I got word from Framations that the announcement cards are in. Here’s what they look like:

I should have mine sometime this weekend, and shortly after that, some of you should begin to find them in your mailboxes, maybe as early as next week.

I also was informed by Framations that the print ad was ready. Here’s what it looks like:

This is gonna run in the Post-Dispatch Get Out section, and in the St. Charles County Journal Weekender paper, both next week. For those of you keeping score at home, that’s about 300,000 folks that could set their peepers on that advert.

Yep, this is starting to get very real for me!

This morning, my newsreader floweth over(eth) with news about the new release of Lightroom from Adobe. There’s been a ton of expectation and hype concerning an impending v1.1 release, and last night, after a slight stumble by Adobe, it was released. To put a number to the hype, typically I get half a dozen or ten newsfed articles a morning. iPhonemania has increased that to about 15 each morning. This morning, I had 37. Yeah, the cacophony is reaching fever pitch!

I bought Lightroom when they still had the prices discounted by a C-note, and have been reading a bunch about it on the web, as well as trying to paw through Scott Kelby’s new book on it. (Which, BTW, may be somewhat obsolete now if the feature set of v1.1 is as improved as it’s being described.) So far though, I just haven’t found the niche for this product in my workflow.

For me, the cataloging aspect is the biggest thing LR brings to the table. I have a horrible time finding a specific image amongst 50,000+ images in my archive, and it appears that with enough care and feeding, Lightroom will helping with that. That alone is worth the price of entry.

I also hear things that lead me to believe that many photographers are using LR as a rough editing tool, and only going into Photoshop when there’s something tough or unusual that needs to be handled. Unfortunately, I haven’t really had the time to spend on trying this. With my crunch for the show, I’ve been working with what I know, and that’s Photoshop.

However, if the new version of LR really is that much more improved, maybe after July 9th (the hanging day for the show), I’ll be able to spend some time trying to get that paradigm shift pulled into my world.

As I’ve opened up my newsreader over the last week, there’s been nothing but screaming about the iPhone, whose imminent release on Friday is causing a media frenzy, and is frankly changing the crap out of AT&T’s business model.

In preparation for the release at 6pm local time Friday night, it’s my understanding that all brick and mortar Apple stores will shutdown around 2pm to prepare for crush of the masses. Not only are the Apple stores losing four hours of customer traffic, but so are the AT&T stores, as they are taking a siesta in advance of the release. Now that’s some influence on a partner! Add to that that AT&T is having to go from a somewhat blasé data offering for their customers to a pretty competitive all-you-can-eat plan for the iPhone, and the impact Apple is having on the business of AT&T is pretty obvious. It’s been a fun dance to watch.

In fact, there are already stories popping up about folks camping out to get the iPhone. In fact, there’s a guy in New York, Greg Packer, who sorta makes a name for himself by showing up for these things. The crazy thing is that he’s actually asking for PayPal donations through his site (which was put up specfically to trumpet his firstiness for the iPhone) to help make his “experience sitting in line more comfortable”. Wow. He’ll probably get enough to pay for his iPhone several times over.

I guess I’m just not smart enough to try something like that, or maybe I have more integrity, or a life, but I just can’t think like that.

And my spin on the iPhone? Well, I’ll be glad when the screaming is through. And once the moths have left the bright flame of the Apple and AT&T stores over the next week or two, I might go look at one, just to see what the hype is about. Right now though, I just don’t have a huge hankerin’ to get one of the new toys.

Tonight, there are big thuderboomers rolling across the middle part of the country. For us, there’s been some boom, rain at work, but dry conditions here at the ol’ ranch.

So what’s the “end of and era” about?

With these big storms, I am seeing analog television signals from Montana and South Dakota. Unfortunately, the only two open low channels we have here are 3 and 6, so the pickings are a little slim. The locals are getting pounded though!

But in a couple of years, this will no longer be possible. DTV will have roosted all the analog stations out, and I expect it’ll be very hard to figure out when these kind of openings are taking pace, and frankly, I’m not even sure how well HD will work with E-layer and F2-layer propagation — so many of the HD signals are higher in the UHF band, and those just don’t get affected in the same way.

So enjoy the racket while you can kids — just like the opening itself, this ain’t gonna last much longer.

The plumber came last night, and it was a “good news, bad news” event. The bad news was that we do indeed have a leak in the ceiling over Beck’s office. The good news is that the only time it leaks is when the outside faucet is turned on. We can control that, so we didn’t have to shut off the water to the house, and we’re in control of our leaking destiny.

He’ll be back by tonight to fix it — didn’t have the right parts with him — and that’s a good thing. However, the scope of the damage is not yet known. There’s some damage in the ceiling, wall and baseboard right at the point of the leak, but I don’t know if there’s any additional damage we need to look at.

So what caused this? Well, the current theory is that the loss of power during the dead of our winter ice storm is the most likely culprit. I cover the outside faucets with a nice styrofoam insulating cup, but when the temperature dipped so low both inside and outside… well, it seems that those temperatures could have caused the initial break in the pipe.

Tonight, we’ll sleep to the sound of a rented dehumidifier running downstairs, and hopefully have Becky’s office functional tonight, and back to normal in a week or two.

I’m still left with some questions about long-term archival storage of images and media, but that’s a topic for a different day!

Last night, Becky and I discovered that her office had begun to take on Dihydrogen Monoxide (DHMO). Yes, there was water seeping through the wall. In fact, there has been enough of it to seep out of her room and into the den.

I love water. I like playing in it, and I love photographing it, but water is the enemy of everything I do in my office (which has not yet been affected, thankfully). I have computer systems there, our networking infrastructure, and most importantly, a lifetime of irreplaceable images on slides, filmstrips and prints. I don’t have any real worries over the digital stuff I’ve shot over the last five years or so — there’s plenty of backup copies around… I’m just a bit paranoid about hard drive crashes! The rest of the stuff, though, only exists in one place, is utterly susceptible to water damage, and is impossible to replace.

Needless to say, I got into a bit of tizzie last night, elevating everything I could off my office floor, just in the case the pipe leak (current suspect) expanded.

But it really brings up a bigger question for me, and that is how to safely store a vast amount of images — slides, strips and flats. They need to be safe from water, humidity, and dust, but also be accessible. I’ve been working on scanning these images, and I think I’ll eventually get finished with that project, despite the enormous amount of time it takes to do it right. That’ll help, but that doesn’t preserve the originals.

Once I get my preparation for next month’s show done, I believe I’ll be turning my attention to storage and retention, and ensuring that I’m ready… just in case!

I’m frustrated today. I had a wild hair to pick up a single track from an album by UK group The Beautiful South. I’ve got several of their discs, but this particular track has eluded me, so I figured I’d fire up iTunes, and see if the iTunes Music Store had it.

They did — yay!

One click, and I got the following:

Bummer. So, despite being displayed something for sale, along with a US price, I cannot buy it. A deep dive into the iTMS support site was less than supportive. Lots of folks are complaining about the same thing, and there’s lots of information that says you can’t buy stuff that’s not homed in your country’s store. So, for example, a ex-pat cannot buy music from their home country unless their new country’s store happens to carry it. What’s the likelihood of a Jamaican iTMS store carrying Bollywood music? I suspect it’s pretty low.

The claim seems to be that the rights for the music across borders is complicated, and while that’s a bad situation, I understand it at least. What I don’t understand is why iTMS, which already knows I have a US-only account, will show me things that I have absolutely no way of purchasing through them.

That’s the problem, and the point of the rant. Apple knows for what region/country my account is valid — all I ask is that I not be taunted with things I really can’t get. Urgh. So much for the ease and convenience of virtual purchases, eh?!

Guess it’s off to eBay to pick up a physical CD!

Today was the Komen St. Louis Race for the Cure, and was the second year Beck and I joined the massive throng downtown for the festivities. This year Sio joined us, which was just a wonderful blessing. Last year’s race had over 64,000 folks in it, and was the largest in the US. This year, the estimate was over 70,000 folks pounding the pavement in the sweltering heat, stomping out a charitable path.

Again this year, a mammoth number of Harley riders handled security and blocked roads for those of us walking. We just happened to be at the War Memorial when they pulled up, and that was a sight to see! Man, were they loud, but just as goofy as anyone else out there. Some of these folks were dressed in their bike leathers, with pink wigs. Some of their bikes were decked out in pink add-ons. Definitely not your typical Harley crowd!

Pink Ladies
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Just like last year, there were some weird, weird things out there. For example, this dog. Yup, it’s pink. I thought I’d been drinking too much! (Although that’s usually pink elephants, isn’t it?)

Shirts of Love
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Every big group out there had their own shirts. My favorite t-shirt? Well, it’d have to be this small group of ladies.

Political Commentary
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There were even political messages embedded in the crowd. This particular bit of activism I support wholeheartedly!

So, we had a great time, and pounded the pavement for a good cause. All three of us made it through the heat, and enjoyed the spoils of a nice breakfast at Uncle Bill’s Pancake House!

So I’m sitting here at lunch, at St. Louis Bread Company (Panera Bread to the rest of the world), and I’m sparked to write by what I hear and see. I don’t often get out and mingle in this kind of setting, so it’s a little exercise of people watching for lunch for me.

(BTW, a ding for Bread Co. While I was able to connect to their wireless network, I was unable to send any data through it. Kinda acted like there was no dns. Bummer. Good thing I carry my little Sprint Wireless Broadband module!)

So, behind me is a suit on a cell who was neck deep in a conversation when I sat down. He’s talking about the folks he works with, problems with his company, and the software tools they use in their environment. And he’s loud. Everyone in this part of the seating area definitely knows his business. Why would you do that? I mean, if he had a competitor here, they’d be juiced full of info on this guy’s business.

There’s folks reading newspapers and mags. Surprisingly, there’s even students doing work — didn’t know school was in right now. And of course, there’s loads of folks here just to meet and greet each other, mostly off work from looking at their mode of dress. (Jealous, I am!) Overall though, aside from the suit behind me, it’s a reasonable noise level, and somewhere I could play on my Mac for an hour or so.

A pretty nice little setup, and one I could get used to for lunches!

Our pastor just got back from a mission trip to Kenya. Charles is strongly convicted about hitting the mission fields, and believes his God-given charge in life is to start 1000 churches. His life and our church are really oriented toward doing just that. I’ve never been at a church that had so much direct involvement with mission activities. I think almost every church donates money to help fuel mission work around the world, but ours actively sends teams of folks many times a year. I’d bet there’s no fewer than eight trips a year consisting entirely of members of our congregation going to Africa, Eastern Europe and South America, along with treks to the cities of our country. In fact, there’s a strong influence of mission work in the older kids’ summer church work.

So Charles was telling some of the stories today about the trip to Kenya. At some point late in the trip, his backpack was stolen from the hotel lobby, and he started telling us what was in the bag, and with every item, the congregation collectively gasped: passport, cash, camera, laptop. And the last thing he mentioned was his Bible. This is the book from which he’s preached for 30 years, and was filled with notes and reflections from that long walk as a minister.

All the rest is replaceable — although getting a new passport in time to make the flight was a challenge — but that single Book is priceless. The Book itself can even be replaced, but the Charles-added portions can’t be re-created easily. After church, Becky and I both mentioned that the best thing that could happen is that that Bible get in the hands of someone open to the messages inside, and that Charles’ notes and lessons could touch one life, and then many others from there. I’m sure he’d say that would be worth the loss.