Joint Photo-shoot in Peaster, Texas

Peaceful field next to old abandoned house overlooking downtown Peaster, Texas Did this at normal exposure using just a polarizer + digital IR filter, no computer editing.Whew, this has been a long two weeks. For some strange reason, I always mistakenly believe that things will slow down after the holiday crush, causing me to be surprised when they don’t. The busification level went up several notches just after Christmas when work informed me that I was going to Houston to work over the weekend last weekend. Since I don’t like flying anymore and to avoid wasting pretty much an entire work day traveling, I left the previous Sunday and stayed at my Mom’s house during the week prior since they live only a couple of hours away from Houston. This meant that S. would leave for school before I got back, so I had to get S’s truck worked on and serviced before I left. Fortunately for me, I was able to take vacation Monday to have a day off before returning to work this week. The weather has been really cold since Christmas. I don’t think it has gotten above 50° since. I know it’s Winter and the coldest time of the year, but usually there’s an occasional warm sunny day mixed in. I got too spoiled by the beautiful warm Autumn we had this year.
Cartright Park, between Weatherford and Peaster, Texas. Lots of ducks.I got to chill with friends watching the Fightin’ Texas Aggies destroy O.U! Then ‘Bama BTHO Notre Dame for the National Championship. The result is that the Aggies have now beaten the SEC champion, the Big-12 champion, and the National champion all in the same season! Congratulations to the Fightin’ Texas Aggies, what an awesome season! How I spent my vacation day: My friend H. & I did a photo-shoot in Peaster, Texas capturing wildlife, abandoned buildings and other interesting (to us) flotsam. I also paid bills and ran errands. I had intended to start taking down the outside Christmas lights, but instead wasted the rest of the evening going through cropping and culling the photos. Most of the photos turned out ok, but the few bird ones I snapped were just utter crap. I had failed to lug my zoom with me for that part of the walk (I wasn’t really expecting to shoot birds) and after cropping them down enough to actually see the bird they were reduced to a fuzzy, purple-fringed mess. H’s (zoomed I presume) came out stunningly beautiful. That’s probably what I deserve trying to shoot songbirds in trees 20-plus feet away with a 40mm. You can see more of the better photos here in my album: “Abandoned, in Peaster, Texas” on Camera Enthusiast.
Really old abandoned home near downtown Peaster, Texas.	Center of downtown Peaster, Texas (Community center)
Real cowboys fencing (the one job a cowboy can’t do on a horse)	Birds out on the lake in Cartwright Park
Inside screen porch of the same abandoned house (shown above) 15 Useful “ifconfig” Commands to Configure Network Interface in Linux by Ravi Saive, Tecmint.com, Jan, 2013. When Free Software Isn’t Free by Chris Hall, Fossforce.com, Jan. 10th, 2013. Product Review CompuLab Intense PC Pro Review – The Mini PC of your dreams by Rob Zwetsloot, LinuxUser, Jan, 2013. Global warming, the tool of the West by Stanislav Mishin, Pravda, Apr. 1, 2013. Shocking Time Magazine Cover: After 40 Years, Abortion Activists Losing >>> by Steven Ertelt, LifeNews.com, Jan. 3, 2013. me:more tiny innocent people born winning!	“Ghost”, by (c) Jarek Kubicki, phototographer / graphic designer. via eMORFES (blog), Jan. 15, 2013. me:Beautiful, check out his work!