Happy WHAT, you may ask? Well, those who read this blog may recall me writing about pi day on 3/14. There were many geeks writing about pi on that day. And many of them linked to Vi Hart’s video telling us what is wrong with pi and how we really should use tau (twice pi or 6.28) instead. It seemed strange to me that they would want to celebrate pi by dissing it. But it’s okay today, as Vi will explain in the videos below. By the way, if you have never seen one of Vi’s videos, they are very creative, but can be a little exhausting. Be sure to check out her website and her series on Fibonacci numbers. If you still thirst to know more of tau after watching Vi’s explanation of this interesting number, you can check out the tauday website.
As for me, I see Vi’s point but still have no problem with pi. As a matter of fact, I think it’s time to go have a piece of pie. Happy tau day!
Happy Easter, everyone! It is a beautiful morning here. Christ is risen AND the Easter bunny came! It is great living with kids. They make life so fun.
The Easter bunny came, but I think I would have been afraid of that leopard if I were him...
I found this note this morning. Silly girl. Doesn't she know the Easter bunny brings and hides the eggs?
When I woke up this morning, I found this note from Stefi waiting for me. I sense that maybe she has some doubts about the ability of the Easter bunny to do his job without help. As for me, I believe.
Niki is 15 now and has her driver learner permit. She is doing a great job of learning to drive, and I know with a little more experience she is going to be a good, safe driver. I decided I should teach her a little bit about maintaining the car, so today after school she and I donned our coveralls for Niki’s first oil change. Niki was hesitant at first but I think she ended up enjoying our experience. I believe this photo (taken after we were finished) is proof that she had a good time. Look at that smile!
To begin, I first removed the oil plug. After the oil had drained, it was Niki’s turn. She gamely crawled under the car, replaced the plug and then tightened the plug with a wrench. Next, I removed the oil filter. Then she put on the new filter and expertly hand-tightened it to the correct tightness. Finally, while I held the funnel, she poured the oil into the engine. After a quick check of the dipstick, we were finished!
Then we took the opportunity for a few more maintenance items. We checked the tire pressure, and Niki inflated a low tire. We also added windshield washer fluid and a little antifreeze. We saved learning how to change a flat tire for another day; I figure sometime this summer. We finished up with Niki learning how well Fast Orange hand cleaner removes oil and grease from hands.
Niki is a good, conscientious learner. Our lesson today reminded me of a call I heard on the NPR show, Car Talk. A man called in to ask Click & Clack if maybe he was wasting his money by sending his daughter to college. He had instructed her on how to check the oil in her car before she left for college, and also told her to do this every time she filled the gas tank. She had proudly written home that she was following these instructions but that she wanted tips on how to get the oil into that tiny hole. I feel reassured Niki will not be asking me this type of question.
So, it was a good day. Niki learned more about cars, and I got to have fun teaching her. I love you, Niki.
I cannot believe that it was almost ten years ago we were in China, picking up our younger daughter, Stephanie. It seems like yesterday that she was a screaming “bundle of joy.” Stefi has now just turned 11, and I am wondering where the years have gone. She is still quite energetic but screams much less now. 8-P
I have cherished getting to be Stefi’s dad and watching her grow. I love exploring the world with her and learning things together. I love teaching her. I love her jokes. I love the pictures she draws. I love that she is now the family expert on animals; if she tells us some strange fact about an animal, you can bet it is true. Last year in Mexico, there were “things” we had never seen before washing ashore in the strong wind — Mary and I did not even know if they were plant or animal, but Stefi took one look and told us they were sea cucumbers. She gets this from her voracious reading. Right now her favorite books are the Warriors series.
Five years ago she drew a picture showing first a little girl and then a very “dolled-up” older teenage girl. At the bottom she wrote, “I am six, but I want to be eighteen.” Every birthday I am a little sad that her wish is coming true so fast. But I just want her to always know how proud I am of her. She is becoming such a beautiful, sweet young lady. However, she will always be my little girl. And I will be her dad. Even when.
A few days ago, I noticed that our killdeer are back. I wrote last July about how these birds place their nests on the ground in the rocks next to the road in front of our house. This will be the 4th year we will get to enjoy watching the parents care for the eggs and then see the hatch.
This picture was taken last year, and I have re-processed it a little from last year’s version. Obviously there are two eggs here. Do you see the two chicks? They had just hatched and were up and running about an hour after this picture was taken. Wouldn’t you be quick to get up and run if your nest was on the ground? If anybody is wondering about those weeds around the nest, those are kochia, a very nasty weed we have here. I leave them around the nest until after the hatch, trying not to disturb the nest, and hoping a little extra camouflage may help them out.
On another note, some of you have asked me if you may use my pictures. By all means, feel free to use any of my pictures on my portfolio website. All I ask is that you use them for noncommercial purposes and give attribution to me as I describe on the home page there. The images there are high enough resolution for computer display, but if you would like a print of any size, you can order a print directly from the portfolio. The lab I use (Bay Photo) is top-notch and does a wonderful job. I can help advise you on what formatting and print medium would be best for any individual picture. If you need anything else or have questions, just contact me. And thank you for all your kind words about my pictures.
Last Friday, Colorado gained a state amphibian, the Western Tiger Salamander. Having an inquiring mind, I wondered how many other states had claimed an amphibian as their own. Wikipedia shows there are 18 other states that have designated a state amphibian. Most are frogs (both Iowa and Oklahoma have claimed the North American Bullfrog as their state amphibian), but there are five other salamanders on the list:
Alabama – Red Hills Salamander
Illinois – Eastern Tiger Salamander
Kansas – Barred Tiger Salamander
South Carolina – Spotted Salamander
Tennessee – Tennessee Cave Salamander
Thinking this over, a few questions come to mind. Why have a state amphibian? It does seem to be a fairly popular thing to do, but why? Is there some sort of amphibian lobby? If so, what (possibly evil) mastermind is behind this lobby? And looking at the numbers (12 to 6), how did the frog faction become more powerful than the salamander faction? Also, with everything happening in the world and our country, should our legislators and governor really be concerning themselves with a state amphibian? Don’t they have more important issues to consider? If not, I would like to congratulate them for being on top of the state business.
This salamander talk brings back memories of growing up on an Iowa family farm. We had an outdoor storm cellar, known as “the cave.” It was dark, cool and humid in there, with a small amount of water usually on the floor. It was an equally good place to either store root vegetables or hide from tornados. There was also a 4-inch clay tile draining the floor; mysterious, exotic salamanders would often appear through that tile. I still remember how soft, moist and velvety their skin felt. I thought they were beautiful. The only place I ever saw a salamander was in that cave. So after recalling this, I guess I get a warm, fuzzy feeling knowing that a salamander is now our official state amphibian.
But those legislative rascals have caught me completely flat-footed. I have no pictures of the Western Tiger Salamander. I did take a picture of the Colorado state flower, the Columbine, last summer while camping up on Grand Mesa with Niki & Stefi. Mary was not there because there are no motels where we were camping, though the excuse she gives may be different. Look for her rebuttal in the comments below.
Until recently, the two main computer programs I used to process digital photos were Photomatix Pro and Adobe Photoshop. I was also aware of another program, Adobe Lightroom, used by many photographers, but really did not want to spend $300 for ANOTHER program. Well, those folks at Adobe are good marketers. They offered a free trial of their Lightroom 3 until the new version 4 appeared. I decided to try it and immediately could see the benefit of this program. It allows me to quickly do many of the operations I used to do in Photoshop plus helps me keep track of the thousands of images I have. But there was still the matter of the $300. However, when Adobe released the new and improved version 4, they had a pleasant surprise; they reduced the price to $149! I think they are trying to increase the number of people using their program. So now I am a happy camper, using a GREAT new program at not too painful a price. If there is one program you are looking for to improve your photos, I recommend Adobe Lightroom 4 without reservation.
I guess it is a little deceptive to say I only use those three programs. I also use what are called plug-ins for Lightroom and Photoshop. The ones I use are the Topaz Photoshop bundle and OnOne Software’s Perfect Photo Suite for Lightroom and Photoshop. The framing of the picture you see here came from Perfect Photo Suite.
Speaking of this picture, here’s the story. Mary records at Raven Recording in Denver, run by Jim Ratts — a great studio run by a great guy. Most of her vocals are done as a solo. However, she invited the girls to sing along with her on a song, and I grabbed this photo, taken on the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
I woke up this morning with a start, not knowing where I was. I thought I should be in Mexico but also knew things just weren’t right. It didn’t take long to realize I was back in Colorado.
We are getting back into our routine here. However, I want to keep up my photographic explorations. I do still have quite a few pictures to process from Mexico (I took over 2500 exposures in the 6 weeks we were there) but also have many from last fall to still evaluate. This morning, I found this one taken of a Colorado neighbor’s corn field at dawn last November 15th. I particularly like the “alpine-glow” on the clouds in the background.
I find it funny we have so much corn in Iowa and here I am showing you pictures of Colorado corn. My plans for this year are to get more Iowa pictures for you during both planting and harvest.
With a combination of sadness and anticipation, we came home to Colorado yesterday. The day began with our last inspiring Los Barriles sunrise and wistful walks on the beach. Then came the plane rides from Los Cabos to Phoenix and Phoenix to Grand Junction. We will miss all our wonderful Los Barriles friends and wish there was some way to bring you along in our luggage. On the other side, we look forward to seeing our Colorado friends once again. While Los Barriles and Colorado are both beautiful places to live (and photograph), much more important is that we have so many wonderful friends in both of these places as well as elsewhere. Know that you are in our hearts no matter how many miles may separate us.
(Oh, no! I just re-read this. I think Mary is rubbing off on me, and I’m getting sappy! Help!)
Today is pi day, 3/14. You know, pi, the irrational number, 3.141592654… We all learned the basic formulas for a circle involving pi in school:
(circumference equals pi times diameter)
(area = pi times the radius squared)
OK, no more formulas. I promise. With today’s computers, the value of pi has been calculated to millions of decimal places. However, not so long ago, the computations had to be made by hand, and it was a lot more difficult to determine the value of pi. The history of pi is one of progressive refinement:
The Babylonians initially calculated pi to the not-very-precise value of 3.
The Egyptians used a value of 22/7.
And in the 5th century, the Chinese mathematician , Zu Chongzhi, determined pi to be 355/113. This last value was within 8.5 millionths of a percent of the now-known value of pi! Not bad for a guy with pencil and paper.
There are many websites devoted to pi, so I will not repeat all their information here. To get started with your pi learning, I would suggest www.exploratorium.edu. For even more information about pi, you can go to www.pi314.net.
Pi is not reserved for only the mathematicians. Pi has also been explored by musicians. Here is a fun, creative musical pi video:
So, how are you planning to celebrate pi day? Let me know. And me? What am I planning for my pi day celebration? I think I will have a piece of pie.
(circumference equals pi times diameter)
(area = pi times the radius squared)
