I’ll start this post off by saying I’m not a big fan of politics and I’m not a big fan of Rick Warren.  So why the heck am I writing about both of them combined in my blog?

Well, Saddleback (Warren’s church) is stepped up it’s game and held a presidential debate.  And a fairly good one at that!

I still believe that both parties are nothing but rip off artists and DO NOT have my best interest at heart.  I do have to say that both candidates seem sincere at the debate, but I ain’t letting them fool me.

Follow this link to see the video of the entire of the video.  There is also a link to the exact transcript of the debate.

Ok, if you are a Lost geek like me, you’ve probably already signed up for the new ARG Lost game, Dharma Wants You.  If you haven’t, then I just want to share what’s going on so far.

Above is a picture of the website…not so much information yet.  As you might have read in my previous Lost post, a new video surfaced at Comic Con 08 this year.  In it, Professor Pierre Chang begged for the DHARMA Initiative to be reconstructed.

So, if you go to dharmawantsyou.com, you can become a part of the DHARMA Initiative.

So far there is only one test.  Below is the explanation for the test.

What makes this test interesting is the fact that you can cheat!  And the cheat might be an important clue…

A blog entry on DarkUFO entitled Pressurized Spacial Judgment Evaluation = Press Space? seems to think the cheat is intentional.

Stay tuned for anymore information.  I’ll pass it along as soon as I hear it!

I’m not a pro photographer by any means, but I have managed to click a few thousand pictures ever since we bought our first digital camera.

I’ve been using iPhoto for a couple of years now and I have accumulated quite a large library of pictures.  They are all broken into “Events” that each have a name describing that particular event.  That was the extent of my organizational skills!  Trying to find “that one” picture is literally like finding a needle in a haystack.

Enter Keyword Manager for iPhoto.  This program is a godsend if there ever was one.  Here is a blurb from their website:

Whether you have 300 or 10 000 photos in your iPhoto library, organizing the photos with keywords will help you quickly find what you are looking for. In iPhoto 6, this was a really cumbersome task, which got some improvement in iPhoto 7; but Keyword Manager really takes it to the next level.

Using Keyword Manager to manage your keywords allows you to quickly and easily tag all photos in your library, regardless of how many photos you have and how many keywords you want to use. Since Keyword Manager uses iPhoto’s own keyword system internally, it is completely safe! Even if you decide to stop using Keyword Manager, all your keywords will remain!

Take it to the next level indeed!  The concept of tagging or adding keywords might be a little new to you, so let me explain.  Like I said, I have a lot of pictures, mostly of the kids.  Here’s what I do…I find a bunch of pictures of my son Nathan.  I select them with the mouse, and then simply assign the keyword “Nathan” to those pictures.   I also assigned the keywords “2007″ and “Halloween” to the same pictures.  I can add any keyword I’d like.  They keywords let you search your entire picture library by that word.  You can also create “smart albums” within iPhoto based on those keywords.  These are albums that are automatically updated when a keyword is assigned to new pictures.

To the right you can see a list of my smart albums.  Now all I have to do is click on those albums to see the pictures that are of our dumb dogs (doggies) or pics that were taken in 2007 (2007), birthday pictures of all years (birthdays).  You can create any number of rules, loose or strict.  One benefit of using a Mac is the integration of the entire iLife suite of programs.  I can now see these smart albums in iTunes (to put on my iPod to show my friends and family), iDVD (to use in Menu drop zones) or iMovie to make a slideshow.

If you prefer not to create smart albums, I understand.  You can still filter your picture library directly from the Keyword Manager interface.

Here I have my photo library open with the Keyword manager hud (heads up display) floating above it.  All my keywords are shown.  To the right of them is a small empty circle.  I can filter my pictures by clicking on these circles.

Here I have one keyword chosen, “first day of school”.  Now my entire library is filtered to only include those pictures with that keyword.

Now I have added another filter, the keyword “2008″.  My entire library is widdled down even more.  Only pictures the the keywords “first day of school” and “2008″ are shown.

You might be thinking of your picture collection right now, and saying “that is just too much work”.  Unfortunately it is, but I think the pay off is worth it.  I spent a good 3 hours in front of my computer last night sorting through pictures and tagging everything.  And I’m nowhere near finished!  The key will be to remember to enter keywords as soon as I import pictures into iPhoto!

]]> http://metalman777.wordpress.com/2008/08/21/keyword-manager-for-iphoto/feed/ metalman777 http://metalman777.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/first-day-of-school-2008/ http://metalman777.wordpress.com/2008/08/18/first-day-of-school-2008/#comments Mon, 18 Aug 2008 16:28:50 +0000 metalman777 http://metalman777.wordpress.com/?p=171

Well, school started today (Hannah started last Wednesday, but we cheated and took her pictures today too!)

Three kids in three different schools!!  Wow!  I thought I’d be freakin’ out really bad with a high schooler and a Jr higher and a 4th grader, but I’m actually super excited for them.  Each one is on a new journey and it is God has given me the privelege to help guide ‘em through it!

Jesus, please watch over them and keep them safe and their eyes turned towards you!
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Listening to: Monk & Neagle - More Than That
via FoxyTunes

Found this on youtube and got me excited for the new album.  Not exactly a return to Master of Puppets, but sure is light years better than St. Anger!!

I love the bass from Robert Trujillo.  He is turning into one of my favorite bass players!

We took a short weekend trip to Monterey and sure had a blast!  I love the coast!

I was playing with Google Maps and their new Street View of Merced and found something funny…

Hannah was captured watering the tree!  That’s awesome!

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Listening to: Will Smith - Parents Just Dont Understand
via FoxyTunes

Saw this posted on digg and absolutely love it!  I want a hog just so I can get a helmet like this!  Was originally from this blog:

http://coolaggregator.wordpress.com/2008/08/07/motorcycle_helmet/

I’ve been very eagerly anticipating War of Ages new album, entitled “Arise & Conquer”.  This is their first release of new songs since 2006’s Pride of the Wicked (which is my top 5 all time top favorite albums ever created).

For some reason, I just can’t love Arise & Conquer.  The music is good and heavy, the vocals are passionate.  The album is well produced….but it just isn’t Pride of the Wicked!  I know that isn’t fair to the band, but Pride of the Wicked is so good that every other album they release will be judged against it.

Pride of the Wicked, one of the best metal albums ever produced!

Try as I might, this album just makes me need more.  I know it is stupid!  I think I’m going to have to listen to the album over and over to finally fall in love with it!

Track listing

1. “All Consuming Fire” – 4:13
2. “When Faith Turns to Ashes” – 1:51
3. “Through the Flames” – 4:17
4. “Salvation” – 3:28
5. “Sleep of Prisoners” – 3:59
6. “Wages of Sin” – 4:23
7. “Yet Another Fallen Eve” – 3:45
8. “Generational Curse” – 2:47
9. “The Awakening” – 3:59
10. “The Deception of Strongholds” – 4:05

Another band that I absolutely love is Into Eternity.  They have also released a new album, entitled The Incurable Tragedy. This is Into Eternity’s 5th studio album, and by all rights should be a great album.   Into Eternity has had that special ability to blend technical prog metal with the heaviness of speed/death metal.  Their previous four albums have all been fantastic.  Perfect work out music!

Like Arise & Conquer, I’m having a super hard time getting into The Incurable Tragedy.  It sounds like they have taken all the songs from their previous albums and mashed ‘em all together.  It is chaotic and sounds uninspired.

Track listing

1. “Prelude to Woe” − 0:55
2. “Tides of Blood” − 3:46
3. “Spent Years of Regret” − 4:15
4. “Symptoms” − 1:48
5. “Diagnosis Terminal” − 3:31
6. “The Incurable Tragedy I” (September 21, 2006) − 2:49
7. “Indignation” − 3:58
8. “Time Immemorial” − 4:15
9. “The Incurable Tragedy II” (November 10, 2006) − 3:37
10. “A Black Light Ending” − 3:33
11. “One Funeral Hymn for Three” − 4:10
12. “The Incurable Tragedy III” (December 15, 2006) − 2:20

I really want to love these albums.  Hopefully something will change.  Until then, I’ll just keep listening to the new Metal Church album, This Present Wasteland!  Talk about great heavy metal!!

Tesla has been I’ve loved ever since their very first album, Mechanical Resonance (released in 1986).  They have been producing great music ever since then.  I’ve never been able to catch a concert, so I was super excited when I heard this DVD was going to be released.

As you can see, all of Tesla’s hits are played here.  Track number 8, Dear Private Ledbetter is an amazing new song.

This entire DVD is amazing. The sound quality is great, the performance is great, everything about it is great.  If you are a fan of hard rock in general, you gotta see this!