Destructoville - Population:1

Flailing.

2012-01-26T17:45:00.000-06:00

From (ugh) the LATimes:

On an earnings conference call with analysts Wednesday, Hastings said Netflix now has no plans to spend any marketing dollars on its DVD-by-mail service, which lost 2.76 million subscribers during the last three months of 2011.

"We expect DVD subscribers to decline each quarter forever," he said.

When the Qwikster plans were announced, Netflix also said it would add video games to its DVD-by-mail business. But Hastings said the company has given up on that plan as well.

This is Hulu's chance. Netflix is flailing around like a dying fish and killing itself. If Hulu were to add to its movie library in addition to its phenomenal TV Shows library, I would drop Netflix in a heartbeat. I just wish that Hulu was available on the Apple TV.

Are you listening, Apple?

Allen West For Prez in 2016

2012-01-13T13:23:00.000-06:00

From the Weekly Standard:

Rep. Allen West (R-Fla.), a former Army lieutenant colonel, sends THE WEEKLY STANDARD an email commenting on the Marines' video, and has given us permission to publish it.“I have sat back and assessed the incident with the video of our Marines urinating on Taliban corpses. I do not recall any self-righteous indignation when our Delta snipers Shugart and Gordon had their bodies dragged through Mogadishu. Neither do I recall media outrage and condemnation of our Blackwater security contractors being killed, their bodies burned, and hung from a bridge in Fallujah.

“All these over-emotional pundits and armchair quarterbacks need to chill. Does anyone remember the two Soldiers from the 101st Airborne Division who were beheaded and gutted in Iraq?

“The Marines were wrong. Give them a maximum punishment under field grade level Article 15 (non-judicial punishment), place a General Officer level letter of reprimand in their personnel file, and have them in full dress uniform stand before their Battalion, each personally apologize to God, Country, and Corps videotaped and conclude by singing the full US Marine Corps Hymn without a teleprompter.

“As for everyone else, unless you have been shot at by the Taliban, shut your mouth, war is hell.”

SO looking forward to an Allen West and Marco Rubio ticket in 4 years.

The Saga of the Guy on a Buffalo

2012-01-09T06:04:00.002-06:00

Huge mad props to Kidsimba for sending this...

Flying with the Falcon

2012-01-05T10:59:00.000-06:00

Awesome.

Thanks to Dave P. for sending this.

Obama Throws a Tantrum

2012-01-05T05:37:00.001-06:00

From the Washington Times:

Pushing the limits of his recess appointment powers, President Obama on Wednesday bypassed the Senate to install three members of the National Labor Relations Board and a director for the controversial new Consumer Financial Protection Bureau - moves Republicans said amounted to unconstitutional power grabs.

Mr. Obama said the appointments, which he previewed during a campaign-style speech in Ohio, were necessary because Senate Republicans have blocked him at every turn. But in making the move, he rejected three precedents, including two in which he played a part, that would have blocked the appointments.

“I refuse to take ‘no’ for an answer,” Mr. Obama said in Shaker Heights, drawing applause from his audience. “When Congress refuses to act and as a result hurts our economy and puts our people at risk, then I have an obligation as president to do what I can without them.”

That kind of language is dangerous and un-American from the president. That's the kind of language a dictator of a banana republic uses to impose his will despite what the people and the rest of the government wants.

What makes this even more ludicrous is that Obama's own administration argued against this same thing - twice - as recent as last year. Talk about hypocrisy.

A sad, sad day for our country.

The Complete Hope

2012-01-04T08:51:00.002-06:00

Finally... the missing piece of the famous Obama "Hope" poster has been found:

Thanks to Matt for sending this.

Please, PLEASE, oh Pretty Please Let This Be True

2011-12-29T14:40:00.000-06:00

From Big Government:

Alexandra Pelosi, daughter of House Minority Leader and former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, told Big Government this week that her mother wants to leave Congress–and that she remains in Washington only at the behest of her campaign donors.

The day we don't all have to look at Nancy Pelosi or worry about her hand in our pockets anymore is going to be a great day for the nation!

I May Need Some Assisdents

2011-12-29T14:09:00.001-06:00

Almost forgot to post this. Thanks to Kristi for pointing it out to me last week.

More awesomeness from Lowes. Thanks, Lowes. Every visit is a treat.

..and We're Done.

2011-12-29T14:06:00.001-06:00

A couple of days ago, we took a load of books and CDs to Half Price Books to sell as we get ready to "big kidify" the kids' room. Among the things Kayci put in the bag to get rid of were her Miley Cyrus and Hannah Montana CDs.

She thought I'd be upset, but I've actually never been so proud. Personally, I've been done with Miley for quite awhile now. I tried to warn her. I begged an pleaded. But Miley just wouldn't listen.

Then today I found out that over Thanksgiving, while no one was really paying attention (including me, apparently,) Miley came out in support of the Occupy Wall Street crowd and even dedicated her song "Liberty Walk" to them. That makes me even more happy that our house is now Miley Cyrus -free.

I've threatened it before, but now it's official. We're officially done with (that trashy ignorant train wreck) Miley Cyrus. It's too bad, really. There was a time when she had so much potential, too...

It was a good run. We sent a lot - and I mean a whole friggin' lot - of money her way over the years when Kayci was into Hannah Montana. But all mediocre things must come to an end, I suppose. Just like the impending doom of her career. It says a lot when a little girl who spent years watching and listening to an *cough* actress and *cough, cough* singer is willing to trade in her entire collection for $12.

Let this be a lesson, kids. When you don't appreciate what you have and choose to throw it all away, don't wonder why people don't want anything to do with you anymore. At least, not the real 99%.

Last Day to Order

2011-12-27T06:48:00.001-06:00

Don't forget, Bearkats... today is the last day I'm taking orders for the panoramic I shot of the Bearkat fans rushing the field following the Bearkats' historic victory over Montana a couple of weeks ago.

Orders will be accepted through Tuesday, December 27.

$25.00 plus shipping, paid via PayPal. Photos will be mailed the first week in January. If you happen to be in the Brenham area, let me know and there will be no shipping costs.

To order, e-mail your shipping address to photos@jamespharaon.com, and I will send you an invoice to pay from on PayPal.

Thanks, and Eat 'Em Up Kats!

But the Mayans Didn't Say That At All!

2011-12-22T05:48:00.002-06:00

We're not all going to die. Okay, actually, that's not true. We are all going to die... eventually. Just probably not on December 21, 2012. That's the date - a year from now - that some people are claiming that the Mayans predicted the end of the world. That's what we've all heard, right?

Funny thing is.... the Mayans didn't say that at all.

From AP News:

Many archeologists argue that the 2012 reference on a 1,300-year-old stone tablet only marks the end of a cycle in the Mayan calendar.

"The world will not end. It is an era," said Yeanet Zaldo, a tourism spokeswoman for the Caribbean state of Quintana Roo, home to Cancun.
The Mayan civilization, which reached its height from 300 A.D. to 900 A.D., had a talent for astronomy.

Its Long Count calendar begins in 3,114 B.C., marking time in roughly 394-year periods known as Baktuns. Thirteen was a significant, sacred number for the Mayas, and they wrote that the 13th Baktun ends on Dec. 21, 2012.

The doomsday theories stem from a stone tablet discovered in the 1960s at the archaeological site of Tortuguero in the Gulf of Mexico state of Tabasco that describes the return of a Mayan god at the end of a 13th period.

"The Maya are viewed by many westerners as exotic folks that were supposed to have had some special, secret knowledge," said Mayan scholar Sven Gronemeyer. "What happens is that our expectations and fears get projected on the Maya calendar."

Gronemeyer of La Trobe University in Australia compares the supposed Mayan prophecies to the "Y2K" hype, when people feared all computer systems would crash when the new millennium began on Jan. 1, 2000.

For some reason, Gronemeyer says, people have ignored evidence that dates beyond 2012 were recorded.

2012 will, indeed, be a watershed year - just not for the reasons people are freaking about about at the moment. But never let the truth get in the way of a good freak out, I suppose...

"Bearkat Fans Take the Field"

2011-12-21T05:58:00.000-06:00

"Bearkat Fans Take the Field"

Following the SHSU vs. Montana game last week I shot this panoramic shot of the entire field as Bearkat fans stormed onto it. I've had several requests for prints of the shot, so I'm posting this here in case any other Kat fans would like one, as well.

Order your 32"x9" panoramic photo print of the crowd taking the field following the Bearkats' historic victory over Montana! This will be a one-run only print, so don't wait and miss out! This will be a high resolution professional photographic print, suitable for framing.

Orders will be accepted through Tuesday, December 27.

$25.00 plus shipping, paid via PayPal. Photos will be mailed the first week in January. If you happen to be in the Brenham area, let me know and there will be no shipping costs.

To order, e-mail your shipping address to photos@jamespharaon.com, and I will send you an invoice to pay from on PayPal.

Thanks, and Eat 'Em Up Kats!

SHSU Battle Message

2011-12-16T11:40:00.000-06:00

Mad crazy Kat props to Michael F. for putting this together.

Respect the Bull

2011-12-15T06:30:00.000-06:00

Pinc Gator does it again. Nice work.

Eat 'Em, Up Kats!

2011-12-10T06:10:00.001-06:00

The Continuing Case for Optical Drives

2011-12-08T09:19:00.001-06:00

This morning I ran across this post from a year ago regarding the need for optical drives and making the case that the time to kill optical hasn't come yet.

Since that time, Apple has shipped new models of the MacBook Air and the Mac Mini without an optical drive. Lion shipped without optical (they opted, instead, to make the OS available on a flash drive after user outcry). And Netflix attempted to shift its business away from DVDs by breaking its streaming and DVD businesses into two separate companies (only to cancel that move shortly afterward). The Mac App store launched, offering software for download instead of on DVD for install. But some titles, such as OS X Lion weigh in at 3.5 GB, which would take hours to download.

Several times in the past year I've attempted to deliver some portraits I took digitally, instead of on DVD (but in every case, the client called back and requested a disc so they didn't have to download all their photos).

Also this year, I was able to burn and produce DVDs as freelance projects. I was able to install some games that I hadn't played in several years from the discs, which I still have. I was able to deliver press files to print quickly (and cheaply) by burning them to DVD. I never got these discs back, nor did I expect to because DVDs are so cheap.

So the optical drive landscape has changed somewhat in the last year, but I still agree with every word of what I wrote last year. We still need optical drives. Period.

On Android

2011-12-08T09:10:00.001-06:00

People who claim they are happy with their Android phones are the same people who were happy they got Gobots instead of Transformers because they could pop off the arms and interchange them between robots.

Sure, the results were ugly and didn't work properly afterward, but you could do it.

Typo Roulette

2011-11-28T10:28:00.000-06:00

How many typos can you count on this one sign alone?
Shameful.

Turpin Family Portraits

2011-11-28T05:16:00.001-06:00

Last weekend, I was honored to be asked to shoot some family portraits for some old friends of ours - the Turpins. A few months ago I got to shoot baby portraits of baby Jackson, and so I was very pleased when they asked me back to shoot the whole family.

They wanted to shoot outside, which I always love. But the day was gray and overcast with light that most photographers LOVE to shoot in - but that I hate. I love contrast, and I really like shooting in sunny conditions. But the shoot must go on, to paraphrase and old saying...

So we went down to a park near where they live and shot using a flash, diffused with a gel on it to give a bit more warmth than the day would have otherwise offered.

Here are some of my favorite shots:

Shut Up and Suck It Up, Big Babies

2011-11-23T10:28:00.001-06:00

I'd like to add a fourth: nobody helped me pay my student loan debts. It took me and my wife eleven years to pay off our loans, and even though it took considerable resources out of our monthly budget, it was still an obligation we had made and it was our duty to honor it, no matter how much we disliked it.

Memo to students: shut up, get an education and then pay for it. Education isn't free, and it shouldn't be. Suck it up and quit being suck big damn crybabies. You're (technically) adults. Start acting like it.

The Way Reminders SHOULD Work

2011-11-22T03:04:00.001-06:00

Dear Apple,

Your Reminders app in iOS5 is a great idea. I love the location-aware nature of it. But it's awfully hard to use, and that's not very Apple-ish. I know, I know.... you're probably tired of people giving you grief about the Reminders app. But I really do like it. And I have a suggestion.

I should be able to set up a reminder directly from the maps app. For instance, this morning I'm going fishing at Seawolf Park in Galveston. I searched for it on my Maps app and found it. I should be able to add reminder for this location directly from the screen where I have the option to save as a contact, share my location and save as a bookmark. There should be another button directly below those that reads "Set a Reminder for this Location."

The way it works currently, I'd have to add the location to my contacts first in order to set a reminder. I don't want to do that. There are lots of places I go all the time - the mall, the grocery store, a restaurant - that I might want to set a reminder for but don't want cluttering up my contacts list. And since the Reminders app is a built-in app (and can't be deleted), there shouldn't be any reason why it can't have system-wide presence like Maps and does. Heck, even some non-built-in apps have that kind of access ("Open in iBooks, for instance.)

So there it is. It's a pretty simple request. I'm sure you thought of it and just forgot to flip the switch on the code or something when iOS5 shipped. So get on that, please? It'll make Reminders a WHOLE lot more convenient to use.

Thanks!

Pat Curtis 1929-2011

2011-11-13T06:42:00.001-06:00

My earliest memory of my Grandma is of her putting a towel down on the seat of her car (a Mustang, if I remember correctly) because my bare legs were burning on the hot vinyl seats. It was the '70s, shorts were short, socks were long and everything seemed to be made out of vinyl.

I remember her getting me Cheerios down from the cabinet at her house because she didn't want me eating the dog biscuits that I could reach, so she helped me get something more appropriate (and just as tasty). I've got a lot of other snippets of memories from around the time I was three - about the age that Noble is now - of playing in her back yard with my cousins. And family Christmas at her house. And playing her piano - the same piano Kayci now practices her piano on. And sitting at her table eating. I remember playing at her house with soap operas on - Days of Our Lives - and of "helping" her in the back yard, which usually consisted of her giving me various errands and tasks to do ("there are some sticks on the ground over there. Can you bring me all the sticks?") to keep me busy while she tried to get some work done.

But I have two memories of her that are my favorite. The first is of driving down South Main where it intersects South Post Oak. There used to be a K-Mart there on that corner, and I remember passing by it many times with my Grandma (and of getting some portraits made there, too). I have no idea where we had been, but we were on our way back to her house. I was sitting in the front seat (remember - it was the '70s) and I remember her making up a song about my name. And I remember her teaching me "The Ants Go Marching" - the same song Noble loves to sing with me today on our way to drop him off at school (and sung, naturally, in the same dramatic staccato as Grandma did). And I remember her singing me a very silly song by Carmen Miranda called Cuanto Le Gusta.

And then there was the day I decided I wanted to go see Grandma, so I walked a block and a half to her house. Unsupervised. Unannounced. We lived around the corner from her when I was three, and I distinctly remember walking down the sidewalk of my street, carefully looking both ways for cars (as I had apparently just been taught) and knocking on her door. I remember her surprise when she opened the door and saw me. I remember her calling my frantic mother and telling her that I was there and that I was alright. And I remember her making me lunch. Nobody ever made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich better.

I spent a lot of time with my grandma, and I loved every minute of it. She really seemed to understand me when no one else did. She understood that kids have a tendency to write on walls, so she gave my cousins and I a special place in her house - the closet in "the childrens' room" - where we could write on the walls all we wanted. My first knowledge of science was at Grandma's house when she explained how a potato would grow roots in a vase on her windowsill. She answered all of my questions, and I'm sure there were a lot. I marveled at her paintings and loved it when she would read stories to me. I loved hearing about all the wonderful adventures she had had (she lived a really interesting life). She was adopted, and so I think she had a little bit of a different taste for life. Everything seemed like an adventure. And I think I got my love of adventure and mystery from her.

When I think about my Grandma, I think about sun brewed tea (lemon and mint), Avon and costume jewelry. I think about drinking from the hose in her back yard. And I remember her patiently reading every one of my Bill cartoons, no matter how dumb the jokes were. I remember taking trips with her and Granddaddy to all kinds of interesting places - Teague, Richmond, West Columbia and all sorts of cemeteries all over the state (we used to love to see what the oldest grave we could find was). I remember how beautiful and park-like her yard always was. The day my sister was born in 1981, I recall a sunny May day picking dandelions in her back yard. I remember the mint plants in her yard and her making mint jelly (which she vowed she would never do again). And I think Grandma gave me the nickname, "Destructo."

A couple of years ago, I had the opportunity to have Grandma over to the house for a weekend and just sit and talk. We talked about all sorts of things, but we really talked about family. I grew up enjoying countless hours of sitting in her chair looking at old family photo albums. I knew that she was adopted and that she was the keeper of our family knowledge, so it was important to me to sit down and get as much of that out of her as I could. She brought the family Bibles with her and we talked for hours and hours about as much as we know about the history of our family. I recorded those talks, and I'm looking forward to sharing them with my aunts and cousins soon. It was a weekend I'll never forget, and one for which I will always be grateful.

The past three months, Grandma has been in the hospital almost non-stop. She was finally in a rehab facility getting strong enough to go live my Aunt Peggy. She was supposed to go home Monday.

I was supposed to have dinner with Grandma and my mom today.

Next week we were supposed to have our first family Thanksgiving in over 20 years. We still will.

But Grandma died yesterday evening. The last time I talked to her - last weekend - she sounded great. She was feisty as every and looking forward to getting out. In fact, she was trying her best to convince the doctors that she was strong enough to go home early, but she was frustrated because they weren't buying it.

She told me a couple of weeks ago while she was laying in her hospital bed that she was just tired. She knew that she was still here for a reason, but she didn't know what that reason was. It turns out that she was here just long enough to see her family come together again in way that hasn't happened in more than a decade. Everyone is speaking to each other again and we all have new perspective. Tempers have calmed somewhat and bygones are in the process of being what they are.

I wish that she could have been with us forever. I wish that she could have watched Kayci and Noble and Shannon's daughter, Avery, grow up. I wish that Grandma would've gotten to see Kayci's first piano recital (and to tell her again the story of her first recital when she had to be escorted off the stage). I wish that she had gotten to see Noble grow into the mini version of me that she loved and understood. I think they would've been great friends. But they got to meet her, at least, even if they didn't get to know her. They'll have a memory of her. And for that I'm grateful. I'm thankful for her life and for the intangible lessons that she has taught us all.

I'm going to miss her spirit and getting all sorts of crazy e-mail chain letters and hoaxes from her. I'm going to miss her cards. I'll miss her asking about what the kids are doing. I'll miss her stories. I'll miss her breathlessly referring to me when I was a little monster.

Thanks, Grandma. Say hi to Grandaddy for me, okay?

Sick minds think alike

2011-11-11T08:37:00.000-06:00

Perry is Finished

2011-11-10T05:12:00.000-06:00

Having watched NONE of the Republican debate last night except for this clip, I can't see how he can possibly overcome this.

If you're seeing this on Facebook, the clip is here: http://youtu.be/6an4zSj8LhU

I got a treat!

2011-10-31T17:15:00.000-05:00

Valerie McCullough Senior Portraits

2011-10-31T16:13:00.000-05:00

Yesterday I got the opportunity to shoot my first-ever Senior portraits for a friend of mine at work.

One day a few months ago, Valerie - one of the girls who works in the mail room part time - sidled into my cube and said she really like the photos I take at work and wondered if I take Senior portraits. I thought she was joking, so I said something about taking photos of geriatrics and laughed off the request. She insisted that she was serious and I told her that I'd never shot any before, but that I'd be willing to try.

So over the past couple of months, she periodically stopped by my desk to remind me about her portraits. I still wasn't sure if she was completely serious, so I kept putting it off "until it wasn't so hot outside."

But then about a month ago, she stopped by with an earnestness that told me that she was, indeed, serious. So we set a date for the shoot and talked about what she had in mind and what she was into. I really wanted her portraits to reflect her personality.

Turns out Valerie is a transplant from Oklahoma, and a self-described "country girl." So I envisioned something with sweeping rural landscapes and tall waving grass. One problem: Texas is in the middle of the worst drought in its history, so all the grass is dead, and it has been all summer. Up until a couple of weeks ago, I was secretly panicking. The Texas landscape is just downright ugly right now. And then a couple of cool fronts came the second week of October, and with it some much needed rain. And it turns out that the rain we got was just enough to make some grass grow in some places.

Saturday, my family and I headed out for a picnic/location scouting drive to see where the best grassy landscapes were. Luckily, we found some great locations all in the same place.

The day of the shoot, I called my buddy Matt and asked if he'd like to go along and help me out with the shoot. This being my first portrait shoot, I was a bit nervous that I'd screw things up and end up with no good shots. I would have made myself look silly and have wasted poor Valerie's time. Matt is an exceptional photographer in his own right, so I knew that with him there that if need be - that is, if I completely sucked up the joint - that he could just beat me over the head with a telephoto lens and finish the shoot himself.

The shoot started rather oddly with me trying to awkwardly explain what I wanted Valerie to do - "okay, stand on the back of my truck in front of this sign." But thankfully, it got better very quickly. I knew we were racing daylight. Golden hour was just beginning, so we had about one hour in which to shoot as much as possible. I had several locations in mind, so it was going to be tough. But Valerie was a great sport.

I literally could not have completed this shoot without Matt's help. Being a photographer himself (and having worked together several times before), we were completely in synch. He popped out a bounce card at exactly the moment I was opening my mouth to ask for one. He knew exactly when the bounce wasn't doing the job anymore and that it was time to switch to flash. And best of all, he knew exactly where to stand and where to direct the light without me having to explain it. And then, toward the end of the shoot - after the sun had gone down and we were winding down and getting "a couple more just for fun," he suggested we shoot through the reflector, which created a huge beautiful, soft light. And we shot for another 20 minutes in three more poses.

My thanks to Matt for all of his help and to Valerie for giving me the opportunity and for trusting me based just on what she's seen me shoot at work.

These are a few of my favorite shots:

See the entire Flickr set here.

Back to the Future Alternate Ending

2011-10-24T13:13:00.000-05:00

Click on the post title to see this video if you're seeing this on Facebook.

Obama Asks Designers to Work for Free

2011-10-21T09:49:00.001-05:00

From Rolling Stone:

The Obama campaign has more than $60 million cash on hand. In an economy this bad, you'd think a presidential campaign that flush would be happy to pay good money for a talented designer to create a campaign poster.

But the folks at Obama campaign have taken a page from the Arianna Huffington book of economic exploitation and called on "artists across the country" to create a poster ... for free.
And here's the kicker. It's a jobs poster.

Yes, the Obama campaign is soliciting unpaid labor to create a poster "illustrating why we support President Obama's plan to create jobs now, and why we'll re-elect him to continue fighting for jobs for the next four years."

If you win? You get: A framed copy of your own poster, signed by the president ("approximate retail value $195").

And if you don't win? Well, that's too bad. You've not only lost the contest, you've also surrendered your intellectual property. "All submissions will become the property of Obama for America," according to the fine print.

You stay classy, Obama.

Surely, no self-respecting AIGA member would dare get anywhere near this, right?

What I Want For Christmas in 2013

2011-10-18T11:33:00.002-05:00

From /Film:

If you thought Back to the Future Nikes were cool, you’re about to see some serious shit. At the International DeLorean Owners Event in Houston, Texas last week, DeLorean Motor Company announced a partnership with electric car company called Epic EV. The intent is to mass-produce a fully electric DeLorean called the DMCEV by 2013.

The companies haven’t released any specs yet, but if it’s anything like Epic EV’s Torq Roadster, it’ll get a 200 hp+, 44V/156V electric motor, powered by a 24-30 KWh lithium ion phosphate battery. Sure, it’s bit low on jiggawatts right now, but the companies have two years to get that sorted out.

Horrible Photoshop job on the image above, but the thought of a BRAND NEW DeLorean is awesome!

Start saving, people. I need you to buy me one of these.

So, You Think You're a Designer?

2011-10-18T10:32:00.000-05:00

Prove it.

Play this kerning game that asks you to correctly kern 10 words and compares your solutions to those of professional designers.

I scored a 96 out of 100 my first time out.

The Graveyard

2011-10-18T06:33:00.000-05:00

We love Halloween! The kids and I have been working for the past several days to build headstones for a graveyard Halloween decoration for our front yard.

We started with some old foamcore conference posters that were going to be thrown away at work. Kayci and I drew the outlines of grave markers on the posters and I cut them out.

Then Kayci spray painted the cut posters gray and both she and I decorated them with marker. Noble got in on the act, too. He spray painted a gold glitter skull that we found in the dollar spot at Target and drew on the backs of the grave markers.

Then - under the cover of dusk - Kayci and I carefully built our graveyard on the hill in our front yard. I dug up the ground in front of each grave, as if it were freshly opened (either by grave robbers or by the dead rising from their tombs - take your pick!). And the final piece was the skull - I partially buried it in front of one of the graves, and it looks pretty amazing.

But then the cool front blew in. I awoke this morning and looked out the window to see all but one of the graves laying down. So I went out and picked up the gravestones and will put them back in place when the wind dies down a bit. But luckily I got out last night and snapped some photos of the Stone Street graveyard before the wind kicked up.

An Artist a Day: 10

2011-10-17T17:05:00.000-05:00

Today is grunge band day. I've been listening today to Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana. I completely forgot to wear Doc Martins and plaid today, but I have enjoyed listening to some music that I haven't heard in quite a while - particularly Pearl Jam's Ten and Vs. albums.

Ten came out in 1991, but got really popular in the spring and summer before my senior year in high school. It still reminds me of senior car washes and hanging out with friends that summer. Vs. came out during my freshman year in college and for some reason reminds me of listening to it at night in my dorm room. "Elderly Woman Behind the Counter in a Small Town" was my favorite song from that album, but I recall not really caring for the album much overall at the time. I remember being really, really disappointed that it sounded so different than Ten. And it also killed my buying of any future Pearl Jam albums. Besides, by the time Vitology came out in the winter of 1994 grunge was all but dead anyway, at least as far as I was concerned.

By 1994 I was still into rock (after a fling with techno over the summer) , but a much more mellow kind such as Tom Petty's Wildflowers, Crowded House's Together Alone, Counting Crows' August and Everything After and Nirvana's Unplugged in New York. I had those albums on heavy rotation that winter, along with quite a bit of Rush. But following Kurt Kobain's suicide, Unplugged in New York captivated me. I wasn't a Cobain fan or anything - I was just searching for meaning in the world that he had chosen to abandon.

Stone Temple Pilots burst on the scene in the summer of 1993 and I remember hearing my across-the-hall neighbor blasting "Plush" throughout the halls of the dorm the first week I arrived at college. I went right out and bought Core and started blasting it myself. The Purple album was kind of the soundtrack of the spring of '94 for me. It still brings back memories of watching the Rockets win a world championship, a DeMolay trip to Kansas City where we won a championship of our own and a road trip to Colorado with my then girlfriend and her family.

These bands alone represent both very exciting "top of the world" times in high school (each band's first albums) and very confusing, dark times in college (each band's second album). The music is still haunting after all these years, but I can finally enjoy listening without the angst and gut-wrenching baggage that they carried for me at the time. This is some of the music that helped define who I would become as a man, and for that I love every gritty guitar-crunching note.

Playlist: 74 songs; 5.3 hours

The Lock

2011-10-17T15:02:00.001-05:00

This is a true story.

On the campus of Sam Houston State University, outside the Lee Drain Building (between AB4 and the ROTC/former Dance building) there is a bike rack with a lock on it with no bike attached.

Now, that lock has been there for a long time - since I was a student at Sam Houston State. While walking around the campus with Kristi and the kids this weekend, I saw this lock and couldn't believe that it's still there. It's been almost 15 years, after all, and it hasn't moved. A building has been torn down and another built right next to it. And countless bikes have been locked up to the rack right next to it. I wonder how many people have ever even noticed this lock sitting there, protecting nothing but the pole it's attached to?

I know it's been there since 1997 because it's my lock.

One day I borrowed Kristi's bike to ride to class on, and I locked up her bike in this very spot. Or at least I thought I had. It turns out that I had apparently only looped the lock around the bike rack pole and not around the bike frame. And when I returned for the bike later that day, it was gone.

I'm not quite sure why I left the lock there, but I never went back for it. And it stayed right there. I always assumed that the university would just cut it off the pole, but I guess that never reached the top of the priority list.

And there it sits today. I probably still have the key in storage somewhere, but I'm just going to leave it. I'm curious how long it will remain there. Will it still be there when my kids are students there? Or grandkids? I picked up the lock, and it's still very firmly locked. Despite the rust, I'm almost positive that the key would unlock it. but where's the fun - and the mystery - in that? For all I know there's an urban legend on campus surrounding this fixture on the SHSU campus. Or would anyone even notice if one day the lock was just gone?

It's just another part of my legacy, I guess.

I Got My Hands All Over Siri

2011-10-17T09:54:00.000-05:00

From TechCrunch:

But wait. Voice technology has been around for a long time. Or, as one TechCrunch commentersuccinctly put it on Erick’s video demo post of Siri: “4 year old software, 8 year old technology.” ...
So if the stuff Siri is doing is old, and if others did do it FIRST, then why is everyone so damn excited about the feature?
There are a few reasons. But the simplest answer is one that has played out time and time again over the past several years: Apple did it right.

I got a chance to play with a Siri-enabled iPhone 4S over the weekend and, quite frankly, I was amazed. The speech recognition is simply amazing and the answers it gave were exactly what you wanted to know. It's not perfect, of course. There were times when Siri was stumped or had to invoke a Google search, but those were times when I was trying to stump Siri. Siri didn't know when Jesus Christ is returning, for instance.

I was skeptical when I watched the keynote and saw Scott Forstall talking to Siri. I wondered why, especially given the flop that was the voice-enabled iPod Shuffle, Apple keeps insisting on wanting us to talk to our devices. But I was impressed with what I saw (I was NOT impressed by the shuffle, BTW...)

And in a touch of brilliance, Apple made the default action for bringing your iPhone to your ear (when you're not on a call, that is) a gesture that automatically engages Siri. That's brilliant because you don't want to be the guy walking around with his phone out in front of him talking to it. It simply looks like you're on the phone talking.

Siri is simply a killer app and completely amazing.

What You Can Get Me for Christmas

2011-10-17T08:27:00.002-05:00

From Gizmodo:

Profiles in History is auctioning off over a 100 Back to the Future props but the one that's got me—and about the entire rest of the world—shaking in my boots is the DeLorean used in BTTF III. It's one of only seven DeLoreans used throughout the entire series.

I'd like mine in silver stainless, please.

Steve Jobs in Heaven

2011-10-17T08:22:00.000-05:00

SHSU Walkaround Portfolio

2011-10-17T06:20:00.000-05:00

As we were walking around the Sam Houston State campus for Homecoming this past weekend, we started noticing things that I had designed for the school. Most of them were Sammy Bearkat art, but others were logos, as well. So I started snapping photos of the things that I saw. This is my legacy, and I'm proud of it.

An Artist a Day: 9

2011-10-14T15:44:00.001-05:00

Today's artist is Willie Nelson.

'Nuff said.

Quite Possibly the Best Steve Jobs Story Ever

2011-10-14T08:01:00.001-05:00

From Plucky Tree (via Daring Fireball):

Steve was heading towards a car parked next to the curb with its door open, waiting for him. The car was idling. A family was standing near the Apple sign outside the building, a common site for people to take photos on their pilgrimages to Apple.

The father turned to Steve as he passed close by and asked, "Excuse me, sir, would you mind taking our photo?"

Steve paused for a moment as an iPhone was extended to him, realizing that they didn't seem to know who he was. With a hint of enthusiasm, he said "Sure!" as he took the iPhone into his hands.
Steve took a great deal of care composing the photo, backing up a few steps several times, tapping the iPhone screen to lock focus, then said "Smile!" as he snapped the photo, grinning a little bit himself to encourage the family to follow suit.

He handed back the iPhone and they said "Thank you, sir" as Steve stepped into his car, closed the door, and was driven away. The family looked at the photo that Steve had taken and all agreed that it looked great. Then the iPhone was pocketed and they were on their way.

I Made a Man Cry

2011-10-13T16:09:00.000-05:00

The new issue of Texas Highways magazine arrived yesterday, and I was surprised to open the cover and see - on page one - a shot of the Bastrop State Park Wildfire that I shot back at the beginning of September.

But what surprised me even more was the first sentence of the editor's column that accompanied the image:

"It's extremely rare that photographs bring tears to my eyes. But as I scrolled through James Pharaon's images from the fire-devastated Bastrop State Park, my immediate and unscripted response caused the images to go out of focus."

That's right. I made a man cry using only my camera. And not by hitting him with it, either.

I joke, but this is a very proud day in my life. It's the first time I've ever had any of my photographs used in a magazine. I haven't gotten any phone calls from Laurence Parent yet asking to be my understudy, but I'll try to keep the line open, just in case.

Because It's What I Want

2011-10-13T12:34:00.001-05:00

Kids and liberals today. Sheesh.

Click on the post title to view this video if you're seeing this on Facebook.

An Artist a Day: 8

2011-10-13T12:19:00.002-05:00

Today's artist is Metallica.

Metallica is one of those bands that runs hot and cold with me. I like some of their music, but some of it I find just noisy and uninspired. But the stuff of theirs that is good is really, really good. In my opinion, that's the music that I own. The black album. S&M. Most of Garage, Inc. Unlike the Metallica uber-fan, I'm not a fan of their early work. It seems immature and half-baked to me. Their later stuff just sounds more mature and stronger to me. Less raw, sure, but stronger.

My experience with Metallica began in middle school. The stoners and the kids I couldn't stand to be around were the Metallica fans, so naturally I wanted nothing to do with the band. Then, in 1991 Metallica, also known as "the black album"came out. The first time I heard it, I was playing sand volleyball (as I did a lot in the summer before my senior year) and it was simply awesome. But I didn't buy the album. It was Metallica, after all. I liked it, though. "Enter Sandman" was on that album. And "One." The album was legendary.

And that was it until 1999. That's when I heard the Metallica version of "Turn the Page" on the radio one day. I was really into a heavier rock sound at the time and so I bought Metallica's Garage, Inc. CD. It was a collection of cover songs, which made the purchase less risky for me. But I soon became addicted to Metallica's growly sound on other songs, such as "No Leaf Clover" and "Fuel" from the same album. "Whiskey in the Jar" became a staple in my music rotation almost nonstop for a long time. Then the theme to Mission: Impossible 2 came out and I was even further hooked. I ended up buying the black album and Load.

And then came S&M. Metallica put out a double album of a live show with the San Francisco symphony that was both beautiful and haunting; both moody and hard-rocking. It was (and still is) simply great to listen to.

And then that was it again. The band lineup changed and Metallica just seemed to fall apart and fade from the radar. In the mean time, my musical tastes changed, as well, from rock to more alternative. By the time Metallica resurfaced in 2003 I was a father and had more important things on my mind. That, and the sound of Metallica's new album just didn't grab me. The same is true of their subsequent work, as well.

So my Metallica catalog consists primarily of music from a four year period in the band's history, with the exception of Metallica. It's the Metallica sound that I like. It may have been their most "commercial" period, which will send any "real" Metallica fan screaming in the other direction, but I'm not claiming to be a Metallica fanboy. So there.

Playlist: 75 songs; 6.9 hours

Goodbye Blurry Images

2011-10-11T12:31:00.002-05:00

From Adobe MAX:

A sneak peek of a new Photoshop plugin that can dramatically unblur a blurry image. And this after I've spent so much time weeding those blurry shots out of my photo library, too.

Wow. Just...wow.

click here if you're seeing this on Facebook: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xxjiQoTp864&feature=player_embedded#!

An Artist a Day: 6

2011-10-11T11:52:00.000-05:00

Today's artists are R.E.M., Spin Doctors, Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Gin Blossoms and Peter Gabriel.

Today's playlist marks the first playlist that doesn't feature a single artist or band, but instead is a group of artists with a common bond. In the case of today, that bond is music I was listening to during my senior year in high school (minus some artists that have their own playlists). The list was originally intended to be an REM list and was born out of the recent breakup of REM. But it turns out that I don't really have all that much REM music, so I built today's playlist out of the REM album Life's Rich Pageant, which I had on pretty much constant repeat in my car for awhile in the fall of 1992.

1992 was a fun time for me. It was the beginning of my senior year of high school and a pretty amazing time for me personally. I had just made it as a varsity spirit leader, I was really expanding as a cartoonist and as an artist and I was working really hard on the school newspaper as both a cartoonist and as a writer.

The Spin Doctors were also a big part of that year's soundtrack. The Superman-themed title song, "Pocket Full of Kryptonite," got me started listening and I found that I liked the bluesy, funky jams on their debut album, especially "What Time is It?," "Refrigerator Car," and the 12-plus minute jam "Shinbone Alley/Hard to Exist." For awhile I actually hated the song "Two Princes" because it was on such heavy rotation on the radio stations we had playing at my senior-year place of employment, Foot Locker.

Peter Gabriel is represented on the list because of the album So. It was already several years old in 1992, but that's when I discovered it. And I loved the sound, especially "Red Rain" and "We Do What We're Told." I seem to recall listening to Peter Gabriel a lot on Sundays and in the rain. I don't know why.

Big Head Todd and the Monsters and Gin Blossoms are both from the spring of 1993. Big Head Todd's "Broken Hearted Savior" was getting some airplay on the radio, and after a rough breakup with a girl I was dating it just spoke to me for some reason. I liked Big Head Todd's heavy sound, and even today it sounds timeless. Maybe it was my lack of disposable income or my changing musical tastes during college, but Sister Sweetly is the only Big Head Todd album I own.

The Gin Blossom's New Miserable Experience is an album that I started listening to some time around spring break of my senior year and carried me into my first semester in college. I remember driving around Huntsville listening to "Hey Jealousy" and "Allison Road." I loved that there was what seemed to be every kind of music on that album, from rock to pop to blues to country. It was perfect for the time in my life when I was struggling to figure out who and what I wanted to be. It was an album that couldn't really be defined, so it kept me from defining myself by the type of music I was listening to. And for unknown reasons - and just like Big Head Todd and the Monsters - it's the only album by this band that I own. And again, I'm not sure why.

Playlist: 85 songs, 5.9 hours

An Artist a Day: 5

2011-10-10T11:21:00.000-05:00

Today's artist is another of my all-time favorite groups, Queen. They may be silly (and down-right corny) at times, but they make up for it in great arrangements, serious rockers and some killer guitars by Brian May (as well as some of the greatest songs of all time).

I remember hearing some Queen songs when I was little in the late '70s and early '80s. In fact, I remember the kid across the street, Harold, telling me that "We Will Rock You" was R-rated (which made it even more cool). It isn't, of course, but to a 5-year old who was accustomed to listening more to his parents' Barry Manilow than any real rock, it may as well have been.

My resurgent interest in Queen came in my sophomore year of high school when a girl I dated briefly, Ann Modgling, expressed an interest in them. A couple of weeks later, Ann was history, but my love of Queen's sound stuck around.

The Queen song "One Vision," which was featured in one of my favorite movies, Iron Eagle is a solid rocker that I kept in my tape player for most of my early driving career. The hard-driving drums and fast beat were perfect for cranking up and tuning out the Houston traffic.

And then I heard "Killer Queen" and "I Can't Live with You" just as I was headed into the summer of 1991. That summer brought a trip to church camp in Colorado, a job at Gap Kids in the Galleria and my first out-of-town driving experience to a Boy Scout camping trip in Galveston. And Queen was a huge part of the sound track for all of those.

And then, for Christmas 1991 I got my first CD player and with it two Queen CDs: News of the World and A Night at the Opera. I remember long nights sitting at my art table in my room working on one project or another to the slightly confusing sounds of the tongue-in-cheek Queen. Part of their attraction for me was that I never could tell if they were serious or not. And I guess that's what kept me hooked.

Playlist: 66 songs, 4.7 hours

Flailing

2011-10-10T08:43:00.001-05:00

From Fox News:

Netflix said Monday it has killed its plans to turn its DVD service into a separate business named "Qwikster."

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings revealed the news via a blog post, reversing a decision the firm announced via a blog post three weeks ago.

While Netflix had to use some strained logic to explain its decision to split the businesses last month, this one was straightforward -- it was not going to force customers to use two different services to rent DVDs and stream video, because customers hated that idea.

There are two prudent courses of action here:

1. CEO Reed Hastings needs to be fired. Immediately. He looks like a buffoon and he's effectively lost all credibility. His actions have seriously wounded - if not killed - Netflix and caused quite a bit of doubt about the company's long-term viability.

2. Sell! Sell! Sell!!!

Steve Jobs in a Nutshell

2011-10-07T12:52:00.002-05:00

From Jason Snell at MacWorld:

Steve Jobs didn’t invent those products singlehandedly in his garage, legends be damned. There are hundreds of brilliant people at Apple who deserve the credit for making the company’s incredibly popular products. But Steve Jobs was the guy who created the environment those products were built in. He’s the one who prodded the people at Apple to make their prototypes better. He made Apple what it is. What the company does from here on out, it does because of him.

Exactly.

An Artist a Day: 4

2011-10-07T08:33:00.000-05:00

Today, day 4 of An Artist a Day, is Rush day. I intentionally scheduled this on a Friday. Rush is my favorite band of all time, and there's nothing like turning on Rush and listening all the livelong day. I know what you're saying: "with Rush, 8 hours is only about 5 songs..." Har har.

iTunes picked "Oh Canada" (from the South Park soundtrack) as the first song in the playlist. I'm sure it had a good giggle over that. I'm not counting that one. So the first REAL song in the playlist is, appropriately, "Dreamline," which was the song that got me hooked on Rush during my junior year of high school. I can't listen to that song without thinking of my high school buddy, Brad Chelette.

"We are youngWandering the face of the EarthWondering what our dreams might be worthLearning that we're only immortalFor a limited time"

My Rush library consists of 209 songs and 18.3 hours of music. Maybe I should do TWO Rush days. Hmmmmm...

Jackson

2011-10-07T07:57:00.000-05:00

This birth announcement came in the mail yesterday from our friend Lynn. I glanced at it as I walked by the table and then stopped and did a double take.

That photo looked so familiar. And then I realized why- I shot it a few weeks ago in their living room! We had gone over one afternoon to visit and so I could take some newborn shots of baby Jackson. This was a happy accident shot that I somehow captured in the half a second that he smiled like this, and it's one of my favorite shots from that day.

I love that I'm still surprised and amazed when I take a shot that someone thinks is worthy of being used. And I love even more that I was able to capture such a great moment of this little man for their family.

Quote of the Day

2011-10-06T11:59:00.000-05:00

"Creativity is just connecting things. When you ask creative people how they did something, they feel a little guilty because they didn’t really do it, they just saw something. It seemed obvious to them after a while. That’s because they were able to connect experiences they’ve had and synthesize new things. And the reason they were able to do that was that they’ve had more experiences or they have thought more about their experiences than other people."

-Steve Jobs

But the Show Must Go On

2011-10-06T08:43:00.001-05:00

The past several years, when people would ask me who I would like to meet if I could, my answer was always Steve Jobs. Then the question would change. "Okay, alive or dead, who would you want to meet?" Well, that changed things. There are a whole slew of people that are dead that I'd want to meet - Jesus, Disney, John Wayne, Lincoln, Washington, Franklin, Crockett, Houston, and the list goes on. But in the living world, Steve Jobs was at the top of my list.

Here was a guy I could emulate. He wasn't perfect, but the way that he thought about things, how he looked at things and his rebel streak were all so interesting to me. He was one of those rare people about whom you can say, "he changed the world." And mean it.

I have a good friend who actually got to work with Steve, and for that I'll always be jealous. I would've loved to work at Apple - or even just to be a fly on the wall - and see how Steve worked on a daily basis. Steve was a visionary. He not only came up with ideas, but he looked at the ideas of others in a way that no one else had. He saw ways to incorporate those ideas with other ideas, to mash them together, to come up with the same type of product that others were already making (computers, music players, phones, tablets, etc.) but in a distinctly unique way.

It was Steve Jobs that taught me that it was okay to be particular and unapologetic about your opinions regarding design and things that you thought made things better. It's okay not to like to see screws on a laptop chassis or to hate the sound of a fan in your computer. And then work toward a world where those things don't exist, even if it's only in your little section of the world.

Some people referred to Steve's ability to see the world the way he envisioned it with laser-like focus - and to draw those around him into his vision - as his "reality distortion field." People with great vision have a way of doing that. Steve's keynote addresses were famous for that. But in the iPhone 4S keynote presentation yesterday, there was a distinct lack of a reality distortion field. Watching the video, it seemed as if the presenters were doing the best they could, half-heartedly. There was almost a somber tone. It seemed as though something were weighing on them. I assumed that it was because they were trying their best to unveil a product that they knew people weren't going to be thrilled about, regardless of how amazing it is. Only geeks care about tech specs. Normal people just want something new and shiny and different. Looking back on the video now, it seems to me that they knew why that seat up front marked "reserved" sat empty. But they couldn't say anything. They knew that their friend, their coworker, their boss and their mentor was dying. They had to go through with the presentation, anyway. But the show must go on.

There's even been some speculation, based on the fact that no time of death has been given, that Steve actually died on Tuesday and that the announcement of his death was held off for a day so that the news wouldn't overshadow the iPhone 4S announcement. Steve was such a showman, so conscious of timing and of a good presentation that it certainly seems plausible, at least. I doubt it, but it seems plausible.

I suspect that Apple shares will tank today. For whatever reason, people just weren't satisfied with the iPhone 4S announcement and saw it as a misstep - the first without Steve at the helm. That's not true, of course. The iPhone 4S has been in development for well over a year. Steve had his hand in it. But because it was a speed bump and not a new form factor people are calling it a failure. People were expecting to go to prom, but all they got was a Homecoming dance. And now the prom king is dead.

This reminds me of Hurricane Rita. It came hot on the heels of Hurricane Katrina and people simply panicked and over-reacted. If Hurricane Rita had happened in a year other than Katrina, it wouldn't have been such a big deal. In the same way, if Steve Jobs' death hadn't occurred the day after an underwhelming product announcement, people might just shrug it off. But because of the events' proximity, I think people will equate the two. I don't , but people will be people.

Today is going to be an interesting day. Apple will survive without Steve Jobs. As will Disney. As will Pixar. But it's certainly going to be different. A legendary man has died. A visionary. An innovator. A leader. A force to be reckoned with. An inspiration. An icon.

But the show must go on.

An Artist a the Day: Day 3

2011-10-06T08:24:00.003-05:00

Today's artist is The Killers and Brandon Flowers (the lead singer of the Killers), Christmas songs and all.

It's going to be a good day.

Think Different

2011-10-06T08:14:00.001-05:00

I never saw this version before today.

View here is you're seeing this on Facebook:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8rwsuXHA7RA&feature=player_embedded#!

Steve Jobs Dead at 56

2011-10-05T19:54:00.001-05:00

Rest in peace, Steve. Thanks for everything.

An Artist a Day: Day 2

2011-10-05T08:21:00.000-05:00

Today is Jimmy Eat World Day. 93 songs in the library, 6.5 hours and one of my favorite bands. It should be a good day.

Big Bend 2011, Part 1

2011-10-05T05:42:00.000-05:00

It's been over a month now since I returned from Big Bend, so I guess the tale has steeped long enough...

Following last year's amazing trip to Big Bend, the same four guys - Mark, Harris, Johnny and I - decided that we wanted to go on another camping trip, at a location to be determined later. We had talked about going out to the Guadalupe Mountains to hike Guadalupe Peak, the highest mountain in Texas (at 8,717 feet). But for some reason, none of us could really get all that excited about it as much as we tried. So at a lunch meeting in July, three of us (Johnny lives in another town) started talking about where we should go this year. The choices also included Big Bend Ranch State Park and the Davis Mountains. Big Bend wasn't really even on the radar. But going back to Big Bend came up, and the more we talked about it the more we realized that we were getting excited about the idea of going back. There was a LOT of stuff that we wanted to do last year but couldn't. There were entire areas of the park that we hadn't even driven to, much less hiked. So, we decided to head back to Big Bend. And best of all, we were able to reserve the exact same cabin we stayed in last year. Bonus!

We would be going on the exact same weekend as the year before, also, because of Mark's travel schedule. Most people would consider heading out into the desert to hike and camp in August a foolhardy prospect, but we knew that up in the Chisos Mountains, where we would be staying, that it would still be relatively cool. On the desert floor, however, it was above 100 degrees every day. But as it turned out, we were in the midst of one of the longest, hottest summers on record, so 100-plus degree heat didn't really scare us much. After all, the temperatures hovered around 104 degrees in Brenham for more than a month straight (and as it would turn out, it was actually a few degrees cooler in the desert than in Brenham, which hit 110 degrees that weekend - but I'm getting ahead of myself).

Our plan was to try to make this year's trip as different from last year's as possible. So instead of going on one big long overnight hike, we decided to go on several shorter (and theoretically easier) day hikes. Johnny requested a trip to the nearby town of Terlingua, so that was certainly on the agenda. Mark mentioned hiking the Lost Mine Trail and I wanted to hike into Santa Elena canyon (we couldn't last year because the river was up and we would've had to swim across to get to it). I also requested a hike to Grapevine Hills to see a rock formation called "the balanced rock." Johnny mentioned Pine Canyon, Ernst Tenaja (and going for a run on a mountain trail). The tenaja (more on that later) sounded great, but none of the rest of us a.) are in as good a shape as Johnny is b.) like to do things that make us want to vomit and die and c.) are complete badasses who would ever consider running in the freaking mountains. There's a reason there's a legend surrounding Johnny Johnson. Chuck Norris has nothing on this guy.

So our agenda would be:
Day 1: Travel and hike to "the window" for sunset
Day 2: Lost Mine Trail, Pine Canyon Trail, Ernst Tenaja
Day 3: Casa Grande (hiking up the back side), Santa Elena Canyon, Terlingua
Day 4: Travel back

The proposed agenda was grouped by location in the park, more or less. The best layed plans, as they say. Things would change a little. But I'll get to that soon.

So the agenda was set. A trip to REI and Academy, several posts on Facebook and a month later and we were ready to go. Or so we thought...

Part 2: "Cannibalism and sloth" coming soon...

Adele Forced to Cancel US Tour Dates Due to Illness

2011-10-05T04:48:00.000-05:00

From Adele.tv:

Adele has been forced to cancel her upcoming 10 city sold-out tour of the U.S. due to a haemorrhage into her vocal chord. Vocal chord issues forced the British singer to postpone dates earlier this year as well. Adele has just wrapped up touring around the UK and was preparing to kick off her US tour on October 7 in Atlantic City, NJ when her illness reappeared (see below for full list of cancelled US tour dates). Renowned for her powerful live vocal performances, Adele has been advised by doctors that she’ll need an extended rest period in order to begin to recuperate properly.

Dang. What horrible news for someone with such an amazing voice. I hope she recovers fully because I really like her music.

An Artist a Day

2011-10-04T16:48:00.001-05:00

I've decided that from now until Thanksgiving I'm going to listen to a different artist (or group of what I deem to be similar artists) every day, all day. I'll listen to everything I have by a particular artist or band on shuffle and repeat from the beginning of the day until it's time to go home, nonstop.

This is based on my iTunes library, so there are a lot of artists or bands that would be GREAT to listen to, but that I may only have an album or two for. Basically, my criteria is that I need to have three or more albums by a band or artist. I don't want to listen to the same songs six or eight times in a day, in other words. And if I have more music than a work day will allow... too bad. I'll just play as much as I can.
Today, to start things off, I've been jamming U2. Something about fall always makes me want to listen to U2. Tomorrow is Jimmy Eat World, and so on. Every day I'll try to post here to share what artist(s) I'll be listening to that day.

My list is still somewhat fluid, so if you have any suggestions, I'm all ears.

The must-have toy this Christmas

2011-10-02T19:40:00.000-05:00

Mark my words.

How You Know Your Truck is Too Dang Long

2011-09-25T16:15:00.000-05:00

Conversation with Noble at the mall

2011-09-24T18:20:00.001-05:00

Noble: Daddy, a pterranadon eats meat.
Me: they do? Are you a pterranadon?
Noble: no, I'm a Pharaon.

Tom Selleck's Moustache Makes Every Movie Better

2011-09-22T08:39:00.000-05:00

(click on the post name to view if you're seeing this on Facebook)

How...

2011-09-21T16:11:00.000-05:00

...do you suppose THIS guy feels?

from MSNBC

Quote of the Day...

2011-09-21T16:03:00.001-05:00

Regarding the economy and deficit spending...

"Just because there are check in the checkbook doesn't mean there's money in the bank."

That should be a Republican campaign slogan in 2012.

Put Up or Shut Up, You Hypocrites

2011-09-21T14:59:00.000-05:00

Hey, all you anti-death penalty people out there... please, PLEASE tell me that this guy doesn't deserve to die for the crime he committed.

What? Silence????

I thought so.

REM No More

2011-09-21T14:40:00.002-05:00

From E! Online News:

Michael Stipe & Co. made the announcement in a posting on their official site this morning, breaking the news by thanking their loyal fans for 31 years (!) of listening.

"To our Fans and Friends: As R.E.M., and as lifelong friends and coconspirators, we have decided to call it a day as a band," the band wrote.

"We walk away with a great sense of gratitude, of finality, and of astonishment at all we have accomplished. To anyone who ever felt touched by our music, our deepest thanks for listening."

It's too bad, really. I've recently started listening to my REM songs again (even songs I used to hate, such as "What's the Frequency, Kenneth?"), and listening to "I Am Superman" with my son on the way to school has become a tradition of late.

Silly T-Mobile... Misdirection is for Rabbits!

2011-09-21T08:05:00.002-05:00

From Appleinsider:

A T-Mobile exec has reportedly denied claims that the wireless operator will land iPhone 5 during the 2011 calendar year, leaving the German carrier as the only major U.S. cell service provider not expected to participate in Apple's launch next month.

The comments were reportedly made by T-Mobile's chief marketing officer Cole Brodman in a corporate newsletter distributed internally on September 15th, a copy of which was photographed and shared with TmoNews.com.

“We are not going to get the iPhone 5 this year,” Brodman allegedly told T-Mobile employees, without further expanding on the matter.

...and he's correct. But here's the secret: NOBODY is getting an iPhone 5 this year. What will be announced (and released) next month is the iPhone 4 S.

Way to spread the FUD and muddy the waters a little there, genius.

Open Letter to Facebook

2011-09-21T05:41:00.002-05:00

From Facebook, via e-mail:

Hi James,

We're trying out a new feature to reduce the amount of email you receive from Facebook. Starting today, we are turning off most individual email notifications and instead, we'll send you a summary only if there are popular stories you may have missed.

You can turn individual emails back on and restore all your original settings at any time.

Thanks,
The Facebook Team

Dear Facebook,

QUIT MESSING AROUND WITH MY SETTING, ESPECIALLY MY PRIVACY AND NOTIFICATION SETTINGS!!! It turns out that I LIKE getting e-mail when people send me messages or respond to my posts. It lets me know that I need to go out to Facebook to interact (because, no, I don't spend all day wasting time on your site.) You just keep disregarding the my preferences... I REALLY hate it when you change my feed to "Top Stories" instead of "Most Recent" without my knowledge. I despise it when, after I've gotten my privacy setting JUST the way I want them, you come along and start turning things back on again because you changed your privacy policy or added a new feature.

And per your e-mail this morning, I don't want to have to go and turn things BACK ON. I want you to respect the settings that I've already chosen.

Please leave your interface alone for awhile. Having to learn a new interface three or four times a year is REALLY annoying. I don't want you to put a chat bar on the left side of my screen. The old chat wasn't broken. I don't want lists on the right side of my screen. I hate having to search for my own photos. Change your interface maybe once a year, if then. I think you've got a pretty good interface going, but you keep monkeying with it, and most times I don't understand why. For instance, six months ago, when I clicked on a friend's photo, it took me to a photo page that looked like the rest of the site. Then about three months ago, when I clicked on the same photo, a black popup screen came up containing the photo. And now it's a white pop-up screen. And the worst part is that each of those three pages acts COMPLETELY differently. Ugh!

I've been teetering on the edge of quitting you anyway. All these interface changes may just push me over the edge. No website should require this much work on my part. No website is worth the amount of energy I have to expend to keep trying to figure you out. I suppose you're trying to "stay fresh" and to innovate. Fine. Innovate, but please keep it to once a year or so. This constant monkeying is really pissing me off.

-James

[Edit 1] - Now I have to be on the lookout for little blue triangles????!!!?? What is this - an episode of Dora the Explorer? Oh, you DO know how to get at me, don't you?

AND HOW THE HELL DO YOU GET BACK TO "MOST RECENT?" AAAAAAAARGH!!!!

[Edit 2] - And so now I have to click somewhere just to bring up a text box so I can post a status? There's no box waiting there, wondering what I'm thinking? WHISKEY TANGO FOXTROT, FACEBOOK?!?!?!

On the Buffett Rule

2011-09-19T20:39:00.001-05:00

From BigGovernment.com:

Pause a moment on the Buffett Rule. Almost all of Warren Buffett’s income comes from capital gains taxed at 15 percent. He only pays himself $100,000 a year, which would be taxed at the top rate. Most of his wealth is untaxed as unrealized capital gains. So his effective income-tax rate is lower than his secretary’s.

What Would an Average Customer Think?

2011-09-19T14:48:00.000-05:00

From AdAge:

My reaction to the first line: "Sweet, they're rolling back the price hike." Then: "Wait, they're not rolling it back." Then: "Wait, what? Two companies? I'm so confused."

That was almost exactly my initial reaction to Netlix's announcement, too.

Qwik...what????

2011-09-19T11:33:00.001-05:00

From AppleInsider:

Netflix CEO Reed Hastings sent a letter to subscribers on Monday, admitting he "messed up" and announcing that it would spin off its DVD and Blu-ray-based mailing business as a new service dubbed "Qwikster."

The company's changes come in response to a subscriber backlash that was spurred by higher prices for rentals of physical DVDs. Hastings said the pricing for combined streaming, via Netflix, and mailed rentals, from Qwikster, will remain the same as it is currently.

Too little, too late. And a stupid name, to boot. Way to go, Netflix.

Welcome to the Jungle

2011-09-16T15:34:00.000-05:00

...played by two guys on cellos. Awesome!

View here is you're seeing this on Facebook:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_AYEgwwCYWw

Thanks to Tony T. for sending this.

The Story of Old Homestead

2011-09-16T05:38:00.000-05:00

I entered two of my photographs in the county fair this year (for the first time ever). I thought it would be a good experience and would help me to show a little bit of my work.

I entered two photos (I had three, but the image I shot of Keith Warren didn't print to my satisfaction, so it didn't go) - a shot of the Alamo that I shot early one morning back in May (the same morning that I later used small flashes to light the front of the Alamo at sunrise) and a shot that I call "Old Homestead." And as it turns out, Old Homestead won Reserve Champion.

The story behind the Old Homestead shot is a little interesting, so I thought I'd share it:

This year on New Year's Day, two friends of mine, Nick and Jen, got married near Abilene. Early on the morning of January 2, I left Abilene headed back to Brenham. It was 12 degrees outside and everything was frozen, including the windshield washer fluid in my truck. The moon was especially awesome that night, so I stopped briefly to try to get a shot, with not much success. I hadn't brought a tripod with me on the trip (I know, I know...) and so I tried rigging up something using lens caps, my keys and my wallet.

After about 30 minutes of freezing my arse off (and after being questioned by a local farmers as to exactly what the hell I thought I was doing), I decided to head on down the road.

About 30 minutes after sunrise, somewhere between Cross Plains and Comanche, Texas I happened to look in my rear view mirror and saw this great little old house with a windmill sitting up at the top of a hill with a beautiful valley below. So I whipped my truck around and went back for the shot. I almost didn't. I had been gone for a couple of days and I was still several hours from home (and it was really, really cold!), so I really just wanted to get down the road so I could see my family. I actually sat in my truck debating whether I should get out and shoot or just pass it up and move along. My experience on my photo trips at work has taught me that I often regret it when I decide to pass up a shot in the interest of time, so I got out and started shooting.

I shot in color and I shot several panoramic shots of the hill and valley. I loved it because everyting was so crisp and golden. But when I got into the color correction and the editing at home, I found that this shot really lent itself well to a sepia look (probably because it was a natural sepia color anyway.) So that's how I processed it.

As I was preparing my entries for the fair, I had actually forgotten all about this sot. I've gotten some really interesting shots this year, from Chasing Cane to Back at the Ranch to the San Jacinto Monument to a B-17 bomber. But I happened to stumble upon this shot, and it immediately jumped out at me as being perfect for the fair. So I ditched one of the other shots I was planning and used this one instead.

And I'm glad I did. It won me $3.00, and now I can say "James Pharaon, Award-winning photographer" with an (almost) straight face.

And if you'd like a copy of "Old Homestead," it's available for purchase at Veer.com.

Remebering SHSU

2011-09-15T18:45:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure how I missed this (or forgot about it), but last year I did an interview with the Building SHSU website for a feature called "Remembering SHSU" where I relived a little bit of my experience at Sam Houston State, especially as Sammy Bearkat.

Check it out here if you're so inclined.

Unfortunate.

2011-09-14T11:46:00.000-05:00

From Lone Star College:

Wow. I've never seen anything that made me want to attend a school of "higher learning" more.

Camera Recommendation

2011-09-09T09:19:00.001-05:00

I'm not a Nikon guy, but I just got a look at my buddy, Harris', photos from Big Bend and they look absolutely amazing. And he took them all with his little point-and-shoot Nikon Coolpix S570. And all on full automatic, at that.

Great tones, amazing handling of high contrast situations- and better shots in many cases than I got with my Canon 60D under the same conditions (especially the sunrise and sunset shots). The low-light stuff is a little rough, but the other shots more than compensate for it.

So if you're in the market for a point-and-shoot I'd highly recommend the Nikon Coolpix S570 based on the shots I've seen come out of this little camera.

How Bad the Drought

2011-09-07T17:02:00.000-05:00

If someone were traveling through Texas for the first time, they would (understandably) think that Texas is just like it was shown in all the old John Ford/John Wayne films (that were actually filmed in Monument Valley) - a desert from end to end.

A few years ago, a friend of mine who had never been to Texas (and who now lives in Texas) asked me if there were trees in Texas. "Of course," I told him. There are mountains and huge, tall trees and green grass everywhere. But driving out to Big Bend a couple of weeks ago, I was shocked at how many trees were dead along the way. And not just any trees - cedar trees - one of the most pervasive, hardest trees to kill. Dead, everywhere.

As we drove, we saw dead deer everywhere. We saw some live deer, too, but they were all half-starved and bony.

Even in the desert, which I had assumed would be more resistant to drought conditions, the normally vibrant and alive desert floor was brown and yellow with dead vegetation and cactus.

As I drove to Pflugerville over the weekend, I looked around at what should be grassland and saw nothing but dirt. Cattle everywhere I looked are roaming through fields of dirt looking for and source of vegetation.

The drought is bad, my friends. We've started watering the 100+ year-old oak trees in our yard because the leaves are starting to turn a sickly yellow. I'm not looking forward to next month's water bill, but if we can save our trees it will be worth it.

Kristi and I took the opportunity on Monday to ride out bikes out at Lake Somerville. We were able to walk out on a beach that hasn't been there since before the lake was created. We walked a hundred yards out into what should've been water. It was striking.

The drought is bad.

We've gotten some relief from the record heat, at least. But what we need is water, and a lot of it (just hopefully not all at once). It' been said many times before that God blessed Texas, and I believe it. But now we need God save Texas, as well.

Bastrop Wildfire

2011-09-07T10:34:00.000-05:00

I traveled out to Bastrop (well, as close as I could get, anyway) yesterday to shoot some photos of the Bastrop wildfire. I didn't know what I'd find, but I wasn't prepared for what I saw. Huge parts of the Lost Pines forest were consumed by the blaze. I ended up at Park Road 1C, which is a scenic road that runs between Buescher and Bastrop State Parks. It's also the part of the MS-150 bike tour that is both loved and feared: loved for its beauty and feared for its challenging hills. I didn't even recognize it when I arrived there, even though I've both driven and ridden the road dozens of times. It's now a charred wasteland, and realizing where I was was quite jarring. The good news is that after some good (hopefully) winter rains, the forest will grow back and will be green with new life next spring. I just hope that the tall pines weren't too damaged by the drought before they were swept with fire. Losing those tall trees would be a tragedy, indeed.

I was in West Texas and Possum Kingdom earlier in the year shooting shots of wildfire aftermath there. And while I saw quite a lit of damage there, I think I was moved more by what I saw yesterday, possibly because it's a more familiar place and possibly because while there was a lot of cactus and mesquites burned out in West Texas, there wasn't the kind of tree and vegetation damage as in Bastrop.

Here are some of the shots that I took yesterday:

A Great Speech by Marco Rubio

2011-08-31T16:35:00.002-05:00

This guy, along with Lt. Colonel Alan West, need to be on the ballot. We need more leaders like them.

Different Kinds of Canyons

2011-08-30T07:59:00.001-05:00

One day in the canyons of Big Bend, the next in the canyons of the Houston Medical Center. Sitting with Grandma today, who is in the hospital with a blood clot in her brain.

Please pray for her, if you don't mind.

The long road home

2011-08-29T12:07:00.000-05:00

Souvenir

2011-08-29T07:11:00.000-05:00

I saw this plush tarantula and thought I might bring it back for Kristi.

We saw on almost this big on the trail a couple of days ago...

jamespharaon shared an Instagram photo with you

2011-08-28T19:52:00.001-05:00

Hi there,

jamespharaon just shared an Instagram photo with you:

view full image

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

jamespharaon shared an Instagram photo with you

2011-08-28T17:02:00.001-05:00

Hi there,

jamespharaon just shared an Instagram photo with you:

view full image

"Starlight Theater, Terlingua"

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

jamespharaon shared an Instagram photo with you

2011-08-28T16:59:00.001-05:00

Hi there,

jamespharaon just shared an Instagram photo with you:

view full image

"Terlingua Ghost Town"

Thanks,
The Instagram Team

Relaxing at the end of the day

2011-08-27T21:33:00.001-05:00

Sitting here listening to the wind blow through the pines up here in the Chisos Basin.

2011-08-27T21:19:00.001-05:00

Big Bend: day 2.

Sunrise at the top of the lost mine trail, part of the Casa Grande trail, Boquillas Canyon, Ernst Tenaja and my desert cemetery (more on that another time).

Met the "singing Mexican", watched Johnny chase a coyote, scared the bejeezus out of Mark and got chased by javalinas. All in all, a good day.

Tomorrow: Terlingua!!!!

2011-08-27T12:37:00.001-05:00

Casa Grande

2011-08-26T16:25:00.001-05:00

Hello, Chisos Basin. 85 degrees and all is well.

2011-08-26T15:36:00.000-05:00

Marathon

2011-08-26T14:23:00.001-05:00

70 miles to the park entrance. Marathon has a lot more here than we remember.

Lunch in Ozona

2011-08-26T11:47:00.000-05:00

Good news. We found a barbecue place in Junction, where we picked up some meat for tomorrow, so no cannibalism will be required. Good thing. None of these guys looked all that tasty.

Junction

2011-08-26T10:06:00.000-05:00

It's been all desert today. This drought is really bad. And Mark forgot the barbecue. We might resort to cannibalism.

Slow Separation

2011-08-24T18:30:00.003-05:00

I have a theory.

I think that Steve Jobs might not be as dire as I, and everyone else, thinks. Sure, I think he's sick, but I doubt if he's on death's door. Hear me out on this:

If news had broken today that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple had died - even while on medical leave - Apple stock would have tanked (and it still might). People don't like abrupt change, especially when it comes to the leader of the largest corporation in the US.

However, by resigning first and staying on as Board Chairman, there's still some Steve Jobs leadership, but Apple now has Tim Cook at the helm. I think that the plan is to let everyone get used to Tim Cook - and to see that the sky in't falling - while Steve Jobs is still around. He's distancing himself, albeit slowly, from Apple's leadership role.

Then in six months if, God forbid, Jobs should die of his illness, then there's six solid months of proven track record under Tim Cook. And then investors might not panic as much. The longer Steve hangs on, the better for Apple's stock price when he does die.

I think Steve is all about gamesmanship, and this is a smart, smart move.

Steve Jobs Resigns

2011-08-24T18:16:00.004-05:00

From AppleInsider:

To the Apple Board of Directors and the Apple Community:

I have always said if there ever came a day when I could no longer meet my duties and expectations as Apple’s CEO, I would be the first to let you know. Unfortunately, that day has come.

I hereby resign as CEO of Apple. I would like to serve, if the Board sees fit, as Chairman of the Board, director and Apple employee.

As far as my successor goes, I strongly recommend that we execute our succession plan and name Tim Cook as CEO of Apple.

I believe Apple’s brightest and most innovative days are ahead of it. And I look forward to watching and contributing to its success in a new role.

I have made some of the best friends of my life at Apple, and I thank you all for the many years of being able to work alongside you.

I've had a nagging suspicion why we haven't seen any photos of Steve in the past several months. Now I guess we know why.

One thing about Steve Jobs: he's not an easy quitter. It has to be really, really bad.

God bless you, Steve. And thanks.

Out with the New at Old Navy

2011-08-24T10:26:00.004-05:00

From AdAge:

Old Navy is on the hunt for a new chief marketer.

Amy Curtis-McIntyre, senior VP-marketing, quietly left the retailer earlier this summer after just more than a year in the job, a spokeswoman confirmed. "Given the challenges in driving traffic, Amy and Tom [Wyatt, Old Navy's president] agreed it was time to make a change in the marketing leadership," the spokeswoman said.

Old Navy, which spent $221 million on measured media last year, according to Kantar, introduced a new campaign, "Old Navy Records: Original hits. Original styles," in February. The campaign, introduced by Ms. Curtis-McIntyre, replaced the "Supermodelquins." Old Navy worked with music house Honor Roll on the campaign as well as industry heavyweight Joseph Kahn, who has won several MTV Video Awards and a Grammy. The commercials feature original tracks from various bands.

Wow. Who saw this coming? Oh, yeah. That's right...

I once didn't get hired to a marketing director job when I was asked what changes I would make and I told them, "none." The program was working, so much so that the person whom I would've replaced was hired away based on that success. They couldn't believe that I said I wouldn't make any changes. Every other candidate had come in with a list of changes they would make. I, on the other hand, said I would spend a few months researching the success of the current plan and familiarizing myself with it before making any tweaks. They were stunned and hired someone else based partly on that (and based partly on the fact that I said I didn't want to delegate everything and would still be involved in the creative.)

And you know what? Their next two marketing campaigns have sucked. When new creatives come in, their first instinct is often to dismantle or piss on everything the previous person did before. But many times that's completely unwarranted, especially "if it ain't broke."

I do, however, fully expect the next Old Navy marketing chief to burn Ms. Curtis-McIntyre's legacy to the ground and start over on the ashes. And rightly so.

Tempest Milky Way

2011-08-24T10:11:00.001-05:00

Tempest Milky Way from Randy Halverson on Vimeo.

Wow. I hope I can capture something half as good this weekend at Big Bend.

Global Warming is a Threat (wait for it...) TO THE GALAXY!

2011-08-23T05:39:00.003-05:00

From IBTimes:

Global warming may not remain merely "global" anymore, as a new study suggests its cosmic impact.

Beyond endangering the earthly inhabitants, humans may have posed a serious threat to the entire galaxy, possibly prompting aliens to destroy humanity in order to end global warming and save the rest of the galaxy from being contaminated as well.

By using spectrometry, extraterrestrials could detect changes in Earth's atmosphere and deduce that we're out of control, speculated the researchers, among a number of other scenarios discussed in the 33-page paper.

Some scenarios suggest that human contact with aliens would be beneficial, such as how aliens would help us acquire better knowledge and help us solve problems such as hunger, poverty and enable us to eliminate diseases. Another scenario points toward an alliance between humans and Aliens to help us protect ourselves from an attack by other extra-territorial beings.

Oooooooooooooookay... Wow.

Read the whole article. It's great for a laugh if you're in the mood for batshit crazy.

50 Songs in Your Pocket

2011-08-22T10:57:00.004-05:00

From AppleInsider:

New details on Research in Motion's rumored BlackBerry Messenger music service have emerged, with the mini-subscription plan expected to cost $5 a month for 50 songs when it arrives this fall.

Reports first emerged on Thursday that RIM was in "late-stage negotiations" with the major music labels to launch a music streaming service for its BlackBerry devices. Peter Kafka of All Things D offered further details on the service early Saturday, claiming that it will cost $5 a month for 50 songs.

Wow. 50 songs. Sounds amazing... in 1994.

Tip of the day: start selling your RIM stock and start looking into a new phone service.

South Main

2011-08-19T11:17:00.000-05:00

If you're seeing this on Facebook, click here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AleBkUHdtOE&feature=player_embedded