Darah was sick for most of a week last week, and then she was sick again for a few days this week. I took a couple of sick days but Patty took more time off than me to stay home with Darah. Patty's employer was "not accommodating" and let her go yesterday, making it clear that family could not be the priority. This obviously sucks but I had to mention it.

Patty and I have been parents for a decade now. Today is Maegan's 10th birthday. Wow.

Maegan is having her birthday party at The Ice House in Pineville on Saturday. I'll post stories/photos later.

* Tuesday was the MLB All-Star Game. I stayed up late and watched all 15 innings. Unfortunately the junior circuit won again (the NL's last win was in 1996) but that was an amazing game with four extra-inning outs at the plate and the game winner was a split-second play too.

* Maegan just completed her second and final week at horse camp. Unlike last month, I was able to attend her presentation at the end of the week. Here are a few photos, and a link to a short video.

Here's Maegan the horse-whisperer gracefully persuading her animal to the mounting area.







Maegan gives her horse a hug while waiting her turn.








Show time.









* On my way to see Maegan at horse camp, my tire completely blew out at 65 MPH. I had to change my tire on the shoulder of I-485, but thanks to my NASCAR-like pit stop, I wasn't even late for Maegan's show.

* We have yet another baby bird on our lawn. He's been down for 48 hours now. The momma bird has been nearby but we've not seen her actually go up to the baby. I keep flagging off the area of the front lawn he's in so nobody steps on him.





* And here are two more photos from the past week: Patty playing bubbles with Darah, then finger painting.

Labels: baseball, Darah, funny, Maegan

Despite the worldwide attention, I did not deliver the Brangelina twins!

Labels: funny

During spring training I tried to sign up for Major League Baseball's Gameday Audio so I can listen to Mets games on WFAN through the internet. I ran in to a brick wall when I refused to give them my telephone number. (MLB has a reputation for taking liberties with your privacy. They claim it's a desired benefit to me to have their advertising partners bother me with 'special' 3rd party offers. Besides, I'm paying for the service which doesn't need a telephone so what do they need my for?)

Anyhoo, back to the story... Last week I tried to sign up for Gameday Audio again and somehow was able to sign up without giving them my phone number. Sweet. So I've finally been able to listen to Mets games on WFAN over the internet, 1000 miles away in North Carolina. It's been great to listen to the games at night, but the best part is that the Mets haven't lost a single game since I started listening. They just won their 7th consecuve game and are right back in the playoff hunt again. Of course I'm not responsible for the Mets' winning streak, but then again, I am still convinced that I personally helped will that ball through Buckner's legs in 1986.

Labels: baseball, internet

I'm still not a fan of social networking sites but I just can't ignore their popularity any more. Thanks to Facebook's "friend's suggestion" feature, I've been connecting to a lot more people lately. Perhaps more importantly, I've helped four times as many other people connect by using the same feature. I currently have 44 social connections ("friends") on Facebook. While that's still less than half of the 110 professional connections I have on LinkedIn, I haven't even been actively trying on Facebook. It almost happens on its own. Long story short, I finally give in. I still refuse to live my entire life on Facebook but I'm finally going to update my Facebook info, add some more apps, and add Facebook to my list of sites I check at least once daily. This website here is still my primary online home but I guess I'll now have a sort of online "summer home" since not everybody visits me over here as often.

Labels: internet

Adobe After Effects is the tool for professional film and video post-production effects. I've been editing video on Avid for thirteen years (mostly Media Composers) but I never had the opportunity to enhance my own work with After Effects' high-end compositing effects. I was promised AE training for years but it just never happened. I taught myself the basics but it's just not the same as learning from a certified trainer. At my new job I'm counted on much more than before for graphic design and visual effects so I need to use After Effects often. Well today was finally the day I've been waiting for for years. Today I spent the entire day with a professional After Effects trainer learning all the tips, secrets, and advanced features needed to take my projects to the next level. Hooray! Stand by for kick ass video!

Labels: television, work

Seriously, this really is only a test.  If successful, I posted this message via email.

I was searching through some old photos and stumbled upon this old 8" x 10" photo of the Class of 1984 from 5th Avenue Elementary School in East Nothport, NY. Can you find me? I could still name a couple of dozen kids in this photo but I won't embarrass them. I know one is now in advertising, another is now an architect, and one became a country music singer. I wonder what happened to the rest of them. If you found this post from a google search and you're in the photo, please post a reply.

Labels: flashback, Long_Island

Many U.S. residents prep for Independence Day by cleaning the barbecue grill, buying wieners and booze in bulk and raising the flag, but what are we actually celebrating? Test your knowledge of our nation's July Fourth history. To reveal the correct answer, take your cursor and highlight from * to * below each answer.

1. Independence Day commemorates:
A. The adoption of the Declaration of Independence
B. The day the French surrendered
C. The signing of the Declaration of Independence

*The answer is A*

2. Which two U.S presidents died on July 4, 1826?
A. George Washington and John Adams
B. John Adams and Thomas Jefferson
C. Thomas Jefferson and Thomas Edison

*The answer is B*

3. The only other president to die on a July 4 was:
A. John Quincy Adams
B. George Washington
C. James Monroe

*The answer is C*

4. The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere went from:
A. Boston to Lexington
B. Boston to Concord
C. Boston to San Francisco

*The answer is A*

5. Washington's crossing of the Delaware River was a surprise attack on:
A. Hessian forces at Trenton, New Jersey
B. Alien forces at Princeton, New Jersey
C. British forces at Ft. Duquesne, Pennsylvania

*The answer is A*

6. The 56 men who signed the Declaration of Independence did not include:
A. Samuel Adams
B. James Monroe
C. William Hooper

*The answer is B*

7. The U.S. President born on July 4, 1872, was:
A. Warren G. Harding
B. Calvin Coolidge
C. Dwight D. Eisenhower

*The answer is B*

8. The "Star Spangled Banner" was written by Francis Scott Key during:
A. The Boston Tea Party
B. The Revolutionary War
C. The War of 1812

*The answer is C*

9. The first words of the body of the Declaration of Independence are:
A. We the People of the United States
B. When in the Course of human events
C. Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion

*The answer is B*

10. The right to keep and bear arms is guaranteed in:
A. The Bill of Rights
B. The Declaration of Independence
C. The Magna Carta

*The answer is A*

If you scored a perfect 10, you're ready for a political office. If you got 7 or better, you're ready to vote. Fewer than 7 right? Ask an immigrant to teach you about our nation's history.

Labels: trivia

Google's Street View launched in Charlotte a couple of weeks ago, one of 37 news cities added to Street View all at once. When the Street View feature first launched in select cities last year, every blogger in America was posting about the strangest and most interesting sights that could be found (and I was one of them.) Several websites sprung up to share all the interesting candid shots that people were finding.¹²³ Now over a year later and with Street View available in dozens upon dozens of cities nationwide, the novelty has largely worn off. I was eager to see what other people had found in Charlotte's version of via Street View but other than a few passing message board mentions, nobody seemed to care, or even notice. So that's why I've taken it upon myself to present, A Tour of Charlotte via Google Street View.

A Tour of Charlotte (sightseeing)

Trade & Tryon
This is the center of Uptown Charlotte. Pictured here is Bank of America Corporate Headquarters. Pan down to see the four statues on each corner of the intersection. (Wachovia's corporate headquarters are just a few blocks south.).


Queen Charlotte
This statue of Queen Charlotte of Mecklenburg is the first sight many visitors see when arriving at Charlotte-Douglas International Airport. She is the reason why the city is named Charlotte, its nickname is "the Queen City", and the county is named Mecklenburg.

Queens and Queens
Charlotte has many confusing roads but this is definitely the city's most notorious. Queens Road loops around and meets itself again only to take a 90 degree turn. At the same intersection, Providence Road also takes an unexpected 90 degree turn.


Bank of America Stadium
Home of the NFL's Carolina Panthers. Go Panthers!





Time Warner Cable Arena
Home of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats. Also home of minor league hockey's Charlotte Checkers.




Lowe's Motor Speedway
The Charlotte area is NASCAR country, and LMS in nearby Concord is its mecca. Lowe's Motor Speedway holds over 200,000 spectators and is home to both the NASCAR All-Star Race and the Coca Cola 600 .


(Site of the future) NASCAR Hall of Fame
Still under construction, but soon to be a centerpiece of the city.





Baseball Water Tower
Sticking with the sports theme, this is the baseball water tower next to the Charlotte Knights stadium in Fort Mill, South Carolina. This is a landmark along Interstate 77, just south of the state line.



Carowinds Amusement Park
This a 112 acre Cedar Fair amusement park is half in North Carolina and half in South Carolina. This image is of the Thunder Road roller coaster.



Meck Deck
This nondescript location marks the historic signing of the Mecklenburg Declaration of Independence - the first colonial government to declare independence from England in 1775. Nearly nobody in Charlotte even knows this historic event happened at this spot.

Buster Boyd Bridge
Another spot that most locals don't even know about. Well they know the bridge is here, but most people don't realize that the Buster Boyd Bridge is the only place where you drive north to go to South Carolina and south to go to North Carolina. Take a close look at the states and directions in this image.



Caught On Camera (other interesting shots caught by Street View cameras)

Motorcycle on Sidewalk
I'm no law expert, but I'm pretty sure it's illegal to ride your motorcycle on the sidewalk.





Do you know of other cool Street Views in Charlotte? Post it in the comments and if it's good enough I'll add it to the list above.


Stupid Is As Stupid Does (Google is stupid)
Some commentary: Google is stupid to have paid whomever they got to take these photos, and Charlotte has been jipped. There are dozens of places around Charlotte that were photographed at night time. WTF? The very point of Street View is for users to see what cities look like - so what's the point of photographing the city at night time when all you see is blackness and headlights? Here's what should be a great shot of Uptown Charlotte from the John Belk. Here's I-77, College Street, Bank of America Stadium, Ballantyne, and Carowinds. All taken at night so they're all useless photos. Just plain stupid.


P.S. The answer to the question "When were these photos taken?" is as long ago as last year and as recently as last month. I happen to know that this road was newly paved only about 6 weeks ago, yet less than a mile away the you can clearly see that the Lynx light rail line near Clanton is still under construction (and missing those huge clay circles that they call art) despite the fact that it was opened to the public and already running in November 2007 (so the photos have to be even months earlier than that).

Labels: Charlotte, cool, internet

Maegan and I always see new Pixar movies the first weekend they are released, so we just saw wall-e today. Pixar films are always great and wall-e was no different.

I'm not going to post a full review, but I do want to share that I felt like I needed to exercise after the movie. (You'll understand after you see it.)

Labels: movies

This is awesome if you use Adobe PhotoShop! Other than being funny, I've been using PhotoShop for over 10 years and I picked up over a dozen useful shortcuts that I didn't know before.



From Deke.com

TRANSCRIPT:

Time: 00:00.00
#1: Wanna copy a layer? I say jump it: Ctrl+J.
You a Mac user? Awesome.
#2: When I say Ctrl, press Cmd, the one with an apple on it.
#3: For a new layer, press Ctrl+Shift+N (Cmd-Shift-N on the Mac).
#4: To delete a layer, get the move tool and press Delete (or Control-Delete).
#5: Every letter selects a tool.
#6: Except F for full-screen,
#7: Q for quick mask,
#8: and D
#9: and X for default and switch colors.
Who knew X stood for "switch"?
#10: Press a number to change the opacity.
#11: Or two numbers for better control.
#12: Press Shift+plus to advance a blend mode;
#13: Shift+minus to back up.
#14: Press Shift and Alt with a letter for a specific mode.
#15: Mac folks, Alt means Option.
#16: Ctrl+plus zooms in.
#17: Ctrl+minus zooms out.
#18: Spacebar gets the hand so you can drag the image around.
#19: There's also Ctrl+spacebar in
#20: and Alt+spacebar out.
#21: Ctrl+spacebar-drag to zoom way the hell in.
#22: Ctrl+Z undoes.
#23: Ctrl+Alt+Z backsteps.
#24: Ctrl+Shift+Z steps forward.
#25: Ctrl+Shift+F fades an edit.
#26: F12 reverts,
#27: Itself an undoable operation.
You hear that? You can undo a revert? That's a hell of a tip!
All that pasteboard stuff works too:
#28: Ctrl+X cuts.
#29: Ctrl+C copies.
#30: Ctrl+V pastes.
Dan Gookin of DOS For Dummies fame joked that V stood for "vomit," as in vomiting up the Clipboard. His publisher refused to print that. They actually refused to print that!

Time: 01:15.43
#31: Photoshop's most essential command? Image Size: Ctrl+Alt+I.
#32: It's partner, Canvas Size, Ctrl+Alt+C.
#33: Ctrl+F repeats the last filter.
#34: Ctrl+Alt+F for different settings.
#35: Using a selection tool? Drag to start a new selection
#36: Or move a selection outline.
#37: Shift adds to the selection.
#38: Alt deletes.
#39: Shift and Alt finds the intersection.
#40: Press the spacebar to move the selection on-the-fly.
#41: Ctrl+A selects everything;
#42: Ctrl+D selects nothing.
#43: Ctrl+Shift+I selects what's not selected and deselects everything else.
#44: Ctrl+Alt+R brings up Refine Edge.
#45: Alt-click with the lasso tool to draw straight-sided selections.
#46: Shift-click with a brush to paint straight lines.
#47: Press Alt with a brush to get the color-lifting eyedropper.
#48: Press Ctrl to get the move tool.
#49: Ctrl+H hides selections and other "extras."
What's an extra? Press Ctrl+H and find out?
I gotta quicken the pace. Shit!
#50: Ctrl+1,
#51: 2,
#52: 3 to switch channels.
Hell yeah, I'm counting those as three!
Here's another one:
#53: Ctrl+tilde for full-color composite.
#54: Ctrl+L for Levels,
#55: Ctrl+M for Curves,
#56: Ctrl+B for Color Balance,
#57: Ctrl+U for Hue/Saturation.
#58: Add Alt to bring up the last settings.
#59: Mash your fist on Ctrl, Shift, and Alt and press B for Black & White.
#60: In Levels and Curves, Alt-drag that white slider triangle to preview the clipped highlights
#61: Or that black one for clipped shadows.
Want to duplicate an image? Don't choose this [Duplicate];
#62: Just click here [Create new document from History state].
#63: Press Ctrl+W to close an image.
#64: Y to save changes,
#65: N to abandon them.
#66: On the Mac, that's S and D.
#67: Either way, it's Esc for Cancel.
You know, Esc. C'mon, Esc!

Time 02:48.36
#68: Press Ctrl+T to invoke Free Transform.
#69: Press Enter to apply or Esc to skip it.
#70: Ctrl+Alt+T transforms a copy.
#71: Ctrl+Shift+T repeats the last transformation.
#72: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+T plays a transformation sequence.
#73: Press a bracket key to change the size of a brush.
#74: Press Shift+bracket to change its hardness.
#75: Caps Lock for precise cursors.
#76: Alt switches dodge to burn and burn to dodge.
#77: The comma and period keys cycle through gradients.
See this tool [sharpen]? Worthless. Look at this. You want this? Worthless!
Yes, that's a tip: Don't use the tool!
#78: Bang, there's another one!
#79: Ctrl-click a thumbnail in the Layers, Channels, or Paths palette to load a selection.
#80: Press slash to lock a layer's transparency.
#81: Press tilde to hide the image while viewing a mask.
#82: Press backslash to view the layer mask.
#83: Ctrl+Backspace fills the background color;
#84: Alt+Backspace: foreground color.
#85: Add Shift to fill just the opaque pixels.
#86: Press Shift+Backspace to get the Fill dialog box.
Hey, look at that!
#87: That's trans lock's opposite [Behind mode]. It locks opacity.
What the hell is it doing here?
#88: Ctrl+bracket moves layers forward and back.
#89: Add Shift to go all the way.
#90: Alt+bracket selects layers.
#91: Press Shift to select multiple layers.
Press Ctrl+Shift+A to select all layers.
#92: That's wrong. It's Ctrl+Alt+A!
I don't even know what Ctrl+Shift+A does.
It doesn't, Adobe, it doesn't do anything! I don't think it does anything.
#93: But Ctrl+G, that groups layers in a folder.
#94: Ctrl+E merges selected layers.
#95: Ctrl+Shift+E merges visible layers.
#96: Ctrl+Alt+E stamps a layer onto the one below.
#97: Ctrl+Shift+Alt+E merges everything on a new layer.
#98: Ctrl+Shift+C copies a merged version of the layers.
#99: Ctrl+Shift+V pastes an image in a selection.
#100: Alt-click here [Add layer mask]
#101: Or here [Cancel to Reset]
#102: Or here [trash without warning]
#103: Or here [color ramp to switch background color]
#104: Or here [eyeball to hide all others]
Yeah!
#105: Or here [horizontal line to make clipping mask]
#106: Or here [color swatch to delete].

Time: 05:08.16
Holy crap, I just went over! 106 tips! No! No, no, no.
[to off-screen director]
You should've stopped me, you should've let me know. That's your fault.
[to viewer]
That's his fault. I do not fail. Remember, I do not fail!
Alt-clicks out. I want them all out. Gimme that time back!

Time: 05: 27.92
[clock rewinds]

Time: 04:56.73
Okay. Nicely done, me. For those wondering why I left out your favorite tips,
#100: Like Tab to hide all palettes
#101: Or Shift+Tab to hide just the right-side palettes.

Time: 05:00.00
I didn't! Ha ha! I just mentioned 'em. Works for me!

Labels: cool, video

I've been waiting for Google's "spy vans" to canvas Charlotte for their map's Street View feature. Apparently that happened earlier this week.


View Larger Map

I'm heading out in a few minutes but I'll post a tour of Charlotte (or at least my Charlotte) when I get a chance.

Labels: cool, internet

"Dancer" Matt Harding of Where The Hell Is Matt fame is back with an all new video. Amusing, but I still like his original 2006 video/adventure more.

Here are two photos of Maegan and her horse (for camp), Nellie.

Labels: Maegan

Wow Darah has a lot of energy!

P.S. This is the last time I upload a video through Blogger's interface. Is everybody else getting two videos too?

Labels: Darah

Darah walked for the first time today! She's taken one step before and even a second step, but we never considered that walking - more like delayed falling. Today she let go of the coffee table and took three forward steps towards me. She almost made it but took the spill on the attempted fourth step, just a couple of feet short of me.

Labels: Darah

Firefox 3 is released today! Download Firefox 3 today and help set a Guinness World Record for the most software downloaded in 24 hours. I'll be responsible for two downloads, one at home and one at work.

Note: Today is June 17th - Dowload Day - but Firefox 3 is not available to download at this very moment that I'm posting this. Stupidly, somebody decided that "Dowload Day" shouldn't start until 10:00am Pacific Time, so not until 1:00pm Eastern Time. Huh? Who thought 1:00pm was a good idea to start a 24 hour period? Last I checked, a day starts and ends at midnight.

In any case, download and install Firefox 3 later today when it's actually available.

Update 8:34pm
Wow, what a huge disappointment. Aside from the 1pm start time, Firefox had major problems where nobody could download anything for hours. When the site came online again, if you clicked on the "Download Firefox 3" button it initiated a download of the older version 2.

So far it looks nice but since half of my add-ons and customizations don't yet work with version 3, I can't even surf the way I want to yet. Now I have to re-customize it again.

Labels: internet

Today was Maegan's first day at horse riding camp, and she loved it! She got to ride a horse (a pony) for the first time. Her horse for the week is named Nellie, and she also 'gets to' take care of Nellie and another horse named Ona. (no photos yet)

Labels: Maegan