I’m hyping this all over hell and back, and I’m getting a bit of a mental blind spot, so if it sounds like there’s something missing in my explanation, just go to the site and check it out. 

This past weekend, a confluence of events created something worthwhile and important:

• A photo of a hot redhead sent from a friend
• A discussion in which it was revealed she has serious medical issues
• The realization of just how many of my friends are in the same boat
• A significant amount of wine
• Ownership of a web-hosting company
• The ability to create web-sites on a whim

Hey…  some people get drunk and create babies… I get drunk and create websites. 

This one looks like it just might grow up and be something important.

I’m a photographer.  I know lots of other photographers and models.   As I said, I’ve been hyping this where ever I can… and it’s picking up some steam.  Whether it’s enough to sustain itself or not, I don’t know.  I can only hope.

Go to the site.  Read the info.

If you know of anyone who might qualify and be interested, let them know.  If they need a photographer, point them in my direction:   I know photographers all over the world who would be more than happy to donate their services to the project.

Go!  Look!  Read!  Spread the word!

Shoo!

Tonight I started something.

Terminal Hotness

Almost every campaign I’ve seen dealing with debilitating or terminal diseases has shown “sick” people in an attempt to  get our sympathy.

That’s absolutely the wrong approach. The average person isn’t sick; they can’t identify with that person lying in a hospital bed.   Yeah, sure, it makes us all feel a little bit guilty.  But we don’t want people to feel guilty.  We want them to be scared. People are really really good at rationalizing guilt.  They  suck at confronting their fears.

Terminal Hotness approaches the issue from two vectors.

1. This doesn’t happen to “other people”.  This doesn’t just happen to people who are poor, or elsewhere, or (let’s be honest) not pretty.
2. These people are stronger than you, healthier than you, prettier than you… They’re doing everything right and it still hit them.   What chance do you have?

If you  have something to contribute, please do.  If you know someone that qualifies as a model, please refer them.

This is grassroots.  The  soil is tilled and ready.

Not much new.  I’m living the same old life I have been.  Money is tight, the house needs lots of work, and I’m still a hermit.

I got the last of the garden planted this afternoon.  I have a little space available if I decide I want something else (maybe some bell peppers), but it’s essentially done.  The radishes are already sprouting.  Oh… and if anyone needs/wants chives, just let me know.  They’re expanding all over the place.

As some of you know, I’ve added a new phone line.  I bought a Droid Incredible and put it on a new line.  This way I can try to separate my business stuff from my personal stuff.  Besides… I feel completely comfortable taking my G’Zone phone out with me when I’m on the lake or climbing rocks; I get mildly paranoid putting my Droid in my pocket when I go to work.

Hmm…. Since I’ve posted here last, I’ve created a new website for my photography:  Studio 142. If you (or someone you know) is looking for some atypical portraits, send them my way.

And… that’s pretty much the extent of the excitement in my life.

I was a photographer doing a shoot in South America.  I can’t remember what I was shooting, but it wasn’t anything major (girls on the beach, guys with palm trees… that kind of stuff).

For some reason, I needed to get out of the country without anyone knowing.  I managed to sneak onto a ship with another photographer.  He was a journalist–he was reporting on government corruption, human rights violations, deplorable living conditions; the kinds of things that dictatorial governments don’t like publicized.

He’d run this game before.  The ship we were on was a smuggler ship, and everyone there knew him.  And he knew the rules of the ship–and the smuggler sub-culture.

We hid in boxes to get past customs.  That was the easy part.  The smuggler ships were old WWII naval vessels; destroyers, cutters, and other battle-ready ships.  After leaving the harbor, our captain had to fight his way past other smuggler ships intent on capturing his cargo.

Once underway, I was allowed a degree of freedom in the ship.  But every minor social transaction required a bribe.  A candy bar was the typical payment.

The majority of the dream dealt with the minor interactions between myself and the crew.   I was in an ancient–and poorly-maintained–war vessel, in the open seas, with a crew of outlaws who had created their own culture.  The intricacies were fascinating.  The details were precise.  If I had the resources, this could be the basis for an intense movie.

As it is…  it’s just another world created and forgotten by my mind.

I’ve been busy with work.  And the other work.  And the other other work.  And the stuff that’s kind of like work but doesn’t actually pay me anything.

Trust me:  If there was anything exciting going on, I’d be bragging about it.  :)   The most exciting thing that’s happened in the past 6 months is that I stripped all the ugly wallpaper off of my dining room and put on a fresh coat of paint.

Yep.  Pretty snore-worthy.

Well… let me rephrase that.

Until tonight I had one box in my house that uses the Windows operating system.

I just went upstairs to watch a movie.  My Win box wouldn’t even boot.

I officially cease to care.   If I can’t do it in Linux, I won’t do it.  It’s as simple as that.

A sport I actually like? Wow!

Yesterday I went to a sporting event.  By choice.  And I loved it!

A few weeks ago, I had the good fortune to do a photoshoot with a world-class athlete named Shana Martin.  She’s a lumberjack (”lumberjill“, I’m learning, is the correct term).  A mutual friend told me that Shana was going to be competing in a “log-rolling thingy” this weekend, and suggested I come watch.   So… I grabbed my camera and headed out to Madison to see what it was all about.

A couple of things:

1. When KJ said that Shana was competing in the event, she failed to mention that Shana was running the event!
2. The event wasn’t just a competition, it was a fund-raiser for the Hunting Disease Society of America
3. I hate sports (except boxing in the lower weight classes).
4. It was a hot day (contrary to what the weatherman predicted) and I forgot my sunscreen.

When I arrived, the student divisions were competing.  10-year old boys and girls rolling huge logs with speed and precision.  I don’t think I could last 10 seconds on the log all by myself, and these kids were lasting for several minutes with a competitor actively trying to make them fall off.

Later on, the pros arrived.  The little kids were impressive enough… but the pros?  Wow!

I walked into this whole thing knowing absolutely nothing about the sport.  I basically went to see a friend compete and get some photos for her to use in promoting her classes and her charity cause.   I knew nothing about the rules–but I didn’t need to.  It’s really quite simple:  Stay on the log; make the other person fall off the log.  There are some rules about time that I haven’t quite figured out (but they looked to be quite simple and straight forward), and it look like the longer the match goes on, the smaller (and “faster”) the logs get.  But that’s about it.

Log-rolling is a very elegant sport.  It’s about strength, skill, precision, and timing.  It’s fast-paced and exciting.  It’s not bogged down with rules, procedures, statistics, loopholes, and arbitrary complexity.  It sounds really strange to hear myself say this, but… I think I’ll be attending some sporting events this summer–only next time I’ll remember to bring my sun-screen so I can stay long enough to watch the boom run competition.

Last weekend I did a photoshoot with a professional athlete.  That really made me realize how out of shape I am.

So… on Monday I started implementing my plan.

I will, a couple days a week, be driving to Devil’s Lake State Park.  To start (what I’ve done Monday and today) I’ll be climbing the rocks along the south shore–not the paths, but the actual rocks.  It’s called “bouldering”.

Now… keep in mind a few things:  I’m 40 years old, I’m significantly overweight, I’m seriously out of shape, and I’m (mildly) arthritic.

Today I took my (very ancient) GPS.  Starting altitude: 844.   Peak altitude: 1284.  That’s 440 vertical feet.   The round trip took about 45 minutes.

Honestly?  I think that’s pretty good for an old, fat, arthritic man. 

"Before" (when I moved in)

"After" (as of this weekend)

It’s been a while since I’ve posted anything about the house.  Mostly because I haven’t been doing much of note.  Renovations require both time and money, and I’ve been short on both for quite a while now.

This weekend, however, I started another major project: wainscoting in the downstairs bathroom.  This isn’t some cheap paneling sheets, it’s 3/8″ solid oak beadboard.  The baseboard and chair rail were shaped from 1×6 and 1×4 oak planks (respectively).  I did the shaping myself.  All parts were sanded and stained, then cut to length and installed.

First of all, old houses suck.  There’s not a straight line or right angle in the entire place.  So the corner joints don’t match as well as I’d like.  To be honest, it would take a team of Amish master carpenters and theoretical physicists working off of plans drawn up by MC Escher to get the corners to match up perfectly.   But… considering what the room looked like when I moved in, it’s a vast improvement.

If you look closely at the “before” photo, you’ll notice that the floor is covered in crappy vinyl flooring.  In the “after” photo, you may notice the gorgeous solid-maple floor.  No, I didn’t install hardwood floors (well… not entirely).  The previous owners covered up the hardwood.  They glued down paper liner (yes, they glued paper to solid maple flooring) then laid down masonite–being sure it was secure by stapling it down with about a bazillion staples–and then covered that with vinyl.

After pulling out the bathtub (so short my knees wouldn’t get wet if I sat in it) I saw that they had cut a huge swath out of the floor in order to install the drain.  They cut completely through the sub-flooring and supports.  Under the toilet–which had apparently been poorly installed and leaked, causing the floor to rot–they took a skill saw and hacked out a square with they filled with cheap pine planking.

{sigh}

I salvaged what I could of the affected floor areas and had a professional re-install it along with new planks to fill the gaps.

Eventually, I’m going to have to pull out the trim on the door frames and window and replace them with new oak trim that’s properly cut and shaped.  That will solve some of the issues I’m having around the window.  One of the doors (who needs 2 doors in an 8×9 bathroom?) will be removed completely and plastered over.   But that’s down the road a ways.  For now, it’s just sealed shut.

The only thing missing in the room is the full-sized claw-foot tub that’s eventually going in there.

Seriously? Trained biologists aren’t able to figure this one out? Seems pretty logical to me.

There are, right now, animals (worms and such) which have photo-sensitive nerve clusters. This is where the eye starts. Those who have these clusters protected by a thin layer of cells have an advantage. The covering grows more transparent, and therefore may grow thicker–the lens starts. With the added thickness of the lens, the nerve cluster–the newly-forming retina–can recede for more protection. Musculature in the face grows around the lens…. From there it’s all just a matter of refinement.

Is it amazing? Yes.

But it’s hardly “unexplainable” in evolutionary terms.