Kubota Tractors

Awhile back there were some tractors across the street from us. They were out there because there was a new fence going in next to the railroad tracks. For several days I drove past them and thought, 'How cool would it be to take some pictures of these things?'

Well, finally THAT day came....it had just rained and the clouds were still pretty "moody"....the family and I had just come home from lunch and I said to the wife...."I'm gonna go shoot those tractors."

To that Loo says, "Daddy, can I go out and take pictures of them, too?"

How can I resist that?

I grab my gear and she gets her Fisher Price Digital Camera, as we were ready to walk out the door, Loo saw me putting my ShootSac on and said, "Oh, Dad can I go and get my camera bag too?"

Again, I can't say no....she comes downstairs with this little pink bag that I think is actually for one of her baby dolls, but her camera fits PERFECTLY inside of it....that kid knows how to melt my heart!

Anyway....I start by asking her what we should take pictures of ("Where should we start?")....she said she didn't know. So I started with this shot.



This is what she shot.







It was so awesome to watch her little creative brain working and just snapping away. She would watch me take a picture of something and then she'd take a picture of it (in her own way, of course!).












We fed off of each other and had a lot of fun






She even inspired me!!





How cute is this little girl?!?!








I'll let the rest of these speak for themselves!










Another Loo inspired shot.



I think I may be using that shot as a texture overlay, as soon as Chip teaches me how!

Loo, I had such a great time with you! Thank you for wanting to come with me!

More Gum

Can you tell that I like chewing gum??

Dang....How long is my hair in this picture?? It's been cut since then!

Baked! Cheetos

I found these super freaking good Cheetos in the little convenience store downstairs in the building!

Who knew they made Baked! Cheetos??

I know I didn't.

All I can say is....
YUMMY!

Press PLAY....Randomly

I have 1390 songs on my iPod....it's almost 6 gigs of music....if I let it run continuously it wouldn't stop playing music for over 4 days!!!

I spent 3 years of my 20's working for Sam Goody, remember Sam Goody? There aren't very many locations left on the West Coast, let alone in Texas. Anyway, while working there I was exposed to a lot of different types of music, including music that I didn't particularly care for. I can't tell you how many times I listened to Garth Brooks' Ropin' the Wind....that album drove me crazy!! But ya know what?? He was HOT at the time and we had to play music to bring people into the store.

Another thing that broadened my musical scope was living in Singapore....there are musicians that are soooo BIG and popular ALL OVER THE WORLD....except here in the states....for whatever reason they just don't catch on here (or they don't get radio air play here).

In my collection now I have: Jazz, Hip Hop, Alternative, Top 40, Kid's Stuff, Country, Swing, Classical, Rock and I'm sure there are other types.

I thought I put the iPod on SHUFFLE SONGS and am going to list the first 10 songs that it plays.

So without further ado....here they are:

(01) DAUGHTERS / John Mayer

(02) MISERY BUSINESS / Paramore

(03) GOOD AS GONE / Little Big Town

(04) LITTLE BY LITTLE / Oasis

(05) FEED THE BIRDS / Mary Poppins Soundtrack

(06) NOTHING (HEADCLEANR ROCK MIX) / Depeche Mode

(07) AXIS BOLD AS LOVE / Jimi Hendrix

(08) RADIO / Robbie Williams

(09) NAIVE / The Kooks

(10) KILLING ME SOFTLY / The Fugees

Trust me, these are the first 10 that came up....I do have some embarrassing songs on there, they just didn't come up....THIS TIME!

I'm thinking about making this a regular thing on the blog, what do you think?

In the meantime....it's your turn!! (No iPod needed)

If you have a digital music collection, go ahead and select RANDOM/SHUFFLE and list the first 10 that show up for you!! Leave your first 10 in the comments!

Resident Evil: Extinction

I've never seen any of the Resident Evil movies, nor have I played any of the video games. But in honor of it being the #1 movie last weekend....

34%

Addicted to Blogging

I found out about this quiz on another photographers blog....70% isn't THAT addicted, right?

The mingle2 site has a bunch of other quizzes on it too, so I may be posting some more results soon!


70%How Addicted to Blogging Are You?

Mingle² - Dating Site

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

Sent from the blogberry

Happy birthday to me
Happy birthday to me
Happy biiiiiirthday toooo meeeee
Happy birthday to me!

Vending Machines are Evil

Vending machines are evil....all they do is stare at you....tempting you with the goodies inside them.


I guess they wouldn't be as tempting if the goodies inside weren't so dang GOOD!

This is what I bought today....


YUMMY!!


This vending machine uses a vacuum to carefully suck the ice cream up and then drops it, like 2½ feet!!

Don't worry, it was just fine....no actually it was DELICIOUS!

AGAIN???

This time it was a different co-worker and a different shirt!!

I wasn't able to get a picture with him....we were both too busy, but here's the shirt in question:

I think I may need a new wardrobe now!

Lost in the Tunnels

Downtown Houston has a series of tunnels that connect people from one building to the next....there's places to eat and shop all along the way....so it's great. Especially during the rainy season or when it's just plain HOT outside.

This is something that was also common place in Singapore, where it's also humid and has a rainy season.

Let me tell you when the tunnels are not FUN. It's when you're new to the downtown area and new to this tunnel system....and you go to find "the mall" and end up about 5 blocks East of it!!

I was waaaay off course. I took a wrong turn somewhere and then the new challenge became....just getting back to my building!!

It was raining too, so I couldn't just go above ground to get my bearings!

Fun! Fun! FUN!

My Birthday's Coming Up!

Mom, if you're reading this....here's something that would be cool for my Birthday!
(but honestly just having you come to town, is pretty dang cool in itself!!)

GUITAR HERO II (for my Xbox 360)

There's one version of the game that actually comes with 2 guitars so Loo and I can play together.

....you can order that by clicking here.

Mojitos Anyone?

If you dig Mojitos like I dig Mojitos, than you've got to try this new gum from Orbit.

It's called Mint Mojito....and it's GOOD!! Right when you put a stick in your mouth, it tastes like a mojito....then it'll slowly change to a mint flavored gum with a slight hint of lime....I could chew it all day.

The box you see above is now empty....

Twins??

I get to work this morning and Tolu one of our System Engineers is wearing the same shirt as I am!!

I was cracking up....I mean how funny is this??

Tolu....thanks for being a good sport and letting me take a picture of us!! YOU ROCK!

Take a quick second to answer the poll below.

Self Portraits

As a kid, I used to always take self portraits....(I still do)....there wasn't a roll of film that would have at least one self portrait of me.


Loo has picked up on this trait....On our DRIVE we took some self portraits.


Here's one of me an Loo....taken with my camera phone.

Here she is taking her own picture

Then she took one of me!

She's doing it up [b]ecker style

Houston Traffic

My Aunt asked me the other day how I was dealing with the traffic....?

Traffic? What traffic?? If this is traffic, I'm in heaven!!

This "traffic", is nothing like OC traffic, and not even close to LA traffic!!

Department Goodbye Lunch

Before I left the OC, the guys in my department at work took me out to lunch.

Here's my boss, Rah....dare I say the Best Boss in the World?? (probably shouldn't....HAHA)

Then there's Kirk....TiP Stud!

Here's Andy....Network Admin Extraordinaire

Last but not least me and Kyle....the BEST Trainer I know!

Thanks for lunch and the great memories guys!

Super Bowl Sunday - the FOOD

This past Sunday I made a dish for a Super Bowl Party that I saw on Emeril Live....

It was "Brown Sugar-Crusted Baked Bologna"....here's a picture from Emeril's website:


The recipe is pretty simple.....you can find it here. We couldn't afford to get a 6½ pound chunk of bologna, so we bought a 3 pound one instead....who knew that bologna was that expensive!! Not me, that's for sure....$4.99 a pound!

We cooked it for about 3 - 3½ hours.

Here's a picture of the one that I made

BAM!

Not bad huh??

Honestly....it's really good too! A little white bread and some mustard!