126/366: Artifact

An old plastic car I found under the cellar stairs.

For 11 months of the year (give or take), our Christmas decorations live in plastic storage boxes in the cabinet under the stairs in the basement. Of course, when we stow these away, there’s inevitably one or two things that get missed in the initial sweep, and end up outside the boxes. And when I… Continue reading 126/366: Artifact

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125/366: Flash! (Aaah-aaaaaahhhhh!)

Composite image showing various flash settings. The top is the intentionally underexposed case with no flash. Top left is the direct flash, bottom left direct flash with the diffuser. Top right is indirect flash at a 45 degree angle, bottom right is indirect flash straight up.

One of my Christmas gifts this year was an external flash unit for my DSLR, replacing one that broke a while back. Given that the camera has a built-in flash, you might wonder why I need this extra bulky gadget, so to answer that question, here’s a composite of five pictures I took today: I… Continue reading 125/366: Flash! (Aaah-aaaaaahhhhh!)

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123-124/366: Slack!

SteelyKid's feet bouncing above the slackline.

One of our Christmas presents for the kids was a slackline kit, which they wanted set up pretty much the instant I got home. So I put it up over the weekend, and on consecutive days got these pictures: (I of course also have a bunch of photos where you can see the kids’ entire… Continue reading 123-124/366: Slack!

117-122/366: Catching Up, Renaissance Edition

Cool fountain in Charleston's Waterfront Park.

After the trip to my parents’ for Christmas, I flew down to Charleston, SC to attend the Renaissance Weekend (though none of it fell on an actual weekend day…). This provided some much-needed stress relief, but was not great in photo-a-day terms, as it’s a strictly off the record event, so I couldn’t exactly photograph… Continue reading 117-122/366: Catching Up, Renaissance Edition

109-116/366: Catching Up, Holiday Edition

The moon on Christmas Eve.

I’m back after the traditional family holiday and a less traditional trip to Charleston, SC for the Renaissance Weekend meeting. Which means things will start to return to what passes for normal around here, and that means it’s time to get caught up on photo-a-day pictures… What with one thing and another, there was one… Continue reading 109-116/366: Catching Up, Holiday Edition

Christmas 2015

The Chateau Steelypips photo card, 2015.

Normally, I save a .jpg of our holiday card and post it here. This year, I forgot, but fortunately my parents have one, so you get a photo of a photo card: Merry Christmas if you celebrate it, have a lovely Friday otherwise.

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The Exotic Physics of an Ordinary Morning

Me speaking at TEDxAlbany; photo cropped down from one posted by @SeemaWasTaken on Twitter.

A couple of weeks ago, I gave a talk at TEDxAlbany on how quantum physics manifests in everyday life. I posted the approximate text back then, but TEDx has now put up the video: So, if you’ve been wondering what it sounded like live, well, now you can see…

Memories of Emmy

Emmy back in September, looking soulful.

SteelyKid’s second-grade teacher sent home a couple of books about kids dealing with the loss of beloved pets– one of which, The Tenth Good Thing About Barney is surprisingly atheistic. We read them at bedtime the other night, which was a little rough. After we finished, and moved her to her bed (when it’s my… Continue reading Memories of Emmy

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Emmy Orzel, 2002-2015

Emmy in December 2003, only a few months after we got her.

We lost the Queen of Niskayuna tonight. Emmy had been having some health issues for a while, and while we were in Florida this past weekend she wasn’t eating for the pet-sitter. We tried yet another new version of the new diet food today, with only limited success. And this afternoon, she fell going up… Continue reading Emmy Orzel, 2002-2015

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