TrevorCarpenter.com

I woke to a fire hydrant of news about the US Supreme Court’s ruling on the 2nd Amendment case before them. You have no idea how excited I became as I read the reports coming in stating the renewed clarity about our continued rights.

In case you didn’t know, the Supreme Court has never clearly ruled on the basic reality that we, as individuals, have the right to purchase, own, and possess firearms. Back in the 70’s the city of Washington, DC passed a law that forbade the ownership of handguns, and increased the limitations on rifles and shotguns. Their reasoning was to help fight crime on the streets. Recently, an armed security guard wanted to purchase and possess a handgun, for personal protection. The city denied his request, and he sued.

The case made its way to the top court, and they ruled today. Yippy!

Now if they’d just enforce existing laws, and quit pandering to the dirt-bag criminals, maybe we’d see a drop in crime.

Digg it!

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You may already be aware of this, but last week we took the family to Zion National Park, in southern Utah. Man, it was awesome!

We hit the road quite early on Tuesday morning, with the goal of being near Las Vegas by lunchtime. We stayed on schedule all the way to St. George, Utah. That’s where we hit the local Wal-Mart Supercenter, to collect all the groceries we’d need for our short week.

Behind our family mini-van we towed our family’s pop-tent trailer. Once there, it was a bit small for our family of 6, but we made it work. On Wednesday we even got to celebrate The Wookie’s 4th birthday. I spent part of the afternoon baking him a chocolate cake in our dutch oven. It even turned out!

The gorgeous scenery in Zion National Park is amazing. All around you are the most wonderful red-striped rock mountains. The US Park Service does a fine job keeping the park flowing and active. They have a 5-minutes-apart shuttle service that runs from the early morning hours until 11pm. This makes it quite easy to visit the park without having to deal with parking.

We stayed in a private campground, just outside the gates. Since the shuttle runs in the small town outside the park, Springdale, UT, we were able to catch the shuttle and get to anywhere we needed. The main canyon has multiple hikes for all levels, including our 4 small kids. We were able to spend a nice day walking along the Virgin River, at the north end of Zion Canyon.

Overall, we had a wonderful time, and hope to get back there next year. In fact, we might even hit Bryce Canyon, just up the road, in the early fall.

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I had the great opportunity to see Prince Caspian, on opening night. My entire family is seeing it on Sunday, whilst I’m at work. So, the wife allowed me to stay out late and see it at the first chance. I ended up going alone. I’m a bit unique when watching movies, so it’s no loss to me to attend the theater alone.

I am a huge fan of The Chronicles of Narnia. Next to The Lord of The Rings, the Narnia series is one of the best set of stories in the English language. Yes I know, there are so many, and I’m sure I’d agree with your favorites too. I read them as a child, multiple times. I’ve even read them to my daughter. Well, actually I read the first two, then she started reading them to me. We have only one left to be complete. Next I’ll set my sights on my boys.

I enjoyed the film, as a stand alone project. It was entertaining and was somewhat how I imagined many important parts from the book. Unfortunately, there were a few issues I didn’t like and I think they detract from the message of the book.

This book is important because it sets the stage for The Voyage of the Dawn Treader. It demonstrates that the people of Narnia, and the surrounding countries, are quick to forget the truth of their ancestry and their beginnings.

I didn’t quite like Peter’s scuffle in the Underground Station. He was clearly fighting for trivial reasons and I wouldn’t expect that from High King Peter, the Magnificent. Additionally, Peter’s role would have been to lead the leaders, and Caspian did not take as much issue with Peter’s decisions in the book. Caspian would have been properly obedient to Peter.

The last problem I had was with Susan’s infatuation with Caspian, or was it the other way around? There’s no way a proper Queen of Narnia would have kissed a man whom was not her husband, especially in public. The liberalization of these issues cheapen the story and Lewis work on the whole.

Oh yeah, and Prince Caspian sure seemed to whine a lot. Peter communicated his intentions, and Caspian didn’t take issue like a noble, he whined about it. He sounded like it hurt his feelings that Peter didn’t consult him first. Just silly.

However, other than these few problems, I still loved the film and am proud to have spent my voting dollars on its opening weekend.

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I have two, unrelated, things to discuss right now. I really, really want your input.

#1 Wordpress 2.5

Wordpress 2.5 is finally released. I haven’t upgraded yet. Mostly because I was a little afraid. You see, the administration panels are drastically different. I’ve been listening to WP podcasts, and reading WP blogs so that I can learn as much as possible.

Someone suggested a test blog. So, this morning I decided to launch a test blog, at http://test.trevorcarpenter.com, and play around. I have been wanting to play with a few plugins, and decided that this would work best for them too.

Once the blog was up and running, my plan was to mess with the plugins first, then upgrade to the 2.5 beta. But, when I sat down to begin, I saw that 2.5 was out of beta, and official. So, I tossed the plugins for now.

The test blog is running 2.5, and the admin dashboard is very different. I’m excited. I like new things.

#2 Moab Photography Workshop

I have the days off, and I really, really want to go to this exciting photography event in Moab, Utah. I can drive it in 10 hours, and I’m willing to take my car. I plan on camping, to save cash and have a bit more fun. If you can make it, you should try and attend this one. Ann Torrance, who helps plan and organize the Salt Lake City Photowalks, is speaking and she give it a good review.

For those SoCal photographers, who want to go, let’s carpool!

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Recently, the wife and I started using a homeschool forum. The curriculum we use, My Father’s World, is a great resource and we love the whole package. For homeschoolers who want to interact with other homeschoolers you need to consider the two best venues.

1. Local support group
2. Online forum

I won’t go into all the value and details of joining or starting a local support group. I will state that it is extremely important for all homeschoolers to join one. This helps in ways you can’t even see right now.

Additionally, participating in an online forum, dedicated to homeschooling, can expand your support group. Generally speaking, a forum will help connect you with other homeschoolers, increasing the chance that you will find someone with a very similar situation.

The possibility of a single-dad homeschooling, finding a local group of homeschooling single-dads is pretty slim. But, hitting the internets, that dad is going to find a whole assortment of dads, in need of wisdom, and willing to share their own.

So, where do you start? I suggest that you start with either looking for an online group that fits your unique make up; ie. single-dads. Or you can start with your curriculum.

That’s where we started. Our curriculum is not the largest. In fact, many have not even heard of it. However, with the ease of installing an open source (read: free) forum, even the smaller curiculum companies can afford to adminstrate a forum.

The My Father’s World Forum is great. Deanna is able to find encouragement from other moms who are using the same text books that we are. She is able to seek advice from moms who did exactly what she is doing now, last year. It’s great!

I even signed up with an account and have taken the opportunity to encourage a couple of exhausted homeschooling moms.

But, sometimes, we homeschoolers need a bit more. Sometimes we are separated from the simple things that can limit our kids’ opportunities. Years ago, homeschoolers had to play in community leagues if they wanted to compete in organized sports. But now, many private schools and even public ones, have programs in place to allow homeschooled kids to participate. That’s just one example of how, over time, we’ve been able to solve one of the simple issues.

Well today, the fact that our homeschooled kids can’t have a “.edu” email address can be limiting.

Just a few days ago, a local Fox affiliate in Austin, TX, reported that homeschoolers are being kicked off of Facebook because they don’t have an “.edu” email address. Facebook says that in order to verify that these minors are in fact minors, they need an “.edu” email address. They are concerned about predators getting into communication with our kids. Hey, I have no problem with Facebook working hard to keep their place safe for children. I think they should be applauded for doing so. However, Facebook is one of those great tools that our homeschooled children can use to their benefit for many things.

I briefly tried to find out how to purchase an “.edu” domain name. I could not find anything.

However, I, alone, would not have much power to influence Facebook, if I were handing out “.edu” email addresses. But, a national homeschooling organization could do this. They could at least offer up an email address for each of their own members.

So, I’m challenging the HSLDA, the nation’s largest homeschool advocate, to establish an email address system for all of its members. This would allow our children to have that coveted “.edu” email address.

It may seem like such a small thing, but for a homeschooled child who properly uses the internet for opportunities to expand their homeschool experience, this is very necessary.

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Today I found a great article on Digg. It’s titled, The List of Things That Offend Muslims. The post is from the Amboy Times. To sum it up, the Amboy Times probably isn’t high on the list of freedom hating followers of Islam. I’ve tossed in a quote below…

“The intent of the list is to illustrate the futility of the multicultural approach to Islam. Sharia law demands submission not only from Muslims, but from non-Muslims as well. This makes respectful coexistence nearly impossible with Muslims in Infidel lands. The examples below serve as reminder that submitting to one complaint or another only emboldens Muslims to seek to further their ultimate goal of establishing sharia.”

The point is to highlight how many silly and stupid things have offended followers of Islam, or were changed out of the fear of offending the followers if Islam.

It’s just interesting, very interesting.

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So, I’m checking out my stats the other day. I like to do that for a few reasons. Most importantly, I want to know where people are coming from. Ever since I did that October and December Challenges, last year, I’ve had a much larger readership. Knowing where everyone is coming from helps me know who is contributing to my traffic.

Whilst poking around, I discovered that I had a huge amount of in coming traffic from a specific blog. Having never heard of this blog before, I wandered over to find out why they were linking to me. I searched for a few keywords and nothing came up. So I looked more closely at my stats to see exactly what post of mine they liked. It wasn’t a post, but a file. Not just any file, but a photo. Interesting.

On occasion, I’ll load up a picture on my own server, instead of link to it. This was one of them. It didn’t take me long to understand that they wanted my photo, for their article, with NO CREDIT GIVEN! No way I’m going to let them use my photo, without permission, let alone have me host it for them!

So I did the right thing. I changed the name of the file on my server, and updated it in my original post. A quick refresh, and it’s working here. A quick refresh on their server, and empty box.

He, he.

****Update****

I went ahead and uploaded a special file, just for that blog. Now it loads more correctly, see for yourself…

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In my formative years, I was a part of the New America Singers. The NAS are a youth choir and performing group. We would spend the fall each year preparing for an annual performance the Southern Baptist State Youth Conference. The choir had been started at Magnolia Baptist Church, in Riverside, CA. That church is across the street from the largest, most influential Baptist institution in the state, California Baptist University.

But the big fun was the annual summer tour. The group has traveled throughout the USA and internationally. During my tenure we did a Pacific Northwest tour; (California, Oregon, Washington, and British Columbia), and England and Zimbabwe.

These trips made significant impacts upon my life. The largest being that the relationships I formed directed me to Azusa Pacific University, where I attended college.

I’ll bore you with more details another time. Here, I simply wanted to give you a brief background to my most recent photos. I attended a 25th anniversary celebration this past weekend, and of course, I took a few photos. You can see the album here. Below are a few samples…

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You know, last week, my tripod broke. We were in Mammoth and I picked it up to take it with me and presto, it was in two pieces. I was so mad. On the way home, I had wanted to take a nice night shot of Mt. Whitney. Opportunity lost. Well, when I was heading out, my dad said, “I think I have a tripod you can use at home.”

Hey, what do you know…my dad had an unused tripod in his closet. Not only is it a tripod, it’s a really awesome, sturdy tripod.

This tripod is 10x the quality of my old crappy one. Plus, it receives the awesome Giotto head I bought a few months back.

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Sometimes I wished that I knew some of the basic tactics used in the hacking underworld. A fellow blogger was hacked and screwed out of his personal domain name.

Read more here.

There are times I wish I could join the effort to track down the #$**@ and help teach him a lesson.

Oh, and BTW, check your own Gmail accounts for the hack that screwed him.

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I want you all to see my “Best of 2007″ collection. I’ve compiled my top photographs from Zooomr and Flickr, from over this past year, and organized them with a pretty nice tool. Click on the ones you want to see up close.

Take a look!

This nice tool came to me from a photo buddy, Kevin Devin. You can see his gallery too.

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So, we’re starting to pick up some speed. I’ve noticed several of you taking this opportunity real serious. It’s been great seeing the high quality portraits just pouring out in the Zooomr and Flickr feeds. Way to go!

One thing is for sure, this Challenge has been difficult for many of us, myself included. I know that this past week it hit me how hard this is to keep up. I’ve almost missed a daily shot several times. And as I write this, I have not shot my portrait for yesterday. For myself, once I start my work week of 12 hour shifts, it’s nearly impossible to get a shot each day. To make matters worse, this past weekend I was sick along with my 4 kids. So, it kicked my butt.

I have several good subjects lined up before this is over, so we’ll see how hard it is for me to fill in the remaining days. Below are just a few of the more recent submissions tagged correctly at Flickr.

Don’t forget about the groups at Zooomr and Flickr.

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