June.05.2011

Not much going on here. Been working to perfect the little patches of garden I have around the yard. They are pretty much done now. Planted, fed, weeded. Flushed the pond out a few times so far (about 20% each time.) Still can't stay ahead of the algae because it's in the sun all day long.

Went to a barbeque at Russ & Fran's place. Nice people, nice house, nice "yard" .

Well . . . the photography bug claims another victim . . . Jim Lockwood is getting interested in digital photography. I warned him but he ignored me and is studying up on what camera he "needs" to buy. Poor guy . . . the only cure for what he has (and all photographers) is to buy stuff then buy more stuff then trade it all in for "better" stuff.

Which reminds me that I got that 80-300mm zoom lens last week (on a trade) and it is ever so cool but no great pictures yet). That's a very big change for me, as I have been a "wide angle shooter" for 40 years, so this lens take some practice.

The Knight

I visited Concord, MA the other day. It was a moderately pleasant trip. Picked up a model in their local shop and today, I got to make it look pretty: Sir Whathisname

Old Camera

Grabbed an old camera and shot a variation on a previous photo . . . Movie Camera. In the background is one frame from Dad's 8mm movie (1953) showing, Bob, Mom, Sally, Me, Grandma Leo.

From the Christian Science Monitor . . .

Dylan, . . . I'm Leaving, . . . Forget Someone ?

It's hot and humid and I am dragging my wagon today, but did get the groceries done (which explains the gold star next to my name on the refrigerator door )

S&P 500

In the year 2000, the index was at 1500. After 11 years, today it is at 1300. Gone are the days of retiring on the dividends from your investments.

People say "The market has bounced back.", and I say "Yeh . . . it bounced back 600 points after dropping 800 points !"

So . . people who had $100,000 in the stock market from 2000 until today, on the average, now have $87,000.

Digging through some old pictures . . . found this . . .

Intelligent Design

Let me get controversially religious for a few paragraphs on the topic of "Creationism, or Intelligent Design, versus Evolution".

First, a true engineering story (one of many similar stories). I read an article decades ago about a structure that was designed, engineered and built to perfection, in that it was perfectly designed to withstand the specified forces, using the most efficient (least) amount of material. Then one day it collapsed (really !).

Turns out that the actual forces that it experienced were slightly different than the forces that were specified for its design. Not that the actual forces were higher than the specified forces, but they acted along slightly different directions, which changed the stresses inside the structure. Once one piece broke, the nearby pieces were overloaded and the collapse cascaded through the structure. Engineering Lesson: optimum design is (at best) a myth and (most often) a cruel trap.

Now the religious stuff. . .

Let's say that God is stupid, and She / He designed and created life forms to survive and thrive in an Earthly environment (air, water, tropics, arctic, whatever) and to perform certain tasks (fly, swim, hunt, breathe air, breathe water, whatever).

Then let's say that, due to the dynamics of these creatures living, moving, eating one another and of volcanoes exploding, and that the atmosphere being an extremely sensitive and dynamic thing, as is the Earth's topsoil, oceans and forests, the Earthly environment changed. The oceans, the atmosphere, the forests, the deserts, even the continents themselves moved. But despite these changes, the life forms never changed because they were locked into their "perfect" designs for the original world. They of course would then not thrive and would probably even die out.

Let's instead say that God is not stupid, but She / He thought of the perfect way to design life forms that would thrive in a changing world. God would invent evolution, so that the creatures would adapt and thrive in an ever changing environment.

So, you see my point . . . Evolution is a very Intelligent Design method.

June 15 : Happy Birthday Mike ! !

June.18.2011

Yesterday was mom's birthday, and it rained all day (no connection there). This morning was nice, so I dropped into the Tower Hill Botanic Garden (mom would have loved this place) to see how the pro's do gardening, and get myself some inspiration. Here are some happy-snaps!.

San Fransisco, Oct.2011

D's dream, a visit to San Fransisco, will come about in October, as we booked the flights and hotel the other day. She is getting in shape to hike the hills. I am saving my dimes to take the cable cars up the hills.

Hexar in Green Leather

I re-covered my much-loved Konica Hexar in green leather, and it is gorgeous: Picture

Ogunquit, Maine

Did a day trip to York and Ogunquit, before the heavy tourist season kicks in. Very nice place to visit off season. Peter and Judy went with us. Though the drive home pretty much burned me out, the day was nice. Photo #1 Photo #2

June 22 : Happy Birthday Chris ! !

Now in Print

I took a chance and had 20 of my cafe photos printed into a leather-bound book. Got it in the mail today . . . looks neat . . . these are all pretty close to the original 8"X10" sizes . . the book pages are 12"X12".

June.25.2011

raining again and again. puttered about cleaning the basement. then revisited a photo i took in 2006 at the grand canyon and grayscaled it and did other exotic things . . .
doing more things for the big party which is now two weeks away . . . bug candles, propane, umbrellas, etc etc etc.

"For parts only"

Leica fans (as you might expect) love their Leicas insanely. How insanely? Here is a 35mm film camera, fixed lens, point and shoot and it is broken . . . being sold for parts only !.. If it were a Nikon or Canon or Minolta, you would toss it in the trash, as you couldn't get enough for it to cover the Ebay fee of selling it.

Well . . there have been 20 bids on this and they are up to $759 for a broken, point and shoot film camera. (I bid $5 but was quickly lossed in the scuffle.)

Audubon Bog Photo (Reworked in B&W)

Bugs

D is off to Pat's today, and I went to the Audubon sanctuary to feed the mosquitos. Must have been kids day or something, as there were lots of mom's and kids . . . I mean really a lot of them and nature tour guides talking about stuff. They all turned left at the fork in the trail, so I turned right (we artists hate crowds). Had the tele-zoom mounted on the Nikon (I don't do that often), hoping for that Peruvian Condor fly-over. That never happened , but I caught a nice little dragonly.

Not crazy about the dragonfly, I stuck the simple 50mm + an extension tube on the Nikon, grabbed a beer and stalked around the back yard, and found this little beauty (Unknown Bug) that I was very happy to snap.

Have been playing with close-up pictures all day (since I am waiting for the verizon geek to set up the TV), a made a pretty picture of a house plant:
Pretty Flower Picture.

June.30.2011

Today was filled with all the excitment that house cleaning brings with it. Mulching the flower beds (using that compost pile from last year's leaves), washing windows (Dave's hose, bucket and spongemop method) and hosing down screens, cleaning and hosing the inside of the garage (which is the emergency party area in case it rains July 9th). At the moment, I am washing down the memories with Boston Red Ale.

* * Moving to a New Server * *

Dave's Journal pages are soon going to switch to a new internet server. This (theoretically) will be invisible to readers. Theoretically. Should happen any minute now. Expect a few days of "page not found" until the bugs get exterminated.