Uebelhart . Net

Dawn said I must update the site, so…..

Brian’s Job: Still being independent contractor doing PI & consulting stuff. But the new company organization has finally started to come together and the lawyers have the paperwork to get it organized and filed with the state. After that we get a company license for investigations (me) and security consulting (Tom) and go forward from there. We have great partners and several contracts in the works, so a steady stream of income should start. Then an investor is ready to step in once we are operational and can prove we are working in the black. Yipee.

Dawn: Choir rehearsals are now on summer hiatus, so she once again has Wednesday nights free. A bell event is in Dallas this weekend, so she and I will proceed up there and while she is ringing, I’ll be geocaching and doing some photos. We may hit San Angelo afterward for a day and a half.

Photography: Speaking of photography, I have been selected by a new company to test out their product service for selling my photos. Basically Any photo I post on some of my websites will have a button attached where anyone can order a photo - the company will take the order, ask me for a true quality copy, then print and ship the order. They get a % of each order and the printing costs, I get the rest. This will work until I get enough images up and set to afford an independent merchant account for taking credit cards and to deal directly with a quality printer. The service has a few glitches we are working through, but it’s nice. I’ll have 3 sites up using it, and they are being redeveloped now (one for general photos, one for “fine art” and one for Houston & Texana subjects).

Dogs: The galoots are doing fine. With the summer here they are having a blast chasing squirrels.

Future Travel: Not much except about a week and a half in New York in Early September. I may also be making some trips to Mexico for work, and possibly elsewhere (especially San Antonio, Austin & Bryan/College Station, which will happen at least once a month).

It was a fortunate series of events. Dawn had to go to College Station to meet with someone about a work event on Thursday, so I was going to drive up Wednesday and go with her, and maybe we’d go meet with one of my partners (Tom) who lives up there and have lunch.

Wednesday I was having a meeting with Tom in Houston and another partner (Jim) about the business and Tom and Jim started discussing a meeting they were going to have on a different venture in College Station also on Thursday. When I mentioned I’d be up there and could attend if needed, Jim, who owns a private 4 seat plane, remarked that he could fly us up since that was how he’d get there.

So voila, Dawn & I got a personal ride in a nice 4 seater Mooney to & from BCS. The wind was very hairy for landing in BCS but Jim (who has been a pilot since Viet Nam) got us down without problems. Way Cool.

Here’s a pic of a shopping center I snapped on the way back from about 2K feet. Processed a bit and a fake “tilt shift” applied to make it look like a model in a toy train set.

David Bowie has a song called “Space Oddity.”  It’s about an astronaut named Major Tom and his tragic flight into space.  His capsule/ship encounters some kind of problem in space and fails, thus he dies while returning to Earth (home).

Peter Schilling did his own version of the song (and it’s often confused for David Bowie’s), which has some differences yet has the same theme (his is called “Major Tom (Coming Home)” youtube video link ).

So the song is about a person who’s vehicle fails him and kills him.

Now wouldn’t that be a stupid song to put in a car ad?  Well Lincoln did it!  Twice - previously for the Lincoln MKS and recently for the Lincoln MKZ.

At least they were smart enough to edit the song so it only has the “happy part” and beat.  But if you know the song, it’s a bit ironic and an Epic Fail!  Here’s the commercial: Youtube link

We are back, but wish we were still in Cozumel.

Had a blast. Chichen Itza was cool, the ship was fun, and Cozumel was awesome.  We did the “Amazing Race” in Cozumel and came in second (by about 5 minutes).  We’ll post more later and post some pics.

Now I think it’s nap time.

Still plugging away at alot of stuff.

1) way behind in getting my photographs in order and into galleries to put up

2) way behind in getting the new website up (where the galleries will go)

3) work is going along.  The new Houston office officially opens Feb 1st (tomorrow), but my first day in the office will be the 9th. (see #4).  It’s located near memorial park, so only about a 12 mile drive (but about a 25 minute traffic fight).  Also within easy lunch drives to some of my favorite places (lunch with Dawn, Spagetti Western, Hickory Hollow, & Red Robin).  Over the last week I’ve moved a bunch of files in and some computer gear.

4) we leave on a cruise to Mexico on Monday, will return Sat 7th.  It will be fun, temp looks cooler than we wanted (highs in the low 70s), but I will still go swimming, etc.  The two shore excursions we have planned are doing an “Amazing Race” type adventure in Cozumel and going to the Mayan ruins/pyramid at Chichen Itza (wikipedia link)

5) I plan to start doing some food/restaurant reviews on here too, as I am a “foodie.”  Probably gonna restrict it to family owned/small places and not chains.

Still been busy at work (organizing and getting it going).  We get a new Houston office Feb 1st, so thats good.

Also finally got off my rump and entered some pictures in a contest for 2008 (deadline is today).  Here’s a few:

Landscape: From Zion NP, Utah, my Ansel Adams styled pic (after a long HARD hike):

Panorama: Sandia Peak, NM:

Transportation: Train in San Angelo, TX:

Digital Manipulation: “Painting” of Bryce NP, Utah:

Nature: Lilly:

People: Re-enactor at the Alamo:

Macro: Filmstrip:

Sports: Dylan motorbiking:

Well, we did not have easy net access in Florida (aside from the iPhone), so I could not post pics.  I’ll get some up this week.

We are back in Houston now, and starting off running.  We pic up the dogs in a few hours from the kennel and then I have a short business planning meeting this afternoon.  Tomorrow I’ll be meeting most of the day with the business partners also.

We had a great time in Florida - more relaxing than normal since we did not run around trying to do everything possible.  It was mostly just laying around and chilling.  Dawn & I did get some great kayaking in (around mangrove islands and way down the Intercoastal Waterway).  We visited a few beaches and got quite a few fossilized sharks teeth through diligent searching and digging (we’ll send some to Dylan).

The one down side of the whole thing was that I managed to injure my left thumb/wrist again - the same one I shattered about 17 years ago and had repinned and in a cast for over a year, and then rebroke a few years later.  I don’t think anything is severly broken, maybe some greenwood style breaks and definitly some torn muscles and ligs.  It’s been about 3 days now and the swelling and bruising has subsided somewhat (my palm was almost black 2 days ago), and I have movement in my thumb, but no strength or grip.  Still really tender and awkward.

Upcoming plans:
1) Continued business startup work.  We are trying to get this going asap.  We have the business capabilities and clients waiting on the structure, just need it to be finalized.
2) Dawn’s Bday cruise.  In early February we’ll be taking a cruise to Mexico for a few days for Dawn’s big 4-0 Bday.  One of the shore trips we are planning is to some Mayan ruins.  Really looking forward to that.  Accompanying us on the cruise will be Butch & Mary Beth and Jerry & Frazier.
3) Reimplementation of my photo sales site.  I’ve been making continuous sales in photos over the year, but all low yield.  I need to get the photo sales site redone and structured so that I can increase the sales volume and prices.
4) Gallery structure - need to get a good photo gallery set up for this site to post pics to.  What is here now is hap hazard.  It’ll probably be done as part of a full update to uebelhart.net

We are in Siesta Key, Florida (near Sarasota) until about the third.

I may post some pics as net access allows. (this post is via iPhone)

Been awhile since I posted something, so here is a little rant.  I’ll stay away from politics, since both sides are idiots and it is too easy to slap them around.

Topic today: the Post Office.

It’s quite easy to ridicule the PO: Dogs v. Mailmen,  Going Postal, Those funny shorts in summer, etc.

But what was the Postal Service created for?

Answer: To efficiently and safely get your mail delivered to the recipient.

The rant comes from this: I had to send my beloved 40D into Canon for service, and they require the package be insured for it’s full value.

I go to the PO with a well bubble wrapped and packed camera and wait in the line (lunch time: when more people go to the PO than any other time except immediatly after work, yet only one person on duty?), then give them the package.  Shipping to California, 2-3 day delivery: $9.55.

“I Need Insurance for $1200″.

“Okay, one moment” types in computer “Insurance for that to Irvine California is $12.80.”

It costs more to insure the package than to deliver it, and the delivery is supposed to be “safe” already.  Kinda like double paying for them doing their jobs.

What a screwed up system.