Okay, running an informal poll. The only way to answer is to e-mail me directly. If you don't know my e-mail address, well sorry.

Would you rather see photographs as they are shot or do you like them with the Scripture? I have been playing with an idea to put together a whole separate web site of just photos with Scripture to help people remember. I can foresee screensavers with some, some set as wallpapers, etc. Just curious.

Woke this morning about an hour before normal. I eased up to look out the window (I leave my window uncovered) and my beloved must have sensed me because she said "looking for a sunrise?" I was. I laid back down, it was just too early. A few moments later she called me to see some deer in the field across from the house. I snapped about a dozen pictures but by the time I figured out how to do it right the only thing that I could get was their white tails running in the distance. But, I walked out the back door, changed lenses, and got a couple good pictures of the sunrise. The color was perfect now.

What a day! Got the camera this morning and had the self discipline to not go shooting all day. I took about 20 minutes of lunch to open the package and start charging the batteries. I snapped a couple of picutres and then back to the office. I grabbed this one while I was on my way back over there. Tonight it was time to load the software and play a little. I can download the pictures but it makes me manually number them, something that I am doing wrong for sure. Don't care (ha!). Tomorrow I have a ton more work to do in preparation for my trip on Wednesday.

Doesn't look like I will be getting Movable Type up any time too soon. That thing is more complicated than I thought and I am going to be way too busy for the rest of the week. Oh well, this will do for now.

Its here!!!!!

Fantastic Customer Service! I wrote to the company that I bought my camera from and asked why I didn't get an e-mail confirming the shipment. They replied on Easter morning at 10:30am!! I couldn't believe that. Then it gets even better, they shipped it ad it is being sent Priority Overnight. Want to rack it with me? Click here. According to the FedEx site they are going to have it here tomorrow at 4:30. That means that I will have it for my trip to DC! The weather forecast for Saturday is gloomy, so I will see what I can make of the day. Bet I snap a couple of hundred pictures!

Quick Blog: Working on some writing tonight and pulled up WinAmp and clicked the Internet Radio feature and found a great smooth jazz station called SmoothChoice.com[edit: playing in 128kpbs stereo]. They just played my favorite song from Take Five and then right after that one of my favorites from Fourplay called "Play Around It". Going to be a fun night!

What's your favorite movie? I love movies, we love movies. At least once during the weekend we break into the movie vault here at the digital ranch and pick a movie. Often we bow to the will of the children (they out number us), but every now and then I get to pick. Tonight is Dad's night! I am watching my favorite movie of all time. Do you have a single movie that stands out as your favorite? I have a several that rank in my top ten, but this one always comes to the top. I once watched it every single Saturday night for a year. Lets see how many clues you get until you can guess it?

1. Only one brief scene which has a female actor, the whole of the movie is male.
2. One of the great scenes in the beginning has many of the cast singing in a foreign language, I can sing with them (except I sing a harmony that isn't sung). It is not a language I speak, I just have seen the movie so many times.
3. The original VHS tapes for this movie were in red, the first distribution to use something other than black.
4. The author of the book by the same name hated what they were doing to the movie and was known to send up to 10 faxes a day to the director criticizing the movie's direction.

Got an idea? The Hunt for the Red October. Did you know that Kevin Costner was originally cast for the movie? Would have been a good fit, but Alex "I hate anything Republican" Baldwin did a fair job. This is probably the only movie that I like as much as the novel. The novel obviously goes in to much greater detail, but a 9 hour movie would have bored most people.

Turned over 300,000 miles tonight in the family Truckster(cinemagraphic historic reference)! Thank you GMC.

This morning I uploaded the CGI scripts and the rest of the stuff for Movable Type. So much to this, it will probably look like junk for a while. If I ever get it to look the way that I want it will remain the same forever!

Okay, for those who might happen to care, tell me your favorite photoblog. I am only interested if you have a photoblog that you like and it has a daily (or somewhat daily) picture. I am looking or a couple of suggestions on aesthetics and function. I have a couple of ideas, I am just looking to see what it is that the rest of the world likes. I looked at the nominees for this year’s Bloggies (the official award for the best photoblog) and they were unremarkable. For more on them go to photobloggies.org. For a complete list of all photoblogs go to photoblogs.org.

I made another decision this week as to the direction of the site. A couple of the top sites are distinctly anti-American, or at least take great pleasure in bashing America, its politics and standards. One site is a promotion of anarchy at the expense of the city of New York’s more lawful citizens. Another focuses on the promotion of same gendered marriages. As I read those sites I was tempted to write long comments to the authors, but as I read some of he other comments I realized that it would fall on deaf ears. So I am going to spend my energy on making TheDigitalLife incredibly pro-American, decidedly right leaning, and showing the beauty of our great country. I will photograph and present that which represents the best in America.

I have seen a couple of movies in my years where either a foreigner or alien race judges America on what it sees on our TV. Can’t blame them for flaming the whole planet! But let’s face it, a show that deals with the mundane of typical family life isn’t necessarily exciting. BUT THAT IS LIFE! Life doesn’t mean that my wife’s best friend is a gay hair dresser, or my kids dress goth, or whatever the latest sitcom is trying to show.

A few years from now we are going to see a movie where the alien race is sitting in the mother ship reading blogs. The same actions will be required…light em up! So I am going to try to show the better side of life. It may be mundane, it will certainly be more gentle, but it will be right.

Learning from Mistakes. I normally am not one to air my laundry, but I wanted to share a HUGE mistake that I recently made, and it almost cost me dearly. I have used this forum to discuss the upcoming Canon EOS 20D. I have been so excited that I couldn't stand it. But, the company that I purchased from claimed a huge backorder. I started researching the company and found out that they were bogus. I began to get nervous. I finally confessed my stupidity to my beloved and decided to buy from someone else. I called and got the order canceled (without any fee!) and began to call other companies that were listed in a shopping search engine that I used, StreetPrices.com. Every single company that had this body listed for under $1,100 was selling grey market bodies with no warranty, manual, batteries, charger... nothing. I finally decided that I didn't want to take that kind of chance and started calling all of these companies that had a warranty, accessories, etc. All of them on StreetPrices.com had listed that the body was in stock. When I called it wasn't. I was so frustrated.

After a bunch of calling, I finally found IBuyDigital.com and they sell a USA model, have it in stock, and the guy didn't try to sell me anything else. I ordered it to be shipped overnight and he made an option that will get it here a day later and will include a lens cleaning kit (something that I want) and a 512MB CF card (something that I will need). I may or may not get it here on Tuesday, but I have peace about the company that I bought it from. It did indeed cost a lot more than the grey market body that I thought that I was going to get, but I will know that Canon is going to stand behind this one.

Now, lets just hope that I get it Tuesday. I am leaving for Virginia on Wednesday morning early and plan to spend Saturday in DC shooting (if I have the camera). If I don't, then I might come back early on Saturday. This will likely be my last shot at DC for a while, so I really want to have a chance to shoot a bunch.

Got my second lens today, a Sigma 25-80. I am now totally set once the camera comes.

It's not Movable Type (yet), but at least I got a picture up. This was obviously not a recent picture as the weather would not permit short sleeve attire at Niagara. This was last summer on our way back from Maine. The trip also included New York City (Statue of Liberty, Ellis Island, Times Square, etc.) Boston, Washington DC, Fredericksburg VA and Portland ME. Anyway, got to hit the road for a couple of days, not likely to be much of a change until the weekend.

What a bizarre night. I took a couple of different pain pills (probably stupid) and I lay in bed until 2am just working on the story that I was writing earlier in the evening. In my story the main character is having coffee with the President of the United States in the Captain's Quarters aboard a Virginia Class attack submarine (fun story had that meeting came together and why the President would be having coffee on a sub!). So I am laying there in bed working out the conversation between the President and my main character for hours. I can't finish a thought because of the stupid pain pills.

Bought a new lens yesterday (much to my wife's displeasure). Nothing really fancy, a 28-80mm autofocus. I didn't have a good utility short lens and this one, a Sigma, seemed to fit the bill. I suspect that it will become my main lens. Got a good UV filter too.

Just did a quick survey of my archives and discovered that January 1 through March 1 have disappeared. Must have been a boring time for me. Weird.

Back to the grindstone.

Took a break from the photo passion this afternoon (although I did find time to buy another lens). I decided that I hadn't written in a while and had a terrific seizure of hypergrahia. Don't know if it was the pain pills for the back or the thoughts all bottled up that just needed to errupt, but I cranked out about 7,000 words in about 7 hours of constant writing. I am not sure if 1,000 words an hours is good or bad, but it seemed a good pace. If I wasn't so dog gone tired right now I think that I could have written through the night and had a complete novel by next weekend. The story may stink, but it was a lot of fun.

The Interview. Yesterday I flew to Columbia, SC and back for an interview for the position that my boss had a couple of months ago (she resigned to spend more time with her family). Good time, we shall see. I think that I know the outcome, will not speculate in this forum...you just never know who will drop in.

I love visiting he home office, reminds me of going back to high school to visit (probably not a great analogy because I didn't care for highschool that much). As I stroll down the halls I see old friends, some who I spoke to on the phone just a day or two earlier. I got to sit in on a national conference call with about 200 participants, I sat with a number of the big wigs in a conference center. It was cool. I slept on one of the legs going in, and most of the trip coming home. I was exhausted when I finally hit the sack. On the last leg I took my glasses off as soon as they lowered the lights, knowing that I would soon be asleep. The girl next to me turned on her reading light and then asked if it would distrub me (called me "sir", made me feel old). I told her that I would most likely be asleep before we took off. I was. As we were landing I awoke (probably the change in pressure) and she just looked at me and said "That's amazing!"

I travel too much.

Speaking of travel, my travel is going to be greatly curtailed beginning April 1st. My territory is being realigned (that time of the year) and I am no longer going to be hitting Maryland and Virginia! I will now have just Indiana and Kentucky. This is going to be awesome, especially as we are really close to convertible weather. I am going to focus on Owensboro for a while, a little work in Indianapolis, and I have been told to develop Cincinnati (I know that isn't Indiana or Kentucky). This will give me a terrific opportunity to do some great things.

For those that know about my personal life, you know that the meeting this week means some terrific things are in the works at the ol' digital ranch. We will begin the process of building the monster house this coming week. We will have to wait a few months for the architectural drawings to get approved and then they will begin to build the house. We will have the property excavated in the next month or so and we will move into our temporary quarters while we are waiting for the drawings to be approved. We are hoping to be in the new house by fall, but we will have to wait and see how that goes.

Ta Da! Here it is, the new TheDigitalLife.net. I was laying in the tub (soaking because I pulled my back) and I couldn't figure out why Blogger wasn't working. Its amazing what a little hot water can do for your thinking process. Got the blog working, and then all of the archives. One click to republish (thank you Blogger) and it is all here. I will continue to use Blogger and FrontPage until I can figure out how to use Movable Type, and that may be a while.

The count down has begun. I will be getting up in 8 hours, grabbing a shower and then making the commute to the airport. Nineteen hours from now I will be facing a panel of people, including a VP, an AVP, a Regional Sales Manager, and who knows who else. Nervous? Nah. Just anxious to get it over with. The VP is taking me out for lunch prior to the interview, that is always a good thing. I asked her assistant if we were going to Diane's (a top notch restaurant in Columbia, SC), and she laughed and said that Cherie would be taking me to the company cafateria. Well, since it is better than most restaurants around here I am not complaining. Should be a fun trip.

My web site still hasn't transfered, don't know why and too busy to care right now. Maybe I will give it some attention next week.

Pulled my back today, of all days. I was trying to flip over a utility trailer to do some work on it and it was a little heavier than I thought. I have taken a hot shower, used a heating pad, and taken a fair share of Motrin. Still kills me. I will probably go hobbling into my interview looking like an old man.

Nothing in the news looks encouraging this week. Blake got off for killing his wife, Jackson is probably going to get off for the latest molestation. Most of the great major league baseball players are before congress lying about taking steroids. Gas hit a record high today. Bush made a stupid choice for the World Bank (don't fret fellow conservatives, I haven't been kissing Nancy Pelosi's butt, I just don't like how he handled that whole thing). Terry Schivo is going to be starved to death by her husband, legally, starting tomorrow. Again, not a pleasant week in the news.

Think I will get ready for bed.

Not sure what is up with Blogger, but it took me a couple of hours to get to log on this afternoon. Glad when I get Movable Type installed, hopefully this afternoon. My domain transfer is supposed to occur today... we shall see.

Miserable headache. Went to town to get some stuff (adapter for my compressor, expectorant for Sinclair, bank, electic company, new backback for camera set up). My youngest daughter has been busy cooking up a storm today and also needed some frosting for a cake that she made, for no apparent reason.

The big trip to the home office for the interview is on for Friday. Because of the NCAA tournaments the flights were impossible. I have to leave the house at 3am, won't be home until midnight. Shall be a very long day. I have a couple of good books that I am working on, think that I will lose myself in a novel.

Another Terrific Day of Worship. Got to see some old friends from a former church who got to get away for a week. Great Sunday School class, incredible worship service. It was goooood.

After I bought some great new Italian dress shoes for $13 (looked at the receipt a bunch and still don't know how that happened), a great new dress shirt and a terrific tie. Getting ready for the big interview this week. Did a little damage at Kroger and headed home to see my beloved (still recovering from last week). Grilled out some fantastic burgers (IMHO) and have been in the recliner for about 5 hours since. Great life.

Tomorrow I hit the road to Louisville and then Indianapolis. A couple of days home and I make the dash to Columbia SC for the blessed event. Next week we will either be packing so that we can build a new house on the farm or packing so that we can move to Columbia. Makes more business sense to me to stay here, but I don't get to make that decision. Either way, we will be glad to get this thing over with.

Want to sit and listen to some Tony Bennett or Frank Sinatra tonight, don't have any. Oh well.

Date Night: Tonight I shared a few (5) hours with Carolina. She was determined that this was going to be our date night. We started with a quick trip to Taco Bell, then to see "The Pacifier", Vin Diesel's new flick (and great), then over to Southern Lanes for a some bowling (with bumpers for my daughter), and then to Barnes and Noble to spend a couple of hours pouring over photography books while Carolina looked at an American Girl magazine and some journals.

Weird things going on with the car. I tried to take off the hard top for the date but it wouldn't release. I figured that it might tie into the problems that I have with the electrical system, problems that should be fixed this week with the replacement of the faulty ignition switch. But on the way home my fog lights kicked in, they haven't worked in months. I just keep scratching my head with this car.

WEB SITE NEWS: The domain was transferred this morning and I officially have a new place to park The Digital Life for the next few years. There are a lot of great features of the web site for those who care about sure things, but for the rest of the world it will still look just as boring as before until I get some of the structure set up. Movable Type is going to be a challenge for me, headed Barnes & Noble to get a book on it in the next few minutes (and "Ansel Adams at 100", thanks Mom and Dad!).

Got part of my Benz fixed a couple of days ago, I can now pop the top as soon as the weather clears up (snowed yesterday).

Date night tonight. My darling Butterfly wants to see The Pacifier (Vin Diesel comedy) and then go bowling. Sounds like a fun night.

Update on the health issues. I have passed 3 of 6 stones, still feeling some pain, but think that the others will pass this next week. Mary is more than tender, it looks to be a solid 4 more weeks until she is "normal". All kids are clear.

UPDATE: While TheDigitalLife.net is back up (don't know what was up for an hour or so there), I am taking the plunge and buying some web space from a provider that has 99.9% uptime (the .1% is for routine maintenance). Now, if you are looking at the site you will not see much difference, in fact, as you read this I may have already made the switch. But, I will not be in control and won't have to worry about all of the problems with the free hosts.

Web site hosting shouldn't be this difficult. I can't reach my web site today, having only had it moved for a couple of days now. I downloaded Movable Type this morning and hope to have it installed at the host later in the day. I am going to experiment with my picture-of-the-day thing while I am WAITING for my new camera to arrive. Need more coffee.

Every four years our country is delighted with a spectacular display of ignorance known as the election. One thing that always has amuzed me is when they ask the candidates questions that are supposed to prove that they are in touch with the common man. For instance, what is the cost of a gallon of milk? Tonight I had a dose of reality that made me think that I am a little out of touch. I was reading an article about the Democrats in Congress' attempt to put a raise in the minimum wage in legislation for a bill on bankruptcy. First, I think that anyone who attaches a rider that has nothing to do with the bill being proposed should be placed in stocks on the Capital Mall. Well, the ammendment attempt was defeated and we will not have an increase to the minimum wage this year. That got me thinking, what is the minimum wage. I Googled it and found that it was lower than I thought. I assumed that it was $6.25. I was being generous. Its $5.15. And, some states have different rates than the federal statute. I am not sure how it works, but in Oklahoma there are situations where a laborer can be paid as little as $2 an hour. I would have to work 2 hours just to get my coffee! There there are the wonderful liberal pockets such as San Francisco where the minimum wage is $8.50. Good luck starting a business there!

I think that we should cave to the Democrats will and raise the minimum wage by 25%. But, let index everything to that increase. I would automatically get a 25% increase in my salary, milk would now cost 25% more (placing it in the $4 mark for a gallon at Houchens, $5.30 for the Purity brand). Gas will run about $2.50 a gallon. But the good news in all of this is that my mortgage is still locked at that nice low rate.

On a side note, Howard Dean made the political headlines this evening because he has raised 3.4 million dollars in the first three weeks since he has been chair of the DNC. That is twice as much as his counterpart raised back in the first 3 weeks after Gore's defeat in 2001. Democrats across the nation are cheering their new leader and his ability to raise so much cash. The savior is here!

Oh, the Republicans raised 10.4 million in that same period, $7,000,000.00 more than the Democrats.

Since I can't post the pictures that I want, I will paint you a word picture. As I write the snow is falling gently outside, a Cardinal stands out against the white of the snow. I have a wonderful fire going in the fireplace. I am roasting (using the laptop for the blog) coffee beans while Mary is on the couch reading an investment newsletter. The older two are killing aliens on the Xbox, the younger two playing in the next room, some kind of drama with dolls. The dog is laying in her bed next to the sliding glass door just looking out the window, I guess at the snow. All in all, this is a good day!

And now the wait begins....

Called to confirm my camera order this morning and it won't ship for 4-6 weeks. That stinketh! The camera is a truly stripped wholesale version, doesn't come with the battery. But, I saved $750 from what I would have paid for one with a longer warranty and the battery. The batteries cost next to nothing as do the chargers. I may have to wait, and it will kill me, but it is worth the money.

I got a DVD coming on the camera, 2 hours of how to use it. I am going to watch it and then put it back up for auction on e-Bay. Have I mentioned how much I love e-Bay? The site is awesome. I bought the 70-300mm lens with image stabilizer last night (but nothing to use it with).

I made what I hope is the final visit to the urologist today. They did the x-ray and found that the lithotripsy and laser procedure did a better job than they thought. The removed my stint today and now I get to take a few weeks to pass 6 stones. Did one, five more to go. Another great thing was that they changed my pain meds today to something that doesn't make me feel like I have had 8 cups of espresso (and that is actually something that I prefer). It was expensive, but I think that I will like the new stuff even more.

It's Coming!!!

After waiting for months and months I finally got to order my new baby today, the Canon 20d. I am also ordering two lenses to start, a 18-55mm and a 75-300mm, both with internal ultrasonic stabilizing mechanisms (IS/USM). I should get the camera by my birthday on Friday and hopefully be snapping away next week on my trip (DC/Fredericksburg, VA/Indy/Columbia, SC). I feel like a kid the day before Christmas and I already have peeked in the boxes (not that I ever did that mind you).

Ordering a couple of 512MB CF cards (digital film). I debated about whether or not I should get 1 gig cards since the prices have come down so low and I read an article that made a lot of sense. If I have a 512mb card I can upload it to my hard drive and then burn if off to a CD. If I have a gig card or higher then I am forced to download them to my home PC so that I can burn them to DVD. That would be cool, but I also want the convenience of being able to work on them on my laptop when I am on the road. So, for now, I am getting a couple of 512 cards. The thing that kills me is that I bought a 128mb card for my point and shoot (also Canon) and it was $99. the 512mb cards are under $30. Oh well.

Hey, you know how I said on yesterday's post that I was going to do the official relaunch on June 1? Well, I might just step that up a bit!

Ah, the catharsis. It feels so good to be back. I have been offline with the blogging for a couple of months, and will continue to be back as long as able.

January 1st my lame host shut down without notice. I made the fatal mistake of storing all of the files on the server and not keeping a backup. Wouldn't have mattered since my home PC was hosed with a virus and my laptop shuttered a couple of days later. I now have a new laptop (rocks!) and the family computer is back to normal with a fresh format. The kids also have their computer online now, so I don't ever have to compete for bandwidth. Thanks Mary for the wireless network!!

I have committed to a June 1 public relaunch of The Digital Life. The new site will be primarily a photoblog, but will also contain my regular ramblings and whatever else floats my boat. The new site will have a paid host, so I won't have to worry about waking up one morning to find my site gone. But, the primary focus is going to be photography, especially those pictures from my new camera (Canon 20d). I have taken some pretty terrific pictures in the past, but I am going to really focus on what is new. I am making this a year where I work to perfect my art. I am investing a nice little stash o' cash on the system and that will include taking a couple of classes. The goal will be to have a new picture every day on the site as a way to entice people to visit everyday.

I have struggled a little with how to give the glory to God for the photos, and how to use them for His service. I am going to start working on a gallery of 1024x768 pictures that could be used as backgrounds, screen saver pictures, or that churches could use for their PowerPoint presentations. I don't think that I will do but one a week, but I am currently considering doing something that would have a picture with Scripture printed on it. As anyone who knows me knows, I love Scripture memorization, although I do a horrible job with it. I am working on a new Scripture memorization program for adults (something I am putting together myself) and I might put this together with the photos. Still kicking that one around.

For those who are believers please join me in prayer about a few matters:

• Health: Both Mary and I are struggling with some health issues. I have had two procedures in the past week for a kidney stone at our local hospital and it didn't work. Not only did this cost me a fortune ($9000 just on Friday), it is painful. Mary is having surgery this week for some female problem. Not life threatening and we praise our Lord that it wasn't cancer as we had suspected.
• Career: I am flying to South Carolina for a job interview this week with my company for a promotion. The position is the one that my boss had a month ago, she resigned to spend more time with her family (Great move Cathy!!!). I want the job, but it has to be just right for me to move the family there.

For those who are looking at this site, you are more than likely here because you have been with me for years. Thanks.

~Rick