Jon de Plume

They have seasons here!

2009-10-01T17:44:00.000-07:00

I wasn’t able to get that picture since I have had a slight geographical change as of yesterday. I went from beautiful 70-degree Southern California to a much colder 40 in Detroit, Michigan. I am guessing 30’s when I got up this morning from all the ice on everything at 4am. Yah, gotta love the three hour time difference. 4am Pacific Time, unfortunately I was nowhere near the Pacific.

The difference in time claimed another victim when I called someone back in California. To me it was 9:45am, perfectly fine for calling someone I knew would be up and around by that time. Wrong, I forgot it was 6:45am over there…and I woke them up, opps.

It’s a very busy house where I am staying. 7 kids in the house! With me there, there is now 10 people.

I am only visiting for a few days to get some work done out here, but until then, “That's the way we all became the Brady Bunch.”

I'm not dead, just sleeping

2009-09-26T16:19:00.000-07:00

Wow, long time no post. Sorry about that.

As far as updates on traffic that may come here from my sister's site, I finally started on my new knitting project for those fiber enthusiasts out there. It's the beginning of a cup cozy/holder, or whatever. I'll take a photo of what I have and post that when I get home tonight.

Since I noticed my sister had a link to my blog, I thought I better put something up before everyone thinks I'm dead.

G8 summit

2009-07-09T18:03:00.000-07:00

Seems President Obama and French President Nicolas Sarkosy are enjoying the view in Italy at the G8 summit today.

Keep on truckin'

2009-07-03T03:33:00.000-07:00

I have a huge respect for long distance truck drivers after a long drive. I just finished a 7 hour drive up California and not sure if I could have gone much longer without stopping to rest. The countless semi trucks I passed on the road I know have been driving much longer than I probably ever will.

Though the laws for truck drivers are confusing, there are limits up to 15 hours of driving. Its hard to imagine driving that long, resting for a certain time outlined in the laws, then getting back on the road all over again.

Be nice to those truckers, they will most likely appreciate the break from all the road rage and won't release the trunk monkey on you.

As Heard from the Roommates V

2009-06-30T13:50:00.000-07:00

I moved out of my old apartment a few months ago, but the strangeness of my old roommates continued. Over e-mails and instant messaging I wrote down a few of the continued madness. It looks like I can never escape.

Now, if you could only build some sort of crossbow into a flaming chainsaw you'd have a pretty good anti-zombie weapon

Engineering paper totally makes me feel like a badass

Alaskan Flavored doom makes your moose burgers taste just right while releasing Sarah Palin on the immediate area

Preschool UNIX, the latest trend in Santa Clara daycare centers

C2H6O

2009-06-25T16:40:00.000-07:00

It seems that Instant Karma has won the Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf contest. For those that don’t see the correlation between karma and ice blended coffee, that is the nutty crème caramel one. Karma beat the dulce de leche Heat Wave and tiramisu flavored Thunder Road.

I understand the karma concept where good and bad actions supposedly affect you in the future. Things like walking your neighbor’s dog while helping their grandmother across the street carrying her groceries or something. I wonder what happens when you drink liquid karma though. Is that kinda like liquid courage?

Pick your poison

2009-06-17T14:25:00.000-07:00

The Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf coffee shop is running a contest for choosing a new ice blended drink. I have seen this done by many companies before. Unfortunately, The Coffee Bean has decided to wander into the realm of strange names for the drinks. The current blended drinks have names such as vanilla, mocha, and caramel which are fine, but the new ones are called Heat Wave, Thunder Road, and Instant Karma.

Heat Wave is supposedly dulce de leche, Spanish caramel, and means milk candy in English. How they plan to distinguish this from the caramel blended drink they already have is puzzling. Then there is Thunder Road flavored as tiramisu, and Instant Karma that is supposed to be nutty caramel crème. Wait a second, didn’t we just have dulce de leche? Oh, excuse me, Heat Wave. When I hear thunder road I think of the Disneyland Thunder Mountain ride. I wonder if this drink hurts your neck too.

Cannot forget the nutty caramel crème though. Crème is a French word for goodness sake, so now we have Spanish caramel, French crème, and Italian tiramisu! Since we are going with a European theme here maybe we should have them introduce a black pudding flavor with little pieces of blood sausage mixed in.

Bush goes skydiving again

2009-06-12T12:59:00.000-07:00

George Bush Senior really knows how to celebrate his birthday, skydiving over Kennebunkport, Maine. Jumping out of a plane at 10,500 feet is how everyone should celebrate their birthday, especially Bush Senior on his 85th.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

First knitting project

2009-06-10T21:33:00.001-07:00

It took far longer than it should, but I finished my first knitting project. I made a small felted box from a Mason-Dixon Knitting pattern. I first saw the ones my sister made and thought I would make one myself.

Since my sister was who taught me to knit, her living several hours away made some things tough to learn. Through working on my own and knitting while up at her place I got it done. She made another gray one while I worked on my green box, and you can see why they are called nested boxes.

Took me about a month, and while that may seem pathetic to me, my sister said it turned out pretty good. I guess your first project will always take longer, especially when its full of garters, purls, binding off, casting on, picking up stitches, and crocheting.

My next project is a few cup cozies similar to this, minus the plants.

Finger surgery

2009-06-04T15:46:00.001-07:00

Don’t want to talk about it too much since I would like to keep this site rated PG. Let’s just say finger surgery this morning was one of the most painful experiences I’ve ever had. Cutting my finger up like sushi with only a minor anesthetic. Yah, it really sucked.

By the way, my sister knitted that pillow.

Vegan yummies

2009-05-29T17:01:00.001-07:00

I just had a vegan meal, and I am a little worried. My credentials as a meat eater might be in jeopardy if this is not addressed soon. It was very tasty though, with Portobello mushrooms blackened on the grill outside along with zucchini and onions. To counteract the vegan I am going to have some sushi leftover from last night.

Philadelphia rolls

We ordered a frightening amount of sushi, but with the aid of my sister and her husband we managed most of it. Leftover salmon Philadelphia rolls are very tasty as well. For some reason they brought us a whole bunch of surimi rolls, so there are quite a bit of those left too.

Car Audio Competition

2009-05-14T13:05:00.001-07:00

Though I do not claim to know much about car audio competition, I am quite impressed by my brother in law’s car. His previous car had an unbelievable sound system, but unfortunately had a chance meeting with another car and that didn’t end too well. His new Mazda 6 is becoming a high end car stereo.

Through days of tuning the system he can now reproduce audio frequencies from about 15Hz through 22,000Hz. The typical range of human hearing is 20Hz to 20,000Hz. When you go below 20Hz you are able to feel the sound, rather than hear it. Having the stereo reproduce above 20,000Hz gives greater harmonics and sound presence.

I won’t be able to attend the audio competition he is attending Saturday, but hopefully he comes home with a gigantic trophy.

Insanely Great Internet

2009-05-07T02:49:00.000-07:00

I think the term High Speed Internet is a little too broad when describing connection speeds. I sit here in a Motel 6 room, where I probably will be staying for a few days, using what the hotel describes as “Broadband WiFi” and exclamation mark for good measure in the front office.

Unfortunately this is not the case. Upon checking, the speed is ranks up there with dial up. Now I realize that we have become spoiled with connections today, and maybe this was fast…10 years ago.

For that haven’t seen the 1995 film Hackers, you are missing out on some hilarious stuff, but when Phantom Phreak sees Acid Burn’s Macintosh he finds it holds the future of networking.

“Yo. Check this out guys, this is insanely great, it’s got a 28.8 BPS modem…I want it to have my children!”

And yes, that is Angelina Jolie in the blue.

8 Legs

2009-05-02T00:19:00.001-07:00

Not sure if you could tell by my previous post, but I am not the biggest fan of spiders. Maybe its due to getting bit by them all the time, or constantly finding them in my room, mostly from crawling through an opening in my window even when it is closed. Overall I hate the little buggers.

I walked into the kitchen tonight and heard someone watching a program on the TV. I then heard, “They then use their powerful sucking stomachs to drink the liquefied insides of their prey. Or cocoon them and keep food for months to come.” Sorry, but while opening the fridge for something to snack on, the last thing I want to hear is a narrator telling me about a spider slurping down some liquid yumminess.

While asleep I hope I don’t have some eight legged nightmare.

Fun for the whole family

2009-04-28T00:06:00.000-07:00

I really miss playgrounds. Swinging from monkey bars, climbing chain ladders, and of course going down plastic slides creating an unbelievable amount of static electricity. Sure there are so called playgrounds that can accommodate adults such as Six Flags and Disneyland, but I’d rather have some jumbo sized playground with everything painted in primary colors.

It seems you have to go with metal and plastic now, but at my old elementary school it was wood. This of course changed when it was found to be completely full of evil spiders that are out to get you, can smell terror, and only fear fire.

You can of course turn a regular playground into one fit for slightly older children, but people look at you funny. Especially when you have your camera set up with a ten second delay then run and flip around a bar. Not that I have done this of course.

Mason Dixon box

2009-04-24T19:25:00.000-07:00

It’s taking me a bit of time to finish this, mostly since I can’t sit for hours and knit like my sister. I am more just picking up the needles occasionally and doing a ridge or two. I had made a mistake and will possibly run out of yarn before it is finished, but supposedly it is rather simple to join new skeins of yarn to the old ones.

My first project has definitely been challenging since I am not completely familiar with different stitch types. I will be picking up stitches once I finish this side, something I currently have no clue how to do.

Mars Day

2009-04-22T14:39:00.001-07:00

It’s Earth Day, and I guess I shouldn’t be writing this since it takes electricity to run the computer which is killing a dozen random animals or something, hopefully cockroaches. Instead of Earth Day and concerns about The Blue Planet, I say we focus today on The Red Planet.

Mars is not exactly a hospitable place, and I say we work to change this. Lets get rid of excess cars on Mars and work on planting more trees. We should take some water with us since the planet seems a little dry. Mars is smaller too, so this will probably be easier.

Mars was the Roman god of war, so up in arms people!

Cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war.
-Shakespeare

Caption: RAWR!

Skin Surgery

2009-04-19T11:55:00.001-07:00

I’m happy to say my sister’s surgery to remove a melanoma near her knee went well. She will be off her feet for a while, and has her knee immobilized so most of her time will be spent on the couch with her legs raised. Thankfully she has her knitting to keep her busy.

She has finished knee socks, a felted box, started a sweater, crocheted an apple, three apple slices, a mushroom, and an ice cream sandwich for a set of play food in the past three days. She has already finished many others including cake and pizza, which is all you really need for food anyway, the yummy diet.

She was telling me how much she hoped they wouldn’t have to do a skin graft, and that ended up not being needed. That would have been a major addition to the procedure accompanied by quite a bit of pain and recovery.

100101

2009-04-18T16:28:00.000-07:00

I previously had a post about strange computer programs, but an old roommate reminded me of some of the surprisingly interesting names for programming languages. Being a Computer Science major he spends plenty of time with these ones and zeros.

The only systems I can program are C and Fortran. He knows and uses far more. I don’t know how some of these names are chosen, but there is one named after a household cleaner. I guess your computer must be dirty if you start using Ajax on it. He says with code that dirty, you have to have the best detergent to clean it up.

Sure there are other uses for Ajax besides web development, such as fiction, mythology and others, but how they choose a product with a slogan of “Stronger than dirt!” is beyond me.

Then there are the animal names, among them Python, Squirrel, and Caml. The machine language Caml has a nice little camel walking around in the logo. Camels seem to be popular in the programing world, with Perl also using a camel in its logo.

If it wasn’t for this language developed by a NASA employee, who knows how xkcd would ever handle regular expressions.

Felted Box

2009-04-14T13:00:00.000-07:00

I started my first knitting project yesterday. I had previously worked on some practice pieces, little squares that turned into arcs since I was making a few mistakes adding stitches. While visiting my sister's family over Easter we looked for something for my first one. Many start with a scarf, but that didn’t seem like something I would want to do. Instead I am making a felted box from a Mason Dixon pattern.

I picked up some greenish wool and mohair, which they call Pine Shadows, and started my box. Using much larger needles and double-stranding the bulky yarn took a bit to get used to, but it sure goes quickly being so large. I am done with one side and just started another, so I am not sure how long it will take to complete. I cannot sit for hours knitting like my sister, but I am still having fun. I’ll take a picture of mine when it starts coming together. Until then, this is a picture of the boxes my sister has made.

Melanomas

2009-04-09T14:34:00.000-07:00

My sister will soon be undergoing a procedure to remove a melanoma. This serious form of skin cancer is no joke, and I wanted to take some time to encourage people to be careful.

If you are susceptible to moles, and have had them removed you know the importance of looking for suspect skin. Living in Northern Siberia and rarely seeing the sun doesn’t mean you won’t ever get this serious tumor. Family history can contribute to your risk besides exposure to UV radiation from the sun.

Check your skin often for anything that doesn’t look right. Use a mirror to check where you can’t see such as your back. If you see a mole or skin mark that is not symmetrical, different colors, ragged borders, or larger than normal moles you should contact a doctor immediately. There are other signs, but without all the information and experience of a doctor I can only say what I have been told by my doctor.

Sorry for the disturbing pictures, but if you catch it early you can get rid of them without many problems. Be proactive about this, skin cancer is very serious.

Evil Dead IV

2009-04-07T09:46:00.000-07:00

It looks like we will have another Evil Dead movie coming up. Many will recognize the title Army of Darkness, which was actually Evil Dead 3. It is said that it will not be a remake, which is welcome news to me. Evil Dead 2 was a remake of Evil Dead 1 already. Evil Dead 4 would be a little silly as another remake.

Bruce Campbell has cemented himself in the role of Ash, and his cameos in Sam Raimi films are always hilarious. He has had cameos in all three Spider-Man movies as well. The ring announcer in the first, a theater usher in the second, and finally the Maître d’ in the third.

Evil Dead 4 is scheduled to be released in 2010, along with an another likely cameo role for Bruce in Spider-Man 4 released in 2011. Let’s just hope Peter Parker is a lot less emo this time around.

The Duel

2009-04-03T14:17:00.000-07:00

Note: This following explanation is mostly a copy of the post on March 31st. The second 55-Fiction is below it.

A local newspaper holds an annual contest started in 1987 to write a short story in 55 words or less. The New Times accepts entries from anyone and selects some to publish in the weekly paper. The idea of writing a story in 55 words or less is not as easy as you may think. New Times criteria for the stories include a setting, one or more characters, conflict, and resolution. They are really fun to write though, and I suggest anyone give it a try.

For one year I wrote and submitted two entries, which unfortunately did not get chosen for publication. I encourage any reader to write one for fun. Much of my writing is a little ambiguous, but I find it fun that way. The second one in 49 words is called The Duel, enjoy!

Stoic statues faced each other in a dusty street.
Windows boarded up for a storm under blue skies.
A thundering roar heralds a pinnacle's crumble to dry earth.
It was over, and the other moved away.
A glint of light from a forsaken sheriff's badge discarded in the dirt.

By the picture you might see this has to do with a shootout in Western town. Leave a comment if gave it a try or what you think of the idea of super short stories.

Happy Foolishness Day

2009-04-01T18:33:00.000-07:00

Happy Foolishness Day in April

Quite a few internet April Fool’s jokes came out today, some of them quite creative. For the Star Wars fan you could pick up a Tauntaun sleeping bag at Think Geek, complete with intestinal lining. Warm and lightly scented I bet.

Expedia offered a flight to Mars for the reasonable price of 99 dollars. According to the offer Expedia has dropped all booking fees, including fees on flights to Mars. The deal offers savings of over 3 trillion on a Mars vacation. Oxygen and spacecraft probably not included, just a shot out of a giant canon.

Second 55 word fiction story will be posted later.

Passage

2009-03-31T06:59:00.001-07:00

A local newspaper holds an annual contest started in 1987 to write a short story in 55 words or less. The New Times accepts entries from anyone and selects some to publish in the weekly paper. The idea of writing a story in 55 words or less is not as easy as you may think. New Times criteria for the stories include a setting, one or more characters, conflict, and resolution. They are really fun to write though, and I suggest anyone give it a try.

For one year I wrote and submitted two entries, which unfortunately did not get chosen for publication. I encourage any reader to write one for fun, and I will include one in this post. The next post will contain the second. Much of my writing is a little ambiguous, and this is in the same vein. I won’t say the exact meaning of this story here. If you want to know and don’t see it from the story it will be below. The first one in 53 words is called Passage, enjoy!

They go in. They don’t come out.
Watching from the hall two went in. None came out.
Menacing doors swallowed them all.
An emptying hall, all go through the gaping hole.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to see, slipping through the closing doors.
Fellow prey stood to my side, “Level two please.”

I wanted to make an everyday occurrence seem suspenseful. In this case a person is watching people walk into an elevator, then going in as well. I hope some of you try it out. Leave a comment if gave it a try or what you think of the idea of super short stories.

iLogo

2009-03-29T13:25:00.000-07:00

There are quite a few names for popular computer programs that are pretty strange when you think about it. The two web browsers I use are a good example, Firefox and Safari. I realize Firefox is named after the Red Panda native to Asia, but I can’t help imagining a poor fox running around on fire.

The logo sure looks like it’s a fox that has caught fire, the size of a planet too. Who cares about meteorites, we have giant foxes, which is much more devastating.

A Firefox falling to earth is probably the answer to the mysterious cause of the Tunguska event.

Safari makes a little more sense I guess, going around the inter-tubes on a safari enjoying the scenery. Safaris also are full of animals though, particularly some dangerous ones. I am a little scared I will be browsing some website about zoos, and a hungry lion jumps out of the screen and eats my face. Perhaps reading political news and a stinky wildebeest starts munching on my monitor.

Most bundled applications in OSX are pretty self explanatory such as Mail, Automator, and TextEdit. But there are far too many “iPrograms.” iCal, iChat, iSync, iTunes, iWork, iPhoto, iWeb, iMovie, which are a part of iLife, all of which are bundled with the operating system, not to mention the iPod, iMac and iPhone. Maybe not iWork on some computers, which is an office productivity suite.

Third party developers are also obsessed with iPrograms and iPeripherals. You can pick up an iClock, an iMicrophone, and pretty soon I am expecting to see the BMW iCar, complete with an Aqua user interface.

Pets too, can you imagine an iMongoose?

April Fool's

2009-03-28T18:29:00.000-07:00

April Fool’s day is right around the corner, and I am wondering what pranks I will see this year. Some very well thought out, though one I fear is my sister's. To this date, she has not pulled one, so this year may be when her sinister plan unfolds. All those years of peace and silence shattered in an explosion of foolishness.

I will be up at her place, so the terror may be quite severe. Waking up to find Tony the Terror Cat about to pounce from kitty treats on my face. There is no escape from the Doom Kitty, you can run, but Tony can smell your fear.

Perhaps on my drive north Steve will call to let me know of a RFID device wired to explode if I drop below 90 MPH. Speed 3, Revenge of Keanu! In a desperate attempt to avoid the semi-trucks dominating the freeway, my speed drops to 89. Speakers play his recorded laugh followed by N’SYNC on endless repeat, the horror, the horror!

The pressure building every year until something snaps, and California falls into the ocean.

Got your tickets to the gun show?

2009-03-28T02:39:00.000-07:00

Some friends are going to a nearby gun show Sunday. They asked if I wanted to come, but I am not sure what to expect. I have gone trap shooting many time, as well as quite a bit of target shooting, but a gun show might be a little too much. I grew up in the Boy Scouts, and gun safety and events were common. By the time I got Eagle Scout I have no clue how many times guns came up.

Main reason I am unsure is I think the people that go to these events are probably scary, no offense to anyone reading. In looking at some information on what the vendors and events are one common theme emerged, knives and beef jerky.

I can understand knives at a gun show, but the importance placed on beef jerky is a little interesting. On road trips to Oregon to go salmon fishing we would commonly have some beef jerky in the car, Vienna sausages too, yummy!

I do not know if I would go to a gun show with the purpose of buying the stuff, or the gourmet supposedly available. I find beef jerky and gourmet to be opposite each other.

Maybe I will go for the fun of it, but if there is nothing but people running around with automatic weapons and bandoliers, I will probably be leaving early.

I know this guy too.

Any colour so long as it is black

2009-03-26T17:56:00.000-07:00

I am not sure what to think of some laws on the books, or most likely will become law. Many have heard those silly laws, like an Arizona law that forbids having a donkey sleep in your bathtub. I wonder if these laws originally made sense in the time they were written, or if some politician is screwing with us.

California has its share of strange ones, but one coming down the pipe right now is high on the ridiculous scale. The California Air Resources Board (CARB) placed a 2016 mandate to have paint reflect 20% of light, with a phase-in period starting 2012. What this means in English is that dark paint colors will be banned. No more going to your local car dealership and picking up a black car, or anything with a dark hue at all.

Unfortunately, this is not a governmental April Fool’s joke, as the announcement was made on CARB’s press release on standards and test procedures. Supposedly the dark paint colors makes climate control systems work harder to cool the car. Here is a link to a PDF of the report.

I like living in California, but the possibility of not being able to buy a car in a dark paint job is silly. Henry Ford would probably be ticked off at this news. Whether you like Ford or not, Henry Ford really did revolutionize the car industry when he introduced the Model T in 1908, as well as starting assembly lines.

My Grandfather had a 1910 Model T and a 1930 Model A, so I love classic Fords. He used to drive us around as kids through the city, everyone in other cars waving and honking hellos.

Henry Ford was a fan of black cars. The Model T originally came in one color, black. In his 1922 autobiography Henry Ford said, “Any customer can have a car painted any colour that he wants so long as it is black.” I doubt he would be a fan of Malibu Barbie’s pink convertible.

Warning Labels

2009-03-24T14:16:00.000-07:00

I have always thought there were too many warning labels. If you are brilliant enough to use a hair dryer in the bathtub I think you deserve an eye opening experience courtesy of electricity.

A wise person told me that we should remove warning labels and weed out the population. Those using a lawnmower to cut their own hair and other similar ingenious ideas would get no cautions. Granted her favorite animal was a cute fluffy Great White Shark, so her mental process might be slightly skewed in the direction of carnage. The Calculus Fairy told me happiness is two fistfuls of double-barreled carnage. Maybe I need to rethink my acquaintances, oh, and a shotgun chainsaw combo works well too. You can pick them up at S-Mart in the housewares department.

One warning sorely missed still confuses me as to its absence. At a local campus, there is a large fake waterfall. Designed to be as realistic as possible with various rocks and styles, well, as realistic as you can make a waterfall made of concrete rocks. What could possibly be dangerous about a fake waterfall, especially since I am not planning on using a hair dryer while inside.

I was just relaxing at a table reading near the landscaped waterfall and trees. The only danger I could have imagined was rabid squirrels or even worse, rabid gardeners.

Suddenly I hear an explosion, whipping my head around to see a huge blast of water going into the air. Unfortunately, it was not long before the water remembered gravity and completely drenched a person sitting nearby. I could not see where the blast had come from, and it seemed highly unlikely this was an intended function of the nice peaceful waterfall.

I wonder if S-Mart sells waterfalls.

If Ash were allowed to ride it
|
V

Paul Harvey

2009-03-01T11:34:00.000-08:00

The broadcasting world lost one of it's greats yesterday.

Paul Harvey passed away on on the 28th of February at 90 years old. 70 of those years Harvey spent on the radio. He definitely ruffled quite a few feathers with some controversial comments, but the gifted broadcaster was loved by his listeners, broadcasting on over 1,200 stations, and 400 Armed Forces networks.

Many broadcasters have had their trademark styles and personalities, such as Walter Cronkite, dubbed the most trusted man in America. Many will recognize Harvey's voice if you did not know who it was when you listened to it. The below link is a YouTube video with a few quotes from his radio broadcasts.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0wl2LfMVJxw

His pauses and delivery style earned him a reputation for the staccato style of speaking, and I wish his family well. The memory of this radio giant is powerful, and the world will miss him.

Windows

2009-02-20T14:05:00.001-08:00

I am putting together a picture composing of several pictures of eyes conveying certain emotions, such as an eye and the small area of the face around it showing anger, joy, loving and the like. I have a bunch of photos I have taken that I can show emotion through, but what would you like to see?

Would you like to see eyes that show someone hurting, perhaps sadness, or something upbeat, joyful, in love, empathy? Drop a comment and let me know. I know what I would put in there, but your opinion would be fun as well.

Here is one of the photos I was going to use for “serious.” The iris will have an overlay of a color not sure which yet. The photo is pretty soft since the original file is about 100 MB. I did not take this one, but it is a great portrait a photographer took of my sister.

White Cards and Torpedoes

2009-02-06T01:19:00.000-08:00

It is a lot of fun to use things for applications that they were not designed for. Certain toothpastes to clean scratched optical discs (don’t try it if you don’t know the procedure, you can seriously scratch it if you use the wrong toothpaste), or perhaps using cola soft drinks to clean rust and corrosion.

A model using a reflective card for anything besides reflecting studio light is defiantly interesting. Letting your model do what they want can lead to interesting shots.

Get out there and defy the instructions. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!

Who says peanut butter does not make a good hat, especially the extra chunky type.

Beer, Barbecue and Badminton

2009-01-31T01:10:00.000-08:00

With Super Bowl XLIII this Sunday, or Super Bowl 43 for those not born in 4th Century BC Rome, there will be plenty of Beer, Barbecue and Badminton going on…err, I mean Football. Honestly though, who wasn’t born in 4th Century BC anyway.

There will always be those that watch the game strictly for the most expensive ads of the year. For this years game a 30 second spot will run you 3-million dollars. That is 100-thousand a second for those counting at home. That is too much math for a Sunday, sorry.

I am sure there will be plenty of madness following the game, so maybe some highlights of previous games and cough cough, commercials later.

I have no plans at the moment for the game, but I will think of something, maybe a game of Badminton.

Presidental Strangeness

2009-01-16T04:02:00.000-08:00

In a few days we will have a new President taking office. Although there are plenty of odd aspects of government, I thought I would share some of the strange things that have happened over the years with our past 43 Presidents (Barack Obama will be number 44).

Obama’s inauguration is Tuesday in very warm Washington D.C. with a forecasted high of 33°. He probably has more real teeth than George Washington had at his inauguration. Washington had only one tooth. Instead, he wore dentures made of human teeth, animal teeth, ivory or even lead.

I have never been a huge fan of watching golf, but seeing Gerald Ford play might have been fun. Spectators had to watch carefully since the President was known for bouncing golf balls off people’s heads with wild shots.

Franklin Pierce must not have been a fan of bad smells since he ordered the first bathtub for the White House. Many people were upset since they thought taking baths was not healthy and would make you sick when he took office in 1853. Only 6 years previously, Ignaz Semmelweis was ridiculed and tossed in an asylum for suggesting doctors wash their hands to remove germs after autopsies on cadavers.

There has been talk about what type of dog the Obama family will have in the White House, but I think Calvin Coolidge gets the award for best pet. He had a two pet raccoons that he and his wife took on walks. He also had a bear, a hippo, eight dogs, two canaries, two cats, a bobcat, lion cubs, and a wallaby. I am not sure if he had all of those while in office.

We will see what fun things we find out about Barack Obama, but the only one I know of right now is how many names he has had over the years. Right now, he is Barack Obama Jr., but he has been named Barry Soetoro, Barack Soetoro, Barry Dunham, and Barry Obama.

The First Day of Winter

2008-12-22T01:48:00.001-08:00

Yesterday was officially the first day of Winter. Living where I have most of my life that season’s meaning is somewhat lost on me. It gets in the 40’s (Fahrenheit) and we throw on our coats to ward off the unbearable cold. Then disaster strikes and we get a little bit of rain. Oh no, it might rain for an entire day.

According to some weather reports from the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [weather dudes]), wind chill in the Midwest puts temperatures at -30°F or lower today. Now that is winter, not this wimpy, “oh let me grab a light jacket stuff” we have here.

I know that water freezes at 32°F, but I wonder what temperature below zero is has to be to hit the ground as ice. Jack London wrote about it in his short story To Build a Fire, and said -50°F; as the character has his spit freeze on his face and beard. You will not find me in a situation to test that out any time soon. The thought of a human snowman does not sound too appealing.

Mowing the lawn can be a pain, but this sure does not look like a lot of fun.

These photos above are courtesy of some severely frozen people. I took a quick look at my photos and found one where people look like they are absolutely freezing. A little different, but if you look you will notice some actually have sweatshirts on.

The Cremation of Sam McGee

2008-12-16T21:38:00.000-08:00

Every year my sister reads The Cremation of Sam McGee to her class at school. I am not sure when she will read it this year, but in honor of the cold of winter I bring you the poem written by Robert Service. The poem originally published in 1907 was a hit, published again by Ted Harrison in 1986 and read in Canadian elementary schools.

Another person I knew would sing it, and quite well at that. Though I have not my sister’s voice to play for you, I found a copy read by the author Robert Service. Unfortunately, the reading was cut short and the end is not there. Instead, I found another video read well. The YouTube video is not embedded so I do not freak out anybody's browsers, but the link is below:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6lBkuz1TlVc

Although it is quite long, if you want to read along here is the full text of the poem.

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

Now Sam McGee was from Tennessee, where the cotton blooms and blows.
Why he left his home in the South to roam 'round the Pole, God only knows.
He was always cold, but the land of gold seemed to hold him like a spell;
Though he'd often say in his homely way that he'd "sooner live in hell".

On a Christmas Day we were mushing our way over the Dawson trail.
Talk of your cold! through the parka's fold it stabbed like a driven nail.
If our eyes we'd close, then the lashes froze till sometimes we couldn't see;
It wasn't much fun, but the only one to whimper was Sam McGee.

And that very night, as we lay packed tight in our robes beneath the snow,
And the dogs were fed, and the stars o'erhead were dancing heel and toe,
He turned to me, and "Cap," says he, "I'll cash in this trip, I guess;
And if I do, I'm asking that you won't refuse my last request."

Well, he seemed so low that I couldn't say no; then he says with a sort of moan:
"It's the cursed cold, and it's got right hold till I'm chilled clean through to the bone.
Yet 'tain't being dead — it's my awful dread of the icy grave that pains;
So I want you to swear that, foul or fair, you'll cremate my last remains."

A pal's last need is a thing to heed, so I swore I would not fail;
And we started on at the streak of dawn; but God! he looked ghastly pale.
He crouched on the sleigh, and he raved all day of his home in Tennessee;
And before nightfall a corpse was all that was left of Sam McGee.

There wasn't a breath in that land of death, and I hurried, horror-driven,
With a corpse half hid that I couldn't get rid, because of a promise given;
It was lashed to the sleigh, and it seemed to say: "You may tax your brawn and brains,
But you promised true, and it's up to you to cremate those last remains."

Now a promise made is a debt unpaid, and the trail has its own stern code.
In the days to come, though my lips were dumb, in my heart how I cursed that load.
In the long, long night, by the lone firelight, while the huskies, round in a ring,
Howled out their woes to the homeless snows — O God! how I loathed the thing.

And every day that quiet clay seemed to heavy and heavier grow;
And on I went, though the dogs were spent and the grub was getting low;
The trail was bad, and I felt half mad, but I swore I would not give in;
And I'd often sing to the hateful thing, and it hearkened with a grin.

Till I came to the marge of Lake Lebarge, and a derelict there lay;
It was jammed in the ice, but I saw in a trice it was called the "Alice May".
And I looked at it, and I thought a bit, and I looked at my frozen chum;
Then "Here", said I, with a sudden cry, "is my cre-ma-tor-eum."

Some planks I tore from the cabin floor, and I lit the boiler fire;
Some coal I found that was lying around, and I heaped the fuel higher;
The flames just soared, and the furnace roared — such a blaze you seldom see;
And I burrowed a hole in the glowing coal, and I stuffed in Sam McGee.

Then I made a hike, for I didn't like to hear him sizzle so;
And the heavens scowled, and the huskies howled, and the wind began to blow.
It was icy cold, but the hot sweat rolled down my cheeks, and I don't know why;
And the greasy smoke in an inky cloak went streaking down the sky.

I do not know how long in the snow I wrestled with grisly fear;
But the stars came out and they danced about ere again I ventured near;
I was sick with dread, but I bravely said: "I'll just take a peep inside.
I guess he's cooked, and it's time I looked";. . . then the door I opened wide.

And there sat Sam, looking cool and calm, in the heart of the furnace roar;
And he wore a smile you could see a mile, and he said: "Please close that door.
It's fine in here, but I greatly fear you'll let in the cold and storm —
Since I left Plumtree, down in Tennessee, it's the first time I've been warm."

There are strange things done in the midnight sun
By the men who moil for gold;
The Arctic trails have their secret tales
That would make your blood run cold;
The Northern Lights have seen queer sights,
But the queerest they ever did see
Was that night on the marge of Lake Lebarge
I cremated Sam McGee.

New Story on FictionPress

2008-12-13T01:40:00.000-08:00

I have a page on a website called FictionPress. FictionPress is somewhat like a writer’s forum where users can upload works of fiction they have written and where anyone can read those written by others. The link to my FictionPress profile is on the sidebar to the right as well as here. The page includes everything from short stories, poems, vignettes, and a few others. Many entries are very old so some are kinda silly. But I uploaded a new short story titled The Day I Die and I encourage you to take a look if you like. It’s pretty short and I hope you enjoy it. You can also make comments and reviews on FictionPress. If you are a fan of fiction, take a look around and you may enjoy some of the other things offered on the site. Let me know what you think and enjoy.

From The Coffee Shop to Your Screen

2008-12-08T17:21:00.000-08:00

Inspired by an idea from an employee at a local coffee shop I worked up a new 55 Fiction. A 35-word story was shown to me and I rewrote it with a different storyline, which is surprisingly hard to do with a 55-word max.

With this one, as with the previous Passage and The Duel stories let your imagination fill in the blanks. Reread the previous two with your imagination if not your eyes if you want. Forget the sparse words and let your mind live it, nightmares optional.

Shadow

Shadows crawled the carts.
His fearless face framed by silver moonlight.
High noon in a Tibetan market drenched in black,
Mockery of merchants that chanted their goods above the crowd.
Faceless dark lunged for fearless light.
Shiv carved from the other fears split darkness,
Headless it crawled back to the shadows.

© 2008 jondeplume.blogspot.com, all rights reserved

55 Fiction

2008-12-05T21:38:00.000-08:00

You have heard of short stories no doubt, but I was introduced to a type that goes a little more to the extreme. The local newspaper ran an annual contest for submissions to what they called 55 Fiction. Turns out it is quite popular and surprisingly it was the same paper that started the writing contest in 1987. The main idea is to create an entire story in 55 words or less.

That may sound rather simple until you see the criteria. The story must be 55 words or less, have a setting, one or more characters, a conflict, and then a resolution. The paper receives thousands of entries every year and publishes the ones they think are the best in their weekly paper a week or two after the submission deadline.

I submitted two, and unfortunately, neither was chosen to be published in the paper, but it was truly a blast to create something so short. Every word has to be considered, can one word be used in place of two? I admit I am in no means a master of this style, but I encourage you to try it out. Try writing a story in 55 words or less and see how it goes.

Here are the first two I wrote. I have some others that I learned to be more word conservative with, but as first tries they were fun. I think the first two originally were a little too vague and left a reader with a possibility of not understanding the plot, but I will let you decide that for yourself. Passage is 53 words and The Duel is 49. Enjoy.

Passage

They go in. They don’t come out.
Watching from the hall two went in. None came out.
Menacing doors swallowed them all.
An emptying hall, all go through the gaping hole.
I couldn’t help myself. I had to see, slipping through the closing doors.
Fellow prey stood to my side, “Level two please.”

The Duel

Stoic statues faced each other in a dusty street.
Windows boarded up for a storm under blue skies.
A thundering roar heralds a pinnacle’s crumble to dry earth.
It was over, and the other moved away.
A glint of light from a forsaken sheriff’s badge discarded in the dirt.

© 2008 jondeplume.blogspot.com, all rights reserved

As Heard from the Roommates IV

2008-12-01T19:53:00.000-08:00

I recently moved out of my old apartment with my more than crazy roommates. I still had plenty of items to place on my As Heard from the Roommates series, so I figured I would include some of the best ones left and move on. The two people and dog I am living with now can be plenty strange, so we shall see if the craziness continues.

Not sure when I will be moving into a new apartment, but I sure hope it is soon. The living arrangement now is not the best. I will continue the Crazy Signs series with plenty of pictures that frankly make no sense at all. Now without further adieu, the madness of apartment 502.

"I’m too lazy to inhale, been holding my breath for three months now."
Upon being asked why he did not do his laundry, which was now rather ripe.

"It’s a special seeing eye rat."
If only I knew why this was one of his pets of choice.

"Blast, I need more plutonium."
and/or
"If only we had a cow."
Which is of course the natural reactions to any problem that may arise.

"All hail spoon."
He was rather excited to find one not in the dishwasher.

"That better not land on my pizza."
Pizza was one roommate's food of choice with ice cream a close second for dinner. Objects being thrown around the living room bothered him for some reason.

Thanks to Zirretta

2008-11-29T19:17:00.000-08:00

I have a severe dilemma at the moment. Not counting the winged hamsters pounding on my window with burning torches I realized there are no more books I have to read on my list. I started rereading a favorite of mine, but I seek advice from those that might accidentally stumble onto this site or visit it.

My sister has a great book called Book Lust and it's companion More Book Lust which is more or less a book of literary recommendations for all sorts of genres and interests.

Though I plan to ask her tomorrow if there are any specific recommendations I send my question into the Internet and it's series of tubes, since it's not a dump truck. (Series of tubes full quote [2 minutes long])

From dusty literary classics to sun bleached westerns, pew pew science fiction, "Look upon the land and behold it's power" epics, "Maus"ey graphic novels, steamy romance novels, well maybe not romance novels or any with Fabio as the main character.

Anything you want, those you have read a dozen times or those you have had recommended to you.

With Christmas coming up our family always does a gift exchange with each cousin getting another to give a gift to. Maybe I could write down one of your recommendations. Either way I will be giving the bookstore a Christmas gift of sales this coming month.

Darkness on Black Friday

2008-11-28T14:37:00.000-08:00

Note: I wrote this post with breaking news as a source of information. Those familiar with breaking news know that some of it is exaggerated or false. The original post mentioned two women that were killed at a Toys R Us. As the day went forward, it was said by police that two men shot each other inside the store, and there are no other suspects. The post has been updated and currently coincides with news reports. Though things may change as more facts are learned this has still been a dark Black Friday. The original post with changes made is below.

I do not want this blog to become too serious in any way, but I believe some things have gotten out of hand on Black Friday. Black Friday received its name for the enormous amount of sales made the day after Thanksgiving.

Though Black Friday initially received it's name due to a comparison to the chaos that took place during Black Tuesday, the day of the 1929 stock market crash, it now is seen as the day businesses go from no longer have losses (the red) and instead take in the profits (the black) in accounting.

Businesses open very early in the morning, with some offering "door buster" sales around 4 to 5 a.m. A door buster sale turned deadly in New York.

Black Friday has taken on new meaning for me, associated now with sadness and heartache. A 34-year-old male employee at a Wal-Mart in New York's Long Island was killed when the store opened at 5 a.m. A door buster sale actually became one when about 2000 people gathered outside broke down the doors and trampled the employee. Several other employees and shoppers were hurt or taken to the hospital, all because people could not wait to buy the latest piece of junk. The store couldn't even keep it's doors closed and reopened it’s doors only a few hours after blood was spilled next to DVDs of The Incredible Hulk for 9 dollars. I never knew the price of a human life could be bought for such a great deal.

Emergency teams trying to save the man’s life were even pushed around by shoppers trying to grab that last on sale item while the paramedics were trying to save him. Not one person has been charged with any crime; after all, it was a door buster sale. The running of the bulls in Pamplona Spain sounds calmer than this madness. Fourteen people have died since the first running of the bulls in 1910, and as sad as that is, at least they knew what they were getting into and not simply doing their job.

Black Friday was even further stained with the red blood of innocents when two men shot and killed each other shot at a Toys R Us in Palm Desert California. There are no concrete facts yet, but no other suspects are sought and no others were shot. This is just sick. A Tickle-Me-Elmo is never worth a payment of blood.

Toy guns are fine with me, but when someone brings a tool of death into a store designed to fill the dreams of children and kills two people I feel like taking one of those Elmo’s and beating the despicable gunmen and throwing them into Oscar the Grouch's trash can. I am no fan of personal violence, but Black Friday got darker for me today.

Even as I sit here at a Peet's Coffee Shop in a relatively small shopping center I have seen over a dozen police officers wearing bullet proof vests walking around just in case. Two are standing in the Best Buy electronics store and checking bags of shoppers for weapons.

I apologize for the somber post; I wish that I never feel the need to write one again with all my heart. May the families of victims this Black Friday be comforted as we use coupons clipped on Thanksgiving, when we sit down together to enjoy the countless things we are thankful for, knowing that there will be an empty chair this Christmas for some when we pass out presents stained with blood.

Pixels and Yarn

2008-11-23T00:30:00.000-08:00

I know it is quite late but I figured I would link some photos I took at the Harvest Carnival on Halloween since I said I would.

I had a great time taking them, unfortunately, I have a very poor flash right now so when it hit nighttime so did many of my photos. I am planning on picking up a Vivitar 285 to use as an external unit. Would have been useful when I caught our dinner running around before we fired up the BBQ.

Sure there are newer and possibly better TTL (Through the lens) flash units out there, but it is hard to beat the 285 or it’s smaller sibling the 283. The 285 has been around since 1972 and I would wager many photographers still carry this workhorse with them. Further, some of the cheapest TTL flash units are more than 200 dollars, and to be honest you need to spend several hundred more for a good one.

A brand new 285hv, which is a rerelease of the original only runs about 80 dollars as well. After 36 years of service Vivitar made only one change worth noting, which is lowering the voltage of the flash so as not to hurt digital cameras.

To make things sweeter the 285 and 283 are manual, and I think most photographers are a whole lot smarter than a tiny little chip inside a TTL flash.

In other news, my sister will be happy to hear that I am getting better at knitting. It feels like I have two left hands, no thumbs, and 8 fingers on each hand some days, but I am nearing the completion of my first piece, considering completion as it being square. If only I was this talented.

Thanks a lot GidgeFlibbit, another one addicted.

One more thing, what set of photos is complete without an angel?

Harvest Carnival

2008-10-25T16:06:00.000-07:00

With Halloween around the corner, I will be taking photos at the Harvest Carnival tonight in town. The carnival is designed mainly for kids with everything you would expect to find at a fair. There will be a bungee jump, tons of carnival games, and those cute little trains with the miniature cars for the kids to sit in.

Last year there were many of those inflatable bounce houses with everything from races while you have a bungee cord pulling you back, slides, and Velcro walls that they have you jump into while wearing a matching Velcro suit. And of course, a petting zoo with all those wonderful smelling animals. Last year there was a really tall ferries wheel but I do not know if they have one this year too.

The American Gladiator jousting has always been a favorite of mine. People get really competitive when they are allowed to bash each other with huge foam sticks.

I will be climbing up on top of the climbing walls and take photos as people come up as well. Those usually turn out pretty good.

The people that run the carnival usually have some official photographers, but a friend and I are bringing all our photo gear as well, then giving them copies of all the photo RAWS. I will have copies as well, so I can post up any good ones I get. It is always frustrating taking photos at night though. I do not have a good off-camera flash yet so I have to rely on shutter speed and aperture.

I wonder how many pounds of cotton candy everyone will gobble down tonight.

I'm Back!

2008-10-10T19:17:00.001-07:00

Believe it or not, I’m back. Sorry for the extended absence for the past couple months. I realize the only person that reads this is maybe my sister or a few people that accidently come here, but there’s always the hope someone may enjoy it. I have since graduated from college and am looking at a possible job as a civilian journalist with the military.

Staying with earlier posts, I will continue to post photos. I am also rewriting a story I have been playing around with for a while with the help of a friend. When I finish a part that seems decent enough not to be laughed at I’ll put it up here.

In other news, the economy is really swell right now, and unfortunately, it has not been kind to my sister’s attempt to own a house. After living in an apartment they were only meant to be in for a few months they have been under that roof for more than a year. If you read her blog, and you should since it’s great, then you would probably understand her frustration a little. I think Tony the Cat is sabotaging the house purchase. That cat has murder in his eyes, as seen by the scratch marks that his owner is always sporting.

Fear the Tabby

More to come soon, in the meantime here’s a picture of a Howler Monkey.

High key shoot

2008-05-03T00:51:00.000-07:00

I was finally able to get back into the studio to do some more photo shoots. Did a high key shot with my neighbor for this one. It was a fun setup for the shoot because I used a giant boom to suspend a light dome over her. The light dome was the biggest one I had in the studio, at about 5 feet wide. That’s when you want to make sure it is firmly attached to the boom. It would probably make my model a little unhappy if a giant light dome fell on her in the middle of the shoot. Working with the lighting packs always worries me during setup. I usually work with a 2000 watt lighting pack and as I am plugging lights into the pack, I always hope I didn’t screw up anywhere. A 2000 watt electrocution probably would hurt a bit. I’ve had the pleasure of getting shocked pretty bad once before and that was an interesting experience. I was welding and arced 30 amps through my hand. I was wearing lambskin gauntlet gloves and lit them on fire. I’ll pass on any more of that. Here’s one of the photos that I took.

Late night noises

2008-04-20T17:28:00.001-07:00

We have a new security company at my apartment complex to keep the peace on weekends or any other party time. There are several security companies in town and they picked one of the best ones, so my next-door neighbors might be having parties that end at night and not with the rising sun. Speaking of my neighbors I don’t know how a group of people can party that much. I would say from Thursday to Sunday it’s a party. Beer flows like water, or maybe a river, make that a waterfall, did someone say Niagara?

Thankfully, I can go next door and tell the guys that my room is shaking apart from their speakers and the volume drops for about one minute before someone turns it back up again. Music isn’t that big of a deal but when you are not sure if it’s an earthquake or the bass from the latest copy of a copy of rap music it can be annoying. Over on our side we have weapons of our own.

My roommate recently acquired a trombone. There is only one small problem, he plays the cello, not the trombone. So when it’s really loud he decides to practice the trombone, or at least that’s what we call it. He produces his brass weapon from a case that is so broken and abused you can only imagine how bad the instrument is. Then you see the trombone, and it’s just as bad. Sorry roommate, clean that thing. He brings the trombone to his lips and belts out the worst sounding thing imaginable. Imagine a horn section at an orchestra trying to describe the sound of pain, and there you go. They might be able to reproduce his solo born against the midnight breeze.

I’ve been next door and asked the guys, so, did you hear that noise last night? Yah they say, what in the world are you people doing up there?

Keep away from the sharks

2008-04-13T16:34:00.000-07:00

This sign is posted as part of several warnings including rip tides and not turning your back to waves. Somehow, it doesn't seem right though. I can understand playing with some wildlife, but gosh, playing with the sharks sounds flat out dangerous. I don't think people have much say in the matter though. If a shark is out there about to nibble on you, I don’t think it’s going to ask you first. Yum, human drumsticks, high in fat, lacking vitamins though.

Fishing at the pier

2008-04-10T12:15:00.000-07:00

I have always liked going out and shooting photos at the beach, and especially on piers. With many people walking up and down there are so many different things going on to shoot. I have posted several photos from piers nearby already but I went out and shot a few more this week at a different pier. I will post one for now. I always like to wonder what the person’s story is that I am taking a photo of. This girl was struggling to fish with the big pole. Casting seemed to be hard because of the guardrail. Climbing up it was probably not the safest either.

War of the pollen

2008-04-07T19:09:00.000-07:00

There has been a new front in the war of the pine tree pollen. Not only is the outside of my car covered, as well as my room because I had my window open for a little while last week before I realized it was coming in, but now something new. While the yellow pollen is settling on my car, it has found a wonderful way of attacking me, through the air vents. I started my car this afternoon and the cabin was suddenly filled with billows of yellow pine pollen dust. It was horrible. I even had the pleasure of watching the pollen flowing out of the vents, gosh, when will it end? I wish I could just go up to the trees, shake them hard enough, and get it all over with.

As Heard from the Roommates Part III

2008-04-04T23:37:00.000-07:00

Time for another episode of As Heard from the Roommates. Things are starting to get strange around here.

It was a calculated risk when I released the mongoose.

The field has gone feral.

No there’s not a body in it.

Moo! Send in the Cowvalry!

Pollen dust

2008-03-31T14:08:00.000-07:00

Pine pollen dust has taken over my apartment. There are many pine trees surrounding the complex and they are all spreading fine yellow pollen all over everything. Cars, sidewalks, windows, even the top of a lamp outside my window is covered with yellow dust. My car is completely covered with the pollen, and this must be an allergy sufferer’s worst nightmare. Under a microscope, pollen even looks menacing.

New macro lens

2008-03-29T22:57:00.000-07:00

I got a "new" used macro lens for my camera so you will be seeing some more close up shots in the near future. It’s a 100mm f/2.8 Canon macro lens. I’ve previously been shooting macros with another lens that has made life difficult. I will be able to do life size magnification with the new lens.

Macros are always fun to do. Most of the ones I have posted have been shot in the studio. It has been closed for a little bit but I will probably be able to get back in some shooting time next week. Here’s a macro of a disc I did with another lens.

Crazy signs part I

2008-03-28T10:08:00.000-07:00

One of the many signs around the city that makes no sense. So we are supposed to stop, yet right above the stop sign is another that reads there is no stopping any time, I’m confused. To make matters worse our crazy cops would probably give us a ticket no matter what.

FictionPress

2008-03-24T20:05:00.000-07:00

If anybody has heard of it I have a site at FictionPress.com. It is basically a writers’ forum where anybody can create an account and post their original stories or poems or any type of work. I have been writing and posting on that site for many years. It says I joined December of 2001, scary. The most current things I am working on are some vignettes and a story called Black Skies. Black Skies is in progress. It is kind of a fun side project story. I just added a short poem for those that are interested called Ordinary. The fun thing with it is I increased the words in each line by one in each line. For example, the first line has one word, second line has two words, etc. Once it gets to the climax of the poem it decreases by one word the same way. Check it out if you like. You can find the link in the “My other sites" box to the right or by clicking this link. The two newest entries will be at the top. Enjoy.

Barrel of monkeys

2008-03-21T21:37:00.000-07:00

New photos from the studio. I was playing with a light table and some toys this time. And is there anything more fun than a barrel of monkeys? Since the light table is shaped like a steep slide I taped the barrel to the back and then taped two monkeys inside the barrel and let the others hang from those. I like how it turned out. I have a Gumby toy I am going to shoot next time.

At the beach

2008-03-19T16:29:00.001-07:00

I was at the beach a little while ago taking some photos so I thought I would pass on a couple beach shots. Beautiful outside despite the storms we had the previous days including hail. It was quite surprising when I was sitting in my room and it started hailing outside. Not that big of hail, about pea sized, but it was still something you don’t see everyday around here.

This is one of my favorites. I was planning on taking a picture of just the three of them sitting on the bench, but just as I was about to take the shot the kid on the right turned around to look at me. I thought it added a nice touch to the shot.

I was walking on the pier and saw the banquet of Lay’s barbeque chips by this little guy. They say don’t feed the birds but the pigeons would probably tell you a different story.

When I was walking down the pier, I saw this guy leaning over the side. I spent a good amount of time on the pier, maybe 30 minutes. When I came back, he hadn’t moved. Deep in thought I guess. Background of the waves and cliffs added a nice touch to the shot.

As Heard from the Roommates Part II

2008-03-16T02:18:00.000-07:00

Time for the second installment of As Heard from the Roommates, with more randomness and proof I live with strange folk. As it is no explanations needed, but if you are curious about the story behind something drop a comment.

Deploy the anti-bovine weapon, we’re helpless against the cows. Real time strategy gone horribly wrong.

That would be a great shell script, hit a button, howler monkey!

Stop your train. Stop your train. Defects detected. Hotbox near axle 23 dragging equipment near Axle 0.

I’m too lazy to inhale, been holding my breath for three months now.

Toast! Buttered with awesome.

Pablo Neruda

2008-03-14T23:11:00.000-07:00

My sister over at Gidgeflibbit recently pointed me out to some poetry by Pablo Neruda, and I must say I enjoy it quite a lot. I highly suggest you take a look at it if you are a fan of poetry like me. Scroll down the page on this website until you find his work, La Muerta and Soneto 17. For the English only speakers that’s Dead Woman and Sonnet 17.

On a separate note I am right now listening to crazy neighbors yelling and sometimes yelping in pain as they are shooting each other with water balloon slingshots…genius.

Literary quotes

2008-03-12T18:18:00.001-07:00

There are so many books that I have read over the years, and a few of them have stuck with me in particular. Some because of the content, some of them because of the teachers in the classes in which they were taught, or others because of when I read them and what may have been going on in my life. Sometimes I can find a passage of a novel that sums it up, or gives a good idea of part of the novel.

Some of my favorite books are those written by the Brontë sisters, especially Emily and her book Wuthering Heights. The passage I like the most in that book is, “I have dreamed in my life, dreams that have stayed with me ever after, and changed my ideas; they have gone through and through me, like wine through water, and altered the color of my mind.”

So, what are your favorites? Do any of you like anything by the Brontë sisters as well? Leave some comments with your choices. Doesn’t seem like many people visit this blog yet, but maybe soon.

Pie

2008-03-12T00:25:00.000-07:00

I work for a morning radio show for those that don’t know. Mostly it’s a news show with interviews, traffic reports, weather, etc. I write strange news stories all the time, but this one takes the cake, well, pie. I’m not gonna paste in the story, but basically blood donors in the county and the one south of us for the next couple weeks get a free Marie Calender’s pie.

They have done promotions in the past like coupons for pizza and the like, but a free whole pie is not bad. They even faxed the promotion announcement to the station in classic press release format all professional so I got a good chuckle out of it. I had to make sure I didn’t make the story sound silly on air, but since I donate blood regularly looks like I may get myself some apple pie this week. Yum yum.

As Heard from the Roommates

2008-03-08T21:33:00.000-08:00

Going to be introducing a new feature for you all. I’d like to informally call it for now “As Heard from the Roommates.” A lot of craziness goes on here, and though we are one guy down as he is up north quite a lot the three of us manage to tear the apartment up anyway. I should have done this before but I never wrote down some of the incomprehensible things that come out of their strange minds. And so it begins.

I am the tuna of the devil!!

Guess we’re gonna have to put you down (in response to another roommate meowing like a cat, that roommate will remain unnamed)

And my personal favorite:

There’s so many pranks you can do with bacon grease and airport security

Silhouettes

2008-03-07T09:36:00.001-08:00

I was playing with some flash units in the studio and thought I would try some silhouette shots. It ended up being a lot harder than I thought since the subject in the photo didn’t cover up the lights entirely and I was getting light flare in the image. Took a while to get one where he covered up the tripod and lights. The subject is actually one of my roommates and he was doing martial arts from the Muay Thai he is involved in.

He couldn’t go, but my other roommate and I headed out to the beach around sunset to get some shots with natural backlight to make a silhouette. We had only a few minute window to take the shots so we had to make sure we were set up. There are a lot of sand dunes out there so we climbed up one.

On the way back we noticed a funny sign. I think it’s pretty obvious that I won’t be playing with that particular wildlife. It might not end too well for me.

My roommate you see in the beach shot has a collection of funny signs he has seen around the city so I will try to get a copy of them.

Ramuné

2008-03-05T16:15:00.000-08:00

I read about this strange soda called Ramuné so I had to check it out. It’s a Japanese soda, but the strangest thing is the bottle that it comes in. On top it has a plastic wrapper that has a little plastic plunger looking thing. You then use that to push down a glass marble that is keeping the drink sealed.

The carbonation and gas is pushing against the glass marble from inside keeping it up against the top of the bottle until you push it down with the plunger. The actual bottle has a large cottle to keep the marble from falling down into the bottle once the marble has been pushed out of the way. It’s actually a really neat design.

If you have a market near you that sells Asian food, I highly suggest you take a look for Ramuné. If you only see the original, original is a lemon lime type flavor.

Your favorite blogs

2008-03-03T23:08:00.001-08:00

I know not that many people visit this page, but I wanted to know your opinion on other blogs. There are a few that I read but I am curious what your favorites are. What blogs do you read on a regular basis, which do you take a peek at once in a while? Leave a comment with those that you like so I can check them out as I am curious. I’ll have some photos I took at the beach up soon for a photo shoot I did. Some of them turned out pretty good. I was racing the sun, as I had to do them as it was setting so you only have a few minute window and that made it a little difficult. But leave comments on your favorite blogs, later.

The Discarded

2008-02-29T16:39:00.000-08:00

I was crossing the bridge by my apartment that goes over a creek and saw a bike just sitting in the middle of the rushing water. Made me wonder why someone either threw it over the side of the bridge in the first place, or why someone hadn’t gone to get it. I went down the embankment below the bridge, which was an adventure in itself because it is very steep and still wet from rain. Took a couple photos then dragged it out of the creek. It had a tag with the owners name on it and an address so I am gonna see if I can look the guy up.

I was on my way to the esurplus junk dump, as I like to call it. It’s where all the electronics that are outdated or going to be trashed are taken. There they are sold on online auctions similar to eBay. However, different from eBay an entire computer usually ends up with a final bid of 10 dollars or something silly like that. The computer we are running our web server off of at the apartment we got for 5 bucks from esurplus. They also sell monitors, chairs, cords, well, lots of stuff.

Most of the good stuff is in that warehouse in the background but some of the really old stuff is in those boxes. Unfortunately, when it rains there is nothing covering those boxes so some of it is ruined. So strange sometimes what is considered trash, and what is discarded. A perfectly good bike and a landscape of electronics.

Amtgard

2008-02-26T12:20:00.001-08:00

I was driving down the road and saw these people at a park near where I live. There were around 20 of them just going nuts smacking each other. I didn’t have my camera so I went home first and came back, but the rain had reduced the number of people there quite a lot. Thankfully it had stopped raining by the time I got there as rain and cameras don’t mix all that well. I guess it is something called Amtgard. One guy that told me he was dressed as a monk explained a lot of it to me.

Some were fighting each other with weapons made of bamboo with those floater things that you see at pools wrapped around them. A few of them even had shields.

Probably one of the more interesting parts was what people were yelling out of their cars as they drove by. People in cars yelled everything from insults to various quotes from the movie 300. There was even a truck that slowed down to watch and got hit by another car, whoops. Overall, it was really fun to watch these people because they were really into it. Surprisingly no one was injured while I was there.

Under the weather

2008-02-24T22:10:00.000-08:00

Your fearless leader has been under the weather the whole weekend so it hasn’t been the most fun the past few days. Along with the constant rain it's been a real blast. I’ll have some real fun photos for you tomorrow. I saw some people doing something pretty interesting while I was coming home from helping a DJ record at the radio station. Almost no DJs are live anymore, it’s kinda sad. Almost everything is prerecorded. The camera is in the car so I am not going to go grab it and upload the photos until tomorrow. You’ll just have to guess what craziness is going on that was enough to have an accident happen from people watching them as they were driving by. Gotta leave you with something though, so here’s some people watching some dolphins at the beach. They were just past the pier but I thought the people were a little more interesting.

This guy must be a stud though, having four girls following him around, not bad.

Ipod pouch

2008-02-22T15:33:00.000-08:00

Two posts in one day, scary, but I told my sister I would do this for her and keep forgetting. If you didn’t know, she is an excellent knitter. Some of the things she has made are just beautiful and the artisanship is superb. She has made a little bit of everything. You really need to look at some of this stuff. Can you really get much cuter than this?

She is also part of a group that exchanges Christmas ornaments every year and made quite a few of these for this past Christmas’ exchange.

Clothing too!

Anyway, I got an ipod for Christmas and my sister knit a little pouch for it. She asked me to take some photos of the pouch in action. I was going to take some shots in the studio today but some people were using it so I set up my own little shooting studio in the study area of the Dexter Building for those that know it. They have a nice red felt covering on the seats. Of course, leave it to the Dexter building to have red felt seats. I also found a white poster advertising some weird concert and used that as a white background for some high-key shots. Here’s a few, the rest I am sending to Gidgeflibbit for her knitting collection. The background isn't very white but I'm not one for spending much time in photoshop.

A little about me

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

Thought I would say a little about myself. I am currently pursuing a Journalism degree and will finish college at the end of this year. With work regarding my major, I have worked for newspapers and a TV station in the past, but I currently work for a radio station doing a morning news show. I write news and produce parts of the show. One of the more unique parts of working for a morning show is getting to work at five in the morning. I have been writing and taking photos for quite a long time. I started writing fiction in 5th grade and the story I wrote got chosen to be performed by the local high school as a short play. That got me going on writing and I have been doing it ever since. As far as photography, my grandma gave me the photo bug. When my sister and I were growing up she was always taking photos of us and she got the nickname Flashburn Della (Della being her name), as we supposedly had glazed over looks in our eyes from so many flashes going off. My first camera was this really funky Kodak thing. I looked for a photo of it but I don’t remember what it was called but it looked a little like this one.
For the longest time I was a total film guy and completely opposed to digital. I developed all my own shots in darkrooms on campus, which was great because you had total control over the exposure of the photo. A little while ago though I finally got a digital camera. Various reasons, but I had to take the digital plunge eventually. I’ll leave you with a shot I took of one of my roommates a few days ago in the studio. He is a relatively quiet and reserved guy so it took a little while to get him to do this shot. It is called a low-key shot if you were wondering.

Lighting used was a Dyna-lite 1000 and a 2000 connected to three soft boxes and goboed for lens flare. Unfortunately I didn’t get the gobo right and the black background is more gray than black. For non studio people gobo is a term used to mean a barrier to “go-between” the light and something else. For example, you can tell that I didn’t block the lights properly from the background or it would be much darker. Instead, you can clearly see its black paper and not a black void as it is supposed to be like in this shot taken by a friend.

Enjoy and have a good weekend all.

The beginning

2008-02-20T17:14:00.000-08:00

Welcome to the beginning of Jon de Plume. I have wanted to start this blog for quite a while but never got around to it. I have had a page at FictionPress.com for several years, but you can’t add much more than a bio to your uploaded works. My sister has been my biggest encouragement for starting a blog. Her blog, Gidgeflibbit is quite popular. It doesn’t hurt that she is adored by many and extremely talented. I apologize that the template for my page is currently the same as hers. I like the design, but I will change it once I get the chance to play around with the colors a bit more. Like FictionPress this blog will be updated with new pieces I am working on. I will also upload photos from my studio shoots. Some are available on Flickr, but I will place photos on the blog more frequently. To start the ball rolling this is a shot I did today for a product promotion shoot.

I almost broke the eggs while stacking them. Probably should have boiled them first. I’ve never been one for eating the sugar coated Peeps, they kinda scare me. Simple lighting using a Dyna-lite 2000, a large soft box on a boom tripod, and black paper for the shot. I had the soft box hanging above me so every shot blinded me, oh well, that’s 2000 watts for yah.

Anyway, if you are visiting from FictionPress, welcome, extra reviews coming your way. I will try to update frequently and enjoy.