Four Easy Pieces
Here are 4 Easy Photoshop Techniques to Make Your Pictures Pop. Some of these are a little two “processy” for my taste, but the blur/overlay trick looks like a must-try.
Architecture Gone Wild
Here’s a site describing a low impact woodland home. Very Hobbit-y. I drafted plans for a home almost identical to this when I was in 10th grade, only I envisioned clean modernistic lines with concrete as the main building material.
Jeep Waterfall
Using technology analogous to ink jet printing, Jeep’s waterfall “prints” words and pictures in pattern of rainfall. Brings a whole different meaning to the phrase “like writing in water.”
Be Afraid
Be very afraid… Elephant jokes.
The Biggest Little Adventure into Space
At Mercury Joe: a scale model Mercury rocket designed to take a GI Joe into outer space.
Going to the Dogs
As if mail carriers didn’t have enough trouble with dogs already, BoingBoing reports that China is introducing the postman’s nightmare–pork scented stamps.
Jeep Wiki
Jeepiki is a new wiki site set up for Jeep owners, in connection with the popular JeepForum. Jeepiki is populated mostly with factual info about specific models and some Jeep history.
Review: Accutire Talking Tire Gauge
Do you really want your tools to talk back? Well, with the Accutire pressure gauge, sure. Why not. The audible readout is handy when you’re checking tire pressure at night or in a dimly lit garage. The LCD display is a little hard to read in low-light conditions, making the audible feature all the more…
2006 Year in Review
January 2006 started with a daytrip to Mt. Baldy to take the dogs for a run in the snow. After three hours in the minivan we arrived at a muddy, rocky ski lift. Rats. We mistakenly read the snow report for Mt. Baldy in Canada. Drove the VW bus to Big Sur to hear a…
Mystery Man
Richard Rohr, in a “This I believe” segment on NPR, marvels that We love closure, resolution and clarity, while thinking that we are people of ‘faith’! How strange that the very word ‘faith’ has come to mean its exact opposite.
The Call of the Wild
Maureen and I, along with several other couples, are going through Tom Stephen and Ginny Starkey’s devotional Fearless. On day four they ask these questions– Do you sense that God has a purpose for your life? Are you willing to humble yourself and ask God to reveal that purpose to you? Questions about purpose have…
Coming Unglued
I gave my Jeep a quick hose-down the other day and noticed that my California Adventure Pass was flapping in the breeze. For $30 you’d think the darn thing would at least have some decent glue. The pass is designed to hang from your rearview mirror. But for open-top vehicles (such as a Jeep) the…
Numb and Number
Something happened last week, a load shifted in my psyche. I don’t have the words, really, to describe the feeling. Something like a grim set of the teeth. Determination to face the coming cyclone even though there will be nothing left intact on the other side. Over the weekend I went to see Scorsese’s brutal…
Second Hand Life
We spent the Thanksgiving holiday in San Luis Obispo visiting our long-time friends Gene and Ros. We also house-sat for a woman in Los Osos, free lodging in exchange for looking after her pets. In the morning we would take the dog for a walk. It was a strange experience because neighbors and other people…
The Farmer in the Till
Driving through the Irish countryside we saw countless small farms, each with a small herd of cattle or a few flocks of sheep. I don’t know what a head of beef goes for on the Irish market–I’d guess maybe between 800 and 1600 euro. Seems like you’d have to sell at least a hundred head…