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On Saturday May 18, 2013 we were at the Pittsburgh Marriott North in Cranberry Township Pennsylvania. The event was a wedding reception for Bobby and Kate Swallow. Kate and Bobby were married at 2:30 pm at the Grace Church of Harmony. Guests began arriving at the Pittsburgh Marriott North shortly before 4:30 pm where the enjoyed [...]

On Friday May 17th 2013 we were at The Crystal Room & The Terrace Room in Butler Pennsylvania. The event was a wedding ceremony and wedding reception for Geno and Danielle Malloy. Geno and Danielle booked our Ultimate Ceremony & Reception Entertainment package which included our whole-room uplighting service. Guests began arriving to The Terrace Room at 3:30 [...]

Happy Birthday to Bridget., originally uploaded by ninelives.1972.

Celebrating at Monticello's...I can't believe she is Eleven.

Sent via my LG Spectrum 2.

One thing that Aquaman forgot when he decided it was a good idea to start bossing around a Great Old One, is that Cthulhu is not an ocean creature. Sure, Cthulhu can currently be found deep in the Pacific ocean, but he doesn’t actually live there. Instead, he lies dead but dreaming within his resting [...]

The post Cthulhu and Aquaman would not be friends appeared first on Xaotik Designs Industries.

These last few weeks have been absolutely nuts with school events, prepping for our annual Memorial Day camping/fishing trip. I have only been able to post these Six on Saturday posts. It will be my focus to get back to regular posting. There are some pretty cool things that I have found this past week, but have fallen behind in my feed, at one point I had more than 2,000 unread articles...yes, I flirted with the mark all categories read button a few times, but managed to at least glance at them all. Here are my favorites of the week:
1.  What...not really a favorite, but worth mentioning
 
Up until a month ago, I had a dumb/not so smart  feature phone. I frequently used services on the web via SMS. Google had quite a few services integrated with SMS messages. Here are two I actually used all of the time, Google Calendar and Google SMS. It was a way I could search or keep track of things on the go without paying a small fortune in data costs to my mobile carrier. Those two services have come to an end. Google killed them both. The tech community states, it is another small way that Google is forcing their market share in Android world as mentioned here via John Fingas on engagdget.
2.  It would not be a S.O.S(Six on Saturday) if I didn't mention Google Glass...yes, I am infatuated with this beta product. It was found over on The Verge, it was posted and produced by Ross Miller. Here is the video: 


If you can't see the video, the original post is here.
3. Here is great tip for any of you DIY Warriors that follow my blog, from Lifehacker by Shep Mcallister. It is a simple way to use something that gets thrown out for storing a tool that most any DIY'er has. Here is the article: http://goo.gl/3kZp3
4. A local favorite, is an application for iOS and Android, it's from our ISP, Armstrong Cable Company. It's a bit basic, you can view your bill, check voice mail and get notifications regarding your account, and of course I feel it needs a little more work, On Demand on the go would be amazing. A guy can dream, right?? Maybe they are listening... It originated over at Followthewire, where you can find more great articles regarding what the ISP offers. Here is the direct link to the article: http://goo.gl/QXnMI and here is a screen shot of the app on my tablet.
5. This article comes to us from Phandroid, It's a great list of Android apps for managing your to-do, tasks and checklists. I am currently using todo.txt, but will be looking at some of these other ones as well. Here is the article: http://goo.gl/SSwcP
6. My final link for this week was found on techcrunch.com written by Sarah Perex, it is for Google Drive users. It highlights a new "Save To Drive" button on websites making saving files even easier. Here is the link:  http://goo.gl/MqxCw
Now back to working on these: our camper and boat. I can't wait to go camping!!
Thanks for visiting the blog and have a great weekend!!

Lauryn Hill thinks black people are stupid. I know what you are thinking, “That’s racist, and Lauryn Hill isn’t the least bit racist at all!” But that’s pretty much what she said. You see, Lauryn Hill was recently sentenced to three months in jail for not paying close to a million dollars in taxes to [...]

The post Lauryn Hill is a racist appeared first on Xaotik Designs Industries.

I almost forgot to post this! Here's a little painting I did for my Mom for Mother's day!
Obviously, it's a painting of my brother, sister and me. I really had fun with this!

I haven't seen Earl much lately. I thought it was because there were now leaves blocking my view.  I did see him yesterday briefly...but I think for the most part he's been chased off!

Matilda has moved in along with her family!


I know bluejays can be nasty, but I love them!! They stand out from the rest.
And just maybe I appreciate their attitude. ^_^

I would of never seen this nest if I wasn't looking through my zoom lens.
They are on the other side of the tree and blend right in. What a surprise!

Not much is going on here. I've been working on a commission painting, and planning stuff for summer craft fairs. The weather is warm today and it makes me want to ride my bike. Alas, I'm not really excited about doing that myself. Maybe tomorrow. It's an off day at the gym with no classes I really like, so that will be a good way to get my workout in. Travis has been riding his bike to Crystal City every day. This week, is "ride your bike to work week" and on friday he'll get a free T-shirt. I might just ride along with one and get one for myself. LOL! Yep...pretty exciting stuff.

On Saturday May 11th 2013 we were at The Crystal Room in Butler PA. The event was a wedding reception for Kevin and Lisa Wissinger. Lisa and Kevin were married at 3:30 pm at the Grace at Calvary Lutheran Church in Butler. Guests began arriving at The Crystal Room at 5:30 pm where they enjoyed [...]

Just started a new job. It’s their busiest time of the year. I’ve put in multiple twelve hour days this week… This is the best I could come up with right now…

The post Barack Obama & Sean Connery in “Zardoz” appeared first on Xaotik Designs Industries.

Good Saturday Morning.

This weeks Six on Saturday will begin at number one of course, with an article coming from Thorin Klosowski over at Lifehacker.com. This Article It touches on some Chrome apps that are not so popular, but are worthy of giving them a try. My favorite from the list is Write Space, it is just what it states, a space to write. I use it to write up my blog posts before I even go to my blog publishing software. It is clean and clutter free. http://goo.gl/6gLMG 

Second up is another article talking about Google Glass, via Matt Asay over at ReadWrite.com. It mentions that Google glass is too much Google. I understand where Matt is coming from, but also see Gina Trapani's point of view, when she mentioned, pictures she has captured of her child would never be possible with a typical camera. I just recently got a new smart phone with Google Now installed on it, and I actually like the interaction it provides as it is constantly trying to be step ahead of me. The ah-ha moment for me with Now, was when it prompted me to leave if I wanted to be on time when Brenda's flight returned to Pittsburgh's International Airport. It new the route and saw that traffic was slowing because of an accident. It's all a little creepy that it knew I needed to be there, but cool at the same time. Glass will just be an extension of Now on your phone but will be in your vision. It will be interesting to see how Google moves forward with this beta program. Go check out the article: http://goo.gl/QyNKS

Up in the third position, is some cool ideas on how to organize the workbenches in our lives. This article is another one that originates over at Lifehacker.com, this time around it's written by Michael Colombo. I know my workbench has never evolved past a pile of stuff, that I say I need to get to...someday. I am a scavenger, and always keep things that may work in another applications, but with that I have to constantly purge through the piles or bins of stuff. If only, I had a larger garage?!#$? Brenda will laugh at that last statement. In this article there are several great tips to help with my mess, that I intend on using. http://goo.gl/Fm6Rn

Fourth on the list we have an intentional #Fail. This article was pulled from Engadget.com posted/written by Sean Buckley. In this article is a cool video of an parachute intentionally failing during a test flight of the Orion spacecraft. Go check out the video: http://goo.gl/psd4p

Five brings us smart phones that not only send satellite images from space, but also orbiting as the satellite. This short article with several interesting links was written by Carl Franzen over at TheVerge.com. I love geeky articles like this: http://goo.gl/DYksV

My sixth article is from Jon Fingus, via Engadget.com. Yes, it is another Google Glass article, but it's another cool application for this wearable device. Go check out the video posted within the article: http://goo.gl/uOgRX

Thanks for reading this week's SOS, have a great weekend!

On Saturday May 04th 2013 we were at one of our favorite banquet halls, The Crystal Room in Butler Pennsylvania. The event was a wedding reception for Marc and Kayla Luisi. Marc and Kayla were married at 2:30 pm at Holy Sepulchre Church in Butler. Guests began arriving at The Crystal Room shortly before 5:00 pm where [...]

I hate the Pittsburgh Marathon. Every year, they close off streets to create an inescapable ring around the city, preventing anybody with legitimate business from doing anything that needs to get done for half the day. Work on Sunday? Well I hope you don’t have to commute far. Got a doctor’s appointment? Well, you better [...]

The post I hate marathons appeared first on Xaotik Designs Industries.

This is the start of a new category of posts, Six on Saturday. It will simply be a post including six links of stories I found interesting throughout the week. Enjoy!

First in this weeks six, comes from Engadget. It is an article discussing what may be the next generation of camera packages packed inside of smartphones in the near future. It looks interesting and maybe even promising. http://goo.gl/6yR16

This second link originates via The Verge. Yes, someone has not only contemplated creating bionic ear, but has created one. http://goo.gl/phoJu Cool and kind of creepy at the same time.

Link number three really takes me back to when I raced remote control cars. Yes, I competitively raced R/C cars, and I loved every minute of it. You bought a kit, built the car, customized it if you had the cash to, and raced to the checkered flag!! This article originates from Car and Driver's Blog, and it   highlights a gentleman that custom builds an actual v-8 for a remote control car. http://goo.gl/Fcyj7

Google glass finds it's place at number four. This video is from Project Glass on YouTube I have been following much of the chatter regarding the new wearable technology. I really like what I see in this How-To video. I probably won't be able to afford a pair, and I really don't want to be called a glass-hole for wearing them. Go check the video out and tell me what you think in the comments below. http://goo.gl/wmy59

Vine lands at number five via PhanDroid. If you don't know what it is, you may not be on the Apple iOS platform or you simply don't care. I got acquainted with it while using an iPod. I made a vine, here and here. It currently is a iOS only app that allows a user to make a six second video and share it on social networks. Vine is coming to the Android platform soon. http://goo.gl/5On2A

For the final position, at Six...coming straight from Cnet, Google adds remote desktop to Hangouts in Google+. I have yet to utilize the Hangout feature in Google+, but this may be a valid way to provide some FTS (Family Tech Support).  I plan on testing this out in the near future. http://goo.gl/dtX4K

So there you have it, Six on Saturday.

If you see something you think should be a candidate for Six on Saturday, shoot me an e-mail or hit me on twitter or facebook. Thanks for visiting!!

A couple of weeks ago we received  a movie, Ring The Bell to watch and review. I immediately signed up to review this when I saw "with Casting Crowns and Steven Curtis Chapman" Brenda and I really enjoy Casting Crowns, I digress.

On to the review, the story was moving, the music was awesome!! The Hill Family(minus 1, due to a sleepover) enjoyed it. I personally enjoyed the internal struggle that was defeated ultimately by the grace and witness of those surrounding the individual dealing it.

From the DVD:

 About Ring the Bell:
Ring The Bell shares the story of a slick, big city sports agent Rob Decker who seems to have it all. But on his latest mission to sign a high school baseball superstar, Rob becomes stranded in a small town where the simplicity of life—and the faith of the people—stand in stark contrast to his own fast-paced, win-at-all-costs mindset. Torn between these two worlds, will Rob have the courage to let faith transform his life? This heartwarming story of redemption is sure to entertain and inspire the whole family.
Ring The Bell features a host of well-known Christian music artists, such as Mark Hall along with his band Casting Crowns, Steven Curtis Chapman, and Matthew West, all who play a role in this inspirational drama. Several former and current Major League Baseball all-stars are also featured in the film: ESPN analysts John Kruk and Rick Sutcliffe (a former Cy Young Award winner), along with Ben Zobrist.
This family-friendly movie was produced by Mark Miller, Beach Street Records' founder and Casting Crowns’ producer. Miller, who is also the lead singer and founder of country music group Sawyer Brown, co-wrote the script with Thomas Weber and Weber directed the production. 
Links: Website: http://ringthebellthemovie.com Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/RingTheBellTheMovie
Thanks for visiting my blog, and have a blessed weekend!!
* Material Connection Disclaimer: I received this music from FlyBy Promotions to provide a review on my blog. Stated above are my opinions and mine alone. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

I don’t know whose fingers those were, or how they got burnt into the stone like that, I’m just glad I keep the shotgun close to the bed… Of course, I should probably get some silver shot or something…

The post Fingers burned into stone appeared first on Xaotik Designs Industries.

On Saturday April 27th 2013 we were at Laube Hall in Freeport Pennsylvania. The event was a wedding reception for Chad and Julieanne Bell. Jules and Chad were married at 2:30 pm at Saint Wendelin Roman Catholic Church in Butler PA. Guests began arriving at Laube Hall shortly before 5:00 pm where they enjoyed cocktails [...]