I love music. It is a part of my everyday life. I prefer the quality of sound to move me. I took up driving an 18-wheeler last Fall and needed a sound system I could shift from one tractor to another because I work for the company and don't own the truck. I was looking at one-enclosure type systems, ie, Bose Sounddock 10 and the likes. I had a smaller Bose for 6 yrs but had outgrown it. The "10" retails for around $600 and has good reviews, so I set my sights and budget on that speaker. The more I read about it though, the less I saw it was or me. One comment got my attention. It said if you're going to spend that kind of money, you might as well get a set of powered speakers and have true stereo sound. I then went in the powered speaker direction, looking at Audioengine, Paradigm, Emotiva and the likes. I then came by a product called Vanatoo Transparent Ones. Across the board (Amazon reviews), I've never seen a product that rated as high as the Vanatoos with so many people. The more reviews I read the more I wanted them. The guys at Vanatoo even give you 30 days to audition them. After having my mind set on these for 8 months, I purchased a pair for $500. Hey, that's a hundred under my original budget! Sweet.
These are such a drastic leap over the previous Bose Sounddock I had. I've been hearing things in recordings of my music that I didn't even know was there. They are jaw-dropping and head-shaking awesome! The bass from these little guys is mighty, especially considering they're only 10x8x6 inches in size. These are designed for near field listening but can fill up a small to medium sized room quite amply. Proper placement will give an optimum soundstage. There is an output for sub woofer if you feel these don't put out enough but just you wait and listen.You can feed your music in a number of ways. Analog and digitally via 3.5mm jack for the former and optically, coax, USB, Bluetooth, and Apple Airport Express for the later. There are bass and treble knobs on the back of the powered speaker that helps tune the speakers to their placement. 
I've now had these for 3 weeks in my tractor. They sit up in the top storage area behind the driver and passenger seats. It's not the best setup for me to take advantage of the soundstage but I utterly enjoy them regardless. I'm thinking about making some alterations to the storage space so that the sound is projected more towards the front of the cab. SSSSShhh! Don't tell my boss.
If you're in need of compact and amazing sounding speakers, I highly recommend the Vanatoo Transpartent Ones. Here's some links for extra reading and convincing. http://www.vanatoo.com/ 
http://www.amazon.com/Vanatoo-Transparent-One-Powered-Speakers/product-reviews/B0080K2KUK/ref=dpx_acr_txt?showViewpoints=1
 http://www.facebook.com/Vanatoo

These are orchid images I shot from the 2013 Orchid Show at the Missouri Botanical Garden (a.k.a. Shaw's Garden. Established 1857 by Henry Shaw) While this was an exercise and learning process for sharpening my photographic skills, it was also a chance to immerse myself in the varied beauty of this fantastic plant and clear my mind of all distractions. For me, Shaw is the best place in St. Louis to do just that, relax and enjoy a vast collection of botanical treasures.  
I'm still using the Sony Nex-5N that I purchased in the Summer of 2012 and am continuously pleased with its results.  It's small footprint and ability to use literally hundreds of different lenses through adapters presents many options to explore.  For the Orchid Show, I mainly used a Minolta MD Rokkor 50mm f1.4 from the 1980's on the captures. Along with a Raynox 150 diopter attached, I could  get macro-like results and exploit the shallow depth of field from this lens even more so.
Below (click on each for a larger image) are a few examples I took from the show. A more complete offering can be found on my site here. If you have any questions or comments, send them on over to me. I hope you can experience some enjoyment or appreciation for nature from these. 

This process starts out with around 3.5 lbs of stoneware clay for the large Model L. The clay was wedged ( this resembles kneading dough ) to expel any air and to homogenize the clay body providing a consistent working material.  To hasten the making, a heat gun ( not pictured ) is used to dry the work after it has been formed on the wheel. Care must be taken to not overdry the work or the pieces can not be joined together. Part 1 shows the manufacturing of the bowl up to before it goes in a kiln for its first firing called a "bisque firing" in which temperatures reach around 1800 degrees Fahrenheit.  All of the chemical water is removed from the form here and renders the work more stone-like. Click on each image for a description.

Part 2 will show the glazing, loading ( the big kiln ) and firing process. Stay tuned and thanks for looking. http://www.lgpotter.com/personalized-pet-bowls.html

Here's an order of nine personalized pet bowls that I recently finished.  The turn-around from order placement to completion of order was only two weeks.  That's actually a week faster than what I quote customers. This order was for 6 dogs ( 5 Pugs, 1 French Bulldog ) & 3 cats ( 1 Main Coon, 1 Ragdoll and 1 Domestic Short Hair ).  They should be arriving in their new home Feb 7, traveling from St. Louis to North Carolina. Crossing my fingers that they all make it intact.  I'd had enough breakage with the USPS, so I switched to FedEx and haven't had an issue yet.  These are my clay babies after all, so I tend to worry a little still. Pictured are small and mediums of the Model L and Model LG. The ones with the hump in the middle are for chow hounds ( Model LG ).  All of the color choices I offer were ordered too.  Would be nice to get images of these with their new owners to share with people. Stay tuned. http://www.lgpotter.com/personalized-pet-bowls.html

I made the move from a Point and Shoot ( Nikon S9100 ) to a Sony Nex-5N a couple months ago. Before the purchase, I still wanted something on the smaller side but with better IQ and the ability to take more control of the shot, ie,.. aperture and shutter speed. I knew that mirrorless cameras were smaller than bulky DSLRs, so I started my search with that type camera as my foundation. I came across the Nex-5N and something about it spoke to me and I read and read and read lots of reviews about it.    Sony managed to cram a mid-range quality DSLR  sized sensor into this little camera that used to be the smallest interchangeable lens camera in the world until recent.  It's capable of 10 shots per second and has a movable 3" touchscreen to frame your shots.  Once I found out you could place older glass on the mount ( via adapter ), that sealed my decision to buy the Sony.  It cracks me up to see this tiny camera attached to the back of a monster Tokina RMC 400mm lens.  I get only "Legacy" glass as they're called because I'm on a budget and don't have that much disposable income to throw at new Auto Focus lenses that can cost 4 times or more as much than manual focus glass. The older lenses are most of the time better in build quality and the optics can be superior to the newer stuff but it's up the individual to do their homework before purchasing these old gems from such places as EBay.  Look at the sellers rating and if you buy from someone that is below 99.7 % you are looking for a headache.  Meanwhile, here's a shot I took yesterday with that very Tokina lens.  More images of mine can be seen here. 

This is Shadow trying out the new bowl for fast eaters. Shadow belongs to Lori Lyman's daughter. Lori did a product review of the bowl I made for her.  Here's the link to that. 

http://www.dogtipper.com/products/2012/06/review-l-g-potter-personalized-pet-bowls.html Thanks to Paris and John of Dogtipper.com for their product review of my handmade ceramic pet bowls. Here's a link to the review: