Hey all! I'm going to Vegas. There are comments I am still planning to respond to, but I will do that when I get back.

I'm sure I'll have lots of desert and lights pictures!!!!

I have the pleasure of calling many talented people my friends. This post is about one, Matthew Ehlers.

Between college and grad school I did some over-hire and electrics work at Geva Theatre in Rochester. I met lots of cool people there a few of whom I'm still in touch with. This was where I met Matt. Matt was smart and funny and very cute. I had one of those school girl crushes on him (you know the ones you know will never happen, and if you thought they would they wouldn't be so appealing, but since it won't you just enjoy it).

Anyway, Matt is the short film writer, director, producer, etc. of Egg Works Productions. When I was working with him he showed me his first film The Alibi, and I attended a screening of his second film Lunch at the Rochester Film Festival. Soon after that I left for grad school but continued to get updates from Matt.

Matt's films are short, never more than a few minutes long, are simple, yet very creative and are incredibly funny!!! I really suggest you view those that are available online. They are really wonderful!

The links below will take you to a page where you can view the films
Lunch (3min 20sec) was excepted at the Sundance festival in 2002 and now screens on the Sundance Channel and HBO.
AutoBank (2min 25sec) was excepted at the Sundance festival in 2003 and is coming this summer to Comedy Central
and now:
Who's Your Daddy? (3min 17sec) is the his third offical selection from the Sundance Festival for this summer.

I have to say I'm proud to know him.

"It's Alive, It's Alive It's Alive" - one girl shouted as she yanked her hands from a bucket of mud that she and her classmate had been inspecting.

School discovery station "What Lives In The Mud" was set up along one of the paths in the Shoreline park. We discovered the group on a morning bike ride, and on our way back were amused by our child Mary Shelley inspiration.

Other discoveries on our bike ride (besides a few muscles) include a jack rabbit, dragon flies that keep pace between the bikes, old men speaking a slavic language which reminded my of my Great Grandpa Judwick, birds and muskrats/squirrel (thats still under debate), and that the circulation in my right hand is bad and caused numbness half way through the ride.

Bike rides are lots of fun!!

I'm a good media designer and with that a decent website designer. But you see my current biggest frustration in life is that I live with a UI designer.

Kevin is amazing at what he does. My biased little love struck mind isn't the only one that thinks so, hence he works at Google on Gmail among other accomplishments. He gets asked his advice/opinion by more than just little old me.

On the flip side: WHY DO I LIVE WITH A UI DESIGNER????

Okay, got that out. I feel better. His advice and help is making my new website better and better. And I'm grateful that he gives the advice since its hard to be critical to the face of someone you love. Its just that I really really want to move on to the next stage of my project. PLEASE!!!

*sighs* okay, back to work.

Happy Birthday Ammy!!!

She can't see this at the moment because she is gone on a road trip. Having a great time I'm hoping and scattering a few Random Pixel cameras as she goes.

And while Ammy and Rick are away Nym and I will play. Kevin is being wonderful and is giving living with my cat a try while Ammy is away. He isn't on any medications yet, but we have over-the-counter Claritin on hand just in case.

Having Nym in the house during the day is really nice. The house doesn't feel as lonely. I should be here a lot this week since I'm really working hard on getting the photography business website up in the next few days. That's a reminder that you need to change your bookmarks over to http://blog.phoenixfeahter.net

In other news, we had a great weekend. Ammy had a birthday party on Friday which was lots of fun. Saturday Kevin and I did stuff around the house, picked up Nym and saw Shrek 2 which, while nothing like the first Shrek was really fun.

Sunday we slept in and then went into the City to meet up with Ali and Mark. We took a walk up to Coit Tower with them and a couple of their friends from high school. Then as their friends headed out on the road we hoofed it all over the city. Seeing the sites and taking pictures.

Throughly exhausted the four of us to BART up to Berkeley where we had Baja Fresh for dinner. With our energy replenished we headed over to see the Dido in concert. The show started late and was a bit short. But it was a great concert. I enjoy singers who tell you about how their lives effect their music.

Later that night, finally home, we collapsed in bed and slept the sleep of those whose feet know the San Francisco hills. So all in all it was a good weekend and I am projecting a good forecast for the week ahead. :)

I felt the urge to have comments on this album. Do you like it? Was splitting it in two albums a good idea? Anything else you want to tell me feel free!!

So I scored an 84 (grr... I didn't get points for a couple I think I should have gotten. billie = billy in my book.) which I guess only proves that I was an 80's child. Its a fun test though!

One thing I learned about myself on this test, its really hard to change songs in my head very quickly. Oh, and you may have a bunch of songs stuck in your head for the rest of the day!

Thanks to Blacksheep for this quiz.

So this is sort of a notice that my blog is moving. Change your bookmarks to http://blog.phoenixfeather.net

Not a big change, and not going to happen fully right away, but I wanted to give everyone time to make the change.

So what am I going to do with the phoenixfeather.net site? Well I'll tell you. I am in the process of opening a small photography business which is going to take over the main site. I hope to have the new site up and operational by the beginning of June.

In the meantime I will be slowly making the total change over of the blog to blog.phoenixfeather.net. Currently there is a mirror site at that address, so make the change!!

*grin*

Kevin and I both received "Picture of the Week" awards for photographing each other last week!

left photos by Rachel, right photos by Kevin
(click on photo to see enlargement)

As a photographer who thinks quite often about the legal side of photography, I found this little story at overshadowed rather funny! (and the picture is rather pretty too!)

The last couple of days there has been a rant brewing in my head. So many news papers are now requiring that you sign up and log in every time you want to read one of their articles. Sorry guys, but I am not the only one who is getting more and more pissed about this. I don't really mind giving you some info about me, though with all the people who just make stuff up I don't know how accurate you can say the data you collected is. And if I'm a member of a site its because the site needs to be confidential, or its a place that I need to go to do some specific job - like when I log in here to write on my blog.

Last night I had this discussion with Kevin, Rick and Ammy. We know that these companies marketing departments have latched on to this idea and they aren't going to let go, but it doesn't really benefit them that much and they actually lose readership this way.

In the past my habits have followed a path of: Oh, I would like to read that - I have to sign in? - oh fine - then i read. Or: Oh, I would like to read that - I have to sign in? - yeah, maybe later.

It's annoying, I get frustrated and I move on in one fashion or another. Today the New York Times did it to me and it was the last straw. I signed up a while ago for their email list that gives me the headlines every day. And so I get my email and read the headlines. Most times I don't end up wanting to read the rest of the article. I did today though, so I clicked on the link in the email and low and behold... THE LOG IN PAGE!

They sent me an email, can't the email tell the page to check my old cookie and be done with it? I mean really, I'm coming from my email that they sent to me - I'm quite obviously already a member. Lets not put a requirement on how determined you are and how many places you have to remember which login combination for in order to be an informed citizen.

*sighs* This time I was annoyed enough not to log in and not to read.

Anyone want to tell me about the situation in Colorado where the bishop is denying religious rights to anyone who votes for a politician or policy that doesn't support the churches desires? (hee hee - this one is another rant all in its self!!)

Randompixel.com has been getting a lot of attention lately! Its so very cool. Last Wednesday it was listed as one of USA Today's Hot Sites and this week Kevin was interviewed by the San Jose Mercury(Registration may be required) for an article that appeared in the paper yesterday.

Kevin was even sweet enough to mention the Random Pixies: Ammy, Rick and I.

Great blog you have here. Thanks

This is a SPECIAL - for Cinco De Mayo - wallpaper.

Click link for desired wallpaper size, then right click and save image into your wallpaper directory: Sm: 1024 x 768 : Lg: 1280 x 1024 : More Wallpapers

This photo is part of an upcoming photo album, but I have released it early so that your computer get enjoy Cinco De Mayo too!!!