Fantasy Coffins

Fantasy coffins are not really something that I expected to find in life. Mostly because I don’t fantasize about coffins. Sure, sometimes I think about death, but not in the same stream of consciousness as coffins I will be buried in.

Well, I hope you find yourself well adjusted and highly likely to buy a ‘normal’ coffin after viewing the hammer, pineapple and other such lovely burial encasements.

Please burn me up after I die.

Via Dave Barry.

FogTower

Flickr Photo

FogTower

The building across the street from my office. I love the fog, I love towers in the fog. I love the fade, the contrast and the depth that is created. The top of the tower is almost visible, but it looks like it could go on higher.

Tips on Photographing Children

Photographing children is tough, especially when I’m photographing Abby. I recommend that if you’re going to photograph children that you sedate them with strong, doctor prescribed, medications. Make part of your initial consultation a direct instruction for sedatives. Worst case scenario you discover that the client doesn’t want to use you. because you’re a drug dependent hack.

Legal Disclaimer:
This is satire. I do not in any way suggest that people really use drugs to limit the mobility of children, cause children to obey, sleep, wake up, breath or anything else. Say no to drugs. Unless you’re diabetic or have issues with depression, cancer, HIV/AIDS, hypertension, heart disease, gum disease, certs disease or any other disease of the small breath freshener variety. As the father of a two year old I strongly encourage you to never run with scissors, play doctor in a co-ed situation, run by the pool, run in the street, run for president or wear pantyhose with a run in it. Furthermore I won’t tolerate any sort of comment suggesting that this isn’t right. Nor is it left. In fact if you’re right handed, left handed or ambidextrous I don’t care. Except for if you’re left handed and I’m married to you. You know who you are.

Self Portraiture

Part of the redesign of this site is the need for more detail about how, when, where, who and any other such inquisitive things behind Randy Peterman Digital Research and Development. It means that I need a portrait so that people will look and say, “My goodness, just look at that man, he’s so brilliant looking. I’m sure he can code that project in 30 seconds just by using ESP.” So, this evening, while Jessica watched ‘Mean Girls’ I took some rather different pictures. I want something that looks good in black and white, I don’t want color because I think black and white requires more texture and character in the image, something that I want in a biographical picture.

However, this three-headed image below is not quite right. The Nikon 5700 has one inherent flaw: it adds a lot of noise to the image while it takes the shot if there’s really low lighting. Given that I wanted a high contrast, low lighting image, there was a lot of noise. So, in short I’m going to have to do this again, and possibly with Jessica’s help. I hope she can tolerate my perfectionism in self-portrature. After all, if you’re your own worst critic, then I’ll be my own worst critic more worser when I’m critically analyzing myself… or something like that.

Self Portrait

Death By Cocoa Beans

So, Jessica, being a daredevil of sorts and feeling dissassociated from the normal female pattern of counting calories tried the chantico from Starbucks tonight. Now, I’m going to warn those of you who are sensitive readers, those with weak constitutions and communist manifestoes to stop reading now.

OK, so what she ended getting was 20 grams of fat, a tiny cup and what tasted like liquid brownies. I had one sip and I feel like I’ve already gained enough weight to have replaced the Etheiopians in all of the 3rd grade Ethiopian jokes I told as a kid (you know, the ones where they’re so skinny that the wind whistles through their ribs when they run…). This literally tasted like a really moist chocolate browny. It’s fantastic, it’s almost so good that it would be fat-tastic. I think that Starbucks really took a gamble because in the end super-chocoholics are going to be sticking with chocolate bars made in foreign countries with 95% or more cocoa in them. I also think that most Americans will not know that they’re getting 20 grams of fat with their drink.

Did I mention it has 20 grams of fat? Oh, sorry, I did. I can eat a mediocre can of chili and it only has 14 grams of fat. However, this drink is not mediocre, I just had one sip and now I have to check into rehab. Pardon me if I drop off into a Carbohydrate coma…

Gangster of Love or The Gang-Green Mile

So this morning we took a little trip to see some homes in the Denver area. We drove to parts of this metropolitan monstrocity that I have never seen before. In fact, just about one mile from our church is a home for sale. They want a huge amount of money for the property. Part of why it seems expensive is the actual appearance of the home. It also looks like it’s a bit high priced is because the street its on falls somewhere between ‘Homie don’t play dat’ and ‘Pimp my ride.’ In short, it was rather ‘gangsta’ for me and I could never bring myself to buy the home for fear that my two year old might never turn three. I also couldn’t let my wife go out after dark, suggest that other people come over for a meal or that I would take a walk around the block. So… we moved onto other properties on our list.

Hot Rod KitchenAid

Jessica was mildly upset that I said she could make conversations with just about anyone at any given time and that she was cursed with this happening since she married into my family. However, if I get her one of these I’m sure to earn more points.

Peterman Trait

MyMom can go just about anywhere and start conversations with people that she’s never met. I don’t know where she got it other than my dad’s mom, who also manages to do the same. She literally runs into people in the strangest places. My Grandma once had a small collision in a parking lot several hours from her house with a guy she hadn’t seen for a long time. Now Jessica is following into these, married into, footsteps. How?

Today she called to cancel our old Bank of America account and is now still on the phone with the gal at Bank of America. No, she’s not arguing over details of where checks should be sent, she’s not worried about getting security questions right. She’s telling her about Abby’s cough. She’s chatting about all sorts of things. So… I declair it as a pseudo-Peterman trait.

Update: It turns out that it was the gal on the other end. Jessica was not being chatty.
Update Update: It turns out that the gal was telling Jessica that she really wants her 22 and 19 year old sons to have grandkids for her with their girlfriends. I personally hope that there’s a ring on some finghers ahead of time. However, I didn’t cancel the account so I couldn’t cause an argument. My luck she’d have left the account open to spite me.