An Admission

Alright, I have to admit it, I've been neglecting ye olde blog. But, never fear, I'll be back in full force in the days to come. Why, you might ask, have I been so absent, so silent, so sparse in my posting of photos, random blathering and other formerly reliable drivel???

Well, the reason, folks, is that I've been spending way too much time uploading music to my new mp3 player. I've been happily ripping tracks (681 to date, to be precise) and um... I've still got many more to upload.

While I've now explained myself, it's no excuse. This weekend Lyndsey and I went for an awesome huge walk in a park with the Ellis' dog Chester. He went swimming, and it was a gorgeous day. I took way too many pictures, and that means that before too long I'll be uploading a bunch of random happy outdoor pics to Flickr... and they'll soon be gracing the pages of this fancy little cyber-zine. Also, I'm just gonna try to prioritize writing a bit more.

It's like a resolution, a week late.

So, that's all to say... expect more soon. More photos, more rambles, more junk of various kinds, and more fun fun fun.

Hope everybody's week is starting off in style.

Year of the snail?

snail
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Happy New Year everybody!

So far, 2007 appears to be the year of the Guitar Hero for me. If you are not familiar with Guitar Hero, it's an amazing game that involves... sort of... playing the guitar through a video game system.

It may not sound completely concrete, but if you haven't seen it in action, that's about the best I can do to describe it for you.

More soon, but I wanted to get a post up to welcome in 2007. So far... an interesting year. Can't wait to see what else happens as the months unfold.

Award for Best wedding picture goes to...

Joseph is the Man for taking this picture
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Joseph gets the prize for my favorite wedding picture of all. Over Christmas I got to see a bunch of pics I hadn't seen yet and that was fun. Between peoples' digitals, the disposable cameras at the reception, and the photographer Matt & Kristi's wedding was very well documented. There is a whole bunch of stuff that's great fun. Still, I think this photo is just amazing. I took some liberties with the original that Joseph sent to Matt, opting for a landscape rather than portrait layout, and turning it into a B/W pic whereas it was color in the original.

I hope you enjoy it, and Happy New Year to everybody.

Cheers.

+ John

TerraPass

Okay, so here's the quick version of follow-up on yesterday's last post:

TerraPass, it's something worth checking out. My brother spotted the TerraPass on the back window of my car while I was leaving after Christmas to head back north. It looks something like this:



A quick conversation followed between Matt, my mom and me about some specifics. One of the best questions was, "so... what do you get for the $$" which is a pretty good question.


The answer is that there are no tax benefits right now. There are no real perks except peace of mind, really and um... a cool doodad to stick on your car. But the general idea is that you can buy a patch and some credits that are supposed to counterbalance the amount of CO2 that your car emits in a year. TerraPass purchases the credits in a couple forms, details provided here. As I posted yesterday, there's a pretty comprehensive study of carbon offset providers available here. By comprehensive, I mean to say I still haven't read it because it's pretty long.

The long-and-short of this little post is that I'm happy with TerraPass, and somewhat happy with myself for getting one. I'm not posting to brag, but because I hope others might find the carbon offset idea appealing. After a couple years of not owning a car, I was thinking a lot as I went out to buy the one that I picked up this fall, and offsetting the emissions made me feel a little happier about the fact that I have chosen to live, for now, in a place where public transportation for work is just not possible.

All that said, if you have more details or want to weigh in, feel free. Until then, happy third day after Christmas. Ho ho ho.

First Non-Flickr Post in Awhile

Hey, So I have been thinking for awhile that I'd like to start highlighting some stuff I think is cool on this here blog-o-mine, and without realizing it I started that just a few moments ago (I know... I know... that post ended with, "good night." So that was a lie. But only a small one.

I'm really posting myself a reminder. Tomorrow I'll post something brief about carbon offsets, because I think they're cool, but I also think my knowledge of them is minimal. I'm working on learning a bit more and I already bought one only days after I purchased the second Honda Civic of my life. That being said, my knowledge is still limited. On WorldChanging.com I ran across a report somebody did on overall quality and comprison of various offset providers. I have yet to read it, but if you have time and feel curious, check it out here. Now, really, good night.

'Tis the Season for a Gorillapod

'Tis the Season for a Gorillapod
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So... I was home for a very quick visit and took a bunch of pictures... most involve cats in some sort of activity because my brother and his wife, Kristi came up from Savannah with their two cats so the house was quite full of furry things.

I managed to occasionally deploy my Gorillapod, here you see where I latched it onto a floor lamp to take a photo of the Christmas tree so I didn't have to stand on my head.

More photos soon, but for now Merry Christmas, Jolly Festivus, Happy New Year, Zippy Kwanzaa, and a very extremely Contented Chanukkah (which I've almost certainly misspelled, while I'm fairly sure I managed to get Kwanzaa. Not sure what that says about me, but regardless... goodnight!)

Two photos I really like

wreath lineup
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

This is the second. I posted both now because this one is so festive. I like the similarity between the two. It makes me smile.

I hope it does the same for you!

Two photos I really like

ladies hats
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Each has similar composition. This is photo number 1... photo 2 to be posted momentarily.

Merry Christmassssss!!

pinecone wreath
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Happy happy happy Christmas to everybody! I'm leaving work in the next 20 minutes, getting a haircut, running home to pack up some stuff quickly into my car, and then Lyndsey and I are coming on down South to Philly, Yo!

Yeah!

I'm so happy that the long holiday weekend is finally here, and while I wish I could take all of next week off, I'm excited to be able to spend some time with the fam. Best wishes to everybody for a warm, healthy, happy, fun weekend, and there will be much more fun, happiness, good photos, and rediculous bits of news and stories to come on the blog in the near future, so deck the halls with boughs of holly fa la la la la la friggin la la la!!!!

Happy Thoughts

Lyndsey & Sugar Bear
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

So... it's Monday, and I came into work early, and I'm feeling under the weather... but none of that will prevent me from having happy thoughts! None of it!

This picture makes me smile because Sugar Bear... the puppy in the photo was such a puffy little cloud of a dog. We met him while in St. Augustine and he was out for a walk on his first adventure ever out on a leash.

Thoughts at the end of the week

Indy
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

For those of you who haven't met her, this is Lyndsey's Parents' cat, Indy. She's a sassy lady and a bit of a huntress. She's starting to get a little old to be able to hunt and continue dropping off kills on the doorstep, but she still loves to spend time outside. The other day I came home for lunch and snapped this photo in my ongoing macro madness mode.

Meanwhile back at the office this week has been hell on wheels. The work doesn't ever seem to be achievable within 8 hours or 10 or... who knows how long, so I'm looking forward to my tiny slice of holiday time off and the larger slice of time when my boss will be out of the office.

Hopefully the quiet will bring productivity and relaxation. Wish me luck.

Lyndsey and I are going into NYC tomorrow to a Christmas party and to hopefully also see some of my friends who live in the 5 boroughs. If you're part of that constituency, feel free to give me a ring. I have no idea what time we're heading in tomorrow but I'm lobbying for early, and I have no idea what time we're leaving Sunday but I'm lobbying for no earlier than mid-afternoon.

We'll see how good of a lobbyist I am. Yes, I had to spellcheck lobbyist... what an odd word.

In other news, Lyndsey's brother and his family are playing the holy family in their church's christmas play. It's awesome because baby Jesus is actually named Caroline and she's well... an awesome pick for the son of God. She has very long fingers and toes.

I'm hopefully close to done my Christmas shopping. My goal: to do abotu 75% of it online... but somehow I miss finding random stuff in shops. If you're looking for a great place to donate over the holidays, my brother recently told me about something awesome, kinda dorky, but awesome nonetheless. One cool piece of it is that you're giving directly to a kid... kinda like when you adopt one of the angels that the Salvation Army provides gifts to around the holidays. That all being said, if you're curious, check it out. It's called Child's Play. I posted this through Flickr so I can't hyperlink it, but the site is www.childsplaycharity.org

Happy Friday everyone, and I hope that you have an awesome weekend. Indy hopes so too.

I see you lookin at my blog

eyeball
Originally uploaded by Chambo25.

sorry... this is a completely silly post, but I like this picture so I had to figure out some reason to put it up.