Total Lunar Eclipse

This was my first attempt at astrophotography. Conditions... sucked; that's an astronomical term meaning that my neighbors' porch lights where on, street lights were on, and there was a slight weather inversion (layer of trapped fog in the upper air), all factoring in attempt to destroy my viewing opportunity. Fortunately, at least I got to see the lunar spectacle. My dad didn't get to see a thing from his cloudy and raining vantage point in Arizona. I setup on my front porch with my Canon 30D and Sigma lens mounted on a sturdy tripod, connected my shutter release cable, and took about 140 shots. Please enjoy these pictures.



This next one was a mistake. I thought I had set my shutter speed at 1/30 of a second, but it ended up being 30 full seconds. Happy accident, as this exposure picked up some other star light that I didn't observe with my own eyes. Looks closely to see a few stars tracking through the sky.




I don't have a cool set of images showing the phases of the eclipse, but this series shows the movement direction and distance of Moon through the sky in just a short seven minutes.


The last of Earth's shadow covers Moon as it passes through Sun's path. (Makes a decent desktop wallpaper.)

Groovy Graphics

Go to a website that has some graphics, then paste the following code into the address bar of your browser:

javascript:R=0; x1=.1; y1=.05; x2=.25; y2=.24; x3=1.6; y3=.24; x4=300; y4=200; x5=300; y5=200; DI= document.getElementsByTagName("img"); DIL=DI.length; function A(){for(i=0; i-DIL; i++){DIS=DI[ i ].style; DIS.position='absolute'; DIS.left=(Math.sin(R*x1+i*x2+x3)*x4+x5)+"px"; DIS.top=(Math.cos(R*y1+i*y2+y3)*y4+y5)+"px"}R++}setInterval('A()',50); void(0);

(Don’t worry, it’s safe!)

Gee, Columbus?

So, I've discovered this unique flat map of the Internet, and I plugged in the DNS name of my domain and the WAN IP of my DSL router and sailed... uh... surfed to where these network devices live in the great expanse of the Internet. Check out these maps:
                   Pepperfly.com                                      My DSL Router

geoGreeting...

The surface of the earth holds a message for you. You just need to look a little closer. Click the picture to the left to see.

Banished Words

I was reading through the annual List of Banished Words recently released by Lake Superior State University: 16 worn-out, misused, and generally worthless words and expressions drawn from more than 4,500 nominations.

An expression I'd like to see banished is "my/your bad."

The expression is simply over-used and annoying. Similar to the reason that "gone/went missing" was banished (as if "missing" is a place you can go to, like the Poconos), I ask "what is a 'bad?'" Is it something that fell out of your pocket and you are claiming it back? ("Anyone know whose 'bad' this is? It's not mine... is it your's?" (Now you understand why it's ridiculously annoying?))

I know what people are trying to mean, but I'm tired of people using this expression as if they are respectfully taking ownership for something they did wrong. Do people really expect that their admittance of wrong-doing by exclaiming this expression pardons them from their error, is an indication that they've learned their lesson, and is an automatically accepted apology?

And don't say to me it's "your bad," because I don't have a ... whatever that is. Something wrong? My fault? Ah... I have no problem taking responsibility for "my mistake."

My kids are understanding that pulling this expression on me doesn't lessen the consequences of their unsatisfactory action. I'm glad they recognize their errors, but no free passes. They'll be corrected accordingly. The consequences are worse if this expression is uttered through their lips. What do they expect?

"My bad, dad."
"OK, yo... no prob... we're chill."

NOT!

Acceptable: "sorry dad, it's my fault."
Unacceptable: "my bad."

Might as well have just told me "f* you, get over it!"

(Hrmmm... come to think of it, my use of the word "not" up there should be banished! And while we're at it, let's also add "hooah" to the list.)