People Photography

People photography is not my specialty.

I am not a confrontational person, and when you're as big as I am, when I try to get close with my camera to people, their reaction kills whatever potential photo I saw.

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 48mm, f/11, 1/160sec, ISO 200

You have to be a good people person and have a lot of personal charm to get good people photos, like a great street photographer does.

Saturday, I hobbled around downtown Melbourne for a little while, the afternoon light was glorious (as was the whole day).

At one point, I could see amazing light on the west-facing buildings of a side street. so I followed the light.

When I wander with my camera, I just look for interesting light around me and walk over there, good photographs invariably present themselves.

On the other side of the small street, where the light was great, a tattoo artist came out of his shop and sat down for a smoke.

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 95mm, f/11, 1/160sec, ISO 200

He looked up at me and I pointed at my camera and asked if he minded if I took a photo or two of him and his shop.

He asked what the photos were for (people often ask if I work for the newspaper), and I said they're just for me.  I told him I'd lived here for eighteen years and I had realized that if I moved away I wouldn't have photos that represent this area as I saw it.  That I was trying to now take photos that would more completely show how I see the area where I live.

He said he didn't mind and set about doing stuff on his smart phone.

I took these photos.  

Thanks to Matt at Low Tide Tattoos!

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 34mm, f8, 1/160sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 48mm, f/11, 1/160sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 95mm, f/11, 1/160sec, ISO 200

Why I Didn't Watch Yesterday's Superbowl

I'm fifty-two years old.

I have had four back surgeries, have the metal rods and screws along my spine to prove it, and now have chronic back and leg pain to the point that I have a morphine pain pump in my side with a catheter that runs around my side to my spine.

At the end of the catheter is a needle that is stitched in place where the tip is inside the intrathecal space (where the spinal cord and spinal fluid are).

I get a few milligrams of morphine every twenty-four hours to keep me from going insane, or simply curling up in bed and giving up on life.

I hurt anyway, but most times, I can have a life.  Not anything like before my injuries, but still, I'm happy to be here.

And this, from a guy who once took pride in how much physical pain I could take.  I could shake off things that would make many crumble.  That was some misplaced pride, let me tell you.

I don't say all of this for sympathy, I am constantly aware of people around me and in the world who have it so much worse than I do.  I thank God for my many blessings every day.  I AM blessed.

But dealing with all the pain changes a person's thoughts, personality, and desires; no helping it, it just does.

On to NFL football...

When young, I loved watching Pro football.  I still love college football, I watch it a lot every fall, but I have totally lost my love for Pro Football.

I guess the eternal cycling of young men through college football keeps it fresh and exciting to my mind.  Pro football, not so much.  Not at all is more accurate.

Now if the New Orleans Saints had been in the Superbowl again, I would have definitely watched.  I'm a Louisiana boy who grew up in the era of Saints fans wearing paper sacks over their heads to hide in shame over our team's pitiful performances on the field.  The Saints back in the Superbowl, I would definitely watch.  For whatever reason as a kid, I loved the Minnesota Vikings, Fran Tarkenton was a childhood hero for me on and off the field, a real can-do guy.  I loved the Houston Oilers, Earl Campbell is still my most favorite pro player of all time to have watched on the field.  And of course, the Saints.  The hapless but lovable Saints.

But with the Patriots playing the Seahawks in the 2015 Superbowl, I forget which dumb Roman numeral they are up to, well, that was just too big of a yawn to me to invest my time.

The weather here has been so beautiful this week, sunny with a few puffy, cotton boll clouds, and a light breeze in case you almost started sweating.

If you haven't been to central or south Florida in the winter, I can just say there's a reason so many elderly people retire here, and that reason ain't Disney World; it's our winter weather.

So, yesterday, my back is only hurting normally, so I can steel my mind and try to do stuff anyway, AND I had a great desire to get out and take some photos with my camera.  I also needed to go to the grocery store for a few items, those in-between major grocery shopping trips items. I just wanted to stop at a a couple of local parks or something along the way to scratch this terrible itch to photograph something.  I wasn't expecting anything new, this is old, well-documented ground for me and my camera.

As often happens, I headed toward the beach, but started seeing interesting things in the golden evening light along the way, so I never made it to the beach.

Yesterday I learned that revisiting places I have photographed many times can still throw a few surprises, and therefore great new photo opportunities, at me.

This blog post is sprinkled with some of the photos I took while the rest of the world gorged on beer, pizza, chips, and Superbowl football.

Then, as a bonus, Walmart was as close to empty as I had ever seen it in many years, so shopping was fairly easy for me, no crowds or lines at the registers when checking out.

All in all it was a much better time for me than watching that game could ever have been, well, unless the Saints had been in there.

But probably even better than that scenario as well.

These were the only Saints I was able to see yesterday...

Favorite Photo of Atlas V Rocket Launch, Tuesday, January 20, 2015

This is the same post as on my John's Daily Digital Images blog for today.

Nikon D90, Nikon 10-24mm lens at 10mm, f/16, 139 seconds, ISO 200

Crop of above photo

I live about forty miles (65km) south of Kennedy Space Center.  You've heard of that.
Just south of Kennedy Space Center is Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, where many rocket launches also happen, especially US military sponsored launches (Secure military base).  This puts this photo having been taken from about thirty miles south of the launch, as the crow flies.
This was a US Navy satellite being lifted to orbit on this Atlas V.
I knew the launch was that day, but sat, searching Google Earth for a good local location to get a time exposure shot of the launch.
I settled on, and went to Ballard Park, set up and took a few practice shots and waited.
When I saw a big portion of the sky light up behind those palm trees, I started my exposure.
This is one of my best photos I've taken in a long, long time.

The second photo is a crop of the first.
I just loved the way the light through those clouds looked there above that home and palm trees.

Picture Post, Sunday January 18, 2015

January 18th already?!
Sheesh.
Sorry I didn't get this up this morning.  Doesn't really matter since no one sees them, but here they are anyway.

Here are some sunset photos I took this week.
I had a back doctor appointment to adjust my intrathecal pain pump, a trip to the pharmacy, and I hoped I'd be through before sunset.  (I HATE the early sunset time in winter.)

I found a local park on the Indian River Lagoon (of Indian River fruit fame) that I had never been to. Better, I had never even known this park existed and it was an exciting find.

I got there after the sun had set, and there were few clouds to catch the after-sunset color glow on the clouds, but it was a gorgeous sunset nonetheless.

Without further ado, sunset photos taken Friday, January 16, 2014.  Pretty fresh, eh?

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300 lens at 40mm, f/16, 1/20sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300 lens at 190mm, f/16, 1/60sec, ISO 800

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300 lens at 220mm, f/16, 1/30sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300 lens at 300mm, f/16, 1/30sec, ISO 200

This final photo has Venus and Mercury in the upper, center, blue part of the sky.  (Click to enlarge the photos.) That is, if I remember my astronomy correctly.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300 lens at 52mm, f/11, 1/8sec, ISO 1600

 God bless you, and have a great week!

Picture Post, Sunday January 11, 2015

A week ago today, Jan. 4, I saw some great light in the afternoon.
I grabbed my camera bag, and despite the back and leg pain, headed for the Atlantic Ocean. Cabin fever seemed to have set in, and it was so nice outside.
Well, I never made it to the ocean.
I was almost to US Highway 1 in Palm Bay and as I approached a train crossing, I thought the crossing lights and such would make some interesting photos.
I love big mechanical things.
I parked in between some palm trees that decorate the median of the road and got out for a few minutes.

Nikon D90, 18-300 lens at 18mm, f/22, 1/25 sec., ISO 200

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 120mm, f/11, 1/100sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 30mm, f/11, 1/100sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 48mm, f/11, 1/200sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 38mm, f/16, 1/50sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, 18-300mm lens at 18mm, f/8, 1/60sec, ISO 200

God Bless You!  Have a great day.

Paris Murders Over Mohammed Cartoons 1/7/15

The "religion of peace," islam, whose followers believe it is blasphemy to create an image representing their false prophet, the pedophile Mohammed, have expressed their love of their fellow man once again by shooting and killing twelve people in Paris.  The people killed worked for a paper/magazine which had dared print photo cartoons of Mohammed.

Radical islamists are acting in world societies as a virus more than a religion.

They are scumbag murderers who revere a murderous pedophile.

Above is an original cartoon by J.J. McCullough.

Meanwhile in the US, the Obama administration waits before making a statement, to decide whether the murderous shooters shouting Allahu Akbar were performing an act of terrorism or if it was just workplace violence.  Idiots.

Picture Post, Sunday January 4, 2015

I once loved posting my Picture Post posts on this blog most Sundays.

The sad truth is that most of these days, if I got up and grabbed my camera to head out for shooting, I'd have to stop and sit on my front porch for a while because of my back and leg pain.  I've learned the hard way there are levels of pain that will absolutely shut you down, none of this grit-your-teeth-and-do-it-anyway psychobable.  I get out and shoot when I can, and don't when I can't.

Also, I guess posting occasionally on Facebook kinda scratches the same itch that once got scratched by blogging, so I don't blog much any more.

But I like the ability to shout at the world on a blog post (even if I know good and well that no one will read it and comment) and that is nowhere near the same feeling as commenting on things on Facebook.

But here goes at least one more Picture Post, to try and start 2015 off on a good foot.

This first photo was taken last January, 23, 2014 on the boardwalk on the Atlantic Ocean beach at Indialantic, Florida. It is an 85 second exposure of an Atlas V rocket taking off from Cape Canaveral, about 35 miles (55km) north of us "as the crow flies."  It was carrying a telecommunications satellite.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300mm lens at 18mm, f/11, 85 seconds, ISO 200

This next photo was taken at Rich Grissom Memorial Wetlands (ususally called Viera Wetlands here locally) in Viera, Florida.  A really pretty, small park with an astonishing number of critters to see and photograph.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300mm lens at 18mm, f/11, 1/60sec, ISO 200

And here's a photo of one of the above-mentioned critters at Viera Wetlands.  A white ibis.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300mm lens at 300mm, f/14, 1/250sec, ISO 200

Here's a seagull lineup on a railing at Front Street Park in Melbourne, Florida.  The park is a popular boat launching site on the Indian River Lagoon (Intracoastal Waterway).  One of the seagulls in the middle seemed to be giving me a wary eye.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300mm lens at 300mm, f/5.6, 1/200sec, ISO 200

This final photo was taken in mid-December, 2014 in Indialantic, Florida.  Number Two Daughter and I were to pick up Lovely Wife from work and had a couple of hours to kill.  So we killed them by going and looking at some of the local Christmas decorations.  I have always loved these simple, pole-mounted decorations, mainly because I've seen them all my life in both small towns and big cities.  Just a pretty and simple Christmas decoration to brighten anyone's day.

Have a blessed day!

Happy New Year 2015

I remember back when I was in high school in the late 1970s, I would sometimes calculate forward to see how old I would be in the year 2000.

I would be / turned 38 in the year 2000.

And now that's fifteen years ago.

Wow.

Happy New Year everyone.  God bless you this year!

Sunset photo taken at Juan Ponce de Leon Landing, Melbourne Beach, Fla. on Wednesday 12/10/2014.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300mm lens at 280mm, f/32, 1/40sec, ISO 200

Micronta 22-214 Multitester (multimeter) User Manual / schematic

A Public Service by your's truly.

I have a copy of the user manual for the 1988-1994 Radio Shack Micronta model 22-214 43 Range, Range Doubler Multitester, Radio Shack's term for what the rest of the world calls a multimeter.

This is a really nice analog multimeter, and I use it fairly often in working on mine and friend's guitars.

There are certain situations in which an analog meter proves to be superior to a digital multimeter.

I won't bore you stupid  by explaining when and where I use an analog meter over a digital one, but I do know that Radio Shack sold many, many, many of this Micronta meter over the years and many are still in use.

BUT, good luck in finding a copy of the user manual!  I googled it and searched links about 10 pages deep and the closest I came to getting a manual for the Micronta 22-214 was 1.) paying a ridiculous price to someone for a .pdf copy, or 2.) malware dangerous web sites that supposedly will let you download a copy of the manual after you download and install their free software.  Jeesh, that's just asking to have your computer ruined.

So, in an extremely minor service to the public, specifically owners of a Micronta 22-214 analog multimeter who want to have a copy of the user manual, I took the time last night to scan mine and created a .pdf and a Microsoft Word document copy of this user manual.

I included a copy of the meter's schematic as the final page of this document, just for completeness.


At the risk of getting myself inundated with requests and trash emails, I'm gonna give my email address to allow folks to request a copy of this user manual that I will then send to them via return email.

The Microsoft Word copy of the Micronta 22-214 user manual is about 13MB, so your email might not allow you to receive a document that big.
The PDF copy is about 5.5MB so is the most likely choice for you to receive via an email.

My email address is mastersja at att.net.  Ask for the Micronta 22-214 user manual, and I'll send it along to you as soon as I see your email. (Still sending these out as of Wed. December 3, 2019)
P.S. I also have a copy of the user manual for the Micronta 22-204, but haven't scanned it.  If you can't find a copy of that meter's manual, let me know and I'll try to scan mine as soon as I can.

1983 Gibson Custom Shop ES-335 Dot, Pearl White

Since my back is more or less ruined and I went on long-term disability, I've taught myself, bit by bit, how to set up guitars for maximum playability and comfort, and do some fret work on them as well.  It takes me a while to get a guitar just right, working a few minutes at a time as my back allows, but it turns out that I'm pretty good at it.
 

I own several guitars, but being a little on the broke side of the financial spectrum, my guitars were all carefully chosen inexpensive guitars.  I chose for the best woods and construction I could afford, and over time I replaced the cheap electronics, pickups, plastic nuts, etc., with quality versions of those parts.  The result being that my guitars didn't cost much, but they play and sound great.  The added expense of upgrades was spread over time as I could afford parts and when good used ones came up for sale cheap on ebay.

Another way to get great guitars, if you can afford it, is to simply lay your money down, LOTS OF MONEY, for some of the best guitars on the market.  These guitars tend to play and sound great from the get-go, but there's no guarantee of this.

I have a friend at church who found out that I do guitar setups and and started bringing his guitars to me one or two at a time.  He has shown a willingness, for decades, to lay his money down on great guitars.  I get to play them for a while too, which is a nice benefit.

This particular guitar dates from 1983, two years after Gibson started producing reissues of the 1960ish ES-335 with the pearloid dot inlays in the rosewood fingerboards.

Looking back with 20/20 vision, many guitar players consider Gibson's "Norlin Era" (1974 -1986) to be a pretty dark time as far as quality construction and tone is concerned.  But this Custom Shop ES-335 is a lovely example of Gibson trying fairly hard to get things right during this period.  But, he had to pay a premium for a custom shop guitar.

This 335 has a pearl white finish, a paint scheme that I LOVE, on cars and guitars.  (I still want me one of those Fender James Burton Telecasters in pearl white.)  It's a soft, almost glowing, metal-flake white finish that is turning antique yellow.  The finish has natural checking (cracks in the finish) that happen to most older guitars that are finished with a nitrocellulose coat. 

The owner of this guitar is a true player.  He is a super-good guitarist, yet with no desire to know any details of guitar setup or to learn little things that can be done in literally two minutes with a screwdriver to make an electric guitar play and sound much better.

This guitar has been played a whole lot, but never abused, and simply put away after playing; no wipe down of the sweat from the body or strings ever.  The only changes have been new strings when needed.

So my first order of business was to simply take off the strings, the tune-o-matic bridge and tailpiece, the pickguard, and CLEAN THIS GUITAR!  When I removed the pickguard, there was literally 1/8th of an inch of dust under there, dirt and crud held together by what I guess was old sweat.

Using a barely damp cotton diaper, I wiped and cleaned the whole guitar except for the rosewood fretboard.  Once I had as much grime cleaned as I could, I used a liberal amount of Virtuoso Premium GuitarCleaner to go over the whole guitar again.  This cleaned off the last of the built-up crud and also left a bit of lovely shine to the guitar.

Before I started, one would have thought the guitar had a satin finish.  Now it has a nice shine to it, yet keeping all of the honest wear that helps make a vintage guitar look well-played but still gorgeous.  It's a totally different look than the bogus looking "relic" finishes people put on new guitars with belt sanders, and true player's wear over decades really adds to a guitar's mojo.

The gold plating has worn off in all the places one would expect and after cleaning off the grime there too (some naphtha and lint free cotton swabs), the hardware has that nice, aged look to it as well.

Tim Shaw, a Gibson engineer during this time had been tasked with trying, within budget constraints, to recreate the Gibson 'Patent Applied For' pickups from Gibson's golden era of the late 1950s - early 1960s.  This guitar has a set of those fairly valuable "Tim Shaw P.A.F's" and the tone of this guy is pretty amazing.  Probably a mix of being an older, well-played guitar along with those much better than average pickups Mr. Shaw had come up with.

This guitar is clean, the potentiometers cleaned with DeOxit and working like buttah, and the action is fairly low, but not on the deck, just like the owner likes it.

I used some Stewart-MacDonald Fretboard Finishing Oil to bring the fretboard back to life, and it looks dark and pretty.

Only one problem left to fix on the guitar, and that's a buzz when pressing the 1st string at fret 7, that B buzzes on fret 8, which I have confirmed is a bit higher right there than frets 7 and 9.  That's an easy fix of about ten minutes to file, recrown, and polish part of one fret.

Just thought I'd share a few pics of this fairly rare guitar.  I've seen a few here and there on the interwebs, but there aren't many.

The original case needs two of the drawbolts replaced, but I've never done that.  I might try to add that skill to my set so that I can repair folk's guitar cases as well.

God Bless...

Father's Day, 2014

It has been a long time, again.

It's hard for me to find things other than what aggravates me, that I want to write about.  And I don't want to stew long enough on aggravating things to sit here and write about them.

But I do miss blogging.

Thought I'd post this photo of my Dad holding my hand on a visit to Cypress Gardens in Florida in 1966.  That would put me at about 3 3/4 years old here.

This October will mark twenty years since my father passed away.

I still miss him terribly and long to see him again.  As a Christian, I have that hope too.

I'm blessed to still have Mama around though.

-- God Bless

Live Bait - In Living Color!

Nikon D90, Nikon 10-24mm lens at 22mm, f/22, 1/60sec, ISO 200

Nikon D90, Nikon 10-24mm lens at 14mm, f/22, 1/60sec, ISO 200

I have a lot to say, but not enough time to say it. (Obama, war, Syria, hypocritical liberals)

So, I'll just post a couple of photographs instead of writing out a half-hearted rant in limited time.

This is a local fishing / bait store on US 1 in Melbourne, Florida.

I have always loved the colors of this place and kept promising myself I'd come by one afternoon when the evening sun was on the front of the building.

I finally did it.

These were my favorite two of this building.

The colors and the sunlight came out very Florida-ey.

Picture Post, Sunday August 18, 2013

Mainly due to health reasons, it had been six years since I had made a trip to my home town of Monroe, Louisiana.

Along with Number One Daughter and Number Two Daughter, I made the sixteen hour drive/ride from Palm Bay, Florida to Monroe during the first week of August and stayed with Sainted Mother while we were there.

People who think Florida is hot and muggy don't have a freakin' clue as to what REAL heat and humidity are.  Lets just say, if I had any toxins in my body that could be sweated out, they were long gone after the first day in Louisiana.
--

Long trips are rough on a bad back and chronic pain, but I was able to get out and about a little while every day to visit family and one day the three of us headed for the community of Aimoch, Louisiana (considered part of Olla, La.) to visit the graves of my Father, Big Brother and other relatives.  After turning off of US Hwy 165 in Grayson, Louisiana, we stopped to photograph an old red building that was in great looking sunlight.  Out behind the old building were these two guys, watching our every move.  This is my favorite non-family photo from the whole trip.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300mm lens at 300mm, f/5.6, 1/800sec, ISO 200

 
One evening, Big Sis, Friend Marie, Number One Daughter and I went to Black Bayou National Wildlife Refuge, just north of Monroe, Louisiana, to photograph the very, very Louisiana looking bayou scenery and any critters that we might chance upon.  They had some great lotus flowers and killer, huge lily pads.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300mm lens at 175mm, f/16, 1/6sec, ISO 800

I had forgotten just how many kooky buildings and strange "things" that can be seen on just about any rural road in Louisiana.  I could drive for hours on Florida's country roads and rarely see stuff worth stopping for.  Not so in Louisiana.  This was along Hwy 165 between Columbia and Grayson Louisiana.  It looks just like the man in the blown-up space suit in the comedy movie "Rocket Man" to me.

Nikon D90, Nikon 18-300mm lens at 56mm, f/10, 1/400sec, ISO 200

Simply the lovely sunset at Black Bayou NWR that we saw that day.  I liked the way my super wide lens made the clouds look.

Nikon D90, Nikon 10-24mm lens at 10mm, f/16, 1/40sec, ISO 200

The Ouachita River (pronounced WASH-itaw) separates Monroe from West Monroe, Louisiana.  If you watch or have seen A&E's Duck Dynasty TV show, it is shot in and around West Monroe.  In this photo, I'm standing on the banks of the Ouachita in Monroe, looking across to West Monroe.  Just another of thousands of US rivers to most people, but I always though the Ouachita was a pretty river.  This photo is about half a mile from my old high school, Neville High School.

Nikon D90, Nikon 10-24mm lens at 10mm, f/22, 1/160sec, ISO 200

Have a great Sunday!
God bless all of you.

Their Sneaky Ploy Worked!

I was doing some channel surfing earlier after watching some Netflix.

The Science Channel is always one of my first stops when surfing; I'm a sucker for a good astronomy / cosmology show.  (BTW, is it a law or something that Michio Kaku has to be on every single science show made these days?  Seems like it, but I digress.)

Anyway, when I arrived at the Science Channel, "Build It Bigger" was on.

I watched a couple of minutes of the construction of a huge hydroelectric dam being built in Turkey (the Deriner dam), then they were going to break for commercials.

But before the commercials, the show had a teaser question. "Which country on Earth has the most large dams?" and promised to provide the answer when they came back to the show from the commercials.

So I patiently sat through Progressive insurance commercial and others and then the show came back.

Did you know that China has more than half of the world's 48,000 large dams?  I didn't either.

Then it hit me.

I had totally fallen for it.

I sat through the two minutes of commercials just so I could find out which country in the world had the most dams.

Those sneaky Science Channel / Build It Bigger producers!  They KNEW that I would be compelled wait and learn that tidbit about dams.

I have long known that I'm a science geek - you don't work your way through the pain of engineering school without being one - but I still totally fell for that simple commercial ploy just to learn one more science-ish fact.

I'm such a dweeb.

But I guess there are worse things to be.

Happy New Year to Y'all, 2013

When Good Intentions Get Trampled by Reality:

It's over in the evening, almost dark on January 1, 2013.

As 2012 came rushing to a close through November and December, I began to have a little up-tick in my spirit; I felt that I was turning a corner and had that almost forgotten feeling that I used to get when I had the courage to make big changes for the better in my life.

Oh well, so much for that plan.

My back problems and chronic pain have made the past few years of little consequence when it comes to moving forward and achieving goals in my life.

I call them health issues because I have a screwed up back and hurt all the time, but at the same time I've never felt that "health issues" or "health problems" is the right way to put what I deal with.

To me, health problems is more along the lines of sickness.  Sickness is usually acute, and can kill you quick.

Skeletal problems that have been repaired as best the doctors can do and continuing chronic pain doesn't sound or feel like sickness to me, so mentally I feel I should be able to struggle with my pain, struggle through my pain and confidently still attain my dreams and goals, albeit on a slower trajectory.

Yeah. Right.

December found me feeling increasingly bad - just generally bad - and then to top it all off, my back began hurting in certain new spots.  Hurting as in when the pain hit, I would yell out with no control, as if a mule kicked me in the back.  Just instant 0-10 level pain jump and after a few seconds, the pain would begin to taper off, only to leave me breathless, shocked and relieved that the episode was over.

On Christmas Day, a light was shined on my new issues when I went to pee about 1pm.

Peeing felt like I was passing sulfuric acid, and it hurt so bad that my body fought itself, both to relieve my full bladder, and to not pee so the burning would stop.

Long story short, I had a pretty nasty urinary track infection.  The tests run so far have indicated I have kidney stones, but with it being the holidays, getting x-rays and confirming various possibilities has been progressing at a snail's pace.

As I sit here this first day of a new year, I WANT to be working lickety-split on getting out of the rut I've been in for the past three years or so with my chronic pain.

But along with the chronic pain, I now face the dilemma of getting to the bottom of my kidney stone problem, because, though the antibiotics have almost cleared me of my infection, I still have the new pain, theoretically from kidney stones.

Kinda puts a crimp in the idea of hitting the ground of the new year running, you know?

I've never been a New Year's resolution kind of guy, but I hoped that the spiritual surge I was getting into at the end of 2012 would help me get a good start in being diligent in working on my (admittedly simple) goals for the new year.

Instead, I begin 2013 with that old "the spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak" situation instead.

But I am SO thankful for a loving and supportive family; my lack of progress on where I'd like to be heading in my life exists only in my head.

All of this reminds me to 1. Be thankful to God for all the wonderful people and things in my life, and 2. That my problems aren't life threatening (at this point) so I know I can get back on track, if very slowly instead of quickly.

First priorities of this new year are to get on track health wise, and to get better on my guitar.   That's it.  Down to two goals from about one thousand always kicking around in my head ten years ago.  

Simple as these two goals sound, they're actually pretty lofty from where I am right now. 

Just wanted to post a blog post on Jan. 1, and now, have metronome and guitar; time for some scales, baby!

God bless all of you.

Picture Post, Sunday December 9, 2012

I haven't done a Picture Post in a while.  And though it's over in the evening on Sunday, I'll post one anyway.  Not that anyone sees these any more, but I want to keep the blog alive, even if on machine life support...

I've actually taken some photos here and there recently.

These first two are the Christmas themed photos that I set up and shot for Lovely Wife's and my Facebook "cover" photos.  I hate trying to adapt regular photos for the slender slot available there, so I set out to create some purpose-made photos to fit the Facebook cover area.

I've been learning to use off camera flash in such a way as to look natural, as if I had some good sunlight available to use whenever and in whatever direction I want.  This first one was some of the first decorations that came out of our first box of ornaments we opened.  They were just set up for testing my studio (also known as the kitchen) and backgrounds and flash settings. But I thought this was a really pretty photo and it's now Lovely Wife's Facebook cover photo.

This one with Santa and the snowman, I had taken and cropped to be put on Facebook on December1, but I woke up November 30th with the idea in my head to add the cross shadow in the background.  I was pleased with the way it turned out. 

 

In mid November, Number One Daughter and I drove up to Titusville, Florida to go to Canaveral National Seashore.  We had never been, and the main road into the park runs along the northern border of Kennedy Space Center.  I had her pull off the road to let me take this photo of Launch Complex 39B.  Some of America's great space endeavours began right out there, just to the left of the water tower in the left half of the frame.  I think it is now being deconstructed.  It is the pad where the unfortunate Shuttle Challenger lifted from in 1986.

This is Canaveral Seashore itself.  We thought the cloud shapes and the light on them made them look like the dramatic entrance of the space ships of the alien invaders from the 1990s "Independence Day" movie.  Lovely nonetheless.

On the way back to Titusville and then on to home, we had to go back over the Max Brewer Causeway.  I asked Number One Daughter to pull off and let me take some night shots of the bridge since it was then lighted so nicely.  The crescent moon up there adds a nice spot of interest.  I absolutely LOVE the deep blue of a dusk-time sky.  I have a big, heavy tripod (as tripods go) but the wind was blowing so hard I had to adjust the shutter times and block the wind with my body just to get a couple of sharp photos.

God bless you all, and hope you're having a good Christmas season!

Tascam DR-07mkii Case (Great Fit)

Public Service Announcement:
Ape Case for the Sony PSP game fits the Tascam DR-07mkii very well.

After years of struggling on my own, I started taking guitar lessons a few weeks ago.

I had learned chords and am a decent strummer and  can play many songs, but I never seemed to be able to get better than that; to figure out how to improvise and begin to play leads or anything with flair.

My instructor  asked me to buy a cheap digital voice recorder for him to sometimes play some chords for me to later practice improvising over.

I tried a voice recorder like used for meetings and recording lectures, but the thing is so tiny I could hardly read the screen and the tiny speaker sounded...tinny.

This is where my eBay addiction comes in handy.

Got a great deal on a Tascam DR-07mkii stereo digital recorder; it's big enough to see the writing on the screen easily and it can be connected to my computer to download and manipulate the recordings.


Sweet!

But, Tascam doesn't make a small padded case for the DR-07mkii.

Being the engineer, I carefully measured the Tascam recorder and went a-searchin' on them thar interwebs for a suitable case for my new electronic friend.

Ape Case makes a small padded case to fit the Sony PSP (Play Station Portable) 2000, 3000, etc., hand-held game device.

Based on several web site's measurements of this case, I ordered one.

The case is perfect for the Tascam DR-07mkii and the two elastic straps inside that are designed to hold the Sony PSP in place also work fine to hold the Tascam recorder in there..  The case also has room to put a USB cable and a couple of other flat-ish items like maybe a USB drive or something.

So, if you are searching the internet for a case for the DR-07mkii, the Ape Case for Sony PSP is a great case to fit the Tascam DR-07mkii along with a few accessories.

Amazon sells the Ape Case for Sony PSP cheaper new than what I could find on eBay.