Sunday Morning.. 11/3/2013, After awhile it gets hard trying to make trees look interesting.

I knew that there was going to be cloud cover of some sort coming in from the East this morning, but I didn't know to what extent. I got up in time to make coffee- loaded new batteries in the camera, I even had time to dig out a warmer coat from deep within the mess that lives in my walk-in closet.  so I had my coffee, and locked down the apartment somewhere around 6:00 AM or so, so that left me about forty minutes to get my butt down to Fairview Drive. Halfway there, I noticed that it was getting lighter but there was no sign of any color developing what-so-ever. The whole sky was this dreary looking grey. There was absolutely zero light shining through the cloud cover, I thought I was going to get skunked again so I doubled back and went to the Governor's field bike trail to wait for a little color and get out of this cold breeze that was kicking up. the whole time I was out I got nothing. I came home feeling defeated and wouldn't you know it just as soon as I got here the color showed up. It was way too late to go back out so I played out the hand that was dealt  to me again, I ended up shooting around the wires and the trees across the street from here. I'm learning a tough lesson here, its hard to make tree's look interesting after awhile, luckily for me the ones over here are a bit different than the ones on Fairview. The treetops here have this odd little spiney fingers look to them, still I need to find something other than trees to put in the foreground. ahhh well it is what it is I suppose.

This is one of the more interesting shots I took  from this morning, the tree itself got kind of blurred out and the auto focus trained on the trees in the middle and blurred out the clouds in the background too a little, I left the wires in the shot, I just thought it was somehow better this way.

Morons on Parade. this is pretty sickening,

Sunday Morning Sunrise.

So I got up early this morning, for whatever reason, couldn't sleep heard a noise- whatever, checked weather.com and it said that there would be some cloud cover rolling in just before sunrise at around 6:46 AM this morning. So I threw down a quick cup of joe, grabbed the camera and the bike and headed out for the Lepire Drive bike trail- (which is quickly becoming my  favorite place to shoot from) So I get all the way to the overpass on 5th, and its still kind of this grayish- murky dark color out, thats when I picked up the camera case and discovered that the camera wasn't even in it. nice- way to pay close attention Scratch ol bean! so I hurry back to the  apartment and bolted up stairs and snatched the camera off of the desk where I'd left it, jumped back on the bike and headed back out to Lepire. I got these just before the sun came up, I noticed though that I'm probably going to have to learn to shoot in low lighting with this new Camera if I'm going to continue with my sunrise experiments. I'll go through the manual again this morning and see what it says, some of the images from this batch seem a little grainy to me, maybe its from the the image editor that I'm using but I'm not sure. anyhow I got some ok shots. I'm so ready for the fall!  

Finally Got it!

All of the overtime that I've been putting in for the past two weeks finally paid off yesterday! although that last hour at work deliberately seemed to take its time getting over with, as soon as it did though I got home and hit the shower and immediately afterwards made a beeline to the Carson Nugget to cash my check and then it was off to Office Depot to get the new camera, I went with the Canon  SX 160 IS, with 16 MP's and 16 x optical zoom.. great little camera, and its definitely a step up from the old one. I had to buy a case as well though, the little bugger is a tad too big to fit in the old one, over all, I'm a happy guy!

Finding Heaven

Friday August 29^th 2008. 10:04 PM.

Here lately it seems that I seem to do all of my best, my clearest thinking at night. Maybe I have always had that tendency, but I don’t ever recall noticing it before, but it seems to be the case at least in my recent memory. So, tonight, I find myself in a familiar posture, alone in my dark living room in front of yet another blank screen patiently waiting for my touch to bring it to life. A fan in the window carries a slightly less than warm late summer breeze through my personal space, the faint scent of freshly brewed coffee fills my senses, Its not warm in here, yet strangely not cold either, the mood is perfect for a little reflection. Is Heaven real? Hmmm. Its as good a question as any I suppose, I saw that written somewhere, or perhaps I heard it spoken, I don’t really recall, only that it was recently brought into place somewhere in the back of my mind this week, and it appears to have stayed there until now.

I knew Heaven once, I lived there, somewhere in my early childhood, and on some nights, some like this night, I can close my eyes and see it as plain as day.

There is a wooden floor beneath my bare feet, my small hands clutch the brass doorknob , and it turns freely, I give the door a slight nudge and it swings outward onto a back porch that seems slightly sloped to one side. I step out into the early morning air, the fresh dew, and the grass seems to flow out into the world forever, in an endless sea of beautiful green. There are large trees that stretch up into the sky for miles on end, and on one of the lower branches there is a tire swing that hangs strangely still as if it were waiting for the next ride. And as I step onto the grass the cold dew seeps up and over the tops of my feet giving me a strange sensation.

I’m not sure what it is truthfully, whether or not the world really was a much larger place then than it is now, or if it just seems that way, because I was seeing it through the eyes of a child. It was more magical, there was more wonder, and Heaven was a real place that I lived in, a place that I touched regularly. Now, as I begrudgingly return to the here and now, and that childhood memory slowly fades, I find myself wondering if I will ever see heaven again. oh I am certain that I catch glimpses of it every now and then, but the magic isn’t what it once was, and the open spaces in the world of childhood have become somewhat cramped and closed in. but thankfully the world can still be a place of wonder, You just have to force yourself to stop what you are doing every once in awhile to take part in it.

Yes, I know Heaven to be real, I just don’t live there anymore, I don’t see endless fields of green, and miles of empty clean blue skies, and a lot of the trees have been cut down, to make room for new housing tracks. I am not a child anymore, I don’t see the world the same way as I used to, it is a bit smaller now, and I can see it for what it truly is. I see the bad with the good, and take both as I see fit. Everyone has their own interpretation of Heaven, and certainly to some it remains a myth. The reality for me is simple, I know that I will never be able to again see the world through the eyes of a ten year old child, but that doesn’t mean that I have to stop trying. So on finding Heaven? I guess it all depends on where you look.

A new Camera Coming soon.. (I'm Hoping)

While I was going through my pictures folders the other day I came across some older pics that I took last year that never made it onto a blog post. And then I realized I have only ever shared- (For the most part) – any of my photography on Blogster and occasionally on Facebook but I have rarely posted anything on Blogger in concerns to my photography.   All of the pictures I’ve taken were taken with my little Canon  PowerShot A810, and mostly it is of Nevada Sunrises and (More recently)  sunsets, here lately though the zoom button on the camera has been on the fritz so I will have to be buying a new one soon. I have my choices narrowed down to 2 possibilities  #1- the Canon SX 160 IS with 16x optical zoom and 16 mp’s. #2- The Canon SX 500 IS with 30x zoom and  also has 16 MP’s. Below are some of the pictures that I took last year with my old Canon. The last pic is a little blurry but it came out with a kinda surreal feeling to it so I included it.

One of those WTF moments..

Have you ever seen somebody doing something so ridiculously stupid that actually gave you one of those WTF moments? like one time at Mills Park here in Carson City I was watching a group of kids on skateboards doing all of these fancy Schmancy tricks at the skateboard track, but this one kid  was standing on top of this stone pic nic table and his plan- (I’m guessing) was to jump from one table to another on his skateboard, and they were at least 20 feet apart. I had one of those WTF moments, and I remember thinking, WHAT IN THE HELL IS HE THINKING?? well long story short he missed- (By a country mile) but he did land on the grass so I suspect the only thing that he hurt was his pride.

I see people do bizarre things all the time, and most times I’m left with the thought, “I wonder if this person’s brain is functioning properly?” A few days ago I had such an occasion, one of the machines on our line at work was all out of whack, the molds weren’t dropping onto the line properly. And when they would drop, sometimes  the tray wouldn’t load the sand mold onto the table, and when the next mold came along it would run into the first one and we would end up with a big pile of compressed sand on the loading table with a bunch of mangled cores to clean out.  A big mess to say the least, needless to say as the shift went on the problem only got worse so they finally called maintenance  over to get one of their guys to check out one of  the power panels on the machine to see if one of the censor’s were screwed up.

I swear the first thing this dope did was grab a screw driver and started poking around at shit, and as I was watching this Three Stooge’s routine unfold-  I just couldn’t bring myself to simply look away, I was thinking to myself, “Self? do you suppose he’s going to turn off the main power  to the machine before he starts messing with it?” Nooooo, silly rabbit, that would be too obvious! well I’m not sure what eventually convinced him that messing around with a live electrical circuit was a bad idea but I think it may have had something to do with the sparks that came out of the machine, Now I’m not a mainenance guy,  and I don’t know a doo-hickey from a thing-a-ma-bob, but I do know enough to turn the power off on anything that runs on electricity--- BEFORE  you work on it! well before I left work today that very same machine was doing that very same thing again, only this time the boss was over there with the maintenance guy chewing his ass out for not turning the power off again.  I don’t know what this clown was thinking the first time he pulled this stunt, but obviously he was thinking the very same thing this time too. Or maybe the real problem was, he wasn’t thinking at all.. It was definetely a WTF moment for me.

Just Be..

I just have to say something here.

Just a thought really..

it may or may not make sense to 

anyone but me ..

But that's okay.

it has occurred to me that,

the color of your skin-

in the grand scheme of things-

has very little to do with the content of your soul.

and is really quite trivial and meaningless to me.

your sexual orientation,

be you gay, or be you straight,

Means nothing

as long as you are

at least trying to be

the best YOU that YOU can possibly be-

without exception.

Just be a human-

Living

learning

loving

always reaching

always helping,

always

accepting of others,

not for how we are all different,

but how we are all the same.

So—

Be human—

or just be quiet.


~Scratch A.B.T Copyright © 2011. ~

My Encounter with Toby the Troll

I made the mistake of leaving the fan running in the front window of my living room last night, hey it happens- I’d fallen asleep and forgotten to take it out and close the window. Its my own fault, I knew it was going to get chilly, I just fell asleep. I woke this morning to the plugged sinuses that as of late; have become the bane of my existence,  but I think they were due more to the fan kicking up the dust mites in my apartment more so than it being a sign of coming illness. strangely enough though- it wasn’t the sinuses that woke me up, there was an ungodly commotion right outside my window, so I rose to investigate. and now I’m kind of sorry that I did. I stepped out onto the front landing and walked over to the railing  and leaned over the edge to see what the commotion was all about. directly below me; hiding behind some shrubery there was a short stumpy little fellow shouting out profanities at people walking down the sidewalk.

“What’s all of this nonsense about then?” I yelled down at him.

When the coast was clear he stood up and defiantly put his hands on his hips and looked up at me.

“Go back inside bub, this doesn’t concern you.” He taunted.

“No douchebag, you’re yelling outside my window at 6:00 AM on my day off when I’m trying to rest, so it does kind of concern me, maybe I should come down there and we could have this conversation face to face.” I retorted

Right then and there his whole demeanor changed.

“Look mister I’m just trying to do my job, I’m Toby the Troll and this is what I do!”

“You’re a Troll?”

He nodded.

“I thought you guys all moved to the internet years ago.”

“We did, but I lost my internet connection last night so I had to improvise.”

Out of the corner of my eye I saw an elderly looking gentleman walking his dog down the sidewalk,  Toby immediately jumped back behind the bushes and began throwing out insults, barbs and taunts.

“Democrats are Pussies! Democrats are Pussies! Republican’s are all retarded conservatives who couldn’t even get laid at a hookers Convention! Independants all have little winkies!” 

By this time my neighbor became aware of the commotion and was now standing right next to me leaning over the railing; curiously looking down at Toby. he looked at me and then back down at Toby.

“What are you doing down there hiding in the bushes you little jerk! don’t you know how early it is?” He asked.

Toby looked up at my neighbor Louie.

“I don’t have a computer right now so I’m hiding behind this bush to preserve my anonymity! Brown people Suck!!”

“You little prick I’m gonna come down there and kick your little ass!”

I decided to step in right there and defuse Louies anger..

“Why don’t just go inside and get some coffee and let me handle this little troll.. Okay?”

Still angry as all hell, my neighbor turned to go back inside his apartment to make his morning coffee as I returned my attention to the little troll down in the bushes.

“Anonymity aye?”

“Yeah its kinda important to us trolls that nobody knows who we really are, that’s why we dig the internet so much!”

“Well Toby I want you to listen to me very carefully, THIS isn’t the internet, I CAN see you. Do you get my drift? I told him,

“I don’t understand.. I’m hiding in the bushes! you can’t see me!”

“Hmmm.. Toby?

“Yes?”

“Did you ever go to high school?”

“Yes.”

“And do you know what an atomic wedgie is?”

“I don’t believe so.”

“Well that’s where someone comes up from behind you, and grabs the waistband of your underwear  and yanks them so far up the crack of your ass that your testicles feel like a lump in your throat. now if you don’t shut up and go home Guess what I’m going to come down there and do to you?”

Silence. I turned to go back to my apartment just in time to see my neighbor Louie step back onto the landing..

“Hey where did that asshole Toby go?” He asked.

“Back to the internet.”

What a strange morning this has been.

Does there really need to be a law?

This just in, apparently I have somehow become way  cooler than I look.. Honestly- I had no idea. I mean, I don’t smoke, I don’t drink, I don’t do drugs, my pants fit, my shirts aren’t too loose or too tight, I listen to music that many would consider to be outdated.  I have no swagger, no hitch to my step and I don’t walk like there is something disgusting dribbling down my pants leg. but the most telling sign of all? I am a 54 year old caucasian male that usually tries to mind his own business. And yet- in spite of all of the obvious clues I still have these strange individuals who like to come up to me on the street and attempt some bizarre kind of Gangster/Rapper/thug life communication with me..

Him/it: “Yo Yo Yoooo.. Suuuuuup?”

Me: “Beg pardon?”

Him/it: “Suuuup?”

Me: “I’m sorry I don’t speak Klingon.”

Him/it: “Say what?”

Me: “Oh good.. delightful- so you do at least in part UNDERSTAND some form of English  then?”

Him/it: “Ummmmmm.. Yeah?”

Me: “Do you know that your pant’s are falling down?”

He/it looks down but doesn’t offer any verbal response.

Me: “Yeah dude, you might want to pull those puppies up.. there are girls around here and your undies are showing.”

He looks up at me and blinks repeatedly but still offer’s no verbal response.

Me: “Dude seriously pull your britches up before they become a trip hazzard..”

He rolls his eyes at me and skips away. forgive me, I’m not cool, I’m a 54 year old white guy whose mother taught him how to dress properly, and to behave like an adult when ever in public.  And in other news-  in Moultrie, GA the city leaders have banned sagging britches in the city limits, first time offenders will pay a $25 dollar fine along with possible community service. repeat offenders can receive as  much as a $400 fine. So at least when in Georgia?  better pull them britches up son, nobody wants to see your dirty under wear. Apparently there are a lot of uncool people living in the city of Moultrie GA as well.

World War Z.. Disaster mixed with Zombie Porn

I have always been a pretty big  fan of zombie movies, ugly- slow assed, slimy, stinky, brain munching zombies. the thing that has always captivated me about zombies is no matter how fast you run, and no matter how slow the friggin zombies run, they always manage to catch up to their prey. then you have the faster beserker zombies like the ones from the 2002 film “28 Days Later” (Fast zombies.. scary shit) and then there are the Zombies like the ones found in this years World War Z. I’m not exactly sure what kind they were, so I just call them “swarm zombies” They’re faster, even more pissed off, and hungry. and there are a bunch of them. Swarm Zombies.. Even scarier shit.

World War Z has Brad Pitt and his family in the opening scene first waking up to start the day, then having some light back and forth family banter over breakfast. Without giving anything away for anyone who hasn’t seen the film,  if you pay attention in this scene, you can clearly tell from the television playing in the background during this scene, that something in the outside world has gone terribly wrong, and by the time they reach the car and descend into the morning rush hour traffic,  all hell breaks loose. from this point on, Director Marc Foster grabs you by the eyeballs  and doesn’t let go. While he does a good job with the films direction, it is the plot where the film kind of bogged down in places for me. the acting is fine with solid performances most notably by Brad Pitt, Fana Mokoena and Mireille Enos.

The action scenes were briskly paced and  didn’t move so fast that you couldn’t keep up with what was going on, and the sight of a whole plethora of angry zombies swarming over and feeding on anything and everything and anyone unlucky enough to get caught up in their path was visually arresting. The one area of the film that was a bit of a let down for me was that there was an obvious lack of build up as to when and how the virus that caused the outbreak was created. They just jumped right into chaos. Nothing- even at closure, was ever really explained to my satisfaction.. Still, aside from a few obvious holes here and there, World War Z still managed to hold my attention for the entire length of the film and I did still enjoy it a lot. If you like your disasters  mixed well with zombie porn, you should still go and see this movie.

 

The Frustration Blues.. Windows 7 or Windows 8?

One of the things that I really wanted to get done with  and out of my hair this morning  was to go over to Carson-Tahoe Hospital’s business offices to pay my doctor bill.. while I was waiting I happened to glance over at the lady behind the counter’s computer monitor and saw the Windows logo on her screen.. I couldn’t help myself..

“7 or 8?” I asked.

“Pardon me?”

“Are you running Windows  7? or Windows  8?”

She said that she thought it was Windows 7  but the look on her face was telling me that it was 8. I’ve seen that look before, Most professional businesses here Seem to want to stick to 7 because its familiar and easy, but a few have turned to the Windows 8..  And much to their dismay the  frustrations that most people feel with W8 is fairly unanimous..  

I had a friend about a month ago that was ready to make the jump from 7 to 8.. He has a Dell machine that was still in good working order that was running a perfectly fine version of  Windows 7 home premium on it, but he’d decided to upgrade before Microsoft decided to force him to. When he decided to ask me what I thought, I told him that he should stick with 7 for as long as he could. Although I'm certainly no expert, I’d seen- first hand,  the Windows metro interface up close during a live demo that they were giving at Best Buy a couple of months ago.. It seemed  confusing and frustrating- not only to the people WATCHING the demo, but as much so to the guy that was giving it. long story short? No thanks.

Against the advice from me and a few others, he decided a week later to make the jump to Window 8,  even though the Dell was still working like a champ. I continued to assure him that nothing but frustration awaited him and that he would be lucky to survive the experience without pulling his hair out by the roots. I did Warn him- several times.  So he bought a new machine with Windows 8 on it, and within two weeks he called to tell me that he was ready to switch back to the Dell with Windows 7 on it.  In conclusion, he’d found the Metro interface to be much too confusing- (Not to mention annoying as hell) There is no start button, no start up menu, (Although I later found out that if you hit the Windows key it gives you something that kind of looks like a traditional Windows Menu.) Anyway, he was done with it within 2 weeks.

Well I can’t say that I didn’t see that coming from six miles away. The thing is from everyone that I’ve talked to, Windows 8 is too drastic a departure from what most people associate with a typical Windows operating system, the tiles on the start up screen were designed- (From what I was told) for a touch screen interface and are just too clunky with a mouse and keyboard on a desk top. for me at least- I think Windows 7 is by far a easier less confusing operating system to learn and I’m sticking with that, it will be interesting to see how Microsoft fixes this. They are saying Windows 8.1 will address and fix most of the problems that most people have been having with the current version. but as with anything concerning Microsoft, I will simply take a wait and see attitude. its ok I can wait for them to fix it.. if they can.

Close Encounter of the Strange Kind

There was a strange sound outside my door this morning when I woke up it was kind of like a rustling noise.. so I got up and cautiously opened the door to see a strange looking cat staring up at me. Cute little thing - but strange. Kinda like one of them damned Pokemon thingy's.
Me: "Are you lost little dude?"
Cat: "meow."
Me: "Sooooo, do you live around here?"
Cat: "meow."
Me: "Soooo. Why were you trying to break into my apartment?"
Cat: "meow."
Me: "Cuz you know if you're just hungry or thirsty I can get you a piece of chicken or something."
Cat: "meow."
Me: "A saucer of milk perhaps?"
Cat: "meow."
Me: "Its 2 percent.. Easy on the waistline."
Cat: "MEEEEEOOOOOOOW!!"
Me: "Geez- You don't have to yell."
We settled for a piece of shredded chicken on a napkin with a saucer of milk on the side. tough negotiator that cat.. Dude, I'm not stupid- I swear . I just don't speak fluent kitty Cat. I need coffee.