Badlands National Park....Wow

We have headed from Chicago to Des Moines, through mile after mile of wheat fields and tourist destination billboards (e.g., 1880's Ghost Town, Flinestones campground, World's Largest Corn Palace, World's Largest truck stop) and finally out of nowhere we emerged at Badlands National Park.  Absolutely beautiful.  It pales in comparison to the Grand Canyon, but it's far more intimate and gorgeous in it's own way.  There is little wildlife here, but we did get to take in one of the most colorful sunsets I've ever seen.  In the morning we woke up for a really disappointing sunrise which slowly turned into an amazing sunrise when we reached the Yellow Mound Overlook.  The weather when we arrived was a balmy 110 degrees Fahrenheit (record highs!), followed by a 50+ degree drop overnight.  Without question, these are some of the best photos I've taken in the four years since I got my SLR. Mount Rushmore was definitely not as grand in scale as I had been expecting, but it is far more detailed and surrounded by deep forest than I had anticipated.

Now onto Yellowstone where we will spend two nights camping and get to take in a "blue moon" (the 2nd full moon of the month, which happens only once every 27 months or so, hence the expression "once in a blue moon").

What's your favorite picture out of curiosity?

Chicago (and a bunch of other states)

Today we started from New Jersey, crossed a bunch of boring states (PA, IN, OH), and then headed to Chicago where we got to enjoy a quick walking tour and a deep dish pizza. Along the way we passed a bunch of pro-coal energy and religious billboards along with a "Obama is for gay marriage and pro abortion, vote Republican" one.  I will definitely have to come visit Chicago again and spend more time exploring, it seems like a great city.

The saddest part of the cycling doping scandal

Hearing the news last night about Lance Armstrong made me cringe.  Not because of the Lance news, I think his guilt was determined a long time ago.  My heart went out for the guy that worked his butt off every day for years.  He sacrificed everything;  his life was dedicated 100% to training.  He never gave into pain, injuries, or his mind convincing him to stop.  He likely had to blow off quality time with friends and family, all for the quest to win a cycling race.  Yet, despite his sacrifices, he probably always came in 6th, or 8th, or 15th place (there were a lot of cheaters, not just Lance).  There was no fame, no big sponsor money, and no publicity for this guy.  Ironically, it was this guy that was the champion though, surrounded by a bunch of cheats.  It is so sad that I don't even know his name.

Secure your digital life, now!!

What do Google, Amazon, and Apple have in common?  Well, they are probably the three companies I use the most in my day to day digital life these days and chances are the same for you.  But they are also the way that hackers were able to break into someone's iphone, ipad, macbook, twitter account, and gmail account within about 30 minutes, permanently deleting and destroying almost 9 years of a Wired writer's digital life (including the entire collection of photographs of the first year of his child's life).   What can be learned here to prevent this from happening to you? 1.  Setup 2-factor authentication on your gmail account.  Yes, it is a royal pain in the ass.  But you have too much to lose if your email account is hacked (I can only guess you have credit card #'s, SSN's, home addresses, passwords, etc. buried in your emails).  I'd suggest the same for Facebook.

2.  Shut off "Find My Mac" as it seems particularly dangerous and unsecure

3.  use different passwords for different accounts (especially the important ones).  I cheat here and use slightly different variations of the same core passwords which should protect most

4.  backup your files OFFLINE.  Cloud storage and backup is convenient, but at least once a month back everything up that you would not want to lose (think pictures) to a DVD or external hard drive that no hacker can get access to

5.  Spread the news about this, it's the only way that companies like Amazon and Apple (particularly guilty here) will change their policies.  A particular pet peeve of mine is the "security questions" needed to reset passwords, many of which companies give you no options for and are things that can easily be discovered via a web search.  We need to force companies to do better, there is too much at stake

Here is the original post from the wired writer for the complete story