Day 30: In Motion

Last photo of the 30-day photo project. Took me a while to get this one.

Day 29: Purchased

Essential for plane rides.

Day 28: Daily Routine

Dave's Killer Bread toast. With lots of butter. So good.

Day 27: After Dark

I can't fall asleep without a book.

Day 26: Something Old

My original Quake 3 tin box.

Day 25: Sun Glare

Despite the beautiful sunset we had a couple days ago, we don't really get much sun, so my son will have to suffice for today for the "sun glare" photo.

Day 24: A Smile

I love my daughter's smile. And I love how this photo turned out.

Day 23: Sunset

By mid-day it was looking like I wouldn't be able to get a good shot for today. Today is supposed to be "sunset", but all I could see were thick rain clouds, so I took an alternate photo called "son-sit" instead. Well, Nature sure proved me wrong and delivered a beautiful sunset for me to photograph. This photo is straight off the camera (or SOOC, as Flickr folk like to say), and I really like it.

Day 22: Trees

Rain clouds, pine trees. I must be in Oregon.

Day 21: Pretty Pattern

Stickers.

Day 20: What I Read

Re-reading The Name of the Wind, before reading Wise Man's Fear.

Day 19: Where I Slept

4-6 hours is average for me.

Day 18: In My Bag

Sony MDR-7506 headphones. The best.

Day 17: On The Shelf

Books. Good books.

Removing the U3 Partition from a SanDisk Cruzer USB Stick

I have a 2GB SanDisk Cruzer USB stick that I wanted to give to Kaellagh to use. The problem was that it had this tiny, annoying little U3 partition on it. Not only does it have an install file on it, but the partition is set up to look like a CD drive when you stick it in a computer (even on a Mac). I haven't had auto-run turned on for CD drives since the "feature" was added to Windows last century, so it didn't affect me, but it's still pretty sneaky.

Anyway, I wasn't willing to give the USB stick to Kaellagh with this rogue partition on it, ready to infect any computer she used it on. However, you can't just go to the Disk Management tool (or Disk Utility on the Mac) and get rid of the thing. It is untouchable in the Disk Management tool and invisible in the Disk Utility tool. Searches on Google for "remove U3 partition" came up with old sites that had links to a removal tool from SanDisk, but the links were all old web addresses that have since been bought by domain squatters since SanDisk didn't bother to keep them alive. I narrowed my search to only recent results and finally found what I needed.

From SanDisk itself, here is the page for the U3 Launchpad Removal Tool and here is a link to the .zip file itself. And just in case SanDisk decides to be awesome and re-arrange their web site yet again, here is a mirror on my own Amazon S3 space.

The tool is made for Windows, so be forewarned. It works fast and is easy to use, but it shouldn't be needed in the first place!

Day 16: What I Ate

Can't beat apples and peanut butter. Pink lady apples, to be exact.

Day 15: My Shoes

I need new ones.

Day 14: Flowers

Cherry blossoms.

Day 13: From a Distance

Foggy day at the beach.

Day 12: Close-Up

At the beach.

Day 11: Something Fun

This was my binary clock at 11:11:11 on 11/11/11. :)

Day 10: Something I Made

Well, not just me. My wife had a big part too.

Day 9: Faceless Self-Portrait

Docked.

Day 8: Technology

Panasonic AG-HPX170P.

Day 7: Something New

Mmmmm. Ramen. Spicy ramen.

Day 6: Childhood Memory

LEGO. Enough said.

After Effects is the Photoshop of Video

Lately I've been learning more about After Effects. It's basically Photoshop for video. No joke. And, like Photoshop, it's one of those programs that I know I will always be learning. Not just "until I'm good", but always.

I've been using Photoshop continuously since version 3.0 in the early 1990's. (I started on the version where they introduced layers.) And I do mean continuously using it. Since I started using it, the longest I've ever gone without opening Photoshop up for something is probably around a week and there have been years where I've opened every single day of the year. Yet I still feel like a novice at it. I have a friend who uses Photoshop probably as much as I do, yet he uses an entirely different set of functions in Photoshop than I do.

I can already tell this is what it will be like with After Effects. The range of things you can do to video with After Effects is just staggering. I know there will be brand new things I'll be learning years from now. And you know what? I love that.

Day 5: Someone I Love

My son Rowan. He says amazing things.

Day 4: Favorite Color

It's a good thing I live in Oregon.

Parenting Advice from Jimmy Kimmel

Jimmy Kimmel posted an instructional video on how to alienate your child and sow lifelong seeds of distrust. If you do it right, you can get them to hate you and never trust you again.

Day 3: Clouds

Clouds are dynamic things, so I decided to do a "long photo" format for today.

Day 2: What I Wore

Macro shot of my tie. I like this tie.

Day 1: Self-Portrait

As I mentioned earlier, I wanted to do a 30-day photo project in November. I'm using a list from another 30-day photo project I saw other people participating in during the month of August. I don't own a fancy camera, so all these photos will be done with my EVO 3D phone. It'll be kind of cool to see how they come out.

This wasn't an easy one to take. I had to look in a mirror to see the back of my phone as I took it. I used Adobe Photoshop Express to do the editing. I like how it came out.

Below is the list of photo's I'll be taking for this project. I'll link them up as I take them.

1. Self-Portrait	Day 16: What I Ate
2. What I Wore	Day 17: On the Shelf
3. Clouds	Day 18: In My Bag
4. Favorite Color	Day 19: Where I Slept
5. Someone I Love	Day 20: What I Read
6. Childhood Memory	Day 21: Pretty Pattern
7. Something New	Day 22: Trees
8. Technology	Day 23: Sunset
9. Faceless Self-Portrait	Day 24: A Smile
10. Something I Made	Day 25: Sun Glare
11. Something Fun	Day 26: Something Old
12. Close-Up	Day 27: After Dark
13. From a Distance	Day 28: Daily Routine
14. Flowers	Day 29: Purchased
15. My Shoes	Day 30: In Motion

And November has Begun!

Well, today it begins. I fired up Eclipse already and started working on my Android app. I'll take my picture later today. Today's photo is supposed to be a self-portrait.

I'm thinking I'm going to end up sticking with Blogger for the blog engine. Getting that all switched over to my main domain name will be a project in itself. I'm thinking I may just make this a sub-domain of my main site and make the main site more of a portal to stuff.

And so it begins....