I stumbled across THIS ARTICLE on CNN’s website as I was surfing the news tonight. It made me think about a lot of things. First of all, I guess I’m getting old, and there are more and more things like this out there that make me realize this. The internet, as we know it today, didn’t exist until I was about 23 or 24 years old or so… 16 years ago. I’m 40 now. I remember as the internet was unfolding into what it is today and we were all starting to cancel our AOL and CompuServe accounts, we were all thinking about how great it was going to be that we could access volumes and volumes of information with just a few keystrokes. The internet service providers that popped up were cheaper and more convenient than dialing into AOL and CompuServe, and the graphical interfaces made available through HTML were more interesting than what AOL had to offer, and tons better than the text interface from CompuServe. I never really thought about social networking via the internet during its early days. Social networking, at that time, meant having a lot of email addresses in your address book.

In my younger pre-internet days, we went to the local library when we needed to research something. We were usually limited to whatever encyclopedias, dictionaries, and magazine archives that were available. Cell phones, at this time, were still quite expensive, and not many people had portable cell phones at all. Text messaging via cell phone was not even an option. Time flies though…

Kids today don’t go to the library unless they don’t have computers at home. In my local library, they have a rather large bank of computers that may be accessed for internet use by patrons in one-hour-per-day increments at no cost. In my recent visits to the library, that’s where the activity is. You won’t find many people searching the stacks, but you will be lucky to find an empty seat in front of one of their computers.

I guess one good thing about my situation is that I don’t have any kids. I don’t have to worry about my children being preyed upon by social deviants on the internet. The only thing I would wish for is that parents would pay more attention to what their kids are doing online.

When I was 13 years old, my social relationships with girls happened at school and church only, and maybe through an occasional trip to the shopping mall with my parents. These relationships were face to face situations. I didn’t have to worry about whether or not the person I was communicating with was who they said they were. I could see for myself. Maybe I’m just more emotionally stable than some people, but I can’t even imagine how, at 13 years old, I could ever become suicidal over a relationship. I can, however, understand how something like that could happen if the person I thought to be my age was actually an experienced adult who was targeting me for harm.

The internet seems to provide security and self-esteem for those who have neither. It can give people the same sense of power and aggressiveness that causes road rage. Some people feel invulnerable behind the wheel of their car and behind the veil of their computer keyboard and monitor. They can be whoever they want to be, regardless of who they really are.

Dead horses… Deaf ears…

Maybe someday…

Another stop on the trip to Georgia was in Atlanta. This short video clip shows some people messing around in the Fountain of Rings in Centennial Olympic Park.

I’m beginning to find more interest in video. I did not take a still camera with me on this excursion, and I’m glad I decided to shoot video instead. People watching with a video camera definitely adds some extra elements to the experience, but there are no great ’stills’ to be printed either…

This could possibly be my last excursion from my local area before this time next year when I graduate from Radiography school. I’m not sure if time or funds will permit another adventure. When I graduate and complete my registry exams, I’m planning to take a trip to Niagara Falls that will include plenty of stops along the way up and on the way back.

Who would have thought that the world’s largest kangaroo preserve outside of Australia is in Dawsonville, Georgia? Me either… Just outside of Dawsonville, you will find the Kangaroo Conservation Center. This site is home to over 300 kangaroos, as well as an interesting collection of Australian wildlife. The Kangaroo Conservation Center is also successful at breeding most of the species they have on hand. I didn’t shoot a lot of photos on this trip, but I did shoot plenty of video :)

My semester at school is finally over. The last few weeks have been difficult with the last set of tests and then the final exams. I don’t know what my grades are yet, but there is still a glimmer of hope that my 4.0 GPA will hold up. It’s gonna be close. Anyway, I’m off for two weeks now before I start back for the summer semester.

The photo above is one of the shots I made last spring when I went on the “Southwest Adventure” with a group of students who were participating in a “Native American History” and “Race and Ethnic Relations” class at school. I was thinking about these photos today because this year’s Southwest Adventure program is leaving early Saturday morning to embark on the same journey that we took last year. My group created a blog when we went on this trip and updated it from the road with photos and writings. There is a student in the current class who is supposedly going to keep this blog going by continuing it as they travel this year. I’ll be following it to see how they do.

HERE is a group of photographs that I shot on this trip. This trip really was a life-changing experience and I would do it again in a heartbeat. I hope the current group of students enjoys it as much as we did last year.

What am I going to do during my break?

I really need to make some opportunities for myself with my camera during the next two weeks. I’m going to have plenty of baseball work, but I need to find something to take me back to my other interests in photography while I have some time away from the books. My SoFoBoMo project is finished, but it’s not what I had hoped it to be. Maybe I’ll spend some time thinking about another book project that I can really sink my teeth into.

I’m considering buying a new point and shoot digital camera. I’m not very fond of the one I have and I have been drooling over the Canon G9 for a while now. I really need to make myself get back to shooting with a camera like this. I know I can’t use it for most of my sports and journalism requirements, but I could use it for just about everything else, especially people and street photography. My dad just bought one (and he’s a Nikon guy) so I have had the chance to get some real hands-on lust for this little jewel. I have a little extra money coming this month, so I will be adding something to my camera bag. I’m not sure if it will be the G9 just yet though. It could be an 85mm lens… maybe a LensBaby… maybe a new camera bag (which I really need cause mine is worn out)…

When I get out of school, I’ll have the money to fund my equipment wish list, but until then, I’ll have to settle for a few odds and ends here and there.

Oh well… All I know for sure about my 2-weeks off is that I’ll be sleeping late whenever possible…

After the 2007 Major League Baseball draft, Caldwell County’s Madison Bumgarner will be in Hickory this week. He won’t be carrying a bat though. Madison will be in the pitching rotation for the Augusta GreenJackets in this week’s series in Hickory against the Hickory Crawdads. Madison is scheduled to pitch in Thursday night’s game at L.P. Frans Stadium. It will be interesting to see what sort of crowd shows up at the game on Thursday night. I’m expecting a larger base of fans for Bumgarner than for the Hickory Crawdads :)

Welcome back Madison!

I’m starting to feel the itch again… Minor League Baseball here in Hickory kicks off on Thursday, April 3rd, which is less than two weeks away. I’m going to be spending most of the day on Saturday at the stadium for “National Goof Off Day” with my camera and camcorder. There should be some fun photo opportunities and it will give me a chance to meet some of the new faces in the Hickory Crawdads organization.

I went to the stadium Friday afternoon to meet Mike Janela, the new director of broadcasting and media relations. He’s new in the organization and he won’t be around on Saturday, so I took the opportunity to meet him prior to the start of the season. We spent a little time talking about what he wants this coming season as far as images are concerned, and it seems like the organization may want to make more use of photos this year than they have in the past, so I’m happy about that too.

Of all the sports I photograph, baseball is one of my two favorites. I enjoy being outside at these games between the first of April and the first of September. The Hickory Crawdads have 70 home games this season, and I expect to attend at least 55 of them, and also go to a few games on the road. I’ll be doing my regular routine of providing images for the club for publicity as well as making the team’s baseball card photos for the season.

Another fun project I do during baseball season is another blog around this team’s activities. I don’t post much in this blog about baseball or sports in general, but my Crawdads Blog will contain a lot of information and images again this season. Since I picked up a cheap camcorder back in December, I’ll probably be posting occasional video clips from these events as well. I do plan to shoot some interesting video on Saturday, so check back for that…

“The Blue Dock” is one of those places that holds a lot of fond memories of my childhood and teenage years.  When I was very young, this is a place my parents would take me on a hot summer day to go swimming and to play in the white sand along the shoreline.  As I got older, this place became a hangout spot for friends.  As I got even older, this is a place I would go with a folding chair, gas lantern, a cooler, and a fishing rod to sit between midnight and dawn waiting for the elusive big catfish.  The baby blue paint that has been used to cover this dock over the years is the source of the location’s name, even though it is formally known as the Lakeland Park Beach Club.  When I was in high school, all you had to do was utter the words “Blue Dock” and everyone knew where to go.  It was not entirely uncommon for the police to run us off the dock late at night because of complaints from neighbors across the street.  I’m sure we weren’t always quiet down there at night.

Growing up in this neighborhood, it wasn’t unusual to spend a Saturday afternoon here with 10 or 20 other kids.  My dog was another faithful companion to the blue dock, even though he didn’t care much for the water.  He enjoyed playing in the sand.  On certain occasions, we would toss him in the lake and he would swim to the shore, go under the dock, and not come back out for a while.  On other occasions, we would call him out to the end of the dock.  He would come running, and if the dock was wet he would slide right off the end into the water, once again causing a retreat to the shore and pouting session underneath the dock again.  One of the only times I can recall him willfully getting in the water on his own was when a duck came a little too close to the shore.  He jumped in the water and chased the duck half way across the lake.  This was also the only time I ever feared for his life at the lake.  I thought he was going to tire out and drown before he made it back to the shore.

I thought this photo would be a good addition to my “My Town” series…

Why should I vote? The North Carolina primaries are not until May. I’m a registered Republican and the presidential nominee from the party has been selected. Why would North Carolina even hold a Republican primary (** for president**)? Would it not be a good idea to cancel the remaining Republican primaries (** for president**)? In North Carolina, I can’t switch over and vote in the Democrat primaries since I’m registered as a Republican. I would have to change my registration in order to do that, and registrations have to be changed at least 30 days prior to election day.

** Addendum **

I modified the contents of this post on 3/8/2008.  Some local political groups who are campaigning against a local  politician rather than for their own candidate in the congressional race are misrepresenting my idea behind this post, so I needed to clarify myself.  I have read through their material and will be back with more about their mudslinging later :)

I have had a rough time recently… My PC started acting up last week and I was never able to find the root of the problem. The first problem I noticed was that the system just powered itself down completely while I was processing some video from my camcorder. I rebooted the system and it came back up with no problems, but I immediately noticed that the video processing was running way too slow. The system ran for another day or two without abruptly powering down, but then the problem came back and got progressively worse. It came down to the point where it would shut down while sitting idle. I started trying to eliminate problem potentials at this point… I replaced the video card with no positive results. After that, I started disconnecting peripherals, swapping out RAM, and disconnecting and reconnecting hard drives with no luck at all. I finally decided to let someone else look at it for me.

The above photo shows the root of my problem. This plastic bracket holds the cooling fan in place above the microprocessor (Pentium 4 / 2.8 ghz). The plastic had gotten brittle and one of the support posts had broken, allowing the fan to shift positions above the CPU. This minor position shift was allowing the processor to overheat, which caused it to initiate its own thermal shutdown process.

I doubt I would have found this problem on my own. I could not see this particular part without removing the motherboard from the computer case. So… A couple bucks for the part and $75 for labor has me up and running again…

This photo has been over two years in the making. It’s not a great photo either. This is a photo of the first orchid bloom from a plant I raised myself. Someone gave me this orchid over two years ago, and it was almost dead. The media in its pot had deteriorated into something that almost resembled black dirt, so the roots weren’t getting enough air and they were being over saturated at the same time. When I received it, I took it out of its pot and re-potted it with fresh sphagnum moss and started trying to revive it.

I have had other orchids in the past and never managed to keep them alive. Most of the time, I would simply forget about them and let them dry out. At this point, I have two orchids that I have kept alive for over two years, but this is the first one that has produced a bloom for me. This bloom is not nicely positioned on the stalk for photos, but I wanted to make the shot anyway. It’s been open for less than 24 hours, so it’s color will continue to develop. The bloom stalk has 10 buds on it at the moment, and I’m hoping it will have more later. It’s a rather large orchid so hopefully it will bloom for quite a while. The next bloom that will open on this plant will be in a lot better position to photograph, so hopefully I’ll have a nicer image soon…