and frustrating tale goes along with that, but it’s a new year. He also got a small refund for the annoyance.

So as I eluded, I’ve been taking photos, so here are some of the latest.

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Belated. . .

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I’d make a horrible Dad. I know it. Know why? Got any clues? Well, in 2006 on 10-25 at 9:57 P.M. I posted my first article here on Brickblog. Why, I remember when this blog was still in diapers, I was excited to get 1 visit after posting oh so many articles. To date, I’m up to 4,694 visits since I installed Google Analytics (November 9, 2006) to track such things. Truly amazing. What’s even scarrier is when I analyze what kinds of articles bring people to my site, I see when you search for d40 vs d70 my site comes up #1 in google.

So lets think back to what brought this blog to life. . .

Oh thats right, those damn raccoons. They’re still around, in fact I had great fun, ehr, I mean I was left no other option, then to shoot one a couple weeks ago with my paintball gun while I had the electric fence repurposed on the garden for the summer.

But of course, I wouldn’t be here with such an audience if it wasn’t for my peeps. Those folks that both read my insane ramblings, and those that link to my blog. So since I can’t thank every single one of you by name, I’ll be certain to report out what WordPress tells me are the good folks linking to my site.

Thanks!


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Via Truck

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I’ve got some great friends, some unfortunately, I’ve never met in person. It never occurred to me when one of them asked me for my address, what they may be up to. When I returned to the office today from a conference I was surprised by an odd box siting in my cube. Not one to jump to conclusions, I didn’t immediately call the bomb squad.

On closer inspection, I realized that it was from the sender “PU Joint Subcomittee on Inter-Campus SNK Proliferation” I couldn’t wait to open it and see what the PUSOICSNKP had sent me! My boss thought it was Lego, but I knew it would be better, and I was right. I was sent several useful items, that no geek could live without, the most important of all, caffeinated beverage. Behold, the glorious bounty, Arr.

The address label, typed, because computer folks can’t write. You wouldn’t be able to understand it.

Layer 00: They’ll regret so hastily giving up such a fine treasure as a authentic Microsoft Intellimouse PS2. That’s some classic architecture there. Also useful, coffee filters to make some Java while reading a timeless book on Director! Also included, the envelope from a parking violation. . . Yes I did check it to see if there was a ticket inside. ;-)

Layer 01: Lets see if I have the lingo down. . . More gr8 reading material!

Layer 02: After finishing the previous layer, it didn’t take a dummy to see a gift guide, I wonder if someone is hinting at something here. . .

Layer 03: I was on to the next layer in a flash.

Layer 04: I drew a blank on the significance of layer 04.

Layer 05:Then I realized that a drive blank had to make way for precious cargo.

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Post Crazy

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Lunch Break update: Sorry for the lack of updates over the last few weeks. Over the past 2 months we (my wife and I) have either been on the road, or had house guests every weekend culminating in Amanda and I going to completely different states for weddings. Now I’m not complaining, far from it. I’ve had a great time seeing family and watching or being involved with two beautiful wedding ceremonies. As fall settles in, so should a more ‘regular’ routine. Amanda is back to (grad) school which means we have to be around a little more so she can do her homework. It also means I can get back to those projects I started 2mos ago and dropped like hot potatoes. For now, please enjoy a few photos I’ve taken.

Every year Mom brings us Japanese lanterns from her garden. We’ve had to walk down to the garden in the past to stop tourists from cutting some. For some reason, they think they can just walk on to the property and start cutting. . .

Ha! I’ll be sleeping on the couch for this one! Redneck Sexy. . . Be careful to remember to brush your teeth and finish your coffee before putting on your dress for a wedding. Then you won’t end up looking like this. ;-)

Friends Eric and Liz (next in the schedule for marriage [congrats!]) enjoy a peaceful moment before Dave and Julie’s ceremony

I’ve been playing around with lighting and such lately. In this long exposure, I painted the word hi with my LED key chain flashlight.

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Be a consumer whore, the easy way!

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As anyone can tell, I have an Amazon Associates store that I have connected to my blog. That way when I review something, and you, the reader, are sooo compelled that you must buy it RIGHT NOW, you can. So when I saw that Amazon was offering context ads, I thought I would give it a try.

You need to have an Amazon Associates store to begin with. If you have one, go to your familiar “Build Links” section and choose “Context Links (Beta).” You’ll be given a little javascript to add to the footer of your site. It will then spider your content and turn phrases into links all on it’s own. Pretty sweet if you want to be a lazy salesperson.

Lets give it a try. . .
Hormel Chili makes me gassy but tastes good, I guess. I’ve never really had it. I like to use Adobe Bridge on my work Mac Book Pro, I wish I could get a Mac Pro for home, part of the reason I have ads, to generate money for toys. I like Lego, right now I’m into the Lego Castle theme, I just bought a few Lego 7090 sets so I could get extra knights and skeletons. I love my Nikon D40, theres a D40x but even though it offers more mega pixels, it lacks some crucial features.

O.K. that was almost as bad as an episode of The Price is Right. I feel dirty.

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TV, when I finally tune in, I’m disapointed again

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There’s not a lot of television I watch. I’m more apt to be reading about photography online, or poking around at Lego sites. I might get addicted to the occasional game, PC or console, or I’ll putter on a project of some sort. So when I found the show Drive I was psyched for two reasons. First, it had Nathan Fillion who I loved in the series Firefly which led to the movie Serenity and the show’s addicting nature. When I was seeing it advertised, I was skeptical, but I tuned in for the premiere to see what it was all about, because of ole’ Nate. I was instantly hooked. I watched the second show that followed it up. I tuned in the next night for the usual schedule airing and set it as a favorite in SageTV.

So when I tuned in tonight for the 5th episode, I was confused to see House airing. I got worried when it also triggered the memory I was not able to schedule Drive as a favorite this weekend when I set up my server again after migrating which system would handle my file server and pvr duties. I started looking around and found on a site that the show had been CANCELED!

What? Canceled? Why? Whoa, hang on, I found the Fox site and sure enough, they have decided to show reruns of House instead. RERUNS! WTF?!

Is poor old Nathan jinxed? After all Firefly was canceled after 14 episodes, the cast found out at the Christmas party. But that show was awesome too! No, really, give it a watch. It was a believable Sci-Fi.

So what gives? Do I fit in the minority of TV likes? Or is America really so in to it’s vote the next person off, far-fetched reality bull that they no longer recognize a good TV show when they see it?

Well I guess it’s back to video games, hope they don’t turn me into a crazed lunatic like the government tells me they will!

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Darn you CLIIIIIIFFFFFF!!!!!!

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My good pal Cliff and I were talking today about how its funny how some things can be so good considering what they are. Specifically Easy Mac. Like that show on Food Network, we make a lot of Semi Home made meals. When we have pizza it’s usually frozen fresh dough and toppings to the weekly craving. However, on occasion you still crave that cheap greasy convenience store slice. Likewise, we typically make mac & cheese from scratch, but once in a while you gotta have a little Kraft Dinner.

Thankfully we had to grocery shop tonight as we don’t normally keep Kraft Dinner in, though we should, eh?

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Hi my name is Mike and I’m a. . .

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yakfront

Ask any of my friends I went to college with. I’m a former GEO Metro owner. Despite the feeling I was in a very small tin can, this car got me where I needed to be and usually with a little fun. Be it sitting at a stop light rocking the car back and forth like we would tip it, to crossing 10′ or so of mud my other 3 passengers thought we would surely get stuck in, or trying to climb dirt hills that only 4x4s could go up it never missed a beat. I even remember a time that all too late, Eric and I realized there was a 6″ drop from grass to parking lot with a granite curb. Darn Bangor Bestbuy and mall traffic! Stupid idea really to go between parking lots over nicely groomed lawns. Good thing the Metro contained a unibody with everything above the frame rail! What a great off roading car it could be with a little work. No, seriously.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m glad to be in a car that does not require the nightly feeding of squirrels. A car, that when one places an 8″ sub in the ‘trunk space’ you can fit something larger then a tissue. But when I read that someone successfully evaded the cops in their metro, I was shocked! I used to rev the engine at the light beside fancy cars and give the “lets race look” but never did I think I had a chance! Usually passenger and I would rock forward and back in the “lets help this thing up the hill” manner and give said fancy car drivers a good laugh.

I found a photo of ye olde metro for the slide of one of my 3d art projects where with carefully scaled foam kayak, I made my car out to be a truck and drove it around for several days. OMG, I had forgotten the deer ‘blood’ on the crash bar. Good times. And Dave and Eric, if you still have the footage of the metro tackling the hill in front of 16 york, hook me up!

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