Robert Pence

There's a similar Summer gathering on a sandbar in Lake James, near Angola, Indiana and Pokagon State Park. I heard that someone has outfitted a floating concession stand to cater to the partiers. The gathering has come under scrutiny from time to time because of underage drinking. Given an opportunity, Hoosiers can fully stand up to Buckeyes in debauchery.

Oh, yes. Motherboard Display adapter

I'll have to check with my folks on this, but I don't think we've been able to get anything in the ground at our farm in Pickaway County yet. Today's rain isn't helping. I'm thinking maybe we should have switched to rice farming this year. :|

Good photography is in the eye and skill of the photographer. I'd hesitate to recommend a specific camera to someone unless I knew their interests and preferences well. What I would recommend is a visit to a good local camera shop, if there's one nearby. Name-brand DSLRs all deliver well on the hardware end and are capable of capturing high-quality images, but the feel and handling characteristics/ergonomics sometimes differ greatly among them. I'd find a shop where the salespeople are willing to spend some time discussing the features and differences and letting you handle some cameras to see which one feels best to you. You may spend a few more dollars locally than you would online, but probably not many. Name-brand photographic gear almost always sells for the MSRP, and sometimes the online shipping and handling costs offset the sales tax that you pay when buying locally. Besides, it's worth it to support local businesses that provide personal service and whose people will be there to answer questions and help you understand products before you buy. About the only time a significant on-line discount comes into play is when a vendor offers a kit that includes some third-party lenses. I'm not knocking third-party lenses, mind you; some of them are very good, and offer features similar or equal to camera-brand lenses at a fraction of the price. It's always good to check user-reviews before buying, especially when shopping for non-camera-brand lenses. Google for them, or go the B&H web site to read the ones there.

I tried to strike a good balance between performance and cost; I never use it for gaming, so I couldn't justify highest-priced components that could have run the tab up three or four times. Performance is important to me, though, for productivity. I spend a lot of time in Photoshop, sometimes working with large files, and the new system has cut down markedly on time spent waiting for images to load and save. Temporarily my data drives are in external enclosures, and when I install them in the case I'm sure I'll see even more performance. I bought an inexpensive case for the build, so that I wouldn't have to disrupt my original system while I was doing the work. After I get everything set up to my satisfaction, I'll migrate it to my much-nicer original case. When I was shopping for components I couldn't find anything that I liked better than the Thermaltake Tsunami that I bought in 2006. It's big and roomy with well-constructed steel chassis and lots of drive bays with resilient mounts. It has two 120mm fans and an 80mm fan mounted opposite the CPU. The design is sleek, with a clear panel on the left side and fit and finish like a luxury car. And it's quiet! I've been documenting the build with my camera, and I'll post the photos one of these days. I love to build things, and it's most satisfying when they're pretty.

As many times as I've been in South Bend, I've never made the short trip to check out Elkhart. I should. For many years Elkhart was home of Conn musical instruments.

Rather nice town. Amish Country.

You're right. About a half mile out of town is Howe Military Academy, for students in grades 7 - 12. It's been around for more than 100 years and is one of the few remaining military schools in the country.

Mississippi River flooding has taken tens, possibly hundreds, of thousands of acres of prime corn and soybean land out of production for at least the current season. Some farmland been scoured of its topsoil and will be unproductive for many years. In addition, the unrelenting rains in the Midwest have kept farmers out of the fields. Planting in most places already is severely delayed, and the sustained wet, cold weather will have a strong adverse effect on crop yields from the fields that have been planted. All these factors will affect biofuel availabiity and price. The reduced availability of feedstocks could have an adverse effect on biofuel producers, reducing industry employment levels and possibly jeopardizing the survival of some of the companies. Farmers suffering long-term destruction of their land's productivity may face bankruptcy.

Good bones badly in need of some flesh! Excellent photo tour. Erie County; proudly upholding the Ohio tradition of historic courthouse bastardization.

Delightful!

Does your engine have a timing belt? If so, did you have it changed at 100K miles, like most manufacturers recommend? Neglecting that item can mean an abrupt end to the life of some engines, without any warning signs. You can be cruising blissfully down the highway when you hear a noise and your engine stops, never to run again. At least, not without a couple thousand in repairs.

My new PC is up and running, and compared to my old one (which was no slouch) it's blazing fast. I didn't go all out, but did the best that I could cost-justify; Intel Core i7 950 w/12GB 1600Mhz DDR3 and SATA 6Gbps drives. For the first time ever, I don't have to wait for anything in Photoshop; I can work as fast as I want and it stays ahead of me. I'm still learning my way around Windows 7, and although the performance is good, I'd be just as happy with less cutsie stuff and more plain-jane functionality. WTF is all this crap about "fun?" I don't boot up my computer to have fun. It's not a freaking toy. I sit down to do work. Eventually I'll learn my way around all the clever little doo-dads, but for now a lot of the interface is just annoying. I wonder if there's a way to make the desktop look like XP while getting the full performance out of the hardware. Edit: Next day, with a decent night's sleep and some studying-up, I'm beginning to figure my way around Windows 7 and gradually beginning to hate it less. :|

Actually, it's pretty simple after you create the text line and save it in your clipboard. All you have to do is place the cursor where you want it, press Ctrl+V to paste it, tweak the image number (if you use one), and flatten and then save. There are simpler ways through Photoshop to add a watermark, but I prefer this method because it allows me to embed an image catalog number to help find the original file. It's helpful when someone contacts me to inquire about a print or use of an image. The number on digital images is the date (yyyymmdd) followed by a sequence number.

natininja probalby is right. Rather than dying from lack of use, it could run away and become a distraction from more specific topics. It could easily become a magnet for people prone to flaming other people's posts just to get attention, and another place for moderators to patrol.

David, if you were to write an autobiography and flesh out the narratives of your various exploits and failed attempts at conquests, most likely someone would want to option it for a film. Who would you pick to play you?

This morning in Northwest Indiana (Valparaiso and Michigan City) unleaded regular was $4.23 - $4.25 most places. Driving east on US 30 I saw it down to around $4.06 around Plymouth and Warsaw. I thought, keep going, it's getting cheaper. By the time I got to Fort Wayne I had to buy gas and it was $4.15 at Speedway with a rewards card ($.03 off). I take some consolation in that the latest tankful on the Focus wagon ran 318 miles including about 40-50 miles of city/small-town/local driving averaged 33.5mpg. That was with more than a hundred pounds of cargo in the back, offsetting the meager weight of my skinny a**. On the highway I just set the cruise control at the posted limit and let 'er cruise. It's funny how I used to get passed by lots of cars and trucks going a lot faster, and today hardly anyone passed me.

Toledo looks decent in sunshine, as compared with the Lake Erie drearies that prevail through much of the colder season. Dowtown has a lot of big, imposing older buildings, but the vacancy rate is just sad. I hope they can start turning it around before the urban fabric gets any more holes in it. I like the Libbey outlet store. For less than $20. I got four each of two different styles of old-fashioned soda fountain ice cream dishes and four 16-ounce clear-glass coffee mugs.

I chose, instead, to let UO become my reality. :-)

Some great views, especially those crossing the Delaware. Thanks for sharing those.

I think he took a voluntary leave of absence. I thought I remembered seeing a "farewell" post by him, but now I can't find it. His last posts were on February 5. He hasn't logged in since February 6. Edit: It's in his personal text; "Hasta Luego A brotha needs a break from UrbanOhio"

As do we Hoosiers. As a farm kid I was an oddity in high school because I chose an academic curriculum instead of agriculture.

I see a similarity between this building: and the Liberty-Paramount Theater in Youngstown, which was designed by Detroit architect C. Howard Crane:

Golly! Those folks are way ahead of me with that West Loop design!

Doesn't matter if it's legal or not, so long as you don't get caught. You could hacksaw through their frame and take their chain and lock, and then cut it off your bike at your convenience.