Category Archives: Nader

Flowers, Macro, Michelle, Micky, Nader

A Punchable Flower

Before I start rambling about this picture, I should point out that AM Outdoors expert and friend of this here blog Michael Augustin corrected my assertion that yesterday’s blog featured a ground squirrel. When in fact, it was a chipmunk. A pox upon me, my good fellows.

Today’s post features a flower that I’ve always loathed. The iris. Take a look, you’ll see what I mean.


The Punchable Flower

Don’t you just want to punch that flower?

PARTICULARS

CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
FOCAL LENGTH: 70mm
APERTURE: f/5.6
EXPOSURE: 1/125
DATE: 05/31/2016 – 17:03
LATITUDE: 42.02903°
LONGITUDE: -93.62927°
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Nader Parsaei

Friend of this here blog Michelle recently pointed out that the last 2 posts have not included an answer to the CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT TRIVIA QUIZ. So today you get two answers.

THE CHRISTOPHER D. BENNETT TRIVIA QUIZ

QUESTION 8

One year for Christmas I received Nirvana’s NEVERMIND for Christmas from my Grandparents. Many of my aunts and uncles were offended by what they called the album cover’s “child pornography”. My Grandpa put the cassette in his stereo, put on his headphones and listened to SMELLS LIKE TEEN SPIRIT. Upon the conclusion of listening to this song he summed it up like this, “Well it ain’t…” Which of his favorite artists did he compare to Nirvana?

ANSWER: HANK meaning HANK WILLIAMS SR.

BONUS

In 1983 I began attending Iowa State football games with my Grandpa. Where did we park?

ANSWER: Highway 30

Animals, Iowa State, Nader

No Gorilla, Lucky 3 Year-Olds, or Inept Parents

I haven’t posted a picture of an animal (besides Naima) for a bit. No worries though. This animal posting will not make any references to the current inane social media debate.

I present a ground squirrel…


Ground Squirrel at Memorial Union


I found this guy scurrying around the Memorial Union. The only one that I know exists.

PARTICULARS

CAMERA: SONY SLT-A65V
ISO: 160
FOCAL LENGTH: 70mm
APERTURE: f/5.6
EXPOSURE: 1/125
DATE: 05/331/2016 – 16:39
LATITUDE: 42.02441°
LONGITUDE: -93.64683°
PHOTO ASSISTANT: Nader Parsaei

Alexis, Anders, Andree, Baier, Bethany, Birthdays, Brandon, Carla, Dae Hee, Dawn, Derrick, Evie, Geri, Gretchen, Jason, Jeff Daniel, Jeff Kewer, Jen, Jesse, Johnathan, Kelly, Kim, Layla, Linda, Logan, Michelle, Mom, Monica, Nader, Naima, Nora, Sara, Scottie D., Shannon, Shawn Lockner, Steph, Steve, Suzie, Teresa, Tim, Willy, Yin

The Birthday Party of Fate (Roundup)

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I’ve thanked all these people in person, but I’d like to publicly thank everybody that helped out in some either small or big way with my birthday party on Saturday.

Big shout out to Scott for making tons of delicious mouth watering chicken and jalapeno cream corn. I only wish I would have had time to help do more than just brine the chicken. If I am so inclined to do this again next year and you are so inclined to help with the food next year, I will have to schedule this so I can be more hands on with the process. I may have been The Master, but Scott was undeniably the Smoker Master. I just can’t overstate how amazing the chicken was people.

Much love to Scott’s (better-other-less high maintenance) half for making the Pick and Pluck. If I would’ve thought of it, I would’ve bought several gallons of ice cold chocolate milk to knock down while setting up shop on that thing.

Thanks to Logan and Corinna for holding down the grill and making an assortment of hot dogs and sausages to compliment the mouth watering chicken. I don’t really have any photos of the event, perhaps next year I can talk him/them into doing some candid photography for the party.

I’m always able to count on Dae Hee when I need some assistance. He came over and helped put up the canopies for the outdoor dining area, the tent for an additional child area, moved all the chairs from the basement to the outdoors, and watched 2 hours of GAME OF THRONES. A pretty solid effort!

Thanks to Jason for loaning me his Cornhole set.

Thanks to Shannon for loaning me her canopies, although I’m still unclear where one gets tailgating tents that don’t have Iowa State colors. Or why a person would even want such a thing.

Thanks to Jesse for laminating the beverage identification signs.

Thanks to Teresa for helping out in various tasks before the party started.

Thanks to my Mom for making a copious amount of side dishes and desserts. Nobody went home hungry. That is for sure.

Finally, thanks to everybody that took time out of their lives to come visit me:


Teresa
Brandon
Logan & Corinna
Aunt Linda
Kio
Steph, Katie, Jeff, & Yin
Carla, Jason, Alexis, and Johnathan
Mom
Scott, Melissa, Austin, and Porter
Steve
Dawn, Kevin, Scott, and Kayelee
Jen, Derrick, Evie, and Layla
Sara, Shawn, and Gretchen
Jesse, Kelly, Kalista, Saydie, and Taylan
Willy
Dan and Angie
Suzie
Monica and Jeff
Bethany, Dae Hee, and Nora
Jason, Will, Ben, and Nader
Andree
Anders & Nicholas
Shannon and Jason
Geri
Michelle, Craig, and Lily
Kim and Kevin

A special thanks to Dae Hee, Bethany, and Nora who came from Minnesota. Aunt Linda who came from Kansas. Stephanie who came all the way from Brooklyn. I guess I’m morally obligated to visit her in October now. Right?

Since I think that this party was a success on some level, I am tentatively planning on doing it again next year. Tentatively thinking about some time on Memorial Day Weekend next year. We’ll see how the cookie crumbles.

Now to the less than stellar news…

The Photo Booth was a success, but far from perfect. It turns out that the photo booth program I used has a painful little quirk. If the “Finish” button wasn’t pushed at the conclusion of the photo session, the program timed out and didn’t save the photo strip! The good news is that it did save the original images. The bad news is that there will be a night in my future where I’ll be piecing together photo strips from saved images. Yeah me!

For that reason, I did load up all the images into the party gallery. Not just the “finished” photo strips.

To see those images, click on the link below… (You can also download them by clicking on the down arrow icon.)

MANOS & PHOTOBOOTH IMAGES

However, thought I would share a few of them here as well:


But the good news is that I now have a thousand different ways to improve the photo booth for next year. Tentatively.

Anders, Angie, Baier, Becky, Blogging, Calendar, Carla, Cousin Amy, Dae Hee, Dawn, Eric, Faust, Flat Earth Joe, Flowers, Funk, Geri, Holidays, Houlihan, Jay, Jesse, Jill, Jorge, Laura, Michelle, Micky, Monica, Nader, Russell, Sara, Scottie D., Shannon, Suzie, Teresa, Vest

2015

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So the walk down memory lane now concludes. With a look at the images that were in the calendar that early this morning will be taken down from kitchen walls (most common place I’ve seen the calendar hung up), office walls, cubicle walls, and placed gently in the trash with yesterday’s coffee grounds. 2015 Photography 139 Calendar I bid you a fond adieu.


2015 Calendar Cover
Front Cover

January - 2015 Calendar
January

February - 2015 Calendar
February

March - 2015 Calendar
March

April - 2015 Calendar
April

May - 2015 Calendar
May

June - 2015 Calendar
June

July - 2015 Calendar
July

August - Flower Calendar
August

September - 2015 Calendar
September

October - 2015 Calendar
October

November - 2015 Calendar
November

December - 2015 Calendar
December

If you ever get bored and want to take this walk down memory lane again, you can visit the Calendar and Postcards Gallery in the PHOTOGRAPHY 139 GALLERY. Link below:

CALENDAR & POSTCARD GALLERY

Since yesterday was the end of year and a holiday that many people celebrate (not me though, I don’t need the calendar gestapo telling me when to start a new year) I would like to take a quick moment to thank everybody that has continued to be an email subscriber to this here blog.

Off the top of my head and I apologize if I miss anybody:

These people are all original subscribers or at least haven’t changed their email since August 22, 2011. Which is how far back the records from off the top of my head go.

Jay Janson
Jason Baier
Shannon Bardole
Scott Degeneffe
Corey Faust
Susanna Funk
Jill Gorshe
Jesse Howard
Sara Lockner
Teresa Kahler
Nader Parsaei
Becky Perkovich
Bernice Verhoorn
Janice Peterson

Suzie Brannen – Since June 22, 2012
Eric Hiatt – Since August 20, 2012
Kim Barker – Since September 18, 2012
Amy Junck-Wallendal – December 18, 2012
Russell Kennerly – Since May 13, 2013
Tim Tucker (Not the one most of you are thinking about) – Since June 27, 2013
Michelle Haupt – Since July 12, 2013
Tim Tucker’s Woman (Sorry, never caught her name) – Since August 22, 2013
Geri Derner – Since September 30, 2013
Micky Augustin – Since October 10, 2013
Angie DeWaard – Since August 24, 2015
Mike Vest – Since September 9, 2015
Melissa Degeneffe – Since September 14, 2015
DaeHee Yoon – Since September 29, 2015
Monica Kewer – Since October 2, 2015 (Current email)
Carla Stensland – Since October 5, 2015
Joe Lynch – Since October 9, 2015
Jorge Rios – Since October 9, 2015
Anders Runestad – Since October 11, 2015
Elizabeth Nordeen – Since November 2, 2015
Laura Miller – Since November 9, 2015
Michael Houlihan – Since November 16, 2015
Dawn Krause – Since December 21, 2015
Joe Duff – Since December 21, 2015

Thanks for all the support and for making 2015 a successful year, by some sense of the word. I hope our little family here continues to grow. I’ll try and do better in 2016!

Andree, Angie, Baier, Basketball, Becky, Bill, Brandon, Dawn, Derrick, Faust, Frank, Jen, Jesse, Logan, Lowell, Mark, Micky, Nader, Robert, Russell, Shawn Lockner, Willy

Roundball Oracles – Year 10

March Madness is once again upon us. That can mean only 1 thing! It is time for the Roundball Oracles to gather once again and make predictions about the outcome of the NCAA tournament.

I would actually like to start this by quoting the predictions I made about this year’s basketball season at the end of last year’s tournament:

I’m already excited for next years tournament. It is no secret that Iowa State is the rooting team of the grand majority of Oracles, with a few Hawkeye and Kansas fans sprinkled in to mix things up. Plus a few statistical anomalies, (like a UCLA fan) on top for garnish. I anticipate Iowa will actually join the tourney field again next year. Iowa State should have at least a fighting chance to get back to the dance as well. We lose a bunch, but some of the recruits coming in are heralded and I wouldn’t bet against Hoiberg going up against a Big 12 that I expect to be down next year. Plus don’t forget that Michigan will be getting a taste of Hilton Magic next year. 2013-14 should be another great season! Remember the name Monte Morris. I’m guessing you will know it very well next year.
Plus, Steve Alford will be choking at an entirely new school next year! What was UCLA thinking?

I will point out that at the time I wrote that, DeAndre Kane was not yet in the fold.

As always, basketball knowledge is not a prerequisite to participating. Every year when I look at the standings, I think basketball knowledge is actually a hindrance in this competition.

A few things to know that if you want to sign up this year and take a shot at putting your name on the list of the immortals:

1. You do not have to wager any money. The only thing you have to put on the line is pride. And as C.S. Lewis would tell you, pride is the greatest sin.
2. This competition is open to all ages (as long as they can make their own decisions), genders, and fan bases. Unfortunately more than a few of these titles have went home with Hawk fans.
3. There is a trophy for the winner. In fact, this year there might even be a traveling trophy that will go home with the winner for a calendar year. If said traveling trophy does come into existence, it will not be a bust of Kobe Bryant. The Roundball Oracles does not endorse ball-hoggery and low basketball IQs or mediocrity.

Here is a look at last year’s final standings:

Place Competitor Score Correct Champion Last Year
1. William McAlpine 266 39 Louisville 6th
2. Jason Stensland 253 39 Louisville 8th
3. Jesse Howard 251 40 Louisville 10th
4. Shawn Lockner 247 39 Michigan 21st
5. Jon DeWaard 242 38 Louisville 11th
6. Angie DeWaard 236 36 Louisville 4th
7. Corey Faust 234 38 Indiana 2nd
8. Mark Wolfram 231 36 Indiana 7th
9. Jordan Toot 218 36 Louisville 28th
10. Robert Henning 208 36 Indiana 5th
11. Frank Meiners 206 37 Gonzaga DNP
11. Logan Kahler 206 38 Kansas DNP
13. Sean Clubine 201 37 Miami DNP
14. Derrick Gorshe 200 32 Louisville 12th
15. William Wentworth 199 36 Kansas 15th
16. Jackson Faust 197 35 Gonzaga 14th
17. Toby Sebring 193 34 Kansas 26th
18. Brandon Kahler 189 34 Syracuse 27th
19. Carrie Baier 188 34 Michigan State 20th
20. Jen Ensley-Gorshe 178 34 Indiana 18th
21. Elizabeth Nordeen 176 32 Iowa State DNP
22. Tim Peterson 174 33 Miami 16th
23. Dawn Krause 173 33 Duke 9th
24. Jason Baier 171 33 Miami 3rd
24. Russell Kennerly 171 33 Indiana 22nd
26. Michelle Haupt 170 32 Ohio State DNP
27. Becky Perkovich 166 32 Ohio State 29th
28. Andree Jauhari 165 32 Kansas DNP
29. JJ Baier 163 30 Ohio State DNP
29. Nader Parsaei 163 32 UCLA 13th
31. Michael Augustin 157 32 Indiana 19th
32. Ben Baier 156 26 Butler DNP
33. Your Humble Narrator 139 28 Miami 25th
34. Will Baier 121 14 La Salle DNP


And of course, a look at the honor roll of immortals that have claimed the championship in years past:

Roundball Oracles Champions

  • 2013 – William McAlpine
  • 2012 – Lowell Davis
  • 2011 – Carrie Baier
  • 2010 – Mark Wolfram
  • 2009 – Mark Wolfram
  • 2008 – Mark Wolfram
  • 2007 – Tim Peterson
  • 2006 – William McAlpine
  • 2005 – William McAlpine

Sold yet?

You are? Just write me and let me know that you want in (I’m a fairly easy person to contact) and I’ll send you out all the information that you will need to participate with all due haste!

The deadline for entering your bracket is the tip-off of the first game on Thursday morning. So if you suffer from being a Hawkeye fan, you’ll will know whether or not your team made the real tournament by then. Not sure why you would care, but to each their own.

Good luck to all the oracles and GO STATE!!!