Good Times!

The Howard family, Thanksgiving 1992. Left to right: LeRoy (Dad), Dana (Sister), Lynette (Mom), Lisa (Sister), Janet (Sister), and Ronald (me).

Spammers!

Well, I never wanted to do it but I'm turning on the comment moderation option for my blog. Spammers have left a few messages with useless links disguised as comments to my postings.
Arrrgh!!!

Merry Christmas to us!

A now for something totally different

I Don't Wanna Work from clbrown15 - Video

I Don"t Wanna Work - watch more funny videos

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Susan's tormentor

This morning Susan was trimming up some of the house plants in preparation for winter. She brings them in off the porch and trims the yellowing or dead leafs and stalks. All of a sudden she started screaming like she was being chased by the devil or some of his worst minions so I jumped up to see what was the matter and she was pointing (from about 10 feet away) at the plant that she had been trimming.

The beast that "attacked" is shown below....................

Thoughts from Dana

I walked past a mental hospital yesterday and all the patients were outside shouting "13...13!...13!"

The fence was too high to see over but I saw a little gap in the planks so I looked through to see what going on...

Somwbody poked me in the eye with a stick!

They all started shouting "14!...14!...14!"

The Real Ron Howard

Susan brought home this months' AARP magazine which featured Ron Howard (the director) on the cover. I knew right then and there that I had to produce my very own magazine (cover)....just for the fun of it!

Riverbend Festival Fireworks

Fireworks_5, originally uploaded by r_howard454.

This a picture of the fireworks marking the end of the 2009 Riverbend Festival in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This was my first time photographing fireworks and, while I was dissappointed in my shooting location, I was happy that most of my pictures turned out not too bad. We waited perhaps a bit too late to head downtown and there was no getting close by any means. I'd love to know what sort of pyrotechnical wizardry it takes to produce a heart of fireworks in the sky!
You can see more of my fireworks photos on my FlickR page

Bridges

Bridges, originally uploaded by r_howard454.

Another post directly from FlickR. This is a shot of the Market Street Bridge (background) framed by the Walnut Street bridge in downtown Chattanooga. This photo has actually been on my FlickR page since January but I thought that I would blog it (I'm really liking the ability to sending my FlickR photos directly to my blog).

The Watcher

The Watcher, originally uploaded by r_howard454.

I am playing around with Blogger, Facebook, and FlickR today. You're supposed to be able to link all these sites so that you can easily share pictures or posts from one site to another. So far the FlickR to Blogger is the only application that is working for me. I think that is kind of neat; I just click on the blog this button over my FlickR photo and it pops up a box where I can fill in a post on Blogger and then it uploads it for me.

Janet, Lisa, and Dana; ya'll all ought to be able to use this. Especially you, Janet. You could get your blog going again with all the great pictures you have on your FlickR page.

Cumberland River

Cumberland River, originally uploaded by r_howard454.

Looking toward downtown Nashville from the Two Rivers Bridge at the Shelby Bottoms Greenway. This is a great walking / bicycle track just off Briley Parkway, near the Gaylord Opryland. I went there three days in a row after work last week. I'm trying to get back into the habit of running and exercising more (I've been a slacker since January but vow to change my ways!)

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Doubly Special Day

Happy Birthday Janet.

Happy Mothers Day, Mom.

I love you both and hope that you're both having a special day!

Family Fun

Tiffiny and Braxton get in on the fun. Can you see the family resemblence?

More QuickCam Fun

Okay, I've had this Logitech QuickCam for over a year now and I just realized that it came with a lot of fun special effects filters. The picture above is a compilation of various pictures using just two of the effects. There's even a neat one that allows you to convert live video to what appears to be watercolor, similiar to a few financial advice commercials I've seen on television over the past year or so.

Goofy Stuff!

Just goofing off with the QuickCam. More proof that I just ain't right!

(I really do this stuff because it freaks out my sisters)

Art Classes

Art Classes.......on Rossville Boulevard about two blocks off Main Street, Chattanooga, Tennessee.

LEGENDARY

For the Illustration Friday subject: LEGENDARY. It's been a while since I posted any art work on the blog so I thought that I would take advantage of this last free day before starting my new job to create something new. This is a digital collage using a concert picture that I took in 1974 along with elements from the "Todd Rundgren's Utopia" album cover.

The legend finally comes to Chattanooga. Todd Rundgren at Rythym and Brews on Wednesday April 1, 2009.

Beantown

My entry for the February 27 Photo Friday subject City Life. I shot this from the Granary Burial Ground in Boston where Samuel Adams, John Hancock, Robert Treat Paine and Paul Revere are buried. Although this was taken back in November I immediately thought of it when I saw the Photo Friday subject.

Ron Howard Simple Musings: TR, Utopia, Mark M, Martin M, & other vague memories

Click the title above to be transported back to April 2006 when Myself, Mark Martin, Jeff Muzer, Kathy Muzer, and others (?) discuss that fated day in the past when Mark, Martin, and Myself set off in Martin's volkswagen beetle to see Todd Rundgren live ( and learn the origin of the now historic phrase "She's gonna blow!").

BUMMER

Well, I am really annoyed with the people who provided the HitCounter on my blog for the past few years. A days or so ago the hit counter stopped working. I thought that it was just something temporary but today I actually searched to find an answer. I found help on the Blogger Help boards where I learned that HitCounter is no longer working (and may never work again). This is a bummer because my blog had over 16,600 hits before the counter quit working. I never really expected even a mere fraction of that number. No that I have installed SiteMeter on the blog it has me down at just 3 hits as of today.

Blog Update

The blog is getting a bit dusty lately as I have not been very consistent about new postings. I have been spending much more time lately on FlickR. I got a new Nikon D80 at Thanksgiving and I been having loads of fun shooting pictures. I'll try to post some of my better photos here from time to time but until then please be sure to check out my FlickR page.