Category: Creative Work

The Road is Loooong

Published by NiteMayr on April 26, 2008

The Road is Loooong, originally uploaded by NiteMayr.

with Maaaaneeee a Wiiiindiing tuuurrnnnn….

Oh yeah, travel travel travel.

It’s not that wrong of a trip to my ‘rents. In fact I’ve already developed the mental “shortcuts” that gloss over repeated long drives that make it seem to take “no time at all”. Frequent long-haulers will know all about this, so will heavy drinkers (it’s time travel, right?)

You drive from point a to point b and back again and the aggregate mental stress of the trip is Zero, right? You don’t accrue it in your head, it’s not wasted (because you never actually spent that time, you just found yourself at the end of the trip at your destination, like you were already there).

I live to punctuate with with short bouts of photography and enthusiastic sing-along with my IPOD (through the scar stereo if there is any question in your mind about it).

This particular drive was surprisingly police free, which is a welcome change from the constant police-a-palooza that the trip usually is. I don’t really speed (I maintain a fairly constant pace, but I don’t speed) but I’m always unnerved by the cops either way. I’ve been passed at times when I have been above the limit (on hills and so on, or when the speed has drifted up to 90) and am always perplexed by it. Where are people going that they need to go so fast? They’ll get there in the end. If you are always late, why not leave earlier?

I dunno, I like the long drive in the spring, summer and fall [even winter when the weather is okay] you get to just “be” then you get somewhere with no effort at all. It’s like being rewarded for watching TV or something.

How about you? How do you feel about long drives? How do you pass the time?

Color Correction is your Friend

Published by NiteMayr on April 25, 2008

I’ve posted these two images to illustrate a point. With access to some post-processing tools (Photoshop, Photoshop Essentials and even Picassa) we an “fix” the little inadequacies of the original images. In this case contrast, sharpness and color issues.

This article is not the one I was looking for on this matter, but it covers the same ground.

You can achieve the same basic fixes in Picassa using the image correction tools therein. Shadows and Sharpen for the most part, with some color correction too. It can make all the difference in an image.

(If you are interested, I was illustrating how bad the countryside smelled, I was ill on the way up to Kincardine last week due to the smell of the poultry farms)

EDIT: Removed Ava Knight’s Pictures

Ghost Ride it

Published by NiteMayr on March 4, 2008

"Feel the Penance Stare"

I really should have shot this against a dark background… Oh Well!

NiteCat, NiteGirl and I hit the theater yesterday and watched “Ghost Rider”. There was a line outside, leading us to worry that we would be late for the film and that we had greatly underestimated the drawing power of “Ghost Rider”

We were wrong on two counts.

1) We got in to the actual theater in time to see the end of the Spider man 3 trailer.
2) We greatly underestimated the drawing power of “Wild Hogs”.

I could not believe the stream of Nascar driven humanity that was waiting to see “Wild Hogs”, and openly celebrating it.

Wow.

Anyway, Ghost Rider was great. It meshed the Dan Ketch and Johnny Blaze Ghost Riders into one. It was a good movie, lots of action and good special effects. NiteCat LOVED it.

Nick Cage was great as Johnny Cage (giving him a chance to be Elvis on a Motorbike without singing)

The ONLY thing I hated was that Donal Logue was killed. No love for the redhead scotsman?

Getting your iTunes Playlists into the Zune 2.0 Software

Published by NiteMayr on November 22, 2007

I upgraded to the Zune 2.0 software, which promptly killed all the useful playlists I had set up for playing in my Xbox when I wanted to listen to music.

I used to just drag and drop my playlist contents into Media player 11, but since Zune streams mp4s and I have a buttload of them, I made the transition.

I upgraded to 2.0 and liked the new interface, but the lack of any sort of smart playlists leaves me using Itunes to make playlists and no obvious way to get them into Zune.

I have figured out the steps to make this happen:

Open up itunes and shrink the window to a point where it is still usefull, but not maximized at all.
Open up WMP 11 and maximize it.
Click on the the Now Playing button and then ensure the “List Pane” is displayed. If the List Pane is not displayed, click the down arrow under “Now Playing” and click “Show List Pane” (I searched for ages to find this when I decided I wanted it) It also appears on the Library screen if you do not want to use it on the “Now Playing” screen.
Now, select the contents of your playlist in iTunes and then Drag and Drop the contents to the List Pane in Windows Media player.
Once your songs appear in Windows Media Player, Click the down arrow next to “Untitled Playlist” and then click “Save Playlist As…”
Click the Down Arrow beside the file format and choose “M3U” as your format and save your playlist.
As long as you are saving your playlist in the default C:\Documents\username\My documents\My Music\My Playlists location, it will appear automatically in the Zune Software.
Once the new playlist appears in the Zune software you may choose delete the m3u file as the Zune software appears to keep it’s own copy.

If you do not save the file in the default location or simply wish a more manual method, save the playlist in m3u format and drag and drop the new m3u into a waiting playlist in the Zune Software.

Have fun with your new software!

Originally posted on nitemayr.vox.com

Up and Down Again

Published by NiteMayr on May 28, 2007

NiteCat, NiteGirl and I went up Skinner’s Butte today. No Mean feat. Well, not really, it’s a short walk but NiteGirl and I are pretty out of shape, so it was good exercise either way. This was yet another excuse to take pictures and generally gawk at Eugene as we will be leaving ever so soon.

I reward your patience with a picture:

Water can be Goopy

This was taken at the water fountain at the top of the Butte, where the water is apparently the only chlorinated water in the whole city. It tasted awful, but it takes a nice picture nonetheless.

Additionally, here is a nice picture from Alton Baker park, taken the day before:

Profile

Taken amongst a crowd of goslings, awwww.

Anyway, if you are interested here’s the skinny on my Car “The Batmobile” (Which is nicer than the Fatmobile)

NiteGirl, NiteCat and I were leaving the theater after the ignominious “Third Movie” when we realized that the car felt a bit odd on the passenger side. Looking at the wheel, we confirmed that it was a little low on air and we proceeded to fill it up, at which point I noted that the metal from the inside of the tire was coming through; but on the INNER edge of the tire quell surprise.

So, off to Firestone we go. Look, I’m aware of the issues they have had in the past, so I make the same assumption there that I make at Jack in the Box; due to their past bad press they HAD to clean up their act. Also, they were close and I have done business with them in the past.

After their initial inspection they also found that the passenger-front ball-joint and Driver-Rear wheel cylinder needed work. I assented to the work and they proceeded to perform these and OTHER repairs *for free* on top of the aforementioned tire replacements (4) and wheel alignments (lacking a lifetime guarantee, but I may never see another Firestone) and for good measure an oil change with the extra fancy high-mileage stuff.

I’m going to be scrambling to pay the Credit Card bill that comes along with this, but I can’t argue with the results. I was planning on getting this work done before the big move anyway, the power steering needs work and it needs a tune up; but an annoying squeak that I have been hearing for about two years is now gone and I feel more confident in the wheels (as they used to feel a bit, um, loose).

So there it is, the skinny on the Bat mobile. We also had a nice lunch at Red Robin, who still make crappy fries.

Weekend of Fun

Published by NiteMayr on May 14, 2007

Pow Wow Dancer

Due to the fact that I am leaving soon and that I have a finite bank of off time, I have taken a long weekend, which means “I have all the time in the world for doing stuff”

Some of the stuff we did this weekend

Hiked up Spencer’s Butte
Ate at PF Changs
Took Pictures of a Peace March
Watched 28 Weeks Later
Attended a Pow Wow at the U of O

Here is a Quick Rundown of my opinion of each:

Spencer’s Butte: A Fun drive out there. very long hike.

PF Changs: Sucked, too expensive no ambiance. The outdoor eating area is next to the fricking road.

Peace March: I was surprised by it but took tons of photos:

Peace Cowboy

28 Weeks Later: GREAT! Thrilling! A worthy sequel. I was worried that the lack of the formers cinematographer and director would hurt it, I was very very wrong. I’m going to see it again tomorrow!

The Pow Wow: Despite living near to a reservation for most of my life, I never actually got to see one of these up close. You cannot begin to imagine how amazing it is to hear the signing and drumming live like that. Don’t hesitate to attend at least one.

Oh, one more thing. NiteGirl had her first Mojito, she loved it!

My Cousin Josie

Published by NiteMayr on April 30, 2007

Josie at home

I would like very much to tell you a short story about Josie. Josie is not really my cousin. She shares a last name with my Family, but that’s about it We met and became friends in the Summer of 1995, the year I turned 20 for those of you who keep count of such minutiae.

Josie was one of those people who was always he center of the action, people circled around her like a little planet that had an irresistible gravity. People would float in and out of her life and through it all she was an affable person, even in the face of adversity.

I knew we would be great friends almost right away.

We became friends because I can’t tell pretty girls NO.

Ask any pretty girl who has asked me for something when I was under 20 and they can confirm (if they remember me) that I couldn’t answer in the negative when asked, I was totally without spine.

Josie needed help moving out of her crummy basement apartment, but the landlords were very “involved” and needed to be kept out of the matter. I enlisted some help and got to the job. A friend of the family came with a truck and we moved her out and into her new place as fast as possible. There was some open tension from the landlords, but the family friend was a Rugby player and the Landlord was trash. I myself was lifting packages great and small for 5 hours a night, and was no wimp. We moved furniture and belongings as fast as we could.

In hindsight, I’m pretty sure most of the people around Josie just looked at me like the loser who hung out. I’m not even sure if they were wrong. However, I met so many amazing people through Josie and loved those long summer days of just hanging around the local lighthouse or walking around in the dark night.

I wouldn’t have met anyone I know and love now had it not been for Josie. So Josie, I thank you.

A Nice Walk

Published by NiteMayr on April 27, 2007

We went out for Dinner with Karl and Tiffany (who is an awesome person, btw). Then we went out to Alton Baker park and scoped out the places where we are planning to set up shop to take pictures of the 5k Race this weekend.

We’ve settled on a few places and NiteCat, NiteGirl and I have walked the course.

We had a blast walking the route and just enjoying the country-like atmosphere. It was a good evening walk.

Race Track

Here is a picture from the SECOND part of the race that we are going to photograph.

New Rebel!!!!

Published by NiteMayr on February 9, 2007

I’ve finally made the jump to a D SLR for photography fun.

I still have the Kodak p880 on hand for fun, but I’m looking forward to the versatility of exchangeable lenses etc.

This is one of the last Rebel Xts out there, as the model run is over and Canon is pushing the Xti now (the 10.1 Mega pixel model)

007Ben was gracious enough to lend me a memory card while I wait to pay for a new one out of pocket next week. I took a bunch of shots (focusing on Marco shots as those interest me the most right now)

Boring New Years

Published by NiteMayr on January 2, 2007

I think NiteGirl drank more than I did over New Years; that’s saying a great deal since she drank about two bottles of wine. She was feeling depressed because her sister brought up her Grandpa, and NiteGirl just can’t seem to get over her Grandpa’s death. (It has been a couple of years now) So she drank, partly to forget, partly to just get her drunk on.

Otherwise it was all quiet for New Years, we rang it in at Midnight EST so that NiteCat could participate and we fired

Popped out

off some poppers (large and small).

It made a big mess, which is still pretty much hang around today. We fired the majority of the streamer type stuff onto the tree but inevitably some got on the ground and will require a good vacuum to pick it up.

Kodos had an accident with some pipe cleaners over the weekend and needed some first-aid. He will site for me and take some cleaning and anti-biotic cream but struggles if NiteGirl and NiteCat are near (I think he knows I can put up with the biting and scratching better than the girls)
On a cool note, NiteCat was wathcing “The Future is Wild” on Animal Planet and announced that she could tell it was fake animals, because they looked like computer animation.

Proud? I could have burst.

By the way, she DOES believe in Evolution. The Cavemen argument works.