Still More N. Texas Small Town Photography – Sanger & Pilot Point, Texas

Double-mural in downtown Pilot Point, Texas;  by (© 2013) me.Here are some of the photos I took in Sanger and Pilot Point while out with N. and C. last Saturday, as promised!  This week was otherwise a quiet week.  Don’t have much to write about.  I had the chance to go to the annual Jazz-Fest in Denton, but ended up just hanging around with my wife and enjoying the beautiful weather in our front yard Sunday.  The only other news is that I – yawn – went for my semi-annual checkup with my dentist and my teeth were given a clean bill of health.  I know I’ll probably be kicking myself tomorrow for not going to Jazz-Fest, but I just didn’t feel like driving for an hour one-way, finding a place to park, then dealing with the crowds that my friends were reporting were coming.  I should’ve gone earlier in the day, but goofed around until late.
Cool tractor &wind-vane in Sanger, Texas by (© 2013) me.	The Fiddler, in Sanger, Texas by (© 2013) me.	Rooster statue in Sanger, Texas by (© 2013) me.

Neat little trailer near Pilot Point, Texas;  by (© 2013) me. downtown Sanger, Texas;  by (© 2013) me. “Lowbrows” mural, downtown Pilot Point, Texas;  by (© 2013) me. Sunset over Lake Ray Roberts;  by (© 2013) me.

Another Exclusive Party at W.H. at Taxpayer Expense by Daniel Halper, Weekly Standard, Apr. 9, 2013. me:Meanwhile the Emperor fiddles on as the Republic burns. Amish prosecuted because scissors ‘crossed state lines’ by WIND, Apr. 12, 2013. me:If the founders had meant for the “commerce clause” to be this elastic, then WHY bother with state and local common law, courts and criminal jurisdiction at all, why not just make “federal cases” of all crimes? Philadelphia abortion clinic horror: Column by Kirsten Powers, USA Today, Apr. 11, 2013. me:”Newsspeak” won’t mention this, so I will! Religious freedom & ‘gay marriage’ cannot coexist by Matt Barber, WND, Apr. 12, 2013. Updated homeless ‘bill of rights’ passes CA legislative committee by Jeremy B. White, The Sacramento Bee, Apr. 23, 2013. me:Why do vagrants need “special rights”? What about the public’s right to maintain public decency and an orderly civil society. I’m sorry, but I do not believe there’s a fundamental right to sleep on the public sidewalks, urinate in public, loiter in and around businesses that you are not patronizing, or generally be a public nuisance. The technology behind CERN: the hunt for the Higgs boson by Adam Oxford, Linux Format, Issue 164, Dec. 28th 2012 – via Tech Radar. image courtesy Tech Radar 12 Stunning Charts Show the World is Becoming a Better Place by Kyle Becker, IJReview, Apr. 24, 2013. me:Here’s some good news for ya! Ron Paul fans furious over Rand Paul’s drone flip-flop by John Hudson, Foreign Policy, Apr. 23, 2013. “If someone comes out of a liquor store with a weapon and fifty dollars in cash. I don’t care if a drone kills him or a policeman kills him.” – Rand Paul me:While some see me as always attacking Liberals for the stupid things they say, here, I’m an equal-opportunity commentator – This statement is a stupid, anti-liberty statement! Whatever happened to attempting to at least give the perp a chance to surrender and be arrested, only shooting him/her if necessary?” Not a Joke: West Virginia 8th Grader Suspended & Arrested Over NRA T-Shirt;  by Bert Atkinson Jr. IJReview, Apr. 22, 2013. me:Yet another reason to avoid the government schools! Mastering the Linux Shell : Killing Processes and Dire Warnings by Marcel Gagné (blog), Apr. 16, 2013.

^^^ Antique car in Pilot Point, Texas;  by (© 2013) me. >>> Gazibo in center of downtown Pilot Point, Texas;  by (© 2013) me.

More Small-town Texas Photography

Masters Champion Adam Scott celebrates victory Sunday Image courtesy (© 2013) Masters / PGAI’ve been busy taking advantage of the beautiful weekend weather we’ve been having around here lately and getting out and taking lots of pictures of small-town Texas this month, shooting recently in Lipan, Santo, Palo Pinto, Sanger, and Pilot Point, along with parts here and there and in between!  This last weekend, I had two lovely female friends – N. and C. take me for a nice drive from Denton to Sanger and Pilot Point in N’s convertible and show me the best places to shoot!  Then it was off to watch a Texas Rangers baseball game at our favorite sports pub in Denton to meet up with another friend, P.  The Rangers even won 5-0 over the Seattle Mariners for their second straight shutout.  They’ll have the brooms out at Arlington today!  All in all, a great day with great friends! The previous Sunday was the Masters and I had to decide whether to go outside in the beautiful weather and shoot in Santo or stay home and watch the Masters, which is the only PGA tournament I ever watch much of.  I chose to go out and had a great time AND, lucky me, I got back just in time to see the extra playoff holes between Adam Scott from Australia and Angel Cabrera of Argentina and the awarding of the green jacket to Adam Scott and Australia, who won by a single stroke on the second hole of the sudden death playoff with a birdie! While out I drove to Santo, Texas and then to Palo Pinto and returned home through Mineral Wells, Texas.  I spent the time walking around and taking pictures of the beautiful old buildings and other artifacts that I ran across.  And this time, fortunately, no deer or other animals were harmed in the making of these photos!  As usual, you can view all of the images from Sanger, Palo Pinto, and Mineral Wells in larger size here.  I’ll have to leave you in suspense and post photos from this last weekend in Sanger and Palo Pinto in my next post, so stay tuned!

Cool rusted-out tractor and antique gas pump on US Hwy. 180, going South out of Mineral Wells, Texas;  by (© 2013) me.

Old buildings on private property next to park in Santos, Texas <<< General store in downtown Santos, Texas;  by (© 2013) me.

Community Center in downtown Palo Pinto, Texas;  by (© 2013) me.

Old Mineral Wells High School;  by (© 2013) me.

LTC DFW 2013

Eleventh floor hallway, Hyatt DFW Airport Hotel, by (© 2013) meAnother successful LTC (Leadership Training for Christ) convention has come and gone and everything went well.  We had children and youth of all ages competing, most in multiple events!  Each event one signs up for involves a lot of time and work to prepare for.  Adult volunteers also put in a tremendous amount of their own time and energy in preparing them for and in conducting and judging the competitions.  A special shout-out to my wonderful wife for the countless hours she put in again this year to making the Bible Bowl competition go off smoothly!  My role was photographer, which I enjoyed doing.  In this role, I get to witness each of our member’s participation in their chosen events.  I am starting to feel like this is becoming less and less useful though as now just about everyone has a sophisticated camera / camcorder built into their phones to record what is interesting to them and that there’s a diminishing need for someone dedicated to do this.  Perhaps I may find other useful ways to contribute in the future if it’s determined that there’s no need for it anymore.  Only thing is is that I have zero experience and confidence working with children and teenagers.  I guess the reason I seem a bit discouraged is that I had someone actually tell me that everyone now has camera-phones and therefore there probably wasn’t much use in going to all the trouble to do this anymore since it was now rather “old-school”, which really got me down when I started thinking about it.  I still enjoy doing it and strive to take better photos than one can get simply snapping things with a phone (a single lens I use costs more than most phones), so if I’m the only one that cares, then so be it.  Note to self – don’t even bother bringing a long lens or a flashgun next time, since the longest shot I had any reason to take the entire time was 50mm.  My 40mm did ninety-percent of the work with the 21mm in my pocket picking up most of the rest.  The 50mm (f1.4) was perfect when the light was low or the action faster or extra bokeh was desired.  Oh, and NEVER use flash, the two photos I took with fill-flash totally clashed with the cool mixed-fluourescent lighting they had!  I saw several others doing that with their slower zoom lenses and phones. I also got a great workout since they put our parlor room on the eleventh floor, our hotel rooms on the eighth, and the events were all on the ground floor.  The elevators are very slow and crowded, so I always use the stairs and I found myself going up and down like a yo-yo both days!  I was pleasantly surprised by the lack of soreness in my legs today though!  I used to have no trouble running up ten flights of stairs, but now I’m no longer in nearly that good of shape.  I can’t include photos here since they are mostly portraits and I neither have nor will ask permission to post publicly, but I did get this one artsy shot of the interesting eleventh floor hallway in a brief moment that it was deserted.

“Surreal Photo Manipulations“ by (© 2013) Ceslovas Cesnakevicius, via eMorfes, Mar. 10, 2013.

Imprisoned, Tortured, Killed: Human Trafficking Thrives on Sinai Peninsula by Nicola Abé, Der Spiegel International, March 29, 2013. me:This is just horrible, praying for these people! Egyptian mosque turned into house of torture for Christians after Muslim Brotherhood protest by FoxNews, March 26, 2013. me:And my TAX money is supportin’ this s**t¡ SHOCKING: Planned Parenthood Endorses Post-Birth Abortion by Bert Atkinson Jr., IJ Review, Mar. 29, 2013. me:I’m shocked, just Shocked, I tell you¡  Tell me again about those false “slippery-slope” arguments! University Takes Action to Punish Student by Todd Starnes, Fox News Radio, Mar. 25, 2013. me:Imagine this story if you replace Jesus with Mohammid!  If I had a child attending Florida Atlantic University, I’d pull them out by cutting off all funding immediately! Bank of America Gets Pad Locked After Homeowner Forecloses On It by Kelly Heffernan-Tabor, Digtriad.com, Jun 5, 2011. me:That’ll teach them banksters, Karma is a beotch, no? haha!

Bill Gates’ $100 million database to track students by Michael F. Haverluck, WND, Mar. 25, 2013. me:Ever wander why Bill Gates and other elites NEVER send their own children to the government schools?! Cyprus bail-out: savers will be raided to save euro in future crises, says eurozone chief by Bruno Waterfield, The U.K. Telegraph, Mar. 25, 2013. me:I used to laugh when some old codgers from the Great Depression used to keep their money under a matress and say “I don’t trust the banks”, now, not so much!  I do maintain my firm belief in “diversity” and “spreadin’ the wealth around”, though! Computer Fraud And Abuse Act 2013: New CFAA Draft Aims To Expand, Not Reform, The “Worst Law In Technology”;  by Dave Smith, IB Times, Mar. 28 2013.

Victim of Government: How Bureaucracies Destroyed One Man’s Life by Bert Atkinson Jr., IJ Review, Mar. 27, 2013.

“These two states represent a microcosm of which economic policies work…” by “sixgun” commenting on: “His Greatest Failure“, by Peter Ferrara, The American Spectator, Apr. 3, 2013. me:Once again, Kudos to Texas, my wonderful home state!
CA = $90 billion in debt,     CA = 9.6% unemployment rate     CA = 13.3% income tax rate     CA = home values still decreasing     CA = State College Tuition throught the roof     CA = businesses leaving in droves     CA = stagnant, no-growth economy     CA = repressive laws and anti-gun culture     CA = residents leaving in droves     CA = Liberal, left-wing economic policy failure	-vs- -vs- -vs- -vs- -vs- -vs- -vs- -vs- -vs- -vs-	TX = $9 billion surplus TX = 6.4% unemployment rate TX = 0% income tax rate TX = housing values increasing TX = State College Tuition capped at $10k TX = massive influx of new businesses TX = booming economy TX = limited laws pro-gun culture TX = Influx of people from other states TX = Conservative, right-wing economic policy success

---

Aledo Texas photo-shoot, Comet Panstarrs, and More

I didn’t have any parties to go to for St. Patty’s Day this week, but I did almost find myself baking a green bunt cake in a joke bet with a friend for a potential party that didn’t develop.  I don’t think they believed that I’d actually do it, combined with the fact that I’ve never actually baked a cake before, and that I was threatening to actually go through with it at the last minute probably scared them out of it.  But hey, be careful in betting off-hand with JimPossible! HA HA!  I did spend Saturday doing a joint photo-shoot with two other photographer friends in nearby Aledo. On the sadder side, I found out that Formspring is going tits-up next month.  I enjoyed Formspring because it provided a unique medium for my more-shy readers with the opportunity to ask me questions anonymously that they might be afraid to ask me straight-up.

Main Street shops in Downtown Aledo, by (© 2013) me.

Private driveway leading from downtown to a huge ranch, by (© 2013) me.

I’ve always responded to questions (within reason and which were not too personal or which contained profanity) with honest (and often cheeky) answers and enjoyed the chance to share more information about myself in a way that I was less-inclined to do on a more formal medium such as this blog.  You can still ask me a question anonymously here (or on my “about” page), or you can email me and I will do my best to answer you (same rules about profanity apply though), so, please continue to ask and you will receive!   I don’t plan on making up brackets for this year’s “March Madness” due to the fact that I haven’t paid any attention to college basketball this year.  Not that I usually do, but just even less this year.  I’m also slightly annoyed that not a single team from Texas even made it in this year.  The best the SEC could do was Florida, seeded third who lost the tournament to Ol’ Miss, seeded at 12.

Grain loader spout extending down from tall grain elevator (©) me.   I also got a chance to capture a decent image of Comet Panstarrs Tuesday night.  It wasn’t much bigger than a star, so I had zoom and crop a bunch, then use edit the image to bring out the contrast: Comet Panstarrs, by (© 2013) me.	Farm between Aledo and Anetta, by (© 2013) me.
	Quote of the Day (by Ronald Reagan):  “The trouble with our liberal friends is not that they’re ignorant; it’s just that they know so much that isn’t so.”   Reagan -vs- Bush(s):  ‘Ronald Reagan left office with a 63% popularity rating, changed the country and the world, and has been a world class political asset for every Republican since. George W. Bush left office with a popularity hovering in the thirties and made the Bush name fodder for every Democrat running for anything from president of the United States on down to township commissioner to say — and be believed! — that “it’s Bush’s fault.”‘ by Jeffrey Lord, “Gina McCarthy and the Hell of a Ride Republicans“, The American Spectator, Mar. 7, 2013.   Cyprus works on last-minute deal to soften bank levy by Michele Kambas, Reuters, Mar. 17, 2013. me:WHY is it ALWAYS savers and investors who have to get soaked (ROBBED) to pay for the profligate ways of others?!  We used to be able to just shrug at stuff like this and say “silly foreigners, thank goodness we here in America have constitutional rights, a stable government, a watchdog media, and protections against ripoffs like this”, but now I’m afraid, not so much – could we be NEXT?”   Growing Number Of States Eye Bills To Defy Federal Gun Laws By Gregory Gwyn-Williams Jr., CNSNews, March 16, 2013. me:The Feds have already TOLD us that states can not enforce FEDERAL immigration laws, so, why should state and local police enforce ANY federal laws?!
	“Creep“, by (©) Radiohead, via Juan Urday, Youtube.  me:Great song!

The Ides of March

Cocklebur weed growing along the biking trail.  by (© 2013) me

Little river near a biking trail close to home.  by (© 2013) me Got down under a bridge to catch this train.  by (© 2013) me

I stumbled upon this photography blog by Emi Valdarquis.  Here he showcases his beautiful b&w street photography, from his hometown in Prague, Czech Republic and other places. His digital work is stunningly well-done with the look of good, high-quality b&w film.  Please take the opportunity to check out more of his work at his blog-site “SCREWINESS-O-RAMA“.  I hope to some day be able to do b&w work better than half this good. “From a cafe window #3″ – Prague Street Shotography, by (© 2013) Emi Valdarquis.

“From darkness to light” – Prague Street Photography,  by (© 2013) Emi Valdarquis  me:”Stairway to Heaven?!”

“Oculos”, by (© 2013) AriBennett. “The Intrinsic book”, by (© 2011-2013) aleebr.

Proof Of A U.S. Police State by Bob Livingston, Personal Liberty Digest, Feb. 11, 2013. “There has never been any more sophisticated propaganda than in the United States today. No serious issues are ever discussed on national media…” Two Linux tablet projects take a step forward by PC World, 2012. Meet the scientific accident that could change the world by Robert T. Gonzalez, io9.com, Feb. 26, 2013. 13 Linux Network Configuration and Troubleshooting Commands by Ravi Saive, Tecmint.com, Sep. 24, 2012. 18 Tar Command Examples in Linux by Ravi Saive, Tecmint.com, Sep. 15, 2012. “Computer whiz” – A local businessman whose computers needed replacement due to age and infections has saved thousands of euro thanks to… by The Meth Chronicle, Feb. 13, 2013. Linux Tutorials: How to Record Your Screen with the avconv Command by The Linux Foundation, Jan. 30, 2012. GeoBases Data services and visualization This project provides tools to play with geographical data. It also works with non-geographical data, except for map visualizations… by Open Travel Data and Service on GitHub.com.     “What are you waiting for?”, by (© 2011-2013) x-posion.