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soap bubble experiment rev. 1

Work. Work. Work. I am working from home today and there is no food in my house, so I played with soap bubbles at lunch instead of eating. Georgia is making chicken tortilla soup tonight and I think I’ll be eating all of it. Heh. Anyhoo, I went to the AT&T corporate store yesterday to check out the new BlackJack II that was released on Thanksgiving. I was underwhelmed to say the least. It is identical (for the most part) to my BlackJack with the exception of integrated GPS and Windows Mobile 6.0 instead of 5.0. As far as I can tell, that only buys you the ability to edit Word and Excel files on your phone versus just view them… which could care less about. The main curiosity was the battery life, but there was no data obviously with it being so new. My battery life sucks beyond description on the BlackJack. I can’t even make it through one day. I keep a spare on the charger while I work, then swap it out after work to make it through the evening. Rinse and repeat. The entire phone upgrade thing is a huge rip off scam anyway. Basically, if you have no contract with the carrier, you can walk in off the street and sign up for TWO years and they allow you to purchase the phone (Blackjack II) for $150.00. If you are an existing customer they will sell you the same phone for $250.00 providing you are “eligible” for the upgrade… meaning you have used over one year of your existing two year commitment and are willing to sign into a new TWO year commitment effective the day they steal your $250.00 for the phone. Here is the kicker: Should you not want to buy into their plan and just want the phone… that they carry exclusively I might add… then you sign over $630.00 of your hard earned bones and carry the phone out lodged squarely in your arse. After review the options and the lack-lustre upgrade the new device turned out to be, I opted for none of the above and left empty-handed. I think, like a lot of people apparently, that the iPhone is sexy as hell and would already have one if the artsy fartsy Apple-ites would have written an application to allow Micro$oft Exchange sync. I mean, only almost-everybody in the Earth’s business world is suckling Micro$oft’s teet and is shackled to the backoffice deliverance mercilessly. No flavor of ActiveSync was a deal breaker… but the other down sides that were significant were the lack of support of MMS in any shape or form and the complete unavailability of an interchangeable battery. If your battery dies, you wait until it charges. If your battery craps out, you go without a phone while you mail it to the service center. Anyhoo, I’m stuck with my existing phone for now it seems.

Back to the soap bubbles… I saw some shots that Dalentech did with putting food coloring in water with dishwashing soap, then blowing bubbles with a straw and shooting them at high magnification to get abstract, fun photos. I wanted to try my own version of this to stretch the legs on my new Novaflex focusing rail and Angle Finder viewfinder attachment, so I set up a kitchen counter-top studio and gave it a whirl. I suck… but the good news is, I know what I am doing wrong. I’m using a MT-24EX dual head flash as master and a 550EX Speedlight through an Omnibounce as an offshoe slave to pump light into the dish and light up the bubble connections. I think the result might be more saturated and visually pleasing if I ditched the MT-24EX and just used an ST-E2 to trigger the offshoe 550EX. It would be more of a back-fill effect and I think things might look spiffier. I’m going to try again after work and see what I can come up with… using a different color of food coloring of course. Stay tuned.

I spent the Thanksgiving holiday at my father’s place in the hill country. Georgia and I headed out Interstate 10 on Wednesday afternoon fully prepared for horrific traffic getting out of the metro area, but we were pleasantly surprised at how smooth the trip went. I am a great person to travel with if you get cabin fever sitting in the cab of an auto as I stop frequently to empty my hamster-sized bladder. Of course, I had to stop at the Bucee’s representing the Luling exit. I always do. It is a wonderful haven to travelers of I-10 from near and far. I can’t believe I found this web site.

Anyhoo, where was I? Oh, yeah… so we arrived at the ranch around 7 o’clock and were greeted with open arms and a huge pot of homemade shrimp gumbo. My dad also bar-b-que’d an entire brisket and about 6 chickens. The ranch my dad and his sweetie run is Rosebud’s Flatrock Ranch. They have a website that I was supposed to help them put together, but I don’t know much of anything web-ish, so I’m slacking quite a bit there… and, in addition to that, I registered the domain name without the apostrophe-ess part of the name, so it turns out I’m slacking on the wrong name all together: rosebudflatrockranch.com

The ranch is focused on part time guided hunting of a variety of critters (which I don’t like) and part time hosting bed and breakfast goers in the Texas Hill Country (which is cool). We stayed in the B&B and really received the royal treatment the entire visit. I didn’t think about work at all and have to admit the four days away were a fantastic and much needed break.

Thanksgiving Day was quite traditional with a big turkey dinner and all the standard extras… dressing, green bean casserole, fruit salad, pies, etc. Sandy made an unusual side dish that was a corn pudding of sorts with oysters in it… very tasty. We ate, drank, and were merry. I don’t think I stopped digesting something or another the entire weekend. It was exhausting!

Friday was drove the back roads to Fredericksburg. We spent most of the day at Trade Days where my father has a booth selling furniture he has built. The weather was quite cold every day we were there… 35 in the mornings and up to around 40 during the afternoons. We ate at Auslanders for lunch… German to the hilt.

Friday night, my dad’s friends showed up with fresh pheasant to prepare for dinner. So leftover turkey was trumped by another bird rarely on the menu. Saturday we went to Christmas in Comfort in the morning and stopped for lunch at The Hen House. There was a great live performance of some local folk artists at the eatery. Our entire afternoon was filled with shopping the nifty ins and outs of downtown Fredericksburg. Georgia found a couch that she fell in love with… right up to the point we located the tag. Eleven grand… ouch! One of the neat things about Fredericksburg is the ability to walk the streets consuming alcohol. Can’t finish that bottle of wine with dinner? You just take it along on your shopping spree for desert. Splendid.

Sunday was low-key. Slept in… drove back to H-town. Lazy afternoon with some movie watchin’ with mom, Bob, and Nana in the evening. My fireplace has been going non-stop since I got home. I love having a fire crackling in the background. Henry was excited to see me and I was happy to be home. I just wish vacations didn’t pass so quickly.

I’m back at work today with a million things to do and a long afternoon ahead. I have a conference call around six this evening that will probably last a couple of hours. No fun. Anyhoo… I know this is a total cheese-ball post with all the kindergarden one-syllable descriptors, but I’m too tired and busy to put any thought outside the Big Chief tablet.

I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday. Salud.

Well, everyone passed the class. Barrett had a spectacular crash after locking his brakes on an emergency stop practice that resulted in him getting the “Motor Acrobatics” award at class completion. Georgia scored the highest in the class on the final riding exam and got the “Weaving Wonder” award. I received a “Sharp Turn Superstar” award… whatever the hell that is… heh. I took Wednesday off work and the last two days of the week are corp holidays for Thanksgiving. I think my mom, step-dad, and grandmother are all driving here for the holiday even though I won’t be home. I like it when they come visit. I wish it was more often. Today has been a typical conference-call filled Monday. I’m just counting the seconds until COB tomorrow… then it’s 5 days of R&R… much needed R&R.

exhausted

Tomorrow is the last day of the Rider’s Edge course. We all had to be at the course by 6:45 this morning and I didn’t sleep well last night. The morning was filled with back to back exercises that basically meant about 5 hours on the bike. After lunch, I was falling out. We had some course work in the classroom and then a test before I we could leave. I have to be back on site at 6:45 tomorrow and am so exhausted I could coma right this second, but I can’t. A friend from Louisiana, Luke, is driving in for the Saints/Texans NFL game tomorrow at Reliant and I sorta got roped into taking him out on the town since he’s staying at my house tonight. I suppose I really don’t mind being the host and it should be fun… I just wish I wasn’t so fatigued. I would have rather spent my evening quietly relaxing with early bedtime. Georgia and I scored perfectly on the exam and Barrett almost made 100% as well, so they both should be able to get their motorcycle licenses early next week if they pass the practical exam tomorrow. I have every confidence that they will breeze through with flying colors. Georgia did awesome on the course today from start to finish. I’m really proud of her! Barrett did well too after he almost got kicked out for rev’ing his engine and threatening to peel out. He was talking smack all morning, but after he had to focus on what he was doing, he did great. Some weren’t so fortunate. One lady dropped her bike twice before being removed from the field… limping. There were a couple of young men and another woman that all dropped their motorcycles at least once. Barrett told me the youngest kid fell over at least 4 times alone. I suppose it’s to be expected for first time riders or very inexperienced riders. I can’t even remember the first time I rode a motorcycle alone, but I’m sure I had trouble too. Well, Luke should be here in about 30 minutes, so I’m going to chug some caffeine and splash some cold water in my face. My eyes hurt. My back hurts. Barry called and asked me to meet him for beer, so maybe that alone will keep us on the north side and help manage the evening. If we end up going downtown, I may as well not even sleep tonight. Party like a rock star.

pee ess... If you hit the lotto, buy me this please. <3

It’s getting colder! I survived the last couple of days with little sleep and busy days, so I’m looking forward to a light Friday and fun weekend. I started the Rider’s Edge course tonight as a refresher with Georgia and Barrett. It should be a lot of fun as well as informative. Henry went back to the vet this afternoon for some more tummy medicine. He’s off everything (including his vitamins) except his special food until his intestinal inflammation gets better. There is more to write, but my head is bobbing at the keyboard. Bon nuit.



update: the photo is Hyalymenus tarsatus of the Alydidae family (broad headed bugs)… they are ant mimics in 5th instar

Well, maybe not “life”, but Percy saved my sanity. I had a rather hectic day today ending in dinner with 15 of my colleagues from out of town at a nicer-than-average chain cajun/seafood restaurant in The Woodlands. We had the little private wine room and I managed to eat all sorts of stuff that apparently didn’t sit well in my tummy. I woke up several times between midnight and two feeling like throwing up from acid reflux (which I normally don’t get unless I’ve been drinking cheap margarita mix) and thinking it would just go away before finally getting up and downing some of my newly gifted Percy bottle. I feel much better however, I seem to be afflicted with this can’t-get-back-to-sleep syndrome. Ugg. I have a *huge* day tomorrow with my boss in town (who I picked up from the airport tonight), his boss in town (who I will pick up tomorrow morning), a few big meeting around town with them (one of which I will have to present), and no frickin’ sleep. It’s nearly 4:00 and I need to be up in a couple hours… not now! This is just no good at all.

Happy Veteran’s Day and all that jazz. I’m tired. I was fairly busy with work over this last week, but my time outside of work also hasn’t left much room for quality sleep either. It doesn’t help that my back and neck are all jacked up and nothing seems to help. Thursday evening Beth drove in to Houston for a Friday morning interview. She ended up staying until Saturday morning so she could shop a few old favorites while here. It was nice to catch up and see her again. I missed seeing Rob and Tammy last weekend when they were up, so I sent the doggy pack home with Beth that I’d planned on giving Rob before. By Friday night, I already was feeling worn out from going all the time. I had dinner with Beth and Georgia at the Irish pub on the Waterway in The Woodlands… The Goose’s Acre I think it was called. Mmmmmmmn… Guinness on tap. We went to Chi afterwards for cocktails where Barrett and Andy met up with us. Barrett hadn’t stopped drinking since we had a couple Crazy Mexican’s at Cyclone Anaya’s earlier and I was so tired I couldn’t fit the strength to be witty. Saturday morning started with a nice walk at Mercer Arboretum. I drove out to Mancuso to pick up Georgia’s helmet for the safety class next week and then went for an hour deep tissue full body massage, spa pedicure and manicure, eyebrow waxing, and haircut. I ended up skipping the haircut (which I badly need) because the wait was over an hour and I needed to triple-ess before heading out for the evening events. Georgia and I went to Melanie’s house for a quick appearance at her son’s going away shindig (he leaves for Iraq in the Army in 15 days) before the evening’s destination… Mike and Sabrina’s “house warming” party. Before I realized it, it was three aye emm and we were all tipsy and shared sides hurting from laughter. Mike had a Jenga game that had been modified such that every tile had a drinking game item on it… you pull a tile and everyone does what it says. Very, very fun. I didn’t get home until 4:20 aye emm. Today was pretty lazy. I had lunch at Georgia’s parent’s house and Henry played with Tucker (her Boston). I’ve been kicking around some new macro ideas for pano-macro and DoF extension through stacking, so I asked Bob to bring down some specimens to shoot. This shot (above) is 5 separate images stacked to stretch the depth of field. The alignment sucks as does my technique, but it isn’t completely crap for a first attempt. I learned from it and I’ll have to refine my process. The focal plane shift is fractions of a millimeter from shot to shot as the DoF is literally paper thin at this extreme magnification. Who woulda thunk a cute little moth could star in a horror film. I’m tired and eating cheese and beer for dinner. Bedtime is coming real soon and I can’t wait to feel refreshed because this arse is draggin’. Georgia and her mom were the only two people that wished me well on Veteran’s Day… not that I expect it. I understand what service men and women go through and want to send kudos and thanks to all y’all… you know who you are. God bless.

pee ess… you want a good laugh? find me here.

My grandmother died today… my father’s mother. I don’t have much to say at the moment. I have so many fond memories of time spent with Memaw and Pampaw Ted when I was a small boy. I was stationed far away in the Navy when he died and I didn’t come home for his funeral. At the time, I thought it was ok, but I felt horrible for not finding a way to come home. When Papa Doc, my mother’s father, died in 1994, I was in southern Adriatic Sea on the border of the Ionian… nearly 7000 miles from home. I did what it took to get to his funeral… sleepless and tattered, I was there in 2 days. Memaw hasn’t recognized even her own sons in several years. I wanted to take Erin to meet her, but was unsure of facing her without lucidity or recollection of her life before Alzheimers. That never happened before Erin died and I haven’t had the will to make the journey since. When the news came today, it came from my father as disconnected as if he were telling me a storm were coming over the night while we slept. A fact to be taken in and filed away. I know being there for her in these last couple of years would have been difficult for me knowing that I was no different now than the nurse changing her sheets and opening the blinds in her room. Life is hard most of the time… even when you think it’s easy, it’s not. Sometimes I wonder how I seem to get by.

This weekend was nice. I spend most of it out of town. Saturday I went to a small lake house near Livingston on a private lake off the Trinity river. It was peaceful and relaxing. There was a vacant property next door that was rumored to be forclosed and up for auction. It needed a lot of work and was in disrepair from recent hurricanes and tornados, but I am interested in buying it… given the price is right. Maybe a fixer-upper out of town is just what I need to get the fuck away from Houston on a more regular basis. Sunday I was supposed to meet my childhood compadre, Rob, at Reliant Stadium for some ginormous motorcycle manufacturer’s show. He and his wife drove up from Corpus to check it out. When I was near, I called them but couldn’t get through, so the afternoon was spent at the bike rally in Galveston. Good times.

My father caught the camera bug from me the last time I was out to visit him. He picked up a DSLR and a few lenses and started shooting up a storm. He’s still getting the hang of it, but I’m proud of some of his finds on the property. He sent me this little critter last week that posed for him from the tree above his walk. Do you know what it is?

©2007 Jim Bownds

I’ve been hesitant to post because the whole thing is so very emotional for me, but my eldest dog is dead. Eclair spent last week (Monday through Friday) at the veterinary clinic undergoing her first installment (of two) of the heartworm treatment. This is a relatively risky process where they basically poison the patient with an arsenic derivative and keep her at rest and under close observation while it begins to kill the worms. She made it through round one with flying colors and was home the very instant I was allowed to gather her. We spent the weekend together at home and although visibly weak, she was happy to be home and in familiar surroundings. Henry was ecstatic. I had to be in Monroe, LA on Monday morning for meetings with a large client and was not going to be home until Tuesday night. Rather than my mother driving in to pet-sit, Georgia agreed to watch them at her home while I was travelling. I delivered them on Sunday evening due to early morning commitments and they were just fine… they had stayed at her house before. Monday, as I flew away, Georgia had to go to work herself, so she fed them breakfast and went to work. When she got home that evening, my sweet baby Eclair was laying in the backyard of her home dead. There was no way to tell what time in the day she had passed or why, but my suspicion is that she threw a blood clot and had a stroke as the clot lodged somewhere it shouldn’t have. This is said to be the largest risk to heartworm patients undergoing treatment. There are a million what-if’s I have to focus on not dwelling on as I deal with her loss. Should I have been with her so she wasn’t in a relatively strange place? Should I have kept her kenneled or made her lay down as much as possible? Could I have done something to save her? How long would she have happily continued to live if I’d not opt’ed for the treatment? I can’t help think that my attempt to save her live was what shortened it and killed her. I’m all too familiar with this feeling, of course on a much grander scale. Losing the woman you love more than life quickly puts the loss of a pet into perspective. Eclair’s death is still excruciating. The worst part of it all, other than for her, is that Henry loved her so much… she was his friend and companion. Imagining him with her when she was dying and stay there with her lifeless body all or part of the day breaks my heart.

Poor, sweet Georgia called me with the news when she got home. I was finishing a meeting and there was no way I could get home early without renting a car and driving since the last flight out of town was already boarding and I wasn’t even at the airport. I called around to friends I know with a truck looking for assistance to move her body. Georgia’s step dad and friend ended up helping and they took Eclair to my house and placed her in the garage until I got home the next day. I drove straight home from the airport and started digging a grave. The process of digging the hole reminding me of all these childhood memories I’d not thought of since. My grandfather was a veterinarian for over 40 years and would often have me dig graves for pets that people brought in to his clinic for “disposal”. I remember it being so impersonal. This was so painful. Barrett came over to help me dig. The ground was very hard as we’ve not had rain recently and the rocks and tree roots added to the struggle. I made jokes during the process to try and keep from crying… like how pissed my manicurist is going to be when she sees these bruised, splintered hands. An hour and a half later, we were close enough. My neighbor, Bob, and I gently laid her body into the spot and had to reposition her legs to fit properly. When I moved them, her rigored body aspirated air from within her lungs and she made a sighing sound just like she was exhaling while alive. I was a twist of the knife in my heart. After a brief moment of silence above her laying peacefully in that stubborn hole, we carefully replaced the earth above her that had fought so hard with us to be removed. Georgia brought Henry home during the process and he was anxious, so after that last goodbye, we all went inside and tried to make the best of the evening. I miss her. Henry probably doesn’t consciously think about it all the time, but I know he finds things all the time around the house that remind him of her that cause a moment of confusion… just like he did with Erin for so very long. I don’t want him to be alone and it hurts me to think of him lonely when I’m away, so I’ll likely get another dog before the New Year. I just haven’t worked out the details of that just yet.

ps. I hope everyone had a happy Halloween.