Before the holiday weekend

I just wanted to post a little something. It's been a bit of a hectic week for me between normal work stuff, cleaning up from last week's website launch, and gearing up to be out of the office for a long weekend. Now, Wednesday has arrived and I can't wait for tomorrow.

Interesting week out in the world. I think that the whole Iran, Iraq & Syria summit news is one of the most significant pieces of news to come out in awhile. I don't imagine it is necessarily a completely positive thing, especially when you consider the other ways Syria has arrived in the headlines this week. Still, it seems like there are some reasons to feel hopeful there.

Meanwhile, George Bush was in Asia wandering around in a silk dress and somehow it didn't make many waves over here in the US. It sounds like the whole journey has been a lukewarm endeavor with few headline results and meanwhile the political scene over here could be described in the same way. Glad to see that the whole push-Bolton-through plan isn't playing out as it was supposed to, at least not yet.

All in all... lots to ponder as we all head off to a long weekend of tryptophan, football and fun.

Enjoy, I might be posting pictures, and I'll definitely be back in action next week!

Yo... Yo

With Philly heritage and the prominence of Yo around my hometown, I couldn't resist grabbing this news story (that I found posted on Fark) and tossing a link up here. Enjoy an awesome and very short story about an awesome event. Did you know that the yo-yo was originally a bird-hunting device?

The photo at right is from the 1866 patent application for the Yo-yo. Thanks Wikipedia!

Wedding Photos Series Pt.3

Laughter Photography
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

At the rehearsal dinner for my brother's wedding there was a lot of laughter, and a lot of flashes going off! I think this picture captures some of the goofyness that was going on.

This is one moment of many where multiple cameras were in motion, multiple people were smiling... all was right with the world!

Stagnant!

My apologies to anyone who has stopped ye olde blog in the last week or so because man... has this place been boring!!!

I've gotten into a posting funk... no new info for too long. Today, that will all change. Stay tuned, and my apologies for the silence.

While all has been silent on the blog front a number of things have happened. I have uploaded a new version of my employer's website (www.habitatcfc.org) and I had the opportunity last weekend to travel home to Philly to celebrate my mom's 60th Birthday!

It's been a busy time but for good reason. Happy Thanksgiving week everybody... more soon, I promise!!!

Wedding Photos Series Pt.2

Andy and Ray
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

This is another picture from the rehersal dinner. My camera snapped just as Aunt Andy looked away, but the flash did something very cool with Uncle Ray's glasses. The effect makes it look like he's got an amazing glint in his eye!

I think this is just a fun nice picture. Like so many of the others I took, it is somewhat random, but I hope you enjoy it.

The Moon & Antarctica

This morning I accompanied my happy drive to work (read the previous post for more details) by listening to Modest Mouse's classic and excellent album the Moon & Antarctica. This CD is riddled with goodness, and while Good News for People Who like Bad News really took Modest Mouse to a rediculously new level of fame and fortune, this CD remains, to my mind, the definitive album by this band. If you have no idea what I'm talking about or are unfamiliar with this album, it is very much worth your time. Notable great tracks include Tiny Cities Made of Ashes, I Came as a Rat, and 3rd Planet. This morning I was also enjoying the song Wild Pack of Family Dogs... one I never paid tons of attention to before, but a fun and short little tune. Pitchfork review of this album.

Bluejay of Happiness

I had a very colorful start to my day.

Just before leaving for work, I found Lyndsey getting a final few minutes of rest before hopping on a phone interview. She was in bed and OJ, her wonderful orange cat had his head on her leg... because he knew that she wasn't feeling well and he has a habit of taking care of sick people.

I walked out the door to get into my car and the first thing that I spotted was a tree full of very yellow leaves. There were yellow and brown leaves all around it on the ground, and the sunlight made it all look pretty amazing.

I hopped in the car and got out onto the road, and about two minutes into my drive a bluejay flew across the street about 10-15 feet in front of my car and swooped down just beyond a fence on the far side of the road. This vision was pretty amazing, and definitely put a smile on my face.

Later as I was about to hop onto I-95 for the ugly highway stretch of my drive, I saw a brilliant red tree. I know I've alredy hit the whole colorful tree thing. Anyway, this was not intended to end up as a primary color-themed post, but I put this all up by way of saying that it seemed to me that this morning, in spite of the gray sky, the world was trying to tell me that it was going to be a good day.

Democrats unveil new direction for Iraq

Today it became clear exactly what Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, Chuck Schumer etc. have planned when they talk about a, "New Direction" in Iraq. What they really mean is Chuck Norris! That's right, the man who can win a game of Connect 4 in three moves is going to straigten everything out in Baghdad, Fallujah, etc. No worries folks. It's all taken care of. Whew.

In other Chuck Norris news: Chuck Norris will attain statehood in 2009. His state flower will be the Magnolia.

Wedding Photos Series

Gorillapod Matt
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

This is the first in a series of wedding photos I'll be posting over the next few days. This is another like the first I posted that I took with my nifty new Gorillapod the evening of the rehersal dinner. This is my favorite one that Matt appears in. It's pretty low-light but when I pulled it into photoshop I didn't want to make it too much brighter because color just went crazy as soon as I started playing with levels on this one.

Anyway, that all aside, I think this is a fun, great picture of my brother on the eve of his wedding.

Happy Monday!

Laughter

Laughter
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So... I'm glad to hear rumblings about other pictures being available via the internets from Matt & Kristi's wedding because I, as usual, took lots of random pictures. There are more to come because I've got a bunch up on Flickr right now, but this is one I really liked. Sure... neither of the subjects is actually looking at the camera, but who needs to bicker about such details!?!!?!

Look, it's my happy auntie Melanie and my happy bro on the eve of his wedding. What a great and fun time we all had down in Florida... perhaps we should just all go back down this weekend! Any takers?

Grrreat Distractions

Last night Lyndsey and her mom, Jane, and I went to the movies. It was early in the evening and we all felt we could use to avoid about 2 hours of non-news about the election, so we went to see Running With Scissors. Now, I have started reading the book but I got distracted by the whole being-in-Florida-for-my-brother's-wedding thing so I haven't gotten very far, but the movie is GREAT! It's strange and funny and intensely sad on many levels, but it's really very good and I highly recommend it.

Also, recently, we went to see the Prestige, which is also AWESOME! It's captivating, well done, and ultimately a bit of a puzzle to top it all off. I thoroughly enjoyed it, and I recommend both.

HOLY GUACAMOLE!

So... a little under 30 hours ago I was at a polling station here in CT and I was voting my heart out... er... what the heck does that mean? Anyway, I voted and it was great. I got to use of of the old chunky lever machines... exactly as satisfying as it seemed when I was a kid. It made big "Chunkity-chunk" noises when I pushed tabs or pulled the lever at the end. When I went inside to start voting it closed a curtain around me with a clinging bell. Good stuff. Now, 30ish hours later... what do we have?

Let's pretend it all happened in the voting booth itself, so before hand I'll go "cling" and the curtainc closes...
House: Democratic (please note the cheesy music and goofy animation... love it!)
Senate: Looking more and more blue
Rumsfeld: Gone
"Chunkity-Chunk..." and for now, we're done! More to come in the next few days, I'm sure... but HOLY GUACAMOLE!

What comes next? I can't believe it's raining up here in Connecticut because today's results feel like a weight lifted to me... like clouds parting. I'm beside myself wiht hope for the future. That and very dramatic prose.

Honestly, though, I'm really happy. I hope you all are too. Great day. Great results... good times to come! I can feel it.