Category: Observation

Happy Fourth of July America

 Fireworks

Once again, the greatest country in the world celebrates its birthday.  This means it is time for the light shows in the sky (courtesy of China firework factories).   Today is another guest blog entry courtesy of my wife’s photography.  We basically just learned the trick to taking fireworks pictures and was out catching the local displays to try it out.  To be honest, the settings are only about 40% of the effort.  It is all about timing since you have to keep the shutter open for a number of seconds.  However, when you get lucky, it sure looks good.

Fireworks

I really like this one she took for a couple of reasons.  The color is really crisp, but generally fountains give off way to much light and overpower the image.  She had the shutter timing perfectly for that oneand gives an interesting shadow as it shot through the trees.

This one came from the same display.  It gives the impression of huge sparklers suspended in the air.  Too bad the fountain had to be cut off the bottom, but that would have probably washed out the shot.

Fireworks

The hardest shots are the large flowering fireworks due to having to guess the timing (about 1 second after you see the propulsion flame go out works pretty good) and harder yet is trying to guess the diameter of the explosion to set the zoom appropriately (yes, we are zoomed in pretty good).  To be honest, the off center ones give an interesting artistic impression.

Hit the jump to see some of these pictures

Continue reading Happy Fourth of July America

Things I Am Unable to Explain

Deadlines Deadlines Deadlines.  Cutting it close this time, but this post brings me to my self imposed minimum of 6 posts a month.  Before jumping back into the trip pictures, something strange occurred today while working in the yard.  It was time to deal with the trimming so I brought the trimmer out, gassed it up and reved it up.  As soon as the engine fired a barn swallow flew up behind me and started hovering in the air.  Actually, it was more like a bird backstroke because the birds body was actually vertical while the wings did a backward flap.  Not phased in the least by me turning to look at him, I decided to play out the situation.  As I was whacking down the weeds a moth flew up into the air.  At that point it all became very apparent.  The bird launched into action, chased that moth down and caught it.  I was impressed, not only was he pretty agile, he (assuming a male at this point) was smart enough to associate my trimmer with dinner.  This went on for about 15 minutes until he was either full or needed a rest.  For the curious, I could care less about the insect.  I draw the line there in favor of actual animals unlike PETA which apparently doesn’t know what the ‘A’ actually stands for based on their recent declaration against Obama killing a fly.

With that out of the way, I’ll lead with this picture.  Take a minute and just absorb the image….

Rock Hard Man

Linda thinks I’m crazy, but it sure looks like a rock man with ummmm… well… let’s just say that is some hard rock.   She vetoed my idea of merging it with one of the pictures of Old Faithful.

While in South Dakota, this truck passed us on the highway.

Truck Skull

All I could think of was the movie The Jerk when Steve Martin picks up the red chair and claims that is all he needs.   I would think the paint would be getting scratched up pretty good, but I must admit, the skull was a nice touch.

Catch a couple m0re shots after the jump

Continue reading Things I Am Unable to Explain

What Are They Thinking?

At Culvers today I was thinking it was nearing the end of the month and I was way behind on my posts.  I actually have plenty of content queued up, but have been having a hard time to sparing the time to get it written up.  The trip out to Yellowstone energized me to start cleaning up my forest acreage and getting the trails cut in.  This has a tendency to drain me especially when I have to end the day with my 7-8 mile Bix7 training runs.  I was jarred back into the moment at hand when a young woman approached the counter with her friend.  She was holding a wrapped hamburger which begged my attention.  Correctly guessing, it was a messed up order.  Two statements made me stand and wonder what was going on in their head.  First, while explaining what the problem was, the young girl states “I threw the onions out the window because that’s what everyone did”  For one of the few times I can’t think of any context where an observed action makes any sense.  Was there a big pile of onions on the side of the road she was simply adding to?  Did she see a whole like of people ahead of her in the drive through whipping their condiments out the window?  I have nothing here folks other than the possibility she was savvy enough to know they come from the ground so returning it seemed like the appropriate action. The other interesting statement was from the cashier.  For some reason she was not stunned at all about the onion comment, but after listening to the issue she responded with “Would you like that made again right now?”  I had at least 4 clever responses in the time that took her to respond with the boring “Yes”.  Possibly a clever cashier followup would have been to simply grab the sandwich and scrape the undesired condiments off on the edge of the counter and handed it back.  It probably would have been job ending, but I probably would have shook her hand after redeeming herself from a stupid question.

Anyway, I decided to get this post on a couple of vacation scenes that made as much sense as this encounter.  First a quiz.  Does anyone out there think Bison are tame?  Does anyone believe that wild animals don’t care about their young?  And lastly, are wild animals entirely predictable?  If you answered affirmative to any of those questions you need to stay out of our National Parks and stick to safer destinations like zoos.  I can’t tell you how many times we saw people chasing out after wildlife to get the perfect shot.  Note, this can all be remedied by purchasing higher powered glass, which is significantly cheaper than getting a horn removed from your rear.

This lady decided that the numerous stay away from wildlife warning signs didn’t apply to her.

Dumb Human

We had already taken a number of pictures from the walkway (with the 200 glass) and was able to get various angles in complete safety.  What this lady didn’t know is there is a calf (guess that is what you call it) on the other side.  I kept my finger on the trigger for funniest home gold.  In case you questioned, the answer is I have little sympathy for stupid people but luckily for her the subject didn’t decide to test her speed.

Then there was this guy.

Dumb Human

The elk are probably a little more tame than Bison, but this guy essentially stalked this elk for 15 minutes.  He was trying to be clever and stay out of view, but checking the angle of the elk tells you how successful that was.  Every time the guy took a few steps forward, the elk would head a little further up the hill.  I joked to my wife that he was being led closer to the tree line so his friends could roll him.  Yes, I kept my camera ready for any violence that might have been initiated.  I ended up 0-2 for content on the my series When Good Animals Go Bad.  Admit it, you would watch it – and you can’t tell me it would be any worse than watching the wife of our removed and soon to be put on trial ex-governor Blowjobovich trying to replace her cuss filled tirade wiretap image with a PR stunt in the woods.  But the funny thing about this is there was another elk (with a similar rack) sitting under a tree not 30 feet from the trail.  The whole time that elk kept a close eye on the guy.  Made me wonder if it was not the humans who were on display.  I wish I could tell what that elk was thinking at that moment.  Maybe it was this.

The Food Chain

A Special Load

 Convoy Ahead

Last year we headed out to South Dakota a week later than this year.  While we were there, the army was carrying out their training exercises in Custer State Park.  Since we were out a week earlier, we came up on a number of military convoys heading out to the park.  One particular grouping of trucks turned out pretty comical.  As w approached one of the semi trucks, something looked odd about the payload.

Military Convoy

Slowly the picture became a little clearer.

Truck Convoy

I have to admit, we did not have the camera out when we passed this convoy the first time.  We laughed so hard we doubled back to take a few photos.  It is amazing the lengths you will go to get a blog entry.  As we passed the truck for the second time, took the payload shot.

Truck Convoy Payload

I think it is our newest secret weapon developed for special urban assaults.  There are probably rocket mounts in the dump bucket and special hummer inflating tires to allow it to traverse any rubble it encounters.  We definitely appreciate the job they do to keep us safe and our Democracy intact.  Good luck boys an girls and in the words of Maximus “unleash hell”.

Eat Dust

Salute the Troops!

The Return of Dinos

First off, I would like to declare for the record that this Blog is written by a MALE.  My brother (who I am sure was snickering the entire time) sent me a link that analyzes the gender of a webpage.  Apparently I am not using the appropriate amount of stereotypical male words in my post.  Here is my attempt to fix that:

Boobs, Beer, Football, Baseball, Rugby, UFC, Boxing, Spitting, Scratching, Jockstrap, Whiskey, Engineering, Monster Trucks, NASCAR, Drag Racing, Urinals, Spike TV and  LAN Gaming… would welcome any additional words if you can think of them …  it is actually harder than I imagined.

Okay, this post is about reemergence of Dinos.  I thought it odd that there were no less than three occurrences of said extinct animal during our vacation.

Sinclair Dino

Obviously you know where this was taken.  That is, if you happen to be someone that also wasted valuable time actually stopping at Wall Drug in South Dakota.  There is actually a large animated T-Rex there sticking with the theme.  I found this picture a tad ironic.  Can any identify why I think that?  I wonder if the Exxon marketing people were savvy enough to purposely put their sign in that position to cause an association with their gas to the Sinclair filling stations?  I assumed you have traveled enough to know that this green and white icon is the trademark of Sinclair.  They usually have smaller ones in front of their station, however, this one was pretty big.

I had my wife snap this one as we drove by at 75 miles an hour.  I can’t believe it came out as well as it did, but she was zoomed in a little too much to capture the human skeleton that was holding on to the leash.

Dino Skeleton

I honestly have no idea what the purpose for it was – possibly for an exhibit that was up the road.   The pending storm actually makes the image look a little ominous.  The last shot was taken while stuck in a traffic jam in Yellowstone National Park.  We were heading back to our lodge on the road that connects the north and south loops when the traffic came to a dead stop.    There were also very few cars coming from the other way which meant an animal was near the road and some idiot was stopping traffic to gawk at it.  I’m all for stopping and admiring the wildlife, but find an appropriate place to pull off, don’t just stop the rented recreational vehicle in the middle of the road for 35 minutes.  Finally the park ranger showed up and made everyone start moving again.  Turns out it was a sleeping bear about 75ft off of the road.  Linda just about blew a bladder because of it.  Anyway, at least I got something for the blog, so it was not a complete waste.

Dino Evolution

Anyone want to guess what city this car was from?  As a side note, based on the scaling relationship that is one large Jesus Fish.

In my best manly Tool Time grunt, I’ll sign off for now.  I’ll have to recheck the analyzer after this post and see if there are any changes to the previously wrong assessment.

Go West Young Man

 Ugh, Buffalo Dung

We recently returned from our summer vacation which means only one thing boys and girls.  That’s right, you can look forward to the next 50 posts being all about the trip.  Well, probably not 50, but based on the number of pictures we took (literally thousands thanks to the digital age) I guess a fair amount of the following will focus on the various scenes caught through our expensive glass.

This year we headed out to take in some national parks.  In particular, this included Yellowstone, Grand Tetons and Rocky Mountain.  Although a little rainy (all out storms to be more precise) and cold (high 30s to low 60s) we still had a great time.  I’ll ease you into the trip experience with some images of various signs that caught our attention.  Unfortunately, I missed the one that intrigued me the most.  As we crossed into South Dakota there was a white billboard with the words “Prepare To Meet Thy God”.  I am not exactly sure how to take that.  Is it meant to be a generic warning to visitors to this part of the country that one should take some time to assess their worth before the inevitable end?  Or perhaps it is an immediate foreshadowing that you are going to die RIGHT NOW by some crazed lunatic hiding behind the billboard.

We did see lots of these signs:

Bear Spray

All I could think of was Hair-in-a-Can like Xmas tree flocking except with brown hair.  Hope nobody reads this and decides they can play another Yeti hoax on the American public.

Funny, I never see this place in the Verizon commercials.  In fact, our cell phones were turned off most of the time due to our batteries draining from no signal.

Can't You Here Me Now?

This one made us laugh out loud.  It has to be one of the catchiest billboards we have ever seen.  And no, I have absolutely zero idea what the intent was but I’ll simply respond with a big Thank You!

Your Wife Is Hot

Rounding out today’s collection of signs is one I made my wife double back for.  As a former Java developer, this sign held multiple connotations.   I figure either they like to mainline their caffeine in this town or they have all converted to .Net like me.  Which ever way you take it, it still ranks as a classic.

Jave in the Rear

That’s all for now.  Check back soon for some more funny images we captured on the way out there.  Once I get done with those I’ll dive into the cool wildlife and scenery shots we brought back.

It’s a Running Thing …

Running with Blinders

Ever notice what happens when a motorcyclist passes another?  If not, make an observation the next time you encounter this situation.  To kill the suspense, they will almost always acknowledge each other.  A wave, a nod a telling smile.  Each acknowledging to the other that they get the lifestyle and share a common appreciation.  This same recognition happens when owners of Jeep Wranglers pass by each other especially when both are topless.  On the Jeep front,  there is considerable more enthusiasm shown.  Unlike the first example, my wife drove a Wrangler for years so I experienced this numerous times.  I do not know how this started, but Jeep has put a brand on this cult like behavior and has a full throttle marketing campaign based around it.  In fact, they label you as an outsider in hopes of peaking your interesting into buying your way into the clique.  “It’s a Jeep Thing, You Wouldn’t Understand”  Side note, we have sold our Jeep and switched to a BMW and they are right, I don’t understand …. why anyone wouldn’t want to be driving a BMW convertible instead of a Jeep!

Now you are probably asking yourself what any of this has to do with running.  If you read this blog it is a good bet you already know I enjoy running.  Scratch that, I really do not get that much enjoyment out of it but it does keep the weight off.  It is a personal struggle to push through the pain to put one foot in front of another until a predefined destination or duration is met.   In exactly the same manner as bikers and Jeep owners, runners acknowledge other runners they encounter (outside of actual races). A quick wave or smile just to let the other person know you feel their discomfort.  Previously I would have said “always” acknowledge other runners, but last week while running in Jubilee College I passed a runner coming the opposite way.  Headphones are prominent in this activity so I generally just go with a quick wave.  Nothing big, just a little sign.  I was taken back when there was no reciprocation.  Nothing at all.  There were no cars on the road, nothing that may have distracted him from seeing my wave and trust me, no matter what running zone you are in, you still observe everything around you…. if for nothing else, to keep from getting killed by a non-attentive driver.  I made a mental note and went about my punishment.

For the record, if I am out running the pavement alone the blinders are off.  I make every attempt to acknowledge other people in the area in case my heart gives out or those devious squirrels try to trip me.

Public Enemy #2 or Ders Evil n Dem Woods

I have seen the face of evil and it wears a mask.  In my quest to rid myself of Public Enemy #1, I overlooked his demon spawn brethren.

Raccon

That’s right, my latest nuisance is the masked bandit himself (sorry for the flash eyes).  Actually I must instead refer to them as bandits since there are about three of them that have taken it upon themselves to terrorize my bird feeders.  For the the longest time I could not figure out why my seed kept disappearing so fast.  At first I thought the birds were just really hungry, but as time progressed, it kept going down faster and faster.  That’s when I noticed these guys coming around.

Raccon

Sure, they look kind of cute, but they have this feature called opposable thumbs which apparently fuels their passion to climb.  It just so happens that my feeders are attached to a tree.  Yes, you know where I am heading with this don’t you?

Raccon

I actually figured my rope approach to hanging the feeders would prevent the little varmints from being able to reach them.  Obviously, the squirrels figured out how to navigate this obstacle, but I figured the weight of the raccoon would deter this kind of bad behavior.  That would be a big error in judgment based on the fact they apparently took some pointers from monkeys.  Check this acrobat move out.

Raccon Hanging

I like this shot a lot for a couple of reasons.  First off, it shows exactly how my birdseed is disappearing.  It reaches its mischievous little paws into the larger feeder openings and throws it to the ground where his friends are waiting to eagerly to feast.  Interestingly enough, only one of the three is ever up in the tree at one time so there must be some kind of short straw thing going on.  The other reason I like this shot is it shows the hanging technique it has mastered to defeat my rope system.  Check out that back leg latched onto the branch.  In case you are having trouble seeing it, here is a closer view.

Raccon Hanging

Please continue reading after the jump.  I have a bunch more pictures of this demon spawn.

Continue reading Public Enemy #2 or Ders Evil n Dem Woods

Marketing Deceived

Nothing, and I mean nothing gets my blood boiling more than when I am deceived by weenies in marketing.  Unfortunately, this recently happened to me thanks to Sunny D.  I was in Sam’s picking up a few items when I noticed they had a case of little SunnyD bottles.  I noticed the 100% Vitamin C on the label and thought this would be a quick way to get my C intake – this is my tried and true way to keep the sick days down since my coworkers have a tendency to bring every mutant flu strain there is into my office.  I’ll go to 1000mg when I feel the germs trying to take hold.

Sunny D Label

See it up there in the upper right hand corner.  Out there in the prominent front of the label and and easily visible.  Convincing myself to spend the money, I hauled the case into the cart and made my way to the registers and paid for my items.  This of course only means I have to go through the completely ridiculous, asinine, inconvenient, irksome, infuriating and idiotic integrity check at the door.  First off, there is absolutely no way they can actually verify my receipt with a quick scan of the cart and secondly, how the hell am I going to actually steel a box of 400 ding dongs?  … tuck it under my armpit and hope nobody notices.. not!  But I digress, this rant is about marketing deception, not failed business processes.

Later in the day, I had a thirst and decided to enjoy one of my new juice bottles.  Apparently bored, I started reading the nutrition facts.  I usually do this at the store, but in my haste I forgot to give it a good viewing.

Sunny D Label

Wow, I did not expect the calorie count on such a little bottle, but that isn’t what stuck out.  Check out the Vitamin C entry – 80% of my daily value.   Wait a minute, that didn’t align with my pre-purchase analysis.  Turning the bottle back to the front, I notice the issue.  Maybe you noticed it by now, but that fine print I glossed over says “per 8 oz serving”.  A quick scan down to the left corner to reveal the deception.  The bottle only contains 6.75 oz.  This is absolute deception in my book.  Even if I opened two bottles I wouldn’t know how to estimate 1.25 ounces to get my DV not to mention the new “true” calorie content.  Unbelievable.  Yes, I was fooled and in essence it comes down to my fault, but I would love this company to explain this labeling practice.  In fact, I have already made my comments regarding their company’s integrity on their corporate website and will gladly update this with any weasel reasoning they try to respond with.

As of now, there will never be another Sunny D purchase made by me again.   Fool me once shame on you … never give them a chance to fool you again.. kudos to me

I have Been to the Gates of Hell

Devil Cake Although it pains me greatly, I have decided to heed my brother’s advice and censor myself.  As a result of this action, I will not be publishing the contents of this particular post.  Trust me, you would have thoroughly enjoyed it because I am guessing you have never experienced this particular situation…. and if you had, then you have my condolences.  So all I can say is I’ve been to the GATES of HELL, rapped on the iron and almost crossed the threshold before being pulled back into sanity.   At sometime in the future I may breakdown and publish the story, but for now I am going to simply count this as a post (I still have all my notes) and let this one simmer a bit.