After the initial profile setup steps, I got a little bit nervous. All of the sudden, all of my Android contacts were exposed by the very open Google social media application… no good. Linking Picasa was a nice touch, so was a new concept of friend circles (hopefully, Facebook is working on similar feature as we speak). And  finally  an option to edit previous entries  with possible misspellings was a real winner for me.

But the rest of it?  I was not impressed at all. Actually, feature-wise Google+ seems to be  not even a beta-test level.   Look and feel reminds Facebook version 0.51. No good.

And then comes today’s revelation about Google’s policy and possible consequences: you violate one of many policies, and you lose access to ALL of Google services.

YES! This includes your cherished Gmail address, Picasa, web hosting and others.

Obviously, nobody  here is going to support sensible Google policies, and need to protect  them by punishing the abusers. However, every time I see a statements “hate speech” in a  possible  user “sin” list, I get very nervous and suspicious.

In the word of free speach there should be NO provisions to disallow  so called “hate speech”. The corporate leftist don’t really believe in the right to free political speech.  They want to be able to lie, spread the rumors, occuse their policial opponents of many hidious things, but… when comes to protecting conservative talk speech…. they want it gone.

Google corporate folks seem to be WAY to liberal (totalitarian for those needing some translation), and very connected with today’s WH regime.  Nobody in their right mind would/should risk such a exposure to a possible “hate speech” accusations by somebody in a virtual world that is full of leftist droids, or by one of Google corporate censors belonging to  PMSNBS circle of friends. These exact people, who believe that truth doesn’t matter, as long as the(eir)  fight for the “cause” justifies the outcome, should not be entrusted with your basic email communications.

No sirree Bob! I am not going to do that type of electronic suicide.

I am not saying that Facebook owners are less evil, but at least if I piss them off and my account gets suspended, I only risk one insignificant part of my virtual presence (which BTW I can rebuild quite easily, by opening another single account).

Luckily, Google provided a “downgrade” option. It removes the Google+ feature and restores your “standard” Google world.

After experiencing Google+ for 3 days, I cut the cord; I am gone from Google-social-Facebook-wanna-be-imitation-Plus, and you should be too.

You’ve been warned!

How fast this time files, when you’re having fun!

I just noticed that my “venting” blog site has not been updated since last June. It certainly doesn’t mean that I had no gripes, frustrations in my life; plenty of them, and many times came from very unexpected sources. One might think, that working on taxes is a stressful, but believe me it ain’t (to paraphrase a character from one of my favorite movies). Sometimes life gets very innovative in throwing you few surprised that leave you surprised, mad, disappointed….

But, back to my original reason to write this entry:

I    LOVE    P H O T O G R A P H Y!

Two months or so ago, I finally decided to bite a bullet, and splurge on Adobe’s Lightroom 3 (nice 45% discount didn’t hurt either in the decision process); till now, I was just a  pure Photoshop-with-Adobe-Bridge guy. What a difference!

First of all, new functionality (concepts) of the Lightroom world. All of the “imports”, “exports”, “virtual copies”…. head is spinning just from the number of new options. Thank God for the vast excellent  resources that the world of Internet provides. Only available time and … will itself can be the limiting factor. As I started looking at the world of presets (and believe me, they are everywhere), I do get a better picture on what is required in the world of today’s world of photography.  

Of course, no new software would make any sense, without … new pictures. I did try to take few. Some during my daily walks, others as I visited my favorite Bay Area spots, but most of them during number of church events in my church.

Lots of fun, but also a lot of work.  This is were I was hoping new Lightroom would come handy, and was not mistaken.  I can see, that in time my workflow / process of dealing with hundreds of pictures will get shorter (i.e. better).    Last weekend I took a ride to a beach in Half Moon Bay to take some snapshots of the sunset. As a photographer,  I still don’t have much experience with this particular time of day  (was not ready for a way too long waiting time in a freezing  California weather!), but I got to talk to some other very nice fellow photographers  from the area.

The trip was not a total waste then. I also took few pictures which couple came out quite all right. Here is a first one of a dog guarding a ball in the water; so funny.

Now something the ocean decided to rejected, and it landed on the beach:

… and finally, a test of an extreme cropping.   Love my 7d with all its 21 million of pixels.

Don’t take me wrong, before you master the art of picture taking you will go through a healthy dose of frustrations (my being using  external flash light with my Canon XTi). If you do not have patience, you may not survive the initial numberless out of focus, over and under exposed shots that have been ruined by an amateur photographer (this means YOU).

I was fortunate to be asked by my priest to be the official picture taker from some church events, so I got to take many of very rewarding pictures lately. What a blast!  First Communion, Corpus Christi procession, new altar boys’ introduction and the Christmas Eve dinners. So many pictures, so much disk space to use, so little time!

Even today, I got to take few family pictures, which will bring a lot of joy not only to me, but to the folks I am photographing. Even one of the headers for this blog is a panoramic creation of my afternoon walk to the local park.  With the help of Photoshop CS4 and a good use of adobe tutorials, I managed to create a decent looking background headers for this site (look for the island with few pelicans at my city’s artificial lake).

Don’t you wonder why is it that as you expect 2-3 packages from your vendors to arrive on UPS, they arrive on … 2-3 different tracks. Same company, same distribution location, and still – multiple runs of multiple UPS tracks (sometimes minutes apart) are almost a daily occurrence in my neighbourhood.  Oh…. and let’s not forget about the other UPS  tracks that keep driving up and down the street all day long with a sadistic pleasure of  watching you in the window waiting … and waiting … and waiting.  Waiting for the  packages that left local location for delivery 10-12 hours ago. 

I could WALK faster guys, with a monkey doing flips on my back!

How is it, that a 21 century folks of UPS cannot figure out how to do their basic business:  CONSOLIDATION?. It seems it is more about not delivering packages before the promised day.

Here goes my message to UPS: guaranteed delivery means only NO LONGER THAN, and not NOT EARLIER THAN.  As I get to watch individual deliveries, I can see the madness of the corporate “wise guys”, who will make the delivery sit in one of their warehouses to make sure that the TWO DAY GUARTEED does not turn in to a possible NEXT DAY SURPRISE.  Instead of  straightening customer loyalty,  not to mention the obvious cost savings,feelings of  resentment and disappointment sets in in most of our minds.

One should explain to the corporate brainiacs of UPS that a people who need guaranteed delivery in one or two days are still going to pay for this promise, others will not be forced into picking a more expensive option. Do these guys truly believe that I will pick a $30 delivery option on a $7 eSata cable, which Newegg.com had on sale?  Do they have ANY illusions that this type of logic is not going to backfire? Instead of new revenues, or easy way of savings millions in unnecessary overtime and gas, you will have thousands of people writing stories, ridiculing your absurd business practices. 

I don’t know if UPS is the only carrier plagued by this phenomenon, but from the comments I read on many shopping portals, they seem to hold the top stop in this game of madness.

Shape up UPS!  The folks of US Postal Service are passing you in customer satisfaction, and this cannot be good for your health.

Update:  My new camera arrived 12 hours and 3 minutes to travel 10 mile to my house after being aged in UPS Oakland for …. wait for it…  3 days, and this is not even a record.

Finally, lets explain the title a bit. Long time ago, one of my friends explain to me about managers and people that they hire. “A” (Top notch) class managers hire “A+” class employees.  They seek people who are smarter than themselves, people who will make them shine and successful.  ”C” class managers hire “F” class employees.  Lousy managers who are afraid that by hiring a little bit smarter people, the world will not appreciate their contribution, and they won’t be able to keep their jobs. They think, that doing so they look better in comparison.  Well… how little do they know.

One more year has passed,  so you and I have added some “millage” throughout last 12 months. All Americans got new el Presidente ( I call him Obambi, since I am such a big admirer of his ), you’ve been getting used to the new title of “grandpa”, “paps”… and lovely Jennifer is getting married in July. The last one hurts a bit, since I WAS hopping that she would settle for a more mature guy, and I would be calling you “Dad” some day – with all the love you deserve, of course.

Anyway, hoping that your birthday anniversary was a fabulous one, I wish you all happiness and anything your heart may desire my friend. Stay positive and most of all healthy.  Remember, you and I are may be a bit older, but we age well, and our families, friends need us.

The next time we meet, let’s finish the  bottle of “Goldwasser” – remember that one?

In a meantime my friend – Happy  B-day!

- Bogdan

P.S.

To make your day a bit better, I found this little music clip.  I hope you like it.

Why this gloom and doom for USA? Funny one should ask this question, since so many people hated previous president and his administration with such a passion, and wanted “changed” .

And “the change” is coming.  Here is what happened in just 7 days, since President Obama took over the highest office on Earth:

• USA  taxpayers will now be paying for killing unborn children of African, Indochina, South Africa.
• Obama  government will (most probably) nationalizing banks (note: sell BAC tomorrow buy gold and silver) and many other major industries in our country.
• Forcing some financial companies to accept loans, which are going result in “preferred” status for the government, and ultimately leading to … nationalization.
• Democrats all over the country are demanding that opposition is silenced, conservative radio talk shows are taken off the air . Last 3 days Rush Limbaugh is being a subject of almost every AP / ABC / CBS / NBC / CNN news, with one common subject – how to silence the guy.
• New trillions of dollars are being printed to “stimulate” economy. In socialist terms it means: giving $6 bln + to “community” organizations (brown shorts possible picked up as preferred garment) like ACORN, giving tax credits to those…. you don’t pay any taxes, spend on the usual “pet” social projects like… the abortion of children, the teachers unions, the new government buildings. All of the things that will grow government economy.
• Forcing domestic car producers to meet new unachievable standards in fuel economy in next 2 years. Failure will probably result in nationalization.
• Calls to impose limits on executive compensations.
• Freezing any domestic offshore oil drilling, which was approved not so long ago by previous administration (remember the $147 a barrel / $5 a gallon gas?). Obama is still to explain  his campaign promises to drill.
• Oh.. in last 3 months California has achieved something that only Jimmy Carter was able to do – unemployment level is getting closer to %10.  Even illegals from the south of the US boarder are going back home for better job opportunities. Go figure. 
• Hugo Chavez has already warmed up to the new Prez. 
• B. Hussein Obama decided to do his first TV interview with … AL Arabiya. He accused his countryman of oppressive history, promised to talk to Muslims (with Iran specially). We are still waiting for any news about possible meetings to surrender to Al Qaeda.

So,  we are still waiting for the brown shorts member to search house by house for any conservative Republican, to be sent to special re-education camps with gates “Arbeit macht frei”.  All of this as liberal “useful idiots’ are cheering and trying to silence the “divisive” conservative “rhetoric’.

Interesting times. Still waiting for any announcement regarding May 1 celebration and military parades in particular.

You wanted change, we got it.

Old 2008 is almost behind us....

We all need to hope, that things are going to get better in 2009. Without hope, one could get really depressed.

The upgrade itself didn’t take that much time¹, and off I went into the new administrative interface. Different to be sure, but I do agree with the authors – much quicker and easier to use. I took some chances with this one, but it looks that there are no show stoppers² that would make me consider a rollback. So far, I am happy camper.³

As I was forgetting the story of the crooked investment advisor from New York» , I looked into few WordPress plug-ins. I decided to give them a “go”.

First, I opted for a optimization. New plug-in I used moves all the javascript code to the end of the page. It is a suggested technique for allowing the main static content to display as soon as possible. This gives the perception of the page to load faster. So far, it seems to do its job.

Second on the list, were two add-ins to provide footnotes and “sliders”⁴. I notice one blog site to use them, and …. I liked it enough to give it a spin.  Will see, which one is going to stay, and which one is going to go((I don’t think that adding so many plug-ins is going to be “healthy” for the overall performance of the site.))

Tomorrow … oops… today⁵ is a celebration of “Wigilia”"  in my Church, so I better finish.  Tomorrow, I will upgrade my second blog for my children. I still need to figure out how to split the content into multiple distinctive sections without going to multiple installations of WordPress.  Oh well…

1. Finally, I stopped fighting the basic requirements of deleting 2 directories, as the instructions suggested
2. I still remember a bad aftertaste from a 2.3.x to 2.5.x upgrade
3. UPDATE: As I was doing the “last minute” check, I discovered a bug in “AJAX Comments” module. Had to disable it, until a fix is available.
4. they work the same as footnotes, but they are hidden, to be exposed upon a click – give it a try above.
5. I better go to bed soon