New Year's Day at Magic Kingdom
What better to kick off my 365 Days of Happy album for 2015 than a visit to The Happiest Place On Earth™
My wife's youngest when she's sleeping is basically the cutest thing
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Lori's eldest is growing up way too fast—lookin' beautiful in one of mommy's dresses!
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Another Christmas completed
Where there once stood a Christmas tree, there's now just an empty space and a few fallen pine needles. It kinda seems sad, so why does it qualify as the fourth Day of Happy? Because it represents the completion of another splendid holiday season and being ready for what 2015 has in store for us.
It was a treat coming back to work after the holiday and discovering I had a container still half full of gifted cashews
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The developer of my favorite iOS photo editor identified the source of a UI bug I reported and submitted a fix to the App Store
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Brand new penguin chick at SeaWorld's Antarctica
Ah crud, I missed day 7 by a half hour, but I'm posting anyway to not fall behind. I also realize this photo wasn't shot on day 7, and I intend to avoid using photos not from the actual day for this project. I'm justifying this one over the knowledge that I had forgotten I'd taken this photo and discovered it still in my camera roll today. So, it's kind of a double happy for today. First in seeing the new baby penguin that had hatched earlier the same day I took the photo, and second in remembering I still had the photo today.
Successful media server transfer
I feared there could be grief, but it went off quite well. I first spent several weeks back a few months ago moving 21+ gigabytes of media content in smaller chunks to not blow our bandwidth allotment. Then today, we repointed the domain to the new host. The tricky part was not losing a WordPress page that needed to keep the same name as the media host subdomain. I was worried about them conflicting, but it all worked out.
Approaching 9 months and I've kept it clean
I made a vow to myself when we moved in April that I would keep my office desk cleared off at the end of each workday. So far, I've kept that promise. The *neatly* stacked papers of photo thumbnails visible to the left of where I sit are only there as an active project I'm currently working on. I could easily have hidden them for this photo, but I decided to leave them, showing that even when I do leave an item on my desk, I intend to keep it neat, organized, and *not* on the front/guest area of the desk.
Now, if only I could get my home desk set up the same way. Alas, I do not have nearly the storage around my home desk that I have in my office.
Dedication for sister-in-law's 7-month-old, Maddox
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Chloe is a blanket burrowing sleep expert
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More than 3" of rain today—happy for a roof over my head
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You know you *really* enjoyed a drive-home sunset when you forgot to pull over to get a photo of it!
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Whoah! Lookie where the gas pump stopped! #numbernerd
Besides the awesome number nerd moment, let the record show that today, January 14, 2015, is officially the day I once again (after I-don't-know-how-many years) paid less than $2 per gallon to fill up my car!
Immensely grateful for the semi-long-term DVCAM deck loan so I can finish a huge project of digitizing dozens of tapes
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They've been missing for months—finally back in my tool bag
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It's nice that several area churches do live streaming for days like today when many in the family are under the weather
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Adri is thankful to grandpa for a bike to replace her too-small previous bike—it's the same size as Meg's and today was her first ride on it
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It's National Popcorn Day
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Home-cooked meal
I'm not going to lie, today kinda sucked. Between being up at 5:45am to help get stepkids to school an hour away and continued legal issue stupidity, I was afraid I'd have nothing to post for today's photo. It pained me that it seemed circumstances out of my control were conspiring to bring an early death to the project.
But then, my mother-in-law decided to make something about my and my wife's day be nice. She came to our house and prepared her famous rice and egg gravy meal (a favorite of ours) and had supper with us. Without question the highlight of my day.
Proud of our big achiever
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Getting the home desk organized
My desk at work is well organized and cleaned off, so now it's the home desk's turn. Sure, I still have quite a ways to go, but I made a huge dent in the mess today and recovered almost half of the desktop.
The cleanup continues
Today I almost completely eliminated my floor pile filing system. The rest should disappear on Sunday. (Sorry, I lack the bravery to have taken a "before" shot.)
Peek-a-boo
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Dude with the Food
"This is going to end up on Facebook, isn't it?"
Yup, it sure is.
Lemme tell you what, though, nobody caters an event like Russ Durham caters an event! He truly is the dude with the food.
Moon, stars, and a contrail
Somehow, the stars seemed exceptionally brilliant tonight. Maybe it's just because tonight's the first really clear night we've had in a while.
15-second exposure with an iPhone 5s. Not bad!
Runaway cloud
I couldn't find a spot along my trip home from work to get a suitable photo of what became a really nice sunset, but the loner cloud making its getaway commanded my attention most of the drive.
Haven't enjoyed a chimichanga in a LONG time—yummy!
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Edited and designed five stories across three magazine pages in one day—Like. A. Boss.
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Two weeks ago, I mistakenly bought Adri a Gordita instead of her requested Chalupa—today I remedied that error
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Mason's first time on the big kid swing
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It doesn't really matter that they ultimately lost the game, that final minutes catch by the Seahawks was simply amazing
Photo creds to my wife, Lori. I'd have shot the TV screen myself but she captured exactly what I would have, so I asked if I could just use her shot.
Today, I'm happy for cheese sticks—because I'm allowed to be happy for cheese sticks
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Thank you, Google, for at last providing embed code for Street View mode
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Glad I inquired—saved sixty bucks!
I never got around to upgrading the font management tool at work past version 3. Only 4 and 5 are eligible for 50% off upgrade to version 6. But I bought 3 soon before 4 came out and it turns out I had a free version 4 license which is valid to upgrade to 6 for $60 instead of buying full version at $120. w00t!
I've always loved full (or near-full) moonrises on clear nights
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Operation bedroom cleanup, phase 3
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Movie night with my sweetie
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Yummy Mexican lunch with an out-of-town friend
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Hate driving in such heavy rain—happy to be safely home
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This tree down the street from my home has beautiful, early, pre-spring bloom every year
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40-year-old childhood memories
What a blast from the past to listen to these programs during transfer. Pure '70s innocence.
And let me clear something up right away—I'm not one to plow over copyright. I've stayed in tune with this topic for years, and my interpretation maintains I'm allowed a backup copy that is strictly for personal use. So apologies in advance—I won't be posting these online or otherwise sharing them with anyone.
Vick Road is my favorite portion of an evening drive home from work
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The girls having fun at an after-school social at the Y
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Happy Valentine's Day from the Bennett/Bixby/Myers family
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I am, most definitely, #teamfire
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PLEEEEEAAAASSSSEEEE??
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Blu-ray burner! ’Nuff said!
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Honored to have met this man and remain affiliated with the youth camp he began
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Although it's an annoying trend in movies, I love blue/orange color schemes in the evening sky
What is this blue/orange thing in movies I speak of? Check this: www.wired.com/2013/01/orange-teal-infographics/
Happy birthday bro-in-law Danny!
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February afternoon in Florida, 72℉ — sorry I'm not sorry
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Nephew Mason at Just For Kicks soccer day
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Simple pleasures > guilty pleasures
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Celebrating what would have been Steve Jobs' 60th birthday by setting up a brand new 5K Retina iMac.
So, here's the story. I originally picked up the computer yesterday late afternoon from the Apple Store. Before leaving, I had decided to make sure the correct wired keyboard was in the box. It wasn't. That should have been my first clue, but I just had the worker take back the wireless and hand me a wired keyboard off the shelf.
I began setting it up at work and soon realized it was not the configuration I ordered. Instead of a 4 GHz CPU with 32 GB of RAM and a 3 TB Fusion drive, I instead received a base 3.5 GHz CPU with only 8 GB of RAM and a 1 TB Fusion drive.
Initially assuming I had simply been shipped the wrong computer, I called Apple from my office to set up a replacement. That means the computer I picked up had to be returned and I would wait a week or so for a new computer to get to me. Instead of relying on a delivery company coming to my office, I decided to take the machine right back to the Apple Store so I knew it was in their hands to deal with.
In the course of things, we finally realized that the serial number printed on the label outside the box didn't match what was on my receipt. So, a worker checked in the back room, and lo and behold found the computer I was supposed to have received. Apparently the person who accepted delivery put my pick up label on the wrong box. Somewhat understandable because the wrong computer's serial number was fairly similar to the correct one.
Then, it took more than an hour for the store manager to figure out how to sell the machine after it has already been set up for return. For a while, it was starting to look like he had no choice but to send back the computer I wanted—which was sitting right in front of me—and make me wait for the replacement Apple had prepared to ship. I could totally tell he didn't want to make me do that and was feeling extremely sympathetic.
Ultimately, I'm not sure exactly what he arranged, but I finally was allowed to walk out of the store this morning with the correct computer. The plethora of charges and credits on my credit card is probably going to be laughable, but hopefully everything will get squared away. As it stands now, I still need to purchase AppleCare all over again, but he advised me to wait until today's transactions cleared. No problem!
And thus, on this day, which would've been the 60th birthday of Steve Jobs, I began installing and configuring apps on my brand-new iMac.
Mini quiches—I mistakenly believed they were carb heavy, but deliciously are not
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This blazing, post-sunset glow literally flared up and faded away in less than two minutes
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3ABN.org Camp Meeting this weekend at my home church
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Wonderful music by Reggie and Ladye Love Smith with Melody Firestone and her father, Danny Shelton, during 3ABN Winter Camp Meeting 2015
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Delicious brunch with local and out-of-town family
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Pink and moon
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I'm probably far more amused by this use of the word "the" than I ought to be
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East and West
A very scenic drive home from work featuring a simultaneous sunset and moonrise double header.
Made huge headway today—all should be finished on Monday
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Today, I officially announce all my domains are certified GoDaddy-free
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Such fun reminiscing my 2009 San Francisco trip for the Macworld Expo as I cleaned up and enhanced my photo album
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If I have to put up with Daylight Saving Time, at least I can be happy for those of my clocks which are self-adjusting
Today was the first time I can easily recall that I was awake when the time change happened. I watched my iPhone, iPad, and cable TV box instantly jump to 3am. I know there are a number of other devices in my home, including my computer, that did the same thing.
Thankfully, these are the devices that most commonly reveal the time of day to me.
Old satellite receiver, microwave oven, old night stand clock radio, car radio, office wall clock…you guys need to get with the program.
If I have to wake up when it's still dark, at I least I get to see this once in a while as I leave for work
I've been known to say, "If God had intended for me to see sunrises, He'd have put them later in the day."
Never before occurred to me that DST may be His way of doing exactly that.
She said yes #engagement #fiveyearsago
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It's always a happy day when I finish designing the quarterly magazine and send it to press
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Neighbor's tree bloomed a brilliant yellow this week
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Time lapse sunrise
I wanted to let the recording go longer, but I was risking being late for an 8:30am appointment.
Kraft Homestyle Oven-finished Mac-n-Cheese NOM NOM NOM
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Whoever designs the soda case art at my local Publix is pretty creative
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One terabyte of data from old Mac Pro to new iMac over gigabit Ethernet in the space of one workday—not shabby at all
Gotta hand it to Daniel in my office's IT department for making sure the network in our new building is rock solid. In the old building, I'd have had to directly connect a cable between two computers to transfer at full gigabit speed. Not so any more. Grateful the new switched hubs and infrastructure are well-up to the task. As a result, I'm nearly certain I'll be fully migrated to the new iMac after a few last configurations tomorrow.
I almost always have to park in the south 40 when I come to the Apple Store—but not today (ignore the slathering of pollen on my car, ick)
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VERY pleased at my average glucose numbers
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I've actually grown fond of meeting in my new office's conference rooms—nice digs, comfy seats
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Page layout designer challenges 101—convert/squeeze a weekend schedule grid from 8½″×11″ to 6″×9″ and retain legibility in the already-tiny text
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I've essentially completely given up soda, but once every month or two, I treat myself to about ⅓ a can of this vice
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Current status
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Lee's Pot Pie Emporium (betcha didn't know I had a restaurant—even if the only customers are my stepdaughters)
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Florida rarely fails to produce amazing-looking skies
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Grateful to my father-in-law for lawn care
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For a year, these office doors made an ear-shattering CLUNK when unlocked—but now are blissfully silent
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Adri's cupcake decorations (she more or less baked them all by herself)
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First day of 2015 with pleasantly cool air but no wicked pollen=windows open
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Oh my goodness, fresh, warm, hand-made praline NOM NOM NOM!
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Really enjoying copy editing workshop by Dwain Esmond
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Dolphin watching on the Savannah River
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My momma always said, "Life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're gonna get."
Forrest Gump bus stop filming location—Chippewa Square.
This year's convocation booklet, four pages bigger and back from the press on time and looking good
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How cats show affection
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Picked this up from The Peanut Shop in Savannah this past week—so yummy
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Joined existing friends and met new ones during a marvelous Easter brunch at a coworker's home
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That moment when the light goes on and the software you've been struggling to learn finally makes sense
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Andy donated this to me a couple years ago and it's coming in REALLY handy tonight
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Three solid days of learning ProPresenter and designing content—I'm ready for this weekend!
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It's been a lot of prep work, but it all came together and we're about to begin
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You know you're at camp when one of these guys is your alarm clock
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Adri was excited to be enlisted to help with a hug demonstration on stage with our convocation weekend main speaker
I'll link a clip when the video is published, hopefully Sunday.
Family on a fence
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Missed this little cutie—haven't seen her since Thursday morning
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Current status: FILED
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My snacking vice
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175 survey card tabulations completed
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Today's the first time I ever noticed a coworker's turtle collection
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Bluest blue hour I've seen in a long time
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Sneak peek of my next throwback Thursday album—I'd forgotten I snapped a lot of really nice shots at the 2009 Flower & Garden Festival
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Kicking off a rest-of-the-week stay-cation with tonight's installment of Dancing With the Stars
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Stair stare
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So happy I only have to stick my finger once a day instead of three from now on
Finally saw results of my latest blood work and I'm excited. Total cholesterol: 187. HDL: 45. LDL: only 67! A1c: 5.5%. BP today: 107/74 (and I was pre-hypertension a few months ago). Lisinopril, fenofibrate, and a diet adjustment (serious carb-cutting) have all worked together for good. My glucose numbers have consistently averaged 102 which prompted my doctor to say I only needed to test once each morning.
The only thing I have to work on is excessive triglycerides: 375 (eek). Need to get that as far below 200 as possible. Part of that reaching that goal will include finally starting the supply of salvia hispanica L (aka Anutra Grain) which was gifted to me and is apparently a better source of omega-3 than flax and fish oil. If I can get that number down, my next goal is to diminish (and hopefully someday eliminate) the need for Lantus.
Powerful storytelling—this better win some awards
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I've conversed via phone with her a few times, but today I had the opportunity to meet "Miss Brenda" Walsh
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While the girls are out enjoying a women's ministries event, I'm enjoying a quiet snooze at the in-laws'
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Pancake lunch today at Adri's Food Hut
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WordPress was on fleek today, and all four WP sites I manage auto updated themselves
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Bill payments tonight left this month's bottom line in far better shape than recent months—PTL
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Got a little surprise for my old high school classmates that will be ready really soon
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Apple gadget money
I sorta forgot I had this from Christmas. I'd held it to pay the bit behind what my office enrichment allowance would cover for my iPad Air 2. I managed to budget that cost from my normal income, so I still have this unused gift card. It's now earmarked for the Apple TV upgrade I've been pining for. I'll wait to see if a 4th-generation model is announced at WWDC then decide whether to buy it or the price-dropped 3rd-generation model.
Fabulous afternoon photographing Marisol's kids in the pool and later being silly with her, Kathy, and Rosa
When I found out Marisol and her husband will soon be going back to Massachusetts, we decided to finally act on the long ago idea to get photos of her kids in the pool before they left. Mari's sister Kathy and sis-in-law Rosa came too and did some mermaid make believe.
Pastor Jon had to guess baby food flavors at his and Kate's baby shower
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A fun afternoon as we celebrated Pastor Luis and Marisol as they prepare to depart Florida
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Hard to believe we've been in our new office a whole year already—we celebrated
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Sunset lit the clouds pretty intensely tonight
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Video shoot today to create an effect that should be really cool—IF we can make it work
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Apparently there actually is such a thing as a free lunch
I had arrived with a coupon for a free Wendy's single and went to purchase a plain baked potato to accompany it. Cashier wasn't sure how to ring up the coupon and the manager didn't spend more than a few seconds trying to decipher it, so she just keyed in the whole thing as a manager meal and said, "Today's your lucky day."
Half dozen types of cookies set out with supper—not tempted by a single one=glucose win
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Marvelous evening with family at Fort Wilderness, Wilderness Lodge, and dinner
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A nice, relaxing ending to a nice mothers' day
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I love the appearance of rain falling in a tight, compact column
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Tried this today: no sugar, no carbs, no calories—jury still out on the infamous stevia aftertaste
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Empty kitchen sinks are always better
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Clean digital desktop
My computer desktop was long overdue for some TLC. The primary (right-side) screen desktop was about ¼ full of files and folders, and the left screen had one complete column of icons. It was becoming a challenge to find what I had left there. So, today, I moved everything to rightful places and deleted a number of items that were never going to get used again. Voilà, just four items remaining—all of which are files I'm actively working on this week. Time to start treating my computer desktop like my real desktop—clear it off at the end of the day and put away anything that's not currently being worked on!
If you were looking for me today, here's why you couldn't find me
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Nephew Maddox learning to walk
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One-year-old Maddox enjoys his birthday cupcake
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Once in a while, I realize how glad I am that I never acted on musings to discard some of my older CDs
It may be of interest to note that one of these CDs is the very first disc I ever bought. Any guesses?
Good night, Central Florida
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Well, if it's gonna storm all over Central Florida, at least we typically get a great pre-show
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Awesome ice cream shop in DeLand—sugar-free black raspberry was yummy and no glucose spike afterward
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My mother-in-law's rice and egg gravy for supper is always a welcome treat
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For having no formal lessons, Meg is quite good at picking out tunes
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Delwin's floral macros make an excellent Apple TV screensaver
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Silly stepkids spending Memorial Day in the pool
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It took a month, off and on, but finally got all 170 high school classmate pages transferred to the overhauled alumni site for our class
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Celebrating Meg's school achievements
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This effect has been kicking my butt today, but I finally nailed it
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I love my Mophie case, but the rare times I completely drain its battery, holding/using a naked iPhone is nice
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Oh my goodness best chips EVAR!
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12 hours and 180 compass degrees apart
Seriously. Top photo was around 7:45am looking east. Bottom photo around 7:45pm looking west.
Happy for a garage to protect from today's hail (and for a wife who made space to fit the car inside)
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Geeked out in my office today, running lightningmaps.org full screen on my wall TV during this afternoon's storm
For those who want to know, I used AirParrot to extend to an additional desktop mirrored out to an AppleTV connected to the television on my wall.
That moment Adri realized I delayed getting to the office to attend her end-of-school awards program along with mommy
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Office thumbtack board status: updated
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Sneak peek at my magazine's themed nameplate for upcoming special issue on education—chalk effect turned out MUCH better than the last time I tried something like this
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Gifts from grandma
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3+ hours and 10 bags later — WHEW!!
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Enjoying WWDC Keynote—excited for multitasking enhancements in iOS 9
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Announcement for SONscreen | Ignite
Kinda exciting that this event is coming together. I just finished this poster based on prior designs from the SONscreen Film Festival for 2015. As long as we can get people aware and interested, I have little doubt it could help a lot of budding filmmakers use this media for great ministry.
Meg is sporting a very different hairstyle—and I think she's rockin' it
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Celebrating Lori's 40th birthday
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Pleasantly surprised, considering the meal this followed
For Lori's birthday dinner yesterday, we went to Olive Garden—aka carbopalooza! My blood sugar numbers have been really great, so I just decided this was going to be one of my rare splurges and to actually enjoy my meal.
Besides the salad (but no soup) and chicken parmasean/spaghetti meal, I also had not one but two breadsticks AND later that evening a small sliver of Lori's birthday cake.
This morning, fully expecting to see a number creeping up on 200, I braced myself, pricked my finger, and bled into the test strip.
Seriously‽ Only 89‽‽
Wow, I guess the meds and my overall diet modification are doing their job.
Now, about those 10+ pounds I've somehow managed to re-gain.
200+ kids at Everest-themed Vacation Bible School finale—and there were 50+ more who participated during the week!
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Star light, star bright, first star I see tonight…
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Today's tongue twister: A Purple Pack of Premium Printer Paper
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FINALLY sorted my Twitter feed into Lists—no more dealing with hundreds of tweets in the main timeline
I'd say I did pretty well to prune my 467 following count to just 180 in my primary feed. All other Lists are ones I can ignore if I don't have time to read more.
Yes, there are additional Lists than what are visible here (17 total).
No, I am not revealing who is in the Primary and Secondary Lists. Suffice to say if I have a pretty good impression you actually read my tweets, you're most likely in the Primary List.
And it is my goal to keep the Primary List below 200 members. If I add more, it's my mantra to remove some others to stay as far below 200 as possible.
Anchor self-contained portable audio system
WANT WANT WANT! I finally found the perfect portable audio system I've been search for a few years to acquire in our office.
Two convention days resulted in 25,000 steps, 12 miles, and 5,000 calories burned!
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We're going on a boat—for a wedding (hopefully for a cruise someday)
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Pancake dinner, courtesy of Adri
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Moon, Jupiter, Venus
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Wild skies
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Pre-portrait selfie (we were dressed up for church directory portraits)
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Wife texted to have me bring home a can of this, which means rice and egg gravy dinner tonight for the win!
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In case you were wondering, yes, there still is such a thing as a free lunch
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Forgive the wind-swept hair, but I got to meet up with my pal chris for supper and last-leg trip to the airport
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Candles always add a little extra something to any meal
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This morning's sky was rather stunning
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Cute rabbit hanging out in my front yard
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Tonight's Venus-Jupiter conjunction / thunderhead double header
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My lighter head is ready for San Antonio heat
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Half way there!
182 days before today.
182 days after today.
That means today is the half-way mark!
Freed up more than 50 gigabytes off my computer with plenty more yet to go
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Independence Day Celebration at church had some really great music
Video here: youtu.be/PjELiJVfwmU
Having a great Sunday with family, including those from Tampa and Washington State
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"Flossin' my whip" (aka our ride for the next week to Texas and back)
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Packed, loaded, and ready to roll!
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A very brief detour to New Orleans to see the French Quarter and Bourbon Street
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Downtown San Antonio from atop our accommodations
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Alamo church entrance
Sadly, no photos inside.
Our seat location for Saturday worship—more than 60,000 people were in the dome today
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In spite of how stuff seems to grow when you return from a trip, I managed to get it all in and can still see out the back window
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Visiting the USS Alabama
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Xander has been quite the cuddler after going all week without his humans in the house
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Doodle pup Chloe has been wanting to play a lot after returning home from the friend who dog-sits for us
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HOPE AGN (my wife's vanity plate finally arrived)
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Sometimes the sound of a vigorous rain has a placating effect
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Took Maddox no time at all to figure out how this toy worked—boys and cars
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Plenty of humor during today's baby shower for Vaughn and Beth's expected daughter, Olivia
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Some gifts from a colleague/friend that I wasn't able to pick up at GC Session
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Took a couple months, but I finally settled on how to make Windows VM look decent on the iMac retina display
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Thanks, Qdoba, for the birthday BOGO and honoring it even though it had expired
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Kilopoke!
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Given a sufficient supply of straws, I believe Adri would make these things all day long
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Gray rainy days are worth it when, in Florida, they're almost always followed by this
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Successful (and trouble-free) upgrade of an 8-year-old MacBook Pro from Mac OS X 10.5.8 to 10.10.4
The Mid/Late 2007 MacBook Pro is the oldest MBP that supports Yosemite, but it's running surprisingly well.
It was originally sold with Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger and 10.5 Leopard came out a few months later which I bought on release day at an Apple Retail Store event. Even though I've owned a copy of Mac OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard for quite a while, somehow I'd never managed to upgrade the MBP beyond Leopard
Today, I was nearly stymied to be able to upgrade because you can't go to Yosemite without first being on at least 10.6.8. I thought I'd misplaced my Snow Leopard installer, and I really had no interest in spending $20 for another copy, but after a little searching through some boxes in the garage, I found the installer.
Thus, it's been a FULL afternoon of 10.5.8 > 10.6 > 10.6.8 > 10.10.4. Impressive that I didn't run into a single hitch. All upgrades went smoothly.
Finally solved a bothersome issue with Safari
For the past couple months, I've been stymied as to why Safari had stopped being able to show embedded YouTube videos on nonYouTube pages as well as the Twitter widget on my personal web site, even though Chrome and Firefox showed them just fine. Finally figured out an obscure Safari extension called Incognito was to blame. Its primary purpose is to keep from being tracked on third-party web sites through Google AdSense and Analytics, but also has the feature to block tracking from Facebook and Twitter. I had always assumed this was just tracking APIs but it apparently prevents embedded content from displaying. Furthermore, I'm sure I would never have knowingly clicked the checkbox to block embedded YouTube videos, but there it was, blue-ticked in all its glory. A quick uncheck, and all is well—FINALLY.
Happiness today directed to coworker Serita for the sugar-free, low-carb, diabetic-friendly treat—it was tasty
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LONG day at the office, but ended in lots of fun at the annual student literature evangelism banquet
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Hooray for no longer enduring the phone handset slipping off my shoulder when I need to type and talk at the same time
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The last piece in my bag of assorted flavors of sugar-free candy was my favorite flavor
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VERY successful first day of SONscreen | Ignite at our office—we hoped for 50 attendees and got more than 80
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Pleasure to meet Rik Swartzwelder, director, writer, and lead actor for the movie, Old Fashioned
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Adri feigning overwhelming bliss over her sweet treat
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Family surprised me with the latest Lay's flavors
The verdict:
Biscuits & Gravy is pretty good
I'm not big on Reuben flavor but they were okay
Truffle fries are tolerable
Gyro was just gross (I don't like cucumbers/Tzatziki sauce)
(The Sriracha flavor from the first generation of flavors remains my favorite)
Always happy for lunch with the family (and for a birthday gift card)
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Surprise surprise: clean car waiting for me when I got home today—thanks, girls
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Matthew 22:36–40
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Maddox is walking at last—several instances of 4–5 steps at a time!
Photos by my wife, Lori
Waiting to hear Sara Evans at SeaWorld's Celebrating America concert series with my sweetie on our 5th anniversary
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40% off Papa John's: $8.40 | Redbox movie with earned rental credit: $0.00 | Dinner/movie night with my sweetie: priceless
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I was there (RIP Scott McKenzie—it was an honor to be among your listening audience)
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Perfect timing—the heavy rain and lightning cleared just before it was time to leave work
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We've had some welcome rain this week—glad I haven't had to be out in it too much
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Two of my favorite gals are sportin' awesome new specs
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Kids upstairs watching their movie, wife and me downstairs watching ours—got home safe through the storm
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Lazy Sundays
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At last, featured image support on my office's web site back end—thanks, Aric
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Not just a pair of nail clippers
This photo may seem like it's just an old pair of nail clippers, but it's not. For one, this is _my_ old pair of nail clippers. There are several nail clippers in my house, but this pair is mine. I've had it since the ’90s, and its my favorite. It produces a satisfying tschunk sound when used, and it actually cuts better than any other pair I've ever had the misfortune of using.
But that's not all. From time to time, I have to go searching for this pair of nail clippers because my wife's daughters absconded with them. They, too, understand that this is a good pair of nail clippers.
You might think the momentarily loss would frustrate me. You'd be wrong. That's because my stepdaughters have secured a solid special part of who I am today. If I didn't have to periodically embark on a scavenger hunt, it would mean the girls weren't around to be using them. And that simply wouldn't do.
Didn't like having to drive home in such an insane downpour, but I made it safely
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Thank you, Chili's, for the really great deal on supper tonight
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Proud of my stepdaughters ready for 6th and 7th grades come Monday
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Maddox kept pulling my hand, not wanting me to stop tickling his neck
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Enjoying an afternoon with friends as Lori shoots portraits of their newborn
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Yesterday's Enterprise: first episode of TNG I've seen in years—remastered HD version looks GREAT
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The cuteness is just too much
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Thank you, Mother Nature, for hitting the torrential pause button for exactly the number of seconds I needed to get out to my car after work
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Some great work by Aric in freshening up our office's home page
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Dinner with Lisa and Lori's cousin Tiffany (who Lori hasn't seen in about 10 years)
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Chillaxin on the 12th floor
I was too busy to get a shot before nightfall, but even at night during a big storm, it's a nice view.
Waking up early for a sunrise ain't so bad when it's a view like this
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It's been a long time coming, finally provided identity for the support staff workers in cubicle workstations
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Breakfast for dinner
I may not make a pretty omelette, but I do make a rather tasty omelette.
Doodle pup on cuteness overload with her new harness (I used Lori's photo)
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Lori brought home a fun little surprise
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A very tasty meal, albeit extremely hard-earned
Supper at family camp was 6-7pm. We were all set to arrive by 6pm. But due to someone's inconsideration and refusal to rectify a mistake—plus a 15-minute traffic delay—we BARELY made it in the cafe right at 7pm. I needed this food! I hadn't had much of anything to eat all day (schedule prevented a proper lunch) and that's not a good thing considering I'm mildly diabetic. But we just made it and it was YUMMY!
Adri got picked to help with a segment of tonight's Professor Dodad show
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Lego theme for this year's annual Family Camp portraits
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Great weekend, but glad to be home (and Xander seems glad I'm home, too)
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Today I learned my office is sponsoring a trip for employees to the Holy Land Experience attraction
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Today, Apple announced what I've been waiting for: 4th-generation Apple TV
I've been fumbling along with my original 1st-generation Apple TV for far too long. I nearly bought a 3rd-generation model, but decided a 4th seemed pretty close on the horizon. This model was expected earlier this year during WWDC, but supposedly yanked at the last minute due to not quite being ready.
Well, it finally saw the light of day today, and I'm glad I waited. It's a beauty, and I will own one when they are released in October. I've had a $100 gift card back from Christmas last year fully earmarked for an Apple TV.
The big decision now is, do I come up with just the extra $50 needed for the lower-end, $150 32GB 4th-gen Apple TV, or do I have sufficient need for a 64GB model to justify $200? I'm leaning toward the 32GB model. I have enough bandwidth at home for most streaming situations. Netflix, YouTube, and AirPlay from my iPhone/iPad will be the biggest uses. I'm not really one to stock up on tons of locally stored digital content, and while there are certainly some apps that will be fun to install, I don't intend to go nuts on that front, either. So the less expensive model is probably most adequate for me.
Now then, where to come up with the extra $50. 🙂
New changeable-sheet directory signage at my office—finally ordered/installed after MANY months of lobbying for them
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Xander is always a source of amusement—hates his crate but constantly climbing into Chloe's ¯_(ツ)_/¯
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What an awesome appreciative surprise awaited after finishing couples retreat portraits
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A beautiful conclusion to a stormy weather weekend
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That moment you discover the money you forgot you had intentionally tucked away for later
The moment Apple announced the 4th-generation Apple TV, I knew I wanted one. I've had a $100 gift card since Christmas last year, specifically earmarked for the device.
When it was finally announced last week, the price turned out to be $149 instead of $99. This new price point had been widely rumored prior to last week (and, of course, turned out to be true). I had received some cash for my birthday and held it aside with the gift card in anticipation of the new price.
I completely forgot I had done that, believing I ultimately needed the money for day-to-day expenses. But I discovered the tucked-away cash today (which is now safely in a new location), having never spent it at all.
Noon hour skies today were BLACK, but in spite of the ensuing deluge, I managed to stay dry
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iOS 9 multitasking—awwww yeah!!!
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Celebrate the little things—like front-row parking at a busy Walmart
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Upgrades comin' my way
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Sign of a great weekend
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I was baptized 35 years ago today (forgive the awfully backlit photo—it's all my mom had)
There's some question whether the person being baptized in these are both me, but I'm leaving this collage as is because even if only one of them is me, I don't know for sure which one it is.
Yeah, it's a small splurge on our budget, but life isn't life without Chili's once in a while
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Came across this message early today; kinda made my day—I love you, Lori
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Though eBay might get me a better price, for the simplicity, Gazelle is giving me a decent offer on my iPhone 5s after my new 6s arrives
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Office picnic: great food, great weather, great games, great company
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Much-needed extra power outlets installed in my office today
And here I bet some of you thought today's arrival of my iPhone 6s would be my project photo for today!
My stepdaughter's socks are channeling Flickr's logo colors
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We won! We won! We won! #kickball (Photo creds to my wife, Lori)
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Angry storm chased me all the way home from work—made it inside before a downpour just minutes later
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Fun family game night
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Good night, Florida
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Went to pay for my lunch, forgetting that I had earned a free entree—thanks Qdoba
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Wonderful opening night for Mike Tucker series at our church with music by Rudy Micelli and Calvary's Light
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Wonderful mini concert by Lauren Talley
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Yum! It's National Taco Day
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Cutting cords
As inexpensive as the wireless system is for the strobe equipment I've used for my office over many years, I could kick myself for not having acquired the transceiver system sooner. It'll be awesome to no longer trip over cables while taking portraits.
And major kudos to coworker Aric. This transmitter was nonfunctional right out of the box. He was about to arrange for the company to ship a replacement, and they told him to just throw out this unit. So, Aric (who's handy with a soldering iron) decided to crack it open to possibly see what was wrong. He found a solder point that wasn't connected and very handily repaired it.
Heard these guys tonight—had to get the albums—powerful!
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Enjoyed a wonderful Mark Schultz miniconcert
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The task is done—it's all finally moved to Flickr
It's been a couple years in progress, but it's finished. I just moved the last album from my old home-based, Gallery-powered photo album web server (depicted in this photo) over to Flickr. There may still be a couple small batches of albums yet to add that are just saved on my computer, but those were never added to the Gallery server after I stopped uploading photos there in June 2010.
For those who ever used to visit my albums at the old photos.dtpbylee.com address—that site will be stripped out some time before the end of this year. Henceforth, all my albums can be found by starting with my page of Flickr Collections which are organized by year. Individual albums are found within those Collections, or you can browse an index of all albums together.
Nifty—I got AT&T Wi-Fi Calling activated on my phone and it works great!
It works for SMS, too. There are 2-3 places I frequent which have poor cell coverage and I go to Airplane Mode to save battery from constant signal searching. But Wi-Fi at these places is good, so now calls and texts will still work!
Date night courtesy of free tickets is all set for a few weeks from now
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Time for the annual "wearing mommy's wedding dress" portraits
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Third time is the charm—they say
I *could* complain that just one month after getting Lori's iPhone replaced because the battery had swollen, it had to be replaced again because the replacement developed a blue screen of death issue. But instead, I choose to be happy that not only was I able to get to the store somewhat early to claim one of the few no-appointment slots Apple keeps available each day, and that I only had to wait a little more than a half hour, but also that Apple again quickly and effortlessly replaced the phone once again. Praying we acquired a nonflawed device this time.
Memories of my old office's grand opening
Okay, today's photo surely requires some explanation. Obviously I didn't take the photo today (although I did scan the print today, so I'm counting it). As most of my friends know, the office where I work moved from Winter park to Altamonte Springs last year. Today, I got a tip that the old office was starting visible demolition. Sure enough, a lot of facade is off with superstructure demolition probably happening Thursday. Upon realizing the timing is perfect to carry a short story about this in the next quarterly magazine that we're beginning to design now, I had the idea to dig out the photo from our July 1992 grand opening when Congressman Bill McCollum cut the ribbon. So my "day of happy" photo is a representation of memories drummed up today from when the Winter Park building was brand new, and seeing the end of that era as the old building gets torn apart.
I am beyond words to express gratitude for someone's generosity last year that ultimately resulted in more than covering today's bill for urgent spark plug replacement
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At last—permanent 3-point portrait strobes installed in the studio!
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Good night, Florida (gorgeous view during an evening walk of a few miles)
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Had a blast with a house-full of collegiates/young adults invited to lunch
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Chloe demonstrates the mood of the day—chill and take it easy
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Leaving work, the weather was downright blustery—it was glorious
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It's an awesome thing when you're shown genuine appreciation for helping someone out
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We Back to the Future fans have been waiting for today the past 30 years
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We might finish this week after all—great progress past two days
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I just rediscovered the Over iOS app and the tons of freebie art elements
I had thought about using a different quote that said making something is the best way to complain, and I'd have added the caption, "I made this," but I decided against it because it seemed negative. So I made the image for this design>thinking quote instead. 🙂
Just so long as the Dashing Drink Station doesn't become the Leaning Tower of Pepsi
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Chloe has a crazy cute cowlick swirl of hair below her neck
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Treated to lunch at Olive Garden today for doing a favor for a friend
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Ya, it's late, but the summer issue is finally put to bed
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25% discount, just in time for my planned purchase—thanks Mophie!
Since I'm now intending to swap out my phone every year with AT&T's Next program, I really don't want to also buy a battery case every year or two that fits each phone. So, I've now decided to switch to carrying a universal charger. There are other brands out there for a LOT cheaper, but I keep hearing of woe stories where the device no longer charges after a few months. I trust Mophie.
I'd be waffling on whether to get the less expensive Power Reserve 2X or something a little beefier. Lo and behold, today Mophie says that any order $100 or more between now and the 30th gets 25% off with the CHARGEANDTREAT promo code. That pretty well tipped me toward the heftier PowerStation Duo. (That means my wife and I can both charge at the same time, or I can charge both my iPhone and iPad.)
Curiously, however, the PowerStation Duo by itself I assume does not qualify for the discount because its list price is $99.95. So I threw in a spare headphone adapter for $6.95 to push it over the $100 mark. We've already had to replace that adapter once because the first one failed. Given how often it gets twisted and bent and kinked, it stands to reason I'll someday have to replace it again. Might as well do it for 25% off. 🙂
Enjoying the Gaither Vocal Band
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I've once again survived this time of month
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Prepping for tomorrow's birthday party—can you guess the theme and age?
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Mason's 5!
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Packin' power
A nice, compact, portable charger since I'm not going to use a battery case any more. And this beauty has enough juice to charge my phone and iPad or (perhaps more often) my phone and my wife's at the same time.
No details for now, but big first stride today toward hopefully someday soon being rid of my old condo
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Yay! It works—now to buy my own instead of this loaner
Need one of these to regain a digital audio feed since Apple TV 4 did away with the optical port.
Although I hate that they killed native Facebook sharing, I'm glad for these new features and bug fixes
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Somebody is sleepy and thinks I'm comfy
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Had to splurge a few carbs for a tiny taste of this deliciousness made entirely by my stepdaughters
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Yes, I'm aware it's going up way early, but it's for a really good photographic cause
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The service corridor adjacent to my office should be much quieter now
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Found gas still at $1.89 when everywhere else (including this station later in the day) jumped to $2.15
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Never before have I drafted a magazine cover concept six months ahead of schedule
Well this is certainly a first. This design is by no means final, and it's not for this year's last (4th quarter) issue we're about to begin producing. It's not even for the 1st quarter issue of 2016. No, this is for 2nd quarter 2016 which isn't scheduled to be published till May—a whopping six months from now.
It's just a draft concept for the official report booklet after I received the theme for next year's constituency session (formerly triennial but was voted to quadrennial in 2012). I don't even know if this design will have any resemblance to the final design, especially since at least one administrator seems to not be fully sold about the look. I certainly hope it flies because I happen to like it a lot, especially considering how I put it together in less than an hour.
BTW, this represents what would be a wraparound cover for a special edition issue of our quarterly magazine—front page on the right and back page on the left.
Cloud life (super thick fog this morning)
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I thought ProPresenter had unceremoniously deleted an hour of work—operator error: I misplaced document locations; all good now
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Nephews are awesome
(Photo by Lori)
Though it was a sad occasion, I and many of the childhood friends I saw today for the first time in MANY years were all blessed to call this man "Uncle Bob"
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My sweetie saved me some leftover chicken gnocchi soup from Olive Garden—yummy!
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Xander's next bag of food, paid for with $40 I had saved, tucked away, forgot about, found, tucked away again, forgot about again, and found again tonight
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I discovered this little gem of an Excel command today that easily saved me an hour of work
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Classic case of Keep It Simple, Stupid
I'd had a moment of creative inspiration. I built what I thought, at the time, was a pretty nifty lower third graphic (for people's names/titles) to use during the upcoming Camp Meeting in April. Among the elements used in the design was a semi-translucent color bar that names would appear on top of, and the theme artwork tree with its background carefully masked out and placed in front of the color bar, to the side, with the upper fourth of the tree extending higher than the top of the color bar.
The design completely depended on my assumption that our new on-location video production system would accept graphics from ProPresenter with alpha channel transparency. It wasn't until I completed the design that I learned we'll have to buy an additional $1,000 piece of hardware for alpha channel support. We definitely can't budget that this year, and I'm not sure it's feasible to buy on 2016's budget either.
So, with the assumption that I may not be able to have transparency, I rebuilt the lower third as a fully opaque rectangular shape for the bottom of the screen with the theme art tree fully contained within the confines of the rectangle. The video equipment will overlay a simple rectangle over the video feed.
The moral of the story? That moment I realized I actually liked my workaround version better than the original. In other words:
Keep
It
Simple,
Stupid
Thoroughly enjoyed tonight's program featuring Steven Curtis Chapman—thanks Florida Hospital!
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It's really hard to top having your 1½-year-old nephew fall asleep in your arms
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Lazy day at home today, but got out for errands just in time for a nice sunset—good night, Florida
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Major temperature shift today with a high lower than yesterday's low—it felt glorious
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Toodles for now—officially on holiday break for the rest of the week
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One final SeaWorld trip with girls before passes expire, and Adri finally got to experience Manta
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#Thanksgiving dinner is served
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Who's ready for Christmas?
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Beautiful skies during this evening's walk
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Getting into the holiday spirit at SeaWorld
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Nearly an hour of pesky troubleshooting, but I prevailed (geek details after the jump)
Pretty much as soon as Apple TVs were installed in my new office, I'd realized they never would latch on to servers to set the time and date. But, we could still connect iOS devices to them to wirelessly AirPlay a signal, so no one (including myself) worried much about it.
But then, not long after I installed iOS 9 on my devices, I eventually realized I could no longer send video to the Apple TV—only sound. I didn't deal much with it for a few months because there was never a mission-critical need to make the wireless connection. The only times I needed to project from an iPad, I was able to use my Lightning to HDMI adapter.
Today, I decided enough was enough, and I began researching what the problem might be. The Apple TVs were obviously talking to the network because my iOS devices saw them and could send audio. After a bit of online digging, I confirmed my hunch that AirPlay protocols changed in iOS 9 and the Apple TVs needed a firmware update to restore compatibility. But the updates refused to run, telling me to check back later. I got even more suspicious when I tried running a network test, but the Apple TV was requiring me to sign into an iTunes account which it repeatedly wouldn't accept.
Then a light bulb went on. Perhaps my office network was blocking certain ports the Apple TV requires. And turns out that was, indeed, part of the problem. The rest of the problem was that I had to manually set the Apple TV's DNS addresses to Apple's servers. Once the ports were open and DNS was adjusted, the Apple TV was immediately able to auto-set the date and time and I successfully initiated the software update. Once it finally completed, video mirroring through AirPlay was restored.
In case anyone reading this is curious to know what ports and DNS addresses are needed, I'll share the info. If you're seeing messages such as Activation: Failed and Date/Time: Skipped, then it's a good chance you need to open these ports on your firewall and change the Apple TV's DNS settings.
TCP Port 123 (Time Server)
TCP Port 3689 (iTunes)
UDP Port 5353 (Bonjour Service)
TCP Port 80 (Web)
TCP Port 443 (SSL)
TCP Port 53 (DNS)
Primary DNS: 208.122.23.22
Secondary DNS: 208.122.23.23
(I don't see a way to add a secondary DNS in an Apple TV. The primary address should work fine as is, but you can try the secdary as a primary if needed.)
Happy today for hot dog buns—more specifically that I remembered to buy some yesterday
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Rewards program anniversary=free Qdoba chips & queso!
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Best AC service guy EVAR
Central Floridians, if you need service on your AC system, this is your guy. VERY reputable and honest. Anyone else could've just showed up, fixed a problem, and charged heavily. But this guy told me what was wrong and that I can almost certainly fix it myself virtually for free (which I'll do tomorrow).
Building on yesterday's photo, thanks to wet vac loan from sis-in-law, I fixed my AC for a cost of $2 for bleach and a funnel
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Great job by the church kids choir for this year's Christmas program
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A splendid time at tonight's church Christmas banquet
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Pleased to manage this early Xmas gift for my wife
I'm obliged to point out we set up the tracker late today. These few hundred steps were only after initial set up. She's actually done more than 14,000 today—more than 1,300 between snapping this photo and writing this text!
Great sale—opportunity to stock up
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Holiday gift from my commercial press rep—she just gets me!
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Splendid day: office-sponsored trip to The Holy Land Experience
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Another yummy business-to-business Christmas gift
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Christmas wreath for geeks
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Just wrapped on a successful second annual Christmas cantata put on at my office
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Somebody's 11 today (pic thanks to my wife coz I couldn't leave work to join)
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Department-treated lunch to San Jose's—yummy!
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Really cool sunbeam/shadow streaks during my drive home tonight
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This pesky annual project is, at last, complete and in the mail
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Adri got a HUGE surprise, seeing her new furniture for the first time tonight
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Awesome to be part of this morning's cantata—haven't had a view like this in more than 20 years!
You can watch the program at livestream.com/springmeadows/events/4600169
The cantata portion begins at 1 hour, 11 minutes.
Preparation for Force Awakens begins in 3…2…1…
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Tonight, SpaceX was finally successful in launching then vertically landing a rocket—hooray for ingenuity!
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Half the lights had gone out, so I pulled them all off, restrung, and Lori redecorated—looks awesome!
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Countdown to Christmas Eve in T minus 30 minutes
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Dedicated USPS workers working late to minimize the number of Christmas morning tears
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Merry Christmas from the Bennett/Bixby/Myers family
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Gifted a mother lode of movies bound for the trash
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If I'm not mistaken, this is the first time my 7-, 14-, and 30-day averages (morning fast) have all been <100
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Bonus Christmas gift (actually it sorta got buried and I forgot to open it)
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Clean walkways, courtesy of my generous father-in-law
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Learned how to make my mom's parmesan-crusted chicken—NOM NOM NOM
The recipe: www.hellmanns.com/recipes/detail/32658/1/parmesan-crusted...
Omnibus finale (see description for details)
Success! I completed my 365 Days of Happy project! Some days were certainly challenging to come up with something to show for that day, but I made it, and I'm glad I did it!
This final project image is an omnibus of several candidates for today's photo into a single collage.
The front-running contender was seeing Star Wars: The Force Awakens (LOVED it). Most of the images in this collage are representative of that activity, including the promo installation in the theater lobby (complete with photobomb by my wife), my admission ticket, and the style of theater wall lighting I've seen in other AMC theaters and have always thought was cool.
This evening, my sister-in-law sent out a photo of her boys with their New Year's Eve celebratory glow sticks. The way Mason is holding his, I naturally had to reply, "the force is strong with this one."
After the movie, I was treated to a deelishious lunch at Red Robin where I noticed a neat-o US flag art piece made of colored baseballs.
And of course, I've long had the thought that my final project photo might be a depiction of the completed Flickr album, so that's included in this collage, as well.
Happy New Year, everyone! Have a superfab 2016!
