CEGPhoto.com (v. 1.0) is here!

In it's first version it's certainly not going to win any design awards but my website at cegphoto.com is now populated with content! Yay!
Here's a little peek at what the main page looks like:
It's mainly a portal to my Cafe Press and DotPhoto sites to buy photo prints and gifts and stuff but there is also a blog, which will be regularly updated with site updates, photo outing updates, shopping specials and other things that may take place between my monthly newsletter mailings. So, the blog will be good to stay tuned into even if you do subscribe to my newsletter.
I also have a photo gallery which will be populated with a lot of my photos. Certainly ones that I have edited into prints and are for sale but also other photos I have taken that are not for sale. In addition to the gallery I have desktop wallpaper downloads. So, if you really like a photograph but want it on your computer instead of your wall I may offer a desktop image of it for you to download. :)
From time to time I'll have different polls on the main page and there is a links page for whatever I find interesting in the world of photography, graphics, the internet, etc..
It should evolve into a nice place to visit and is certainly easier to remember than a longer Cafe Press or Dotphoto site name.

So, I hope you will take some time to check it out, browse around and be sure to sign up for my newsletter to keep up to date on everything and to receive specials and chances to win free stuff!

CEGPhoto.com is coming!!

I now have a central location for all my photography related shops and galleries: www.cegphoto.com!
The domain is live and populated with a temporay page with links to my Cafe Press site and the DotPhoto site but I will be working on the full site design so will try to have it done and posted by the end of November (but hopefully sooner).
In addition to continuing to edit and create more photo prints and photo gifts I'm also working on a new Cafe Press store with non-photo items. It should be fun and cool as I'll have various shirts with OSU themes and funny themes and anything else I think of. Keep watching for updates.
Or, just sign up for my CEGPhoto newsletter at www.cegphoto.com and you'll be notified when it goes live as well as receive any other updates and specials.
Thanks!

DotPhoto's new embedded show player!

This is pretty cool, I guess. I don't know how practical it is to use in my blog, but it adds something and is another way to try and catch people's attention to go look at and, hopefully, buy some of my photo prints and gifts.


So, if you like some of these photographs, you can buy prints from 3" x 5" all the way to 48" x 48" at http://cegphoto.dotphoto.com/ and you can also buy various gift and novelty items (t-shirts, cards, stamps, mugs, underwear...) featuring my photographs at http://cafepress.com/cegphoto/.
Thanks and enjoy!
Courtenay

April through September - The lost months...

Well, where to start...

In April there was Easter. Kids running around hunting for Easter eggs and goodies. It was fun and some very good Indian food was eaten. :)

I also took a photo of Ohio Stadium in April that I turned into a print which won the President's Choice award in the OSU Faculty & Staff Arts & Craft exhibition. The award just came recently in September but the photo (below) was taken in April. I've got a dotPhoto website where you can order prints and other gift items of the stadium image as well as other select photos and prints I've made. It's at http://courtenay27.dotphoto.com/ so go check it out!

April also saw a couple OSU baseball games, some pedal boating, springtime relaxing and a birthday party.

The OSU Medieval Festival was in May. That was fun to go to and take pictures at.
Can't recall off the top of my head what other events happened in May, so on to June...

June was a pretty good month that had it's high point near the end of the month when Julie and I went on vacation with her sister's family to the Great Smoky Mountain National Park in Gatlinburg, TN.
That was a great time. Lots of hiking on trails through mountains, beautiful scenic views and wonderful weather while we there (with the exception of a little rain for part of one day). I can't wait to go back!

In July I turned 31. Woohoo.

August was another good month. Another birthday party for a niece (2yr old) and a very fun driving trip to Alexandria, VA / Washington D.C. to visit one of Julie's friends from college. It was the first time either of us had been to D.C. so we were excited to go and I bought a new photo gear backpack for the occasion (and to be used on our hiking trips when we go on weekends). We were there for 4 days and I took over 750 photos! The first night we just went out to dinner and did a nighttime Potomac boat ride.
Day 2 was filled with lots of walking and picture taking. We first took the train to D.C. and went up in the Washington Monument. We walked down the Mall into the WWII Memorial and on to the Lincoln Memorial (very impressive when you see it close for the first time). We then saw the Korean and Vietnam War Memorials, had a bite to eat and proceeded on to the White House and took a train to the Capitol Building.
Day 3 was our day for inside walking. We went to the Botanic Gardens first so we wouldn't be inside at the high heat part of the day. It was still very warm in there though. After leaving the gardens we went to the National Museum of Natural History. That place is freakin' massive. We probably needed two days in there instead of one. Lots of cool exhibits to see and photograph like dinosaur bones, animal exhibits and cultural exhibits from various parts of the world and even the Hope Diamond.
On the last day we went to the US Patent and Trademark Office, where Julie's friend works and proceeded on the long drive home.
It was a very fun trip but it just makes me realize even more how much I love traveling and going on various types of adventures and how I really need to be independently wealthy so I could do things like that when and however I wanted. Really need to win the lottery...

So, September was just last month. We hosted a family "holiday" over the Labor Day weekend which was pretty fun. A whole heck of a lot of food was had from various ethnic restaurants that we all like. I'm sure other things happened in September but that brings us pretty much to date now.

Things we're now looking forward to over the next months include the holidays and, what we really can't wait for, the January vacation to Disney World in Orlando! We've never been and Julie's whole family is going so it's going to be crazy fun! Only 3 more months!!

So, that's about it for catching up. I'll try to write regulalry on this thing, but didn't I say that about updating my I'd Like To Go website? Well, we'll see what happens.

Later.

Paul Wall is white?

I really had no idea until now.
The things you learn when you don't watch music videos.

So, it's really been six months since I've posted to this thing??
Wow. Well, here's what's happened since then...

Hotmail really sucks...

I stopped using Hotmail as one of my e-mail services a long while ago although I would still check it from time to time to see how much spam and crap had piled in there. So, I go to look at it today to try and find something important and I find that MSN frickin' disabled the account, deleted all of my mail messages (but kept my contacts...woo-hoo...) and reduced my storage from 200mb to 25mb since I hadn't logged in during the past month!! F**kers!! Yet another reason for me to dislike M$ products. I have a Yahoo address that I just signed into for the first time in over 5 months that was still active and accepting messages!!!
Very disappointing...
bastards...

WTF America?!??

How in the hell can you not have Kevin frickin' Covais and Kellie Pickler in the bottom 2 of American Idol tonight?!?! They f'n suck compared to everyone who's left and you go and vote off Melissa and put Ace in the bottom 3?

This is the first season I've ever watched this show and now I'm starting to see why I never did. If it's left up to the American public to vote on who stays we'll end up with Kevin and Kellie as the last two because it seems that the only people who are voting are the same people who kept George W. Bush in office!

I just don't understand this.

All I know is that those two better be the next ones to go!

Wake up America!

Life, and all that it entails... (Part 2)

So, it wasn't my original intent for my last post to be so long and negative. I originally intended to end on a happy note but after I started typing, I just kept going and then didn't have time to do any more. So, here's part 2 of the Life, and all that it entails... post.

Life can certainly be cruel, frustrating, annoying, sad and sometimes just downright shitty, but it can also bring great happiness and joy. I'm glad to say that I'm in that upswing of happiness right now and am certainly hoping that it will continue for a long, long time to come. I have a very good friend, Julie, whom I've known for a number of years (going on seven now) and who has always been one of my favorite people and in recent months our relationship has turned into a romantic one. I spent the New Year holiday with her and her family, whom I love being around, and had a wonderful time (and ate lots of great food). So, needless to say, I am quite happy. In fact, the happiest I've been in quite a few years. It's nice having someone to look forward to seeing every day and know that no matter crappy my day at work might have been for the rest of the evening and night things will be wonderful.

So, yeah, I am quite happy with life right now.
Now I just need to get a new, higher paying job...
:)

Life, and all that it entails...

Some people say that life is what you make it.
I kind of believe that life happens and it's up to you to make the best out of it.

It's been a long time since I've posted anything here or updated my website.
In the shortest possible explanation, life happened and I'm trying to make my way through it.
My mother just passed away unexpectedly a couple months ago of pancreatic cancer, just two years after my older brother was also unexpectedly taken.
Life happened. Now, how to make the most of it?
I can't express how much I'm going to miss my mom.
I'm not an especially religious person but I have very strong spiritual beliefs and I know that my mom and brother have gone on to a better existence but I know that I will never - can never - forget them. There's often times when a song on the radio or a movie that I'm watching will bring up feelings and memories and I can't stop crying. I love those moments.
I can't fathom how much I'll miss them on the day that I marry my wife.
I know that I'll sit with my wife and my newborn child on the day of her birth, hold them extra close and say a silent prayer through my tears of joy knowing that as badly as I wish they could be there with me holding her tiny hand that they are there with me, caressing all of us, and always will be.
As I type this through tears, I will never forget you and never stop loving you.
I miss you mom. I miss you Chris.
I will talk to you soon and await the time that I see you again.
Your son. Your brother.
Courtenay