To replace RWPE on Mondays this year, I am going to attempt to take a self-portrait every day this year. I have no expectations that I will take 366 winners (or even 66 winners for that matter), but that isn’t necessarily the point.

Although you will be able to see how much weight I gain this year, how much hair I lose, how much more dashing I become, and how many times I shave (over/under is at 10 for you gamblers) that isn’t really the point either.

Although I’m sure a few of the important events of 2012 will be recorded, documenting my life for 1 year isn’t really the point either.

The is a photography exercise more than anything else. An exercise to get me to attempt to think creatively at least once every day. Hopefully there are some winners in there. Hopefully I don’t gain any weight and I know that I will become exponentially more dashing. Hopefully I will have more than 10 reasons to shave this year. Hopefully there are many good milestones in my life worth documenting. But, all of those will be ancillary benefits.

I will try to take all of these pictures without assistance. Meaning, I won’t hand the camera to somebody and say, “Take a picture of me doing X.” But I’m sure that will happen on occasion.

Here are the first 8 pictures from this project.

01/01/12 12:01 AM


01/02/12 11:25 PM


01/03/12 9:12 PM


01/04/12 4:42 PM


01/05/12 6:12 PM


01/06/12 10:24 PM


01/07/12 8:41 PM


01/08/12 6:39 PM

Hopefully this will provide amusement to somebody besides me.

A few pictures from Logan’s cross country meet…

If memory serves correctly, Logan placed either 2nd or 3rd at this meet.

It was another great season for the Iowa State football team. I did not take very many photos this year, but here are a few of the few that I took. Without commentary.

I am already excited for next season!

A few weeks back I went to watch Jen and her crew dominate the Des Moines Regatta. I used to have a bunch of statistics to back up this assertion, but they have since fleed from this old man’s brain.

I do know that Jen’s crew got the gold medal in their division and their time was good enough to beat at least one of the colleges competing.

I’m going to split these pictures into 2 categories. The first category is Evie doing cute Evie things:

Monkeys are Evie’s favorite although I think monkeys should be spelled monkies. Not sure why I feel that way.






This awesome baby backpack enabled Derrick and I to do some serious “extreme” hiking.


Too extreme for tuckered out Evie.

Most people wouldn’t advertise this fact, but unpictured was Evie’s first trip through a homeless camp. I’m pretty proud of having played a role in this “Evie’s First”.

Here are a collection of Jen’s crew in full domination mode:

There are many other high quality regatta pictures in this album:

I might have said this last week and it was a lie, but next week’s random collection will definitely involve Senior Pictures.

The following pictures come from:

Backup/Old My Pictures/Sports

Jesse and Jay playing horseshoes at 1 of my birthday parties.




Elainie Playing Third


Lane catching the winning TD versus the Hawks!


I’m not really sure what we thought we were doing here.


Bill took this picture for photography class at Iowa State. You probably think I’m going to point out how common it was for me to dominate Jesse in basketball back before he got old, but I’m not. I’m going to point out that by taking that 1 class, Bill has more formal photography education than I do.

Next week’s folder will be:

Backup/Old My Pictures/UnHingd

Back in the middle of June I made a trip to Minnesota with Jim. There were several great moments on the trip, but I will just cover two of the events in this entry.

The first is a tale of when I went to see Super 8 with Jill. Since I’m slightly too lazy to re-write this small adventure, I’m just going to copy and paste from an email I sent Jen.

On Saturday, Jill and I went to see Super 8 at the Mall of America Theater. Why the Mall of America Theater? Because it was the closest theater to Eagan that Jill knew about.

As I was buying the tickets for the show, the woman at the box office asked me if I wanted the “Dbox seats”. I wasn’t really sure what that meant, but there was a sign on the box office that said something about VIP seats and that got you access to beer and wine. I assumed that is what “Dbox seats” were and we didn’t need access to beer and wine. So I told her that regular seats were fine.

The tickets were 6 bucks a piece, which I though was cheap considering that the last time we went to a movie, it was $10 a piece. But, I figured that maybe we got matinee prices since it was a Saturday and it was somewhat in the afternoon.

We were nearly late to the theater as the line for the concession stand was slow moving and going to the movie was kind of a late decision based on the fact that it was raining. So when we got to the theater most of the good seats were already taken. However, there were a couple of seats available in the back row. So we sat in the back row.

We hadn’t been situated for more than a few seconds when an usher approached us and asked to see our tickets. I handed them over and she said, “It would cost you an extra 8 bucks to sit there. You can sit in the blue seats.”

It was then that I noticed that we were sitting in a red seat. The last 8 rows of the theater were all red seats.

Most of the blue seats that were in the middle of the theater that weren’t smashed up against the screen were taken, so we took some side seat and watched the movie from a weird angle.

So here is the object lesson from this story. I will not be going to a movie at the Mall of America Theater again. A theater that has 1st and 2nd class seats.

The second event was going to Target Field to watch the Padres play. It was the first time I’ve ever seen the Padres play, so that was exciting. Here are some pictures from the trip.

Target Field


Bethany & Becca negotiating for a beer. Bethany was turned down because one of Minnesota’s Mickey Mouse Laws.


The coolest thing in Target Field


Target Field


More Target Field


Nate and Jim


If you look closely, you can see Nate, Becca, and Bethany in this picture. They are in the 2nd row from the top.


Another view of Target Field


If you look closely… Clue: Nate is wearing a yellow hat.


Venable


Maybin


Denorfia


Maybin Again


Meeting on the Mound


End of the Day for Moseley


Outfield Meeting


Adams


Some Twin

Next Wednesday’s random photo collection will be from my fence building project.

I’m sure many people have already seen these images, but for those who haven’t, I took pictures for the Boone Challenger Program a few weeks back.

Jesse and Lowell run the Challenger program and contacted me about doing their photography. Here are some of the images:

There are many, many, many more images in the album in the store:

Included in that collection of photos is what was nearly the last picture I ever took.

Next week’s random Wednesday collection will be a collection of my cousin Sarah’s pictures from my trip to New York that I received in the mail recently. Along with a few NYC “souvenirs”.

A couple weeks back I went to watch Logan run track. Here are some pictures of that:

Next week’s random pictures will be of Elainie’s graduation.

It is time once again for me to to do a random look at some of the statistics on the website.

First up is what are the 10 Most Popular Images in the Artistic Gallery.

This one is actually somewhat of a shocker. A picture of Brandon has went from nowhere to be the most popular picture and the long time reigning champ Outburst of the Soul has fallen all the way to a tie for 6th Place. Although admittedly, I think spammers might have something to do with the rather large shakeup in the standings.

1. Brandon Senior Picture


2. Johnathan Senior Picture


3. Battered School Bus – Hamlin, Iowa


4. Self-Portrait


5. Jen Between Sets of an UnHingd Show


6. UnHingd Publicity Still


6. Outburst of the Soul


8. 1900


8. Becca – Senior Picture


10. Abandoned Piano – McCallsburg, Iowa

There has also been quite a shakeup in the Snapshots Gallery Top Ten.

Here are the 10 Most Popular Pictures in the Snapshots Gallery:

1. Me White Trashing It


2. ISUCFVMB


3. Alexis Cheerleading


4. Shannon and I at an Inebriated Saints Show


5. Jesse and I with the World’s Largest Cheeto


6. Logan’s Tree-man


7. Jesse and I at the Surf Ball Room


8. Jesse Endorsing the Bob’s Dog


8. 2010 ISU Spring Game


10. Shannon Reading Map at Backbone


10. Jesse and I in Clinton

Finally, a look at the Top Ten People to either contribute or be written about in An Artist’s Notebook.

1. Jesse – 163 – (+20)
2. Jay – 151 – (+7)
3. Shannon – 146 – (+6)
4. Derrick – 123 – (+6)
5. Teresa – 109 – (+13)
6. Jen – 107 – (+6)
7. Willy – 101 – (+8)
8. Sara – 96 – (+8)
9. Vest – 80 – (+19)
10. Dawn – 73 – (+9)

Wondering who the biggest movers were outside of the Top Ten?

1. Dad (+19)
2. Carla (+14)
3. Jill (+10)

In case you were interested in what the standings looked like 100 posts ago:

People have asked me for analysis from the Spring Game and I don’t really have much to give. I don’t really put much stock in the Spring Game for predicting anything for the coming season.

Here are my few observations. Take them for what they are worth:

• Jerome Tiller looked the best of the quarterbacks by far. But none of them look like world beaters.
• It looks like we have depth at all positions for the first time in a really long time.
• Both the offensive and defensive lines look improved.
• It was nice to see some receivers making plays. Some of the receivers we’ve had in the last couple years (Hamilton, Williams) are some of my all-time favorite Cyclones, but we have lacked a playmaker at that position since. . . . .  I don’t know. . . . Ed Williams?
• Steele Jantz isn’t the second coming of Seneca Wallace, but there is hope that he isn’t the second coming of Lucca Staiger either.
• The fan turn out was disappointing.  Yes it was cold. Yes you are soft if you didn’t show up.

Here are some pictures from the game:

I am ready for September 3rd when we demolish UNI to get the season started.