Pseudo WIT: I Think I’ll Pass

It’s been awhile since I’ve followed up the introductory WIT (What is This) category.  To help remedy this situation, today’s post is about a topic that made us go WIT.  This is actually a pseudo WIT in the sense you do not have to wait until the next post to see the answer, but it isn’t something you want to really know what it is (foreshadowing).  So with that, I give you images of today’s two WIT specimens.

#1:

#2:

I’ll give you some time to ponder our two candidates today.  When your mind is good and lathered up, hit the jump to learn what it [they in this case] is [are].

Continue reading Pseudo WIT: I Think I’ll Pass

Book Recollection: Life by Keith Richards

Keeping with my goal to get through my reading material, I was able to make a serious dent in the stack recently.  By dent I mean a good 2 inches thanks to getting through Life, the autobiography of Keith Richards from the Rolling Stones.  I need to stop reading about celebrities and definitely avoid all biographies related to those I happen to enjoy listening to or watching.  Every time I spend time doing this, I come away with a bad feeling or worse a complete desire to disassociate myself from that particular entertainer.  I’ve been an avid Stones fan since I can remember, have all my computers named after the band members, use one of their names as my gaming alias, have just about all their albums including bootlegs and spent way to much to see them in concert over the years.  After reading Ron Wood’s book previously and now Keith’s latest efforts, my relationship with the Stones is now reduced to a non-monetary enjoyment.  Translated, I doubt I’ll ever give them any more of my hard earned money.  I realize it is a lifestyle expectation, but pretty sick and tired of executives in the music industry (looking right at you RIAA and related production executives) soap boxing about how they are being driven into the ground by the hordes of criminals out there illegally taking their profits.  So let me get this right, a music enthusiast happens to download a song from his favorite band he has likely invested tons of money over the years in souvenirs and concerts and he is labeled a criminal worthy of dragging to court and seeking ridiculous fines.  Let’s contrast that with Keith Richards, an artist which thrives in this industry and essentially the reason the RIAA and music executives exist (who leach off the creativity of others).  In a quick summary; drug addict (illegal), transport of drugs across country boundaries (illegal), coercing others to do drugs (illegal), possession of firearms by a felon (illegal), moves to France to avoid paying taxes (actually probably smart on his part), although not a father myself I hardly believe what he exposed his kids to was healthy in any way,  driving under the influence (illegal), endangering the life of a pregnant wife (and baby) while wrecking under the influence, admitted poacher (illegal) and lastly considering the Beatles as friends (criminal in every aspect).   Now you tell me, who is the kettle?

The truth is, this book did have some interesting tidbits in it with my favorites being small comments here and there which give some insights into his approach to song construction and meanings.  Based on Ron Wood’s book, it was essentially a literary masterpiece but I must recollect a comment from another book I read recently called Bird by Bird.  In that excellent work, the author referenced a review she received from one of her books that simply stated “You have made the mistake of thinking everything that has happened to you is interesting”.  I can’t think of a better comment for this book.  This biography could have easily been reduced to half its size by glossing over pointless events – an up front summary stating that Keith is a medical grade drug addict in the first paragraph could have reduced another quarter inch of the book preventing the literary broken record.  Granted, Keith has had a very eccentric life and some of them are quite interesting.  The Stones had to work to get where they are at now and I’m guessing a lot of people gloss over that fact when they see them up on the stage.  The question remains as to whether they could have gotten there without the all too familiar Rock and Roll lifestyle.  Does the lifestyle lead to the success or does the creativity require that behavior?  (does the love of motorcycles lead to the need to wear leather or does the affinity for leather make you want to get a motorcycle.. but I digress).

To summarize, was there was some value in spending precious personal time reading this book, but this is pretty much the end of my future Stones investments.  Their recent albums have been weak, their concerts have been way overpriced as of late and, quite frankly, they are old (there Linda, I said it).  Feel free to hit the jump to see my takeaways from the time investment.  Meanwhile, I’ll just pop over to the local news where they are detailing Theodora’s (Keith’s daughter) recent arrest for drug possession.  Looks like the nut didn’t fall far from the Fiji tree (yeah, I know it was a bad pun, but I had to go for it)

Continue reading Book Recollection: Life by Keith Richards

Know Thy Enemy

My mini vacation from blogging duties has come to its end. Truth be told, I have not written a new blog entry since January. Thanks to the scheduling capabilities in WordPress I was able to write all 6 of the February posts in January and simply queue them up for release at various times throughout the month. I even added an additional book recollection post to kick off the March posts just in case I did not get back in the swing of things in time. Enough slacking, it’s time to get back into the groove. The good news is the blogging downtime was filled with working on the photo backlog. While hunting for the Maine vacation pictures I stumbled on a set of Wildlife Prairie Park pictures we took last year. Those turned out pretty nice so I figured you might want to see some of them. This particular set focuses on an animal that is not one of my favorites.

For the city dwellers, this specimen before you comes from the coyote family. Unfortunately, I do not remember the specific species, but will make a point to track that down the next time we visit Wildlife Prairie Park. One might be under the impression that I as an avid Wolf enthusiast would have an equal affinity to these particular animals. This likely due to them both having four paws, a tail, tend to group in packs and have other similar canine features. If you happen believe this, it is my sad obligation to inform you that you are wrong. There are a few outward differences, the main one being stature. Wolves are generally much larger than coyotes and their legs tend to be longer relative to their overall body size (this is actually my first indicator when trying to distinguish the two).

To see the rest of the coyote collection, just hit the jump

Continue reading Know Thy Enemy

Book Recollection: Outliers – The Story of Success

It should be no surprise if you noticed the foreshadowing in the previous book recollection that another one was coming on its heels. Today’s post is on a book that took me awhile to get through. It was not a difficult read, but I was about halfway through the book last year when I put it down and didn’t pick it up until a few weeks ago. It has been so long now that it is hard to say with any confidence the reason for this delay. My guess at this point is it was a victim of redundancy. In the midst of the first read, my in car audio book selection was SuperFreakonomics by Levitt and Dubner. AS it turns out, that audio book and today’s recollection have an overlap in their topics and discussion. So, my advice to you is if you have read or plan to read the SuperFreakonomics book, put some time between that and book Outliers: The Story of Success by Malcolm Gladwell. This is actually the third book I have read from Malcolm having previously completed The Tipping Point and Blink. If I had to put them in rank of preference I would go with Blink first, followed by Tipping and lastly, this particular effort. Again, this might be an unfair assessment due to the previously mentioned overlap, but this book felt incomplete to me. In credit to Malcolm’s other books, those kept my attention through just about every chapter. I can not say the same about this particular book. In fact, it was definitely one chapter too long (10 minutes of my life I’ll never get back).

So in summary, I thought the book had some interesting points and definitely had some takeaways (see below). However, I thought it was a letdown from his two other works. On the topic of becoming an expert through hard work and practice as opposed to talent and luck was addressed much more succinctly by Levitt and Dubner. The good news is I can simply blame my lack of desire to become a lawyer or doctor on the fact my parents were not Jewish immigrants. Thanks to Malcolm’s other two excellent books, he still has my interest. In fact, Linda got me his latest (What the Dog Saw) for my birthday. I have absolutely no idea what the topic is in that book, but I promise not to co-read it with any other economics books. On a side note, while getting the Amazon links for the books I noticed my favorite book of his (Blink) actually has a lower rating than this book and Tipping Point. Not sure what to think about that other than raters are obviously wrong .. hehehe.

Hit the jump to read some of the takeaways from from Outliers

Continue reading Book Recollection: Outliers – The Story of Success

Phoadtography: Vegas and Zion Trip 11/2010 Pt 3 of 3

Hunger gnawing away the insides, thirst becoming unbearable, sleep deprivation making it nearly impossible to see, fatigue making it difficult to type, but muuusst … get .. . throuuuugh last part of Phoadtography post.  Just kidding, it isn’t really that much work, but thinking a Twinkie would really hit the spot right now.  This is the third and final set of phoadtography shots from last year’s Thanksgiving vacation.  Linda and I have been requested not to plan any vacations yet due to some corporate negotiations that are in flight, but hopefully we’ll be out on the road again very soon.  For now, enjoy this final set which appear to come mostly from the Vegas area.

Since we had to rent a vehicle to get up to Zion anyway, we decided to reserve it a few days early and take in some sites near Vegas.  First on the agenda was to check out Hoover Dam and the lake that resulted from the dam construction.  After a long slow trudge through traffic, we finally arrived at the lake.  The bad news is it was unseasonably cold the week we were there (in the mid 30’s for some of the days) so we did not spend a lot of time outside.

Instead, we decided to take the scenic drive and experience it from the car.  It is definitely a nice lake, but there really isn’t much to look at on the coastlines.  Most disappointing was the utter lack of wildlife beyond a few ducks scattered about.

Although we are pretty much burned out on the Luxor having stayed there so many times, it is rare when we actually get to see the front of the casino.  I snapped this as we drove by and it turned out pretty crisp.  For those not familiar with this casino, it has a light on top that can be seen from space and their elevators are actually called inclinators because they travel up the insides of the pyramid corners.  If you want a good physics exercise, try figuring out how they keep the inclinators level so you are not tossed all over the place as you ascend up to your floor.  It is a shame they have essentially removed just about all their Egyptian themed interior decor in place of annoying modern day club-style bars and nightclubs.

Hit the jump to see the rest of this Phoadtography set!

Continue reading Phoadtography: Vegas and Zion Trip 11/2010 Pt 3 of 3

Book Recollection: Bird by Bird

True to my word, I am starting to dig into my stack of reading material. As of right now I have shaved off about 2 inches based on today’s book and another one I finished a few days ago (future post).  After some validation with a ruler and some highly technical math it doesn’t bode well for getting through all of the material by the end of the year.  It is too early to give up and my vacations generally provide a lot of reading catch up time so the game is still on.  The first book this year is titled “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life” and was written by Anne Lamott.  This was an interesting pick for me primarily because I am not really a writer in the true sense of the word.  A Photography blogger mentioned it as one of his favorite books and I noticed a few other book recommendation sites I follow had it on their top ten as well.  All those recommendations mentioned it was beyond a basic writing book and more of an interesting outlook on life.  Now the latter part of that is right up my alley and a few tidbits on writing just might help out on this blog.  Let me give my recommendation on this particular novel…. BUY IT AND READ IT.  I went into it with minimal expectations, however, I soon found myself captivated by Anne’s ability to paint a picture with words, provide imagery to a feeling and cause me to literally laugh out loud through her dark wit and straight forward delivery.  Anne has been through some tough moments in her life that she has been able to internalize and reflect on those experiences in manner that everyone can relate to.

The vehicle of the book is a writing seminar that she puts on for eager writers looking to be successful in the field.  During this seminar she conveys her writing wisdom learned over the years while creating and publishing her works.  Although I am not a subject matter expert, she seems to give a lot of good advice on how to drive through writer’s block, providing characters with real emotions, learning how to  establish a relationships to the reader and advice on keeping their expectations of success in check.  Actually, this concept of expectations was a big theme in her book whether it was intended or not.  When the last page was turned, I put the book down thinking two things; how hard professional writing must be and how glad I was I picked a different career.  I wonder how her students felt after getting a dose of reality like this.  There is a since of sincerity and openness from the author that helps lend credibility to her outlook on life.  It is evident that faith plays a an important part in her life, however, she doesn’t hammer you with it our try to influence your perspective on this front.  So, yes, it is a book geared to writers, but there is plenty non-writers can take away from reading Anne’s excellent work.  Even now I am seeing the impacts of her writing suggestions on my blogging efforts and probably more noticeable is the writer’s eye  that I’ve been applying to the written works of others I read or listen to… are the character’s believable, can the author create the vision and feeling of being part of the story etc.?  With that benefit, her viewpoints on life put the cherry on top of a sweet read.

Hit the jump to see some of my recollections from this!

Continue reading Book Recollection: Bird by Bird

Phoadtography: Vegas and Zion Trip 11/2010 Pt 2 of 3

It’s quiz time.  What has over 70 pictures, comes in three parts and has the ability to completely clean out your browser’s cache of all that pr0n you’ve been wasting your web time on?  Okay, that was an easy one.  Yes, I’m back with the second installment of the Las Vegas and Zion Phoadtography post.  Unlike last time, none of these are wall worthy which means they generally fall into the category of things that make you go “Huh?”.  I like to get the most out of my vacations and finding those interesting pearls puts the cherry on top.  Now that the Smugmug picture links have been captured, let’s not waste anymore time and get right to this set.

Linda and I stumbled onto this sign just before entering the Zion National Park.  Having to leave the children at home to go on vacations is always tough but I am sure they enjoy the Doggy Spa at the grandparents.  Maybe next time we head out to this park we’ll see if they want to come along – although if they find out they have to work on a ranch their pampered paws will carry them right back home.

It is no secret Linda and I enjoy vacationing in Vegas.  For two people watchers, that place is like steroids for the eyes.  Even with all our trips, the first time we ever saw the Welcome to Vegas sign was a couple of years ago at Linda’s niece’s wedding.  Their party bus took us out there so they could get some pictures under it.  Well, this year was the first time we got to see the downtown Leaving Las Vegas sign.  Our lives are now officially complete.

Hit the jump to see a bunch more Phoadtography pictures!

Continue reading Phoadtography: Vegas and Zion Trip 11/2010 Pt 2 of 3

Snowmageddon ’11: When Accu Does Not Stand for Accuracy

Take a gander at this weather forecast from our local Peoria Journal Star on January 30th 2011.

Pay particular attention to the Monday and Tuesday forecast.  Just taking a close look at the icons (which is exactly what I do 99% of the time) you would think that it will be cloudy on Monday with a few flurries and a mixture of sun and clouds on Tuesday.  This seemed a tad odd based on a report I had heard a few minutes earlier regarding a large front that was heading our way.  Maybe a closer inspection is required here.  Monday: Mostly cloudy, a BIT of snow; colder (okay match with icon).   Tuesday: Mostly cloudy, snow or flurries possible (this does not match the selected icon seeing as how I see no flurry symbols).  Note, this forecast was in our Sunday paper making the Monday and Tuesday forecast slightly harder than looking at a rock on the days in question.  At worst case you could look to the West, see what is happening on the plains and assume it will be on top of Illinois shortly.  But how could this be wrong, it’s from ACCUWEATHER (tm’d none the less).  For the entire rest of the day the local news and CNN were declaring “The Big One”  was on its way and would be hitting Illinois starting Monday and then pounding the entire state into submission on Tuesday.  How can this be, I’ve got ACCUWEATHER telling me to plan a picnic?   To top it off, the TV weatherman literally told everyone he expected us to be trapped in our houses on Wednesday.

So, want to know how accurate ACCUWEATHER’s forecast was?  How should I put this?  Let’s go with “A Pile of Feces”.  Monday actually turned out somewhat right in the sense it snowed a few flakes, but essentially nothing at all.  That day was not the one I wanted to focus on.  Tuesday started out with a rain and sleet mixture around 11:30am.  Shortly thereafter can only be described as a polar bear’s wet dream or an Inconvenient Truth for the gloBULL warming clown Al Gore.  From that moment on until early Wednesday morning, Peoria was in the midst of whiteout rivaling records set back in 1967 (a fantastic year by the way).  Once the storm moved out, we were left with about 18″ of the white stuff.

Score one for the TV forecast and a big fat ZERO for ACCUWEATHER. Sure enough we were snowed in. The plows never even made it out to us in the country until late Wednesday afternoon. Concerned about the amount of snow we were getting on Tuesday, I decided to do a pre-emptive plow late Tuesday afternoon in hopes of leaving enough space to put the rest of the snow. After two hours of this, the driveway was relatively cleared, but filling up fast from the blizzard. A last look outside before hitting the sack confirmed that the early plow was a wise decision. Well, a wise decision until I woke up the next day to discover all my work had been humbled by Mr. Snow Miser. Crap!!!

Hit the jump to see more pictures of Snowmaggedon

Continue reading Snowmageddon ’11: When Accu Does Not Stand for Accuracy

Phoadtography: Vegas and Zion Trip 11/2010 Pt 1 of 3

Guess what?… nope, guess again?  nope.. one more try?  Close, but the right answer is “it’s time for another Phoadtography post.”  Actually it is sometimes affectionately called a photo-bomb which is pretty accurate with this particular set since it requires 3 full posts to get through.  This series is brought to you via our Las Vegas and Zion trip we took over Thanksgiving last year.  That equates to two very photographic locations coupled with a road commute between them.  Translated, lots of Phoadtography opportunities.    For those of you who may be new to the blog, here are some guidelines I posted previously regarding one of my favorite means to pass the time trapped in the car.   Let’s jump right into the set!

Figured I would start with a quick sign shot.  That and I wanted to get a bad picture out of the way before getting into the good ones.  Clearly this one is not up to par in the Phoadtography quality scale.  The camera tilt is over 5 degrees and the trigger finger was a little quick on the draw.  However, at least I knew where I was on the camera card.

I’ll balance the previous shot with probably my favorite of the whole set.  This is primarily due to spotting the opportunity and patiently waiting for the perfect moment to take the shot.  It required taking into account the direction of the road and relationship to the fixed structure on top of the rock.  I have no idea what it is (maybe a weather satellite or cell tower).  With the clever alignment it really looks more like a deathray!

Hit the jump to see a lot more of the pictures!

Continue reading Phoadtography: Vegas and Zion Trip 11/2010 Pt 1 of 3

Game Recollection: Dragon Age Awakening

Jagger has done it again. The world had been saved an immanent end due to Darkspawn by the mighty strength of his bow and fellow heroes. As you may recall from my previous Dragon Age campaign I was pretty impressed with the overall game-play of the original offering from EA/Bioware. Since that time, they released and expansion pack called Awakening which I received for Christmas. I did hit a slight self-inflicted glitch trying to install this version. When I played (and completed) Origins, my main gaming machine was still at Windows XP. Since that time, I have upgraded to Windows 7 meaning my previous install and all the settings and achievements were lost. Luckily, I always make a ghost image before doing any major work on my machine. Since this was an expansion pack, I needed to load up the original game first. Once that was done, I simply mounted the old drive with a USB enclosure, located the game configurations in the documents directory and copied on top of the new install’s setting directory. Once that was done, I loaded up the expansion pack and sure enough, it had all my character settings and progress restored correctly. Kudos to EA/Bioware for allowing this to work!  With that concern dispensed with, all that was left was to start killing darkspawn.

Hit the jump to see the rest of the screen caps from Dragon Age Awakening.

Continue reading Game Recollection: Dragon Age Awakening