Boggled

Dain and Olivia backpacking in RMNP

Olivia's first backpacking trip. Dain did a great job showing her the ropes.

Just about Boggled

Been working all day and most of the night and my eyes are done. Typepad...Fixed...Migration...in Progress. Kelby's Bike...Part ordered. Desk...total mess. Raining...again. Really putting a kink into my mileage this month. Weird Colorado weather. This is how it used to be. Clear sunny mornings and then monster thunderstorms all afternoon. Lots of great rainbows lately. Note to self...Ride early on Friday. Brain...Boggled...Done...Goodnight.

Red Skelton's The Pledge of Allegiance

Red Skelton recorded this over 40 years ago.

The Difference Two Years Made - NYT

I am Boggled beyond all imagination where we are today as a country. For the first time in my life I am voting against EVERY incumbent Republican that is up for re-election. The Constitution is MORE than just a piece of paper. I hope you do the same.

The Difference Two Years Made - New York Times:
On Tuesday, when this page runs the list of people it has endorsed for election, we will include no Republican Congressional candidates for the first time in our memory. Although Times editorials tend to agree with Democrats on national policy, we have proudly and consistently endorsed a long line of moderate Republicans, particularly for the House. Our only political loyalty is to making the two-party system as vital and responsible as possible.

That is why things are different this year.

What truths do you hold self-evident?

When was the last time you read The Declaration of Independence?

Declaration of Independence from the National Archives

IN CONGRESS, July 4, 1776.

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.--Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.
He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.
He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.
He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.
He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.
He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.
He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.
He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.
He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.
He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harrass our people, and eat out their substance. He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the Consent of our legislatures.
He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.
He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution, and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:
For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:
For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States: For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:
For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:
For depriving us in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:
For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:
For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:
For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.
He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.
He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people. He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty & perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.
He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands. He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our Brittish brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The History of the Declaration of Independence

Technorati Tags: History

The End of The Netflix I Loved

**Update December 22, 2005**
***I am being ignored by Netflix***

I am Boggled by the changes to my Netflix Rental History. Recently Netflix changed the way they offered up my rental history. In the past they would send you your entire history in an email with all of your account information. It was a great service to customers and enabled programs like Netflix Freak to build on the Netflix experience by integrating all your rental histroy and ratings into the program. It made it easy to see if you were renting a movie you had already watched or to find out that you had forgotten to rent the 2nd disc in the Second season of Six Feet Under. It allowed you to rate all the movies you had viewed and sort them by your ratings or Genre. Being a movie freak I loved that. Being the kind of guy that believes I shouldn't have to lower my expectations of service I had to speak my mind and sent the following letter to NetFlix Customer Service. I will let you know what happens, if anything, as we go along.

Hi Folks, I first became a Netflix member back in 1997 when you had the prepaid value packs. Later on you went to a monthly subscription service. I left for a little while in 2003 because I got busy with a newborn and an 18 month old Son. I came back after 5 months and rejoined and was thrilled that you kept my rental history and I was able to to see all the movies I had rented were still tied to my previous and current email address. That's catering to customers!

Over the years I have turned dozens and dozens of people on to Netflix. I really love it and the people that I have sent to Netflix do also. I love to share my favorite movies and I love to be able to talk about a movie and see my entire rental history.

I know that I am just one customer and with most companies they just don't care about one customers business. I have felt that Netflix was different and that you "Got it" and did care.

The recent change to the Rental History availability and the full rental history email saddens me. I believe that it is Netflix's first move towards being a company that doesn't care. In this day and age where conversation with your customers are important, I find it difficult to believe that this new process was implemented to benefit anyone other than your Attorneys. Please bring back my full rental history. I love to play with it, manipulate it, and I love the sense of history I have when sharing it with friends. I take pride in how long I have been a member. I love the way I can use it with the program Netflix Freak to interface with the Netflix website and manage all aspects of my experience and history with Netflix.

I don't expect that anyone will actually read this, nor do I expect that I will get any kind of personal response other than the auto generated propaganda email response. That saddens me as well because the Netflix I joined in those early days created an Evangelist in me. I felt that everyone should move to your service and that Netflix was going to change the face of movie rentals which you have. In a recent interview with Reed Hastinds he commented that the best customer Netflix can have is the one that forgets to rent a movie. That will never happen for long, for why should a customer pay if they don't rent. I can live with my account being throttled because of the quantity of movies I rent. Heck, I just changed my subscription to the 6 at a time plan to actually get more at home. I understand that business is about averages, some custumers rent a lot, others just a few, in the end you hope your averages work out and your profitable. The most important thing you can have though are happy customers that evangelize your company.

Please bring back the sense of customer and underdog attitude that made your company great. Give us back the full email rental history and let us do with it as we please.

Signed

A Former Evangelist for Netflix who is now just a customer.

Rick Cummings
Please call me if you want to talk about it. Although I don't expect that to happen.

Of course as soon as I sent it I received the first automatic response email. I have yet to figure out why companies bother with these types of emails. I would prefer one the just said "Thanks! We got your email! Here is the auto response from Netflix:

Dear Netflix User,

We appreciate your recent feedback about the Netflix service. Due to
the overwhelming number of great ideas we get from customers such as
yourself, we cannot reply to every customer individually. However,
all comments and suggestions are forwarded to the appropriate
departments for review and consideration.

If you have a question you need answered right away, please visit
our online Help Center at http://www.netflix.com/Help. It covers a
wide variety of commonly asked questions.

We apologize for the inconvenience. Netflix makes every effort to
maintain its site and strives to give its customers the best DVD
experience possible.

Sincerely,
Your Friends at Netflix

Great, I wonder who came up with the great idea to change my rental history. How many companies ever listen to and implement the great ideas their customers give them? I am so done with companies that don't care. If I'm daring I can always reply to it. Do you think anybody reads the email that goes to the reply address nobody@netflix.com? Sure gives me a warm fuzzy that they appreciate my business! I will post more later.

Technorati Tags: Movies, Netflix

Black Friday 2005 Shopping Deals

I am always Boggled by the shopping madness that occurs the day after Thanksgiving. Here are two websites devoted to revealing all the best deals for Black Friday 2005, the biggest shopping day of the year for retailers. Go organize your attack and map your strategy to maximize your purchasing power.

Black Friday 2005 - The OFFICIAL Site for the Hottest Day of the Year

FlexDeals - Forums - Black Friday 2005 Complete List:

AR=After Rebate

Remember that the early bird gets the worm.

TypePad Apologizes and Compensates Customers

Over the last month and a half it has been difficult to work with Boggled. It has been hosted by TypePad, and the servers in their Data Center were getting hammered, they outgrew their capacity, and the time it took to make changes to Boggled were miserably and interminably long. Almost as slow as when you tried to load the site. So much so, that I had begun to work on migrating Boggled to a new WordPress setup and moving Boggled off of the TypePad service to my own server. You can see that version here.

Today I received an email from the CEO of TypePad, Barak Berkowitz, apologizing for the pain he knew TypePad inflicted on it's customers. TypePad has offered 15, 30, or 45 days of free service to be added to your account, AND they let you choose the level of compensation you feel best offsets your pain.

I love the fact that TypePad gets it. How many times have you bought something from a company only to be ignored when it breaks. Sorry not me, talk to the manufacturer, send it in for warranty, we got our money now talk to somebody else, we can't help you. Aaaarghhh! I also love it when I'm told that the cool feature, product, or special is ONLY available to NEW subscribers. What? Do you think I'm stupid?

TypePad understands the importance of keeping an existing customer. They communicated with their customers through the whole process and acknowledged the problem. They shared what they were doing to fix it, and then updated their customers along the way. Other companies that I work with are clueless. I often feel like the Red Headed Step Child as an existing customer of Dish Network, they are notorious for abusing me as an existing customer. That's a story for another Post and it's a good one.

Guess what, it's not only about growing your customer base, it's about keeping your current customers happy too.

Thank You TypePad.

Technorati Tags: TypePad

Last Light

Last 100 Visitors World Map

This map displays the location of the last 100 visitors to Boggled. The Red Dot represents the last person to visit, the Green Dots are the last 10, White Dots represent everybody else.

Thanks to Site Meter for providing the map AND a great tracking tool.

Email Subscription Growth!

Imagine my surprise when I go from 111 subscribers to 1019 in two weeks! Ok, maybe it adjusts to 950, it still works for me. Thanks to everyone who subscribed to Boggled! I cannot begin to tell you how much I appreciate it. Sometimes you wonder if anybody is listening. I know now that there is. Click on the picture for a larger view.
Thank You,
Rick

PS - An extra special thanks to those of you who purchased prints

Another day at Pete's Pond

If your not watching the WildCam AFRICA you need to. Go there now.

How to Buy Prints

After numerous requests to purchase prints, I have enabled and set up the Buy Photos link. It's now simple and easy to get prints of your favorites.

If you would like to buy a print of a Photograph from the Most Popular or Photo Archive albums in the upper right sidebar...

Print Costs for USA customers are:

8x10 for $20 USD

16x20 for $77 USD

20x30 for $96 USD

Pricing includes ground shipping and tax where applicable.

How to Choose a Photograph for Printing
Please click on the Most Popular or Photo Archive albums then choose your picture from the collection, then click on it so that it displays. The title is in the top left corner above the photograph. This is what you need to include in your comments so I know which one to send you. All photographs are shot with a Nikon D100 6.1 megapixel camera and they print wonderfully. Please include the Title of the photograph, your email, Print size, and your mailing address in the comment fields of the Tip Jar. The Photograph will be printed and sent to you directly from Kodak.

International Shipping
If you would like to have a print shipped Internationally please leave me a comment and I will research the costs for shipping overseas and email you with the total cost for the print and shipping to your country.

How to Contact Me
If you have any questions please leave a comment on this post and I will be notified by email or send me an email directly at:

rickcummings at gmail dot com

If your wondering, yes the Tip Jar is secure, it is run through PayPal. You do not need a PayPal account to purchase a picture.

If you would like to leave a Tip because you are a wonderful person, please feel free to give generously.

Thank You for your support, I appreciate it!
Rick

All Images © Rick Cummings 2005 All Rights Reserved

LibraryThing | Catalog your books online

Last week I wished that I had kept a list of all the books I have read in my lifetime. This week I find a great website that let's you catalog the books you have read or want to read in an online catalog. I have used it all of 15 minutes and love it. LibraryThing let's you create your own library of up to 200 books for free, or for $10 during the Beta you can add all you want forever. They pull from the Library of Congress and Amazon to give you access to everything. The best trick is that they use Tags like Flickr and del.icio.us do so you can organize and share your books. What makes this so brilliant is that they let you browse the Zeitgest by either Tag Cloud or Author Cloud, also by Genre, Top 25 books, and the 25 largest user libraries, etc. See something you have read in another users library? Want to add it to yours? Click on their Graphical Shelf and then click on the book to add it to your catalog. It's easier than typing in every one of your books one at a time. You can also add books by using the ISBN number. Since they already pull from Amazon, I wish it had a category for music and movies and let me add those to my catalog using the ASIN numbers also. Let's all send them an email to see if that can be done in a future update. I foresee a long future with LibraryThing.

Take it for a spin...
LibraryThing

Browse the Tag Clouds...
LibraryThing Zeitgeist:

New Orleans and Outpost Crystal

I have been following the LiveJounal Blog of Michael Barnett and his WebCam Feed since Monday. Michael Barnett and the staff of Intercosmos Media Group and directNIC are a web company holed up in their 10th floor Data Center in a 27 story skyscraper since Sunday Morning. They are located in the Central Business District in Downtown New Orleans and are fighting to keep their Data Center live and the 800,000 customer web sites that would go down if they surrendered the position. They are surviving on food that the company brought in for employee lunches before the storm and a diesel generator. You can subscribe to the feed or click on any of the links I added under "Interdictor" in the right column of Boggled. Digital Pictures can be found here and here. It is absolutely amazing to see and read what is going on live in New Orleans. Michael has added more recent picture links here

That being said, please give to the Red Cross or any of the other charities listed here. You can also click on the Red Cross Banner in the sidebar to go to the Red Cross donation pages.

You can also see complete coverage by The Times-Picayune who for the first time in their history are publishing exclusively on the web.

Here are photos being uploaded by people to Flickr and tagged hurricanekatrina and katrina, some are beyond my imagination.

Remember also that the most important thing in life is the health and safety of our loved ones. My heart goes out to all the people of the Gulf Coast that are living, and dying, through this catastrophe as I type this. It's sobering. Please donate. I did.

Dumping Bloglet for FeedBlitz

If you subscribe to Boggled through an email subscription you will notice that the format of your emails has changed. I have been using Bloglet but it seems to be getting flakier and flakier over the last couple of months. Today I replaced it with FeedBlitz. It is set up to include the entire post now so you get the whole enchilada delivered via email. I can use any RSS feed I want, so I hooked it up to my FeedBurner Feed, now it will include my Flickr and del.icio.us posts also. I have migrated all the Bloglet subscriptions over tonight. If you don't start getting the FeedBlitz email or you get both FeedBlitz and the Bloglet email let me know. I may have to beat it into submission but it should only take a day or two to get it tightened up. Thanks.

ecto Rocks!

This all started out of my frustration that everything in my life never seemed to work as advertised, I was Boggled why everything was harder than it needed to be, I was Boggled that nothing ever worked together, I was Boggled that Companies and People didn't "Get It" and I was Boggled that even my blog software was a daily dose of frustration. It was convoluted and exasperated me at every turn and it was GOOD compared to some others I had looked at. Doing a text post was easy, adding a picture to it took work. If I was a true geek none of this would have been a problem. I am not, just a guy that likes to take pictures and learn new things. Then I discovered ecto, it is an absolute joy to use. It works intuitively and quickly. I can work on or off line. I can post just a photo or I can add a photo and text to a post by clicking a single button. No more resizing and saving, no more exasperation, no more planning ahead to do a post. It works beautifully with TypePad and iPhoto. It delivers more than it promises, which is rare in anything these days. The few times I needed any help Adriaan the developer was great and willing to help. It is one of the few programs I have used that sells itself and should cost more than it does. For the first time in a long time I am not Boggled. If you use TypePad or Bloggger or a host of others, go take ecto for a spin. You will be happy that you did. Also a big Thank you to Adriaan for improving the quality of my life and for making it easier to do what I want. Finally, somebody gets it.

Technorati Tags: ecto

Open Pandora's Music Box and Google Talk

I have been playing with Pandora while installing Google Talk on the PowerBook and the old ThinkPad tonight. Both have been ridiculously easy to use. Pandora helps you to discover music based on the Music Genome Project. You will need to request an invitation to join from Pandora during the invitation only period. It only takes a day to get it. I have been playing with it for a few days and it has already introduced me to more good new music than I expected. Take it for a spin.

Discover New Music - Pandora.

As for Google Talk you need a Gmail account to join and it is a one click install. To easy. Bummer that the VOIP only works on a PC. If you need a Gmail account email me and I will send you one. I have a ton of invites since I signed everyone in our family up with an account. Really, how many Gmail invites are a 5 and 3 1/2 year old going to send to their friends? Wait, I take the part about Dain back. He may have already sent all of his out even if he is only 5. Anyway with Google Talk, maybe Google will finally open up Gmail to the public on Wednesday and you won't need one of mine and I can hoard them forever then. Or sell them on eBay.

Google Talk.

Tour de France 2005 Blog

Tour de France 2005

Tour de France Blog with daily updates and links to other Tour posts. Great for Tour Freaks.

Absolutely Amazing...Pieter Weening Wins Stage 8 by .0002 Seconds

It boggles me that you could ride 235.5 Kilometers and your winning margin is less than a Centimeter. It is the smallest margin in Tour history. The officials had to rely on the official timing system time sensors, that are on every bike, because the photo finish was to close for proof positive to determine the winner. Unbelievable. 146 miles and you win by less time than it takes to blink. The biggest question though is where the heck was the Discovery Team? Lance all by himself chasing down attacks. They must have decided to take the day off. Maybe it''s just a strategy to lull everybody else into thinking they don't have it this year. Let's hope so. Oh, by the way, that's 1/8000 of a second.

[posted with ecto]

Technorati Tags: Tour de France

Boggled: Nikon D100 and the 4 Digit Frame Counter

I am Boggled by my Nikon D100. I originally bought my D100 to replace an aging Nikon Coolpix 995. The Coolpix was a great camera unless you were trying to capture an image of anything that moved. It worked great when my kids were babies but when they learned to crawl forget it. The shutter lag was enough so that you missed whatever you were trying to capture. I also had a Nikon F100 at the same time and found myself going back to it on a regular basis. After the immediacy of digital and the cost of a million diapers, wipes, cribs, toys and bottles. Film and developing costs had lost their allure. So off to eBay to reallocate resources for the purchase of the D100. I purchased the D100 when they first came out and you were lucky to find one in stock. I rounded one up and had it shipped the next day (Cord Camera in Columbus, Ohio-Great Folks). Roll the clock ahead almost two years...

When I was 2

John F. Kennedy is Inaugurated as President.
Segregation ends at Atlanta Schools and Lunch Counters.
All Three TV Channels signed OFF the Air at Midnight.
I had to get up to change TV Channels.
I thought the National Anthem was a lullaby.
I had jars of Lightning Bugs in my bedroom.
Electric fans DO lull you to sleep.
Kuwait gains independence from Great Britain.
The Cold War is daily news.
Duck and Cover is taught for survival during Nuclear Attack.
The Bay of Pigs fails miserably.
I got my First Puppy.
Her name was "Poochy"
The Berlin Wall is Built.
America commits to more funds and advisors to South Vietnam.
We still believe what the Media Printed and Reported on TV.
Mike Ditka and Jimmy Johnson are drafted into the NFL.
I was unaware of most of it.
I was Happy.
Life was Perfect.
As it was then, so it is now.

[posted with ecto and a cheap scanner!]

The Flu and the Economy

Sick, sick as a dog, sicker than I can ever remember being in my life. The flu literally kicked my butt for two weeks. One week of the Flu and a glorious dry unproductive cough for the next week. When it started to gurgle in my chest I enlisted the help of the local medical community to prescribe Zythromax to kill anything in my body that was not supposed to be there. I am now buried so deep in my life that they have to pipe light into me. I figure that by the time Christmas comes I can wrestle some control and organization back into it. So far I am losing ground. Now I have to go to the Mall and buy Christmas presents for a 3 year old when all I really want to do is minimize any contact with the Flu Stricken Population of Colorado. Hark is that a cash register I hear? My duty to save the American Christmas Traditions of Merchandisers everywhere beckons me. Everywhere I go I hear that wonderful non productive cough. I wonder can you catch the Flu twice or am I now immune? What if this strain mutates into another different strain? Wait it already did that. Boy, am I glad I got a Flu shot. Off to the Mall I go now to single handedly save the Economy with my credit cards.

Sleep Deprivation

Sleep Deprivation is torturing me on a regular basis. I remember being 17 and sleeping for 11 to 12 hours at a whack. Now I am lucky to get 6 or 7 hours and the norm is more like 4 or 5. The older I get the busier I am. Then I add a 3 year old and a 19 month old into the mix and sleep is a lost cause. I go through a lot of days in a haze faking it until I make it to bed. When I do finally slow down, I get sucked into my Powerbook, or get pulled into an existing project that needs more work. I always seem to wake up when it gets dark, what is that all about?. The best time for me to sleep is when I am supposed to be at work. If only I had some secret way to sleep while I was at work it would make everything so much easier. Right, like that is ever going to happen.

I worked on cataloging pictures in iView Media Pro 2 last night and the more I use it the more I like it. It puts iPhoto’s filing structure to shame. In iPhoto all the pictures you import are stored in iPhoto’s hierarchal folders. They go YEAR_MONTH_DAY so when I take pictures everyday it categorizes them by that day. If I want to manage my folders with a file browser other than iPhoto you have to dig through layer after layer after layer to look at the original files. It offers no opportunity to manage them by category unless you create that in iPhoto. That works great until you have 5000 pictures cataloged in iPhoto then it turns into a PIG. It drove me crazy until I discovered iView. Now I create folders on my Hard Drive and organize by category, not date. It gives me the ability to scan large folders all at once instead of a folder for every day of every month. Open Close Open Close Open Close Open Close Open Close AAAaargh if anyone knows a better way or I missed something in iPhoto let me know. I hate this part of iPhoto. Oh Yeah, I forgot that I am stupid. Do yourself a favor and go look at iView if you are managing large quantities of images. Heck, Go look at iView if you are not, because you will be if you own a digital camera. The only thing that I can promise is that digital files procreate faster than rabbits.

Boggled

I am continually amazed at how Boggled I am by technology. I have been boggled by my PC’s, boggled by Photoshop, boggled by my home network, boggled that almost everything I wanted to do was harder than it needed to be. I considered myself reasonably intelligent, and then I bought my first PC (1991). I thought I was stupid, nothing did what I wanted it to do. I recovered and bought several more over the next decade. Still Stupid, still trying to do what I wanted to no avail. Time went by and I wanted to scan my own photos into Digital files so I went and bought a Photo Printer and a Scanner for my slides. I scanned and printed my first pictures and they looked like crap. I thought I was Stupid, again. I recovered again, bought a Nikon Coolpix 990, and tried to figure out why my Photo skills had suddenly abandoned me. I was stupid AGAIN. Yet again, I came back from the edge and bought a Nikon D100. This time I was going to be smart and got a couple of books to help. It Rocks that I don’t have to buy film or pay for developing, it sucks that now I am the Photo lab. Where did I end up? Same result, yep I am definitely stupid. After a couple of months I became delusional and thought that, I could regain my intelligence, so I went and bought an Apple Powerbook and a copy of Photoshop. What? Yep I am getting smarter. Started learning and using Photoshop, figured out how to profile my printer, calibrated my monitor, learned about ICC profiles and why I needed them, sent my pictures to the lab after installing the profile from the printer, with a target print in hand started printing. Woo Hoo! Not perfect but a MAJOR improvement. Yep, getting smarter everyday. I was and will continue to be boggled by technology, my camera, my printer, even on occasions my Powerbook (usually because I over think it) but there is hope that I can get to where I need to go now. At least I am moving in the right direction. Day to day my workflow improves and becomes better organized and more efficient. I am learning how to conquer Photoshop CS, Nikon View, Nikon Capture, and my favorite iView Media Pro 2. I am confident enough that I thought I would throw a little Typepad into the mix as I go forward. The absolute worst thing that can happen is that I get stupid again. Hopefully I can make some progress in my photography skills and keep others from getting stupid. At the very least maybe, they can have some consolation that they are not alone in their stupidity.