Catachresis (ˌka-tə-ˈkrē-səs) noun -
incorrect use of words, as in a mistaken metaphor.
April 25, 2008
All The Kittens
Okay, Monica and I took my digital camera out to the back porch when we got home from work today, and finally got half-way decent pictures of all for kittens. So, without further ado, here they are, in no particular order (if anyone wants one (or more) of them, we'll be looking for good homes to send them to in the near future. The white one is somewhat spoken for already though.)
April 23, 2008
Word Of The DAy
Bathos (BAY-thos) noun -
1. in speech or writing, a ludicrous descent from the sublime to the commonplace; an anticlimax
2. sentimentality, mawkishness.
1. in speech or writing, a ludicrous descent from the sublime to the commonplace; an anticlimax
2. sentimentality, mawkishness.
Stormy's New Kittens
Well, Stormy DID have kittens, and I finally found them all (I think.) The count is up to 4 now, and as far as I'm aware, that's all of them. Some of them came out from under the house on their own; others I had to go under and get. But they're all on the back porch now, reunited with each other and happy.
Here is a video of them that I took today. If you know of anyone who wants a cute little kitten, we'll have to find homes for them soon, so please let me know. It's hard to part with them, but we're going to try and go back to an animal free household (not sure if it will ever work, but that's the goal.) Anyway, here are the little bundles of fur:
Here is a video of them that I took today. If you know of anyone who wants a cute little kitten, we'll have to find homes for them soon, so please let me know. It's hard to part with them, but we're going to try and go back to an animal free household (not sure if it will ever work, but that's the goal.) Anyway, here are the little bundles of fur:
Word Of The Day
Okay, in an effort to increase my vocabulary (and that of anyone reading my posts), I'm going to start a new daily (hopefully) post to my blog. Each day, I will select one word from The Highly Selective Dictionary for the Extraordinarily Literate, and post it on my blog. I will start with the letter "A", move through to "Z", and then start back at "A" again, with a different word.
So for my first post, today's word is:
Abecedarian (A`be*ce*da"ri*an) noun -
1. a beginner in any field of learning.
2. a person who is learning the letters of the alphabet.
So for my first post, today's word is:
Abecedarian (A`be*ce*da"ri*an) noun -
1. a beginner in any field of learning.
2. a person who is learning the letters of the alphabet.
April 22, 2008
My New Blog
I've created a Mobile Blog...a new blog that I can post to using my cell phone. So any time I'm out and about, and see something worth taking a picture or video of, I can capture it with my cell phone, and then upload it to my mobile blog instantly. I won't be posting to it nearly as often, but I think it's a fun way to share some of my life "on the go" with everyone.
So if you'd like to check it out click here, or click on the link under the "Links" section on this page. Thanks, and have a great week! :)
So if you'd like to check it out click here, or click on the link under the "Links" section on this page. Thanks, and have a great week! :)
April 20, 2008
A Weekend Outdoors
Okay, so I've been spending a LOT of time inside and on the computer lately (or in front of the TV, watching movies or playing games.) This is not healthy, I know, but it's something to do when I'm alone, and I HAVE been doing a lot of Web design work on the side lately, so it has necessitated long hours in front of the computer.
Anyway, this weekend I decided to renew my fishing license, and spend a little time outdoors since the weather was nice. So yesterday I spent several hours walking around and fishing at Acworth Lake/Cauble Park. As I walked from my car, along the shoreline, I encountered "pockets" of earthy, organic smells that reminded me of England. It would be impossible to explain so anyone else could understand it, but there are just certain sights, sounds and smells that take me back to the country I was born in. The English countryside always seems to have a certain smell to it...the vibrant smell of earth, fresh air, and the various animals that live nearby. It's not always a pleasant smell, but it's a memorable one, and whenever I smell something similar I'm instantly transported back to the country lanes, meadows, and forests of England.
Anyway, I spent a few hours there yesterday, SEEING big fish, but not catching them (the bass are on bed right now, and it's nearly impossible to catch them.) When I came home from fishing, I fired up the grill, and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers. I know, I know...not a healthy way to end a day in the outdoors, but it went with the overall theme of sun and relaxation. ;)
Today I decided that I would take my camera out to the lake and do a little site seeing. I've wanted to photograph some of the hawks that make their nest around the lake by our house, but they weren't around today. I'll have to get them another time. At any rate, I took some pictures of Lake Acworth, started to fish a bit, then decided to head over to Logan Farm Park to take some pictures there, and see if there was any water in the park pond.
When I arrived, there were two girls sitting besides the pond, and surprisingly enough, they were actually fishing! And here I thought I was just about the only one who came to that tiny pond to wet a hook. Anyway, glancing into the mud stained water with my polarized fishing glasses, I could see multiple largemouth bass cruising the shoreline, a similar site to what I'd seen at Lake Acworth. It's really frustrating when you can SEE the fishing, sometimes only a foot or two away from you, but you can't catch them. It's almost enough to make me go home, get my casting net, and come back for a largemouth round-up! So I started walking along the side of the pond opposite from the two girls, not wanting to disturb them or the fish that THEY were after. I moved down to the far end of the pond where I knew a fair number of large fish would be, and started casting my line into the shallow water.
After a while I began to notice an unusual noise, a distinct droning sound coming from somewhere nearby. I thought to myself, "That's odd. That sounds like a large swarm of bees." Looking quickly around me, I suddenly glanced up and was greeted by the site of hundreds, if not thousands, of bees swarming around in the air, circling the tree that was behind me. Now I'm not a big fan of bee stings, and I've seen too many nature show and horror movies where people have been attacked by large swarms of bees, and I had no desire whatsoever to experience what that might be like! So I quickly grabbed all of my gear together, and swiftly moved away from the air, circling around to the other side of the pond. No bees for me, thank you very much!
So then I switched to my ultra-light rod and reel, flipped a rubber dragonfly lure into the water at the pond's edge, and was caught completely off guard as a largemouth bass sucked the slowly sinking lure into its mouth and clamped down on it! For a brief few seconds I had him on the line, my first fishing of the season, but no sooner did I get excited then he spit out the hook and got away! Oh well, it wasn't meant to be.
So after a couple of hours catching nothing but a mild case of sunburn, I decided that I was going to put my fishing stuff up and get the camera back out. So I took some more pictures, and I will now post some of them from Lake Acworth and Logan Farm Park. I took them with a 16:9 ratio for viewing on a wide screen TV, so that's why they are rectangular this time. At any rate, here are some pictures from my day outside today.
View of Lake Acworth from Overlook Park
Distant shot of Acworth Beach from Overlook Park.
Fluffy clouds over the playing field at Logan Farm Park.
Blue skies and white clouds over fields and trees of green.
A spawning largemouth bass in the pond at Logan Farm Park.
Anyway, this weekend I decided to renew my fishing license, and spend a little time outdoors since the weather was nice. So yesterday I spent several hours walking around and fishing at Acworth Lake/Cauble Park. As I walked from my car, along the shoreline, I encountered "pockets" of earthy, organic smells that reminded me of England. It would be impossible to explain so anyone else could understand it, but there are just certain sights, sounds and smells that take me back to the country I was born in. The English countryside always seems to have a certain smell to it...the vibrant smell of earth, fresh air, and the various animals that live nearby. It's not always a pleasant smell, but it's a memorable one, and whenever I smell something similar I'm instantly transported back to the country lanes, meadows, and forests of England.
Anyway, I spent a few hours there yesterday, SEEING big fish, but not catching them (the bass are on bed right now, and it's nearly impossible to catch them.) When I came home from fishing, I fired up the grill, and cooked hot dogs and hamburgers. I know, I know...not a healthy way to end a day in the outdoors, but it went with the overall theme of sun and relaxation. ;)
Today I decided that I would take my camera out to the lake and do a little site seeing. I've wanted to photograph some of the hawks that make their nest around the lake by our house, but they weren't around today. I'll have to get them another time. At any rate, I took some pictures of Lake Acworth, started to fish a bit, then decided to head over to Logan Farm Park to take some pictures there, and see if there was any water in the park pond.
When I arrived, there were two girls sitting besides the pond, and surprisingly enough, they were actually fishing! And here I thought I was just about the only one who came to that tiny pond to wet a hook. Anyway, glancing into the mud stained water with my polarized fishing glasses, I could see multiple largemouth bass cruising the shoreline, a similar site to what I'd seen at Lake Acworth. It's really frustrating when you can SEE the fishing, sometimes only a foot or two away from you, but you can't catch them. It's almost enough to make me go home, get my casting net, and come back for a largemouth round-up! So I started walking along the side of the pond opposite from the two girls, not wanting to disturb them or the fish that THEY were after. I moved down to the far end of the pond where I knew a fair number of large fish would be, and started casting my line into the shallow water.
After a while I began to notice an unusual noise, a distinct droning sound coming from somewhere nearby. I thought to myself, "That's odd. That sounds like a large swarm of bees." Looking quickly around me, I suddenly glanced up and was greeted by the site of hundreds, if not thousands, of bees swarming around in the air, circling the tree that was behind me. Now I'm not a big fan of bee stings, and I've seen too many nature show and horror movies where people have been attacked by large swarms of bees, and I had no desire whatsoever to experience what that might be like! So I quickly grabbed all of my gear together, and swiftly moved away from the air, circling around to the other side of the pond. No bees for me, thank you very much!
So then I switched to my ultra-light rod and reel, flipped a rubber dragonfly lure into the water at the pond's edge, and was caught completely off guard as a largemouth bass sucked the slowly sinking lure into its mouth and clamped down on it! For a brief few seconds I had him on the line, my first fishing of the season, but no sooner did I get excited then he spit out the hook and got away! Oh well, it wasn't meant to be.
So after a couple of hours catching nothing but a mild case of sunburn, I decided that I was going to put my fishing stuff up and get the camera back out. So I took some more pictures, and I will now post some of them from Lake Acworth and Logan Farm Park. I took them with a 16:9 ratio for viewing on a wide screen TV, so that's why they are rectangular this time. At any rate, here are some pictures from my day outside today.
View of Lake Acworth from Overlook Park
Distant shot of Acworth Beach from Overlook Park.
Fluffy clouds over the playing field at Logan Farm Park.
Blue skies and white clouds over fields and trees of green.
A spawning largemouth bass in the pond at Logan Farm Park.
April 17, 2008
15 Seconds Of Fame
After work yesterday I drove up to the local Kroger to try and fill my gas tank for just an arm (I'd like to keep my legs at least.) As I was pulling into the parking lot, I noticed that vans from two different news crews were parked nearby, one from CBS 46, the other from ABC. Now I've become used to seeing the odd news van (Fox 5, even CNN) in the area, filming what until recently was a dry Allatoona lakebed, thanks to the prevalent drought, but usually it was only a single crew at a time, not two crews from two different networks.
So before I started pumping the refined black gold (it must be, at that price!) into my Saturn, I walked over to the little metal box that houses the Kroger gas station attendant, and I asked him if he knew what was going on; why there were two news vans in the parking lot. He looked at me with a confused expression and came up to the glass, trying to peek around the corner to where I was pointing. He didn't even know they were there! (It's nice to see he was paying attention to his surroundings. But then again, I'd probably be fairly oblivious too if I were trapped in a little metal and glass box 8 hours a day.)
So I pumped my car full of the Texas Tea, hopped in, and drove slowly over to where one of the news crews was hanging out, sitting in the open door of the van, or leaning against a light pole. I powered down my passenger side window and asked "What's so exciting that news crews from two different networks are here to cover it?" They jumped to attention immediately and said "We want to talk to you!" I asked them what was going on, and they told me that the gun shop in that shopping center had been robbed on April 5th, and that the surveillance video had just been released, and they were covering the story (they told me that they assumed the other network was there for the same reason.) It must have been a really slow day for local news.
Anyway, the one guy picked up a video camera and was like, "We really want to talk to you, seriously!" and the lady (her name is Helen Neill) asked me if I would like to answer a few questions/do a brief interview. I was like, "Umm...okay, sure." (Guess that's what I get for being concerned (or would it be nosy) about what was going on!)
So I'm sitting there in my car, holding the brake pedal down so I don't run over any of the crew, and the camera guy comes over to kneel down beside my car and aim his huge camera at me, and Helen pulls a wireless mic out of a pouch, asks if I can please take my sunglasses off, and then says "Could you say your name, and then spell it please." After some minor adjustments and sound checks, she say "Just look at me," (not the huge camera RIGHT in my face) and starts to ask me questions like, "Do you live or work in the area? Are you concerned about the guns being on the street?" Etc.
I answer her questions and she tells me that I will be on the local news at 4 PM, and then the story will be posted on the CBS46.com Web site shortly after. She hands me her business card, thanks me for helping them out. I joke with her that I always make fun of the people that end up getting interviewed for the news, because they usually sound so stupid, and now I was going to BE one of those people. She and her camera man assured me that I did okay though, and sounded great compared to most of the people they'd talked to. I knew that my "interview" would be cut short, and the edit would probably make me sound less intelligent that I supposedly am, but it was out of my hands now. I'd just have to watch the 4 PM news and see how bad it was.
So I headed home, waited an hour or so, and then turned on CBS 46 for the local news. It was the first story that was covered..."a dozen or so guns, including one AK-47, stolen from a local Acworth store." First came the interview with the store owner, and then...there I was, large as life. If I'd actually had time to prepare for the interview, I would have said something like "I'm all for guns in the hands of responsible citizens, but I don't know of any responsible citizens that need an AK-47 assault rifle." But I didn't have time to prepare, and I was responding to questions she asked me (and quite lamely to one, since I only knew a few of the basic details about the story that she'd told me when I asked her what they were doing there.) Still, it could have been worse!
So here it is, my 15 (maybe less) seconds of fame! I'm not sure how long the story will remain online, but it was there at the time I wrote this. If you want to see me looking goofy on TV, here's the link to the story on their site:
Me, on TV!
I didn't intend for this blog to be so long, but I guess I felt like writing or something. hehe Take care all, and have a great weekend! Peace.
So before I started pumping the refined black gold (it must be, at that price!) into my Saturn, I walked over to the little metal box that houses the Kroger gas station attendant, and I asked him if he knew what was going on; why there were two news vans in the parking lot. He looked at me with a confused expression and came up to the glass, trying to peek around the corner to where I was pointing. He didn't even know they were there! (It's nice to see he was paying attention to his surroundings. But then again, I'd probably be fairly oblivious too if I were trapped in a little metal and glass box 8 hours a day.)
So I pumped my car full of the Texas Tea, hopped in, and drove slowly over to where one of the news crews was hanging out, sitting in the open door of the van, or leaning against a light pole. I powered down my passenger side window and asked "What's so exciting that news crews from two different networks are here to cover it?" They jumped to attention immediately and said "We want to talk to you!" I asked them what was going on, and they told me that the gun shop in that shopping center had been robbed on April 5th, and that the surveillance video had just been released, and they were covering the story (they told me that they assumed the other network was there for the same reason.) It must have been a really slow day for local news.
Anyway, the one guy picked up a video camera and was like, "We really want to talk to you, seriously!" and the lady (her name is Helen Neill) asked me if I would like to answer a few questions/do a brief interview. I was like, "Umm...okay, sure." (Guess that's what I get for being concerned (or would it be nosy) about what was going on!)
So I'm sitting there in my car, holding the brake pedal down so I don't run over any of the crew, and the camera guy comes over to kneel down beside my car and aim his huge camera at me, and Helen pulls a wireless mic out of a pouch, asks if I can please take my sunglasses off, and then says "Could you say your name, and then spell it please." After some minor adjustments and sound checks, she say "Just look at me," (not the huge camera RIGHT in my face) and starts to ask me questions like, "Do you live or work in the area? Are you concerned about the guns being on the street?" Etc.
I answer her questions and she tells me that I will be on the local news at 4 PM, and then the story will be posted on the CBS46.com Web site shortly after. She hands me her business card, thanks me for helping them out. I joke with her that I always make fun of the people that end up getting interviewed for the news, because they usually sound so stupid, and now I was going to BE one of those people. She and her camera man assured me that I did okay though, and sounded great compared to most of the people they'd talked to. I knew that my "interview" would be cut short, and the edit would probably make me sound less intelligent that I supposedly am, but it was out of my hands now. I'd just have to watch the 4 PM news and see how bad it was.
So I headed home, waited an hour or so, and then turned on CBS 46 for the local news. It was the first story that was covered..."a dozen or so guns, including one AK-47, stolen from a local Acworth store." First came the interview with the store owner, and then...there I was, large as life. If I'd actually had time to prepare for the interview, I would have said something like "I'm all for guns in the hands of responsible citizens, but I don't know of any responsible citizens that need an AK-47 assault rifle." But I didn't have time to prepare, and I was responding to questions she asked me (and quite lamely to one, since I only knew a few of the basic details about the story that she'd told me when I asked her what they were doing there.) Still, it could have been worse!
So here it is, my 15 (maybe less) seconds of fame! I'm not sure how long the story will remain online, but it was there at the time I wrote this. If you want to see me looking goofy on TV, here's the link to the story on their site:
Me, on TV!
I didn't intend for this blog to be so long, but I guess I felt like writing or something. hehe Take care all, and have a great weekend! Peace.
April 8, 2008
April 7, 2008
Night Photography
Pictures of some dogwood trees in our yard, taken at night with my digital camera. The floating, star-looking things are pollen grains, floating in the air, and reflecting the light of the flash.
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