Just me, a hub, dad, grandad --who thinks young, acts like an adult (most of the time), who thinks technology is wonderful. A transplanted Canadian who has dual citizenship, but pays taxes to the US...works in DC lives in Northern Virginia.
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I haven't really watched much of the Dem convention, but I did stay up last night to watch Mark Warner and Hillary. Both gave very good speeches. I am proud of Mark Warner, a fellow Virginian. I hope to hell he beats Jim Gilmore to a pulp--the SOB (Gilmore) put VA in a hell hole financially, and there is no way I want his hairbrained ideas polluting the Senate. Right now Warner is up by 20 points in the polls, and is millions of $ ahead of him in fund raising. And I hope the rest of the Republicans in the state--especially in the state legislature--follow him to oblivion.
Hillary did a nice job of reconciliation with Barack. But I am a tad pissed with some of her supporters. Read in the USA Today this morning quoting some of her supporters that they will not vote in the election because she did not get the nomination.... three words---GET OVER IT! Hillary's comments regarding whether her supporters were voting for her or voting because of their concern for the country were extremely appropriate. It seems to me that the ultra-feminists in the party may very well be the trouble makers---and I don't mean that as a slam. But you reach a point where you have to put those goals aside and do what is best for the country. To not do so could mean another 4 years of the same REGIME---and we sure in hell don't need that.
And speaking of REGIME change--- I wish to hell the Dems would quite being mamby pamby and start associating McCain with the Bushites--hell, even Pat Buchanan said as much last night-- here are the facts...McCain voted with Bush policies 95% of the time; Bush himself has fallen so low in the polls even his own party wants to distance themselves from him; and Dr. NO (Cheney) has only an 18% approval rating---as Buchanan says, that's a free shot---TAKE IT FOR GOD SAKE! You don't have to get nasty, just make the association and you have won the damn election.
Went on a 5 mile bike ride this morning--still sweating and the keys have droplets on them--- better dry off...bye now.
Like everyone else I know, I have watch a lot of the Olympics, and was struck by the athleticism of Michael Phelps. Having been a competitive swimmer in my youth, I had a strong appreciation of what he accomplished---(try swimming 5 miles a day in the midst of competition---good god!)
But I was more struck by what he ate! He consumed 12,000 calories a day, and made my diet look miniscule by comparison.... obviously this writer had the same thing in mind--- very funny. (and in case the link doesn't work--here is the url http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080819.wlphelps20/BNStory/lifeMain/home)
OK, I am going to brag...don't do that much but hey, I deserve to!!!
I got an email last week from the Deputy Editor of a British photo magazine asking if they could use a photo they had seen on my website in an upcoming issue of the magazine. I wasnt sure which one they were talking about so I ended up sending them two....they wrote back and said they wanted to use both of them--one for next months issue, the second for the month after...
Cool huh? And here are the two pics (I won't tell you the name of the magazine until they are actually published--just in case there is a glitch and they aren't published--in which case I shall wipe egg from my face). The first is a "pencil sketch" of the pier at Surfside Beach SC...took the original photo and played with it with Paint Shop Pro Photo. The second is of the sunrise at Surfside, took the shot and then ran it through HDR processing. You can see much larger versions at my Flickr site...click on the Flickr thingie to the left of the blog.
I have often said to friends that if I had my life to live over again, the one thing I would do is try my darndest to make the Olympic team. Whether it be in swimming (I swam competitively through my freshman year in college); ice hockey; soccer; doesn't matter which sport, I would go all out to make it. I still get goose bumps watching gold medal ceremonies. In particular, I get tears in my eyes when I watch Chandra Crawford singing the Canadian national anthem at full voice after she won a gold medal at the last winter Olympics. Any athlete winning a gold medal should sing their national anthem at full voice---I know I sure the hell would! (ok--the links are still not working--so here it is http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jBnF08Xn06g)
Now, here we are, just a couple of days from the opening ceremonies of the Beijing Olympics... and I am fed up with them. I am fed up with the human rights crap that China has exhibited lately, most recently the taking away of Joey Cheeks visa to go to the Olympics; I am fed up with the IOC and their cowardly approach to dealing with the Chinese and their broken promises; I am totally fed up with those hypocritcal governments, including ours, who are letting the Chinese and the IOC get away with it; and I am tired of corporate America waging their tails to every beat of the IOC and Chinese drum so they can access the Chinese markets. Sally Jenkins had a most appropriate column the other day in the Washington Post...she expresses my sentiments exactly. (http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/04/AR2008080401942.html). She says "But the bad air here has shown the IOC and its commercial sponsors in an especially ugly and damning light. They have been conspicuous cowards in dealing with Chinese officials, and maybe even outright collaborators, on every issue from human rights to the environment to censorship. The silence of IOC President Jacques Rogge in the face of the continuing dissident sweeps amounts to complicity. "In view of my responsibilities, I have lost some of my freedom of speech," he said last week. Rogge's idea of a solution to the thorny problems of these Games is to hope "the magic" will take over once they begin.:
I shall probably watch the Olympics. But I hope one of the scenes they put on TV is that of some athletes telling the Chinese to go piss up a rope.... so what if the Chinese are embarassed. (I saw a thing on TV the other night in which they talked about how delicate they have to be with the Chinese--they are easily offended). Well fuck them...they should be offended. And best of all, the IOC should be scraped, and the whole idea of the Olympic movement should go back to square one--- with the athletes calling the shots.
Whew..just had to get that off my chest.
And on another topic... Barack, if you really want to win this election, all you have to do is align McCain with Bush-- hell, if any Democrats want to win, just align your Rep opponent with the current crew in office...the Republicans have screwed us royally over the past 8 years; folks are plenty pissed; so dont take the high road; hell you don't even have to get nasty.... just remind us that a vote for any Republican, from McCain on down is a vote for 4 more years of the same. Simple isn't it?
I am all in favor of companies trying to make a profit. After all that is why they are in business in the first place. And I am all in favor of stockholders getting a good return on their investment. But I find this quite sickening. How about you?
Addendum---ok the link above isn't working (seems Motime has been having a lot of problems with this kind of thing doesn't it?) Here is the link written out
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/08/01/AR2008080102930.html
Here we are, almost the beginning of August.Summer is more than half way over- it has been good so far. But not without trials and tribulations....
About a year ago, I met a couple who were taking photos at a park that I love to photograph. We talked for a long time at the park, shared flickr addresses, and emailed several times back and forth..sharing photography thoughts and ides. I hadn't heard from them for a while--about 6 months. So I emailed them about a week ago...still no response. I knew what the wife did, so I googled her....and found that she died last month...very suddenly. She was found slumped over the steering wheel of her car at the side of the road. Only 50... and I feel so badly for her husband and kids...have emailed him expressing my sadness...
And I havent felt so hot for the past 2-3 weeks myself. Felt nauseus and really out of sorts. Had moles under my arm pits which were itching like hell...so went to the doc yesterday. She ran a bunch of tests, did the blood work...talked with her this morning, and she can't find anything wrong.... moles are nothing. Says I am in great health and may have had a touch of the flu. Grateful for that, but at my age I find myself stressing over real and perceived illnesses. I do need to get over that.
The tomato crop has been huge this year. But it is a race with the squirrels to get to the tomatoes. The little buggers have had their share now, and a blast with a slingshot awaits the next thief. Ahhhh, fresh picked tomatoes, with fresh basil (another huge crop), splash of EVO and balsamic, with some fresh mozerella cheese..... mouth watering, no?
Another sorrowful event of the summer...I had to cut down our huge oak tree in the back yard. It was a good 5 feet at the base...the drought last summer did it in, plus a couple of others in my yard, and more in the neighbors...... the tree was the home of my kids treehouse when they were growing up, a source of wonderful shade and wonderful memories of the 25+ years we have lived here. I sobbed when I made the decision to let it go. And many more tears when I paid over $3,000 to remove it....
Taking a lot of photos, learning lots, and more or less having a grand summer. And tomorrow going to Chesapeake Beach on the Bay with the grandkids to look for sharks teeth.....Hope your summer is going well as well...
Experimenting lately with black and white photos..here is one of a sunrise at Surfside Beach SC
Returned yesterday from a week at Surfside Beach SC...perfect weather, perfect food (way too much), and just a blast....and here is what you get when you get up at 6am to walk on the beach...
Cool huh?
This damn fascination we have for guns has to end! Using guns for hunting is one thing, but I am certainly not convinced that keeping them for self defense is defensible...Obviously the right wing Supreme Court thinks otherwise....and again we become the laughing stock of the rest of the western world..... what a shame. We fall back on that damn second ammendment every time, and I am convinced the writers of the constitution would be rolling in their graves if they see what we have become...
OK--once again the Motime engineers have fallen asleep at the wheel...the hyperlinks arent working properly... I click the hyperlink icon, type in the url to be linked, click on ok, and it show that I am linked but it doesnt go to the link when activated.....grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr---it has been like this for a few days now.
Here is the link for the article above http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080626/ap_on_go_su_co/scotus_guns
America lives under a reign of fear...no, not from terrorist or the threat of nuclear war, rather from the ingrained fear put into us by the Bush regime. Ever since 911, we have been lectured that at any moment, some terrorist with a shoe bomb is going to attack us, some kook is going to put some deadly chemical in our water supply, some idiot is going to let loose a dirty bomb. Our recent elections have been tainted, nay won, on who is best to handle terrorists. And in trying to prevent such a calamity, we have spent billions on putting up barricades in front of every major building in the country, employing closed circuit cameras everywhere, acckkk you know what I mean. And the worst of all, the damn TSA, which has made traveliing through airports hell. Take off your shoes, untie your belt, no more than 3 oz of deoderant, you know the drill.
In all of this we have lost so many civil liberties, diverted billions of dollars away from repairing our infrastructure, providing health care and food to the poor, and of course the big lie---Iraq has WMD's, thus we send thousands of our young men and women to die.
Well a fascinating article in the Post Sunday by Becky Akers----listen to these figures: In commenting on the uselessness of the TSA...
The TSA's checkpoints have been delaying passengers for six years now. With roughly 720 million "emplanements" every year, the TSA has searched almost 4.5 billion fliers. No screener anywhere has found a single terrorist. That's because terrorism is one of life's most improbable dangers. In fact, it's so remote that the National Safety Council only calculates how likely we are to die from "war and other sequelae" -- and in 2004, Americans ran a mere one in 10,487,744 chance of becoming such a casualty. By contrast, those who climbed into a car stood one chance in 19,216 of traveling in a casket next. Anyone who moves is an even greater daredevil: walking, climbing stairs or rolling over in bed makes your odds of dying from a fall one in 15,614.
Kinda makes ya think doesn't it.....
NOTE-- for some reason the links to the article are not working in Motime. Here is the complete URL for the Akers article...http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/06/20/AR2008062002227_pf.html
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