Monday, December 21, 2009

Brianhead

From December 2009

This weekend we went to Brianhead Ski resort to a buddies cabin. It snowed about 2 and a half feet while we were there.

Here are some pics of sledding in the street

From December 2009



From December 2009


From December 2009

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Thanksgiving Weekend



I had an amazing thanksgiving weekend with my family. On friday we decided we were going to go try and find some coyotes. We had absolutely no luck but it was fun just the same. Here are a few pictures of Austin and Jaden.

Saturday, June 20, 2009

War on "------"

I heard a quote once and i am sorry but i don't remember who said it. Any war on a verb is a war we can not win.

Think about it. Has the "War on Drugs" stopped or even slowed the amount of drugs that have flowed into the US since it has been started? Has the War on Terror stopped 'terror' from happening? How bout the war on poverty? global warming? you get my drift.

If our enemy is not something material or solid then it is impossible to fight it and have a definite victory. It ends up becoming an excuse to pass more legislation, and spend more money our government doesn't have because they are able to use the fear of the people to create a perceived need for such things.

Lets stop fighting Wars on "-----." and start being responsible and admitting that such policies do not help us arrive at the intended results.

More HDR experiments



On my way to my room i pass this awesome vase every night, and the statue above. I don't know why but they looked like they would be fun to photograph so here they are.

Friday, June 19, 2009

Why are we so blind to the plight we are in?

http://www.turnerradionetwork.com/

You think that our leaders would wake up and realize that the spending they are currently doing is absurd and unsustainable. So much so that our allies are going to start dumping our currency to save themselves from our sinking ship. Wake up Washington!

Monday, June 15, 2009

sunday drive



This is our living room. Just messing around with the different effects.





On my way home from sunday dinner i took the alpine loop. It was rainy and cloudy so the colors didn't turn out that well but practice is practice.

Friday, June 12, 2009

Take 2 HDR



My first HDR Image


So i got a new toy recently to take me back to the days when we used to develop our own film in the wasatch high dark room and we would roll our own black and white, push 400 exp to 800, etc etc. Here is my first picture taken. It is terrible and is really rough in so many ways but i am going to use this as a benchmark or starting point. As I continue to take pictures i can look back at this and hopefully see improvment

Monday, June 8, 2009

Wanna be friends?

This weekend I went to the park with a friend and her niece. It being a Saturday there were kids running around all over the place.

One little girl came up to a boy about her age that was playing on the monkey bars. She walked right up to him and the first words out of her mouth were "Wanna be friends?"

The boy looked down from his perch above her and without hesitation answered "ok." They then introduced themselves and started talking about how one of them lived really far away and the other one lived really close, among other things that 4 year olds would talk about. For the rest of the time i was there these two kids ran around that park together, sometimes helping each other over the obsticles in the playground, acting as if they had known each other their whole lives.

For some reason this little exchange caused me to evaluate my life, and how easy some things should be. If we took the view of this little girl and assumed everyone was a possible good friend until we had reason not to how much more inviting would life be?

Sunday, May 17, 2009

Cops, Crashes, and Drunk Drivers.

I seem to only post when something crazy happens, I don't know why that may be but at least i keep track of these things so i can look back and remember all the weird things that make up my life.

Last Saturday night I was heading home from a wedding reception going southbound on State Street in orem. I was cruising along trying to get Karen home because she had some people to meet.

As we were approaching University Parkway an old white mercedes benz pulled in front of me almost hitting the front of my car. I thought the person had just not seen me so i flashed my brights to let him know i was there. He instantly slammed on his brakes and started turning on his blinkers alternating left to right. I slowed down to give him space.

As we hit the turning lane for University Parkway I moved around him and hoped to pass him and turn and leave the crazy guy behind. He swerved toward me trying to hit the side of my car. I gunned it around him and stopped at the light. He stayed back about 10 feet and just stared at us as if he was bent on killing us. I thought well we are ahead of him now so i can just ignore him. No reason to cause an incident.

We turned onto University Parkway heading toward provo, he did a manuever and made the turn also, cut off another car and got behind us. He then started swearving all over the lane flashing his lights, honking his horn, and alternating blinkers again. I just thought it was someone with a road rage problem and stayed at the speed limit and ignored him. There were times he was so close i couldn't see his car or lights at all in my mirrors.

We made it through the 8th East light and started going down the hill into provo. Traffic was pretty bad and he was still following very close behind, swerving so bad that cars had to move onto the shoulder to avoid an accident. By this time i realized something was not right so i called 911. The operator came on and i explained where we were and calmly recalled the situation. coming up on the light by albertsons at the bottom of the hill i realized that it was a red light and there was no where to go. we slowed down and came to a stop.

I was still on the phone with the 911 dispatch explaining where we were and the type of car etc. He had stopped about 10 or 15 feet behind us and was still just staring at us in a way i can only describe as animalistic. then out of no where he slammed on the gas and rammed into a car next to us scrapping the entire side of the car before crashing into the back of my car!!

Karen and I were both so shocked we weren't quite sure we believed what had just happened. Karen rolled down the window and asked the guy next to us if we had really just been hit. he said yup and it looks like the guy is really really drunk. That kind of answered some questions but i was still just shocked that he woudl intentionally ram me for no apparent reason.

I explained to the dispatcher that i had just been intentionally hit and was not going to pull over and stop as long as the guy was behind me because i did not want a personal confrontation with him. I had earlier slid my glock out of its holster and had it in my hand resting on my lap. I was really afraid he was goign to get out of his car and come up to us.

I think about this time he realized the implications of what he had just done and decided the best course of action was to get out of dodge. He swung his car around, ran two red lights and headed back up the hill on university parkway toward Orem.

I was like "Hell no you don't" and turned around and followed.

The dispatcher gave the obligatory, "we don't recommend you follow" and i told her as long as i wasn't breaking any traffic laws or putting myself at risk i was not letting him out of my sight.

We went back up the hill turned north on state then he took an immediate right into the Universtity Mall parking lot. He did a big loop then headed his car back in my direction. I gunned it out of his way and watched as he passed then headed down the street. He stopped about 200 yards in front of us and sat there for about 1 minute. I think he was trying to think about what his next stupid move would be. He then very calmly returned to State street and headed north.

We followed and let him get about a block ahead of us because he was endangering everyone around him going across all three lanes and driving at about 50mph trying to lose us. I had been transfered to Orem dispatch and had explained the situation to them. We just kept updating them on where we were and where he was. At Center street in orem he made a right turn and the cops were right there making a left. Dispatch said let them pull him over then pull in behind them. she then disconnected and the police cars flew past us and surrounded his car. He pulled over and we pulled in behind.

A few minutes later the cop came up to our window and made sure everything was alright, I got out and we walked around my car to inspect the damage. The bumper was pretty messed up but it wasn 't near as bad as i thought it would be. I handed him my CCW and he handed it back and just smiled and shook his head.

The lady who had made the original stop came up and said yea he is very very intoxicated. Blew something lke a .5, and he failed his field sobriety test.

So we sat there for another hour while the provo police came to the scene, the other car that had been hit arrived, and they took care of all the paperwork that goes along with 2 hit and runs, 2 dui's reckless driving, reckless endangerment, and all the other things they charged him with. He also didn't speak a word of english and didn't have a license.

I don't know why or what it is but wacko's pick me every time. At least it always makes for good stories!!