Category: misc.

Andrew’s Notebook

A few months ago, I got an electric toothbrush. It has changed my life. For some reason, that phrase, “It has changed my life,” seems to imply a large change. It hasn’t been a large change. It’s been a small one. But my life is changed nonetheless.

Lisa got a library card the other day. She checked out some great music CDs from the library, including albums by Reba McIntyre and Avalon, and the Music Man soundtrack. With all the recent kerfuffle by the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and others are causing with digital rights management and strict licensing of music use, you’d think they’d crack down on public libraries, who freely loan copies of music discs. Anyway, the Music Man soundtrack is great. As I listen to the songs outside of the context of the movie, I have come to greatly appreciate the cleverness of the songwriting. On the train, as the salesmen are singing about Professor Harold Hill, one guy says, “And when the man dances, certainly boys, What else? The piper pays him! Yes, when the man dances, certainly boys, What else? The piper pays him!”

How is face lotion like Homeland Security? They are both preventative, and carry the unique burden of being measured by the absence of something. With both in place, the situation looks normal. It’s when you start to consistently neglect them that the picture gets less appealing.

It’s Brad and Mary Fast’s (Lisa’s parents’) 30th wedding anniversary tomorrow. It’s also my first father’s day as a father (sort of). I don’t have a child to hold or be grateful or ungrateful yet, but I do have a child! He or she is supposed to be about the size of an apple by now. We had a family party at our house for Brad and Mary and sent them off to a bed and breakfast in the area. Congratulations on 30 years of marriage!

Google solves another problem!

We had a pet problem today.  One of the cats (Max, no doubt) took it upon himself to urinate on our down comforter.  Bad kitty.  Then Maggie (our sweet, adorable but sometimes misguided puppy) smelled the cat urine and decided to add her own unique scent.  Now we have a pee-soaked comforter and I have a very upset wife on my hands.  What do I do?  Turn to Google, of course.

I searched for “How do I remove dog urine from a down comforter?”  I could hear sobs emanating from the back room.  The first result I clicked on was a bulletin board discussing pet urine problems. I searched within that page for the words ‘down comforter.’  The post I read was by a lady recommending a product called Just Rite, and she claimed it is made by a guy named Bill, who often answers the company’s phone himself.  I surfed on over to www.justrite.com and searched frantically down the page for a phone number.  The crying in the back room was reaching a fever pitch.  I quickly called the number, which had an Illinois prefix.  Sure enough, Bill answered after the first ring and gave me very specific advice about how to deal with dog urine on a down comforter.

A few minutes later, as I came inside from my trip to the garbage can, I explained to Lisa what Bill had told me.  Oddly, the certainty with which I found the information was comforting to her, as was my comment: “Hey, at least it’s not winter!”

Thanks, Google, and thanks Bill!

Stuff Maggie Does

Maggie’s so cute.  She dreams while she sleeps on our floor, and sometimes when she hits REM sleep, her body starts moving and twitching.  Sometimes she’ll simulate running, and I’ve even heard her bark her defensive bark under her breath.  Today she was sleeping on my studio floor with her tail wagging back and forth excitedly.  Lisa and I like to speculate about what she may be dreaming.  She usually reserves that level of excitement for my arrival home, Lisa’s arrival home, our first-thing-in-the-morning greeting, or a trip to Shadow’s house.  (Shadow is Brad and Mary Fast’s dog, and Maggie’s best canine friend.)  Lisa and I speculated that she was dreaming that Shadow moved in with us, or that Max (our cat) finally decided it was alright to play with her.  That’ll only happen in her dreams.

Yahoo! Answers

I’ve recently come across a fascinating attention economy knows as Yahoo! Answers.  It’s a place where you can log on and ask questions.  Or answer questions.  Or rate other people’s answers.  “What kind of questions can I ask?” you wonder.  That’s a great question.  You should log in and see what kind of questions other people are asking.  I’ve been addicted to this service all week now.  For joining, you get 100 points.  Every question you ask costs you 5 points.  Every questions you answer garners you 2 points, and when your answer is chosen as the best answer to a question, you earn 10 points.  When you earn a certain amount of points, you get….. something.  I don’t know what the something is yet, but I reached level 2, and Yahoo! assures me that there’s something special headed my way.  When I reached level 2 without a significant reward, I kind of gave up on this as an obsession.  I thought I’d come back to daily blogging instead.  Check out Yahoo Answers anyway; it’ll be worth your time.

Comments

I know the comments weren’t working.  I fixed them, and they should be just fine now.  As always, I appreciate your feedback and discussion; it’s what keeps this blog from being a tinny single-trumpet band.  I hope to return to our orchestral days soon!

– Andrew

Come Up Higher!

Have you ever been driving down the road and wanted to pull over to climb whatever peak you happen to see?  I did exactly that today.  I took a long drive into the mountains with a friend.  We saw a mountain, pulled over, and started straight up.  we had a blast.  We scrabmled over rocks, stopped to take in scenic vistas and enjoy the scent of pine trees, plowed though snow up to our waist, and scaled bare rock faces.  We praised God, enjoyed his creation, and had a very fun, pure good time.  I felt like I was a kid again.  You know that kid; the one who wants to climb every tree he sees.  I just let me Id go wild.

I have cuts and bruises to show for it, and I have to check to make sure I didn’t rip any clothing.  I also lugged a camera, so I’ll post some photos in the next few days.

Comment on the new blog! Please!

Friends, Family, and Faithful Readers,

I haven’t seen any of your comments since I migrated the blog to our new spot on the internet.  Maybe it’s just that I haven’t written anything worth commenting on, but I doubt it.  I’ll bet one or two of you are put off by the new interface and having to log in to post comments.  Let me assure you, I’m hosting this blog myself, so registering as a user is no big deal.  I promise I won’t sell your phone number to telemarketers or your e-mail address to that guy who keeps trying to sell me Viagara (doesn’t he know I’m only 26?!).

So post your comments along with this post.  Do you like the new blog?  Are the categories a good thing?  Should I give up writing and get a life?  Are you steaming mad at me for changing our blogger-reader-commenter relationship?  These are all things I must know.  If you need help or want me to create a username and password for you (i.e., you don’t feel like doing it yourself), feel free to drop me a line at andrew (at) shinnphoto (dot) com.  Anything to get our relationship back!

Sleepless and wondering,

Andrew

Shinn Photo Blog

Shinnfans,
I’ve created another blog. I know what you’re thinking: “How many blogs can this guy maintain? There’s the Andrew and Lisa blog, the secret (Contributions:) blog that he writes with Jon, and now the Shinn Photo Blog!” I assure you that blogging isn’t like a job: it’s more like listening to a radio station. You don’t have to stick with one station all the time. And, believe it or not, each of these blogs has a separate and distinct purpose. The Shinn Photo Blog, found at http://blog.shinnphoto.com, was created for the purpose of chronicling the development of my business. It’s also my chance to try out a new blogging platform called WordPress. It’s a fairly pretty-looking blog. Let me know what you think of the design and aesthetics. I don’t expect it to be nearly as interesting as this blog, because it covers a different set of subject matter. (A tall order, since this blog seems to cover so many areas.) But I’ll let you guys determine for yourselves what you think of it. Then post comments, either here or there, to let me know what you think! That’s (supposed to be) the great thing about blogs: the interactivity inherent in the medium!

BTW, on a separate note: either you all know what Flock is or you just don’t care, because no one has guessed at it yet. I heard Flock mentioned on a Podcast the other day, so maybe it’ll come sooner than I anticipated. But I still maintain that it’ll be 12-18 months before mainstream society is talking about it.

Take Care,
Andrew

My First Published Book!

Shinnfans, my first published book is now available online at www.lulu.com/shinnphoto! Go check it out and buy a copy. It’ll look great on your coffee table, and it’s an interesting insight into my journey this summer.

Let me know what you think about it in the comments below after you order it! Who can buy it first?

Cheers,
Andrew