Ken

The Beatles sang about Rocky Raccoon's revival and a Gideon Bible. Last night (Halloween), we noticed a new neighbor ascending a tree in our yard on his way to our roof. This raccoon was the size of a small pig! Well, maybe. Rocky stared back at us like he was as intrigued by us as we were by him. Well, maybe.Granted, the Rocky Raccoon sung about by the Beatles was a spurned lover and not an actual raccoon. But it does make for a good title.

Is it just me or does anyone else find it a bit strange that Judge Wapner has been hired to appear in a political ad? For those of you too young to remember, Judge Wapner was the original judge in a television show known as "The People's Court." Those were the days before Judge Judy, et al. Every show ended with his sidekick saying, "Don't take the law into your own hands, take 'em to court."After getting over the cheesy nature of the ad (it ends with an echoing, "No on 77. No on 77), I began to think ... I wonder who they are going after with this ad. Unfortunately, it's probably the same people who tuned into People's Court to watch "justice being served." I wouldn't be surprised to see Stone Cold Steve Austin make an appearance in a political ad.

At breakfast this morning the subject turned to Google Earth, a nifty little piece of software if there ever was one. So ... I decided to download it to my laptop since I already had it on my desktop. If you haven't downloaded it yet, do it now. It's fun to play and you can travel the world for free. Some of the areas I wanted to look at -- like my hometown -- didn't have really good satellite pictures but most metropolitan areas do. And you can find places to rent a movie or grab a cup of coffee. Interestingly enough, it also lumps together "Churches/Cemeteries." Ironic or not.

I've decided to tackle video editing software and have been playing around with two different programs: Adobe Premier and Sony Vegas. I've used Adobe Photoshop for years (through several versions and upgrades) and thought I'd be able to pick up Premier fairly quickly. Wrong. It looks like the type of program that requires locking myself away for three or four days of straight experimentation. Granted, there are times that is a very appealing concept but not right now.Now on to Sony Vegas. On the surface, it appears to be easy-bake software but has surprised me with how robust it may actually be. Thanks to several online tutorials, I was able to figure out panning still images (commonly referred to as the "Ken Burns" effect). It has a healthy amount of effects, transitions, etc.Where will I land eventually? For now, it appears to be Sony Vegas though everyone tells me Premier…

Eight guys met this morning to eat, talk, and get to know one another. We had a great time learning more about each other ... where we come from, what we do, and what we have in common. There may even be the beginnings of a little flag football action ...