Photography, baseball and web sand box
I worked for Express Seed from March 2004 - January 2007. It was a great epxerience there and chance to really get to know the b2b greenhouse/horticultural industry. This site has an order entry side to it that can’t been seen without an account.
This was written entirely in ASP/SQL Server 7.0. I built all of the graphics and front side code that make this site go.
The ownership of WA Davidson contacted me in late 2001 for a “build from scratch” site. I lived in Atlanta at this time. WA Davidson is based in Jacksonville, FL so development on this one was remote.
The assigned project manager was great about answering my questions and doing their homework quickly. This site went pretty quickly, it was neat job.
Dave called me late 2006 in need of a new website with a blog and photo gallery capabilities. He had an existing website which provided a perfect road map for the development of the new site. Aside from the blog and photo gallery, his new site was pretty much a “beautification” of his old site.
The Indians are 35-41, playing .461 baseball. The bullpen has been less than consistent, we haven’t a designated hitter, Victor Martinez, Travis Haffner and Fausto Carmona are all on the DL right now. The trade rumors around MLB all start at CC Sabathia. Many signs point to fire sale… the season isn’t going well.
The Indians are in a tough spot. CC Sabathia’s contract with the Indians ends this season. If the Indians are to employ his services in the future, they’re gonna need to come up with a new contract. This season CC is making around $7 million. He’s worth WAY more than that and the Tribe recognizes that, he’s likely worth more than we can afford. At the end of the season, to bring CC back for another 4 years or so, is gonna take $20 million/yr or more.
The season is about halfway complete. The Indians could actually strengthen the future club by parting with CC right now. For another team to get CC from the Indians would be to trade money and/or players. I earlier said that CC was making $7 million, even for a half season, he’s worth more than that. The Indians could make money and gain talent on CC right now. I’m confident in Indians farm systems’ ability to scout talent and develop it. As much as I hate saying this, I’m ready for CC to go and see what we can get for him. I guess an offer of $18 million for him has already been turned down.
If I were to predict right now where he’s going, I’m leaning heavily toward the National League, the following teams wouldn’t surprise me (ranked in order of likelihood)
CC Sabathia
Below is my wedding photo work. There’re many more photos to see within my blog photo category.
The good folks over at Express Seed Company were in need of a new logo and 24″x44.5″ poster displaying that new logo with 2 other existing logos. With the help of a “Johnny-on-the-spot” proejct manager, I was able to get this done in just over a week.
Click to view at a larger size
Gasoline is starting to sound like an erosive, terrorist word to me. Between the soaring prices, “fringe benefits” of our unstable and unpredictable middle east business partnership, weakening American dollar, increased European and Asian oil demand and pessimistic media, I got to thinking and chatting with my girlfriend and friends about what positive aspects, or at least, the non-negative aspects of higher gas prices. I will certainly agree that it sucks and I don’t like it, my car requires higher octane fuel which I was able to acquire for $4.21/gallon the other day. It can’t all be bad though! Change is good. It’s painful because it’s worth it. No pain, no gain, right?
1. Local economic growth
2. Less environmental pollution
3. Rise in mass transit
4. Reduction in personal transit
5. Slugging - getting to know one’s neighbor
6. Leap forward in personal transport technology
Local economic growth. For the sake of discussion, let’s say that it costs $10 in fuel a round trip to the closest Wal*Mart and $2 round trip in fuel to the corner “mom & pop” general store. What if you need a widget that costs $4 at Wal*Mart and $7 at the local general store? You see the math, right? It’s cheaper to make the trip to the store around the corner. I would say the positive aspect there would be the rise of the specialty shops and smaller volume purveyors of everything. Wouldn’t that be cool if this actually took place? How many of you live in or near a dead inner city? I live in the once-thriving Canton, Ohio. I fantasize about an inner city with more than government workers, maybe a little culture? Dare to dream!
Less environmental pollution. This one’s pretty straigh forward. The higher the fuel prices, the less people will be able to afford it thus driving down the less vehicle emissions. For me, a healthier environment means a brighter future for the next generation. Do you hear this baby boomers? Another benefit would be even sweeter sunsets, deeper night skies, and less skepticism when swimming in new spots.
Rise in mass transit. Just between you, me, and the fenceposts I don’t think the automotive lobbyist will let this one even get near conceptualization… I think another set of conditions needs to exist for mass transit to gain traction. But let’s go back to a utopian world where big business doesn’t lobby against the environment. I’m just gonna limit this to light rail as I don’t want to make a blog post so massive
Reduction in personal transit, much to the dismay of the auto makers, has some good aspects. Yet again, I don’t know with all of the lobbying how realistic this one is, but for the sake of discussion, less cars on the road makes the roads less congested. Less congestion = less decisions, I don’t know about you, but I make some stupid decisions sometimes. Less congestion = more holes to weave in and out of in traffic. =)
Slugging. A Washington DC based organic non-governmental culmination of economic stress and a LOT of cars specifically around the area. I highly encourage clicking on the link to get the skinny on slugging. It’s hitchiking/carpooling with rules to allow the driver to drive on the highway in the faster HOV(high occupancy vehicle) lane so he can get to where he needs to be and the passenger (slug) to save a couple of bucks. Higher gas prices has already affected the HOV lanes and morning commute in DC. If you can shave 30 minutes off your commute to and from work that 60 minutes can be turned in to money. That’s makes sense to me, time = money for oodles of people and companies in the DC area. I’d think that slugging would do the same good things as rubbing elbows at a party or community event… it’s good, it’s always good to meet new folks. Slugging has a very strict and clever driver/slugger protocol that would restrict socialization, but creating connections is a good thing.
Leap Forward in Personal Transit Technology, I just learned yesterday Ohio has passed a law which will allow 3-wheeled cars on the roads. I understand that they’re considered large motorcycles. These 3 wheeled cars get infinity miles to the gallon! They’re electric. Unlike Europe (where gas is around $8/gallon), we don’t have an infrastructure of mass transit in place. We don’t even have on in the not-too-distant future, on the radar, or even on the back burner. Over there you don’t need a car to go to school, go to work, go to the grocery, go to the doctor etc… here in the states though, it’s not like that. I’m really happy to see that this law passed.
Do you guys have any thoughts? I got another similar blog entry upcoming. Thanks for reading.
It’s an interesting baseball season so far. The tribe is a game or two below .500 which sucks, but isn’t horrible. There are so many times, and the Baltimore Orioles do it often, a team surges at the beginning of the season only to play .375 ball after the All Star break and fail to miss the playoffs or make it in limping. I’d rather a slow start and a strong finish than the alternative. I’m not sweating it, there are some good things happening: our starting pitching has looked real good again… I predict we will build off of that and find success.
As I look at our current team, I can’t help but look forward to 2009 and beyond. There’s been a buzz about C.C. Sabathia, Indians ace. His contract is up at the end of this season. He’s making a mere $7,000,000 right now, a pittance compared to other pitchers that perfom at or lower than his level. He’s exceptional and won the CyYoung, the “best pitcher of the year” award last year. I’ve heard numbers thrown around about his value being somewhere around $17-$20 million/year. I heard a baseball commentator who’d apparently spoken to CC indicate that if the Indians get close to that number, CC wants to stay. The problem we have is that the Yankees or the Dodgers will pay a mint to get talent… the Tribe can’t spend money like those teams, they have way more money. I’d really like to CC come back, but I’m very aware of our purse strings too. At this point, if I had to predict whether or not we’d have CC next year, I’d have to say that he’s more likely to leave than stay. I’m a huge fan, but he’s not a native Ohioan and there are a lot of teams that have a ton of money to spend on pitching.Here’s to hoping!
We went to Vegas this past weekend and had a great time with friends and family. The photo gallery below is broken down in to 4 albums. To come back to the albums, click on the “grid†icon on the bottom left corner of the gallery.
Scott and Heidi Hill Wedding
Their union was the whole reason for the trip. I wish I had 1 more vacation day this year, but didn’t. Fortunately massive celebration and fun was had.
Scott Dunlap Show
Stacy’s uncle is a dueling painoman in a bar at the New York New York Casino on the Vegas Strip. What a musician. I can’t remember his 2 cronies that play as well, if someone would comment, that would be cool.
The Vegas Strip
The Vegas Strip is interesting. Expensive. Adult oriented. Vegas is not for me. I don’t find gambling fun or entertaining. I’m also not a member of the upper class. The massive ocean of artwork and signage is really fun though.
Red Rock Canyon
Amid a vacation where the Strip was quickly wearing me out, Red Rock Canyon came right on time. It was so peaceful.
The pictures are likely out of order, sorry about that. The day was a pretty normal one for us. Started out at Stacy’s familys’ Easter ended at mine. Had some killer food, had some laughs… aside from a minor spill, this was a swell Easter.