Category Archives: News

Family News, News

Weekend wrap-up

1 Comment

Getting ready to go to bed after a busy three-day weekend.  We swam every day, which was great.  Today Kevin and I took Socks for a walk just before the parade kicked off, and I decided we’d walk to Library Park, since the parade route goes around the park.  I figured it would give us the most exposure to the sirens so Socks could sing like he always does when he hears sirens.  As it turned out, we ran into Brittany and her family, and tried sitting next to them in a good spot to watch the parade, but Socks wasn’t having any of it.  He was way over-heated as it was, and just couldn’t sit still, panting and pacing constantly.  I was a little concerned he might collapse again, like he did the other day, and the spot we picked, in the bright sunlight on fully browned, hot grass, certainly didn’t help.  Brittany was nice enough to give us juice boxes and chips, but we just couldn’t stay there–Socks needed some kind of relief.  So we walked around the park, and Socks stopped several times in shady areas to rest.  That helped a lot, and he managed to make it the rest of the way without issue.

Once the rescue vehicles came around, marking the official start of the parade, we were very disappointed to find that they weren’t doing their constant blaring sirens we always get a thrill from.  That was the main reason we went down there–so watch Socks sing.  After they all went quietly by with only lights flashing, we left, very disappointed, and didn’t even want to stay and watch the parade.  We beat the crowds, walked home straight away, and then Kevin, Tyler, and I went swimming at Rec-Plex for the rest of the afternoon.  I figured, with everyone at the parade, it shouldn’t be very busy at Rec-Plex, and I was right–Hardly anyone was there, so we had a very nice swim.  I did another 10 reverse laps in the current channel, then some hot tub, and then we played in the swim lanes for awhile.

After swimming we picked up Matt and went to George’s for a nice chicken supper that Sandy prepared.  Overall, it was a very nice weekend, except that Sandy couldn’t enjoy it with us–she was at George’s all weekend while Rick is up North camping.

Oh–and I removed the “wood paneling” from my website temporarily, and replaced it with a swimming collage instead…I figured with the local ban on all open fires in all public places in Kenosha because of the heat wave, I’d do my part to protect my own website from disaster… HA! You see what I did right there?

Family News

Doggie down!

1 Comment

Lakefront WalkTy, Kevin, Socks and I walked around the lakefront this morning.  It was close to 3 miles, but I missed the first chunk of it on my map, because I didn’t realize my GPS was turned off at first.  We got close to where the 2-mile marker is on my map, when socks walked up to a tree and collapsed!  He just flopped over onto his side, panting heavily.  Ty tried to pick him up to carry him the rest of the way, but he got angry and started snapping.  So we waited for a few minutes and then he got up and was ok for the rest of the walk.  Poor dog just walked himself out.  He’s getting old though, we’ll have to ease up on him a bit, especially in the heat we’ve had lately.  He’d never survive in Arizona!

Internet, Photography, Website News

Flickr Backup

Leave a comment

This morning I decided I wanted a create a few photo collages for my website’s header using all of the photos from a specific photo set I have in Flickr–“Swimming at Rosemary’s”.  Since all of these photos were taken on all different dates and years, I didn’t have a single “local” copy of them all in one place, like they are on Flickr–all of my local photos are organized by date taken, and also include all of my “garbage” photos (bad takes, out of focus, etc.)–which are kept for use in photo mosaics when I need them (they make great fillers).  So I set out to find a way to download an entire set of photos from Flickr.  Flickr itself has a lot of options, but this isn’t one of them.

Most utilities of this sort that I found are apps–they’re for Android, iOS, and Windows Phone.  After some searching, I found what I was looking for: FlickrEdit for the PC.  I downloaded it, and it’s not even an installer, just an exe that runs immediately.  It’s very straightfoward and easy to use.  It even connected directly to my Flickr account, only asking for Authorization from Flickr to access my account, which I was already logged into.  Once I accepted, it started loading my thumbnails.  It displays 50 photos per page, so you don’t have to wait for entire sets to load, if you have more than 50 photos in a set.  You can simply select the photos you want to download, or select an entire set, then download it to a specific folder.  It’s pretty quick too–it downloaded my entire “Swimming at Rosemary’s” set (302 photos) all at their original sizes, in about 20 minutes.

FlickrEdit is a really nice app, and it’s a relief to know I now have it available for those times when I need a complete set of photos from my Flickr account, and just knowing there’s a simple method available if I need some disaster recovery of all of my photos some day.  I added a couple new photo collages to my website header, so you’ll probably see them up there once in awhile.  For a few days though, while it’s still super-hot and dry around here, I’m going to leave it on one of them as a static header, just to chill.

News

More swimming

Leave a comment

I wasn’t sure we’d get any swimming in at all today.  The storm heading toward us was huge, and the sky looked pretty threatening, but it must have all went around us, or dissipated, because we ended up not seeing a drop of rain, and all the lawns remain brown.  Kinda looks like Arizona around here now, except for a few neighbors that water their lawns daily.  We even have a burning ban in effect now, and can’t even use grills in the parks “until further notice”.  Even our own firepit is loaded with brush and kindling, but we can’t have a fire because it’s just too dangerous with everything so dry.

Tyler was also much later than we expected, so it was pretty late, but we managed to get a couple hours of swimming in at Woody’s after all.  This time it was Kevin, Tyler and I, and the squishy ball fights were in full force!  I think we all took several pretty solid smacks to the face before all was said and done.  Rosemary took a few photos, and they turned out pretty funny.  It took 3 takes to get a good group shot with everyone smiling, but she got it done!  Take a look.

Take 1
Take 1
Take 2
Take 2
Take 3
Take 3
News

Sweat n swim

Leave a comment

Swimming at Woody'sSocks near the poolOver the weekend, Kevin, Socks and I walked from home to Woody’s.  It was a good hike, and it was very refreshing to dive into her awesome pool after such a long walk!  It was Socks’ first time there, so he was pretty nervous at first, but he calmed down eventually and relaxed, watching us swim from under the picnic table most of the time.

Website News

New theme might be a keeper!

3 Comments

Wow, I found this theme this morning–“Adventure Journal”, and I really like it!  It displays my collages prominently, and has really cool effects using wood textures, shadows and paper strip effects that I like.  Please excuse the detailed description, I’m just elaborating more because I’m thinking further into the future–when I might change themes again, and people might be confused (including myself) seeing a completely different theme & layout than what I am talking about right now.  I might also want to revisit this theme later, and I tend to forget things easily, what with my “CRS” and all, so this will remind me.

I added 10 different photo collages to the header so far, all but one of them are from our Arizona vacation we took this year.  A random collage is displayed every time you load the webpage.

News

Odd Shift

Leave a comment

I think this is the oddest shift I’ve ever worked that this job.  I have to work 3:00am to 7:00am this morning, then I’m working from 7:00pm to 11:00pm this evening.  It’s a VERY split shift!  It was difficult to go to sleep at 7:00pm, but it actually worked out ok and I slept good. I guess everyone in the house kept pretty quiet.  I think it helped to get up at 5:00am Saturday, just to get a jump on the day.  Well, here goes… got my Emeril’s Big Easy Bold in-hand and I’m ready to head to work.  (It doesn’t compare with a Vente White Mocha Quad-shot, but it’s close!)

News

Big “I”

2 Comments

Big "I"I drew a big “I” today, walking at lunch. It’s a little crooked in spots, due to me having to walk around obstacles and trying not to fall down when walking through the lumpy grass in Victory Park. Wearing Shape-Ups (curved, instead of standard flat shoes) makes walking on bumpy terrain pretty dangerous. Anyway, with those factors and the usual inaccuracies of GPS, I’m left with a “drunken I”. But just imagine what I could write out in the desert with a lot of space and very few obstacles to get in my way! Some day I’ll find out. It’ll be kinda like one of those hidden things found in Google Earth.

News, Website News

He’s at it again

1 Comment

Just like old times, I’m playing with the layout of my site again. Bear with me. I sure could use some outside input though, if you don’t mind commenting. A lot of things have changed since I last played with the options, so it’s kinda fun to get back into it and tinker. All the content stays put, but the entire look and feel can change dramatically.

News

My PicPlz Leftovers

Leave a comment

Here they are.  After I deleted the garbage, I was left with 22 photos from PizPlz.  I didn’t bother with adding the date & times or the geotagging, it was difficult just to decipher the date and time from the data files included in the zip with the photos, so I didn’t bother.  The only one I would be curious about is the “Friggin COLD!” photo taken at Wolfenbuttel Park.  So I checked the EXIF info.  That one was taken 11/20/2010, at 4:35pm.

Internet, News, Technology

PicPlz and Meebo are closing up shop. Who’s next?

Leave a comment

It’s so sad to see some of my favorite apps going away.  PicPlz – Android’s competitor to Instagram – is going away.  I got the notice to download my photos last week.  I only had a few dozen pics on it, so I’m now in the process of moving them to my Flickr account.  This week it’s Meebo.  Meebo was an IM service, but it was unique in that it also logged you into most other popular IM services and combined their features into a single app, so you only had to login to Meebo to connect to all of your messenger apps.  Needing only one messenger login but having accounts on many of them was pretty sweet.

I think SMS is getting to so popular now, it’s starting to take over as the messenger of choice.   Especially now that you can send pictures through it.  Meebo and PicPlz had another major thing in common though:  They both required some processing and storage, yet they were completely free services.  Whether this factor had anything to do with their demise, I don’t know, but I think it’s an interesting coincidence.

Keep that in mind whenever you start relying heavily on a particular app or service… Do you pay for the service?  If not, be warned.  The service may not be around in the future, if they don’t have a continuous profitable channel of funding.  As for Facebook, it’s not free.  As they say, “If you’re not paying for a product, YOU are the product.”  Facebook is selling you to its advertisers.  Advertisers pay good money to make sure you see the specific ads that appear on the Facebook pages you visit.  And when you start playing one of their games…JACKPOT!  The advertiser and Facebook both make a bundle!

Don’t worry though, Facebook will probably be around for years.  As long as their “products” continue to earn them a lot of money.  But as soon as enough people get smart enough to “do their own thing”, get their own blog or find a better service to connect with their friends and family, then Facebook will have some tough decisions to make.  It’s public now though, which means it’s owned by more that just one or a few people, so does that make it better or worse?  Less likely to fold, or more likely?  I don’t know.  I just wish I could pay a few bucks a month for an ad-free, game-free version of Facebook.  I’d sure feel more comfortable with that than I do with what they have now.

News

Walks…and everything else for the past 4 years

Leave a comment

So, continuing with my Facebook negativity, you won’t be seeing my daily walk posts there any more either. They will, however, continue to appear in the “Latest Photos” block on the right sidebar on my website, as they always have. These are snapshots of my walks, which I try to post daily. It motivates me to “draw something” every day on my walk, using CardioTrainer’s GPS mapping capabilities. Everyone else can feel free to use the “Post to Facebook” option in the “Share the knowledge!” block below my posts on this site–I, however, won’t be re-posting my own posts on Facebook like I have in the past. I feel one post on the web is enough, why overdo it? Besides, I have so much better control over how my content looks and acts to the public on my own site, unlike Facebook.

And shhhh… I’m not doing anything like “announcing” that I’m abandoning Facebook as my “last Facebook post” or anything… It’ll just be like I’ve just sorta “disappeared” to some people.  Just you and I know what really happened though, cause you’re nice enough to stop over here once in awhile and look at my site.  Sure, socially it’s probably a step backward, sort of.  But I’ll actually be posting more often, now that I only have just one single place to concern myself with.

And I’m sure I’ll still stay up on everyone else’s Facebook statuses, since that’s the way they prefer to keep in touch.  I just won’t be updating my status there.  Speaking of statuses, my website is missing nearly all of my Facebook posts!  Time to fix that.  Ever hear of “Give me my data”?  It allows you to find and backup all of your Facebook data!  Seriously.  Everything you’ve posted on Facebook, every check-in, every like, link, photo, all of it–is right there, ready to grab and save in many different formats.  Keep in mind that this data includes EVERYTHING too though… all the behind-the-scenes information collected for each transaction as well, so it can look a bit complicated, but that’s how everything works behind-the-scenes, so it’s also very interesting… for ME, anyway.  So here’s all my Facebook posts, plan and simple, straight from the data.  Wow, this is 4 whole years of posts – 2009 to 2012 – and there’s only 67 of them!  The date stamp is a little oddly formatted, but you can read it ok.   Here goes – 4 years of my life – BAM:

 

2009-07-20T05:43:29-07:00 Careful with those stupid sidebar ads… I clicked on the one to make a cartoon “tattoo” of myself… turns out it installed a “fast browser search” addon on my PC that was a bit difficult to get rid of!
2009-07-20T05:44:04-07:00 So much for trust Facebook addons…
2009-07-30T18:45:11-07:00 Sandy was on the Channel 7 (Chicago) news last night.  She went to the vigil for the Shirl’s Custard Stand employee who was killed and Channel 7 interviewed her.  I’m trying to edit & transfer the video- so I’ll post it on jimtrottier.com here once I get
2010-03-26T05:09:06-07:00 This might be a stupid question- but where can I find my frinds list on Facebook??? I just don’t understand why this very simple task can be so hard to find.  I click on “Friends” under “News Feed” under my photo and I can SEARCH for friends- but my curent list of friends isn’t there.  Under “Friends Online” there’s a “See All” option and that just brings up some chat box that wants me to create a friends list.
2010-04-23T08:04:28-07:00 Anybody see the recent Facebook episode of Southpark?  Wow- another classic!  They really nailed it- just like they did with their World of Warcraft episode – Make Love not Warcraft.
2010-05-07T16:36:07-07:00 Brianna had her baby just minutes ago.  Her name is Tessa Jade.  She is 6 pounds- 13 ounces- and 19 inches long!  Brianna was in labor since 11:30pm last night! Wow!
2010-08-03T16:09:42-07:00 is Going to watch the last two episodes of Reaper – Season 1 tonight!
2010-08-19T18:55:38-07:00 My website is down.  Everything is lost.  It was hacked- and my host says their policy is to wipe the entire site out- then unlock it so I can rebuild it.  Nice.  I’m already in the process of switching hosts- and I’m working up a good rant about my old host. TOTALCHOICEHOSTING SUCKS!  Come on over to jimtrottier.com (in 24-48 hours when it’s fully transferred) and watch me rant.
2010-08-29T05:34:53-07:00 has just joined SourceCoast. Home of the best Facebook Connect and Joomla integration component- JFBConnect. (http://www.sourcecoast.com/)
2010-09-01T16:44:43-07:00 Car show this Sunday! We’ll be there! he Southern Wisconsin 82nd Airborne Division Association will hold its  seventh annual Car Show from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. Sunday- Sept. 5- at  Simmons Island- 50th Street and Fourth Avenue.  Cars- trucks-  motorcycles and military vehicles from all years are welcome. The fee to  enter a vehicle is $10. There is no fee for spectators.
2010-10-09T10:51:53-07:00 I’m listening to The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World (Unabridged) Part 1 by David Kirkpatrick on my Audible for iPhone app.
2010-10-10T18:57:44-07:00 Dexter was awesome tonight!
2010-10-17T18:57:10-07:00 Dexter’s got a partner!
2010-10-26T14:18:14-07:00 Listening to “Love Theme From the Godfather” by The Godfather Soundtrack and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com
2010-10-26T14:50:09-07:00 Listening to “It Won’t Be Like This For Long” by Darius Rucker and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com
2010-10-26T19:05:31-07:00 Listening to “I`m Going Home” by Hootie & the Blowfish and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com
2010-10-27T08:33:19-07:00 Listening to “Lithium” by Evanescence and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/5pcq
2010-10-27T20:34:50-07:00 Listening to “Mad World (American Idol Studio Version)” by Adam Lambert and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/106ua
2010-10-27T20:47:28-07:00 Listening to “Everybodys Fool” by Evanescence and loving it! See the video & lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/1h0gr
2010-11-02T14:05:39-07:00 shout “I voted!” Today to get a badge today (but don’t lie)
2010-11-07T13:41:22-08:00 Walked the indoor track @ RecPlex today.  Found out there’s no GPS reception there for MyTracks- so mapping is useless.  Anybody know of a good pedometer for Android?  None of them work as well as iTreadmill does on the iPhone.
2010-11-07T18:37:42-08:00 I’m sharing my progress using Lose It! (http://www.facebook.com/loseitapp) on Facebook!
2010-11-07T18:42:39-08:00 I spent 1 hour walking. 286. calories burned.
2010-11-13T09:56:15-08:00 Watching SKYLINE!
2010-12-15T12:24:29-08:00 Listening to “My Destination” by Boston and loving it! See the video and lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/16jub
2010-12-20T17:09:00-08:00 Using Google Skymap & waiting for tonight’s lunar eclipse.
2010-12-20T23:01:35-08:00 Too cloudy to see lunar eclipse tonight.  Bummer.
2010-12-24T07:03:15-08:00 Thanks to everyone for the encouragement on my workouts!  With that- and the motivators built into CardioTrainer- it makes it fun and keeps me wanting to do more.  I could do without the wagers it wants me to do for my New Years Resolution though.
2011-01-10T21:25:01-08:00 We just got into bed tonight- saw a bright flash in the window- then heard a boom!  House at 2115 55th Street just blew up!! Listening to the chaos on the scanner right now.
2011-01-15T19:36:48-08:00 Listening to “Secrets” by OneRepublic and loving it! See the video and lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/22hv3
2011-01-23T14:56:35-08:00 GO FREEZER!!
2011-01-23T16:25:10-08:00 Listening to “A Thousand Suns: The Full Experience [Explicit]” by Linkin Park and loving it! Visit http://www.tunewiki.com for more
2011-02-02T04:15:39-08:00 Check your furnace vents!  This has got to be the most-called issue for the fire department during the storm–gas smell in homes due to clogged vents.  And don’t forget your dryer vent as well.
2011-02-02T04:16:59-08:00 This morning’s scheduled Chihuahua Toss has been CANCELED.  He would never make it out alive!
2011-02-12T17:43:49-08:00 Rollover on I94 & hwy 50.  Guy got out and walked away with a head injury.
2011-02-16T05:12:34-08:00 Kenosha’s city garbage men are so considerate…  This morning at 7:00 am they didn’t have a wide enough path due to a couple cars parked on our street- so they sit there and lay on the air horn for about 5 minutes- wake up the entire neighborhood-  until someone comes out and moves their car.  Would want to have to walk a couple extra feet with any trash cans!  Sheesh.
2011-03-04T05:52:43-08:00 Listening to “Last Friday Night (T.G.I.F.) [Explicit]” by Katy Perry and loving it! See the video and lyrics: http://www.tunewiki.com/t/2m35s
2011-03-13T17:43:52-07:00 I keep getting scolded for mispronouncing the Japan city where the reactor is melting down: Fukushima.
2011-03-19T13:15:13-07:00 I’m still walking daily- and checking in everywhere- but Facebook is missing it.  I was told that Facebook often changes their API- which breaks connectivity with many apps- and doesn’t let the developers know what has changed.  Wonderful.  My whole world just falls apart.  Thanks- Facebook.
2011-03-26T09:37:27-07:00 Fascinating scene on Sheridan Road & 67th Street right now — One Northbound lane open- all the rest packed solid with parked police cars.  The funeral for the police officer killed in the line of duty is at Green Ridge Cemetery.  I’m uploading a few photos now…
2011-04-10T16:03:34-07:00 A child fell off the North Pier about 30 min ago… police are still searching the water.
2011-04-10T16:15:54-07:00 They found the child! Loading the ambulance now.  No word on condition yet.
2011-04-21T15:44:34-07:00 The Playstation Network is down- possibly for a day or two.  Kevin is having withdrawal symptoms… He can’t play with his online friends in LBP 😦  He should go back to playing Dodgeball I guess!
2011-05-04T18:20:30-07:00 Jacob Lusk really sucked tonight.  What the heck happened?  He was Sandy’s favorite.
2011-06-02T14:26:47-07:00 Thanks everyone- for the well-wishes on the 19th anniversary of my 29th birthday!  (it sounds much better that way)
2011-06-30T18:28:23-07:00 Wow- tornado just ripped through here or what?!?!  Trees fell all over down- ripped our back screen door half off- security lights shattered…now sirens everywhere and our power is out!
2011-06-30T19:06:34-07:00 Big hole in our neighbors house…wow
2011-10-02T16:23:53-07:00 Just activated Showtime for another season.  All set for the Dexter and Homeland premiers tonight!
2011-10-03T16:35:44-07:00 Woohoo!  Just installed Netflix on my Xoom and it works great!!
2011-11-24T05:43:17-08:00 Hope everyone has a safe and happy Thanksgiving. Please disregard my wife’s warning this morning to not eat too much turkey… GO FOR IT! If you can stay awake through the whole Packer game- you didn’t get enough tryptophan. I’m skipping lunch to save space. Enjoy!
2011-11-24T14:49:37-08:00 Brown Thursday was awesome!!! Hope everyone else’s was just as nice.
2012-01-03T15:03:58-08:00 Matt made supper tonight… His version of a Nafi’s Bigfoot omelet!  It was awesome.  Added 2 drops of Angry Elf- and it was perfect!  Matt- where’s the pic?!
2012-01-19T06:11:57-08:00 Ice cream sandwich for breakfast!!  (Got Android 4 on my Xoom this morning)
2012-01-24T16:51:57-08:00 1 12-oz. Can of V8 + 2 drops of Angry Elf = 1 glass of AWESOME!
2012-02-26T18:49:41-08:00 Go RANGO!  Best animated feature film!
2012-02-26T18:59:30-08:00 Hugo for best visual effects- over Transformers 3- Real Steel- and Planet of the Apes… Guess what I’m picking up Tuesday!
2012-03-17T13:30:14-07:00 Wow- just watched the most bizarre episode of Greys Anatomy ever.  Season 7- Episode 18…. They must have been trying to compete with Glee during sweeps or something.  <insert eye roll here>
2012-03-25T12:18:35-07:00 Headache resolved.  It always drove me nuts how I’d accumulate dozens of notifications in my Motorola Xoom tablet’s tray in Android 4.  Today I found that- instead of flicking off each notification to remove it- there’s an “X” at the bottom of the list.  When you click it- it clears every notification and the list is gone!  Sweet!
2012-03-30T15:32:57-07:00 I received the Android 4.0.4 update on my Xoom today.  It offers improved stability- smoother screen rotation- faster performance- and a bunch of other improvements.  If you’re on Android 4- install this update.
2012-04-01T17:32:14-07:00 Just started reading book 3 of the Hunger Games- “Mockingjay”!!  OMG!  District 13 EXISTS!!
2012-04-05T13:44:52-07:00 Sorry for the map issues with Everytrail today- its not very up-to-date- but its storing everything- so it’ll show up by the end of the trip some time tomorrow.  I’ll try to get pieces up as often as possible.
2012-04-19T16:44:34-07:00 Went to the Dr. today.  Numbers look awesome- and I lost 7 lbs in 2 months.  Thanks Jay & Shell- for not fattening me up in Arizona!  All the sweating probably helped!
2012-04-19T16:54:02-07:00 Almost forgot… we went through South Park- Colorado (actually named Fairplay) on our way back home from Arizona (in case you missed our Foursquare check-in).  Unfortunately it was at night though- so we weren’t able to see much or take pictures.  If it had been during the day though- I’m sure Walter and Achmed would have enjoyed a few more on-camera Kyle- Stan- Kenny and Cartman parody poses.
2012-04-26T09:32:03-07:00 PhilPhil must go home home tonight.
2012-04-30T11:55:16-07:00 Holy crap- today’s 2 o’clock orange nailed my glasses dead center in my good eye!  My wife’s trying to blind me!
2012-05-05T12:59:06-07:00 Got our 2012 assessment: Wow- our property value went DOWN $17-000 this year!  I certainly hope this means less we have to pay in property taxes!  I see how all of those repairs we did last summer really paid off…NOT.  Thanks- City Of Kenosha.  At least now I understand your initials… way to stick it to us!
2012-05-23T19:24:06-07:00 Told ya!
News

Photo collages

Leave a comment

A visit at Hans'A customer of mine turned me onto a new application recently… Microsoft Autocollage 2008!  She was using the trial version and wanted to know if it was safe to use, or if it might have spyware or a virus embedded within it.  I was shocked that this was a Microsoft product I had never heard of before, but it has apparently been out for years.  They’re still selling it, so it hasn’t been abandoned, though it’s still titled “Autocollage 2008”, which most likely means it hasn’t changed in 4 years.

After looking at it a bit and playing with the demo for several days, I decided it was cheap enough for the value it provided, so I went ahead an bought the full version.  It’s very simple to use, and can create excellent results!  You simply feed it a folder full of your photos, and it analyzes them, detects faces in them (and I think objects as well) and then lays them out and blends them together as a collage.  YOU can decide how many photos you want it to use in the collage, and you can also specify “priorities” on the photos you’d most like to include, and it will use those rules when building the collage.  This posting includes a really nice one that I made with it.  The next thing I want to try, is to use turn a collage into an awesome mosaic using AndreaMosaic!

News

Facebook is a mess

Leave a comment

I’m gonna start micro blogging on my site instead of having two places I post all the time.  Facebook is constantly changing and I hate the timeline view.  My site never changes formats, has no ads, and loads much quicker.  I have no visitors either, but that’s nothing new.  So if you’re actually here reading this, thanks for stopping by, and stop by more often.  From now on I’ll be posting here like I normally did daily on Facebook.  Now, if I can just get my Foursquare and Cardiotrainer posts to come here as well, it would be bliss…

News

Nice weekend…On call

Leave a comment

The Kemper-Wolfenbuttel-Heim's-Scoops circuit!Sandy made me an awesome breakfast this morning and even picked up a Starbucks to go along with it (Vente White Mocha Quad-Shot)!  That was only the beginning of a nice day though.  Not exactly perfect, because I’m on call this week, and I did have a few calls from work today, but nothing bad enough that I couldn’t take care of remotely.  So I managed to sneak in a nice lakefront walk this afternoon with Kevin and Socks, in-between IT emergencies.  It was risky, but we managed to clear it without a single phone call or page!  We parked in front of Kemper Center (only because the line of parked cars went from Wolfenbuttel Park–where we usually park–all the way down to Kemper) and walked to Wolfenbuttel, Eichelman (missed that one on my Facebook post, in case anyone noticed), then West to Heim’s Downtown Toy Store, then Scoops Ice Cream.  (see map for details). Kevin had a vanilla one-scoop m&m cone with a bubble gumball in the bottom (free with his Gold Card from being on the honor roll at school) and I had a water.  Then we took 6th Avenue-A, walked past Library Park, and back to Kemper.

It was a very nice walk on an almost-perfect day.  The beach and parks were very busy.  We would have went swimming at Rec-Plex or at Woody’s if I hadn’t been on call this weekend.  That would have been pushing it though, and I know I would have definitely gotten paged if we had.  That’s the way it works, and that’s just my luck.  I’m hoping next weekend is just as nice, so we can include a little swimming in the mix.  We’ll see.

News

Milwaukee Zoo

Leave a comment

I just posted a bunch of photos from Kevin’s field trip to the Milwaukee Zoo we took last Monday.  I chaperoned a group of six 8th-graders (including Kevin), along with another father.  It was a good time.  Lots of walking and ogling of animals.  I took over 500 photos because I stayed in burst mode most of the time.  It enables me to get several continuous shots of the same subject, then later when I view them I can pick out the best ones for posting on the web.  Here they are, my 56 best out of over 500.  I just wish more of the animals had been awake.  Many of them were just sleeping and hiding.  I guess it all depends on when you go. All in all it was a fun trip though.

News

Yesterday

Leave a comment

Another walk to Heim'sWe had a nice walk to Heim’s Toy store yesterday.  Kevin loves drooling over all of the toys, and since Socks and I always enjoy a good walk, we chose it as our destination again.

Speaking of Heim’s, a few weeks ago I ordered Kevin a “Newton’s Cradle” from Amazon.  He had been asking for one for a long time, and Heim’s said they had them but they were out of stock.  They took our number and said they’d call us when they came in.  After several weeks with no calls from them, I gave up and ordered one for him as a surprise.  It came this week, and he likes it.  Well, when we were at Heim’s yesterday, we window-shopped, and noticed that they have a whole shelf full of Newton’s Cradles–even two different models!  So where’s our phone call?!  Not that we’re interested any more, since we already bought one elsewhere, but that’s not the point.  Oh well.  I guess they don’t need sales as much as we thought they did.

Another thing we just have to do when we go to Heim’s is stop and see the cats.  There’s a cat adoption agency right around the corner from Heim’s and they have a large bay window.  The cats lounge all throughout the place, including on all their cat furniture located in the window.  So we just go by and say hi, and see what antics they’re up to.  Yesterday, however, another couple was there…using a laser pointer!  Cats and laser pointers work well together, apparently.  This was really funny to watch.  Sandy, who stopped to pick us up when we were done, decided to join in on the fun, and pulled out the laser pointer she has on her keychain.  Try TWO laser pointers on a dozen cats in a single room!  Then hold up a chihuahua for them to see…  Ah, good times.

AnfFest 2012Oh yeah, ice cream and ants.  We stopped at Scoops next to Heim’s and had two scoops each.  It kinda reverses the reason for the walk, but it was fun.  I had a scoop of bubble gum and a scoop of chocolate chip cookie dough.  Kevin had two scoops of Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough.  Sandy had a scoop of peach and a scoop of strawberry, I think.  And between Heim’s and the cat house, we ran across this.  Yeek!  I’m not sure what was under there, but the ants sure love it, whatever it is!

On another note, Kevin also now calls squirrels by looking around whispering “tic-tac! tic-tac!”  He seems to think squirrels like these things now.  Thanks, Pat!