New Photos

Updated Flickr with over 80 photos today, I was a little behind!!!

Take a stroll!

The Power of Memory (HDR)

The Power of Memory (HDR)
Originally uploaded by Gamma Infinity

My friend Hugh did this up, HDR of Stonehenge. Beautiful. Inspiring.

Thanks, Hugh!

Please stroll through his collection leisurely. http://www.flickr.com/photos/gamma-infinity/

Pre-Christmas snow storm Dover, Delaware

Pre-Christmas snow storm Dover, Delaware
Originally uploaded by flutecake

Officially, they said 18 inches, but perhaps a bit more than that,

Snow bound, my chance to catch up on domestic things & Eastenders back episodes.

Since I work out of my home studio now, I will be able to commute okay. LOL

Can I start taking photos again?

on my alley
Originally uploaded by flutecake

Some disappointments in life, lately, have caused me to shelve my photo interests. I have been carrying around my little Nikon, iPhone (of course), but Spring came & went without any good flower photography, except the Philly Flower Show with Heather.

I am determined to overcome the doldrums and get back out there. Follow my links back to my Flickr page for more.

I have made three small purchases recently to help myself out.

1) A Mino Flip video camera. 2 hours of good quality in low light filming, the sound isn't bad. I am compiling an iMovie of the first day along with some stills. Hope to finish that off tomorrow

2) A new tri-pod, not an incredibly cheap one but one that is more wieldy than the video camera tripod from the 2001 era.

3) An Eye-Fi card for the Nikon. This will wirelessly upload pictures over any Wi-Fi I come in contact with - to Flickr.

Please take a look at the Flickr pages. I hadn't updated all the pictures from the March Irish Music Madness season, until today.

I have to get caught up because I plan to take lots of pictures on the 4th!

Opening NIGHT - Mad perspective

All the hubbub, dust settles, we have a new Senator, too!

From our local paper from the AP, but I will be writing our new Senator Kaufman, please restore our Constitution, sir.

Senate swears in Biden’s replacement, Ted Kaufman

Associated Press WASHINGTON — Ted Kaufman, a Delaware Democrat who for decades has been a political adviser to Sen. Joe Biden, DDel., was sworn in Friday to fill the Senate seat Biden relinquished to become vice president.
Kaufman, 69, has made clear that his emergence into the public spotlight will be brief, that he does not plan to stay in the Senate past 2010.
Delaware Gov. Ruth Ann Minner, who appointed Kaufman to fi ll Biden’s vacated Senate seat, joined Biden’s wife Jill in watching the swearing-in from the visitors’ gallery. Biden, who will become vice president next Tuesday, formally resigned Thursday after 36 years in the Senate.
Kaufman served on Biden’s Senate staff from 1973 to 1994, including 19 years as chief of staff, and has held senior positions in all of Biden’s national campaigns.
“It was like getting married,” Kaufman said in a telephone interview after the swearing-in. “ You can anticipate it, but when you walk down the aisle, it’s a totally different feel. That’s the way this was. It was special.”
“ The Senate is a special place to me. I worked here for 22 years,” said Sen. Kaufman. “And even after those 22 years, it still gives me goosebumps.”
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., in introducing the new senator , said, “No one ever will fill the shoes of Joe Biden.” Sen. Kaufman, he said, “knows he has to be Ted Kaufman, not Joe Biden, and he will do that.”
Reid added that one reason Biden “has had the strength that he has had over these years is because his back was always protected by Ted Kaufman.”
Sen. Kaufman stated that his first priority would be to work on economic recovery.
“ The economy is affecting most Delawareans and most Americans,” he said.
“ When you lose a job, you don’t just lose a job, you lose money, health care, and self-respect. I can’t imagine anything worse than having to come home and tell your kids, you’ve lost your job. I want to work to help turn things around,” said Sen. Kaufman.
A graduate of Duke University and the MBA program at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania, Kaufman is a senior lecturing fellow at Duke and since 1995 has served, by presidential appointment, as a charter member of the Broadcasting Board of Governors. He also heads a political and management consulting firm based in Wilmington, Del., and previously worked for the DuPont Co.
Biden and Delaware Sen. Thomas R. Carper escorted Kaufman into the Senate chamber, and he was sworn in by Vice President Dick Cheney, who is also president of the Senate.
Many had predicted Minner would choose Biden’s son Beau, Delaware ’s attorney general, to succeed him. That option disappeared when Beau Biden’s National Guard unit was sent to Iraq. However, he would be in position to run for the Senate seat in 2010 if Kaufman steps aside.
Kaufman said he hadn’t given any thought to what he’ll do after the term ends.
“ The phrase I find going back and forth in my head is life is what’s happening when you’re planning for it,” he said.

Pre-ordered The Big Lebowski 10 anniv. DVD bowling ball edition!

511m3hu5imL._SS500_.jpg (JPEG Image, 500x500 pixels)

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Mother

Mother
Originally uploaded by flutecake

Here's a photo of my mother that we used for the funeral program.

Its all in your HEAD. Learn to just FEEL BETTER.

Embedded Video

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BoxWave Crystal Clear case for iPhone 3G

BoxWave - Close-up Picture

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Bloomsday

Bloomsday is a secular holiday, celebrated annually on June 16. The day both celebrates the life of the Irish writer James Joyce and commemorates the fictitious events in his novel, Ulysses, all of which took place on a single day in Dublin.

I reposted this from my original on this date in 2004.

Twitter me.

Link Between Cellphones and Cancer ???

Well - Debate Over Link Between Cellphones and Cancer Is Revived - NYTimes.com

Cellphones emit non-ionizing radiation, waves of energy that are too weak to break chemical bonds or to set off the DNA damage known to cause cancer. There is no known biological mechanism to explain how non-ionizing radiation might lead to cancer.

But researchers who have raised concerns say that just because science can’t explain the mechanism doesn’t mean one doesn’t exist. Concerns have focused on the heat generated by cellphones and the fact that the radio frequencies are absorbed mostly by the head and neck. In recent studies that suggest a risk, the tumors tend to occur on the same side of the head where the patient typically holds the phone.

Like most research on the subject, the studies are observational, showing only an association between cellphone use and cancer, not a causal relationship. The most important of these studies is called Interphone, a vast research effort in 13 countries, including Canada, Israel and several in Europe.

I bought one of these types of earpieces, with an air tube.

It isn't bad sounding but it will take some getting used to. I also use the speaker phone more.

See also:

Bobby Kennedy, Jr. interviews Dr. George Carlo, Public Health Scientist, on Ring of Fire, you can see this on GoLeft.tv, search for

RFK, Jr: Hidden Cell Phone Dangers

Dr. Carlo's website


Look at the info, decide if you still love your bluetooth headset.  I think I have a headache behind my eye, now.  Ow.

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Master of the Celtic harp | delawareonline | The News Journal

Master of the Celtic harp | delawareonline | The News Journal

Master of the Celtic harp

Wesley professor taught himself how to play this rare musical instrument

By MIKE BILLINGTON • Special to The News Journal • June 12, 2008

DOVER -- Mike Nielsen's fingers caress the strings of his harp, and the instrument's bright tones soar over the audience gathered on The Green to hear him and his band Celtic Harvest play Irish and Scottish music.

The song ends, and applause ripples through the air. Nielsen and his band mates pause, make some adjustments to their instruments, and launch into another song. Once again his fingers dance over the strings of his harp, and its notes fill the air.

Nielsen, 57, is a musical anomaly. Not many people in Delaware play the harp, and fewer play the smaller Celtic harp that is Nielsen's instrument of choice. As a result, he's in demand for weddings and other formal occasions.

By day, Nielsen is a professor who teaches media at Wesley College. He did not grow up with a desire to play the harp. He discovered his unlikely interest in the instrument by accident while visiting Maine.

"About 14 years ago I was up in Maine in a little town called Bar Harbor," Nielsen said. "There was a Celtic music shop there, and I went in just to see what they had."

While browsing through the shop's aisles, he wound up standing in front of a display of Celtic harps. He ran his fingers over the strings and something amazing happened.

"All I really did was touch one of them, and it made music," said Nielsen, who described himself as a guitar-playing closet musician back in those days.

"It was pretty remarkable."

He didn't buy a harp, but he told his wife Betsy about the experience -- over and over.

"I guess she got tired of hearing me talk about it so she egged me on by saying 'why don't you get one?' Eventually I did, and it sort of went from there," Nielsen said.

Nielsen, who also plays the guitar, is self-taught. He took some lessons from Kathy DeAngelo, a Celtic harper from Voorhees, N.J., whose credits include a couple of well-reviewed albums and a stint as musical director for the New Jersey Folk Festival. She taught him the basics, but the rest he learned on his own.

"He's just a natural musician," said Betsy Nielsen, an English professor at Delaware State University. "He's always played music, ever since I've known him, and he also has a wonderful singing voice. Even though he doesn't read music, he has this natural ability to just hear something and incorporate it into his music."

Nielsen's entry into the world of professional musicians was as much of an accident as his discovery of the Celtic harp. He and his wife were active members of the Dover Art League for years, and members asked him to play at one of its events.

"We were very active in the league at the time, and they were having an open house and invited me to come and play," Nielsen said. "I did, and I guess people liked what they heard. Someone who was there that night and heard me later hired me to play at a private party, and that's how it started."

Nielsen began taking out advertisements and developed a Web page. He also joined Celtic Harvest.

His musical career, combined with teaching, keeps him busy. His wife she doesn't mind.

"Most people wouldn't consider it a hardship, listening to harp music," she said. "He's really easy to live with."

The Celtic harp is different from instruments used in orchestral arrangements. It is smaller and has a different sound than its larger musical cousin.

"The Celtic harp has lighter strings than a concert pedal harp, so it's a little easier to play in that respect. The pedal harp that you see in an orchestra requires a lot of force and a lot of leverage to play it properly. It also has a deeper, more resonant sound. The Celtic harp has a brighter sound," Nielsen said.

That brighter sound strikes a chord with those enjoying the Celtic sounds in Dover.

Sitting in a lawn chair not far from the makeshift bandstand at the Green, Ardythe Simmons tapped her foot gently on the grass in time with the music, while listening to Nielsen's unusual harp.

"This is really nice," she said. "It almost makes you think you're in Ireland."

INFORMATION

For more information about Celtic harpist Mike Nielsen, visit www.weddingharper.com or call 531-5312.

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Morning Ireland 11 June, 2008

Photo credit


Presented by Aine Lawlor and John Murray

View Original Article

16º and raining, unhappy fishermen blockading Cork Harbour. Ahhhh, the old sod.

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Challenge: One Sentence Journal

Could I do this here?

It might make me HAPPY.

Okay, let's give this a whirl, this part won't count.

--oo00oo--

Hot today, Sunday laundry, Pampered Chef party at Lauren's, rehearsal tonight and catching up on the RSS feeds.

Whew!

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I miss Mecca

flamingo_snow_9402
Originally uploaded by neville_700

Thinking of spring, visiting Flickr, I see the friend I love & miss.

I should give her a jingle.

The Democratic Slugfest

This race has really been hard on me, like a lot of people. After 7 years of dubya and the real evil-doers (otherwise known as the Bush Crime Family), you'd think the damn Democrats would skip into their future happy as a lark.

As we see the evil influence of the new political atmosphere infect the Democrats, I've watched as three superior candidates were swept aside by this political machine and we are left with these two, who were NEVER on my short list of choices for President.

As time goes by, I think we are starting to see the old mean DLC people ruin it for some and Obama seems to in a bit better shape to lead.

Take a look at this and see if you might be persuaded. People very close to me are Hillary supporters. This makes life hard, doesn't it??





Whatever happens, we cannot have a president named McAngry McCain!!!!!! Bah!!! Please vote for the last Democrat standing in 2008!

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Cat sitting scores bonus

krazy kidd kats
Originally uploaded by flutecake

Feeding the cats, found extra protein!!

But we removed the evidence, so my friend won't have to faint dead away when she returns!

This is Gwenhwyfar & Tulane, the top 4 frames are Gwenhwyfar and the bottom 2, with a semi-friendly sniff from the other, is Tulane, the cutest fat cat in town. He loves any brushing, at all!

They got praise for their mousing, without shreiks or tears!!! They like us to do cat duty, I think!

There's my famous toes, too! I didn't have time to grab the Nikon, so the Treo camera did the job.

Possum Joy

Republican die-hard as mental illness