Portrait Plight

Our multifaceted garage now has a new purpose: Photography Studio. This is the new purpose aside from a storage area, a car park, a smoking den, and a band practice space.

Lori set up her lights and backdrop to create some really great self-portrait shots last weekend.

And since this is a blog post about portrait photography, I have to mention the genius that is Wolf Choir.



Robbie Augspurger (the now Peoria to Portland transplant) and his creative team (?) have produced some really great satire shots along the old Olin Mills variety. I can't help but crack up at some of them.

Adventures In Computing

I recently decided to piece together a brand new windows based PC. I ordered all of my parts through Newegg.com. My friend Josh helped me make some decisions on which parts to go for. (The above picture shows the dual channel RAM in the wrong slots for this motherboard, which I realized after a few boots and some googling.)

The breakdown:

Public List on Newegg.com

I hadn't put a machine together in quite some time (the last machine I built was about 6-7 years ago). That machine now serves as a media server in our living room for music and to watch streaming Netflix and various downloaded movies. We also use the old machine as a swap server between Lori's new laptop (see below) and my new machine.




It took me only a couple hours to get things put together, but several days to get all my software up and running again (more on this later).


















What a mess...

I bought Windows XP Professional 64-bit as my main OS, but ran into several issues with drivers. By the way Zune software does not work on XP x64 without a workaround. So I decided to go with a dual boot system. I love the speed of x64, but XP x86 gives me more compatibility when it comes to my recording setup.

And to top it all off I bought the best monitor I've ever owned. The ASUS VH226H 21.5" 1080 HD LCD.



Overall, the performance jump over my old PC is utterly astounding. I'm sure this PC will make my life easier for years to come. I haven't touched any overclocking, but most of the equipment is geared for it. Maybe a year down the road I'll start to see what else this thing can do.

In Remembrance

Me and my Grandfather:

Herschell L. Trainor (9/5/1927 - 2/21/2009)

We will miss you dearly.
________________________________________________________________

CREVE COEUR ~ Herschell L. Trainor, 81, of 701 Fisher Road, Lot 212, passed away at 9:45 a.m. Saturday, February 21, 2009 at Hopedale Hospital.

Born September 5, 1927 in Centralia to Harry and Ruby (Holmes) Trainor, he married Pauline Spencer on November 13, 1961 in Mount Vernon. She survives.

Also surviving are four daughters, Virginia (James) Zinkhon, Betty (Bert) Stiles, both of East Peoria, Billie Grillo of Ormond Beach, Florida and Marylee of Georgia; six grandchildren; four great-grandchildren; two brothers, Harold (Dottie) Trainor of East Peoria and Franklin Trainor of Du Quoin and one sister, Sue (Bud) Hunene of Centralia.

He was preceded in death by his parents; four brothers and three sisters.

A World War II Navy veteran, Herschell also served in the United States Army during the Korean War.

Herschell was employed by the Illinois Department of Transportation for 19 years, retiring in 1993.

He was a member of the Paul Towne Memorial AMVETS Post 169 in North Pekin and Creve Coeur American Legion Post 1234. He also was a member of the Martin-Courtney Veterans of Foreign Wars Post 4835 in Creve Coeur and Joseph Robbins Lodge 930, Ancient Free & Accepted Masons in Bartonville.

He was a member of Creve Coeur Southern Baptist Church.

He enjoyed fishing, gold panning and attending flea markets.

His funeral will be at 10 a.m. Wednesday, February 25, 2009 at Preston-Hanley Funeral Home, Creve Coeur Chapel. The Rev. Eric Dupree will officiate. Visitation will be from 5 to 7 p.m. Tuesday, February 24, 2009 at the funeral home. Burial will be in War Veterans' Memorial Cemetery in Pekin, with military rites provided by the United States Navy and the Tazewell Area Ceremonial Team.

Memorial contributions may be made to Paul Towne Memorial AMVETS Post 169, 660 Radio City Drive, North Pekin, IL 61554.