New dog fashion trend

Our beagle, Bailey, wearing the latest fashion in dogwear—dried frog on collar. We have no idea how it got there. Idgit dawg! He'd glance down at it from time to time. It finally fell off.

"When pride comes, then comes disgrace"

(Proverbs 11:2)

Last evening, I received an email from someone I know containing the tract on the right (click for larger version). Here is the response I sent to him and the other recipients:

Subject: Re: Fwd: I Am Proud To Be White~And I'm NOT A Racist....
From: xxxxxx
Date: 5/29/2008 9:49 PM
To: xxxxxx
Cc: xxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxx, xxxxxx

Xxxxx,

We are all Americans, but if you want to qualify it by race or ancestry, you and I are European-Americans, not simply "Americans."

I have never heard a racial slur used against a white person except on TV. No racial slur, such as "cracker," has ever been used against me, and I don't plan on using one against anyone else. Life is too short. Why bother insulting anybody, for any reason?

Regarding, "You say that whites commit a lot of violence against you," depending on what "a lot" means, I have never heard any racial minority use this argument. I think most people understand that violent crime is largely intraracial, e.g., for the most part whites kill whites, Hispanics kill Hispanics, and blacks kill blacks.

There are no "Black-only Colleges" in the U.S.; however, there are historically black colleges and predominantly black colleges. All have non-black students.

Whites don't have days, months, organizations, TV stations, etc. that identify themselves as being "white" in some way because _all_ of our days, months, organizations, TV stations, etc. are essentially white. That's what it means to live in a culture dominated by our, the white race. I'm sure the same is true in other, non-white cultures. For example, I doubt whether Liberia has a Black History Month or the equivalent of the NAACP. It would make no sense. Think about it.

Nobody thinks that "only whites can be racists." That's absurd. Every race has members that are racist against other races.

The U.S. has had a "white"-dominated culture for the past few hundred years. (For several _thousand_ years before that, it had an exclusively Indian culture.) There are institutions, programs, and social graces that specifically benefit non-whites because these people have been trod upon for so long by our culture. There are certainly inexcusable excesses, but I think it's pretty easy to understand the motivation within our still-white-dominated society to accommodate these people in a few mostly symbolic ways. I mean, if you really feel threatened by Black History Month, you need to find a hobby. :-)

Xxxx

Big. Ugly. Watch.

I was looking to replace my current, Timex Expedition watch, whose metal body has started to corrode after less than a year (dang, where's that receipt?). I wanted a similar watch but with a plastic body. I haven't found the ideal watch yet, but in the process I found this godawful thing yesterday at a reduced price at Ross.



It's a Nike Hammer watch. The low-contrast black-on-red display makes it sometimes difficult to read, the back light does so barely, the rubber watch band makes my wrist sweat, and the alarm is almost inaudible. But I like it!

I was earlier tempted by a black Pulsar. I have a feeling that its curved, thin metal body will not corrode. A bit too dressy, though. (UPDATE: Found a used Pulsar for $29.99 on eBay. I bet I win the auction.) So here are my requirements: analog, second hand (for EMS—taking pulse and respiration), date, simple and easy to read face, will not corrode.

My first HDR photo

The reason I bought my Nikon D70s last year was to take HDR photos. I am just now getting around to it. This is our house.



I used the trial version of Photomatix Pro 3.0 and just removed their watermarks with Corel Paint Shop Pro X. This is probably over processed—colors too saturated and contrast too high, but I'm just playing around. Our house is completely different from the Simpson's house, but the flat, bright colors create a passing resemblance.

The next photo has been processed on some Japanese site to look like an old photo. Maybe a small stagecoach inn, circa 1890? Pretty good job. I used the overexposed photo from the bracketed set that produced the above HDR image. The properly exposed photo was too dark after processing.

How to write telephone numbers

There is actually an international standard for how your contact information appears, including telephone number and email address. It's the ITU-T E.123 Recommendation. This is taken from the text:

Orange flower

Neither my wife nor I remember the name of this flower which we most likely bought at Home Depot or Lowe's. Very intense orange blossoms. It actually looked better yesterday—less blousy—but I was too lazy to get out my camera.



My depth of field was too shallow. Would have been nice to have all of the flower completely in focus.

Yellow garden spider

My wife pointed out this spider to me this afternoon on our front porch. It's commonly called a yellow garden spider, but its latin name is Argiope aurantia. Very pretty colors. Click on the image to see the high-resolution version. The spider looks much more impressive that way.

The rain lilly

In the Texas hill country, rain lillies like these appear a day or so after a heavy rain in the spring and summer.




Their buds are purple, and they flower the same day. The giant rain lilly is slightly larger.

Yellow fungus

Some sort of fungus growing on our shed step after a series of rainy days. The bright golden color caught my eye.

First National Starbuck's

Saw this in Bastrop, Texas a week-and-a-half ago.




Is the bank in a Starbuck's or is the Starbuck's in a bank?

(BTW, "Bastrop" is pronounced, "bass drop," as in a fish fall.)