crisavec: (Default)
I have officially completed a lifes dream and seen a shuttle launch in person.

I've posted a quick batch of launch photos from STS-129 yesterday.

http://www.davebrownphotos.com/Space/STS-129/

A few select photos... )

Launch

Nov. 16th, 2009 04:00 pm
crisavec: (Default)

I have now seen a space shuttle launch in person with the liftoff of STS-129. Makes the shirt I bought that says "I was there for the launch of STS-129" true.

Posted via LiveJournal.app.

Misc

Nov. 15th, 2009 01:22 am
crisavec: (Default)
We ended up not going to Seaworld on Thursday...got up late and just said to heck with it and went to DownTown Disney and hit DisneyQuest and Cirque Du Soleil's La Nouba performance. DisneyQuest was rather cool, and La Nouba was just mindboggling. I left the performance with dry eyes for fear of blinking and missing something...and I know I missed things. It was just mindblowing.

Friday we did Seaworld. It was ok, but not the highlight of the trip by any strech. [livejournal.com profile] angie_di managed to browbeat me onto the Manta roller coaster, which was tolerable except for the one negative G section(RedOut is no fun and sickmaking). The rest of the park was so-so, and I think I can honestly say I've done SeaWorld and won't care if I go again or not.

After Seaworld we came home, had dinner, and grabbed a 2 hour nap before heading for Port Canaveral to watch the Atlas 5 night launch. The viewing spot was surprisingly easy to find(just look for all the cars) and I got set up and shot several photos of the very spotlight lit up rocket. I wandered over to talk with another photographer and we chatted for awhile...until he heard on his scanner as well as from someone next to us that the launch was scrubbed. Apparently there was a power dropout on a component about 30 min from launch and they decided to scrub, pull it back and replace the part. So the launch will not be until Wednesday at the very soonest, and probably later than that.

Today we went to KSC, which I postponed until today so I could get the Up Close tour that takes you to several not normaly seen areas. I asked as we got there if it was worth going on the normal tour in addition to the Up Close one and was assured that I would not miss anything at all. After doing the tour, and looking at the map of the normal tour...I was fibbed to. The normal tour goes to 2 different locations that the Up Close does not, and while the Up Close gets us right in between the 2 launch complexes and gets great photos, it really did not feel like it was worth the extra money for it. I felt a little gypped in that regard, but all in all it seemed like a decent tour. I just really really REALLY wish that they'd have stopped pointing at things out the bus window as we drove by and not stopping to photograph them. I skimmed my photos and I have SO many shots with peoples heads in them or that are blurred or at strange angles as I tried to grab a shot without looking. Seriously annoyed by that, to the point that I'm likely going to write a letter to the tour company that has the KSC contract to complain about it. If I'm going to pay extra for a specialty tour the least they can do is pause for a moment for photos, even if they're not allowed to let us off the bus.

Tonight is the last night at the hotel, tomorrow we head to Disney. Monday is the shuttle launch..1 Day, 13 hours, 5 minutes left to go.
crisavec: (Default)
We went to Busch Gardens today. There is a free shuttle from Seaworld in Orlando to BG in Tampa, but what they don't mention is the $12 in parking at Seaworld. Ah well...it was so worth it just to not have to deal with traffic and driving over an hour to get there.

BG was not bad, lots of animals to see and a few decent rides. I was dragged on to my first wooden roller coaster and all I can say about that is "Oww..my poor kidneys." [livejournal.com profile] angie_di found a coaster she LOVED, and ended up going on it like 4 times. I had to buy the photo of her where she appeared to be asleep on the back of the coaster. I think today might have been better if we'd been able to fall asleep before 3 or 4am last night.

Tomorrow, Seaworld.
crisavec: (Default)
We spent today running around and scouting the Titusville spot for watching the shuttle launch. I think it will do nicely, and from the photos I'm seeing online I don't think being 4 miles closer is worth $230 for commercial tour tix. Has a nice view and you can see the VAB(all 52 stories of it) for comparison during launch.

I had a cup of Dunkin Donuts coffee again for the first time since I was in Boston 4 years ago...the first sip was not near as good as I recalled(and [livejournal.com profile] angie_di noticed the expression on my face) but once it cooled a bit it was pretty good for store bought coffee.

We tested out the google maps nav app on my iphone, it was seriously handy as well travelled around but in the 4 hours we were using it it ran the battery down to under 30%. So its very useful, but need a car charger if I'm going to use it extensively.

Tomorrow, we take a shuttle from Seaworld to Busch Gardens in Tampa. Should be interesting, and I know [livejournal.com profile] angie_di will enjoy it.

FL Trip

Nov. 10th, 2009 02:51 pm
crisavec: (Default)
So we're in FL for a shuttle launch(and Disney/Busch gardens/Seaworld stuff). Got in last night and checked into the hotel, only to go back downstairs to change rooms because we'd gotten a queen bed instead of a king. Went off to dinner and then a grocery store to stock up on foodstuffs(extended stay hotel with kitchenette).

We came home, cleaned up from the day of travel and crashed....for 12 hours. Oops...

Looks like today is scouting Titusville for launch photos and misc shopping.

Still too hot, but should drop in a day or too.
crisavec: (Default)
Work took me to Kodiak just after Dutch Harbor, and these are a few photos from there. I didn't do much, just ran north to Monashka Bay and wandered the beach a bit, then went to Ft Abercrombie.


Full Set
http://www.davebrownphotos.com/Alaska/200909-03KodiakArea/9859046_z45MN

Cut for photos... )
crisavec: (Default)
Work took me to Dutch harbor about a month ago, and I finally got around to getting the photos uploaded.

Full set of Photos Here

Cut for size... )

Time

Sep. 20th, 2009 11:03 pm
crisavec: (Default)
5 years ago Holly broke up with me.
4 years ago, after thinking it over I realized I was probably going to be single for the rest of my life.
2 years ago, I met Jess
1 year ago, I realized maybe I wouldn't be single the rest of my life
Today.....I proposed to her.

Home

Aug. 29th, 2009 01:13 am
crisavec: (Default)
Made it back to anchorage about midnight, to discover that not a single checked bag by anyone made it on the plane...I'm assuming due to weight restrictions since we had a full flight. They say they'll deliver it tomorrow.

On the upside, I came home to a lit candle waiting for me sitting in the window...I like that.

Still here

Aug. 28th, 2009 08:20 am
crisavec: (Default)
Still in Dutch Harbor. I did manage to get a room last night atleast, and the wind is no longer beating on my window, so I may have a fair shot at getting home today.

Weather

Aug. 27th, 2009 11:05 am
crisavec: (Default)
Hmm....I may be stuck in Dutch. There's a goodsized storm blowing through, and the first flight of the day didn't make it in. And with the crosswind on the runway, no flights may make it in or out. I'm on a waitlist for a room at the hotel, so all I can do is keep my fingers crossed that there are enough people not making it in that I have a room if we don't make it out.

Fun stuff alaskan weather.
crisavec: (Default)
I'll be working on a data center move with a client tonight. Its going to be an all hands thing, the client's entire IT Dept plus all the breakfix techs and engineers from my shop as well as reps from IBM, Dell, and several other vendors. This is the first data center move I've done, there have been the usual "We're building a new data center and copying data from the old servers to the new ones in the new data center" but this is the first "We're going to unrack every server in this data center and move it to the new data center in the other building." that I'll have worked.

I've been in the IT industry for 17 years now, and this is a first for me...the last opportunity I had was when IAI moved all their gear out of the old Bank of America space into a Colo room at ATU(now ACS). Unfortunately they didn't tell me I was working that one till the day before and I couldn't get leave so I could work all night(I was still on Active Duty then). That was back in '99 some time...so its been 10 years since the last opportunity to do this came up.

Tonight is going to be "interesting". Atleast we got the services of someone from my company whos sole job is moving datacenters to coordinate all this(yes, as a company we do this often enough that we have a guy at headquarters that ONLY does DC moves for clients)

Change...

Jul. 20th, 2009 07:12 am
crisavec: (Default)
40 Years ago....the world changed

http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2009/07/remembering_apollo_11.html

Posted!

Jul. 14th, 2009 06:59 pm
crisavec: (Default)
And posting is complete

2009 3 Barons Renaissance Faire is now posted

My photos are at...
http://www.davebrownphotos.com/renfaire2009


Jess's are at...
http://www.jjpervier.smugmug.com/

Upload

Jul. 13th, 2009 11:29 pm
crisavec: (Default)
Completed initial upload at 1700, 24hours 30 minutes. Secondary upload to finish the 217 errored files, 3 hours 20 minutes. Total time about 28 hours to upload.

Now I doublecheck everything, then announce to the Wormhole.
crisavec: (Default)
I got all the photos for Ren Faire rated and renamed now. I was expecting to spend the next 2 evenings resizing and exporting, but then i remembered a plugin for Lightroom called LR2TreeExporter that I'd read about, and checked it out. Its donationware, so I donated $8.11(5 british Pounds) and tested it.

It worked perfectly...exported the whole of RenFaire in less than 30 minutes. Now I just have to spend some time in StarExplorer creating galleries and sub galleries and albums and then upload the nearly 5GB of photos I decided to post. I culled out 200 completely out of focus/crap photos(and should have nuked another 800) and culled out another 5600 photos for a total of 2100ish photos for the year.

Heres to hoping they're all uploaded by monday evening.
crisavec: (Default)
I have unofficially passed the 100K photos mark in my archives. Its unofficial because while I currently have 100,656 photos sitting in my Photos directory, 31007 of them are unprocessed and dating all the way back to April of 2007.

I have my work cut out for me, because my goal is to have them all processed by Labor Day or there abouts.

In other news, I made good progress on 2009 ren faire photos today.

Aniversary

Jun. 22nd, 2009 06:02 am
crisavec: (Default)
Today is our second anniversary...not bad for someone that a few years ago was resigned to being single the rest of his life. :-)

Hmm....

Jun. 1st, 2009 12:49 am
crisavec: (Default)
So yeh...I haven't been posting much lately. Had a monster project last fall that flew me 15,000 miles around the state in 14 weeks and then I came off that to a complex beast of a certification test I had to complete ASAP on a piece of hardware I've never even seen, much less worked on. Got those done and just haven't felt chatty/posty since then.

Significant events in the last 6 months.
-- [livejournal.com profile] kokuten Moved out in December. He'd been talking about it for awhile,and finally decided to do it. He was the longest roommate I'd ever had, right at 7 years. Its been a bit strange with him gone.
-- The now spare bedroom has become a TV/Media room. He left his projector behind(no room) so I got some speakers and we bought a couch and put the old DVD player in there as well as the Wii we got for Xmas and we have a nice largescreen TV viewing room with a nice sort of L shaped couch to lounge on.
-- Cleanout. [livejournal.com profile] angie_di decided to host a Pampered Chef party after leaving her name in a drawing at the Wedding Show last winter, so we spent about 2 weeks cleaning out a ton of stuff. The dining room was spotless if you can believe it, table cleared and all the boxes gone and most of the computer gear gone(the cabinet is still there, but its going out in the shed later this summer). I finally decided that I just don't need the level of parts I'd been stockpiling, and pitched a ton of the really old stuff. We also got the TV room in shape for company finally, with nice curtains(and blackout shades behind them) and cleaned out the living room so it was tolerable. Its backslid some since then but its still not too bad.
-- Computers. About 3 weeks ago I was told "You WILL figure out a way to let me work on my photos, OR ELSE!" Being a relatively intelligent person, i did not inquire about what the "OR ELSE" might entail, and ordered her a new PC from Dell Refurb. I got it setup and all her photos migrated into it and she promptly showed me up in how fast she could sort/rate/post photos. And she's getting to be a better photographer than me too.
After getting her PC done, I had to image a PC for [livejournal.com profile] frozenbunz, reimage her daughters PC after she got a ton of viruses, and install a new keyboard/reimage to remove viruses from [livejournal.com profile] northrngirl's laptop. Lotta PC work there.

Can't think of much else. I hope to be posting a bit of my photowork soon...I really need to get caught up and show what I've been shooting the last year or two.

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