Blue Bubbles

Posted by admin on February 12, 2009 None comments

After posting Blue Fracture I kept thinking I should amp up the blues for fun. So, I intensified the blue in these three ice photos using the basic tools in Google Picasa. If anyone has any other ideas on how to tweak these photos, feel free to mess w/ the originals or send me ideas. Oh, and I cropped my toes out of one of the shots too.

So, these aren’t pure, natural photos anymore, but I’m thinking any one of these might look pretty cool printed large and framed.




Blue Bubbles

Originally uploaded by gcrgcr

Not The Only ‘Not That You Asked’

Posted by admin on February 7, 2009 None comments

Interestingly enough (well, to me…) I’m not the only blogger out there smitten with the phrase “Not That You Asked” relative to some personal blogging.

I did manage to register notthatyouasked.org (.com and .net may still be available) to formalize things somewhat, though NTYA has been my blog tagline pretty much since I started blogging back in August of 2001. For a trip back in history, here is THAT RIVETING entry…

The Google search for ‘not that you asked’ turned up some interesting results (again, well, to me…)

The Mandell Family blog titled Not That You Asked have cornered the SEO market on ‘not that you asked’ phrasing. Looks like she blogs for Parents.com also, so definitely worth checking out! I’m a parent! Don’t you just love the Internet?

There are a few Not That You Asked books at Amazon, including Rants, Exploits, and Obsessions by Steve Almond:

In fact, Steve gets 2 of the 10 first page results of the Google search and adds a third sponsored link. Alas, for me, one is enough – Steve, my order is in – though I’m not yet a sexual failure, I’ll take in the book through vicarious eyes, and well, be prepared for anything I suppose. Us NTYA folks MUST stick together… at all costs!

Beth, an Aries from the Midwestern United States has just slightly less Google-placement-fu than I do, coming in at 8th (wow, I’m 7th?!!)

Wow, the Mandell’s, Beth and Steve all kill me on word count – I’d better step it up. Plenty to read. I’ve added you all my RSS feed and roll call here – I’ll keep on checking in.

Carry on my phraseologic brethren!

Vacation Grass

Posted by admin on February 2, 2009 None comments



2004vacation_grass_1.jpg

Originally uploaded by gcrgcr

Guh… nothing like six more weeks of winter to get you thinking about beaches. THANKS Punxsutawney Phil…

Thinking of beaches, this is a shot I’ve always liked – from the Oregon Coast, which I blogged a little about a few years back. In fact, this shot, or one from the series, is in the template rotation for this site, the photos appearing randomly in the top-right of the page header.

Hmmm… I kind of like the challenge of sticking to a two-word title for photos I post here.

The grasses on the beach were something I hadn’t really seen before – maybe since most beaches I visited in my youth were on the Atlantic coast, but probably more that as a kid, I just didn’t notice the grass. I’m not necessarily the most perceptive type in all circumstances.

This was taken with my Olympus UltraZoom C700UZ, which I loved (and still do) though ultimately it didn’t carry the resolution to really make any photos great. I like how these photos came out, but wish now I had more camera power.

Here are the photo properties for this shot.

I can’t believe it has been over four years since this trip. Time to get back out there.

Identity Theft – Lower Than Low

Posted by admin on January 30, 2009 None comments

Catching up on some of my email, I caught this article in my IAPP Daily Dashboard from the end of December:

IDENTITY THEFT–U.S.
ID Thieves Operate As Digital Grave Robbers When the family of Zal Chapgar began receiving telephone calls verifying information from their son’s credit applications, they thought there must have been a mistake: the 23 year old had died recently. When the calls persisted, they knew something was wrong and learned that identity thieves were attempting to use the deceased man’s digital identity to perpetrate their crime. This story from the Philadelphia Inquirer tells the Chapgar family story and describes how even death isn’t enough to stop the scourge of ID theft.
Full Story

Really? Stealing the identity of the deceased? I suppose this is actually pretty standard and common for fraudsters these days, and maybe throughout history, but for some reason reading about it in the context of some parents who’ve lost a child – and then have to deal with this. Well, that is just disturbing.

The article, by Jeff Gelles of the philly.com Inquirer, summarizes the identity theft problem fairly well and is worth the read. A few tidbits:

  • Last year, identity theft drew more than 258,000 complaints to the Federal Trade Commission, a third of all complaints. It led the list for the eighth straight year, eclipsing complaints about catalogue sales, Internet auctions and sweepstakes.
  • Formal complaints are the tip of an iceberg. In 2005, an FTC survey estimated that 8.3 million Americans fell victim to some form of identity theft. The most common involved misuse of a victim’s existing accounts.
  • The most serious frauds, including the opening of new accounts in a victim’s name, affected an estimated 1.8 million people.
  • Identity theft can be a big hassle to any victim, and is quite costly to some. One in 10 victims put the cost of the crime at $1,200 or more. On the other hand, more than half reported no out-of-pocket costs, and among victims of new-account fraud, the median loss was $40, the FTC found.

I don’t know why I’d expect identity theives and crooks to have scruples or morals – but this seems particularly low. It’s really just sad.

Blue Fracture

Posted by admin on January 23, 2009 1 comments



P1176543

Originally uploaded by gcrgcr

Took this shot last weekend up at Red Feather Lakes in Northern Colorado. Lake Hiawatha was fairly well frozen over. You can see the camera settings I used. I tried color correction but I like the blue hue that was in the original, so this is untouched. Oh, and yes, those are my toes. Darn it. Guess it is worth cropping.

You can see the whole set here.