Today is my 50th birthday.
On a day like this, one tends to reflect upon the past. What has happened to me in the past 50 years? A lot. 10 years ago I was one of the stars of online photography.
Now people ask “Who is that guy?”
Well, that’s gonna change!
But what else after living 50 years?
We’ve went from barely getting a man into orbit to landing a man on the moon, then suddenly barely able to get a man into orbit again. Thus I’ve learned that no matter how big of an achievement a country can pull off, it can always be reversed by politicians who can’t see past the next election or news cycle.
We went from having a B&W TV set and only one or two TV channels with nothing to watch, to ultra sharp wide-screen TVs with 5 to 1 Dolby sound and over 1500 high definition TV channels… and still nothing to watch. But it’s in HD!!
Went from listening to music by placing a 12” black vinyl record on a record set, the mechanical clunking it’d make then the scratchy music would come out of small plastic speakers.… to CDs and not-quite-as-good-as-vinyl sound but no scratches and pops… to small devices which can carry thousands of CDs, download music from anywhere… all the way back to 12” black vinyl records because they simply sound better.
Computers took up whole FLOORS in buildings. Apollo had the computing power of a digital calculator. Now everyone has one, often two, computers which more processing power than all of the Pentagon in 1959. In 2009 almost every computer int he world is connected. We went from 300 baud modems and dial-up bulletin boards to uncountable websites. We also went from acquaintances and friends being people you actually knew and saw in person to people you think of as best friends being folks you've never actually met in person.
We've come from landline telephones with rotary dials to completely wireless devices. You got to hate people with lots of 9s or 0s in the phone number, it’d take forever to dial the number. The telephones were wired into place and everyone could overhear you talking. Now I don’t have a wired in phone at all, can take the thing anywhere. But after 50 years I’ve learned the damned phone will still “ring” when you’re busy. But the phone also has no right to be answered anyway.
Twinkies haven’t’ changed one bit.
Models haven’t changed one bit – they’re all still young, beautiful and damned flaky. But now if I don’t hear from a model before meeting her, I know she’ll probably not be at the meeting, and the further I have to drive to the meeting, the greater the chances the model won’t show up. Radio silence means the model is a flake.
After 50 years, my opinion that family & friends takes priority over any job or career still stands. Jobs come and go, family and friends can’t be replaced.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Things picking up.....
About time... I am jumping into photography again with both feet, into untested waters and without a life jacket, and there is no life guard on duty.
Tuesday, August 18, 2009
The olden days
I installed a new hard disk yesterday. 1.5 terabytes. Which got me to recalling my first hard disk install. Around 1985, it was a 20 meg MFM drive.
Folks have it easy today, but back then, you started the system. Booted from a floppy, then ran “debug”. The command was “g=c800:5” followed by “E” for execute. This placed the debug program to a point in the hard drive controller’s BIOS to run the initialization routine.
After that – it was fdisk, to make a partition, followed by making that partition active and system. Then it was format – all this took HOURS.
We’ve come along ass way.
Folks have it easy today, but back then, you started the system. Booted from a floppy, then ran “debug”. The command was “g=c800:5” followed by “E” for execute. This placed the debug program to a point in the hard drive controller’s BIOS to run the initialization routine.
After that – it was fdisk, to make a partition, followed by making that partition active and system. Then it was format – all this took HOURS.
We’ve come along ass way.
Tuesday, August 11, 2009
Friday, July 10, 2009
A Bitter Pill
It has really hit home for me now just how much the Republican Party has lost its mind. Especially after the latest soap opera.
During the months that have passed since John McCain “tapped” Sarah Palin to be his running mate, I’ve had more and more trouble reconciling the obsessive adoration of Palin by so many in the GOP, including a lot of my relatives, (some of whom are very smart and successful people) with the obvious dangers of having someone like her as president. The bizarre behavior. The vapid thinking. How do they not recoil at the smug way in which she wears her ignorance like a badge of honor? It’s just amazing to me how every word out of her mouth is taken as gospel, and when she can’t even answer a softball question without struggling to form a semblance of coherent opinion, then set off against the "liberal media".
Never mind the implications of her “word salad” responses. It’s quite sad actually, especially for me to see how my own family has changed. There’s been this kind of de-evolution from a thinking, reasoned, disinterested opinion, into an irrational, crusading, narrow banded thinking process that has really made me step away from the words Republican and Conservative as labels that apply to me.
Oh well, I'm perfectly cool in the land of Independence.
During the months that have passed since John McCain “tapped” Sarah Palin to be his running mate, I’ve had more and more trouble reconciling the obsessive adoration of Palin by so many in the GOP, including a lot of my relatives, (some of whom are very smart and successful people) with the obvious dangers of having someone like her as president. The bizarre behavior. The vapid thinking. How do they not recoil at the smug way in which she wears her ignorance like a badge of honor? It’s just amazing to me how every word out of her mouth is taken as gospel, and when she can’t even answer a softball question without struggling to form a semblance of coherent opinion, then set off against the "liberal media".
Never mind the implications of her “word salad” responses. It’s quite sad actually, especially for me to see how my own family has changed. There’s been this kind of de-evolution from a thinking, reasoned, disinterested opinion, into an irrational, crusading, narrow banded thinking process that has really made me step away from the words Republican and Conservative as labels that apply to me.
Oh well, I'm perfectly cool in the land of Independence.
The new Darkroom
Now that we’re settled into the new place, it is time to build the darkroom!
I started with a cluttered walk-in closet.
Added 2x4s for shelving brackets, then some cut plywood as the shelving.
Connected power to the light in the closet, and now to unpack my darkroom items. Most everything is already unpacked. MUCH better than what I was working with....
I use an ancient Beseler 23C II which gives me those cool borders on my prints. That and the bright aluminum negative holders. The new ones are all black.
Next few days I’ll put up the darkroom cloth and begin printing.
I started with a cluttered walk-in closet.
Added 2x4s for shelving brackets, then some cut plywood as the shelving.
Connected power to the light in the closet, and now to unpack my darkroom items. Most everything is already unpacked. MUCH better than what I was working with....
I use an ancient Beseler 23C II which gives me those cool borders on my prints. That and the bright aluminum negative holders. The new ones are all black.
Next few days I’ll put up the darkroom cloth and begin printing.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Back in the '29
After living 2 years and 2 months in a tiny apartment nestled between a busy Anderson Mill Road and a strip center with midnight food deliveries, I’m back on the other side of 183 in a nice townhouse in the 78729 area. I’ve lived in this zip code for 12 years prior to moving into Anderson Mill, now I’m back.
I hate to move though. All that packing and the pain in the back, plus I always misplace things, forget which box it’s packed in. Drives me crazy!!
We actually moved on the 31st, but I’m still hauling boxes from the storage unit. It’s so very nice to have a washer & dryer handy again. My washer was a nesting spot for a rat while in storage. Every piece of rubber hose was chewed, so $80.00 later I had the washer working again. F**king rat.
I figure to be back in business shooting stock within another week. Models shortly after that.
But first, there’s the Wendy’s incident.
I pulled into Wendy’s last week for a fast lunch. I ordered a Jr Cheesburger, and asked for MUSTARD not Mayo. A garbled voice repeated this, the screen showed OK, and I ordered fires.
At the window, a small oriental woman asked me if I wanted “kitchen!!” What? “Kitchen!! You wan KITTCHEN???!!! “
I’m baffled. Kitchen? “For FLIES? KITCHEN?? YOU WAN KITCHEN?”
Oh. I say, politely…. It’s called “Ketchup”.
“No CATCHING UP, it KITCHEN!!!” Jesus. Probably some idiots in the back laughing right about then.
I give in and decide to be humorous. “Yeah, gimme two KITCHENS! And howabout a Mini-Bar to go with it?”
“We no sell candy heh!” as she shoved the bag at me. I have no idea what oriental language she used then, but it probably translated into “Asshole”….
And there was MAYO on the f**king cheesburger..........
I hate to move though. All that packing and the pain in the back, plus I always misplace things, forget which box it’s packed in. Drives me crazy!!
We actually moved on the 31st, but I’m still hauling boxes from the storage unit. It’s so very nice to have a washer & dryer handy again. My washer was a nesting spot for a rat while in storage. Every piece of rubber hose was chewed, so $80.00 later I had the washer working again. F**king rat.
I figure to be back in business shooting stock within another week. Models shortly after that.
But first, there’s the Wendy’s incident.
I pulled into Wendy’s last week for a fast lunch. I ordered a Jr Cheesburger, and asked for MUSTARD not Mayo. A garbled voice repeated this, the screen showed OK, and I ordered fires.
At the window, a small oriental woman asked me if I wanted “kitchen!!” What? “Kitchen!! You wan KITTCHEN???!!! “
I’m baffled. Kitchen? “For FLIES? KITCHEN?? YOU WAN KITCHEN?”
Oh. I say, politely…. It’s called “Ketchup”.
“No CATCHING UP, it KITCHEN!!!” Jesus. Probably some idiots in the back laughing right about then.
I give in and decide to be humorous. “Yeah, gimme two KITCHENS! And howabout a Mini-Bar to go with it?”
“We no sell candy heh!” as she shoved the bag at me. I have no idea what oriental language she used then, but it probably translated into “Asshole”….
And there was MAYO on the f**king cheesburger..........
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