A Look Back At January 2015

Page One

January 2015

 

"Photography is not something you retire from."

~Annie Leibovitz

She's right. Annie Leibovitz is absolutely right. I take my camera everywhere. I photograph something every single day... if possible. I admit, I have had stretches where I wasn't feeling particularly inspired to photograph something, especially if it was just anything, for the sake of taking a photo, but I did it all the same. I photograph something, every single day. And lately, as I have been tiptoeing through my archives, to look at photos which never made it to postings on my blog, I am sometimes caught off guard by things that are catching my eye now, as opposed to when I snapped the photo. I learn a lot by looking back, sometimes realizing the solutions to great mysteries going on for me when I took the photo. Was I tired that day? Was I obsessing on a certain color or pattern? Was I sticking with the safe shot, the kind of shot a untalented monkey could have achieved?

As I look back at January 2005, I can see the effect that bout of food poisoning had on me. I see the quiet, homey subjects, and the photos grouped together tell the story of how my energy was low, and I was feeling scattered in my thoughts. February will be a different story, I can already feel it, and imagine it. I do know this, I was ill for several weeks with the food poisoning, and then the beat down of the Fibromyalgia, and I am pretty sure, if I ever get really, really ill, and I am told I have little time left on earth, the last action I will do will be to take a photograph of what I am looking at. I hope the photo comes good. One kind of wants their last act on earth, to come out good.

 

A Look Back At January 2015

 

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Page Six

On To February...

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Mumphf Lather Repeat... Mumphf

"I had a dream about you. I said green was blue and yellow, and you said green was yellow and blue. You were like that with everything I said, taking the exact opposite stance, 

yet completely agreeing with me. That's how I knew you love me."

~Jarod Kintz

The Titanic Would Never Have Sunk

 If It Were Made Out Of A Sink

I am having a love hate relationship with technology. I have been since my brand new camera went missing last October. I still can't imagine what happened, but maybe some technology mysteries simply aren't meant to be solved. Sigh. Anyway, as I count down the days until I upgrade my current phone, I am busy saving files, and pictures that I want to transfer to the new phone. I have been trying to decided if I want to keep certain songs, and PDF folders that seem very important right now, but probably won't in 6 months, as that is the usual amount of time I hold onto a file. Hmmmm. Mumphf.

It's going to be a weekend of scratching my head about what to do. 

Do I pay my phone off all at once?

Do I take that stupid Next plan of AT&T's?

Do I go with a brand new carrier?

It's down to the wire, and frankly, I would rather not think about it.

But at least when the sun comes up on Monday, and new phone will be on it's way to me. 

Why can't stuff be simple anymore?

"If I didn't care for fun and such

I'd probably amount to much

But I shall stay the way I am

Because I do not give a damn."

~Dorothy Parker

Enough Rope

Mood: Scattered

~Me :)

Morning Concerts

"Your cat will never threaten your popularity by barking at three in the morning. 

He won't attack the mailman or eat the drapes, although he may

 climb the drapes to see how the room looks from the ceiling."

~Helen Powers

What can I say about my Dylan, except I love the little fluffball. Oh, I can tell you that he is a very serious young man. He apparently has his own language, and speaks it often. He likes to sing, well, actually, he LOVES to sing, especially at 5:00 in the morning... every, single morning, for as long as 3 hours per concert! What does he sing about? Mostly the fact that his daddy keeps leaving for work, without Dylan's permission. He sings about how unfair life can be, and how he has the meanest mommy in the whole wide world! He sings about how much he loves his family, including his new brother Joey, although Joey wasn't his idea! He sings about his favorite brush, and how he likes a clean litter box. He loves to sing about the sun coming through the window, and how he can sit and watch a wall for hours on end. He sings about how he wants me to go to bed, when HE wants me to go to bed, and he sings about how nifty Groupon boxes are, for making a scalloped edge box to sleep in. 

Dylan always bites the top of the Groupon box on all sides, creating a scalloped edge, and when he completes it, he pulls one side down and pulls the side out, which looks a little like a foldout bed. Yes, if he were human, he would be a furniture designer.  But that's Dylan. He makes furniture, and just like Bob Dylan, he sings the blues. In fact, he kinda sounds like Bob Dylan. I am pretty sure I heard him once sing, This Wheels On Fire. Sigh. I have told Alan, NO MORE SINGERS! But did that stop me from naming our kitten Joey? Umm... nope. Joey was named after Joey Ramone, it just seemed to fit him. And it does. Our Joey loved Fruit Loops, just like the real Joey, and he is very, very cool, just like the real Joey. I love my boys, and naming them after singers all started with our Elvis, and I wouldn't change it for anything, I was meant to be a mommy to my little singing cats. But why does it have always have to be morning concerts?

Mood: Happy

~Me :)

Art About Town: San Francisco "Yin And Yang" By Robert Arneson

"The most beautiful experience we can have is the mysterious... 

the fundamental emotion which stands at the cradle of true art and true science."

~Albert Einstein

Yin and Yang, the egghead sculptures that have sat between the Embarcadero Center and Sue Bierman park since 2002, were removed last year to be restored. Which is a good thing, as they became quite popular with residents of San Francisco, and visitors alike. I was certainly a fan since day one. Alan and I would sometimes ponder what the one egghead was possibly yelling, which the other egghead seemed to ignore him. Did the screaming egghead have a hangover? Was he enraged by the unfairness of male pattern baldness? Was he pissed off by an inconsiderate bird, who relieved himself on poor eggy's head? And was eggy's friend really ignoring the obvious pain his friend was in or was the look on his face simply trying to convey to his pal... Dude... Shit Happens! Or maybe the slightly amused look of... Holy Cow, Here He Goes Again! I could sit and ponder the expressions of Yin and Yang all day, and I miss doing so! I hope they will return soon from their maintenance outing, the San Francisco Embaracadero simply isn't the same without them.

I miss you Yin And Yang!

Mood: Lonely For Yin And Yang

~Me :)

The Eggheads Yin And Yang

By Robert Arneson

San Francisco Embarcadero

Sue Bierman Park

San Francisco, California

October 2012

Minolta

Again, This Is To Forego A Conclusion, Right?

"The man can only ride you when you are on your back."

~Sarah Palin

Speaking at the Iowa Freedom Summit

January 24th 2015

Last Friday, former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, told ABC News that "You can absolutely say that I am seriously interested," when asked if she was considering a run for presidency in 2016. Is she? I mean, if she is, how well does she think she will do in a field of candidates with the likes of Christ Christie, Rand Paul, Mitt Romney, hell maybe even John McCain, but if there truly is a GOD, will also include Donald Trump? Can she run on her... ahem... merits alone, or will she have to dig up the kind of dirt on her opponents that is needed to knock them out of the race. Could she possibly face John McCain in a debate, and set about bashing the war hero by calling him soft on terrorism by pointing out that he considers water boarding torture? Will she be the one to finally reveal what that thing on Donald Trump's head really is? And what about the fine folks in the heartland who actually live in reality?

You know the ones... the GOD fearing ones? The true patriots that live in the far right thinking pockets of America. You know the good, and easily lead, people who pay roughly $99 a year to listen to her babble and watch her nifty video blogging on her vanity channel. And the ones who tune in weekly to her reality show, Sarah Palin's Amazing America. Will they be there for her when she can't speak from the heart, of her own values and stand on issues, should the teleprompter she is reading from fail, like the one did at the summit over the weekend? Will they be there for her, when it finally dons on people, that she doesn't know what she thinks, she just tries to be folksy, and go with the buzz words, which kinda amounts to throwing jello at a wall, and hoping some of it sticks. But maybe that will be good enough for her followers. Rome wasn't built in a day, dontcha know!

I have to admit, there is a part of me that genuinely hopes our Sarah does indeed run for president. I want to see her in the debates. I want to see her win. I want to see her go up against either Hillary Clinton or Elizabeth Warren in the final debate. I do. I want to hear American, once again decided that while we might be a country of crazies... we aren't THAT DAMNED CRAZY! I want her name to be at the top of the republican ticket, with Ted Nugent! Yes, you read that right, TED NUGENT for Vice President! Hell YEAH! And more than anything else, I want to watch her take the stage, some time late in the evening, of the first Tuesday in November 2016, and concede that America doesn't want, or need her on their side. And then, if there is a GOD, she will slither away, never to be heard of again. But let's finish the story... about 5 years later, the Wasilla Penny Saver needs to do a follow up to the crazy that is Sarah Palin, just to see how the old girl is doing. 

#DontChaThink?

#BoyHowdy

#YouBetcha

You fill in the rest. Look into the future and tell me, what will Sarah Palin be up to in 2021?

For a serious look into whether or not Sarah Palin is serious about running for office in 2016, read the article below by Chris Cillizza of the Washington Post.  And if you would like to see a clip of her bizarre speech at the Freedom Summit in Iowa there is a link to that at the bottom of the page. 

Mood: Hopeful Yet Snarky

~Me :)

(Washington Post)

NO Sarah Palin is not 'seriously interested in running for president.

By Chris Cillizza

(New York Daily News)

Sarah Palin Dishes Out Bizarre Improvised Rant In Iowa After Teleprompter Breaks

By Adam Edelman

7 Ate 9

"I know there's a proverb which that says... 

To err is human, but a human error is nothing to what a computer can do if it tries."

~Agatha Christie

Hallowe'en Party

Okay, remember the other day when I told you that I will be getting a new cell phone soon, well that's true and it's only six days away now! I have it nailed down to one of the following three devices...

Samsung Galaxy S5

LG G3

HTC One M8 Featuring (Windows 8.1)

The last phone on the list has me intrigued, but I am going to be honest, overall I am NOT a fan of Windows 8.1. For me, it's an awkward operating system, and when it comes right down to things, the pretty of the build doesn't make up for the the stuff that just plain makes it a strange Internet ride. I have found a lot about it is unnecessary, like the stupid extra screen. What's that about? I mean I am sure folks who take the laptops to the movies, shopping, and the occasional romantic dinner like the extra step, but speaking as someone who can take days off from connecting to the web without imploding, I just find it annoying. I selected the Brooklyn Bridge as the face of that extra screen, in fact it's on all my Windows 7.1 devices, because, well, I know that if I should get frustrated enough to pitch my computer into a body of water one day, the Hudson River seems like it would be a lovely place to do so, especially in autumn. Everything is much lovelier in autumn!

Nah, I would never do that. But don't think the thought hasn't crossed my mind once in a while. I don't like Windows 8.1 the same way I don't like Window's Vista. Remember that gem of computer nonsense? Uh huh... don't feel bad if you don't, it's the operating system no one wants to remember. So we don't. Now when Microsoft came out with Window's 7, all was forgiven. Windows 7 was easy to make go with, it answered all the needs of Windows XP and it was much better thought through than Vista had been. Had Vista been what Microsoft promised it would be, that would have been awesome, instead it was... well... a turd. Well... a turd blossom. It was really pretty, I gotta give it that! Without the little search dog, and wizard, it seemed a little more grown up. That was a good thing, although I have to admit, I missed the doggie a bit. If only it could have been more grown up but keep a little of it's immature side, like the dog and wizard. But you can't pleasing everybody I guess.

Anyway, back to the phones. The HTC phone intrigues me because it is a great phone, above and beyond the Windows program, and I am familiar with the company. My current phone is the HTC Vivid. As I said before, it's the best camera I have ever owned, but as a phone it absolutely SUCKS. But the phone I had before the Vivid was the HTC Aria, which was an amazing little phone. It never gave me any trouble, it simply ran it's course, as all things will eventually. Still, HTC is promising to roll out the next generation of the M 9 later this year and will be getting a release date pretty soon. Just in time, I expect, for the debuts of other things that will be happening later this year, like the release of the Windows 10 operating system upgrade for PCs, and other devices.

You can upgrade to Windows 10 right now, if you sign up for their Beta program. It crossed my mind to do so, and I looked into it, decided to wait until the full version is ready to be rolled out. I did Beta testing for AOL some 15 years ago, and I learned a lot about computers, and how to fix minor things that go wrong, but I was testing on an older computer, and the whole project was really hard on the computer, and caused several crashes of my machine. That's how I leared about the ever important BACK UP thing. Live and Learn. Still, I am glad I did it then, but it's not for me now. So, we will see how things go, and in the autumn, when it's rumored to be released, I will probably give it a try on at least one device, but more than likely, not on my phone.

No, I think my new phone will definitely be an Android device. My Androids have been great. I am hoping whichever Android I choose, it will serve me well for at least 2 years, when my next contract will be up, and I will be ready to go through this all over again! Perhaps by then Windows 10 will be out long enough that all the bugs will be stamped out, and the phone will just behave like it should. At any rate, I will have had Windows 10 on my other devices long enough that I will know how to feel about it for myself, rather than having to go on some stranger's opinion. Do you know what's kinda strange though? Microsoft decided to call it's new operating system Window's 10, rather than Windows 9. I guess it's kind of understandable though, much in the same way Microsoft didn't want us to think about Vista when they rolled out Windows 7, they probably don't want us to think about Windows 8.1 either so they decided to just skip over 9 and go straight to 10 to make us believe that there is nothing attached to Windows 10 that resembles Windows 8.1. . Although from what I have seen, it combines the best of 7 and 8, at least regarding the Start menu. And I can live with that.

I Guess Windows 7 Ate Windows 9. :)

 :)

As for my new phone, I will keep you posted.

Mood: Hopeful
~Me :)

Windows 10 Preview ( Microsoft )

Windows 10 Ambitious But Realistic ( PC Magazine )

It May Just Be Everything Windows 8 Should Have Been ( CNET )

Watching Time

"Time is the longest distance between two places."

~Tennessee Williams

The Glass Menagerie

Is it just me? Has January seemed like the longest damn month EVER to you as well? I think it must be because I am waiting to get rid of this butt hair phone I have. HELLS BELLS. It might also be because of the extreme Fibromyalgia slap-down I have been enduring. I think it must have something to do with the mild food poisoning I got after the first of the year. But seriously, I haven't been out of the house in almost a month, except for some minor errands here and there. Anyway, it should be different next week, as Alan and I have a few ideas for some fun day trips. I just hope I will have the energy to go when the time comes. Sheesh. I had an opportunity to be an extra in a new movie shooting here in the Bay Area in the coming weeks, but had to turn it down because I couldn't guarantee what my energy level would be.

It wasn't the end of the world, and there will be other opportunities, but sometimes it hurts my feelings to have to miss things like that because of a disease that basically amounts to phantom pain. Well, that's not quite right... the pain is there, but Fibromyalgia exaggerates how severe it is. One would think that if you already knew that fact, one could will the pain away, but no, that's not how it works. It's just something I have to deal with, but I sure wish time was moving at a slightly different pace. A photo jaunt next week will help, it always does! In the mean time I have to photograph different subjects close to home. Like personal items that hold meaning for me.

With this post I have decided to begin a new series centered around different time pieces. I like clocks and watches, so much so, that I have a small collection of them. The watch above was a present from Alan. I love it! It's small and feminine and goes with everything in the closet. It's my every day Go To watch. Most of the time I use my cell phone to keep track of time, but when we go out to lunch, or when I go out for something special, it's the watch I use most often. Funny, out of all the time pieces I have, I just keep going back to the same one, over and over. LOL. The one situation when I don't tend to carry a watch is when I am going on a planned photo jaunt, like the one planned for next week. I don't like anything on my wrist while I am concentrating on a subject. It's a distraction. In fact, I don't tend to wear much jewelry at all when I am out with the camera. It's a shame really, I have quite a collection of fun little necklaces, rings and pins. Funny how our taste changes over time. My pretty little watches are just sitting my jewelry box, keeping the other baubles company, ticking along through time without me.

Mood: Happy But In Physical Pain

~Me :)