Just a quick post here. I’m headed off in the morning with my buddy Carl to the Virginia Creeper Trail just outside of Damascus, VA. It’s an old train line that was ripped up and converted to a bike trail. We’re gonna bike the first 18 miles of it and fish Whitetop Laurel Creek. The fishing is really the purpose for going. Carl has been commissioned to write an article for an upcoming issue of Fly Fish America and yours truly will be taking the photos for the article. Talk about sweet! So I’ll see you all on Monday with hopefully some great shots and some good fishing stories.
Check this out…
Yeah, if you Google "verjaarsdag" (birthday in Afrikaans, BTW) I’m the first listing. I’ve been a little amused at the number of hits my blog has gotten over the past few months from people that have googled the term. So for those of you reaching this site because I’m the #1 hit for verjaarsdag…welkom, en het ‘n loer rondom.
I’ve been away from the ‘puter all weekend while I was at my buddy Clay’s doing a little fishing for Speckled Trout this weekend. We had a wonderful time hanging with his family and we got a chance to catch a few nice fish in the meantime.
Here are a few photos that I’ve taken recently that I haven’t posted. Of course, you can always check out my Flickr if you just can’t get enough.
The last photo I took this afternoon and quickly realized I made a rookie mistake. I didn’t even look at my ISO settings as I was snapping away. Come to find out, I had manually set the ISO to 1600 on a previous few photos and it completely introduced too much noise into the photos. Oh well, I’ll reshoot ‘em tomorrow.
But wait, you say, you’re already married. Yep, but that ain’t what I’m talking about. You see, I’m a guitarist as many of you know. I play lead for a pretty rockin’ P&W band at church and have been in that role for 9 years. I don’t mean that I strum and electric guitar behind an acoustic, there is a difference. So for the last 5 years or so my main guitar has been a Line 6 Variax. I realize that other guitar players that see this are gonna go "What the…". However, it really has been a good guitar and there’s a reason why I’ve been using it.
On a typical Sunday I will have have a song that needs the sound of a Gibson Les Paul played through a Marshall stack (think AC/DC’s "You Shook Me All Night Long). The next song will need a Fender Stratocaster through a Fender amp (think some of Stevie Ray Vaughan’s blues); while the next song will need an acoustic or something. So you see, versatility was the key.
However, now I feel like I’ve been "dating" guitar tones for the last 5 years and I’m ready to settle down. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been happy with my tone, and I get complements, but I sometimes feel like I’m playing a toy. So I’m ready to settle down and I think I’ve spied the beauty that will be with me for quite some time.
Let me introduce you to the G&L Comanche, with premium flame maple top, tobacco ‘burst finish, Z-coil pickups, gun oil rubbed birds eye maple neck, natural wood binding, tone siren with six strings. These pickups run a little hotter than a typical Strat single coil and offer a ton of flexibility. So here’s the darling that I’ll be partnering up with for years to come. I’m very close to pulling the trigger…just a little more saving to do. (courtesy of ProGuitarShop)
Ok, my site’s been loading a little slow as of late, prolly due to all of the audio files that I’ve got in one of the previous posts and the audio files for my CD. So, I’ll be doing some work on the blog to make it load faster, namely removing those audio files. I’ll prolly also move to a more streamlined look so it loads a little faster. I’ll need your feedback on whether you like this layout, kinda earthy, or a more hip style down the road.
With that said, if you visit this blog…like, ever…how about some link love. I do try to make it halfway interesting by offering photos, video and my own music. Maybe that’s the problem… he he. Anyway, I try not to just be a regurgitator of random stuff from the webernets. So, how about some love. If you link here, let me know so I can link you as well.
Carry on….
EDIT: Hmmmmm…is it time for wordpress instead of Typepad? That may be more trouble than it’s worth. Maybe just a custom banner and a clean layout. That means I gotta upgrade. Dang.
Today Sunette went with my mom to hear the Festival Chorus of Atlanta at a monastery just outside the big city. They left shortly after 12 and it was just me and the T-monster for the afternoon. I’ve been missing the joker since I was out of town almost all this week and had a gig Friday evening and Saturday.
We had a great afternoon, starting with a much needed 2 hour nap for both of us. Nice. Man…he’s getting big too quickly. Though I still can’t get him to eat anything by mouth. Me thinks he’s a little stubborn. Oh well, how can you not be stubborn when you’re that cute?
EDIT: Many of you that come by might not know Elliot’s history. He was born with Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome (HLHS) and had a Restricted Atrial Septum defect. You can catch up by hitting some of the posts on this page. He’s had his Norwood and Glenn procedures and has a little time before his Fontan. He’s still on oxygen and a feeding tube, but otherwise doing well.
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I’m a wee bit tired this evening. Monday welcomed me with a 4 1/2 hour drive to Savannah for a closing. Tuesday, after a round of golf at Savannah Harbor, brought with it a return trip back to Columbus for another 4 1/2 hours. Wednesday morning I left home around 7:30 for a 5 hour trip to Gainesville for a site visit. This morning I left Gainesville about 8:30 am for the return 5 hour drive.
Then I had a 3 hour practice tonight for a Caribbean gig I’m playing on Friday night and Saturday. I’m beat. However, I’ll have to get my groove on tomorrow night to break loose on some Oye Como Va for the Fort Benning Luau. We play this gig every year and it’s a blast. Usually a few thousand people show up for the tribute to Islanders from all over the world. We rock everything from reggae to samba to bossa to Buffett. Oh yeah baby. I’m even thinking about recording our Saturday set. If I do I’ll post snippets. So what’s some of your favorite island music?
Eight years ago I married the woman of my dreams. I knew after our third date that I would marry her. Every thing about her intrigued me and still does. She is naturally beautiful, but will deny it every time. She is poignantly witty, but will be the first to laugh at herself. She can be stubborn and hard-nosed, but will be the first to say she’s sorry. She is true in every sense of the word and she challenges me to be the same. Happy 8th anniversary honey. Here’s to many more.
Eric and I went out again this past Saturday for a little photo expedition. We first met for breakfast at Fountain City Coffee on Broadway. If you’re in Columbus and you’re looking for coffee, drive right past the St. Arbucks and stop at Fountain City. You’ll be glad you did. Not to mention that they’ve got the best scones I’ve ever eaten. Eric can vouch, he had a blueberry, while I had the white chocolate raspberry. Mmmmm.
After breakfast we were trying to figure out where to go shoot when I decided to ride him by Golden’s Foundry. Our buddy John works there, his family has owned it for generations, and he just happened to be working on Saturday. I rang him up and within 5 minutes we were starting "the tour". Sweet!
Below are some of the shots that I was pleased with. It was a little tougher assignment since we couldn’t camp out and tweak settings. We were basically snapping while we walked. Which makes it tough in a dark environment. It would’ve been great to setup the tripod and get some really nice, crisp images, but that wasn’t an option at the time. I had to jack up my ISO, slow the shutter speed and hope I held the camera still. Still it was fun.
I’m enjoying April Fool’s Day so far. I normally don’t get into it, but I’m running a particular prank into the ground. Inspired by the Lifehacker post about 10 Geek Pranks, I followed through on changing the printer read-out for our shared office printer using this little app. So far I’ve had it read: INSERT COIN, I SEE YOU, PRINTS CHARMING, etc. Dorky, but I sit directly across the hall and I’m cracking up at people’s expressions.
What I’ve found truly hilarious today is Google’s new Virgle program. I won’t let the cat out of the bag, but if you’ve got some time to read about their new program, it’s hilarious. Find it by going here. Priceless.
