Category Archives: Uncategorized

Vegetable Gardening

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This year, I’ve decided to try my hand at having a garden. I’ve never even attempted to grow food before, so I’m sure I’m doing a lot of stuff wrong and making lots of mistakes. Even so, that’s how I learn best…from doing. Growing up, my family had a garden. I was involved in gathering the vegetables, shelling peas, shucking corn, etc., but not planting and keeping the soil in good shape, so I look forward to learning how to do this, and picking up the best practices along the way.

I started by using my next door neighbor’s tiller to break up my ground. I mixed in some garden mix soil and lime. After a week or so, I went back and tilled it up again. Added some organic vegetable plant food. I’ve set out my plants now, and watered them a couple of times. I’m starting off fairly small. So far, I’ve set out tomatoes, a variety of different peppers, okra, and squash. I may plant a few more things. Originally, I was gonna plant peas, butter beans, corn, etc. But, I think I’ll start off a little more basic and see how it goes. If this year’s garden turns out pretty good, I’ll add more next spring.

My Vegetable Garden

Setting Goals for the New Year

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target

Like most people, I have new goals for myself for year 2010. I really prefer not to call these New Year Resolutions, because that sounds to me like something that I’ll never achieve. I know that many people have New Year Resolutions, and NEVER stick to them. I’m not sure I know anybody who has ever stuck with one. There are some who would prefer to put a more positive spin on this term by calling their goals – destinations, but that doesn’t do much for me. So, I will simply call these goals.

I do believe that putting your goals out for others to see makes these goals much more likely to be accomplished…..and that’s what I’ve decided to do. I do have other (and more measurable) goals than what I’ve listed here, but these are what I desire the most. Continue reading →

Online Photography Resources

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When it comes to photography, I’m interested in finding more high-quality online resources. I’m mostly interested in learning new lighting techniques and post-processing tutorials for programs such as Adobe Lightroom. I’m not really looking for product reviews or new photo galleries. Here’s a list of the photography related websites I’m visiting on a regular basis.

  1. Digital Photography School
  2. Strobist
  3. Phototuts+
  4. Nikon USA
  5. Presets Heaven
  6. DIYPhotography.net
  7. Str8photography

Digital Photography School is run by Darren Rowse, who is also the man behind Problogger.net. They have a very active Forum and tons of content. I would definitely recommend this one.

I realize I may not have many readers into this sort of thing, but if you’re a photo enthusiast, what are some good resources to add to this list?

Finding Something Interesting

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The reason I don’t blog much anymore, is that I just don’t have as much interest in the web as I once did. When I first bought web space and this domain name, it was for no reason other than having my own website. Why? No reason, really. I wasn’t selling anything, nor was it built around any certain hobby. It was just an interest I had in figuring out how to put together a website, without using a pre-made template. I did that.

duck

Then I discovered blogging and WordPress. I first started blogging on Blogger, then WordPress.com, and finally replacing my website with a self-hosted version of WordPress. At the time, the internet wasn’t as saturated with blogs and social media, and it seemed fresh and exciting. I admit it, I even blogged about blogging. I think this is the natural thing for someone to do when they have a blog for no reason. What else are you gonna blog about?

I immediately started downloading a bunch of themes and modifying them with my own color schemes and headers. It wasn’t long until I wanted to figure out how to create a theme from scratch. So, after spending a bunch of time playing around with code and reading tutorials, I learned how the different files of a basic theme work together. I released my first theme, and got quite a bit of attention for it, even though it really was nothing special. So I started putting out a new one about every week or two for a while. By this point, I was getting so many support questions, I was ready to change my name. The far majority were not problems with the themes, but questions about how to make changes….to customize them.

At that point, I decided I needed to start charging for my services. I couldn’t keep up with all the emails and questions, although I didn’t want to ignore anyone. So for a while, I took on “clients”, who wanted a custom theme. I did this for a while, but working on someone else’s website just wasn’t as interesting as making one for myself. I continued to make customizations for a fee, and still do that, occasionally. However, my interest in developing websites has become much less than it used to be.

love for Nikon D40

I think for me, I’ve got to be learning something new, and although I haven’t learned everything there is to know about building websites, I learned enough to successfully build one from the ground up. Now I have interests in other things. I like tools. You know, like shop tools….wrenches, ratchets, power tools. It’s enjoyable to work on something and actually fix it. I also like photography. I’m not interested in ever becoming a pro. I’m not interested in being a portrait photographer or a wedding photographer, but I do like to take photos, and experiment with the camera, as well as post-processing. It’s just fun. And I love motorcycles. I currently own two of them. I have an antique BMW bike, which I’ve written about here before, and I have a Yamaha Virago. I just started back riding last year, after not riding for a bunch of years. Now I’m hooked on it. My dad and I ride together a lot, and are planning a trip to the mountains next month(if the weather isn’t too bad)….can’t wait.

So, I suppose the point of this post is, to let you know that when I post on this website in the future, it will not necessarily be about anything web related. It could be about anything. I don’t have a central topic, or a schedule to go by. I’m not trying to make a living here nor build my RSS readership up.

The WordPress themes will stay for now, but I don’t know how much longer I’ll leave them on. They’re kinda outdated anyway.

If you’re still here, thanks for reading. :-)