Our life

So as many of you know, I’m a geek. As such, I love all things “geeky”.

I’m starting to become a bit of a photography geek (Not quite to CHDK level, but slowly getting there). I have the camera, the flickr account, and the patience to take 100 pics of one thing and weed through to find that perfect pic within.

After spending quite a bit of time looking at others pics on flickr, I’ve run across quite a few of the “view on black” links. To those who don’t know, “view on black” is a Big Huge Labs creation that takes your image, and displays it on a black page. Having a rather unobtrusive background, all in black, really emphasizes pics. Examples….

Sunset on white
Sunset on black

Now you tell me, which looks better? To each their own, but I personally like the black better.

The process to get Big Huge Labs to display a pic on black, and put it on your page, requires quite a few small steps:

1. In Flickr, copy the url to the image: http://flickr.com/photos/bydustin/2561085694/
2. In Big Huge Labs, on the “black” page, paste the flickrurl to the box.
3. In my case, click the checkbox next to “Large”, then click “preview”
4. On the resulting page, click on the URL along the top
5. Ctrl + C
6. Go back to the Flickr page of the photo
7. Click in the description area, then paste

Now, one of the traits of a geek is to try to find a more efficient way of doing things. Not wanting to follow all these steps for every pic I wanted to display on black, I figured out a better way.

First up, you need to have AutoHotKey installed and running. If you don’t know what AHK is, read up on it. Fantastic software. Now edit your script, and add the following code to it (Make sure to make the BHL url into an actual URL. WP parsed it when I first tried here):

F12::
inputbox, FlickrID, ID, Enter the Image ID</p>
<p>ClipBoard = <a href="http://bighugelabs.com/flickr/onblack.php?id=%FlickrID%&amp;size=large"> View On Black </a>
return

(Sorry, I just figured out how to post source code)¹

Save and reload the script. Once its up and running, go into your Flickr photo stream and follow along:

1. Find the photo you want to display on black
2. Copy the image number from the URL
3. Click the description area
4. Hit F12
5. Paste the number
6. Click OK

Now, isn’t that easier?

NOTE:  I might try my hand at making this a GreaseMonkey script or FF plugin.

1. http://faq.wordpress.com/2007/09/03/how-do-i-post-source-code/ [↩]

So here it is, 1041P when I start this post. Chances are good that I won’t get much sleep tonight. Not because we’re staying at Oz’s again tonight. Not because I haven’t been able to sleep very well over the past week or two.

Nope. Tonight, it will be from the repeated text messages. I chose to receive them. Let me share what I have received so far. The times are actually from my emails, as my phone doesn’t seem to keep track.

1136AM, 647PM, & 913PM – TWC Alerts- Nationwide brings you this Severe Alert
A Flash Flood Watch has been issued for Montgomery MN.

326PM & 427PM – TWC Alerts- Nationwide brings you this Severe Alert
A Significant Weather Alert has been issued for Montgomery MN.

414PM – TWC Alerts- Nationwide brings you this Severe Alert
A Severe Thunderstorm Warning has been issued for Montgomery MN.

916PM – TWC Alerts- Nationwide brings you this Severe Alert
A Tornado Watch has been issued for Montgomery MN.

1027PM – TWC Alerts- Nationwide brings you this Severe Alert
A High Wind Warning has been issued for Montgomery MN.

Now its worth mentioning that we didn’t make it back from work until 630PM. We had severe thunderstorms up near work that kept us around a bit longer. Those storms showed up about 345PM. I went outside at one point to meet up with The Liberator. We ran back inside when lightning struck a few miles away from where we stood. A couple more strikes like that rattled the windows at the building. When there was a break in the action, I made my break to go pick up C.

The drive home was rainy, but mostly uneventful. But the thing I recall most clearly was the lower level clouds moving SW, then SSW, then W. And fast. Normally, around here, clouds move roughly NE. So when you see that, you know something evil this way cometh.

The first Tornado Watch we heard about on the ride home was the one that covered the SW portion of our state. It was later upgraded to reflect a status I never heard before: PDS – Particularly Dangerous Storm. It was at that point that I knew two things, without question.

1. We will be sleeping at Oz’s
2. I will not be sleeping much, if at all

Why? Well, since I married C, I have taken the role of husband. Part of that role is “protector”. Last year, I took on the pseduo-patriarch of this family as a whole. In that role, its my self-directed responsibility to make sure that, god forbid, if something happens tonight, I’m able to be the “siren”. If it gets bad, I need to corral C and Oz and get them to the basement. Then grab the keys, head over to G&Gs and drag them both downstairs.

The last two watches have come within the past 2 hours now. Tornado Watch until 5AM. High winds until 1AM, which I can hear now. Watching the radar and flipping back from this show on Charles Manson and the Weather Channel, I see that its only getting worse.

So there you have it. That is why I won’t sleep tonight. Wish me luck! It’s 105AM now. The High Wind warning has expired (though, you wouldn’t be able to tell by hearing what I hear). The storms currently seem to be slipping by just south of us. But looking at this monster, I don’t know how much I trust that western “arm” of the front.

4 more hours and this watch will come to an end…