Jousting exhibit at the Higgins Armory Museum.

But, if you love metal work, armor, and want to see a longsword or a broadsword up close, the closest thing to saddling up and galloping off towards Westeros is the Higgins Armory Museum in Worcester, Massachusetts. Founded by 1900s industrial magnate John Woodman Higgins, the museum is the only dedicated museum of armor in the western hemisphere, according to their web site. The exterior of the building may be art deco, but the interior is built like a four-story castle.

Many of the exhibits are under glass and are not interactive. Of these exhibits, almost all information is presented on a typed piece of paper or a printed poster.  That being said, the collection is expansive and impressive so visitors will have plenty of reading to do.

In the Great Hall downstairs, you can get a closer view of the armor and weapons, such as the jousting exhibit in the photo. Again, the exhibits here aren’t interactive but many of the weapons are displayed openly on the walls so that you can get a closer look. (No touching allowed though so as  not to prematurely rust the museum pieces.)

The newer part of the museum seems to be upstairs, where there is a climate-controlled room filled with more armor as well as an interactive jousting exhibit. Also on the top floor is a castle-themed play space for kids to run around and be kids.

Armor at Higgins Armory Museum

Depending on your level of interest in the world of armor, you can book a private Arms and Armor tour, a birthday party, or take classes at the Academy of the Sword.

Bonus: If you go for a visit, a great side trip would be to Crown Bakery at 133 Gold Star Blvd., about a 10-minute drive from the museum. The Crown Bakery is a wonderful European bakery and deli that has been around for 40 years.

A new marker for the Midstate Trail is above the paint blob that used to serve as the trail marker.

In areas where the Midstate crossed over another trail, the markings were even more obscure as there were no directionals to show you where one trail veered off. One minute you were following a yellow square and a blue circle, the next you were just on following a blue circle!

As many of you know, I love photographing the sky. The colors at sunrise and sunset just can’t be mimicked in a studio. Photographers call that the “golden hour” or “magic hour”  - the first and last hours of light in a day. In New England during the winter, magic hour lasts closer to 15 minutes but, under the right conditions, you can capture some stunning photos in that short period of time.

A fiery Massachusetts sunset in winter.

I’ve only had a few occasions to capture a red sunset where I live so I started reading up on why some sunsets look like the one in this photo and why others don’t look as dramatic. The effect is called Rayleigh scattering, which also explains why the sky is blue.

Oddly, Lord Rayleigh entered my life a while ago since he also write a book in 1877 called “The Theory of Sound,” whose principles are still in use by acoustic engineers today.  Lord Rayleigh is also a personal hero to our friend Dave, who happens to be one of the most talented loudspeaker designers at work today.

For me, I’m learning that photography has alot to teach someone if they will open their eyes and ears to other subjects. Read more, think more, and the connections between seemingly disparate things will appear right in front of you.

Magic hour in Providence, RI.

Screenshot of a Pinterest board.

Pinterest is the hot new social media platform for sharing any URL that has a photo associated with it. The web site, and free mobile app, works like a virtual pinboard where you can pin literally anything to the boards you create. The most popular boards are for topics like recipes, travel photos, clothes or shoes (remember, Pinterest is 97% women), and home decor, but the topics really are up to the user. (For example, you can check out my “Defies categorization” board or my “What I don’t understand about fashion” board.)

My interest in Pinterest is totally experimental at this point. It’s a good time waster to look at pretty pictures but I’m still clicking around and trying to figure it out. In my clicking around, I discovered this neat trick: How to pin an item without needing to re-type a caption for it.

To quickly and easily pin something to your board with an automatic caption, follow these steps:

1) Log in to Pinterest and install the “Pin It” button bookmarklet from Pinterest.com/about/goodies.

2) Go to site from which you want to pin a photo.

3) Highlight the text you want as your caption.

4) Click the “Pin It” bookmarklet in your browser bar.

5) Choose the photo you want to pin (if there are more than one from the site you chose, the bookmarklet will give you the option.)

6) Choose the board you want to pin to from the dropdown (you will see your highlighted text already populating the description box) and click “pin it.”

If you’re already on Pinterest, let me know what you think of this shortcut. Want an invite to Pinterest? Email me.

I’m obsessed with the sky, especially at sunrise and at sunset. The sun on the horizon does wonderful things to the quality of light, especially if there is some cloud cover. I shot this photo with my iPhone this week while I was leaving work. No matter what’s happening in life, just remember: Don’t forget to look up.

Screenshot of Tweetagora.

If you’re even a casual user of Twitter, you probably notice how hard it is to keep up with tweets in your stream. Twitter is like jumping on and off a moving train; you just have to enjoy the view for the time you’re on. But for some people (myself included) I hate to miss tweets from people I really, really like if they happen to get lost in the tweet deluge while I’m not looking.

A great desktop solution for filtering tweets is the global filter function on Tweetdeck. It allows you to filter out people or words from social media sources so that you can tailor your stream as necessary. However, it was frustrating to me that Tweetdeck doesn’t offer the global filter in their iPhone app. I’m a pretty loyal user when I find something I like so I didn’t want to search for another solution.

Then, I stumbled on the TweetAgora app that allows you to mute keywords, people, and automated tweets from Foursquare check-ins, Ping.fm, Paper.li, GetGlue, etc. The list is quite extensive. The free version offers limited filtering, but the premium version (currently $4.99) gives you unfettered options of filtering, muting, slicing, and dicing your mobile Twitter stream to your heart’s content.

On the stage at Boston's Symphony Hall, a Fulcrum FA12 monitor for Dirk Powell, the lone musician supporting Joan Baez on this tour -- November 2011.

My husband Rich, who does product development for Fulcrum, was working with Jason Raboin, FOH and monitor engineer for Joan Baez, to lend any support needed for the gear while on tour. Many thanks to Jason for letting me take these photos prior to the show.

The view from the stage at Boston's Symphony Hall

On the Neon Boneyard tour.

The Neon Museum is in a familiar situation of many non-profits. Run by an arts collaborative, they’re raising the money to build a museum but it is slow going due to the bad economy. One way that they generate revenue and awareness is by giving a tour of their boneyard where they are storing old neon signs. Many of the signs were donated by private collectors as well as by the company makes most of the signs for the hotels and casinos on the Strip.

Why save old neon signs? Many of the signs in the bone yard have historical significance from places that no longer exist: the Golden Nugget, the Stardust, the Silver Slipper, etc. And the new signs that take their place are lit by LEDs; not neon. The goal of the Neon Museum is to eventually restore all of these signs and display them properly. Unfortunately, they need to raise the money to do so in a very tough economic climate.

If you go, keep in mind that tours must be booked in advance online and the minimum suggested donation is $15 per person. Tours are conducted Tuesday through Saturday at 12 Noon and again at 2 p.m.

Am I disappointed? A little. Rich and I are in intense job situations and have been for some time. He works in product development and there is never a good time to step away. I work as a freelancer, which means I haven’t had a paid vacation in about 9 years. So taking time away is a very special thing for both of us.

Why look at Twitter when I could look at this instead?

But as the week progressed, I realized that the art of unplugging doesn’t just mean dropping off the electronic map totally. There are ways to unplug while still getting news and information through all the channels you would normally use. It’s how you deal with the info that is the difference. I realized on this trip that there are tactics to deploy no matter whether you are on vacation or not:

Filter out the noise. — Depending on whether you use Twitter, FB, or Google+, the noise may be higher or lower for you. I love Twitter, but there is a ton of noise on there. What do I mean by noise? I mean the tweets that say “I just ate a cheese sandwich” versus the tweets that say “I just got engaged!” I want to see the latter but I don’t necessarily care about the former. Solution? Create lists of people you really want to follow while away or for when you have little time to spend on a social media site.

Set up a (low) wall between work and personal time. – I am so guilty of throwing myself into my freelance business starting in 2002, and knocking down any wall that existed between work and home life. It’s a bit tough to separate when your office is down the hall from the rest of your life, but it’s important to put up that wall. I do this both physically (closing the office door, and sometimes vacations) as well as online (separate Twitter handles and FB profiles for personal versus work). If you don’t have a wall, I suggest you begin building one soon. Trust me, it will do your mental and emotional state a world of good.

Reading but not responding. – Part of unplugging is also reading info, status updates, or tweets but not needing to respond to every little thing. It’s not only a time suck, but can just wear on you. There is a line between engagement and being overwhelmed by a few people who take up more time that they give. Read, absorb, respond thoughtfully if you must, and move on.

So, now that we’re back, my plan is to remain in an unplugged state for as long as I can. It takes 21 days to form a new habit. But how many days does it take to break bad ones?