Blackberry Photos

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May 042010
 

Nothing like some half-and-half in the morning....

Took the above photo this morning at the train station. You have to imagine, too, that this was honestly a sky that was split in half: everything on the right was overcast, while everything on the left was clear. It was like the whole sky was overcast until someone just ripped half of the cloud cover away, like “Heck, it’s a lovely day, let’s open the shades, eh?

Friendly political discourse

I have to admit, this one actually made me laugh.

Something to keep in mind, ladies, the next time you're out at a bar.

I wonder if Ben Roethlisberger could use this as part of his next night out on the town?

For those not aware, this is Diesel’s (a trendy clothing maker) latest ad campaign. I can’t say that I think it’s all that great of one, personally. True, I’m not probably not the market share this is aimed out, but ye gads, are they really trying to encourage people to be stupid? If so, how about some more straightforward ads like, “Be Stupid. Buy Our Stuff,” “Only The Most Idiotic Morons Would Spend Money Here,” or even “You Braindead, Mindless, Dolts! Get Away From Us!”

Then again, maybe they are trying to turn “stupid” into a compliment. But if so, they’re about a decade behind the times: back when she had a show on ABC, Ellen DeGeneres covered that in an episode. Sorry, Diesel, but you’re not worthy of being called “stoopid.” But keep on tryin’, ace!

Just a typical day at Penn Station

Ah, the joy of commuting….

Stylish display stand, eh?

So, who exactly loses a shoe in the subway and doesn’t realize it?

Actually, I like to pretend this was some MFA Grad Student’s thesis project; cryptic, unintuitive, and vague enough that they can BS about it for the entire thesis year.

(Why, yes, I am a MFA Grad; why do you ask?)

Mind the gap

As someone who was hit by a car, I admit this thing always makes me wince.

Gaze into my eyes, helmet....

This is not my photo, but I love it because it looks like Mike Holmgren is hypnotizing the Browns Helmet. “You will install components of the West Coast Offense….”

Blackberry Photos

 Photos, Stuff I Made  2 Responses »
Feb 212010
 
The "new game"

I'm pretty sure this is a Street Fighter game, but the cabinet says it's called "New Game," so obviously I must be mistaken.

The camera isn't important enough yet to have it's own installation.

So if you just turned the camera to face the other way, would you be in trouble for defeating security measures?

A habit worth keeping

 Life in General, Photos, Stuff I Made  Comments Off
Jan 022010
 

Much like the ancient Romans, Target employees who fall asleep while on their shift are beaten to death with carts by their coworkers.

It’s a good sign that I am ever more mindful of my cash flow when I’m actually following up on returning items that don’t work.

Earlier today, I had picked up a universal remote from Target to replace the one that had succumbed to the deadly battery acid corrosion disease. I selected a Sony brand one, as given that I had a Sony brand VCR/DVD combo, I figured that it would most likely have the needed code to operate the component.

I am but a naive babe in the woods.

After getting it home and spending about 90 minutes trying all of the code combinations in the book (I had a bad feeling when I realized that while their were codes for DVD players and VCR players, no codes were listed for VCR/DVD combos), scouring the Internet for any types of leads I could find, and finally calling the support line for Sony — which first told me to call another number, then hung up — I find reached the bummer conclusion that indeed, the remote would not work with my VCR/DVD player. Oh sure, it could turn on my PlayStation2, but apparently the VCR/DVD combo players are the shunned crossbreeds that no respectable Sony remote will touch with a 10-foot infrared beam.

So, for one of the few times in my life, I returned it to Target to get my $15.50 back. In the past, I would have probably just written off the loss as a learning experience, but hey, I’m a bit more economically-minded these days. And this is a good thing, really; I hope that I maintain such tightwad–er, pragmatic sensibilites going forward.

Besides, the money I recouped will just be going to getting a replacement remote direct from Sony online.

What sucks about all of this is that the combo player works fine. It’s just that about 9/10 of the functions are tied into the remote. And I never liked that, for expressly this reason.

When are we going to just all be cyborgs and not have to worry about losing remotes? Not soon enough, I say!

New Blackberry photos

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Dec 112009
 

A lot to post about today, but let’s start with a series of photos I snapped with my Blackberry over the past week or so:

A plant grows in Brooklyn... actually, a Manhattan subway ticket office.

A plant grows in Brooklyn... actually, a Manhattan subway ticket office.

Do you recognize the assilant that ran over your grandma?

Do you recognize the assilant that ran over your grandma?

The bathroom door this sink was in was off its hinges and resting against the wall of the bar. I have to wonder about the story behind it all....

The bathroom door this sink was in was off its hinges and resting against the wall of the bar. I have to wonder about the story behind it all....

 Posted by at 5:12 pm  Tagged with:

Welcome back from Wisconsin

 Photos, Stuff I Made  2 Responses »
Nov 302009
 

So I have returned from Wisconsin — the flight and train ride back was smooth enough, and I was delighted to return to find that my apartment had not caught fire, nor was burglarized. I spent a few hours unpacking, running some errands and taking care of some rather important things (call you say “Unemployment Benefits,” kids? Ah, I thought you could), and now have to get to work on some various projects.

But, I thought I’d share this family photo that I took last night, just because I think this is the first full “family” photo that we’ve had taken in, well, ever, really.

(going clockwise from top left) Dad, me, Casey, RJ, Erinn, and Mom

(going clockwise from top left) Dad, me, Casey, RJ, Erinn, and Mom

For non-shutterbugs reading this blog, this was literally a last minute affair: my mom was not home until Sunday, and then we had to wait until late Sunday night after my sister’s birthday dinner and after my sister’s boyfriend and his kids had left. The good news (for my dad, especially) is that I managed to get it right on the first shot, which was as much of luck as skill, really.

For the shutterbugs, this was taken with a tripod at 800 ISO, 1/10 shutter speed, and 3.5 f-stop. Yes, this means that the impossible happened and my niece and nephew held still longer than 1/10 of a second. Keep in mind that there is no lighting set-up at work here aside from the regular lights of the house. What really helped was that I took the photo in RAW format, and was able to then make some important adjustments for the incandescent lighting. Then, in Photoshop, a little bit of tweaking with the Levels tool to bring out the darker areas, and Viola! A rather nice image all the way around, I think.

I also got some shots of RJ & Erinn, as well as my sister and I with the kids. But this one is sort of like getting a photo of Lorenzo Music; very rare.

Couple of pics

 Life in General  Comments Off
Nov 252009
 

I’ve been meaning to take more advantage of the camera on my Blackberry. Often, I will run across interesting things that I spot, which are not so interesting that I would want to dig out my good camera and make all the adjustments to make the shot, but all the same the image is interesting enough that it holds my attention for longer than 1.0273 seconds (which, for me, is a very long time).

So, here are a couple of shots that I grabbed last week, just for fun:

NJ Trainst, in a train car that has water all over the floors.

NJ Trainst, in a train car that has water all over the floors.

This was from one night, coming back into Jersey from Penn Station. For some reason, the car next to the one I was on had water all over the floors. While this might seem merely annoying, the fact that, as you can sorta see on the left, this car had a bathroom, the possibility that the toilet may have severely backed-up certainly accounted for the lack of anyone actually on that car.

And another shot:

A door that is not following its own rule. How gauche.

A door that is not following its own rule. How gauche.

This one was taken as I was leaving the doctor’s office on Saturday. I just get a kick out of signs like this, as the sign must feel awfully embarrassed that its sole reason in life — warning others to keep the door closed — is utterly disregarded.

 Posted by at 6:28 pm  Tagged with:

Photo — “Wish”

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Oct 282009
 
Poor Pam had to hold still for like a minute.

Poor Pam had to hold still for like a minute.

Columbus at night, looking over the river to downtown. Pam agreed to pose for me for this shot; good thing she’s my friend, because she had to hold still for several takes, and it was quite misty out at the time, so it wasn’t the warmest weather. Or the driest.

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