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Penelope

Ok, so much for the easy trip. I was going to be back on-site at 6:30 this morning, but was delayed about an hour due to the cleaning staff "falling back" the clocks in the room to pee emm instead of the correct half of the day. I didn't notice when setting the alarm, but fortunately, I woke up on my own around the right time. My hotel room is more like a mid-sized apartment than a room. Two 10 foot mirrors, foyer, fully furnished living room with big screen, bedroom with another rather large TV, outdoor patio, etc. I guess that's what you get when you have to book the very last available "room" in town that has Internet access. The bed was very comfortable. I could have used a few more hours of sleep. Back at work this morning, things are tense. I hate corporate politics... especially those revolving around things that impact revenue. Money really brings out the worst in people. I hope everyone has a wonderful Halloween. I'll be working. Again.

pumpkin pi

This is where I would tell you about my nearing 17 hour workday once I landed after getting up at four. I'd mention how I'm just getting to the hotel for some rest. I would bore you with details and dabble in sarcasm. I'm much too tired. I just want some soft and comfy recharge time.

six-ish in the aye emm: "I eats fried food, Derek. It's what I do's. They're my mufukkin' artreats, so why don't you don't worry about it." I have about 1000 random thoughts throughout the day that I'd love to comment on here, but by the time I sit down in front of a keyboard with actual time to do it, I've either forgotten or am simply tired of looking at anything electronic. I just overheard this lady in the airport conveying the epic battle she had with her man about her diet over the phone to her girlfriend. She was 375 pounds if she was 50. Let them eat cake is what I say. There was this girl at the airport with abnormally long toes. If you look like you have a few extra jointed vampire toes, then don't wear open toed shoes if you don't want people to notice. It's not like I pointed and snickered. I mean, we all have our quirks. I was up before four this morning to get everything ready to go. Henry is staying with his grandmother on the Corpus Christi Bay and Éclair is visiting Ted and Jenny. Penny and Bianca are undoubtedly having cat parties around the house where they are not normally encouraged to hang out... like on top of the counters and tables. I strategically left my porch light off in case there are any old school trick-or-treaters that respect the porch light policy. I think kids now-a-days just blow it off. I remember the way it used to be... everyone dressed up, porch light policy was observed, house hopping for candy happened after dark when it was spookier, and parents let us kids roll on our own in packs. Now there are 2 or 3 overprotective parents in tow with mostly poorly costumed kids in full daylight (because after dark is just too dangerous) that ring the bell whether the light is on or not. The insult to injury is how they just stand there with an open bag and a look on their face saying, "fill it, bitch" instead of a big smile and a unison cheer, "Trick or Treat!". It's one more chalk mark on the wall of how times have changed since I was a kid.... drastic changes right before us. I'm at the terminal awaiting an almost surely delayed flight. When I booked the ticket, the stats on this particular carrier commuter router were between 60 and 80 percent on-time rate. That's not exactly stellar in my humble opinion. This trip was driven by client demand and not necessity. I was forced to book so shortly before travel that I fell into the "full fare" category. This means that the flight that cost about $165 a couple of months ago was about a grand. I'm expensing it, but it's still cash out of pocket until I go through the archaic process of filing the report. I miss the expense system I had a my former employer where everything was automatically imported from your AMEX to a secure web published application where you simply clicked submit and it was done. We're on the cusp of the year of our Lord two thousand and seven. Writing and routing paper expense reports is barbaric. Come on Buck Rogers, wake the fuck up. Deebeedeebeedee. _______________________________________________________ eight-ish in the aye emm: Pilot: "Can you tell I'm reading this as I go?" In the air, on the plane, and wondering how money is made on these flights. My turboprop seats 36 passengers and there are 7 of us. We've all been asked to sit at the very rear of the aircraft to compensate center of gravity. The pilot fumbled through his take-off monologue which begs the question of his experience behind the yoke. These little jumpers are the ones most ATP's start off in before they graduate to jets. Once upon a time I cared about things like a plane crash. Now it is nothing more than a great Toadies tune. I think I have a couple of old costume photos for Halloween I can share, but afterwards, I think I'm through with the old photos for a while. I did purchase a IEEE1394 card for my laptop, so maybe I'll try to line up some studio work so I have some new stuff to share. I wanted to photograph my grandmother while she was in town, but we just never made the time. I completely rearrange the strobe setup and will have to get used to the new configuration, so I need practice. Any takers? Speaking of photography, I managed to get in touch with my good friend, Greg, in Indiana. He just started shooting a few years ago solely motivated by documenting the growth and life experience of his two beautiful little girls and their relationship. This proud father hobbyist quickly became an enthusiast and is well on his way to professional stature. Starting a business and doing nothing with it is easy... I have that down. Starting a business, leasing studio space, marketing, etc. is how he's surpassed me in the business of snippety snap. I keep telling myself that the reason I don't seek more professional gigs it that I never want it to feel like work to me. I'm afraid it would become less enjoyable if it were somehow associated with a grind. Ironically, unless you are one of the fortunate exceptions, successful professional photography is just that... a grind. Weddings, senior and other portraiture, more weddings. You can earn a living to keep you dry and meat on your ribs, but where is the joy is rinse and repeat? Honestly, I couldn't make it because I'm not willing to subject my negative (RAW) to an automated/scripted development process based on some baseline profile. Each photograph is unique. I feel there is just as much artist in the development process to print as there is in framing, composing, and exposing. Maybe I'm being romantic, but I know wedding shooters that spray 2500 frames or more during a wedding, pipe them into a profiled batch process, shit out contact sheets of the good, bad, and ugly, and print whatever is ordered without regard to personal preference. This is not me. I recently read a brief article on advancement of stem cell research and its impact on cardiovascular disease during heart failure (post myocardial event). I'm going to go on the record as being against embryonic stem cell harvesting, but strongly for continued research in adult patients... ie. extracting your own stem cells from say bone marrow and using them for regeneration of damaged tissue, etc. I really need to read more about this technology, but topically it is fascinating. _______________________________________________________ eleven-ish in the aye emm: "Whooo boy lemmie tell ya... that there thingy on Friday done tooken down everee call center all over everwhar." So I'm in the thick of the work day in the shining metropolis of Bee-eff-eee, Louisiana. It's fabulous. As it turns out, the primary motivator for this emergency engineering TLC has been shelved due to internal politics and thus my "schedule" here has been freed up substantially. I've already been doing some damage control and booking meetings with other peops in the organization so as to salvage my trip and justify my loss of sleep this morning. The overall objective for me is much simpler than swooping in and saving the day... which it appears there is no linger a direct need for my attempt regardless of potential success. I just want to have happy clients. Happy clients make my job easier and improve my quality of life. One day, I hope to be is some form of semi or complete retirement where things like this are simply a non-issue. Until then, a man's gotta eat.

"When I was a kid, we called them helicopters because you could drop them from a high distance and they would spiral down, twisting and turning in the wind. They were seeds from the Maple tree in our back yard. One tiny little seed took root and produced that enormous tree in which three children played. One branch alone supported our tire swing. Point being that we plant seeds every day of our lives. We choose to plant kindness. We choose to plant empathy or indifference; honesty or dishonesty. It's very simple. What ever you plant will grow. It is an intelligently designed life principle. Are you patient & polite while standing in the Starbucks line or are you tapping your foot with a haughty, impatient look on your face? It's a seed. Are you honest with your boss, admitting when you made a mistake or do you make an excuse & tell a little white lie to cover? It's a seed. Love, Grace & Integrity are all choices, all seeds. Choose what is right. Correct yourself if you're being rude. It is the little wrongs that make our life miserable. And it is the little rights that make our lives worth living." -EL

Stomp was awesome. I'd seen a video of the performance before with the original troop, but this was just spectacular live. I'm sure it helped that we were basically in the front row of the front box overlooking the orchestra area. Jones Hall has decent acoustics if you are in the right spot. Luke Cresswell and Steve McNicholas... my hat is off to you both. I'm off to bed.

seems so long ago

I'm taking Nana to church this afternoon. My church is in the process of building a new facility, so we borrow space from other worship facilities until we can move into the new spot. I haven't been in a couple of months. Every weekend but one, it was because I was out of town. Last weekend I simply couldn't bring myself to it. I was relatively depressed and going to the church EL found for us was not going to help in the moment. They are all great people though... really. It is quite different from the "sit, shut up, and listen" church of my youth. The congregation is predominantly black and the service borderlines the stereotypical profiling depicted in movies and television. It is a breath of fresh air from the silent hypocrisy you find in almost every "house of God" these days. I'm really frustrated about how my itinerary turned out, but I'll write about that later. This photo was one I sent to EL when we started dating. I lived inside the loop in Houston with only a bicycle and no car and she lived in Colorado Springs. I flew to see her every weekend for almost four months before she decided to move to Texas. The story of our meeting and courtship could read like a fairy tale if penned from the beginning. We were a perfect match in every way. It is hard for me to imagine the road ahead without her beside me. It seems to be a bundle of thoughts I avoid when possible rather than experience dealing with the emotion yet again... always fresh out of the oven. I need to run.

The gathering last night was quite nice. They catered in traditional northern Indian food. The curry lamb was fantastic. Dwayne and Anita's little girl was absolutely gorgeous. She was born with a full head of hair 3 inches in length! I stayed for a few hours but was feeling a little guilty about having company at home and being a poor host. My grandmother had already gone to bed when I got home. I struggled with sleep all night and am finding myself exhausted again this morning. My business travel schedule for the week needs to be solidified today and I can barely think straight. I'm going to need a nap before going to the theatre this evening, I'm sure. Perhaps if I can manage to catch up on rest soon, I'll stop filling my blog with crappy old photos and basically useless babble and start to write something of substance.

Virginia Beach

Lazy day. I am so out of shape. I pruned the hedges in the front yard and was too lazy to get a ladder, so my forearms are spent from all the overhead work without support. It really made me want to go to the gym, so I went and got a beer and sat on the couch. Bob made some delicious soup for lunch and the cool, yet mild, sunny weather makes for the perfect afternoon nap environment. Henry and Éclair went to the vet this morning for their annuals. Henry is such a brave boy when undergoing the poking and prodding. They are happily napping now as well. I snuck away to dig through more old photos while everyone is recharging. I'm amazed at the photos of crap I save. It is a packrat gene I inherited from my grandfather. EL was great about balancing that out because she had no problem throwing stuff out. I keep everything... but I'm working on it. You should have seen me a few years ago. On another note, tonight is the christening of my friend's baby girl. I should take my camera, but I'm so unmotivated these days.

Adirondacks

After a couple of years in the Florida sunshine, I found myself in upstate New York. Nestled in the bosom if the Adirondack Mountains, there isn't much SCUBA to be found. There are deep wrecks off the eastern seaboard, but those expeditions required time and training I couldn't afford at the time. Many lives have been claimed in those cold currents by the greedy sea. I took up rock climbing in the summer and snow skiing in the winter. Between New York, Vermont, and Massachusetts, I was busy with outdoors most of the time I wasn't indoors splitting atoms.

Gunks

During the years I lived in the northeast, I learned to fly and got my pilots license. The changing seasons are spectacular from the sky. Today is the birthday of my high school sweetheart. Jessica was probably the closest thing I'd ever known to true love before Erin. I don't have any photos of her due to a subsequent girlfriend destroying my sentimental stuff in a jealous fit of insecurity while I was at work back in the early 90's. It's a shame things like that happen. Happy birthday, Jessica... wherever you are. The weather is cool again this morning and I love it. Bob and I are headed to Fry's to look for some flash memory, a PCMCIA firewire adapter (so I can shoot tethered in the studio), and a replacement charger cable for his laptop. If there is a store in Houston that has one, it is Fry's. The proverbial mega-mart of electronics goodness. I found a stash of old photos and scans of me that I'll post later. I think I've shared a couple before, but after almost 60 months of blogging here, who can remember? Besides, I'm sure between publishing engine and server moves, the old media is gone daddy gone by now anyhoo. A few of them are old Halloween costumes from way back.

Champs-Élysées

Today was atrocious. I spent the morning in meetings and the afternoon in more meetings. I'll likely have to fly to Louisiana next week on emergency business. In a personal struggle to not just eat some diphenhydramine HCl, I got up frustrated and made myself another drink before flipping through more stacks of old prints. The quality of my photography was much worse then than it is even now. I have a lot of snapshots where clearly all I cared to do was document the moment. Those can be just as nice years later when you find yourself lost with no anchor. The shot above was taken from my first trip to Paris... before the French wife... but that's another story we’ll leave in the closet.

I don't remember where this is... maybe Nova Scotia

A snapshot of a boy and his beer. Great cigars in town, but no Guinness. It goes to show that sometimes you just can't have it all.

my dive buddy on one of our cave dives... Ginnie Springs, FL

Jacques Cousteau once was quoted as saying Ginnie Spring in Florida was some of the clearest water he's ever dived in the world. Being the prolific diver he was, I thought I needed to experience it for myself. He was understating. I used to dive often in the Florida aquifer system and the reefs off the coast. I hold an open water, advanced open water, advanced deep diving, and NSS-CDS cavern certification. I was working on my cave cert when these shots were taken. I don't dive anymore.

us after the dive... look at those freakin' pants

This shot was after that dive of me and my dive buddy. Terry was an ex-SEAL that used to do dolphin research in the Florida Keys. He's one of the, if not the, world's leading deep wreck divers today. I have a lot of love and respect for my old friend and have often thought of contacting him and catching up... but never seem to bring myself to it. Since our time together, he's gone on to dive the Fitzgerald at over 530 feet. Peanut M&M's and Lemon-Lime Gatorade. Those were the old days.

my first trip to the top of the Empire State Building

I traveled to NYC this time with a rock band that was headlining a gig at The Continental. My mother, step-dad, and grandmother arrived this afternoon while I was at the office. I gave my mother EL's house key when she came up back in June, so they let themselves in and made like home while I was stuck drudging through my Friday. I am looking forward to the weekend with family. I have box seats to Stomp on Sunday, but other than that, my weekend plan is drink and try to be merry. Wish me luck.

Wolverines!

I worked from the house today. I was having computer problems and the weather has been miserable out, so my day wasn't exactly terrific. I started going through some old prints and found a few that I'll try to scan over the coming weeks. I am not a hunter and the very fact that you are seeing not one, but two photos of me wearing camouflage in 1 week is utterly amazing. The scanned Polaroid above is my childhood best friend (Rob) and I on a bird hunt with his father (the ominous shadow in the lower right). The photo below is one of my dear grandfather before he died. He was a great man that led a great life. I'm going to make a cocktail and head to bed early.

Sweet Peas in bloom... 1993

I woke up this morning around six to a very wet, drizzly, dreary day. What happened to the nice weather!?

Yesh.

not green, not pink, not B&W, not brown, but blue! (thanks beth)

I was messing around with the new ProShow as an alternative to MovieMaker for quickly putting clips together. These are just the shots on my Flickr page. Nothing new here. My liver is hungry.