Moving Day

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Thursday was Moving Day. Well, Packing Day. We had over 200 boxes inventoried and labeled. Many of our friends from church and work came to help us load up the truck. Unfortunately, even with all of that preparatory packing, there were still about 20 boxes and two chests of my stuff that needed to be packed. I need to take a lesson from my bother Jon – purge often and purge a lot – but then he is not the one interested in archiving and content management, I am.

Moving Van via Josh Wagner

A picture of our Moving Van.
Photo Credit: Josh Wagner.

The Bulkhead

The Bulkhead – The use of halogen lights at night in a metal lined room make for some nice shadows.

So on Friday, my friend Jeremy and I finished and put the bulkhead in place. 900 cu. feet – though not completely solid. God is gracious. We originally wanted make Tuesday our pack and leave day, but we were delayed by having to spend an extra two nights in Philly. So, Thursday became the new Tuesday. And God knew what he was doing – it has been cooler temperatures these last few days. I do not feel like our stuff will bake in the truck.

In Browser “Spyware”

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I found for some of my blog posts I need a screens shot plug-ins for my browser. So I first downloaded and installed, Awesome Screenshot Capture. However, after a recent update my browser was running slowly. So I investigated and found each page load was being referenced to superfish.com. I knew that I had not installed a plug-in which should be contacting superfish.com. So I had to look around I did some Googleing and discovered that superfish.com has a package which can be used by plug-in developers to monetize their Open Source software. Basically the developer gives away their product for free, while superfish.com gets their user browsing data and pays the developer some sort of fee for helping them collect the data. (The best review I can find explaining how this works.)

While I have nothing against the business model and the plug-in works well, I feel a bit undercut. See, when I installed the plug-in it did not contain the superfish.com addition. My update program told me I needed to update so I did. I trust Firefox, and I trusted the developer. So, I feel that this was a bit of a switch-and bait tactic used by the developer, or certainly a “change in business direction”. While the plug-in is technically Open Source, unless one is code savvy, the code is not going to change. While one could say that I should have read the reviews, the reviews were not necessarily there when I installed the plug-in.

In my case superfish.com was still being contacted when the plug-in was was told not to activate that part of the plug-in. So I went and found another plug-in in the FireFox extensions repository.

superfish.com and screen shot FF extension.

superfish.com and screen shot FF extension.

This is the lesson:

Not all Open Source software is good for you, and sleazy things can happen with updates. So read the update notes and the reviews when updating.

Lightning in East Texas

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Becky and I were flying standby and coming back from our trip in Europe. We had been bumped from a couple of flights and were desperate to get home. So we took a flight which ended in Little Rock, AR rather than Dallas, TX. On the drive to Dallas there was quite the electrical storm. Since I shot my first picture of lightning in Germany, I have wanted to give it another go. This was the perfect opportunity. I pulled off the highway onto a secondary road and drove about a mile before pulling off to the side. Because we were flying standby our checked baggage, including my tripod, were already in Dallas waiting for us – not good when you want to use it before you get to Dallas. So, I improvised. I used the trunk of the rental car and my camera strap for leveling. Here is what I was able to shoot.

Image 9325 possibly the best un-edited photo of the event.

I took about thirty photos playing around with a variety shutter speeds (time lapse), ISO and apertures. All images used my 50mm lens with a UV filter. This one is probably the best one unedited.

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Shooting Lightning

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I was out tonight looking for the moon. It is full moon and I am in southern Germany at the moment. My friend Doris noticed a rather spectacular moon rise while she was out for a bike ride. When she came home she told me about it and we jumped in the car to go try and see it, but the clouds had already come in and covered the moon. Noticing a few cloud-to-cloud sparks I told Doris about how I have wanted to shoot lightning for some time but have not had the chance. I set the camera to 30 sec. exposure and pointed it in the direction of the storm… and this is what I got.

Lightning in Schwartzwald

Lightning in Schwartzwald.

The Ulster Fry

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The Ulster Fry

The Ulster Fry : a traditional full breakfast from Northern Ireland.

This week Becky and I have been vising some of her friends in Northern Ireland. It has been interesting to sit and talk with people and to watch how the culture is different when compared the cultural elements we encountered in Edinburgh, Scotland. On of the things we had the privilege of eating was an Ulster Fry. Complete with eggs, ham, potato, tomato, sausage, toast, jam, tea, farls and friends.

Hugh Paterson (1781) of Edinburgh

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This July 7th, Becky and I stepped foot in Edinburgh Scotland. It is kinda surreal with it gray overcast and old architecture. We were there to look into some family history records.

Prior Research

My dad, Hugh Jr. (also son of Hugh Jr.) and his sister took a trip to Scotland some years ago.

The Hugh Jrs (Both were Hugh Jr. and didn't know it.)

The Hugh Jrs (Both were Hugh Jr. and didn't know it. Well the younger one knew he was a Jr.)

Hugh Jr. and Sisters

Hugh Jr., (my dad) and his sisters on their Scotland Trip.

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