More photoshop

This is another photoshop project. I am trying to learn how to really use this program. It can do a ton of things. This was meant to be a poster or magazine cover. I wasn't really sure about what text to add but wanted to have some room on the right side for the text. The picture on the bottom was the original. I removed myself from the original and even managed to lose a few pounds thanks to the liquify tool. The rest was just adding text and drop shadows and such. I am trying to do these small projects to learn the tools but also get quicker using photoshop.

Let me know what you think of the final picture. And if you want to come out and go for a run, swim or bike ride let me know.

stickers

I finally broke down and got a sticker for my car. I did the Ironman 70.3 Miami race back in October. They had stickers at the expo but I didn't want to jinx myself and buy it before the race. So I returned home and checked at the running stores with no luck. I was doing some shopping on Amazon the other day and found the stickers. When I put the sticker on my car I noticed my reflection. I decided this would make a good picture. I have already signed up for Ironman Florida 70.3 The race is May 15th down at Disney. So I know what I am doing for winter training. I know Marilyn and Hillary have signed up already. Let me know if anyone else has signed up. We will have to plan some group training.

photoshop tree

So last night I was playing around with photoshop and got into the brushes. I didn't know that all these brushes were available. I made this whole picture using different brushes. It didn't take too long to make and was a lot of fun. It is a simple drawing made up of several layers. I think I used about 12 different colors of leaves. I also adjusted the opacity to add to the layering effect.

Training group

This was a class project I just turned in. It had to be a surreal image. This was a fun project. I started with the idea of having a group of runners and putting animal skin on them. I wanted to bring out their inner animals. It took a few tries to get the effect I was looking for. The first try I made us all different animals, I learned a lot but didn't like the way some of us cam out. I really liked the way the Chetah spots looked so I re-did all of us. with spots. I also played with a few backgrounds and had fun putting us in different places. When I cut the people out I found that we needed shadows to help make us look right. The shadows are pretty subtle but are needed to make the photo look right. I got some good comments in class last night about the skin and I'm hoping I get an "A" on my project.

Small Businesses rock

I have been complaining about my Garmin 310xt that I wear when I exercise. It is a watch that tracks my heart rate, maps my activities and times said events. It has started acting up lately and I was loosing faith in the numbers it was providing post workout. Yesterday I went to First Place Sports to sign up for the Outback Half Marathon on Thanksgiving day. I was asking if they knew what I should do about my garmin. I was told to bring it back in and they would exchange it for a new one. You just gotta love when a business stands behind a product like that. Replacement of my garmin was not what I was looking for when explaining the problem. But I have to say it made me feel really good about First Place Sports. And the new unit seems to have taken care of the problem.

Thanks Guys,

Riding the bus

Lost Friends,

Not really lost just kind of misplaced. I have had lots of friends come and go in my lifetime. When I was young my Dad was in the Navy so we moved around a bit. This was hard on a young kid having to move away from a best friend. The upside of this learning to make new friends. This is a good life skill to have. It seems these days I have a lot of friends that I don't get to see very often. So when I run into old friends I am happy to see them. We have a few minutes to catch up on how we are each doing, ask about some other people and then we each go our separate ways.

Usually I make friends based on the activity I am doing. These shared experiences bring people together. That and the time spent in that activity. If there is some risk involved the experience is even stronger. I raced sailboats for many years. I met many people and counted many of them as friends. I have tons of stories about people, weather conditions and locations we visited. Even when sailing my boat singlehanded I would talk to other people out on the water, in the bar afterwards or while helping each other with our boats. All my favorite memories on the water involve people. I met my wife in one of my sailing classes. I have done Jiu-Jitsu, woodturning, running and now triathlon.

This morning I was thinking about someone I haven't seen in a while. We are both busy with our families and our training. I finished swimming and ran into another old friend from my sailing days, we talked for a few minutes and then went on our separate ways. I have always said life is a like a bus ride. Sometimes people get on and ride for a while and become friends, sometimes your friends get off only to get back on later. So if any of my friends are reading this the bus is only a short ways from the next stop.

Running, Squirrels and Hawks

This morning started with a pre-dawn run downtown, along the river and over the bridges. I ran with Marilyn and Darcy. As we were on our way back along the river the sun was just coming up over the river and the Main Street Bridge. It was a very nice morning, the temperature was just right. The river was flat and we were out with other runners and walkers getting in their morning miles. I got out of the car when I got home and spotted an Osprey on the power wire. I stood there checking him out and then noticed a squirrel in the tree about 10 feet below the Osprey. I thought; "This squirrel is on the menu". The squirrel proceeds to climb up the telephone pole chittering away at the Osprey, then he gets on the wire and is still chattering away at the Osprey. I turn to try and make it in the house to get my camera and the Osprey flies away. I was thinking the squirrel has a good story to tell all his buddies on how single handedly, he scared an Osprey away and saved all the other squirrels. I wonder if they will believe the stories of if in a week it will end up being a whole flock of hungry Eagles. Sometimes these stories take on a life of their own. For my part I have a terrible picture I took with my iphone but was too far away. I learned my lesson with the Momma bear about trying to get closer.

Long Shadows

This morning Marilyn and I went and rode with the Velobrew crew. We ended up getting in 50 miles. We rode at a good pace, about 35 miles into the ride they sprinted away and we couldn't hang with them. We started the ride pretty early as the sun was rising. When it first came up over the trees we were riding directly into the sun. We were about 50 of us in the group riding into the blinding sun was tough, but the group slowed slightly and we spread out a bit. The picture above was taken on the way back. We were still casting pretty long shadows. It started out pretty cool this morning and warmed up as we went. I had a few layers on and was able to take off a few and stay comfortable. The best part was I finished up around 10 am.

Bikes and photoshop

I recently started going back to school. I am working on a Digital Media degree. One of my homework assignments was to take a photo and turn it into an abstract image. I was really unhappy with my first few tries and while they could have been turned in I just didn't care for them too much. Today I was doing homework and thinking about bike riding tonight and decided to look through my photos for some bike riders. This started as a picture of Beth and ended up as the picture above. It was posterized, inverted, blurred, colored and had the colors saturated. I was really happy with the end results and will probably be making more of these.

Territory

Yesterday I spotted these 2 lizards fighting for territory. The fight lasted for a few minutes with the darker lizard eventually winning. It looked like they were fighting over who got to hang out on the trellis. I went out later and saw a green lizard sitting in the sun. So I am not sure who really won the battle. It was interesting while it lasted and it is something that I am sure goes on all the time. I really try to notice things like this.

New tattoo 303

No, I didn't really get a tattoo. I did the Jax Tri series#2 sprint triathlon this morning up in Fernandina. They write your race numbers on your arms and legs. They also write your age on the back of your right calf muscle. After the race I was sitting in the car talking to Darcy and she looked over and said,"It looks like they wrote Mom on your arm". I looked at it and said," Well they wrote WOW on the other arm".

After coming home and washing my bike and both pairs of shoes and my helmet. I got cleaned up and Tami and I went to lunch at Zaxby's. Our order number ended up being 303 which was also my race number today.

The Race went well today. The ocean was choppy. The surf wasn't big but the chop made the swim difficult. I thought I did well on the bike leg of the race and I did my normal slow run. I want to get better running. I saw quite a few people I knew today so that is always fun. Looking forward to the next in the series on August 7th.

Burnt Eggs

Who knew you could burn boiled eggs.....

Yesterday, I asked Samantha to boil some eggs. She went in the kitchen and I went about my business. A while later the dog jumps up and runs in the kitchen and barks. He came out a minute later. I thought he had heard something outside so I didn't think anything of it. A few minutes later I start to smell eggs burning. Then I hear another popping noise. Samantha had gotten distracted and was in her room and completely forgotten she was cooking. I called her into the kitchen and we put cool water over the eggs and then bagged them up so we could throw them away. Then I had Samantha clean the burnt egg out of the pot and I sprayed air freshner and we ran the exhaust fan in the kitchen. I cleaned the stove top after it cooled down. Luckily we caught it soon enough so the burnt egg smell wasn't too bad. We wasted a few eggs but Samantha learned a valuable cooking lesson. She then announced that she didn't want to cook anything else for the rest of the day.

Radishes part 2

My container garden is coming along. With the heat we are having I need to water the plants like twice a day. Yesterday I was outside and spotted our first radish. We washed it off and Ethan took a bite of it, a very small bite. He then announced that radishes were terrible. I said, "I bought these for you". I wasn't surprised he didn't like them. When he asked me to buy them I was surprised. Oh well, That is just more for me.

Swimming with company

My shoulder is slowly getting better and last Thursday my PT cleared me to start swimming again. I was very happy. So this morning was the Bfast #2 triathlon down at Mickler's Landing. I went down to cheer on some friends and just check things out. I took my goggles so I could go for a short swim after the tri finished. I was swimming back down along the shoreline, and when I would breathe to the left side I could see people on the beach pointing out towards where we were swimming. I thought that can't be a good sign. So we finished swimming and went ashore and some people came up and asked if we saw the shark. No I didn't see any sharks out in the water. I would have come in a lot faster otherwise. They pointed out some bait fish and there was a shark feeding on the fish. I was much happier to be standing on the beach at that point. It was great to be back swimming. I am going to get in the pool this week and swim some laps and I am going to do the Jax tri series #1 next weekend up in Fernandina. I can't wait to be out there again.

Back on the exercise bike

So about a month ago I was at home and had some time before a woodturning lesson. I decided that I need some footage of my bike to put into my videos. I thought some video of the chain going around the sprocket, the tires, breaks, pedals that kind of stock footage would be good. I mounted the video camera on a stick and went for a ride around the neighborhood. I was on the other street and either hit a rock or just lost my balance. (I am going with the rock) and down I went. I got some road rash on my knee, elbow and hand. My bike and the video camera were fine. I rushed home to get cleaned up and proceeded to teach my lesson about halfway through the lesson I reached for a tool and my shoulder hurt. When I finished up the lesson I went in and made a doctors appt. He recommended physical therapy. The tendon in my knee has been bothering me as well. So we are working on the knee and shoulder. I have been doing the pt for a few weeks now. Last weekend I did the Tour de Cure. We rode 129 miles over 2 days. So Monday morning I go in and the first thing they do is put me on the exercise bike. I was like "Really you want me to ride? I just spent all weekend on a bike. My butt is still sore." Anyway I did 2 miles on the bike and could fell it in my legs. The good news is my knee is feeling much better, now if I can just improve my shoulder I will be very happy.

Tour De cure Bike ride

This weekend we did the Tour de Cure bike ride to benefit Diabetes. It was a very nice weekend. On Saturday we rode 68 miles and Sunday we did 60 miles. The ride Saturday was through rural Florida lots of farmland. It was a nice side of Florida we don't often see. We rode south all the way into Crescent Beach and then turned north to St. Augustine. The tour put on a dinner Saturday complete with a band. Tami and I had dinner and then went for a walk on the beach. After the beach we decided to go for a swim in the pool. I slept good Saturday night and Sunday morning we had breakfast at the hotel and then walked over to the starting area. They had a bike check area where we picked up our bikes. Then we were off for 60 more miles. The tour had rest stops set up with snacks and food at each one. We had 3 bridges to cross including the bridge of Lions in St. Augustine. The police had blocked the traffic to the bridge so we were able to just ride across in the roadway. After St. Augustine we headed north on A1A up to Ponte Vedra. Then we turned west and headed into Nocotee. There we crossed over the Intercoastal Waterway Bridge. This was the biggest bridge. It is a chore to ride up this bridge but I hit 34mph on the way down. Then we were back on country roads and the temperature was getting in the mid 80's with no shade and a head wind it made for some tough riding. I was happy to be done with the ride and would do it again.

The oddest thing seen on the road was today. We were riding by a lake and someone had thrown a fish in the road. It was probably a 3 pounder. Yesterday I was 1/2 mile from the finish and 2 girls on beach cruisers turned off the sidewalk and almost crashed into me. It was pretty close. At the finish in St. Augustine they had a giant block of ice that you could rest your legs on. This felt so good....

It was a very nice weekend. I got more sun then I wanted. But a lot of money was raised. We had fun doing it. There were a ton of volunteers that were very helpful and put on a great event. The rest stops were well manned with helpful people and I could tell they were hot, but they were doing a great job taking care of the riders. I want to personally thank every volunteer. You helped make this a great event!!!

Radishes

This is part of our container garden. We have 4 different kinds of peppers planted and some spices. Nothing major but I think we should be able to harvest some peppers. In fact I was noticing my bell peppers are already starting to bloom.

So last night my friend Marilyn and I were out riding bikes on the Baldwin Rail trail. We were about 17 miles into our ride when I hear my phone ring. I slow down and pull it out of my pocket and see it is the house number. I answer it and ask what is wrong. Ethan (my 10 year old) Says nothing is wrong. So then I ask him what he needs. He asks if I can stop at the store and buy some radish seeds. I said "What, I am in the middle of my ride." He says "Oh, how bout when you are on your way home you could stop at the store." I told him we could talk about it when I got home.
Today I was out and stopped buy Lowes and bought some radish seeds and we got them planted. Ethan is convinced they will have sprouted by tomorrow morning. I hope he won't be too disappointed when it takes a few days to see results and a month or so before we get some radishes. The question now is if he will eat more then one....

Grocery shopping by bike

Untitled by emorymc at Garmin Connect - Details

Samantha and I did something not to many people do now a days. We rode our bicycles up to the grocery store to pick up a few things. I have been trying to get out and do some of my errands by bike. My bank is close enough as well. I got a few miles in and got to enjoy some really nice weather and spent some time with my daughter. Doesn't get much better then that.

Untitled by emorymc at Garmin Connect - Details

Untitled by emorymc at Garmin Connect - Details

Apple Ipad

Today Samantha and I went to the Apple store to look at the Apple Ipad. It was my second time going to the store to check it out. They are very fun to play with but, I am going to wait and see how they develop. It isn't different enough from my laptop to warrant spending the money they are selling those things for. Some of my concerns are; it is smaller than my laptop. I would like it to have a usb port (So I could sync my Garmin 310 xt ) A DVD player would also be nice, not that I watch too many movies on my computer. It would help keep the kids occupied in the car while on trips. We already own a stack of movies. I still like having them on the disc as compared to taking up space on my computer.

Some of the cool things about it are; the size makes it pretty portable. The screen has a beautiful picture. The book reader looks like a very good feature. I would like to check out some magazines. I am sure there are tons of apps available with more coming. Hopefully that will drive the price of those down a bit. I hear the battery life is about 10 hours so that is good. It is also very easy to figure out. If you have used an iphone or itouch it is like using one of those with a giant screen.

I would love to have one but can't justify the price at this point since it is between what my phone does and my laptop. At this point I would rather upgrade my laptop. Apple is selling tons of the ipads, I'm just not ready for one yet.

Back on the Bike

Last week I took a pretty hard fall off my bike. I took a few days off from working out. Yesterday I was feeling better and it was such a nice day. After dinner I went for a bike ride. I rode a few miles up to the Starbucks and had a hot chocolate then rode over to the grocery store and picked up a few things we needed. Today I had to go to the bank, So I decided to ride up there. It only takes about 10 minutes to ride each way. The only bad part was I got to the bank and reached in my pocket for my deposit and realized I had left it at home. I was good and rode home got my deposit and rode back. So I was able to get in a a little extra time on the bike. The weather is very nice today. The wind was at my back on the way home both times. I have been trying to do as many of my errands on the bike. It saves a it of gas but it is always good to be out on the bike. Now it they just had a bike lane I would be set.

Rough Season

So far my running season has been off to a very rough start. My right leg has been hurting for a while now. First it was my hip and now my knee is hurting. I spent the last 8 months training for a marathon. The training went pretty well, I struggled a bit with my pace towards the end. The group I was with seemed to get faster and I had trouble hanging with them. I did make it through all the training runs and thought I would be able to complete the marathon. Our last long training run was 26.2 miles which I completed. I knew I could do the distance. On marathon day my hip started hurting around mile 12 and I felt like it was in the joint. At mile 19 I decided the smart thing to do would be to stop. I didn't want to ruin my whole season. It was a hard decision. I know it was the right one to make but it has been hard to deal with. I know I didn't waste all my training but that thought crosses my mind from time to time. I went and had it checked out and it appears I may have some arthritis in my hip. Not what I wanted to hear. This past week I was taking it kind of easy with my training and my knee started to bother me. Saturday was the Gate River Run(9.3 mile race). Friday was the expo and race packet pickup. I knew I was in trouble when just walking around the expo made my leg start hurting. Saturday morning it was still hurting so I decided not to go to the race. I have a few more races scheduled this year. I am hoping that taking a week or 2 off from training and getting some physical therapy will do the trick. I have a bunch of friends training and competing in races and I want to be out there with them. I know it is a matter of time for recovery, but can we hurry this along.

Looking for wood

So as a woodturner you are out driving around and see a pile of wood on the side of the road. First thing I do is look to see if it is large enough in diameter. I like it to be around 12 inches in diameter, then I look to see what kind of wood it might be. If it is pine or oak than I keep on driving. The other thing I am looking for is access. if it is on a busy street I will probably pass on it. I like it to be in a neighborhood where I can just stop and load some up in the back of my car. Many times I will be at home and will hear a chainsaw running in the neighborhood and will get on my bike and go ride around looking for whoever is cutting something down. I will then see what kind of tree they are removing. Most people will be happy to cut some of the wood however you want. They are happy to get rid of some of it. Plus they don't have to move it. I like knowing where the wood came from and the fact that I can make something either useful or pleasant to look at. Also like the fact that I am keeping something from the landfill. So next time you see me looking at a pile of wood on the side of the road cut me a bit of a break. I am thinking about my next project.

Knowing when to Quit

Sometimes knowing when to quit is a hard thing to figure out. Other times you know before hand when it is time. I am working on a hollow vessel that I started a while ago. I worked on it for several hours and then put it away for about a year or 2 ago. I finally got it out and started working on it again yesterday. I have no idea where I was going with it since I haven't thought about it in a while. I am trying to decide how far to go with it. I am committed to opening up the slots now that I have started cutting them I drew pencil lines on yesterday and figured I would think about the piece overnight and see if I still wanted to go that far with the carving. This morning I am still liking the idea. I am now trying to decide if I should keep the hard edges or go for a more rounded look. Many times when I go out to make a piece I have a pretty clear picture in my mind of what I want to make. This really helps me know when to stop. With a project like this I have no clear vision, I am just along for the ride. Hopefully I will know when I am done...

Saturday I did a 26.2 mile training run. It took a really long time. I was having a rough day. They say you have good days and bad days. I was determined not to quit no matter how long it took me. It took about 1 hour longer then I thought it would take. I even turned down 2 rides. My legs were very sore when I finished but I finished and was very happy that I stuck it out. The people I usually train with were long finished but I got the same satisfaction they did for finishing.

http://photos.jacksonville.com/mycapture/enlarge.asp?image=27660007&event=930362&CategoryID=36903

I even look pretty good in the picture.

Having a clear goal helps you decide when you are done. Now I am going out to my studio to finish the Walnut Vessel.

Don't make em like they used to

We have an outside laundry room. And the light gets left on a lot. We were burning through regular light bulbs left and right. So they had these new CFL light bulbs that were supposed to last a really long time. I broke down and spent the $13 for on light bulb. That was a lot of money for one bulb. But the increased life and lower running cost made it worth a try. Yesterday with much sadness I went to start a load of laundry and the light had burned out. My light bulb had finally died on us. I replaced it with a new CFL bulb but the new ones are only supposed to last 8000 hours which is still a long time. In the picture on the bottom of the bulb I wrote the date I installed the bulb 12/31/2001. 8 Years on one light bulb. When I bought this bulb everyone was saying to replace all your old bulbs with CFL's like most people I wasn't going to throw away perfectly good light bulbs so as the old ones died I upgraded my lights it took a while but eventually we got them all changed out. The manufacturers have figured out that if they kept making the bulbs last as long as my first one they would eventually go out of business. So like everything else they wear out quicker. The good news is the bulbs are now cheaper. I can buy an 8 pack of CFL bulbs for less money, The bad new is I burn through all 8 and my original was still going strong.

Slow week training busy week turning

So I was pretty busy with my wood turning this week. I finished this bowl. It started out as a regular bowl, I then cut out all the leaves and then did some wood burning and finally airbrushed the color onto the leaves. I used transparent paints because I like to be able to see the wood grain in my finished pieces. I also mad a giant bobbin for a customer to wrap copper tubing around. Thursday evening I taught a pen turning class at Woodcraft. Today I started another leaf bowl. This is a technique I am definitely going to explore some more. I have several more themes I want to bring to life.

My training is coming along. I didn't get much running in this week but I am ok with that. I went swimming twice and Spinning once and I am going again in the morning. This morning I got in a 7 mile run in very cold and windy conditions. After last weeks 23 mile run I wanted to take a few days off from running. The marathon in about 6 weeks away and coming up fast. I am looking forward to that. I am also looking forward to warmer weather. I like training when it is warmer. It looks like at least another week of cold weather. I will just keep training.

23 miles

Yesterday we did a 23 mile group training run on the rail trail. It was very cold when we started at 6am and it never really warmed up. I had a little cramping in my leg and walked the last 4 miles with Shannon. We were both struggling a bit at that point. I did complete the full 23 miles. My legs are feeling better today. I am trying to decide if I want to do any training today or just take it easy. That is the furthest I have ever run before. Only 3 more miles to go to hit the marathon distance. In a month and a half we will be running a marathon. I started training for this August 1st so it has been a long journey. I have worn out 2 pairs of shoes since I started running about a year and a half ago. I currently own 2 pairs of shoes that I rotate on my runs. I would have never believed that I would have 2 pairs of running shoes. Basically I have one pair for shorter runs and the other for my longer runs. The first pair is lighter and with less cushioning the second pair is a bit heavier and has more cushioning. 5 hours and 23 miles is a lot of repetitions of your feet striking the ground. I may not be fast but I am out there putting in the miles.