If there is a lesson in life, it is that you should always be prepared. For example, you should always take an extra oar or paddle with you if you’re going out on a boat. Otherwise, you may end up stranded on the far side of lake.
For example, you might be in a boat with an electric motor. In Alaska. And on a cold, rainy day. And end up having to swim the entire lenght to get back. Click to continue »
Don’t fear the Tax Man. Fearing his auditors? That’s OK.
In a couple of days, those of us with U.S. Citizenshipt (and U.S. residents) we will get the privilege of paying for the service that government provides. It is traditional for most of us to bitterly complain about this, for it always hurts to see one’s money wasted away on the bureaucracy.
Every year, I think of a man. I do not know this man, mind you. My father spoke of him (OK, fine, I don’t remember who he said it about). That man always paid his full amount of taxes. Never a deduction, never a credit. Full amount, always.
He considered it a privilege to pay his taxes. A privilege to live in this country, to pay for roads, and schools, and police, and fire departments, and libraries, and emergency services.
Yes, it could be argued that we’re also blowing wads of money on two wars and Obamacare (sorry, you’re already paying for the uninsured – just ask Mitt Romney, he admits it. He just doesn’t like *how* the new Health Care bill covers the people). But we’ve always blown giant wads of cash on meaningless endeavors. Today is no different.
Given a choice, I’d rather that we all thought just a little bit more like the man in my memory.
Just an odd observation: there has been a massive increase in the traffic pointing here, mostly due to people searching for “bokeh.” Looking over the logs, I’m seeing a bunch of people hotlinking to images directly (to web hosts paying for the bandwidth, this is considered stealing) instead of linking to posts.
Still, at least I’m aware of them. Won’d do anything ’bout it now, but thought it was strange. Nothing for months, then suddenly this week.
Some from Arabic-language only sites, too…
With over one hundred blogs in my feed reader, several publications, numerous books and videos to keep on top of, how do I keep up? Such was the question asked recently.
The purpose of questioning, I suppose, was due to curiosity: I spend so much time doing things, that it seems impossible that there would be time for learning. Since most of us are busy, including the questioner, there is also the subtext to the question: “how can I keep up?” questions the questioner.
The answer is, perhaps, not helpful: “it depends.”
However, I do have a few tricks. So consider this the first installment: Keeping Caught up with Educational DVDs.
What sort of DVDs, you ask? Mostly Photovision’s Video Seminar (note: not a plug!). Every other month they send a 2-hour DVD, and I have to find time to watch it. Time in front of a TV or screen with a DVD player. This competes with various other DVDs: Tony Sweet videos like Visual Literacy
Watching these takes away from work, rest, and family time. But I do make time: when I get them, I rip them to MP4 and load them onto an iPod. This gives me a mobile viewing opportunity, and then I watch: during downtime, when waiting for appointments, etc.
So that’s it: the cheap way of keeping caught up with DVDs.
Or four-year-old, or six-year-old, or… well, you get the picture. Being somewhat bananas about photography (has anyone noticed that I call myself the “photo-chimp”?), a good way to spend time with two of my favorite things is to go on a photowalk with my daughter. She enjoys it, I enjoy it, we both end up with pretty good photos.
But then, what? In my daughter’s case, she’s seen plenty of photos printed out large. She wants prints too. But she’s small, and quality isn’t really a concern yet.
The answer? print out some 4×6″ pictures for her. But, put two pictures on each photo, sized to 3×4″. Print & get home, and you’ll end up with unusually-but-perfectly-sized photos for a smaller person!
Prints in the hands of a five-year-old
and the things I’ve seen:
Dolphinscape
The last two weeks of posting were done remotely, and planned in advance. Because I was doing this – diving off the Kona coast, with dolphins…
A Photo Editor popped up on my radar again. Seems this happens weekly. This time it was just a quote, about how blogs will drive more business to photographers than websites.
This is certainly true, if not a bit obvious to many of us. And as I alluded to in a comment there, it’s not a black-and-white cutoff: static pages are fine for static information. Reference sheets, historicals – all good. But the freshness of a blog? Static sites can’t compete.
Something I’ve noticed, though – as the owner of my own business where I provide a certain amount of web-based services: a lot of my recent work has involved setting up blogs. Not just for business clients, but for personal uses as well.
The future is here, which means it’s passé. What next?
Completely unrelated to anything photography, other than the source. A commenter on a lovely young lady’s photostream pointed out the difference between cats and dogs (in response to the idea of cats having delusions of grandeur):
if dogs were 5 times their size, they’d still lick us.
if cats were 5 times their size, they’d eat us.
it’s not so much delusion as a problem of proportion (but then that’s exactly a delusion of granduer)
I found the observation both witty and likely accurate.
Check out her pics – she’s doing some interesting things with self portraits!
…or Marmite, or whatever yeasty variant happens to be your favorite. In keeping with the entertainment that some members of my family had with making and eating food that, at least on the surface appears pretty nasty, I’ve decided that I’m going to learn to like Vegemite this year. Call it a New Year’s resolution, if you will.
Keep in mind that before I started this, I had only ever eaten Vegemite once, in a little packet not unlike a jam packet you might find at Denny’s. Not knowing what I was doing, I took the entire thing and smeared it over a small piece of bread – as if it were peanut butter. Then I took my first ever bite of the stuff.
That was nearly ten years ago. I’m still traumatized. Click to continue »
Just a bite, though:
Fool's Gold bite - see the glistening sugars and oil!
This is one of the final few bites of the loaf, the next day. Look closely & you’ll see it in all of its glory!