For the past few weeks, I’ve been getting a cryptic error Vista dialog telling me that the “COM Surrogate has stopped working”.  No idea what app/process is triggering this, and even when I click “Close program” nothing adverse happens to my system.  Sometimes it’ll only popup once, but other times it’ll happen 5 or 6 times in a row. Anyone have any ideas?

Update: Looks like this is being caused by Nero 7.5.x and an old version of DivX I had installed. Since both of these weren’t fully Vista compatible, whenver my system tried to render thumbnails for video or images in a file explorer window, it would cause the COM Surrogate error. 

The solution is to upgraded to DivX 6.5 and any version of Nero newer than 7.7.5.1.  I upgrade to Nero 7.8.5.0 and no more COM Surrogate errors!

This was taken back in January in downtown Louisville just on the bank of the Ohio river while I was out visiting Craig with Suraj and Shaheen.  We stopped by a local restaurant for a quick beer and I was able to snag this shot.  I’m glad I had my camera with me because the sun had just set and the light was perfect so that the lamps started to light up on the pier but you could still make out detail in the bridge and the horizon.

I’m participating in the National Mutiple-Sclerosis (MS) Walk next sunday here in Seattle to help fundraise and increase awareness. My

girlfriend’s sister has MS so it’s a great way to not only support her, but also the countless other afflicted individuals.  I was shocked to find out that the Pacific Northwest has the highest incidences of MS in the world.  To top it off, there is no known cure.

If you want to help support this worthy cause, get some exercise and maybe share a coffee with me bright and early sunday morning, I would love for you to sign-up. 

If you’re not able to participiate, I’d appreciate any pledge you can provide. Don’t forget to claim any donation matching that your employer might provide (e.g. Microsoft will match 1:1 on any donation above $25).

My personal goal is to raise $250 this year and I’ve already seeded the pot with $50. You can view my progress, sign-up for the walk or make a pledge at my National MS Walk page.

5 photos from my trip to Long Island last year that comprise my “Visions of Long Island” series.  These were all taken with my Canon 350D (aka Rebel XT) which was my primary setup before I upgraded to the 30D.

I’m currently on a kick playing with heavier saturation and contrast in Photoshop and I think I’ve found something that works with these photos.  I tried to tie all the images together with the same hue of blue in the sky, except the last one where that color range didn’t work. Instead, I muted the sky down to draw out the smoke stacks in the background.

Hope you enjoy these, and as always, if you want to buy any of my prints you can do so over at my dedicated portfolio site: http://www.twenty01photo.com.

My sister sends me and my brother a photo today taken when we were kids of us on Halloween. 

i love kelly’s skeleton bones made of two pieces of masking tape! so ghetto.

I have no idea how old we are in this photo, but it’s definitely old. I couldn’t help but notice:

1. My brother is a skeleton with masking tape as bones.  4 ribs? No arms? Nice face paint buddy.
2. What the heck am I dressed as? Those are snow pants, so am I a ski pirate?  What’s with that bandana?
3. My sister looks the most normal dressed up as smurfette… oh wait. Is that a picture of papa smurf on her chest?  Was that a little boy’s halloween costume re-purposed for my sister?
4. Why is my brother so freakishly tall? Or are me and my sister more like little carnie midgets?