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Photo a Day - Day 7
Even though I’m on the road, I’m still managing to stick with my photo a day experiment. How about me, huh? If possible, I may post another one today, depending upon what happens. Until then, Seven down, twenty-four to go.
<img src="http://cullrich.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/moving.jpg" alt="Moving.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="337">
Also find these photos at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisu/">my flickr page</a>.
Photo a Day - Day 6
Another day, another photo. I think I’ll have to start mixing it up a bit more and trying new things. After all, this is an experiment, right? Why not try some new things? Six down, twenty-four to go.
<img src="http://cullrich.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/ride.jpg" alt="Ride.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="319">
Also find these photos on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisu/">my flickr page</a>.
Photo a Day - Day 5
Today, I’m a man of few words. Mostly because my throat hurts so it hurts to talk. On a positive note, here’s the latest photo in my “Photo a Day” experiment. Five down, twenty-five to go.
<img src="http://cullrich.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/soon.jpg" alt="Soon.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="547">
Photos also on my <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisu/">flickr page</a>.
Photo a Day - Day 4
Even though I’ve been under the weather the last several days, I’ve still managed to go out of the house once or twice – mostly because I needed/wanted chicken soup. I also managed to snap a few pictures as well seeing as how the new camera (the Canon Powershot SD1100 IS for those keeping score at home) goes with me everywhere now.
So, here's the latest in the "Photo a Day" experiment. Four down, twenty-six to go.
<img src="http://cullrich.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/dog1.jpg" alt="Dog.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="600">
Also, check out the photos on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisu/">my flickr page</a>.
Photo a Day - Day 3
Three days. . . in a row! Can you believe it? Maybe I do have the hang of this “stick to things” thing? I guess we’ll find out as the days progress. Three down, twenty-seven to go.
<a href="http://chrisullrich.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/messy.jpg"><img src="http://chrisullrich.net/wp-content/uploads/2014/04/messy.jpg" alt="messy" width="450" height="599" class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-4380"></a>
Also find the "photo a day" photos at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisu/">my flickr page</a>.
Photo a Day - Day 2
Two days in a row, nice. Can you dig it? Here’s the second photo in my thirty days of photos experiment.
Two down, twenty-eight to go.
You can also find these at <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisu/">my flickr page</a>.
Every Picture Tells a Story
Or, so people say. So, to challenge myself and because I feel what meager photography skills I may have once had are dwindling rapidly, I’ve decided to embark on a little experiment. I’ve decided that I shall acquire a newer, smaller digital camera and then take it everywhere with me for the next thirty days.
During these thirty days I will take photos each and every day and post at least one each and every day to this here blog. In so doing I hope to spark some creativity in myself and also, perhaps, get a few interesting photos in the process.
Now that I've made this decision and this plan, the first step is to acquire said smaller, lighter digital camera. I'm doing this mostly because I don't want the camera and its weight or bulk to get in the way or serve as an excuse why I'm not keeping up with the plan.
After a bit of research, I've decided on the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0011ZK6PC">Canon Powershot SD 1100IS</a> as the newer, smaller camera of choice. Its on-order from Amazon and should arrive Monday. Just in time for me to start this thirty day project. So, keep a lookout for new pics right here every day starting Monday.
To be honest, I'm wondering if I will be able to keep up this schedule of taking and posting a picture every day. I guess we'll find out. To start us off a bit early but in the right direction, here's a pic I took the other day of my pal Matt Raub and Robert Englund (aka Freddy Krueger):
<img src="http://cullrich.files.wordpress.com/2008/08/robertandmatt.jpg" alt="robertandmatt.jpg" border="0" width="450" height="356">
I've Been at Comic-Con
Yes, all the thrills, chills, excitement and sweaty fanboys you could ever want. But also, great artists, writers, costumes, cool shows and all the true geekery you could ever want. This is Comic-Con and no matter what the negatives, I still seem to go back every year.
I’ll probably do a longer post-mortem later, but until then I just want to highlight a couple of the great things that happened to me, and around me, during the show. Here’s a few:
Meeting Robert Englund (aka Freddy Krueger).
Meeting Stan “The Man” Lee
Meeting Joss Whedon
Getting to hang out with some great friends and the cool people I work with at ComicMix.
Making some great new friends from in and around the “business.”
Getting a chance to talk a little about my own personal projects with people in a position to do something about them and be taken seriously and met with enthusiasm.
Oh, and did I mention I met Joss Whedon. That was cool. Matt Raub, one of my ComicMix pals, met him as well earlier in the week while we were hanging at the Hyatt bar. Which, as it turns out, was pretty much the place to hang out.
It seemed that after all the parties and events that people felt compelled to attend, most anyone would end up at the Hyatt to actually have a bit of fun and relax. Glad we were there too.
For some of my interviews and such done during the show, check out ComicMix.
Last, but certainly not least, here’s a few pics of the “BSG” cast (including my personal favorite Katee Sackhoff) taken by my pal Tony Mark during the press event.
Check them out after the jump. Enjoy.
So Long Bozo
Even though I didn’t always like clowns as a kid, Bozo was still funny and made my laugh. That’s all you really need to say about a clown, isn’t it?
Rest in piece Bozo.
<img src="http://cullrich.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/bozo.jpg" alt="bozo.jpg" border="0" width="229" height="298">
The Setup
Its been a long process, but I’ve finally managed to set up every bit of my home entertainment center. The biggest pain was running all the cables and trying to find enough power and the best way to have all the devices that need the internet be able to connect. But finally, it is done.
Here's a pic of the final setup. For a bigger one, complete with notes, check out the photo on <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/chrisu/2567411081/">flickr</a>.
<img src="http://cullrich.files.wordpress.com/2008/06/finalsetup.jpg" alt="finalsetup.jpg" border="0" width="500" height="331">
RIP: E. Gary Gygax 1938-2008
Sad news today. E. Gary Gygax, the man widely considered the “Father of Role-Playing-Games,” has died. He was 69 years old. I already wrote a piece about Gygax and his death over at ComicMix. What I didn’t mention in that piece was that, like ComicMix’s Glen Hauman, I also had a personal connection to the man.
I was fortunate to meet Gary Gygax after some friends of mine and I decided to have a D&D marathon at my house one Summer weekend in the late ’70s. We decided to invite Mr. Gygax to join us by writing him a personal letter. We even enclosed an article from the local paper (the Coast Dispatch in case you’re curious) featuring our upcoming marathon in order to try and entice his participation a bit more.
Sadly, he wasn’t able to attend, but he did write me a personal letter with his regrets and also graciously included several D&D adventure modules, as yet unpublished, for us to use during the game. We used them and had a great time, all the while praising Gygax for being cool enough to not only respond to us, but for caring enough to send us stuff to help make our marathon D&D session a success.
Several years later, I was able to actually meet Gygax in person at GenCon after I had convinced my parents it was a good idea to drive me across country so I could play D&D with a bunch of other kids in Wisconsin. My parents were cool like that and did it not only once, but twice.
When I met him the first time at GenCon we spoke for several minutes and he even remembered me from when I had invited him to our game. He was a great guy to talk to. Over the years I would run into him again at various events and each time he would, somehow, remember me and we would have another very nice conversation. At each and every meeting he was gracious and generous with his time.
The magnitude of Gygax’s influence on gaming and pop culture, both directly and indirectly, isn’t something that can easily be measured. He was extremely popular among those who played his games, of course, but his creations, particularly D&D, also had a profound effect on kids of my and later generations.
D&D helped us learn to think logically, to solve problems, to work as a team and, more importantly, to use our imaginations. As someone who has the privilege of using his imagination on a daily basis and gets paid for it, I , for one, have a debt to Gary Gygax that can never be repaid.
I feel confident there are others out there working away creating the current and next generations of games, comic books, movies and TV shows that feel the same way I do.
Thanks for the help and inspiration Gary. We need more people around like you. You will be missed.
Too Much Work?
I remember not too long ago when I was complaining (at least a tiny bit and mostly to myself) that I was doing something I really didn't love rather than something I do love. The thing I love is, of course, writing. I wasn't doing enough of it to make me very happy.
Of course, other events have transpired to interrupt the flow of words from my somewhat feeble brain, through my fingers, out to the keyboard and then up to Wordpress and this blog. But even with all the interruptions, I wanted to write more -- and, if possible, get paid for it in the process.
Cut to (as they say in "the biz") today and I pretty much have the exact opposite problem I used to have. Now I have too much writing work. At the moment, there are several sites to which I currently contribute, used to contribute and they want me back or are about to contribute. There's even one I can't even talk about yet which looks to be even bigger than the rest.
Of course, this is also the time when I'm doing a lot more Mac consulting than I was before so that kinda gets in the way of writing too. Although, consulting pays way better (at least for the moment) then writing does. I'm trying to limit my consulting to mostly worthy causes like favorite non-profits or schools but still, that takes time and that's time away from writing.
Really, I think something has got to give and at the moment I'm leaning towards the Mac stuff being the time consuming item that may get the "Spanish Archer" as my friend used to say. In other words, it might have to go. Or, at the very least, be far more limited. After all, I really think that in this life, given the pretty much unknown duration of it we have, you should try to do things you love rather than things you don't.
Really, I feel like I shouldn't complain too hard at this situation as it could be far worse and is for many people. I'm lucky that people have decided that I'm good at a couple new things. In the past, I've pretty much only been good at making movies, producing other shows and getting into trouble.
But now, I can add writing to the list of things I can do. I'm not saying I'm great at it but I think I can string a sentence together without too much trouble. Who knows, maybe this new writing gig (once it starts) will end up being the one that takes me to the next level -- whatever that might be? I guess anything is possible but to have the possiblity is a great feeling and one I would like to have more often.
I'll see what I can do about that.
My influence grows
No, I'm not really that important -- although I would like to think so. I do, however, have a bit of new news. As of this week I will now be writing for yet another highly regarded and popular tech-related website. In addition to the usual place my words show up (TUAW, CBR, Cinematical) I will also now be contributing to the site Download Squad as well.
This new site covers all thing software and related and should prove a very interesting and rewarding time for me. After all, I love me some tech so it seems only natural I would start contributing to yet another site devoted to it. Fortunately, the bosses at Weblogs/AOL (particularly Victor Agreda, Jr. and Grant Robertson) saw fit to throw me a bone and let me join up. I wonder what took them so long?
One Laptop Per Child
As I love laptops, am also pretty fond of children and education and OLPC seems like a worthy cause, I went ahead and donated. Feeling left out? Want to know how you can do something? Well, don't worry as you still have another week to do a good thing for some kids.
Plus, if you act now, T-Mobile will also throw in one year of free Hotspot access on top of giving one and getting one and that great feeling that comes from doing a good thing. How can you pass that up?
I know, some may argue that this isn't what children really need but access to technology is important (as is food, shelter, medicine and clean water) but we're talking about laptops at the moment so get those credit cards or Paypal accounts going and donate.
Harold Ullrich 1930 - 2007
It's hard, but in the end I guess I'll manage it. What else can you do but try to get on with life even if you don't really want to? After all, life happens even if you're not ready for it. So, may as well try to get ready for it, right?
Or, at the very least, try your best. A wise man once told me "Do the best with what you've got." Good advice.
Checking In
Well, a lot has happened over the last couple weeks. Most of it not so good but some of it encouraging (at least a little). Without going into too much detail let's just say that I am dealing with some stuff of a very personal nature which has an effect not only on me but on my family as well.
However, things are beginning to look up a bit and perhaps in the next few days they will continue to improve even further. Until then, I won't be posting much here or writing anywhere else either. I know, try to make it through -- tough as it may be.
I do think things may return to some semblance of normalcy in the near future. On that day I will surely be a happy person. Until then, stress is doing not so fun things to me and my physical well-being so after I finish here I'm off to the park for a long, brisk walk.
Oh, in case you're keeping track of stuff like this, Apple released a <a href="http://www.tuaw.com/2007/09/05/metaliveblogging-the-beat-goes-on-event/">bunch of new iPod variations</a> this week as well as dropping the price of the iPhone by two hundred bucks. Some people were angry about the price drop and so Steve Jobs is now <a href="http://www.apple.com/hotnews/openiphoneletter/">going to give</a> an Apple gift certificate to those of us who purchased the iPhone at a higher price.
On the day they were released, I actually purchased two of them. Maybe I'll get two hundred in Apple credit? If so, I wonder if I'll be able to find a way to spend it?
Family Business
At the moment, I am dealing with some rather dire family issues so I won’t be back for a bit. I hope everything ends up getting worked out.
But in the meantime, here's a pretty interesting video from Mr. GTD himself <a href="http://www.43folders.com/" target="_blank">Merlin Mann</a> about how to handle your hopelessly clogged email inbox. Give it a look and I'll be back later.
<code>[googlevideo=http://video.google.com/googleplayer.swf?docId=973149761529535925&h1=en]
</code><code></code>
The High Violets wrapup
Ok, I went to see brother Sam’s band, The High Violets, last Wednesday night at King King, which is a cool space, btw. As I said in my previous post, I had never seen him live with this band before and I was looking forward to it.
Well, the vote is in and all I can say is “fantastic”. I really liked it. They did a great job. I know, we are related and all but rest assured, if he sucked, you folks would be the second to know (I would tell him first, of course).
I want to encourage the kid and would have probably put it better than “well, that really blew” but I would have told him what I think. He deserves the truth. I would expect no less from him. Although, I never do anything that someone could say “that blew” about so no danger there.
So, it is with great pleasure that I say his show rocked! If I had anything bad to say it would be that the set was too short. I wanted more and so did the audience. They were in to it.
The band needs more songs. I know they are working on more and will have a CD out soon so expect me to be pushing that when it becomes available. I also tried to take some photos with the Treo and you can see those at the flickr moblog. Although, the Treo is not a very good low-light camera. I’m dumb and didn’t bring the good camera. Oh well, live and learn. Maybe next time.
Cheers.