I sure do like taking pictures of dogs!
Death Duck.
8 hours ago
Tuesday, June 30, 2009
Monday, June 29, 2009
Only the Pretty Need Apply
I came across a very amusing story today. As a few of you (I wish it was all of you), may know, the Wimbledon tennis tournament is currently going on over in England. As there are 128 men and 128 women who enter the singles events, let alone the men and women's doubles and the junior events, a LOT of courts are needed to accommodate all that matches that are being played. But there is one court that all players aspire to play at - Centre Court, the Court where the finals are played, the court that obviously has the most seat, the court which signifies that you have made it to the big time. Well, that is if you are male. As expected, the best male players almost always get to play on this court. Roger Federer, the #1 player in the world; he gets to play his matches there. But notice I said male players. What about the females? If the top seeded male got to play on Centre Court, surely, Dinara Safina, the top seeded female would play there too, right?
Well, if that were the case, we wouldn't have a story, would we? As it turns out, which females get to play on Centre Court in the earlier rounds is partially decided on the beauty factor. Yes, if you are pretty, you have a better chance to play on Center Court than if you are considered less that stellar on the attractiveness scale. I am not making this up. Jonny Perkins, who works for the All England Club (the organization that runs the tournament) came out and said that "good looks are a factor" in deciding who gets to play on Centre Court and that "It's not a coincidence that those (on Centre Court) are attractive." So, the other day when #1 seed Dinara Safina (Pic 1 below) and #2 seed Serena Williams were playing on outer, smaller courts, Centre Court saw a matchup of the 8th seed, Victoria Azarenka (pic 2 below) against 28th seed Sorana Cirstea (pic 3 below). 
I like hot women as much as the next guy, but this isn't a beauty contest. The best ATHLETES should get the best treatment in an athletic event. Pretty sad....
June 29 2009 - Day 32
Orko sleeping under the dining room table. Apparently dogs sleep better hugging things also.
Sunday, June 28, 2009
June 28 2009 - Day 31
This is a Dahlia that was in my dad's backyard. I could literally pick from hundreds of different things to photograph in my dad's garden.
Saturday, June 27, 2009
June 26 2009 - Day 29
A wedding I went to yesterday. Remember, the project is a picture a day, not posting it every day so that is my excuse for not getting up a picture yesterday. Below are some other pictures I took, but aren't part of my 365 pictures in 365 days project...
Thursday, June 25, 2009
June 25 2009 - Day 28
Yeah, it is a little hokey, but I loved his music. The light goes out one last time. Thank goodness I still have this album...
Wednesday, June 24, 2009
This is one of those good news/bad news things...
One of those days where something good happens and something bad happens. I mean, the good outweighs the bad, but it still doesn't erase it totally.
The day started with me finding out that the Academy Awards has decided to increase the number of pictures that will be nominated for Best Picture to 10, up from the previous number of 5. If you have followed this blog for years, you know this really affects Jess and me. For well over a decade, Jess and I have made it a point to see all five films nominated for Best Picture before the actual Academy Awards ceremony. We love that it exposes us to some movies that we might not have otherwise seen. We have seen some stinkers, but we have also seen some brilliant movies we probably would have never seen. Now with the number of movies increased to 10, it makes it that much harder to see all of them on time. Imagine if when the nominations are announced, we have yet to see any of the ten films? That means we will have to see ten films in just over a month's period. That is hard on time and hard on the wallet. I HATE to stop this tradition we have, but this is going to be really hard...
On the other hand, today was a great day for US Soccer fans and for soccer fans in general. The boys were in the semifinals of the Confederations Cup against Spain, the #1 team in the world and a team that hadn't lost since November of 2006. The US just squeaked into the semis after a miraculous final day of results in group play. Before the previous game, they had been playing rather poorly and that is really an understatement. Was the last game a fluke and now they would be brought down to Earth? That is why I, and the rest of the soccer world thought in one way or another. But, this is soccer. One of the things that I love about the sport is that on any given day, anybody can beat anybody. That is what my dad has been saying since I started watching games with him. To indirectly quote Herb Brooks, coach of the 1980 US Hockey team, "If we play them 10 times they might beat us 9 of those. But it is that one time..." And that is exactly what happened with a beautiful, hard fought, well earned 2-0 victory over a stunned Spanish team. This felt good. If anything, it gave us fans some hope that the World Cup next year won't be a total disaster for us. But for now, I'll just revel in the boys shocking the world. 
June 24 2009 - Day 27
The train switching yard literally 1 minute from my house. I thought the tone lead itself more to sepia than color.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Monday, June 22, 2009
Is this thing on?
I have been doing my Wii Active now a little over a week and I have to say, I am pretty frustrated. Here is the thing - since I have started using it, I have gained a few pounds, not lost a few pounds as I was hoping. My diet really hasn't changed. The exercises are honestly more strenuous than anything I have done in a long time. When the workout is over I am drenched with sweat, full of aches and pains, and worn out. It is like 500 times more work than the Wii Fit was. I feel like I have more energy than I have in a long time, a feeling of rejuvenation. And yet, like I said, I am gaining weight. I know, I know, muscle weighs more than fat. But, I didn't gain 4 pounds of muscle last week. I was losing more weight by not exercising at all and THAT is really frustrating. I am going to stick with it because it does make me feel good to do such a workout (and I am on the medium level, not even the hardest yet), but I would be lying if I said there wasn't a big level of disappointment right now.
I had a great Father's Day over at my parents' house yesterday, but I would be lying if I said there wasn't an underlying sense of sadness yesterday over the fact that I probably will never be a father. Long time readers of the blog know of the struggles my wife and I have had in having a child and I have pretty much reached a point where I am over it and have come to terms with our situation. The last couple of Father's Days haven't been too difficult, but yesterday seemed to hit me pretty hard. I think I would be a good father, but life isn't always fair I guess. Hell, I am sure we all know that.
Have a fun week coming up this week. Tomorrow and Wednesday, I will have some work to do and Jess has to work, but Thursday we get to see Transformers, Thursday night Jess is cooking chicken spaghetti, one of my all time favorite dishes, Friday night we have a wedding to go to, Saturday night is poker, and Sunday night we are going with the New Yorkers to Joe's Crab Shack. We've never been there so we are looking forward to it. And then on top of all this, my daily pictures! My wife, the sweetheart she is even created a fan page on Facebook for my photography and you can now become a fan of Manuel Valle's photography. Best wife ever! Have a good week everyone!
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Saturday, June 20, 2009
June 20 2009 - Day 23
Day 23 - June 20, 2009
My local comic book shop, the keeper of my money, the bringer of joy.
My local comic book shop, the keeper of my money, the bringer of joy.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
June 18 2009 - Day 21
If I was giving each photo an actual title, I would call this, "FIRST!" This little guy in my backyard was the first to bloom on the plant. Overachiever....
Wednesday, June 17, 2009
June 17 2009 - Day 20
This is Jessica, the ever willing participant in my picture experiments, spitting out water. I had so many to choose from!!!
By the way, I have added a new blogger to my sidebar. My buddy MrVideoGuy, a person who used to post on here, now has his own blog. Good stuff so far. Be sure to drop by and welcome him to the blogging world. Blog name is Rabble Rock.
By the way, I have added a new blogger to my sidebar. My buddy MrVideoGuy, a person who used to post on here, now has his own blog. Good stuff so far. Be sure to drop by and welcome him to the blogging world. Blog name is Rabble Rock.
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
A Forgotten Pain
The other day I purchased a new program for the Wii called the Wii Active. I used the Wii Fit for a while last year and it helped me to lose close to 17 pounds . However, ever since the holidays, I kind of stopped watching what I ate, stopped exercising, etc, and although I didn't gain all the weight back, I gained a decent chunk. Ready to get back on the weight loss wagon, I started up the Wii Fit on June 1. The only thing was, I was bored with it and I didn't really feel it was that strenuous despite the help it gave me last year. I heard about a new program called the Wii Active and gave it a go this past Saturday.
OH. MY. GOD. This thing totally kicked my butt. I had to enter all my basic information and pick an activity level I wanted to work at. You could start doing exercises on your own, but I chose to do the 30 day challenge which is a guided workout - the on screen instructor chooses my exercises and keeps me going until it decides I am done. By the end of the 30+ minutes of my first guided workout on Saturday, I had more sweat than I had had in years and I could barely move my legs as it had me do a tremendous amount of leg work, lunges and such. But, I felt good about doing it.
Sunday I woke up and I could barely move. Determined, I went on to day 2. Like a bad nightmare, the program threw even more leg work at me, rendering my quads useless at one point. They had other focus areas too, but this is what hurt the worst by far. The rest of the day Sunday, every little step too the effort of a champion. Thankfully, when I went on to day 3 on Monday, the majority of the work was focused on arm work. And, because the program must have appreciated my hard work, it told me to take the day off today to rest my muscles. What is funny though is I was almost disappointed this morning not to exercise, but I wanted to stick with what it told me. Still, I am actually looking forward to tomorrow's workout and I can't believe I just typed that. I am quite happy with this program so far...
June 16 2009 - Day 19
Man, this was a REALLY hard shot for me. It has a lot of things that made it difficult This was in the laundry room so there was very low light. Not only was there low light, but in order to get the movement of the spinning ball, I had to slow the shutter speed down. Too fast and I wouldn't get the movement of the ball. So, with that being said, low light and slow shutter speed, any movement at all by me or by Orko would render the whole picture blurry as hell. After over 100 shots, this is the one that came out the best. Not perfect, but it was mostly what I was going for: spinning ball, still dog watching. Could have been better, but not at this point in my skills yet.
Monday, June 15, 2009
June 15 2009 - Day 18
This is portion of the frog collection that my grandma has in front of her fireplace. I was over there today and thought they looked cute enough for the picture of the day.
Sunday, June 14, 2009
June 14 2009 - Day 17
Leia was relaxing on her back getting her belly rubbed. We love how she keeps her mouth slightly ajar and shows off her pearly whites.
Saturday, June 13, 2009
June 13 2009 - Day 16
Just a bee going for a morning stroll through my backyard. Guess the flower on the right didn't look like too good of a pit stop.
Friday, June 12, 2009
June 12 2009, Day 15
We have a ton of these flowers in the back yard and they are absolutely beautiful right now. Not even the photo does them justice. Because of their beauty, this is the first photo of my set that is completely raw and untouched.
Thursday, June 11, 2009
Wednesday, June 10, 2009
June 10 2009 - Day 13
This is Pepper Plant BBQ sauce and it is far and away the BEST BBQ sauce I have ever had. I mean, it isn't even close. The problem is, I believe they only sell it in the central coast so when we go down to visit family or chill on the beach, we stop by the store and stock up. We must have around 6 bottles in our pantry.
Tuesday, June 09, 2009
Manuel on Movies #12
It has been a couple of months since I have reviewed movies so I have a ton to catch up on. Hell, hopefully I don't miss any. Because there are so many, this will be a poster-less post. I don't feel like linking to 11 different posters. Sorry..
Joshua - This was a weird little independent thriller that I decided to check out because the summary sounded like it would be about an evil child and who doesn't like movies about that. Basically, Joshua is a little boy who starts to feel neglected when his parents have a new baby. Weird things start happening around the house and to the baby while the mom goes crazy. It could have been creepier, but there were parts that were just weird. The ending was pretty cool, but still, it wasn't as creepy as it sounds. 4 out of 10
Fast and Furious - This is the 4th installment in the series about cars that go really fast and truth be told, this was my favorite yet. I loved the first film while I thought the next two were serviceable. I enjoyed this one so much because it kind of reminded me of a Bad Boys film. Sure, there were racing cars, but it seemed to be more of a structured story, and a good one at that - drugs, revenge, etc. I really dug it and it was great to see Diesel and Walker back together. 7.5 out of 10.
Kiss Kiss Bang Bang - This movie is a few years old, but was recommended by a bunch of people lately. This was a hilarious crime comedy. Robert Downey Jr. plays a criminal who unexpectedly gets thrown into the Hollywood scene and is up for a part in a movie. Val Kilmer plays detective who is to teach him how to play his part. But then a real murder takes place and the two get involved in solving it through their involvement with side characters. Downey is awesome in the role and is quite funny. The story, narration, humor, etc, are all great and this come highly recommended. 8 out of 10.
The Happening - This is M. Night Shymalan's latest movie and as this movie has been out for a while, it gave me plenty of time to hear so many bad things about it. Despite reviews, I have liked all his movies so far - some more than others, but liked them nonetheless. And you know what, this wasn't as bad as people made out to be. If not for some HORRIBLE acting, this would have been quite creepy. I didn't even really mind the premise or explanation of it. With some better acting and the exclusion of a few lines, this could have been one of the creepiest movies I have seen in a while. But regardless, I enjoyed this and if you have liked his other movies (not just Sixth Sense or Unbreakable, but ALL), then you should like this one. 7.5 out of 10
X-Men Origins: Wolverine - This was the origin story of my favorite comic character, Wolverine. There were some things that were changed about his origin, but I still really enjoyed it. There is one other character that they just totally changed and made comic fanboys raving mad, but I was able to just sit back and enjoy it for what it was - a good comic movie. Jackman just owns as Wolverine and the supporting cast was also up the task. There were a couple special effects that were pretty damn bad, but overall, I really liked this movie. 8 out of 10
Star Trek - WOW! Ok, so I have never considered myself a Trekker, some huge superfan of all things Star Trek, but I have enjoyed the movies. Additionally, I have always been partial to the original cast rather than the Next Generation cast (I didn't watch anything past that). But this movie just blew me away. It was literally a perfect sci-fi/action movie. And really, if we are not going to use the word perfect, the only other word we can use is FUN. It was a fun movie and I found myself smiling throughout the movie. Although it was a new cast, seeing these characters that I knew and loved back on the screen was amazing and the story they came up with bring it back was awesome. After the movie finished, I could have walked right back in and watched it all over again. I can't wait for Blu Ray. 9.5 out of 10.
Terminator:Salvation - I guess we can call this Terminator 4 as it continues the story of the original trilogy with Christian Bale now in the John Conner role. It is hard to say you are disappointed in a movie that isn't bad, but it just wasn't as good as I was hoping. Now, it was better than many other people say it was and I enjoyed myself, but I think I was expecting something epic out of it. After talking about the war against the machines after judgement day for 3 movies, we finally got to see it and it wasn't quite as epic as I had hoped it would be. I don't know, the action scenes were great, the sound was amazing, the acting was respectable, but it just seemed to be missing something. But still, I did enjoy myself and thought it wasn't the train wreck many others have said it was. 7 out of 10.
The Wrestler - Mickey Rourke's role of a lifetime as aging professional wrestler, one who used to be on the top of the world, but now spends time wrestling in front of crowds of 100. This was a very sad story, and probably more so because I am almost certain that this could have been the biography for countless real life professional wrestlers. Rourke was amazing as the down and out wrestler. He really owned this role and it is clear why he was nominated for so many awards during the last awards season. Did he deserve the Academy Award over Sean Penn, who went on to win for Milk? I don't think so, but if he had won, I don't think it would have been an upset by any means. 7.5 out of 10
21 - This movie focuses on a bunch of college students who join together under the tutelage of Kevin Spacey to "cheat" casinos out of money by counting cards in Blackjack, something that is illegal, albeit, very difficult to do. This had a pretty good story, one that keeps you entertained for two hours and then after it is done, you smile and probably never think of it again. Not bad though. 7 out of 10
National Treasure: Book of Secrets - I think that has been out a couple of years now, but we finally got around to seeing it. This is the Nicolas Cage sequel to the movie of the same name and it was just as enjoyable; a mindless adventure movie that
keeps you entertained for two hours. It has great humor, great action, great puzzles (if you are into that kind of thing), and decent story. I actually liked this one even better than the first. There isn't much to say; if you liked the first one, you are sure to like this one as well. 8 out of 10
Up - This is Disney/Pixar's latest film and man, was this something else. I am just going to say that no film has EVER touched me in a way that this film has and I was closer to tearing up in this movie than any ever film has ever gotten me. The film just touched on issues that were almost too much to watch - if you are a long time reader of the blog, you will understand when you see it. But despite this, this was an amazing movie. It was moving, beautiful to look at (I can't wait for the Blu Ray), funny, touching, and everything that you would expect from a Pixar film. It is as if they took everything that has made their films great and turned it up to 11. This movie is perfect. 10 out of 10.
June 9 2009, Day 12
I thought of this one while leaving the house today. I saw the dart on the wall and thought, "There it is..."
Movie reviews later tonight....
Movie reviews later tonight....
Monday, June 08, 2009
June 8 2009 - Day 11
It was really hard to choose today as I took a bunch of different angles of this Hulk statue and did a few different touch ups. In the end, I went with this look which is almost completely untouched.
I also, liked the following one, but this is not my official pick for my picture of the day. This is Hulk as done by Andy Warhol:
I also, liked the following one, but this is not my official pick for my picture of the day. This is Hulk as done by Andy Warhol:
Sunday, June 07, 2009
June 7 2009, Day 10
I had images that had the entire dog face, but this picture just seemed a little more artistic. I have hit the day 10 mark!
Saturday, June 06, 2009
June 6 2009, Day 9
I am kind of torn on this one. I like the idea of it, but there are some things I would have done differently. I knew the hard part would be staying on focused on Leia as she came down the slide and I was correct. They ones where she is farther away were in focus, but as she came closer, I lost my focus. I have some ideas next time I try this. Colors aren't that vivid, but then again, it is a brown dog going down a brown slide.
Friday, June 05, 2009
FAIL!
For the past few weeks and maybe more, my posts have been relatively tame; they have been posts of the happy variety. Gone is the angry, the world is stupid(but in a joking way) Manuel. Yeah, throw that out...
I don't even know where to start with this one. As many of you know, I hate American Idol with a passion. People say that hate is such a strong word, but I tend to disagree. I think it possible to hate and when someone says, "No, you just really, really, dislike them," I roll my eyes. With that in mind, I found some people I may hate more than the travesty that is American Idol:
This was taken from NBC Philadelphia
After spending hours voting for their favorite contestants on “American Idol”, the Rychalsky family is hoping they might be winners themselves by landing a world record for calls placed.
Konstantine and Helen Rychalsky and their daughters Michelle, 27, and Kristen, 25, cast so many votes for their favorite singers that they might have done just that.
It takes coordination and resilience to make that many calls, Konstantine told the Connecticut Post.
"Fatigue plays a major part, which is why we have to do it as a family. It's kind of like playing a video game, with one hand dialing and one hand hanging up, with lots of fun involved," Konstantine told the Post.
This season, they called to vote for contestants about 18,000 times. That was done in shifts for 30 hours over 14 weeks, or two hours each Tuesday and four for the final episode, the Waterbury Republican-American reports.
"It's absolutely a family effort," Konstantine’s wife Helen told the Post. "The last few seasons, especially, it's become a family get-together from the time it starts to the time it ends."
Their dedication sparked some friendly competition within the family to see how many votes they could cast on a given night.
"Our whole family got hooked when Carrie Underwood was a contestant,” Konstantine told the Post. "That was the year we picked up the phone and made some calls. ... After the first half-hour, we said, let's keep calling, and ended up doing that for the whole four hours (the lines were open that night)."
This year, the family voted for Kris Allen, but won’t know if they qualify for a world record until they hear back from an application company that will determine if the family has reached record status.
"The whole idea behind this was that we did it as a family and had a great deal of fun," Konstantine told the Post. "We would encourage other families to do it as a family."
That alone should be enough. There should be no additional commentary needed from me. But there will be. These people suck. I mean, they took shifts calling in? REALLY?!?! I don't know what is worse here: the wasted hours this family did voting on a stupid show or the fact that this horrible show has brainwashed people into actually spending hours on end calling. What is worse, the show or the people. Are all people who watch the show like this? No, of course not. Some people watch it just to be entertained, as questionable as that may be. But the extremes of this article just sicken me. And yes, there are some who would argue that at least they are doing something together they enjoy. I simply say, pick something more worthwhile. Something that isn't leading to the downfall of American society.
A happier, more pleasant picture post is below.
June 5 2009, Day 8
A teddy bear Jessica owns that was made by her GG. This is not THE TEDDY that Jessica has owned her whole life, but a different one. This guy seems nice and relaxed.
Thursday, June 04, 2009
June 4 2009, Day 7
This is what I came up with today, but it was more of an alternate because what I was trying to do, still a swing picture, did not come to fruition. I was going for the blurred look, but there was more to it that I could not accomplish. I guess I keep practicing.
There is a regular post right below this with some lightning pics from last night. Be sure to check it out...
There is a regular post right below this with some lightning pics from last night. Be sure to check it out...
Bad Weather, Bad Spelling
Wow, did we ever experience a storm last night! There wasn't a whole lot of rain, just maybe 5 minutes worth, and not a whole lot of wind, but man, we got a TON of lightning and thunder. We must have spent an hour outside just listening to the thunder and watching the lightning show. It was friggin' nonstop! I had never experienced something like that for an extended period of time. Jess asked me to try to take pictures so I happily went outside in the lightning storm with my metal object. Yeah, it is as dumb as it sounds. Anyways, I didn't get much as I have never tried lightning before, but these are the best of the ones I took.
In totally unrelated news, Jess and I drove by the following sign and luckily, we just happened to have the camera:
Now, on the other side of the sign, it DOES say Yard Sale so we assume that the person was just thinking sale as they wrote yard and got the words confused. Just to be sure, we drove by just to make sure there wasn't a sale of products from Yale University. As you can guess, it was just a normal yard sale.
Wednesday, June 03, 2009
June 3 2009, Day 6
For my birthday, I asked my dad to get me a bottle of some good tequila. He owns or has tried a plethora of different tequila brands so I trusted him to pick something for me rather than the same ol' stuff. I have yet to try it, but I can't wait...
Tuesday, June 02, 2009
June 2 2009 - Day 5
This is Jessica's eye, mostly in black and white. If you enlarge the image, you can see my reflection with the camera. I had a few different directions I went with this and ended up choosing this one after much deliberation.
In totally unrelated news, you all know how much I like Rock Band. Now, the trailer is finally out for a game that will definitely take Rock Band to a whole new fun level. I am stoked! Check it out:
In totally unrelated news, you all know how much I like Rock Band. Now, the trailer is finally out for a game that will definitely take Rock Band to a whole new fun level. I am stoked! Check it out:
Monday, June 01, 2009
Ok, so let me explain....
Ok, so I have started posting my pic a day on the blog. As you can see below, I have uploaded the first 4 so far. As I am using Flickr, all I have to do is upload the picture to that site and then it will allow me to directly post to here. Downside is, since I only am doing one pic a day, it will do each post separately. So, there are days you will get more than one post from me, but all the second post will be is the picture and a brief description as well a link to see the pic a little bigger. But, I am using Flickr because once I upload to the site, it can allow me to easily post to here and Facebook at the same time. It gives you a little more to read, but the ease is awesome! I hope you'll enjoy the journey...
May 31st 2009, Day 3
Some reject glasses still make for good decorations. We keep these on our counter top.
May 30th 2009, Day 2
This is at the Fountains shopping center where we went for lunch on Saturday for my birthday.
May 29th 2009, Day 1
This is the first of my picture a day for a year photographs. I think the welcome sets a good tone for the whole project. This was taken outside our front door.
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