093 - Organize all photos, digital and prints

In the good old days, we picked up our photos from a remote developer or a photo shop. They were stacked in an envelope with the dark negatives stored in a shorter pocket inside. We were limited by the size of the film role, usually 24 or 36, though we could sometimes squeeze an extra shot or two out of it.

Most of us--the normal ones, anyway--ripped open the envelope and rifled through the pictures. "Look at this one," was a pretty common phrase along with the variation: "Check this out." Then we put the envelopes full of photos in a shoebox with a promise to ourselves that we would have to load these things into a photo album.

Ahem...

Maybe I just dislike buying photo albums.

Then there is the situation such as the one at my parent's house. They have tons of old photos, most of them haphazardly stored in boxes, mixed like so much soil and gravel. A vein of their early years of marriage can be found, like a layer of sediment, only to abruptly end and a mix of color photos from Christmas in 1971 and my sister's junior high days in the 1980s dominates. You can sense there was once a rhyme and reason for the contents but it has long since been lost to browsers who were not privy to the system.

Not to fear, technology has created a wonderful cure: digital photos. Now we're only limited by the size of our storage cards or the memory on our cameras. We can review photos instantly, discard those we don't like, only keep the good ones, experiment with poses and angles and lighting and effects. Life is good.

Except now we have more photos than ever. And they're all over our virtual worlds. In fact, they might be more disorganized than the printed photos. If we don't have them stored somewhere besides our primary disk drive, we run the risk of losing them all...permanently.

Photos have never been more disorganized, unsafe, and plentiful as they are now. While technology is an enabler of this situation, it is also the savior. We can digitize everything. We can infinitely copy (assuming available storage) each photo.

Thus, task #093 on the 101 Things in 1,001 Days: organize all photos. Jocelyn and I will undoubtedly share this task. I'd like to organize all of our digital photos, digitize all of our old print photos, and archive (either online or to DVD or both) all of them.

This is a big task. Have you done this? Or are you one of those people that keeps everything nice and tidy?

I need tips, pointers, and lessons learned.

Twitter and tumblr

Two things (that are new for me) that I've been experimenting with are twitter and tumblr. First, I'll explain what they are, then why I'm even bothering, and why you might like to try them.

Twitter is for microblogging. Messages are text only and are limited to 140 characters. The "tweets" or twitter entries can be made via the site, sending text from a mobile device (like your cell phone) or via instant messenger.

People can sign up to follow you on twitter. When you post, they receive updates automatically. Sounds like a bit of overkill when it comes to keeping up with someone, but I can see how this could be useful when trying to coordinate a group and needing to broadcast information to multiple people (and receiving it from those people, also.)

I'm not worried about followers. I like twitter for it's quick notetaking aspect. I can text myself basically with any sort of feeling or observation. I have no worries about being verbose with a 140 character limit. These little notes help trigger memories without the seriousness of a journal or diary.

I've added twitter to the Happiness Notebook, where I've cleverly called it "a glimpse behind the curtain" and I removed the link to twitter. You can go to twitter and try it for yourself. You really don't want to receive a text message from me that says that "I'm at work on a Sunday."

If you do decide to follow anyone, twitter does provide controls so that you aren't inundated with updates or receive them during inconvenient hours.

The other toy I've been playing with is tumblr. This is a site that lets you maintain a "tumblelog" or tlog. Postings on a tlog are short and media driven. Photos, videos, quotes, links, short text entries, audio files, and chats are the types supported by tumblr.

It is exceptionally easy to use. I've created an RSS feed called "Happy Notes" right there on the right of this blog. Click on an entry and you'll be taken to my own tlog, which I intend to make a supportive, complementary, yet standalone version of the H-N. My tweets on twitter also end up on Happy Notes as short text entries. I could also automatically add a link to the tlog everytime I post here.

If you've thought about blogging, but aren't interested in doing all that much writing, then tumblr is a great alternative. Give it a shot and send me the link.

Tell me what you think of these sites and let me know of others like it that you use or prefer.

She loves me, she loves me not

But I think she loves me. Even if these are the candy hearts I received.

Every day should be Valentine's, don't you think? I don't mean wearing red and buying flowers and candy and going to dinners. I mean thinking about how much you love another person (or other people.)

It is one of my favorite holidays mainly because it offers a free pass to be goofily romantic. Anything goes on this day when it comes to professing your love. I say the sillier, the better.

Go ahead and kiss in public. Embarrass the kids if you got them. Embarrass other people around you if you don't. Wear matching clothes--Aloha wear in February is always special.

Oh, Jocelyn just brought me three more candy hearts to make up for the droll ones above.

Oh, she is the sweetest woman I have ever met.

Such poetry.

I don't deserve her.

I'm so touched that I can evoke such sentiment from her.

Happy Valentine's Day everybody.

049 - Spend a one-on-one day each month with Gabe

Sometimes the guys just have to have some serious guy time. Women reading this probably don't understand what I mean. This isn't bonding over shopping for clothes or shoes I'm talking about here.

No. This is about spending a day hiking, or driving go-carts, or playing laser tag, or going fishing, or visiting historic battlefields.

Gabe and I need more time without mom or sis around. This 101 thing in 1,001 day activity is meant to create the habit, for both of us, of planning and spending time together.

You might think, it's only one day per month, that isn't a big deal. Well, I'm talking about a whole day here, not a couple of hours. These are days when we leave the house early, go grab breakfast, and start exploring and doing stuff together. We won't be home any earlier than 4 or 5 in the evening. In the summer it will probably be later.

He's going to be 11 years old soon. He won't be young for long. We need to make sure we stay connected now. This is meant for me as much as him. I want Gabe to talk fondly of me to his grandkids.

And when we're out and about and we get tired, we can act like orangutans and lounge around chewing on some straw.

Sometimes the day gets away from you

Some days it's best not to have plans.

On those days, the best you can do is have a general guideline of where you'd like to go and what you'd like to do, but you agree to follow the current and let the flow of the day take you where it needs to go. We do this in the name of family, work, civic responsibility, etc.

Yesterday was a bit like that.

After getting my daughter off to school, I went to vote in the Virginia primary before heading to work. Like much of the country, the weather was windy and cold.

When I arrived at work, my calendar was magically full of meetings. Not just meetings, but working meetings. The kind where I can join via a conference call and continue working on other things. The kind where we're not talking about doing things, but actually doing things. And, in a few cases, the kind that had me as the discussion leader.

They were scheduled straight through lunch. No breaks. I had to arrive late at one of them in order to use the restroom.

Oh, I haven't mentioned that I skipped breakfast. My energy levels dipped to 4:15 a.m. levels by 1 o'clock. Luckily the one o'clock meeting ended after only 15 minutes. I could grab lunch before the 2.

But the cafeteria only had fried food. Eating a meal only from the salad bar was out of the question. So, I had to chance leaving the building.

By that time, it had been raining for a couple of hours and the temperature was nearing freezing.

A quick trip to Arby's turned into a long wait in the drive-thru for a sandwich and an unsweetened tea...I could've eaten a large curly fries. When I returned, it was 5 minutes after 2. My next meeting had started.

We had 4 points to cover in that meeting. When I arrived they were still discussing point 1. When I left at 3 for my next appointment, we were still working out the kinks regarding point 1. You know what a mix of guilt and relief feels like? Well, I do.

At 3, I was supposed to be at Virginia Blood Services, where I was donating platelets again. Normally, I donate at work, but they called and I felt compelled so I scheduled an afternoon appointment. I drove there, knowing I would be 15 minutes late, only to discover that they had moved into a new building that was only about 3 minutes from my office. Oh, boy.

I arrived at nearly 3:30. They did not hook me up to the machine until nearly 4. The procedure takes 76 minutes once it begins. I read old issues of Time magazine and last week's Richmond Style Weekly. They gave me Fig Newtons and water. I had finished off the iced tea on the circuitous drive to the new building. My blood pressure was nice 108/71, but my pulse, at rest, was 90. Lovely caffeine.

At 5:30, with numb lips from the anti-coagulent, I headed home. I would have just enough time to eat before we set out with Gabe for the middle school he'll be attending next year. They were having an open house for parents and kids, introducing them to the school and what middle school life is like in this particular program.

Arriving home, in the rain, in the dark, at 6:15 with only a roast beef sandwich and a couple of Fig Newtons in my system, I was starved. Everyone had eaten. I had kid leftovers of a small bowl of mac & cheese and a bowl of steamed broccoli.

Monica called from school at 6:20. She had stayed after to work on an orchestra presentation. They were performing at the open house at 7. She didn't have her informal performance polo with her and she would like to have it by 6:30. We live 15 minutes from school. We hurried and arrived by 6:45.

From that point, we listened to a variety of presentations from students, teachers, and administrators. We heard music from the orchestra and later, the band. We had Q&A sessions with students, went on a tour of the building with the kids, and had a long conversation with Monica's orchestra teacher.

We made it home at 9:30. Monica was starving. By the time we settled down, cleaned up and went to bed, it was well after 11.

Some days fly by and you have no control. Yesterday felt that way for me.

But I am glad that I didn't have to play rugby in the mud.

Why I could never be a movie reviewer

There was a time when I would see practically every movie that was released. Whether they were good or bad, or so nondescript that they might not ever be viewed again, I paid my for matinee ticket and went to the cinema.

If you see a lot of film, you start thinking that "Hey, maybe I could write movie reviews." I thought that, but never acted on it. Now, I'm glad I didn't.

Here are my reasons why:

1) Most movies just aren't very good. They have about as much value as the typical television show. They aren't worth the time for the reviewer or the filmgoer.

2) Movies that are considered "good" usually, these days, contain strong imagery that sledgehammers you over the head with its goodness.

3) Escapist comedies always run the risk of containing some form of scatalogical humor, which I detest and which, unfortunately, lingers in my memory for the rest of my life. I'll never forgive the makers of Ladies Man, for example.

4) Obviously, a reviewer has to spend time at the cinema, subjecting him or herself to the law of bad movie averages and then he or she has to come up with a coherent review of a likely incoherent movie. Or even worse, come up with something to say about a so-so movie.

I can't subject myself to gross out humor, or tense situations involving a gun and the potential for graphic violence. I can't separate myself from realistically cruel depictions of life, such as movies regarding the Holocaust.

While horror movies used to be my thing, today I find them tedious. There scares come from very loud noises and things jumping out from the dark. I just don't feel like sitting through these things, watching characters make very stupid choices.

And, we should probably not talk about the stupid choices made in so-called chick flicks. Sometimes two stupid people deserve each other. These types of movies provide the fantasy situation where it actually happens. Typically, these people wind up in terrible relationships and marriages with mismatched partners. If we're lucky, we too can find someone stupid enough to love us. I don't need these types of movies.

Wow, this post has a decidedly negative vibe. Let me remedy that. But first, a quick restatement of this post's purpose: I couldn't be a movie reviewer because I cannot tolerate the thought of subjecting myself to movies that will likely be uninteresting and valueless at best or contain images that will be indelibly stamped in my psyche at worst.

Now the upbeat part: I am so appreciative of the fact that there are people who review movies. They reduce my risk and save my money with their takes on film. Thank you, movie critics.

Plus, I love movies. Even the ones that make me uncomfortable, I can still appreciate for the artistry and effort that went into making them.

Those movies that I love make it all worthwhile. I like making lists and ranking things. I love a lot of movies and if I had to make a Top 10 list it would change depending on the season, my mood, and my current interests. Here's a look at what it might be today, in no particular order:

1) All About Eve
2) Patton
3) Glory (probably a consistent Top 10 for me)
4) Singin' in the Rain (except that silly dance daydream sequence...sheesh)
5) The Sixth Sense
6) Evil Dead 2 (probably another regular Top 10)
7) Blade Runner (this one, too, would be a regular on this list)
8) The Princess Bride (and this one...maybe I could make a Top 10)
9) Little Miss Sunshine
10) Once Upon a Time in the West (if Henry Fonda is the bad guy, it has to be interesting, if not good)

What movies do you like? Whose your most trusted movie reviewer? I trust, but don't always agree with, Roger Ebert, as I have for going on 30 years.

025 - Complete two oil paintings

I've never had the nerve to paint with oils.

Or maybe I'm too lazy to clean the brushes.

Arcylics and watercolors, even housepaints, have been part of my attempts at paintings, but never oils.

Over the next 1,001 days, my goal is to complete two oil paintings. They won't be very large, I expect. The largest will be a 24" x 24" more than likely. Maybe, if I feel good about it, I'll do a larger canvas.

At some point, I will actually post some of my paintings. Like everything else that I do with a modicum of creativity, I take my inspiration from the things that I like and I try to copy them. That at least gives me the confidence to begin.

Painting, like any form of art, isn't about creating the masterpiece, it's about losing yourself in the process. It's not about being courageous or fearless because courage and fear don't even enter your mind. Questions of good or bad are best left to people with nothing better to do.

The quote on the poster (that I made at one of my favorite websites) captures the essence of the amateur artist. It's easy. Just do it.

So, I'll hold my nose and get out the turpentine and have patience with the long drying times and paint a couple of oils. I'll post the results.

020 - Give up deep fried food for Lent

I am not a religious person, let alone a Catholic. But I think I understand the value of Lent from a secular viewpoint. The idea is to give up something that you believe you love or need for 40 days, to be able to resist the temptation.

This personal sacrifice during Lent is intended as an exercise in spiritual growth. When Easter rolls around, you should be a stronger person for having eliminated something from your life or diet that you desired or even craved without thinking. Successful completion is proof to yourself that you can overcome any habit and that you are strong enough to grow beyond your physical and emotional needs.

I view it as a way to stop a bad habit and develop a new one. In this case, it is goal #20 of the 101 things in 1,001 days. Each year, for Lent, I will not eat anything that has been deep fried. This includes my beloved chicken, french fries, fish, hush puppies, and even donuts.

This could be difficult, especially around lunch. On Wednesday I had grilled chicken, yesterday I snacked on pears, bananas and almonds while missing lunch, and today I had a broiled cod fillet. Did I mention that Popeye's reopened a store about 10 miles from my house? Or that I have a neighbor who makes incredibly tasty Buffalo wings?

I can do it. I'm hoping 40 days is long enough so that there isn't a slingshot effect. By that I mean that I don't want to eat a whole bucket of spicy Popeye' s the day after Easter. This is why I chose an unflattering image of frying chicken, rather than a lovely plate of succulent golden brown pieces piled high on a plate.

These goals do tie together. There will be a few other diet and health-related goals to come. Now, I need to go have a banana. I'm suddenly hungry.

067 - Build a CD ladder

We don't want to limit our investments to stocks and bonds. There are other ways to sock away money and earn a little interest.

This isn't intended to be a primer on investing. This is simply one of my 101 in 1,001 goals.

While we'll keep most of our money in growth investments, we do want to earn a little in a relatively safe, insured investment.

A good vehicle for that is a certificate of deposit, or CD. CDs are issued by banks and credit unions or other savings and lending institutions, though only banks are FDIC insured.

When you buy a CD, you are really loaning money to the bank in return for your principal plus interest. Very similar to a savings account, except that you can't withdraw the money until the CD matures. Because of this, a CD has a higher interest rate than a savings account. CDs can have very short maturity times, such as one week, to longer times of up to 10 years or more. Usually the longer the maturity time, the higher the interest rate. Here's a quick set of tips from the SEC about CD investing.

To spread the risk (and to have a little fun) I set a goal of creating a CD ladder. I planned on investing in four or five CDs. The first CD will mature in 3 months and each CD after would be three months beyond the prior CD.

That means if I bought one today, it would mature in May. CD 2 would mature in August, then CD 3 in November, CD 4 in one year and CD 5 in May, 2009. As each CD matures, we purchase another one that matures 3 months after the last one.

Many people ladder their CDs in yearly increments, but I'm not that patient and I want the thrill of rebuying every three months. This link contains a list of CDs available through Fidelity. Note that they are issued by a wide variety of institutions.

We'll see when I will pull the trigger on this one. The recent market downturn has taken chunk out of the old net worth. Plus, other goals are for other investments.

We're not putting all of our money into a 3.1% CD. Just a little bit.

Have you purchased CDs before? Kind of boring, isn't it?

035 - Prepare unfamiliar cuisine

(too lazy to photograph my own books, this set belongs to The Flying Dutchman on eBay.)

See these books? I own a set of these books. I bought them one volume at a time, at full price plus shipping and handling, every five or six weeks until I had all 28 volumes (Soups is shown here twice.) I learned how to cook with these books. With these books I have tackled everything from a cauliflower mold to a batch of ginger beer. They are collectively considered one of the most complete cooking references ever produced. Filled with color photos and step-by-step instructions, they are supposedly a standard in most serious kitchens.

Have a look at those titles: Breads, Sauces, Pork, Salads, Lamb, Variety Meats (that's the various organs that most people don't care to eat), Fruits, Vegetables, Beef & Veal, Wine, Candy, and on and on. I love these books. I'll never part with these books.

At the end of each book is a section containing previously published recipes. These are for everything from basic broths and ketchup to major constructs like beef tongue stuffed in a turkey. The recipes represent cuisines from all over the world, though regional American and French tend to dominate.

This brings me to the purpose of this post: goal #35 of the 101 things in 1,001 days.

Jocelyn and I will prepare at least one meal each month for six months from a cuisine that we don't know very well. We'll use this set of books for the recipes. We were leafing through them earlier and we are overloaded with options. This should be fun. We're going to involve the kids, too.

Who knows, we might discover a dish that we add to the regular family menu.

Recommendations? Anyone else out there experimenting with their meals?

101 things to do in 1,001 days

Today is February 4th, 2008. 1,001 days from now is November 1st, 2010.

I've built a list of 101 things that I would like to do (or make a habit) by 11/01/10. Over the next few weeks, I'll be sharing this list with you. The list is in no particular order; I typed them as they came to me. Building a list like this, without taking the easy way out, was a fairly large task. Bigger than the 100 nouns post for sure.

Actually, I'm a bit embarrassed by how difficult it was to produce. Don't we all have pent up wants and desires of things we want to do, places we want to visit, entertainment and sports that we feel compelled to consume?

Not surprisingly, my list contains a lot of things that I want to purchase. Thankfully though, it also contains a number of key "stuff purging" activities. The purging activities will be tougher to do than the acquiring activities. That's how we found ourselves with so much stuff in the first place.

There are a LOT of writing and creating tasks on the list. So many that I wonder how I'll do them in 2.75 years. Only one or two job-related activities made the list, which makes sense. I am not attached to my occupation. That fact also influenced my decision to omit anything related to selling our home or buying a new primary residence. Something we are considering, but it will take more than our simple desire to drive us to do it. Moving is more stress than I want right now. Maybe that changes over the next 3 years.

There are no alpaca related items on the list either.

What triggered this? Well, the notion of 101 things in 1,001 days has been around for a few years. I was perusing various lists and I thought, this would be a good thing to do in order to keep me from wasting time on some seriously non-value adding activities and it would provide grist for the old blog mill. So, here I am.

This handy-dandy date calculator figures the target date for you.

I'm interested in your lists. You don't have to post all 101 things. For me, after about 6 (six, just six) things, I started struggling with deciding what I wanted to do. So, just post, in the comments, a couple of things that pop into your head. Just stating them will make them more real and give your brain a chance to figure out how you'll accomplish the task.

These activities need to be specific. If you think mine are not specific enough, then let me know. Already, I can see that I didn't pick a target date for the sprinkler system installation.

I'll be building my list over on the right column as I post about them. (This blog will continue with non-"101 in1001" related posts, too.)

Up next: cooking with Jocelyn...