Tornado Conspiracy?
Wow...first post of 2008! I made a New Year’s resolution to blog more and you can see how quickly I broke that one! I wanted to get a quick post in to let everybody know that I’m still here. That F2 tornado that hit downtown Atlanta didn’t really affect me all that much. It’s going to change the look of things downtown for a while but I rarely get into the city anymore.
Earlier this week I argued that it wasn’t really a tornado that destroyed Atlanta. I don’t know if you heard but Dish Network attempted to launch a satellite from Kazakhstan on Friday night. Coincidentally the satellite didn’t make its intended orbit and was lost in space. Now it looks like they’ve somehow found the satellite and will push it up into orbit. Yay science! As a Dish Network subscriber I just can’t wait to enjoy all of those nice HD channels that the DirecTV people have had for darn near a year now!
Don’t worry. From here on out you’ll see a new post from me at least once a week. That’s all I can promise. Hey it’s better than nothing!
Land of the free?
We are no longer allowed to live free in this country. Every day when I drive into work I pass through a line of trees on either side of the road. The trees have been changing color and starting to drop their leaves so I thought that I should head out and capture it before I missed the opportunity. This road is fairly wooded at the beginning and then it opens up and there are office buildings on either side of the road. I parked my car at a vacant lot at the top of the road and walked down taking pictures from the side of the road.
I had been out there all of 15 minutes when a sheriff’s deputy pulls up behind me. I thought he was waiting so that he wouldn’t get in my shot so I waved him through. That’s when he put his lights on and stopped his blocking one lane of the narrow two lane road. He gets out of his car and proceeds to interrogate me asking why I’m out walking around taking pictures. I told him that I was capturing this view that I see on my drive to work every day and he asked if I was sure that was all that I was doing. I tried to explain to him the concept of leaves changing color and how it’s a pretty good photo opportunity but he just couldn’t comprehend it. He then asks if he can run my driver’s license.
Here I am, an American citizen, out for a walk on a Saturday morning on a road that is frequented by joggers and I’m being treated as if I’m a terrorist plotting to blow up some oak trees. The area that I was photographing was at least a quarter of a mile from the nearest office complex (I didn’t want them in my shot). While he’s running my ID I finish up taking my shots and I’m ready to leave but I’m being forced to wait for the background check to come back. I also noticed that he’s got dash camera pointed at me so I walk a good distance from his car. After waiting for 10 minutes or so he gets out of his car and apologizes for holding me up. I should have never been halted in the first place.
George Carlin said it best:
“Rights aren’t rights if someone can take them away. They’re privileges. Like staying up late to watch television on a school night. That’s all we have is privileges here. “
Naked DSL
So I’ve pretty much had naked DSL for 2 days now and didn’t know it. It seems that a storm that blew through here on Monday night knocked my home phone out but left the DSL working. That shows you how much I use my landline. I did notice that yesterday and today my sat receiver was complaining that I needed to connect a phone line but I just ignored the message. Tonight I got kind of curious and decided to call my home phone from the cell and see if the caller-id showed up on screen. Sure enough I got a busy signal. Checked the land line. No dial tone. I guess I could live with naked DSL after all.
This made my day
Direct quote from the just published REAGAN DIARIES.
The entry is dated May 17, 1986.
A moment I’ve been dreading. George brought his ne’re-do-well son around this morning and asked me to find the kid a job. Not the political one who lives in Florida. The one who hangs around here all the time looking shiftless. This so-called kid is already almost 40 and has never had a real job. Maybe I’ll call Kinsley over at The New Republic and see if they’ll hire him as a contributing editor or something. That looks like easy work.
Why I hate retail sales weasels
For those that don’t know me, one of my pet peeves is retail sales. The whole “can I help you find something” may be well intentioned but if you don’t know anything then you can’t very well help someone. Today’s example took place at Wolf Camera, a retail photo/videography shop. Normally I would never be caught dead in a retail storefront like this but one of my co-workers told me that the prices were reasonable and the staff was quite knowledgeable so I figured I’d give it a shot.
I was in the market for a remote shutter release cable for my EOS 20D. The first thing that I noticed about this place is how EVERYTHING is locked behind glass. It reminded me of a jewelry store. I explained to the lady that I had a Canon EOS 20D and what I needed for it. She tried to sell me a wireless one but I insisted on a cable. So I get home and find out that what she sold me doesn’t fit the plug on the 20D. Oh I was livid. I really wanted to take some night shots tonight and I needed that cable to do it properly. I loaded up my camera and drove back to the store. Class was about to begin. Find out what happened next after the jump.
