Monthly Archives: April 2006

Photography

Duty and Passion

The preacher at our church is in Romania this week doing missions work, so today we had a pinch-preacher.  He seemed a good man, conversant with the Word, and delivered a good message.  His message was about the heart, not the physical heart, but the metaphysical heart.  Of note to me was a comment about passion and duty.

He made the point that so much of what we do, scurrying about upon the surface of this little globe, is done of duty.  Things are done because of schedules, obligations, expectations — all duties, dispatched well, but not what moves us.  Instead, we need to strive to do things that we’re passionate about, things that move us and inspire us.  Because they stir our hearts, it’s those things we’ll do well.  They are the things that we’ll dispatch as a labor of love, and that will further fuel the passionate stir within.  And those are the kinds of things that can be best used for service in the church.

Like I said, a good message.  And I didn’t even get the paraphrasing complete!

But it spoke to me, and with a great volume!  I know the activity I’m most passionate about, and that’s photography — duh!  :-)  Now, how to fuel that passion?  Well, my exhibit is one.  Talking and working with other photographers (the little clique of photographers that’s sprung up at work, seminars like DLWS) is another.  And frankly, just working through issues here in my blog is yet another.  All this keeps the flames stiring within me and that’s a terrific feeling.

In the end though, I would love to find some way of providing God service through this fire that is my photography.  I have no idea how my photography could help the work of our church or beyond, but if there was a way, that’d be something pretty special.

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

The D-Link Gets a Reprieve

A week or two ago, I was lamenting the lack of ssh on the D-Link NAS (DSM-G600) I bought last year. I wanted badly to use rsync and its cool ssh interface to sync up the archive from the Quad to the little NAS. Well, as I was on the verge of ripping the 400Gb drive from the NAS and installing it in a external enclosure for use with the Quad, a solution dawned on me.

The NAS is surely just being mounted by Tiger on the Quad, so undoubtedly there was a way to do that from the command line, and then have rsync access it just like it was a local drive. After a little searching on Google, I found the command needed to mount the little NAS:

mount_smbfs – W {workgroup_name} //{user}@{NAS_device}/{remote_share} {local_mountpoint}

This has allowed me to pull of an rsync from the Quad to the NAS:

/usr/bin/rsync –progress –stats –recursive –times -og –delete –size-only {local_source} {NAS_target}

What coolness is that!

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

Apples Aweigh!

Yesterday brought the long-awaited announcement of the new Apple MacBook Pro laptop — the 17″ version.  However, there was no mention of the long rumored iBook replacement.

This new MacBook Pro is a beast, and really seems like a great box for doing photoediting.  The screen resolution is the same as my 20″ monitor on the Quad.  Verra nice!  Add to that an Intel DuoCore, 1Gb of RAM and 120Gb HDD, and you’re talking a spiffy piece of hardware.  One inch thick and weighing about 6.8 pounds, the beast is expensive (retail is $2799), but it is oh-so-capable!

Still, I’ll wait for the iBook replacement.  I think the 13.3″ screen (rumored size) will suit me better, and would be better for lugging around.  Maybe soon……

General

Berner Walk

Harriet set up a walk for St. Louis Berner folk today — what a glorious day for it!  The weather was superb, with a cloud-covered sky, and temperatures in the 60s.  The pups loved it!

I love getting around a bunch of these gentle giants.  I think I was set for life when we took Molly to the speciality in West Virginia back in ’02.  That probably ruined me for other breeds, although I still have a high appreciation for the big hairy dogs:  Newfoundlands, Great Pyrenees and Leonbergers.  Guess I like dogspit and dogfur, eh?

Anyway, the walk today was great, with more than a dozen of the big ol’ dogs showing up for a couple of hours of walking and fellowship in the park.  This is the first time we’ve had one of these events in about three years, and it was great to see Berners we hadn’t seen since then.  Folks even remembered Molly — she was laid up from her TPO surgeries the last time most of these folks had seen her — and asked after her health.

As all good things do, this event had to wrap up.  No fights, only a couple of grumbles from dogs getting a little too close for comfort with others — that’s a cool thing.

So Harriet, when’s the next get-together?  🙂

General

Breakfast Club

This morning, Beck and I met Don and Chris for breakfast at the Bread Co.  We’ve worked with both of them before, and when they worked with us, we’d have these fantastic lunches with a topic of discussion for the day.  The only rule in those days was that we couldn’t talk about work.

This morning was so reminiscent of those days.  We discussed poetry, photography, wood working, politics, safety on the internet, and loads of other topics — including the various kind of work that we’re each involved in.  I hadn’t realized how much I missed those mental gymnastics!  They both have terrific, grounded views of the world, and I really enjoy bouncing ideas off them.

Perhaps this should be a periodic breakfast meeting?  That’d be cool!

General

My Love-Hate Relationship with Caffeine

Last night, I went over to Stage Left to meet Leigh (owner) and talk about my upcoming exhibit.  While there, I tried a nice Sumatran coffee.  Delicious!

Now, I’ve decaffeinated over the last six weeks or so, and within 45 minutes I could feel the go-juice coursing through me.  I spent the rest of the evening doing photoprocessing and printing, and it just seemed like I was worked faster.

I love what caffeine does to me.  I hate what caffeine does to me.

I know caffeine is a stim, and I know it keeps me awake at night — I have enough problem trying to sleep without that added to the mix — but I sure feel like I’m firing on all cylinders when it’s running through me.  The challenge I have, as with almost anything in my life, is that it’s either “not at all” or “all the time” for almost eveything I do — there is no middle ground, no moderation.

So when I start doing caffeine, I do caffeine.  Not such a good thing.

It was interesting though to feel the effect of a good caffeinated coffee for a while last night.  Maybe I’ll just save the Real Joe for crunch times and deadlines.  Seems like a good “medicinal” use of the stuff, eh?  🙂

Photography

Exhibit!

“Thanks for the peek into your work. It’s great and we’d love to feature you
in our space.”

And with those words, I have been booked into the first exhibit of my photography. I’m so excited I could just pop!

Lenny had pointed me to the owner of a local coffee shop, the Stage Left Espresso Bar and Cafe, whom I e-mailed last week. Lenny is always looking for places to show his work, and has been trying to give me the proverbial kick in the seat to get my work exhibited. Being that I’m still a bit shy about my work, he’s been trying to throw me some opportunities, and this was one.

Tonight I received an e-mail to let me know that she would like to exhibit my work for the month of August. The whole month! To say I’m excited is probably the grandest understatement of the century! Watch the sidebar for more information about the exhibit as I fill in the holes about the engagement.

Anyone who’s read my blog for any length of time knows that I really credit my father for kindling my passion for photography both in life and death. Dad was at one time a commercial photographer, and had been taking photos for all my life. It was only after he was gone that I found the torch he carried, and began hoisting it up on my own.

So it’s very meaningful to me that my first exhibit will encompass the date that would’ve been his 66th birthday (August 18th). I can think of no finer expression of my appreciation for his wonderful gift of photography than to honor him by holding this exhibit.

This one’s for you, Dad.

Apple Existence, Geek-Speak

DNS Again

In doing a little looking around at putting a DNS server here in the house, I started finding some info that seems to have revealed part of the root-cause of the (apparent) DNS problems I was having a month or so ago.

In a nutshell, browsing in Apple-land requires a lot of DNS calls.  And they ain’t cached.

On macosxhints, I found an article that describes this dilemma, and details what seems like a decent solution.

So tonight, I’ll be goofing on the Quad and trying to speed up my web experience.  Woo-hoo!

Politics

I’m Tryin’ Not to Be a Cynic, But….

Man, the world is getting weirder by the day, and I can feel the effect on me growing.  It’s exactly that effect that I shed successfully in the ’04 Dash through the Desert vacation.  As a refresher, for two weeks, I paid no attention to the world — no news, no newspapers.  The only newslike thing I paid attention to was The Weather Channel to ensure that we would be safe for the next day’s drive.

And the world got along just fine without me nursemaiding it.

Two years later, I’m back to some of my old ways:  I’m paying attention again.  And, ugh, is the world an icky place right now.

There’s talk of plans for using tactical nukes against Iran.

Gas prices keep eating more and more money out my budget.  It’s up about 60 cents a gallon since this time last month.

Precious metals are being gobbled up by folks that are proclaiming the end of financial civilization as we know it.

Global warming — despite the best attempts by the Bush loyalists to deny it — appears to really be having an effect on the climate.

More and more jobs that require the use of brains, not braun, are going overseas, including an incredible number in my current industry.

The US has just about everyone in the world ticked off at us for one thing or another:  Kyoto, Iraq, Gitmo, SUVs, capitalism.  And there’s a new cause and someone else to add to the list of Enemies of the State on a daily basis.

I don’t like it.  I’m very nervous about where we are as a globe full of mammals, not unlike the early 80s when I endured the weight of the Reagan administration upon my young brain, and what I thought was inevitable mutually-assured-destruction with the Soviets.

So I’m trying not to become a cynic… again.  I’m trying to avoid watching the news, as it’s all contentious, depressing and frankly, is not much more than opposing viewpoint holders yelling at each other incessantly.

I need to focus on what gives me joy — my family, my photography — and try to ignore the impact of the world upon me.  I need to ensure that what gets me down doesn’t encroach on what gets me up, and that I allow those things that are good for my soul and spirit to take root and grow.

Family

Easter

Today is Easter Sunday — the day celebrated as recognition of Jesus’ resurrection.

This morning, Sio, Beck and I went to church.  First Baptist of Ellisville is really a nice church, and I love the contemporary service.  It reminds me so much of the old days, when I would visit the little church on Brainerd Road, and listen to Azariah perform on Friday nights.  These were great times, and this church’s comtemporary service really brings that back to me.  Sio says that it’s “cool”.

After taking Sio home, Beck and I did a little yard work, and started preparing for a family event at Cousin Mark’s.  I love going to these things.  When I married Beck, it’s like I suddenly gained dozens and dozens of family members, and they’ve all always made me feel like I’ve been in the family forever.

After a big dinner, and lots of fellowship with the gang, I came home, and started kicking back, reflecting on the day.  This has been a good Easter Sunday, full of worship and family.

There’s nothing better than that!