This is an experimental post.  I was not paid by the vendor to write it.  I bought the bag, reviewed it on their website and decided to try the auto-post-to-blog feature after writing the review.  The bag really is pretty neat and I’ve finally found something nice and small to carry all my crap around in.

Originally submitted at Timbuk2

Classic Messenger Bag with netbook or eReader protection.

Freestyle Netbook Messenger

Great little bag. Love it!

Pros: Weatherproof, Lots Of Pockets And Features, Rugged, looks cool, Good Protection, Comfortable Strap
Cons: Klunky shoulder pad
Best Uses: Travel, Light Protection, Commuting
Describe Yourself: Practical
Primary use: Business

What a great, small bag! I use this bag for motorcycle commuting and for business trips. It carries my iPad, iPhone, sunglasses, eyeglasses, ham radio handie-talkie, keys, various sets of earphones, bluetooth phone earpiece, keys, lunch sometimes, etc.

There’s a great spot right behind the iPad pouch to store a file folder or two or a sheaf of papers. the front inside “hidden” zipper pouch is great for plane tickets and travel itineraries and such. I still haven’t found a use for all the pockets yet.

It’s just a terrific bag for traveling light and daily use. It’s become a fixture on my shoulder since I got it.

I do agree with a couple of other reviewers that the shoulder pad that’s supplied is way too big, thick, stiff and klunky for this small a bag. Other than that, though, I’m very impressed.

This is my first Timbuk2 bag and I’ll be back for more.

(legalese)

@#$!*% nighttime noisemaker!

Well, I can tell it’s July.  The crickets have invaded the house.

When it gets good and hot outside, the little SOB’s look for coolness.  They find it at my house by crawling in through little teeny cracks and crevices in the exterior walls of my back badroom (aka my current master bedroom) and settle in to the cavity inside the wall and start chirping away.  The sound show begins most nights, like clockwork, around 30-60 minutes after dark.  They’re loud, they’re tenacious and they don’t take loud noises and such as a deterrent.  I’ve sealed and sealed and sealed cracks and crevices as I can find them and still I’ve obviously missed some since the problem isn’t gone – although its less severe than last year.

Oh well, this is what earplugs are for.

If I were ever to be in a position to be tortured for classified information, all they’d have to do is put a couple of damned crickets in the room with me and give me no way to silence them or kill them and I’d be giving up all my secrets in a couple of hours.  The sound of a single cricket close by drives me batsh*t faster than anything else.

No, really, this is only a test

This is only a test.  If this had been an actual post, you would have been instructed where to tune in your area for news and official information.

This concludes this test…

Meteor Crater @ 8:30 AM, 5 July 2010

Arizona is known for two large holes in the ground.  One is the one that appears in the license plate slogan and the other is Meteor Crater (a.k.a. Barringer Crater) about 3/4 of  the way from Flagstaff to Winslow just south of I-40.

I picked, unfortunately, a poor day for sightseeing – it being a holiday weekend Monday and all.  The trip up to the crater was care free on the interstates.  I decided for the trip home to go take a ride through northeastern Arizona and wend my way back to Phoenix from the east.

Bad, bad idea.  What should have taken  not more than 3-4 hours ended up taking more like 7-8 because of the heavy, heavy, heavy nasty traffic headed back in to the valley from all points of the compass.  Valuable learning experience – don’t do that again.

So, it begins.  If it’s like last year, we won’t see reasonable temperatures again until, oh, Thanksgiving.

But it is, as they love to say, “a dry heat”.  And certainly it is.  In fact, last summer, I found myself laughing at myself one evening when I was sitting out by the pool after having been in for a swim and I starting feeling chilly even as the thermometer on the wall still read 115 degrees a little before 10:00 at night.  That dry air is great for evaporative cooling, for sure

Eye One

They recently released v. 1.1.0 which includes a number of neat new features – particularly involving blending between layers.  As I mentioned recently, I’ve never really played with electronic drawing other than CAD drafting.  My drawing experience has all been with pencil, charcoal and paper.

So, it’s been interesting learning about combining layers, shading, blending, etc.  I’m starting to “get” the whole layer thing.  For instance, just today, I finally discovered a process of shading a drawing with two shading layers – one multiplies with a gray wash to darken areas and another screens with a white wash to add soft highlights.

Eye Two

I’ve also never really played around much with color, either.  99% of my prior work has been done in shades of gray.  So, I’ve been fiddling around with how color works in this world as well – and it’s not like blending pencils or Conte crayon, that’s for sure.

But, even with the short time I’ve been playing around with this tool, I’ve started to understand how this all works.  The biggest challenge for me so far is just figuring out how to make something look the way I want it to look.  In the physical media world, I just plonk my thumb on to the paper and blend graphite and

John Spencer

charcoal and such – and I know what that looks like and how to achieve the blend that I like.  As a beginner digital “artist” it’s been different – but then one would expect that, I guess.

Of course, the quickest thing I’ve discovered is that the digital tools don’t help the actual DRAWING much!  I still get hands wrong and have a hard time getting the shading of things to look natural – particularly when the subject is dramatically or strongly lit.  My drawings have always had a bit of a “cartoony” look to them, but that’s the style that I’ve developed over the years.

Super Hero

What’s really cool though is that with these tools, I can pretty much make things look like anything from a pencil sketch to a watercolor.  The tools can look like paint, pencil, wash, Conte, etc.  It’s just a matter of figuring out which settings to use for what.

Just like any artwork, the time invested in each piece of work is what makes it work.  My best drawings have always been the ones I’ve spent days or weeks on rather than minutes or hours.  The ones from today are the result of only hours and are, truly, sketches.

But as a learning experience, this whole digital drawing thing might work out in the end.  After all, I’ve been drawing most of the day and my hands, fingers and shirt are all clean!

I’ve found myself, recently, thinking of myself like George Bailey.  Specifically, George Bailey in the middle of the movie when he discovers that Bedford Falls is Pottersville and Mr. Gower actually gave the kid poison…

Why?  Well, almost three years ago, I made a decision about my life, my career and my future which not only turned out badly for me, but left a large number of people who trusted me, relied on me and respected me in a lurch.  Is it my fault that their situation got more miserable after I left?  No.  But I just can’t help but think that if I’d stayed where I was, all of our situations today would be much happier.

I have more than one Clarence the Guardian Angel in my life.  Unfortunately, I’ve not been very good at listening to them in the past.  Most, if not all, of them are a whole lot smarter than I am.  I should listen more.

When one looks at one’s decisions in life and starts toting up the pluses and minuses, one begins to realize where one could have made better decisions.  Can those decisions be changed now?  Of course not.  Each decision in life acts as a lesson taught – whether or not it is recognized as a lesson learned.  I’ve tried hard to learn from my prior decisions in order to make better ones in the future.  I guess I just need more practice.

Psychiatrists will tell you that when something is causing you distress, you can do one of two things about it – one internal, one external.  You can change how you feel about the situation or you can attempt to make a change in the situation itself.

My method has almost always tended toward the latter rather than the former.  So now, I find myself in a situation caused by my reactions to a situation which was caused by my reactions to a situation which was caused by my reactions to yet another situation a few years ago.  Am I in a “bad” place?  Heck no.  I have a great job, a decent roof over my head and a life that many would envy, certainly.  I have nothing to complain about – honestly.  Am I “happy”?  Well, that’s a whole other question.  I’m certainly happy that I have health and life and friends and family.  What little I can complain about is stuff I really have no right to.  It’s all whiny, selfish, unimportant, self-absorbed crap.  I’m in a city and state I don’t like.  I’m dealing with a climate I don’t like (and it’s not just the heat in summer … I never in a million years would have thought I’d ever get sick of sunshine – but I’m sick of it).  I run in to people around this place every day that I don’t like and I really miss my old friends.

And when two weeks ago, my home was burglarized … well, that didn’t help either.  That’s never happened to me before.  No matter where I’ve lived.

But, one thing I can say without doubt.  The actions and leadership of a single person can make a difference.  In some cases a huge difference.  I used to consider myself simply one cog in a large, immovable, unchangeable machine.  I used to hear compliments that people would make about my talents and abilities and slough them off – after all, I was raised in New England humility where you didn’t trumpet your accomplishments because you were told, confidently, that good, hard, high quality work would be rewarded on its own merits when seen by others.  I used to think that my presence – or any one person’s presence – on a project or on a team or in an organization wouldn’t matter one way or the other.  Sure, the team matters, but most teams don’t do very well or feel very good about themselves without a good leader – or a good coach.

I wish I’d come to realize this earlier and I wish I’d come to realize earlier that I am that good leader.  I am that good coach.  People have been telling me this for years.  Now, staring 50 in the face, my ears have finally opened to the news.

I bought myself a birthday present last week. You can also argue that I may have bought in to th hype surrounding Steve Jobs’ latest gadget, I suppose. I’ve got the 64 GB version with 3G and so far it is acting pretty much like the laptop replacement I expected it to be.

Anyway, One thing that the device has sparked in me again is my creative side. I created the drawing here with Autodesk Sketchbook Pro completely on the iPad. I used a Pogo Sketch conductive stylus for most of it, since I have yet to become really comfortable drawing with just my fingers.

The main part of the new area is covered with 6″ x 12″ travertine pavers.  The crushed stone is 1″ decomposed granite.  The areas of crushed stone will eventually hold planters (to hide the pool equipment) and trees and shrubs at the far end of the pool to gain some privacy and shade back again

However, recently my Architect and I got back to work and we’re moving toward the point of calling in structural and mechanical people for the next round of design work.

Meanwhile, I’ve been prepping the back yard for some work.

Here’s the yard last August:

Lush and Green in Summer

And after recent work by my tree guys, here’s what it looks like in January:

Stripped. A Blank Canvas

The useless ornamental orange trees are gone as are all the trashy shrubs and other detritus.  Opens up the whole yard and makes space to plant a number of shade trees.  I will also put back a dwarf orange tree and a dwarf grapefruit tree that actually bear edible fruit…