Month: December 2004

Professional Photography Site Complete

I have [mostly – there are a few tweaks I might make to it…] completed the modification and population of my new photography site at jeffphillips.net. On this site, that means that some of my best photos will go away – only to be available on my new site. However, you may still view them there if you wish. [This will of course be only 600 or so out of the 6000 pictures here – you may not notice at all.] This will not affect my Friends & Family albums – those are for all to enjoy!

If you know anyone who purchases photos or is in the publication industry, I would just love an introduction!

In the mean time: have a happy but safe New Year’s Eve!

Can You Believe It?

Snow in Houston! Unbelievable! Well, it’s not really good snow, but it is coming down here in downtown Houston. This doesn’t happen much [like once every 10 years or so] but I guess we’re due for it. I hope it keeps up so I can actually get a picture of it. It’s melting pretty quickly on the roofs across the way, though.

Well, a ‘whitish’ Christmas Eve isn’t bad when we’ve seen 80 degree weather on Christmas morning before. Enjoy the holidays wherever you are!

Getting Into The Spirit

As the Christmas holidays approach, Laura and I have been spending time getting the new apartment ready for the holidays. We’ve discovered those little 3M removable tabs – they work great for hanging Christmas lights in windows. Since we’re in an apartment these days, we don’t want to leave to many nail holes behind – especially since I’ve already done quite a bit of damage installing the surround sound speakers. So, we’ve hung lights in our dining and living room windows and some on the railing of the balcony. Unfortunately, since our windows mostly overlook a cemetery, not many people besides us will benefit from the lights in our windows. Still – it feels good to put them up. Never thought I’d say that…

After too many years in which Christmas time was a painful, lonely time of year I have finally recovered some of my childhood love for the season. Laura has helped tremendously. Together, we’ve overwritten some of the most painful memories in my life – both memories of locations, seasons, and other events that I associated with a dark period in my past usually causing emotional “flinches” when they were mentioned. Now, those associations have been mostly broken [I’m sure there are a few left, but only time will discover them] and the joy can return to things like Christmas.

Wired For Sound

I have just gotten my living room back to 5.1 surround sound. I had to leave my old speakers at the old house since the buyers like the way I’d wired them into the house using galvanized electrical conduit. So, I bought a new set of speakers and just last week hired someone to help me put them up. It was a LOT of work. We ended up routing the wires up through the crown molding – sounds easier than it actually is. There were way too many cross braces between studs to be even close to easy. However, it’s done now and I can watch movies the way they’re supposed to be watched – except since this is an apartment, I now have to keep it quieter… Darn.

On The Road Again (or “One Million Miles and Counting”)

I’m back traveling again – this time in Washington, D.C. again. Even though I don’t like being away from Laura, I’m glad to be traveling now. When I travel for work, it’s so much easier to communicate with customers and co-workers; much easier to get things accomplished. Knowing I’m going to be here for the next couple of weeks [excluding weekends, of course] is a bit of a comfort for me job-wise. I’ll be able to answer questions posed to me in person rather than over an impersonal email or phone call. I hope that my presence will also help to accelerate the timetable a little so that I can work on the fun stuff: server installations! [I know: I should be getting over this and moving into the project management mentality and from there into middle management. I just can’t do that! I love to play with the toys still – and I love to build things, even when the things I build are not built with manual labor but by keystrokes and mouseclicks.]

I don’t really know if I’ve traveled a million miles, but I’m pretty sure I have. I’ve been doing this for about nine years and racked up almost 100,000 travel miles each year, not to mention the free trips I’ve used my miles for and the trans-global travel I did in college to visit my parents in the Middle East. Hmm. It could be closer to two million miles…

Going Pro

I’ve decided to try to become a professional photographer. I know it will be a slow transition, but I’m hoping that I can market and sell some of my photographic stock. On top of that, I’m going to offer some of my best pictures for print to individuals. I’ve started by setting up a new site: http://www.jeffphillips.net. This might help me earn enough money for a decent digital camera… well, one a bit more professional anyway.