Stupid moronic sub human vehicle owners....

Not drivers.. vehicle owners.

Let me ask you... If you are driving on the road.. shouldn't you *(&%^ drive? Picking your nose, texting, texting, eating food, doing your makeup or combing your hair, looking for things under your seat, texting, talking on your cell phone are things you need to do before you decide you have to drive too. If I could I would put a cattle prod to you all in the nether regions and give you a good one. Perhaps...like poor lab rats ( who not fault of their own ) are shocked to change their behavior you might learn something. Sadly I think there are too few brain cells in your head to allow thought to process. You just weave in and around.. stopping short or standing at stop lights long after they have turned green scratching what little pre-frontal cortex you have with one of your grubby fingers. I detest you all. I hate how you cause traffic to slow or stop. I despise your single minded "Im the most important person in the world" view. May you all enter hell through the New Jersey turnpike and languish there for ever.

I need to change or remove my commute. I am getting home in rages. Okay not rages but so pissed off that the creatures in Fallout 3 New Vegas cant stand a chance. Yeesh!

Sigh!

I wanted to chat more about past ballooning jaunts and Fiesta gone by but that has been blasted from my head.  I can... and I will post a few more past pictures I thought were fun.. and just label them and go on wiping out the hoards of mutants in the wasteland.... I am sorry you got to listen to my rant again.

2nd Kiss down below. Going in and out of the arroyo there is a lot of fun.

An alien passenger... Not sure if its a free ride or a hijack.

2001 field view. So many things have changed including the amount or lack of landing spots off field.

Kiss A Hoy launching from the frontage roads of the newly remodeled Big I. What a hoot it was to lift off and come even with the cars that were on those over passes.. haha.. fun...

A hole in one. Balloons can fly with holes in them. It is not within regulations to do so if you know its there. If you are in the air when you see it ( quite possible ) you should by all means land as soon as possible. I have two large holes in the side of my balloon... Vents.. Yes I know you know.

Mom goes for a ride with the youngest Takach. Nice new blue upright covers and bolster. Mom looks happy. Dads just.. okay. you go.... I'm staying here.

Those were the days.... well.. They were.. Now are the days of other days.... its different... still over 500 balloons launching... lot less area to land in the main area of Fiesta Park... Now that we are not competing we can launch from the field every day and perhaps get to the river for a splash and dash more often and one of the best thins is not having to drive far away.. wait forever and then try to get back to the field. If you could get back to the field it was awesome but it was hard and it was hard to find a place to land after all that. We still can go off field if we want but the stress is less if we stay on. Come out.. see for yourself. Its.. as I said.. a hoot.

Facebook banner and logo for the day...

I had to stop for gas and dinner and I just grabbed these.... Wow.... no will power until I get home. They are in the pantry. Maybe until Fiesta. Find the number... hehehe

Just had to use this.... had to.

Daze 52

Day 52. Just let that sink in. Day 52. 22 days shy of 30 days to go. What has to be done? What can't be done? Yeah... Same here.

I wanted new stronger springs on my truck in the back but that seems to not be possible unless I want to be screwed for twice the cost on parts and general labor. Thanks Local truck mod shop. I will never ever take or send anyone your way and I surely will advise anyone to avoid you and your high theft practice.

What else went missing... Pins... I was going to do new pins but after creating three different designs I can't say I need them yet. I still have a huge bag of pins so that is a justification thing. I can't justify spending the money yet.  I do still have to come up with the logo for the side of the trailer and yes I still have time to do that... It's just sitting down and without distraction doing the design. So far I have not had the time free of bother.  Since I am self taught on a bunch of drawing and editing programs but do not have the ability in any I have to plod through things. That is what a formal education does for you. makes things easier in the future. Yes I have to find time to get that training but I have other training that takes precedence over this. So plod I will.

Looking backwards as far as I can do with my digital files ( which is year 2000 ) things have changed a lot in 15 years. Also stayed the same. When you think of Fiesta we went from half grass and dirt everywhere else to full grass and tarmac... Cement position markers to lighted pylons. No balloon Museum to a massive and artistic capsule of everything ballooning. 

Below are shots I took on what must have been a 1 or 2 meg pixel camera. The days were dark in 2000 and the cloud cover was low. It all seemed darker.

Standing on the side of the old white truck. 2nd Kisses basket set up behind. Dirt and dirt and white cement tire markers. They were great to trip over. They also still exist on field but are used now for poles to be attached to and some decorations around the North West side of the field.

Arc De Ballon! Right time right place... crappy camera. I caught almost the same in Gallup at the Red Rock Rally in December. Same crappy camera. I expect in five years I will be looking back at the 24 meg pixel shots of today and say.. what a crappy camera.. no 3D! Where is the surround sound? Heh.

Mass Confusion up and off. This was Bobs Second balloon and his first Cameron. The basket is still going strong. It has had to have a lot of wicker replaced but its not shirking any duties. I think the upper fabric has been replaced a lot too. Good thing about baskets is that they will last a lifetime with some care.

2nd Kiss hot inflating. This was a pretty balloon .. a Cameron Viva.. too bad the person who owned it before treated it so terribly. The fabric was not kept dry nor stored well so it failed quickly. Loved the silver bands.

The children have grown too... Like the damn weeds in my front and back yard! They have to really stop. More kids too too! Hoping they will be able to make it down for a few days at the end of Fiesta this year. None of them have flown in the new balloon and it would be fun to fly my little sister. I have flow both my older brother and sister many times. Maybe get a splash and dash in.

Fiesta field 2000 from the South end... Look at that space and the people... all the RVs parked ( there are so many RVs that come and stay. There is one person at Fiesta offices that handles these...Its a full time year round job. You can get hook ups or none stay on the sides of the field or be in the old Fiesta field me.. its just South of the new field ( that is fun because a lot of balloons take off from the new field and land right on the old field right next to the RV peoples ) and it has an open area that is surrounded with vehicles that makes a great landing spot.. I usually land in the parking lot... Its me.. its how I am..

Here is a video showing that kind of landing at the old Fiesta field.. heh..

http://InvisibleBlack.zenfolio.com/p715442282/e6e2f8369

And now.. the 2014 Fiesta field shot from "almost" the same place in the sky.. Look how much it has changed. Woah! no dirt.. just very wet grass... massive amounts of space for the millions that show up every year to enjoy it... And yes... unlike most every rally around the world.... You CAN and SHOULD go out onto the field and get up close and personal with the balloons, Crews and Pilots. We just love it.

More to come.

Facebook banner and logo for the day...

Kiss A Hoy in all her awesomeness... and she will fly again.. soon....

Ta daaa...... 

The beginning of the week

I am glad I like the people I work with. It makes it so very easy to go to work on Monday. If I could remove the commute it would be a blast. Yeah there is a massive amount of insanity and frustration involved and yeah there are things that drive me buggy but dang nabbit its interesting. i spent a good two hours with two very knowledgeable people kicking around equipment control. Does that sound sad? It wast... It was quite animated and directional. We did go round and round a bit but that's on the order of function over security. We have more to talk about on it.

Tomorrow is going to bring more discussion and a ton of paperwork but event that I am looking forward to. I must be losing my mind. I need coffee though.. its getting harder to deal with just one travel mug. not like I need to caffeine but the hot harsh sweet taste ( maybe I should just spoon sugar in my face.. HAH! ) and a warm mug is nice. I dunno. I should also get a container of cran apple juice too because I can drink that all day. Oh.. I have research to do tomorrow too.. That's all good.

If I could live comfortably on my photography ability that would be nice... a commute of different levels. It might be a worse task master than regular work.. being out at all hours of the night and morning.. standing in cold damp places or hot dry places to get that perfect shot... naaa... I think I would rather my cool day job and keep the hobby for a hobby until I am too old and have to retire.

Now traveling is in the near future... Oh yes. I want to start enjoying some different places with still a home base to return to and capture things I want to capture too. I have lists... long lists. Even in Albuquerque I have lists of thins I want to shoot but either the time is wrong.. the light is wrong or the weather is wrong.. so whenever I do get out I have the camera with me just in case I happen across one of those listed things...

Today there was no time for no thing but the clouds.. so I went out and shot some clouds.. and the pond.. and a nice ladybug... I had to stop because the ants got me and I hate them.... hate hate hate.

The quality of the human eye is an amazing thing. Even with the megapixal stack I have the shots were not what I was seeing. I have to tone the colors back and try and pull some of the details of wisps back without overdoing that tome map grittiness. It was hard... but here are a few.

Stormin Norman.. or it will be soon.. Or maybe it will pass on by with a little grumbling. I know my damn weeds are happier than .. well weeds.... stupid weeds.

Its time to pave over the yard. Tarmac never had this much trouble. Oh.. I was going to call the city to ask about burning them where they stand... I have to do that. I do have an appointment for my balloon annual so that's a good thing. I really have to work that backwards to get some distance between it and Fiesta. hmmm... memo to self..

Facebook banner and logo were something I got lost on today... It was all over the place so I ended up with some odd edits.

Dang.. wrong number again!

Hmmm...

Tons of fish if you can weigh fish in a pond.

Refund needed on unused weekend part.

Just on thing can spoil a relatively good weekend. I wonder if I went on a trip each weekend if it would be better. Maybe lock the door and refuse to acknowledge the irritating people that keep doing this drive by bothering. Now you could say.. "Hay.. don't let it bother you.." right.. but how bout if its constant. If some one pokes you enough times in the same spot your just gonna haul off and smack them right? Smacking time is a comin.

On the positive side.. I think... Is that I have all the computers upgraded to windows 10. The biggest bother there was the infinite ( it seems ) privacy settings you have to deal with. Almost everything is set to share. Sickening. Almost thinking of going off reservation to some other OS. If they were to sell a version of windows 10 that had no privacy hacks and you knew you and your personal data was secure I would pay. That and on ever darn computer I have to enter ever darn email setting again.. and since I started this upgrade motion I am most irritated with the mail function. Notifications are non existent or buried. In the past when you opened mail you could see all of the accounts you had set up and what mail was in them.. Now.. you have to open every bloody one to find anything. Other than those things its not too bad. Its a lot smoother than 8 or 8.1 but I could have lived with win 7.

After another punishing night of limited sleep potential I wanna know if there is some one who will knock you out for 48 hours? I could use the rest. Falling out of bed this morning to feel like I had been beaten or had run a marathon or perhaps been dragged behind a car for a couple of miles... Ugh!

I think mattress company's are in the same boat as printer ink company's.. sell you something that is far too expensive with impossible hoops to jump through to return for insurmountable crap or pay what is massive amounts of money for quick to dry up ink cartridges. I hate them both.

Negativity.... Maybe some interesting things on the webs...Beside the political bashing by the sheeple.

I have always been this way... Some people get put off by not being asked inane questions... I like to know people...

http://lifehacker.com/be-more-interested-in-conversations-by-playing-detectiv-1722973372

Along the lines of the years I have heard so many people poo poo personal computing .. Here is another and I post it because its constant of many blog sites tech or no to rerun crap over and over...
The masses will buy what they perceive to be either of good use to them or raise themselves up in others eyes... they will spend money on crap if you guild it.

http://www.neatorama.com/2015/08/09/Prediction-from-1985-No-One-Would-Want-a-Portable-Computer/

My prediction... Your phone will soon have the ability a ( speed/storage/video out ) to rival your home PC ( really rival ). You will carry it everywhere as you do your limited phone now.. you will have a flexible display that you can wireless connect as well as a keyboard mouse or trackball and there are already wireless hard drives... It will be fully scalable. The only thing possibly different is that they will get glasses set up with higher than 1920 x 1200... Well there are wireless displays already... its going there fast.

My other thought on this is that when there is "Secure" cloud systems that are cheap.. and they should be cheap... and secure... you will have everything there... Cloud ( server somewhere ) that has everything you use and you will just log in... almost retrograde back to the 1980 with dumb terminals you "accessed" a main frame from.... heh.. we are going backwards!

Oh I could go round and round.

Other subjects... I took a very few pano shots this Saturday. Three in fact. They are below.

South Sweep

Balloon Gangs and their hangouts.

North Sweep

I had to scale them way down from 8ft wide.

New week coming up. Things to do that were with me when I was in the shower but are now completely out of my head. Can I get paid for shower work thinking? Dilbert I think tried it.

Facebook banner and logo...

 Had to stretch this a bit to fit the parameters of facebooks banner. Then add a number but not too hard to see today. Cant hide things everyday.. My head hurts enough.

Damn.6.shots... booo...

Oh.. yes...

Need to mod this for ballooning...

Pilot carries only:

- No cash money as we are broke keeping things in the sky and full of propane.
- At least two different strikers in case.
- Video camera of some sort to capture awesome low flybys of neighborhood house upper windows
- Maps of everything possible.
- Radios to plead for crew assistance.
- Five or ten different things that can be used in lieu of a baggie.
- Water.
- Cell phone with selfie facing camera. Eric.
- Batteries for instruments, radios, GPS.. as they will die right when you next turn them on.
- Log book, Flight manual ( in case you need to look up a parameter of your system right away ).
- Fresh socks if you do a lot of splash and dashes ( Fiesta necessity ).
- Credit card to buy awesome crew coffee!
- Stories of awesome flights in the past and a few "wow if you had seen that!" moments.

Highper Activity.

I had every intention to go fly this morning. Loaded everything up and that's quite a lot of stuff. Drove to get coffee and even bought decaf so that tells you right there that I was committed to flying and not caffeinated. Too bad the winds were of the gust version and poopy. Every time you thought it would be a go time it went no go. I even labeled the photo file no go. On the flip side of that is that there were people more interested in getting in the air then worrying about burning something of banging something or ripping something.. and really it was a doable day if you wanted to do all that work for a short flight. Believe me a lot of people got up, had a fun little flight and landed just fine. That wouldn't have been me but there ya go.

The moon was quite large today.

I took 726 shots. I was in and around so much activity and a massive amount of very animated and entertaining people. It was darn near easy to find and frame a good shot or balloons and people. This time I did get a lot of people shots because they were so very interesting... Laughter, struggle, movement, determination, enjoyment. I edited about 130 to being up the light levels because I was shooting into the sun most of the time. Tweaked a bit of hue too where it was needed. I loaded about 35 to facebook. Back to front so that I could keep track of which ones I had sent up. More to do probably tomorrow as I don't want to desensitize people into boredom.

So below are some shots I didn't post to facebook yet that I really liked for reasons.. I will post those with the shot. I really hate sticking a lens in peoples faces but if I can catch a long range shot and its not rude, derogatory or unflattering I will use it or keep it.

A Cameron Viva ascending so fast that the top is being pushed down and flattening out the upper sections. There were some very special shapes out today.

Sun over the shoulder is supposed to be a good sign. It was for Bob. He had a very nice flight today. he also went up fast but he is very adept at flying his balloon and he was night and tight when he went up. I took shots. No distention of special shape. Impressive. I never use a lens cover to remove sun flares.. I like them.

Another impressive launch by Ian. He pretty much had to kick it in the butt to clear the nasty gusts that were arriving. Up and out. He even got somewhere close to the target which was pretty impossible from the field.

A question of fanning. Oh that conversation here must have been interesting. It seems to be pretty good. Body language says things that it never means to. I believe this language is pretty funny and not as it looks. Never happen with these two. If still funny to me.

I tone mapped this one since it was almost totally black. Another fast launch into scattery winds. With all the strange eddy currents and a bag of hot air... well things just look a little weird. Envelopes can do a lot of fun things with shapes.

One of my favorite shots today. I am captivated by the frozen dust being kicked up as Bill walks. Its forever stopped in activity. it gets to me. There were quite a few shots that were just amazing once I could see what I had framed. For every shot thought here are probably two more similar but not just right.

 I seemed to have trained myself to hot two shots in a row and three if something is just happening at a fast pace. I have yet to be disappointed that the second shot or center shot is the best shot. go with your instincts I say.

I have so many more to share and show but that will have to wait till tomorrow. I will and I really intest to post every good shot to my web site. i need to do this as a marker to myself so that then I can go back and fill in everything I have not uploaded. Then go through the un pigeon hole shots and get them into some sort of category. Things to do.

I have to get the new side lights on my trailer. That and re-position on flag holder. Maybe tomorrow early if I don't get up to go ballooning again I can do that. I cant make a decision. Over heard today was an invitation to a party that was replied as... Maybe... Mainly because of having to check with other people but I also felt or feel the same way... I can never commit right there.. I have to consider so much... Mostly that I really want to go but that its gonna screw something up if I do.. better to say maybe..and then be happy if I can make it than say yes.. then not be able to go... Ya know...

Much to do... Or as Zim says it.. MANY THINGS!

Facebook banner and logo from a favorite place for breakfast burritos... and please.. find the number...

 The right number.

Not just any number.

A little bit of exhaustion.

Or dehydration.... That's what I get for trying and succeeding to install replacement flag mounts on my trailer in 96/99 degree temps. With incorrect driver heads ( star instead of square ) it just made it all the more special. I did get them out... one out as the other had fallen out. I had to use a larger threaded screw for both on one side because they had worried themselves loose. I am thinking it would be smarter to run a long bolt through with large washers on inside and out. I may do that.... when its cooler.

I should have colored the background red. Oh well... Maybe later.  The things I see when driving in this town. You know when you have to merge when there is a police officer in the lane ahead how you should take turns merging.. well this beautiful woman was ready to ram me dead into my rear wheel than let me take turns between her and the car in front of her... Sadly the police were standing gawking at the fire department who in turn were standing and looking at the semi wrecked car... No I am not sure they were engrossed in what was a major crime scene.. but there were about ten.. 6 and 4 and no help with the traffic that had snarled up beside them... Oh well... My view of it all. I blame the idiot and unmovable sheeple that just HAVE to get somewhere before you... never behind you cause then .. they would like.. you know.. lose ... like for ever....even.

Some unspecific and eye twitching shots and my take on tomorrows AAAA rally in Rio Rancho.. Lot of balloons I expect as there are only ( 56 ) days until Fiesta. People have to air out those balloons they have not flown all year round.... yeah... should be a very interesting photography day.

Tomorrow.. tomorrow... we get to see how the floor stands up... how the flag poles hold... get lots of video as three of us are going to fly off together if we can and see if we can stay near enough to get something good on film.. digital film... data thingies...

I super sore again.. what ever the reason.... Off I go to get ready... get all the equipment ready.. as well as the cameras.. arms... chickens....

Facebook banner for the day.. i hid the numbers better... and logo... of which I can say that I really lik the blue signs.. there are some needy people out there and they are displaced by sneaky fake pan handlers and this makes it easier for them to get help..

 Loved the guy with the sign...

Now to go find some aspirins.