Meet MUTT MVR II

SUMMARY: I get only one inheritance, ever. So I should spend it profligately.

Meet MUTT MVR II! (AKA just plain MUTT MVR, because there's no room on the license plate for a II or even 2. I'll have to ponder possible solutions.)

They call it "Shoreline Blue Pearl."  In sunlight it's metallic--well--dark gray/silver, really. But I like this marginally better than the actual metallic dark gray/silver ("Predawn Gray Mica"), and the color choices are all prosaic anyway (essentially white, gray, black, and I don't really want a burgundy car).

So, I have a nominally blue car for the first time.

Hoooo boy, bells and whistles up the kajinky!

Only my 2nd new car evah (out of 5 cars). I put 10 of these 12 total miles driven on this car. Woot!

Ringing the "Sold another car!" bell. First me, then the very helpful salesman, Gerry, because I insisted. We're both happy.

A Day Photos

SUMMARY: My choices for the "A Day" project.

Here are the 10 photos I picked to contribute to the May 15 "A Day" global photo project, along with their stories (why I picked them, basically):

http://www.aday.org/profile/7838

"A Day" Photo Candidates

SUMMARY: First pass photos for the global project.

For the global photo project described in this post, I had several things in mind before A Day (today) arrived. I took most of hte shots that I had planned--only ones I didn't were the early morning ones, where I woke up, realized I was completely wiped out, and opted to go back to sleep.

None of them turned out super; they're much more plain documentary than beautiful. I of course had hoped for both, but noooo, not feeling creative enough, I guess.

Now I have to decide which ones--up to 10 of them-- to upload to the aday.org site. I have until the 22nd to do this.

I have a lot of editing to do; I'm just posting the unedited shots here for consideration and comments and so I can look at them easily in one place.

I wanted a selection that shows what my life and surroundings are like and also what the world in general is like around here--e.g., grocery shopping, garbage carts.

Ways for us to spend money foolishly.

Tons of high-quality fruit.

Really? We really need an entire aisle of manufactured breakfast cereal?

"What I have on my wall."

A standard sort of medicine cabinet.

A stadard sort of bedroom plus view.

Boost brings in the paper every morning.

My house.

Trash and recycling day! At least the recycling carts are larger than the garbage carts these days.

Wanted to show how much electronic gear I have hooked up to my computer. Not really thrilled with any of these.

Wanted to show some agility practice. Decided to try for some self-portraits. Used the teeter to try to have something a little dramatic. This won't be the world's best agility photo, but pretty good for using a remote control.

My neighborhood (cul de sac).

San Jose Rep and show tickets, takes 1 and 2:

Passengers boarding the light rail.

Inside the theater--waiting for the seats to fill and the curtain to go up.

Bits N Pieces

SUMMARY: Stairs from Heck, Agility training, judging, deaf dogs or not, A Day prep, plus bonus photos.

Today's stairs from heck:

Added the 59 steps that are in a separate flight 2 blocks away. Also did the whole normal plan of 2 miles including 2 ascents of the 129+94 steps flight, for a total today of 505 steps.

Some days my legs get tired first; some days, my lungs. Today I was completely out of breath after the 59 plus 2 blocks plus 129 and had to take a breather before the last 94. The second time around, I did fine the entire way up the 129+94. Odd.

This is starting the 4th week of my goal to do this three times a week. Yay me!

Deaf dogs:

One thing about Deaf Tika is not hearing the pretzel bag crinkle. Today, she heard it from about 15 feet away, because she lifted her head and looked over her shoulder at me, but apparently also didn't hear it clearly enough because she then put her head back down.

Agility training:

The only little bit of training I've been doing with Boost is more to raise the value of taking jumps. So, when playing in the yard, I make her take jumps to chase the toy instead of choosing her own path. One interesting difference between Tika and Boost: If Tika turns suddenly and there's a jump abruptly in front of her, she takes it. Boost goes around it.

Judging:

Well, this is it coming up this weekend: My first-ever judging assignment, and it's a UKI event, of which I've only ever run in one. I have read up on the rules (will have to revisit them again, as there are differences from USDAA and from CPE), have designed my courses and they've been approved, have my hotel reservation-- about as ready as I'm going to be.

I said OK mostly because it's a small, friendly trial in which I can get my judging feet gently wet. And I'm judging only Sunday; another new local judge is doing Saturday. Could be interesting. I'll be judging 10 classes for a total of--73 runs! Like I said, small trial.

Photos--A Day prep:

I've been thinking about all the different photos I *could* take to contribute. Have been preparing for some so I don't have to take a lot of time tomorrow to take them. I emailed the site about the issues I mentioned the other day, and they responded quickly--also said that at the moment they've disabled editing one's profile in preparation for tomorrow's big uploading frenzy, at which point we WILL be able to edit our profile again. Huh. Well, we'll see what happens.

Bonus photos:

The photography club I joined last year has a contest once a month; you can enter in four different categories for a total of 3 photos. I don't enter every month, but here's what I've picked for this month. (I've previously posted versions of these, I believe.)

In "General B" (photography as an art form for the less experienced photographer), two photos; in "Nature" (the natural world, telling a story more important than photo quality, one photo. I don't have great hopes--the photos that people enter are really spectacular.  I spent well over an hour each on each of these photos doing gross and/or subtle edits, and I'm still not entirely satisfied. And one can hardly tell, after comparing to the originals! Oh, well, I really needed another addictive, time-consuming hobby.

"Mystical Pathway"

"After the Rose Is Gone":

"Brown Pelican Fishing"

"A Day" - Life in Our World on May 15

SUMMARY: A global photography project that you, too, can participate in.

If you don't already know about the A Day project, let me encourage you to join. I first read about it in an editorial in Popular Photography.

What is the A Day photo project?

One day.
Millions of perspectives.
Add yours.
http://www.aday.org/

If you hadn't noticed, I -- like so many other bloggers -- love taking photos of what's going on around me and what my days are like. This project seems custom-made for us.

On May 15, you take photos of your life, your activities, and the world around you, showing what's important to you, what your life is like, and your surroundings. Then you  post up to 10 of those photos in certain previously defined categories on their web site. These become a lasting database that can be used for research and mutual understanding.

Best to sign up now and read up on the process so you're ready for May 15. (Note--unfortunately, like many new web sites, theirs is buggy--once your profile is filled in, there doesn't seem to be a way to change it; everyone's profile seems to say that they're from sweden even though it displays the correct flag nationality; link to reset your password doesn't actually go to where you can reset your password. Things like that.)

I've already been thinking about what I might want to shoot. I'm sure that dogs will be in at least one of my photos, heh. And probably computers.

Why participate?

They say:

Your participation is vital to this innovative and global undertaking.

Photography is a wonderful tool of communication. Pictures transcend the barriers of language, age, gender and culture. If we are to improve understanding between people, it is important that we share the way we live and who we are.

We hope that you take this unique opportunity to tell stories of daily life. Together we will create a priceless collection of images from around the world, promoting understanding and enhancing research and education.

We are literally creating history on May 15, leaving a powerful message for the future.

And so--

On Tuesday:

Photograph what is close to you.
Share it with the world!

http://www.aday.org/about/questions-and-answers

See you --and your life-- on the 15th!

---

P.S.-- categories!

What are the A Day categories?

They don't seem to have a nice complete text list, so I'm making one for myself here (from this page). Here are the main categories, subcategories, and keywords or descriptions for the subcategories:

• Home : Photos related to where and how you or others live.
  • Room : Sleeping, Cooking, Hygiene, Living, Studying, Working, Relaxing, Storing
  • Food : Buying, Cooking, Storing, Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Snack, Shortage
  • My wall : "what do you chose to put on your wall? This is a great document of your personal taste"
  • My view :
  • Treasure : Show us your most loved item in your home! We believe that what we love and what we hate, says a lot about us as persons. But it also tells about our times and local cultures. When this archive becomes an historic reference it will be exciting to see how the value of these objects has changed with time. Maybe todays treasure is tomorrows junk?
  • Junk : Opposite of treasure: Show us the one [in your home that] you dislike most.
  • Housing and Surroundings: House, Shelter, Garden, Road, Street, Neighborhood, Village, City, Countryside
• Work : Photos related to where and how you or others work.
  • Tools :Industry, Agriculture, Office, Study, Retail, Mechanics, Artistic, Service, Healthcare, Transport, Aquatic, Construction
  • Teams : Industry team, Agriculture team, Office team, Study team, Retail team, Mechanics team, Artistic team, Service team, Healthcare team, Transport team, Aquatic team, Construction team
  • Commute : Train, Car, Tram, Subway, Bus, Bike, Motorbike, Walk, Airplane, Horse
  • My job : "an opportunity to show how you look at what you do for a living"
  • Power : How do you visualize its sense of power over you or over society? What is for you the purpose of work? Work is often our lifeline, and it is seldom photographed on a larger scale. Not easy to picture, but we never said it would be…
  • Purpose: Like power-- What is for you the purpose of work?
  • Unemployment : Job seeking, Exclusion
• Connections : Photos related to everything that connects us to each other like community, technology, family, energy, faith, cultures, politics and lifestyle.
  
  • Generations : Immediate family, Extended family, Younger, Older, Birth, Death
  • Community : Friends, Sports, Arts, Social group, Politics, Religion, Online, Educational, Geographical
  • Technology : To connect, To move, To innovate, To improve, To destroy
  • Leisure : Sports, Arts, Outdoors, Music, Relaxing, Games, Dance, Decorating, Travel, Other hobbies
  • Identity : Ethic, Faith, Political, Gender, Causes, Geographical, Trends, Lifestyle
  • Society :
  • Energy : Wind, Water, Sun, Nuclear, Coal, Oil, Gas, Alternative
  • Conflict : War, Protest, Forces, Consequences
  • Care : How can you express the sense of care for others or for larger goals and aspirations?
  • Fear : What do you fear in what surrounds you, now and for the future?
  • Elements and nature : Climate change, Natural disaster, Weather, Waters, Forest, Desert, Mountains, Plains, Urban nature