Monthly Archives: November 2009

the rebellious colours

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so I left campus a few days early and am enjoying being at home with the pretty girl. despite the fact that southern california doesn’t actually experience autumn, I still dig the cool, wood-burnt smell of my hometown air in late-November.

while I wait for vacation to catch up to my wife’s work schedule, I’ve been playing around with my new lens—a Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS. our front yard consistently puts on an autumn spectacle as colors fade from a uniform green to rebellious yellows, oranges and reds.

Autumn in SoCal

Autumn in SoCal

Autumn in SoCal

Autumn in SoCal

Autumn in SoCal

after shooting these shots for about 15mins, our neighbor came outside and asked, “can I ask why you’re standing underneath the trees with your telescope? can you even see the sky with that thing?”

proud

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Ceiling Painting (YES Painting), Yoko Ono, 1966.jpg

today, my sister found out that she passed the california state bar exam. I am so very proud of her. this was her first time taking an exam that has about a 45% pass rate and she did what she always does, accepted the challenge and met it with determination, hard work and grace.

congrats today and on achieving the balance of your dreams.

new toys

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so I brought Buster the Dog home a new toy today. it survived about 10mins which equals out to about a dollar per minute. it was totally worth it though b/c he got to have some fun and I got to play around some more with the 70-200mm lens in “action mode”.

the new toy-2

the new toy

you’re welcome.

here we go

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finished with the med center for the day. walk home. the 1/4mile walk feels shorter with each trip.

walk up to my front-door to find a package. addressed to someone at least 3 blocks away. need to return to the post-office or deliver myself. the breadth of the mistake makes me laugh.

fiddle with my key. FUCK. this lock needs some lubrication. remember to pick up some WD-40 the next time we’re out. crack the seal; walk inside.

buster greets me and reminds me why he is the best part of my day. petting ^2.

Buster wondering why he's not in costume.

flip through the mail. give buster a snack. repeat. there’s correspondence to be dealt with.

I NEED STAMPS…noted and logged for future reference.

grab the unfortunate package and head for the door. buster lets out a whimper. comfort the sorrowful. drive to the post office and am the nice guy in the parking lot who yields to others.

“yes we can. yes we can.”

wait in a relatively short line—for the post office that is. hand the older lady behind the counter the package left at my door. “misaddressed and erroneously delivered” i explain.

“i would have kept it if i were you“, she replies, “what if there’s something good in here?”

((awesome…at least your honest.))

“what does your bracelet mean?” the mischeivous-would-be-thief-behind-the-counter asks?

“it means I’m awesome” i reply while trying to channel the world’s most interesting man.

“so why are you awesome?”

“because I bought this bracelet.”

“that will be 88 cents for the two stamps.” i pay the tab and drop two envelopes in the box on my way out.

drive home. the trip seems shorter with each drive. maybe life is going by quicker. need to do something about slowing that down.

The First 80 Years

if you have any suggestions, i’m all ears.

the most uninterested of subjects

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after being very underwhelmed with the Canon EF 24-70mm f/2.8L, I decided to exchange it for the mother of all Canon lenses…the 70-200mm f/2.8L IS.

The good news for Buster was that I needed something/someone to shoot…and well, you know where I’m going with this:

Here’s buster peeking out the back door and being captured sharply at 200mm.

Caught Peeking

…and here’s Buster acting more bored than I’ve ever seen him.

Bored.

also, I find these photos funny b/c Buster is unaware of what life is like without having a camera firing at him ad nauseum.

you meant it

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the genius of michael stipe is especially appreciated when he participates in music outside of what has been crafted as his own. tonight’s example is his collaboration with dashboard confessional on their emo/hipster tune “hands down”. (tune and video available here)

once you’ve heard the stipe-infused-duet, the original track finds itself screaming demands for stipe’s baritone influence.

enjoy “hands down” by dashboard confessional featuring michael stipe (track available on iTunes):

all of this being said, no one can question Chris Carrabba’s ability, inspiration or command. compare, contrast and enjoy:

p&l

suicide contagion

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interesting article in today’s LA Times about a phenomenon called “suicide contagion“. simply defined, in the event of a suicide, we find the risk of suicide in that community sky-rockets above the mean risk for that area.

we’ve been told by those smarter than we that there are numerous factors at play in “suicide contagion” but one that I’ve never heard explored is that maybe people who are depressed/sad/suicidal just need someone to say it’s OK to let go and that even hearing of a stranger’s suicide is enough of an affirmative to say goodbye.

full article over here at the Times website and for more on suicide prevention head over here.

i’m glad it was close

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in light of the conservative-noise-machine’s misrepresentation of the health care reform bill, consider the following from rc3.org:

I’ve seen a somewhat common piece of bad analysis I’ve seen over the past week, and have been surprised to see people correct it. As you may know, the House of Representatives passed a health care reform bill last night, 220 to 215. 39 Democrats voted against it. The fact that the Democrats couldn’t get everyone on board is being treated as a flaw in their strategy when in fact I’m sure their leadership sees it as the key. The bill passed in the House will be merged with whatever bill is passed in the Senate, and that’s the bill both the House and Senate will vote on again to be sent to the President for signature.

Every vote over the minimum necessary to secure passage represents compromises that the Democrats as a group would prefer not to make. It’s not that Nancy Pelosi was lucky to pass the bill, it’s that the Democrats wrote the strongest bill they could that would get enough votes to pass. That’s good strategy.

sounds like a solid plan to me. i’ll expand on this theory with regards to the fact that republicans continually produce votes with nearly 100% party support. this either speaks to the inclusive nature and variance of thought among the democratic party…or the republicans are just too short-sighted to employ a similar tactic.

The Ruin of the Obama Presidency (The Liberal Media is MIA)

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if you’ve been listening to CNN during the past 36hrs, then you too must be impressed with the “republican renaissance” that is sweeping the country (read: New Jersey & Virginia).

the good people over at squashed put the whole fuck thing in perspective:

In the 2008 election, Barack Obama won 57.27% of the votes in New Jersey. Yesterday, his approval rating among voters in New Jersey was only 57%. So in New Jersey, it looks like Obama’s Presidency faces a serious threat from media rounding.

In the 2008 election, Barack Obama won 52.63% of the vote. In yesterday’s election, his approval rating in Virginia was only 51% among voters surveyed. It seems that either Obama has lost an entire 1.63% of the vote or voter turnout among Obama’s supporters was down. Or maybe some voters on the far left would vote for Obama over a conservative but don’t approve of his centrist policies. Either way, we could be looking yesterday’s election sent an unambiguous message. Or something.

interesting how the “liberal media” is droning on and on about the Obama downfall, eh? reminds me of the time that the “liberal media” gave Geroge W. a pass on Iraq and Reagan a week-long funeral.

like a deranged farm animal

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so did you kids see all that halloween craziness earlier this week? no? hmmm.

well to recap, BusterTheDog decided that he’d had enough of being costume-free and with a little help from sister he was soon sporting all sorts of chicken-goodness.

Buster Is a Deranged Chicken

Buster Is a Deranged Chicken

Buster Is a Deranged Chicken

photos are up on flickr–including really poor-digital-camera video footage to drive you crazy with cute overload.

FEAR THE BUSTER!