Timothy Payne

Earth zoom

tpayne23 — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 05:16:54 +0000

So it’s been awhile since I’ve posted again and I’ve had no excuse not to except for being lazy. So here is a new post where I wish I could imbed video but I cant. So if you want to see the video you’ll have to click the link. I was bored the other night and figured I would try to play around in Motion a little bit so I found a tutorial to make a cool earth zoom effect out of some photos. The problem was that the tutorial was for After Effects. I don’t have after effects and I’ve never used after effects, but I had Motion so I didn’t think it would be that hard to figure out the differences. So I took 9 photos, went with it and the result wasn’t that bad. It could have been better but I figured it was good enough the way it was. So here it is if you feel like watching it. Let me know what you think and don’t forget to watch it in full screen, it looks better that way.

http://vimeo.com/4056845

The Observer

tpayne23 — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:44:26 +0000

I haven’t been on in awhile but I had to write this quick update. Anyone who watches fringe knows about the Observer and while watching the NFL playoffs Giants vs. Eagles he made a brief appearance. With 9:37 left in the first quarter he appeared in the camera shot. It was definitely him and I took a photo of the TV because I cant get a screen shot, so here he is. I wonder what he’s doing at the game? Anyone know or have any guesses?

Can They Possibly be Serious?

tpayne23 — Sat, 20 Dec 2008 22:25:58 +0000

Sometimes you just think to yourself this has to be a joke or why would someone ever ask that? Don’t people try to figure things out for themselves? Some things just shouldn’t be that hard to figure out in the first place. So what has inspired me to write about stupid questions? It happened at work and the question came in the form of an email, actually two separate emails from separate people with the same request.

Now, the emails were not written to me so unfortunately I couldn’t respond to them but one of my coworkers thought they should show me two of the emails they received. I asked what they wrote back and they just said that they didn’t respond. I tried to convince them of what to write giving them a few quick ideas but I was unsuccessful.

So for Santa Clause photos you can choose to have the photo sent to you in an email. That’s nice because you have the photo to do whatever you want with. They all are sent in a batch at the end of the day with nothing done to them so you get the file however it is saved in the computer. So here are the two email responses we received a few days ago.

First, “Would it be possible for you to send the photo so we don’t have to see the picture sideways? I don’t know of a way to change it. Please advise.” and second “THE PHOTO THAT?I PAID FOR OF MY KIDS WITH SANTA CLAUSE IS SIDEWAYS. COULD YOU PLEASE RESEND IT IN THE CORRECT POSITION? THAK YOU.” Copied and pasted straight from the emails caps and all.

Here are the responses I tried to convince my coworker to send back.

Dear xxxxx,

Unfortunately do to the amount of time it would take us to open your photo and press the rotate button we will not be able to comply with your request. Here are some possible solutions to your problem.

You could always turn your computer monitor on its side whenever you would like to look at the photo or you could also lay on your side yourself when viewing your photo.
You could always print the photo out in landscape orientation, manually turn it sideways and rescan the photo in the portrait position giving you a file in the orientation you would prefer.

If the child in the photo is in kindergarten or older just have them fix it.

If none of these solutions will work for you you could always try double clicking the file on your computer and when it opens in your default photo viewing software click the rotate button like we would do (if you rotate it in the wrong direction don’t worry you can always press the button two more times.)

Thank You,

xxxxxxxxxx

Sorry about the photos being sideways. They were sent to me wrong or something. Just turn your monitor sideways or something to look at them.

So there you have it. Maybe it isn’t as funny or surprising to you that someone who has email, knows how to check it and actually requests to have photos sent to it, doesn’t know how to do something as simple as rotating a photo or can’t figure out a way to do it. There’s no way in my mind that I could even believe they even tried before asking someone else to do it for them.

The Most Pressing Issues of our Time

tpayne23 — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 06:47:04 +0000

After being sick and not posting for almost a week I have a few issues to talk about. Now these issues are not for the faint hearted. The first I read in the local newspaper today which was the second time I have heard this story in a week. The second I heard earlier this week and I proceeded to do some research finding out it was indeed true.

I’ll start with this, a picture of the future as I see it when issues like this get tossed around. I’m heading into any local public restroom. The dinner I had the night before was a classic, franks and beans. The purpose of my visit with to the restroom is to alleviate myself of some pesky flatulence rightly incurred from last nights dinner. After I have accomplished my task and I’m ready to leave the restroom a security guard at the door states that I have been fined or taxed for excessively releasing methane gas into the atmosphere. Now you say, “What the heck is he talking about?” I’ll tell you. It might be a little far fetched to take it as far as I did, but the crazies are at it again and someone, somewhere, had a brilliant idea to think about taxing owners of cows for the release of climate changing methane gas into the atmosphere. Yes you read it right, the headline should read Cows Get Taxed for Having Gas. I wish I could meet the person who initially thought of this brilliant idea. I can just see them wearing their save the whales t-shirt, chained to a tree waiting to be cut down.

OK, maybe that was a little harsh calling environmentalists crazy tree hugging whale savers but making a stink about cow gas is going a little to far. Oh and if you didn’t know, that to the left is a picture of Cynthia McKinney the Green party’s most recent presidential candidate. So…maybe crazy isn’t that far off. The Environmental protection agency does say that a cow tax isn’t on the books, but it was mentioned and that means it is on the mind of a crazy somewhere out there just waiting to try to make it happen. It just might not be such a bad idea to buy some stock in the manufacturer of Beano.

The second issue I heard about is just as important as the dreaded cow tax. When I started reading the story I was appalled. How could this happen? Who would so such a thing? What is the world coming to? Eventually I found out, yes it was the dreaded beavers that did it. Some people are just plain pitiful. They have nothing better to do than jump to conclusions and raise issues about the dumbest things. Here’s the brief but full story as written by Emily Garnham for express.co.uk

GREEN campaigners called police after discovering an illegal logging site in a nature reserve – only to find the culprits were a gang of beavers. Environmentalists found 20 neatly stacked tree trunks and others marked with notches for felling at a beauty-spot in Subkowy, northern Poland.
But when officers followed a trail left by a tree which had been dragged away, they found a beaver dam right across the river as reported by the Austrian times. A police spokesman said: “The campaigners are feeling pretty stupid. There’s nothing more natural than a beaver.”

I love it! Um sir, is was a group of highly skilled beavers that are running this illegal logging operation, it’s kind of what they do. I wish I could have been there to laugh at them. Maybe take a look around next time and notice the trail to the big fat beaver dam. Or if you love nature so much, you should probably know what big fat beaver teeth marks look like in a big fat tree stump. They probably already had signs made up protesting the logging of innocent trees when they heard the news of their idiocy. I hope the beavers watch out or the crazies will get them.

So these are actually pressing issues for some people. Cow gas and illegal beaver logging. I only wish some individuals cared about other people as much as they cared about these issues.

Oh, and I don’t think all environmentalists are crazy, I recycle, and I liked the movie Free Willy. But seriously I couldn’t have made up these ridiculous stories if I tried.

White Elephant

tpayne23 — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 05:45:10 +0000

Today I had the opportunity to participate in my first white elephant gift exchange. The exchange was held during a dinner and was a great time. My number was 4 out of about 30 so I didn’t have many choices of what I could choose for my gift. If you don’t know what a white elephant gift exchange is, here’s how it worked. The first person picked a gift and opened it, the second person picked a gift, opened it and decided if they would keep that gift or exchange it with the first person’s gift. It goes on like this until the last person can choose whichever gift they desire from any person that opened a gift. So number 4 is by all means not a desirable number. When my turn came along I knew what gift was waiting for me, obviously the largest gift on the table. I snatched it up, tore wrapping paper and threw stuffing out like it was my job, pulled out what appeared to be a metal fish slotted holder of some sort and quickly realized that some other lucky individual would be taking this home and not me. I had three other choices before me consisting of a small talking stuffed golfer, a picture frame and the gift I knew had my name written all over it.

Trump the Game, a classic. I don’t know what drew me in but I was hooked. How could you possibly go wrong with a game straight from Donald Trump himself? How had I never heard of or seen this game before? The anticipation of opening the box was killing me. What did the game pieces look like? How did you play? If I played enough could I learn to be a real estate tycoon? So many questions bounced threw my thoughts as others one by one opened their gifts and made their decisions. Would someone rip my dreams right out from under me and leave me the leftovers of the white elephant gift exchange? Could I possibly hold on to such a treasure through the very last gift? And then in an instant, it was over. The last gift had been chosen and Trump the Game was mine!

Who could have predicted a night with such suspense and excitement? My first ever white elephant gift exchange and I was (as the cover for the Rule Book of my newly aquired Trump the Game clearly states) “Living the fantasy! Feeling the power! and Making the deals!” Now if I could only bring myself to read the rest of the rule book and someday I might even play the game.

What? No TV?

tpayne23 — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 03:56:20 +0000

Oh the joys of having a 55 inch high definition TV. Not a bad seat in the house, cable, DVR, power at my fingertips…What? I can’t watch TV? You’re joking right? But two of my favorite shows are on. Yes, that was the scene in my house last night.

“Tim come here” that’s what I heard from Sarah. “Yeah” I said, getting the response “I think the bulb blew on the TV”. Indeed it had. Poof and there goes the TV until I can get a replacement bulb shipped to my house. You would think that I had already ordered one but no, I haven’t. Now I know you’re all probably pretty worried for me right now but you shouldn’t be. We have a replacement. That sucker is a sweet 9 inch TV just waiting to be watched.

So this gives me a great opportunity to share a few alternatives to watching your shows on your TV. You can always go to the network’s website and watch your shows there. That’s if you wanted the more popular shows for the station. I’ve watched Prison Break from the FOX site before and it was pretty good quality. If you don’t feel like going to the networks site you can also try hulu.com which has a whole bunch of stuff you can watch. It doesn’t carry shows from ABC or CBS but other than that it’s a very nice site and easy to get around on. It varies on how long the shows take to turn up on the site (too long in my opinion) but if you need to catch up on a show or watch some clips check it out. If you need a show you can’t find, Modernfeed.com should be able to find it for you no matter what network it was on. It will redirect you to another site to watch the shows but it’s nice to find a listing all in one place. I personally haven’t used it much but I just went there to check it out a little more and was sidetracked by watching an A-Team episode. So obviously the site is pretty good because you can’t go wrong watching the A-Team.

So there are a few internet options to watching some TV if you just happen to not be able to watch your nice… big… high definition… 55 inch… Sorry about that. Really it’s not that bad. It’s actually kind of peaceful not having it on all the time. But I don’t know what I would do if I lost the Internet also…

RC Truck Up and Running

tpayne23 — Wed, 03 Dec 2008 01:22:27 +0000

Today I took my Traxxas Stampede XL-5 out of the cupboard and ran a few battery packs through it. I haven’t ran it in awhile and I didn’t keep the batteries charged properly so one of them didn’t last that long. I tried to shoot some video but I realized it was impossible to drive and shoot at the same time. I also have a few upgrades I bought to add onto the truck that I should put on eventually. I should think about putting a new bigger battery on my Christmas list too. All my batteries right now are OK 6 Cell batteries and if I get a new one it will be 7 Cell or a really good 6 Cell.

If you’re ever in the mood to go out and buy a remote controlled car or truck I would recommend spending the extra money to get a nice one. Go to a hobby shop and buy a hobby grade vehicle instead of a toy from some other store. You can replace the parts that break if you hit a tree or make a jump that’s just a bit too big. Plus you’ll be able to drive it all over the place without any trouble. I must have flipped my truck 20 times today trying to jump things and it didn’t phase it a bit so these things are extremely durable. I have made ramps giving me 15-20 feet of airtime and jumped over a car before without it breaking. The one time it broke I ran it straight into a curb at almost full speed and it was only a three dollar part to fix it.

So here’s my buying advice. If I was to buy another one today it would be the Traxxas Stampede VXL. This is the upgrade to the XL-5 that I have and it is awesome. It’s electric like the XL-5 but has a brushless motor and an improved ESC (Electronic Speed Controller) making it capable of using LiPo along with NiMh batteries. It has other improvements also but I’ll leave you with this. You have the capability of running this truck faster and for a longer period of time. That’s what everyone wants when they buy an RC Truck right?

Jokes

tpayne23 — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 01:31:45 +0000

I thought instead of letting everyone know what I did today since it wasn’t very interesting I’d link to a youtube video. I looked for a few minutes and this one was pretty good. 50 Jokes I like the binary joke the best and a bunch of them made me smile because they were so stupid. Hope you like it. I did.

Weekend Update

tpayne23 — Sun, 30 Nov 2008 20:19:53 +0000

So I had a few goals for the weekend and surprisingly already accomplished both of them. My new page is up and I’m pleased with how it turned out so far. One thing I did find out though after I published it is that I wont be able to put any videos on the page just yet. Here’s why…Due to space limitations anyone who has a WordPress blog can only link to audio or video files unless an upgrade is purchased. The upgrade gives you more space and allows you to add an assortment of media files to your posts and pages. I guess that makes sense and I can’t complain since this is a free service to begin with. So I won’t be posting any videos just yet. If I keep up with the pages and people keep checking back then I’ll go ahead and get the upgrade sometime after Christmas probably. It’s not that much and I do want to have some media stuff on here.

So a little more info on the Metal Detecting page. I finished the page yesterday and had fun doing it. I took the photos and counted all the coins. I needed to count the coins anyway because the paper is doing an article about the STMDC (Southern Tier Metal Detecting Club) and the reporter wanted a count of my coins. I was the only one who brought all their coins to the meeting so that’s why she asked me. The article won’t run in the paper until next spring when we’re going to have a table in the mall and try to advertise the club a little more. It would be cool if I ended up in the article. So if you haven’t taken a look at the Metal Detecting page yet sneak a peek after you get done reading the weekend update.

As for the shopping part of my weekend goals, that I accomplished today. For the most part it seemed like a scouting trip. I did what needed to be done by today and not much more. I did go to a lot of stores and bought my mom something not related to Christmas. Nothing really jumped out at me and I didn’t have too many ideas of what to buy anyone. I’ll have to get some more ideas before next time I go out. So if anyone has any ideas for me let me know or you might not get anything.

I guess it’s time to watch some football and relax for the rest of the day. Keep checking back, I like the visitors.

The Weekend

tpayne23 — Sat, 29 Nov 2008 14:38:45 +0000

The work week is over and now I have the weekend to try to get some things done. Here is what I have on my list, so lets see if I can get any of it done.

1. A new page for my blog. Sarah recommended that I make a metal detecting page so that’s what I’ll try to get done first.

2. Christmas Shopping. It’s a good thing Sarah does most of it or I’d never get any of it finished. All though I can’t have her shop for herself can I.

If I can accomplish these two things this weekend it will be a success. I have to try to fit them in with the other activities going on. Thanksgiving with my mom’s side of the family today and church tomorrow.

On a side note if anyone was wondering I did not go shopping yesterday (Black Friday). It would have been a lot more stressful then work was.