Wes’s Life

DSC_4134, originally uploaded by Wes Baker.

I went to the Woodhall Vineyard a weekend ago and trounced around their property snapping up whatever I could. My timing was ho-hum, but I still managed to take a few shots that I was proud of. Take a look at the rest on flickr.

Woodhall Vineyard Set

I just can’t stay with one host for too long can I? No, I suppose I can’t. Well, if you have been following the news on Dreamhost, you have noticed that a lot of people are jumping ship because of their waning reliablity. So, I jumped as well and managed to land on a faster and sleeker ship, or rather an orange. I decided to go with A Small Orange. With the speed that I have noticed so far, I have no problem recommending this host. Let me know if you find any issues, the only one I have run into thusfar is the problem with the Flickr Gallery.

Okay, so now the Flickr Gallery is up, but I just have to let you know how awesome the ASO support is.

3:09 PM: I sent out a support request.

3:20 PM: I recieved a response that they were fixing the issue.

3:29 PM: The issue is fixed.

Let me first throw out the fact that I absolutely love books about Utopias and Dystopias. I was introduced to them during high school as required reading. I loved Fahrenheit 451, thorougly enjoyed The Giver and I need to re-read Brave New World (I didn’t read it as well as I should have). It surpised me that I had never heard of Ayn Rand until recently. So when I stumbled upon it at the bookstore and read the back cover I immediately picked it up.

First off, this book is short; something around 100 pages short. The book I purchased apparently had the English version, which she revised for American audiences, in the back with her revisions scratched in with a pen. This didn’t really entice me, I just thought the book was longer. I managed to finish this book in about three hours or so (with a nap in the middle somewhere). I can tell you that the first chapter is confusing until you “get it.” After that, the book goes very fast. I’d rather not say to much, but it follows the typical storyline of realization, problem, solution, satisfaction.

I liked it a lot, but I’m probably predisposed to liking this kind of book, with all of the other Utopia/Distopia books that I have read and enjoyed before. If you need a brief introduction to the world of Utopias, definitely pick it up.

Adobe managed to sneak this one out pretty quietly. I haven’t seen to much in the news yet, but I’m sure its about to explode. The Lightroom beta, that was once exclusively avaliable to Mac owners and their shiny hardware, is now freely avalaible to the wanton majority of us. What can you expect? I’m not too terribly sure to be honest, but since it is an Adobe product, you could probably wager that it’ll be semi-polished, a memory-hog, clean, and useful to a fault. I would definitely have to recommend that all RAW shooters at least give this a shot, especially since Capture NX seems to be as fast as the speed of smell.

Edit: After using it a bit, I am quite astounded at the cleanliness and simplicty that this program offers. Yes, I was correct about the memory-hog bit; it managed to get up to about half a GB of my memory and around 85% of the CPU. Yet, I love the fact that you can hide the majority of the interface and leave yourself with the image and the editing panel. I do think it needs a few things to finish off the job. It definitely needs a way to adjust the curve (and yes, I did notice the contrast slider, but I want my curve).

I think that once this program goes retail, I might be seeing if they offer an education discount on it and pick it up at my bookstore at college. I highly recommend you take a look at it.

Adobe Lightroom

Heaven’s not a place that you go when you die
It’s that moment in life when you actually feel alive

Some of the people that know me very well might see this and ask themselves something to the effect of what is Wes smoking, a message about religion?

I think that actually describes my beliefs very well. I don’t think of heaven as being a place, a final destination or something you pray everyday for. It’s simply what you feel when you realize why. Why we are here, why we do what we do, why we strive in life for money that means very little. I’m not saying that you become exempt to these conditions, you just realize what the meaning of life is and why we are here. It’s sheer simplicity is overwhelming, so most people just pass it off as not being good enough. We expect answers as complicated as the lives we lead.

I hope you find your heaven, nirvana, or whatever you may call it while you can appreciate it.