Life Explained, Evolves, Eventually.

Of the many things I am going to emphasize in 2016 is making a more visual presentation online. I have a new camera, and several new apps. It is an exciting time here at the top secret Life Explained world headquarters.

Of course, it is not going to be easy. Looking back at the early days many LE posts did not even have a picture, and many of them that did have a graphic have a blank spot where the picture used to proudly sit. Still not too sure how that happened, it might have been me, it might have been Google, heck it might have been Thor god of thunder, I don't know.

And the few videos I have managed to assemble have been rickety, rough, cobbled together things with little redeeming value. Hope springs eternal, though, and I am blessed with a wonderful capacity for forgiveness. Plus, I am used to forgiving my shortcomings, it has been a hobby for a long time.

Evolution is irresistible,though. Graphics and video production are calling me. Which, I fear, spells big trouble for you, out there in Life Explained Nation. Eventually they will all end up here.

To help build your immunity, sort of a "vaccination," I have decided to take some old pictures and add a little arrow that normally signifies "play" on a video. You can adjust more slowly, and when the videos start rolling in they won't seem so bad.

Here, in one act, Life Explained, the Video*.

*This is only a test, had this been a real video the little arrow on the picture above would have take you to a far, far better place, or not.

Fun Facts, Coming soon.

Today is the first post in a series. Fun Facts. Eventually it will be a video blog, but I am feeling too lazy to start that this morning. It is so peaceful, I am the only one up, the clouds are keeping everything a little darker than normal, the coffee (Sumatran) is fantastic, there is no sound except the tapping of keys, even traffic is kind enough to be missing, and making a video requires an extensive series of manipulations that I just am not in the mood to commit.

It would be one thing if I were more technically inclined, but that is not the case. Muddling through a blog post is the best that will happen.

For one thing, I had to make a new graphic. And it is very nice, if I do say so myself. The background is a condemned parking garage I pass often on my lunchtime walks. But, it wasn't that simple because my lack of expertise allowed my thumb to creep into the original shot, so it had to be cropped.*

Here is the abandoned parking garage from the front.

Actually, there is something about this parking garage that is just appealing. I don't know what it is but almost every time I walk past I snap a few photos. It has shown
up on my blog several times. It might be the colors that seem incongruous on a dying building, it might be the decay, and wretchedness in the heart of all the renovation, I don't know, but it calls when I walk by.

Some buildings have a life of their own, even in death. There is an old building just a block away from where I work, it is huge, and has been unoccupied for years. I have dozens of pictures from several angles, and would love to be able to get inside and see what is there.

We love to vacation in Louisville, and sometimes we go down to catch a Cardinal basketball game. The Yum Center where the Cards play is right downtown. Not too far from the arena is an old facade, from a long deceased building. The old brick, and the blue sky make such a dramatic contrast. I love that! Every time we walk past there are several new pictures on my phone.

Anyway, that is all we have time for today in "Life Explained, Fun Facts."

Tune in next time when we will have some fun facts, and a video, maybe.



*Speaking of my thumb in pictures, it might be the biggest publicity seeking, camera hog in history. It shows up in more pictures than my lovely wife, whose smile is the greatest reward imaginable. If thumbs could not be cropped out of pictures I would have given up long ago.

PS, sort of.

As a small addition to today's post about the Cornhuskers I should mention that +Mike Raven  the genius behind The Blog Of Thog!, a blogger, and videographer without equal, are combining for a multi-media football sensation.

We are going to detail the two footballs, the kind watched here in the US, and the kind watched everywhere else in the world.

I will be representing football, enjoyed, and agonized over in the United States, and Mike will be providing crucial insight into the football enjoyed and rioted over in the rest of the world.

Being experienced bloggers, as we are, provides keen insight into the respective games, and the nuances, and minutiae involved in the successful execution of a plan as devised by a highly paid coach, and implemented by extravagantly talented players.  Maybe, or maybe we will just guess, or make up some stuff.

Anyway, it is one less post that needs to be dreamed up over a second cup of coffee.  Now you have something to gleefully anticipate.  Maybe.

Curse you, hackers.

We, here at Life Explained, are embarrassed to report that one of our Cloud accounts has been hacked, and there were numerous compromising photos and videos stolen and leaked to various unscrupulous media outlets.  Of course, the truly embarrassing part was when all of the photos and videos were returned, unused.

It seems no one is interested in a group of middle aged scientists, engineers, and their assistants no matter how provocative.  Even the video taken in the kitchen after the "Great Chocolate Cake" fiasco.  It is a big mistake to allow a bunch of sheltered, fiber loving, low carb, low sugar, healthy eaters to indulge in big cups of strong coffee and large slabs of birthday cake with delicious, sugary icing layered in inches.

For about forty five minutes it was like the wild west in there.  Scientists bickering about the best way to slice a cake, wrestling over the who got part of the cake with the frosting flowers, (they had precisely calculated how much more frosting was in one rose) threatening each other with the jagged ends of broken laboratory beakers, bawdy jokes involving interns and the theory of relativity.  Then came the crash.  They dropped like lead bricks, all over the kitchen, draped over chairs, laying on tables, faces buried on plates that had been licked clean.   After that we started spiking the water supply with small amounts of sugar to build up some tolerance.

Not a real football player, or coach

In unrelated news, we, here at Life Explained, are still seeking a celebrity spokesperson, having been snubbed by our first two choices, we are now going to approach Oklahoma State Football Coach, and former quarterback, Mike Gundy.  A man who is comfortable in front of a microphone, and in front of a large crowd.  We were thinking about asking the Duke basketball coach, but we have no idea how to spell his last name.