Family – Page 35 – Brandon Moeller

Tribute presents

A few Sundays ago we went to my uncle’s house for a family birthday party. We celebrated a lot of birthdays.

Five. Could have been more if more people showed up. Those people will remain nameless, but they know who they are.

Two of the five people were Donna Novak and Melissa Jones. Donna is my cousin Steve’s wife. Melissa is her oldest daughter.

In February, Donna’s mother passed away suddenly and unexpectedly. I never got to know her very well, but I did know she was a great cook and a longtime busdriver for the Magnolia Independent School District.

A scholarship was created in her honor after her passing, and word is a Magnolia student’s college burden was gratefully lighter.

Anyway, so, for their birthday gift, Donna and Melissa received a 5×7 frame with a print of some photo art I worked up for them. From recent photos I had taken at Melissa’s November wedding.

Mike and Judy Chaney pose for a photo during Melissa's wedding. This was the photo I gave Donna. I made the background grayscale and blurred it a bit to bring out the brightness of Judy's smile. — Mike and Judy Chaney pose for a photo during Melissa's wedding. This was the photo I gave Donna. I took out the red eye, made the background grayscale and blurred it a bit to bring out the brightness of Judy's smile.

Mike and Judy Chaney join the newly weds Melissa and Tim Jones for a wedding portrait. This is the photo I gave Melissa for her birthday. I combined two photos in order to capture the whole arch, took out the red eye and gently blurred the background to bring out the people. — Mike and Judy Chaney join the newly weds Melissa and Tim Jones for a wedding portrait. This is the photo I gave Melissa for her birthday. I combined two photos in order to capture the whole arch, took out the red eye and gently blurred the background to emphasize the happiness in these couples.

I share these photos here not only to show off my skills in Photoshop, but also as a way to honor the Chaneys who mean so much to people who mean so much to me.

Hanging out with Bibleman

Corina and I went to The Woodlands last Friday to see one of her heroes, Bibleman.

Check out more photos on my Web site, here.

Corina visits with Bibleman at The Crossing Church in The Woodlands.

On Saturday, Corina won a reading trophy for her participation in the Summer Reading Program in the Fort Bend County library system. She's "read" 22 books so far.

Then, we went to the pool. The rain made us leave early. I'll take the rain when I can get it.

Gruene Hall: We were there (together)

On July 1, 2009, Kim and I visited historic Gruene Hall outside of New Braunfels. Standing outside, a biker saw us and offered to take our photo. We obliged — who wouldn’t? — he was a biker.

Biker photo — The biker took our photo, though I'm pretty sure his bike stole the frame.

Then, Kim took my picture outside of the historic building.

101_4333alter450 — Some guy in front of Gruene Hall.

Then, I took her photo.

And later, using Adobe Photoshop, I combined the two individual photos to create an image of us together, in front of a full view of Gruene Hall.

Gruene Hall together — Grune Hall: We were there, together.

Then, later the combined photo was printed in a Shutterfly book I made for Kim.

Gruene Hall photo in book — Here is the adjusted photo as published in the Shutterfly book.

Of course, the gallery of the photos I took during our Summer 2009 vacation can be seen here: day one and day two.

Our wedding site is up, running

Under intense pressure from somebody who shall remain nameless, the wedding website has been kicked into orbit for your viewing pleasure, complete with photographs taken by ace photographer Pin Lim during our engagement shoot in May.

www.brandonandkimberly.com

Our engagement photo — Kim and Brandon's engagement photo

End-of-the-week link explosion

Archive photo from July 22, 2007 : Today, when I picked Corina up for dinner, she asked if we were going to go get pizza, in that kind, not-really-asking tone. Why the hell not?

Here’s a bunch of links I’ve found interesting this week.

Check out the comments for me heckling the Outlaw Designer about his spelling : http://www.outlawdesignblog.com/2009/talking-shop-episode-getting-published/#comment-8132
Rules to live by : http://www.zeldman.com/2009/07/02/better-design-through-project-management/
Because 8 GB (the current capacity of my MP3 player) just ain’t big enuff :http://lifehacker.com/5302056/mp3-quality-modifier-packs-more-music-on-mp3-players
JQuery Awesomeness :http://flowplayer.org/tools/index.html : Found via new Mozilla’s Open Web Tools Directory : http://tools.mozilla.com/ : And, don’t forget : http://jquery.com/
Free … as a book : http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/free_it_works_it_cries_it_bites.php : Free is free : http://www.longtail.com/the_long_tail/2009/07/the-priceless-rollout-continues-google-books.html
Narcissism, anyone? : http://www.buzzmachine.com/2009/07/04/journalistic-narcissism/
“Everyday baby, when the sun goes down, I get with the fellows I begin to clown, I don’t care what the people are thinking, I ain’t drunk, I’m just drinking!” : http://blog.kir.com/archives/2009/07/albert_collins.asp
Vanity Fair on Palin : http://www.vanityfair.com/politics/features/2009/08/sarah-palin200908
Oh, no she didn’t! That peanut! : http://blogs.chron.com/babysteps/2009/07/a_rock_and_other_things_i_wanted_to_crawl_under.html
How to do what people are doing : http://www.outlawdesignblog.com/2009/2009-web-design-trends-and-how-tos/
The Internet Is Everything. : http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/07/08/google-chrome-redefining-the-operating-system/
All in all, eMusic still ain’t a bad deal : http://www.internetevolution.com/author.asp?section_id=697&doc_id=178927 : Or, you can just listen to the music for a lot cheaper – $36 a year :Â http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/05/19/pandora-gives-the-freemium-model-a-thumbs-up-with-pandora-one/ : Or, free is still pretty cheap : http://www.slacker.com/
We are the war(ld) : http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2009/07/satellite-uncovers-pirate-weapons-haul/
Conor Oberst + The Mystic Valley Band present “Spoiled” on Letterman, for when “you get everything you’ve ever wanted and you still feel down” : http://stereogum.com/archives/video/conor-oberst-brings-spoiled-to-letterman_078142.html
Why I don’t want to be famous or “burned out and directionless” : http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/25/magazine/25internet-t.html
Free typographic XHTML/CSS layoutsÂ : http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2009/07/08/free-typographic-xhtmlcss-layouts-for-your-designs/
Download Giant Princess : http://indiehouston.org/houston-music-concerts/houston-music-artists-giant-princess/
Something to do Saturday : http://www.houstonpress.com/2009-07-09/music/wild-moccasins-buxton-ghost-mountain
Carefree Rose = Katy Road Pink :http://blogs.chron.com/diggingin/2009/07/rose_ratings.html