Self-portrait - 10-31-08
Oct. 31, 20:42 p.m., In Food City Parking lot,
19th Avenue and Indian School Road
My iTunes Podcast List
I’ve need to declutter my iTunes podcast and vidcast listings for awhile. Some are no longer updated, some had stopped when I found them.
Some were attempted listening that didn’t even rise to the level of feigned interest.
Here they are on the flipside :::
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Falling Behind, Photos
No, there’s no pictures of behinds falling or low-rise jeans falling below cracks.
Just that I have about 9GB of photos I took in just the past two weeks - translation, um, I lost count of how many that might transalate to. I’ve got the new camera some dimensions” standard cameras just can’t take straight through the lens. That doesn’t mean getting too fancy. It does mean toning the photos so they look at their optimum.
And, of course, winnowing down the repetitive, the bad, and the blurry.
I’d like to try a few quality prints. Then I want to transfer some to Facebook and MySpace as well and well, whoosh.
9MB and growing like a jungle full of exotic weeds.
Men Of Honor - Serendipity
I’ve been waiting for a long time to watch Men Of Honor because its pre-concept sounded lame - or at least lame in the hands of a movie director.
However, quite good. Not overdone - and - the serendipity part - it features a New Year’s Eve scene where Robert De Niro gets a little sweet revenge while losing control for a great reason. I could live with that.
Peace To the World …
UPDATE ::: OK, the loss of leg part was too much for the story balance. It was solid up until that overkill.
Dad Buried In San Diego … Somewhere
Hell, knowing him, I’m not even sure he’s buried. He may have had his burned ashes scattered somewhere.
But i have a strong feeling that he’s buried somewhere, that he has a gravestone with his name on it. My last name on it, of course. He went with a woman called Patty. I visited his and Patty’s dwelling exactly once. for a child it was a nightmare, but clearly I am here today.
Call county courthouse blah blah blah. Got that. But it’s kind of out of the spirit of the man, you know? Difference? No. Blah blah blah. The person who marries me and has my children (as I have hers) will understand. Otherwise …
By the way? That little casual phrase I threw out there, “knowing him”? No, I didn’t know him. I’ve written about some of the history I know elsewhere, in previous posts as well. He died and I guess estranged is the world as my, my mom’s, my brother’s communication with him was pretty much ZERO. Blah blah blah.
But in a colleague’s recently vacated cubicle - she moved to a different area of the floor - I found a Thomas San Diego Street Guide. The back index lists schools, golf courses, beaches, casinos, wineries - and cemeteries. It’s reason for being there is for no reason I can ascertain but blah blah blah.
The San Diego cemeteries:
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PHOTO: Mikayla Rose, 9
This is my youngest niece, Mikayla, who was at the Living Desert Zoo in Palm Springs. There were wide ranging areas for animals as well as active 9-year-olds. I had not seen her in a few years, but she remembered me wholeheartedly and unabashedly, which felt good. The second photo here - unposed - may be the best one of her I took during the entire week.
Enjoying the new camera. There are so many more photos of Christmas vacation. These were on Day 2.
PHOTO: Laid Over In L.A.
I was laid over for two hours in L.A. at an opportune morning time.
There are so many more photos to come about my Christmas vacation - but this was the beginning.
Worldview - No Beauty, No Reason
I’m not sure I’ve ever quite thought about it concretely but I now know why I don’t wear sunglasses, why I have resisted owning an iPod or any equivalent and perhaps, too, tried to avoid a cellphone for a long time. It changes what you observe, how you observe and how much you observe.
That’s a word I have long used to describe myself - an observer. Long before i worked at my college newspaper, The Observer. I like to walk and observe everything around me. Observe through vision, smells and sounds. It’s living, it’s being a part of life rather than being apart from life.
I actually cried near the end of this April 2007 article, “Pearls Before Breakfast” - in the paragraph (fifth before end) that starts with a quote from subway pedestrian Stacy Furukawa: “It was the most astonishing thing I’ve ever seen in Washington.
I am aware that many people can sound snobbish, and silly when they discuss their passions. For me I believe I can almost always tell when people are not sincere in what they are saying but say it because they are supposed to like fine wine or certain types of music (depending on their social circles) or whatever trend or anti-trend is popular.
But the article discusses beauty and philosophy, in both roundabout and direct ways.
I observe life, I struggle to transfer that observation to prolonged and coherent narratives in fiction. I can write down my simple observations, but that does seem, to me, to be achievement of any great stature. There’s no discipline, there’s just raw mental ablution. You have wiped the slate clean in writing it down; you no longer need to remember.
I think most often, this observation comes across and comes alive as empathy. I know a situation, I can frequently feel what all parties are feeling and I can try and placate and calm.
But none of that does much for me, where writing does. But I worry about others being able to understand my beauty, my observations, while simultaneously realizing that saying so can sound elitist, even snobbish.
As a reporter I am trained and understand the need to write for your audience; if you aren’t making yourself understood then you need to try harder. Except I was also told I needed to write to a fifth grade level, and well, clearly, I don’t want to write children’s books though I do want to stir the innocent child-like awe from adults.
Warm And Warmer
Yesterday was the first day I turned on the heat in the house. It was 66 degrees inside, which, of course may not seem like cold to a lot of you. And normally I would’ve thrown on a sweater or extra layer but I was a little chilled. And, I hadn’t turned on the heater in the house since I’d been there, over a year ago.
Whether it worked was what I wanted to test. It did, all the way to 69.
So, too, did the “homebrew” hot-buttered rum I put together. Just a small batch, a little warmth for cold hands. And I cleaned up the place, played Doom, wrote some and crashed with chocolate chips in my hand. Which didn’t turn out as messily as it could have. Woke up a few ??? later, licked off the melted choc. , brushed my teeth and went to bed.
Now I’m at work. It’s still raining. I drove, through drizzle, pour, none, drizzle, none, pour and when I stopped it was not raining for the brief time it took me to get from car to building. And its drizzling again.
Canon Rebel XSi: First Day Shooting, 83 Down To 38
At 12:10 today, having decided against riding my bike for two reasons I walked out the door for a photo session. At 16:08 I walked back in, limping but happy and eager to see the results.
The bike was an option until I realised I didn’t have my bicycle clips and my pants would get snagged on the chain. And the camera case wasn’t fitting comfortably. So I walked.
For about 20 minutes, I felt no urge to take my camera out. I looked around. As I walked east along 19th Avenue, I just waited until something caught my attention as worthy of a photo. I almost took a photo of a sign that said Rude Family, Morticians. They also had a very large Season’s Greetings at the top of their two-storey building. I talked myself into agreeing to take it on the way back home, knowing I’d more than likely wind my way back along a different street.
I think I walked about five miles, with photo stops. As well, when I passed the Arizona State Fairgrounds, I saw there was an antique show going on. Importantly, free admission. I walked in, having never been inside the grounds, either, and spent some time somewhat entranced. There were, strikingly, a lot of Shirley Temple items. With my name, let’s say I have an affiliation, not too mention similar dimples.
I had a blast. I’m so still learning my camera and my 300mm lens. I will need a good flash. i will have to use my tripod more. I tried a couple of filter shots but decided to save the juggling of lens and filters for another day.
Something that continues to plague me is getting dust on the lens / filter surface and finding a good way to get it off. Auto rotate when moving from camera to laptop - WIN!
I took 83 photos. Once uploaded to my laptop, I deleted that down to 38. Big files here, so I have to have the discipline to delete the flawed, the less good, the repetitive. Survival of the fittest.
These three here have only been cropped, and sharpened (with the exception of the tattoo guy, shadows removed. Those photos on Flickr are the untouched images. I can play with the images best for print, but I’m weaker on how they might look on different monitors. What do they look like on your monitor? Please tell me and let me know, so I can adjust accordingly.
Oh SNAP! - Temple Has A New Camera
I am pumped full of energy, I gave a big - ok medium - woohoo as the cash register dinged my purchase and after thinking about it for far too long I am the very stoked and excited owner of a brand new DSLR camera.
With amazing restraint - ok, and because it’s dark outside - I haven’t yet taken a picture.
But I do have it in its new camera bag; I do have the UV skylight filter in place to keep nasty nasty dust and fingerprints off the lens; I do have the strap attached and everything is now ready.
What? Oh, it’s a Canon Rebel XSi (aka by nobody as an EOS 450)
Camera $649
18-55 mm Image Stabilizer Lens - $49.99
75-300mm EF f4.5 Lens - $49.99
(Lens cost when buying camera)
UV Skylight ($18.99), Diffusion ($15.99) and Spot Focus ($15.99) filters, by 2 get one free.
Rounding it out with a camera bag, 2GB Sandisk extreme memory card, and 1 year full coverage insurance - Total $1,062 (By not-quite-accident it’s just about the same price as Digicombos’ package deal on the same camera, with bonus of having it in my hands seconds after money is drained from my account)
(Plus, I already have a tripod, courtesy of a Twitter friend, C.A. Sizemore)
I bought it all from Ritz Camera (They have a good reputation - from people I know in Seattle and here - and they just happen to be down the road from where I work). I’ll have to try their online photo processing too, to see if the colors are how I like them.
And the battery charger + battery came with. Charging the battery was my 1st step. Now I have everything set up for a little walk around later today (Saturday). And, as I understate it, it just feels really good to, after using newspaper-owned quality cameras for some many years, to have a real camera in my home again.
A quality SRL camera is a natural extension and I hope its growth, and my ability to use it, is strong.
Meme: 6-6 Photograph
Dani Cutler, on a different blog I didn’t know she had, tagged me up for this one. I know her from Twitter and her comforting voice as she heaped scormn on both Democrats and Republicans in the later part of this election season.
Her meme is to pick the sixth photograph on the six page of your flickr photos and write about what the hell’s going on there.
I have a couple of private-only photos, but took most of those out so they wouldn’t mess with the count. Then I realized that later today I’m adding about 50 more photos so the actual count is useless. It’s late and the photo happens to coincide with a long blog post I wanted to write anyway. So here’s the photo and a shorter - IE, well edited - post on the context will follow tomorrow.
Meme: 5 Addictions
I kinda lost the plot about how listing your 5 addictions makes one’s blog “Fucking Fabulous” or whether one was just a happy adjunct to the other. Nevertheless, DaGoddess, tagged me for the fulfillment and I’m happy to oblige. I’ll send to others later (part of the “rules”) but ….
Addictions (the keep-it-light version, though the less-light version involves nothing illegal):
1. Ice cream. I’m pretty sure this addiction coincided with moving down to Phoenix, along with a much increased appetite for big iced coke-and-alcohol-based drinks. But ice cream just doesn’t last once bought.
2. Not going to bed. I hate going to bed, I feel I’m wasting time sleeping. However this year my body has taken control more and shuts me down at usually somewhat decent hours, even if I’m sitting in chair. This year I’ve also been sleeping on a couch instead of my bed upstairs. (long story).
3. Writing down my thoughts. Great ideas I come up with, I need to record for later use. Need to pull later into now and write around many of them.
4. Photography. I enjoy grabbing and sticking moments in time that won’t ever be repeated. I find it hard to delete pictures that may have some use and application. I lose myself with camera in hand, and have tireless energy to clamber over anything; to walk run and jog ahead of what’s happening in front of me; to walk close enough to fire to feel and receive 1st degree burns; to ruin shoes and go up to my waist in water for a shot. Through holding a camera for 10 years I’ve found I deliberately but often unconsciously look for different angles to look at the world.
5. Highway driving and listening to music. Together it’s a beautiful combination. My car speakers at this very time are shot. I speed because of it often. I can lose myself from what came before; not that it was necessarily bad, just that it was routine. And pulling out of the parking lot with your own instant bubble is nascent nirvana.
Yeah, this was the keep-it-light version) :-)
Blog Memes - Whatever It Takes
So the only things I’ve been doing on this barren wasteland known as VeryTas is adding friends’ links to the blogroll.
It’s a little worrying that at the moment I’m having the most trouble writing, which, when it comes together, even partly, even half way is what I love the most.
But, whatever. Meme’s suck. But from true friends or growing friends - or potentially more than friends - they mean something because you know they are genuinely curious.
First one, via here from here.
What Do You Like About Christmas?
It should be noted that most of these questions don’t really approach what is liked about Christmas, but through all the answers it would seem a humbug or 4-year-old relationship to the holiday would come out. Or as came across in mine, I just got tired of answering questions and deleted the last two for the sake of a nice round number. That and I honestly find it quite hard to be ungrateful. I’m happy to be lucky, though I can’t always say the reverse is true. I wish some of our family talked more but we’re close.
1. Wrapping paper or gift bags? —- Wrapping paper when I have time. When I don’t I tend to just not give the gift. Gift bags are OK - for secondary or tertiary gifts.
2. Real tree or artificial? —- Real and there are tree farms so it’s no longer a “killing tree celebration.” But currently I have an artificial. It’s Arizona, the trees are !@#$5 expensive.
3. When do you put up the tree? —- Sometime after Dec. 1 and before Christmas Eve.
4. When do you take the tree down? —- Ideally first couple of weeks in January. Valentine’s Day was the latest. Put up heart ornaments then ;-)
5. Do you like eggnog? —- Hell, yeah. Too much. With or without alcohol. Actually got super phlegmy one year, drank so much.
6. Favorite gift received as a child? —- As a child was definitely the best time. As adult, you start measuring “mine cost this and the one I gave to her cost this” etc. etc. you don’t always but yo start to. Can’t really think of a favorite. First Christmas in England with new stepdad was a lot of fun. I’d say the “gift” was spending time with my mother’s side of the family in Tennessee. First and last time - so far.
7. Hardest person to buy for? —- Stepdad and sister-in-law. First because he has so much. He comes across as not really caring too much what hew receives but you know if you come up with something good he’s very happy.
8. Easiest person to buy for? — Myself. Playing cards and I’m happy. Play with me and I’m ecstatic.
9. Do you have a nativity scene? — Nope. Family has / had three wise men sculptures from Peru, various incarnations of angels. Not a religious holiday for us, more a bonding / family holiday. Doesn’t get very commercial for us, though definitely does for the youngestamongus who get the cheesiest commercial pap a lot of times. It makes them happy is the idea, though so much more would as well, I believe, if the environment around them is cool, is thoughtful from the start.
10. Mail or email Christmas cards? —- When I do it, always mail. An e-mail Christmas card is only good for those you only know on line and even then, only those whose addresses you don’t know. An e-mail card means nothing - although if you create it yourself, from own photos / graphics, photoshop and layout programs than it can surpass mailed. One day I DO need to make my own Christmas cards.
11. Worst Christmas gift you ever received? —- Hard to say, don’t usually consider any gift bad. But the one that comes to mind is the year my brother decided he was poor for only certain members of his family while in-laws were well-gifted. (Squeaky wheel and all that is a BIG factor). … He gave me some kind of homemade copy of Metallica’s “One” video - which I’d already had for at least 4 or five years. You just can’t say thanks to that, it’s lame. There’s no thought, there’s barely any expense and really, there’s nothing there worthy of thanks.
12. Favorite Christmas Movie? —- Don’t have one. Never to my recollection ever saw the classics. Christmas doesn’t come to me in movies. It’s emotion wasted on non-entities, when your own family is all that’s worthy. Saying that - :-) - i could be forgetting something.
13. When do you start shopping for Christmas? —- All year, when I see something interesting, and it coincides with having money I buy. The trouble is remembering where I put the damn thing later. They often don’t turn up so Christmas lasts all year as I send on. .. i’ve found that I think i should buy for everyone but the family and extended family has grown larger and larger and my pay has not expanded at the same rate. So, Christmas is always tinged with a little sadness of “I should be doing more.”
14. Have you ever recycled a Christmas present? —- I’ve thought about it a couple of times but I usually get things I want or didn’t know I wanted but think are cool once received. A little pat-rackitis applies here, too! I never have.
15. Favorite thing to eat at Christmas? —- Flaming Christmas pudding, with sixpence inside.
16. Lights on the tree? —- What? The concept of a non-light tree seems useless. I’m staring at them now having just put them up today (Dec. 7)
17. Favorite Christmas song? —- Right now? First Noel / Mary Mary by Sarah McClachlan (YouTube link) Actually been a favorite for about the last 18 months. Waitresses’ “Christmas Wrapping” was at the top for a while. Still like its complete real life, tangental (wow I actually typed that correctly the first time, I usually have problems; oops tangent) approach. A lot of the A Very special Christmas Volume 3, with Natalie Merchant and Chris cornell, smashing Pumpkins, Ole Dirty Bastard (part of a guest stars collective) and others breaking out of the box to deliver beautiful tunes. I can’t seem to find the track listing I have. Having just spent a few too many moments searching, unsuccessfully, the blurb here comes close to listing what I have but the track listing accompanying is like a parallel universe version of what I have. … Also “Do They Know Its Christmas” grounds a person and also happens to be the best sounding charity record ever.
18. Travel at Christmas or stay home? —- Love to travel at Christmas. journeying is at it’s root and at many levels, what Christmas is all about. Christmas in different locations is a blast. This does seem at odds with my family-centric answers above, but I am multitudes.
19. Can you name all of Santa’s reindeer? —- Donner. Blitzen. Cupid. Vixen. Dasher, Thrasher. Gate-crasher. Erm, Rudolph. There’s nine right? Nope.
20. Angel on the tree top or star? —- Always been traditional here. It’s a lot of work to put the tree up, it’s full of memories, seems unseemly to put something frivolous atop all of that. Angel for the most part. Star too.
21. Open presents on Christmas Eve or morning? —- so what’s the point of opening presents on Christmas Eve? Understand if you’re going to be someplace else, and the one gift for kids, I guess to lessen their excitement so they can get to bed. But Christmas Eve is the day before the day for opening presents
22. Most annoying thing about this time of the year? —- Christmas music in public places is generally Muzak for a wider non-elevator public. The realization that so many kids are disgustingly spoiled and what it will mean years from now and subsequent Christmas with their kids etc etc. Hey, I think about this, you asked. ;-)
23. Favorite ornament theme or color? —- Dice, playing card ornaments. Ornaments that are just very beautifully made. Ornaments that I made as a kid that are still on parents’ tree :-) I like to hide smaller presents in the tree.
24. Favorite for Christmas dinner? Ok, jeez this is a lot of questions. I don’t have favorites. Good stuffing. A nice southern pecan pie, steeped in molasses. Baked asparagus. Canned fruit cocktail still in the can. Cool whip from the freezer.
25. What do you want for Christmas this year? —- A camera, Canon 50D. But today I just decided that I need to go for a lesser camera. A couple of other family members plus parents offered to pay half but they’ve (parents) started hinting that tough times have hit them and their business this year, too. I could do with a Canon Rebel XS camera package at $800 instead of double and up of that. That way I could also afford other things for others. !@#$%.
Alan K And The CD Makers
The pre-press cutout of one of the CD booklet pages
Work always takes priority - and even without my recent history in that area - these tough times mean when you’ve got a great job you enjoy - you make it Priority #1 and go beyond the panicked call of duty. That call falls somewhere between a soft clearing of the throat and avalanche.
Now along the way in recent months I’ve done a fair amount of “things.” Freelance work as of THIS day is down to ZERO, by choice (honest) but it brought my graphic skills up a few notches as I learned. Here was one of the more fascinating yet came-to-be stupid projects
Making A CD Booklet In 1,473 Easy Steps
Thank God, the final product looks great. And by great, I mean at least how I expected it to look, with a little extra shiny on top of that.
On Craigslist I got a freelance job my first and last there, at least to this point. It read something like, “local music studio owner needs two CD booklets designed. Experienced designers only.”
That was about it. I pretty much hate short don’t-explain-a-damn-thing ads like that. But here’s the thing. Ok, here the two things. 1) It sounded cool to put on my resume. 2) My resume was very much in play because at that point I was unemployed. That point would be the last week of July.
I e-mailed, he e-mailed back. There may have been a phone call or two involved and we arranged a visit. The music studio is literally 5 miles away I discovered. The studio - as so many are, was a converted something or other. This place was in transition between the two, leaning toward other.
We sat for about 45 minutes. I honestly relayed my inexperience with CD design, but confident it was like any other project, and he told me of his fledging - not floundering but fledgling - new music venture after being a real estate agent for oh so many years. We sat near one of five empty desks with a different business name on the wall; his dog Melody at first barking but quickly quieting, laid down in the corner.
There was some dust. He was in shorts and socks, no shoes.
I had brought other CDs to get a further idea what he needed or at least might want. So we talked. What he “might want” proved elusive.
The short and sweet summary of that day is that he wanted two eight-page - I think just eight - booklets for two albums of his own music. He had lyrics and he had pictures, including cover art for one of them, he just needed someone to put it all together.
How much could I do that for? ….
