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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.