[4th Set]: "myspace"

I redid my little back area about a month ago and wanted to wait till everything was in bloom to post pics. For more pics of around New Albany, check out my other site WhiteFencesEverywhere

[3rd: Set]: Abandoned buildings

Some more images from the trip home with Jer. There was an awesome dilapidated house which someone still lived in and some other abandoned structures. More on Rejectedmemories.com

[2nd Set]: Zoos

When I went home with Jer last week, I dragged him to the Pittsburgh Zoo. The zoo seems very old except for the aquarium which I feel is better then the Columbus Zoos. Then last Wednesday, I went to the Columbus Zoo (I'm going again today) so the following images are a mixture from both. Oh, while I was leaving the Columbus Zoo last week, I wasn't out of the park for 30 seconds and a bunch of the zoo workers were running back in with guns. And I thought to myself "Shit, I bet a tiger got out and mulled someone and I missed a photo opportunity." It turned out that a reindeer escaped and jumped in a pond (with alligators) to cool off.

[1st set]: Pittsburgh in HDR

Here are the night shots of Pittsburgh. We went up on a Sunday night and I walked the city with my tripod and camera.
Check out more of my HDR images on Flickr

I'm back

The trip to visit Jer's family was great. He's from Chester West Virginia which is on the very north tip of the state. Pittsburgh is only 30min away so we went there a few times. I dragged Jer and his mother to the Zoo and on Sunday night Jer took me back up to downtown Pittsburgh so I could do some night photography. The last few days I've been sorting through the thousand + photos I took the past week. I'm going to post a new set every few days.

BMW Builds a Shape-Shifting Car Out of Cloth

Concept cars give automotive designers a chance to let their imaginations run wild, often with outlandish results. But even by that measure, BMW has come up with something as strange as it is innovative -- a shape-shifting car covered with fabric.
Instead of steel, aluminum or even carbon fiber, the GINA Light Visionary Model has a body of seamless fabric stretched over a movable metal frame that allows the driver to change its shape at will. The car -- which actually runs and drives -- is a styling design headed straight for the BMW Museum in Munich and so it will never see production, but building a practical car wasn't the point.
Chris Bangle, head of design for BMW, says GINA allowed his team to "challenge existing principles and conventional processes."
"It is in the nature of such visions that they do not necessarily claim to be suitable for series production," company officials said in unveiling the car Tuesday. "Rather, they are intended to steer creativity and research into new directions."
Giving Bangle and his team that latitude to design so radical a car "helps to tap into formerly inconceivable, innovative potential" to push the boundaries of appearance and materials as well as functions and the manufacturing process, BMW says.
Bangle and is team actually built GINA -- which stands for "Geometry and functions In 'N' Adaptions" -- six years ago, but BMW kept it under, er, wraps until Tuesday. It's built on the Z8 chassis and has a 4.4-liter V8 and six-speed automatic transmission. BMW says the fabric skin - polyurethane-coated Lycra - is resilient, durable and water resistant. It's stretched over an aluminum frame controlled by electric and hydraulic actuators that allow the owner to change the body shape. Want a big spoiler on the back? Wider fenders? No problem. "The drastic reinterpretation of familiar functionality and structure means that drivers have a completely new experience when they handle their car," BMW says.
GINA has just four panels - the front hood, two sides and the rear deck. The doors open in jack-knife fashion and are completely smooth when closed; access to the engine is through a slit in the hood. BMW says the shape of the body can be changed without slackening or damaging the fabric. The fabric is opaque so the taillights shine through, and small motors pull the fabric back to reveal the headlights.
The interior is equally innovative. The steering wheel and gauges swing into place and the headrest rises from the seat once the driver is seated, making it easier to get in and out of the car.
BMW says GINA is built on a space frame that provides all the safety of a conventional car, but we suspect people - not to mention BMW's lawyers and government regulators - wouldn't embrace fabric bodies. Still, the company says GINA could influence the design of future Beemers. (found at wired.com)

Debt

I know I've been slacking on posting but the last week has been bad and my luck just keeps getting worse. First our two year old washer (Whirlpool) that we bought with the townhouse started to rust, it was out of warranty and was going to cost more then it was worth so we had to drop $500 on a new one (money we don't have), then my tire gets a puncture in it on the side that can't be patched so that's more $$$ for a new tire that is less then a year old, and the dog goes in for a checkup tomorrow and that's going to be at least $200. It seems like we're just getting more and more in debt. So I've been depressed and didn't feel like putting any effort into the blog. Jer and I are going to visit his mom for 6 days so it will be even more time away from the computer. I plan on doing a lot of photography (thank god digital is free) and hope to have lots to show you guys next week. In the meantime, email me and I'll let you know how you can donate money :)

Later gators.

Oh, and the movie "you don't mess with the zohan" is a waste of money, wait for the DVD.

Columbus Zoo

The weather this past weekend was perfect. On Saturday I planted out back (pics to come in a few days), and Sunday Cynthia and I went to the Columbus Zoo (thanks to Vicki for the tickets). Anyway, here are some animals. Enjoy.







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bottom 3 were from a different Zoo in FL.