Pictures from Ohio & Kentucky

As I mentioned in my post below, I was at the Reader & Author Get Together organized by Lori Foster and Dianne Castell last weekend in West Chester, Ohio.

A lot of people have been posting pictures of their time there. My photos are a bit, um, different than most. Why? Because they aren't of the actual get together with the people and such lol. I'm not very good at people photography, so I tend not to even try. I did, however, get a few photos from around town. I just wish I had more time to explore and take photos, especially from around the Cincinnati area.

Here are some photos of a church that I stopped to take when I was exploring/shopping in Mason, Ohio (where the closest Borders happens to be LOL!)







Here are some flowers from a shopping center by the hotel...



Here are some photos I took during my brief stop at Big Bone Lick State Park in Kentucky. I just wish I could have stopped to take some photos of the road on the way there. It was a pretty drive, but there was really no place to pull over...








And remember, if you want a free (yes, free!) photo calendar created with my photos, see the post below!

Want a Photo Calendar?

Ok, I know I've been neglecting my blog for quite a while. I'm going to try to be better about posting (notice I said try LOL!)

This last weekend, I went to the Reader/Writer Get Together that Lori Foster and Dianne Castell organize in Ohio. I donated a raffle basket (well, tote bag, really) with various photo products. I had such fun exploring all the cool things that I can make out of my photos!

It started me thinking again about opening a Cafe Press store with my photography. I've actually been meaning to do it since January, but I just never got the time. If and when I do open the store, I'll be sure to post about it here for those that might be interested.

But now, on to what I meant to post about...Photo Calendars.

I got a little overzealous when ordering the calendars I made recently, so I have a few left over. I made two different calendars: a General Photo Calendar and a Sunset Calendar. They both start in June 2007 and go through May 2008. I have 4 extra copies of each.

If you'd like a calendar, email me at lilikoi44@gmail.com and put Photo Calendar in the subject. In the body of the email, give me your snail mail address and let me know which calendar you want, and I'll send it to you-- even if you are outside of the USA. I don't know that I have that many people who will request them, but I'll give them out in the order of the emails I get (first come first served). Since I'm not sure how many people actually visit my blog anymore, feel free to pass along the word. If I run out of calendars quickly, I also have some other things I may think about giving away. I may even do a contest of some sort...who knows!

To give a bit better idea of the photos in each one so that you can choose which one you'd like, I took a photo of the back of each one that shows all 12 months at a glance (they are a bit out of focus, sorry).

General Photo Calendar

Sunset Photo Calendar (Sunsets of Southern California)

Also, I hope to be posting some new photos later this week, so stay tuned!

Raisin Bran Challenge

No, I'm not challenging you all to eat as much Raisin Bran as you can:P It's a math related challenge that I've been using with my students. I thought I would share it here as well.

Here is an actual box of Raisin Bran found by a chemistry professor in Fort Wayne, Indiana:


There's a math error on this special edition "Kong Size" box of Raisin Bran. Can you figure out what it is?

R2D2 Mailboxes!

Can you believe it's the 30 year anniversary of the first Star Wars movie? Wow, I'm getting old.

To celebrate the anniversary, the USPS is doing some cool things including issuing commemorative stamps, selling prepaid (of course!) Express Mail envelopes, and replacing some of the usual mailboxes with R2D2 mailboxes.

I haven't had much time to take photos recently. My hard drive is so full, I don't have much room for them on my computer anyway! After hearing about the R2D2 mailboxes, though, I just couldn't resist.

There are only 3 in the San Diego area and all are in busy areas, but I was able to get some photos without getting run over. The only down side is all the gunk in the background. Anyway, below are my photos from the Downtown mailbox and one of the Mission Valley ones.

I had more room to move at the Downtown location, but there were a lot of people walking by and then there was the homeless man camped out right across from it. Some of the Mission Valley shots are a bit distorted because I had to use my wide angle lens to avoid getting run over:P The lighting wasn't quite what I hoped for, but I had to work around my insane schedule.

Downtown

Mission Valley

For information on locations of an R2D2 mailbox near you, you can check out these sites:

Article with Original List of Cities (San Diego isn't on this list, so who knows how accurate it is...)
Frappr Map with Actual Sightings
Other News Article
USPS Jedi Master Site

Whew!

I've neglected my blog yet again; probably to the point that I'm talking to myself (not that I had a large audience before!)

For anyone who has been regularly stopping by to check, thanks for your interest and I'm so sorry I haven't been posting. This semester has exploded with stuff to keep me busy at work, and it looks like it will just be getting busier! I'm definitely living the old saying "When it rains, it pours!"

Along with my four classes, I've been applying for full-time jobs. I still have a few of those applications to finish. I also signed up to give final exam review sessions for developmental math classes at one of the schools where I'm currently teaching. Then, I'm working 15 hours a week on the Stat Games project which is something I've worked on the past two summers. I'll be lucky if I sleep again before June! Of course, then it will be time for summer school to start LOL!

Even spring break isn't much of a break since the two schools have different break weeks and I'm spending them catching up on all the things I've been neglecting (including this blog).

Anyway, I've rambled quite enough for now. I'll be posting some photos I took recently in a separate post. I hope everyone is doing well out there in blogland:)

Long Time, No Blog!

Holy cow, it's been ages since I've posted. I've been pretty busy with the start of the spring semester and other things. I'm also running out of space on my hard drive! I can't believe I've used close to 60 GB!! So I'm looking at getting an external hard drive or a bigger internal one for my laptop. Just like in my offline life, I am a pack rat. I cringe anytime I delete something. What if I need it later? And I don't trust my back up CDs. Of course, that's when I do back up my stuff:S

I've taken some photos lately, though I've mostly been playing around with the photos I already have. I got into making photo gifts over Christmas and have gotten more into it. I've been making collages, keychains, and I've even started to think about creating a Cafe Press shop though I'm not sure if I have the time or if it would be very lucrative.

Well, I think I've rambled enough for now. Hope everyone out there is doing well. I'll leave you with some photos; some are recent and some are just old photos I haven't posted before:)

Photo Memorial

I haven't really talked about it much, but my uncle passed away just over a week ago. He had throat cancer back when I was in college, but beat it (with some lingering non-cancer related health issues due to the radiation that wiped out the cancer). It came back with a vengence just recently and the doctors couldn't do much.

Anyway, I'm posting some photos I took around campus at San Diego State as a tribute. He was a professor there and just recently retired (just before I started teaching there!)

After Christmas Sunset

Here are some pictures of the sunset I took on December 26 from the backyard of my parents house.