The news is reporting that Whitney Houston has passed away.  She was 48.  Not many details are currently available.

I read that Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway visitors now must be at least 21 years of age to enter the casino.  It is also stated on their website now.

I haven't been back since the grand opening, but I still plan to go and to check out the restaurants.  I'll be interested to see if this new age requirement affects the crowds.  I didn't notice an inordinate amount of young people on opening day.

Today, Google announced on their blog that the company will start putting in place thousands of miles of cables, containing many thin glass fibers, that will serve as the backbone for the Google Fiber infrastructure.

Once the backbone is in place, Google will be able to connect homes in Kansas City, KS. and Kansas City, MO. to a new high speed infrastructure that will cary data at speeds more than 100 times faster than what is available to most Americans today.

Google will post more updates and announcements on their blog as they build out the Google Fiber infrastructure.

I don't live too far from the Kansas Speedway, and, I guess after having the road around Kansas Speedway to myself for so long, I thought I was leaving home in plenty of time to be ahead of the opening day crowd,  but, was I wrong!

When I first saw the line of cars on Village West Parkway heading to the Hollywood Casino, my first inclination was to turn around and come back another day.  Fortunately, I decided to at least get in the line for awhile to see how it progressed, and, to my surprise, though the line was long, it moved at a pretty good pace.

While I was waiting in line, I took note of the car license plates, and most that I saw were from Missouri.  I only saw one Kansas plate, which was from Johnson County.

After about only 5 minutes, I was pulling into the casino grounds, and was directed to park in the parking garage.  The first thing I noticed while making my way to the garage was the view. I hadn't realized the the casino was so high on the hill, and you could really get a good view of the Great Wolf Lodge, Cabela's and the cars on Village West Parkway still waiting in line.

Once I parked the car, I followed the crowd to the elevators.  I have to say that, even though the there were a lot of people, the elevators were pretty quick and it did not take long to get down to the casino floor.

After exiting the elevator, I walked a few feet and a gentleman welcomed me to the casino. Not being a gambler, thats when things became a little overwhelming.The first thing I noticed was a crowd waiting in a line.  I don't know what they were waiting on, as they were going the opposite direction that I was heading.

There were a lot of slot machines and, though I got there not too long after the 11:45 opening, there were  already a lot of people playing them. People were everywhere, and, at first it was kind of hard to get a perspective on the casino layout.

I basically just walked through many of the slot areas, taking things in.  The people I noticed at the slot machines all seemed to know what they were doing.  A band was playing in an area above the crowd, half way up to a second floor area that was labeled private.

I took the photo above while walking around, but I don't remember exactly were in the casino it was.  I mainly took the photo in that spot, because it was less crowded than the other areas.

My initial impression after this first trip is that, if you are not a gambler, there isn't much else you can do there, except eat.  In that respect, it reminds me of the Nebraska Furniture Mart.  If you aren't going to buy furniture, there is nothing else to do.  I didn't see any area where you could just sit and people watch, either.

I will have to make another trip when it is less crowded, though, to see if my initial impression changes.  I'm still looking forward to checking out the restaurants.

The Hollywood Casino at Kansas Speedway is set to open Friday, February 3!  Grand Opening festivities are scheduled for 11:00 am, and the doors should open to the public following the grand opening activities, at around 11:45 am!

Your Style Scout, Melanie Knopke, joins FOX 4's Stefan Chase to showcase some of the fashions and accessories available at The Legends Outlets Kansas City, in the Pantone Color of the Year, Tangerine Tango.

Style Scout Blogger, Melanie Knopke, shares her favorite items, all under $20,  from The Legends Outlets Kansas City.  Aired on Fox 4 December 26, 2011.

Style Scout Blogger, Melanie Knopke, shares her tips on winter outerwear trends with KCTV 5's Kelly Jones. The segment features stylish winter outerwear from The Legends Outlets Kansas City, and aired on December 20, 2011.

The Legends Outlets Kansas City Social Media Street Team will be searching out the most fashionable shoppers from 2-4 pm today, and will be giving them a chance to win a $25 Gift Card to use at the Legends Outlets.

More information can be found on The Legends Outlets Kansas City Facebook Fan Page

There will be a "Give Us A Gig" Town Hall meeting held on Thursday, December 15, 2011 at 5:30 pm at the downtown KCK Public Library, located at 625 Minnesota Ave.

The meeting is about what the Google Ultra high-speed Fiber Project could mean to your neighborhood, and it is is part of a series of meetings planned by the Social Media Club of Kansas City.

All meetings are open to citizens and community leaders of both Kansas Cities.  More information on "Give Us A Gig" can be found at giveusagig.com

Great news on the Welcome to Sweetie Pie's Front.  The St. Louis based family docu-series has become a top rated show on OWN, and the network has ordered 10 more eposides.  Production of the new Welcome to Sweetie Pie's episodes will begin in December, and will air in the spring.

The network broadcasted a Welcome to Sweetie Pie's marathon on Thanksgiving day, and an all new episode will air this evening, Saturday, November 26.  The clip above is of Tim proposing to Janae at the restaurant.

Being a guy, I didn't know how often I would tune into Oprah's new OWN Network, but I wanted to at least watch it occasionally when it first debuted, out of curiosity.

At first, I tuned into some of the shows, like Master Class, and Oprah's All Stars, but they really didn't hold my attention for very long, and I gradually started watching less and less, and then finally hardly at all.

Then, recently, as I was channel surfing one evening, I saw an advertisement for a show named "Welcome to Sweetie Pie's", and it sounded interesting enough for me to check it out, and I'm glad I did.

Welcome to Sweetie Pie's is a reality show about Robbie Montgomery, a former Ikette, of the 1960's Ike and Tina Turner Revue, who had to stop singing, when she suffered a collapsed lung.

No longer able to sing professionally, she then decided to turn to something else she could do well - cooking, and poured her talents into opening a soul food restaurant named Sweetie Pie's.

Sweetie Pie's is located down I-70 from Kansas City, in St. Louis, MO, and the show follows, Robbie Montgomery, who is now 70 and known affectionally as Miss Robbie, and her family, as they juggle the challenges of running a successful, busy restaurant and family life.

Along with Miss Robbie, the show features  her son Tim, my favorite cast member, who helps her run the restaurant, his girlfriend Jenae, who can be irritating at times, Miss Robbie's lazy young nephew, Lil' Charles, and other family, friends and restaurant staff.

I have the show set to record and I usually watch a couple of episodes at a time, so I am not sure when new episodes air. You can read more details about Welcome to Sweetie Pie's on the OWN network website: Welcome To Sweetie Pie's. Also, more Welcome to Sweetie Pie's news and video clips can be found at the following webpage: Netpressions | On The Net: Welcome To Sweetie Pie's

The fall scenes below were taken in 2009, when I was capturing time-lapse images, while driving the scenic Kansas Highway 5 in Leavenworth and Wyandotte Counties.  The final time-lapse video was too choppy to capture the scenic nature of the highway, but some of the individual still photographs were able to capture the rolling hills and changing fall colors.

I took the photos of the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts below, when it first opened in September 2011.  The Kauffman Center was designed by architect Moshe Safdie, and is located in downtown Kansas City, MO, next to the Bartle Hall.

For photography enthusiasts, the Kauffman Center offers a variety of photographic possibilities, and the exterior is supposed to reflect different colors depending on the time of day. The photos below were taken during the mid-morning hours.

In thinking about the possible uses of an ultra-high speed Internet connection to the home, it seems like, with an external speed of 1 gigabit, the major slowdown will come inside the home, when transferring data within an existing home network.

I  am currently connect to the Internet through a  Netgear DG834G Wireless Modem Router.  For networking, I use the wireless features with my MacBook Pro laptop and a Lexmark All-In-One Printer, which also has wireless capability.

My older Windows PCs are networked using Netgear XE103 Powerline Network Adapters, connected to hub switches.  I have been using this system for some time, and have been happy with my recently tested 1230 kbps Internet connection speed, and 85 mbps home network transfer speed.

With Google Fiber providing a possible  1 gigabit download and upload speed, however, 85mbps will probably seem pretty slow.  I don't know what the upper speed limit for powerline networking is, but the fastest speed I could find doing a quick search of the internet was 200 mbps, and the price for that adapter seemed pretty steep.

With a 1gigabit Internet connection speed, it will  be faster to send data to a computer outside the home network, and then download the data to a computer on the home network.

As more information is made available about the Google Fiber service, I anticipate  that I will be looking at  ways to improve my home network performance.

When I first started shooting time-lapse image sequences with my Nikon D40 DSLR Camera, I had no idea that digital camera shutters had a life expectancy, in that after a certain number of shutter releases, the shutter could wear out and cease to function.

Upon learning this, I had two questions:  What is the Nikon D40 shutter life expectancy, and how many shutter actuations does my Nikon D40 have?

The camera shutter count (actuations) is stored in EXIF data, which is stored with each digital photo.  There are a number of downloadable programs  that can read and edit EXIF informaiton, and I chose to download and install PhotoMe for Windows.

To obtain my camera's shutter actuations, I opened the most recent photo stored on my pc taken with my Nikon D40, and scrolled down to shutter count.  In my case,  the  shutter count on my Nikon D40 was a little over 8000.  Aside from the shutter count, the EXIF data contains  camera and photo related information  such as camera manufacturer and model, lens type, image resolution, exposure time, ISO speed rating and much more.

To obtain the Nikon D40's shutter life expectancy,  I visited http://www.olegkikin.com/shutterlife, (A Camera Shutter Life Expectancy Database), which lists the shutter life expectancy for many popular cameras.  In the case of the Nikon D40, the current average shutter life expectancy actuation count is  84,288.5.

This is good information to be aware of if you use your camera to shoot a high number of image sequences!

Anybody agree or disagree with any of the above? Will the Piper and Bonner school districts ever have true, significant suburban residential development? I know there are a scattering of subdivisons out there, but they are far and few and most of the roads are still at rural standards. Will KCK ever truly prosper and attract middle-class people from outside WyCo? Even places like Platte City, Kearnet, Spring Hill and Gardner have significant suburban development. Why not KCK? The Piper and Bonner areas are along the least congested highways in metro KC and provide easy access to jobs in OP, downtown KCMO and up near KCI. What gives?

What is wrong with KCK? Why aren't they able to construct new housing and grow a population out west? They can't even do that even with all the new developments. It seems people still KCK for what it is and the shiny new developments out in the farm field aren't fooling anybody.

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