Happy Holidays from the Petorak Family!

I hope everyone has a safe and enjoyable holiday season.

Mel and I are cooking a turkey today, so I have to run... :D

Enjoy the holidays...

Thanksgiving 08

This years thanksgiving feast was held at our house again. 15 people including those at the house attended, and we all enjoyed a wonderful feast.

Mel and I got up early (around 8) to begin preperation of the bird. I had scored a 23lb turkey from Albertsons for $5, so Mel stuff it to the hilt, and we bagged it up and put it in the oven. The rest of the day was spent preparing deviled eggs, salads, veggie trays, and much much more. Trying not to shoulder all of the cost this year, we had everyone who came bring something. Some brought some pies, and some brough some salads. One of the family members is an employee of Oil Can Henrys, and was given a turkey for the holiday. Zach came over a little earlier and setup a deep fryer in the back yard so he could cook the smaller bird outside. A few years ago he had tried this and char broiled the darned thing. This year, we all watched it like a hawk. It turned out much better than the last time. Melanee's bird turned out perfect, as usual. We plan on making turkey soup tonight with what leftovers there are after the numerous turkey sandwitches are pulled before then.

Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving, and now on to Christmas!!! :D

Guess whos on Honor Roll

A writing assignment, from one of the kids.

The Creature
By Brendan Petorak

I could here the crunching of twigs and falling branches, my breath growing heavier and heavier and my heart beating faster and faster. The shadow of the mysterious creature's breath is visible through the wall of the tent in the cold dark night. The shape of creature looked like many tubes coming out of a mannish figure.

I was wishing it was a dream but it felt too real. I could feel the breeze through the tent, making my golden brown hair fall into my face. My annoying little brother was still asleep on the far side of the tent. My teeth were chattering like a helicopter. My dog started to whine and growl, her tail in between her legs but here teeth showing like a wolf.

The creature started to walk closer. It touched the tent. I went trough my suitcase and found my paint ball gun. The creature was so large; I could see its shadow loom over the entire tent. I put paint balls in the canister and took aim at the creature that was now ripping open the tent.

I felt like my heart was about to come right out of my chest as I saw it eyes. They were as red as the depths of hell, peering back at me through the hole he had just made. Then, suddenly, it was like I woke up from a dream. The bad thing was, I woke up in my tent with my paint ball gun in my hands, my dog was hanging from the creature’s forearm, and my brother was awake but he was crying. And for some reason my arm was now bleeding. The pain from my arm was almost unbearable. It was still dark out, I aimed at the creature’s eyes once more, but I missed and got it in the throat.

It started to suffocate, so my brother, my dog and I ran to the car. The dog got in first, my brother second, and I closed the door and started the car. We started to drive down the narrow logging road. It was probably 4:00am now. I herd several thunderous steps from the forest in front of us. There was more than just one creature. They started yelling loud enough to shatter the glass all over the car, and shake the trees.

I drove as fast as I could to the nearest town, passing several suspicious military vehicles along the way. I didn’t look back.

THE END :)

(… or is it just the beginning…???)

today is boss's day

so we all decorated my littke ponies for our boss.

Symantec down-sizing

About four years ago, I worked for the IT group here at Symantec, and it was an amazing experience. Not only did I learn a lot, but I also gained quite a few friends along the way and most of then are still in IT.

A few weeks ago, one of my old IT buddies told me that Symantec was outsourcing the IT group to another company called EDS. I know nothing about them, other than they are from the mid-west. So far, a few of my buddies have been offered positions, while a few others have been given severence packages. It'll be interesting to see where the chips end up falling for everyone when its all said and done.

Either way, there are going to be a few new faces for me to learn.

Dell : A Customer Review

I have designed and built my own computer more than one time in my life. At work, I have used the Dell systems that were given to me to use, and had to deal with the issues that arise when they fail. I wanted to stop and give a few words about their support that I think aren't taken into consideratoin most of the time.

1. They're online support is about the best thing I have ever had to deal with. Today, one of our internal customers had an issue with their monitor. I hopped on to support.dell.com and chatted with a technican who arranged for me to get a replacement as soon as tomorrow without even picking up the phone and having to wait on hold. He was even nice enough to email the transcript of our conversation for my records so I knew when everything was coming in.

2. Overnight turnaround on your replacement parts making down time non-existant. I am not totally sure if this is offered on all systems, but the laptop and desktop market require this kind of speed the workforcce in motion. With IBM/Lenovo, we have had some serious delays -- which is better now that before, but I would still put my money on Dell.

3. I love the hardware. For some reason, the Dell's that I have had seem to plug away though things much faster than the 'homebuilt' or 'frankenstein' systems that I had been building. Maybe it was the large amount of RAM they are putting in these things now-a-days, but I am still overwhelmed that my home built systems crawls in comparison. Time to redesign.

Anyways, that's my two cents on Dell support. Two thumbs way up, and I hope to own another Dell soon.

A look back....

Back on May 20th, a disgruntled Symantec customer sent a package to the Springfield office with a powder inside that was not immediately identified as sugar. This caused a lockdown of the facility, and the 30 people lucky enough to be over by the zone in the mail room were quarantined for over 5 hours with very limited mobility. Those who were in the 'hot zone' were dubbed "The Mailroom 30", and I thought nothing of it until one of them went around wearing this shirt. While it may not have been a large scale attack on the software industry, it's amazing that it had such an impact here. You'd be suprized at how tightened our security has become.

News Link

The view from our seats

Oregon Ducks vs. Boise State Broncos

Bobby, an in law of mine, invited me to the duck game today against Boise State. Here's a shot of the tickets on the shuttle to the game. More to follow after the game.

The Robbins boys get haircuts...

Elizabeth "Lizzard" Robbins, Melanee's sister, lives in Reno with her husband and two boys. Here we see the recent haircuts, while still in the salon.

A sign at a local church.

August Camping Trip

It was the last week in August and the summer had been pretty uneventful as far as camping goes, so we decided to pack up the trailer and head a ways out for some R & R as a family (minus the cat).

We left town late afternoon on Tuesday, August 26th, and arrived at our campsite after the sun had set. Melanee started on the fire, while the boys and I quickly gathered some firewood and began setting up a tent. The boys slept in the back of the jeep, so their bedding was ready to go almost immediately. Once the fire was going, we found some nearby roasting sticks for a quick hot dogs and setup one of the camp stoves to complete a few cups-of-soup for Mel and I. After that, it was getting the beds ready, enjoying a few hours of campfire, and heading off to bed.

The second day was hot and very sunny. We all enjoyed checking out the area, and getting a bit sunburned while we did it. We found a way down to the river, and got some river water for washing and such. After a bit of heat, we setup a kitchen area and retreated to the shade. A few card games, and some yaghtzee, and we enjoyed the sunsetting on the trees, and sat around the campfire roasting marshmallows and making smores.

After the full extent of the burns had kicked in, we decided that we should all stay out of the sun for a day. We spent quite a lot of the day either under the kitchen canopy, or in the car heading down the 27 miles to the nearest town of Oakridge.

That's all for now, but here are some photos until I post the rest.

Location: NF-2136 @ 43.445876 , -122.363145

Driving Directions from Eugene :
View Larger Map

Just another manic Monday.

Weekends are the best time of my week, hands down. I do enjoy working and everything, but having time to spend with the family is also important. This particular weekend it got into the high 90's, and the house didn't cool down much even after I went and bought two box fans for the windows. Saturday was fairly miserable and sticky, but with a few glasses of ice tea and some cool showers, we survived. I almost melted.

shopping with tristan.

Teal'c in rare form

Our cat has a personality. Since we recently had him fixed, the lack of raging hormones have caused his real personality to emerge, showing us a side of him that was not always visible.

I stumble across some pretty funny stuff....

From the "One Sentence Archive":

What are the odds?
"I knew God had a sense of humor when I hesitantly answered the ringing K-Mart payphone, only to hear my best friend, who had misdialed my home phone number, on the other end."

Fathers Day - 2008.

Well, Fathers Day 2008 is in the books, and it was a very nice day for me indeed. Here's a brief synopsis of my weekend:

On Saturday, I was scheduled to work at the Shutterbug from 1-9:30, so I got up a little early to get some things done. For reasons beyond my memory, I did not get everything I wanted to get done before work, was able to have a good morning none the less. As I began to get ready for work, I got a call telling me that there was plenty of coverage and that I was no longer needed to work. So, out of nowhere, I got a weekend off. Although I would have like to have the extra hours, it was nice to be able to chill with the family for the weekend. Mel and I did a little shopping, and got some stuff for the bbq, which we proceeded to devour. As midnight drew near, I got Mel interested in watching a movie. The Andromeda Strain, remake of an older film, was remade into a mini-series. I thought it was longer than a regular move. It was. Around 3am, the movie ended and both of us nearly passed out as we hit the pillows. With a big day planned when we woke, we had discussed being up at 10am.

I rolled over and opened my eyes, and looked at the alarm clock. It was 12:03, and I immediatly smiled and chukcled to myself. No sooner than I got up and went to the bathroom, Mel was up and ready to hop in the shower. Her cough and nasal pressure had increased throughout the night, so we dicided to make an appointment with the doctor (thank god for weekend clinics), so she could feel better. The funny thing is that on Mothers day, I punctured my hand on the Jetta antenna and needed a stitch from the ER. Seems that we have started a tradition. While we waited for the appointment, I grabbed the boys and headed out to tackle the front yard. It had been some time since I was able to mow in the front. Seems that each time I was able to find some time to mow, it would be raining. Other times, it wasn't raining, but I had to get to work. This went on for months, until yesterday. The boys did a majority of the mowing, and then I attacked it with the weed-eater while Melanee worked her magic on the grill once again. We had some of the best Collard Greens and Steak I have ever had. Mel even tried her hand at a jerk sauce, which we dubbed " My Jerk " sauce. Very nice indeed.

I stayed up a little late trying to get some star trails pictures but was unsuccessful. Guess I'll need to do a little more readying on exposures. Overall, that was the best Fathers Day I have ever had. The boys even made me a cake, but since Mom didn't get one either, the made if for both of us. It read "Happy FA/MO thers day!" and included candles -- Tristan's idea and we still are laughing about it. The boys ever went as far as to actually make the cake. Not bad at all.

Good times, good times.

Skye Harvey

An example taken with the Lightbox I created. Available light is from the camera store I work at in Eugene, Oregon.

More posts this month that all last year.

And yet no one to read them. :D


More browsing of images on my local drive, I found and old photo of Mel and I. Sometimes I don't realize how our size differs, she's as big as I am in my heart, what does size matter?


Now, if I could only find that shirt.


And then of course there's my hand shot from the camera phone after my back surgery. Now there was some fun!




Thank god for the Vicodin ... back pain truly takes a hell of a lot out of ya.

The work of Mike Curtis

I was browsing through Photo.Net's best photographers, and noticed this guy. Doesn't have a log in his portfolio, but I can't wait to see what else he posts.

Homemade Snoot and Lightbox

For Valentines day, my wife created a snoot for me. She used a 24 ounce beer can, which she had to empty first of course, and then wrapped it in gaffers tape and formed the end to match my Nikon SB800 and SB600 flashes. Not only was this a cool personal gift for her to make for me, but it's been really cool to shoot with and thinking of her whilst I do.

She inspired me to develop and create my own Light box for my flashes as well. I used cardboard, gaffers tape, aluminum foil, and printer paper. Drew a pattern out, luckily I got it right the first time as the second one was not as perfect. I have taken several shots with it and love what it does and how easy it is to use. I'll post some more pics once I have a better collection.

--

Viral Video - Wheezer compolation...

A photo a day for 18 years

http://wakeuptiger.blogspot.com/2008/05/photo-of-day-for-18-years.html

Someone do the math, that’s a hell of a lot of money.

Wow. Heavy story.. but needs to be shared.

A entire family heads out from their wedding togehter in a limo, only to be struck head on by a drunk driver at over 70 miles an hour. The first officer on the scene was a relative of the family. The married couple lost their youngest daughter.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/LIVING/personal/05/29/o.lifesaving.lesson/index.html

Another Petorak Blog

Seems my sister found out how to use Blogger!
http://petorak.blogspot.com/

Yes, I am a geek about Space as well.

You'd think with computers and photography, that my life would be full of cool things to keep me busy. I have always loved Space and Astronomy, even though I am too tall to ever get up in a ship (damned short people). I was heartbroken when the Challenger blew up, and devastated when Discovery burned up on re-entry. There have been many tradegies, but there have also been some major discoveries and spectacular images captured as we stretch our technological fingers into the cosmos.

I follow anything we (earthlings) send to Mars. The first successful flyby was done by Mariner 4 in 1964-- years before we even set foot on the moon. 21 images, in 1964. Mariner 6 and 7, 5 years later captured over 200 additional images. In 71, we landed something on there but only got 20 seconds of 'lander' data, even though the orbiter portion of the mission had 8 months of good data. When I was 4, we finally landed something on Mars and were able to get a good connection to it. The Viking 1 lander made it all worth while. Viking 2 followed up shortly and was also a resounding success sending back over 16,000 images as well as other experiments.

Then, nothing for a while. The Soviets tried a few in 88, but either missed the planet -- or lost the orbiter. The US failed the Mars observer, which just stopped communicating in 93, three days before it was set to start its approach to the red planet. The Pathfinder mission was only supposed to do a little bit of looking around, but it ended up lasting 5 times longer than the warranty. And then in 2003, we landed a pair of rovers on the planet, and began our first 6 wheelin' adventure from another planet. There's a first right there.

But it's the latest landing that has me really watching. The Phoenix Mars Lander has made it, and it ready to sit on one place and just dig until it too dies or looses communication.


I think in this lifetime, we will be sending someone there -- hopefully a team.

** http://mars.jpl.nasa.gov/missions/log/

Dodging a bullet

Usually, we are allowed to leave at 3pm, so I trudged out the door and gave my friend Ian a ride home. No sooner than I got home and sat down, I received an automated call alerting me that something major was going down at my work, Symantec.

From KVAL.COM :
"SPRINGFIELD, Ore. - An envelope containing a suspicious substance and a letter claiming the material was anthrax caused a lock down that left as many as 1,000 employees stranded inside their office for four hours May 20. Officials are now 99 percent sure the substance is sugar."

Yea, lets just say I made it out before all hell had broken loose. The fire department, hazmat teams, police, media, and who knows who else were called into quarantine the building and secure the perimeter. I think the picture that was used in the website post was a picture I took back a few years ago. Glad everyone made it out ok, but damn. What the hell? Going to be an interesting day at work tomorrow, and all over a envelope of sugar.

Where'd he go?

Tired of the high cost of internet hosting? Yea, me too. I was fed up with having another payment to take care of so I am going to try an point my domain to my personal web/ftp server that I can maintain. Yea, this means that there might be a few slowdowns here and there, as well as a few occasions where the site may be off-line... but you can bet I won't be spending my money on them anymore. :D

Anyways, spread the word that I am back.. and will be posting quite a lot more now that I have one less bill :P

Keep up the support, and send me an email : jason.petorak@gmail.com

HIBiDDY HUBLaH!