I’ve made some changes again.  Both this site and wanderinglightphotography.com have been updated with new looks.  This site has been reverted back to my full time blog.   tonyrix.info will eventually just host my bio and contact information.  If you’ve subscribed to or normally visit tonyrix.info, you should have automatically been redirected here, but you should update any bookmarks or feeds to reflect the changes.  The redirection will only work for so long.

The changes basically give both sites a common look and feel to some extent.  The colors are different, but I’ve changed to a much simpler theme in both cases.  wanderinglightphotography.com now has a nice flash slideshow on the homepage that will be updated from time to time with new images.

I got rid of the photo blog because I was using it much.  Most of my recent photos just end up on Flickr.  Watch my photostream if you want to see my recent work or my daily self-portrait.  If you feel like buying something and contributing to my "red striped lenses" fund, head to wanderinglightphotography.com.  I’ll be forever grateful.

I hope to be blogging more often from this point forward as I start to make final preparations for my move to Missoula.  I’ll be using this blog as a means to let everyone know what’s going on.

Less than 60 days to moving day!!!

I was reading someone else’s blog today and I came across this test that is suppose to show you whether you are predominately left or right brained. The test shows a silhouette of a spinning female dancer. If it appears that she is spinning counter-clockwise, you’re using the left side of your brain. If she spins clockwise, you’re using the right. The article with the test shows the general characteristics that you can expect a left or right brained individual to have:

I read through the list before viewing the test and figured I would easily fall into the left brain category given my degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Information Technology. However, when I viewed the test, she was spinning clockwise, indicating I was a right brain person. That surprised me so I did some more reading on the subject. Apparently, everyone uses both sides of their brain at different times, but most people tend to favor one side over the other most of the time. I thought maybe I had just viewed the test at the wrong time so I rechecked it at various times throughout the day. Nearly every time, she was spinning clockwise. Only once was she spinning counter-clockwise and that was after I had just finished writing a bunch of C# code for the web project I’m working on at work. If I stare at it long enough I can get her to switch back and forth, but it’s easier to go from counter-clockwise to clockwise (left to right brain) than it is to go from clockwise to counter-clockwise (right to left brain).

After reading some more and taking a few other tests I found on the web, it appears I’m pretty equally distributed between my left and right brain with only a slight favoring of the right brain. I guess I shouldn’t have been that surprised. Reading through that list of characteristics again, there are some on both sides that apply to me. The left brain characteristics just seemed a little more obvious to me initially. The functions “uses logic”, “math and science”, “order/pattern perception”, “forms strategies”, “practical”, and “safe” all seem to apply to me. On the other hand, so do “‘big picture’ oriented”, “imagination rules”, “symbols and images”, “present and future”, “philosophy & religion”, “spatial perception”, and “presents possibilities”. I can be impetuous and risk taking at times too, but I think I tend to stick to the practical and safe side more often. I also read elsewhere that left brained people tend to be more organized and orderly while right brained people are disorganized and messy. I definitely fall on the right brained side there.

Some of the other tests I took and the results are below:

Hemispheric Dominance Inventory Test - I answered 13 as right brain and 5 as left brain.

Brain Lateralization Test - I came out 50% left brain, 50% right brain.

Brainworks Left Right Brain Test - My results were Auditory: 20%, Visual: 80%, Left Brain: 47%, Right Brain: 52%

What side of your brain do you use most?

Most of you know I’m leaving my job and going to the Rocky Mountain School of Photography this summer in Montana. Since I won’t have any income during the five months of classes, and possibly very little after that if I’m trying to start a photography career, I decided it was probably best to get rid of my car payment. I really didn’t want to get rid of my Wrangler, but it was hard to justify keeping the $440/month payment on it for the next four years. So yesterday, I traded it in for a used 1996 Jeep Grand Cherokee. The Grand Cherokee was being sold for just under $5K. Since I still owed quite a bit on the Wrangler, the trade-in amount I received minus the amount I owed didn’t completely cover the cost of the new vehicle. I had to pay $2K out of pocket. But, I would have spent that much on the Wrangler in payments over then next five months before heading to school anyway. So from then on, I’m coming out ahead (barring any major repairs on the Grand Cherokee).

The Grand Cherokee has 113,000 miles, but is in very good shape. It’s dark green with a tan interior and no rust or dents. It’s pretty loaded for a 1996 model: power everything, full-time (Quadra-trac) 4-wheel drive, leather interior, CD/Cassette with Infinity speakers, even heated seats! The engine starts and runs well, so I think it has a lot of miles left in it. Parts of the vehicle are showing their age, though. There are a few rattles here and there. The tailgate doesn’t always want to stay open on it’s own. And the rear wiper doesn’t actually touch the glass, making it useless. I think the spring just isn’t strong enough to pull the wiper in tight to the glass or else the hinge is just too stiff. I may be able to fix that. Otherwise, everything seems to work like it’s suppose to.

One more interesting note: by getting rid of my Wrangler and eliminating that loan, I am now completely debt free! That’s pretty cool.

This is the token “first post” for my new blog.

This blog will be replacing the one that was previously found at www.tonyrix.com, which is being changed into a photoblog.