Canon Mac Hockey hits the road and plays in WesBanco arena (home to the Wheeling Nailers). Well I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to take some photos at an arena with some decent lighting, now could I.
You can see the whole set of images from the night right here.
Out with the camera shooting through some plexi. Even with Matt in goal the Pittsburgh Predators fell to the Arctic Foxes 3-2 on Saturday. Below is a shot of Matt lunging for the puck after a quick centering pass to the Arctic Fox forward that buried the game winning goal with only a few minutes left on the clock.
I’m back from a week of sunshine and good fun with good friends in the land that Walt built (well at least he had the design). And although Walt may have ”built” it, it’s Pixar that’s keeping the massive marketing machine going these days. It was a fun filled week with Scott, Sue, Alice and Paul. Here’s a few of the standard vacation photos from the adventure. 
Plenty of sunscreen was the norm all week…
The monorail at Epcot…
Cinderella Castle…
Catching a little shade on the most underrated ride in the Magic Kingdom. Welcome to the Tomorrowland Transit Authority PeopleMover…
With moving into a new house comes priorities. The driveway is currently being replaced and then will come a new roof. The new washer and dryer are up and running. So what comes next. The home theater of course. Below are a couple of “before” photos.
The first photo above is as you enter from the stairway leading down to the room. The second photo is from near the fireplace in the first photo. From the end of the stairs to the fireplace is aprox 22 ft and from side to side the room is a little over 16 ft. The screen will be placed to the right of the stairway. The room is being transformed from this wonderful yellow to Blue Zephyr thanks to Pittsburgh Paints. The red burber carpet will remain. Stay tuned.
After unboxing the package at 6PM I was out shooting at the rink at 8PM. So far I like what I see.
The fall season of Center Soccer has started. Emmanuel now has his son Lukas in the U10 program and I got out to the September 15th double header. Be sure to check out gallery updates as they play almost every Saturday. Here’s a shot of Lukas being Lukas.
You can check out the Center Soccer galleries here .
It may look like little Eddie is up late watching TV, but he’s actually enjoying a night concert at Blossom featuring the works of Rodgers and Hammerstein. Sunday Sept 2 was the final summer concert for the year at Blossom and they went out with a bang with a full house in attendance and fireworks after the show.
Whoo Hoo! Had the chance to shoot the Monster Energy/Kawasaki Steel City Motocross National last Sunday. Isn’t that a mouthful. A little on the muddy side but I had a blast all day. A big thanks goes out to Emmanuel. The top riders in the world were there including Grant Langston, Tim Ferry, Kevin Windhan, Mike Alessi, Ryan Villopoto, Ben Townley, and many more. Go and check out the gallery.
This is an old rant of mine from a few years ago but it still rings true today. Enjoy.
I remember the first day I saw it at my local grocery store. The one invention that could make buying groceries less painful. As there were no shoppers in line for the new “Self Checkout”, I thought I would go for it. Yes! I was out of the store in mere seconds while the other “suckers” stood in line at the regular registers. As I walked out of the store I thought to myself, technology is wonderful. Now, eight months later, I have different thoughts. Some people should not have access to these marvels of technology. Buying groceries has now become as painful as ever.
I wish someone would explain to me the intended use for self checkout, or at least explain it to the other people that shop at the same stores I frequent. I think convenience and efficiency were in the original design, but I find none of that now. At least that is the case if I get behind someone with a shopping cart full of food and no clue what they are doing. Scratch that. They can have two items and no clue and then efficiency goes right out the door. Either way, I’m back to shopping at night, when these people tend to be home watching “Murder She Wrote” or “Blind Date”.
That’s why I want to propose some kind of self checkout qualification. My store has six self checkout registers currently in place. That makes for a great three tier qualification system to be implemented there. I propose three levels of user…
1 – Novice
2 – Intermediate
3 – Advanced
Everyone starts at the Novice level. Break the six registers into the three levels with two registers for each level. It seems that most every grocery store that has self checkout also has those shopper cards, so that will be where your qualification level is stored. Your qualification level will be based on your efficiency using the self checkout. Something simple like number of items scanned divided by the time spent getting through the checkout. After every 5 trips to the store your efficiency rating will be evaluated. If your efficiency is maintained at a high level you will be placed at a higher efficiency rating. The opposite goes for a drop in efficiency. How do you know your current efficiency level? It’s printed on your receipt from the last time you went to the store. Right after the line that tells you how much money you saved by using your shopper card. You will be forced to scan your card before scanning any purchases. This will evaluate your efficiency rating to make sure you are in the proper line and activate the register if approved for that level. We don’t want those novice shoppers in the advanced line, now do we? As an incentive to become more efficient, those shoppers at higher efficiency levels are permitted to use the registers at the lower levels if desired. We also don’t want 10 people in line at the Advanced register and no line at the Novice register.
See what waiting in the self checkout line at the grocery store on a Friday evening can do to you. You get these crazy ideas in your head.
I should be in Lexington Ohio right now at the AMA Superbike race but I have been dealt a rainy day and am stuck in PA. I guess there is always next year. Argh Rain!