Ploafmaster General

I finally got some pictures worth sharing. This dude was rocking faces (while hiding his own!) in front of Plan 9 on Friday the 13th.

Words fail to express how surreal and messed-up is the very notion of a whole chicken in a can.

Regular readers of this site may have noticed that I've been a bit thin on content lately. Part of that is because the last two rolls of film I developed weren't exactly successful (though I hope the slide film I pick up today is a different story), and certainly photography-related posts have become a staple around here.

A bigger reason, however, is that I've simply not had a lot to say lately. I doubt that I'm bumping up against the limits of my blogging. It's just that there haven't been a whole lot of primary sources of input for me lately. It's much less desirable for me, these days, to re-post something I've seen elsewhere (unless it's REALLY good), and even in that department I've lately run thin because I'm in a rut as far as my daily web reads are concerned (maybe that's a good thing considering my real life reads have increased at least a little bit). I suppose if I took some time to read some articles I'd at least be able to write some sort of response or rendered opinion.

But really, if I had to choose one main reason for my lack of insight, humor, or what-have-you around these digital parts is that I'm under a bit of stress these days, both good and bad, and I've only recently begun to realize how that's affecting my mood, attention span, and enthusiasm for outside stimuli. I've recently transitioned to a new church, I'm waiting on graduate school details, I have to do my taxes, blah blah blah blah blah.

I can just sum it up by saying I'm a bit distracted these days.

The grand irony, of course, is that such circumstances have, in this post, generated one of the longer pieces of writing I've posted in quite some time. That's probably more a result my long-winded writing style (when unfocused, as here and now) than really having anything to say. I also can't help but think that I'm likely to find a host of small and trivial things to post over the next day now that I've made such a statement. I often find that my later actions contradict my earlier words, but I'm certainly not going to hold back sharing something funny or interesting should I come across any.

Whatevs...that's all for now.

Tonight I finished reading Isaac Asimov's acclaimed collection of short stories: I, Robot. This is my introduction to Asimov's writing but I enjoy it already. While I enjoyed his style of writing, I was most impressed by the heady concepts which I found pervaded the anthology. Besides the in-depth consideration of the psychology of robotic machines, we're presented with a picture of the human impact of the presence of such technology from its near introduction to its startling potential future.

At a brief 256 pages (or 192 in my 70's edition belonging to my wife's late father) it makes for a quick read of all stories. Now I feel like it's but a small taste to whet my appetite for more of Asimov's work.

I made my inglorious return to Facebook several weeks ago because I got tired of calling up my mom to tell her stuff only to find she already knew because of her friend status with various people I know. So I'm back in the loop, at least for now. I still see the same thing as I did over a year ago - people friend each other, and once you've made your digital connections there's little else to do but post status messages and use their mountains of useless apps.

But now it's just a bigger and more tangled mess, and no more so than on the default view when you log in: the News Feed.

I feel that there's very little rhyme or reason to this view. Here you have a jumble of status updates, comments, fan-mentions, sponsor surveys, app notices, friend notices, et cetera. Is it chronological? At first it may appear that way, but over the course of any given day I begin to notice certain items jumbling, disappearing, reappearing, moving further up or down the list, and who knows what else. It's fairly often that I see something posted early in the week suddenly appear underneath a status message posted two hours ago even though there are more recent items below.

There. I've released a little bit of steam over this still-almost-entirely-a-waste-of-my-time website. Yeah yeah yeah, I'm still on Facebook. Maybe in another year I'll look at it the way I look at my cell phone - just another "necessary" communication tool. But for now it feels like using cough syrup; you feel like it could be helpful, but it's disgusting all the way down.

Tonight is the opening for the new VCA exhibit, "Building Images: Seventy Years of Photography at Hedrich Blessing." There will be around 80 images, many quite large, which showcase a broad spectrum of the studio's work. The exhibit runs through April 12th.
(image courtesy Ansel Olson)

I was in the car with Val last night when "Bohemian Rhapsody" (Yes! It has its own Wikipedia entry!) came on the radio. I can never resist the opportunity to crank it, and I still mist up a little at the sound of the first guitar solo (I mean, you do, too, right? You're not heartless...are you?).

So this evening, I'm perusing the web as usual when I come across the most glorious of mash-ups...a smooshed audio tour de force (farce?) containing pieces from nearly every cover of the song that could be found. While the genres and quality truly run the gamut, it's actually...well...awesome. Beware the end, though...I believe there's some coarse language (in case you're sensitive to that or at the office).
(via waxy)

Holy Smokes, the ban on smoking in restaurants in Virginia passed today.

I'm getting mixed signals from the news, though - the Times Dispatch article to which I linked says there's more voting to be done. NBC 12, on the other hand, reported on the 6:00 news that the bill "now heads to Gov. Tim Kaine for approval, where it is expected to be signed into law." I'm guessing NBC is a little further ahead than the Times Dispatch (I hope so), but either way there's sure to be more detail as time passes. The main thing I'm trying to hear now is when the measure is to take effect. Some sources say October 1st while others say January 1, 2010. I'm hoping for the former :-)

UPDATE: Okay, so NBC 12 updated their story and removed the portion stating that it's moving to Kaine's desk. Regardless, it seems that at the latest VA restaurants could be smoke-free by the end of this year. I'm pumped!

UPDATE 2: Final word for now...so some of the bill's teeth were pulled. The delay is indeed 'till January 1, 2010. So it won't take effect this year. At least it will sometime, though. Additionally, the Times Dispatch reports that another more craptaculous exception was included to "allow smoking whenever minors are not allowed." Oh well. It's a start. It's a good thing that our state government was able to do anything here in the land of tobacco.

Oh man...Layer Tennis starts again today. Set your phasers to "stun" and your Interwebs to today's match.

Should be grand!

As part of their "One in 8 Milliion" series, the NY Times site has a short audio/photo piece on Georgiana DePalma Tedone, a 90-year-old who still makes her own mozzarella cheese in Brooklyn.

Today is a glorious day in Virginia. Smoking looks like it could be completely banned from Virginia restaurants soon. Some private clubs are exempt, and so are restaurants with physically separated smoking rooms with independent ventilation, but over all this is fantastic! The will of the people will finally be represented on this issue!

Okay, so it's not law yet, it's just a bill, but it's apparently the strongest one yet crafted on the issue. There's support from both sides, and it's on it's way to the House Laws Committee. It sure would be nice if this was all settled in the next month or so...
(via RVANews)

I got a couple of keepers after all. I finally got around to trying out a roll of Kodak's pro slide film - E100VC to be exact. That "VC" means "vivid color" I believe, and I'm guessing it's intended to compete with Velvia 100. This being my first roll, the jury's still out, but I think it's got a broad range for sure. Sometime soon I'll try me some Kodachrome :-)

So my Intermediate B&W Darkroom Photography class - the one about which I was soooo excited - has been cancelled because of low enrollment. Looks like I have the next 10 Wednesday nights free, after all.

On the bright side, Val said she might take the class with me if I try again in the summer :-)

Anyway, stay tuned...I think I just got some nice pics back on a roll of slide film...

If you can't laugh or at least smile at this, then your heart is an untended garden of dead things:

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TVblWq3tDwY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1&w=580&h=470]

Goodness gracious, I couldn't have said it better myself...Michael Ruhlman rants about the anti-bacterial obsession of American culture.

Hey, guess what? I eat pork that's pink in the middle. I eat burgers cooked medium...sometimes medium rare (even at - gasp! - restaurants). Ever since I was a kid, I've been eating leftover pizza that spent the night in a cardboard box on the kitchen counter. And you know what? I get sick maybe once every 12 months or so - and it hasn't been a digestive problem in at least 5 years.

Correlation is NOT causation, but I do subscribe to the notion that being less fanatical about food sanitation (while not ignoring common sense precautions) makes for a stronger immune system.

If you had the chance to burp any celebrity from the United Kingdom, who would it be? Oh yeah, and it has to be somebody that's a bit more obscure on the west side of the Atlantic.

Today was so foggy and incredible that I just had to take some photographs. I rushed home at lunch time to grab my Yashica, and headed down to the Carillon near Dogwood Dell. While I my foggy photos didn't quite pass muster, the mini-shoot wasn't a total loss.

I think I'm going to try pushing some Tri-X to ISO 6400. You might think pushing 400-speed film 4 stops would make for completely unsightly grain, but there are plenty of examples to the contrary.

I'm a big fan of Dan Benjamin and his many varieties of content on the web. But today he posted an entry on his blog that he calls "Help for The Potential Vegetarian." I think he wisely disable comments on his post, but I wanted to say something about it, and my own blog is the ideal venue, so here goes. From his (short) post:

"For those of you on the fence about becoming a vegetarian, just watch this video showing how bacon is made..."

The YouTube clip is from the show How It's Made and shows how bacon is produced on an industrial scale.

Okay, I have no problem with Dan Benjamin or anybody else that is a vegetarian. It's a personal decision, and while I don't always agree with everybody's reason, I see no moral problem in one's electing to keep meat out of one's diet. But how is this supposed to help a person on the fence about vegetarianism make a decision?

Is a person considering vegetarianism because of health reasons? Then you don't need to see a bacon facility to make up your mind. What about vegetarianism for the sake of the animals? Well we don't see how the pigs were raised/fed/slaughtered in this video, so no help there. And if you just don't think it's right to kill an animal, you'd avoid bacon (or other meat) before watching this clip anyway. I mean, frankly, if you didn't know bacon wasn't healthy or that it came from an animal before watching this clip, you're probably not intelligent enough to make the call on vegetarianism anyway. Just keep eating your Cheerios, and somebody will take you to nap time shortly...

Dan's post bugs me because it seems to say, "Look at this gross industrial process. Are you sure you want to eat that?" If this video grosses you out and you're not already a vegetarian, I think it makes a stronger case against commercial meat processing than it does against meat in general. In fact, I'd say that commercial food production for some vegetarian or vegan foods might look just as unappetizing.

So again, no disrespect to Mr. Benjamin. I simply wish his post was a bit better...um...fleshed out. Now I'll go on waiting for the next episode of Tack Sharp :-)

I feel like a pretty dry well these days, so forgive me while I resort to the ol' blogging standard of simple links to amusing diversions...

Behold, the camera truck.

Shaun Irving created a seriously large format camera out of a used truck, and some of the photographs are truly amazing. His work is currently on display at Hamden-Sydney College's Atkinson Museum. Since that's only twenty-five minutes from my parents' house, I may just have to check it out some time before February 28th (when the exhibit closes).
(via Chris)

Yarf...I feel like I'm 17 all over again...

I just finished writing a bunch of admissions essays, and tomorrow I get to send out recommendation requests. On Friday I pick up several sealed copies of my undergraduate transcript. Then, after I get my W-2 at the end of this month, I get to fill out the FAFSA for the first time since January, 2003. Hooray, I think :-)

I guess I'd be remiss if I didn't tell everybody about my friend Patrick's new Tumblog, tasty hip hop treats. If you're a fan of clever music regardless of the genre, give this a look. Patrick is beginning to curate a fine selection of beats, songs, and collections, much of which is free at least for the listening (and some for the downloading, too).

Look, it's all worth it at least for Dert's Talk Strange.

Whether or not you like the new administration, I think it's a nice symbolic move that Whitehouse.gov now has a blog. Let's hope the updates are frequent and substantive.