Chasing a little southern ring-necked snake behind the Rahaman house

Saw this little guy while doing yard work in Miami. I had to gogle what type of snake it was. It was lone longer than 5 inches and had a bright yellow belly that turned orange at the tip of its tail. So cool!

What a fine Thanksgiving feast!

This is one way to celebrate Thanksgiving ;-)

Time for some Spanish shopping

Time for some Spanish shopping, originally uploaded by fincher69.

Taken on a street of shops in Madrid. I like the variety of textures in this picture, especially in black and white.

Touchdown, missed field goal, then safety? Weird, but let's go Paladins!

Supporting the Paladins in the swamp!

The Grave of Columbus in 3D

The Grave of Columbus in 3D, originally uploaded by fincher69.

This is a break from the stuff I normally post here. Less trying to be artistic and more exploring different techniques.

So if you haven't looked at a photo like this, it works just like the magic eye illusions (stare until you see the sailboat!). You basically cross your eyes until the two pictures align in the middle, then pick a point in the photo to focus on (the last part helps it all come into focus for me). Then TaDa! 3-D! Because people move around, the bottom get's wonky, but it is still a cool effect.

Yay for hanging photography in the living room!

And double yay for each one being a shot I took on one of our awesome trips of the past year (Italy, Spain, and Ireland)

Cerveza de España

Cerveza de España, originally uploaded by fincher69.

Enjoying a beer at one of the many tapas eateries in Spain. Nothing too fancy here. I just thought it was a kind of cool shot of one of the man cervezas consumed on the trip!

Vertical Panorama of the Sagrada Familia

Vertical Panorama of the Sagrada Familia, originally uploaded by fincher69.

On our recent trip to Spain, the Sagrada Familia in Barcelona was definitely one of my favorite sites. It was an amazing building and was made even more interesting by reading about Gaudi's inspiration from nature and then seeing those elements in the basilica.

This shot was stitched together forming a ~22 megapixel vertical view from within the basilica. The bottom is facing a dorr and the top is directly facing the ceiling above. There is some distortion in the closest, large columns, but overall I was pretty pleased with how it turned out.

Stitched together using DoubleTake.

The sun sets beautifully over Tallahassee

An Afternoon Boating

An Afternoon Boating, originally uploaded by fincher69.

People enjoying a sunny afternoon at the Buen Retiro Park in Madrid. I liked the balance of the couple boating with the large statue in the background.

Why People Believe Weird Things by Michael Schermer

Why People Believe Weird Things: Pseudoscience, Superstition, and Other Confusions of Our Time by Michael Shermer
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was written by Michael Schermer, who writes one of my favorite columns in Scientific American, Skeptic. It is essentially an exploration of "weird" beliefs that people have and an attempt to understand how those beliefs come about. I think it should be required reading for most everyone because it espouses critical thinking and evaluation. Even if you believe in any of the things he talks about, he approaches it as "here's what supporters present to back up their beliefs and here is the evidence that shows their arguments are flawed." He doesn't approach things as "these people are wrong and here's why" and I like that. The whole idea is to promote thinking more critically about things and understanding the logical mistakes people make. This serves to help readers avoid making those same mistakes and I don't think there is anyone that couldn't benefit from learning to better think critically!

View all my reviews