Anne Marie and I have been busy making our wedding plans. There’s still a lot up in the air, but I’ve totally found the perfect wedding cake. Now I just have to convince her that we need this.

More pictures | via Neatorama

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Stargate Wedding Cake

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Arrrghhhh! I can’t shake this freakin’ flu

When I blogged about getting engaged I showed a picture a Anne Marie’s engagement / wedding ring, so I thought it only fitting that I show mine now that I have it.

It’s hand made by a woman named, Diana Hall. The ring itself is silver, with a carbon fiber inlay. I like it because it’s a unique mix of old a new materials, which is not only very representational of my personality, it’s also analogous to the transition from single life to married life. I like it. It suites me.

Although it’s not very usual, I’m actually already wearing my ring, even though we haven’t figured out a date yet. It seemed kind of silly to wait.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

My Wedding Ring

We’re still in Phoenix, and I’ve been staying at a house with no internet access (can you believe it?), but I wanted to wish everyone a happy holiday so we stopped into a Starbucks for a quick web fix.

The image above is from our 2008 Christmas card. That’s our dog, Maggie Moo. You can see the back of the card here.

Happy Holidays!

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Happy Holidays!

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

We’re off to Phoenix

We made it back from our Milwaukee trip. We had a great time, but the travel home was a bit grueling. Several hours were added to our travel-time because we had to fly to Delta’s hub in Atlanta before heading home. It was about 12 hours from the time we arrived at the airport in Milwaukee to the time we landed in San Francisco. We touched down at SFO at about 2:00am Sunday Morning. We missed the last BART train so we had to take a cab home. We were exhausted. We pretty much slept all day on Sunday to recover.

We had delayed flights. We almost missed our connection in Atlanta. We flew with crying babies, broken video systems, and a guy who barfed all the way to Atlanta. And, just like our trip to Milwaukee, our luggage didn’t follow us all the way home. It stayed in Atlanta, and apparently got left out in the rain as it was soaking wet when it was delivered Sunday night.

I’m not a big fan of flying anyway, but this trip was probably the worst experience I’ve ever had. I did learn 3 important lessons:

1. Always take your essentials with you on the plane. You may not be seeing your luggage when you arrive.
2. Anything you put in your suitcase that can be ruined by water should be wrapped in plastic.
3. Be very suspicious of packages sold by Travelocity. Based on our own experience, and info we got from the flight attendants, Travelocity tends to sell packages that have unrealistically tight transfer times. It’s likely that you, your luggage, or both, won’t have enough time to get to the next plane when you land.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

We’re back in San Francisco

UPDATE (11.25.08): We’re in Milwaukee. Too bad our luggage is in Las Vegas. :(

UPDATE (11.26.08): After a quick detour to Atlanta, our luggage has arrived in Milwaukee. The extra clothes are nice, as it’s 20 degrees here tonight.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

We’re off to Wisconsin

In the previous post I mentioned I had some big news to share… Well, we’re getting married! On September 5th, 2008, Anne Marie agreed to be my wife. :)

September 5th was our 5 year anniversary. It was on that date in 2003, that I came up to San Francisco to see her for the very first time. I lived in Tempe, Arizona when we first started dating. We knew each other through a mutual friend. The image above was taken at one of my favorite places in Phoenix, a couple months after we started going out.

I’ve been very happy with Anne Marie, and I’ve known for quite a while that we would eventually get married. I didn’t doubt that, but it never seemed like something I needed to rush into. It was probably about May or June of this year that I started to realize we were coming up on 5 years, and maybe it was time. I had been thinking about proposing on our anniversary, but I have to admit that until my father passed away in August, I was still on the fence. When my father died, it really reminded me that lives can change very quickly, and there’s no sense putting things off that are important. If you do, you may never get the chance. So, I decided September 5th would be the day.

With the date of my proposal set, I now needed a ring. Anne Marie had actually (semi-jokingly) told me a long time ago that if we ever got married, SHE would pick the ring! But, you can’t ask someone to marry you without a ring… that just doesn’t seem right. I debated on what to do. Should I try my luck at picking something nice? Should I give her a ring pop? Should I just go to the hardware store and pick out a nice wire key-ring? As tempting as some of these options were, I decided it would probably be best if I got something, not too horrible, as a placeholder that she could actually wear if she wanted to, while we looked for the real ring. So, that’s what I did.

As September 5th approached, it was NOT looking great to have a special evening out for our anniversary. We were both swamped with work, I couldn’t get reservations at the restaurant I wanted, and I was recovering from a fall I took in the street where I sprained my ankle (but that’s a whole other story). When the day arrived, we actually ended up just going to our Friday-night standby, Chevys. It was very unromantic. As the night went on I decided that this was just NOT the night to propose.

After dinner we came home and watched some TV. I was pretty bummed about the whole thing. I was trying to figure out what my alternate plan was going to be, but as it turns out we had some good luck that night… we were in the middle of a heat-wave here in San Francisco. I know, that doesn’t sound like good luck, especially when you live in a place with no air conditioning, but just wait. Because of the heat, we pulled our mattress down to the lower level of our loft and put it by the sliding door that leads out to our little balcony, to try to keep cool. As we laid there, unable to sleep, we started talking about how I had come up to see her exactly 5 years earlier. She had just moved into this loft, so she had no furniture. We remembered our first kiss, which we had while sitting on the floor that we were now laying on. While we talked, the romantic moment that eluded the evening crept into the scene. I proposed, and all was right with the world.

Of course, the placeholder ring I bought was not even close to the right size. With a little stretching it did fit on her pinky finger though. I tried to do some research online about ring sizes, but apparently there is no relationship between height, weight and ring size. I also tried to look at the one ring she owns. She wears it on her thumb. One day I determined that it fits on my pinky. I thought there must be some magical mathematical formula based on the relationship between her thumb and my pinky that would tell me her ring-finger size. You know, like the square root of the circumference of a concentric pythagorean hypotenuse… theorem. Math obviously isn’t my subject, but it doesn’t matter anyway as there is no relationship between my pinky and her thumb. Oh well, a symbol is a symbol even if it doesn’t fit perfectly.

So, here we are, over two months later… and we have no date set and no real plan yet. That’s pretty typical of us. We know it will be outside, somewhere near San Francisco, and it will all be pretty casual. Neither of us is up for anything too traditional or elaborate. I’ll write more as we figure things out. I’m going to try and not get stressed out about any of the details. The important part is I’m marrying the woman I love and who loves me.

Oh, and after some legwork we did find that perfect ring. It’s made by a woman named, Jennifer Dawes. She does excellent work, and she only uses recycled gold and conflict-free stones. We highly recommend her.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

We’re getting married!

California Proposition 8 seeks to revoke the rights of same-sex partners to get married. I am firmly against Prop 8! I believe in equal rights for everyone!

This morning I read this post on The Dieline, where Andrew Gibbs talks about how Google allowed “Yes on 8″ ads to be displayed on his site for California Visitors. I immediately checked my site, and sure enough they were here too. Ironically, they were right next to my post about how Apple publicly condemned Prop 8… and I agreed with them. I immediately took Google ads off of my site.

It’s kind of a strange situation… Google has also publicly condemned Prop 8, but apparently they are still willing to take money to advertise the opposite view. I’m not exactly sure if I should be pissed at Google, or should I praise them for allowing Free Speech on a topic that they don’t agree with. One thing is for sure, I don’t want the ads on my site. I’m a little annoyed that an ad of this nature would be posted to my site without a little more consideration. I don’t put these ads in the same category as random product ads. Google ads will not be back on the site until these ads stop.

If you have a blog that runs Google ads, you may want to check out your site to see just what is appearing. You may need to have someone here in California look for you.

UPDATE: I didn’t realize this, but there is a filter for Adsense that allows you to remove any ads that link to a specific URL. Learn more here. I’m still going to leave the ads off, at least until after the election.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

No on 8! Google… you are so on my shit list!

On August 10th, 2008 my father, Stephen Burd, died in Salt Lake City, Utah from a massive upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage. He was 59 years old.

This has been the hardest post I’ve ever written. It’s been very difficult determining exactly what I wanted to say about my dad, and our relationship.

My parents were divorced when I was very young… I think I was about 3 years old. Throughout my life my relationship with my dad was less than ideal, to say the least. And as an adult, we didn’t see eye-to-eye on a great many things, to the point where we didn’t speak to each other for more than 10 years. We only reconnected again a little over a year ago.

This is the point in the story where I’ve been getting stuck. I’ve written and rewritten this post several times trying to find the right words. Everything I wrote seemed to be saying too much, or not enough, and I kept getting hung up on details from the past that I finally realized just don’t matter anymore. The unfortunate reality is the things that were left unsaid, can now never be said. That’s something I’ll have to live with.

For my own well being, I need to drop the baggage I’ve been carrying around for a long time. Holding on to it won’t do anyone any good. I need to concentrate on the good times we had together… and there were some very good times. It’s unfortunate that it took his death to make me truly realize this.

The only thing that really needs to be said now is, my dad is gone… I love him, and I miss him. I hope he’s in a better place.

The image above was taken in 1977. I think it’s how he would have liked to be remembered.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Stephen M. Burd: 1948 – 2008

I normally only post my photos to my photoblog, but I submitted this image to issue #15 of JPG Magazine, for the Noir theme, and I’m hoping to elicit some votes. :) If you’re a member of the JPG community, and you like my image, please give it your vote. Voting closes on February 15th, 2008.

Description of Noir Theme From JPG Magaine: “The dark and brooding images that evoke everything from films of the past to the haunted streets of the night. Noir is about the black and the white, the grainy imperfection of the world.

Photos submitted to this theme don’t have to be in black and white”

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Vote for me at JPG Magazine :)

Did anyone make any unusual resolutions? Mine are pretty standard… lose weight, get more organized, keep in touch with friends, etc… and of course, blog more! I’ll actually be posting a few specifics on some of mine in later posts.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Happy New Year

Now that I’ve settled into my new Macbook Pro, I’ll be selling off some of my older equipment. First to go is this 17 inch Apple Studio Display. I’ll be listing it on Craig’s List or ebay, but I thought I would put it here first.

I bought this display new from Apple about 4 years ago. It’s in great condition. I’ve never had a single problem with it.

I’m asking $100 (usd), which does NOT include shipping. I’ll ship anywhere in the continental US. I estimate shipping will probably be $30-$50. It will be shipped in it’s original box.

The display has a native resolution of 1280×1024, and 2 usb ports on the back. I’m not positive, but I think the usb ports are usb1.

IMPORTANT: This display uses ADC (Apple Display Connector). If your Mac’s video card doesn’t have an ADC port, you’ll need an ADC to DVI converter.

I actually have 2 of these Studio Displays. I’ll be selling the other one sometime soon. If you’re interested in buying one or both, please leave a comment on this post or use the form on my contact page to send me an email.

In addition to these Studio Displays, I’ll soon be selling a Dual 2.0 GHz G5 Powermac (PPC), and a 12″ 1.33GHz iBook (PPC).

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

For Sale: Apple 17″ Studio Display

My ego got a nice little boost this morning when I discovered my portfolio site was featured on Design Melt Down. :)

“… This set of designs are really sharp, and their usage of ornamental backgrounds shows just how terrific the style can look. And the best thing is that it doesn’t feel forced or like an after thought. The ornamental designs have been carefully crafted to fit into the design for a unified result.”

My thanks go out to Patrick McNeil, the designer behind Design Melt Down.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

A boost to my ego

I’ve had a mac.com address since the day they introduced them, back when the service was called iTools, and it was free. Like many others, I’ve been debating (for years) on if I should continue to renew my account. Every year I asked myself, is this service really worth $99/yr.? The answer is no, at least for me. I actually should have cancelled it years ago.

For many people, the biggest feature of .Mac is the media publishing. I don’t really need that service, so it wasn’t a big draw for me. The best things I liked about .Mac are syncing of email accounts, calendars, bookmarks, etc… between multiple computers, access to Apple’s Backup application, and the best webmail client I’ve ever used. Some of those things will become obsolete when Leopard comes out.

I’ve decided that with my next upgrade (when Leopard comes out), I’ll be switching to a Macbook Pro only, instead of having a laptop and a desktop. So, I won’t really need the syncing feature. Leopard’s Time Machine will handle my daily backups, so I don’t really need Backup.app. That just leaves webmail, which I don’t really use that often, so it’s hard to justify that $99 per year.

Ba-bye .Mac.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

I’ve ditched .Mac

I may be posting from the road if I get a chance, but I’m not sure what kind of access I’ll have.

If I owe you an email… be patient. I will get back to you.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

We are out of here!

Several months ago I noticed that the frequency of my posts were starting to slow down. For whatever reason I just didn’t feel as compelled to post as much as I use to. This actually seems to be a relatively common occurrence amongst bloggers right around the three year mark. At least, I’ve noticed it with several blogs that I’ve watched over the years.

I can’t say exactly why I wasn’t as interested in blogging… maybe I was just feeling a little burnt out. But, the result was blogging became more of a chore than a pleasure. I wasn’t really enjoying it as much as I use to.

Another factor in nothing new being posted here was my little incident with the pit-bull back in March. I was already posting relatively few entries, but during that time I got totally out of the habit of blogging. Even though I’m fine now, I never really seemed to get back into blogging mode after that.

The final reason would be Photography. I’ve gotten heavily into it again… almost to the point of obsession. All I think about is shooting, and I’ve been spending quite a bit of time re-doing my photoblog (still in-progress). I’ve been spending enough time in photography-related activities that it hasn’t left time for much else. In fact, I’ve recently noticed that in addition to my blogging habits, my reading habits have changed as well. It use to be that most of the print magazines, websites, and rss feeds that I read were primarily Mac related. Now, I’ve found that they’ve gradually shifted over to photography related sources. Now, I don’t want to give anyone the idea that I have lost interest in Apple, because that is definitely NOT the case. I think it’s a combination of my new enthusiasm for photography, and a relative lul in anything exciting going on in the Mac world recently. The Mac is still a big part of my life, and I image the two interests will equalize at some point.

So, what does all this mean for the future of One Digital Life? Don’t worry… it’s not going away. I actually have some plans for it, if I can ever find the time to do them. I’ll write more about that later. In the mean time, my posting will probably continue to be somewhat erratic, but I will be trying to do more than I have been lately. I can tell you one thing now… anything photography related will now be posted on my photblog, Highly Subjective, instead of here. Right now it’s pretty much just my photographs in that site, but my plan is to add more general photography-related content as well. So, if you like any of the photography-related content that I post here, you may want to start keeping an eye on that site too.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Where have I been?

Well, we finally made it home. We’ve actually been home for a week now. Last Friday (3/30) Anne Marie flew to Phoenix, in order to drive home with me over the weekend. We left Saturday afternoon and made it as far as Barstow, CA. We finished the drive on Sunday. My hand held up OK, but it was a little stiff after the drive.

It’s so nice to be home. I appreciated being able to spend some extra time with my friends, but after a month away, I really missed Anne Marie and was more than ready to be home.

Yesterday we were able to give Maggie her first day back at Fort Funston (her favorite place). She hasn’t had any real exercise in a month. She was so happy to be running in the surf, and digging holes. She usually comes home pretty filthy. We were glad to see that she didn’t show any sign of being fearful of other dogs. It looks like the incident in Phoenix didn’t have any lasting impact on her.

I actually found that I missed the ocean far more than I expected. We usually take Maggie to the beach every weekend. After a month of not going, I think I needed it as much as she did. I’ve spent most of my life not living by the ocean, but I don’t think I could ever go back now.

My hand is healing fairly well. I’ve continued physical therapy here in San Francisco. It’s still in a splint, but it’s much smaller than the previous versions, and I can take it off when I’m just sitting at my desk. I guess I don’t really have much of an excuse not to blog anymore. It’s just been hard getting back into the habit.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

We’re home

First, I want to thank everyone for their kind comments on the previous post. They really helped lift my spirits. You guys are great!

I had my followup with the surgeon on Monday (3/19). For the first time I was able to see the screws that he put into my hand. They aren’t at all what I imagined them to be. Fortunately, he said I wouldn’t beep at the airport.

He also removed that mega-bandage, in favor of a much smaller and lighter splint. It’s so nice having that thing off. I had to keep my hand elevated above my heart during the week that I wore it, and it seemed to get heavier (and stinkier) as the week went on. I have to wear the splint continuously for a week, and then partial days for another 4-6 weeks. I’m not sure how many hours a day.

A quick tip about wearing big bandages or casts. If you find yourself in that position, buy yourself an electric air-pump (like the ones used to inflate air mattresses). They come in extremely handy when the part of your body covered by the bandage starts to sweat. Several times a day I essentially hooked my arm up to the pump and blew air into the bandage. It sounds funny (and looked funny too), but it offered quite a bit of relief.

I have a followup with the surgeon this coming Monday (3/26) to get my stitches out, and discuss the next step. He’s already said he would prefer I stay in Phoenix at least another week, and begin physical therapy. I’m debating on what to do. I want to go home.

Maggie is healing nicely. She had the staples in her neck removed on Monday. That wound is pretty much healed now. She still has staples in her leg, but those may come out as early as tomorrow. I imagine her foot is going to be pretty tender for a while though.

Hopefully neither of us will hit any bumps on the road to recovery.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

I’m So Screwed… literally

Well, you may have noticed that there hasn’t been much activity around here lately. I’m not just being lazy. There is a reason for my absence, and the picture above will give you a little hint.

Maggie (our dog) and I were attacked by a Pit Bull while visiting Phoenix. We’ll both be OK, but we’re going to be recovering for a while.

I’m not sure where to begin, so I’ll just start from the top. Maggie and I drove to Phoenix on March 1st. We came down to attend the Ninth Annual Los Dos Molinos Hike, on Saturday, March 3rd. We hike from a friend’s house, over South Mountain, and end at a mexican food restaurant called, Los Dos Molinos (home of the world’s greatest margaritas). I planned to stay for a few extra days for a friend’s birthday, and drive home on Wednesday, March 7th.

On the morning we were supposed to leave, I had the car mostly packed, and I was going to take Maggie out for one last walk before hitting the road. At the same time, my friend’s neighbor, from across the street, was coming out of her house with her three big dogs (two German Shepherds and a Pit Bull). Maggie and I had just walked out of the house, and were in my friend’s front yard, when the neighbor’s dogs spotted us… broke away from the woman… ran across the street… and attacked Maggie. It all happened very suddenly, without any warning at all.

Fortunately for us, the two Shepherds didn’t really participate once the attack started, it was just the Pit Bull. If all three had attacked, I don’t think I would be here to tell the story. I won’t go into the graphic details of the attack, but I will say that it was one of the most intense (and terrifying) experiences I have ever gone through. While it was happening, I thought there was a good chance that we weren’t going to survive.

I did finally get the Pit Bull off of Maggie, and we retreated through the gate into my friend’s back yard. I had to quickly wrap paper towels around anything that was bleeding (on both of us), and jump in the car to get Maggie to the animal hospital, where she immediately had surgery on her leg and neck.

I initially thought my injuries were limited to scrapes, scratches, and a small bite, but I would later find out that I had a serious break in one of the bones in my right hand, and some tendon damage. I had to have surgery too. They put metal plates and screws in my hand.

So, here we are… still in Phoenix. We’re going to be OK. We just need a little time to recover before we can drive home. My friends have kindly allowed us to stay as long as we need to. Thanks Todd & Steph!

Although my friends have been very gracious, and I am thankful that things aren’t worse, I have to admit that I just want to go home. I miss Anne Marie. She actually came down for the hike too, but she flew because she could only take the weekend off. Unfortunately, she can’t fly down, and drive us home because she can’t drive stick.

I have a followup with the surgeon on Monday. We’ll see how things are doing, and when I might be able to go home.

I haven’t really been feeling up to blogging until now. Partially because of how I’ve been feeling, both physically and emotionally, but also because it takes freakin forever to type anything with my left hand. I may try to catch up now that I’m feeling a little better.

So there you have it… the short version of the story. The long version would be pages and pages, and take me a month to type. I’m sure there will be a couple of common questions that pop up in the comments, so I’ll try to answer those now…

• The Pit Bull is still alive, and is at home. That is a complicated story that I may go into later.
• The woman has taken full responsibility and paid for all medical bills. So far they total around $9,000.
• No, I won’t be suing her for 100 million dollars. Although that is the American way, I personally don’t believe in it. I believe in reasonable compensation (lost wages, medical bills, etc…). This is also complicated, and I’ll wait to discuss it.

Although this has been a terrifying experience, I just try to keep reminding myself that Maggie and I are still alive, and we should make a full recovery. It could have been a lot worse. I’m also thankful to be surrounded by good friends (both near and far) who are helping me get through this.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Call Me Lefty

Wow, looking at the previous post, I see I’ve been on this break for almost a month. I don’t think I’ve gone that long without blogging since I started this site. It’s been so long that I actually had to remind myself about the steps I take to post (image size, using Marsedit, etc…).

It’s been a good break, and I needed it, but now I’m itching to start blogging again. Oh, and if you sent me any emails while I was away, I’ll try to get to those soon as well. Sorry for the delay.

My original intention was to disconnect myself as much as possible from my computer, but I actually did spend some time redesigning my portfolio site. Primarily because I wanted to switch my motion graphics examples over to Flash video, and add some recent work, but I also just couldn’t stand to look at that site any longer. I originally threw the (old) site together in an evening, over 3 years ago. I needed something up in a hurry, but I’ve been meaning to change it ever since. The new site went semi-live last night. I say semi-live because I’m actually still tweaking it. I was hoping to get it up by the 1st, but I just couldn’t get it done.

Anyway, I hope everyone had a good holiday and new years. Like me, I’m sure you’re now plenty excited about Macworld. I’ll be talking about that in my next post.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

I’m Back!

I’m not going to go into any long winded explanations, but I’ve been feeling a bit burnt out lately. So, I’m officially taking a break. I’m going to unplug myself from this computer, as much as I can, through the end of the year.

I wish you all Happy Holidays, and I’ll see you next year.

Oh, and if you like the image above, you might like this one too.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

I’m taking a break

Our good friend, Dave Ross, passed away a couple of weeks ago, on November 15th, 2006. This is one of the last pictures I took of him. We’re walking our dog, Maggie Moo, at Fort Funston Beach.

Dave was diagnosed with Cancer about six months ago. He was only in his mid-forties. He went into the hospital for surgery about six weeks ago. He never recovered.

Although Dave’s long term prognosis was uncertain, it never really occurred to us that we would be losing him so soon. We fully expected to be back at this beach with him as soon as he came out of the hospital.

I’ve been putting off writing this post, because I just couldn’t come up with words to describe how I’ve been feeling lately. Things happened so suddenly, and unexpectedly, that there is a lingering air of disbelief about it all.

I still don’t know what to say about all this. I suppose I should try to look at this like one of those life lessons, about appreciating someone while you still can, because they may not be around as long as you think.

Dave was a good person, and a good friend. Although he annoyed the hell out of me almost every time I saw him, he will be missed.

Rest in peace, Dave.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Rest in Peace, Dave

I should have some new posts coming up sometime today.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

We’re back!

As mentioned in a previous post, we’ve been in the process of looking for a dog. It’s been a little difficult, but today that search came to an end. :)

This little girl is the newest member of our family. She’s a one and a half year old Australian Shepherd / hound mix. At least, that’s what the nice folks down at the San Francisco SPCA think.

She doesn’t have a name yet, so if anyone has any suggestions…

UPDATE: There’s another image of her on my photoblog. I’m sure more will be coming.

UPDATE #2 (7.05.06): We finaly picked a name, it’s Maggie Moo. I personally voted for Itchy McMoo, but Anne Marie didn’t go for it. So far she’s turmed out to be a really wonderful dog.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Our new doggie…

If you come here regularly, you may recall a post from a couple of weeks ago, stating I was going to start a photoblog, and I was looking for suggestions on software.

It came down to 2 packages… Wordpress, and Pixel Post. They both have advantages and disadvantages. I really wanted to use Wordpress, because I’m pretty familiar with it, and I just like it, a lot. Pixel Post has the initial advantage of being specifically made for photoblogs, so there is less configuration needed to start.

After much debate, and playing around with each… I’ve gone with Pixel Post. My thanks go out to everyone for your suggestions.

I’ll be the first to say that Wordpress is actually far superior as far as blogging software goes. It’s infinitely more flexible, scalable, and manageable… but I came to the conclusion that it is way overkill for what I wanted to do. My plans are much more modest.

If you’re interested in setting up a basic photoblog, you may want to give Pixel Post a serious look. It’s easy to set up and get going quickly. The only time you’ll spend is in tweaking the template, if you choose to go that route. My only real complaint about Pixel Post is some of the documentation seems a bit out of date. The developer community for Pixel Post is much smaller than Wordpress, so I think things tend to fall through the cracks a little more.

So, by this point you’re probably saying, just give me the link to your new site already. Ok, ok… the site is called Highly Subjective. It isn’t completely finished yet. I still have some tweaks to do. I hope to be finalizing it this week.

The name comes for the old notion that “pictures don’t lie”… you’ve heard that saying, right? Well, I couldn’t disagree more. Pictures do lie… because they are open to interpretation. All photos should be treated as ‘highly subjective’. I’ll be getting more into that when I get around to writing the ‘about’ section of the new site.

My goal is to post a picture a day. Ideally, that would mean shooting a picture a day, but I’m not sure how realistic that’s going to be with my schedule. This weekend was beautiful, so I took the opportunity to go out and dust off my photography skills. I was definitely a little rusty.

The last time I was really into photography, I lived in a much more rural area, in Arizona. Now that I live in the city (San Francisco), I am somewhat fascinated by random happenings on the street. I don’t have a lot of experience shooting people, especially out in the wild, so I thought this was a good way to get back on the horse. I kind of wanted to push myself into new directions.

It felt a little odd starting the site with just one image, so I went ahead and populated it with several of the images I shot this weekend. I’ll hopefully be starting the one-a-day posting, tomorrow.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Introducing… ‘Highly Subjective’

If you’ve been reading this blog for a while, you may remember me talking about our dog, Emmitt. We lost Emmitt last year to cancer. We’ve always known that we would get another dog at some point, but it wasn’t until recently that we felt ready.

This past weekend we took the plunge and started looking. Things have changed a bit since the last time I adopted a dog (17 years ago). Everything is online now. We went down to our local SPCA knowing exactly what dogs they had, and which ones we wanted to look at.

We had picked out nine dogs that we wanted to meet. For a while it seemed like we were going to have trouble coming home with just one. But, in the end, we came home empty handed.

For one reason or another, we decided eight of the dogs were just not a good fit for us… but there was one that we instantly fell in love with. Her name was Honey. We so wanted to take Honey home with us, but the SPCA wouldn’t let us have her because we live in The City. Apparently Honey came from a more rural area, and she has some sensitivities to noise. They say she doesn’t do well on busy streets.

On one hand, I try to look at it like this is best for Honey. If she really would have problems with where we live, an not be happy, than that’s a bad thing. It wouldn’t be good for her, or us. On the other hand, I’m very disappointed. Honey is only 1.5 years old, and I think she would adapt.

I’m trying to be positive, and say that things worked out for the best. A dog is a lifetime commitment, and it’s no good for anyone if your dog isn’t a good match for you, or your lifestyle. We’re continuing our search.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Weekend Dissapointment

Many years ago I was really into photography. Of course, this was long before digital… it was back in the day of film and smelly chemicals. Over the years I lost interest enough to sell off most of my “real” camera equipment, but I’ve always kept a point-and-shoot handy for those times when I want to snap a few pics.

Recently, I’ve thought about getting back into it… especially now that I wouldn’t need to go back into the darkroom. Don’t get me wrong, I actually really loved to spend time in the darkroom back in the day, but these days I would much rather just sit at my computer to process my images.

Up until the other day, the only camera I had was my little Canon SD300 digital elph. I love it because it fits in my pocket, and I can always carry it with me… but, it does have some serious limitations if you want to have any measure of control over your shots. If I were to get back into photography, I would definitely want something with a little more control.

Well, guess what… I’m the proud new owner of a Canon 10D. My good friends Todd n Steph gave it to me as a belated birthday present (thanks guys!). Todd is a serious photographer, and the camera use to be his. Since then, he has upgraded a couple of times, and this camera has been handed down to Steph, and now to me. Woohoo!

So, now that I don’t have any more excuses, I feel compelled to do something again. Since I’m so into blogging, I thought what better way to keep myself motivated than to start a photoblog… which actually leads me to the point of this post… I’m looking for suggestions on photoblogging software.

I’m a big fan of Wordpress, but I’m not sure if it’s the best solution for what I am looking for. The main reason is how the archives are structured. For photoblogs, the archives should be a grid of thumbnails, and I’m not exactly sure how to do that within Wordpress.

I’m also looking at Movable Type, Folder Blog, and Pixel Post. They all have their advantages and disadvantages. Basically, I’m looking for something that is quick to set up, easy to maintain, and has a good template right out of the box. I don’t really want this to be a big project at this point. I just want to start photoblogging.

I’m a big fan of Chromasia, and that site represents the basic functionality and flow of what I’m looking to do. I emailed David Nightingale, the photographer, and he said he uses Movable Type, and he designed his own template. He did say it has a fairly steep learning curve at the beginning. He’s also the one who suggested I look into Pixel Post.

So, I’m looking for suggestions. If you’re a photoblogger, and you’ve used any of these systems, or have others to suggest… let me know your thoughts. I’ll let everyone know as soon as the new photoblog is up and running.

Update(6.23.06): I did it. I started my photoblog. You can see it at highlysubjective.com. More info can be found here.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

I’m starting a Photoblog

Aloha from Maui. I haven’t had much time to get online, or write about the trip so far, but I did throw some images together that I was going to publish. But, I seem to be having some technical difficulty uploading them. The internet connection here is a bit flakey, so that may be it. I’ll try again later… right now the beach is calling my name.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Aloha

We are gone on vacation… in Maui! In fact, at the moment this gets posted we’ll be on a plane. How did I post this from the plane, you may ask. Well, I didn’t. I actually wrote it last night, and date-stamped it not to show up until 8:40am Saturday.

WooHoo! I’m so excited to go to Hawaii! Neither of us have ever been. We’ll have a whole week there. We’ll be staying on the west (beach) side for 5 nights, and the east (rain forest) side for 2 nights. We are meeting some friends there, and have all kinds of fun things planned.

Luckily, this was all booked and paid for back in January, before I had my tax trouble in April. Otherwise, we would probably be spending this week here at home.

We’ll have internet access for at least the first 5 days, so I’ll probably be logging in from time to time, but if no new posts appear… that means I’m having a beer or three at the beach, and I can’t make it back to my computer.

Now you know why I’ve been looking at new earphones and waterproof iPod cases ;)

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

We’re going to Hawaii!

It’s my birthday! Yay! I wish I could say I was taking the day off, but I have too much work to do. Oh, well.

There was another birthday recently that I totally missed. On May 1st, this blog turned 2. I started it on May 1st, 2004. Check out my first post. I had no idea what this site would become, or if it would last long. I was just curious about blogging.

On a related note, I had an alternate image for this post, but it seemed a little cheesy, or spooky, or somethin…

UPDATE: Oh my god, I was totally wrong. I didn’t start this blog on May 1st, I started it on May 28th. I guess I’m early for once.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Happy Birthday to Me…

“…Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle…”

That was an excerpt from Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford, June, 2005. I’ve been thinking a lot about those words lately. The entire speech is available through iTunes (FREE).

Link (Steve Job’s Commencement Address – iTunes): Audio | Video

Found via Daring Fireball

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Do what you love… Don’t settle

It’s been raining here for about six weeks, and it’s getting really old. Fortunately, we had a few hours of nice weather on Saturday. I was working on-site for a project, but luckily I was able to sneak away for a bit and get outside… I needed it.

Anne Marie and I decided to do something we’ve never done… walk across the Golden Gate bridge. I’ve been here for 2 years, and she’s been here for 12 years, but for some reason we’ve just never gotten around to doing this. It was great! It was so nice to actually be outside in the sun. Now, if we could just get some more days like that.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Walk across the Golden Gate

UPDATE (3.27.06): I will be wrapping up my project today. I’ll be answering emails and posting new content this afternoon. Yay!

UPDATE #2: The Project is done! But, I’m afraid I lied about the new posts and getting to email. I’m beat! I’m showering, eating dinner, and going to bed. More tomorrow…

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

Busy, busy, busy…

I thought I would do one followup on yesterdays story about my digg / del.iciou.us experiment. The final visitor count for yesterday was 17,891, up from an average of 3,500/day. The RSS feed subscription is at 1,205, up from 286. Although the frenzy at digg.com has died down, elevated traffic continues to spill over into today.

I’m not mentioning this to toot my own horn… I’m just stunned that one tutorial could have such an impact. I have several long standing pages that get quite a bit of search engine traffic, but the iTunes tutorial has jumped from relative obscurity, to the third most popular page on this site… in just one day. Just incase you’re curious, the top two are Bloodrayne Topless, and the downloads page. I think it’s obvious why those two pages get so many visitors from Google Image searches.

I’d also like to take a moment to talk about stats, in general. Most stats packages give 2 numbers for visitors… Total – the total number of visitors in a given time period, and Unique – visitors that have never been here before. Bloggers, myself included, tend to get hung up on Unique… but is that the number we should care about? Advertisers care about unique visitors, because it means their ad is reaching a wider audience, but shouldn’t bloggers be more concerned with total, or more precisely… the difference between total and unique? The difference between those two numbers represent your regular readers. You may have a lot of unique visitors, but if your unique and total numbers are almost the same, then not very many people are coming back to your site. I don’t want that, would you? I care about my regular readers. Although I keep this blog for my own enjoyment, I would hate to think that no one else sees enough value in it to come back… and it’s just a random Google-stop for a topless image of Bloodrayne, or an Apple desktop picture.

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

You Digg Me… The FollowUp

A little over a week ago I announced that I had changed my RSS feed over to FeedBurner, so I would have the ability to keep track of how many people subscribe. An added benefit to FeedBurner, was a feature they call FeedFlare. FeedFlare basically gives you some pre-built items to add into you feed, and your blog posts. That’s what generates those links at the bottom of each post, for emailing the story, digging the story (digg.com), adding to Del.iciou.us, etc… I wanted to make it easy for people to share my stories, so I decided to take advantage of that feature.

Now, I had never actually used digg.com or Del.iciou.us, so I really didn’t know what those buttons did, exactly. So, I decided to do a little experiment. The expirement was meant to show me what the buttons did, and determine if someone could boost traffic to their site by using those other sites. The only thing I can say now is… Oh… My… God!

Here’s what happened… Yesterday I opened accounts over at digg.com and Del.iciou.us (both free). I then gathered up a handful of my past stories that I thought people would be interested in, and bookmarked them in Del.iciou.us, and dugg them (digg.com). Most of the stories had a mediocre response, less than 10 diggs each. But, there was one story that got a little more attention. It was a tutorial I wrote last year, on how to back up you music library using iTunes, and automatically track future incremental backups.

As of 8:00pm tonight (PST) the story has received over 1,500 diggs. My site, which usually gets around 3,500 visits per day, has received over 16,000 visits today. The traffic hit its peak at 11:00am, receiving almost a days worth of visits in one hour. Yesterday, there were 286 people subscribing to my RSS feed, as of right now, there are over 1,000 subscribers. My referrer log has been overflowing with links from digg, Del.iciou.us, Yahoo News?, PopURLs, and a bazillion other online news readers, RSS aggregators, and blogs that picked up the post.

Now you see why I said… Oh… My… God! It was an amazing day. I’ve read about this happening to people, but it’s the first time I’ve gone through it. It was a bit freaky to see the numbers change as fast as they were today.

I’m going to say that this experiment was a success. I learned what the buttons did, and determined that, yes… you can increase your traffic by using sites like digg.com, and Del.iciou.us.

I’ve also read that after an event like this, you typically don’t retain all those readers. A lot of them will drop off… and that’s OK. But, I wanted to extend a welcome to any new readers out there. I hope you enjoy the site, and stick around for a while. Thanks for an exhilarating day!

This is a blog post from: one digital life.

You Digg Me… You Really Digg Me