Statrix Redux

How soon till baseball gets going again? Here are the dates from MLB!
Keep in mind the server for this site is in Chicago, so the dates are relative to the Windy City. I left if that way because it’s because it’s more or less in the middle of the country making it inaccurate for both coasts. 🙂
February 14, 2008 1) {
print ” – “;
print $z;
print “ days left!!”;
}
?>

First date injured players, pitchers and catchers may report to Spring Training
February 19, 2008 1) {
print ” – “;
print $z;
print “ days left!!”;
}
?>

First date all players may report to Spring Training
February 26, 2008 1) {
print ” – “;
print $z;
print “ days left!!”;
}
?>

Mandatory Spring Training reporting date for all players
March 25, 2008 1) {
print ” – “;
print $z;
print “ days left!!”;
}
?>

Opening Day: Boston vs. Oakland in Tokyo

Is this back with a vengeance or what?!
The last time I upgraded my WordPress installation I managed to break my K2 theme. Given that I’d just updated the site for security reasons I thought I’d give K2 another try. This time it’s RC3 (release candidate 3) which has been out for a while. As far as I’m concerned it’s great. I was finally able to get a photo in my header without a lot of tweaking.
Continuing with my theme from yesterday I’ve asked my hosting service, Anhosting/Midphase, to install Ruby on Rails on my setup. I’ve been playing with it at home a bit and may end up cooking something up for Statrix. The interest seems to have come about because of my recent return to Backpack.
I should note that I’m part of the Backpack affiliate program and if you click through and actually sign up mentioning me (BPZH92H) I’ll get some credit to pay for my own setup. I should also note that Backpack is inexpensive enough that if I never get a dime from this I’m unlikely to change my opinion of it.

In addition I’ve got a couple of ideas for the website I actually do manage (for a non-profit which will remain anonymous). It could always use some sprucing up and perhaps RoR can help. The site doesn’t require a full CMS but could use a few features from one. Currently the site is pretty much just XHTML and doesn’t allow much interactivity. We’ll see.
Now if I only had something to say!
Aloha!

It’s the beginning of a new year and I’ve been busy trying new software in hopes of improving my life, becoming way too cool for words, attracting the “right” people, and generally deluding myself that any of it will work. 🙂
The best news is that I was able to upgrade the blog software, WordPress, on my own while losing only one post (and that had more to do with deleting test posts than anything else). I even managed to upgrade the plug-ins. Wow!
Then, in an effort to learn to track my life, I’ve gotten started with Joe’s Goals, or more correctly, my own goals. It’s a great little site that allows you to set goals and track them. There’s nothing complex about it at all and I think that may be the key to actually using it. In the past everything I’ve tried has been too complex and took too much time. I didn’t seem time to actually accomplish my goals once I’d set up the tracking, not so with Joe!

One of my goals is too actually add stuff to this blog more often!
I also hired a new personal assistant, Sandy, to manage all those appointments, reminders, that don’t really merit cluttering up my calendar and those that do. She communicates with me via email and SMS (and can do some other tricks as well). The best part about her is she isn’t asking for a paycheck.

Finally I also got started, again, with Backpack. It’s a great online organizer for stuff. Really. It is also very simple which is one of the attractions for me.

Aloha!

Well it’s been a while (again) since I’ve posted. The reason this time (other than laziness) is that I’ve been made the webmaster for an organization I belong to here in Hawaii and my time has been spent working on that. I can’t mention the site here (no mom, it’s not porn), but I will say (for those who know) it involves fighting vampires. You might say it’s one of the bureaucratic organizations involved in vampire fighting.
So that’s where I’ve been – and probably will be for a while. It’s fun though!
Aloha! Bob

Flossie will be passing just south of the islands or so say the weatherfolk. My Mom lives on the Big Island and is more likely to take the brunt of Flossie than I am, but one just never knows. Flossie could veer north and into islands. I guess more will be revealed, but in the meantime, here’s an image from NOAA.

Already on the Big Island the decision has been made to close schools and we are currently in a declared state of emergency issued by the governor. And just to top things off over there, the Big Island had a 5.4 magnitude shock just to top things off.
I was pleased to note that my own workplace has closed it’s operations on the Big Island for the day. It would, of course, be nice if we closed on Oahu as well, though at this point it’s totally unnecessary. Indeed there was not a trace of wind on the way to work this morning, though that doesn’t mean much – it could start up in flash.
I guess the only thing for sure is that I still have to do laundry today, hurricane or no.
Aloha!

I must be crazy because it looks like I’m off to Vegas with my folks in a month or two. My Pops is a retired Marine and has a reunion there coming up. My Mom is treating him and I’m going to tag along to give my Mom someone to pick on while he’s doing his thing.
It’s more than I can afford…what else is new?
More later!
Aloha!

I just upgraded my Photoshop and tossed in Adobe Lightroom to boot. My progression through the Photoshop Family has been…

1. Elements 3.0 (PC) – I started with this and it did most everything I needed for a P&S camera.
2. Elements 4.0 (Mac) – Got an iMac, upgraded the software, still using a P&S.
3. CS2 (Mac) – Started shooting with Nikon DSLRs and thought I needed a bigger bang. Luckily I got PS CS2 at half price (legally through a coupon because I owned Elements).
4. And now…CS3 – also at a discount on the upgrade through NAPP.
5. …and Lightroom since it was $100 bucks off also through NAPP.

The big problem is now I want a new Mac to go along with all of this (as well as a new lens). Ah me, it never stops.
The good news is it seems that all this stuff works. PS CS3 was a natural and I do prefer it to CS2, but the real story is Lightroom. I had a copy of the beta, but I never really cared for it at the time. It was never quite what I wanted and I was still getting used to a number of different things. Now, with the commercial release, I think Lightroom has made it to prime time.
I used it last night to import, catalog, and improve the images I made of Melvin’s watches. That link goes to the older versions of the images, but I’ll be loading the nicer ones soon. The album is about 60 images which all needed a bit of something. Lightroom made it easy. Most of the images are pretty similar, so getting one tweaked right should make it easier to do the next. In Lightroom it’s easy as pie. I simply used the “copy settings” and “paste settings” tools to move through the entire album. I’m sure there’s a lot to learn, but it wasn’t hard to make things better quickly. I’m impressed.
I’m not sure this is really better, but here are two watches, the first was simply cropped (and is the same as the watch in another posting), the second was done in Lightroom in about a minute. It seems to be an improvement, but that is, of course, up to the viewer.


Admittedly the lower image is probably a bit over the top but I’m sure you get the idea. So, assuming this is what you want, it’s a simple matter to paste these settings into other images in the series that are similar. I think I went through all 60+ images using about six or seven settings and tweaking just one or two images a bit more.
It’s true I could have done this in CS3 without a bit of trouble and probably would/should have done so. Lightroom, however, made it very simple.
Aloha!

Well I’m heading to Hilo for a weekend in the next month or two to visit my Mom and Pops. You see last year I took a picture of them that I turned into Christmas cards at MPix. Here’s the pic…

I liked the way the cards turned out, so did they. So…
I decided I might as well go with what works and do it again. Of course we aren’t attending another wedding in Olympia this year, so I’m going to have to fly to Hilo and visit them. You can tell I’m really broken up about this turn of events. Did I mention I love Hilo?
And perhaps, just perhaps, I’ll be headed to Las Vegas later this year as well. I did fly over it on my way back from Milwaukee, but apparently that’s not good enough. It seems Mom and Pops are headed there themselves and I may tag along (on my own dime) for the experience. Pops has a reunion of his own to attend and I may go to keep my Mom company while he does his thing. I’ve never been there before, so it’ll definitely be an experience.
Aloha!

I’m back from Milwaukee where I attended the SHS Class of ’76 reunion. I had a great time. This was the first reunion I’d attended and I don’t think it’ll be the last. In many ways it was like picking up a conversation I’d had only yesterday with good friends. Of course, yesterday was 31 years ago.
My only regret, and it’s minor, is that I didn’t get to attend a Brewer’s game. I had a ticket but circumstances prevented me from actually showing up. Ah well, it seems that in the series against the SF Giants they weren’t doing that well anyway and Barry Bonds wasn’t playing in the game I would have attended.
In any case I’ll be seriously considering any future reunions.
Back home I did a bit of photography for a friend who wants to sell some watches on eBay. It was fun and I used the $10 DIY Macro Photo Studio from Strobist. Here’s an example.

That’s about it for now. I’ve got lots of service obligations coming up soon so I’ll be a busy fellow, but other than that, it’s life as usual (which, I might add, ain’t bad).
Aloha!

Blogging doesn’t seem to have taken. I just can’t keep up with my own life I guess.
in any case, I’m headed to Milwaukee soon for the reunion. I was going, then I wasn’t, then I was. I’ll be glad to get out of town for a few days though. Perhaps I’ll even manage to blog about it.
That it for now though.