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The Crawdaddy Page

Anyway, as I said, I leave tomorrow so that's why this update is on Friday. My stress... I can feel my hair falling out. Is that normal? -27JAN2012

UPDATE: The video is done. Watch it HERE.

Screen capture from my dash cam, from Friday morning.

My very first digital camera was 2.3 megapixels. I paid $300 for it. The resolution of the highest quality picture that camera could take was 1800 x 1200. The above picture is from my first digital camcorder. I paid $170 for it. It's 1080p, which in real terms means it records at 1920 x 1080. I don't know why it took this long for it to occur to me that I could post images from my dash cam videos; I see strange things on the road quite often, and even though it's not technically a photo, I think I can make an exception.

Unfortunate that the manufacturer of both my first digital camera and digital camcorder, Kodak, has declared bankruptcy. :(

I am working on my fifth episode of My Meager Collection of Vehicular Asshattery Captured in/around Northern Virginia. It should be finished by the end of Sunday. I'm hoping to be done with it today. In either case, I'll update this page with the YouTube link, when it's up and running. -21JAN2012

The pay-by-quarter car wash on Bolling AFB, January 2003.

This isn't the first time I've posted this picture on this website. It was one of my "main page" pictures for a time, probably late Jan - Feb, 2003, guessing from the date the picture was taken. This is one of the few pictures I've taken that tells a story; a dirty car in front of a car wash, that's closed off due to ice. But you already knew that, because the picture already tells that story.

So I didn't update on Saturday or Sunday this time. Monday works today, I guess. As I've said before, with my boat loads of travel, I've had zero motivation to spend 30 minutes of my free time updating this website for Photography Phaturday.

Last week I got to stay in a Hilton Home 2 Suites for the first time. It was pretty bad. The A/C fan would not turn off. At around 5:30 I asked them about it, and they called maintenance. At around 9, I figured no one would be by so I decided to let go of what I'd been holding for the last three hours and use the bathroom. Not 30 seconds into it I get a knock on my door. "Give me a minute!" The door opens, but is held back by the lever-socket thing (like a chain lock, but not). "Maintenance!" I say louder, "GIVE ME A MINUTE!". A strange scraping noise is heard, as the maintenance guy un-levers the door, and I greet him in my bathroom mirror, sitting on the toilet. "GIVE ME A MINUTE!". He apologized and waited in the hallway until I let him in. He said he didn't hear anything because the lobby music was too loud (but if the lever is blocking a door from being opened, you can assume that someone is in the room and it's best not to walk in on them. No excuse.). A board needed to be replaced in the A/C unit, and it took about an hour. When he was gone, I locked up, and tried to enjoy the newfound silence. This is when I became forcibly aware that my room was on the first floor, closest to the lobby with the elevator motor right up against my wall, so any time someone went up or down, I got to listen to a loud metal click, and a steady hum, followed or preceded by a ding. Not only that, but apparently some people decided to have a party of sorts in the lobby, so I got to listen to their yelling and laughter. Defeated, I turned on my A/C fan to drown out some of the sounds, but it wasn't loud enough to drown out the elevator. As I was getting in bed, I went to set the alarm. There was no alarm clock. I called the front desk, asking if this was some sort of strange European thing (they try to model the hotel after Europe's, but it looks cheap... like you walked into an Ikea store) that they thought you wouldn't need an alarm clock. I was assured that there was supposed to be one, but all she could do was give me a wake-up call.

The following day, I was looking forward to the one saving grace about the place being "European styled"... the European style breakfast. I expected a number of meats and cheeses, lots of fruit, and maybe even a chef to cook my eggs. I got nothing like that. They had cereal, milk, packaged oatmeal, and some small packaged breakfast entrees that you're to run through a conveyor toaster. Fresh fruit was limited to green apples.

I hope I never have to stay there again, and I hope you don't have to either. -16JAN2012

One of potentially billions of pictures of the Washington Monument, January 2003.

Not really much to say about the picture, except that it was the first picture I took of the monument after living in DC for over a year.

It's difficult for me to get out of holiday mode. I feel like the smallest of responsibilities are ten times more annoying than they really are. The prospect of having to travel every week for the rest of the month doesn't help. Maybe I'll at least get some good pictures out of it.

Since I don't have much to talk about, please enjoy this video clip I made today of me driving with the wife down I-270, and grabbing the northwest portion of the beltway to our exit to get home from the holiday party my company held (in upstate New York), all during the sunset. Right click, save as, or download it however you want. Right clicking, and saving as was necessary back in the day. Not so much anymore. I'm sure you can figure out how to watch it... though it is in WMV format which is incompatible with Apple stuff. But you Apple users are smart cookies and can figure out how to watch it, I'm sure. -07JAN2012

Overlooking the Black River, near Riverwood.

So what have I been up to? Lots of work and lots of Skyrim. Just like when I made a Fallout 3 screenshot my week's update, I'm now making a Skyrim screenshot this week's update. I have finally been home enough to play this game the way it was meant to be (all day). It's also why I didn't update yesterday. Because I was playing.

Oh. Happy 2012. Hope this year is better than last one. -01JAN2012

A dental imprint from my birthday buddy, Anne.

So I didn't update last week for the first week since I started this Photography Phaturday thing. I've been traveling so much with work lately, the last thing on my mind was updating. On Sunday, I remembered that I forgot, but I was on my way to another remotish location for work at the time. It was my fourth Sunday where I was on the road for work, out of the last six.

I finished up on Wednesday and we drove to Asheville visit Nina and Dan and Anne for the first time in over a year. It's amazing to see how much Anne has grown since I last saw her. She's forming sentences, laughs at silly jokes, and knows exactly how far away from you she needs to be, to run without you being able to grab her before she runs into the cash register area of a bookstore to tell the staff "Mera Christchmasch". In her play room, I picked up this foam yellow letter H and saw the cutest little teeth marks I've ever seen, and decided that's what I'd post in this week's Photography Phaturday.

Merry Christmas to all who look at this thing. -24DEC2011

My birthday dinner, 2011.

Yesterday I turned the ripe old age of 32. I spent the day working and running errands that needed to be run for the last month and a half or so. One of which was taking my car to get an oil change. Jiffy Lube is easily the most convenient place to go, but I think I'm never going to go there again. Why? Because about 10 minutes after getting my oil change there, sitting at a light, smoke started billowing out of my hood scoop. I parked it at the closest place I could and looked under the engine, and fluid was drip drip dripping onto the ground. I called them and a guy came out to me to look at it... turns out it was just spillage. A lot of spillage. He pulled a rag out after wiping something down and it was soaked in black, old oil. A lot of it got 'trapped' on top of my exhaust manifold and was burning off (good thing there wasn't a fire I guess).

So that took up most of my free time, but at least I got to have a most excellent dinner. The stuffed filet was incredibly buttery, considering how done it was (I like my steak well done; it was on purpose). Dill mashed potatoes - delicious! I don't know why I like asparagus, but I do, and it was very asparagus-y. Many kisses go to my wifey for spending so much time and effort to perfect this meal. It's just as good leftover today. -13DEC2011

Anacostia Naval Station, January 2003.

I took this picture with the express intent of posting it as my main picture on my website (before I started doing this Phaturday thing, of course). Looking through my archives, it appears as though I never did... Better late than never.

I removed the "main" picture at the top. I was getting tired of looking at it, and I haven't come across anything especially amusing/funny/ironic since I posted it. -11DEC2011

Fayetteville, NC - Wednesday morning.

So this week I was in Fayetteville, NC working on systems my company sold to the army units there. The area around Ft. Bragg has changed a lot since I last lived there, in 2001. There are a lot more upscale restaurants, and a lot of the places I used to frequent are long gone. Rock-ola Cafe, one of the most underappreciated restaurants I've ever known is gone. All the music stores are gone... I used to spend entire days driving from store to store, looking for different new CDs. Paradise Music, Musik Hut, FYE, the other FYE, and there was some used CD store that I can't remember the name of. All gone. I think I bought more CDs on any random weekend, than I've bought in the last two years. The place where I bought my Prelude, Valley Mazda, is now Valley BMW.

Even more strange is how a place where I lived... no... owned for three years can feel so foreign to me today. The young kids driving around aggressively I look at with disdain, but nostalgically recall what it was like to be one of them. I used to know every road and every shortcut, but now had to use a GPS to get where I needed to go. My favorite Mexican restaurant... Monterrey's... is now a veritable house of vomit piles on a plate. Have they changed that much, or have I been exposed for ten years to a quality of Mexican food that is several orders of magnitude better than what I thought was good? Bella Villa, a good little Italian restaurant that was always packed, was dead empty at lunch time when I ate there this week. Soldiers, instead of driving around in riced-out 5 year old Hondas and Neons, are now driving around in riced out $40k brand new muscle cars and $50k trucks that sound like Thunder of the Gods when they drive by. The whole week was filled with weird emotions. I didn't enjoy living at Ft. Bragg, but I miss the youth and arrogance that I had during that time. I also miss being able to eat anything I wanted and not having to worry about it. One of my favorite things to eat for dinner on every Sunday was to go to Arby's, and get a Chicken Cordon Bleu sandwich and a Chicken, Bacon, and Swiss sandwich combo (with curly fries), an apple turnover (without icing), and a Jamocha milkshake. Using Arby's Meal Calculator, that meal was over 2700 calories... nevermind the sodium. The Monday morning for PT I would be pretty tired, but once we got started with warm-ups I had an endless amount of energy. Strangely, if I ate McDonald's the night before, I felt like crap during PT, and the whole rest of the day.

On the way back home, I drove to Lexington, NC to see my sister and have dinner with her. Talk about things changing... We went to Applebee's and I was actually impressed with what I ordered. I highly recommend one of their new items: The Chicken Parmesan Stack. They put a lot of heat in it... not sure if it's jalapenos or what, but it was perfect for me, and the breading on the chicken was very crispy and delicious. The spinach and artichoke dip that my sister ordered, and has always ordered, is now in a much smaller portion of dip, and with twice as many chips (so I don't recommend that). After dinner (and dessert) we just drove up and down the road and talked about stuff, until it was time for her to get back to her group home routine. The drive home from there was mind-numbingly boring, but it was good to finally be home with my wife, and with no prospect of going out of town the following week, for the first time in over a month, if that makes sense, and if you like commas. -03DEC2011

Picture taken at the Dixie Classic Fair in North Carolina, 2010.

I noticed this guy had some pointy growths on his back. Hopefully they don't lactate. - 26NOV2011

Somewhere over the Midwest in early January 2003. Picture taken from the window of an airplane (because I can't jump that high).

While I agree that this is a very good picture (thank you), I can't help but imagine what beautiful scenes could be captured if I were a little closer (say... 30,000 feet closer). At least it was warmer in the plane, and usually there's no hungry, scavenging bears to worry about.

These last few weeks have been hectic. I've traveled every week this month so far, and it looks like it will continue until December. Strangely, I have zero pictures to show for it. I guess my Photographer's Eye has gone into hibernation. And then there's my dash cam music video hobby... I still haven't started my next video. Too much travel - when I get home I just want to relax... playing Skyrim, or watching TV with the wifey. The most hectic thing I do is wash clothes for my next trip, and read/write emails. Though today I did work on the website a little more than usual. I shortened the main page, and created a fourth archive page. I also fixed the boortz.com/nuze link that's been broken for a few months. -19NOV2011

Jackson Hole again, taken early January, 2003.

This scene struck me... It's one of the few things I'd seen after the age of very young, that changed the way I thought of the tangible world. Here we see a visible line (mostly horizontal - I'm not talking about the ski slope) in the trees, where snow stays and where snow melts in the pine needles. Before seeing this I always knew that the higher you go, the colder it got due to lower air pressure... but never imagined that the difference between pressures could be defined by such a line in nature. Since then, every time I've seen a cloud that is flat on its underside, I think of this.

Sometimes I see old photographs and look at the cars in them, and think about how weird it must have been to live in a time where the old cars I see today were new. I get that same feeling when looking at this picture. I'm getting old. -12NOV2011

My 2nd car. Picture taken in June, 2005.

This is the best my Prelude has looked in 10 years or so. It was immediately after getting fixed up, after I rear ended some poor lady. I was in the right lane, and the left lane was empty. The SUV in front of me decided at complete random that they were going to take their foot off the gas and slow down. So I passed them on the left. As I accelerated, the SUV decided "Hey, I guess I'll start doing the speed limit again, now." and they started going faster. I made the stupid decision to go even faster (but completely within the speed limit of course), and that's when, about 7 cars ahead of me, someone realized they had to turn left and slammed on their brakes. The lane came to a stop really fast and I was the last to notice. So some $2000 later (mostly insurance money), this picture above is what my car looked like.

Less than two weeks after taking that picture, I was behind an SUV. We were both making a right from a stop sign onto a 50 MPH speed limit road. The SUV went and I moved forward. I saw an opening in traffic, raised the RPMs so I could pop the clutch a little to take off, and when the moment came, I went. BAM. Turns out the SUV didn't go after all. It was very much facing in the direction of traffic, but off to the side, mostly on the shoulder; invisible to anyone on the side street who doesn't turn their head right of center. The damage to the Prelude wasn't bad... It's still there, in fact. The quarter panel actually stabbed a hole in his bumper. I paid him for his damage out of pocket ($700)... but damn was I angry at myself for doing something so stupid so quickly after my last stupid move, and I'm reminded of it every time I look at the rusty, bent corner of my quarter panel.

So why is all of this relevant to our current global economic situation? It's not. However, it is relevant to this update because I've spent the last week or so fixing the car up. Battery was dead. Replaced it. Brought it in for an oil change and a brake inspection. Good to go. Except when they checked the spark plug wires they broke one of them... they only said to me that it was "toast". I assumed I was getting the car back in the same condition I brought it to them in... but nope. I drove it on three working cylinders to our apartment (felt like it was going to die at times, but once the engine started going, it felt mostly normal... just with much less power). Today I got the new wires and popped them in. The car runs pretty good now. No smoke, no hesitation... A/C still works, all the electronics work. I need to drive it around more though... rotors are getting rusted and it causes it to make a horrible scraping noise everywhere I go. It's starting to become a tangible project. It makes me feel better to get this old vehicle that's been with me for almost all of my adult life, back to reliable working condition. I hope it doesn't get too expensive. -05NOV2011