Hidden among my collection of archived digital art is a folder named “Pictures to Photoshop.” This panorama has been sitting in that folder, unfinished, for nearly 2 years and I figured it was time to finally get to work and finish it off The photo was taken at the base camp dad & I set up when hiking Lincoln, Democrat, & Bross (three 14ers) back in 2004. Anyway, it was fun to do a little picture stitching and the panorama ended up looking pretty good I think. Brings back good memories! Hope you enjoy it.

Speaking of photography. I’ve recently been learning more about Lomography. If you haven’t heard of it no worries, it’s a bit obscure. The basic idea is to live with a camera and just keep snapping shots. Don’t think, don’t hesitate, just document your life, your feelings, and whatever else comes up! Anyway, that lomography site has a pretty great collection of photos and I find the idea really appealing tho unfortunately I doubt I will become a lomographer any time soon. They also sell some pretty funky cameras… the Supersampler for example!

Cool find #3… an advertisement for the Sony BRAVIA. Ok, Sony is selling some kind of TV but I’m more impressed with the ad which features thousands of bouncy balls (250,000 to be precise) bouncing down the streets of San Francisco! You can watch the ad using the earlier link, just be ready for some long download times, the high quality version is 54 MB and the connection as a bit slow for me. But trust me, the movie is well worth the wait! And apparently it was all shot live, no special effects!

This semester I’m enrolled in Art/Communication 375: Multimedia. So I’m getting my full initiation into the world of Flash animation. I don’t know exactly how many of my assignments will go public, but I figured I could at least show off my very first animation A ball bounced. Also, while cleaning up my computer I ran across two of my older creations. These gems are panoramas I took up at RMMC back in the day. You’ll need Quicktime but interactive panoramas are always pretty nifty if I don’t say so myself. Pinnacle (266 KB) & main camp (784 KB). Just be patient, the pictures WILL eventually get clearer

And last but definitely not least… I present to you: Baron! lol. Ok, so it’s a bit of an inside joke and may be slightly disturbing at first glance, but It’s a commissioned piece of art folks, what you gonna do? And on closer inspection I do think it’s kinda cool looking. For example, check out the repeating background! (still confused? see also photo 20 & 21)

To start out I just gotta say… that Mozart guy writes quite the dramatic music! I bring this up because this coming weekend 40-odd Goshen singers are joining the Fort Wayne Philharmonic Orchestra to perform Mozart’s Requiem. This entails two weekday rehearsals in Fort Wayne (probably 6 hours each by the time we drive there), but it’s always a thrill to sing with professional musicians and Mozart certainly knew what he was doing when he wrote music!

Aside from singing I’ve got work to keep me busy For those who don’t exactly understand what kind of job a computer scientist gets… well… this probably won’t help you much Most of the time I do programing in C#, however, a week ago I was set loose at our new office to help install the network. This picture is the patch panel that I wired. Believe it or not, I personally connected each of those wires to the panel. Anyway, it’s one step closer to us moving into our new office space, woot!

To end this post… the most random article I have ever seen on the BBC News website. "Parrot tells Chris his cheating girlfriend loves Gary". All the drama you would expect from checkout-aisle tabloids combined with the years of reporting experience of the BBC. lol! A fun read if you’ve got a spare minute

First off, a real quick note: Apple is not only a great company, they’re also SO witty! For those who don’t know, today Apple officially released the first Macintosh computers with Intel processors. The current title of their website… "What’s an Intel chip doing in a Mac? A whole lot more than it’s ever done in a PC" LOL!

Next, I would like for you to take a very close look at the cereal box pictured to the left. If my eyes don’t deceive me it reads "SaberSpoon Inside." How awesome is that?!? I mean it’s been Ages since I’ve gotten anything just free inside the box, no shipping & handling required. I resolved not to dig through the box in search of my prize, but wait patiently for it to come to me. Of course we all know how long THAT kind of resolution lasts, HA! Within days I was digging around. I was initially miffed at my inability to dig deep enough, however, as the days dragged on the awful truth became clear. It was all a cruel cruel hoax! There WAS no glowing spoon in one of three colors within MY box   So, tomorrow I plan on sending an official complain to Kellogg NA Co. for crushing my hopes and dreams. Who knew that Kellogg had gone to the dark side?

Well, I’m back at good ‘ol GC and survived my first half week of class (aka two classes). Yup, that’s right, I’m part time again this semester and both classes are Tuesday, Thursday affairs. Anywho, maybe I’ll talk more about them later, and I really DO want to get a good post out the door in the near future but there’s just so much to do! Tonight for example Beth & I went to "dinner and a movie" at the library. We saw Madagascar for the first time and it was quite funny. Then we played Scategories for several hour at Hymnal House before heading to Walmart to re-stock the essentials. Oh, and then I got back to East Hall and Fahrenheit 911 was on downstairs. Suffice to say I’ve been keeping busy. But I DID start the process of posting photos from Christmas break! So you should definitely check those out. Keep a lookout too because I’ve got a whole nother batch of photos and a report on my job (which takes up the time between my two classes) coming up sometime. For now it’s real late, so I think I’m gonna hit the hay. Night

[Edit] As of 1-8-2005 the next set of photos is now online! Enjoy! [/Edit]