Photo 365 - Day 141 (Pin Bird)

Day 141 (November 20th, 2010)
Title: Pin Bird

Ah, yet another strange ornament to show off!  Today's ornament is just odd.  Its a very old (at least 20 years, perhaps even older!), hand-made bird.  Its made from little glass beads and sewing pins (I believe they are stuck into a pin-cushion of some sort).  It has no feet, so I'm guessing is supposed to be some sort of hummingbird (yes, I know hummingbirds have feet, but they are usually portrayed without them).  Course, it also has no wings, so I'm not sure what's really going on.  Either way, its my oldest and yet most loved ornament.

Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 140 (Squawkmas)

Day 140 (November 19th, 2010)
Title: Squawkmas


For day 2 of sharing some of our Christmas decor, we have Squawkmas, our Christmas Parrot.  He's a small hand-painted parrot that we got back in 2001.  You'll start to notice that we really like animal ornaments (another bird tomorrow!)  We try to get at least 1-2 small ornaments each year, and we usually like strange animals (see yesterday's fish!). 


Enjoy! 

Photo 365 - Day 139 (Kissy Fish)

Day 139 (November 18th, 2010)
Title: Kissy Fish


This week I'm doing another "theme" week (not a Name That Thing - these photos will be easy to guess), mostly because its just the season for it.  This week, I'm showing off some of the Christmas Tree ornaments that we have.  Now, we have your standard "blinky lights", glass bulbs, and strange metal star like most folks, but we also have a few... unique items that I hope you'll enjoy! 


This first one is named: Kissy Fish.  It was a gift that I received many years ago and seriously thought about giving away as a "white elephant" gift.  But after looking at it and laughing every time we saw it, we just knew we had to keep it. 


Enjoy!

Photo 365 - Day 138 (Switch 115)

Day 138 (November 17th, 2010)
Title: Switch 115

Well, Name That Thing 2 has finally come to a close and I just want to thank everyone for their input and guesses.  I hope you all enjoyed the photos.  I have a few "alternate versions" of a few of the photos that I'll be posting later this week that also came out pretty well.

Yesterday's photo was quite tricky to get.  I recently upgraded a PC and removed an old, frozen hard drive from it.  I was thinking: "Hey, I wonder what it looks like inside?"  Something that I didn't think about was how hard it would be to get into that darn drive!  Lets just say they aren't meant to be opened (because any small dust particle touching the plates will destroy a hard drive).  I tried screwdrivers, pliers, small arms fire, and finally my trusty Dremel cutting tool got the job done (had to use three cutting discs!  Lets just say tempered steel is unfriendly).  In the photo, you are seeing one of the hard drive plates (or "Platters" on which data is read and recorded) and one of the data read-write heads (the long metal arm).  Depending on the size and type of drive you have, you could have 3, 4, or more plates and reading heads.  Basically its just a super-high-tech record player.  

Today's photo is another computer-related photo, but this one would have been waaay to tricky to get.  It's the little switch near the plug on the back of your computer (the power supply) that changes the voltage from 115 volts to 230 watts.  I remember, in the old days, that these switches were much bigger and easier to accidentally flip basically insta-killing your computer if you plugged it in incorrectly.  Ah, those were the days. [Click] [Plug] [ZAP] [Poof].  "Sir, you're going to need a new computer..."

Enjoy

Photo 365 - Day 137 (Geek #6)

Day 137 (November 16th, 2010)
Title: Geek #6

Well, we have finally come to the end of Name That Thing 2: Geek Week, and I don't know about you, but I had a great time!  Had a lot of fun guesses and emails about this series of photos and I can tell you now, that Name That Thing 3 will be coming soon!  I've been asked: "Where do you want me to guess?" and you can do so any of the following ways:

If you are on Facebook (and are my friend) you can comment on my daily update
If you see the photo here on the Blog, you can comment on it here (comments are open for everyone)
If you see the photo on my Flickr feed, you are welcome to comment on them
If you see the photo from my Twitter feed you are welcome to send me a message via Tweet
And, lastly, if you want you are also welcome to email any comments (or guesses). 

So, there are many ways you can guess or comment on any of the photos you see (not just the Name That Thing series, but any photo!). 

Yesterday's photo was (as I warned), tricky.  No one, not even my Techno-geek friends got it right - although a few got close.  We also had someone on Twitter get really close as well, so bonus points for all of you!  Yesterday's photo was of a: Jumper!  Also known as a "computer circuit bypass".  Basically, its just an old switch, which is rarely used on computers today.  In essence, it was used to complete a simple circuit on either a motherboard, daughter-board (such as separate video card, or modem), or drives (hard drive or CD-Rom).  Without getting too technical (I know, too late), in the "old days", and we are talking about a millennium in computer-years (12-15 years) you had to tell the computer what everything was by using these little jumpers (technically, the jumper is the little white thing and it is basically a small piece of metal that completes an electrical circuit of the two leads/polls that is covers). 

Imagine you had two sets of polls, if you had the jumper over the first set that would mean "1", if you had the jumper over the second set it would mean "2" and if you didn't have the jumper over either of them, that make the computer insane and go all "Stephen King" and try and attack people by taking over blenders and Vroomba's while yelling at them in Norwegian.  So, you can see that jumpers are important.  Now, everything is automated by software, so generally blenders are safe now.  If you ever pop open your computer, you still might see one or two jumpers, and for DEAR God, just leave them be!  I'm just saying. 

Now for our last photo for the Name That Thing 2 series.  This is probably a Geek Level 2-3 shot, but it was really fun to get.  Lets just say power tools were needed but I think you will enjoy it! 

Let the guessing begin! 

 

Note: Its not normally red, that was just the color of the background I used in my light-box.  

Photo 365 - Day 136 (Geek #5)

Day 136 (November 15th, 2010)
Title: Geek #5


Well, we are nearly to the end of the Name That Thing 2 adventure, and I have to say its been a lot of fun!  Yesterday's photo certainly confused a few folks, but at the same time I think a lot more people got it right than I was expecting!  I blame those darn Intel commercials!  Yesterday's photo was of: CPU (Microprocessor) Chip! (AMD CPU in this case).  The following answers were also deemed correct: "Computer's Brain!" and "Master Control Program Chip" (bonus Tron reference points were awarded!). 


Congrats on all the correct guesses!


Today's picture is just mean.  Its a Geek Level 5 photo, but the good news is its not the last of the photos - I have one more tomorrow that's really neat and not too hard to get!  But today's is tricky.  Its also a bit abstract, so that makes it a bit more difficult.  But, I like the photo, so it gets a chance to trick you all!  And if there was ever a shot that had a "Alien Probe"-esq look to it...


Enjoy! 

Photo 365 - Day 135 (Geek #4)

Day 135 (November 14th, 2010)
Title: Geek #4


Here we are already at Day 4 of Name That Thing 2!  Yesterday's photo got a lot of responses, but I guess the Geek Level is getting harder, because only one person got the answer dead-on.  There were a few folks who guessed in the 'ballpark', but weren't quite right.  Some of the more interesting answers include:


Alien Probe (of course)
Adapter (vague, and somewhat right, but still only worth 1/2 points)
Play-Doh Machine (amusing, but not really computer related)
Double set of extra eyes for WALL-E (not quite right, but 4 points for imagination!) 
Saddest Harmonica in the World (no.  just no)

The correct answer for yesterday's Name That Thing 2, was: 4-Pin Molex Power Cable!  This is the cable that connects your power supply to all of the "things" in your computer - Hard Drive, DVD Drive, Fans, etc. 

Today's photo is rated Geek Level 4!  I know it's scary and intimidating, but give it your best shot! 

Enjoy! (and its not an Alien Probe!... maybe)

Photo 365 - Day 134 (Geek #3)

Day 134 (November 13th, 2010)
Title: Geek #3

We have reached the half-way point for Name That Thing 2!  We've had a lot of guesses this time around, and many of them have been correct!  Heck, some people even did research to get the right answer - Bravo!  So, without further ado, here is the answer for yesterday's photo:  It was... an Alien Probe!  No, just kidding, it was a Monitor Plug! (Or, as someone diligently found out: "15-pin d-sub/ VGA connector)

Now we move to Geek Level 3 for the next photo.  You have to be a bit more techno-savvy to get this one I think.  I hope you like it!

(ps: again, not an Alien Probe)