This sign on the trail by my house always cracks me up. Just the idea of having this sign is funny. The sign states the obvious, "Trail flooded ahead" and then continues with further instruction, "Turn around". Then it just gets really freaked out and proclaims, "Don't drown".

It reminds me of many conversations in my house. I'll tell the kids something, then I have to qualify the obvious statement. That usually doesn't work so I have to give a concrete cause-and-effect scenario.

I love talking super hero movies. A friend was recently gushing over The Dark Knight and the discussion spilled over into other super hero movies. Here's my two comments:

post one
I had problems with The Dark Knight. Don't get me wrong, it was a very good movie, but I felt they were trying excessively hard to make the movie edgy and twisted. It was forced. Or maybe it's just a philosophical difference I have about what super hero movies should be. If I want a gut-wrenching drama, then I'll watch Green Mile or something. Heck, why don't they just throw a cowl and cape on John Coffey (Michael Clarke Duncan's character) and call that a super hero movie. That's what I feel The Dark Knight was trying to do. Maybe I just need to watch it again.

post two
I have to put Iron Man at #1. How can I not? It forced itself to be the best super hero movie ever. #2: Transformers 1986. Yeah, robots are heroes. Suck it.

As for the 2011 crop: Capt America too much boring war, shoot, shoot, "you're just a walking cartoon, go and sing-and-dance, oh wait we forgot you're superhuman", shoot, shoot, bla bla. I was really disappointed with C.A. I was really surprised by Thor. I thought it would be a really weird Lord of the Rings done bad. Thor was cool. Went into G.Lantern with extraordinarily low expectations, so I liked it for only that reason. At least it was better than Fantastic Four. guh.

And for the record, I liked Superman Returns. So that's two of us. I watched 1989 Batman last year and was very happy to se how well it holds up 22 years later. And don't forget about Hell Boy. I really liked Hell Boy.

So, apparently it's hard to find any 48" flush mount ceiling fans in the big box stores. An amazon search pointed me to the Hunter Fans 24852 48" Fantasy Flyer Kid's Indoor Flush Mount Blue Ceiling Fan and my mind is blown.

Check out the iConvert. It's for the iPad. Feed your paper into the scanner and watch your document magically appear on your iPad. Very clever. At least I'm going to assume this feed-and-instantly-see-digitally process is how it works. Available for $150 pre-order at Brookstone.

Here's an interesting wall that's trying to be something else, but also proudly embracing its wallness at the same time. Quite postmodern. You don't see walls lit this way. It pulls you in, but also jumps out at you, but it's loyal to itself because the light strongly defines the dimensions of itself.

It was shown at the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego in La Jolla, California.

photo by Doug Gates

I was cleaning the basement and came across this family toy. It's the Digital Derby Auto Raceway from 1978. This was a favorite toy in the Maldre house, especially with my twin brother. I popped in two C batteries and unfortunately it didn't start up even though the battery compartment looked pretty clean.

The term "digital" has absolutely no value here. Everything is quite mechanical. The steering wheel physically moves the car shown in the lower right. It is a silkscreened car on a piece of plastic attached to the steering wheel.

The road is composed of two tracks. Think of how an armored tank's track works or a conveyor belt. These belts have cars silkscreened on them and move at changing paces throughout the game. The object was to avoid having your car hit those cars. If they did touch, then a loud screech would sound and you'd have to hit the red reset button and continue.

A radial dial tracked how many laps you achieved. There is a time dial in the upper left corner, again mechanically driven.

Here's a youtube video of the game. You get the idea after about, oh, 5 seconds.

Now just how did Godzilla and Megalon manage to find their way atop the World Trade Center while fighting? I guess I'll just have to watch the movie to find out.

Last night I had a dream that I was setting up for my college senior art show (Illinois Wesleyan University Bachelor of Fine Arts exhibition c/o '97). I got there late so I got a small space next to my brother, Matt. I grabbed a couple portable walls to get more display space and put a line of black artists' tape from the portable wall to my wall.

Then IWU photography and sculpture professor, Kevin Strandberg, popped up from behind the wall and said, "This should be your show". I couldn't tell if he was serious or kidding. So I replied, "Okay".

I started the black tape on my wall and continued it throughout the rest of the gallery space weaving in between my classmates pieces and the floor. It was a sort of spider web/winding road kinda look. Then I hung some of my pieces in the high-up ceiling part of the gallery and placed the black tape so it pointed to the pieces.

Then my wife woke me up from my dream.

I wish I had this dream 15 years ago. Dang. 15 years.

That's the Gemini 6 launch. And that's the autograph of the program's medical director, Charles Berry M.D., blasting off as well.

If I were an astronaut, I would totally put a star or circle (moon) in my autograph.

$100 to the person that can sync up my Google Docs with my Casio calculator CA53W-1 watch.

Usually on my computer's desktop there is a folder called "clean up". Recently I was downloading stock images of floors. That folder was randomly placed below the "clean up" folder resulting in a new message.

I came across this image of a Ryne Sandberg Starting-Lineup figure. The ebay seller photographed the figure at a really intriguing angle. Ryno is no longer sliding into second (or third) base. He is now keeping his balance while standing one-legged on a base turned on its side. In fact it looks like he's doing some sort of old Russian dance. Wow. Surely that's the work of a Hall of Famer and the greatest second baseman of all time. Way to go, Ryno!

Let's start off 2012 on the right foot with a game of "what is it?"



answer here

man, camera, tripod, garage, homemade croquet mallet, and a gingerbread house.
This can't be good for the gingerbread house.

with bonus slow-motion footage

I'm looking for a warm winter jacket. Enter the Eddie Bauer North Slope All-Purpose Down Parka. I have a decent store credit and it was 40% off. Its weather rating is "Arctic Cold, Tested to -30ºF". The EBNSAPDP is "a heavy-duty coat originally designed for commercial industrial use. Fully seam-sealed WeatherEdge® technology and 600 fill Premium European Goose Down deliver expert waterproof, windproof, breathable weather protection."

Sounds pretty warm.

So I tried on this monster. I asked the Eddie Bauer sales associate if he ever saw the first Iron Man movie (2008). He did. I said I felt like I was wearing the very first Iron Man armored suit that Tony Stark built from scraps in Afghanistan.

The title of this hand-drawn open edition card is "Above the Christmas Tree". Initially this card was intended to represent the view of a Christmas tree from above. The center point is a treetopper star and the circle forms are the tree. My four-year old daughter simply said it was a star. Now there's some symbolism. Here we have the Star of Bethlehem risen in the sky above all pointing to the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Check out the behind-the-scenes videos below. The first includes special guest appearances by a zebra, Optimus Prime, and much more. Such intermissions are at 1:23, 2:07, 4:00, 4:30, 5:10, 5:40, and 7:00. Visit the video here to have active links in the "description" section that immediately place you at the intermissions (if that's all you want to see). The second video is prep work leading to the production of the card. There is a shocking ending.

Bonus photos are soon too be available at Flickr.

That's right. I'm comparing the Nikon D7000 and the Canon 5D Mark II. You might think I'm crazy. Why the 5DM2 and the power of its full frame sensor has assembled an amazing cult following including the 2010 season-ending episode of "House" being filmed exclusively on said camera.

Well, I'm a Nikon guy through and through. We have two 5D Mark II cameras at work and subsequently our D200 was sold. I really don't like Canon's SLR interface. I've been eagerly waiting over 3 years for Nikon to respond to the 5DM2 (which was announced 9/17/2008). There's been plenty of rumors, but zilch has been done; or so I thought. The D700 is full frame, but does no video. The D300s does video, but is not full frame, so its $1600 price tag is hard to justify. And the Nikon D3S's $5,000+ price tag doesn't compete with the 5DM2's $2,500.

For the past year I've been ignoring the Nikon D7000 (announced Oct. 2010). It's not full frame, but does shoot hi-def video. It has a completely new sensor and boy does it do some really nice things. My largest concern is shooting in low-light, so performance in high ISO is critical for me. I'm really getting tired of my 10-year old SLR and its antiquated low-light shortcomings.

It's important to read reviews, but the proof is often in the pudding. That's where imaging-resource.com's Comparometer becomes a tremendous tool. There's nothing else like it online. They shoot multiple shots at multiple different ISO settings of controlled settings. You gotta use this tool if you're researching digital cameras.

Below are croppings comparing multiple SLR cameras all at 1600 ISO. The Canon Cybershot G12 and Sony DSC-TX5 are thrown in as well. The G12 received much press about its supposed professional photojournalist qualities. It is Canon's flagship fixed camera lens. It's supposed to be the next best thing to getting an SLR. The TX5 is an ultra-compact, super slim, waterproof camera.






Some observations:
Overall the Canon 5D Mark II has excellent contrast. It appears to analyze flat fields of color and removes the noise by blurring pixels together. It does so quite well, but sometimes it overcompensates. Notice how much softer the mannequin eye is compared to the D700. And the detail on the white collar is almost lost in the 5DM2.

I really like my storage unit. It is so Star Warsian. It reminds me of Tantive IV and the interiors of Kamino from Star Wars Battlefront II. There's one giant hangar (or parking deck) which is shown above. Then the storage units are seemingly endless hallways of sterile white corrugated metal. It's always fun going there.

All my heart again rejoices
As I hear
Far and near
Sweetest angel voices.
“Christ is born!” their choirs are singing
Till the air
Everywhere
Now with joy is ringing.

Hear! The Conqueror has spoken:
“Now the foe, sin and woe,
Death and hell are broken!”
God is man, man to deliver,
And the Son
Now is one
With our blood forever.

Should we fear our God’s displeasure,
Who, to save,
Freely gave
His most precious treasure?
To redeem us He has given
His own Son
From the throne
Of His might in heaven.

See the Lamb, our sin once taking,
To the cross,
Suff’ring loss,
Full atonement making.
For our life, His own He tenders,
And His grace
All our race
Fit for glory renders.

Softly from His lowly manger,
Jesus calls
One and all,
“You are safe from danger.
Children, from the sins that grieve you
You are freed;
All you need
I will surely give you.”

Come, then, banish all your sadness!
One and all,
Great and small,
Come with songs of gladness.
We shall live with Him forever
There on high
In that joy
Which will vanish never.

All My Heart Again Rejoices

by Paul Gerhardt, Lutheran Service Book, #360

post taken from cyberbrethern.com

Luke 2
The Birth of Jesus Christ
1 In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be registered.
2 This was the first registration when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
3 And all went to be registered, each to his own town.
4 And Joseph also went up from Galilee, from the town of Nazareth, to Judea, to the city of David, which is called Bethlehem, because he was of the house and lineage of David,
5 to be registered with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
6 And while they were there, the time came for her to give birth.
7 And she gave birth to her firstborn son and wrapped him in swaddling cloths and laid him in a manger, because there was no place for them in the inn.

The Shepherds and the Angels
8 And in the same region there were shepherds out in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night.
9 And an angel of the Lord appeared to them, and the glory of the Lord shone around them, and they were filled with great fear.
10 And the angel said to them, “Fear not, for behold, I bring you good news of great joy that will be for all the people.
11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.
12 And this will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in swaddling cloths and lying in a manger.”
13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God and saying,

14 “Glory to God in the highest,
and on earth peace among those with whom he is pleased!”

15 When the angels went away from them into heaven, the shepherds said to one another, “Let us go over to Bethlehem and see this thing that has happened, which the Lord has made known to us.”
16 And they went with haste and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby lying in a manger.
17 And when they saw it, they made known the saying that had been told them concerning this child.
18 And all who heard it wondered at what the shepherds told them.
19 But Mary treasured up all these things, pondering them in her heart.
20 And the shepherds returned, glorifying and praising God for all they had heard and seen, as it had been told them.

Luke 2:1-20
English Standard Version (ESV)

Wow! I never knew wood paneling and multi-colored Christmas lights looked so nice! I should have started using these lights in my basement eight years ago.

My parents ALWAYS used white lights. I never used multi-colored lights. There's been a strand of 300 multi-colored in my possession since my college days (circa 1995) and they never really saw the light of day (or dark of night) until now. This basement is jamming the Christmas beat! I will still use white lights on the tree and outside the house, but anyone with wood paneling should def embrace the multi-colored lights.

(That's a non-autographed painting of Hall of Fame pitcher Fergie Jenkins in the photo. THAT'S a story for another day.)

Wait a minute, it was actually sent to my son. It's a cardboard tube from his Uncle Matt. One was also sent to my daughter, but it never arrived. Both tubes pre-mailing are at Matt's flickr page.

The tube was in pretty good shape considering its journey. It has two sizable creases going the entire length, but it wasn't completely folded down. There's another crease that's about 1.5" long. And one of the stamps is peeling up as shown in the photo. Interestingly there's no postmark on the stamps. It arrived either Monday December 19, 2011 or Tuesday.

Now what to do with this tube.

I couldn't pass up a pack of baseball cards from the dollar store when Andre Dawson is the featured card on the top of the pack. C'mon. There were 35 cards in the pack.

Here's the breadown by year:
1981 1
1982 3
1983 1
1984 1
1985 1
1986 2
1987 5
1988 2
1989 5
1990 4
1991 0
1992 2
1993 2
1994 1
1995 2
1996 1
2005 1

Every year is represented from 1981 to 1996 except 1991. That's really impressive. The variety is remarkable. It's a nice flashback going through these cards despite every card besides two being complete and utter duds, though it's to be expected for the entire pack beyond the top card to be duds. There was an '86 Boggs card tucked in there.

Just because you really want to know, here's each card:
1984 Topps Ed Vande Berg, 1989 Bowman Manny Trillo, 1982 Fleer Darrel Evans, 1986 Topps Wade Boggs, 1987 Topps Lenny Dykstra, 1990 Score Bob Ojeda, 1982 Topps Pete Mackanin, 1990 Topps Pat Borders, 1989 Fleer Bo Diaz, 1990 Donruss Mike Witt, 1987 Fleer Dave Stieb, 1995 Pacific Collection Chris Hoiles, 1990 Bowman Kent Mercker, 1988 Topps Mark Eichhorn, 1994 Pinnacle Kevin Brown, 1996 Score Kevin Seitzer, 1987 Topps Ron Karkovice, 1993 Upper Deck Phil Hiatt, 1986 Topps Danny Heep, 1995 Fleer Ultra Todd Worrell, 2005 Fleer Jon Garland, 1993 Leaf Eric Young, 1987 Leaf Tommy Herr, 1982 Topps White Sox Batting/Pitching Ldrs, 1981 Topps Butch Hobson, 1985 Topps Pedro Guerrero, 1989 Upper Deck Jack McDowell, 1988 Topps Jamie Quirk, 1989 Donruss Joe Orsulak, 1987 Topps Ken Dixon, 1983 Topps Ron Gardenhire, 1992 Donruss Doug Piatt, 1989 Fleer Atlee Hammacker, 1992 Donruss Mark Gardner

The prior post mentioned a photo taken in Lombard. I figured now's a good time to post it. It's the Maple Street Chapel in Lombard, Illinois. It appears to be owned by First Church of Lombard.

As a kid we would pass this church on the way to my aunt's house in Lombard and now I pass it every day when driving to and from work. The inside is NOT what I pictured it being.

This could totally pass for a Jasper Johns painting. I'm not saying that to belittle Johns, but rather to say that this piece is incredible! I really wish I could remember where I took it. The photo prior on my "roll" was in downtown Chicago, and the photo post was in Lombard, IL. That's not much help.

Do you notice what's wrong with this sign?
Answer in the comments section.
It's not that the sign looks like it's sloping. That's just my bad photograph. There's something else wrong with how the sign was installed.

This photo was taken at the Wheaton Post Office.

This photo I took of the Oakbrook Terrace Tower's shadow reminds me of a Christmas tree.

location: One Tower Lane, Oakbrook Terrace Tower, Oakbrook Terrace, IL 60181 (my place of employment for ten years).
This is the view to the southeast from the 24th floor. I miss that view.

Part of what makes baseball great is the poetic, yet violent motions found in the pitcher throwing the baseball and the batter swinging. It's something you really don't find in any other sport. And they do so in their designated spots: the mound and the batter's box.

The watermark on the wire photo above is a great expression of such. It runs parallel to Jenkins' right bicep and left thigh. Three parallel lines set at a dynamic angle. Baseball.

I regret not bringing this Christmas pig/reindeer home when he was on Black Friday discount. Sorry, pig, maybe next year.

I'm not quite sure what this guy has planned for that empty jar of tomato sauce. (It was completely washed out.) It's quite impressive what he did to that water bottle on the right side.