Eyes of Fyr

Blog archive: 2008

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Intriguing holiday gift

The most intriguing and environmentally-conscious gift I received this holiday season is this key chain from my new boss. A closer shot on the right, to shed more light on the object.

For those of you with screen readers, the two fotos are of a recycled glass key chain inside its white gift box (lid removed of course). The shape of the glass is a star. It is approximately 2 inches wide from point to point. The color of the glass bead is sort of a cornflower blue (I think). The star is pierced in the middle of the left and right points to accommodate the metal rings and coiled cone portion of the chain.

Product information on the tag reads as follows:

We read of the Blue Star in Hopi literature, we read of blue beams in conspiracy circles, and we read of the "purest blue" in our latest Nevermore lyrics. Naturally I'm intrigued by this gift and am very curious about what awaits ahead in '09 and into the future. ^_^

A happy holiday season and new year to all!

Nature fotos

New Nature foto media has been posted. A view of today's winter wonderland can be found in the new '08 Landscapes gallery. Today these images were taken from the inside looking out, and for very good reason. Also, five shots of the November 21st sundown are now up in Sunsets, and a few colorful autumn leaves and summer lily fotos are available in the Flora section (Flowers and Trees).

Chance video (Pt 2)

The other video clip of Chance (Pt 2) from the JOP show back in September is now available in the Video archive. This video has been posted in the Flash (SWF) file format because I wanted to truncate the clip at a certain point and had no other video editing software to do it. The first attempt at a simple clip import > edit > save did not produce any visible player controls so I turned to the program's sample 'import video' player template for something to work with. The sample FLA file with the imported MPEG was successfully edited to truncate the video clip layer and then extend the player's skin layers to accommodate the new length of the video clip layer. I am no Flash guru or anything but I did complete a training course for an older version of the program several years ago, to be ready and able (if necessary) to edit some out-sourced Flash content on the day job's Web site. Working with Flash has not been one of my main job functions though and until recently I haven't felt any urgent need to use it for this site. Flash MX (version 6) came pre-installed on the home computer but it has gone unused for the most part. However, lately I've been playing with it trying to brush up on dormant skills and to gain new ones, and also to see if I could get a player going in the Video archive. These immediate goals have been achieved but I also realize that the know-how needed to create interactive Flash content from scratch exceeds my current skill level. More long hours with my face in the program should help refresh the memory, and with the steep climb up the remainder of learning curve.

Some other hours were spent this past weekend working on embedding other types of players into a test page. Much ado about how newer browsers, plug-ins and such are working these days. I also noticed the FLA files in MX are able to be saved in the QuickTime MOV file type as well as the SWF type. That's good to know since tests for that player went well. Validation errors are still a concern for these pages with the embedded players though, afaik. I'll have to work on that too.

Concert pix fix

Several new concert fotos galleries have been posted in the Music section. The most recent are from last night's show at Idols in Palatine with the Pamela Moore Band and Circle of Fate. Pamela Moore, well known for her work as Sister Mary on Queensrÿche's Operation: Mindcrime, has tapped the home grown talents of Radakka alumni Michael Posch & Gabriel Anthony. They're in her touring band and have now played a couple of regional Midwest dates. I had the pleasure of checking out the show at Idols and I'm really glad I went. The opening act, Circle of Fate, was a nice new discovery as well. The day before the show I learned that this band includes a former member of Latent Fury. (Ya learn something new everyday.) Last night's live entertainment was well worth the time and effort. Hopefully they'll book some more shows here on their next outing.

Friday night's fun and exciting entertainment schedule included Soulfly, Bleed the Sky and Incite at The Pearl Room in Mokena. False Face and Devastation also were on the bill but I missed them. It was grrreat to see Soulfly again. The last time I caught their act was in 2002 when they played with Slayer and In Flames at The Riviera. It's been several years but nevertheless Soulfly and Seps are still a few of my favorite things. Fortunately Incite was on this current tour and I got to see them this time. They were very good. Loved it! Bleed the Sky had the crowd in a frenzy too. I hope we hear from all of the above again soon as well.

Get your concert pix fix here.

Be sure to visit the Credits section for 2 new rounds of foto pass gratitude.

New concert fotos

The Canon equipment that was out for repair service was finally back in my hands on October 7, just in time to miss the Amorphis show in Mokena, by one day. :\ The newly refurbished camera body and cleaned lenses were put to the test at a show last night with Ion Vein and Sacred Dawn at Chicago City Limits. The service repairs did indeed eliminate nasties that were showing up in some of the July–August fotos. However, equipment servicing does not magically transform the concert foto taking skills. I think a lens with IS would help. That Canon 70-200mm, f/2.8 zoom lens that I dreamed about back in 2006 comes with IS now. I had an opportunity to handle a display model in the camera store recently and couldn't believe how heavy it felt! Wow, just wow. I thought the Macro I bought back in April was heavy. The store clerk suggested a tripod as an accessory for the zoom lens, but from what I understood before, IS was created to help reduce the shake in hand-held fotography. I couldn't imagine using that new zoom for hand-held fotography. No way. A gorilla maybe... I suppose I'll go for that less heavy (and less expensive) wide angle with IS. It has to be better than the current wide angle I'm using. The Macro pumps out nice shots if I'm able to hold it steady enough, so I think I'll hang on to it.

FyrFeed available

FyrFeed, the Eyes of Fyr RSS feed has been launched. It's pretty bare-bones basic right now but it's up and running. Some tweaks may help improve its accessibility, etc. Visit the RSS page to subscribe to the feed.

2008 Insects gallery

Even though the overall foto output in all categories has decreased this year compared to previous years, I've managed to obtain enough new insect fotos in '08 to justify the creation of an archive for this year's output. The small collection of images in the new 2008 Insects gallery includes fotos of a butterfly, a katydid, and group of some sort of small beetles. Since there are only 2 more months left until the new year, I doubt new '08 content will be added to this archive. There is still some '08 output in the queue for the Flora and Fauna sections that will eventually surface. An update will be posted when they become available.

New video clips

The Jon Oliva's Pain ♦ Circle II Circle ♦ Manticora show at Chicago City Limits was sweet! I'm so glad I didn't miss it. Thanks to everyone involved in bringing us this tour and thanks to all the bands for 'bringing it'. You rock! It was a great night to re-live some of the old Savatage favorites and to discover the newer, less familiar material. Evidently, I have been missing out on some really great stuff up until now. If they ever bring that tour again I hope they will introduce some acoustic guitars into the set, to accentuate the lighter moments of the performance. :-)

I took a couple of fotos and video clips during the J.O.P. set but the quality is rather poor for all. The Sony Cybershot P72 was the best equipment available that night since the Canon was still out being serviced. The few pics that were taken aren't even worth mentioning (they won't be posted). The video clips are dark and the audio is mostly distorted due to standing too close and off to the side in front of a large PA speaker. Nevertheless, the first clip to be posted is Part I of Chance. Despite the ghetto quality of this recording it rocks, so I've decided to share it. Part II may be posted later so stay tuned.

Two other ghetto-quality clips from a couple of other bands have been posted in the Video archive. One is a clip of Eden's Fall playing Blur the Lines at Penny Road Underground. The other one is a clip that captures the end of a Skinless set at The Pearl Room in 2006. Since I'm not an avid Skinless fan I'm at a loss to identify the name of the song in that clip. I probably wouldn't have recorded it if it wasn't for the LOL-worthy sausage fest mayhem going down on the stage. There's one point in the clip where the sea of sausage parts and you get a glimpse of the Skinless bassist thrashing away, seemingly oblivious to the mayhem going on all around. It's actually pretty cool so don't miss it!

Don't miss the revived Chicago Powerfest people fotos, either. They have been resurrected on the Friends page. While you're there check out the other new page for more fotos of friends and acquaintances at other local shows. And finally, a new page for Ponds with images of last month's flooding has been added to the Waterfronts area.

The music advocate

The Scans scrapbook has been updated with the arrival of the Misc section. I've opted to call it "Misc" instead of "Other" since it seems less awkward. Several items from the previous version are yet to be resurrected. They will return but for now this new area kicks off with something fresh — a Rebel Radio show flyer (yes, that's flyer here at Eyes of Fyr :p). It's for the show at Chicago City Limits on Tuesday the 30th with Jon Oliva's Pain ♦ Circle II Circle ♦ Manticora ♦ Septer. This is the only sort of advertisement content that will see the light of day at eyesoffyr.com. Why? The reasons are threefold: 1) Because live music is what I enjoy and wish to see succeed; 2) the headliners for this show are the current project of one of my fave bands from yesteryear; and 3) the show is happening at a venue in my home town and I'd like for them to book more shows like this. I'm not directly involved with any business aspects for this event. All the wheeling and dealing it takes to makes stuff like this happen is not my cup of tea. The reward for me is the celebration of the musical arts and all the spiritually uplifting gifts that it brings. =) It is for this reason that I am grateful to my friend Scott Davidson for putting his ass on the line to bring this show to town—to make it happen. I hope it is a success, Scott.

That said, the Home page has been updated to reflect the current state of things here at Eyes of Fyr.

Video & fotos

I ventured out on Monday evening for the Septemberfest fireworks display and got some more video footage. Unfortunately, this time, the disk ran out of space right before the finale. I was bummed but that's okay because even though it was good it didn't match the dramatic climax of the Saturday night show with all its bells, whistles, car alarms and emergency vehicle sirens going off. Revisit the Video archive for the link to the festival fireworks: part II. I've also linked up 3 more concert clips and another squirrel clip in the archive.

A few still shots of the Monday fireworks and some other random neighborhood Night shots have been posted in the Foto galleries as well.

Audio/Video media, etc.

A new video clip of Schaumburg's Saturday installment of the Labor Day weekend fireworks has been added to the Video archive in the Media section. This scene was shot through a screened window from inside my place. There will probably be more fireworks displays tonight and on Monday so I may attempt some better clips from outside then. Also, I've added links to popular media player download sites and made a few other design upgrades to both the Audio and Video archive pages. I hope visitors find these improvements helpful.

In other site news, most of the holes in the remaining Foto galleries have been filled in. Particularly, the Waterfronts page in the Nature section is now open. The 2005 and 2006 fotos of the staff appreciation day outings from the Odyssey Cruise on Lake Michigan and the Grand Belle Boat Tour on Lake Geneva have returned. I've implemented some changes in the way I'm doing captions and filling out alt and title attributes on the enlargement pages in this area. Since there are so many fotos from these two outings I've opted to hard code in counters in place of the file name caption text below each image. I like this idea so I will probably implement the change site wide after tending to some other neglected areas.

Cavalera Conspiracy

Fotos of Cavalera Conspiracy from the show at Metro on July 23rd have been posted in the Music galleries. Sepultura and the various spinoff projects are just a few of my favorite things so it was worthwhile for me to go out and see it and support it. The set was shy of the 90-minute mark but it was still packed full of great stuff. I have no complaints about the performance. The lighting conditions baffled me though. There was back lighting, fog, and minimal fore lighting going on throughout the entire set, so I think the foto output suffered. Apparently I need to work on making adjustments for such conditions. That said though, I don't think I've ever attended a show with a fog machine running non-stop. Crazy! :^) (See Credits related to this event.)

In other site news, several holes in other Foto galleries have been filled in, too many to link to from here so please feel free to visit the Site Map page for quick links to restored sections of interest.

Nature foto restorations

The Nature section continues to be restored. The Flowers and the Geese fotos have returned to the Flora and Fauna sections, respectively.

Rush

A new page for Rush fotos has been added to the Music foto galleries. They came back through town on the 9th for another performance of the Snakes & Arrows Tour, this time at the United Center. Last time they played there – in 2002 – I waited until the day of show to buy the ticket and ended up with a great seat. The same plan did the trick again this time. See the ticket documentation available in the Scans gallery. Unfortunately, I wasn't aware that security would not be enforcing the 'no cameras' rule that night otherwise I would have come prepared with more than the cell phone. Perhaps they did later in the evening but they were not checking bags when the doors first opened. Oh well. Fotos aside, the show was excellent. Having seen Rush numerous times since 1978 and most recently last year in Tinley Park, I know they always deliver the goods. They played an hour the first set, took a short break, and then came back and dazzled us for another hour and a half. FANtastic! They've always been a very talented tight trio but with several years worth of touring under their belts I think they've managed to build upon perfection and become even better. They are such a great band... :-)

In other Music foto galleries news, missing date information has been added for the 1992 Killers show at the Whale, and for the 1986 Megadeth show at the Metro. Acknowledgment of the info submissions has been posted on the Credits page.

All pop-ups gone, Squirrels return, more...

The remaining Javascript pop-up windows for foto enlargements posted in the Nature foto galleries have gone bye-bye. I decided to tackle that first and get it out of the way. Style changes have been made throughout the Atmosphere and Fauna galleries as well, plus the Squirrels galleries have returned so the Mammals section is now complete. Style changes also have been implemented for content currently up in the Flora section.

Fresh foto content is up in the Music section, too. Check out 25 new fotos of Heaven and Hell (Chicago) from the May 31 show at Tailgaters, a very nice club in Bolingbrook with some excellent stage lighting!

New Music foto additions, Credits page returns

Fotos of Candlemass, Daylight Dies, and Stoneface Nation from The Pearl Room show on May 24 have been added to the Music foto galleries. Style changes also have been made on all pages within the Music foto galleries.

The Credits page has been resurrected and updated as well.

New Music foto additions, and more

Iced Earth fotos from their May 2 Chicago Powerfest performance are available. This year's show was very well attended so getting good foto output was more difficult to achieve. Fortune must have been upon me during the Iced Earth set though, because they're the only fotos in the (small) bunch worth posting. There were a few others from 3 other bands but not enough to warrant creating a new gallery for each. I'm glad CPF was a huge success this year. I've never seen The Pearl Room so packed! Good stuff.

Most of the items for the Scans scrapbook have been restored. The Ticket Stubs, Passes, and Cover Art scans are back. The Cover Art section has a few new additions that were not up before in the old site version.

The Personae fotos section has been restored as well. There are still pages for Family and Friends but they've been scaled back a bit for now. I may add the people fotos from Powerfest 2007 and 2008 to this area but I'm still working it out. Hope to have something up soon though. I'll post again here when there's news to relay.

The FyrFeed page itself is ready to go but other back end issues need to be addressed. Hope to have that and the Contact page up and running soon. Stay tuned.

Music foto galleries restored

It took much longer than expected but the Music foto galleries are now back online. My sincere apologies for the long delay. They probably would have been restored sooner but I changed my mind (again) and decided to give the pop-up navigation system the old heave-ho. The Javascript pop-up windows are history. Navigation can still be thumbnail-to-enlargement based but the enlargements simply will not open up in a script-induced constrained window. They now open up in a new window with a fluid-designed page containing optional slideshow navigation buttons located at the very top of the page, so no more 'button jump' in various screen resolutions. There'll be no waiting for the script to load all the images either. This all had to be painstakingly done by hand since I'm not using any content management system yet. However, I should look into getting one of those or the rest of the foto and scan galleries may take as long or longer to be completed. The asking price for some of these programs can be pretty steep but I refuse to shell out buku bux for some CMS or photo gallery software that spits out old-school code, therefore I'll have to choose wisely when the time comes.

There's still so much left to do. The Contact forms and RSS will be handled before the interactive blog. The blog stuff is low priority right now since there's a ton of conversion left for the foto and scan galleries, and loose ends to tie up elsewhere. The other foto galleries that currently have pop-ups will eventually be changed as well but I'm not sure if I'll do it sooner or later. The light at the end of the tunnel is really dim at the moment. Will keep plugging along though.

Eyes of Fyr v.2 launched...

Phew. Just under the wire here... Even though I haven't completed converting all of the content from the previous version yet I've launched with what's been completed so far. Today is the day. The deadline that I've set for myself. The day to unveil the new look. Work on this project has been slow going and there's still lots to do but I'm making progress. I'm very excited about this redesign. The site's been in need of a facelift for a while now. I changed physical residence last year and have been eager to get the feng shui started for this Web site. Now it begins. It may be incomplete for a while. I may rethink organizational issues for this and other pages. There also may be bugs, typos, and other matters to see to throughout. It's going to take some time to get it all done but it should be worth the wait. :-)

V.2: Pre-launch thoughts...

I can't believe I waited so long to start this redesign. There's still so much left to do! Nevertheless, I must pause to rave about the strict document type concept. It is soooo sweet. It would have been a good idea to give this more consideration in 2003, but, oh well. Live and learn — the slow way, I guess. :\ Yes indeed, the strict document type is a beautiful thing. No more messy style attributes and values cluttering up the HTML tags. It's much way better this way. Better for accessibility, and a hand-coder's sanity. ;-)

Thinking back to my mindset during the creation process for the original design I must confess that I really really REALLY wanted to satisfy an old Netscape browser back then. It's a long story that is sort of related to a project I worked on for my employers back in 2000-ish. Anyway, my brilliant idea in 2003 for satisfying the old NS browser for this, my personal site, was to repeat all the style code from the external sheet into the mix of HTML tags on all of the pages. What a nightmare! But I did what I thought was right at the time. Again, it's a learning process. I'm quite fortunate to work for my current employers who have been very patient. As things speed up in the office world it's a good bet the decision makers will be looking for better ways to streamline the information management and the Web site processes. I really hope they intend to keep me around for a while in my present position, and may God bless them for their infinite patience with me and for keeping me aboard so far.

I'm really glad I've finally caught on to this strict concept. I look forward to sharing new knowledge with my co-workers. The challenge for this site now will be attempting to keep clean strict pages after further scripting is introduced — something else to add to the plate!

 

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