New Year's Resolutions

Steelers Gnome - Day 1 of 365
Originally uploaded by Almost Sooted

I've never been a fan of New Year's resolutions and I've never set any resolutions for myself.  So, that brings me to this year.  I've finally decided to make some New Year's resolutions for myself for the upcoming year.  You are probably wondering what the photo above is, so that will be my first topic of my New Year's resolutions:

1. Start a photography project (one photo of the Steelers Gnome a day for 365 days)
2. Do some spring cleaning and get rid of stuff that I don't need anymore
3. Dress more appropriate for work (I usually just wear jeans and a polo for work, not anymore baby)
4. Finish several home projects.

Well, that about does it, I don't think I really want to tackle much more seeing that this is my first year doing this.

I started my photo project early (yesterday), if you would like to watch my progress on this please checkout my photos on Flickr, more specially at Project 365 - Gnome A Day.  Thanks.

I think I had something to do with this - It's Back!!!!

Most of you have already heard the news that Embrace Hostility In Howard County is back from the dead.  After my post the other day begging and pleading for this humor filled blog to come back, fellow blogger Ryan Ballengee, posted on EHHC and Columbia Now that he is back in business.  Now, I'd like to say that I had a hand in this, but if I had to guess Ryan was already considering bringing this wonderful blog back from the dead.

Since Ryan claims to only do a few postings a month to EHHC, I would like to extend the offer to help collaborate with Ryan and be a contributing author to EHHC.  Hopefully, Ryan will think this is a great idea and I can offer my insight into the uncivilized nature of HoCo.

Hold Tight

Vacation is still in full effect, so new posts will continue to be few and far between until after the new year.  I know, it must be tough waiting and waiting, but remain patience the new year cometh soon!!!

Bring out your dead!

Well, not really, but at least consider bringing back a dead blog.

When I started this blog, I didn't really think that others were blogging about Columbia or suburban life for that matter.  Boy was I wrong, within a couple of days I found a treasure trove of useful Columbia blogs.  I even stumbled upon the Embrace Hostility In Howard County blog.  I was excited and dejected when I found this blog, only because I was planning on blogging about the silly Choose Civility bumper magnets found in Howard County.  Then I found that the blog was closing shop and changing to Columbia Now.

I would like to plead and beg for the writer of the Embrace Hostility In Howard County blog to start it back up again.  We need some power, some force to fight all the "Choose Civility" individuals out there.  Bringing back this blog would really be the Civil thing to do.

If you choose not to bring it back, that's fine too.  I plan on incorporating some means to fight the power of Civility in future blog post.

Peace out Civility!!!

Photo of the week

walk
Originally uploaded by rich.steinbach

This week's photo of the week comes from flickr user rich.steinbach.

This is a wonderful night shot at Lake Kittamaqundi by the Columbia Mall.

Rich is a photographer and musician out of the Columbia/Baltimore area. He is for hire to do promo and live shots for bands. Please contact Rich at 410.446.0742 should you want to hire him.

Thanks again for your wonderful contribution Rich.

How cold is it?

Apparently the cold temperature has dramatic effects on all forms of digital communications.

It was soo cold yesterday that my Comcast service was dorked up for the entire day.  I got home from work to find that my Internet was working at the pace of The Slowskys.  Then I find out that the television was just as messed up.  One channel worked, the next one didn't.  Every once and a while I found one channel that had some form of snow pattern and inaudible message, which did not lend itself nicely to watching television.

It was soo cold yesterday that my Verizon service was also jacked up.  I got a phone call in the evening that I did not get to in time.  I figured the person would leave a voicemail, but time past and no beep.  It wasn't until this morning that the voicemail registered on my phone. Maybe all the people that come with the network didn't want to leave their homes to deliver my voicemail because it was soo damn cold.  Hopefully, today will be better.

Please share with me your cold weather horror stories over the last couple of days (please leave out the obviously "I'm super cold").  Did I mention we're having a heat wave, a tropical heat wave?  Oh, different day, sorry.

Oh the places you will go!

Savage Mills 11-7-2008 4-13-25
Originally uploaded by Almost Sooted

Back when we still had nice weather, I had a chance to visit Savage, Maryland. Now, I know it's not Columbia, but it's really close and it's in HoCo.

Savage Mills offers a variety of things to do. First off, they have the antique shops, if you are into that thing. Then you can get some good food and a beer or two at Rams Head Restaurant & Tavern. Rams Head typically has some form of entertainment on the weekends and is a small enough setting to find a table.

Finally, what many people may not know about Savage, is the wonderful river that runs by the Mills. Along the river is a walking trail and couple of picnic tables for those looking for a picnic lunch. You can also walk on the large rocks that run along Little Patuxent River. Surprisingly, these rocks form small waterfalls in the river which make for great photography subjects and you don't have to travel all the way to Great Falls, Maryland.

When you get a chance checkout Savage Mill, Maryland.

Lonely Winter Months

Lake Elkhorn - Lonely
Originally uploaded by Almost Sooted

Well, it's Sunday again and I'm not really in the mood to blog. Today I present you with a photo that I took with my new lens on Monday of this past week (finally, a nice weather day). I hope you enjoy.

Blogs will be sporadic over the next few weeks because of the holidays. If I have time I'll be sure to post something.

Merry Christmas to all and a Happy New Year!!!

You heard it here last

Wegmans has been the talk of the HoCo blogger world for quite some time now.  Some of the bloggers are for the new Wegmans in Columbia and some are against it.  Whichever side you align yourself with, you can always turn to wordbones over at Tales Of Two Cities for the latest news on all things Wegmans.

Now I'm all for new stores coming into the area and I'm not picky as to whether or not its a "Mom & Pop" store or a "Big Box" store.  But if we are going to get a Wegmans in the area, we might as well do it right and allow them to sell alcohol (wine and beer).

Over the Thanksgiving holiday I was visiting family in Virginia and we happened to stop at a new Wegmans.  The sushi at the food court was standard fair and the shopping was okay, but the wine selection was top shelf.  I'm not a wine nut, but it was like a kid in a candy store.  The Wegmans' employee working in the department said that they had over 1,300 wines to choose from.  Hurray, a selection of wine, wine, and more wine.  They had a good beer selection as well.  No longer would you have to travel to Corridor (which isn't even in HoCo) to find this large a selection of wine.

We were able to get the Lords of Maryland to usher in slot machines into the state.  Why can't we get them to allow alcohol sales at grocery stores?  Anyone else with me?

Photo of the Week

Lake Elkhorn
Originally uploaded by SCA Photography

This week's photo comes from Flickr user SCA Photography, in real life he goes by the name Scott Athen. Scott's work was selected because of the wonderful composition created by the S-Curve of the sidewalk at Lake Elkhorn. I've probably walked this stretch of sidewalk a hundred times and I never thought to look at it like this. The low shooting angle and the S-Curve running from right to left moves the viewers eyes through the photo.

Keep up the good work Scott. I look forward to seeing your future works of art.

Let's get creative!!

Hurraaayyy!  It's Thursday, it must be Shameless Plug Day once again.  Okay, okay, I won't make every Thursday Shameless Plug Day, but it must happen today.

I've been quite impressed with the traffic that is occurring on this blog.  I have a core group of friends that visit the site and I have some complete strangers that are visiting, as well as commenting.  A pat on the back, it's cool to know that people want to read what I have to say. 

Unfortunately, I can't say the same about my Flickr group Suburban Life in Columbia.  A few people are contributing to the group (my campaign to prove artistic people can live in the 'burbs), but overall membership is low.  I guess I haven't really figured out how to get more people to check out the group, to join the group, and to ultimately post photos to the group.  To those of you that are posting to the group, keep it up, you are doing a wonderful job.

So, Columbians (you know who you are), I'm urging you, I'm imploring you to get out and be creative!  For those of you that don't live in Columbia, you should also get out and do something creative.  I know, you are saying, "I'm not be interested in photography", but that doesn't mean that you can't be creative.  So, get out there, do something creative and if it is not a photo, at least take the time to comment to this post and let me know what you did that was creative.  You can do it, I have faith.

A helping hand:

• Use your cell phone camera to take photos of your surroundings
• Make a snowman (should you have snow in your area)
• Make cacti people for your Manger Scene (just for you Mrs. IbStarC, is this sacrilegious?)
• Bake some Christmas cookies

Public transportation, that doesn't exist in Maryland, does it?

A few months back (when gas was an arm and a leg) I was talking to a co-worker about my newly purchased hybrid vehicle.  The conversation turned to public transportation and he asked me if I would consider public transportation to get to/from work (I must warn you this co-worker lives in Baltimore and is not familiar with suburban life).  I'm not against it, I rode on public transportation when I worked in DC.  I told him I didn't think that there was any form of public transportation that I could take to work. He then introduced me to the public transportation tab on Google Maps.

What I found was somewhat surprising.  By car my commute is roughly 14 miles and will take, on good days, approximately 22 minutes.  Now, onto the surprising part, public transportation to and from my office does actually exist.  Further examination though shows me that public transportation is definitely not a word in Maryland's vocabulary.

Google Maps tells me that I would have to walk a short distance to a bus pickup location.  Then I would get on a bus that takes me into Baltimore.  Once in Baltimore, I would have to get on the Light Rail that would take me back towards BWI airport.  Once at the Light Rail station I would have to take another bus and then finally I would have to walk another short distance to get to work.  This whole public transportation ordeal would take approximately 2 hours.

Don't get me wrong, I'm all for public transportation, but for suburbanites that only commute a short distance, the state of Maryland needs to do a better job.

Sad state of affairs.

What ever happened to mailmen/mailwomen that would say "hello" to homeowners, that would give out lollipops to kids?

A few months back I was outside raking the leaves and the mailman pulled up to the mailboxes, got out of their vehicle, started placing mail in the boxes, and then proceeded to get on their cell phone.  A side note, what did we do before the advent and widespread use of cell phones?

So, now I'm using my handy leaf sucker/blower and the mailman is still on their cell phone.  The mailman drives over to the other set of mailboxes and is still on the phone.  Is it proper etiquette for me to turn off my leaf sucker/blower while the mailman continues the phone call? The way I see it is that they couldn't possible hear over my leaf sucker/blower, but they are out in a public space, so anything is fair game.  I decide that I'm in the right and continue with the leaves.  Fortunately, I got all my mail and no evil stares or glaring from the mailman.

When will we take back our lives and rid our addictions to cell phones, Blackberries, iEverythings, and any other electronic device?  I for one could not give up my DSLR or my MacBook Pro.  I guess I'm as guilty as the mailman.

Is it okay to spy on the neighbors?

You all know you do it.  You all spy on your neighbors.  I'm such a sucker for this, but I must admit it's not as easy getting the scoop on the neighbors as one would think.  If I had to guess all of my neighbors have recently seen Tom Hanks in the movie The 'burbs.

To clarify, I have to admit that it's fun checking up on the neighbors, but it's not something that I go out of my way to do.  I'm sure you all understand, you're standing close to a window and you realize that one of your neighbors just got home, so you peer out the window to see what's going on.

Now, what I've found is that all of my neighbors secretly have another life on their cell phones. I don't know about you, but if I'm on the phone when I get home, I usually just get out of my car and head into the house.  Now, my neighbors are quite different, they usually hangout in the car while they complete their phone call.  This to me just doesn't add up.  Maybe they can't do more than one thing at a time, maybe they know that someone is spying on them, or maybe they don't want their phone conversation shared with their family members.

So, what do you think?  Is it okay to spy on the neighbors?  

It's Sunday

Ornament
Originally uploaded by Almost Sooted

Taking the day off. No blog post for today, just a photo that I took during the week. Enjoy!!

You heard it here last

Clarksville (not really Columbia, but close enough) has been a hotbed of activity lately.  During the week a shooting was reported at a daycare facility in Clarksville (blogged by Columbia Talk).

Of course the local news stations headlined it by blowing it way out of proportion saying that shots were fired at a daycare facility in Clarksville, MD and then they promptly broke to commercial.  When they came back from commercial they reported the story and it obviously didn't sound as bad.  What I can't get over is why would anyone be hunting in Clarksville?  I figured this would take place only in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, or Western Maryland.  While it's true that Clarksville is not as densely populated as Columbia, I'm still surprised to find that people hunt out there.  I guess to each his own.

Hopefully Clarksville can calm down for a while and stay out of the news for longer than a week at a time.

It's finally here, it's photo of the week day!!!

The first ever photo of the week (on this blog and in my Columbia Flickr Group) comes from Flickr user Odonata457.  In this photo he has captured a wonderful winter scene highlighting the first snowfall in Columbia, MD for 2008.  Not only is the winter scene beautiful, but the warm orange colors left over from the fall are still noticeable in the photo.  

Great work Odonata457.  I look forward to seeing your future works. 

Light covering of snow and blue sky

Originally uploaded by Odonata457

Shameless Plug

The avid readers of this site (wait, what's an avid reader) probably already know of my interests in photography.  Well, most of you probably don't know that I initially went to school to get a degree in Applied Media Arts.  Obviously I didn't stick with this career path, but I still feel that I have some artistic qualities that have yet to be fulfilled.  I didn't stay in Art School long enough to take the photography classes, but now I'm wishing that I did.

Now onto the plug.  I recently jumped into the Digital SLR world and I've been reading as much information on photography that I can find.  I've also found a bunch of wonderful sites to upload photos on.  My favorite site being Flickr.  You can check out my photostream on Flickr at Almost Sooted.  While I don't always get much time to get out and take pictures, I still try to take and upload pictures when I can.  

I've also found many sites created by photobloggers.  These sites not only show great works of art, but they also dedicate a lot of time to photography tips and general photography experiences.  If you are interested in learning more about photography check out the links below.  Thanks for your support as I work on getting this thing off the ground.

Blog.SDuffyPhotography.com

Beyond Phototips

Your Photo Tips

Photopreneur

Photojojo!

Camera Dojo

Visiting Wilde Lake on the coldest day ever

A redeeming quality of Columbia is that it has a number of large lakes with surrounding parks for recreation.  Information about these lakes can be found on the Wikipedia page

for Columbia.

So, on probably the coldest day in December, I decided to visit Wilde Lake for the very first time. I wasn't there very long, but I found that it is surrounded by homes and apartments (possibly townhouses).  From the few minutes that I was there it looks as though it would be a nice place to hangout during warmer weather.  Maybe I'll make a second visit there when I won't have a chance to get frostbite.

Anyway, I took a few pictures while I was there, mostly of the dam (which is rather unique) and the little red roofed building by the dam.  Too bad the sun was too bright in the sky and was shining right in my face for the photos of the dam.  Hope you enjoy!!

What? When did this happen?

Spontaneously, almost overnight Columbia and Howard County has proven me wrong on the burbs being trendy, hip locations.

When I thought about this blog concept it didn't occur to me that other Columbia residents were blogging about the place we call home.  Then, to my surprise I found not one, but many blogs dedicated to Columbia/Howard County.  Not only did I find other blogs, but I found that the gods of suburbia have taken it upon themselves to make Columbia/Howard County a cool, trendy, and hip place to reside.  No longer can it be referred as Howard County, from this day forward it will take on the name HoCo, like the trendy hip locations in Baltimore that seem to sprout up on a daily basis.

Now, where was I when this took place, how come I wasn't called?  Oh, yeah, I know, I guess I'm not hip and trendy.  Oh well, go figure, I decide to write about boring suburban life and within hours my idea is shot to hell by the now trendy HoCo.

Take a look at all the HoCo/Columbia blogs out there at:

HoCoBlogs

My personnel favorites are:

Tales of Two Cities

HowChow

Strobist

Ugh, I hate being the last to know about anything!!!!

NIMBY and the Neighbors

It's no surprise to find that most people in Columbia are big fans of the idea "Not In My Backyard" (NIMBY).  Most often you will find Columbians complaining about urbanization and new businesses coming into the area.  You will hear them say things like "new businesses will create too much congestion on already overly congested roadways".  Unfortunately, the idea of NIMBY has now gone to the dogs.

It's now not enough for dog owners to keep their pets on leashes at all times and to pick up after their dogs when they do their business.  Columbians have taken it one step further and are requesting that no dogs shall defecate in their backyards.

Don't get me wrong, I too don't like finding doggy doo in my yard, especially when I'm mowing the lawn.  However, is it more unsightly to find real doggy doo in your yard or seeing a mockup of a dog defecating everyday?  You have to admit the sign gets the point across, but at what cost?  Also, where is it that you purchase signs like this?  In this case, has NIMBY gone too far?

Columbia's First Snowfall 2008

It finally happened, the first snowfall of 2008 in Columbia, MD.  This also marked the first day for many people to put up Christmas lights.  I spotted this lone lighted tree at Lake Elkhorn.  As I was driving past and I had to stop to get some photos.

Further evidence that snow had fallen, along with a nice arrangement of Christmas lights.

What Does It All Mean

Some of you are probably asking yourself, "what the heck is lumburbia?"

Well, a good friend of mine and I were talking about Columbia one day and in order to jazz it up a bit we decided to call it "The Lumb."  So, since this site is about Suburban life in Columbia, I figured what better a name than lumburbia.

Enjoy!!

The storyboard

Deciding on topics to blog about is certainly a difficult thing to undertake.  In order to contribute to a blog on a daily basis, some type of content is needed for posting.  With this in mind, I've developed a storyboard for daily posts to this blog.  My current ideas for this are:

• Lumburbia photo of the week (either my own or from others, by way of Flickr)
  
• Suburban musings
• Breaking news
• Where is that in Columbia
• The great unknown, life outside of the burbs

These are my initial ideas and I'm sure I will have others as this blog evolves.  I would also like to delve into topics that everyone in the burbs must overcome, like the neighbors, parking situations, the slow death of the suburbs, and commuting.

Hopefully, I can get a better handle on categorizing and developing these other topics.

The Beginning

This is my second attempt at a blog and hopefully I've come up with a decent idea for this one. In my first attempt at blogdom, I noticed that no one visited my blog, not once.  My guess is that the blog was just a bad concept and that without word of mouth no one would visit the blog.

At first I wanted this blog to be about all things photography and my newfound adventures in photography.  I began reading other photography blogs and I learned that in order to do a photoblog you needed to take pictures, a lot of pictures.  Unfortunately, I don't have much time to take lots and lots of pictures.  Then I started thinking about the fact that I live in boring suburbia and I realized that there is not much of interest to photograph in suburbanville.

These ideas lead me to develop the concepts for this blog.  I can't say that suburbs are completely void of inspiration or interesting things, but I also can't be too far from the truth. So I started thinking maybe, just maybe I would be able find something exciting to blog about in suburbia.  Then I decided that I could incorporate my newfound hobby of photography into this blog.  This would hopefully allow me to get out more and photograph the community that I live in, as well as, examining photographs of what other people find in Columbia.  Please accept my sporadic postings as I am working on a story board of ideas for this blog.  As of now posts will be hit or miss and when I'm not too busy.  In all hopes, I'll be able to develop a decent story board for this site for all to enjoy.

Without further ado, welcome to suburban life and welcome to Columbia, Maryland.  For more information on Columbia please check out the following sites.

• Columbia Maryland Online
• Villages of Columbia