Category Archives: Other

Perception is Reality.

March 29, 2021 alphageek Leave a comment

(or… Beauty is where you find it.)

NB: I posted this on other media back in October of 2019. Since then, I haven’t got out to shoot as much, and this blog kinda fell into a big pot on the back burner. Time to get it back. So…

Perspective is an amazing thing.

How you see something is more important than most realize, and as I’ve explained to my kids, ad mauseum, perception IS reality. Occasionally, seeing behind the scenes can feel like it diminishes the magic of an event or image… but if you can look deeper, you will find beauty that you never knew existed.

This picture is a prime example. Take a minute and just look at this image. Soak it in and imagine you’re there. This is a real tree. It looks like this in real life. The colors are very vivid, but I promise, they are not photoshopped out of reality. Try to imagine what it would look like in the moment. Take your time.

I shot this about 6 months before the lockdown. It’s a terribly majestic tree. One can imagine leaning up against that massive tree trunk, good book in hand, maybe a glass of lemonade or iced tea, if that’s your thing. Glass of wine, maybe. Gentle breeze… the sound of the occasional fish splashing in the pond. Serenity.

Now I want you to find that tree in this picture. I assure you, it’s there. It’s earlier in the season, before the colors have changed, but it’s there.

No rush… but did you find it?

Here it is…
https://www.flickr.com/gp/jkling42/T73H2s

Totally not kidding. It’s that one.

Here’s what it looks like to shoot that tree.
(It’s still a little earlier in the season…the leaves are yellow-orange, and not yet red.)
https://www.flickr.com/gp/jkling42/60rwJ0

Don’t look at this and think the magic is gone. The magic had to be found. Real magic and real beauty is there. Even if you didn’t know to look. If you see those reveal pictures and think, “well that’s disappointing…”, you are completely and literally missing the forest for the trees.

Perspective matters.
Perspective equals perception.
Perception equals reality.

I see this tree and see beauty. The beauty is *there*.

Just because you can find an unflattering angle doesn’t mean you aren’t beautiful, too.
Don’t pretend the unflattering perspectives don’t exist- that isn’t helpful either… just don’t dismiss something because you once saw it as less than perfect.

Find the right perspective.

Boy Scouts

Discount Card Fundraiser for Boy Scouts

May 21, 2015 alphageek Leave a comment

We have a new Scout Fundrasier- Discount Cards!

They are $5 a piece, but if you’re local to the triangle, you get your money back and more.

These Camp Cards offer discounts and coupons at 7 local businesses. In most cases, you get your money back with a single purchase, and most people will save more than the cost of the card.

There are 2 one-time discounts of $5-

– $5 off of any $50 at Harris Teeter
– $5 off of any $20 purchase at Tijuana Flats Mexican Restaurant.

There are 6 discounts that can be reused any time between now and December 31st-

–     $5 off any $25 purchase at Advance Auto Parts
–     Free Kids Meal at Tijuana Flats
–     BOGO for Durham Bulls tickets
–     1/2 off car wash at Handee Hugo
–     $1.00 off pizza at Miltons
–     BOGO Hot Dog at Snoopy’s

Email me at jkling@klingsweb.com if you want one, or hit me on FB.

J </Kling>

Other

Wow, it’s been almost a year since I’ve actually posted anything. Horrible…just horrible.

April 1, 2015 alphageek Leave a comment

Well, not really horrible, just busy. It’s interesting that in the last year I’ve not actually even written much here, as I’ve just been too busy to even log in. In the past I was at least writting stuff, but not posting (see entries from ~Apr 2013 for more on that). Now, it’s been six months since I’ve written anything, publishworthy or not.

So, maybe it’s time for an update.

Workwise, I’m plenty happy here, but there’s alway room for improvement, of course. I’m still at Teradata, and have been for nearly two years now. The team here is small but committed, and focused, which is nice. Until about a month ago, I was *it* for linux support and virtual infrastructure (AWS and Openstack). Openstack has definitely been my focus.

Well, beginning of March we finally hired in a new guy, and I’ve been able to catch up on things that were falling behind.

My work here is getting a little flat, though. I need to either shake things up substantially, or think about moving on. Our setup is “on-the-cheap”, but I’ve always liked that in the past- doing things as cheaply as practical. Here, we’re definitely doing that, but I’m not really expanding my horizons as much as I’d like. Not enough of a probelm for me to be in any real kind of job search mode, but enough to think about it. Things cross my path that look interesting, and I’d seriously consider a decent offer. Especially anything that takes me out of the Deep South, maybe out West.

On the hobby fronts, Scouts and Photography dominate my time- flying has been sparse. In fact I haven’t been up since my last post here. Even as I type this I’m realizing how much my time has been limited.

Hopefully this will spark me to add content more frequently. I think it’s already encouraging creating more content outside of work.

Laters

Other

The dilemma of the post…

November 20, 2013 alphageek Leave a comment

I am building up a plethora of posts that are sitting in my draft folder that I will probably never actually publish. They generally fall into two categories: angry rants that are simply stream of conscious things and never intended to post, or posts that I am really trying to share some coherent thoughts and at the end I look back and think “No one would ever want to read that.” And this post probably falls into the latter category, but I’m posting it anyway, dammit.

The real crux here is like Elaine’s dilemma: is this post ….”spongeworthy”? (For the 12 of you who don’t get that…google it. I don’t even like Seinfeld, but it’s a good reference.) I write stuff that is highly technical and would interest NOBODY, or fluff that I’m embarrassed to have published. I’ve got some short stories and things I’ve written that I’ve considered putting up here, too. But, again, it seems to be stuff I’ll hate six months from now.

I really need some good content, though, if this is going to be anything more than a personal diary- ‘more than a tweet, less than a livejournal’ entry doesn’t cut it.

Geekdom, Linux, Other, Politics, Technology

Trying to get a handle here…

June 10, 2013 alphageek Leave a comment

…but I’ve been sparse lately. I actually had written several posts that sat in draft and never published, that are now irrelevant. So I’ll hit publish on the ones that are ok, and ignore the oldies.

Anyway, I’m going to try to get in the habit of putting things here again, and digging into a little that is not my forte. e.g, I’m thinking about doing a PMP cert and working on project management. An RHCE with a PMP could be most formidable, indeed. Since being in engineering for as long as I have been, I have become fairly adept at managing projects, as that’s my day to day workload. I think I might be able to branch out to other areas and spread out past just the linux world.

Geekdom, Other, Photography

So…my boys turned 11 this month. This was their 11th birthday present…

Gallery January 17, 2013 alphageek Leave a comment

Friday evening, we’re taking the train to Orlando and going to Universal Studio’s Hogwarts theme park for the weekend. The boys have wanted to go since it opened. Bonus: they don’t have to take their sister…Grandma is going over to house/puppy/sister sit. 🙂

These are what they found at the front door when they woke up that morning.