Give the gift of “Re-Blogging”

My normal morning routine currently consists of opening my eyelids, hitting the snooze button, then bumbling out of bed to let my feisty pup out for a walk. I brew an instant cup of coffee in my Keurig coffee maker, throw on my warm, fuzzy robe, and settle in by the computer with my warm Sherpa blanket. I ritualistically guide my browser to the WordPress.com home page, and read up on the new posts which have been labeled as “Freshly Pressed” for the day. I also conduct some maintenance on my own blog, and that’s that. Same old, same old.

However, yesterday, I happened upon a Freshly Pressed page which caught my attention in a way no other site has. A photographer/innovator/blogger took thousands of photographs of a beautiful night sky, and created a time-lapse movie of his endeavors. The result? A beautiful 2 minute movie which captures the beauty of the stars and this big sphere we all live on.

I don’t need any other words to describe how beautiful this product is. Have a look, and you’ll understand why I chose to re-blog this post. ‘Tis the season to be merry! Happy holidays!

Time-lapse photography has always been an interest of mine. Time-lapse photography consists of taking numerous still images to create a video clip. Now, you might ask, "Why not just use a video camera?" Well, video camera's cannot create 30 second, single frame exposures. In the time-lapse video above, it took 1,100 images with each of them having 35 seconds of exposure (the shutter was open … Read More

via Goldpaint Photography

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CAUTION! Inappropriately Captioned Warning Signs Ahead!

Every now and then, I ramble over to the entertaining website, Stumble Upon.  It’s a place to play Internet roulette with the world wide web:  pick a topic, press “Stumble”, and poof!  You’re presented with a random website that fits your content. I occasionally give the pages under the “Humor” category a look-see, and tonight I found a page that I just had to share.

You know all those safety pictures which display the proper courses of action if you’re ever in a hazardous situation?  Pretty damn funny and completely inaccurate, right?  For example:

Well, someone took these types of warnings off of a US government website (http://ww.ready.gov) and applied their own hysterical captions.  The site was meant to parody the pictures displayed, and was not intended to criticize or defame.  So, without further ado, I present some very serious advice from http://www.safenow.org/…

If you have set yourself on fire, do not run.

If you spot terrorism, blow your anti-terrorism whistle. If you are Vin Diesel, yell really loud.

If you spot a terrorist arrow, pin it against the wall with your shoulder.

The 12 Movies of Christmas

My favorite movie, of all time, is Home Alone.

Not my favorite “Christmas” movie…my favorite movie…of all time.  You know, the one with Macaulay Caulkin, the robbers, and the house full of Mousetrap-like inventions?  Yep.  That one.  It’s held the title of my #1 Film, for many years now, beating out tough competitors like Shawshank Redemption, Hook and Clue.

I don’t place Home Alone at the top of my film queue for cinematic reasons.  No actors merited any Oscar Awards for their performances, and the only Oscar Nomination went to composer John Williams (and very rightly so).  It doesn’t stand amongst films like Braveheart, Memoirs of a Geisha, or Saving Private Ryan, but it does possess an immense amount of nostalgia for me.

Home Alone, for me, became the movie to watch during the Christmas season.  It was amongst the first movies I saw in theatres, and it eventually found a very special place in the life of my family.  Every year, we’d get so excited to pull it out of its VHS case (still have it), and even though the years took their toll on the video cassette, we didn’t seem to mind the faded color or distorted sound.  The lights would dim, the 21st Century Fox anthem would ring out, and the opening title would float into my ears, making me remember Christmases of ages past.

It’s a “quotable movie” for me.  I have a few that I can confidently sit down with and, word for word, re-enact the whole film.  My favorite scenes in the film are the ones which evoke memories of laughter with my family.  No Christmas season is complete without a viewing of Home Alone (and, Home Alone 2, while we’re at it).