Daily Plog

The good news, perhaps the best news short of my recent trip to Arizona, is that I had a job interview today. I have been applying at a plethora of places looking for an IT position, and it seems that my level of experience and knowledge is either not enough or far surpassing that of the desired candidate for most positions. Fortunately, Apple seems to think differently (No pun intended) , because I actually had an interview with a company for a helpdesk position troubleshooting Apple products. I feel extremely confident that I will get the position.

The bad news (That is actually good news), I recently lost someone that was a huge part of my life. Don’t worry, she is very much alive. Regardless of the circumstances with which things ended, it seems that it is a great sigh of relief to be able to breathe again. I was so overwhelmed with constantly having to repair everything that went wrong, both emotionally and physically. Constantly needing to be there to pick up the pieces, but every moment a new “toy” came along, I was immediately of no use. Every instant, walking on egg shells, worried that the most innocent of sentences could spark a fire that could not be put out and would become a raging inferno. Ultimately, this is the best week I have had in almost exactly one year. Thank you for freeing me from your undying abuse…

As previously stated I was granted the opportunity to visit a friend in the Phoenix area of Arizona. In Minnesota we have the beautiful reds that turn orange and yellow, the deep blues that fade into purples and pinks…. In Arizona it seems the sunsets are someone setting fire to the sky. When there are clouds in the sky (Which is certainly a rarity), it is a violent torrent of rich orange, red, yellow and mix perfectly with the swirling clouds in the sky. Having said that, there are the beautiful multi-colored sunsets that we experience here, but I did not see them until I went to Sedona.

This photo was taken after a short hike through Lost Dutchman State Park to an area called Flat Iron Peak, and The Praying Hands. Chandra and I had hiked up the mountain top the highest point, which was and area between Flat Iron Peak and the first set of Praying Hands. We got to the top and took some photos of each other, horsed around a bit, and kind of relaxed together and sat down and just cuddled. After about twenty of minutes of that we started heading back down the mountain.

Once about halfway down and having made it partially around the side of the mountain the sky opened up and the name struck me, All the Fire in the Sky. Actually lyrics from a song, it was the first thing that came to mind the moment I saw it. I began running down the mountain, camera and tripod in tow, which, given my medical condition, was probably not in the top three list of “Things I should do to get a nice photo”. However, I knew that at the bottom was my backpack with all of my gear, and fortunately my pain medication. Not that they were necessary as I made sure to take enough prior to starting the hike. I was somewhat out of it during taking most of my photos as any time we had gone hiking I made sure that I took enough to endure the pain of carrying my gear. Due to the fact that I was on pain medication I was not entirely in the best mental state to focus on camera settings and taking good photos. As such, many of the photos I had taken during my stay in Arizona are not suitable for HDR… Sadly.

This photo is not an automated HDR, I actually mapped the photo manually in Photoshop just to see how difficult it would be, of all photos, please comment and rate this one.

Well, after my long story about Lost Dutchman State Park and All the Fire in the Sky of an Arizona sunset, here is the aforementioned photo in all of it’s illustrious glory!