Bummer!

I was bummed about the Cowboys losing for a couple of reasons. One, because I wanted them to do well. I am a fan, after all. Two, because I still hold to the belief that every child should see their team win the Super Bowl at least once in their life time. Luke is just getting to that age where he is really into football and starting to understand what is going on. Watching the games on a Sunday afternoon has become a more special time than when it was just me.

He is at least still enough of a fan to wear his jersey to school today - and his Tony Romo poster is still facing out, instead of turned against the wall like someone I know once did...

Geek Post

I went ahead and put this on my blog, even though it is from our Family Day Out and I write about it here. I know, however, that only Dad and I will think this is interesting, so I will not bore the entire family.

There are several video kiosks at the Silent Wings Museum and they have this over the top of them.


Obviously, the dome helps the sound. What I had never seen was the wooden looking speaker things (boxes?). Here's a picture of them for a closer look. The file is the original file, so it is 2M or so.

No Kissing the Babies

Some of you are aware of my "adorable" (Thanks, Susan!) hobby of photographing Texas Historical Markers and then posting them on flickr. There is a group set up for this very purpose. Perhaps it is the thought of collecting a photograph of "every" something that makes this article and slide show interesting to me.

It also makes you wonder how many pictures there are out there of political candidates holding babies...

The Baby Primary: Can I get my 5-month-old daughter photographed with every presidential candidate?

BCS Rant, justified

I noticed on espn.com that the commissioners of the various football conferences have a 4 plus 1 format on the docket for their annual meeting. I will have to say that tonight's game did nothing except add fuel to the playoff fire.

I am on record as saying that we need to do something besides what has been done by the BCS and implied, whether I said it or not, that Ohio State would not rank as one of the two best teams in the country at the end of the football season. (Not even mentioning that the end of their season was some time back in August or so.) I missed the entire 2nd quarter of the game, but as far as I am concerned, the part I did see just proves my thoughts correct. I would have much rather seen WVU, OU, or even USC (as much as I hate to admit it!) playing LSU. While I think argument could be made that LSU was not one of the best 2 teams in the country long about December 1, they were certainly one of the best for much of the season and they were the best tonight when it counted most.

Confessions of a Flickr Addict

It started out as just a way for the family to post pictures on line. Really, it did. It was a nice site with plenty of privacy, so we could "hide" our pictures. (By the way, if you are a friend and would like to be able to see my "Friends and Family" pictures, log on to flickr, (sign up, if you do not have an account) and then make me (hubcityrob) one of your contacts. Assuming you have not disguised your login name to the point I cannot figure out who you are, I will return the favor and then you can see the family pics. You might give me a heads up if I won't be able to figure out who you are.) But of course, I wanted a cool "badge" to post on the blog (that's it, over on the right) and so I had to make some of my pictures public.

That wasn't too bad. In fact, when you start looking, you discover there are some really cool public shots. Most of them are snapshots, things you couldn't care less about, some of them are things you want to skip over quickly (but flickr does a fairly good job of making sure the "everyone" photos are kept for, well, everyone.) But occasionally you find a really good shot you like and might even make it a favorite.

When you start finding favorites, then you start browsing the rest of the pictures and discover you really like the photography of certain flickr users, like gregkendallball, who just happens to work for ACU. You might even want to make him or her a contact, but I don't in this case because, well, he has great shots and my shots are those snapshots that everyone else outside of my family couldn't care less about.

So you are driving from one family to another during the Christmas holidays, thinking about flickr and occasionally seeing the Texas Historical Marker signs. You think: flickr would be a cool place to collect pictures of these markers. Lo and behold, you are too late. There is already such a group on existence. And so of course, you join. It is at this point you are beyond the point of no return. Because not only do you start looking at the various markers there are out there, you drive around town with your trusty navigator looking for historical markers one afternoon. And you post them - like this one, or this one, or even this one. (Not to mention the fact you look up where the markers are located on the Texas Historical Site Atlas, thinking: "When I take a trip to name that town, I can pick up this one and that one..."

Your group list will begin to grow, because everyone knows you need to be in a group having to do with the number nine, or legos, or an Austin Scavenger Hunt, or Photoshop Tennis. (OK, so I haven't signed up for many groups. I do have a list of about 20 I would like to join, however. I am trying to join only groups to which I will also contribute.) Pretty soon you will begin your own groups, like signs on the outskirts of town welcoming you to church...