Baltimore’s Inner Harbor

A few more photos from years ago...

An adult who helped David when he was just a young’un invited our family to an Orioles game at Camden Yards. We decided to make a whole day of it so we headed to Baltimore early in the day and spent hours enjoying the sites around Baltimore’s Inner Harbor. This picture of a very young David brings back wonderful memories. He was such fun!

Photography

I

t has been a very long time since I posted a real blog post. I think maybe I should get back to doing this regularly. I let too many things get in the way of frivolous pontification. That’s an error I intend to correct.

So... I need to post some pictures. I was going through some of my older pictures and found a few I should probably share. These are pictures I really enjoyed. I hope you do as well.

This first one is a photo of one of the hotels as you first enter Front Royal. The night I took this photo there was an amazing full moon in the sky. I took a picture of that moon and sandwiched the photo of this hotel with the shot of the moon. I kind of like it, even though it’s a bit obvious that I Photoshopped it.

I took this picture of the Shenandoah River from the bridge over the north fork of the Shenandoah, just at the outskirts of Front Royal. The sun was setting over Mount Massanutten and it was simply beautiful.

After the sun had fallen behind the mountains in the distance, I set up my tripod and took a long exposure of this scene. I love the beauty of the skeletal trees against the river.

This is a door on a church in Upperville, Virginia, which is quite close to Front Royal. We decided to take a walk around the town one day and found some of the most wonderful scenes. This was one of them.

To be a rock... and not to roll

W

ho is the best band of all time? Almost 30 years ago that question launched a somewhat heated argument. The most vocal person in the conversation (other than me) held strongly to the belief that the Beatles were the best band of all time. And while I respect the Beatles’ talent and even like a handful of their songs, my position was just as strong as I proposed Led Zeppelin as the world’s best band.

Thirty years later, I still hold that belief. Thirty additional years and thousands of new bands have not changed the fact (not merely my belief... FACT) that Led Zeppelin is the best band in the history of the world.

D'yer Mak'er—by Led Zeppelin

When a band puts out music written with outstanding musicianship, that music stands the test of time and works even in different genres. Have you ever considered what Led Zeppelin would sound like if played by a symphony orchestra, an easy listening group, or perhaps by a bluegrass band? That’s difficult to think of, unless you actually listen to it. Led Zeppelin has been translated into every imaginable musical genre and comes out sounding great no matter what! It’s quite simply phenomenal music that is appreciated by people from every background—well, with the single exception of those who think they are too holy to appreciate God given talent when God gave that talent to someone from a different philosophical stripe.

D'yer Mak'er—bluegrass style

My office in D.C. is directly across the Potomac River from the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. Two months ago the American Music Association honored Led Zeppelin, and the venue for this event was the Kennedy Center. And here is that event:

Wow!!! What a great band!

Thank you Robert Plant, Jimmy Page, John Paul Jones, John Bonham, and Jason Bonham!

UPDATE — I have just listened to this incredible performance of Led Zeppelin songs again. Oh my goodness! Oh my! Oh! Can music be more wonderful? Oh ... Led Zeppelin!!! Wow !!!!!

I LOVE MUSIC!!!!

repeating background

Hi Lydia

There are patterns on the internet that have been prepared for seamless repetition. You could quite likely use these without even having to upload the graphic file to your web site. All you would need to do is point your HTML/CSS code for the background to the proper location on the web.

Here's an example in which I will apply a seamless repeatable image to the background of a CSS (Cascading Styles Sheets) element. CSS/HTML elements are always blocks, so it’s relatively easy to create a callout box or other rectangular element with a background fill.

When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. — That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, — That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. — Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

The graphic for this is already on the internet at http://www.unsigneddesign.com/Seamless_background_textures/thumbs/seamlesstexture21_1200.jpg. In order to create the seamless background I used the HTML paragraph tag (<p>) and applied CSS code to create the background effect. The CSS code is as follows:

padding: 24px;
background-image: url('http://www.unsigneddesign.com/Seamless_background_textures/thumbs/seamlesstexture21_1200.jpg');
background-repeat: repeat

In order to make that work inside the HTML, you would code it as follows:

<p style="padding 24px;
background-image: url('http://www.unsigneddesign.com/Seamless_background_textures/thumbs/seamlesstexture21_1200.jpg');
background-repeat: repeat;">

That’s it. Let me know if that makes sense or is completely confusing.