Richard Vissers' Blog

I’ve been using Google+ for a while now (Thanks to +BrettMaxwell).  I have been blown away by how slick this service works and how well it integrates with my phone.  The photography/tech community has really embraced this service and I’ve meet so many great folks in Google+.  So I decided to put together a Top10 list of suggestions I’ve seen online so far. [They are so of in order of MY importance]:

1. Open up the invites to everyone
2. Be able to create groups of circles (or circles of circles).
3. Have Gmail contacts and their groups becomes circles in Google+
4. Comments to old stuff popping to top of stream
5. Huddle in web client…please!
6. Google Chat, Mobile Huddle, Hangeout integration (this will probably be a tough thing to do, but Google excels at the hard stuff)
7. Circles for actions (like an outgoing circle, or a video change circle)
8. Ability to post pictures in the comments
9. A easier way to colopase/rollup posts & comments
10. iPad app…I know we found out yesterday that Google has already submitted an app to the Apple App Store.
11. Open that API so that apps like TweetDeck and others can interface.

In my recent quest to show strange signs and funny things.  We took the kids on a trip to Fields Museum in Chicago to sort of celebrate the end of our home-school school year.  The kids finished a history unit on Egypt, and there was an Egyptian exibit at the museum so it was perfect timing.  Visting all the exhibits, one was titled ‘Evolving Planet’.  At one point in the exhibit I saw this sign that was trying to direct the traffic.  I busted out laughing and for some reason no one around me found it funny.  After looking at the whole exhibit (and being an amateur physicist) I’ve got to say, this sign really summed up the whole….Entropy vs. Evolution.  Ever the quandary that they attempted to address by showing how the “Evolving Planet Continues?”.

I saw this sticker on a gas station pump the other day.  I laughed so loud the person next to me asked what I found so funny.  So I showed him the sticker.  He didn’t get it right away but when I explained it to him and had a little smile.  Then mentioned he probably saw that sticker hundreds of times when he filled his diesel truck up and just never noticed.

You know a government committee of some kind came up with that that sticker.  I’m just wonder at what cost?

If you still don’t see it, the joke is that were at a gas station just off the highway, this is the only pump of diesel fuel available, and it’s basically both required and recommended for any and all diesel engines.   Now yes I know there are a few weird exceptions…but you don’t really have a choice anyway….do you?

A friend at work had his daughter come to work with him over the weekend.  He asked me if I minded if he let her sit at my desk.  I said sure, as long as she drew me a pictures on my dry eraser board.  Boy she sure did an amazing job.  Had to take a picture of that.

My wife and I on our trip to Chicago, saw a billboard at the same time and both busted out laughing.  It read “Tired of Illinois Taxes, Try Indiana”.  I almost drove off the road.  I did a little research and found out that it is about a Illinois Income Tax hike.

Isn’t it wonderful when states compete for residents based on who has lower taxes…it’s a win win for the taxpayer.

A friend of mine was asking me the other day about some tips on taking pictures of his car.  I typically throw out

• Turn the wheel and lights on
• Take the picture at dusk
• Wet the pavement around the car
• Get down low

But really there is so much more.  Here are some great articles I’ve used over the years that are very helpfull.

http://www.popularhotrodding.com/features/0506phr_get_your_car_phr/index.html

http://www.moparmusclemagazine.com/howto/11678_photograph_your_car/index.html

Today I saw an old picture of a dear friend of mine Wes Potter.

We were cadets together at Marion Military Institute.  He graduated in in the fall of 1989 I graduated in the spring of 1990.   What did we have in common?  I don’t know.  But we were friends.

He was one of those guys who you have no idea why they are your friend.  I mean, we were not just from different sides of the track, but from different sides of the Mason Dixon line.  I was a yankee, he was a good ole boy.   I spoke with a fast typical Midwestern inflection, he spoke slow with a heavy southern drawl.

But we loved to hang out & party together.  We took short trips, got in trouble, and had some of those amazing late night discussions where we had solved all the worlds problems.

He was a huge Auburn footall fan, and I remember he had a little white Chevy S10 blazer that was adorned with Auburn stickers and decorations.  It was always funny since his sister when to Alabama (Roll Tide) and we’d often go to T-town on weekends to party.

For a short time we had talked about being roomates after graduation MMI and we continued our collegiate goals.  For what ever reason I had it stuck in my head to return closer to my parents and attend Michigan State University, so we never did. It’s one of those things you wonder what would have happened if I had stayed in Alabama.

I don’t really know the entire story as I had returned home and was attending Michigan State University, but he passed away I think in 1991 or 1992.    One of these days when I head back down south, I’ll have to meet some friends of old and find out what happened.   In the meantime, It’s just nice remembering old friends of character like Wes, who was my friend.