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What the…

Fountain

What the hell is going on? There was a shooting at “my” Apple Store this morning.

And Sarah Palin says  byebye to being govenor of Alaska. Good for Alaska. Bad for the rest of us. Something must be up. Is she going to give Rush Limbaugh a run for his money as a rabid talk radio host? Is the law closing in?

My bet is on the talk radio hostess. Or the law. Or just terminal hubris. She just will not go away.

Neither will Michael Jackson – and he is dead.

Today, I went to Hillwood Museum in NW DC. It was Marjorie Merriweather Post’s house and is now a “house museum”. That lady lived large. She was only child of  Mr. Post Cereal and was married to, among others, EF Hutton. She could afford to live large. Her house makes all of the suburban Mac Mansions appear even more pathetic. She had a safe in her closet that is as big is my fridge. Her kitchen is as big my apartment and I doubt that she ever went in it. Why would she. She had a staff of 50.

The Hillwood Museum – Where Fabulous Lives – Check it out. The website is rather lame. But, you’ll get the idea.

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Nothing new today

Very Old Guard
flags

Last Wednesday evening when I went to Ft McNair for the US Army Advertising Twilight Tattoo – I ran out of “film” in my big camera. Just when the light was getting interesting and when the performers were on my side of the parade ground. I decided to take some pictures with my elderly FX01. I set the ISO to 400 – which is way out of its comfort zone and snapped away. What ever happened was what I planned.

I did not look at the pictures until yesterday – and was pleased to find some good light captured. Bigger versions are just a click away. Speaking of away – why doesn’t Sarah Palin go away? And stay there. Far away.

More about my aging body. “They” want me to get a CT Scan and see a urologist. The CT Scan is a little spooky. What if something bad is found? I don’t for a minute believe “they” can find anything from a CT Scan that I want to know about.

Or maybe I do want to know if I have some fatal problem. I have lots of DVD’s that I haven’t watched. And some good books (audio and print) that I have been saving for “later”. Would hate to die with the last Harry Potter book unread. Or without watching the original “Day the Earth Stood Still” one last time.

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another day another magnolia

Another Magnolia

More magnolia shots – this one with the cheap old little FX01. Not as good as with the big one – but not bad either.

Al Franken, finally got elected to the Senate. I wonder if he gets back pay from January.  There is hope for Kinky Friedman.

When I was having blood testing related to my blood pressure meds – “they” decided that my “bad” cholesterol needed lowering. So what? Everyone’s bad cholesterol needs lowering. I am going to ignore my Bad cholesterol. That is what I have been doing for years.

“They” also found microscopic evidence of blood in my urine. Well, if you read up on it – lots of old folk have that. And most of the time “they” can find no cause. Less than 2% of the time is it cancer somewhere up the line. And, if it is, do I want to know? So, I think I am going to ignore that too. Don’t ask. Don’t tell. Nobody gets out alive anyhow.

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for something different

Electrical Substation

May Bernie Madoff  live a long life. And may he have a neo-Nazi in the cell to his left and Muslim terrorist in the cell to the right. Would not want him in a cell with a neo-Nazi or terrorist – they might kill him. That boy needs to live to see his 100 birthday.

Actually, a more fitting punishment would be to have him and his wife live out their lives on social security in New York City.  Without the benefit of a rent controlled apartment. But that would be “cruel and unusual”.

My pursuit of a less paper lifestyle at home is coming along nicely. And, I did an assessment of the stuff that I have in my kitchen – culled out what that hasn’t been used since we moved to the apartment. (Well, I did save the brass candlesticks and the box of candles in the event of power outage. Carlton isn’t much for candlelight dinners.)

Words from Edmund Burke to ponder.

“Mere parsimony is not economy. Expense, and great expense, may be an essential part of true economy.

Economy is a distributive virtue, and consists not in saving but selection. Parsimony requires no providence, no sagacity, no powers of combination, no comparison, no judgment.”


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you know you are old when…

black eyed susan

You know you are old when you are going to visit someone in an “old folks” home and they are not your parents age, but your age. Actually it is a pretty upmarket old folks home. Each resident has their own wine locker. So, I am taking a bottle of “Liberty School” as a house warming gift. Carlton wanted to re-gift something – no – you don’t give folk who are downsizing stuff. Especially stuff that you don’t want.

Speaking of stuff. The Panasonic 14-150mm f/3.5-5.6 Vario-Elmarit Aspherical MEGA O.I.S. Lens for Four Thirds System Lens that is on my lust list seems to only be available in Japan. Anybody out there actually ordered something that cost more than $200 but less than $2000 from overseas. I am wondering about how the thing gets thru customs and how you pay. Might should just go to Singapore (which is on my must visit list) and buy one in person. That would make the lens cost as much as a Leica M8! Might should just get a Leica M8 and a couple of lens – blast a big hole in the cash account.

Speaking of cash – notice how little money you are “earning” on your CD’s/money market accounts. Might as well spend it on toys. Life is uncertain.

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summer daze

mausoleum

At Columbia Cemetery – a couple of weeks ago with the old FX01.

Forgive me, but, I did not do photography today. I grocery shopped – 3 stores and 1 farm market.   And, lounged around the pool.

Decided that I liked my theme better than the black one. So, it is back to my personal theme.

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lighting matters

lighting matters no. 1
lighting matters no. 2

click for the larger version

Last night I went to the US Army Old Guard’s Twilight Tattoo. A first class advertising campaign.

I didn’t get any good photos. But, seems to me that the two images above illustrate the importance of lighting. The left image looks rather sinister. Is that armed man going to open fire on the people stuffed in the stands. The right image only looks sinister to old anti-war activists like me. Most would see a friendly soldier.

In the background  is one of the main buildings of the “Army War College”. Do they have a football team? What about cheerleaders?

Army War College – in the olden days the War College maintained a cadre of personnel called “The Enemy Army”. As I recall the enemy spoke Esperanto, had uniforms, the whole deal.  I wanted to join the Enemy Army.

Gotta feel sorry for Farrah Fawcett – not only did she die – but after about six hours her death was upstaged by Michael Jackson.

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no blogging today

no blog entry today. busy having a life.

Well, maybe just a minute to acknowledge Gov. Sanford. Can you imagine “Oh honey, I was just out hiking the Appalachian Trail”.   I feel sorry for all the married men who really are on Appalachian Trail…. Gotta love politicians. Those boys just can’t keep it zipped up.

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a lack of interest

Pickett Fence

I am suffering from a lack of interest in my photography project today. So, today’s image was a reject from yesterday. All of today’s images were rejected.

Have I mentioned lately that WordPress is really easy to use and I don’t miss my old “roll your own” style blog one bit? Still haven’t “upgraded” to the latest version.

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Another Magnolia

Another Magnolia

The old residential area near our urban nest is infested with magnolia trees. And, in June and early July they are in maximum bloom. Unfortunately, most of the blooming is done well up the trees. So, you need to know where the baby magnolia trees are to get an interesting picture.

I am suffering from “toy-lust”. Not need – but greed.

  1. Leica D-Lux4
  2. Olympus E-P1
  3. Panasonic 14-150mm f/3.5-5.6 Vario-Elmarit Aspherical MEGA O.I.S. Lens for Four Thirds System Lens
  4. Macbook Air

All these things being old folks expensive tech toys.

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Sunday

Street Stuff

Not much of a day for picture taking. Wasn’t even all that interested in playing with Lightroom. Did find the rather British looking manhole cover next to the shopping mall.

What I did do, was continue on my path to a “less paper” lifestyle. Most of the old stuff just got tossed. But, some got scanned and stored as PDFs.  I  recommend adding gscan2pdf to your Linux scanning tool kit. The only issue being I can only get OCR to work in German. I have very little German stuff to scan. But, I am not planning on OCRing anything anyhow. I am PDF-ing.

I did not toss my original birth certificate with little footprints. Don’t know why I am keeping it. I know that I was born.

I did toss – and did not scan – my original Internet account. From 1995. There were 8 single spaced typed pages telling you how to get online. I also tossed all of my old receipts for hardware and software. Didn’t even think about adding up how much money I have spent. Note that in early 1995 I was running a dual boot system, DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.1.

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Honoring Dad

Last Light, First Light
Last Light, First Light

Dad died in the August 2000.  He always had a camera handy, most of time he would spend an entire year shooting a roll of 36. Mostly he took pictures of his friends, family and the occasional flower or home grown tomato.

When he died, I finished up the roll taking snapshots of the flowers that arrived to note his passing. (Actually, a good bottle of booze would have been a better way to note his passing.)

When I had the pictures processed at the local K-Mart, I was stunned to find this image. It was taken from the carport of our family home in the slums of  northwest El Paso.  It would have been sunrise. And, since the leaves are off the trees, most likely in the late winter.

Playing with a new blog theme. And, working on deleting – or rather shredding and tossing – as many of paper files as possible. And where ever possible, anything that I want to save – PDF-ing  and then shred/toss.