Uebelhart . Net

Happy early Halloween

Posted on October 28th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Dogs.

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Changing Jobs

Posted on October 17th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Personal Junk.

I put my 2 week notice in at work on Monday. Hard decision, but I was no longer happy or comfortable at the present location (for a variety of reasons).

Future plans are in the air, but I am not worried, in fact I am a bit relieved.

My last day will be Oct 29th. I have about 14 days of sick leave that they will not pay me for, so I am using them. I will be working very short days and going home “sick” early most of the time.

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What if Brian was on Southpark?

Posted on September 5th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Personal Junk.

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Busy Week

Posted on August 18th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Personal Junk.

Last Friday (not yesterday but a week previous), I was working a 1/2 day and we departed Houston around 1 PM for San Angelo.  During the morning meetings we have on Friday, I learned I had an early day Monday in Kemah, then a possible trip on Tuesday and Wednesday to Colorado.

Well on the drive to San Angelo the trip to Denver Colorado was confirmed.

So we finished the drive to SA (about 370 miles), stayed through Sunday Noonish and drove back to Houston.  While we were there we bought a pop-up trailer for camping.  SO we got to experience driving back with a trailer.  Not bad.  Based on our figures, it costs us about 3 mpg in the hill country.

We got in around 8:30 Sunday & parked the trailer.

Monday morning I was out the door around 6:30 (an ungodly hour for me) and went to the office for a quick bit and then out to Kemah for some PI work.  After spending alot of time in the 100 degree heat, I returned to the office about 3PM, tidies up some urgent stuff, reassigned some work, then headed home to sleep and prepare for the Colorado trip.

Tuesday morning about 5:30 (even more ungodly an hour) I headed out for the airport, flew to Denver with some coworkers, spent the day in meetings, went out for a biz dinner, slept, up early for more meeting on Wednesday.  We finished up about 11, so decided to head to the airport for the next flight back to Houston.  We got there, but the flight was overbooked and we had to wait for our original flight at 7PM (it was now about 1).  SO we hit an airport sports bar, had a meal and some beers, discussed the meetings, handled some work by phone, and killed time.  Our flight got delayed (and changed gates twice) and we finally left about 7:45PM getting back to Houston around 11:30.  So I headed home and slept hard.

I went in late Thursday, played catch up on work all day.

Friday we had a few meetings in the morning and more catch up and work.

Then Dawn & I went to a friend’s house in far Northeast Houston (actually Humble) for a “Scotland Reunion” for those of us that had gone to Scotland last month.  Good food, conversations, and pictures were shared.

So today I am pretty much being a slug and trying to relax (I still feel exhausted).  Dawn’s doing alot of chores (laundry, etc).  I tried fixing a few things (I think our icemaker might have died).  The dogs are going sir crazy because it’s a swamp/sauna outside and they can’t play.

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Authors/Books that make you think.

Posted on August 7th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Personal Junk.

I read. I read alot. Often 3-4 books at the same time.

I usually have one at the bedside, one in the bathroom, and one in the car. (The car one I read at stoplights and lunch breaks, or when awaiting Dawn somewhere).

Alot of the stuff I read is fluff. Enjoyable, but fluff. Like Robert Heinlein, Clive Cussler, David Drake, SM Sterling, etc.

But a few authors I read can really make you think. These are authors that as you read, your mind starts building on what was just read and going off on tangents and expositions, and before you know it you have to re-read the page to get back on track. Reading these may cause an epiphany sometimes. Authors like Neal Stephenson (like his Cryptonomicon) or William Gibson (the father of cyberpunk), and to a lesser extent Phillip K Dick (DADoES).
I picked up a Gibson book last week that I had not read before: Pattern Recognition. It’s been several years (6 or more) since I read any Gibson, and I forgot what a joy and experience it is to read his stuff. The pages are packed with descriptions of common events seen through a different light that makes you re-evaluate your interpretation of common. And the insights into culture are, well, insightful. I’m only a hundred or so pages into this book, and already I am awed by the world view and ideas he has spun.

Now I have to go out and get copies of all his other books again and re-read them. It’s time.

Heck, it’s about time to reread Cryptonomicon again, It’s been about 2 years, I’ve only read it 3 times, and it’s just about 950 pages.

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New Lights & Teela

Posted on July 1st, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Photography, Dogs.

I bought a new lighting set up (strobe, slave, barndoor, honeycomb, umbrellas, stands, etc) last week and finally got a chance to try them out today. I have to learn ratios and such to work these better.

The picture below is of Teela with the following setup:

Camera settings: manual mode - f5.6, 1/150 sec, iso 100, 28mm, autofocus.

Main strobe: placement to the left (when observed from camera), at 1/4 power, through a white umbrella, about 5-7 feet distance, about 2 feet above the subject head
Slave strobe: to the right, bounced off silver umbrella, about 6 feet distance, 2 feet above the subject head.

The second image is re-processed with a new idea I am working on, involving the image layered several times, with an sharpening layer, and a desat layer modded on, and some other tweaks. Gives the image a funky feel.

Edit:

Here’s one processed for Dori also.

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Photo Painting

Posted on June 25th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Photography, Dogs, Art.

Haven’t posted any “art” for awhile.

So here’s a photo painting (Phainting?) of Teela.

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Scott Uebelhart

Posted on June 20th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Personal Junk, Photography.

Dawn’s Cousin Scott visited Houston last week for some Nasa / Space Shuttle work.

While he was here we showed him a few of the “odd” places in Houston.

Here’s a few pics.
Armadillo Palace:

Giant Heads:

Old Abe:

Scott - if the size is here (1000×1500) is not big enough, let me know. The full size jpg files (about 2300×3500) are about 2.5 MB each and I can email you them.

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Chillin

Posted on April 27th, 2007 by Brian.
Categories: Personal Junk.

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Dawn has a Camera

Posted on December 13th, 2006 by Brian.
Categories: Personal Junk, Photography.

Dawn now has her own camera!

For Christmas we got her a Rebel XTi, and it came in today.  So now we can shoot pictures together!

It uses the same lenses as my 20D, so we’ll be able to share them.

It does use a different battery though, so I’ll have to get some backups for that.

Next step will be to show her how to upload pics here.

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