Me and My Imaginary Friends

2009-05-13T02:26:00.001-04:00

Dear friend:
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Their Web address: sell-good.com

Their EMAIL: sellgood@188.com

Regards!

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People are stabby today

2008-11-05T09:40:00.000-05:00

So, I live in a "red" state. I work in a "red" office. There's maybe two people working here who voted "blue" yesterday. (I, of course, didn't vote at all.) It's really funny to sit in my office and listen to the conversations going on around me. I admit, it's more difficult than I imagined to not get involved. Not because I want to defend one person or another, but because I'm such a stickler for facts. There are so many things being said that just don't seem to be true. But I am being good. I'm just sitting here and letting them have their conversations.

Because the "facts" that I want to correct are human based. They're things I've heard or read from human news agencies. Who knows what kind of spin was put on these "facts?" And even if they are true, they're not based in genuine reality.

The real "fact" is that it doesn't matter which human is in control of the government. I know what the "real" future holds. That's the real "facts" that people need to hear. This is all a fantastic distraction, but that's all it is. It's the band still playing while the Titanic is sinking. It's nice music, but don't let it keep you from getting into the lifeboats. And this time, there are plenty of lifeboats for all who want to get in...just don't get caught listening to the pretty music. Grab someone's hand and yank them towards the lifeboat with you.

1 Thes 5:1-3

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A list of food

2008-10-28T08:19:00.002-04:00

The Polyglot sent me to a blog that lists these food items. I think they're supposed to be stuff that cool people should eat. Well, before I even read the list, I'm gonna guess that I've only eaten 5 things. Check my prediction at the end of the list.

1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea (don't know what this is)
3. Huevos rancheros (this was the favorite Mexican dish of the man who owns the last company I worked for)
4. ~~Steak tartare~~
5. Crocodile (I've had gater, so I'm counting it as croc)
6. ~~Black pudding~~ (isn't it black because of blood?)
7. Cheese fondue (one of my favorite things in the whole world)
8. Carp (I'd try just about any cooked fish)
9. Borscht (I like the brown kind better than the red kind)
10. Baba ghanoush (I would try this)
11. Calamari (not a fan)
12. Pho (I can't believe I've never had this)
13. PB&J sandwich (I'm actually not wild about this)
14. ~~Aloo gobi~~ (it contains ginger, no thank you)
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses (sounds delicious)
17. Black truffle (shouldn't I be able to sniff this one out?)
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes (thank you Chatteau Elan)
19. Steamed pork buns (huh?)
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes (I'm just assuming that these have been in something I've eaten)
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans (Seriously? Do I get extra credit for actually cooking this on a regular basis?)
25. Brawn, or head cheese (never met a cheese I didn't like, I just haven't met this one yet)
26. ~~Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper~~ (uh, no)
27. Dulce de leche (Hey! This was on The Mole finale!)
28. Oysters (again, not a fan)
29. Baklava (BIG fan)
30. Bagna cauda (fire it up, I'll try it)
31. Wasabi peas (thanks to Kimi Stewart)
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl (probably the only way I like clams)
33. Salted lassi (?)
34. ~~Sauerkraut~~ (keep yer rotten cabbage to yerself)
35. Root beer float (not a fan)
36. Cognac ~~with a fat cigar~~ (I suspect that I won't like cognac)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. ~~Oxtail~~ (I used to go to a restaurant that featured like, never tried it)
41. Curried goat (same restaurant also had this...there's more of a chance of me trying this than the oxtail)
42. ~~Whole insects~~ (I would never eat this by choice)
43. ~~Phaal~~ (Indian curry? no thanks)
44. Goat’s milk (not a big fan of milk, but I'm sure it wouldn't kill me)
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (this would be wasted on me)
46. ~~Fugu~~ (OK, so I won't eat POISONOUS fish)
47. Chicken tikka masala (again with the curry, no thanks)
48. Eel (honestly, I have probably had this at some point and just don't remember it)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut (duh)
50. Sea urchin (why?)
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi (this stuff corrodes metal lunch boxes and you want me to put it INSIDE me?)
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal (um, yesterday...)
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini (probably, I don't know, I'm not a big fan of martinis)
58. Beer above 8% ABV (?)
59. Poutine (OK, I love french fries and I love cheese and I love gravy, but this just does not sound appetizing)
60. Carob chips (Laughter's uncle used to eat carob while he worked out at her house, he always shared with us)
61. S’mores (Honestly, I only had these for the first time last year. Where had they been all my life?)
62. Sweetbreads (Like cornbread or banana nut bread? No, these are not breads at all. No, I don't eat glands.))
63. Kaolin (only in medicine or toothpaste, not as its own entity)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian (I was gonna strike this, but I actually would like to at least try it)
66. Frogs’ legs (Thankfully, I wasn't alive when Daddy made Mama cook a frog he killed on the golf course. True story.)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. ~~Haggis~~
69. Fried plantain (Under duress)
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (Chitterlings? Who wrote this list? It's chitlins and NO, I have not and would not eat 'em.)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini (True story, I loaded up some orange jam onto a piece of bread at someone's house in Russia. It wasn't until I bit into it that I realized that it was not orange jam, but orange cavier. Ugh. I finished it, but with trouble.)
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill (Do I have to unbold the croc, 'cause the gater I ate was roadkill? Same father who killed a frog on the golf course brought home fresh gater from the side of the road and made Mama fry up the tail. It was delicious.)
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail (Seriously one of my favorite things in all the world...cooked in garlic butter and covered with cheese.)
79. Lapsang souchong (sounds fabulous, just for the smell alone)
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum (We used to refer to this soup as "battery acid." Tom Ka was called "creamy battery acid.")
82. Eggs Benedict (Isn't this basically just an egg mcmuffin?)
83. Pocky (I had to look this up to realize that I had it in Japan.)
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef (missed my chance)
86. ~~Hare~~ (never, never, never, never)
87. Goulash (I know this is Hungarian, but I'm sure I had this in Russia.)
88. Flowers
89. ~~Horse~~ (never)
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam (not a fan)
92. Soft shell crab (I'm just guessing here, 'cause I've eaten a LOT of crab in my life - Well, wikipedia says the most common is blue crab. Uh, yeah, blue crab is my favorite of all crab.)
93. Rose harissa
94. ~~Catfish~~ (only if I were starving)
95. Mole poblano (I didn't know this had a specific name)
96. Bagel and lox (I would love to try this)
97. Lobster Thermidor (not a big fan of lobster, but it's actually the mustard that would push me away from this. GAG! I hate mustard.)
98. Polenta (Do I get half credit for grits?)
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee (I'm counting this because these beans are the basis for Tia Maria, which I love)
100. Snake (I see no reason why I wouldn't at least try this)

Wow. 36 items.

(PS. The list has generated a lot of questions, so some dude created an FAQ for it over here!)

Black Tuesday

2008-08-19T13:12:00.001-04:00

Well, for now it's only Dark Gray for me...

Yep, it's layoff time again. So far, I've still got a job. But, they're not finished with the cuts. I don't think I'm going to be cut. They really do still need me around for one big project. But I have no idea what they'll do after that project is complete...which may not be for another 6 months or so.

Anyhoo, if anything changes and I end my day without a job, I'll let you know.

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More memories to make me giggle

2008-07-15T14:14:00.001-04:00

So, I'm listening to George Michael because I'm going to see him in a couple of weeks. I'm getting in the mood. And let me tell you, it's not hard to get in the mood for such great music.

Anyway, the opening bars of "Faith" start playing on my iPod and I start laughing hysterically. Faith came out when I was in 10th grade. In 10th grade, I had Spanish II with, um, kids from every grade, social class, and intelligence level. Somehow, I became the target of two (sometimes three) "popular" guys' teasing. At the time, I couldn't understand why they were interested in talking to me. (Now I see the appeal of "cool" guys hitting on the goodie two shoes with big boobs, purple eyeliner and mall hair.) I loved (and still do) that album. One of these cool guys in my Spanish class HATED George Michael. I don't know what kind of music he listened to, but that wasn't it. I had the cassette in class with me one day and for weeks afterward that cool guy would mock the opening bars of the song "Faith." I can't really describe it, but he would repeat (and repeat and repeat) the same four or five bars by making this noise that sounded like a wounded animal. It was pretty obnoxious at the time, but really funny now.

I wonder what became of him.

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Good memories

2008-07-14T13:24:00.001-04:00

I know I've told stories before about World Party and how cool their shows are. But I had a quick flash of a great memory today that I want to share (again). I was listening to my iPod in the office. The album Goodbye Jumbo was playing. At the beginning notes of "Sweet Soul Dream," I had a warm fuzzy feeling wash over me. I had to chase the elusive memory, but it came to me.

When T and I saw World Party the first time at The Roxy, we were front and center. When Karl started playing "Sweet Soul Dream," I got a huge smile on my face and sang that line "sweet soul dream" over the opening notes. Karl happened to be looking right at me when I did that and got a big smile on his face. I'm sure that my face was just beaming with pure joy. Imagine how that made him feel to know that something he created gave a complete stranger so much joy. He couldn't help but smile.

Anyway, that's not the "connection" moment between Karl and me that I usually tell, but it happened and it made me smile when I remembered it today.

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New Office

2008-06-24T14:44:00.001-04:00

So, we leased out half of our office building to another company. Over the past couple of weeks, we've all consolidated into one section of our building. What used to be a sprawling and spacious building is now full...almost bursting at the seams. The main change for me is that I now sit very close to the owners of the company. I didn't think that would be a big deal because we've actually closed off the door between "us" and "them." But I have already seen the owners several times today. In fact, I had my door closed this morning because I was on a conference call. One of them opened the door and poked his head in. I guess he wanted to know if anyone was now occupying this office. Funny thing is, that's the second time he's done that to me - he did it once before in my old office. (I keep my door closed quite a bit - sometimes because I'm on the phone and sometimes because I'm cold.) Anyway, no big deal - it's just odd seeing them and having them say hello to me.

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Now With 50% MORE Soccer!

2008-06-13T09:58:00.003-04:00

So, Germany played Croatia yesterday. So sad. My Germans lost 1 - 2. Who knew that Croatia had such a good team? [Obligatory Arsenal mention alert!] One of Arsenal's most exciting players, Eduardo da Silva, should have been on the Croatian team. Unfortunately, he sustained an almost-career-ending injury back in February. At the time, they estimated that he would be out for 9 months. We didn't think we'd see him until October, November, or December of the coming season. But the latest news says we may see him earlier than that.

Anyhoo, Eduardo's got great spirit and is a really good little scorer. And yes, he is technically Brazilian. But if the German team can have two Polish players, why can't the Croatian team have a Brazilian? (Yeah, I still don't get how people decide which national team to play for 'cause there was another guy on the Croatian team who was born and raised in Australia.) In general, the Germans had a really frustrating game. The biggest problem in my mind was that the manager started the same lineup from the previous game. But there was one player in that mix who just played terribly in both games, Gomez. (Gomez, that's a good German name.) Germany finally scored after he was replaced, but it was too little, too late.

This doesn't mean that Germany's out of the tournament. But it means that they probably have to face Portugal next. That is a scary proposition for any team. The only good news is that Germany beat this same Portugal team at the World Cup to finish third. So, Portugal is not unbeatable.

Today, the Dutch take on France. I so hope that Thierry Henry is fit for the match. I can't take another lack-luster performance from France. Plus, Henry vs. Ruud? I've got chillbumps just thinking about how exciting this game can be!

Also on the schedule for today is Italy vs. Romania. How do you say "Kick Butt" in Romanian?

Euro 2008

2008-06-12T08:32:00.006-04:00

I know, I know, you hate it when I write about soccer. Sorry, it's can't be helped right now. Why? Because one of the biggest tournaments is happening right now...Euro 2008. Euro 2008 happens every 4 years, alternating with the World Cup. Did I explain that right? So, the last World Cup was in 2006, Euro is in 2008, the next World Cup is in 2010 and the next Euro is in 2012.

So, as the name implies, only European national teams play, which only leaves out a couple of really big teams...Brazil and Brazil and ... Brazil. (OK, Argentina has a great team.)

THIS is why I fell in love with soccer. Two games every day! Each player on each team playing like each second of each game matters. The big difference this time around? I understand the game and know the players.

A quick summary of the games I've seen (and care about).

Germany vs. Poland - This is my German team. I fell in love with them 2 years ago and the shine hasn't worn off. From my Mad German goal keeper, Jens Lehmann (only recently no longer of my Arsenal), to the Polish Wunderkind, Lukas Podolski (who doesn't seem to play this well for his home club), this team plays with passion. Quite simply, they are a pleasure to watch. Podolski scored 2 goals to lead his team to victory over Poland. (By the way, don't ask me why 2 of Germany's best players are actually Polish. I don't understand it.)

France vs. Romania - This is not my French team. And I'm not happy about it. First, Thierry Henry was injured and on the bench. Arggg! I want to see Henry play!!! Second, the manager really should have brought in Gael Clichy at left back, but he didn't even make the team. Instead, we saw Abidol. Seriously? At least start Patrice Evra if you're not going to select Clichy. Basically, France and Romania just ran around the pitch for 90 minutes, not doing a whole lot of anything. Actually, Romania got in France's face quite a bit. But France should have blown Romania away. Instead, the match ended in a 0 - 0 draw. Nope, not my France at all!

Turkey vs. Cristiano Ronaldo - So, it's supposed to be Turkey vs. Portugal. Yeah, like anyone is watching this Portuguese team because of Deco or Carvalho (except me, I like Deco). While the world is all a buzz about where Ronaldo will play next year, Man U or Real Madrid, he claims to be focused solely on Euro 2008. I begrudgingly admit that the guy is amazing to watch. But he knows it...and that just rubs me the wrong way. Whatever. Turkey concentrated on shutting him down. Ronaldo didn't score, but Portugal still won, 2 - 0. Interesting, but expected.

Holland vs. Italy - There's an old phrase, "To beat the Dutch." It means to say something incredible. And if you had told me ahead of time that Holland were going to thrash World Cup holders Italy 3 - 0, I would have said, "Well, don't that beat the Dutch!" But you still would have been right. Holy Hannah. Ruud van Nistelrooy had to be begged by the national team manager to even play in the tournament and then scored a gorgeous, though controversial, little blooper of a goal to lead his team to victory. This is when it's nice to understand the game. Every person on the planet thought Ruud was offsides and that the goal wouldn't count. Ruud himself kept turning around to see how the assistant ref would rule it. But the offsides flag never went up, and, Bob's your uncle.

Quite simply, the offsides rule states that an offensive player (the ones trying to score at any given moment) can't be between the ball and the goal unless there is also a defensive player (other than the keeper) also between him and the goal. (There's more to it than that, including the timing of passes, but I'll leave it there for this discussion.) Essentially, this keeps each team from letting one guy hang out around the keeper, just waiting for the ball to get to him. (Which is totally what I'd do. "You want me to run? Yeah, I don't think so. I'm just gonna hang out down here by the goal. You run around and when you get the ball, you kick it to me and I'll see if I can get it in the goal.") Without this rule, there'd be a lot more scoring and a lot less drama. The key to this particular play was that one of the defensive players was off the field, actually behind the goal. He'd been pushed off the field by his own keeper when he and another player came barreling at the keeper with the ball. The keeper threw his own defender out of the way so that he could deal with the ball (which he didn't do very well since it got loose again and made it to the end of Ruud's foot). The Italian defender then just laid down back there, enjoying the Swiss sunshine. He wasn't really hurt, maybe he was winded, but that doesn't mean he's ruled out of play. At least, that's how the refs interpreted the situation. The players, even Ruud, had no idea that the guy lying on the ground still counted as active and basically kept every single Dutch player onside. Anyway, this goal is a big talking point now and we'll see all kinds of clarifications about this situation in the coming weeks. (It's like the shoe polish play in the 1969 World Series. But you probably don't get that reference, either...)

Wow, I waited this long to tell you that Robin van Persie, of Arsenal, came on as a substitute. I would rather Robin not be in this tournament. He was plagued by injuries last season and the last thing we need is for him to get hurt on international duty. Let Ruud do all the scoring, keep RvP on the bench, please.

Spain vs. Russia - No surprise that Spain won, although getting beat 4 -1 is more than a tad embarrassing for the Russian team. The big deal out of this match was that the big superstar, "El Nino" Fernando Torres, didn't score. Instead, David Villa scored the first hat trick of the tournament (3 goals in one match). I was thrilled that my little Cesc Fabregas was brought on as a substitute and even scored the 4th goal. It's hard to watch Cesc play on this team. He's the heart of Arsenal and we'd be up the creek without him. But the Spanish team doesn't revolve around him, so he doesn't look that impressive. I know, he's only 20. But I'd love to see what the Spanish side would do if they really let him drive. I think they'd be unstoppable.

Greece vs. Sweden - Ok, yeah, I admit that there was only one reason to watch this match. Sweden won 2 - 0. But I only cared about the result in that it would keep a certain Swedish captain on my television screen for a few more games.

Czech Republic vs. Portugal - Portugal won 3 -1. Ronaldo scored once and had one assist, both of which were gorgeous. Arsenal should have had a player on the Czech team, Tomas Rosicky, but he's been hurt for a while now. I'm glad he didn't play; we need him in full form next season.

And that about catches you up with the games that interest me. I left out a few games that I didn't watch. But who really cares about the Austrian or Swiss teams? They only got in the tournament by default by co-hosting it. (OK, technically, Arsenal has a player on the Swiss team, but he's a defender and not exciting to watch at all.)

Published Again

2008-06-12T08:19:00.002-04:00

I got published again, twice. Well, this is kinda cheating because 1) I'm not getting paid and 2) these are only blogs. But, still, it's always nice when someone thinks your photo is the right one to accompany their story.

One of my Ireland photos was published on National Geographic Traveler's "Intelligent Travel" blog. That makes three they've used. Wait, can I tell people that I've been published by National Geographic? Hmm...

The other one is a little more interesting because this shot came completely out of my brain. Someone contacted me through Flickr to ask if they could use one of my Barbie (Midge, really) shots for an article on their site. The site is supposed to be a community gathering place for Panama City. It's a new site, so I don't know how many people read it. The big deal is that the guy who contacted me is a fantastic photographer. It's really cool when someone that good wants to use one of your images.

2008-05-14T23:16:00.001-04:00

I cant believe how many people leave a concert before its over.

2008-05-14T22:22:00.001-04:00

I cant believe how many people walk their dogs after 10 at night.

2008-05-14T22:20:00.001-04:00

I cant believe how many people walk their dogs after 10 at night.

2008-05-14T22:18:00.001-04:00

I cant believe how many people walk their dogs after 10 at night.

2008-05-14T21:03:00.002-04:00

There are random buses that just loop my road. I feel like I'm in The Truman Show.

2008-05-14T21:03:00.001-04:00

I have concrete proof that Don Henley sings louder than Glen Frey.

2008-05-14T21:01:00.000-04:00

There are random buses that just loop my road. I feel like I'm in The Truman Show.

Soccer Post!

2008-05-02T12:58:00.001-04:00

I've been watching a lot of soccer lately and I haven't blogged about any of it. So here I go:

Arsenal
My favorite subject. :-) To catch you all up, they lost their big star at the end of last season, Thierry Henry. He went to Barcelona. That left Arsenal with a fairly young bunch of players. Seriously, the highest rated player was a 20 year old kid named Fabregas (we've talked about him before). Before the season, all the pundits predicted that Arsenal would place around 5th or 6th (out of 20 teams) in their league. That was significant because only the top 4 teams in the English league get a shot at the European Champion's League - a prestigious tournament that all the big clubs want to win.

Well, not only did Arsenal play better without Henry, they actually lead their league for several months. Unfortunately, they suffered some bad injuries to key players around February. Their level of play dropped considerably and they finally lost their lead last month to Manchester United. Now, with only two games left to play, they are a VERY close third behind Chelsea and Manchester United (who are tied in first). The frustrating thing about this is that all the writers are focusing on how Arsenal have "fallen apart" in the final part of the season instead of acknowledging that they weren't supposed to get anywhere close to first place at the beginning of the season. Frustrating, especially since most of this prejudice against Arsenal is due to the fact that the team is mostly made up of non-English players. If the squad was even just half English, they'd probably be praised and hailed as the Next Big Thing.

Anyway, Arsenal are not going to win their league even though they will finish this year with more points (teams rack up points for wins and ties) than they acquired last season. Other big Arsenal news concerns players that may or may not be leaving at the end of the season, or in other words, just a couple of weeks.

Flamini - A French defensive midfielder who really only got a starting position this season. But what a season it's been for him! It's hard to explain to people who don't watch soccer, but he improved considerably over the summer and became very impressive. His contract is up, so he is free to sign with any club. So far the two biggest bidders have been Italian clubs. Arsenal have made him what they think is a fair offer, but he seems to want a little bit more. He was supposed to give them an answer on April 30. The website says that deadline has been extended to this weekend. I can't decide if that's good or bad. Surely, if he had decided to leave he would just say so. I want him to stay. I want him to get fair compensation. But I don't want him to break our bank. We have to be able to afford other players, too.

Hleb - A Belorussian winger who plays gorgeous football. His only real problem is that he rarely scores, which is not really acceptable for his position. Technically, he's got 2 years left on his contract. But there's some legal loophole that says players can buy out the remainder of their contract if they meet a certain age requirement and yadda, yadda, yadda. Doesn't seem fair to me. A contract is a contract. You shouldn't be able to get out of it so easily. Well, the big news on him is that while Arsenal was playing in Milan last month, he supposedly snuck out of their hotel and had ice cream with "people" from one of the Italian clubs. I call it Ice Creamgate. When it comes down to it, I'd rather see him go than Flamini.

Gilberto - Captain of the Brazil National team, the midfielder who Flamini displaced this season. I'm torn on this one. Gilberto is around 33, which is getting old for a soccer player. But he's been a great asset to the team in the past. He recognizes that he doesn't have much time left to play and wants to be on a team that will put him on the field. I get that. But he should also have enough experience to understand that the manager needs to do what's best for the team. Gilberto has a better chance of playing next year if Flamini leaves, but he can't be our sole starter for that position. We'd have to find someone else to replace Flamini.

Lehman - Ah, Jens. Jens is one of the reasons I began following Arsenal. He was the keeper for the German team at the 2006 World Cup. He was our starting keeper for a number of years. But he had a rocky start to this season and was replaced by Almunia. Almunia played well enough that Jens never got his starting position back. And boy, was he mad about it! Jens absolutely cracks me up when he plays. He's got quite a temper and gets upset and throws tantrums on the field. I've even seen him get thrown out of a game because he was yelling at the ref. But the reality is that he's approaching 40 (a typical retirement age for keepers) and, like Gilberto, he wants to be on a team that will let him play. His contract is over, so everyone expects him to go back and play in Germany until he retires. Goodbye, you German hothead, I'll miss you terribly. Almunia is nowhere near as entertaining.

Besides those four players, there's lots of speculation about who may be joining the squad next year and who will be called up from the youth team. But there won't be anything definite on that until June, so I'm not going to waste time on the subject.

Alright, a couple more things about Arsenal...

Fabregas was named Young Player of the Year for the English League. Also, four Arsenal players made it to the "Dream Team" of the English League. Players in the league vote on which players would make the best team - kinda like the All Stars team. There's only 11 positions, so getting 4 of those assigned to Arsenal players is quite fantastic. The next team best represented was Man U, with 3 players. Chelsea didn't have any players make the team. HA!

Champions League
So, as I stated earlier, the Champions League is a tournament of all the best clubs in Europe. Arsenal made it to the quarter-final round (meaning 8 teams were playing for 4 spots in the semi-final round). We were knocked out by Liverpool. As much as I wanted to see us make it to the finals, Liverpool has a really good record in this tournament - they've made it to the finals 3 out of the last 4 years. So, it wasn't a huge surprise that they beat us.

Barcelona (and our boy, Henry) made it to the semi-final round, playing against Man U. Unfortunately, Man U beat them. In the other semi-final match, Chelsea beat Liverpool. So the final round of the European Champion's League will be played by the top two teams in the English league. This is the first year that two English teams have ever faced each other in the CL. The final game will be played in Moscow on May 21.

Playing soccer in Moscow? Been there, done that. Yep, the only time I've ever played soccer in my adult life was in Moscow. I had no idea what I was doing, but it was basically fun.

Who do I want to win? Just sitting back and looking at the two teams, I think I have more respect for Man U. They are definitely on pace to win the league (meaning, they will finish in the #1 spot), so winning the CL on top of that will be a HUGE accomplishment - it's called winning the "double." But as a selfish Arsenal fan, I would kinda like Chelsea to win the double. You see, if Chelsea beats Man U in both the English League and the Champion's League, all the sports writers will talk about how Man U "blew it" in the end. Everyone would stop criticizing Arsenal. But it would kinda take a miracle for Man U to lose the English League. Although, technically, if Man U and Chelsea BOTH lost both of their last two games and Arsenal wins both of our last two games, we could win the English League. Yeah, there's not much chance of that happening. But if it did, I wouldn't care who won the CL.

Realistically, I predict that Man U will win the League and Chelsea will win the Champion's League.

UEFA Cup
Europe has another tournament for the clubs who finish in a second tier of their league, the UEFA Cup. So, the team who finishes 5th in the English League gets to the UEFA Cup. (I don't know which places from other leagues go to UEFA.) I watched the last semi-final game of that tournament last night. Bayern Munich played Zenit St. Petersburg. Well, Bayern got thrashed by Zenit. It was sad and amazing all at the same time. Bayern Munich brought in a lot of big players over the summer. They have made minced meat of pretty much all the other teams in the German league this year. They are a lot of fun to watch, mostly because they have one of my favorite players from the French National team, Franck Ribery. But also because they have several great players from the German National team. (If you remember correctly, those were my two favorite teams in the 2006 World Cup.)

I simply couldn't believe my eyes when Zenit won the match, 4 - 0. Zenit will face the Scottish team, Rangers, in the final on May 14 in Manchester, England. I've never seen Rangers play, so I guess I'm rooting for the Russians.

Other News
Bayern Munich and Real Madrid should wrap up their first place finishes in each of their leagues this weekend (German and Spanish). Barcelona will finish a disappointing third place.

Europe 2008 (a mini World Cup) is scheduled for three weeks in June. Stay tuned for posts about those games.

I am a little confused about how soccer works at the Olympics. Seems to me that it should kinda be the same as the World Cup. But, no, each team has to mainly consist of players under the age of 23. Each team is allowed to have only 3 players over 23. To make it even more strange, the Olympic committee doesn't recognize England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland as unique countries. So if they wanted to send a team to the soccer event, they'd have to put one together called Britain and grab players from all countries - under 23. It's too confusing of a prospect, so none of those countries even bother. So what you end up with in the Olympics is this weird mix of countries who would be obliterated in any other international soccer competition. Anyway, the Under-23 rule makes it really difficult for me to judge, but I'm going to favor Argentina, simply because Lionel Messi should be playing for them.

Other than that, it sounds like there's going to be lots of big name transfers over the summer. I will update you on how those shake out. I know you just. can't. wait. ;-)

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Going Beyond the Scientific Method

2008-05-01T16:59:00.001-04:00

So, the scientific method is a way to explore and learn from our world. The basic steps are:

   1. Define the question
   2. Gather information and resources (observe)
   3. Form hypothesis
   4. Perform experiment and collect data
   5. Analyze data
   6. Interpret data and draw conclusions that serve as a starting point for new hypothesis
   7. Publish results
   8. Retest (frequently done by other scientists)

Step number 4 involves all kinds of tests, often those that classify the physical structure and attributes of the subject. In school, we often had to describe the color, smell, consistency, feel, etc. of the item we were studying.

According to this article, scientists studying the Giant Squid have taken step 4 to a new level. They measured, weighed, poked, and fried up their specimen. Yes, the scientists actually cut off a slice of the Giant Squid carcass to consume it as food. To be fair, I would probably want to do the same thing. We basically eat all kinds of things from the ocean. But I can't imagine what they thought they would gain by admitting to having done so. It seems so blatantly un-scientific...and a tad redneck. "I seen this thang dead on da side of da rode, so I thew it on the hood ov mah F150 and took it home. I tole the missus to fry it up and we et it. It tasted like chiken."

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Concert, anyone?

2008-04-24T10:33:00.000-04:00

I didn't get much of a response back about the Duran Duran concert. That's OK, it turns out that my SAD is that weekend, so I wouldn't have been able to go anyway. But I would like to go to another show that should be a little bit cheaper. Rooney is going to be at Variety Playhouse on Sunday 6/22. I will be approximately double the age of every other person at this show, but I can't deny that I adore Rooney. They make great pop songs.

For those curious about these kinds of things, one of the founding members of Rooney is the son of Talia Shire. Who? Throw your head back and shout (in a deep, manly voice), "Yo, Adrian." Got an image of a woman in your mind? That's Talia Shire. She is the sister of Francis Ford Coppola, mother of Jason Schwartzman (Rushmore, Marie Antoinette), and aunt of Nicolas Cage.

The thing is, I only have their first album (CD, whatever). It looks like they have a new one out that I need to pick up. Yes, I still buy real CDs. I rip them to mp3s and put them on my ipod. I just hate the idea of losing my music if my PC goes down.

Anyway, anyone wanna go?

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2008-04-09T07:38:00.001-04:00

I love spring break traffic!

I'm Just Plain Ol' Weird

2008-04-07T13:25:00.001-04:00

Over the last several months, I have occasionally taken OTC sleep aids. Sometimes I just needed help getting to sleep. Sometimes I had a bad headache and took a "PM" version of a pain killer. And then sometimes, like this week, I took an antihistamine to help me sleep despite being congested with the flu. This week, I learned that the active ingredient in all those OTC medications is the same - diphenhydramine, also known as Benedryl. Yes, when you take Tylenol PM or Percogesic as a pain killer, you are also taking a healthy dose of antihistamine.

Anyway, I have wondered why I've woken up several times over the last few months in a night sweat. I'm not quite old enough to be having those yet. But they didn't happen often enough to really worry me. Until Wednesday night. The only thing I took before going to bed Wednesday night was Wal-dryl, the exact same thing as Benedryl without the fancy price tag. I woke up every hour, on the hour, disgustingly hot. I was sweating and could not really get any sleep until I lowered the air conditioner to 67 degrees. That was the first time I recall ever taking Benedryl. I called The Doctor to see if she'd ever reacted that way to Benedryl - nope. I called a sister in my congregation who is a retired nurse to see if she'd ever heard of that reaction - nope. I searched the internet looking for info that anyone on the planet had ever had that reaction - not a single instance recorded.

I figured I was just some freak and determined to never take Benedryl again. That left me with Claritin D. But I still wanted something to help me sleep the next night. Not bothering to read the label, cause why would a pain killer also be an antihistamine, right?, I took a dose of Percogesic. I did this two nights in a row. Thursday night, I remember being a little warm, but not as bad as the previous night. But I also had not reset my air conditioner to be warmer. Friday night, I actually had a fever and woke up in the middle of the night so drenched in sweat that I had to change clothes. First, I knew that my fever had broken. But that's also when it occurred to me to check the contents of the Percogesic. For two nights in a row, I'd taken a double dosage of decongestant, though not exactly the same one.

I just can't believe that I'm the only one this happens to. I have not seen any evidence on the internet that this happens to other people. Although, there is one man at work who claims that antihistamines do the same thing to him. He claims they also make his heart race and give him weird dreams.

What about you? Have any of you ever had a strange reaction to Benedryl?

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More talk about death

2008-03-26T13:18:00.001-04:00

I was looking at the front page of wikipedia today when I noticed that there is a link to "Recent Deaths." I've never been one to peruse the Obituaries, but I thought the list of deaths on Wikipedia may be worth reading.

The people on the list were reduced to Name, Age, Nationality, Profession, small notable factoid and Method of death. What an impersonal way to describe an event that has such impact on the people around them. But logically, I know that you can't go into detail in a list like this. Obviously, each name links back to the person's wiki page so that you can get more detail about who they were.

Then I was struck by the variety of countries and ages represented and how this is really only a tiny fraction of the people lost during the month of March. Each name on this list represented a person, a family, a group of friends and colleagues who were feeling a deep sense of loss and pain. How would you feel if you knew more than one person on the list? Or the whole list? Or the whole REAL list of everyone who died during the course of ... ever? I imagined how Jehovah feels when he hears about the deaths that happen all over the world, each second. He knew each of them, intimately. I can't fathom it.

Anyway, I did learn a few things by reading the list of deaths in March:

It looks like someone is murdering Russian journalists - on the 21st someone shot a 58 year old TV journalist and someone (else?) strangled a 32 year old TV journalist. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not.

Foodies:
The man who founded Popeye's Chicken died of salivary gland cancer a few days ago. Doesn't that sound like the kind of thing you'd hear on SNL? Also, the man who invented Spaghetti-Os died earlier in the month.

Wiki keeps a list of the oldest verified living people. Third one on the list died this week. She was 114.

People we won't miss:
Three American Mass Murderers / Serial Killers died this week...of natural causes. I have pretty strong opinions on this one that I'll leave unsaid.

Royals / Nobility:
Prince Ferdinand, Duke of Castro (that's one man) and Al-Bandari bint Abdul Aziz Al Saud, sister of the King of Saudi Arabia. Also, Luisa Isabel Alvarez de Toledo, listed as a Spanish "noblewoman" and author.

Entertainment:
If you listen to NPR, you already knew about the death of Arthur C. Clarke, author of "2001: A Space Odyssey" - the movie with the most unwatchable first 30 minutes of any movie ever made.
British actor, Paul Scofield, died of leukemia at 86. I recently watched his Oscar winning performance as Sir Thomas More in "A Man for All Seasons." Sorry, as much as I liked him, I didn't like the movie. I am right in the midst of reading all those books about Henry VIII, so I was able to figure out what was going on. If not for that, I would have been completely lost. Maybe I've blogged about this already. The only other thing I've seen him in was "The Crucible" - he played the last judge who came in to try Joan Allen and Daniel Day Lewis. Even though he was an old man in that movie, he had a voice and presence that stole all the attention away from a very attractive (though dirty) Daniel Day Lewis.

Business:
The owner of Ameriquest Mortgage died. Though that is a sad event, I was more intrigued to find out that he'd been serving as an Ambassador to the Netherlands since 2006. That's an odd mix.
Dick Durrell, the guy who founded People magazine, died at age 82.

Music:
Corinne Bailey Rae's husband died of a suspected drug overdose. Sad. I like her voice.
The woman who wrote "Rain Rain Go Away" died at age 84.

Finally, the one that made me gasp, Jeff Healey. You remember him, the blind guy who played his guitar facing up on his lap, in his wheelchair...and sang with a gorgeous voice. His song "Angel Eyes" is still one of my all time favorite slow songs. That's still the only song I can name by him, but it was so good that I'm very sad to know that his music career is over.

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Another funeral

2008-03-25T14:10:00.001-04:00

I found out this morning that the grandfather of Infectious Laughter's husband died yesterday. Technically, I'd only met and spoken with him once. But virtually everyone I know up here knew and loved him. He was in his mid to late 80s and full of spunk. I honestly haven't figured out who all the people in my cousin's husband's family are - like ours, it is a LARGE family.

I do know that there was some kind of mutual respect between this man and my mother. She thought he was a hoot and he thought she was ... as wonderful as she was. In fact, the only time I sat down and spoke with him was in my mother's house when she was very ill. After he found out that she was confined to the house, he came by to visit a few times. My cousin tells me that the last time she saw him was at my mother's funeral.

I wish I had known him better. All I can really tell you is that he was Italian. He had a big family who loved him dearly. And in the last couple of years of his life, he decided to learn to speak Spanish, though I'm not sure if he ever changed over to the Spanish congregation. We were all blown away that he would even attempt to learn a new language so late in life. But he loved it and recommended it to everyone.

His funeral is scheduled for this Saturday, 1:30, at our hall. I'm not sure our hall is big enough, honestly. My cousin and her husband are coming to stay with me. The house is pretty clean, I just gotta organize the Barbie stuff a little better...and deal with the papers on the kitchen table. The two biggest things I've got to do is get my car cleaned and get some food in the house. I would like to at least have breakfast food for them. With meeting tonight and photoshop class tomorrow night, that leaves me only Thursday to do most of this stuff. I can make it work. I can at least get my car done tomorrow night between work and class.

...and I need to call DrummerChick. We've texted a few messages back and forth, but nothing meaningful. This weekend is obviously out, but maybe I'll try to get with her the following weekend.

CRAP! I just remembered that I have tickets to see Paula Poundstone on Friday night. I don't know what I'm gonna do.

Test your Star IQ Play now!

2008-03-24T13:56:00.001-04:00

Its snowing. No wonder i an freezing!

Playing Wii

2008-03-21T09:14:00.001-04:00

Playing Wii
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

So, I thought I had finally decided on a name for Barbie's man. I really like the name Ian. But someone on Flickr said he had been thinking of my character as more of a "tough guy" than Ian indicates.

So should I drop his name and let each person imagine what they want? I imagine a non-tough guy name because, well, I think this guy's gonna end up "whipped" in most of my shots. But maybe that would be funnier if he had a tough-guy name. I gotta select a name that is not associated with anyone I know IRL. And I probably shouldn't use a name that I would like if I ever had a son...so Ian is off the table.

So, like all good pop culture of our day, I'll put this up to the VOTE:

Ace
Hawk
Buck
Fitz
Ferris (since he is supposed to be Matthew Broderick's face)

You can suggest a name, but no guarantee that I'll select it.

Do these make my butt look big?

2008-03-19T13:47:00.001-04:00

Do these make my butt look big?
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Barbie went shopping today. Now that her man is no longer in the military, he needed some civilian clothes. She picked up two outfits. Oops, men don't wear "outfits." She bought some shirts, jeans and shorts for her man to wear. In this photo, he's showing off his new duds. She's checking out how well they fit.

So, I was trying something new with the lighting. I am not impressed with the results. I went back to my old way of lighting in the third and it is better, if a little cold.

365 - Day 29

Game Night - drama

2008-03-17T23:25:00.001-04:00

Game Night - drama
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

I posted several shots of this set up. I'm calling it Game Night. It's just a photo of the two dolls playing Monopoly. I've got three new items in this scene. The most obvious is the Monopoly board. It's a magnet from the Dollar Tree. I wish I had cards or money to go on the board. But it's so detailed, that I don't think you really notice those things are missing. The pieces the dolls are playing with are earring backs.

The other new item is the thing providing the dramatic lighting in this shot. I bought a clip on book light at the Dollar Tree today. The light is very bendy so I can point it where I want. However, it's a pretty small spot light. I should have bought a few.

The final not really new item is the chair the guy is sitting in. It's a metal chair I got at a thrift store for maybe 2 bucks. It doesn't really fit Barbie too well, but he does pretty well with it. It's a fairly cool industrial metal looking chair.

Love Bears All Things

2008-03-17T14:26:00.001-04:00

Love Bears All Things
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

The symbols are castinets that were given to me by P June. I ran across them this weekend and knew immediately that I had to use them as symbols in one of my Barbie shots. I wanted to wait to put them in a shot with other musical instruments, but I don't have any yet. This image came to mind because I wanted to shoot something with Barbie and her new man toy.

Speaking of boy toys, this is a "fully articulated" male action figure (that means he can put his hands up to his ears but Barbie can't). The body is all ripped and muscle-y. The head that came with the body has a really mean face - he's a soldier determined to get the job done. As much as I hate Barbie's permanent toothy grin, a permanent scowl is even worse. However, while rummaging through my nephew's toys, I found a neglected body from the Inspector Gadget movie. My sister, nephew and I performed a head transplant and ... VOILA! I have a pleasant face on my male body.

There's another funny thing about this male figure. I've been looking at some heads on ebay that are molded and painted to look exactly like famous Hollywood actors. I've been tempted to buy Paul Newman, Robert Redford or Christian Bale. I mean, how cool would it be for my Barbie to pose in shots with Paul Newman - two icons of pop culture? But I'm cheap and I couldn't pass up this free head that works just as well as those others would have. So instead of posing with Paul Newman, Barbie is stuck with Matthew Broderick...sorta. I don't think this head actually looks like the Inspector Gadget character. It would have been cool to think of Barbie posing with Ferris Bueller, though.

365 - Day 21

2008-03-11T08:43:00.001-04:00

365 - Day 21
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Archaeologist Barbie contemplates an ancient culture. I think I like Archaeologist Barbie. Methinks she will go on many an adventure...if I can get her pants to stay up.

She's wearing a military outfit that came with a male action figure. The waist of the pants is way too large. I have to keep checking her pants in between shots to make sure her butt's not showing. And even though I adore the color and texture of those boots, they fall off every time I pick her up. I wanted a hat, but it is really hard to get a hat to stay on with all that hair. The best I could do was pull it back - to put her in serious, work mode. That's also why her sleeves are rolled up.

The lighting is too harsh. My copy of Photoshop should be coming in soon, I could fix that. This would probably look better if the artifact (Kleenex holder) were half buried. But that would mean me going outside. Eww.

365 - Day 20

2008-03-11T08:37:00.001-04:00

365 - Day 20
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Back to shots of toys. I picked these up at IKEA. The wire inside them is really tight. Sometimes it is difficult to get them to stay in a certain position because the tension of the wire draws them together. I tried to position each as their respective humans would be after one just slapped the other so hard to knock him off his feet.

365 - Day 19

2008-03-11T08:34:00.001-04:00

365 - Day 19
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

We progressed from rain to snow flurries as the Canadian air invaded us. Again, I"m not too thrilled with this image. However, I do like that the snowflake in the middle seems to have retained its shape while the others have melted.

365 - Day 18

2008-03-11T08:32:00.001-04:00

365 - Day 18
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Poly likes this shot. I don't. But it was the best of all I shot that day. It, uh, rained on Day 18. This is on the inside of my car door.

365 - Day 17

2008-03-11T08:31:00.001-04:00

365 - Day 17
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Poly and I went over to Frau Adorable's to watch a movie the other night. I shot this photo of her looking at the cookies she was about to offer us.

Seriously?

2008-03-05T15:44:00.001-05:00

This is what playing Barbie has come to?

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365 - Day 15

2008-03-05T09:17:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 15
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

A player on my nephew's fuse ball table. I gotta shoot more often in my nephew's room. It's jam packed with exciting little stuff.

365 - Day 14

2008-03-04T09:22:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 14
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

The Perils of Motherhood. The Execution.

I shot two images of this. The first shows the mother standing over the baby with its diaper open - kinda ominous - shot low, looking up at the mother. This is the pay off. I had to tape the diaper to the doll's hand since she can't actually hold anything. I would love to have been able to turn her arm over so that it looked like she was barely holding the used diaper by two fingers. But her arms don't twist, they only open out to form a T.

I tell ya, it is really amazing how un-flexible these dolls are. I thought they were bendable and all posable. But they're not. I've got one Barbie whose legs don't even bend. She's supposed to be a ballerina. What kind of ballerina doesn't bend her knees?!?!

There are dolls out there who are very posable, the term is "articulated." But the joints are very ugly. Photos I see of these dolls pull me out of the concept because the weird joints remind me that these are dolls, not people. Does that make sense? If I get any of these dolls, I will have to shoot them in long sleeves and pants to try to minimize that. In a strange way, it makes me appreciate how wonderfully made we are. We are "articulated" with lovely, seamless joints.

365 - Day 13

2008-03-03T13:33:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 13
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

The cop in the left of the shot is about to give me a police escort to my home...which is about 300 yards away. We had a footrace routed along my street yesterday. In order to get back to my house, I had to drive on the opposite side of the street. I guess the police thought we were too stupid to accomplish that task on our own. So I had to "follow" the cop on the motorcycle back to the entrance of my neighborhood. Whew! I'm so glad he was there to save the day.

So annoying. This happens about 4 times a year for various race events. Although, a couple of years ago, I could have gotten a photo of Lance Armstrong as he cycled past my house...if I'd cared to.

365 - Day 12

2008-03-03T13:31:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 12
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

"How much watch?" That's an old Russian joke that is only funny to Russians who speak English and went to university. As a native English speaker who spoke Russian and went to university in Moscow, I never understood why the joke was funny. But the girl who told me the joke, the same one who I've recently located on the web, tried so hard to explain it to me, that it became an inside joke to us. She would laugh at the joke and I would laugh because her laugh was so infectious (and it seemed like the polite thing to do). I don't know if any of that has anything to do with why I buy a new cheap watch when my battery on the old one dies. None of these watches cost me more than $20, some were even given to me. See notes for comments on individual watches.

Correction, the black watch all the way to the left, with the stem on the right, cost me much more than $20. It is specifically made for left-handed people to wear on their right wrist (as I do) and be able to set without removing it. I scoured the 'net looking for a left-handed watch and had to have it shipped from England. With today's exchange rate, I think it would cost over $120. It's not that attractive, but it really ticks me off that virtually no one makes watches like this. Most of the watches you find in "left handed" stores run counter-clockwise, as if left-handed people are "backwards." Not cool. Nor funny.

365 - Day 11

2008-03-03T13:24:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 11
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Not much to say about this image. Sunrise on the way to work.

and thus death spread to all men...

2008-03-03T08:55:00.001-05:00

My friend DrummerChick called me a couple of times this weekend. I was in a funk all weekend and didn't answer the phone. I thought it was a little odd that she tried to get me a couple of times, but figured that she was just checking up on me since we hadn't talked in a while.

I am such a loser, bad friend. I was too wrapped up in my own bad mood to answer the phone when one of my dearest friends was calling to tell me that her mother had died of a sudden heart attack.

It was important for her to talk to me because, of all her friends, I am the only one who knows exactly what she is going through. I spoke with her this morning. She sounded fine. But I know that sound. She's keeping it together because she's got so much to do. She's focused on planning the events that will honor her mother's life. She's writing out the obituary and the program for the memorial service. She's taking care of things at her father's house. She's busy. But I know what's coming after all that work is finished. I know how the bottom drops out from under you. I know how waking up each morning is a chore, but going to sleep each night is even more difficult.

I know.

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Help me out

2008-02-29T14:02:00.001-05:00

| |
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

I have a secondary photo project going on. I am shooting numbers in sequential order by day. Today is the 11th day, so I'm looking for the number 11 to shoot it. I am kinda stuck. So far, the only 11 I've been able to come up with is pump 11 at a gas station - not necessarily a pretty shot. I happened to be in a different lane at a particular intersection this morning and I noticed these two poles. (Yes, I do have specific lanes I like to use at specific intersections. It's my own version of flow dynamics.) I didn't shoot these intentionally to use as my #11 shot. But now that I look at them, I think they kinda work as the #11. What do you think? Is the 11 obvious or obscure?

365 - Day 10

2008-02-29T08:35:00.001-05:00

Shoes
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

My mother wore these shoes when she was a stylish single woman living it up in the city. I've had them for years, even wore them a couple of times when I was younger. Now, they just sit at the top of my stairs as decoration. I absolutely love them.

365 - Day 9

2008-02-28T11:53:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 9
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Even though it was not much above freezing and we began the day with snow flurries, the sky was absolutely gorgeous yesterday. I shot this out of the sunroof of my car...with the heat on full blast.

Project 365 - Day 8

2008-02-27T11:20:00.001-05:00

Project 365 - Day 8
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

I was really reaching on Day 8. I fired off a few quick shots before I fell into bed. I even shot some photos of my pillows that turned out to be worthless. This is the best I managed. It's not hideous, but there's nothing compelling about it.

The battery on my little camera died, so I couldn't shoot with it. It has a macro function, so often it is better suited for the kind of shots I take in my house. But technically, my big camera handles low-light situations better, which I often encounter in my house at night.

Why do I have the feeling that y'all are going to eventually see my whole house, one item at a time?

2008-02-27T07:45:00.001-05:00

Snow flurries? Im not even wearing a coat!

Update

2008-02-26T13:34:00.001-05:00

I have not contacted her yet, but it turns out that Lena lives in England now. She is head of Marketing for a Japanese company that makes the sports drink that I ended up liking best while I was over there. How about that for a small world?

They also manufacture a new drug that I specifically recall seeing the commercials for. The drug stood out to me because I thought the name was kinda lame, "Abilify." I hope Lena didn't help pick out that name. Odd name aside, it sounds like the drug has fewer side effects than others of its kind.

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Correction

2008-02-26T12:06:00.000-05:00

It looks like those photos of Lena were taken in 1998. So, a few years after I left.

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A blast from the past

2008-02-26T12:05:00.000-05:00

I stayed up entirely too late last night reading the journals I kept while I lived in Moscow. I couldn't help but wonder about all the people I met and what they're doing now. Searching the web for them is really difficult because I really didn't know anyone's last name. So, imagine my surprise to find a photo of my closest school friend on the interweb! Granted, this image is from just a few months after I left in 1995. Technically, this isn't really catching up with her. But here's Lena. Man, I can hear her voice when I look at these photos.

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365 - Day 7

2008-02-25T23:02:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 7
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Ornamental cabbage, a phrase I can't believe is not an oxymoron.

365 - Day 6

2008-02-25T06:57:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 6
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Between service and meeting, I didn't have the chance to shoot much of a photo today. Here's a quick snap of He Tells Jokes.

365 - Day 5

2008-02-25T06:56:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 5
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Do you see faces in your household items? I see Strong Sad, on Caffeine.

365 - Day 4

2008-02-22T22:41:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 4
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

I really liked the color that the rain turned the street this morning. It's been so long since we've had rain, I had forgotten that effect. I think the yellow lines really pop off the wet street.

Girl on the Hood

2008-02-22T07:08:00.001-05:00

Girl on the Hood
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

This is not my Day 4 photo. This is another line of photos that I'm playing around with. This project doesn't have a time component. It's just one that inspires me. I love the concept of satire. But how do you do satire in a photo? This is my answer. I will shoot toys/action figures/dolls in life-like settings.

This is my take on those cheesy shots of scantily clad women draped over the hood of a car - think White Snake video. However, this shot is not perfect. It turns out that Barbie is not as easy to pose as I'd hoped. She doesn't bend in enough places and this particular doll doesn't even twist at the waist. Anyway, I should not have left her right leg sticking up like that. It's not sexy. Someone on Flickr commented that this looks macabre. He's right. Instead of looking like she's intentionally laying across the hood, she looks like she got thrown there after an accident. So, I will recreate this shot when I set up a better lighting area - doll studio.

Also, if anyone has access to used dolls, clothes or accessories, I would love to have them. I particularly need dudes. I'm learning more than I ever wanted to know about scale modeling. Barbie dolls are at 1/6 scale, called "sixthscale" or "playscale", because they are almost 12 inches tall, or 1/6 the size of a real human.

I ran into scale problems with another toy shot I did a few weeks ago. I needed a male and female toy for the shot. I bought them at the dollar store, but all of the male "action figures" were 2 - 3 inches shorter than the female dolls. I made it work through camera angles, but I was basically limited to only one pose.

Anyway, I have two Barbies right now - the other twists at the waist. But these are the only clothes I have. I can't really imagine me shooting her in formal attire. So I need to scour garage sales and thrift stores to find clothes. I want to shoot sexy Barbie photos, not nudes. Although, if I can replicate a bear skin rug...

365 - Day 3

2008-02-21T22:27:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 3
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Today was a really long tiring day. A coworker has been on vacation all week and I'm covering for her. I've also got some deadlines with my own work that I'm trying to meet. So, I was just randomly looking at the junk in my house that I could shoot. I stumbled upon this little doo-dad. At one time it was attached to tulle wrapped around a votive candle as a wedding favor. Something about this simple charm drew me in. I'm not certain that this image does justice to the charm. But like I said, I'm tired.

365 - Day 2

2008-02-20T09:10:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 2
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Late for work. And I just remembered that I'm supposed to be at an 8:00 meeting this morning. Not an auspicious start.

365 - Day 1

2008-02-19T22:56:00.001-05:00

365 - Day 1
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Project 365 basically means taking at least one photo every day for a whole year. Of course, this year, we should really call it Project 366, since it is a Leap Year.

I've seen other people do this. It seems like such a big commitment, to take a unique photo that I'm happy with every day. But that's kinda the point. I will force myself to take a photo EVERY SINGLE DAY. I'm sure there will be days that I want to give up. I may even end up posting a photo of the ceiling one day. But I want to try.

Really cool link

2008-02-15T11:26:00.001-05:00

This is a really cool link. Sorry to post and run.

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Random thoughts that need to be fleshed out

2008-01-25T16:23:00.000-05:00

Here are the titles to blog postings that I haven't had time to write. Some of them sound like they would have been awesome:

The twins are 3!

Henry Ford was a bigot.

Life sucks without a microwave.

There is a dude who REALLY wants to look at Stinky Garbage Trailer.

Found money rawks, especially when it's from the government.

Just like the little engine who could, I *can* get through my piles of mail.

I'm tired of getting shocked every time I turn on a light.

My Scrabble skilz make big sistas weep.

Snow shouldn't melt on the same day it fell.

Does making the same dinner of chicken, rice and beans every night count as cooking?

99x (and my youth) are official gone.

You probably don't know it, but you and I have "a song."

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Seen and Read

2008-01-07T14:26:00.000-05:00

Seen:

The History Channel played a two-hour program on the KKK the other night. I knew it might be difficult to watch, but I wanted to at least try. The program began at 8:00. I stopped watching it at 8:04. Those 4 minutes were made up of about 2 minutes of opening "historical" dialog before launching into the meat of the program. So, in reality, I couldn't make it through 2 minutes. Those first 2 minutes showed modern day KKK "rallies" where the ugliest, nastiest white men you've ever seen march through small towns and then start yelling to an all-white crowd about Jews, [insert N-word here]s and [insert S-word here]s . The worst part is that the historical intro had described the KKK as an organization with roots in Christianity.

I felt physically sick. This world is so twisted and demented. What probably upset me the most (beyond the hateful words) was the large percentage of teenage boys that go along with this hate. They are literally breeding hate into their children. I can't fathom it.

Read:

I'm beginning a long series of books about various historical royal personages. All of the books were written by Jean Plaidy, an author who I dislike under a different pseudonym. She writes fairly accurate historical stories as if they were novels. So, the dialog you're reading didn't actually take place. But it is based on the best concept we have of what was going on and how various people felt about it at the time. Plaidy makes history come alive by presenting characters that you identify with and care about.

I actually read the first one a few months ago. It was a re-release of three of her books into one megabook. It told the stories of Charles II, King of England and his little sister who married the younger (mean and gay) brother of the King of France. Briefly, Charles II is known as the Merry Monarch. He was of the Stuart line of kings (who were Catholic and had ties to Scotland). His father, Charles I, was overthrown by Oliver Cromwell during the Puritan revolt. For a 22 year period, England had no monarch - until the fall of the Puritans and the return of Charles II.

The book I just completed was about Henry VIII's first wife, "Katherine of Aragon" (in quotes because that's the title of the book). Before reading this book (also a re-release of three books into one), I knew very little about Henry VIII. Generically, I knew that he'd had a bunch of wives, some or all of whom he'd killed off and that he was the father of one of England's greatest monarchs, Elizabeth I (you know her as Cate Blanchett).

Here is Katherine's 640 page story in a nutshell:
She was the daughter of Ferdinand and Isabella of Spain (the pair who bankrolled Chris Columbus to come and find us). At 16, Katherine came to England to marry Arthur, the Prince of Wales (that title is always given to the next in line to be ruler of England). Arthur was 15 and not quite a healthy boy. So Arthur's father, Henry VII, allowed the marriage to happen, but would not let them consummate it (too taxing and all that). Arthur died just six months after the wedding and Katherine became a virgin widow. Unfortunately for her, her father had not yet paid her dowry and Henry VII wasn't going to let her go home without his money. She was kept in England for another 7 years, almost destitute. After Henry VII's death, Henry VIII was advised not to marry Katherine, which solidified his desire to do so. Henry was 18 when he became king and 20 when he married Kate, who was 25.

Henry VIII (from here on out referred to simply as Henry) saw himself as a romantic rescuer. He wasn't really in love with "Kate," but he loved that he rescued her from despair while also proving that the king could marry whomever he pleased. It was several years and stillbirths/miscarriages later before he became unfaithful to Kate. Katherine followed her illustrious mother's example by turning a blind eye to Henry's indiscretions. She was deeply religious, to the point where the people thought of her as saintly. Over the years, Henry made and broke and had broken against him several treaties with the kings of Spain (Kate's own father), the Holy Roman Empire (Kate's lunatic sister's son) and France (no discernable relation to either Henry or Kate).

After 20 years, 6 failed pregnancies and one living *female* child (oh, the horror!), Henry found a young girl who refused to become his mistress. Anne Boleyn demanded to be his wife. Henry found a scripture in Leviticus that said, "You should not lay bare the nakedness of your brother's wife." Based on this one scripture, he claimed that his conscience told him that he did not have the right to marry Kate in the first place. He further claimed that her failed pregnancies were proof of God's displeasure in their marriage. He applied to the Pope for an annulment (seriously, after 20 years, an annulment). Politically, the Pope was caught between a rock and a hard place. The Emperor Charles was naturally on his aunt's side, who did not want an annulment. Annulment meant that her one child, Princess Mary, would be declared a bastard and would not be in line to inherit the throne. Unfortunately for Henry, Charles held more sway with the Pope. After years of delaying a verdict in the case, the Pope finally ruled on the side of Katherine.

But by that time, Henry no longer acknowledged the Pope as the supreme religious authority. Anne Boleyn had introduced Henry to the works of Martin Luther. Someone else put the idea in his head that *he* should be the head of the church in England, not some Pope in Rome. Henry declared that England would no longer be part of the Catholic Church. An English court gave him an annulment and he married Anne a while before the Pope's decision came down.

So...that's a long nutshell. But here's what I'm thinking. Here's this man who is incredibly selfish and motivated purely by his own desires. In the eyes of God he had absolutely NO RIGHT to divorce his wife. In fact, the Israelite law of brother-in-law marriage proved that Henry was twisting one scripture to his own advantage while ignoring other principles. Also according to God's law, Katherine had a right to divorce him for his adultery, certainly not the other way around.

However, as I contemplate the course of true worship through the ages, it seems to me that the resulting break from the Catholic Church was critical. It allowed people to question what they were being taught. It eventually allowed for the writing of the King James Version of the Bible. It allowed Puritanism to develop and grow in England. It eventually lead to the spread of all branches of Protestantism. It lead to freedom of religion in this and many countries.

It's difficult to wrap your mind around the idea that a selfish and immoral man played such a large part in advancing true worship.

I've moved on to Anne Boleyn's book. Her story is written like a first person memoir. She is recalling the events of her life while she is a prisoner in the Tower of London (been there!). I do know how her story ends, but I don't know all the details yet. I am hoping to read a story about all six wives of Henry VIII. Then I will read about the women around this story - Henry's two sisters and his two daughters. I may back up and read about his father. Henry VII became King at the end of a long war and was always worried that some challenger would rise up to try to take his throne. That sounds pretty interesting.

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Not Safe for Work

2008-01-04T15:40:00.001-05:00

So, the coworker who sits next to me brought in his adorable, not quite three year old daughter in to work today. The coworker on the other side of him spent quite a bit of the day entertaining her. At some point I heard the little girl say something about soccer. (Her dad also likes to watch soccer.) I remembered that I have a small Chuck E. Cheese soccer ball left over from another coworker, so I took it in to show it to the little girl. She lit up and we started playing soccer in the hallway.

I knew I couldn't play soccer in the hallway for very long. When I was finished, I sent her in to play with the other coworker. About 30 minutes before she and her father were due to leave (he works an earlier schedule than the rest of us), the little girl was wandering the hallway with my soccer ball under her arm. I asked her where she was going. She said, "To the car." Obviously, she couldn't go to the car yet. So I got her attention again and I showed her how to play soccer using your head. I headed the ball, often into her face. She was thrilled. Another coworker came by and we showed him how we could head the ball. He was duly impressed.

I decided to give up much earlier this time and told her to go show her Daddy her new trick. She was going to do that and I turned back around in my chair to continue working. The ball rolled under my desk and she had to go behind me to get it. The next thing I heard was a pretty loud thunk. But there was no crying so I said without turning around, "Don't hit the desk with your head, silly." I still didn't hear any noise at all. After about 30 more seconds of quiet, I got scared that she had hit the desk so hard she'd knocked herself out. I turned around to find her just on the verge of exploding into tears. It could be that she knocked the wind out of herself and it took that long to recover enough to cry. Or it could be that she wasn't sure that she was going to cry until I turned around to check on her. I'm still not sure. But she sure started wailing. She almost didn't let me pick her up, but the standard, "Let me take you to see Daddy," got through to her. By the time I got her into her father's office, two other coworkers had come running to see what the fuss was all about.

Seriously. It just didn't sound like that big of a deal. But after her father got her calmed down (which really didn't take that long), you could see a big red mark under on eye. She'd run her face into my desk, not just her head. I have no doubt that she's gonna get a shiner. But she was so adorable as she was leaving. I yelled out to him, "Sorry about the black eye!" She looked at me, dragging a pink Barbie pack back as big as she was, and said, "I feel better now." HOW ADORABLE!

But, yeah, little girls are Not Safe for Work.

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Sweet Sixteen

2008-01-03T08:46:00.001-05:00

It is SIXTEEN stinking degrees outside today. Sweet sixteen, my shivering a$$.

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That's it, I'm moving to London

2007-12-21T13:12:00.001-05:00

I just read a story that everyone's favorite LA soccer star is going to practice with my favorite English football team in January. Yes, Becks is going to workout and practice with Arsenal in January. MLS is not in season right now. But Becks still needs to be in shape. He needs to stay in shape for his next season of MLS and so that he can play for the English national team.

Arsenal is the only "big" team in England that takes crap from English fans for only playing "foreigners." The team is run by a Frenchman and manned almost entirely by non-English players. There's only one or two guys who qualify for the English national team on the Arsenal squad and both of them are so young that they play on the Under 21 team, not the main national team.

But here's Arsenal, going out of their way to let the former English captain train with them so that he will be fit to play for the English national team while his league is on break. Obviously I don't really care about national teams. But I want the English fans to quit their complaining about Arsenal. It's a big deal right now that England is supposedly not turning out young men who can play soccer at the same level as other those from other nations. The Arsenal manager doesn't restrict himself to just the English talent pool when he's looking for young men who will fit in on his team. If he needs to get 4 from Africa, 1 from Belarus, 1 from the Czeck Republic, 2 from Spain and so on, that's what he does. And when a good player asks, "Hey, do you mind if I run around with your boys to keep in shape while my league is off season?" he throws his hands up in that famous French shrug and says, "Why not?"

So, yeah, I want to move to London just to watch Becks train with Arsenal. Surely, they need someone to video their training sessions?

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Pack Ratting (again)

2007-12-19T12:33:00.001-05:00

Every once in a while I have to go through my Text messages to clean them out. I'm bad about not deleting them after I read them and then I run out of memory and can't receive more. I realized that there are a few messages on my phone that I keep. Either they remind me of a fun time or they have some piece of info that I've never transferred to any other device. Here's a quick run-down of what messages I've saved and why (newest to oldest):

411 will now send you a text message of the number you asked for. My most recent saved txt is the customer service number for my cable company. I should transfer this to the address book of my phone, I just haven't gotten around to it yet. ... one day.
The home address of a friend who recently moved back to town. I was supposed to go to one of those "come to my house and buy over-priced crap you'll never use" parties at her house a couple of weeks ago. I backed out at the last minute because I'd been having headaches and her house is over an hour away. I couldn't face a two hour round trip thinking that my headache may return at any minute. It's a shame because I did want to see her new place and spend time with her and her kids. I should save this over on my Yahoo maps account. ... one day.
The weather report for Dallas, Texas from a couple of months ago. I saved this just to remind myself that Google can do this - send a message about the weather to my phone. I hear about these cool services, use them once and then forget about them. Hopefully, I will remember about "A Google" because I have this message saved ... probably not.
A message from a friend who is no longer in my congregation - "Still need blinds for the front?" She and her husband were going to sell and install blinds in my house last year, but complications came up and it never happened. This is a two-fold reminder: I still need blinds and I need to call this friend. She is fun and I feel bad about not keeping in touch with her after the congregation split.
A scripture my Bookstudy Overseer sent me - Job 14:14, 15 "Our tears are precious to Jah." This was really the second part of a message that was too long to fit in to one on my phone/service. Evidently, the first part of the message didn't mean as much to me as this part. I've thought about this scripture quite a bit over the past few months.
A Twitter message from an actor on Stargate SG-1. He's expressing his jealousy that a costar got an iPhone before him. I'm not sure why I've kept this. Twitter is a "micro" blogging tool. You type 140 character posts. People subscribe to your feed. They can get that feed on a web page or directly to their phone by txt. I subscribed to several "famous-y" people when I first discovered it. This guy is pretty funny, so he's one of the few I've kept up with. I guess I kept this particular message because it seems to reveal a very witty personality. I'm a geek. I'm weird.
A sound clip that I recorded for myself listing three software packages that we were thinking about investigating at work ... a long time ago. I never really investigated these packages, but I don't want to lose the names of them. Where else would I store this kind of random information?
A very sweet message that Kimi Stewart sent me on the day that I came to interview for my new job to try to pump up my confidence.
A photo that I took of a boy in my bookstudy. (At the time, he wasn't in my bookstudy, but now his father is my Bookstudy Overseer.) He's a little bit younger than I Dunno. I don't know what it says about me, but I seem to relate to boys his age pretty well. They tend to think I'm cool until they hit 16 or 17. Then they realize the truth and want nothing more to do with me. I took this photo with his own cell phone over a year ago. We were getting in our cars before going out in service. I promptly sent the photo to my own phone. I love the photo. But since it was taken with his phone and sent to mine through txt, it's not saved on my phone as an image. It is really funny to see how much he's changed in the past year.
A German nationalistic chant, in German, from Frau Adorable sent to me during the 2006 World Cup when the German team was winning one of the important games. It translates to "Germany, Germany over all others!" Or something like that. It's so ridiculously out of place on my phone that I had to keep it. It reminds me of how wonderful it was to discover soccer during the summer of 2006.
Finally, a txt Polyglot sent me with the phone number for a sister that we met at an Assembly. I've never called her. I've kept it because I remember really liking her when I met her, like I thought we would be good friends if we saw each other more often. But she doesn't live too close and she's married. After a while, I figured that if I called her up she would be, like, "Who?" The funny thing is, though, she actually said hello to me at our last assembly. I could tell that she recognized me, but wasn't sure why or from where. So, perhaps I made a little bit of an impression on her, too. Still, it would be too odd at this point to call her. If I really psychoanalyze this, I think it may just serve as a reminder that sometimes I do meet people that I make a connection with. There are still people out there who are worth trying to get to know. I just need to follow through on the next one. Or maybe even on this one, still.

That's a listing of the messages I've saved. Some are saved because I'm procrastinating moving the info to another location. Some are there to remind me of fun times. Some are there to comfort me. Some are there to remind me that I need to try harder to connect with people, both known and as yet unknown.

What a strange exercise. What do your txt messages say about you?

Final note: I'm sorry if none of my blog readers are represented in my saved messages - obviously I am not doing a totally hideous job of connecting with you.

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Good Fences Make Good Neighbors

2007-12-16T08:46:00.001-05:00

I came home from work on Friday with a killer headache. I took medicine and went to bed. It was about 3:00 in the afternoon. I just stayed in bed through the night. The only problem was that the people directly behind my bedroom were having a party. Not just any party, their kids had friends over.

The kids sounded like they were between 12 - 14. I believe that it was physically impossible for them to speak without screaming. It sounded like there were around 6 of them. They kept up their screaming from around 4:30 - 10:00. The noise really only bothered me when the sleepy med was wearing off around 9:00. But I recognize that they have the right to have friends over and sit outside on their deck. If they had been outside screaming after 11:00, I wouldn't have been so understanding.

Last night I heard voices outside again. This time, they were close enough that I knew before looking that they were on my neighbor's porch. When people sit on her porch, the sound travels up to my bedroom window as if they were sitting on my window sill. I wasn't quite in bed yet. I looked down through my blinds at them to see if I could figure out how long they'd be there.

They were smoking cigars, so I figured they would be outside until the cigars were finished or they got too cold. No big deal. Again, it's totally reasonable for her to have guests outside on her porch on a Saturday night.

Before I moved away from the window, I noticed that body language and general stance made it appear that these were two couples. The guy who looked like he was with my neighbor was very handsome. I thought, "You go girl." Right about that time, either the other girl or the boyfriend asked my neighbor, "Which is the neighbor that you hate? The fat one?"

I was shocked. I think the formerly handsome guy standing on my neighbor's porch even said, "Hey, fat girl!" and looked over towards my house. I stepped away from the window even though I know there was no way he could have seen me.

I have been wracking my brain to figure out why my neighbor hates me. I used to have people over to my house every week. But it was never a ton of people and I know we weren't loud. We would also break up before 11:00. And I haven't done that in a year. Besides, I know for a fact that once people are inside, you can't hear anything that goes on in the other house. There's no way we disturbed her.

When my cousin lived with me I was very particular about both of us parking in the garage so that we wouldn't bother the neighbors. I got up every morning to move his car and back mine out and then put his back in the garage. It was a LOT of trouble. She can't be upset about that.

The only thing I do that is a little weird is that I get my mail when I pull in from work. Our building is right across from the mailboxes, so most people park their cars and then walk back to get their mail. But there is a parking space right in front of the mailbox. So I just pull over, jump out, get the mail and then pull in to my garage. It's a little lazy, but I don't get in anyone's way. My car is in the parking space so traffic can go by me. And I don't block people who are walking up to the mailbox.

I just don't get it. In fact, this is the neighbor that I speak to more than any other in this place. That means that I typically just say hello and wave. But just a couple of weeks ago I ran into her at the mailbox and had a short conversation about her dog. It's a little dog, the kind that I can't stand, but I was pleasant and told her it was cute anyway.

For the life of me, I can't think of why anyone would hate a "fat girl" who never makes a peep and doesn't break any community rules. Could she be annoyed that I've never invited her over? Well, sorry. She's just gonna have to deal with that. Should I ask her what I've done to offend her, explaining that since I was in my bedroom I couldn't help but overhear her and her friends?

What could have been

2007-12-11T10:10:00.001-05:00

I had two careers that stalked me through life: acting and oceanography/marine biology. I decided against pursuing both because my life of faith is more important to me and not particularly conducive to either profession. I knew that I couldn't pursue acting for many reasons: fame, general sleaziness of the business, but more specifically because most roles would call for me to behave (or endorse behavior) that is in direct opposition to my belief system, particularly the roles of any great substance/critical acclaim.

I chose not to pursue marine biology because I knew that:
1. I could easily become obsessed with my line of research, to the exclusion of all else.
2. In order to really do the kind of work I wanted to do, I probably would have spent a generous amount of time either at sea or in a remote location - away from my spiritual family.

What I didn't ever consider was the concept that simply believing in the Bible would not be acceptable within the scientific community. Whenever I allow myself to think about "what could have been" if I'd pursued marine biology, I see myself working out of The Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. I even considered dropping by there last year when I went to Boston. This is the place where Bob Ballard works. Bob Ballard is one of the giants of oceanography. He found the Titanic. I generally try to keep up with his work and discoveries. Woods Hole is kind of the gold standard for me in marine biology.

Naturally, I was really disappointed when I read this story. Woods Hole fired a man because he believes in creation. I've gotten used to filtering out all the evolution talk when I watch nature programs or when I visit museums. But there's no way I could write a professional scientific paper based on the principles of evolution. I just never imagined that believing in creation would keep me from being able to study it.

Romans 1:20.

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Upon the 35th Anniversary of My Miserable Existence

2007-12-03T16:28:00.001-05:00

I am now just about the age that my mother was when she became pregnant with me, if you count the gestational period of 40 weeks as 10 months rather than 9. At this point in her life, my mother had been married for 11 years. She had three children: a 10 year-old, a 9 year-old and the 7 year-old baby. She was living in her husband's home city, surrounded by his loving (though slightly nosy) family. She had no idea that yet another child, 4 more cities and 5 more houses were in store for her.

My life is just more of the same, day in, day out. I don't forsee any significant changes, except for mega-changes that will affect mankind as a whole.

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Timeless Beauty

2007-11-27T11:30:00.001-05:00

Timeless Beauty
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

There are no words for how beautiful this girl is, inside and out.

Technology can steer you wrong

2007-11-26T11:45:00.001-05:00

Today is Cyber Monday, the online answer to Black Friday. I had two items that I wanted to purchase during these sale days: a pocket point and shoot digital camera and a GPS navigational device for my car. I did my research online and decided on a model for each device. I found a great price on the camera and bought it online Thursday. It should get to me this week. I had a hard time finding a good price on the GPS device.

On Saturday, I drove forever and a mile to get to the place where my friend Gail was getting ready for her wedding. I had my real camera in hand to shoot the getting ready process. I met them at the salon (where another friend did the wedding party's hair) using directions I'd printed from Yahoo. Then I followed them to the hall for the wedding and reception. I realized about half-way through the reception that I had no idea where I was. I had not printed out directions from the reception back to my house. D'oh! At that point, I really wished that I'd bought a GPS device. How marvelous to just get in the car and ask the GPS how to get home.

By the time I was ready to leave, there was only one person from my side of town left at the reception. I thought about asking him if I could follow him back to the highway when he left. But before I could get around to that, the bride's parents (dear, dear friends of mine) asked if I wanted to stay at their house instead of driving all the way back home. Not knowing how long the reception would last and that people are always asking me to spend the night when I'm down there, I had brought overnight stuff with me just in case. So, I followed my friends back to their house and stayed in the bride's former bedroom while she was off on the first night of her honeymoon.

I spent the following day with my friends and whoever popped into their house, mostly family from out of town. I was treated to one of my all-time favorite experiences later in the day when the son and father played guitar together. I used to go to bookstudy at their house. Every once in a while, I would hang out afterwards and listen to them play together. It's a magical experience. Except, it's gotten better. The son is now a man with a lot more confidence. It used to be like pulling teeth to get him to play in front of people and you could hang it up if you thought he was going to sing, too. But yesterday, he sang and there was no shutting him up until he had to leave the house to give a talk. My only regret was that they played a bunch of OLD country songs which I didn't know and so couldn't sing along to. (Do you know how frustrating that was for me?!?!) I grew up listening to Motown, not Country & Western. (Isn't it weird how the people in my family can be such great dancers, but not be able to sing or play instruments at all? Surely with our rhythm, one of us could have at least played a percussion instrument? Thank goodness my immediate family inherited a tiny bit of vocal ability from my mother.)

I also got to hang out with the oldest daughter who now has three sons of her own. It's been difficult to get with her since she became a mother. So, it was really nice to watch her kids play and feel like part of her life again. Ok, this is really off the subject, but she made an awesome soup for lunch. I normally hate vegetable soup. But her soup was beet based (since she's married to a Russian) rather than tomato based. I have never eaten a bowl of vegetable soup and not left some veggies behind in the bowl until yesterday. Of course, it also helps that she didn't add any carrots. I just can't eat soggy carrots.

So, I got to thinking about what a great day it was, hanging out with their whole family. I realized that if I'd had that GPS device, I probably would have just relied on it to get me back to the highway and home. I doubt that I would have taken them up on their offer to spend the night. And even though it would have given me the correct directions, in that situation, technology would have steered me wrong.

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I've been Stumbling again

2007-11-23T08:53:00.001-05:00

Some of you may have received personalized email links from me today. Yes, I've been using Stumble Upon again. Here's a video I found that is just too strange to explain.

2007-11-21T08:09:00.001-05:00

My water has been delivered.

A really bizarre sale notification

2007-11-20T10:33:00.001-05:00

OK, this is weird, but it is a really good deal.

If you purchase 6 cases of 1/2 liter bottles of water, you can get them for 23 cents per bottle from Office Depot - delivered. I know that is a LOT of water. But you know that you all buy bottled water. Where else can you get it for 23 cents a bottle?

So here's the deal. They have 1 case of 1/2 liter bottles on sale for $7.19. That's 24 bottles at around 30 cents a bottle. If you buy 6 cases (144 bottles), you push the total over $40 to $43.14. Then there is a coupon code "77767594" that takes $10 off any purchase over $40. Now you're down to $33.14. You will have to pay taxes, which were negligible for me, but there is no delivery fee.

You'll have to find a place to store all your water, but I think it's worth it for that price. I mean, water doesn't spoil, does it?

Click here for a further explanation of this deal.

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2007-11-19T15:13:00.001-05:00

I'm not sure why, but I get the feeling this is going to be a long stinking week.

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Strange Week

2007-11-15T13:45:00.001-05:00

Does it feel like Friday to anyone else? There is a mood hanging over our office that feels distinctly like Friday. It shouldn't be that way since we've had layoffs this week. Everyone should have their nose to the grindstone. Instead, people are almost hanging out in the hallways, chatting each other up.

Oh, I know why it feels like Friday. The builders came in to do their bills today. They normally do that on Fridays. But this week our office is doing a Thanksgiving lunch on Friday, so they must have moved the weekly Builder meeting up a day. That's really evil. I was beginning to think about going to a movie tonight. But not on a Thursday...

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It's Layoff Season Again

2007-11-13T11:43:00.001-05:00

Last week I heard that my old company was going to have a big layoff. One of my friends sent me her personal email because she was fairly certain that she was going to be cut. Remembering what a bad day my old boss had had when he let me go, I called him to see how he was doing. I was nervous for him because he's got a new boss who, by all accounts, doesn't know how to manage IT. I was worried that this new boss would let my old boss go. But then a part of me kinda wished that it would happen because I would follow my old boss to a new company in a heartbeat.

Well, the person who'd first told me about the layoffs was let go. That was sad because she had been there for around 14 years. But it wasn't completely unexpected given the market conditions and the fact that she was middle management. Then there was an issue with another of my friends who may (or may not) have escaped by the skin of their teeth. I still don't know the outcome on that one.

With all this news going on at my old company, I didn't spare a thought for my current company. A coworker came into my office this morning to ask why my boss was cleaning out his desk. I had no idea since we sit on opposite sides of the building. As my coworker and I were contemplating the possibilities, my boss called and asked me to go down to his office. It's a long walk to my boss' office. I knew there were two scenarios: 1) he had been let go, but I was safe or 2) the company had decided to dump our software package and we were both being let go. I have to admit that I was selfishly rooting for the first option.

Well, that first one happened. My boss, the guy who hired me, is gone. I will now report to his boss, the CFO. Yep, that's the same CFO who has barely spoken three sentences to me in the year that I've been here. So, this should be interesting.

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Smells like roses, tastes like a$$

2007-11-07T14:38:00.001-05:00

(And surely, I mean the donkey...)

It's not quite holiday time, when our office will be overflowing with foodstuffs from vendors. Aww, memories of last year's ginormous solid chocolate bar from the Gas company come to mind. :-) But we do occasionally find random gifts of food in the kitchen. Today, I was informed that I had to come look at the food that was sitting on the kitchen table.

OK, the first clue that this wasn't going to be a pleasant experience should have been going into the auxiliary kitchen. Good food finds its way to the big kitchen, nasty food ends up in the little kitchen. Second clue, the box proclaimed that it was "middle eastern" food. Yum, eat it up. Third clue, the woman who dragged me in to look at it had already sliced one of these ... things (I don't know what else to call them) open and left both pieces sitting on the table.

So, I was greeted by a very small box of food items that I totally didn't recognize. The one my coworker had tried to eat was round. Inside, it was a lighter shade of brown than "paper bag," but not by much. There was one pistachio lodged inside. I have no idea what the rest was made of. My coworker had chosen that one because she thought it looked similar to the date balls I'd made earlier in the year. Nope, not even close. I think there were maybe some peanuts in there. But seriously, the outside should have been enough for her to not attempt to eat this thing. It had tin foil melted/embedded/decayed into one side of it. You literally could not separate the tiny flecks of silver from the ball.

Still, that wasn't the worst. In an attempt to identify the ingredients without actually tasting the thing, I smelled it. (I learned that trick from T.) I recognized the smell, but couldn't put my finger on it immediately. I kept sniffing away until it finally hit me - it smelled exactly like roses. By that time, there was an impartial bystander in the kitchen. She smelled it and agreed that it smelled like roses. I sniffed the box - the whole thing smelled like roses.

I don't know about you, but I don't eat food that smells like flowers, especially when it is apparent that the smell is actually some form of perfume. Who sprays perfume on a box of fancy food before they give it to someone? Upon further inspection, the box top had grease marks, possibly even moldy spots. Either someone was trying to poison us or we had been re-gifted this boxed of nasty food. Either way, I deemed that it was too unsafe for people to eat and threw it away.

Still, my favorite part of the whole encounter was that my coworker tried to convince me to taste it by saying, "It tastes like a$$."

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2007-11-07T07:58:00.000-05:00

Who ordered every car in the city on the road today? Traffic is crazy.

We like this spot

2007-11-05T22:01:00.001-05:00

We like this spot
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

We are the Queen Bunny. We like this spot. We decree that we will sit in this pleasant spot and generate royal turds. When we vacate this spot, you, our loyal human subject, will remove the royal turds. Make it so.

So, the until last evening, the pattern was that the rabbit would come out of her cage, run around exploring the room and then get back in her cage to sit. She seems to hit a lull around 3:00 where I guess she naps. But since she doesn't actually lay down, I'm not certain that she is asleep. She is definitely hunkered down and relaxed.

Well, last night and again tonight, she decided that she would relax in that spot under my coffee table. I realized that she was extremely comfortable. I am not too worried about rabbit turds, they are very easy to clean up. But I am worried that she will get comfy enough in this spot to relieve her bladder. THAT I'm not cleaning up. I would just throw away the rug and I like that rug.

So, yesterday I made her go back in her cage when it was clear that she was no longer going to run around. I did the same thing again tonight. On the one hand, I want her to like my place enough to run around. On the other hand, I don't want her to like it so much that she treats it like her personal toilet. It's a delicate balance.

Coindence? I think not

2007-11-05T15:10:00.001-05:00

I typically listen to podcasts on my ipod at work when I have highly repetitive data entry tasks to perform. It makes the day cruise by. I didn't charge my ipod last night, but I was fairly certain that I had charge it just a couple of days ago. My ipod battery has never given out on me while I was actively listening to it.

... until today. I was listening to a technology podcast. The experts, or Cranky Geeks as they call themselves, were complaining about Apple's policies on the iphone. Apple has a deal with AT&T, so you must use that carrier (and only that carrier) if you want to use the iphone. You are limited to only two iphones per customer. You cannot purchase an iphone with cash - Apple wants to be able to track your purchase through credit card records. Anyway, right in the middle of the all the Cranky Geeks ranting about these Big Brother-like restrictions, my ipod battery quit on me.

I believe that Apple has a filter in their ipod. When a recording playing on the device goes over a certain allowable tolerance of criticism, the device shuts down. Sneaky.

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My new lens came in!

2007-11-02T20:04:00.001-04:00

Vase in Sepia
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Fed-Up actually delivered my lens today. I was thrilled to see it waiting for me at my door. I started shooting junk in my house. I wanted to get some good shots of the rabbit, but none happened today. That can wait for tomorrow.

But out of all the ones I shot today, I like this one the best. It is a sepia toned shot of a vase sitting on my hearth.

Not taking the bait

2007-11-01T22:11:00.001-04:00

Not taking the bait
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

As you can see in this photo, I attempted to lure the bunny out of her cage with a delicious treat. Number 11 mislead me on the power of the graham cracker. The rabbit totally ignored my bait.

She did hop out of her cage again today when I got home to feed her. She was just so excited when I opened her cage to give her her afternoon snack, that she leapt out. But again, she freaked out on the shiny floor and hopped back in immediately. As you can see in the photo, I laid down a bath towel for her to jump on to. I figured that she wouldn't slide as much on the towel as on the bare floor. She still didn't leave her cage.

I sat in the room, staring and poking at her for a while. I finally gave up and went to watch TV in the other room. After about 30 minutes, I heard a significant noise. I get up to check on her each time I hear a noise that I don't recognize. Welp, this time, she had hopped out of her cage and onto the towel. She sniffed around and examined the extents of the towel, but wouldn't leave its safety.

At that point, I wasn't sure if she was freaked out by the touch of the floor or the reflection of herself in the floor. Not that her reflection is perfect as it would be in a lake, but there is definitely a white spot staring back up at her from the floor. I remember that there was a huge dog on "The Dog Whisperer" who refused to go onto any shiny floor or surface because he'd slid and slammed into a wall (knocking himself unconcious) as a puppy. Maybe something similar was going on here.

I spread the towel out so that it covered more area. She hopped back out onto the bigger towel and checked out her expanded territory. At that point, the towel connected with the rug that is under my coffee table. I had to call her attention to the rug by patting on it. She got the hint and headed over for it.

She eventually became comfortable enough to venture out onto the wood floor, but you can clearly see that it is difficult for her to get around on it. She has to crawl using all four appendages individually. Have you ever seen a rabbit do that? It looks really odd. They usually work their front feet together and then hop with their hind legs together. When they crawl, they look like tiny soldiers trying to shimmy under a barbed wire fence.

I have some electrical wires/cables that run along the baseboard of one wall. I don't want her to chew on them, so I'm not going to leave her alone in the room now that she will get out of her cage (unless I close her cage door). And if you think it's silly for me to worry about her chewing on wires, I've already seen her attempt to chew on my brick hearth. Silly rabbit.

OK. It looks like I have officially achieve "Cool Human" status. I just gotta get her to hop around on the floor during the day when the room is flooded with good light. Bunnies move too fast for low light.

Fed-UP!

2007-11-01T12:07:00.001-04:00

I know this sounds petty, but I'm going to shout it from the rooftops anyway.

DON'T EVER USE FED-EX HOME DELIVERY!

My new fancy lens from Kalamazoo was sent to me through this company. Evidently, Fed-Ex Home Delivery is a completely different company than Fed-Ex Express. Fed-Ex is requiring a signature on this package - makes sense, it is expensive. But every other time I've used Fed-Ex and not been home to sign for a package, I've been sent to retrieve it from the One World center that is literally three blocks from my house. This time, because they're technically a "different company," they are telling me that I have to drive over to their "Ground Center" which is, like, 25 miles away. I don't think so.

I called to ask them to drop it off at the One World center. I spoke with three different people (2 levels of supervisors). None of them would work with me. I asked, point-blank, "So, you would rather lose a customer who receives packages literally every week than work out a solution?" No dice. I then threatened, "I guarantee you that I will tell every company I do business with, every week, to never, under any circumstances, use Fed-Ex to ship to me." Again, no dice. I hung up on the third guy while he was repeating that he didn't want to lose me, but that there was nothing he could do.

I had to call the camera store in Kalamazoo to get him to remove the signature requirement so that Fed-Ex would leave it at my door. He's trying, but it will only work if the Fed-Ex employees are not completely inept. Who wants to place odds on that?

You see, this probably wouldn't tick me off as badly (yeah it would), if my uncle hadn't told me stories of how his company (UPS) handles these kinds of things. He told me about a delivery guy who missed someone during the day, returned his truck and packages, took the one package that he'd missed and delivered it on his way home because he knew the person would be home by then. THAT! is customer service, my friends.

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Bunny Play by Play

2007-11-01T08:09:00.001-04:00

I doubt you really want an update on the bunny situation every 12 hours, but you're gonna get one.

This morning, I went down to feed the rabbit before I left. Instead of running to the back of the cage as she did yesterday, the bunny ran to the door of the cage. She stuck her head out and acted like she was going to jump out at me when I opened the door. She knew that I was there to give her food and kept getting her head in the way of the bowl waiting for the food to appear inside it.

I have been promoted from "Not My Human" to "New Human Who Brings the Food." I'm hoping that my next promotion brings me up to the status of "New Human Who is Pretty Cool."

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My house guest

2007-10-31T20:21:00.001-04:00

Whachu lookin' at?
Originally uploaded by horsenbuggy

Ain't she the cutest? She left her cage tonight, but not for long. She slipped when she hit my shiny wooden floor and I think it freaked her out a little bit. As soon as she regained her footing, she turned around and hopped back in her cage. She seems to be used to me, though. Perhaps she's just not a morning bunny and was grumpy when I saw her this morning.

Be vewwy vewwy quiet...

2007-10-31T09:13:00.001-04:00

We're hunting wabbits.

Well, not so much "hunting" as feeding, housing, looking at and poking. Frau Adorable and Number 11 are in Germany for two weeks. In their absence, I am taking care of her rabbit. They brought her over to my house last night. She was slightly traumatized by the trip to my house. I left the doors to her cage open and left her alone in her cage in the front room. I sat in my TV room and watched TV until it was time to go to bed. By the time I went in to close up her cage for the evening, she was comfortable enough with me to check out what I was doing (and let me poke her).

This morning, I appeared in her room on my way out of the house. She seemed to have forgotten all about me and ran to the back of her cage like a ... scared rabbit. She didn't even poke her head out at me when I opened her cage to give her food. I assume that she's found the food and has eaten it by now. I was hoping that I could use one of her special treats to lure her out of her cage tonight. But I may have to start all over reacclimatizing her to me tonight.

Hopefully she will be used to me enough by the weekend for us to shoot some photos.

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Home But Hiding

2007-10-31T08:40:00.001-04:00

It is the one day of the year when people come to our homes while we hide inside and pretend not to be home. I haven't had any Halloween visitors since moving into my new place. Since the neighborhood is over 70% sold out now, I'm curious if this year will be any different. There still are not any children in my building, but I think there are a couple of kids somewhere in the neighborhood. Well, they won't be getting any candy from me.

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I got a lens in Kalamazoo

2007-10-29T10:45:00.001-04:00

So, my NY Jews lost some business today. You know the ones, the Jews who were closed 40 out of the last 45 days. I finally remembered to call them today to check on the status of my lens order. I was treated to some trademark yankee customer service:

Me: Hi, I'm calling to check on the status of an order.
Yankee: Do you know the order number?
Me: Yes, it's blahde-blahde-blah.
Yankee: (pause) Oh, that order's ancient history.
Me: Uh, what does that mean?
Yankee: That means we don't have any of those lens. I've got 105 on order with Pentax, but I don't have any in stock.
Me: So, Pentax isn't making these lenses?
Yankee: Well, I can't imagine that they would ship them if they had them. So, I'm guessing that they don't have any.
Me: (pause) Huh.
Yankee: There's no charge for canceling your order so if you find another shop that has one in stock, you're welcome to get it from them. (said with that special Yankee attitude that indicates this isn't very likely and you're an idiot for thinking it could happen)
Me: OK, thanks. I'll look around.

So, I looked around. The first store I found was also out of stock but admitted that they didn't have a waiting list. The guy said that he had gotten his hands on a few of these lenses over the last few months and sold them all really quickly. He told me that I could send him an email and he would contact me as soon as he got one of these lenses. His thinking was that I was probably one of many waiting on the lens from the other store, but at his store I would be the only one. That seemed like a better arrangement, so I sent him an email.

But I forged on. I found another store that claimed to have the lens in stock. I called them to confirm and after a little digging around, the lady said, "Yep, I've got it right here in my hand." Wow. On my second attempt, I found a store with my "good luck finding that somewhere else" lens in stock. Out of curiosity, I looked to see where the store was located - Kalamazoo, Michigan. Even better, I talked the lady down $100 because she was that much higher than the last store I'd found. That price was $50 higher than my original store in NYC. But I figure $50 is a small price to pay to have the lens in my grubby little hands by the end of the week instead.

My final act was to cancel my order with my NY Jews. OK, actually that was my next to final act. My true final act was to tell you good people about it.

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Helen Continued

2007-10-23T16:52:00.001-04:00

So, where was I? Oh yes, I was exploring my whiteness.

Welp, we closed down the Fest Halle (not difficult to do since it closed at 11:00). Jules and her party showed up at the "cabin" not long after we got home. A few of us stayed up talking until 3:00 in the morning. I am blown away that I lasted that long. I was only working on 4 hours sleep from the night before. What on earth did we do until that hour? We talked about deep and meaningful things.

One of the brothers who was visiting from New York is quite the thinker. He kept asking these complex questions which lead us into really deep conversations. I should have been too tired for that kind of thing, but it was all personal opinion type stuff...and y'all know I got no problem sharing my opinions, right?

The next day brought nothing but laziness. I was amongst the first to get up - around 9:30. I grabbed a quick bagel and hung out chatting with my friends. Then the breakfast crew got up and began to cook breakfast ... at 11:00. Jules and her party went to a restaurant famous for its Southern cooking. I stayed and had a second helping of breakfast - pancakes and bacon - yum. Then I proceeded to do absolutely nothing all day. OK, I played some pool, worked on a puzzle and read a little bit. But I never left the "cabin."

Around 5:00 some of my friends got antsy and decided to leave the "cabin." They headed down to Ana Ruby Falls only to be turned away because it closes at 6:00. Everyone was back around 5:30. One couple had brought dinner fixins for Russian shish-kebabs (shash-leek). They fired up the grill (the wood-burning grill, not the inferior gas grill) and cooked a delicious meal.

Four of us played Scrabble while dinner was being cooked. I was up against one really good Scrabble player, one lucky player and one guy I just felt sorry for. As I often do for the really clueless, I cheated by helping the player who was clearly in over his head. I typically do this for Super Mom because she has dyslexic tendencies (if not down right dyslexia). It's just not fair for her to play against me and The Doctor. But even without my help, she still does fairly well. The lucky player won. I call him lucky because he got all the valuable letters. It was nearly impossible for me and my vowels to keep up with him when he got the x, q, z, and the j. Come on!

After dinner, we failed at making smores. Does anyone know how to make the chocolate melt? A few of us sat by the outside fire while the Russian brother skooled us on how to make shash-leek. According to him, we failed at that, too. I fell asleep in the den around pumpkin-time with a Morrissey CD turned up to 11. I crept to bed figuring that if I could fall asleep in the den under those conditions, I wouldn't notice the sounds of the rest of the group staying up 'til whenever. I was correct.

My English Cousin was the first one up and out of the house on Sunday morning. She had an appointment with the Dalai Lama, yo. Go check out her Flickr stream if you don't believe me. In fact, check out my Flickr stream for photos of all the places I've been recently.

We had to be out of the "cabin" by 11:00 on Sunday. That meant showering, packing, cooking, eating and cleaning up by that time. I can't believe that we made it. The weird thing is that after getting out of the "cabin," we continued to stand around in the driveway for another 45 minutes trying to figure out what to do with our day.

Jules and her party took off to take the kid back to the airport. The kid's friends clearly didn't want to hang out with the rest of us because they gave the lamest excuse possible for getting back on the road to Nashville. "Uh, we need to get going. There are a lot of curvy roads that I don't want to drive on after dark." Dude. You're 20-something AND you're a fireman. Isn't danger your middle name? I guess firemen can be afraid of the dark, too.

So the rest of us went to Ana Ruby Falls. The trail is not long, but dang! I am way out of shape. I can't walk up any kind of slope without almost dying. I made it, but only because I started 20 minutes ahead of most of the group. I stopped plenty of times along the way to "take photos." No really, you should check them out.

Then we went back in to Helen to eat (again). One sister and I just couldn't face the idea of eating more food, so we sat on the outside deck of the restaurant and listened to the two-man oompa band. They were pleasant enough. I even thought the band leader (he didn't actually sing) was a nice looking older man until he came over to hit on my companion in between sets. That was a tad creepy seeing as how he was at least 15 - 20 years older than her. Dude. You're not a real musician. You play German music on a 20 x 40 foot deck in front of a tiny restaurant. We're not your groupies. Go back to your accordion and let her eat her schnitzel in peace.

When the rest of the group was finished with their "inside" food, we forged into the bustling city block of Helen to take a gander at the shops. Yeah, that didn't take long. I was finally about to see a band play in the square that would play music I recognized when I was informed that the group was "over Helen" and was leaving. Oh well.

To sum up, Helen was relaxing and strange all at the same time - a great get away.

I knew I didn't like Chinese food for a reason...

2007-10-23T12:51:00.001-04:00

Oh, the things you find when browsing Flickr. (T, be forewarned that you are not going to like this photo.)

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I am Oktoberfest

2007-10-21T23:36:00.001-04:00

Forty-seven of my closest friends who I'd never before met went up to Helen for Oktoberfest. Which of course means that there were only 13 people and I knew roughly half of them. The others were a combination of friends of friends and friends of some guy my friends met a couple of months ago. Many of the people are some how connected to a Russian congregation in some city or other.

The weekend began with a surprisingly short drive to Helen. A friend had rented a cabin and we were all converging on the city for nasty warm beer and whatever other festivities accompany Oktoberfest. I met my friends at the cabin just before we all went to the Fest Halle.

Did you notice the airquotes around the word cabin? Yeah, I hadn't noticed them either. I got a quick email message from Jules inviting me to join the group at this cabin (with my share of the rental fee) and didn't spare another thought for the kind of accommodations we would have. We had a gorgeous 4 bedroom house with an outdoor jacuzzi, sauna and fireplace. Inside, we had a game room with an air hockey table that flipped over to become a badly warped pool table. That sat next to a fuse ball table. (I just realized that I've never before had occasion to write the phrase "fuse ball table" - I hope I spelled it correctly.)

Well, on to the main event at the Fest Halle. I literally had no expectations. I was simply there with my friends and was going to go with the flow. We entered a giant hall with tables, a dance floor and a German band. There were a ton of people inside. It was difficult to find a table with enough empty seats for our party. We finally plopped down at a table that was evidently "too far" from the action. I didn't know that we were there for any action.

Eight of us had come from the "cabin" (you see the quotes this time, don't you?). We met up with three others at the Fest Halle. However, until those other three showed up, we were just hanging out, eating schnitzels and drinking warm beer. (Y'all know me well enough to realize that when I say "we" were eating and drinking that nasty stuff, I mean "they" were.) I was too busy soaking up the atmosphere.

I was amazed by how genuinely white some people can be. I don't think there was a single black person in the whole place. Lots of people were wearing liederhosen and funny green felt hats. One man was wearing all that and a pair of Spock ears. All this was going on while the band played German music. A couple of tables near us were full of people in their late 20's/early 30's. They seemed to at least really enjoy the drinking aspect of Oktoberfest. In fact, they enjoyed it so much that one of them stood up, threw his arms into the air and screamed, "I AM OKTOBERFEST!" Nice to meet you, I'm Horse N. Buggy.

But that wasn't weird. It didn't get weird until the other three people showed up and my friends joined in on the "fun." The other three were a married couple and his friend. They literally got to the table and grabbed a couple of people and went to the dance floor to join in a polka. I was left thinking to myself, "What just happened? Are we really here to polka? No, surely we're here to make fun of the people doing the polka."

Eventually, the polka ended and my friends came back to the table to drink another pitcher of dark warm beer. Just when I thought normalcy had returned, the band launched into a song and my friends all stood up, raised there glasses and started singing at the top of their lungs...in German. The only words I could make out were, "Oy! Oy! Oy!"

I felt like an alien in a foreign land who sees the secret rituals of the natives for the first time. I was lost and confused trying to figure it all out. While I was still in a state of trance-like confusion, the husband from the "other group of three" asked me to do the chicken dance with him. I didn't have the strength to resist the invitation while in that mystical Fest Halle. My only consolation is that they began with Pink Floyd's "Another Brick in the Wall" before transitioning into the proper chicken dance song.

Well, after I participated in one chicken dance, I could no longer pretend to be cool - all my street cred dissipated along with my self-respect. I gave myself up to the joy of dancing like a goofy white person. I even sunk low enough to do the Electric Slide. I have NEVER felt so...white. (Not even while country line dancing.)

Well, it looks like I am Oktoberfest.

We have so much to catch up on...

2007-10-21T23:30:00.000-04:00

Hi folks. I've been traveling for the past two weeks. I would like to catch you up on events. My logical nature demands that I tell my stories in chronological order. But my artistic side (or maybe just my lazy side) wants to begin with the freshest news. I'm going to throw caution to the wind and tell you my stories in whatever order they come to me (but with a quick run down first).

Two weeks ago: I was at our office in Dallas to begin our software conversion.
Two weekends ago: I was at the Grand Canyon.
Last week: I spent the first two days in Vegas and flew home on hump day. I worked in my office for two days.
This past weekend: I drove to Helen after work for Oktoberfest. I came home today (Sunday, at least for a few more minutes it is still Sunday).

Stories to follow...

2007-10-19T22:04:00.001-04:00

I am Oktoberfest. I hate to admit that I just did the chicken dance 4 the 1st time in my life.

2007-10-17T10:24:00.001-04:00

Dudes shouldnt carry purple luggage. Am I right?

2007-10-17T10:21:00.001-04:00

I dont know how, but i am in 1st class.

2007-10-17T10:19:00.001-04:00

How does the sound of slot machines not drive casino employees mad? I cant take it anymore!

2007-10-11T20:35:00.001-04:00

I am at a real live soccer game. Its being broadcast on ESPN. FC Dallas.

2007-10-11T08:36:00.001-04:00

Dont be the guy who talks too loudly on your cell in a hotel breakfast room.

Mo' Money

2007-10-08T15:40:00.000-04:00

While I am officially a published photographer now, I have not yet received any compensation for that service. I simply haven't had time to follow up with the newspaper, not that I expect a significant amount of money. You know that I have been paid for my work in the past. I've sold a modest number of prints and greeting cards, mostly through the Savannah Art Association. But that's been a while.

Well, today I got an email from a woman who works at a "boutique brand strategy & creative communications firm." Her company is designing a branding solution for an investment company. She would like to use one of my photos of Hong Kong in that branding campaign. She's offered a decent price for my photo. I mean, a really nice price. Like, I have never even put this price on a piece of framed art. But it's not going to pay for a new lens (well, not the kinds of lenses that I buy, anyway).

I replied asking for more details on what kind of rights she wants to purchase. I won't sign away all rights to this photo. It's fairly common for a photographer to sell an image for a fair price thinking that it is going in one or two print ads and then see it splashed across billboards. Once the company "owns" the rights to the image, there is nothing you can do to get it back. The photographer has to be very careful how they word the licensing contract. As I said, she's offering a pretty decent price. So I'm guessing she wants to be able to use this image pretty heavily. All I can do is wait and see.

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2007-10-03T10:14:00.001-04:00

I would love to take advantage of this deal. I just hate that I only get 1 week of vacation at this new job. What is that about?

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If a picture is worth 1,000 words...

2007-10-02T10:44:00.001-04:00

Then I had 5,000 words published in the local paper last week.

I checked the website for the paper but didn't see any of my photos. So I thought that they didn't like my photos. I even forgot to check the paper when it showed up at my house. But when I got to work yesterday, a coworker informed me that my photos had been published. YAY! The coworker brought his copy of the paper in to the office today and he hung it in my office. On my office walls, I now have my full page of published photos and a big chart outlining how the database tables for a program relate to each other. Totally chic.

So, I'm now a published photographer. I haven't been paid for the photos yet, but I was published.

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