Beep Beep VroomVroom...

I finally picked up my new 2007 Mini Cooper today. Compared to the old VW it's like driving a tightly coiled spring. The steering is amazingly responsive as is the accelerator. On a larger highway, I had no problem punching it up to 80 without knowing I was doing so...Yes, I'll be careful, but still the impulse is challenged to just give it some shovel and go...

I'm very happy.


Johnnyboy

Snow, cold, and the Vernal Equinox...

Depending on which calendar you consult, the Vernal Equinox is either today or tomorrow. This is when the ends of the poles (imagine a skewer through the Earth) are pointing neither at nor away from the Sun. In other words, since the Winter Solstice, the North Pole has been arcing its way towards the Sun, and this is pretty much the halfway point.

We had snow last night and today its sunny, windy, and cold. Beginning tomorrow, however, the temperatures are supposed to be climbing into the 50's for daytime highs. Spring? I hope so. I'm done with winter, I really am.

My Mini Cooper is due to be delivered at the end of this week, so I should have it by Saturday night.

School is going well...Two good classes yesterday and hopefully tonight's science class will be as smooth. My homework is completed and I know all that I will know. Time to turn it over.

Above are a couple of pictures I like. Very colorful and harbingers of the warming weather, I hope.


Johnnyboy

The snow has stopped...finally!

I really hope it's the end of winter. It's time for green things and flowery stuffs to be poking their heads from the earth.

Anyway, as quickly as it fell it seems to be melting away. The temperature is mild (above 35) and the light breeze is decidedly un-wintry. To counterbalance the previous two b/w pictures, here are two shots from my trip to Greece last year. They were taken with my Canon PowerShot A530, but i think they look alright.

Have a great weekend! I'm off to a meeting tonight in the Town of Millers, but first din-din with mum.


Johnnyboy

Much homework, and some snow, I think....

The weather report is lousy with snow, beginning this afternoon and stretching into the wee hours of tomorrow morning. Depending on who you talk to it's either a foot or 5 inches we'll be getting. In either case, let this be the end of winter, with all of its greyness and solemnity. I am looking forward to sunnier climes and balmier breezes, shucking off the heavier clothes of the dark months and digging my feet into a pair of sneakers.

One of the stranger hobbies I have, engaged in very rarely, is surfing the net for anti-AA websites. They are out there, and the webmasters are uniformly angry, bitter, resentful, and somewhat fearful of AA and any 12-Step recovery program, actually. Most of them have tried it and balked at the idea of self-investigation and discovery. Almost all of them are still drinking or doing drugs and blaming AA for brainwashing people into submission. The word 'cult' is thrown around willy-nilly and there are many disparaging remarks about the 'God-thing'. Oh well, I guess they didn't hear all the stuff about a 'god of their understanding' or getting sober to actually have a life outside of AA. Plus, I don't think AA is a cult. If it were, no one would be allowed to leave and if they did, we would hunt them down and force them to come back.

I would also be 'King John' and you would all be my willing and subservient followers.

Laugh. That's a joke.

Last night at a local meeting a girl shared about being kicked out of her re-hab and wanting to use, and how she thinks AA is a cult, and an offshoot of the church, and that all she will have in her life is work and meetings, etc...The poor thing is barely 21 years old. She hasn't lived enough life to actually have lost one yet. How would she know the difference?

Anyway, here's a picture I took a week or so ago...


Johnnyboy

CVS rocks...

I brought some b/w negs to CVS to see how long it would take to receive back prints which I could then scan and post. Among them was the 'Running with Pigeons' picture from Italy 17 years ago. I was under the impression that they had to ship them out, etc...but I was wrong. By the time I had picked up a prescription for mom, and gathered a few other items, the print and accompanying CD were finished.

Above is the 'Running with Pigeons' shot...I tweaked it a bit with DigImagePro-10 just to sharpen it up, reduce some noise, and re-size.

I still like it a lot. How about that smile!


Johnnyboy

...and more from yesterday...

So to continue from where I left off...

I managed to find a huge quantity of pictures in the storage unit on Wednesday. Most are from a trip I took to Bulgaria in the spring of 2001, but I also unearthed a stash of b/w negatives from a trip to Italy in the spring of 1994. As I recall there were some great shots and a good use of depth-of-field. One has always struck me:

I was walking through a piazza around 3PM and I came out from beneath an archway into the square...There were many people walking about and children playing. One little boy was chasing pigeons and making them fly away. He was running, waving and grinning this amazing smile. I whipped out my trusty Canon AE-1 and quickly grabbed the shot. As I recall I didn't have time to adjust for light, depth, etc...I just focused and pulled. I think the shot was a little grainy, but both his feet are running off the ground and I caught his smile. His feet are blurred, as is the background, but some of the pigeons and the kid himself are frozen.

So I found the negative. I noticed something wonderful about it...I had shot almost the entire roll of film before I took that one. It was exposure #36...What luck! I'll have that one blown up and then put on disc. Maybe I can clean it up some.

About the snowmobilers...The above photo shows my handiwork. What you cannot see is in the two telephone pole sections frozen in the snow. I pounded several large nails that now stick out. Anyone who crosses those will get stuck and most likely damage their sled. But, since they are trespassing, I am not liable for any of the consequences. To top it off, I called the trespassers to tell them about the 'obstacle', but not what it was. So there...

Mom comes home tonight and it will be a very welcome homecoming. My sober sister is coming with her. I have dinner almost ready, towels laid out, and all the things that make home just that...Home.


Johnnyboy

Time capsules, snow-mobilers, photography, et al...

Well, what a week! My sleeping patterns have been off again-on again so my rhythms are thoroughly jumbled. This just in time for the daylight savings time shift on Sunday! I have been investigating a patch for my Windows XP service pack 2, but the options from Microsoft did not run after I had downloaded them. I guess I'll just change the time manually...

I recently went into my storage unit at the local storage place. This is where I have stored all of my pre-jail, old apartment, old life, stuff and it felt a bit like opening up a time capsule. It wasn't memories that I found more than an idea about how I used to live.

I lived like a rat. Most boxes are full of books I don't need right now, or kitchen stuff, so I didn't bother. There were other boxes however that were full of small shiny objects and little scraps of paper...old pens, junk, really...I was able to consolidate my storage into one bin and discard a whole lot of old furniture and crap I had been dragging around with me for years. If you want the furniture, it went to 'Lou's Relics', on Rte. 44...

I have dealt with the illegal snow-mobilers. I have re-posted the area where they are trespassing and the sheriff's department has given them a verbal and written warning to not trespass.

I am planning some still life shots in the next few days, so be on the lookout. There are some themes..

Fruit and flowers
Carpentry
Arts and Sciences

I'll be interested in hearing what you think...



Johnnyboy

New pictures, new amends, just another day...

I rarely stick my foot in my mouth like I did last night. During a business meeting one of the younger, more energetic members was disruptive and someone else called him on it. He ignored them, so I opened my big mouth:

"Hey, dipshit!"

That got his attention and he became childish and said, "Well you guys just have your meeting!", and ran from the room (did I see tears?). It's actually pretty funny when I think about it...

So I made my amends to him about ten minutes later and told him that I shouldn't have said it, and I was wrong. He barely shook my hand, couldn't look me in the eye, and mumbled something about letting bygones-be-bygones. Oh well...In this case I'll settle for progress because I was less than perfect.

On better news, I just finished my first paper for this semester. It's a discussion on the role of youth culture in the rise of early fascism in Italy and Germany. It came in at just over 11 pages, and it reads very well. So that's finished.

Above are two new b/w pictures I have manipulated with Digital Image Pro. I am trying to adjust the contrasts to simulate the tonal qualities of platinum gelatin prints. I think I captured some of the richness. There'll be more to come!

Johnnyboy

images...

Here is the first of a series of pictures from the new box...This is called 'Change #1'. Unfortunately I erased the pic from the memory card, but I did use auto-focus and macro settings to achieve the shot.

Click on the top image--It's more viewable. the bottom one is toooo big. For some reason I couldn't delete the bottom picture without losing 'Elephant Nuts' on the previous post....weird.


Johnnyboy

New camera, new day, so far, so good...

My new camera arrived this morning in the mail from B&H Photo in The Big City and so far I am very pleased and a little intimidated with the thing. It has been a long time since I have used a real SLR camera and the added digital gizmos tend to make me a tad nervous. You can be sure I'll be asking my friend Aravis about some of the workings...I can see why some people didn't like the unit already. There are a couple of manual setting switches that are a bit awkward, but I'll get used to them.

The cable guy has come and gone, and left a new cable extension in what will be my mother's new bedroom, i.e. downstairs in what used to be the guest bedroom. The telephone man comes tomorrow to do essentially the same thing.

Above are two pictures taken with my new Canon Rebel XT. One is called 'Elephant Nuts' and the other is 'Sweetie Pie'. On both I used the autofocus, but set the ISO and so on my self. This camera is several steps up from the little point-and-shoot Canon I have.