Wednesday, May 28, 2008

Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple

The Mt. Timpanogos Temple, grassy plains, high mountains of Utah, gorgeous weather, and a gondola driver!?!?! Emily & Alan's wedding had pretty much everything and their photo's show it! Okay, okay, so we didn't have an actual gondola or gondola driver, but if the gondola hat fits, wear it! (Look really close at the 4th set of pics, incase you think I'm crazy) You can also see awesome videoagrapher Michael Burton, with his huge camera! We've had such fun photographing Emily & Alan, they have been so great to work with! Well the wedding pictures at the temple were a blast and we haven’t even put the reception pictures yet! More to come soon! Congrats Emily & Alan, you've been such a fun bride & groom!


Click images to enlarge


Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple



Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple
Utah Wedding Photography Mount Timpanogos Temple

Tuesday, May 27, 2008

dripping acid

to celebrate how much paypal suck, littleoddforest is giving all our customers a
15% discount code - PAYPALSUCKS
simply key it in at the shopping bag page and click on the apply discount button, prior to checking out your order.
this discount code will be in use until monday 2 june 2008.


if you're still having problems making your credit card payment via paypal after checking out your shopping cart items, please email us your order and we will email you a paypal invoice manually. this is one way of getting around the problem. the other way is to not log into paypal and making payment as a new user.

this is an intermittent technical problem caused by paypal that hits shoppers randomly. therefore, though most shoppers have been able to make payment, a handful of you have not been able to do so. we can get around this problem if you email us your order and we send you the invoice manually.

in the meantime, we @ littleoddforest will try to drink tea, meditate, and calm down our ruffled feathers.

Is this the best the Democrats have to offer?

There is just one week left before the final primaries take place. While the Democrat race has been an historic one, it's also a bit disconcerting. Is this the best the Democrats have to offer?

I'm already unimpressed with John McCain. But this isn't about the continued boredom of the Republican Party and their eventual nominee. This is about the Democrats.

There are two candidates left. They seem to be tripping over themselves and the news media to see which of them can become the bigger fool.

Hillary Clinton. I'm hesitant to go back into the 90's and all of the scandals that she was involved in that we know of and the ones that she was probably in that we don't know the details. I just don't know that there is enough space on any computer, any website to cover all of that.

She came into the race as the inevitable choice of the Democrats. Now she is in a tight race with another Senator. Remembering how the Clintons were in the 90's, I don't count her out. I seriously can envision her taking this all the way to the convention and duking it out there. I can see her pulling a fast one and stealing the nomination away from Obama. In fact, I'm almost hoping for it.

Clinton has had her problems. First she said she was under sniper fire, which turned out to not be true. This past week, she said that she didn't understand the bellowing for her to get out of the race. After all, her husband didn't wrap up the nomination until June in 92 and Bobby Kennedy was killed in June of 68. So why should we be so surprised that the Democrat nominee hasn't emerged as of May of 2008?

Frankly, I'm surprised that there has been so much upset in the Democrat party over these words. They are, after all, true. She says something that is true and she's attacked by her own party over it. The same ones that backed her "vast right wing conspiracy" invention that turned out to not be true.

Hillary has enough problems. She has done nothing in the Senate other than to vote for the war in Iraq, then change her mind when it was time for her to run for President. She has no legislation in place. In fact, the only real thing I can remember off the top of my head of her time in the Senate is that she told General Petraeus that it would strain credibility to think that his plan of the troop surge would have any success....just before it became a raging success.

Her opponent is even less qualified. Barack Obama has ties to communists, socialists and terrorists. He's been a Senator for three years and done nothing. He attended a church for 20 years, but apparently didn't hear his Pastor say anything negative about the United States, nor any of his racist rants. I guess it pays to miss church at times, although I don't know how he knew which days to skip church.

This weekend alone was enough to show how inexperienced, incompetent, and unaware of history he is. Memorial Day; he was giving a speech and said he could see some of the soldiers in the crowd that we were honoring on Memorial Day. To do this, he'd have to have had dead soldiers in the audience. Memorial Day is a day to honor the fallen. The men and women that have died in service to the United States. Those that gave the ultimate sacrifice.

Then he followed that up the next day by saying that his great uncle was one of the first Americans to liberate Auschwitz. He used this story as a way of talking about how we need to take better care of the soldiers when they return home and have seen things that humans have done to other humans. He said his great uncle had gone to the attic and stayed for six months, not leaving the house.

Here's the problem with his story. First, Auschwitz was liberated by the Russians. Not by the Americans. Now if his great uncle was a Russian, his story just became believable. But apparently, he wasn't Russian. That would open up a whole new can of worms.

Second, this was a family member that was talked about in the family because he had been in Germany and had supposedly brought home photo's.

Barack Hussein Obama's just lost credibility. So the press had to go into overdrive to fix their candidates problem. Within a couple of hours, the real story came out. His great uncle had actually been to another camp and did take part in the liberation of that camp, but it wasn't Auschwitz.

Here's the problem. Shouldn't Barack Hussein Obama have known as he was telling his story that something was wrong with it? Shouldn't have had known as soon as he started telling it that Auschwitz was actually liberated by the Russians? Any candidate for President of the United States should know that simple fact.

Since Obama's great uncle was so upset upon his return, and refused to go out of the house for six months, and this was enough of an important story for Obama to use, wouldn't you think that he'd get his facts straight. Especially such a simple fact that nearly any high school student should be able to get correct.

Another aspect is that if his great uncle was so upset about this, why would Obama bring it up? It's a personal story in his own family, and if it's true that his great uncle wouldn't talk about it, why would Obama talk about it for him? Even the press didn't talk to that uncle. They talked to another uncle, who is a brother to the one in question apparently because the great uncle involved still doesn't like to talk about it. Yet, Obama throws an incorrect story out there for his own benefit despite the privacy his great uncle prefers on that topic.

This reminds me of when he claimed his grandmother made racist statements when he was a boy and it made him cringe. His grandmother can be known as a racist, his great uncle described as needing mental health care. If it weren't for his facts being all wrong, I'd have to question if there is something genetic that should keep him from being President.

Obama and Clinton are the number one and number two liberals in the Senate. Both of them act like it. They promise all of this spending that they are going to do, in addition to surrendering to the terrorists and what they don't talk about is who is going to pay.

There is one answer to both questions. The American people will pay for their spending programs that they are promising and the American people will pay when the terrorists decide to strike us again after being emboldened by the liberals in their surrender.

If either one of these two are elected to the White House, Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton will likely be two very happy former Presidents. Right now, it's a toss-up as to who is the worst President in history. A case can be made for both of them. If we elect Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama, either one of them could give Clinton or Carter a run for their money at being the worst President in history.

Republicans run trying to emulate President Reagan (the best President of the 20th Century) while the Democrats trot out candidates to alleviate Former Presidents Carter and Clinton from being the worst President in history.

Unfortunately, this is the best the Democrats have to offer. Although, it's probably fortunate for McCain. I'm afraid he'll be the worst Republican to be President from the day he takes office.

I guess that says alot. I'm willing to vote for the worst Republican over the worst possible President we could have.

I welcome your opinions and comments.

Brett

paypal sucks

every time we have high website traffic, we will notice a thorny intermittent problem.
random customers will encounter this paypal error page when they try to make payment for their order

fuck you paypal

well, it is NOT a problem at our end.
there is absolutely nothing wrong with our code, or email address, or account or whatever.

this is a known paypal bug.
you can search for it right here.
this bug hits random customers and is an intermittent problem, and has yet to be solved.
you may think it is a joke. but no, this problem has been randomly occurring since we were first able to track customer checkout activity 2 years ago.
it is because it occurs randomly, thus it has been so difficult to track the problem.
can you imagine if we had not improved our code to track our website's back-end activity, we wouldn't have known about this??? is ignorance really bliss???

and yes, our customers have also been contacting us about it.
the higher our web traffic and online sales, the more crap we are getting about this.
and i always get a whole load of crap whenever i send out newsletters, because that is when our web traffic will surge.
few days ago when i sent out the email newsletter, i basically had to mass email more than 10 customers whom we knew encountered this problem, giving them our apologies and telling them the real explanation and reasons as to what was going on, and how we may go about it.
many more customers who encountered the problem but we don't know of.
and the handful of 6 customers who were our regulars and trusted us, bothered to take the initiative to email us about it and thus we had the chance to manually send them a paypal invoice to complete their purchase.
those whom i mass emailed, basically, i only received 2 thank you emails, and heard from no one else.
because shoppers simply do not like to deal with hassle. hassle!!!! screw you paypal. for all the hassle you have given us. me. them.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Message ----
From: "webform@intl.paypal.com"
To: "Lynda L. @ littleoddforest"
Sent: Tuesday, 27 May, 2008 5:43:16 PM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM50491703I96L0KM) :ppk1

Yes, this is a bug, we discovered after the last upgrade. It has to do with the address. A temporary workaround is to set no_shipping to '1' to not require the address.

The engineering department is aware of this bug and is working on resolving this error.

Frank I.
PayPal Certified Developer
PayPal PayWatch Analyst
http://www.paypaldeveloper.com
PayPal, an eBay Company

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Message ----
From: "Lynda L. @ littleoddforest"
To: webform@intl.paypal.com
Sent: Sunday, 25 May, 2008 12:17:05 PM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM50416941I96L0KM) :ppk1

hi Charlotte,

I have attached the exact web page error that my customers are receiving.
And that message clearly pinpoints a problem on my end, instead of anything else.

Almost all of the time, shoppers don't take the hassle in making payment too nicely. And taking the extra step to contact me or even Paypal is just something that they'd just "forget it", and move on.
Thus, only a small handful are even willing to reply to my emails, and complete their order payment manually with the Paypal invoice I send them.

Which brings me to my next question
- Why are they able to pay up when I manually send them a Paypal invoice? If the problem is indeed this security measure thing you insist on, then shouldn't they be unable to make any payments with their Paypal accounts at all?

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Message ----
From: "webform@intl.paypal.com"
To: "Lynda L. @ littleoddforest"
Sent: Sunday, 25 May, 2008 9:22:07 AM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM50416941I96L0KM) :ppk1

Dear Lynda Lye Siew Ping ,

Hello, my name is Charlotte, I will be happy to assist you with your
question regarding your PayPal account.

Understand your concern on cannot receive credit card payment sometimes.

For the fully examination of the issue, could you please kindly forward
your customers who claimed cannot pay you via PayPal to us ? It would be
better for us to check the detailed reasons firstly, and then take the
investigation. We are willing to have the direct contacts from your
buyers who have this problem.

Secondly, there is something should be highlighted. System security
measures exist in every user country including the U.S. It is absolutely
impossible that the US-based website can override our security guard.

Thirdly, the security measure is a unique protection feature applied to
every member of PayPal, and it is not a system error. Therefore, it is
not a website error which you may think it as a website problem.

For the buyers claim as cannot pay you, you can forward them to contact
PayPal.

It is my pleasure to assist you.

Sincerely,
Charlotte
PayPal, an eBay Company

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Message ----
From: "Lynda L. @ littleoddforest"
To: webform@intl.paypal.com
Cc: SiJun
Sent: Saturday, 24 May, 2008 1:57:35 AM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM49997505I96L0KM) :ppk1

hi Milo,

I understand what you are saying, and we have been given this explanation before. The problem is, this doesn't seem to be the issue.

The customer was able to make her purchase at other websites (US-based) and pay via Paypal, but not at our website.

And if this was really the case, shouldn't the error message tell them what you just explained to me, instead of pin-pointing the error as fault on my part? The error message specifically states that there was a problem with the seller's email address. Why? This is very misleading and results in our customers thinking we are an unreliable seller, when we are not.

Could you kindly please do some checks or at least help us to investigate the problem?
And maybe if your explanation was truly the case, the error message should be changed to explain to the customers what they should do?]

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Original Message ----
From: "webform@intl.paypal.com"
To: Lynda Lye Siew Ping
Sent: Friday, 23 May, 2008 4:42:59 PM
Subject: Re: SendingaPayment (Routing Code: C702-L001-T11084-S111-W000000) (KMM49997505I96L0KM) :ppk1

Dear Lynda Lye Siew Ping,

Thank you for taking the time to contact us with your concerns. I am
happy to assist you further.

You are inquiring about why some payments were denied, right?

Now please let me explain the reasons to you.

To ensure the integrity of our network, PayPal may take security
measures, which may affect some accounts in good standing. We regret any
inconvenience may have caused.

PayPal employs complex statistical models to identify patterns of
behavior. This is similar to the way banks and credit card companies
identify patterns of behavior those are abnormal when verifying
individual transactions. When our system rejects a certain funding
source for a transaction, it is merely an indication that the individual
transaction fits a pattern may cause a high risk of failure.

If you encounter your buyers involved in this trouble, you may explain
to them and advise them to take the following advices:

If a transaction has been denied, the user may be able to complete the
transaction using another funding source such as U.S. bank account or
PayPal balance.

If she/he still wishes to use the credit card, please recommend him/her
not to try at this time. Please take another try after 24 or 48 hours.
If his/her card hasn't been verified, you can also advise them to link
and confirm the credit/debit card in the first place to increase
feasibility.

I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience and appreciate your
understanding on our product feature. Please feel free to let me know if
you need further assistance.

Please let me know if you need further assistance.

Sincerely,
Milo

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Monday, May 26, 2008

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park: South Rim

Drive Length: 7 miles
Number of Overlooks: 12


Close up of the Indian-like petroglyph on the Painted Wall

Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park is one of those must sees in Colorado. The visit will not burn many calories but the views will remind you of just how insignificant the human life span is. The fast flowing Gunnison River has, over the span of 2 million years, gouged out a watercourse that is, at its’ deepest, 2,772 feet deep. Standing at the edge of the chasm is a life affirming experience. Life affirming that is if you grip the handrail until your knuckles turn white. Just looking down made me weak in the knees. Glancing across to the other side resulted in a tingling behind the sternum that surely heralded a heart attack.

The South Rim is different from the North, which I shall describe in a separate post. If you only have one day to spend, go for the North Rim. The views are far more spectacular and the drive is amazing in itself. The river views from the south rim are limited and the number of stops far more numerous. There are several lookouts that require a 700-yard walk, which is a blessing after sitting in the car for so long.

For those of you who have not visited the area since it became a National Nark, you will notice a lot of changes. There is a new visitor’s center, plentiful bathrooms, and heavy wood barriers on all but one of the lookouts. While you may wish to argue that the area should have remained a National Monument, you cannot argue with the jaw dropping wonderment you receive when coming face to face with the unyielding power of water and time. If only we could take such simple wisdom into our personal lives. It really only takes persistence to erode the most formidable obstacle. Of course, having a few million years doesn’t hurt either.

On this trip, the Gunnison River was flowing at over 7,000 cubic feet per minute. Looking down into the gorge with a telephoto lens I could see the chaotic confluence of rock, wood, and foam. The flow rate is magnified by the angle of decent, which is 96 feet per mile. As dramatic as this rate sounds, the flow through the canyon is significantly reduced from its heyday before the upstream damns regulated its flow.


Close up of the river bottom

Allow yourself 3-4 hours to get into the park from Hwy 347 and to see the South Rim, longer if, like I, you forget your camera battery and have to drive all the way back to Montrose to get it!
There is no easy way to get from the south rim to the north rim, so plan on another day to see and explore that side. There are short 1-2 mile hiking trails in the park, but since we had dragged our dogs along, we limited our activities to the overlooks themselves. I talked to a fellow tourist from Longmont Colorado who said that the view from the end of the Warner Point trail was worth the effort.

It is hard to say what is the best time of year to visit the park. Summer can be ghastly hot, winter can be windy and cold, and spring can be unpredictable. This trip was made over Memorial Day weekend, and we were cold the first day and warm the next. That’s Colorado weather for you. On a side note, we stayed in Montrose, which has some decent hotels, but very little in the way of decent food. Bring a cooler full of deli selections, and you will be happier by far.

Dillon Pinnacles

Trail Length: 4 miles RT
Elevation: 7,400 to 7,847 ft
Elevation gain: 447 ft


The Dillon Pinnacles are one of those geologic wonders of Colorado. They are located along Blue Mesa Reservoir between Montrose and Gunnison. For minimal effort, you can get up close to the formations.

Coming from Montrose, the trailhead is located just past the bridge that crosses over the reservoir. The trail follows along the water, or what used to be water, for 0.75 miles before heading up a gully filled with juniper, sage, rocks, and a small creek. After 0.25 miles it reaches an intersection. Take the left fork and continue to ascend upwards to a small hillock that looks down the length of the formation. A worn wooden bench is available if the cumulative distance to this point is overly fatiguing! You can see the trail in the distance along the formation. Do continue. The views are very pleasant, and the destination, another bench on a wind-blown mesa, provides 50-yard line views of the formation and alternatively, views of the San Juan Mountains to the south. Elk and deer are very prevalent along the trail from October through April. Their scat practically covered the trail and seemed more abundant than the rocks themselves.


Sage and pine on the Dillion Pinnacles trail

The Dillon Pinnacles are made of eroded West Elk Breccia, a composite rock spewed from the volcanic West Elk Mountains 30 million years ago.

From a distance, the West Elks, with their central Needle Rock, look like the remains of a climate changing explosive event but are in fact the remains of an entire field of Stratovolcanoes. Stratovolcanoes are versatile eruptors and are easily recognized by their dramatic cone shape. At one time or another, the volcanoes in the West Elks probably erupted with explosive force like Mt. Rainer, or sent plumes of ash into the stratosphere. The West Elk Breccia is composed of rock and ash that fell from at least one explosive eruption that resulted in over 600 ft of ash and rock accumulation. You can see the West Elks from the south rim of the Black Canyon of the Gunnison or even more dramatically from Hwy 92 heading toward the north rim of the park.


West Elk Mountains

It is possible to get close to Needle Rock, which is located in the town of Crawford. Up close, it looses some of its majesty. It is far more impressive when viewed as part of a circle of volcanic remnants.

I have seen the Dillon Pinnacles many times from the overlook on Hwy 50 but this was my first opportunity to see them up close. As with most things in Colorado, they gain perspective and elegance the farther you get from the car. The Dillon Pinnacles are no different. It is worth the short hike to see these remarkable formations up close. A final note of trivia, Blue Mesa Reservoir is the largest body of water in Colorado. I have seen it covered in snow, dappled with sunlit elegance, and radiantly blue. It seems to have as many expressions as Colorado herself.


Blue Mesa Reservoir (trailhead parking area)


Thursday, May 22, 2008

sometimes, i love old men

ahem. specifically only Statler and Waldorf.

what better way to end the work week hahaha! thanks for the fab videos, j!!!!!

summer specials part 1


>>> HAPPY SHOPPING! ------>

Why is it rare for a Senator to be elected President?

Need I say more?


Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut

Jamie & Kerry had their wedding & reception at the Carmelle Reception Center, the ceremony was really beautiful. There was a really touching moment when Jamie's dad saw her coming down the stairs in her wedding dress, he had to fight to hold the tears back. :) Carmelle has some awesome huge mirrors right where they said I do for the wedding ceremony, so you could pretty much see the whole audience and Jamie and Kerry's reactions during the wedding vows. They had some super cute ring bearer and flower girls. The dance/reception was hopping! ;) The whole wedding party had such a good time! Jamie & Kerry, congrats, hope you have fun honeymoon in Mexico, I'm jealous ; )

Click images to enlarge
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut
Wedding Photos in Salt Lake City Ut