Wow... Where did all the time go?  I have been so busy with school that I haven't been keeping up with the blog like I had wanted to do.  For the most part, school has been going well. There have been a few speed bumps but that is to be expected. After all life is supposed to have a bit of challenge to it

While school kept me too busy to post anything, I did manage to get out and take photos. Since finals are over and it is heading into spring break, I thought that I would catch up a bit.   It has been a quiet evening going through the photos I have taken in the last year and half.

 This photo was taken at a local cemetery. This was one of  my first attempts at funerary art photography.   I am planning a trip to the cemetery in Jacksonville, Oregon during spring break. It should make for a nice day trip. And not to mention a good opportunity for photos in the historical town. 

 The early evening sky taken in late September 2011 in Oakridge Oregon. This was taken in the moment s leading up to sunset. We did end up having a bit of thunder late that night, not that it lasted very long.

Thomasina, my father's cat. This was taken outside my home before he came to pick her up. She was a bit too cooperative when I was taking photos of her. She kept coming up very close to the camera. In fact, she left kitty nose prints on the filter I had on the lens. Do you know how difficult it is to get kitty nose prints off of a lens??

She is a very friendly beautiful cat that is more than a bit klutzy from the stories I have heard.  Hard to believe that she was abandoned when her previous "owners" moved.

A close up of some moss growing near the base of a tree in Lithia Park located in Ashland, Oregon. This was a fun trip. There is so much to take photos of in Lithia Park. Definitely worth the time to go there.   This particular photo was taken of a tree just off of the trail across the creek near the lower duck pond.  That particular day was damp from the rain that fell during the night.  The raindrops left behind did make for some gorgeous shots.

Close up of an evergreen after it had been raining.  I really do need to get some books to identify the plants that I have been taking photos of. It would be nice to know. Of course, I am not really sure if I want to haul those books along on the photo trips. Leaving them in the car is one option, but that does make it impractical to identify the plant in question when taking the photo. And if a lot of photos are being taken of many different plants it could make it difficult to keep details straight about each photo. But I really don't want the weight of several books in my camera bag either.

 Lithia Creek . This photo was taken from one of the foot bridges in Lithia Park. THere are several that cross over the creek in various locations.  It was interesting trying to keep the camera steady with all the different randomly people crossing over and making the bridge bounce a bit... Especially the running teenagers.

Wood duck. This photo was taken at the lower duck pond within Lithia Park. There is a path that leads around the pond with several benches located near the water where you can sit and watch the ducks. These particular ducks were not exactly cooperative with me in taking the photos. They were shyer than the mallards which would swim close up to you. They were probably expecting to be fed. Too bad for them that I didn't have anything for them.

 Another photo of a wood duck. I managed to get this photo of the duck bathing. I was lucky to get this particular shot. It was taken close to the small islands located  off to one side in the pond. The wood ducks mostly kept either close to the island, on the shore of it, or hid themselves inside the plants growing on it. Between the trees and the rushes they had plenty of places to hide away.

A mallard duck at the same duck pond. There are many ducks that live at the pond year round. Most of the ducks there are mallards with a few  pairs of wood ducks. There was also a few ducks that I was unable to identify what type they were.  This was taken near the edge of the island I mentioned.

A close up of the frozen surface of the upper duck pond in Lithia Park. This pond is located close to the front of the park. It also has a few benches located near the waters edge for people to sit and enjoy the view. The upper duck pond was frozen while the lower duck pond  wasn't. All of the duck were hanging out at the lower pond. I don't think I saw an unfrozen portion of the upper pond when I was there.

 Another photo of the frozen pond. This one was taken in another part of the pond. It was incredible how much the surface of the pond varied. It was especially obvious once I switched over to my zoom lens. I was able to get a much closer look at the surface and could pick the more interesting surfaces to take photos of.

 Last spring I purchased an artist wooden hand model to practice sketching with. Too bad I haven't used it for that at all. I have been using it in some of my photography.  I am planning a series of photos of the hand in locations where you wouldn't exactly expect to see it. I just wish that it was a movable as Thing from the Addams' Family is. Oh the possibilities if it were...

 Here I was attempting some macro photography... without the right type of  lens.  Not really sure if it works.  But I do keep trying. Hopefully I will be able to get the right equipment to do this type of photography properly.

Taken at a local park during the start of the warm season. There is a water play structure at the park.

This is the cat that has been trying to adopt me. It was taken last spring while he was doing his best to convince me that I really did want to be his human. After all, he had saved me from those really huge crickets.

This weekend is the first time in a very long time that I have had both the time and the energy to go out and take photos. For the past few years, I have been very busy with school and being a single parent with very little time left over to do things that I enjoy. Mentally there is such a difference for me after going out and taking photos for the past three days. I managed to get out for a few hours each day. I must make a point of doing this every weekend.

While I didn't get a chance to shoot some portraiture photos, I did get to experiment with setting and played a bit with light. I also learned a few things about what to carry along with. If one is going to be lying down on the ground in an attempt to get the perfect shot, it is a good idea to carry something to lie down on.  It makes it easier to keep from getting thorns in you or to avoid other "prickly" plants. Also make sure your kid knows what poison oak looks like, especially if you are the one that catches it.

A list of helpful things to carry along (particularly if your camera bag is a back pack styled one). This list is by no means comprehensive.

• something to lie down on: I have a burden cloth. I can also use it to carry things in.
• meat tenderizer for bug bites and stings. (Works great on bee stings and the other stinging critters)
• bug repellant (And use it. Reapply when needed.)
• gallon sized ziploc bag with a hole for the lens to cover the camera with for when it rains or is otherwise damp
• extra battery for the camera
• car charger for the battery
• pocket knife (you never know when you can use one)
• map of the area
• GPS with a compass backup (Can't always get a signal for a GPS)
• cell phone
• something to wash the poison oak off with
• garbage bags to put the poison oaky clothes in (and a change of clothes) 

That should do it for right now. I am sure as time goes on I will find more things that are useful to carry along on these photo trips.

Now to the photos. All of the photos have a limited amount of editing done in Photoshop.

The technical information for this photo is: AV F5.0, Shutter speed 1/80, ISO 800 focal length 44.0 mm White balance :shade. This photo was shot near the Salmon creek trail head off of Fish Hatchery Road outside Oakridge Oregon. It was taken in the shade.

There is a trail that meanders through the woods and along the river or creek. The bridge is out, however, there are some planks that can be walked across if you want to hike the fitness trail. The bridge is still there, but during the winter months, the water uprooted the bridge and dumped it on top of a large rock.

Technical info: Shutter speed 1/13 AV F9.0  ISO 1600  Focal length 55.0 mm White balance: shade

This was shot at the other end of the trail near Cement Falls. The trail does lead there, but I drove to the parking located  near Rigdon Forest Service station outside Oakridge. (Not open to the public). There is a gazebo with a picnic table if you want to eat out there.  Follow the trail to Cement Falls and go past the falls. There is another wooden foot bridge shortly after it. The bridge itself is another good location to take photos at. This tunnel is under the railroad which passes through the area. It is located off to the right of the bridge.  I was standing in the mouth of the tunnel shooting towards the other end. I haven't had a chance to check out what is on the other side yet, but I plan to do so this summer.  Be sure to wear bug repellant if you are here during mosquito season.  They were out in force when we were here this weekend.

Technical info: Shutter speed 1/13 sec, AV F9.0, ISO 1600 White balance: shade

This photo was shot further up the trail from the little foot bridge near Cement Falls. It was an experiment with spider webs. I am not sure if it works or not. It was shot in mostly shade, though there is a lot of light showing here in the photo.

Technical info: Shutter speed 1/13 sec, AV F5.0, ISO 200 focal length 55.0 mm White balance: shade

This was taken along the trail that the other photos were taken. This was just beyond the foot bridge near Cement Falls.

Technical info: Shutter speed 1/60 sec, AV F8.0, ISO 400 White Balance : shade focal length 55.0 mm

This photo was taken near Cement Falls. This was a grassy area to the left of the trail on the way to the Cement Falls. I took the photo on the way back to the car.  This area was filled with tall grasses and flowers.

Technical info: shutter speed 1/13 sec, AV F5.6, ISO 100 focal length 55.0 mm, white balance: shade.

This was taken in the same grassy area as the photo above. I probably should have used a higher ISO, but I was experimenting that day.  I was experimenting a lot with photo setting. Not everything turned out, but I was having fun and I learned a great deal.

A few days ago, I had an unexpected and unwanted visitor in my shower. Somehow a tree frog had gotten into the bathroom and was hiding, er, hanging out in the shower. I didn't see it in there until I was showering. I am not sure which traumatized the frog more; the hot water or seeing me with no clothes on. 

So what to do with the frog hopping madly about in the tiny shower. Catch it , put it in the bathroom sink, and more importantly, take photos of it to post online.

Here they are for your viewing pleasure, photos of the peeping amphibian. 

I took this photos after the steam was gone from the bathroom. It kept fogging up the camera lens. Besides, waiting for the steam to dissipate gave the frog a chance to calm down. A stress out frog doesn't make for quality photos.  Bad enough the kid hadn't cleaned the bathroom yet.

The frog was starting to move a bit more. I would shortly put the frog outside. Shortly after this photos was taken, the frog  made its great escape attempt into my room. Not a good idea. I managed to catch it before I lost sight of it. It would have been a bad thing if I hadn't managed to catch it.

Here is the frog safely outside. I think it may still be a bit stressed out. That shower was fairly hot and shampoo was involved before I discovered the frog and got it into the bathroom sink.

Spirit Lake

Today we attempted to go to Spirit Lake . The plan was to take photos on the way to the lake and at the lake. It didn't quite work out that way.  The trip there for the most part went well. It was overcast, drizzling rain (very light) and the weather was cool but comfortable.  There was very little traffic on Salmon Creek road. Generally during the summer months there is a lot of traffic on that road due to campers, hikers and mountain bikers. It was nice to be able to drive and check out the scenery without having to deal with tourist traffic.

The road leading to Spirit Lake was mostly clear. There were a few trees that had fallen across the road, but they had been cut and the pieces removed. There were also a few largish rocks on the road in some places.  There were also some trees that looked like they were going to end up in the road sometime in the near future, but looked stable for the time being.  Along the way, there were several small waterfalls. There was also some small patches of snow visible.

We passed one large pickup truck coming down from the direction that we going in. I didn't think much of it at the time. The drive was uneventful. I would stop and park the car whenever I saw something that I wanted to take pictures of. Then the trip came to a stop. The road was block by snow. A lot of snow. And it was deep enough that it would have been foolish to try to drive through or over it. That brought the trip to Spirit Lake to a halt.

 

Th e above photo is the road. It was taken near where the road turned.  The snow was deep enough that getting my car over it would have been risky. And it was densely packed. I was able to walk on the snow without sinking into it or getting snow in my hiking sandals.

Anyway, here are some of the photos that I took in this short day trip. I took over 100 photos on this particular trip.

This photo was taken where one of the trees that fell splintered apart. Plants were already growing up through the fractures. The rain was not too bad at this point. I didn't need to put a gallon Ziploc bag over my camera. The log was soaked. When I leaned up against the log to get a better shot, my jeans were soaked where they came in contact with the log.

One of the several waterfalls on the way to Spirit Lake.  I think most of the waterfalls were from either spring melt runoff or springs that run during the rainy weather.  This waterfall was right next to the road.

This particular photo is of a waterfall that I think may flow year round.

There were many rhododendrons in various stages of blooming up there. Most of them were of this shade of light pink, though there were some that appeared to be a much darker pink.

A view of the overcast or misty sky through the trees. This was taken at around the 3000 feet elevation level.

 

Scotch broom, my nemesis. This plant's pollen has caused more allergy flareups for me. 

Another shot of the sky seen through the trees.

This is a photo of a white Douglas Iris. This one was taken on the way back down to main road. The rain was tapering back to a fine mist , for awhile.

I am hoping to be able to make it up to Spirit Lake after the snow melts and before the mosquitoes are bad.

It has been a awhile since I have posted anything. School and life in general has been hectic. Since I have a small break in between terms, I am taking the time to post some more photos.

 This photo was taken somewhere outside Oakridge, Oregon. It was taken the day the Tumblebug Fire started. The sky was overcast and there had been thunder with some visible lightening. In fact, the storm was the reason we left Mule Mountain. I have no idea of where this lake is located at. I was following a friend and was totally turned around when she stopped here so we could take photos.

This photo was taken during on of the last times it snowed here. I took this standing on my front porch. It is one of my first attempts of taking photos of snow. (We aren't discussing the Scout snow trip photos. )

I took this photo on the campus of Lane Community College . The water on the leaves is from a rain that fell earlier in the day.

This is another photo taken from my front porch. It was a drizzly type of day. I wasn't able to get out in the woods and take photos. Homework demands kept me home. But I did manage to get this shot.

Last summer, we went for what was supposed to be a short drive to Indigo Springs. We ended up at Summit Lake in Klamath county. Wonderful drive even with the washboard roads. This photo was taken on the shore in the late afternoon. If you are planning on making a trip to Summit Lake, make sure tht your vehicle has a lot of clearance. The road that goes around the lake has very deep irregular ruts in it. More than once, I thought that I was going to break something on my mini van.

This photo was taken at Salmon Creek campground. I have taken quite a few photos of Salmon Creek waterfall. I didn't focus on the complete waterfall in this shot. Instead, I focused on just a small portion of it in an attempt to catch the water as it fell. I was standing across the river from the falls and I was using a zoom lens to get the closer shot. Nice place to go camping by the way.

Last but not least this photo. This one was taken at Greenwaters Park alongside one of the trails that run behind the park across the river. There is a bridge that leads to the trails.

Salmon Creek

Last weekend, I went to Salmon Creek campground, located outside Oakridge, Oregon,  to take photos. It was late afternoon and very sunny when I got there. The Willamette river runs along the outside edge of the campground, which also has a day use area. The campground isn't opened yet, so we parked and walked in to take the photos.

The weather was beautiful; clear, sunny and shining right down the river.  The walk along the trail was fairly easy as was the climb down to the river to get photos of the falls.

This was taken en route to the falls from up above. Yes, the water really is that color.

This flower was along the trail. We were still walking towards the falls. Does anyone know what flower it is?

Here is the falls. I have been told that this falls does not run full all year. That it slows down to a trickle in the summer months. This year it should run even less considering that so far the snow and rain levels are well below normal.

Next trip out, I will have to do either early in the morning or when it is overcast. And I am going to do some more exploring in the area. There is supposedly a bridge somewhere near by.

Web 2.0 Assignment 9

For assignment 9, in the Web 2.0 class we had to read about the DMCA on the Electronic Frontier Foundation website and then post a blog about it.

DMCA is limiting and restricting free expression and scientific research. It has been used to control and beat down professionals in various fields.

It is jeopardizes fair use. It has made it so that owners of DVDs can’t make legitimate and personal use use copies of the DVDs that they have purchased.

It hinders or impeded competition and innovation. Some have used DMCA to hinder or slow down their competitors such as after market competition in laser printer toner cartridges, garage door openers, etc.
Apple has also used DMCA to limit its iPhone and iPod devices to Apple’s own software and services.

It interferes with computer intrusions laws. It has been misused as a weapon of retaliation. For example, a disgruntled employer has used DMCA against a former employee. The violation, the former contractor connected to the company’s computer system via a virtual private network (VPN)[www.eff.org Unintended Consequences : Twelve Years under the DMCA)


The DMCA needs to be changed. I am unsure as to how. A good start would be to make those who use it to bully or threaten accountable for their actions. SO far, it appears that they have not been held accountable at all.

Perhaps a DMCA should be rewritten and tightened up. Research needs to be able to be freely conducted. More importantly, the results need to be able to be published without fear of being punished or retaliated against.

Fair use needs to be allowed. What has been going on is not acceptable. If I want to burn a copy of a DVD or CD that I purchased so that my original remains in new condition, I should be able to do. I should also be able to burn copies for my son to use. I should also be able to do so. If I want to use music and various clips to produce videos for sites such as YouTube, I should be able to do so.

Mashup Assignment

Web 2.0 Assignement 5

For Web 2.0, we had to answer the questions below using Google and Wolfram to find the answers. 

1.       All English words containing the letters "eue"

I like Google better. Wolfram was a pita to use. I had to rephrase my question way too many times for me to even consider this to be a valid search tool for this type of information.

Using Google, I found the website http://www.morewords.com. The following words were listed there: feued, queue, queued, queueing, queuer, queuer, queuers, and queues.

On Wolfram, I found three words that contain the letters “eue” in sequence; queue, queued and
queues.

2. How much potassium in 4.7 oz of banana?

Wolfram returned the information immediately. It is 475 milligrams. Google required too much digging to get the information.

3. How old was Barack Obama on the day you were born?

Wolfram returned the result immediately. He was 3 years, 6 month and 23 days.

Google turned up many results for a Barrack Obama senior, not the president. Too much digging and or rephrasing required to get the answer.

4. Date and time of the next total solar eclipse in Eugene?

Google turned up this answer for the next total solar eclipse: August 21 2017 (found on http://www.hermit.org/eclipse/2017-08-21/) further digging in the article turned up a time: 17:21 (24 hour time), 5:21 pm.  (Based on a graphic showing the path of the eclipse and the approximate time it would pass over a specific location).

Wolfram:  12:25 MDT August 21, 2017 (What is MDT?)

5. What is the minimum and maximum price of Google stock since it went public?

Google: minimum price was $85 the day it was first listed; the maximum was $747.24 on November 7, 2007.  I found this information on two different websites. (Google was faster for me)

Wolfram showed graphs for the stock prices. I had to ask the question several different ways.  Minimum price was less than $100. Maximum price I was unable to find because I couldn’t think of a way that Wolfram could understand what I was looking for.

6. Link an image of the barcode for UPC 01234567890

 Wolfram found the following: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=barcode+01234567890   This page shows three different versions of the barcode.

Google found several sites that had the barcode, include other students’ blogs. One place to find it is http://www.activebarcode.com/codes/images/upce.gif .

7. How many vertices does an icosahedron have?

Twelve. Both Wolfram and Google turned up an answer quickly.

8. Distance from Eugene to Tokyo?

Wolfram gave an answer of 4886 miles. Google said it was 13882 flight miles. Actual distance Wolfram gave the answer, but for actual travel miles, Google gave the answer.

9. Average Oregon income per capita?

Wolfram gave the answer of $31930/year (2007 estimate). Google gave more recent information: $35,956/year (2008) source: http://www.qualityinfo.org/pubs/single/pcpi.pdf

10. What is the Morse code for your first name?

_._ |.. | _ _ | _ ... | .| ._. | . _ . . | _ . _ _ 

 K      I       M      B       E    R       L             Y

Both Wolfram and Google found the answer quickly. Wolfram provided that answer only, while Google provided additional information that could be used or discarded as needed. 

http://www.pokemyname.com/firstname_2265_kimberly.htm is one of the sites I found on Google. It showed my name in Morse code and Braille among others. It also provided other interesting information about the name Kimberly.

Internet censorship

For the web 2.0 class I am taking, we had to do some research on internet censorship. We were given specific terms to research on the following search engines: google.com, bing.com and from China, baidu.com (CHina's search engine) and google.cn (Google's china website). The terms and what I found out are listed below.

1. uss yorktown nt
The results for each search engine were very similar. I suspect that this is because the subject was not offensive to the current Chinese government.

2. google china censorship
With google.com and bing.com, I managed to find stories about the censorship that  covered it in depth and about the impact on people. While I was able to find stories on china censorship on the other two search engine, the summaries were not in depth and were tended to be slanted towards the Chinese government rather than what was actually happening.

3. Tiananmen Square
Both google.com and bing.com had results that covered the Tiananmen massacre/protest as well as general information about the location. There was also basic tourist information available as well as a virtual tour. Videos were also listed. History information was available.

Baidu.com listed the following results: results for the Olympics that were held there, tourist information and general information that residents would use. There was also some tourist information listed. There was no mention of the student protests or any results that would show the Chinese government in a bad light.

Google.cn showed similar results and images. Once again there was nothing controversial and nothing that could be considered offensive to the Chinese government. If it can't be seen by the residents of that country, then nothing of that nature has ever happened. With enough time and brainwashing, history can be rewritten for the residents of China. I find this to be disturbing. It is difficult enough to find factual and truthful information online without having to worry about access to information being limited and the information sanitized ; and even worse being rewritten with no regard to what the truth actually is.

4. Taiwan Independence
To a point, all four search engine showed similar results. The search engine that are china based showed less detailed summaries or synopsis. Once again, it appears that the results are sanitized and limited on those search engines.

While I can see the appeal of censoring hate groups to prevent them from spreading their poison and infecting others, censorship is a dangerous practice. Great harm can be done by changing the truth into lies. There is a fine line to walk.  Certain things should be censored or controlled. What is going on in world events should be told in a factual and truthful manner, not censored because it might make your government look bad or make said government's population think and question what is going on.

Some photo samples

For Web 2.0, we have to post some photos. Here are some photos that I took during the summer and early fall.

This photo was taken from the top of Mule Mountain located outside Oakridge, Oregon. This was the same day that the thunder storm started the Tumblebug Fire complex. We could hear the thunder and see some of the lighting in the distance. 

This photo was also taken from the top of Mule Mountain. Some sunlight was staring to show through the clouds when I took this photo. Rain was on the way though. We left shortly after the photo was taken due to incoming storm.

This photo was taken in the Cement Falls area. Cement Falls is located near the old Rigdon Forest Service Ranger station. The bee was somewhat cooperative while I was taking  photos.

All of these photos were taken with a Canon Rebel camera.

Please note, I retain all copy rights to my work. Permission must be obtained to use my photos.

the cheapskate a CNET blog

This is a blog that I check on a very regular basis. Rick Broida has posted some very good deals on technology, and has provided good information on how to locate promotions and coupons to make the good deals even better.

The cheapskate is located on CNET website. There are other blogs there on different technology related subjects. (What can I say, I am a CIT student. What few blogs I may follow are either technology or multi-media oriented.)

Speaking of multi-media, check out Web Design Blog for free templates, vector graphics and tools for web designers. There is even a e-mail newsletter available.

Legend of Zelda

I have been a big fan of the Legend of Zelda for over ten years. After watching one of the "Holding out for a hero" (Bonnie Tyler's song) Legend of Zelda videos convinced me to upgrade my toy to the Wii. Until last February, the most recent game console in my home was the Nintendo 64. I love the graphics in Twilight Princess.

I also very much want to learn how to make videos like this. Enjoy the video. The music is"It's my Life" by Bon Jovi. (So old school as a certain someone has informed me. )

Flash drive failure...

Talk about stress. My flash drive with all of my labs done so far this term is not being recognized by several different computers. And not to mention all the other work I have done so far.

I have managed to redo some of the JavaScript labs. Too bad one of them isn't working right and I had it working perfectly in the lab stored on said flash drive. It looks like I will be up late tonight and early tomorrow redoing all that work. Not fun.

Did someone forget to give the computer gremlins their toys so that they would leave everyone else alone?

Blogging for college credit

Well, here we go on my first attempt at blogging. I am taking a class called Web 2.0 in college. Currently, I am a dual major , networking and multi-media design.

In the past I haven't been much for journaling, much less blogging online. So we will see how this goes.

The first few blogs will be mostly about my adventures and misadventures with photography.