Leon’s Blog

Enjoy this video while you celebrate Memorial Day this year.
Support Our Troops!
God Bless America!

God Bless the U.S.A. by Lee Greenwood

Everyone takes 4th of July Fireworks photos. Many even video tape the celebrations. Why not submit those videos or photos to try and win some serious cash. Here is a list of sites that are participating in Fireworks Contests this year 2007:

Contests:

• TNTFireworks.com (Neptune Fireworks) with thousands of dollars to give away
  • Photo Contest - Earn up to $500 for the Grand Prize
  • Drawing Contest - Earn up to $500 for the Grand Prize
• Fireworks.com (Phantom Fireworks)
  • Name the Fireworks Giveaway
  • Fireworks Photograph Contest
  • Shoot your favorite Fireworks Video Giveaway
• SkyKingFireworks.com (no contests right now, but keep checking)

How to Articles - Tips & Tricks to help you Win that Contest

• How to Photograph Fireworks by Darren Rowse at Digital Photography School (see Video Tutorial Also)
• Digital Fireworks Photography Help and Tips
• 11 Tips for Sparkling Fireworks Photos
• How to Photograph Fireworks at Photocritic.org
• New York Institute of Photography
  • Fireworks Photography
  • How to Photograph Fireworks
  • Shooting Fireworks with a Digital Camera
• How to Take the Best Fireworks Video — Ever!

Leave a link to your favorite fireworks photo in the comments.
If you know of any other contests going on this year, let me know in the comments and I will add them to the list.

I am ready for the 4th of July 2007 Fireworks Celebrations in South Florida. Are you? Check out my fireworks stash for this year:

At TNT-Neptune Fireworks Mega Store in Dania Beach, Florida you can get two for one deals on all fireworks before Memorial Day (expires Monday June 4th). You can also get FREE BONUS fireworks depending on how much you spend. The best advice I can give is to pool your money with friends, family, and neighbors so that you can get the best deal on Fireworks packages. The more you spend together the better the deals become. Both of my brothers, and a friend of ours, and my neighbor all pitched in to buy fireworks and between all of us we were able to spend over $1,000. Since we purchased these fireworks before Memorial Day everything was 2 for 1, and in addition we received about $700 worth of Free Bonus Fireworks. So that brings our total Fireworks Value to over $2,700. That is a lot of TNT!!! The picture above only shows a third of the $2,700 in fireworks we purchased. (That is my portion of the fireworks).

Where to get your Free Fireworks:

• TNT-Neptune Fireworks Store Location Map
• Phantom Fireworks Store Location Map
• Sky King Fireworks Store Locations - Florida’s Premier Fireworks Chain

My Favorite Fireworks:

• Mortars (I love mortars): T-6, 6 break reloadable artillery shells; 42-Magnum, 8 single, 8 double, & 6 triple break reloadable shells
• Grand Finale: Noble Eagle, Mission Ignition, Pride of America
• One Shot Aerial Tubes (500g): Palm Tree with Silvery Tail - Most powerful palm tree break - Very Beautiful
• Day Time Items: Parachutes (My kids love these) - Great for Memorial Day; Normandy Paratroopers (37 shots of parachute with spinners and crackles!)
• Spinners (Wheels): We love to nail several spinners to a 2×4 and stick it in the ground; (Phantom Fireworks has a 13″ spinner that is also great!)

Here are some ideas to Create a Perfect Fireworks Show:

• SAFETY is always FIRST!!! Do not endanger yourself or anyone else. Make sure only one person is lighting fireworks at a time during the show!
• Create a shooting order for your show and keep the show going at a good pace
• Use two people designated as shooters and one person designated as prep
• Light your Fireworks to Music - This will make a “good” show GREAT!, and help keep the show moving at a good pace
• Use extra long wicks or even better - electronic fuses to help automate and synchronize the lighting of your fireworks. Sold at Phantom Fireworks (F5 Pyro Ignitor)
• Shoot off your fireworks from a sheet of fire treated plywood (prevents burn marks on your street or wherever you light them)
• Keep the audience a safe distance away and upwind if possible (no one wants smoke in their eyes)
• Keep your most extravagant firework for after the Grand Finale. Light it while everyone is cheering and not expecting it.
• FOOD IDEA: If you have a grill, throw some fresh ears of corn with husks (unopened) onto the grill at med-hot heat for about 15 to 30 minutes. Be careful, they will be very hot. Peel and add butter, salt, and pepper. The smell of the corn on the grill will attract all of your neighbors! I love doing this during the Fireworks Show.

For other firework tips and show ideas visit the TNTFireworks Show Page.

Have a Safe and Happy Independence Day!

What are some of your Home Fireworks Show ideas? What are your favorite fireworks? Share them in the comments below.

Recently I wrote a post on how I can watch live TV shows on my Treo 650 Smartphone now by controlling my family room TV and streaming the video and audio using SlingMedia’s Slingbox. After writing the post I remembered writing another post on how dangerous it could become to watch TV on a phone while driving in a car. I called it DUII - Driving Under the Internet Influence. I know it sounds crazy and obvious that you should not do this but I have a feeling that this will become a bigger problem. People have become very accustomed to talking on the phone while driving and now people are beginning to text or sms on there phones more and more (even while driving). New phones have a feature that let you text a response to an incoming caller instead of answering the call. One solution to this problem could be a voice recognition user interface that will allow true hands free operations of any communications device. Using normal language you would just tell your phone what to do and it would do it. You would just say out loud “answer the phone” or “reply with a text message that I am in a meeting”. But this still does not solve the possibility of watching video on your phone while driving. For right now the only solution may be to create laws banning the use of portable devices such as cell phones or PDA’s by a driver unless it is handsfree. Unfortunately this probably will not happen until their are enough car accidents as a result of Driving Under the Internet Influence. Lets pray that does not happen.

I received this email a few days ago and thought you might enjoy it. I certainly did.

The Spanish Computer

A Spanish teacher was explaining to her class that in Spanish, unlike English, nouns are designated as either masculine or feminine.
“House” for instance, is feminine: “la casa.”
“Pencil,” however, is masculine: “el lapiz.”
A student asked, “What gender is ‘computer’?”

Instead of giving the answer, the teacher split the class into two groups, male and female, and asked them to decide for themselves whether “computer” should be a masculine or a feminine noun.

Each group was asked to give four reasons for its recommendation

The men’s group decided that “computer” should definitely be of the feminine gender (”la computadora“), because: 

1. No one but their creator understands their internal logic;
2. The native language they use to communicate with other computers is incomprehensible to everyone else;
3. Even the smallest mistakes are stored in long term memory for possible later retrieval; and 
4. As soon as you make a commitment to one, you find yourself spending half your paycheck on accessories for it.

(THIS GETS BETTER!)

The women’s group, however, concluded that computers should be Masculine (”el computador“), because: 

1. In order to do anything with them, you have to turn them on;
2. They have a lot of data but still can’t think for themselves;
3. They are supposed to help you solve problems, but half the time they ARE the problem; and 
4. As soon as you commit to one, you realize that if you had waited a little longer, you could have gotten a better model.

The women won!

Read more jokes on my Jokes & Humor Page