Merry Christmas to all my followers that celebrate this event. I’m already late for some holidays Hanukkah and Festivus. I’m also a tad early for Kwanza. Whatever holiday you celebrate in your house have a good rest of the year and a Happy Holiday Season.
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My brother in law is a taste tester of single malt whiskeys. He travels around the country where other whisky-o-philes get together to rank and compare how peaty or smooth and what region of Scotland each may come from. Are there hints of Chocolate, is it Speyside or Lowland. His nose is attuned to all of those subtle contrasts in smell and in flavor. What you see above is him sampling something from a recent party he attended, I was fortunate enough to be apart of festivities, though my reviews are limited to “That’s good” or “Hmmmm, not my type” Most decent single malts for me fall into the former and not the latter.
Matt goes through a number of levels in preparation before the eventual tasting. One is to put it in a flask and swirl for a little while and then gently place up to his now to concentrate the aromas that are available. With the flask being mostly empty it allows the aromas to open up more before they are eventually drank and savored slowly. The above picture was captured just as the aromas were reaching his nose.
I liked the above story far better, but the truth is there was a flask from a recent Northwestern football game, he wondered what he was drinking and if it was still good. It was not single-malt though and most couldn’t identify it. Ahh sometimes the lie is much better
As I’ve discussed many times in this blog. I have special memories from my own childhood and many of the ahhh cult followings that I had. Star Trek was among them. I was a Trekkie long before it was popular. My mother has fed this most years with a Hallmark ornament to adorn my tree in many different limbfilled places. Many of these scenes I can relive from favorite episodes. The Trouble with Tribbles, City on the Edge of Forever has scenes that are faithfully rendered in plastic and hung on my tree. My all-time favorite episode a re-telling of Moby Dick called the Doomsday Machine has yet to be adorned on my tree. I would love to see the following scene placed reverently on my tree each and every year. If we could just add a little shuttlecraft in front of the maw of the machine I would even be happier.
I am always pleased when my children attach themselves to things that I love. There last attachment didn’t last long, but it looks as if Buddy watching Kirk, Spock and Scotty beam themselves off the Enterprise might just last a bit longer.
The ornament does a pretty fair representation of the crew using the transporter to “beam” themselves onto some planet. You get the sound and even a subtle effect that something is happening. Kirk, Spock and Scotty don’t disappear. The nano-technology has yet to be invented.
Transporter Ornament from Chris Mielke on Vimeo.
My son’s ritual before he ever leaves the house is to push the button, watch Kirk and Spock and wave bye to them. Once again as a father, a fellow Trekkie Live Long and Prosper my son. Our time together has been favorable.
We traveled to Columbus, OH for my BiL graduation from THE Ohio State we spent some time doing some window shopping and scouting for a resteraunt to eat at this evening. This scene was found outside the Worthington Inn which is registered as a National Landmark. I don’t know what that means, other than it is an old building.
In the spirit of the season and a house that is in dire need of some cleaning. I have the above photograph printed on Matte paper with the dimensions of 11×17. It does not include the watermark. I would like to give it to the first responder to my email at bcmielke@gmail.com.
Enjoy and have a happy holiday!
I have in my later years gotten over enough a slight fear of heights to be able to hike and many more precarious situations. I don’t exactly if it was a fear of heights, but more of a loss of control issue. I would concentrate on all that could go wrong instead of think that my fit will hit the ground, not slip and that will cause me to plummet to my death. I never really got a bruised leg or a broken ankle. It always ended in my death. I can say after some time of hiking and also being above 10,000ft for more than once, even hiking across this narrow passageway below I have never plummeted to my death. I have however bruised, sprained, twisted and even bled, never plummeted though. 
Most who read this blog know how much I love the Nik Software plug-ins. I also have used Viveza quite a bit, but as a part of Nikon Capture NX2. The upgrade to Viveza released in a couple of months will also have a structure. Below is the announcement from the MacCreate website.
Nik Announces Viveza 2 – Masking Goes Global « Plugins: “
MACCREATE NETWORK: FORUMS
TUTORIALSNEWSHOME
Nik Announces Viveza 2 – Masking Goes Global
October 22nd, 2009 in News by David Schloss0 Comments
Nik Software today released an update to their Viveza plugin for Aperture, Lightroom and Photoshop. The new version. which will release in December has completely eliminated the need to create complex masking, thanks to new Global Tools. A dozen features have been overhauled or added to the program as well (see their full press release below).
As a reminder, Mac Create Premium Members receive a 10% discount off of Nik Software. With the $200 price tag of Viveza, a purchase of the software will pay for half your Premium Membership.
Click here for information on the Nik 10% discount to MacCreate Premium members
From their press release:
Nik Software Announces Viveza® 2 for
Adobe®Photoshop®, Lightroom®& Apple®Aperture™
Now offers a complete range of new and powerful selective and global adjustments for fast and efficient”
My son loves Peanut Butter. Really there isn’t much else in the food category that he does love. Maybe milk runs a close second. Now if you notice in the above photo had I not captured this shot to preserve it for all eternity I might have just missed that Buddy did not take a bite of the apple. Despite our best efforts to broaden his palate and him agreeing the little guy truly did a great job of letting us think that he ate a bite of the apple. In this case a highly prized HoneyCrisp apple. Who could turn that down? All was well, he bent down, apple in hand and plunged his mouth onto the apple. All looked like it should to me at least. Except of course that he missed his mouth.
Apple picking is a fall activity, despite my wife’s best intentions to get me out into the orchard in September I held her off until October. Better yet for me and well not anybody else, it was also the first really cold day of the fall, the kinda day that prepares you for the Fall color that is upcoming. She wanted me to go in shorts in September. Pshaw. I want light snow flakes and a cold brisk day. That is apple weather. Hot Cider doesn’t taste good at 70 degrees. At 35 though. That stuff is tasty.
See the rest of our shots here.
I will admit when I started this job to really enjoying my life on the road. Having grown up somewhat sheltered in my small Michigan town, the thought of traveling to many places throughout the Midwest WAS exciting. What I longed for in those early days was the airline trips. Each time I packed my bag and was headed to the airport it was truly an adventure. Though I will admit exotic locations such as Atlanta, Cleveland and Spartanburg do not seem to head up everyone’s locations under exotic, it all was an adventure to me. In those early days I was given over to the road and driving. Logging sometimes 50,000 miles in a year behind the wheel and only seeing an airport for personal vacations and the twice yearly trip to Atlanta for training or a sales meeting.
The world and our group has gotten smaller since then. With especially the second one changing each part of our group and how I work. We have gone from 10 to 4. That means less car rides and more plane rides. It also means a few less stays in hotels and many more frequent flyer miles. This must be even more exciting to my eyes you might think.
In those early years when we got together in sales meetings I would hear the grizzled sales veteran say how difficult the travel was and I had to stretch to believe their stories. You board a plane and 2 hours sometimes less sometimes more you are someplace outside of the Midwest and not behind the wheel anymore. The topography is different, the weather is different and sometimes-even people look different.
Now I am the grizzled vet and know the terminals of some airports by heart. I know the short cuts through Atlanta and O’Hare. Where the Gold Star Chili is in Cincinnati. I know too many 3-letter airport names. I know when I’m going to eat healthy and I know where I am not. I know pretty much where the TCBY’s are; I can even name a few of the people that have helped me at some airports. I’ve drunk too much OJ on flights and too many Delta cookies. Mostly I opt for the peanuts. I’m away more than I’m home I find the mattresses better at hotels than my own and those chocolates can be quite tasty if savored properly at the Ritz-Carlton.
The good part is what I see, the customers I contact and where I go. Do I have complaints, well yes we all do with what we do, but mostly when I step off that plane even when I’m tired and caught an evening flight to catch my son or daughter in some school function or just put them on the bus to get to school in the morning. I want to be there. I’m happy to be there and I want to help the customers who have entrusted the company I work for with their business. I miss my family, but this is what I do. The stuff at home, I hope I do better, but that next baggie of peanuts will make a nice snack, Oh and can you top of my OJ and add some ice please?
Picture taken with my iPhone at some airport somewhere.
For those that may wonder where I have been, well the summer just got away from me. Between Children, Traveling for work, work itself and moving into a new office, life has been very busy.
I’ve thought of many things I wanted to blog about, but haven’t had a moment to put my fingers on the keyboard to capture my thoughts. Hopefully that will change in the upcoming weeks.
