March 2004 Archives

I've had 3 separate people tell me they've tried to post comments and got a message saying they couldn't. Sorry about that. You should be able to comment again. But let me explain:

In case you don't know, there is this weblog scourge called 'comment spam'. What happens is the vast and seething throngs of greedy internet entrepreneurs are constantly on the lookout for ways to boost the website search scores for their male-enhancement creams, salves and pills. So they find any and all available weblogs with comment systems and start randomly posting messages that range from cryptic to x-rated and include a link to their poxy website. Spreading their spore like this apparently helps boost their website ratings with search engines like Google and Yahoo and whatever.

So everytime a message gets posted referring people to Big-n-Smiley dot com, I have to delete it asap before you guys are unfortunate enough to read it, and then I block the internet IP address it came from. It looks like I added a wildcard IP by accident and ended up blocking everybody. So I removed that.

In the next couple months, the MoveableType software I'm using should get an upgrade that will put a stop to this. It requires you to register before commenting. Hopefully it won't be a pain to do that.

This'll be brief.

I had a dream last night, unlike any I recall having before. It was a longish dream that centered around slowly coming to the realization that I was schizophrenic. I was having a horrible time communicating with people and understanding them--what's new, right? And as I tried to figure out why, I started to realize I wasn't seeing and hearing the same things they were. And if I concentrated really hard, objects that I thought were before me would slowly morph into what was actually there. But as soon as I relaxed, they would transform into something else. Something my mind was making up for me. Bleah. Most unsettling.

Last weekend was a Phoenix weekend. Saturday, we went to Amber and Jason's wedding. Scott and Marie, my brother and sister in law, are Amber's parents. They are also caterers. Which was really nice because they concoct some awesome vittles and of course they catered the reception. My kids, in their typical fussiness, wouldn't touch anything but the croissants...and the chocolate cheesecake. Giselle made instant friends with the flower girls. They were all dressed in High Princess, which puts a fairytale joy and whistfullness on everything. So they skipped and danced all over the huge back yard where the event unfolded.

Amanda coaxes Harrison out of traffic

Giselle and Beverly enacting the Rose Petal Princess Dance

But soon the time came for the kids to sneak into the house where one or two of the girls lived. How could I not be nervous? But there were 6 or 7 of them milling around in there, so it was hard to say no. A little while later I noticed Amanda peeking through the arcadia door to check up on things, and heard her say, "Hey BOY! You're walkin' MIGHTY funny..." The blood drained out of my face. Good old Harrison had gone and moistened the closet in the girls' bedroom. My fault. I wasn't running spigot ops with him and his O-rings didn't hold. So Amanda sopped and scrubbed while I grabbed dry pants bagged the soilage. It's really something I'd rather forget, but I know I won't, so why not put it in print. :-I

Sunday morning I was looking forward to some of Scott's coffee-deglazed scrambled eggs for breakfast. But Giselle chewed him out so bad for adding coffee the last time that they decided to make them plain this time. :: grumble grumble GISELLE grumble grumble ::

After breakfast, the kids and I left Amanda behind to catch up with her family, and we went to visit my sister and her kids. This is a rapturous pilgrimage for Giselle. Her cousin Atticus is just a few days younger than her, and they might as well be twins separated at birth. Every day for the prior two weeks was a big production of counting down the days on the calendar until we "...GO TO SEE ATTICUS!!!!!" I feel kind of bad because Ophelia only gets mentioned once for every ten times her older brother does.

We took them all to the Wildlife World Zoo which is way out West of Phoenix.

Harrison, Atticus, Giselle and Ophelia (Jessica's gut in the background)

Flying critters

Horned varmit

Sign that at first glance threw Jessica for a loop

Donny plays Flake for us after zoo time

We got some unexpectedly heavy bouts of snow today. Nothing stuck until the sun went down, but now it's smearing on the frosting. So I should get another opportunity to practice my hand-brake cornering in the morning. (heheheh) All the Phoenix news stations were out of their minds covering HAILSTORM 2004! with the bugeyed weather guys out on harrowing streets picking up lumpy piles of pea-hail from the gutters while holding golf balls next to it to demonstrate that, no, it isn't really the big stuff.

Our niece, Amber, is getting married this weekend, so we're going to cruise down to Phoenix, and hopefully all the massive hail-drifts will have melted and we won't get stuck and end up cursing ourselves for not signing up with AAA.

Some freelance jobs from a couple months ago finally ponied up, and I made a move on a digital camera. It's a Canon EOS 300D. I've been wanting to get away from film for a while now. Because:
A) As we speak, I've got 9 rolls of film from the past year decaying on the bookshelf because I never get around to getting them developed.
B) Even when I do send them in, the old 'instant gratification isn't soon enough' thing pops up
3) 6 megapixels will give me as much enlargement potential as I've had with print film anyway
iv) I'm all about long exposure & special effects shots, and now I don't have to wait 2 years to finally see if I got it right. Shooting lightning this summer will be excellent--no wasted film, just one shot after another until I get something good. (booyah)

The night after the camera came in, I did one 30-second test exposure of the night sky with the floodlights of the neighborhood cement factory hazing everything out, and I could still pull lots of detail from the image.

(Note: Contrast was coaxed, saturation boosted a bit & unsharp masking applied)
I think that's Jupiter I got all overexposed in the lower left.