View from The Inn At Thorn Hill

Thanks to John at Loghound for getting Google to make the fix so quickly.

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John LeJeune

Seems changes to Blogger have affected my blogging template.  This time permalinks take the user to a page with the correct UI but the content of the page is empty.  You do get the "Next Page" link that will actually take you to the Blog homepage where the newest post will be up top. So if you reach my blog via a feed reader beware that you'll go to a blank page.  Let's hope this issue can be fixed. I'm keeping my fingers crossed. Hope everyone's Thanksgiving preparation is productive and fun.  Stay safe if you are traveling and remember that the journey can be just as interesting as the destination.

I just wanted to share some iPhonegraphy taken yesterday morning as the sun rose on Plum Island. Mary and I were fortunate enough to be able to go on an overnight to a beautiful inn called Blue. We had the penthouse that overlooks the beach and the wildlife refuge. We felt like we were miles away nestled in a sublime oasis. Too short but very reinvigorating. Thanks Kim and Jim.

After trying to chase down issues with Echo and reviewing my options it became apparent that Using Blogger's comment engine is the way to go. Echo who bought Haloscan, my original comment engine wants to increase the annual fee four fold. Blogger's offering is more to my liking - FREE. There are several options for logging into the comments, even anonymously. Comment at will!

This is a great holiday gift idea that is fun and also says a lot about how you care about the world around you. Attic Journals takes old books destined for the dumpster and repurposes them. Spines are carefully removed and paper is recycled. The front and back covers are then reused and wire bound into blank journals using at least 75 blank pages of twenty four pound paper stock. Each journal is unique and sometimes a bit quirky. You'll find lots of interesting old covers some abstract some very graphic. A great Idea for someone on your holiday shopping list. Go over and take a look at the different sizes and other items they have for sale.

Well I did intend to write something yesterday. Unfortunately now you and I now know there is a limitation with the kindle fire browser (Amazon Silk) not allowing one to use the body field in Google Blogger's web interface. >>>Tangent Warning<<< Sorry folks this is going to get a bit geeky. Some of you may know that I have a blogger account that mirrors this here blog. I use a product called RapidBlog that allows me to post remotely from blogger when I'm not at home. Through some PHP magic when you arrive at this here blog it goes out to the Blogger mirror site and displays the drivel I've posted at the blogger site right here before your very eyes. When I arrive back at the mothership a simple sync sucks said drivel back into the landing bay doors and all is right with the world. Through Google's intricate web of RSS readers, blog interfaces and other doodads, if you follow a fellow Blogger account holder you never leave the Google playpen. Those folks that noticed my blogger account are usually Blogger account holders themselves and have innocently posted comments over there and are probably befuddled that I don't respond or notice. Truth is I don't notice because I have another comment engine from Echo that lives within the native (non Blogger) blog. (no the tangent is not over yet) sooo, recently I turned off the comments over at Blogger in hopes that all you kind folks can all comment in the same place. And when I say all you kind folks, the two of you should know who you are ;-) Lemme know via these comments if this is making any sense. >>>Tangent Over<<<

Remember I said kindle fire? Yeah I was able to purchase one with some American Express Rewards points and it arrived yesterday. It immediately started doing it's excellent job of sucking all the time out of my day. Last night right before I managed to run the first battery cycle down to zero, I remembered I had not posted anything to this here blog. If you know anything about the warm comfyness of a Tempur-Pedic, you know that once you have settled down into the loveliness that is memory foam you don't want to ruin the buzz. There I was bathed in said memory foam with a shiny new tablet balanced on my belly connected to the inter tubes and I thought, well well well, I can post from this here kindle-ma-gig and fulfill my November blogging duties without having to don my fuzzy slippers. I got as far as the title and then technology flipped me the bird. So in the end you got a title and I got a post and we both didn't have to expend a lot of effort.

What are my impressions of this time sucking device? I like it. I like the size - a lot! It is half the size of an iPad. It gets me to my email and the web. It's definitely a machine that encourages consumption and is a great go between device. Amazon definitely knows how to sell content. I would say this is a device for casual computing. For any heavy lifting I'd move to a laptop or desktop immediately. The earlier versions of kindle did nothing for me. I actually like to hold a real book or magazine in my hands when I read recreationally. But I find myself more and more turning to online sources for news, information and convenience. The fact that this is a pretty capable computing device, in my eyes, puts it way above the previous kindle offerings. At $200 I think this device will fulfill a lot of needs. If you want to see a good review of the device and one I personally agree with, head over to The Verge.

Been immersed in the world of HTML trying to complete some projects for school and friends. It's interesting that very consistently the first steps are the hardest. Once the journey has started inertia takes over and fills the time and brings you to conclusion. Then there are tweaks and bugs to look after. I enjoy handling the entire process from Internet service provider to designer, photographer, developer then quality engineer. Not rocket science but nice to have the skills to own all the steps. There are always challenges in my weaker areas but working those new muscles develops strength.

Tomorrow I will enter the world of Android when a Kindle Fire will be in my possession. I look forward to comparing it to the iPad. Amazon certainly has made this devise very focused on buying consumable media. After you have connected to the internet.: Step one - register device. Step two - set up payment method. At lea$t they are not ambiguou$ about what it'$ purpose i$.

You've served me well. Time for a replacement.

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

"Writing is easy. You only need to stare at a piece of blank paper until your forehead bleeds."

Douglas Adams via Gene Fowler

No pressure at all. . .

Today I participated in my first Meetup event with Cape Ann Photography Excursions (CAPE). It was Portrait day and most people were behind and in front of the camera. Lots of nice people and loads of fun working with everyone making portraits and helping out. Pretty simple and effective lighting using diffused sunlight, fill reflectors and catch light with on camera flash. Members will use the photo's for profile pictures in paces like Facebook, Linkedin and other sites looking for a likeness of their members. You can go to the site and check out all the wonderful images the club members have produced.

This holiday season if you are sending out holiday cards please consider purchasing your postage stamps at the Matinicus Island Post Office. Matinicus Island is over twenty miles out to sea off the coast of Maine. Although you don't have to go there yourself to purchase stamps you can purchase them free of shipping and handling charges. There are self addressed order forms that go through the postal system at no cost to you. The postmaster Wanda, will be glad to fill your order. Why is this important? The post office on a remote island is one of it's physical connections to the mainland. In order to maintain it's presence it needs to show sufficient sales to justify it's existence. External sales help make that happen. For the last eight years we buy as much postage as we can from Matinicus. Not only holiday postage but our year round postage. If you'd like more information on how to do this here's a link.

Interesting organization calling out websites that do unscrupulus things with website forms in order to increase sales and make users do things they may not be aware thery are doing. Have a look at the video on their landing page to see more details. Here is a link to their site.

You dear sweet redhead with braids. You are so thoughtful to swaddle my single burger - ketchup, mustard, pickle, lettuce (My dads wonderful formula for a single) open ended and neat as I travel the open road filling my gullet proceeding to my next destination. You make the take-out windo that much more bearable. Thank You.

I own a Radio Controlled Atomic Clock. It states it's accurate within plus or minus .5 seconds. But when Daylight Saving Time came to an end I thought I'd be a good doobee and change the battery and reset it since it never changed overnight. Well it whirred and spun and spun and whirred and now it is stuck on 04:00:36 with it's analog hands. Then I found this little ditty on the manufacturers website:

It is not unusual for it to take 3-5 nights for signal reception depending on location.

So let's interpolate. Two time changes a year times five days each for ten days the clock does not work. Divided by 365 days is 97.2% accurate throughout the year. I think I'll settle for 99.5% accurate and find a clock that actually will work 365 days a year.

Last night we were fortunate to see the wondrful Zoë Keating and her layered cello music. I've mentioned her before. Her music is haunting and beatiful and to see her in a dimmed cavernous church was an amazing treat. I was able to capture these images with available light using a Nikon CoolPix P7000. For the geeks out there these were at ISO 3200. It was dark in there. The results are quite surprising.

The I AM | Nikon Blog Posted a story about Tyler Card and the making of his flashy costume.

Jeff Kennedy's Atlantic Salmon

Jason Borger's Steelhead

Every Week for all of 2011, Jason Borger and Jeff Kennedy have been painting a fish portrait in thirty minutes or under and then posting them on their respective blogs. It's worth checking out these two very talented artists each week to see what they are up to. As they wrestle with time and technique their interpretations can become quite interesting. Sometimes you can even buy their weekly works and at great prices too.

Just saw Legally Blonde at the North Shore Music Theater. Surprisingly wonderful. Go see it, before it's too late.

Little upset that NaBlopoMo has been taken over by BlogHER. Although men are welcome, It's kind of like being invited to a bridal shower. Thanks for the thought, but is it OK if I don't go?

BATHTIME IN CLERKENWELL
Music by
(The Real) Tuesday Weld
Animation by
Aleksey Budovsky

Decided to capture these beautiful electric blossoms on this dark overcast day.

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Japan you are in our thoughts and hearts  I can't even bring myself to contact my friends over there. Words can't express the sorrow and emotion I have concerning this tragedy.

The Atlantic - Aftermath Photos

Just thought I'd update you on a project that I've started in pursuit of a more formal development education. I'm prototyping a website for an HTML class that will hopefully be called Man At The Wheel. You can see what I've been up to by clicking on the screen shot below.

Hello World

A wonderful take on an Aerosmith classic by Pomplamoos.

Garmin Salmon from Darrin Hofmeyr on Vimeo.

Photo Zach Johnson

Took a mid winter trip yesterday to Massachusetts' only true tailwater stream, The Swift River. The weather cooperated, so no rod guides were iced up. The toes complained a bit, being immersed in frigid Quabbin outflow the entire day, but overall we were pretty comfortable in our winter gear. The party included Kevin C. a new friend from Trout Unlimited and Zach Johnson of Taking Out Line Guide Service also from TU. We had a good day using the tiny stuff. You know the kind of midges and nymphs so small that a dozen can fit on a dime. But they proved once again, they work in this unique flow. Zach has a nice trip summary at his blog. Please go over and take a look.

The goal this year is to fish at least once a month the entire year. A largemouth bass trip in Florida covered the month of January. Two months down! I hope to see you on the water!

Thank you, thank you, thank you to all the readers and commenters of this blog. It is a real lift to know so many of you follow along during this adventure called NaBloPoMo or National Blog Posting Month. This is the third year this blog has participated in the event. Coming along for the ride this year was an old friend from high school, Ken with his blog; A passionate Engagement, a new found relative, my wife's cousin Lauren; right brain dominant and a cyber fly fishing buddy John; Whiskey Creek Fly Fishing. They all participated and got their thirty posts up. I hope they had a great time too. I enjoyed reading all their posts an commenting when I had something to say. Ken sorta blew the doors off NaBloPoMo with over ninety posts and averaging three to four postings a day.

This year focused more on photography, because I thought it would be easier and save time. Not true on either account, but it was less angst ridden. Writing is very hard for me, so posting mostly photos this year was a nice respite. Going out and shooting and then processing the images was actually more time consuming. Total images posted for the month was thirty one. Of those seventeen were shot during the month. All the images were post processed in Photoshop Lightroom before being uploaded. Some had minor tweaks, while others had many adjustments made to them. I'm still learning but I know my former experience has helped in some ways.

Thanks again and I hope you'll be back soon.

During a light rain, this foam on the North Branch River produced a wonderful abstraction. I'm glad I was able to capture it with my point and shoot camera.

From the North Branch of the Contoocook River in New Hampshire. I wanted to experiment using long exposures with moving water. Looks like I need some neutral density filters to exceed one second exposure times. This was a lot of fun though.