Sunday, June 29, 2008

Cheap Chinese Plastic saves camera

Yesterday, while shooting some flower images (flowers that were brought to Candice's room during her recovery from surgery)my tripod decided to slip two legs and fall, with my camera attached. I was shooting with the camera attached and turned to give a nice vertical composition, so the camera hit directly on the top.

Attached was a cheap radio slave you can get in FleaBay for under 30 bucks.

This piece of cheap plastic saved the camera, and still works! Busted the plastic housing as it absorbed the impact, but the circuit board is still good.

I dribbled epoxy over the housing bottom which was busted, and reattached the top and it functions. The epoxy stabilized the thing until I get a pocket wizard.

Before being fixed, views of the bottom and the back.

It's been a LONG week.

This past week my daughter had scoliosis surgery. This procedure is called a spinal fusion with instrumentation.

Kinda sounds scary.

It is.

Candice began with a lumbar curve 53 degrees. They opened her up from the 3rd lumbar area up to between her shoulder blades. All to implant this...



We were at the hospital at 0530 (Oh dark thirty) when she was prepped.


Then at 7am, off to surgery.

First word came at 8:30 when they said she was doing great and they're already started placing the screws to hold the rods.

They finished at 1pm. 6 hours. Doctor Shapiro showed us the final xrays and her spine is straight, except a slight curve at the bottom which will correct itself in a few weeks.

The "easy" part was over. Now recovery and transfer to Dell Children's Medical Center. This place happens to be the coolest for kids to recover EVER.

She was up in a chair on Tuesday, up and walking Wednesday and home on Friday. Pain management and getting her up and moving to regain strength and get her muscles used to being in proper alignment.

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

The Harvest

This is bloody genius...

The Harvest

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Drivers in the US

Ok, here I was thinking that the reason the drivers in the US, northwest Austin in specific, were so bad is because they're a bunch of sub-70 IQ morons who somehow managed to get a drivers license. You know, the type who barge out into traffic without even thinking of yielding to oncoming traffic, too busy talking and setting up the DVD for the parasite kid in the back, to pay attention to the small fact they're piloting a huge SUV at highway speeds while on a suburban street.

Then I spot this article on the Atlantic website. The writer makes the argument drivers in the US are not as safe as the drivers in the UK because of all the road signs and speed limit changes.

And I began to think that the American system of traffic control, with its many signs and stops, and with its specific rules tailored to every bend in the road, has had the unintended consequence of causing more accidents than it prevents. Paradoxically, almost every new sign put up in the U.S. probably makes drivers a little safer on the stretch of road it guards. But collectively, the forests of signs along American roadways, and the multitude of rules to look out for, are quite deadly.


It's quite possible this gentleman is correct, all the signs further distract drivers here from the number one task of driving: Watching where you are going.

The local cops and DPS (Department of Public Safety) always spout off about distracted drivers. Cell phones, DVD players, GPS systems, nagging wives, kids, animals, eating, arguing, TEXT Messaging*. All distract drivers.

When I was taking pilot lessons, I learned real quick how not to be distracted. My flight instructor would always try to distract me while I was performing a maneuver, such as landing or taking off. The key here was to teach me to ignore a distraction until I was in a better place to handle it. Like parked and with the engine off.

What the author of the article I quote is missing is the simple fact most of the people in the US are - simply put - morons.

More and more stupid people are procreating at alarming rates and those Jerry Springer stars are now outnumbering us smarter people by almost 5 to 1. It doesn't help that smarter people know what causes babies and can usually plan for one, then only have one or two. Stupid people often have no idea they're pregnant until the kid drops out, many women have no idea that SEX causes pregnancy.

I kid you not. Google that - a lot of women in the lower income classes here in the US don't connect the dots on this fact.

Like populations of fire ants, where the fire ants have overpopulated and pushed out other, more benign species of ants, much to the annoyance of the humans, the lower intelligent humans are over populating our planet much to the annoyance of us more intelligent humans.

I don't mind all the damn signs here. I mind the arbitrary speed limit changes. For example, Anderson Mill Road, when a 2-lane road, was safe at 35mph. When it opened out to a 2 lane road, it goes to 40mph. Two years they worked to change the 2 lanes to 4, now it's a wide open, smooth, easily traveled road, with great visibility, medians, turn lanes ... stuck at 35mph!

What Mr Staddon misses with his observation of our speed limits is this small fact - a lower speed limit on better roads causes drivers to speed, thus SPEED TRAPS to generate much needed income to the county.

*Yes, TEXT messaging. Not bad enough they're talking and driving, but texting as well.

New images

Go check out my portfolio for the new images I just uploaded.

It's under "People, Pets and Other" I have included some images of my kid and a friend doing their "Goth/Emo" thing. Well, not really, as I had to retouch the images to produce the pale look as the kids around here are only Semi-Emo, in that their skin isn't really pale..

My flash portfolio here

If you don't see anything, go visit Adobe.com and install the newest flash player. Don't whine if you can't see the portfolio.

I have some other websites I'll be updating using this, as it prevents "Right-Click" & save issues. All my work is copyrighted, and it's bad karma to steal my images.

Saturday, June 14, 2008

The "iGasm"?????

(Ok, back to blogger silliness)

In my previous incarnations as a photographer - my work led to the more steamy side of adult images. In some cases, we employed a vibrator. My favorite was a golf handle attached to a drill...

I just found this article in the Times Online, which is most informative and very funny.

My favorite quote is:

Hippocrates thought the womb wasn't a fixed item but wandered about the body looking for trouble. At the moment of orgasm, it gripped the windpipe causing the breathless panting so familiar to watchers of When Harry Met Sally. From earliest times there was a recognised women's complaint characterised by nervousness, fluid retention, insomnia and lack of appetite. Hippocrates thought that a blockage in the womb was the cause of it, hence it was called hysteria from the Greek for womb (hysteros). Galen, a Greek physician, claimed it was caused by sexual deprivation, particularly in passionate women, and was noted in nuns, virgins, widows and occasionally in married women whose husbands were not up to the job.


Followed by:

A scary French pelvic douche from about 1860 involved what looks like a high-pressure fire hose, trained on the clitoris. It claimed to induce paroxysm in less than four minutes. If marriage wasn't delivering the goods, rickety trains, rocking chairs or horse riding were advised for nervous women as gynaecological Dyno-Rodding techniques. But if the 2.20 from Tooting failed to oblige, there was no option but recourse to a medical man.


That really had me guffawing.....

Which leads us to the most recent items to be found, including
...the latest Ann Summers device, the iGasm. Its various ‘tickler' attachments make it look startlingly similar to something illustrated in the Army & Navy catalogue of 1905. There is nothing new in the world.


Education by the "stuffy" British is most entertaining....

Sunday, June 8, 2008

HRC "suspends" her campaign

What-ever that means... I guess she's hedging her bets in case some whack-job kills or seriously wounds Obama.

So - now what?

For me, it's back to photography blogging. It's hotter'n hell in Texas, already we're hitting triple digits. If it isn't hot, it's hot & humid, with a strong hot dry wind from the south.

Sounds like Southern California on a bad day.

Now for some model recruiting, branch back out to some more artsy fashion stuff.

Until June 22nd. On June 22nd, my daughter is prepared for surgery for her back. At that time, several relatives will descend upon Austin to further snarl traffic between Anderson Mill and the Dell Children's Hospital. My daughter has scoliosis and her curve is such that surgery is required to stop it from becoming worse. So she'll be in the OR for about 7 hours, have a couple of titanium trusses installed, and the rest is recovery and therapy to return her to normal activity.

SO I figure to be back into model photography after July 7th or so.

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

New Psychological illness

Another blog, The AMERICAblog, posted this tidbit, a real disease, not made up, which fits HRC to a "Tee".
Narcissistic Personality Disorder

The symptoms of narcissistic personality disorder revolve around a pattern of grandiosity, need for admiration, and sense of entitlement. Often individuals feel overly important and will exaggerate achievements and will accept, and often demand, praise and admiration despite worthy achievements. They may be overwhelmed with fantasies involving unlimited success, power, love, or beauty and feel that they can only be understood by others who are, like them, superior in some aspect of life.

There is a sense of entitlement, of being more deserving than others based solely on their superiority. These symptoms, however, are a result of an underlying sense of inferiority and are often seen as overcompensation. Because of this, they are often envious and even angry of others who have more, receive more respect or attention, or otherwise steal away the spotlight.

The post left little to the imagination that this is what drives HRC...

Meanwhile, Obama (D. Illinois - Democratic Presidential Nominee) gave a speech which reminded me of Reagan in the 1980s, and reminds others of JFK.


Clinton Derangement Syndrome


As of this moment, ABC news and the AP are saying Obama is the presumptive Democratic nominee.

However, sufferers of the what is being called Clinton Derangement Syndrome are in a heavy state of denial.

Clinton Derangement Syndrome (CDS) are the folks who - against all reason - argue that Clinton has the nomination and has won the popular vote. They either must have CDS or are using that "New Math" they tried teaching in school in the 1970s.

The sufferers of CDS come up with one excuse after another as to why Obama didn't "really" win. It's like play day at the paranoiacs conference when it comes to the sufferer. Just as the paranoiac "really" knows that he lost his job because "the CIA is beaming mind control rays into my brain", the CDS sufferer "really" knows that Hillary "really" won because "caucuses disenfranchise handicapped people" and thus aren't representative of the will of the majority of the Democrats in caucus states.

Nevermind that they haven't found a single handicapped person disenfranchised by caucus states or a single bit of evidence that indicated that handicapped persons would vote any differently than any other voters in caucus states. Evidence is not required for the CDS sufferer, just as it is not required for the paranoiac who "knows" that the CIA is beaming mind control rays into his brain.

Last Saturday when the Democrats were meeting to figure out what to do with the Florida & Michigan delegates, I got behind one of these sufferers of CDS, she was driving an old, beat up Toyota, covered in stickers, but was going 10 mph and weaving. Then she stops, then weaves her way into a parking lot where folks typically go to pay their water bill, and where we all voted in the primary. OK, she piles out of the car with a sign, dressed in dirty clothes, gray hair flying, eyes wild, and she begins to demonstrate. Problem is, a demonstration only works when you go somewhere people are, such as the capitol.

I was intrigued. I asked her why the M.U.D. office? She tells me that it's because the big oil monopoly made gas prices so high, she couldn't afford to go to the big demonstration at the state capitol. Then she began mumbling and walking around. I think someone is off her meds, but I guess that means the other folks who're just as rabid as this one about Hillary are also off their meds. I paid my water bill and left... quickly.