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Ginger – October 2013
Ginger – October 2013. My pick of the session The final performance of The Little Mermaid is today. We had a spare hour between dropping Lanie off at the theater and when the doors opened. So, Ginger suggested we took advantage of the time to take a new profile picture. We drove to a near-by park down-town and wandered around looking for shade from the harsh sunlight and a backdrop that wasn’t obviously buildings or a play park. Above is my pick of the pictures. Ginger was a spoil-sport and wouldn’t let me take pictures of her on some of the rather curious looking concrete sculptures dotted around the area.
The following picture is the one Ginger picked for her new profile image – though this is my processing of it so it’s a different picture in many ways to the one she is using.
Ginger’s pick of the session -
The Little Mermaid – Springfield Little Theater
Lots of chefs. It’s really hard to pick a favorite from the evening, but I do like this one. Just before the beginning of term, with no warning or preparation, Lanie decided to audition for The Little Mermaid at Springfield Little Theater. Against some pretty stiff competition she was selected and to her credit has stuck with it with good humor through a rigorous rehearsal and show schedule. As I write this they’ve completed 22 performances, including two days of three shows back-to-back with no intermissions. She’s been keeping up with her school work and sort of keeping up with her chores. We on the other hand, have been doing endless ferrying to and from the theater, and Ginger helped out with a few costume alterations.
Thursday night there was an after show photo session so I took the opportunity to grab a few pictures myself.
Lanie and friends 
And yet again, Lanie being, well, Lanie. 
Lanie (back row, third from left) in The Little Mermaid 
Assume the pose… 
Another costume change 
Lanie posing as only Lanie can 
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Hi Granddad…
Grandchild – Ultrasound “Hi Granddad.” That was all the email said…
Attached was the ultrasound picture. Wow! Great news. We didn’t see that one coming.
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Youth Lock-out and Camp Shawio Sunday
Roasting S’mores round the campfire With Lanie busy performing in the Little Mermaid, it was begining to look like I wouldn’t be able to attend the Shawio Sunday service or the Youth Group lock-out on Saturday night. A plan for Ginger to drop me off early Saturday afternoon while Lanie was performing and come back and get me after the picnic was over Sunday afternoon, meant I’d be able to help out with the youth and be there for the service and picnic.
Tents and a glow straight from Stephen King’s ‘The Tommy Knockers’ 
This is what happens when someone walks by while I’m taking a long exposure picture 🙂
Roasting S’mores round the campfire
At 10:00pm we had a two hpour session of laser tag. I’ve never tried this before, and a simple lesson is the kids have much better night vision than I do. I would have loved to get some time-lapse pictures of the fun and games, but the camera got very wet with dew. So wet it looked like I’d left it under the shower. The camera body is supposed to be ‘weather proof’ – not so the lens. So I took it inside and carefully dried the worst of the moisture off and left it to thoroughly dry out overnight. A strategy that obviously worked as the camera while a little temperamental at first seemed to be okay.
I got to bed shortly after 1:00am. Not bad for a youth event. I’d carefully positioned my tent as far away as possible. Unfortunately the youth chose to put up their tents near mine. Luckily they went to sleep with out too much chattering.
Breakfast at Shawio
Bacon and pancakes – I need say no more – except I took along my stove so I could make a nice cup of coffee to drink in my tent before I got up.
Breakfast – Bacon and pancakes. 
Bacon!
Cooking the pancakes
Pancakes!
Breakfast
There’s something about a campfire
There’s something about a campfire
Toasted marsh mellows
Wrapped up warm
Snug in a tentShawio Sunday Service
Bob doing sterling work with the Estimate of Giving cards while I mess about taking pictures. 
Sunday Service at Camp Shawio
Sunday Service at Camp Shawio
Sunday Service at Camp Shawio
Sunday Service at Camp ShawioCamp Shawio Picnic
Picnic time at Camp Shawio
Picnic time at Camp Shawio
Picnic time at Camp Shawio
Picnic time at Camp Shawio
Picnic time at Camp ShawioAfter the picnic and clearing up I had time to put away my tent and then wait to be collected. To pass the time I took a picture of the lodge:
The main building at Camp Shawio And a few ‘selfies’ I’ve not taken a self portrait in months. It’s a shame I didn’t take my vestry name badge off my hat though, it rather spoils the pictures.
After the lock-out & Picnic – Gary @ Camp Shawio Shame I forgot to take my vestry badge off of my cap
After the lock-out & Picnic – Gary @ Camp Shawio -
Blessing of the Animals #2
Getzger receives his annual blessing 
Getzget and Fara Ferret say hello – until Fara decided to try and bite Getzger, who was most upset at the imposition 
Getzger’s Nemesis – Fara Ferret . 
Maybe a bunny would be safer than a ferret… -
Blessing of the Animals #1
Barbara + furry friend. This was one of my favorite pictures from the afternoon This afternoon we took Getzger to the Blessing of the Animals. I took a few pictures while we were there…
Getzger – he’s always a favorite! 
Fara the ferret getting blessed 
I tried to get a picture of Kathy and her dogs. They just didn’t want to co-operate! 
What a cuuute bunny. Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Fara the ferret again -
Jim’s Hand-made Tools
Tool Display by Jim Davis Here’s a selection of tools made by Ginger’s dad – Jim. The tools have been on show at a ‘tool meet’ in Springfield this weekend.
I took this photograph nearly a month ago. I’ve been holding off posting a picture until after the meeting closed.
I got a call from Carol earlier this afternoon, she told me that the tool display won the ‘people’s choice’ vote. That’s excellent news and well-deserved recognition for Jim.Jim’s been collecting and selling antique tools for many years. He transitioned from making repairs and refurbishing tools to designing and making his own specialist tools – what he calls his “Fantasy Tools” They all work, and are a joy to see and touch.
Jim asked if I would take a picture of the display when we stayed with them for Labor Day Weekend. I hadn’t anticipated taking tool pictures and I didn’t have the best lens for the job with me. I wanted my lens with a shallow depth of field, that would allow me to get the tools nice and in focus while blurring out the visually busy workshop in the background. Failing that I needed a nice plain background.
Unfortunately, Jim didn’t have a suitable backdrop big enough either. However, I have a neat trick up my sleeves for such problems. I just take multiple pictures and move the backdrop. With Jim manhandling the backdrop and me on the remote shutter control it just took a couple of test shots followed by five pictures to get the pictures I needed.
Jim does sterling work as a mobile backdrop. Back home I had a nice PhotoShop session joining them all together. Then I extracted the tools from the background and put in the final gray backdrop.
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Cider Days and The Little Mermaid
Little Mermaid Cast & Lanie at Cider Days. Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. At church this morning I was ‘commissioned’ as a member of the Parish Council. Ginger didn’t take any pictures which is just as well as my camera decided to curl up its toes – something I only discovered a few minutes later when I tried to get a picture of the junior choir.
St Cecilia Choir. Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. The rear display kept flashing on and off and then it’d go completely dead. That intuition you get after too many years dealing with computers and other electronic equipment kicked in, and I quickly removed the battery grip. Lo and behold the camera started working again, even if it was a bit stumpy without the grip attached. Just in time I managed to grab a hurried picture of the choir before they’d finished their hymn.
After church, we visited Cider days and watched Lanie and the cast of The Little Mermaid perform a few numbers from the show. I was very impressed, and I include a very shaky, rough and ready video below which, at seven minutes duration, is probably only worthy of being watched by close family.
As to the camera, I did some more roadside diagnosis. I thought maybe the second battery had developed a fault, but I swapped batteries and all was okay – so either the battery grip is faulty, or the camera electronics connecting the grip has malfunctioned. Fortunately, the grip’s shutter and other controls still work, and the camera works fine with the grip mounted – provided I don’t insert the second battery.
Being seagulls (I think). Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Lanie on stage with The Little Mermaid cast at Cider Days. Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. 
Lanie on stage with The Little Mermaid cast at Cider Days. Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. -
Green & Black’s
Green & Black’s Milk Chocolate Yum. I need say no more.
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Cider Days Youth Group Parking Lot Fund Raiser
Lanie at the Christ Episcopal Church Parking Lot Fund Raiser Lanie is helping out at the Church Cider Days Parking Lot Youth Group Fund Raiser. She’s also performing at Cider Days with the Little Mermaid cast. I grabbed this shot when I dropped her off this morning.
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2013 Stewardship Posters
2013 Stewardship Poster #1 (Music) 
2013 Stewardship Poster #2 (Outreach & Community) 
2013 Stewardship Poster #3 (Tradition) 
2013 Stewardship Poster #3 (Children, Youth & Fellowship) 
2013 Stewardship Poster #4 (There are around 500 pictures above – a small portion of the pictures taken at Christ Church and at events around the diocese over the past year) Now the posters have been printed and hung in the church I can show these.
My idea this year was to emphasize just how much the church does and what is at stake if we don’t maintain a healthy level of giving of our time, funds, and experience (time, treasure, talent to use church-speak).
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No longer outnumbered
It’s magic how much cleaner the house is now the adults outnumber the children. If we outnumbered the kittehs it’d be almost spotless.
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John and Kris Graduate from EfM
Fr. Jonathan shows off the EfM certificates Apart from Lanie giving her stewardship talk, I was scheduled to usher at the 9 am service and I had a meeting between services at 10 am. I’m glad I had to be there for all three services as it meant I got to see my friends John and Kris receive their EfM certificates. Four years, all done.
Kris receives his EfM certificate The best bit was saved for last. Afterward in the parish hall Kris’ son Landon, after studying the certificate, asked Kris if he was now a priest? (no), “What then,” Landon asked, “can you do with it?” Kris replied by doing a most peculiar little dance. Classic parental response from a man after my own heart!
Which may leave you wondering what is the point of EfM? It’s in the title – Education for Ministry. It is preparation for service, however you happen to be called. For some it is the first step towards ordination, for others it is preparation for other leadership roles within the church. And many find it just a good solid grounding in the Christian faith.
Anyone who has been keeping a count will realize that it should be my turn to graduate next year. Well, that should be the case, but right now I’ve got too much voluntary work on top of my growing real work commitments to do year four of the course (theology) justice. So I’m taking a year off and I’ll start my final year in the Fall of 2014.
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Lanie & Landon giving their stewardship speeches
Lanie giving her Stewardship talk at today’s 11 am service. Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Today Lanie (and Landon) delivered speeches at all three services on the topic of giving gratefully. They both did a great job and Lanie did us proud. My how she is growing up. Notice the purse – since starting high school I don’t think it has ever left her side.
Having to be a church for all three services meant we arrived before 8am, and didn’t leave until after 11:30am. The early start was difficult for Lanie (wasn’t easy for me either!) as she took part in a 5K fun run last night and didn’t arrive home until late.
Landon delivering his stewardship speech today at the 11am service -
Spot the octopus…
After watching this video the best summary of my thoughts is: ‘perplexed’. There’s more going on here than meets the eye (sorry). Apparently, these octopi are color blind – which makes this feat even more impressive. They are fascinating creatures as this Wikipedia article shows.
Article: Where’s the octopus?
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Some video geekery
ROAM: CineStar with MŌVI MR from Freefly on Vimeo.
Many years ago I managed a video/software production department. What the team would have given for access to the technology on show here. Back then cameras were big and expensive, and edit suites bigger and frighteningly expensive.
These relatively low-cost camera platforms make use of high-end DSLR cameras and are handing high video quality movie production to the small independent companies. Companies producing good storylines, while the big studios bankrupt themselves on costly ‘names’, ever more complex Computer-generated special effects, and poor scripts. By my estimate, the production equipment: RC Helicopter, Camera Gimbals and Camera used here are about $27,000. How inexpensive and cool is that!
Below is another video showing the use of a similar set of camera gimbals without the multi-rotor helicopter. Enjoy.
MōVI BTS from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.
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Active Shooter Training
I attended an ‘Active Shooter’ training session at church a couple of days ago, I think this should be filed under ‘Things I didn’t expect to learn/discuss at church’.
Sobering stuff.
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Sailing – Hot Sun & No Wind
This sums up the day pretty well. Hot and windless. It’s always windy on Stockton. I’ll re-phrase that. It’s almost always windy on Stockton. I can remember another calm day on Stockton, and that was at the same time of year, September 2010.
It was fairly windless when we arrived at the marina. With a hot day forecast, we reckoned the breeze would pick up as the day went on so we motored out, put up the sails and drifted around. There was just enough wind to let us ever so slowly travel up the lake. Not only was the wind slack, but its direction seemed to change 180° on a regular basis.
It was also hot – one of the hottest days of the year. Not bad for September. Needless to say, I no longer consider the Bimini a frivolous accessory. It was absolutely essential to stop us frying in the sun.
John searching for a breeze At one point John commented “I Could walk faster than this.” To which I quipped “You’ve spent enough time on EfM to be qualified to try it.”
The astute will note that the boat is leaning into the wind because there is not enough wind to counter balance my weight on the windward side 
It was a slow but good day…. 
The lake is pretty At the north end of the lake, we managed to pick up a small breeze, just enough to get us moving for a while. Luckily the wind stabilized in direction so we managed to crawl our way back down the lake under sail. Finally, we gave up and started the ‘iron topsail’.
It was a long but good day. We managed to sail around eight miles at a little over one mile an hour. John was right. My average hiking speed including stopping for pictures, food, and exploring is 1.1 miles per hour. I could have hiked it just as quickly.
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Jim and CD
Jim & CD. Copyright © 2013 Gary Allman, all rights reserved. Jim asked me to take a picture of CD (Carol’s Dog- though I’m not sure that the name fits). Being sneaky I fitted Jim into the picture at the same time. Jim doesn’t like posing for pictures, so it was too good an opportunity to miss.
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Labor Day Weekend With The Parents
Gary and Jim put the world to rights – Picture by Lanie Labor Day weekend, some much-needed down-time, good company, and a nice cold beer. We had a cookout with brats, hot dogs, and lots of conversation around the fire on Friday night.
Gary – caught off-guard by Lanie Saturday, contrary to expectations of a sleep-in, I was up at 6:30 am to accompany Jim to my first Midwest auction. Two in fact. They were great fun, very entertaining and not as undecipherable as I expected. I managed to follow what was going on and didn’t buy anything. It was fascinating to watch and listen to. Almost always the auctioneer managed to get some bidding going, and despite any early reluctance to start bidding on his initial opening price, the final price ended up very close to his opening price. I was perplexed as to why people spent the money they did on some of the things they did, but hey, that’s up to them. We got off very lightly as Jim spent under $25. The two high-value items he was interested in went for a lot more than he thought it was worth spending on them.
In the evening we all watched a movie on TV and then played games.
Sunday we managed to sleep in until 10:30 am when I was woken by the call of bacon. After a bacon and egg breakfast I adjourned to the workshop and took a picture of a tool display for Jim, I say picture, but as we didn’t have a backdrop big enough, I ended up taking five pictures to stitch together in post-processing, there was a lot of setting up and trying different things out, before I got the shots I wanted.
Ginger then took a load of pictures of Jim’s Jewelry working tools to post on her blog. Finally, at Lanie’s insistence, there were yet more games. I reckon that’s at least three year’s games credit I’ve earned this weekend.
After dinner we had an uneventful drive home to Springfield. Lanie must be extra lucky as we treated her (and ourselves) to a double-dip cone at Braums on the way back. Back home the kitties seemed to have fared okay in our absence, though there was a larger than usual pile of barf in the hallway.
