Daniel R.

At the end of May I took a two week trip with my Mother to China. As I've been trying to do with most of my recent trips, I took a few pictures. My initial reaction to the trip was that it was good. The cultural sites in China are amazing. What disturbed me though was the visible environmental impact of China's growth. In particular visiting the Turtle-Head Peninsula it was hard to make out the islands only a few hundred yards away due to the smog in the area. I never got a good view of Shanghai's sky-line and the only nice day we had around Beijing was due to 30 MPH winds blowing all day.

The tour company we went with is state owned but privately controlled. I felt like most of the material presented to us was overly sanitized and scripted, as evidenced by two guides telling us the same material independently. Needless to say while I went with an open mind the reenforcement of "stereotypical western demonization" was hard to escape at times. I'm glad I visited and I suspect that I'd want to return for a much more rural an unstructured exploration.

Tags: china life pictures travel

Posted by Daniel Rinehart at 4:03 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I recently got back from a week of vacation in Maine at my families' camp. It was great to be off the grid and relax with nature as a backdrop. The only real technology I took along was my camera, which I used to capture the beauty. It had been many years since I was last at the camp for a vacation. My last couple of trips were to replace the roof. It was as I remembered it from my youth. Simplicity is good.

Tags: camp life pictures

Posted by Daniel Rinehart at 1:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I finally posted some pictures for the events over the weekend. I was too busy having fun at both events to really take that many pictures.

Tags: pictures

Posted by Daniel Rinehart at 11:31 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Most of Gilman Manor along with some of our family went for hike up Mount Monadnock today. Since I had recently been up I didn't take as many pictures. We took a much more varied set of trails this time which I enjoyed a lot more. The 300 feet of gain over just under 0.2 miles on the Spellman Trail is a blast. The Red Spot Trail also made for a good descent even if longer than the white trails.

It was almost a great trip except I somehow managed to get some nasty sunburn on the back of my neck. I'm really pissed off about this since I know I put sunblock on, both at the base of the mountain and right after lunch, before the descent. Granted I didn't have a hat on, but no other part of me got sun as bad, and I don't remember a burn like this from biking where the back of neck is just as exposed. I can only think that I must have gotten some sun on the way up in the car, but even that wouldn't completely account for the extent of the burn. It's one thing when I know I'm being stupid and not using any protection and I get a burn. But when I'm taking reasonable precautions and it still happens that just pisses me off. Fair warning, I'll probably be bitchy the next few days until this burn passes.

Tags: life monadnock pictures sunburn

Posted by Daniel Rinehart at 9:02 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

I decided it was time to upgrade to the latest versions of Gallery. I have to say that Gallery definitely gets high marks in my book for their Gallery 2 upgrade process. After a simple file unpack the entire process is handled through a slick browser based wizard. Painless.

The latest Gallery 1 release also has a smooth upgrade process, but not nearly as slick as Gallery 2. I think it might be time to look at migrating everything over again. Hopefully they have some more of the kinks worked out.

Tags: gallery neophi pictures upgrade

Posted by Daniel Rinehart at 10:47 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)

Had a great hike up Mount Monadnock today. The view at the top was wonderful. You could see the Boston skyscrapers and Mount Washington. I don't think my pictures capture that very well, but compared to my last attempt at the summit which had ice on the trail, I'm okay with maybe not getting those pictures :)

Tags: hiking monadnock pictures

Posted by Daniel Rinehart at 11:00 PM | Permalink | Comments (0)