The First 50

Here is an overview of the first 50 days of my photo a day odyssey sorted by awesomeness:



Beyond learning to spell "odyssey", this exercise has been a good challenge for me. I hope that forcing my self to shoot a good picture everyday, no matter what, is making me into a better photographer. I guess we'll see where things stand 316 days from now.

Thanks to everyone who has been following along, and especially to the two people who have left comments. Also thanks to my fine friends at Zooomr for providing inspiration and feedback.

Andy Simpson

So, this is what I would look like if I were part of the Simpson's universe. Now before all you clever people say something to be witty, let me take care of that for you:

• "Hmm, don't see much difference"


• "You mean that's not an actual photo of you?"


• "You wish your goatee was that thick"


• "You wish your eyes were that small"


• "I always thought you were rather two dimmensional"


• "Its spelled 'dimensional' with just one m, Genius"


• "If I looked like that, I wouldn't be smiling"


• "Doh!"

So, you got anything else?

If you'd like to create your own Simpson-you, you can visit the Simponize web site

Awesomeness on Zooomr

I am a heavy user and big fan of Zooomr for all my photo sharing needs. One cool new feature they have is the ability to sort photos by "awesomeness". The secret sauce algorithm is, well, secret, but probably has at least a little to do with how many views the shot has, how many people have called it a favorite, and the number of comments on it.

Just for fun, I share with you a screen shot of my most awesome photos, as determined by Zooomr:

Sights Unseen

I've been using Zooomr to archive and share all the photos that I take that are worth sharing. One nice feature of Zooomr is the ability to create "Smart Sets" which allow you to filter your collection on one or more criteria. For example, I have a kids set and a birthday set. There is even a set of my attempts at artistic photography.

I've also created some sets based on number of times the photo has been viewed. I'm not world famous yet, so right now my "hall of fame" sets are 50+ views and 100+ views.

Today for fun, I also created a set for pictures that have been viewed less than 5 times. Of my 366 photos, 33 have less than 5 views. You can see a screen shot of these to the left.

Looking over these shots, some trends stand out. Logically, newly posted photos are likely to be included (5 of these shots were posted in the last few days). Another trend is [REDACTED]

What surprises me are some of the cool pictures in this set that have been posted for a while and [REDACTED]. The "Chicken on the Can" shot? Who wouldn't want to look at that? The Klingon holding Duck Brown? Not something you see every day. The one with me in Vegas? Come on, I'm not in many of my own shots, so you should look at the ones I'm in.

Anyway, I hope you all take the time to follow the link to this set, then view some of the shots in it so they can get out of the club. I figure if everyone who regularly reads this blog clicks on a given shot, it will only take 3 or 4 additional views to get it over 5.

From Big Blue To Little Blue

Back in the fall of 1997 I was a single man, living in an apartment in Chapel Hill, NC, and working at IBM. I decided to leave IBM to go work for Rational Software.

Five years later, I was married, living in a house in Raleigh along with two step-cats, a dog, and a baby boy. While I was out back chain-sawing trees that had fallen during an ice storm into our yard and onto our house, Shelley called out to me the news that Rational had just been acquired by IBM.

Fast forward four more years, two more moves and one daughter. In that time I've continued to work for IBM, but now remotely from my home office. That is, until today. Today, after more than nine years, I am leaving IBM (again). There was no party, and there were no songs because everyone I work with is somewhere else. That's OK.

I left not because I was unhappy with IBM, but instead because an opportunity knocked on my door in the form of a company called
AdaptiveBlue. This is a Web 2.0 company that provides a plug-in that promises to "make your browser smarter". Though I'll still be involved in testing and quality, this will be a big change for me because AdaptiveBlue is small and agile in the exact way that IBM is not. Also, as one of just five employees, I'll have a chance to make a real impact.

So, goodbye Rational and IBM. Thanks for the experiences.

Delaware Redux

In what seems to have become an annual trip, we again spent Labor Day week with the Brock side of the family at the Delaware seashore. Though the activities were basically the same as in years past, the kids ability to keep up and participate made a huge difference. Some highlights of the week include:

• Getting knocked around by Ernesto fueled waves
  
• A visit to Funland on the Rhehobath boardwalk
  
• An Oreo milkshake at Applebees (which I realize is not that exotic, but hey, it was really good)
  
• A tour of the Dogfish Head brewery in Milton, DE. (read about on my SoapBox)
• Going on safari's at James Farm Ecological Preserve
  

There was a lot more good stuff, but to save a few thousand words, I'll just add some more pictures:

A Dutch Wonderful Day

On the way back from the Poconos, we made a return visit to Dutch Wonderland in Lancaster, PA. Just like last year, we had a great time. Unlike last year, we needed no stroller and no diapers. Here are some shots (more on Flickr)

Chicken On The Can

It was a perfect storm. I had enough red-neckness in me from my years living in NC. I was inspired to cook entire animals on the grill by my recent attendance at my brother's pig pickin'. I'd somehow acquired a can of beer from the soccer game tailgate. I had a chicken.

A beer can chicken was inevitable.

Chef Google led me to this site for a recipe. I adapted the dry rub to use brown sugar, pretzel salt, Italian seasoning, garlic, paprika, and of course some Mort. I also used olive oil instead of vegetable oil.
I had to forgo using a smoker box because I hadn't soaked any woodchips, didn't actually have any woodchips, and don't have a smoker box.

Even with my modifications, the end result was delicious.

Technorati tags: beer BeerCanChicken andyroth

Exploring Strange New Worlds

2-May-2006

The second and final day of the conference. At 10:45 I gave my “Can You Find Bugs in Your Pajamas?” talk. Like yesterday, this was well received by the 15 or so people that showed up. This number is disappointing, but typical for a conference at which there are only 130 people and 5 concurrent sessions. Also, since this was in Las Vegas, there were myriad distractions to compel people to play hooky.

Speaking of playing hooky, I decided to cancel the remainder of the conference, and be distracted. A short monorail ride took me to the Hilton - home of the Star Trek Experience. I went to Quark’s Bar & Restaurant and had a Hamborger with cheese (would that be a Cheeseborger?), and for reasons which I don’t understand, a Warp Core Breach.




This was the geekiest thing I did in Las Vegas. Oddly enough, it was also the most fun. Well, it was fun until about half way through the Warp Core Breach, when the matter/anti-matter ratio in my stomach got out of whack. Luckily it settled down without causing me to boldly go. I could not pass up the photo-op below:


After riding both rides, and spending too much time in the museum, it was back to the hotel because I was ready to call it a night. It was only 5:00 though, so when my friend and co-worker called me, I went to see him, and crashed the IBM conference he was attending at the Rio.

I got back from that after 8:00, so I didn’t have to feel bad about going to bed, especially since my flight out was early the next morning. I’ll be glad to leave Las Vegas, and I don’t expect that I’ll want to return anytime soon. Andy has left the building.