...took a long time to find just the right angle to take some interesting (and non-washed-out) pics of these japanese iris's...well...they sure are purple, anyway...
Iris's in Piedmont Park
dear reader...
...apologies to you...I was in Arkansas. A few observations while there:
Upon seeing the 'Arvest' bank, I thought there was an alphabet thief in town - this week's letter being 'H' (16 weeks from now is going to be a bitch for him...). After seeing the 3rd branch of the same name, I realized there was no thief (nor was I in 'H'arkansas... Toto).
I was in Rogers. I took note of the surrounding town names - it seems there is no 'Big Rock' to bookend the capital, but there was 'Little Flock'. Grandma K was born just around the bend is Goshen, right next to Pea Ridge, and Sam Walton's hometown of Bentonville is up the road (a piece).
Everyone seemed nice, especially after I found espresso at Kennedy's and raw fish at 'Sushi Cafe' (home of the 'Walmart Dynamite Roll') . The even had a 'mo at the hotel front desk. HBO seemed to be 25 hrs behind in this time zone & one guy joked that Monday Night Football was on Tuesdays 'in these here parts', but who needs TV when Branson MO is just over the border? (Dolly even has her own southern showcase restaurant there, where you can enjoy the strangely Buffalo Bill-like 'Dixieland' exploits of the performers in antebellum drag in the center ring while enjoying a 5-course meal - seemingly counting the tartar sauce as a course).
The news had a special 'hail' report - twice ('We had golf ball in X, quarter in Y, and Z had nickel-sized hail last night.').
There's a lot of sports loyalty here; not the least of which is manifested in the 'Razorback Roller Rink'. I'm almost sad I won't be here on 'S-A-T-U-R-D-A-Y NIGHT!' Almost.
There are more tattoos here than I would have guessed, but there are more teeth, too.
Rogers is dry town, but that just means that you have to sign into a big 'registry' when you walk into a restaurant with a bar. There were several 'John Does' and 'Sam Adams' dining with me that night (and I'll bet they didn't know they were dining with 'Sam Walton'.) I wonder what happens to that registry when it's 'full up'...
While waiting in the XNA airporton Thursday, I consumed the NYT. Sheikha Khaddouri, Iraqi parlamentarian, was killed Wed by several gunshots to the head at her front gate. The article was illustrated with a photo of the aftermath. In it, several men stood in front of the gate, a garden hose snaking into the yard behind them. They washed her away before they took in the photo, but left the hose.
Jammy Awards were given out Wed night in NYC - for rock improvisors. Now...what to call accolades for best nightclothes...?
While still in the airport lounge, I added to my list of 'things I don't want to overhear my pilot saying'...'just like with a new car, a plane takes awhile to get all the kinks out...' I hope he meant the windshield wipers...
I told you it was big...
Took flash pics with remote transmitter...got right up on the little bugger...still had to shoot ISO 800 in order to use f8.0 and get as much of his little face in focus as possible.
Now that his modelling career is over, he is a free-range spider under the boardwalk in Piedmont Park
Inman Park Dance Festival
Boy oh boy! I had fun getting this post to line up! Anyway, here are some shots I took at C's dance festival. Not totally happy with them, but my lens' aperature only opens up to f4.5 at 105 mm - so, I had to shoot 800 ISO at about 1/100th sec. Not bad, just not good...
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Smoking and insurance
My brother just found out that he and his co-workers will be charged a $150/month increase in their insurance premium if they smoke (and there will be random drug testing. They didn't say what other substances the test would include.) He doesn't smoke, so isn't adamantly against the increase, but he certainly would rather have had a premium reduction for NOT smoking.
Interesting they singled out smokers. Who is next?
PREGNANCY: How about charging women or married men more for insurance because they might become pregnant? Or for a risky pregnancy over 35? How about charging gay men less because none of them will (legally) have a spouse or children on their coverage? How about charging sterile men less because they will never have the stress of child support?
EXERCISE: How about charging people less if they exercise and eat right? I won't even get into the premiums possible for obese people ("random fat testing" would certainly be easy!)
SEX: Definitely charge people more for having unprotected sex, but where might the Christian right lobby steer that? It's more likely that people would justify higher premiums only for gay men because some of them allegedly practice "risky" behaviors.
ALCOHOL: I'm all against smoking and everything, but smoking is a long-term commitment and it seems that most die of "smoking-related illness" on Medicare. There are other worse and more immediately deleterious habits to die of when you are younger. How long before health insurance goes up for people with DUI's? That's an indicator of a pretty risky behavior. And should people in AA be charged less for quitting or more for being "at risk"?
HIGH RISK: I know a guy who was in a terrible skydiving accident who is now in a wheelchair. Millions in medical bills. I'm glad insurance helps with that, but he did knowingly take on a very risky hobby. What about car accidents? Health insurance certainly should be lower for someone who takes MARTA and doesn't own a car.
I think the insurance business just wants more money and smokers are the acceptable scapegoat du jour. If they could have made more money by just charging premiums to child molesters or Nazis; then the smokers could breathe easier.
Addiction
Mary-Kate, Robert Jr, Whitney, Joaquin, Donatella, Halle; all the cool people have an addiction. I felt left out.
Until now.
This morning I heard a story on Joyce Meyer's book "Approval Addiction". In it, she stated "so many people today have an unhealthy need for affirmation and are unable to feel good about themselves without it".
I totally have that! I'm "in"! "Step 1" is getting an addiction!
I know my friends roll their eyes if they know I have a new project or accomplishment, because they know I'll be dragging stuff out for their approval - "look at this photo!", "read my latest blog", "come hear this new CD I bought", "I'm throwing a party for you". I want them to like my stuff. I want them to like me.
I blame my parents.
As a kid, I always wanted to get good grades - for them. I couldn't wait to run home and show them my report card. Their approval made me happy and made me want to get good grades, but getting good grades to measure parents' approval is not the same as getting them to measure "success". I mean, the result is good - I succeeded in life - because the addiction (yay! my addiction!) translates well to life - getting your boss's approval gets you paid - but I have to be conscious not to let people's approval/disapproval dictate my happiness.
I have a job to make money (and maybe get some satisfaction), but not to be happy.
This all got triggered this morning before work. I was listening to TV and heard about the book at the same time I trapped a gigantic spider in the foyer. I was thinking about "approval addiction" while driving with the spider next to me in a tupperware container to show everyone at work.
So...I also blame Elementary School...I've never gotten over the impulse to find something to show at "school"; I'm stuck in 2nd Grade and if I bring something really cool they will all like me.
My addiction - I have Show-and-Tell Syndrome.
(I hope you liked this blog...and the spider IS kick-ass huge...and really really hope everyone likes my new addiction).
YMCA
I had fun taking these with S; lots of light metering and long exposures and tripods and lo-and-behold, they are all exposed the same - correctly, even! Fun exercise...
Joshua Tree in B&W
Not sure I liked these compared to the pop-out yellow and blue color ones, but they do have that certain 1950's-scary-gigantic-desert-monster-atomic-test feel...
Movie marketing...
I know the new Star Wars movie is supposed to be a humdinger, and it does come out soon, and a movie company's job is to sell tickets, but some promotional tie-ins are soooooooooooo shameless...
(...tell me George Lucas wasn't voting in the conclave! Come to think of it, the Big P was elected on April 19th. SW comes out EXACTLY 1 month later...coincidence?)
Mary on the half shell...
...my friend Dave found an oyster shell on the beach...he thought it looked like the Virgin Mary cradling the baby J in her arms...we took it to the High museum...we got a second opinion...
...big times in the big city...
From the High to the Louvre...
I love this painting...
The artist is Anne-Louis Girodet de Roussy-Trioson. The title is "Atala au tombeau". 1808. This is the link to the painting in the Louvre.
I took the above photo in Atlanta's High Museum.
Huh?
It took me a while to find out the story, but apparently, when Empress Josephine saw the original that now hangs in the Louvre, she "commissioned" the painter to create a copy. That's what now hangs in the High.
Thanks J-Bo!
Clover 1
This field is near my office.
I think it's amazing...1) because it's purdy and all, but mostly 2) because the clover was planted all over this area to prevent erosion on the airport 5th runway construction project. I am amazed that someone actually had the foresight to accomplish something with a practical objective in beautiful way.
Really! How often does the DOT need to accomplish something that ends up having an aesthetic side effect?...
Beach 1 (and Ocean's 12)
Blues
Wow! Sorry if I disappointed my phlog fan, but I was having difficulty uploading pics with "hello", until I realized that my pics already exist in the webworld thanks to my uber-webmaster James! A few more blunders/experiments and VOILA!
...and speaking of "voila" and the beach, what the hell happened in "Ocean's 12"? I know it was supposed to be a wink-wink-nudge-nudge, insider, cameo-driven Hollywood self-indulgence, but after viewing it, I had one question:
"What?"
So, I watched it again
At what point is a plot so intricate that it crosses the line from being "complex" to just being "confusing"?
So...I got that everything had to come together all at once - the death of Isabelle's mother, the return of the egg to her father, the satifaction of Benedict, the defeat of "Night Fox", but:
1) Did the police really plan to ship the egg from Paris to Rome via a plainclothes officer on a train? I guess LaMark gave them the low-down and I guess he already had an egg replica ready to switch, but how did he know the exact backpack and off-white windbreaker neatly tucked into it for Linus to be ready for the switch?
2) I guess that "Night Fox" had the Oceans under surveillance the entire time following the "bet", but is that the only reason that they planned the "failed" robbery of the museum? Did they plan on getting arrested and having to come up with the "Loosey-loo" alternate? When outlining the plan timeline, Brad Pitt did say "...and at 10:44 we get arrested..."
3) What was the point of Bernie Mac getting arrested and sitting in jail in Amsterdam during the whole movie?
4) And then a couple of little things: What was the point of Chinese guy getting lost in a suitcase? That happened before the meeting with LaMark, which was the starting point of the egg caper, so it couldn't be part of that. And exactly when did Linus' mom get involved? And really, Bernie Mac...what?
Anyway, the beach was fun...
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