It's been a long time (long time) I shouldn'a left you (left you) Without a dope beat to step to (step to)...

Lol. ok. Enough with the random rap lyrics. I'm updating my website after how many months? I think the end of StarPerceptions is coming. I have plans on buying a new domain name to showcase my photos and random blogs about the miscellaneous Jazz events I go attend. I'm not sure, as I am not a writer, But my new website should be a fun project.

I haven't had my camera out in a while, and its time for me to get out there and take some photos. My friend Dezron has invited me to come see him perform at Dizzy's with Derrick Gardner & The Jazz Prophets and I shall be there. The gig is August 15. I'm excited because there's a trumpet player. Lol, I've come to realize there are not as many musicians play trumpet as those that play sax. I always love to go and watch fellow trumpet players who are much better than I perform.

Last week I went to go see Terrance Blanchard at Birdland. He's one of my favorite trumpet player and has scored many movies I love ( including my favorite, Bamboozled ). I've looked forward to this performance since last year. It was a great set, although it was my first time seeing someone alter the sound of the horn during a live performance. I asked him what trumpet he played with because his trumpet looked like a horn I was interested in, the flumpet. His horn was made by the same company that does the flumpet: Monette. I'm not a fan of gold horns, but his was nice.  I still prefer silver hardware. Gold just looks gaudy to me.

Anyways, I didn't have time to stop home and get my camera when I went to go see Mr. Blanchard. I am still kicking myself in the behind for that. When i go see Dezron, I am going to bring my camera. It's been too long since I've taken photos and I've missed out on pretty of good opportunities... Hopefully Dizzy's has good light. Its really hit or miss when it comes to Jazz venues and lighting. But fortunately i have several fast lenses. I'll make it work.

Anyways, this is just an update. One of these days I am going to post new pictures, and I will keep you updated when I do. :-)

**Update** so I brought a new domain name, www.iiviphotos.com will be my next site. The name comes from the ii V I jazz progression, since this site will be dedicated to pictures I take at different venues. I'm excited to be working on this. Right now there is just a holder page, but I will start working on the site soon.

I haven't updated this page in a while.

Not quite sure what to say. I've been busy with work and school. I've also decided to learn japanase, because next Year I want to go to japan... This weekend I'm hoping to go to the Cherry Blossom festival at the botanical gardens, and hopefully I'll catch some good pictures. However, I may end up going to Baltimore to a wax museum. We'll see...

I'm going to try and update this page a bit more.

So, I was going to take some pictures last night at the Evolution Jam Session at Creole, but, unfortunately, my photo harddrive has a broken power connector and I can't save my new photos. :Grumble: I am looking into data recovery, as I need some way to retrieve my pictures. Fortunately most of them are already backed up on an external drive, but still, its a bit depression to lose 500GB worth of photos :-(

So, I haven't updated this site in a while. The payment just went through on another year of hosting, so I figured I'd might as well add something.

I have discovered something I had been looking for for my Mac. When Windows 7 came out I upgraded my desktop and feel in love with the AeroSnap function. By pressing Ctrl + Left or Ctrl + Right I could instantly dock my windows to different regions of the screen.  I found a program that allows me to do this for the Mac. Called ShiftIt ( http://code.google.com/p/shiftit/ ), its actually slightly better than the AeroSnap on windows. It does include more regions to snap to (Command + Option + Up snaps a window to the top of the screen, etc) The only issue I have with the program is that it doesn't seem to support multiple monitors like Windows 7. Command + Option + Left will not to to the next monitor if there is more than one connect, it only snaps windows to the left of the monitor it is currently on.

While I'm talking about Mac programs, another one I've come to like is SecondBar ( http://www.macupdate.com/info.php/id/33264/secondbar ). If you have a second monitor, this program adds another menu bar across the second monitor.  However, this program does have a lot of quirks to it. It can be very slow and sometimes the menus don't want to appear at all on the second monitor. I hope that the developers can improve on it, as it is quite annoying to have two monitors with an application displayed in the second monitor, but having to go to the first monitor to access the menu. :Grumble:

Well, these are just two programs that make using my Mac a bit more bearable. Feel free to leave a comment about any other programs you have or any experiences with these two.

Ok, so I took new photos. Went to go see Marcus @ the Jazz Gallery, and uploaded some photos from that night, here are some of them... If you want to see the whole gallery check it out at http://starperceptions.com/gallery/category/18