LSquared Imaging

Slice Of Life #3539 - Lake Zurich, IL

2012-01-28T11:38:00.000-06:00

This is the view from my hotel room window, at the Holiday Inn Express in Lake Zurich, IL. Taken at 6:01pm on January 18, 2012. And yes, the experience was every bit as exciting as it looks. The lake is past that stand of trees, we glimpsed it through the van window driving in. If this had been summer, I'd''ve wandered over. But between cold and dark, I didn't really consider it.

I used to travel a lot with my job, but not so much over the past several years. I've kind-of gotten out of the habit, which is a good thing. This recent trip was a quickie: STL to KC, KC to Chicago (Lake Zurich), Chicago to STL. 48 hours and home.

It's Not Only A Passion But An Addiction....

2011-12-21T18:25:00.002-06:00

So, I googled myself today, for the first time in a rather long while.

Several years ago, it seemed that the majority of hits under my name were, in fact, related to me. No more. In fact, some pretender even has a web site registered at my-name.com!! The audacity! Here's a screen capture from his banner, maybe I should co-opt his slogan?

Anyway, googling my name brings up over 15,000 resuls. The first one that is me is #3, which links to my LinkedIn page. Only 4 of the page one results are me, including a technical paper I wrote a few years back and a stock-photo agency. On the other hand, almost 40% of the first 50 responses do refer to me. Most are related to some sort of photography, which isn't too surprising since that's probably my top on-line activity.

A couple of fun finds were examples of my photos being used, like here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here.

Winter On The Way

2011-11-29T17:06:00.002-06:00

As the weather is turning colder, I changed the image on my computer desktop. Here you go:

This was about 5 years ago, in the Land-Between-The-Lakes area of Kentucky. Sadly, I cannot remember exactly where. I've studies the satellite images from Google Earth and looked around on subsequent trips to the area. No luck. If it looks familiar to any of y'all, let me know. We drove from Murray KY, across LBL to Lake Barkley Lodge.

Record Review: The Neil Diamond Collection – Neil Diamond

2011-11-28T18:44:00.002-06:00

Rank: 222 (Rolling Stone Magazine’s November 2003 ranking of the Top 500 Albums)
I own this on CD

It often seems like a cop-out to include a hits collection in a “greatest albums” listing, but in this case it fits. At his best, Neil Diamond was (is?) a hit-maker, and this set covers his most successful period. This disc does a pretty good job of covering Diamond’s output from 1968 through 1972, including 12 of his 13 Top 40 hits in that span. It also includes 2 singles that missed the Top 40, and a live version of a pre 1968 hit.

Neil Diamond is a member of the Rock And Roll Hall Of Fame (Class of '11), and deservedly so.

     1. Sweet Caroline – #4 in 1969
     2. Cracklin’ Rosie – #1 in 1970
     3. Song Sung Blue – #1 in 1972
     4. Play Me – #11 in 1972
     5. Brooklyn Roads –#58 in 1968
     6. Shiloh - #24 in 1970
     7. Crunchy Granola Suite – did not chart
     8. And The Grass Won’t Pay No Mind – did not chart
     9. Holly Holy – #6 in 1969
     10. Brother Love’s Travelling Salvation Show – #22 in 1969
     11. Stones (live) - #14 in 1971 – #30 in 1970
     12. Soolaimon - #30 in 1970
     13. Walk On Water - #17 in 1972
     14. Cherry Cherry (live) – live version of hit from 1968
     15. I Am I Said - #4 in 1971
     16. Done Too Soon - #65 in 1971
     17. Morningside – did not chart
     18. He Ain’t Heavy, He’s My Brother - #20 in 1970

Overall, this is a very strong collection from a specific window of Neil Diamond’s career. Personally I would’ve liked to have see 2 changes. Drop “And The Grass Won’t Mind” and “Morningside” in favor of 1970’s “Do It” (#36), and Diamond’s cover version of his own “I’m A Believer” (#51 in 1971). But it is still a worthy offering.

Gracie

2011-11-24T12:22:00.000-06:00

Latest picture of my Granddaughter. One of the many gifts for which I'm thankfull!

Take Your Pick

2011-11-22T17:14:00.000-06:00

Songs starting with “pick”, from my iPod:

• Pick-Up – Brian Protheroe

• Pick ‘Em Up – Lynyrd Skynyrd (post-crash)

• Pick Me Up (Big Chicken) – John Entwistle

• Pick Up The Peace – The Who

• Pick Up The Pieces – Average White Band

• Pickin’ To Beat The Devil – Pure Prairie League

• Pickin’ Up The Pieces – Poco

For what it’s worth…

Fantasy Racing

2011-11-21T17:20:00.002-06:00

Congratulations to Tony Stewart for winning the 2011 NASCAR Championship. Unfortunately, I didn’t do nearly that well in my fantasy league. 2011 was my 7th season playing fantasy racing (at Yahoo), and only the 2nd time I finished out of the top 10%. The other time was 2007, when I was changing jobs and basically quit mid-season. My scores, ranked:

• 2008 – 99th Percentile

• 2006 – 96th percentile

• 2010 – 95th percentile

• 2005 – 95th percentile

• 2009 – 94th percentile

• 2011 – 87th percentile

• 2007 - dnf

On the other hand, I paid less attention to NASCAR this year than I have for several years. So that’s my excuse, at least. Oh well, 3 months until Daytona…..

Ralph Eugene Meatyard

2011-11-19T09:23:00.000-06:00

I was reading through a recent issue of Smithsonian magazine, and saw an article on Ralph Eugene Meatyard. Who? Turns out Meatyard was a "dedicated amateur" photographer from the 60's and early 70's. I decided to check out my local library system, and found a book on Mr. Meatyard. Very interesting stuff. Most of his work is not my style, but it's all interesting, and some I quite like. A couple examples hot-linked from the web:

Down On My Knees

2011-11-15T19:51:00.000-06:00

So, yesterday was my Arthroscopy. My first knee surgery since the late 80's. Yee haw. I guess it went OK, they were able to do some clean up of some of the issues. Apparently there's some level of bone-on-bone, which can't be helped at this point. PT starts tomorrow!

They gave us a couple sheets of images, here's one:

Not sure what it is, or if that's before, or after. Or good or bad.......

The title refernces the song from Bread, btw.

Just What I Needed

2011-11-03T20:02:00.000-05:00

Or should I say "Knee - did". As in my knee did mess up.

So, I had an MRI last week, they actually gave me a CD with all the "stuff". Not that it makes any sense to my eyes. Bleow is series 5, image 5:

According to the report, "There is a radial tear of the lateral meniscus posterior horn best seen on series 5, image 5; this is associated with a parameniscal cyst."

Antipodal

2011-11-02T17:19:00.007-05:00

I saw something on the internet a while back about antipodal points, and finding the the region on the Earth's surface which is diametrically opposite to wherever you live. Then going and photographing the place. Well, I thought that was a pretty cool concept (however impractical in my non-globe-trotting life). So I went to the link, entered my location, and found that my antipodal point is in the middle of the Indian Ocean!

In fact, all of the USA is opposite the Indian Ocean. Except for a couple of tiny islands that are mostly uninhabited, there's simply nothing there.

Bottom line?
Nevermind.

So Ladies, Fish, And Gentlemen, Here's My Angled Dream...

2011-11-01T18:19:00.000-05:00

Just a little Blue Oyster Cult for a Tuesday. The title is from the song Subhuman, off the album "Secret Treaties". Back the days before they became huge (with the release of "Don't Fear The Reaper"), we'd listen to Blue Oyster Cult and try to figure out the lyrics. Back then, if you sent an SASE, they'd send you a computer printout of the lyrics, on tractor-feed green-bar computer paper. We're talking 70's hi-tech. And yes, I had 'em. Not that it helped make actual sense out of the songs. I still have a page of them. They'd probably fetch a fortune on eBay if they were in semi-decent shape. But who thinks of these things when they're 18 and things like the internet don't exist?

And we'll top it off with a photo of me, from '77 / '78 time frame: I was so young!

Happenstance We Fell Into

2011-10-31T17:42:00.000-05:00

We were sitting at a red-light on Memorial Drive Thursday, headed to the ballgame. And I took this from the passenger seat of the wife-mobile.

Most of my favorite photos are simply the result of keeping your eyes open as we move through life.

World Series Game 6 - Panorama

2011-10-30T17:39:00.002-05:00

A panoramic shot of Busch stadium, from our seats at Game 6. Actually 7 shots stitched together in Photoshop. Click here to see a full size version, or here for Panoramio. This was taken after the National Anthem, but before the 1st Pitch. Long before all the excitement.

Birds On The Wires

2011-10-29T14:40:00.000-05:00

On a cold, grey day in late October (10/26), not far from my office

Coyote

2011-10-19T20:23:00.000-05:00

This fellow was spotted in the field next to our office today. I suspect he was looking for geese in the small pond out front, but they must've seen him coming. He (she?) doesn't seem to be starving, though...
It made for a fun "study break" for us.

Not a great picture, but I was limited to my company's digicam, and the imaging software on my company laptop. When I get a chance I'll do some proper cleanup on my home computer...

Last one (for now): Old Barn On The Palouse

2011-10-19T17:20:00.002-05:00

Last of the barn photos from last week's trip to southeastern Washington. Again, larger version here.

Old Barn On The Palouse

2011-10-18T17:28:00.001-05:00

Another old barn, not far from Steptoe Washington, About 1 mile from the site of yesterday's photo.

Larger version here.

And another abgle of the same barn, with Steptoe Butte in the background (larger here)

Windmill on the Palouse

2011-10-17T17:38:00.000-05:00

Another image from my recent trip to southeastern WA. Larger version here.

Old Barn On The Palouse

2011-10-16T19:42:00.000-05:00

So, I'm hame from a 5 day business trip to south-eastern Washington state. Didn't have much opportunity to be out-and-about, but I did sneak in a few photo opportunties. Mostly old barns, like this one:

I'll try and post them over the next few days.

Fort de Chartres

2011-10-01T11:44:00.000-05:00

I took a road trip with my wife yesterday, a nice way to spend a vaction day. She needed to pick up something in Cape Giradeau, MO, about 2.5 hrs south of us. We decided to meander the way down, and came upon Fort de Chartres State Historic Site, just outside Prairie du Rocher, IL. Pretty cool spot, dating all the way back to 1720. Maybe when the colors come in we can plan another day trip to the region....

There's a few more photos of the site at Panoramio, including a paorama...

Big Sky Pt 2

2011-09-30T21:17:00.000-05:00

This one got overlooked in yesterday's post:

Big Sky?

2011-09-29T21:00:00.000-05:00

Well, it's not Montana, but we had some pretty cool skies at the sports fields this evening. Myson was playing, but I couldn't ignore the sun.... or clouds.... or moon...

Sunset:

Looking West, a few minutes before sunrise:

And, a glimpse of the setting moon, chasing the setting sun:

Rocks!

2011-09-25T21:47:00.002-05:00

Another oldie, from October 2003. Seems like I had a lot of interesting photos that month, some of which nver got processed. This one is from Spokane River Park, just outside Spokane, WA.

Sublime?

2011-09-24T11:23:00.000-05:00

Headline in our local newspaper today: "After a devil summer, fall could be sublime". Really? Sublime? They expect fall to be "lofty, grand or exalted in thought expression or manner"? Cool!

Regardless, here's an image from 10/14/2003, Maybe not sublime, but hopefully not too bad.....

click on image for parger view.