Hey there brother, who you jivin’ with that cosmic debris?

My good friend Joe Linbeck just scored us some killer tickets for this:

DEC 17 Verizon Wireless Theater (Houston, TX) Doors at 6:30PM [All Ages]

I’ve seen Frank Zappa in concert twice. Once in Houston during the Sheik Yerbouti tour and once in San Diego when he was finishing his You Are What You Is tour. Both were amazing in the extreme.

Yea, this isn’t Frank, but it’s damn close.

I R professional picture taker

I’ve had some photographs hanging at Sig’s Lagoon for about a year now. Informally for sale, mostly for display, plus I think Thomas has been humoring me. Nothing ever sold.

One of my pictures got snatched up by my friend Jim Henkel as a last minute white elephant gift for the Continental Club company xmas party last year. It was a shot of Landis Armstrong and I think David Beebe has it now.

Thomas gave me a credit in the store for letting it walk out but I waived it off since it was for a good cause.

One of the first good shots I took with the new Sony Alpha 100 was this one of Dave Alvin at the Continental Club a few weeks ago:

Dave Alvin
Click for larger version

I had a print made and framed it and put it up at Sig’s on a whim.

I just got an e-mail from Thomas telling me that someone came in the shop, saw the picture, commented on the quality and purchased it.

I really just do this for fun. I don’t have the expectation that I am going to make my living off of photography or anything. Sure, I have had some of my pictures used on band web sites in exchange for credit back to my site. All in all, it’s just a fun hobby.

But still…

I sold a picture!

Dog on a motorcycle

People often ask me why I always carry a camera with me all the time.

This is why:

Dog on a motorcycle
Click to enlarge

I was sitting at the bar of The Big Top Lounge on Main St. having a drink with some friends. We were just killing some time before the Astros game last night.

I just happened to look out the window and saw this guy waiting at the light at Alabama. I was able to run out the door, camera in hand and snap two quick shots before the light changed and the dynamic duo sped off, presumably to fight crime.

Technically, not a great picture, but in terms of subject matter you just can’t plan for something like this.

Now I know my ABC’s

In my line of work, the need for a phonetic alphabet comes up rather frequently. You know, when you’re trying to tell someone how to spell something.

You hear it used in emergency radio and ham radio communications all the time.

Standardized Phonetic Alphabet

A

ALFA

M

MIKE

Y

YANKEE

B

BRAVO

N

NOVEMBER

Z

ZULU

C

CHARLIE

O

OSCAR

1

ONE

D

DELTA

P

PAPA (PA-PA’)

2

TWO

E

ECHO

Q

QUEBEC (KAY-BEK’)

3

THREE (TREE)

F

FOXTROT

R

ROMEO

4

FOUR

G

GOLF

S

SIERRA

5

FIVE (FIFE)

H

HOTEL

T

TANGO

6

SIX

I

INDIA

U

UNIFORM

7

SEVEN

J

JULIETT

V

VICTOR

8

EIGHT

K

KILO

W

WHISKEY

9

NINE (NINER)

L

LIMA

X

X-RAY

0

ZERO

During the show last week, as I was trying to impart a web address to a caller, I was struggling with one of the letters. I always get confused with N and Q for some reason.

After the caller disconnected I mentioned on air that there should be a geek version of the phonetic alphabet. Makes total sense to me. G as in Google and so forth.

We tossed around a few ideas on the air and then my co-host Barrett threw it out to our guests in IRC and hammered out version 1.01

Geek Phonetic Alphabet

A

APPLE

M

MICROSOFT

Y

YAHOO

B

BOOTDISK

N

NEWBIE

Z

ZAXXON

C

CAFFEINE

O

OBSOLETE

1

ONE

D

DONGLE

P

PRINTER

2

TWO

E

ERROR

Q

QUICKTIME

3

THREE (TREE)

F

FREEWARE

R

REBOOT

4

FOUR

G

GOOGLE

S

SERIAL

5

FIVE (FIFE)

H

H4x0R

T

TOOLBAR

6

SIX

I

INDIA

U

UNIX

7

SEVEN

J

JOYSTICK

V

VIRUS

8

EIGHT

K

KILOBYTE

W

WEBCAM

9

NINE (NINER)

L

LINUX

X

XMODEM

0

ZERO

This is still in development. We changed Y from YMODEM to YAHOO on the air last night, per a brilliant suggestion from Dwight Silverman, so I guess this is technically Version 1.01 rev A

Barrett goes into a bit more detail on his Geekspeak Bog over at the Chronicle website.

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