There are some days (maybe a good number of days) when I wish I were famous. Good question as to famous for what, but it would be nice to have exorbitant amounts of recognition for something.
Then we have weeks like the past few days.
Farah Fawcett – Dead
Michael Jackson – Dead
Billy Mays – Dead
Donald Trump – Alive, but still a jerk
Yeah, weeks like this past one make me happy to be blissfully average. There are no sudden spikes in the number of regular people dying, it pretty much stays at a regular rate. Those few times it does really spike tend to be huge plagues or world wars. Besides that, the number of us coming into and out of the world happens at a pretty constant rate. Famous people have to deal with sudden unexpected upswells in dying that us average folks get to avoid.
So today, I fell quite happy to just be a guy, not some famous guy.
The whole thing though has some rather ominous overtones. If there were to be a zombie apocalypse, we would have to fight an unexpected number of very famous zombies.
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June 29th, 2009 in
Humor & Random,
Ramblings | tags:
celebrity,
Ramblings,
zombies |
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One thing everyone harps on about general photography is that you should avoid using your flash. This is very true.
While I was browsing some of my photos of the Pilgrim Monument (Province Town, MA) I came across a perfect example of a stone sin I took two pictures of. One picture the flash happened to go off, and the second I made sure it was off.
The flash washed out all the detail. The text of the sign was almost entirely unreadable. With no flash, it took a little more time, and I had to be steady, but the picture is clear and has great color.
Sure, a flash has a plethora of uses. They are used with staggering frequency in portrait photography, or really any art photography that involves people. Also, professional Ebay auctions have items captured using either a flash. However, almost none of these are using direct camera mounted flashes. If people are using camera mount flashes they are probably A) with the press and need to guarantee light for each shot, or B) doing some sort of sports photography which may require additional light for very fast shutter speeds.
This probably glosses over details that should probably be filled in about flashes and their uses, but it gets the point across. Besides, you can check out these links for more details:
Short Courses – Using a Flash/Studio Lighting
Dan Heller Photography
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June 20th, 2009 in
Art & Photography | tags:
article,
photography |
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Well, not pictures from Texas (still need to get them from my Dad), but I have random news.
I am back at Deviant Art and posting some of my photography from the last couple of years. You can find me there as Doc-Shadow. I took a hiatus of about 2 years from the site. Partially it had to do with the rather underhanded way they got rid of Scott Jarkoff, one of the founders, and partially a general apathy.
With enough encouragement I may even start playing with space art again… Ok, I don’t really need encouragement, I just need to collect some textures and brushes again so that when I pull out my tablet there is something to work with. Back in the day when I had an abundance of such things it was rather easy to just sit down and start on a project. It would only take me a couple of hours to put a decent starting point back together, but inertia is evil.
Luckily, posting from photos is slowly getting the ball rolling so that the inertia will eventually be on my side rather than against me.
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Well, I should have written this the other day… but, oh well.
Memorial Day weekend was the Ferris/Schaffer Family Reunion. It happens every year at the same time, though I was absent for the past two reunions (moving frequently never helps), in the exciting township of Wheeler, Texas. Ok, not the most exciting place, but if you get lost you can walk the whole town and find where you need to be in a short time.
This year the head count was sixty-three (63) for the potluck lunch. If I remember the count from last year was 67. Yes, we have big family gatherings.
Some pictures will be posted once I get my hands on them.
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May 29th, 2009 in
My Life | tags:
Family,
Life,
reunion |
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I like movies, but there are certain combinations of movies that do not make for the best days. Yesterday The Bucket List happened to be on. A great movie, has a lot to teach about the difference between money and happiness. It also shows that having money can definitely help with happiness, a point most movies gloss over.
However, after that I watched Seven Pounds. Another excellent movie. A great uplifting story that makes you consider the merits of bridges and rocks. I would say more about the lessons learned from the movie, but other than “doing good deeds is good” anything else would tell more of the story than I would like.
More to the point. Those two particular movies in combination should require the use of anti-depressants. They did; however, get me thinking.
We need more random good deeds in the world. At the very least we need more education about kindness and mindfulness. One of my professors was recently teaching a course on Mindfulness which I crashed a couple of times (the perks of being a graduate are great). The concept is excellent, help people develop mindfulness – a largely Taoist/Buddhist concept – and lead generally happier lives through reflection and metacognition.
There really aren’t enough courses, seminars, discussions about this in education. It got me thinking, being that I have no job and a lot of time, I may start pitching a similar idea around the school district and college as a free seminar.
Just a thought, and movies tend to get my wheels moving.
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May 17th, 2009 in
My Life | tags:
Life,
mindfulness,
movies |
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