Cloudy Mountain

Cloudy Mountain, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

Yeah, I'm cheating and playing it forward. Here's what the weather looked like a few hours ago, when we were heading south down I 25.

Fresh snow

fresh snow, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

Wow, yeah I know, this is way early in the day, and I even put stuff up yesterday. It snowed some last night, and it seems that we got all of half an inch of accumulation. So that meant I knew what my daily photo would be for today. I included my foot to show scale. And yes, the sun is to the right, the speed light to the left, and on camera flash for fill.

Tardis

Tardis, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

As I'm sure all two of the regular readers have noticed, I haven't kept up with my idea of shooting interesting things daily to post on this blog. I've even spent the past few days with fast internet and the camera have all been on standby, but the shootingI have done was totally mundane, and I haven't even done much of that. I've been taking it easy with lots of tea and a bit of coffee, added to a diet rich in cookies and turkey. Throw in some extra family, computer stuffs and a house full of good reading, and you see where I'm at. I should be doing better with a return to 'burque and a leave from reliable internet.

Computer Time

Computer Time, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

Christmas tree highlighted from one SB-900. Otherwise, ambient lighting.

Mini me works!

So, now that christmas is here, I can talk about the Dell Mini 10v that I now have running on Mac OS X 10.6. I used Network Boot Maker and EP45UD3P to make a bootable USB stick with an image of Snow Leopard. Gizmodo and Lifehacker both have clear guides for the process, and they probably are better explainers than I. Anyhows, it seems to be a decent stable build, and there haven't been any problems, yet.

Tree Vortex

Tree vortex, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

Let's just hope Santa doesn't get too dizzy…

Snow

Snow, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

From the storm of the month in Albuquerque.

Vista

Vista, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

December 21

So, yeah, you might be noticing the lack of anything for Sunday. Well, I admit, I didn't do any shooting Sunday. I was watching football and being lazy. Today, to make up for that, I took the Gila Monster and a couple friends up Cedro to the Vista. The melting snow up there has left mud on the tires. The air was clear, cold and clean, and the usual mountain burgers turned out alright, even though we kept the fire rather tiny at the bottom of our pit. More stuff from this weekend on my Flickr page.

College Students Need Sleep Too!

College Students Need Sleep Too!, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

December 19 (Cheating, it's on the 19th, but in the AM of the same shoot as the 18th's pic)

And That's How I…

And That's How I…, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

December 18

Oh Boy

Fun Times in The Valley

(‘Twas not this trip)

So we’re done in McAllen for now, which means I’ll be getting to internet soon. I know that I’m remiss, I’ve shot days of daily photos, but they aren’t online yet. We just stopped at a fruit stand, where I completely missed a great photo opportunity with the crates of fresh fruit, the proud owner trying to eek a meager living and the various other accoutrements of the business. Now, five dollars richer, he watches us leave with twenty pounds of grapefruit stuffed into a mesh sack. Ah, grapefruit. There’s something great about something so sweet, tart tender and flavorful, especially when it comes prepackaged in it’s own biodegradable wrapper.

Falfurrias Border Patrol Checkpoint, lots of questions and searching, then eventually, “Have a good day, sir.” They don’t like having pictures taken. Oh well.

Empty

Empty, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

Today's pic came into being while I was sitting in the back seat, riding in the car as we drove up the road through George West in southern Texas. It was a very grey day, especially coming after a week of heavy rains and days of stress on us, trying to deal with events unfolding as they come down the pipe. This reflects the way I feel lately, with things going on beyond my control.

Hard Light

Hard Light, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

Well, I'm trying to keep up with Self Portrait (insert day of week here). Also, this is Wednesday's Daily Picture.

Lamp

Lamp, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

The lamp in the Old Soldier's home.

Visitor count update

 Who's next?

Hologram?

Hologram?, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

Yeah, that's where I'm at. Down in the southern Rio Grande valley. To be more specific, we are here:

View Larger Map

Anyway, I'm trying to do more frequent photos, maybe even getting to a daily frequency, and hopefully I can get things up earlier in the day too.

Portrait of a Cat

Hey, kitty kitty, originally uploaded by Gerald5970.

While I was in Albuquerque, I took a few minutes to take some pictures. I got Dulce in a quiet mode, snoozing on the back of a chair. I bounced the light from the SB 900 off the wall behind and to my right.

Relocation Update

Sometime tomorrow, a package should arrive. As soon as it does, I depart Tempe for Cooler climes. I've been going over gear, equipment, vehicular preparedness, routes, timing and weather, while creating an USB OS X boot stick and trying to transfer a few datas from my hard drives up to the internet and retrieve other bits from the internet down to my machine. Lots going on, and more to come, too.

I think it's time for a travel checklist:

1.    Weather                        So far, things look rather good for travel. Low chances of precipitation, with generally clear skies. There could be wind, however, so I’m watching out for that.

2.    Vehicle                          I’ve been getting the Gila Monster ready for a long trip. Tires, gas, oil have been checked, and the problem with the battery not holding a charge was easily fixed by replacing the six year old battery with a brand new one (it wasn’t covered anymore by the two year warranty, but the auto parts guy took $15 for trading in the old one at the time of sale).

3.    Equipment                     The equipment is the stuff that lives in or near the Gila Monster, so this includes the five gallon water can, tools, blankets, a tent, camping stove, fuel, matches, some canned food and such. This also includes the Gila Monster’s extensive ten-year-old highway map library for the western United States and a few National Forests too.

4.    Gear                             Yeah, this includes the photo stuff, tripods, and cameras, off camera flash, film holders, film (yes, 35mm and 4”x5”), batteries, chargers, bags and sleeves. This also covers clothes, laptop, hard drives, accessories and the accompanying goodies.

5.    Other Goodies                The catchall for things that missed the other super broad categories. These include coffee! (I think the exclamation point should become the final character in any good spelling of the word), the package, a couple good books, Green Chile, window cleaning rag and a GPS for backup.

So now I’m trying to think of a way to attach the point and shoot to the dash and have it record a low-res video of my drive. I’ve got room for days of crappy movie footage, but there would be a plan going in to shooting, and I’ve got space for editing. Time will tell on that project.

 I will be tweeting progress, so stay tuned for departure and trip info!

Dell, you failed.

Yeah, I can't say much now, but they have annoyed me.


Hint to Dell: If you read this, I want you to communicate about important things, which you didn't even attempt, even though you had all of my contact information. What you did sucks, and by not giving me the slightest hint of any problems, I sat here blissfully ignorant of your ineptitude, which apparently started last week and will not be resolved until next week. So, yeah, please let me know next time you want to screw me over. Maybe by talking to the customer you could fix your errors. Or better yet, don't drop the ball in the first place.