Archive: 2008 August

Photo: Don’t Cross Me

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-31T04:44:09Z in Personal Development, Photography, Stock Photos, with these tags: beauty, black, canon rebel xti, christianity, clouds, contrast, efs 18-55mm, religion, silhouettes, sky, sunrises, yellow, 0 Comments. 392 words.

Don\'t Cross Me

… or I’ll cross you right back! Not really, but that’s the best title I can think of for this photo. It’s a church at sunrise, with the ever-wonderful cross towering above.

I edited this in Adobe Camera Raw 4.0 exclusively. Here are the settings I used:

Don't Cross Me settings in Adobe Camera Raw 4.0

I thought about going for cool, bluish tones in the sky, but the golden yellows work better. As you can see, I added contrast and blackness too, to make sure the cross and building really is a silhouette.

I …

Why Abortion is Wrong Even if it’s Right

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-30T09:38:58Z in Personal Development, with these tags: abortion, challenges, children, death, ethics, goals, growth, humor, life, teenagers, 4 Comments. 1,644 words.

I’m going down a hypothetical path where abortion is ethical and just, despite knowing it isn’t. I will prove that even if my knowledge is false and abortion is ethical, one who goes down that “ethical” path reaches a dead end, the end result for which is tenfold worse than believing abortion is unethical. Finally, with plain-old logic, I’ll prove that abortion is the wrong choice either way.

Definitions

First, let’s make the definition of “fetus” really clear. The American Heritage Stedman’s Medical Dictionary defines it as this:

“In humans, the unborn young from the end of the eighth week after conception to

A Free Nation Has Free Money

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-30T06:08:27Z in Personal Development, with these tags: death, freedom, goals, government, life, money, myths, oppression, 0 Comments. 1,193 words.

The purpose of any good government is to protect the lives and property of the people. Property is money. Money must be solid. It must be free, in that it is independent of the nefarious deeds of plutocrats. It doesn’t matter how much free speech or free love you have. If you have no money, you have no property, and all your “freedoms” are worthless.

The Federal Reserve, masquerading as part of our government, bails out corporations that have gotten themselves far into debt. In theory, this protects the jobs of the people, because the corporation keeps going. How does the …

My Life of Crime: Lessons from the Rebate Game

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-29T05:22:33Z in Personal Development, with these tags: cameras, computers, courage, crime, fun, games, goals, growth, life, materialism, money, purpose, time, 4 Comments. 11,791 words.

This is the story of how I gamed the rebate, price-match, and coupon systems of common office and grocery stores to acquire over $25,000 in free merchandise over a period of three years. I haven’t found anyone who has done quite what I’ve done. A lot of it is unethical. I believe none of it is legally actionable, but it was exciting and I gained a lot of nice possessions. “Legal shoplifting,” if you will.

Nervous Early Days

When I started out in the rebate game, around June 2005, I thought claiming a legitimate rebate on a product was a good deal. …

Returning to College

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-26T12:34:35Z in Other, with these tags: college, daytonastate.org, education, School, 0 Comments. 67 words.

I went back to school yesterday. I’m blogging about my school life over at DaytonaState.org now, so take a look at that. The reason to split it up from here is because that site is more targeted, and ranks higher in Google and makes me more money. :grin: But I’ll be writing more here and posting a few photos this weekend. The learning is keeping me busy.

Photo: Sunrays 5

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-22T04:09:33Z in Photography, Stock Photos, with these tags: black, blue, bright, canon rebel xti, clouds, contrast, dark, efs 18-55mm, sky, sunrays 5, sunrays series, 0 Comments. 49 words.

Richard's picks:

Sunrays 5

The fifth entry in the series: a burst of sunshine through the dark clouds. I like the power lines at the bottom-right… they sweep in at the right angle.

Canon Rebel XTi, EFS 18-55mm, 1/4000, F4, 18mm, ISO100, 2008-08-11T17:21:08-04, 20080811-212108rxt

Download a perfected high-res JPEG or download the source image (Canon Rebel XTi RAW file).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp, and link back to richardxthripp.thripp.com or rxthripp.com. Thanks!

More of the Sunrays series.

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More stuff:   Photo: Sunrays    Photo: Sunrays 4    Stock: Sunrays  

Photo: Twilight Sundown

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-22T02:30:19Z in Photography, Stock Photos, with these tags: beauty, black, canon rebel xti, contrast, dark, ef 50mm 1:1.4, evening, night, red, sunsets, twilight, twilight sundown, 0 Comments. 92 words.

Twilight Sundown

I saw this sunset out the window on the Granada bridge over the Halifax river in Ormond Beach. I was a passenger in the car, so I was able to snap this out the window. It was quite dark, almost night. I had to go all the way up to ISO1600 and all the way down to F1.6 to get a 1/60 shutter speed, so the full size version is quite grainy, but it seems artful.

Canon Rebel XTi, EF 50mm 1:1.4, 1/60, F1.6, 50mm, ISO1600, 2008-08-15T20:20:47-04, 20080816-002047rxt

Download a perfected high-res JPEG or download the source image (Canon Rebel XTi RAW file).

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License. Credit me as Richard X. Thripp, and link back to richardxthripp.thripp.com or rxthripp.com. Thanks!

Photo: Caramel Sunset

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-21T17:34:33Z in Photography, Stock Photos, with these tags: beauty, black, canon rebel xti, caramel sunset, clouds, dark, efs 18-55mm, hearts, night, orange, sky, sunsets, sunshine, yellow, 0 Comments. 178 words.

Caramel Sunset

This beautiful sunset caught my eye out the window. The skies here are just getting better and better. I ran out with my wide-angle lens (the kit lens) and started snapping different angles of it. It didn’t look like this to start, but I stuck around for ten minutes and the clouds came together in this odd formation. It looks like cotton candy, caramel flavored. I found it really interesting that the sun was like a spotlight, because it was dark outside of the clouds as you can see at the edges of this photo.

I …

17 Lessons from 17 Years

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-21T09:06:50Z in Personal Development, with these tags: birthdays, courage, goals, humanity, lessons, life, lists, richard x. thripp, 0 Comments. 2,659 words.

This is my first post as a 17 year old. The pivotal birthday was 2008 August 17, a Sunday. My youth is just slipping away. :grin: I’ve written this list of seventeen things I’ve learned over the years.

1. Passion is fleeting.

I used to be fascinated with the color blue. Then when I was 6 I switched to red. Around 14 I switched back to blue again. Now I’m starting to like green (notice my website’s colors?).

Don’t count on being dedicated to writing, piano, blogging, or photography all your life. Don’t root yourself in material mediums, because it doesn’t matter …

Photo: Sunset

By Richard X. Thripp at 2008-08-15T02:38:11Z in Photography, Stock Photos, with these tags: beauty, bright, canon rebel xti, clouds, colorful, contrast, efs 18-55mm, orange, red, sky, sunset, sunsets, yellow, 3 Comments. 179 words.

Sunset — a vivid, fiery mix of orange and white clouds at sundown

I saw the golden colors flooding in through the window just a few hours ago, so I rain out and snapped this photo of the gorgeous sunset that was gracing my front yard. I haven’t seen a sunset this impressive before. The swirls of clouds were awesome, and went far above what you see in the frame. I couldn’t fit them all in even at 18mm, which is as wide as the Canon Rebel XTi kit lens would go.

I punched the contrast up in Photoshop. …


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