Just a Cool Sunrise Pic

Took this one morning a few weeks ago and thought it was cool.

Last Weekend

So what does one do in the Czech Republic on a weekend?



Why, go drink beer at a gypsy music festival, that's what!

I'm not saying gypsy in a racist way, it's just how it's labeled.

(And I don't have any attachment to the word gypsy, so before you PC people jump down my throat, I don't mean it in a negative way at all.)

But I haven't heard anything positive about gypsies.

According to all the stereotypes, they lie and steal and milk the system for all the money they can.

But isn't this stereotype in all countries?

Anyway, it was a festival hosted by the national gypsy union (go figure they'd be unionized) and it was, for a lack of a better word, underwhelming. There was beer and food and mediocre music. Really mediocre music. And, I don't mean to sound ungrateful, but can bands PLEASE not sing in English?? Really: they just paste together the pop phrases and most of the time they make no sense.

Really. Sing in YOUR language. It might even be fun!

The wait for beer was at least 30 minutes—not because there was a long line, but when one person in line got to the counter, the 30 other people (mostly family) associated with them came up and ordered as well. So what seemed to be only 10 people in line turned out to be about 100 in reality. Not a bad trick, really. I'd do the same.

And it was messy there. I'm not saying that gypsies are typically messy, but it was a palace garden and I'm sure it was much cleaner before the festival started. But maybe the palace is growing plastic garbage bottles.

But, it was an interesting experience and I left with all of my belongings—which is a positive thing.



The wonderful festival area.

The Poopiest Week

I had the shittiest week ever last week.

THE SHITTIEST.

I don't even know really why. It could have been my job, my personal life, or both.

But I hated—HATED—work last week.

I blew off band rehearsal, twice, and just sat home and "licked my wounds".

I'm better now.

In case you were wondering.

Guess Who???

Check this out:





See that guy on the left??


That's me in 1992.

I was a hair farmer.
Woohoo!! Memory lane...gotta love it!

TV??

What the HELL happened in the few years since I've been gone??!!

I am so impressed. American TV is GOOD again!

I am hooked: LOST, My Name Is Earl, Desperate Housewives, Prison Break to name a few.

They have got to pace themselves with this writing or else I'll become a couch potato again.

This F@%#ing Guy!

I don't really want to complain.

That's a lie. Of course I want to complain!

This guy, here:




Drives me insane. All he did the last 6 weeks is saw wood on his table saw.

Sawing wood in the courtyard—where all the sound bounces all over...directly into my balcony window and into my ears.

6 weeks, 6 hours a day of:
"wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeZINGGGG!wheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeZINGGGGG!"

And I thought it was over. Done. Completed.

Well, he's moved on to a grinder (as pictured here).

It'd be nice to think that he's renovating something in his apartment. But I think he is just doing it to get away from his wife. (who, by the way, was using a plum peeler last week in the courtyard. Nice...So instead of the table saw sound, for 2 days it was "CLUNK...CHUNK...POP...PLUNK!")

There is nothing I can do. I can close my window and hope he dies soon. That's all.

So I'll blog about it instead.

Photographing Lightning

In theory it's really easy. You set the shutter to be open for 10+ seconds, set the timer and go!

Well, it's harder than it seems.

It went kind of like this normally:

10...9...8....7...6...5...FLASH...4...3...2...1...click.

Or:

10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3..2...1...click....close...FLASH.

So, in 30 minutes of trying to get a lightning bolt, this is all I could get:




I'll try again some other time.

What Do I Want? (Alternate title: A (Mostly) Shameless Plug)

That is the question I have been getting, and since it's my birthday, I can understand people asking.

But I have no idea what I need or want that is less than 1000 dollars.

(Shameless plug coming!)

So, if you want, go to rbrown-photo.com and look through my pictures. If any of them speak to you, buy one.

That would be cool because it'd give you something as well, and it'd boost my ego a bit—even for a day.

And even if none of them look good to you or you don't want to buy any, the site will look good because more people are visiting it than just me constantly checking to see if others are looking.

And that would make my day.

I'm out.

Quickly Approaching 34

34 is coming this Monday.

Frankly, I am not impressed. 33 wasn't that great. 34 can't be any better in my opinion.

Not that I have a bad life, mind you, It's just I have had a rough 33. My shoulder is still injured, and not sleeping correctly because of it in 8 months can take its toll on a person.

But enough of that.

34 is this Monday and I have no desire to celebrate it.

Why?

A Message To All You Bloggers

Psst...

Hey, all you bloggers, I have a message for you:

Friggin' get writing!!!!!

What is it with all of you??!!

Don't make me name names...you all know who you are and you are all a bunch of slackers.

I can make time and find a shred of inspiration—so can you.

Get moving!

(I didn't spend 10 minutes subscribing to all of your blogs for nothing. I have a vested interest now!)

Jedi Master??

Share the love.

That is my feeling on Photography.

I'm no pro—far from it actually—but I know enough to help another.

So that is what I am writing about. I took my colleague/friend out today to shoot some photos. We ditched his "not so super" lenses and gave him my macro 100mm. I hope that he shows off his pics.



His project? Manual exposure.

That's right: the poor dude has taken 10000 pictures with his camera and has never shot in Manual.

So his project was 3 pics of each subject: one with f2.8 , one with f5.6 and the last with f22. This was so he could see the difference and get used to manually setting the camera for exposure.

At one point, he called me his "yoda".

And we reflected about how to describe the day:

"What did you do today?"



"I took pictured of bees and flowers in sets of 3"

This is something I wish I had help on when I first started, but I think I did fine with what information I had.



And I am happy to have helped. At least I hope I helped!

This RSS Thingy

I have finally tried the 'ol RSS subscription feature.

Not bad. Now I don't have to visit sites all the time to see what is updated.

Or, more often than not, what ISN'T updated.

Whether or not it saves me time has yet to be seen.

Friggin' A!

My first Canon battery died yesterday.

It just won't charge.

A year and a half after I got my camera. I am a little shocked, but I did take 11000 pictures with 2 batteries. I guess one's bound to die.

So I went and bought a new battery...then to the guitar shop and dropped 50 Euros (about 60 dollars) on strings, a capo, and a new guitar strap. (I just don't like my old one)

Spending money is fun!

Hostel 1 & 2

I can't believe I saw both Hostel movies.

The first one made me curious to see the second. And I don't know why.

But I am still not happy about it.

I mean, it was a horror movie and the goal is to make people afraid or send shivers up the spine, but this was extreme.

I remember a long time ago, I went to see Seven with my friend Lou and after the movie he said "don't ever take to a movie like that again". It was pretty shocking but I thought the story was good.

Hostel wasn't that good. The story was weak and I didn't like that it made backpackers victims—especially since I do a bit of backpacking.

But in part two it was really wrong, in my opinion. It had an idealistic, naive, innocent girl brutally murdered and more than leaving it to our imagination, it SHOWED the gore and the you could hear the sounds.

I know it's a story, but I feel really bad for that character.

And to be fair, if a movie invokes an emotional response, then maybe that's all that matters.

Seven, Fight Club, Exorcist, Hostel, Life as a House did it for me...the list goes on.

So how can I completely criticize a movie that made me feel SOMETHING? It's far better than the benign crap that pervades the cinema.

The story was crap but it made me feel.

But I wouldn't let children see it. But that is why it's restricted to people over 18 even though I think that is still too young.

Oh Boy...

I looked online at my credit card statement.

They raised my limit by 7000 dollars.

Not a great idea.

Back To Square One

I don't think of it as defeat.

In fact, I think it was a nice experiment.

I am going to dump the .mac account and email address and start using my gmail account and blogger again.

I'll also host my pics from smugmug.com.

It's just cheaper* and I can store unlimited photos there plus the opportunity to request backups, should something terrible ever happen to my computer.

Plus, as supertiff said: "didn't you lose all of your bloggings and such, and have to start over after a year? that would kill me."

So y'all can update your bookmarks now...I'll slowly but surely switch everything over. Again.

That's all for now.



*I have nothing against .mac or iLife/iWeb. It just doesn't let me upload hundreds of pics if I want. And I pay 100 dollars a year for it. Doesn't make much sense, does it?