Smoking Ban in Effect

Heard a lot about the smoking ban? Here is a photo of it in full force.

Hidden Monarch

Lights on the Old State Capital

Guess this photo--09/28/2006 Edition

Ok guess what this is:



I bet it is too easy.

Congrats to Ann who guessed Muchrooms.

Here is the original photo:

Strategically Place Lamp

I am sure glad the lamp is there!

Quantum Physics--You gotta love it!

Remember the post on the double slit experiment?

Well I found this article that is very interesting:
Single-particle interference observed for macroscopic objects from PhysOrg.com

With a variation on the famous double-slit experiment of quantum mechanics, scientists Yves Couder and Emmanuel Fort from the University of Paris 7 are rewriting the textbooks. Their accomplishment, however, has less to do with quantum mechanics than with an observation once considered experimentally impossible: the wave-particle double nature of a macroscopic object (an oil droplet and its associated surface wave).

[...]



Albeit a little dry, this article is attempting to explain why, when scientists measure to determine what slit the particle passes, they get a different result than if they observe the interference.

In quantum mechanics, both measurements cannot be performed simultaneously. If one measures through which slit the particle passes, no interference is observed. But if one observes the interference, then everything is as if the particle had passed through both slits.

But the article also says,

Duality, though strange, could explain why objects seem to be in two places at the same time and communicate instantaneously across distances. These abilities, to scientists, would be even more difficult to reckon with than wave-particle duality, which is accepted as an "interpretation" of the world rather than a literal description.


What objects do you think they are referring to? I cannot think of anything that seems to be in two places at the same time.

An "Evil" Plan

I saw a head line on MSN today:

Doughnuts in danger? NYC may ban trans fats
Health officials unveil plan to bar substance in restaurants

but at first glance I thought it read:

Doughnuts in danger? NYC may ban trans fats
Health officials evil plan to bar substance in restaurants.

So is that my subconscious telling me something? That my love for doughnuts is more than my love for eating healthy? I don't know, I just don't know...

Project--Illinois Cities from A to Z

I have been wanting to post photographs of Illinois cities that I have been to. This page will be the "link" page for the project. Below are the cities I plan to photograph. Besides photographs, I will post information or tidbits of history about the city, town or village.

As I create the posts, I will link them here so they will be organized and easily found. I will also add a link on one of the tabs at the top of the blog.

Feel free to add comments to a post that may pertain to your town. I would like this to be a group project and many may want to participate. The more that participates the more content we will have an the better the project will be.

The posts will not be posted in alphabetical order since I will photograph them as I visit them. This also will take some time to do. But when it is complete it will be neat.

The cities, towns and villages are going to be:

Assumption

Blue Mound, Bunker Hill

Charleston

Decatur

Edinburg

Farmersville

Greenville

Hoopston

Illiopolis

Jerome

Kincaid

Langleyville, Lincoln

Morrisonville, Moweaqua, Monticello

Niantic

Owaneco

Pana

Quincy

Rochester

Stonington, Sharpsburg

Taylorville

Union

Vandalia

Watseka

Xenice

Yale

Zenobia

Fish out of water

An attempt at photoshop...

PhotoFriday Girl

This weeks PhotoFriday Challenge is "Girl".

This is one is from the Skills USA Championship held at the Prairie Capital Convention Center on April 28,2006.


Image: Unidentified Future Female Firefighter

What is SkillsUSA?

From there website:

SkillsUSA is a national nonprofit organization serving teachers and high school and college students who are preparing for careers in trade, technical and skilled service occupations, including health occupations. It was formerly known as VICA (Vocational Industrial Clubs of America).

Jerome Prophet--Maybe Next Year

Just as Al Gore had the presidency ripped from his hands, so JeromeProphet came up short in the Best Blog of Springfield even though some felt he was a shoe in. But, as a good sport, he allowed me to take his picture holding the infamous newspaper that came out today. Ironic that it was in front of the Alamo.



But don't fret Mr. JP because you are not alone. Here are a few that also did not make best blog:


At The Stroke of Midnight
(http://www.livejournal.com/users/midnight_rayne/)
This is my journal...a place for me to be me. A little place where I can rant and carry on as I wish!
Author: Jayde
Location: Springfield, Illinois


Auction Voice
(http://www.auctionvoice.blogspot.com/)
FREE articles and information including links to assist with online transactions. This blog is updated regularly.
Author: Rod
Location: Springfield, Illinois


Beer Recipes
(http://beerrecipes.blogspot.com/)
A unique collection of food recipes made with beer
Author: Kc
Location: Springfield, Illinois



Brian Pierce
(http://pierceshow.blogspot.com/)
Brian Pierce WNNS
Author: Brian
Location: Springfield, Illinois


congo voices
(http://congovoices.blogspot.com/)
News about the Democratic Republic of the Congo
Author: Afriqueen
Location: Springfield, Illinois


Desolation Den, The
(http://studiofox.blogspot.com/)
Half poorly written fiction, half poorly lived life, all 101 proof white knuckle thrill ride.
Author: Charles
Location: Springfield, Illinois


Fewshyofafullload
(http://fewshyofafullload.blogspot.com/)
A blog about nothing but could contain one snippet about something, which could mean everything
Author: Fewshy
Location: Springfield, Illinois


Fifa U-17 World Cup: Peru 2005
(http://worldcupperu2005.blogspot.com/)
Peru welcomes the world in the Fifa U17 World Cup 2005. The Fifa world youth championship information is here, minute by minute, with the future world soccer stars.
Author: tylor
Location: Springfield, Illinois


gotshoo?
(http://www.gotshoo.com/wordpress/)
Daily dose of Shoo - Personal thoughts, internet clips, podcasting, technology.
Author: Shoo
Location: Springfield, Illinois


Health and Fitness
(http://clean-living-nutritional-supplements.com/healthblog.html)
Health and Fitness. Nutritional Information. Recipes. Articles and More!
Author: Tina Rideout
Location: Springfield, Illinois


High Priced Drugs
(http://free-medicine-info.tripod.com/rxblog/)
A rant about the high price of drugs
Author: Kent
Location: Springfield, Illinois

And many more


But remember fellow Springfield Bloggers there is always next year. Keep blogging.

And congrats to the winner to Rich Miller for winning the Illinois Times Best Springfield Blog with Capitol Fax Blog and to Dan Naumovich for coming in second with BlogFreeSpringfield.

Rich used one of my Photos in a blog post, so that is my fifteen minutes of fame. :)

(BTW I had permission to post JP's photo)

White and Nerdy, that I am!

Thanks to ThirtyWhat for helping me see who I really am. Weird Al wrote a song that seems to fit me to a "T". Here are some excerpts of the song and how they apply to me.

First in my class here at MIT (Went to LLCC and gradutated with a 4.0)
Keep your 40, I'll just have an Earl Grey tea (Iced Tea is my favorite drink)
My rims never spin, to the contrary
You'll find that they're quite stationary (Same here)
All of my action figures are cherry (Used to collect them but gave them to my kids)
My MySpace page is all totally pimped out (I use blogger)
Yo, I know pi to a thousand places (Memorized pi to 3.14159265358979)
Ain't got no grills but I still wear braces (I do have braces)
I order all of my sandwiches with mayonnaise (I prefer Miracle Whip)
I'm a whiz at Minesweeper - I could play for days (Never was into Minesweeper but spider solitare is fun)
Happy Days is my favorite theme song (My favorite is Three's Company)
I'll ace any trivia quiz you bring on (I love to play Trivial Pursuit)
I'm fluent in JavaScript as well as Klingon (Never learned a programming language but I do work with Computers for a living)

They see me roll on
My Segway (I have a 250 Honda Rebel)
X-Men comics, you know I collect 'em (used to collect comics, I watch all of the super hero movies and buy t-shirts of them)
Shopping online for deals on some writable media (Favorite website is www.thinkgeek.com)
I edit Wikipedia(I used Wikipedia for information for my blog)
I memorized Holy Grail really well ("It is just a flesh wound...";"It could be carried by an African Swallow..." and other quotes)
I can recite it right now and have you ROTFLOL (Rolling on the floor, laughing out loud)
I got a business doing websites (I do design websites)
When my friends need some code, who do they call? (Friends call me to fix their computers)
I was in AV Club and Glee Club and even the Chess Team (I was in the stamp club and the library club)
Only question I
Ever thought was hard
Was do I like Kirk
Or do I like Picard
Picard (That is a hard question because they both were really good as Captain but Patrick Stewart was the best choice for Professor X.)
Also in the video, you can see Weird Al buying a Star Wars movie. I also love Star Wars and have even dressed up for the opening of the movies as a tusken raider.

So on a scale of 1 to 10 with 1 being not nerdy and 10 being as nerdy as you can be, what am I?

Walk to Remember 2006

According to the Share website:

"This year marks the 6th annual Walk to Remember in Springfield, IL. The event will be held in Washington Park on Saturday, September 23. We will have a memorial service and balloon release beginning promptly at 10:00 am. During the service a flower pinwheel will be placed in our "field of dreams" as your baby's name is read. Approximately 500 people will gather remembering a special baby, and together we will walk the beautiful 2 mile pathway providing each other support and hope."

My wife and I will be attending and I plan to post photos of the event here.

Here are a few from 2004:

Balloon Release

Field of Dreams

I would like to thank all of my readers for there continued support with the caring comments they have posted regarding our Karli. It means a lot to my wife and I to know Karli is remembered. If any have had a similar loss and would like to contact me to share thoughts or feelings, please email me. I will keep it strictly confidential. Also the Share Organization is also a good place to get help you may need.

As time goes on, the pain of loosing a loved one subsides but the scars remain. The Walk to Remember gives us a chance to create another memory of Karli, and these are precious since we don't have that many.

Pregnancy and Infant Loss awareness day is October 15. I plan to post something on that day as well. This happens more times than most people may realize so spreading awarness is needed.

Again, thanks to all.

Life ain't always beautiful
Sometimes it's just plain hard
Life can knock you down, it can break your heart

Life ain't always beautiful
You think you're on your way
And it's just a dead end road at the end of the day

But the struggle makes you stronger
And the changes make you wise
And happiness has it's own way of takin' it sweet time

No,life aint always beautiful
Tears will fall sometimes
Life aint always beautiful
But it's a beautiful ride

Life Ain't Always Beautiful--Gary Allen

Just another Tequila Sunrise

I know what you are thinking. "Enough with the sunrises!" But when I wake up and look at the sky, it is fascinating. I can help but to take a picture and post it here.

Conversation with a 4 year old about Fashion

As I am putting on a shirt that has flowers on it...

Son: That's Mommy's shirt.

Me: No it isn't.

Son: Yes it is, it's Mommy's shirt.

Me: It's my shirt but why do you think it is Mommy's?

Son: It has flowers on it so it's Mommy's shirt.

Me: No, it is a man's shirt, men's shirts can have flowers too.

Son: Did you get that out of Mommy's dresser?

Me: No, I didn't, trust me, this is a man's shirt.

Son: It looks like mommy's.

Me: Let's just get ready for school, ok?

Son: Ok.

Old State Capital Jazzed Up

I know you may get tired of the Old State Capital on my blog so here is one of it jazzed up so to speak.

Young Abe

Here is a painting of Abe Lincoln. Not sure of the artist because it was unsigned.

Mirror Mirror on the wall...

Took some photos today of Downtown Springfield. (Where else would I take them?)



If you can't guess, that is me!

National City Bank window

Catsup

Dead End

LDEEZ

Image:Abandoned Building in St. Louis.

What to you call 40 millionaires sitting around watching the World Series?

The St. Louis Cardinals...

Photobloggers at work...

Image: Infamous JeromeProphet getting ready to break the next big story...

(Image blurred to respect his anonymity.)

PhotoFriday Bright

This weeks PhotoFriday Challenge is "Bright".

I just took this when I got up this morning and saw that the challenge. I thought that it fits.

I call it Foggy Sunrise:

Farm Silhouettes

Just took these tonight on the way back from Decatur. Mt. Auburn Blacktop just north of the road to Edinburg, IL.

Byrd Watching

Well finally the post you have been waiting for. The photo-documentary on the demolishing of the Major Robert A. Byrd Hi-Rise. I have driven past this building at least twice a day for 5 years now. The last couple years I notice it was in bad shape. I was hoping for an implosion but since it is Springfield, I guess we have to settle with a wrecking ball, an end loader and a piece of equipment that looks like a metal Tyrannosaurus Rex.

Lets now look at the photos...



Sign--Who is Major Byrd?


Sign--At the beginning of the demolition, you can see that they posted warning signs for photobloggers to stay out!


Here you can see that they have already done some clean out.


Here you can see that they busted through the wall on every floor. If you can see the yellow box with the black writing that is in the left corner. That was a box that they put a bobcat in (the machine to the left of the box) and lifted to every floor. This was used to help with the demolition on each floor.


Here you can see all of the walls busted out so you can see the frame of the building. Looks kind of like a skeleton. Again see the yellow box. They are loading in a bobcat right there.



Another skeleton photo. See the bobcat?


And another...


Here you can see the Hilton through the Byrd Hi-rise.


I got there after an afternoon and morning of pounding it with a wrecking ball.


Here you can see that they used a fire hose to try and keep the dust down.


Some dust did get out as you can see on these leaves.



This is the wrecking ball that they used to destroy most of the building. It seems like it would be time consuming to raise and drop this all over but it really did not take them that long. I thought I would see more of the ball swinging into the building but it was more of a raise and drop.


Here you can see that the building is almost half gone.


Careful how you look at this one. It looks like you are looking at it from the short side but it is really the middle of the building you are looking at.


I tried to get a neat perspective shot with this one.


Here it is almost gone.



This machine was really neat to watch. It is the Tyrannosaurus Rex I was referring to. Here is a video of the machine at work:



I have lots of other photos of my "Byrd Watching" but for now I think I am going to leave it at this. Let me know if you want to see more and I will post the rest of them. Hope you liked the tour of the Byrd wreck. Feel free to comment with your thoughts on this building, any history you know of etc.

***Those of you that are fans of JeromeProphet may have noticed that he has also posted about this subject. I am not in any way trying to copy his ideas. It just so happens that we go by this same spot and both had the same ideas to document it. He just happened post his before me. The reason I am writing this is because I just submitted my post and then went to his site and saw that he has another post on the subject. This was completely coincidental.***

Butterfly in September

Its already been almost 6 months?

On March 12 the F-2 tornadoes hit Springfield. I was going through some photos I took at the time and found this one:


Image: Gus Gordon reporting on the tornadoes that hit Springfield on March 12, 2006.

I thought I would never post it but it captures a moment in time that many will never forget. It only affected me because I work in Springfield. It affected many others much worse. I wonder how the folks in Jerome are doing as well as the other hard hit surrounding areas. Has everyone got there lives back or are some still struggling?

Urban Geometry

City Scenes

I just posted this photo on WetCanvas:

This as you may be able to tell is Springfield, IL looking east down Washington St. Notice the tiny red highrise on the horizon in the center of the photograph. That is the Byrd Highrise that is now no longer a part of Springfield's look because of it has been all but demolished. I will have a nice post to photo-document the demolition in the future.


The post on WetCanvas is under a thread called *Theme Thread - September 10th - 16th*

This weeks theme is 'City Scenes'

Check out the other posts if you want. I think as the week goes on you may be able to see several obscure cities that you may have not seen before...

Photos Etc's new look and official seal

Photos-Etc has just under gone a face lift. I found a template online that I really liked. I also, thanks to Marie, created an official seal for Photos-Etc. I tried to make it a bit funny so lets see if anyone laughs.




Hope you like my new digs. It still needs some work because some of the tabs are not pointing to anything. I will work on figuring out what I want them to point to. Maybe some categories?
If I can figure out how to to that, I will.

Any suggestions?

PhotoFriday Boy

This weeks PhotoFriday Challenge is "Boy" Here is my contribution:

Hot Air Balloon

I took a photo of this hot air balloon that they were using to build the new Union Station in Springfield.




I think it is a "Union" hot air balloon...

It is gone...all gone..

The harvest is here. A sure sign summer is almost over.

Full Moon Fever

Tonights Full Moon in case you missed it.

From Wikipedia:
Lunatic

A lunatic (colloquially: "loony") is commonly used term for a person who is mentally ill, dangerous, foolish or unpredictable, a condition once called lunacy.
The word is borrowed via French from Latin "lunaticus", which gains its stem from "luna" for moon, which denotes the traditional link made in folklore between madness and the phases of the moon. This probably refers to the symptoms of cyclic mood disorders such as bipolar disorder or cyclothymia, the symptoms of which may also go through phases. As yet there is little evidence for any causal link between phases of the moon and the progression of mood disorder symptoms.
In a 1999 paper, Raison et al. put forward the interesting hypothesis that the phase of the moon may in the past have had an effect on bipolar patients by providing light during nights which would otherwise have been dark, and affecting susceptible patients through the well-known route of sleep deprivation. With the introduction of electric light, this effect would have gone away, as light would be available every night, explaining the negative results of modern studies. They suggest ways in which this hypothesis might be tested.
Mental institutions used to be called "lunatic asylums" or colloquially, "loony bins" (the latter term is still occasionally used both humorously and insensitively).
In Russian, a lunatic refers to a sleepwalker, literally "one who walks under the moon" or "moonwalker".
People can be offended by the terms 'loony' and 'lunatic', and euphemistic neologisms are often used instead. But it can also connote flamboyance and joviality, as in the popular image of Screaming Lord Sutch of the Official Monster Raving Loony Party, who suffered from depressed mood [1] and committed suicide in 1999.

You may be right

I may be crazy

But it just may be a lunatic your looking for.

You May Be Right by Billy Joel

(Ending this post like this makes me think of ThirtyWhat)

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