dis wut u u look liek in da mornin

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Henceforth, "spudart" shall be pronounced "spoo – dart" ("spoo" like "spoon" without the "n", not like "spew".)

I've busted out the camera again, and hopefully this time around I'll come up with some really great photos.. maybe. I almost always have the darn thing with me, it's just that I feel like I've run out of things to take pictures of – everything seems too ordinary and not worth preserving an image of.

So yesterday I modified my camera a bit (using the awesome CHDK firmware) to enable a few features and give me some more toys to play with. I'm now able to capture images in RAW format, giving me a lot more freedom to edit and play with the pictures than I ever could before. I can also write and run scripts that can automatically change camera settings, and take numerous pictures. This leads to my next project – High Dynamic Range (HDR) Photography.

I know that people have mixed feelings about HDR images (sometimes fake, oversaturated, cartoony, or just bad looking), but I've seen many incredible pictures (a few by spudart) that have piqued my interest.

I'm using a tripod that's older than me.

That's the idea. Just a plain t-shirt with the words "Thank You" on it. An exclamation point at the end was considered, but seems too dramatic. Maybe a small graphic or accent of some kind could be added to make it more interesting.

The hope is that it'll have some positive effect on people that see it, like a few of the shirts in my current rotation. I'm not sure if it would have much of an effect, but a large, printed "Thank You" walking at someone has the potential to trigger a positive reaction – maybe a smile, a smirk, a subconscious feeling of being appreciated, who knows. People are tricky things.

Any suggestions for fonts, colors, possible graphics? Spudart? Moose?

And to the most beautiful girl in the world, who I'm incredibly fortunate to have in my life – Thank you. lyg

Years ago, when Gmail was still just a baby, I created a couple of accounts. One of them was my main account, the other one was built off of my first initial and last name, to look a little more professional and to be used as such. That second email was, at some point, confused by a group of people as that of their buddy Brian.

Some of the emails sent were your usual (lame) forwards, some were useless information, and some were seriously funny. There were a few "urgent" emails that I'm not sure ever made it to Brian, but most of the emails were sent to several addresses for this "Brian" character. I'm surprised that he never noticed that one of the addresses in the "To:" field of all of these emails wasn't actually his email address.

I've started doing the "right" thing and sending emails to these people telling them that I am not actually Brian. In some cases this has worked, some are still sending me emails, but today I got an email (several actually) from a Mayor in a small town in Connecticut.

This prompted me to create a form email that I can just send off to these people. It's short, and I think it gets the point across.

Subject: Hi. I'm not Brian.

Since I'm starting to use this email account again, and since it keeps getting emails from people that I don't know, I feel it appropriate to point out that this email address never has, and never will, belong to anyone named Brian.

Spread the word. Thanks!

Also, I'm deleting all these emails, but feel free to doubt that and worry about what may have been sent to this address.

This email was just sent to the Mayor, and to a few other people that are still sending me stuff for Brian. The next step is to email Brian himself, so he can ridicule his friends and colleagues.

waayt! hugz befo u go?

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This is not Mertle, nor is this a Jetpack Turtle.. but it was disturbing enough that I had to share.

A turtle equipped with a solar panel:

One of these days I might bust out some pencils and draw up an actual Jetpack Turtle. You've been warned.