allaboutduncan

Our First Atlanta Braves Game – Part 2

// May 22nd, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Be sure to read Part 1 a few posts back to get the full story.

Check out that photo from the game. That’s how great our seats were. Section #113 tickets thanks to StubHub.com. I had a small zoom lens on the camera, but we were directly over the Braves dugout. Every inning  when they came in from the field, Carter would run down to the railing overlooking the dugout, in hopes of catching a ball.

Aside from our great seats, Turner Field is incredibly nice. There’s a great Cartoon Network kids area, a few great restaurants (Bar-B-Q is the best), a kids only merchandise shop, and a Braves museum. The biggest surprise came from the entire staff at Turner Field. They were amazingly friendly.

While walking to our seats, if we passed a concession vendor not waiting on a customer, they would wave as you walked by. Everyone at the ballpark actually made the effort to converse with you. Several times I was asked if I (we) were having a good time or if this was our first game.

The usher to our section offered to answer any question we had. We I asked a question she didn’t know the answer to, she radioed a supervisor and informed me of the answer.

Even the the Braves didn’t win the game, it was a great game nonetheless. The game was full of great plays, close calls and was all-around entertaining.

After the game, we went to the Kids Run the Bases area and Carter got to run the bases on the field (see the photo in the previous Braves post). They even had a photographer on the field and we found Carter’s image online when we returned home and ordered a few photos.

All in all, we had a great time and we definitely plan on returning as soon as our busy schedule allows. We hope to make it in June for Brian McCann bat day, especially now the McCann is back in great form.

Check out the rest of the photos from our first Atlanta Braves game.

Granny

// April 21st, 2009 // No Comments » // Uncategorized

Granny, my Mom’s mother, passed away yesterday. She was 94.

She was the grandparent I was closest too. For almost 5 years, I ate lunch with her 4-5 times a week. Almost every day I showed up, she would have a little project for me to do. Whether it was change a light bulb (her bathroom lights would go out 2, 3, 4 at a time) or take out her garbage, I was her lunch time handyman.

Our lunch time is something that I will always cherish. It gave me a chance to really get to know my grandmother. We would spend lunch talking about anything that popped into her head.

I loved the stories of her childhood and youth. She told me how her and my grandfather met. She told me of their early years in Murfreesboro (where we live now). She told me about the time my oldest Uncle found my grandfather’s pistol, when he was only a toddler.

I remember staying summer’s with her and my grandfather.

She would make the largest pancakes and waffles for breakfast. They would cover the entire plate. I remember falling asleep to her scratching my back. I remember her smacking my bare legs with the fly-swatter if we misbehaved.

I remember Christmas at her house. The children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren always got together once a year over there. The larger our families grew, the more insane each holiday would become. The last Christmas we were all together, there were eight great-grandchildren—all under the age of seven.

As of yet, I’m not overly sad. I will miss her—as much as I missed her when I changed jobs almost 3 years ago and I was no longer able to eat lunch with her.

At least I have the memories, the photos (see above) and the rest of my family.

Snow Day

// March 1st, 2009 // No Comments » // Web

Woke up this morning to about 6 inches of snow. That’s more than we’ve had in a long, long time. Lots of fun outside today.

Paw Paw’s Army Photo

// December 19th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web

A few years ago, I gave my Mom a great present that cost practically nothing.

I used to work close to my grandmother’s (Granny) house and I would eat lunch with her several times a week. She would often have little chores for me to do when I arrived—change a light bulb, get something off a shelf or out of a closet.

One closet retrieval trip I found a huge box of old photos. Some of them were over 50-years old and others I remember from my childhood. We don’t have many photos from when I was young. My Mom’s housed burned and our photos were lost. That was about 15-years ago.

So, I asked her if I could borrow this box and scan a bunch of them in. Granny told me to just take them, she didn’t want them anymore. Reluctantly I took them, knowing they would be safe with me.

It was probably a year later, just in passing, my Mom mentioned how she missed having the photo of her Dad (we called him Paw Paw) in his Army uniform. It, like all the other photos, was lost in the fire.

I remembered seeing that photo in the box Granny gave me. So, I did a little digging and found it. It was a little beat up. So after a quick scan and a trip through Photoshop, I had a great looking photo to print and give to her.

It was the simplest gift, but meant so much to her. Those are the gifts I life to give.

Altered Photos

// September 5th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web

The telegraph.co.uk site has a great article on doctored photos on their site featuring 20 great examples.

I remember doing a presentation on this topic in college. The research was incredibly hard. This was before Google, so most references I used were found after hours and hours of searching. The presentation was for a Journalism Ethics class and featured examples of altered news photos and discussed the impact they could have on the media.

I was pretty proud of the results. Wish I could find a copy of it somewhere. It’s one of the few things I did in college that I’ve not run across since graduating.

Star Wars – New and Old

// June 10th, 2008 // No Comments » // Movies

In a few years, I will make it to Disney World in Florida for the Star Wars weekend. I can’t wait to take “the boys” (Carter and Riley) when Riley is old enough.

When we visited Disney/MGM last year, Carter wasn’t quite tall enough to ride the Star Wars ride, so we had to make do with the large AT-AT and Speeder Bike on display. We did manage to catch the parade at MGM (which I highly recommend) and the appearance of Darth Vader, R2, and C3-PO were his highlights for the day. A full Star Wars takeover of Disney would be a blast.

View more photos from the Star Wars Disney weekend on Flickr.

While in a Star Wars mood, check out the photos on the Growing Up Star Wars Flickr Photo Pool. Featuring all vintage photos of Star Wars memorabilia, there are lots of photos like the one above. Somewhere in the Duncan archives, there’s a photo me wearing that Yoda costume.

Flickr Video – Is It a Good Thing

// April 9th, 2008 // No Comments » // Web

Flickr has finally added the long rumored Video feature and I’ll admit, I’m quite happy about it. Although, I seem to be in the minority.

Judging by the comments on the Flickr Blog Post announcing Video, most Pro members (video upload is available only to Pro members) are not pleased with the feature.

Many complaints center on YouTube being available for video and they don’t want Flickr to fill up with crap like YouTube. To play devil’s advocate, I’d say Flickr thought of that.

• Video upload is available to Pro members only. How many kids/teens will pay $25 for a feature that’s free on YouTube?
• Videos are limited to 90 seconds. Again, longer videos are free on YouTube and 90 seconds limits what you can do.
• Video is homemade content only. No video clips.
• Video is safe or moderate content only. Nothing to offend anyone.

I think Flick user The_Searcher said it best in his forum post:

I would see this as one of those “hobbies” that kick in here, less a complete takeover. Like HDR groups, TiltShift groups, FishEye Lens groups, etc. People will take those kinds of shots, but unlikely that’s all they’ll do.

You may find an initial spike, as everyone jumps at the chance to make a video. Then once the novelty wears off, and people realize they still have to be creative to make something good, it’ll settle into a niche. maybe.

I know I plan to use it over YouTube for my personal / home videos. I think that will complement my main use of Flickr as a storage/viewing for personal photos. This will let me keep my YouTube for things like DVD Menus and other non-personal uses.

Some of the complaints are valid. There are other photo features that Flickr could add. RSS feeds are needed for Video, Photo, and Both. This feature also breaks some existing Flickr integration. It works fine with my Recent Photos widget/RSS, but the import photos doesn’t display video. Time to get rid of that section anyway (or just direct it all to Flickr).

However, I think Flickr did a great job integrating the video into their existing system without making it obtrusive or hard to manage. I’ll be using it, now to see what others do.

The one feature I want is to post video by email. I can do this on YouTube and it’s perfect for video from my cell phone. Once Flickr adds that (which I’m sure they will), it will be perfect.

Adventure Science Museum and Dinosaurs

// September 28th, 2007 // No Comments » // Carter

This past weekend, we went to the Adventure Science Center to check out the DinoRumble exhibit. Carter said over and over he wanted to go see the dinosaurs. It was only a few months ago at Disney World and also in Gatlinburg, he wanted nothing to do with dinosaurs unless they were picture in a book.

Still, he professed his excitement at seeing the dinosaurs and would ask everyday when we were going. Just before we walked in, he timidly asked “will they be making noise?” After the first roar, that was about the last dinosaur we looked at. Luckily, there was a ton of other fun things to do. The BodyQuest exhibit was the most entertaining and easily took the most time to explore. All in all, a fun outing.

Carter’s Birthday Party

// September 19th, 2007 // 1 Comment » // Carter

Carter’s birthday party was great fun and he especially loved the Optimus Prime cake. Here are a few photos from the party and from his actual birthday.

Carter’s New Playground – Finished

// September 19th, 2007 // No Comments » // Carter

I finished up Carter’s new playground just a few minutes before everyone showed up for his birthday party on Sunday. It could still use a few more bags of sand, but everyone had a great time playing on it.

Just last night, Carter was out playing on it and re-enacting the Sandman scene from Spider-Man 3 where he rises out of the sand for the first time. He would lie down in the sand, throw a few handfuls on himself and then slowly start climbing out. It was hilarious to watch and made me think back to when I was a kid. I remember some of the best time were those when you pretended to be something or do something. No props, toys or accessories, just you and your imagination.