In The World…

I read an article today that might have changed my life.  Seriously.  I’m not even joking.

Are you a procrastinator or an incubator? [cnn.com] (please ignore the “Oprah.com” bit…)

The gist of the piece is that there is a difference between procrastinators and incubators.  While they outwardly appear the same in how they do work and handle deadlines, there are distinct differences.  Specifically, the quality of work.  Let me tell you a little story.

Back in college, I was taking GB-450, Business Law & Ethics, which was a requirement for graduation in the college of business.  People always dreaded this class because the professor was tough.  Anyway, we were given an assignment to write a 8 or 10 page paper about something or another.   I chose to employ the same method of writing papers as I had for years which consisted of the following. I would get home from work between 9pm and 11pm the night before the paper was due.  I would then turn on some Mozart and start writing.  Often, writing all night. The papers would just dump straight out of my head and onto the page.  No outline. No first draft.  Just write the thing.  I knew that while it appeared to be procrastination, I just trusted that the content would be there.  In the week or 2 leading up to due date, as I was working or playing or whatever, bits and pieces of the papers would pop into my head.  Phrases… Ideas.  I’d just squirrel them away for later.

Anyway, I finished that particular paper and turned it in the next day in class.

About a week later, the professor had completed reading and grading the papers.  That was the good news.  The bad news was he spent almost an entire class day absolutely railing on the overall quality of these papers.  He was quite angry with them.  He just kept talking about this was a senior level class and the work was entirely unacceptable… so on and so forth.  As he’s going on and on I’m just dreading more and more getting my grade.  I knew I didn’t spend much time on it so how good could it be?

He hands them back and I only got a 98 on it.  The people around me were getting 63’s or 47’s.  I think one guy behind me actually got a 19 if I remember correctly.

I never realized that the possibility existed that it wasn’t “procrastination” at all.  I have always known that I really need a deadline to get motivated.  I also know, that I’m certainly not above working my ass off to meet deadlines.  In fact, I honestly can’t remember EVER missing a deadline.  I’m sure it’s happened but I know it hasn’t been recently.

It turns out that after all this time, I’m just an “incubator”.  That is actually a load off my mind.

Seeing this article almost reminds me of the first time I read this book and discovered why I was tired all the time.  This one wasn’t as profound, however.  But that story is for another blog post.

That little quiz they have at the bottom of that article, I believe I would rate myself as 4’s across the board.  What does that tell ya?

Incubator, out!

Today, February 4th is an important day.  For it was 1 year ago today that our own Murphy was issued into this world.

Hey, give us a break.  We don’t have kids yet, this is what we spend our time on.

Early on, it was touch and go.  He wouldn’t sleep at night, consequently, we didn’t sleep at night.  Slowly but surely, he got things figured out.  So did we.  He’s gone all the way from looking like a gerbil to being 57 lbs of goofball.  All things being equal, he’s a pretty good boy.

In honor of this momentous day, let’s look back at where we’ve been with this set of photos.

Just 3 Weeks Old

2 Months Old

6 Months Old

9 Months Old – Obedience Graduation

10 Months Old – Christmas

And a few pictures taken from his birthday today…

If you just can’t get enough Murphy (lord knows we can’t) you can see a couple other sets of him in the following places:

• Murphy at See Spot Walk ‘09
• The Day We Brought Him Home

Happy Birthday Murph!

Everyone out there, do me a favor.  Next time I mention that I’m thinking of doing some sort of home improvement project myself, just repeat those words to me.  “Just get a professional.”  It would certainly save me a bunch of time, frustration and body soreness in the long run.

Why do I mention this?  Well, this past weekend Jess and I decided it was finally time to get a water softener.  Our water in Meridian is super hard (with dissolved minerals, you sickos).  We’ve wanted to get a water softener since we moved in almost 2 years ago.  Our shower walls are slowly turning orange.  The funny thing is, we put aside most of the cash we got for the wedding in an envelope with the specific purpose of buying a water softener.  It just took us this long to actually pull the trigger.

Well, the time had come and Jess was able to convince me that we could totally install it ourselves.  And by “we”, she meant her dad and I.  So, Saturday morning we headed to Lowe’s full of resolve that it was to be that day.  We had grand plans to crank this mother out and be enjoying our soft water that evening.

Hang on there, Sparky.  As is always my problem with things like this, I don’t know what I don’t know.  I did know that having looked at the plumbing for the softener (that our house was built with) meant that piping was going to have to be cut.  See the above image. I guarantee this fact added at least a solid year to my procrastination.  There was no handy-dandy screw off ends here.  Also, this isn’t PVC pipe either.  It is something called PEX which I’d never heard of. Of course, this requires a special tool we gotta rent.

Having purchased all the crap we’d need and planned our attack we started in.  This PEX clamper-tool-dealy-thingy (which resembles bolt cutters) was a bitch and a half.  Let me tell ya, compressing that bastard took everything I had.  This was compounded by the fact that final rings needed to be compressed behind the water softener.  I’m basically dry humping the water heater trying to get enough leverage and strength to do it.  It very nearly didn’t happen. Not to mention that I could hardly get out of bed the next day with my back, shoulders and arms all jacked up.  When we were “finished” I didn’t have enough strength in my arms to even close the tool. But I digress.

Long story short, we get all of the new piping cut and connected.  It comes time to test for water fastness.  I am happy to report that NONE of the PEX ring seams had a single problem.  That was the good news.  The bad news was that the threaded pieces leading into the softener itself were dripping.  Very slowly, but dripping.  Shit.  Well, we disassemble and unscrew them… re-teflon-tape them and reassemble.  Same thing.  We tried tightening.  We tried more teflon.  We tightened some more.  No dice.  It was at this point where we were out of ideas.

Fortunately, we still had usable water (thanks to my massive PEXing) so we didn’t have to spend the weekend like backpackers in the wilderness or anything.  However, the bucket under the tubing told a different story.  Honestly, I’m just glad that at this point I didn’t have water cascading around the garage looking like Old Faithful.

This is what always seems to happen to me.  Every project I do I can get 80% of the way done.  Then comes some curve ball and I’m basically dead in the water (no pun intended).  Something on my end is always different from the instructions.  When that happens, I don’t have the knowledge necessary to adapt the plan and continue.  Usually at that point I get frustrated that I shot an entire Saturday on the project and am just going to have to call someone in anyway.  F-bombs and flying tools usually commence.

This morning, the good people from A-1 Plumbing came out.  The guy was really nice.  He even complimented me on my PEX seals.  He told me about a guy who tried this a few weeks ago and every single one of his PEX joints was leaking.  At least I got that going for me.  Anyway, a couple hours and 300 bucks later we are up and running.  Not to mention that there were a couple pieces that he did and I didn’t even know about which could have cause us MUCHO problems in the future.

I guess I’m just not enough of a “manly” man to know this stuff. It is time to admit to myself that I really don’t know what I’m doing.  I suppose I wouldn’t expect a plumber to build me a website either.  There is a reason these people exist.  Just bite the bullet, pay the money and have it done right.

Thus endeth the lesson…

This past weekend the Idaho State Capitol building was reopened to the public following 3 years of construction.  Jess wanted to go but I wasn’t too sure… then she mentioned that I could shoot pictures and that sealed it.  Not only was I in, I was excited to go!

So, we rounded up the parents (both sets wanted to go) and headed down there Saturday morning.  I’m no expert on what all they did during the construction, but I do know that they added two wings that are underground with skylights which were pretty cool.  They did an amazing job matching up all of the marble as well.  Go to the idahostatesman.com for more on that front.

I mainly just wanted to take photos, so that’s what I did.  Here are my favorites.  You can also go to the entire Flickr.com set to view more than what is here.  Also, I would like to add that you really should click on each image to view it larger.  Some of them really benefit from being viewed bigger.  Thanks and enjoy!

This is the first picture I took that day.  Might be my favorite…

Two cheapo flags, held by me. Just playing around.

The National Anthem… I wish I could have gotten a little closer to the 2 servicemen, with everything in the background.  But I still like this shot.

Straight up through the dome.  This almost looks like something out of 2001 A Space Odyssey or something.

Zoomed on the dome a bit more… removing the lights gave a much “cooler” blue feel.

Visitors gazing up to the dome.

There you go, hope you enjoyed.  Like I said, there are more images in the Flickr set.  Go there now.

As a side photography note, I have a bunch of really good photos from the Christmas holiday that I have yet to share.  I know Christmas feels like a couple months ago at this point, but hopefully I’ll post them soon.

I’m just blowing up all over the place!

I was contacted via Twitter by the editor-in-chief of the Arbiter (Boise State’s Student Newspaper) the other day as they were seeking true die-hard Boise State fans to profile leading up to kick-off of the Fiesta Bowl yesterday.  Needless to say, if you’re looking for die-hard, you need look no further.

Here is the profile they posted.  Basically a handful of questions that I answered.

Pretty cool stuff!

By the way, I will be getting to my Fiesta Bowl reaction soon.  I’m still digesting that one.  What a game!

Go Broncos!

It’s that day.  Fiesta Bowl.

Am I nervous?  Um… most certainly.  I think the worst part of bowl games is the huge long break you have from the end of the season until the game.  It just gives you more and more time to think about all the permutations on what could happen.  During the regular season, all you usually have is a week to think about a big upcoming opponent.  Bowl games, however, give you over a month to stew in your own juices.

My only saving grace is that I’ve managed to distract myself more this year.  That was intentional, and probably good for me in the long run.  Worrying about this game wouldn’t get me anywhere.

Unfortunately, I was unable to make the pilgrimage this time around.  Of course, as the game got closer and closer the regret grew, but what can ya do?  Last time, I was single and really had no bills at all.  Now, I’m married with different priorities.  Yeah, I could have probably scrounged up the thousand dollars or more it would have cost me to go down (by myself) but in all actuality that money could be better spent elsewhere.  That doesn’t make game day any easier, however.  I guess it would be different if the only way to see the game was to be there.  But it’s not.  I get to watch it on my giant flat screen in glorious HD.  That isn’t too bad of consolation prize, if you ask me.

I did have a thought about this whole thing.  Now, stick with me because this could be a little blasphemous… Winning or losing a bowl game, specifically this bowl game, really doesn’t matter a lot in the grand scheme of things.  Now, I know what you’re thinking… but hear me out.  This line of reasoning only works for a non-AQ (automatic qualifier for the BCS).  Obviously, the ultimate goal for any non-AQ school, hell for any school, is to make it to a BCS game.  That is what everyone is shooting for.  That is the cherry on top.  For a non-AQ school to get there, more than likely they have to go undefeated.  There is no other option.  So, that makes EVERY game of the regular season incredibly important.  Week after week.  Even those snoozers against 1-AA opponents.  You can’t relax.  You can’t have an off day.  You lose, you’re done.  Back to the Preparation-H bowl that nobody watches.  It’s 3 full months of on the edge of your seat football.

So, after surviving the season long meat grinder to get to the big game, ultimately the outcome of that game means far less than the games leading up to it.  Will a win or loss in the Fiesta Bowl affect next season?  Perhaps emotionally, but unless we get absolutely blown out, our pre-season ranking will have more to do with our overall record and number of returning starters, not the outcome of one game.

Now don’t get me wrong.  I dearly want to win this game.  But to lose to TCU (whom I’ve repeatedly said is the best team in the country this year) in this game wouldn’t be as bad as, say, losing to Nevada at home and knocking ourselves completely out of the BCS picture.  We made the big dance.  We get the big stage.  We get the big payout.  Lose in the regular season and all that is gone.  Does that make any sense?

Today, I’m wearing my lucky football gear.  Orange ‘06 Nike coaches polo with a white mock turtleneck with the Boise State logo on the collar and orange Nike hat.  This is the most powerful gameday getup I have.  It’s undefeated.  I only break it out for the really big games.  I’m afraid it will lose it’s power over time and I don’t want to waste it on games that don’t matter as much.  It worked at the first Fiesta Bowl in ‘07, and against Oregon State that same year.  It worked at Oregon last year.  It worked against Oregon again this year.  When I went to Washington in ‘07, I forgot the hat, and we lost.  That one was on me, I take full responsibility.  Yes, I have considered the fact that I may well be completely insane.

So, that’s all I got.  Game day is here.  Let’s get on with this already.

Go Broncos!

Yes, that is what I’m going to call myself from now on.  I’ve been published.  How cool is that?

Ok, some back story.

A couple months ago I saw a tweet from @TheBlueMag that they were soliciting fan photos for their winter edition.  I also got a Facebook message from one of their editors who had seen my Boise State photos on Flickr.com asking if they could possibly use some of my photos.  Of course, I replied right away and said I would be pleased as punch if they did.

Then came the waiting for the issue to come out.

It finally did last week.   By the way, all Bronco Athletic Association members get this with their membership, but you can also order subscriptions.  If you are a Boise State fan at all, you gotta get this thing.  End of pitch.

Anyway, in their fan photos section on page 92, they selected 4 of my pics!  All of which were taken from my seats, in row Z of the upper deck.  5 rows from the back of the stadium.  Needless to say, I find this whole thing completely awesome.  I’ve never had a photograph in a magazine before.  And even though I was not compensated monetarily, I figure I will still be able to refer to myself as a published photographer.  That’s got a nice ring to it, don’t it?

Below you will see the page, with my photos circled in red.  Click on the image to go bigger.  You can also go here to view the entire page.  On that site, if you flip to the next page, you will see my name in the photo credits.  Yes, I get geeked about this stuff.

Here are the 4 photos they chose, on Flickr.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Jess and I went to the Idaho Botanical Garden’s annual Winter Garden Aglow this past weekend.  It’s always fun to see the lights.  I’m glad we went when we did, because it has been raining all this week and there is nary a speck of snow left anywhere on the ground.  I’m sorry, but viewing Christmas lights is something that simply MUST be done in the snow.  It just makes them about 100x better.

This year, we seemed to be in attendance with a lot of really naughty little kids. Jess surmised that it had to do with the “perfect storm” of kid-dom.  Christmas, night time, and snow.   Anyways, there were kids throwing snowballs.  Kids running around off trail.  Kids having uber-meltdowns. One boy, “Austin”, about 3 or 4 years old was with his mom and grandma.  He was running around like a dog off leash.  They were imploring him to come back and drink his cocoa but to that kid, they may as well have been speaking Chinese.  Never slowed down. Never looked back. Never acknowledged they even existed.  The only reason they caught him (as he was running off the trail) was that he got boxed in by plant/Christmas light displays.  He was like a wild animal.  Unreal.

Anyways, I did bring the camera to shoot some shots.  I got a couple traditional shots of the lights.  But, since I don’t have a mono-pod or anything to help stabilize night shooting, I decided to go another direction as well.  Deliberately moving the camera with a slow shutter speed in order to “streak” the lights and create funky effects.  I really like how some of these turned out.  Notice that the LED lights actually flash really quickly, so they look like dotted lines when the camera is moved. Interesting. I present to you a selection of my Abstract Christmas.  The whole album is available on Flickr.com as well.

As always, click each image to go to it’s Flickr page.  Some of these images look much better when viewed full size, which you can do there…

And, a few of the more traditional shots I took…

Merry Christmas everyone!

Some of you who know me, know that I really enjoy Christmas music.  Have since I was a kid.  I still remember learning all the words to all of the songs in grade school.  In many of the songs, I can even sing those 2nd verses that often get left off of modern recordings.

In fact, in years past I have written blog posts about my favorite Christmas songs as well as my not so favorites.

That being said, there is one song in particular that amuses me,  “Have Yourself A Merry Little Christmas”.  You all know that song and have heard it a million times from a thousand different artists.  But, what amuses me about it is a couple lines in the song:

Here we are as in olden days,
Happy golden days of yore.
Faithful friends who are dear to us
Gather near to us once more.

Nice sentiment right?  Christmas is a time to reflect back to the good old days.  It is also a time for friends and family to come together and enjoy each other again.  I’m sure this is just as true in your family as it is in mine.

However, if you listen to many of the versions out there, the artist mistakenly (or otherwise) swaps two of those lines which completely changes the meaning of the tune:

Faithful friends who are near to us
Will be dear to us once more.

It’s a subtle swap that you probably never thought about, but basically turns from expressing the joy of having far-flung loved ones around for the holidays to the following…

“You know, you scumbags are around all the friggin time…  You rotten son-a-bitches really piss me off the rest of the year, however it is Christmas time, so I guess you’ll be dear to me again… But I swear to God, come January you people are all back on the shitlist!”

Can you see why that amuses me so?

Merry Christmas everyone!

This week will bring along my 36th birthday.  Holy crap, that sounds really bad.  THIRTY SIX?!  How in the hell did that happen?  I mean, I don’t feel significantly different from 32, or 28, or 25.  When you’re a kid, you think about when you’ll be an “adult”.  Honestly, I’m still wondering…  It’s gotta happen one of these days, right?

It occurred to me, that at 35 you are half of 70.  Granted life expectancy now is mid to late 70’s, but if you kick at 70, nobody looks a that as a great tragedy.  Whoa.  That is a sobering thought.

With such a birthday coming, I’ve been thinking about aging.  Stages of life, if you will.  Of course, we have the epic speech by Billy Crystal in City Slickers.  But I think I can expand on it a little bit. (In the spirit of full disclosure, I don’t personally know the older ranges… I’m educated guessing)

Age 0
You’re born.  You obviously don’t remember this, and probably for good reason.  Ye olde play-doh fun factory of life would probably not be something you want to look fondly back on.  You are the center of attention, even if you don’t know it.

Age 1-2
You start to figure things out.  The walking. The talking. “NO”.  You know… The essentials.  You may have some friends you recognize from day care.  The most important toy is always the one the other kid has.

Age 3-5
The last years before you enter the forced hierarchical structure that is school.  This is a golden time.  Your parents are the smartest people on the planet. I remember very well hanging out with Mom all day.  She worked from home sewing, so I would crawl around in the closet full of fabric and listen to daytime TV.  Occasionally make a run to the bank or grocery store.  All I knew was that my older sister wasn’t around and didn’t get to do any of this fun stuff.

Age 6-12
Now you’re in school.  You have a ready made gauge for ranking everyone.  When you’re in first grade, all you know is everything is new and you’re the youngest in the school (except for those wimpy kindergartners but they don’t even go to school all day).  Once you jump to 2nd grade, you realize what all the fuss is about.  You instantly know, you are not the youngest, and thus, the most lame.  Everyone older than you is cooler, everyone younger is not.  That is just the way it is. School is the dominating force in your life.  You spend the most time there.  The year feels SO long.  It might as well be 5 years between Christmases.

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