I'm spending a big chunk of this weekend dog-sitting while some good friends are out of town for a wedding. Maxine is the easiest dog there is to hang out with, so it's no hardship. But, what's the one thing you expect to find when you arrive at someone's house to dog-sit?
A dog, maybe?
I know Maxine. So when I walked into the house and she didn't greet me at the door, it seemed odd. I checked around the house. I checked the back yard. No Max. I checked the gate to the yard - shut tight.
I checked for a note saying she was out with someone else. Nothing. No ransom note, either, for that matter. I started composing the phone conversation in my head... "I've just arrived and I've already lost Maxine." Wasn't liking my options. Decided it was better to keep looking.
To my huge relief, before I had a chance to panic, one of the neighbors showed up with Maxine and her food bowl. She'd felt sorry for Max being alone all day until I got there, so she'd brought Max over to her house.
I thanked the neighbor without letting on that I'd been about ready to jump in my car and start combing the neighborhood.
The rest of the weekend has been much less exciting, so far, and I'm all for keeping it that way.
We took a trip to my house to help my Mister with some yard work, and Maxine was a very well behaved guest. I've spent some time learning a few new techniques in photoshop. Browsed the interwebs. Gave Maxine lots of loves and pettings. And tomorrow I expect to spend the morning reading more of The Graveyard Book, by Neil Gaiman (and providing more pets and lovies for Max, of course).
Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label photo. Show all posts
Saturday, May 2, 2009
Sunday, April 19, 2009
flickr in the real world
Yesterday I posted an entry on my blog musing about what the office would be like if it was like flickr... today I found a flickr group called Flickr In The Real World - Instant Fave! They print up little cards that look like the "favorite" icon in flickr, and take photos of things they like with them.
I had to join, of course. Now to get me some of those little cards.
In the meantime, here's one of my favorites from the FITRW pool, Wall-e's Instant Fave! by http://www.flickr.com/photos/meddygarnet/.
I had to join, of course. Now to get me some of those little cards.
In the meantime, here's one of my favorites from the FITRW pool, Wall-e's Instant Fave! by http://www.flickr.com/photos/meddygarnet/.
Saturday, November 22, 2008
architectural memento mori
One of the things that fascinates me about certain regions of the US is how many falling down houses there are out there being reclaimed by nature, an inch or two at a time.
You rarely see something like this where I come from in San Diego, CA. Land is usually just too valuable to let something fall down without quickly replacing it with something new and sell-able. And here in less densely populated Minnesota, such sights are still few and far between.
With this photo, flickr user tearapen has brilliantly captured my fascination for these abandoned homes. I adore the contrast between the domestic decay and the bright, sunny blue sky. It was taken in Plymouth, North Carolina. You can almost hear the spirit of the house sighing about it's loneliness, and the aches of age and disrepair. The vines give it a slightly sinister look, as though it's in the embrace of a creeping, irresistible power that will eventually pull it in into the soil; gone with only a few rusted nails and shards of glass for future archaeologists to find in the traces of its foundation.
Tearapen's got a great eye for composition. I highly recommend surfing over to his flickr stream and giving the rest of his work a browse.
You rarely see something like this where I come from in San Diego, CA. Land is usually just too valuable to let something fall down without quickly replacing it with something new and sell-able. And here in less densely populated Minnesota, such sights are still few and far between.
With this photo, flickr user tearapen has brilliantly captured my fascination for these abandoned homes. I adore the contrast between the domestic decay and the bright, sunny blue sky. It was taken in Plymouth, North Carolina. You can almost hear the spirit of the house sighing about it's loneliness, and the aches of age and disrepair. The vines give it a slightly sinister look, as though it's in the embrace of a creeping, irresistible power that will eventually pull it in into the soil; gone with only a few rusted nails and shards of glass for future archaeologists to find in the traces of its foundation.
Tearapen's got a great eye for composition. I highly recommend surfing over to his flickr stream and giving the rest of his work a browse.
Monday, October 6, 2008
Fark Equations
One of many, many funny variations on this meme:
Obama = ? Biden = ? McCain = ? Palin = ?
You've seen the meme, here's the thread (voting enabled)
My Mister and I both thought the 2+2 = chair was too funny not to share.
Monday, September 29, 2008
Dose of cute
Getting ready to head out for work... I needed a dose of cute, so I popped over to the photo pool of one of my flickr contacts, bivoir.
Need cute? Bivoir's got cute. Bivoir's got eleventymillion mind bogglingly cute photos.
Yawning guinea piggies. Kissing piggies. Smiling, eating, posing, and even reading piggies. Not to mention funny piggies, safety piggies, baby piggies, mixed species cuteness, frogs, kittens, birds, and doggies.
Need cute? Bivoir's got cute. Bivoir's got eleventymillion mind bogglingly cute photos.
Yawning guinea piggies. Kissing piggies. Smiling, eating, posing, and even reading piggies. Not to mention funny piggies, safety piggies, baby piggies, mixed species cuteness, frogs, kittens, birds, and doggies.
Sunday, September 21, 2008
Strong with the force, is this one
I've been playing with the lolcaption tools again...
Click on the photo to vote for this one at punditkitchen.com
Click on the photo to vote for this one at punditkitchen.com
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
flower favorites and flickr recommendation
There's a new flower in my list of all time favorites. The one in the photo taken by peggy. on flickr, is a butterfly pea (Clitoria ternatea). So simple, so lovely, so beautifully formed. According to Wikipedia it's also a nitrogen fixer and can be used as a natural food coloring.
Too bad I: a) have the world's least green thumb and b) live in totally the wrong zone for growing my favorite flowers. My mister would pity even a weed if I were trying to grow it.
By the way, peggy. has a lot of lovely photos (including a gorgeous macro of one of my other favorite flowers, bougainvillea) so I highly recommend popping by her photostream and surfing around a bit. If you're in need of a virtual vacation, don't miss her Grand Cayman, April 2008 set.
Too bad I: a) have the world's least green thumb and b) live in totally the wrong zone for growing my favorite flowers. My mister would pity even a weed if I were trying to grow it.
By the way, peggy. has a lot of lovely photos (including a gorgeous macro of one of my other favorite flowers, bougainvillea) so I highly recommend popping by her photostream and surfing around a bit. If you're in need of a virtual vacation, don't miss her Grand Cayman, April 2008 set.
Sunday, April 27, 2008
We do what we must because we can
Edit 20080501: According to Jess, the photographer, the plastic cups of water in question in this post were provided for the comfort of the Buddha statues (see her comment). I'm leaving the original post as-is, but wanted to clarify this point up front. I misunderstood the photo as thoroughly as Click Cluck did. Which doesn't change my opinion about his asking her to edit it.
Original Post:
I was eating my sourdough pancakes this morning and browsing flickr when I ran across this photo by one of my contacts, jslander. It shows that some passer-by has left an empty beverage container in the hand of a seated Buddha statue.
What inspired me to blog it isn't the juxtaposition of someone's discarded plastic cup with the timeless serenity of the statue, or the quality of the photo itself.
What made this worth blogging about is that another flickr member (Click Cluck) stuck a note on this photo (view it on the original page by clicking the photo) instructing jslander to remove the cup using photoshop because it isn't respectful. And not just in a comment below the pic, but a note stuck smack dab in the middle of the photo itself.
Huh?
Saying that because it is now fairly easy to remove elements from photos, the photographer should feel obligated to do so if an element is politically incorrect made me boggle. And when I shared it with my Mister, he shared my embogglement.
My guess is that the story of some modern tourist type leaving a cup on the palm of the Buddha statue is exactly what jslander was shooting in the first place. Jslander has a good eye for composition and a well developed sense of irony. If she'd intended to take the photo of just the statue, I'm sure she'd've removed the cup in person. But as it is, it's funny in a tacky-irony kind of way, and it is a commentary on the person who left their trash there in the first place, and on the times we live in.
That said, the irony that Click Cluck was at the same time leaving his own mark on someone else's creation as he passed by seems somehow apt.
If humor is an important part of a delicious weekend breakfast, my recommended daily allowance has been met.
Original Post:
I was eating my sourdough pancakes this morning and browsing flickr when I ran across this photo by one of my contacts, jslander. It shows that some passer-by has left an empty beverage container in the hand of a seated Buddha statue.
What inspired me to blog it isn't the juxtaposition of someone's discarded plastic cup with the timeless serenity of the statue, or the quality of the photo itself.
What made this worth blogging about is that another flickr member (Click Cluck) stuck a note on this photo (view it on the original page by clicking the photo) instructing jslander to remove the cup using photoshop because it isn't respectful. And not just in a comment below the pic, but a note stuck smack dab in the middle of the photo itself.
Huh?
Saying that because it is now fairly easy to remove elements from photos, the photographer should feel obligated to do so if an element is politically incorrect made me boggle. And when I shared it with my Mister, he shared my embogglement.
My guess is that the story of some modern tourist type leaving a cup on the palm of the Buddha statue is exactly what jslander was shooting in the first place. Jslander has a good eye for composition and a well developed sense of irony. If she'd intended to take the photo of just the statue, I'm sure she'd've removed the cup in person. But as it is, it's funny in a tacky-irony kind of way, and it is a commentary on the person who left their trash there in the first place, and on the times we live in.
That said, the irony that Click Cluck was at the same time leaving his own mark on someone else's creation as he passed by seems somehow apt.
If humor is an important part of a delicious weekend breakfast, my recommended daily allowance has been met.
* * *
Aperture Science
We do what we must because we can
For the good of all of us
Except the ones who are dead
~Jonathan Coulton, Still Alive
Friday, April 25, 2008
Random pondering on names
Just found out Peter Murphy is going to be in Minneapolis on June 16th, so my coworker and I are going to go see that show. I haven't seen him in concert since the Bauhaus reunion tour. I get to see my two favorite (living) people named Peter in two months. Peter Murphy in June, and Peter Woodward in July. How lucky is that?!?
How is it I'm so often fascinated by men named Peter? Peter Woodward. Peter Murphy. Peter Cushing. Peter Lorre. I have a few photos of each of these men in my celeb folder on my computer, and framed photos of P. Lorre and P. Murphy on my walls (the latter is autographed).
I can't think of any other celebrities who interest me enough to have saved a photo or two here and there who have names that repeat. A quick inventory turns up:
Note: Of all the above mentioned photos, the only ones I took myself are the shots of Tony Bourdain. I'm no paparazzo. I just click and save the occasional photo off the intertubes.
How is it I'm so often fascinated by men named Peter? Peter Woodward. Peter Murphy. Peter Cushing. Peter Lorre. I have a few photos of each of these men in my celeb folder on my computer, and framed photos of P. Lorre and P. Murphy on my walls (the latter is autographed).
I can't think of any other celebrities who interest me enough to have saved a photo or two here and there who have names that repeat. A quick inventory turns up:
- Adam Baldwin
- Alan Rickman
- Boris Karloff
- Christian Bale
- Christopher Lee
- Derek Jakobi
- Frank Langella
- Gary Oldman
- George Takei (primarily a voice fixation)
- Hugo Weaving
- Ian McKellen
- James Callis
- Jeremy Irons
- Johnny Depp
- Ken Watanabe
- Liam Neeson
- Nigel Bennett
- Richard Armitage (the actor, not the former US Deputy Secretary of State)
- Rutger Hauer
- Yul Brynner
Note: Of all the above mentioned photos, the only ones I took myself are the shots of Tony Bourdain. I'm no paparazzo. I just click and save the occasional photo off the intertubes.
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