Click the image above, or on the Documents link up top, to get to the presentation materials. I also got to take some photos and put them on Flickr. See y’all next year!

Please take a look and comment and participate to your heart’s delight. We certainly are enjoying it.

I have no explanation for this because there are no HOV (High Occupancy Vehicle) lanes in our area. Maybe the driver just likes the company?

This is me last year wishing you a Merry Christmas this year! I was totally able to see into the future!!

I didn’t get nearly as many photo projects done this year as I had intended, so I decided to do an end-of-the-year roundup of the random images I captured with my Motorola RAZR cell phone. The camera isn’t that fantastic, but for those times when you don’t have a real camera on you, it can be fun to take some quick snaps. Enjoy!

Have a great holiday! Happy New Year!! Hope to see you all in 2007!!!

Anywho, I saw a funny and apt bumpersticker the other day and I had to quickly risk my life to capture a photo (while stuck in seemingly endless Carrboro gridlock). Beware the ides of September! Ageism… it will catch up to you!

The poor woman in front of me must have thought I was a Homeland Security Agent surreptitiously snapping photos of the back of her late-model Subaru wagon with Liberal bumperstickers and out-of-state plates. As soon as I got a good picture, she darted off the roadway into the safety zone of Weaver Street Market. That way all the hippies could protect her against my unilateral onslaught.

Today’s post serves two basic purposes. Firstly, I’d like to give a big shout-out to my main damie Ted Turner. That’s right. I never thought I would have something good to say about ‘Ol Hanoi Ted, but this time everything he says is right on the money. In short, going to Iraq was historically “dumb,” Iran should be able to nuke us if they get to a feelin’ that way, only women should be allowed to run the world, and that the United Nations are like the elite Aqua Teen Hunger Force of international crime fighting. Good on ya, Ted! Now maybe you should use some of those billions to support candidates for office who believe these sensible things.

The second purpose is a bit more sinister. My web sponsors have noticed a tiny dip in traffic to this site and are threatening to pull the plug on my air-breathing machine if I do not remedy the situation post haste. So, if you are a real human (not a spambot, spammer, or any automated type of spam delivery) and you are really reading this, then why don’t you do ‘Ol Dave a favor and leave a comment.

It could be anything. Suggestions for future write-ups. Lyrics to your favorite song. Reasons I should ask Ted Turner for $175 million to run for President in 2008. Anything that comes to mind. Me and my overlord sponsors thank you.

Seven of us made it up to Danbury, NC this Sunday for a tubing adventure on the Dan River. It was a definitely lot of fun and extremely relaxing. So nice to sit in some 60 degree water on a warm, sunny day… floating aimlessly downstream, drinking beer, eating fried chicken and cracking jokes. Thanks to everyone who made it out! I can’t wait to see the photos from the two waterproof disposable cameras that made it down the river with us. See ya next time!!

On a completely unrelated note, check out one of the best flickr sets I’ve ever seen. Thanks for sharing your awesome work, IrenaS!

Last year I was thinking about moving to Australia and getting an IT job down under. Unfortunately, the reason(s) for going disappeared and I found the bar to entry was just too high. Plus, it was going to be a complete nightmare to get my beautiful dog Alva over there. However, I really enjoyed my visits there and the people I met and the culture in general.

As a result of my new-found Aussie obsession, my Google News page is customized with all kinds of Australia-related content. I like to keep up on what is happening down there and I especially like to read their perspective on news related to the USA. Today all the planets must have aligned or something to deliver to me divine inspiration.

I was lured in by the headline in The Age “Making IT a ‘sexy career choice’,” but I honestly wasn’t prepared for just how sexy Australia has made Information Technology. So the idea is to attract more females to the IT industry by helping to shed the myth that we are all pasty white, zit-covered, socially-awkward nerds with bad hair. Enter the IT Screen Goddess 15-month calendar.

These ladies are smart, sassy and on top of their game. I’m so glad this idea came to fruition and that someone is attempting to destigmatize the IT field for women. One thing I was not happy about is the grotesque censorship and prudishness offered by more than half of the web commenters regarding this effort. Many referred to it as “pornography” — which, for as much as I have looked at the images, I just cannot see the genitalia, penetration or smut regularly accepted as porn.

This is a really well done calendar and I think it looks great. I say “Good on ya!” to the organizers and the models and pray that they don’t listen to the narrow-minded detractors. We are approaching a very problematic epoch globally where people just cannot accept the human body in any way, shape or form. Shame on these fools for feeling the need to pervert everything instead of appreciating natural beauty.

I know it wouldn’t serve their cause very well, but this calendar may have convinced me to start job shopping in Oz again.

Please check out my photos from Apple Chill 2006. As you may remember from last year, Apple Chill is a Springtime street festival in Chapel Hill, NC. However, 3 people were shot this year (at 8 PM, two hours after the street festival ended) and it looks highly unlikely that the event will be occurring in the future. In fact, these could be the last photos of Apple Chill you ever see. Please people — Stop the killing.

PS – That crazy pink theme had to go… 

My new friend Beckie showed up to the April InterNetWorkers event wearing a snazzy suit and an ITMFA American Flag lapel pin. No one had any idea what “ITMFA” stood for, but soon enough we all knew what it meant. (The words are too foul to be repeated on this pious and pristine weblog.)

The other copies available online have been cropped and offer slightly less perspective than this one. Also, I was able to tweak the color and sharpness to look more like the actual moment (instead of a poor digital copy of it). Click the above image for an 800 by 600 copy.

I fully expect to see you wearing one of these pins (or thongs) next time I see you.

My first submission to the threadless.com photo gallery was “Missing Piece Over The Great Barrier Reef.”

Yup. Believe it or not, I now have a threadless blog. One can never have enough blogs, it seems.