Monthly Archives: January 2006

Click on the title of the blog post to view the entire entry.


Monday, January 30, 2006

January 30, 2006 – 6:00 pm

060130

There is a zany event held each year in the little town of Avoca, Neb. simply named the “Quackoff.” Mobs of people descend on the town on the last Saturday of January to race ducks. Revelers drink cheap beer and cheer on their favorite ducks. The ducks, most of them rented for the occasion, are given names almost as bizarre as the event itself: Roast Duck, Quack Pipe, Duck Off.

You get the picture.

So yeah, you rent a duck, get a little boozed up and race it across the tennis court.

Here’s a picture of my brother-in-law, Luke, racing his duck named Ping. Never mind that prior to Saturday, Luke was a virgin duck racer. The Luke-Ping combo ran for an awe-inspiring 6th place out of a field of about 160 ducks.

Call it what you want to. But here in Nebraska, we call that impressive.

I’m not making this up.

Really.

I’m not.

By admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

January 18, 2006 – 6:00 pm

I just added th060118e hyper-links to the text of old blog entries.

If anybody is browsing the old entries and finds any broken links, I would love to know about it.

Thanks!

The last step I haven’t done yet in upgrading my journal to the new Photoblogging software is to allow for RSS syndication. For those of you who do not know what that means, here is a good explanation.

I personally don’t use a news aggregator, so I’m not real sure what I’m doing. I’d take some advice if there are any pros out there.

My software automatically generates an XML file. Do I just need to provide a button with a link to that file? I assume the email address I attach to it is my own. I can designate how many entries are listed on it. Not sure what people’s preferences are. Like I said, I’d take any advice from people who syndicate their blogs and/or use aggregators.

By admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Monday, January 16, 2006

January 16, 2006 – 6:00 pm

060116

This is Dilly (short for Dillweed). She is the newest addition to the Hickenbottom family.

——

warning, long geeky text to follow

——

Speaking of new things, you might notice a slight facelift. The changes might seem pretty subtle from your end, but they are the result of a major change on my end.

I started this blog almost four years ago, before most people

By admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)

Sunday, January 8, 2006

January 8, 2006 – 6:00 pm

060108

Nothing says “This is Nebraska” quite like a windmill standing in the open prairie. Sure enough, you can find windmills all over outside of the state; but only in Nebraska (and appearently Holland) are they so plentiful they have become iconic.

I love making photos of the sky, but the sky alone–without some kind of prop–is just an empty, boring picture. I like to include a windmill when photographing interesting sky phenomena such as an eclipse, meteor shower, northern lights, etc. when shooting in this state. The windmill gives the photo a sense of place.

It’s here that a constant breeze helps pull water from the plentiful Ogalalla Aquifer, described by some people as an underground, fresh-water ocean, only a short distance under our feet.

Sometimes when taking a road trip through the Sandhills, Sarah and I play a game called Mill-Kill. It’s a lot like seeing a Volkswagen Beatle and yelling “Slug Bug!” as you lovingly punch the person next to you.

Needless to say we were a little black-and-blue after seeing this cluster of windmills at a well-digging business near Merna, Neb.

Can you say Mill Massacre?

By admin | Posted in Uncategorized | Comments (0)