My Essays

Playing My Violin Again

Thu, Sep 3rd, 2009

I have recently started playing my violin again. When I was eight years old I started taking violin lessons. I played the violin because my mom wanted me to play. She never asked me if it was something I wanted to do. Eight years later, after a talk with my violin teacher, I quit playing. More

Not A Facebook Fan

Thu, Jul 30th, 2009

Recently, I have received quite a few emails from people I know requesting me to view their pictures or profile on Facebook. When I click on the link to try and view them I am taken to a Facebook page informing me that I must sign-up for a Facebook account to view the pictures or profile. I don’t care to become a Facebook member so I politely email the person back informing them that I can not view their page/pictures due to my reluctance to join Facebook. Why should I join Facebook or any other online social networking site? And more importantly, why does Facebook force people to sign up just to view a friends stuff? More

Yellow Starthistle War

Sat, Apr 11th, 2009

I was hiking recently this past summer and along the trail I spotted an old adversary - the Yellow Starthistle! My thoughts instantly went back to over 20 years ago to the war my family waged against this weed. I do not like Yellow Starthistle and for good reason. Growing up on a ranch one of my least favorite chores was to remove Yellow Starthistle weeds from our property. This was necessary because if you didn't, they would spread quickly and soon take over. More

Missing Waterman

Wed, Mar 4th, 2009

In August of 2008, at the age of 74, my mom lost her fight with cancer and passed away. I am writing about this because I feel compelled to share a life changing event. It's something that will have impact on our family for the rest of our lives and can never be reversed. Perhaps, I also write this for therapeutic reasons, as a way to better deal with it. I'm not going to preach about the ill effects of a life time of smoking but I do feel it's necessary to mention my mom's bad smoking habits. More

Sunny 16 Rule

Wed, Mar 4th, 2009

I think vintage folding cameras are very cool because they fold small enough to fit into a jacket pocket or stash away easily in a backpack. There's one problem though; most vintage folding cameras have no way of metering the light. Does this mean to get good pictures you must also carry a separate light meter? I thought so, until I learned about the 'Sunny 16' rule. The sunny 16 rule is this: When taking a photograph outside on a clear sunny day the image will be properly exposed if you set the aperture to f16 and the shutter speed to the same number as the ISO of the film loaded in the camera. More