Web-Legos

Hub Opera Ensemble Present Carmen

2012-05-04T17:30:00.000-04:00

The Opera Ensemble is performing Carmen this June; go to our website (HubOperaEnsemble.org) for all the details and to order tickets. You'll also see the awesome poster I designed for the production. 98% of the work for that poster was done on my iPad, and some of that done on a Metro Rail train as it herked and jerked its way home.

In Court

2012-04-23T17:30:00.000-04:00

(Author's note: some observations from my recent morning as an uncalled Witness for the State) Going to court in your home town is kind of like a family reunion. That you dread. The accents drop into your ear like old shoes slid onto your feet; comfortable at first: they make you smile, but too soon you're sore from all the worn out places in the soles. It's more than just a family reunion -

Instacanv.as

2012-04-19T10:57:00.001-04:00

http://instacanv.as/lefthandrob One of my dreams, if you haven't worked it out by now, is to share my art with the world and have my talent validated in word and cash (hey, I'm being honest here). Modern technology makes my potential audience enormous and gives me tools to offer my work, my creations, in ways that I wouldn't otherwise be able to. While I'm able to offer you prints of

For Discovery

2012-04-17T17:06:00.000-04:00

I don't know about you, but there are days -- moments -- where my life collapses about one event. Even if it only lasts for a few moments. Graduations, my wedding day, the day my children will be born (I gather), the day when a childhood icon, a hero of metal and ceramic, dreams and hopes incarnate in a flying wing, a gliding truck, pass over my head. As I watched majestic DISCOVERY

Ecologies of Scale

2012-04-10T17:30:00.000-04:00

I'm staring at the chrome steel bar, the one over-head on the subway? You know, the one you use to keep from flying into the poor bastard in front of you. Anyway, I'm staring at the bar where it forms a cross, lost in my imagination, avoiding eye contact with anyone. I wonder for the nth time: How many species of germs are on that bar? How many species did I make mine when I touched it? How

Retinal Pressure in the wild on Mars

2012-03-28T17:30:00.000-04:00

In his Mars Trilogy, a favorite author of mine KIM STANLEY ROBINSON describes how the various shades of green exert a RETINAL PRESSURE when they are finally spied in the wild on Mars. I wonder if his inspiration was in any part WINTER IN MARYLAND where is seems we are so long under browns and whites of INFINITE MEASURE or so it feels by the time Spring arrives. I think of his colonists every

John Carter Reviewed

2012-03-19T19:00:00.000-04:00

In this era of one sequel too many and re-imaginings of movies that didn't need to be remade, it's a rare treat when the Action / Space Opera crowd gets a wholly original idea brought to life for our viewing pleasure. Just such an offering has been placed before us in the waning days of Winter 2012, a movie based on material so original that it's considered the Ur Space Opera, the material

Wherein I am late to the party: 21 by Adele

2012-03-16T20:00:00.000-04:00

It's reaffirming to listen to a break up album and realize that nothing in your relationship -- or your entire life -- can be analogized to what is being sung; it's high praise when that same album yet grabs you at some level deep beneath words, punches you in the gut, and insists that you listen to it until you know every chord and even the brass riff on that one deep cut that's buried too

#SaveJohnCarter

2012-03-12T19:49:00.001-04:00

(author's note: Welcome to my 200th post. I thought about making a special standalone 200 post, or posting my review of Adele's 21 which I'm still not happy with after a month, but instead I'm going with the below, something that has become more important to me as the day has progressed. I hope you enjoy and are moved to action.) We are all aware of the Hollywood aversion to trying new

736 Ducks

2012-03-11T12:41:00.000-04:00

126 ducks died today; I counted - I was there. I imagine migration can be tiring - your normally hollow bones slowly filling with leaden fatigue as hours on the wing rush by; we've all been in that situation. 258 ducks died today; I counted - I was there. I pulled over to watch after the third mallard's explosive impact; feathers everywhere

What Hub Opera Ensemble Means (to me)

2012-02-09T15:11:00.002-05:00

In addition to keeping this blog fresh with content, being a pseudonymous author, working on a Science Fiction novel, and keeping a (almost) daily journal, I also do the bulk of the writing for the website for the Hub Opera Ensemble. I was recently moved to write an essay describing what Hub Opera means to me, by way of how I came to be an Opera lover (hint: it involves the Mrs.). The essay is

Avocado (dis)Information

2012-02-08T23:12:00.001-05:00

Avocados roam the pampas in herds comprised of extended family units. One adult male and up to a dozen adult females protect their young communally. They subsist mostly on yeoman's clover and secrete a blue milk that smells faintly of boysenberries. A herd of avocado is known as a number. The male is known as a guac and the female a mole. Proper guacamole is made from an entire small family group

Problem with Importing a Calendar from Microsoft SharePoint 2007 Enterprise to SharePoint Foundation 2010

2012-02-04T11:11:00.001-05:00

When testing a manual move of a SharePoint 2007 Enterprise calendar to SharePoint Foundation 2010, we noticed that several items were missing from the calendar view in 2010, but present when viewed as a list (the "all items" view). I extracted the manifest.xml file as described in this most helpful blog post and compared two records: one that displayed on the calendar view, and one that

The Tablet (iPad) Stylus: A review of three options

2012-01-21T11:49:00.001-05:00

Steve Jobs was famously anti-stylus. The whole point, if you will, of the iPhone was that the stylus was superfluous to the experience. And on the iPhone, which I use to set down the initial words of this essay, exceeds that goal. But there's iPad. The younger, bigger brother to the game changing smartphone uses the same iOS UI, and is fully functional, no sticks required to make the thing

Dear Domino's (wherein I make a suggestion or two)

2012-01-17T17:30:00.000-05:00

Dear Domino's, When you rolled out your new and improved pizza last year, the Mrs. and I decided to give it a try. We love it, especially your thin crust. The sauce is delicious, the cheese flavorful, the veggies look like vegetables on the pizza and not processed vegetable cubes that went through some manaiacal auto-dicer, and the crust is crispy and delicious. It's almost perfect; and

On the meaning of a single snow flake

2012-01-04T17:27:00.000-05:00

Furtive flurry: you're not quite snow unbidden, wandering, tumbling messenger. Are you a harbinger or a trickster, lonely visitor? As I watch you skitter and flit on the breeze I note you lack snow's purpose. You lack snow's purpose as you dance from Heaven to earth sent from those, those hexiform souls on high, that crystalline

Wherein I claim my blog on Technorati

2012-01-04T16:43:00.000-05:00

My goal in writing has always been to get my words out there to as many people as I can convince to read, and to that end, Technorati as one option. Thusly I paste in my claim code so that my words might find greater purchase on the ever-shifting icy slopes of Mt. Internet. WZUJBC3HWWT9 So noted.

For the love of tamales

2011-12-30T11:13:00.000-05:00

When the Mrs. and I started dating our favorite place to go for dinner was Efrain's Taqueria in Hagerstown. Efrain's wife, Hannah, made the best tamales east of the Mississippi. They had a golden hue and a savory flavor to them that no other tamale I've encountered since could match. We loved those little corn-flour husk-wrapped meat-filled cakes de cielo that Efrain's catered our

Wherein I'm not sure if I'm clever about cars

2011-12-03T12:50:00.001-05:00

The alternative might very well be true. I've never been a car guy; I like to drive, and I like to go fast, but beyond the basics that every man needs to know (tire changing, what a carburetor looks like, the proper way to make sure the other guy know you're flipping him the bird) I never got too much into cars. But I can change my own light bulbs. My driver's side tail-light --

Wherein I offer McDonald's some free advice

2011-10-31T20:35:00.000-04:00

There are many things to consider when running a business, and everyone knows that McDonalds has a corporate secret sauce that rivals the creamy goodness on a big Mac. Unfortunately it doesn't always trickle down to their front line store staff. There is one store in Hagerstown that has consistently failed to get right my coffee order since they began offering their mcCafe espresso-based drinks.

Soon... a poem for All Hallow's Eve

2011-10-27T17:15:00.000-04:00

I was visited by the Angel of Death this morning, I almost ran him over in the rain. He was crossing the street, I was turning left into the gas station. As I stopped to refuel he approached me; You have a tail light out, he said. I know, I need to get that fixed, I promised. Then he said something I think was about the weather I didn't, I couldn't understand, and that he drives a truck. I'm

Gifts for my nephew

2011-10-18T17:30:00.000-04:00

My nephew is a huge fan of all things Mario, and had a nice collection of plush figures started. For his birthday a month or two ago I was told he'd like to add to his collection. Ever the obliging uncle I took to Amazon and acquired his desires. What follows are the reviews for each of the items that I purchased, all of which he was beside himself with joy to receive: Yoshi! How long

You always hurt the one you love: My 2 years with an iPhone 3Gs

2011-10-13T17:10:00.000-04:00

Note: I wrote this in the Summer of 2011, awaiting the release of the newest iPhone model that will succeed, but never replace, my iPhone 3Gs and well before Steve Jobs left us. As a young child I argued with my Commodore acolyte friend that Apples were superior to his beloved brand, even though I had my own Commodore at home. Decades passed, and eventually I acquired a second-hand iPod.

September's Rent - a poem

2011-10-11T17:27:00.000-04:00

It is Autumn and the year grows weary; even the Sun wakes later. He rises robed in luminescent clouds, braced against the chill morning air. Likewise Mother Earth feels it in her bones as she settles back and draws her resplendent cloak about her: Gold, brown, orange, crimson Soon she'll pull on her white winter blanket, a little better for slumber. Yet first she turns her leaves and

Always look up when opening a window (a poem)

2011-09-25T15:23:00.000-04:00

It was the end of September, when October's first blush can be seen if you're looking for it when I realized that all crockery exists in a state of not-yet-broken. We were Fall cleaning when the apple-red doumbeck was knocked loose, bounced off my head as if I was a rhythmic Sir Isaac, shattering on impact with the floor. The year was 1997 when I bought the drum. I was young, poor and dressed