Opus X
A very dear friend of mine sent me a very nice gift today!
A genuine Fuente Opus X cigar.
Now I just have to decide when and where to enjoy it…
AgentZ
BlahBlahBlog
My personal soapbox, bully pulpit, and journal
New Images are Up
I’m keeping busy with lots of projects. Going out shooting (pictures) when I can and learning Photoshop.
I’ve added new images to my Photo Prints website in Gallery 3. Added are:
- Abandoned Bus
- Albuquerque Window
- Fuscia
- Pomona Towing
- Autumn Frost
See them at:
AgentZ
Easter Cheesecake
As I mentioned in a previous Posterous blog my son Josh was down for the weekend. After our trip to Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve we stopped at Sur La Table at Dos Lagos so I could buy him a Springform pan. For Easter dinner he made a New York style cheesecake and we collaborated on the topping. Its made with unsweetened dark cherries and instead of water we used Late Harvest Syrah (2007) from Wild Coyote Vineyards in Paso Robles. It can only be described as “decadent“!
Now I’m going to go eat it before it melts under the lights… AgentZ
The Garden - One Month Later
It has been exactly one month (to the day) that we got our garden in. Since then I’ve bought steel posts and heavuy gauge wire to start building a support structure for the plants. Everything so far is going well. The plants are all healthy and I’ve added a few more peppers to the mix, 2 more bells and a poblano (for making mole).
As you can see the tomatoes are quite heathy and have really taken off.
The peppers are also doing quite well. They are starting to blossom.
The cucumbers are growing like weeds and I’ve alrerady started training them up the trellis. And the tomatoes are all flowering. We have excellent bee activity this year so I’m hoping for some fruit to set soon on all the plants.
AgentZ
What a great weekend
So, things started looking up on Thursday when we got confirmation that Josh was coming home for the weekend. One of the things that means for is me is, help in the kitchen for Easter dinner.
On Saturday, Josh and I went to the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Reserve in Murrieta, Ca. We hiked and hiked and hiked through stands of California Live Oak, native grasses and wildflowers (or as Josh sees them, WEEDS) out to the “historic” adobes, to the vernal pools and along the overlook trail. Allegedly the “oldest” adobes in California. They are well maintained. Some sots from our trip:
from my set
From JoshOur sets are are available from the image link.
Sunday, we had a great dinner. I made ham with an orange spice glaze (juice & zest courtesy of the tree in the yard) and Josh made a killer New York Style cheesecake for desert. He’ll be making more, I made certain of that by buying him a springform pan at Sur La Table on the way back from our Santa Rosa trip (to make up for his feeling his life was threatened by the imaginary wild animals in the preserve (they were there, just that we didn’t encounter them)).
Yesterday I hooked up with my cousin Bob and we went out to the Claremont HIlls Park (in Claremont CA, a public land trust) and then over to a few abandoned vehicles along Thompson Creek just outside the park. Here’s a shot from those hikes. Image should link to the Flickr set.
AgentZ
Happy Easter to all my BlahBlahBlogging Friends
Here, I have been able to combine a traditional Easter flower, the lily, with traditional Easter candy, chocolate.
This chocolate lily was shot in the Santa Rosa Plateau Ecological Preserve in Murrieta yesterday while on a photo walk with my son Josh.
Hope you all have a wonderful and blessed Easter.
AgentZ
What a deal!
Went to Micheals yesterday looking for some frames for some prints I just had made from our recent Death Valley adventure. While they had most of their frames at 40% - 50% off (select lines) I found a real bargain in the area with framed “art”. I was able to pick up a 16×20 frame with an 11×14 mat, glass & backing for $12.
Mounted and hung the prints in the living room (there’s a lot of wall space there).
The frame on the left is the $12 frame.
Prints are available at Photography by JPL
AgentZ
Nice way to end the week
Did some light yard work the last two days. Deadheaded the flowers, sprayed for aphids, trimmed the grape vines a little (grape clusters are already forming) and weeded & watered the vegetable garden.
The veggies are doing great. The tomatoes love the recent warm weather and are growing like weeds. At this rate I’ll probably have to stake them in another week or two. The cucumbers recovered from their transplant shock and are growing rapidly. Tendrils are already attaching to the arbor. And the peppers are taking off too. Some look like they are starting to set flowers, have to pick them off to let the plants get a little more established before I start letting set fruit.
This afternoon I started a big pot of homemade chili. Whilst it was simmering Sally whipped up a few pitchers of margaritas. I fired up the fire pit and a Romeo (cigar).
Watched the fire burn down as the shadows stretched across the hills on the far side of the valley.
What a nice way to end the week.
AgentZ
What an awesome week!
After the WESTEC show Tuesday I headed up the coast and spent the next 2 days with my boys.
Wednesday morning before heading north up the coast from Paso we watched a video of Jason’s first SLEET class (Student Law Enforcement Education and Training) that he is presenting at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It was cool to watch him in action. Too bad the baterry died so we couldn’t see more of the students hands on part.
We headed up to Point Lobos State Reserve (just south of Carmel) and spent the day hiking and taking pictures. Here are a few too tease.
Us on Lace Lichen Trail:
The entrance to Cypress Cove:
The rest of the Point Lobos set is here:
Thursday we got up and did a leisurely cruise around the back roads of Paso Robles east side and then headed off to the west side to explore. After a couple of short loops and turn arounds on back country roads we hit pay dirt on sant Rosa Creek Road. It ended up taking up right into Cambria where we loaded up on munchies forthe boys and then headed over to Moonstone Beach to take some pictures.
Heres a few to tease:
Start of Santa Rosa Creek Road:
Cambria and Mooonstone Beach:
The rest of the set is here:
AgentZ
Another Great Day
Spent most of yesterday cruising around the WESTEC show at the L.A. Convention Center networking and meeting up with old friends. Still haven’t decided if I’m going to stay in this industry.
Late afternoon I headed up the coast to Paso Robles. Today I’m going to head further up the coast with my boys and grand-daughter to Pont Lobos State Reserve to explore and take pictures. Will post to Flickr account Later.
AgentZ
Selling my photos…
Been working on setting up pages on AgentZ to sell prints of my photographs. I’m working trough a few bugs but I think I have the main look down. Galleries 1 and 2 are working so far. Tomorrow, pricing and ordering pages.
Check it out at:
http://www.agentz.com/digitalimagesbyjpl/index.shtml
And let me know what you think.
AgentZ
My son Jason’s 15 seconds of fame
3/23/09
CAL POLY — Police officers at Cal Poly are patrolling the campus in a new, environmentally friendly way.
The department recently purchased two electric vehicles, complete with lights and sirens.
They have three wheels and are battery powered.
Officers say they can now easily get to places they have never been able to in patrol cars.
“It’s actually been very well received,” said Chief Bill Watton. “You know, it’s a big conversation piece and the officers get stopped frequently just to chat about it.”
The vehicles are made by T3 Motion. Depending on the model, they cost $8,000 to $10,000.
http://www.kcoy.com/global/video/popup/pop_playerLaunch.asp?vt1=v&clipFormat=flv&clipId1=3578162&at1=News&h1=A New , Green Way to Patrol
A New Beginning
10:02 a.m. Wednesday March 18th
(ring) “Hey Andy, (Andy McNamara, Nat. Sales Mgr) what’s up?” I ask as I answer his call. “Pete, I have Mike Mucci (head of HR, never a good sign) here with me.”
“Pete, things are tough all around (blah, blah, blah), layoff (blah, blah, blah), indefinite (blah, blah, blah), immediately (blah, blah, blah), package overnighted to you (blah, blah, blah) (blah, blah, blah) (blah, blah, blah).
After 21 and 3/4 quarters years all I can say is, “I understand” and in about 3 minutes, its all over.
Where do I go from here? Don’t know. Will I stay in the industry? If it survives.
Just taking a breather for a few days, clearing out 21 3/4 years worth of history from my household. Its almost as if this huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. After a trip to the post office and UPS store tomorrow my house will be “corporate” free. Now if they’d get the freakin’ car out of my driveway…
I’ve come to see who the true friends are over the last few days.
More later. And there will be more later as I have a lot of time on my hands right now….
AgentZ
New Camera Body
My new Canon 50D came in a day early and I just had to take it out of the box and try it. Will shoot more later.
Just me…
These little ones make for a quick break…
Mes copies. In the room divider Sally got me for Christmas ‘07
AgentZ
Ahhhh Springtime Part Deux
So this weekend (after spending most of last in Death Valley on vacation) we were a wee bit ambitious. We had prepped the area for our veggie garden a couple of weeks ago. This morning we went to my favorite toy store (Lowes) and got stuff to put the garden in.
We spent most of Saturday afternoon doing maintenance around the property. I had picked up a new 4 cycle Toro weed whacker and whacked most of our half acre lot (okay, it only feels like most of it. there’s still a good size chunk to go). The winter rains had turned the driveway edges into a jungle and it wouldn’t be long before code enforcement tagged us so I needed to get it done. Dug out an old overgrown blood grass plant and spread a soil sterlilant on the hillside to keep down future weed growth.
At Lowes today we picked up a selection of pepper plants, tomoatoes, flowers, cucumbers, and a few cubic feet of mulch. We first added about a hundred pounds of amendment to the garden area, rototilled it in, and then got the plants in. Planted some sacrificial marigolds at the row ends.
Here’s a row of peppers in a raised bed:
Adjacent to those are the tomatoes (one is a hybrid called Goliath that bears fruit up to 24 ounces each) and at the far end the cukes are planted in front of the trellis.
The watering is done via buried soaker hose and the whole thing has several inches of mulch on top to conserve moisture
Behind the trellis and past the Meyer lemon tree I have a Thompson seedless grape vine and some lavender growing. The grape vine is about 10 years old and it and the lavender are coming back in.
The area we had the garden in last year (about half the size) was looking pretty bare so we picked up some flowers and planted a bed of Freesia’s,Persian Buttercup, Cape Daisy Iringa, and Felicia Daisy’s (blue)
Sally’s real happy with they this worked out as she can easily see it from the dinig room table while watching the local birds at our feeder.
Ahhhh Springtime
Yes, spring is in the air. That also means yardwprk on a weekly basis is back on the schedule.
Best yet, it means our vegetable garden will be going in.This was a couple of weeks ago prepping the garden for planting.
Tomorrow we add the amendments and actually plant the veggies. Ummm, can almost taste the vine ripened tomatoes already!
Images from Death Valley
As I promised…
Got most of the images reviewed and posted to my Flickr account. I’ll tease you with a few here and then I’ll give you the link for the entire set.
From Mesquite Dunes day 1.
Scottys Castle
Mosaic Canyon
Artists Drive
Salt Creek
Zabriskie Point
Dantes View
A complete slideshow is at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/agentz92505/sets/72157615117956196/show/ Hope you enjoying viewing them as much as I enjoyed shooting them. AgentZ
Just back….
Just spent a few days over in Death Valley. Stayed at the Panamint Springs “Resort”. If you’ve ever stayed there you’ll know the term “resort” is a stretch. What we did find was an extremely friendly staff, a clean room, and great food.
We got in Sunday and after checking in headed for Darwin Falls. Its not as easy as they make it sound. To reach the falls from the bottom we would have to have had a machete and chain saw it was so overgrown. We decided to forgo the 12 mile off road trip to the top and then hike down. We decided we much rather try something else.
That something else was the Mesquite Dunes at Stovepipe Wells. We hiked out to the dunes and I set up the camera and tripod. Sally, my dear wife, was so patient, God love her. After the dunes we headed back to Panamint and had dinner at the restaurant. The food is on the pricey side but after a day of hiking and touring, it was worth every penny. Sally had a regular burger and I had the “Cardiac Arrest”; Angus burger, blue cheese and crisp bacon, all the trimmings and a healthy serving of excellent fries.
Monday it was off to, originally, the “Race Track” until I saw the small print on the map that said you had better have heavy duty off-road tires due to the razor sharp rocks. Having combo on/off road tires on the FJ Criuiser I imagined us stuck 28 miles out in the desert with 4 slashed tires. It was an easy decision to visit Ubehebe Crater and then Scotty’s Castle. From there is was off to Badwater and Artist Drive. It was a bit of a hike out to a viewpoint for Artist Pallette but well worth it. Shot a panorama of it. A quick stop at Zabriskie Point and then back to Panamint where I had a bowl of the chili (awesome with a glass of Blue Paddle beer) and Sally had their spaghetti dinner (with italian sausage).
Today, a quick trip to Salt Creek, a stop to shoot a cool abstract piece of lava, shooting of a panorama from Zabriskie Point, another panorama from Dante’s View, a cool 30 mile cross country 4 wheel drive cruise through Greenwater Valley and popping out of the parks southeast corner near Shoshone and dropping into Baker for the trip down I15 home.
I will be processing images this week and will be posting as I work on them.
Stand By…
AgentZ
What a weekend
Had a blast this past weekend.
Started out early Friday to try to beat the “headin’ out of town” crowd. It worked, for the most part.
It was a supply run and work weekend. Had a couple of pounds of fudge in the Cruiser, A half sheet of 1/2″ (technically 13mm) baltic birch plywood (for a new desktop), some ebony stain, and my power mitre saw.
Friday night was easy, dinner at Senor Sanchos (Jason had his regular Firestone Double Barrel) and Josh and I tested our luck with a couple of Blue Tarantula Magaritas. Headed for the kids house and sat out under the stars and did a few snorts of some of the finest Grappa I’ve had on any continent. It had been gifted to me after a photo shoot on Thursday by the company owner. He said it was made the old world way and was tripled distilled. You could taste the love that went into it. I thought Stacey was going to hurl a few times but she had on her big girl panties and hung in there.
Jason has taken on the Project (capitalization intentional as it is a major project) of updating their kitchen. He had already pulled all the cabinet doors and was priming them when we arrived. The mitre saw was so we could buy some decorative trim and add a frame to the door fronts to add a little architectural interest. By the end of th day Saturday we had all the doors framed, primed and most painted (thanks to Sally and Stacey who stepped in to assist). Saturday night we were the guests of Gianni and Kati Manucci (proprietors of Wild Coyote Estate Winery and Bed & Breakfast). I thought Gianni would enjoy the Grappa so I brought it along. We did a few shots for desert.
We headed back and met Josh at Jason’s and we sat out under the stars shooting the shit and smoking a couple of Bella Costa Vintage Reserve cigars (okay, just me and Jason. Sally and Josh aren’t big cigar smokers).
I can’t tell you how much I enjoy this time to unwind and just hang with my boys. They are a couple of remarkable men. Its obvious their mother did something right….
Sunday morning it was time to trim some bead board to face the cabinet ends and then over to Josh’s to help him move furniture and assemble his new computer desk. Moved his dresser to the back room, moved his 36″ TV (tube type, did I mention I’m getting too old for this shit) and then put the new desk together.
Last I saw he was happily reassembling his computer as we did the long drive back to the L.A. rat race…
AgentZ
Finally in my New Office
Least weekend I spent most of the weekend disassembling, moving, arranging and re-assembling my office. We moved it from the back laundry room (its big about 10×22 feet) out to the bedroom (about the same size) just off the living room. It puts me closer to the kitchen (yeah), the door for deliveries (normally they’re already headed down the drive by the time I can get out to the front), and the bathroom is only 5 steps instead of 25. I also have much more room to hang photos. There is still a blank wall (off to the right) for more prints.
Only thing left to do is pull CAT5 for my desktop. I’ll probably keep the laptop wireless as its in and out all the time.
AgentZ
I can’t be the only one…
Can you tell the difference between these two cards?
Besides the one on the right is the new labeling Sandisk is using?
Here’s a hint. The one on the left is about 2 years old and works flawlessly.
The one on the right is one of 4 cards I purchased that not one worked out of the package. Some my computer would not recognize when inserted in the card reader. Some the camera would not recognize when inserted in the camera. After formatting all of them both the camera and computer would recognize them.
That wasn’t the end of the problems however. Below is a screen shot of Canon’s “Digital Phot Professional”. All four cards exhibited the same symptoms. The black rectangles are RAW images files that are corrupt and the software can’t preview or open. The grey boxes with the X’s through them are corrupt JPG and RAW files.
Okay, well some of them do preview. Unforntunately, that’s all you get is a preview. In the image above you can see one of the previews highlighted in grey. That files was selected for editing.. The preview is fine but, when you open the image this is what you get:
But those aren’t the only differences either. Sandisk claims on the packaging the ULTRA II is a 100X card. First, it not as fast as my 4 year old 80X LEXAR and it not as fast as the the older ULTRA II. It won’t take as many images in a row in burst mode (same exact scene) and writes cache to the card slower.
Lets hope Sandisk makes good on this. However, I think I’ll be looking for a new source for my CF cards in the future.
AgentZ
New Hardinge Multi-tasking GS-Series Turning Center at Machinery Sales Co.
We are pleased to announce the West Coast premier of the new HARDINGE GS200MSY multi-tasking turning center.
It will be featured at the Machinery Sales Open House on February 18th and 19th. Factory representatives will be on hand.
Follow the link for more information:
http://www.masconews.com/pages/hardinge_gs_msy_introduction.html
AgentZ
The Joy of Cooking
Did one of my favorite activities today.
I cooked.
I started at about 6:45 this morning. Sally had bought a pot roast, about 2.5 pounds. I whipped out my one of my Henckels knives and ran it across the diamond sharpener and hone to make certain I had a good edge on it.
Took out a bowl and added some flour and season salt. Set aside a paper plate and started hand trimming the roast. I carefully coated each piece with the flour mixtue and set it aside on the paper plate.
After the meat was completely trimmed and floured I took out an onion and diced it up and set it aside.
Took out the skillet, added enough oil to lightly cover the bottom and got it nice and hot. Whipped out the tongs and started adding the pieces of meat leaving plenty of room so they wouldn’t stick to each other or start steamimg the meat. Browned all the pieces and added a little more oil and dumped in the onions. As they started turning translucent I added some minced garlic. Just as the edges of the onion were carmelizing I dumped the onions into the crock pot, opened a bottle of Sam Adams Octoberfest and used it to deglaze the pan. Reduced the beer a little and dumped it into the crock pot. I added another bottle of Sam Adams, put in the meat, set the pot to high and went to work.
Around 10ish I went out and peeled the russets Sally had bought and cut them into about a 1/4″ dice. Took 12 ounces of baby carrots and cut them in 1/2 or 1/3’s depending on their size and diced 4 stalks of celery. I intentionally waited to added the vegggies because I wanted them tender but still retaining their shape. I like potatoes in stew that still ahve a little bit of tooth to them.
I mixed up 2 cups of beef broth, opened an 8 ounce can of tomato sauce and dumped them and the veggies into the meat, onion, and beer mixture. After mixing everything up I tasted the broth and decided a touch of sea salt, some paprika and fresh ground pepper medley would add a nice touch.
Left the crock pot on high and walked away until about an hour ago. Ummm Ummm Good!
Sally must of liked it as she’s taking some for lunch tomorrow. I still have left over chili from Sunday so I may have to vacuum seal some of this and save it for that rainy day they are forecasting for us this weekend.
Can’t wait because it usually even better after it sits overnight.
AgentZ
Lost Generation ?
This is a real cool video I found in a posterous blog I subscribe to. It was made for an AARP contest yet is clearly aimed at the young people of today (future AARPer’s).
Very clever:
AgentZ
In Search of an Identity
Recently Sally (my lovely wife of almost 28 years) has been going through
old family photos for both a project she’s working on and to post to her
Facebook page to share with the nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and
grand-nephews scattered around the country.
old family photos for both a project she’s working on and to post to her
Facebook page to share with the nieces, nephews, grand-nieces and
grand-nephews scattered around the country.
It been like a time machine taking me back to some great times and relighting
memories of times and loved ones who have passed on.
Its got me looking at my past and where I came from and how I got to be
where I am today.
I’ll write about some of those journeys during future posts.
One of the things I realized recently is that I was a geek (in the modern
sense of the word) before the language evolved to give that tag.
Wikipedia says:
Formerly, the term referred to a carnival performer often billed as a wild
man whose act usually includes biting the head off a live chicken, bat,
snake or bugs. The 1976 edition of the American Heritage Dictionary included
only the definition regarding geek shows.
The word geek is a slang term, noting individuals as “a peculiar or
otherwise odd person, especially one who is perceived to be overly obsessed
with one or more things including those of intellectuality, electronics,
gaming, etc.” The definition of geek has changed considerably over time,
and there is no longer a definitive meaning.
Julie Smith defined a geek as:
”a bright young man turned inward, poorly socialized, who felt so little
kinship with his own planet that he routinely traveled to the ones invented
by his favorite authors, who thought of that secret, dreamy place his
computer took him to as cyberspace-somewhere exciting, a place more real
than his own life, a land he could conquer, not a drab teenager’s room in
his parents’ house”.
Okay,growing up, there weren’t computers. But, I did read all the major science fiction writers extensively. Asimov, Ellison, and Bradbury were my favorites. they always gave me someplace to escape to.
Other definitions include:
A more recent school of thought sees Nerd as being a derogatory phrase, whilst Geek is simply a description. It is taken to be someone who is an enthusiast, often in things outside of the mainstream spectrum, of note is that in this definition, there is no reference to being socially inept in the slightest.
More in future posts…
Comfort Zones
Ever want to do someting but you hold back because of what “others” may think?
It happened this weekend.
I went on a Flickr meet-up with the L.A. Group. We met at El Dorado Park Nature Center in Long Beach. Orbitgal (one of the groups moderators) invited a model for everyone to shoot (pictures, not hunt type shoot) in the trees. I was initially reluctant as I figured some of my contacts on Flickr would give me a hard time. It wasn’t until the small group I was with (turned out they weren’t really into the model shoot) met back up with the main group (about an hour and a half later) that I changed my mind.
I had never shot a model before (probably where some of the reluctance came from too, just easier to blame it on others) but once observing, decided to give it a try. Before long I was really involved and getting into it.
I realized later that sometimes we have to force ourselves outside our comfort zones to be able to expand and improve on what we what really love to do. There’s been a minimal amount of grief over the shoot (so far) and I learned a lot from it. I actually look forward to my next opportunity to try it again.
While the the Nature Center in January offered a limited potential several of us got in some nice nature shots. And the sub group I started in ended up getting into the model shoot too. Here’s some of my shots. If you like to see what everyone did for the day go to Flickr and search for the tag eldorado0109 and see what the rest of the group captured.
This evening
Just got back from a nice walk with Sally along Riverwalk (fka Pierce St). We grabbed an order of lasagna & a salad to split from First Class Pizza for dinner.
AgentZ
Flickr meet up
Just got in from a Flickr meet-up at El Dorado park.. Orbitgal brought a model (Trisha). About 20 shooters showed up. Pics will be tagged on Flickr with eldorado0109
AgentZ Posterous
Todays Mission…
Been trying to regift what my lovely granddaughter gave me for Christmas but I can’t find any takers. Someone, please come take this cold away…
We don’t party to bring in the new year, we stayed in and watched a bunch of Johnny Carson classics.
So we decided to get out for a while today. Some fresh air, a little exercise. It certainly did me good. Sally had a good time too.
We drove out to the Mission at San Juan Capistrano. There are only 2 more I have to hit to have been to all the original California Missions. (San Diego and San Gabriel)
Ask Josh sometime about his trip of a lifetime visitng the others…
Hey Josh?…
AgentZ
The End is Near
Don’t know about the end of the world but this is the end of the winter storm that just passed through Southern California.
This is a HDR (high dynamic range) image shot off of Hwy 101 just south of Mussel Shoals. The structure sticking out into the ocean is the Ritchfield Pier.
AgentZ
Click Here to View large Image Black
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