I unlocked my Twitter account from the private setting this week for the first time in a several long months. This allowed me to do all those annoying tests through 3rd party companies with stats on my account.

Here are some examples stats:

My Official Stats: on Jan 23, my tweets have reached 20184 readers, 439 of them unique. by http://TwitterAnalyzer.com

(that is a lot of people for one day!)

My Twitter value is $192.12, according to http://www.twalue.com ... What about yours? #twalue

As I searched for a "word-cloud" to show my most commonly used words, I found a really cool site called Wordle. http://www.wordle.net/

It is not only used for Twitter, but many more creative ideas will spring to mind as you get used to the simple in site Java program. Basically, it is a photo that you design with the most common words from anything you choose. Options include colors, word layout, font and language. The few I created are very basic but you can do much more if you take the time to design it. Using a poem, book and even using this for classroom or for work can be a great way to grab the attention of the readers. I used the "Open In Window" option to make it fullscreen and took a screenshot. You can also save your masterpiece to the gallery they have on the site.

And, yes, it is free!  

Click to enlarge the photos below!


This blogs RSS feed most commonly used words:

No two snowflakes are alike -- but how do we know this? Well, the answer comes from Wilson A. Bentley's late-19th century photomicrography of snowflakes.

A Vermont farmer, Bentley became fascinated by the crystalline structure of snowflakes as a child and began experimenting with trying to capture the singular shape of a snowflake under a microscope with a bellows camera -- the contraptions with a folding box of pleated material between the lens and film.

"Under the microscope, I found that snowflakes were miracles of beauty; and it seemed a shame that this beauty should not be seen and appreciated by others. Every crystal was a masterpiece of design and no one design was ever repeated. When a snowflake melted, that design was forever lost. Just that much beauty was gone, without leaving any record behind," Bentley is quoted by the Jericho Historical Society.

During a snowstorm on Jan. 15, 1885, Bentley became the first person to ever photograph a single snowflake.

Although it took years for Bentley to establish a process to photograph snowflakes, once he mastered it, his only complaint was the cold.

"The photographing of snowflakes, although quite delicate work, can hardly be called difficult, although some hardships attend it, because the work must all be done in a temperature below freezing, and under conditions of much physical exposure,” Bentley wrote in a 1922 article for Popular Mechanics Magazine.

In 1931 he would publish a book, "Snow Crystals" chronicling more than 2,400 photographs of snowflakes.

While Bentley may be most famous for his snowflake studies, he was an equal-opportunity weather-lover and conducted experiments with raindrops as well. Bentley’s studies were published in the scientific magazines and journals of his time. In 1924 he was awarded the first-ever grant from the American Meteorological Society.

At the time of his death in 1931, Bentley would leave behind more than 5,000 photographs of snowflakes.

Content Provided by Smithsonian and The Jericho Historical Society, Photo provided by Smithsonian

Source: http://news.discovery.com/earth/first-snowflake-photograph-110121.html

When I post photos on Twitter/Twitpic, people often ask what iPhone app I am using. I saw another Posterous blogger show his iPhone photography apps. I thought I would share my most commonly used. I have a slight addiction to testing new apps and what you see here are only on one page. In most of the apps shown I spent from .99 to 2.99. I won't even mention any that cost more because if you saw the other pages on my phone you may really think I have a problem with apps. *wink* There are a few "lite" free versions mixed into "FunPhotos", but not many.

I highly recommend any of these apps, especially anything in the "Cameras" or "Photo Edit" folders. Tried and tested!

Note: This does not include video apps but there are a few mixed in.

There was a dump of powder today, so I opted out of work and school. Next time, join me!

I took 10 timer photos and these were the only 2 that came out due to ice running. I am making a similar face in both. :/

Side note: More than a few people have mentioned that I am short. Yes, I am a little vertically challenged, but the truck is lifted too. 

I spent yesterday, Sunday, hiking to the top of a mountain with some fairly new friends and made several other excellent ones along the way. I went the whole day without any technology. This is so good for the soul. No iPhone. I can't tell you how great it is to get away from that monster.

When I got home, I took a nap and woke at around 12am. I attempted to amuse myself and decided to go for a drive and see something new. This was a video I made that was going to tell people where I was, where I was going and what I had seen or done. It ended up being a blonde moment in the middle of a rant. This was about 7-8 hours into this "drive". Enjoy this and let it make you feel better about yourself because no matter what you are doing, you probably know when to turn your windshield wipers on.

I ran across a fun gem in the App Store call Polarize. It takes photos directly from the app or you can choose from your library. 

It gives photos that old shake Polaroid effect. It is fun and free, so give the makers a great review in the App store! 

More info: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/polarize/id301027161?mt=8

Samples (Truck and Potato heads were taken from my photo roll library).

By the way, the app does not take blurry pictures, I do. :-)

Here are a few shots of frost on my window this morning. The 5th image is full resolution (4000x3000) for detail. Feel free to right click and save it so you can zoom into that picture to take a very close look at nature. It is rather amazing, but I am bias when it comes to snow and ice.

*I found out that Posterous scales all photos to 1000.  *sadface*