life as a dog…

I have almost completed the upload and naming of photos to the angle-of-view domain.  But the linking to it is probably going to be delayed a bit.

On the old site, I grouped everything within a location by date.  I think I’m going to dump that method (except for the “most recent” category).  Instead I’m just going to group by location.  For example, I have about 52 albums within the DC section.  That includes multiple Smithsonian albums, multiple Cathedral albums, etc.  Instead, I am going to put all pictures of the Smithsonian into one single album.  Since most of my pictures are digital, they should stay mostly in order.  The film pictures might not – I need to see if I can change the date of them.

The “most recent” category will remain as it is.  When new pictures get posted, then I will go to the location based albums.

It’s time for another website update.  Everything but the raw photos has been moved off the mobycat domain.  Well, it’s time for the photos to move.  It’s taken me a while to find something other than Coppermine that I really liked.  I don’t know how many different software packages I’ve gone through trying to find something I like.  The winner is… Gallery 2.

Gallery 2 looks a lot cleaner to me than Coppermine.  It also seems to be quite a bit more customizable (though I am still figuring out what all I can do).  Plus, I’ve seen some screen shots from Gallery 3 – it looks much better.  Gallery 3 is in Beta, however…and I really don’t want to mess with that when I’m dealing with over 3,500 photos.

It may be a little while before it’s actually up (and linked from the main page).  It’s just a matter of uploading all the files and actually naming them.

If anyone is familiar with Gallery 2, I do have one question (a problem I can’t seem to figure out).  I want comments available.  I have them checked off in the admin settings.  But I can only see/add comments when I’m in admin mode.  If I go into the site in guest mode, I can’t see or add comments.  Anyone have any idea?

This trip came up pretty quickly.  I haven’t been to New York in over a year.  This time, however, I get to take the train up.  I love riding the train.  I get the added bonus this time of being able to ride the Acela and staying at a hotel in Times Square.  My old job always had us staying in New Jersey, usually at the Red Roof Inn by Newark Airport.

Day 1 – Wednesday

It was an early morning train ride – I had to be at Union Station about 5:00am.  Not really a problem.  I knew I wouldn’t be getting any sleep – too much to see outside the window.  I really like the Acela, even though I don’t think it’s particularly worth the extra cost ($50 to save a whopping 30 minutes).

I had to be at the job site in the morning to do a little testing.  That was done in about 30 minutes.  The hotel was across the street.  It’s nice to be actually staying in Manhattan.  My coworker wasn’t to arrive until about 3:30, so I spent some time in the lobby trying to get online.  Let me just say this… AT&T in Manhattan is HORRIBLE.  Trying to connect is next to impossible…even though I could see several cell phone towers right outside the window.

I was able to walk around a little bit.  The hotel was in a great location – about 1 block from Times Square.  It’s just a shame I did not have the space to bring the D80.  So any pictures were just with a little P&S.

My coworker arrived about 4:00pm and we grabbed some food before heading to back to the location for setup.  Everything was set fairly quickly, but one specific issue kept us there until about 1:00am.  I didn’t get to sleep until about 1:30am.  Thank God the hotel was literally 50 feet from the location.  Just cross the street and we were there.

Day 2 – Thursday

Yesterday was the setup, today was the actual event.  It was an early call time – 6:00am.  So I didnt’ get much sleep.  We were done at about noon, but the equipment wasn’t picked up until 1:00pm.  At this point, we were all beat.  So it was back to the hotel for a nap.

My return train wasn’t until 7pm.  I did that on purpose – I never seem to have time to wander NYC with a camera, even with just a P&S like I had on this trip.  But since we had so little sleep, I had no real desire to go right out and grab some pictures.  I seriously do need to bring the D80 up here at some point.  Just having a P&S seems to keep me from looking for different (or more) pictures to grab.

The return train was not an Acela.  I figured there was no rush to get back home, so I went with the Vermonter.  It was dark the whole way, so sleep was a priority (even though not a good idea – I really don’t need to mess up my sleeping schedule).

POST

I like visiting New York.  But getting there can be expensive (let alone staying over night).  One of these days, I’m going to take the Bolt Bus.  A friend of mine has taken it before and thought it was a great way to get there.

My first trip of 2010.  It’s time for another trip to Orlando…another quickie…

Day 1 – Thursday

Had an early flight today from Dulles to Orlando on Southwest.  I’m so glad I have medallion status on Delta now.  Even though I didn’t fly on Delta today, my card got me into the priority lane at security, though I don’t know how much it really meant, since it was 6:00am – the airport isn’t that busy that early on a Thursday morning.  I wasn’t sure what security would be like, though, since I haven’t flown since before Christmas and the underwear bomber.  It wasn’t bad… didn’t seem any different to me.  Dulles doesn’t appear to have the sniffers yet.  I think they did at one time, but I remember about 4 or 5 months ago reading where the TSA was going to do away with the sniffer machines.  I guess they spoke too soon.

The flight was uneventful, though we did land in Orlando about 15 minutes early.  I don’t remember Orlando airport being so busy.  I guess I’ve just been lucky before – with all the theme parks down here, one would think the airport would always be busy.

The job was today as well.  It was possibly the smoothest event for this client I’ve been on.  The hotel was being a bit anal, but other than that… there were no problems.

I booked a room near the airport at the Country Inn & Suites.  My past experience is why I booked there.  I like the brand, the hotels and staffs have been very nice.  This one, on the other hand…not so much.  The staff was great.  But the hotel itself is in serious need of renovation.  The carpet in the main hallway was pretty torn up.  The elevator didn’t sound the safest.  There were stains in many places (including in my room).  The mattress actually had a couple holes in it.  And the shower?  That was the worst.  It couldn’t get past luke warm and the pressure was laughable.  I can only assume this is because they are trying to save water and they don’t want guests burning themselves in a super hot shower.

My rental car was a Dodge Journey with Thrifty.  Like all rentals, it felt pretty cheap.  I liked the room, though… no problem with my equipment and baggage.

I made sure that I filled up the car with gas before I retired for the evening.  There is a gas station across from the hotel that price gouges.  They are the only one on the road to the airport, so I’m sure plenty of people end up filling up there.  But when I can drive down the road about 1.5 miles and get gas for $2.75 what do you think I’m going to do?  The Coastal Gas Station that gouges had gas for $4.79!!  Someone really needs to report them for gouging.  I was glad to see a Shell being built directly across the street from them… at least they won’t be able to gouge so much anymore.

Day 2 – Friday

Thankfully, I didn’t have to get a super early return flight.  And since the hotel was only a mile or so from the airport, it made it a relatively relaxed morning.

Now here’s something…maybe someone can explain.  For the holiday’s google was giving free internet connectivity at airports.  Orlando was one of them.  I connected, but the stupid thing kept throwing me off.  I’d have to “repair” my connection, because after it threw me off, it would not let me back on unless I repaired.  What’s the point of giving free internet if it doesn’t work?  Sounds about as bad as the Nexus One.

Got back to DC and picked up the dog and headed home.

POST

I prefer my Orlando trips nice and quick (though there was a job last year that took me to Epcot which was kind of nice – free access to everything).

My next trip is to New York next week.  It’s another quickie (ride up one day, return the next).  I get to ride the train this time.  I love riding the train.  After that, my next known trip is in February – off to Las Vegas for about three weeks.