Panorama of downtown from NLR. Was hoping for a spectacular sunset, but it didn’t work out that way:

Walked up on Main St. bridge and tried the long exposure thing with the car lights. A few of these turned out pretty cool. Want to try it again when there’s more traffic:

Sunday afternoon I went to the Livin It show at 3. Took some pretty cool shots, but wasn’t able to move around as much as I would have liked (wasn’t supposed to down in front and I had to lay low so they wouldn’t make me leave). Anyway, here’s one of them (30 more good ones can be found here):

Fun stuff. Thanks for reading.

]]> http://lupka31.com/2009/10/27/cityfest/feed/ 0 http://lupka31.com/2009/10/14/a-moment-of-nostalgia-vortex-power-bat/ http://lupka31.com/2009/10/14/a-moment-of-nostalgia-vortex-power-bat/#comments Wed, 14 Oct 2009 05:03:12 +0000 lupka http://lupka31.com/?p=128 I randomly thought of this today: does anyone remember the Vortex Power Bat? Famously endorsed by Mark McGwire(pre-steroids controversy), I probably got it for Christmas one year and spent a good percentage of the next year hitting that little orange ball at my neighbors house, then pretending I didn’t do it and sneaking into their backyard to get it later if it happened to travel over the house. This is one of the few photos of one I could find (which is crazy, if anything like this were created today, it would be all over Amazon.com, a Google search would come up with fifty million results, and people would be posting commercials featuring a roided-up McGwire on YouTube. Amazing how times change):

Next week: The Vortex Football (not really, but I had like 12 different versions of this same product. Whose idea was it to put whistles on a football?)

Click for Full View

They killed Miami, so this past Saturday morning, me and my dad traveled to Nashville for what would be an epic game.

I brought my camera to the game, and planned on taking a lot of pictures like I did at the last game I went to. But, I didn’t 1) because it was a really close game and 2) because it was 40 degrees, raining, and windy so my hands were much more comfortable in my pockets. But I did take a few before things got started, so here we go…

This is LP Field, where the Titans play. Just a normal stadium; nothing special.

We got there kind of early and they were still folding up the tarp on the field. The seats were all wet. They gave out blue towels to all the Titans fans. I was not offered one; It would have been nice to wipe my seat off with it.

Our seats were very high up. When I ordered them, I had no idea that row KK was the last row. On top of that, the guy that sat in front of me (also a Ravens fan) was the tallest human I’ve ever encountered in person.  Thankfully, he realized that, and he moved back beside us so we could see.

This is the awesome Skycam they use on punt returns and such, although when I watched the TV broadcast of the game, I don’t remember it being used at all.

I was surprised by the number of Ravens fans I saw at the game.  Its hard to say exactly how many, but I’d say somewhere in the neighborhood of 10%, if not more. It was a close one, and there’s nothing quite like celebrating a last minute field goal with a bunch of people you’ve never met before and will probably never see again, many of whom have been drinking. Hopefully, the Ravens are Super Bowl bound.

Yes, I want to talk about playoffs.

I thought, “surely I am unbeatable,” and as soon as I chose to brag to a friend, this happened…

Ceftriaxone. Right now it is underlined in red because its not even in the spell check dictionary. What is Ceftriaxone, might you ask? Pronounced (sftr-ksn), it is a semisynthetic analogue of cephalosporin, C₁₈H₁₆N₈Na₂O₇S₃, that is administered parenterally and has a broad spectrum of antibiotic activity. Whatever.

Moral of the Story: Don’t be arrogant, because karma will slap you in the face.

My room is littered with Ravens paraphernalia: hats, shirts, even these tissues I got for Christmas. I’ve been to 3 games, and I’m proud to say they’re undefeated in those games. If someone from the Ravens organization is reading and can hook me up with season tickets, I’m positive we can go 19-0 next season; the numbers don’t lie.

The thing that spawned this post was a win over the Dallas Cowboys yesterday.  Although the teams have identical records, countless “experts” had the Cowboys as favorites. Why? I don’t know why, but the media seems to be enamored by the Cowboys for whatever reason. I guess because they were good 15 years ago. “America’s Team” hasn’t won a playoff game since 1996, but they win 2 in a row and all of a sudden they are Super Bowl bound.

Anyway, I think sports are a good way from people to forget about the stress of their lives for a few hours, root for something they have no impact on, and pour Gatorade on themselves in the middle of winter.

Merry Christmas everyone. Oh, and check out the stiff arm at [4:35]. See you in the playoffs.

Apparently I’m still employed at Quiznos, but they’re trying to cut back on labor costs so I end up being there 2 days a week at most. With the current economic situation, people seem to cut back on eating out, so we’ve been very slow lately, especially at night. I spend more time doing crossword puzzles and browsing YouTube than doing any sort of work. You won’t hear me complaint though; its better than dealing with [insert negative attribute here] customers.

Hopefully, I’ll get better about writing on here. I’d always imagined my blog being filled with pages and pages of witty monologues, but it just hasn’t evolved into that yet.

Until then, Me if I was on South Park…

The Stadium.

Nice cars in the Players Parking Lot. (Later found out that the Ford GT in the photo belongs to Mario Williams. Price Tag: $140,000+)

I love America.

We were in enemy territory.

Punter, Sam Koch, warming up before the game.

DBs getting fired up.

Quarterbacks taking snaps.

Half of them didn’t show up because they were too scared.

Fire is cool, but it will not lead you to victory.

And we are underway…

Touchdown!!

The Ravens’ 1st of 4 interceptions on the day. Pretty acrobatic for 345 pound Haloti Ngata.

Everyone, players included, are bored during TV timeouts.

They were trying to get inside our heads.

Another Interception. 2 on the day for Ray Lewis.

Texans continually try to score but are unsuccessful.

Please don’t fall.

Texans fans left early in defeat…

…Ravens fans stayed to savor victory. Being a fan at an away game is pretty cool. If you were a Texans fan at this game, you would be one in 70,000. But when you’re wearing purple, you’re instantly friends with a few hundred others.

Starters sat in the 4th quarter. Game is all but over.

Second-string guys still taking care of business.

Celebration begins.

Ed loves the fans.

His beard is ridiculous.

Derrick Mason. Dislocated his shoulder. Still kicked butt. Players like him seemed pretty glad to see a few Ravens fans hanging out in the front row in the final minutes of the game.

Game Over.

School starts Thursday. Courses for this semester: American History, Geography, Music Appreciation, Data Structures and Assembly Language.

Designed a T-Shirt for an event at church. I’m pretty happy with it:

Last but not least, this is pretty much the coolest thing I’ve ever seen. I think just about everyone would enjoy it for one reason or another. Stunning animation:

A SHORT LOVE STORY IN STOP MOTION from Carlos Lascano on Vimeo.

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