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Here are the best photos of Zeta from the city.

I think that I get better at photography.  Sometimes.

What I did over the weekend was paint the bottom with antifouling paint (which is some nasty stuff).  Everything below the blue stripe on the pontoon is now nicely painted blue.

Here is the engine I bought.  It is a 1974 Merc 850E, 85hp.  It is old, but I felt really good about the guy I bought it from (thanks, John), and the prop alone is worth what I paid for the whole thing.

It is a one bedroom, one bath, floating deck of fun.  On the top there is a sun deck that is rated for up to four people.

I stopped by the beach after my Saturday of work.  This was around 8:00pm or so, right near Ron and Linda’s beach condo.  I used the ’sunset’ feature of the camera, and I think it came out pretty nice.  Robin nicely said that it looked like some stock photo.

OK, so for about a week or two now, I have been drooling over photos produced by Holga’s - small Chinese toy cameras that capture really quite interesting images.  They are all plastic, have many light leaks, very few features, and yet the images they make are so fascinating to me.  Read about them here: 

• http://www.holgamods.com/ 
• http://www.apogeephoto.com/july2001/plastic_fantastic.shtml 
• http://shop.lomography.com/holga/ 
• http://squarefrog.co.uk/holga/
• http://www.toycamera.com/articles.html 

But then I began to read about 120 film, processing, developing, the chemicals, the costs of having a lab do it, and so on, and I got scared.  Also, there is a substantial cult following regarding the Holga, LOMO LC-A, Seagull, and other toy/cheap cameras, and (if you know me at all) I’m not one to jump on any bandwagon.   Then I got to thinking about what it is that I like about the Holga images.  Soft and surreal focus, vignetting, B&W of course…  Then it hit me - PINHOLE camera.  So I started to read about that: 

• http://photo.net/learn/pinhole/pinhole
• http://www.pinholephotography.org/
• http://www.pinhole.com/
• http://www.pinhole.org/
• http://www.lenoxlaser.com/pinholephotos/index.html 

Of course, I was convinced the whole film apparatus would be associated with that, until I realized that I could do DIGITAL PINHOLE!  Look at this: 

• http://www.lenoxlaser.com/shop_cart/index.html?target=dept_95.html&lang=en-us 

It’s just a body cap that you modify with a pinhole.  This Lenox Laser place makes them for the Olympus E series by special order, but they are $43.00.  I’m not paying $43.00 for a body cap with a hole in it.  And then I did some more research.  I can get a body cap for my Olympus Evolt E-500 off Ebay for (cross your fingers) about $6.  I can get brass shims somewhere (maybe Home Depot?) for next to nothing, and I just ordered some micro drill bits of the appropriate size from some place here in Florida for about $10.  I’m handy - I don’t need no stinking pre-made pinhole. 

I’m crossing my fingers.  Stay tuned for some damn good photographs…

It isn’t a list of 14,000.  It isn’t a list of 20.  5 things, in no particular order:

1. Smiles not associated with evil acts or thoughts.
2. Well taken photographs with pleasing content.
3. Beer.
4. Appropriate love.
5. A delicious meal that you labor over more than usual.

And after thinking about what to put on this list, I’ve realized that there really aren’t that many things to be happy about.  But the things that do (read: should) make us happy are just so freaking good, it is enough for a lifetime.

I’m still going to critique the 14,000 book, however.  The next installment of Bash the Book - Tuesday.

The book: 14,000 things to be happy about

The author and year: Barbara Ann Kipfer, 1990

The problem: I am confused/repulsed by a significant portion of the 14,000 things

Items 1-5

1. A stream-of-consciousness list

Wow, talk about self promotion here.  She sat down and wrote a stream of consciousness list, and lo and behold that is the first of the 14,000 things.  I’m pissed off right at the beginning.

2. pajamas at breakfast

Nice?  Yes.  But not worth noting, most of the time.  Plus, there are plenty of people that wouldn’t want to wear their pajamas at breakfast.  Take Zeta, for example.  Let’s say her diaper leaks, and her pajamas have pee on them.  Yuck!  As if she now wants to lounge around at breakfast, eating while sitting in a pool of her own pee.

3. reed-fringed lagoons

This one depends on your point of view.  Are you viewing the reeds and lagoon from the comfort of a large pontoon boat with a cooler full of Natural Ice?  Or are you in the reeds?  Because let me tell you, algae and stagnant water yield big smells.  And the bugs!  My God, the bugs!  (Oh, and in Florida, that is a prime location for alligators.)

4. seeing the moon rise

Well, how much of the rise do you need to see?  It would be nice for a couple of minutes, but after that, BORING.

5. the feel of a rug under bare feet

So long as the rug is clean, on a cold day.  Glass is broken in my house quite a bit, and rugs hide glass shards rather better than hardwood floors.  Nothing like the feel of glass cutting into your tender feet skin while the rug soaks up the blood.

 

Happy 10 month birthday, Zeta! 

OK, I’ve had quite a busy beginning to the year, so there have been no posts in quite some time.  I have a plan to remedy that situation, and it is nearly ready.  The plan is quite extensive, rigorous, and encompassing.  OK, really I’m just going to make fun of a ‘book’ that I think is idiotic.  But perhaps I can come up with something else.

Yet again I find myself disappointed by the results of some particular races in which I anticipated a different result.

How does Florida elect a governor whose primary vision for the state is a continuation of Bush policies?  Ask yourself, have you EVER talked to someone who thinks that the FCAT is really helping our schools/children/parents/teachers?  Does anyone really think that the person to determine insurance regulations in Florida is the candidate that received millions of dollars from the big insurance lobby?

Oh well.  I voted.  Here is hoping that Virginia and Montana rolls blue.

Here it is:

Yikes - that can’t be good for anyone.  If you have seen this person, please be sure to give your deposition on Saturday, October 28th, at 2059 Hollywood Drive, at 7:00 or so.  Oh, and for those of you confused by the previous invitation….

Halloween Party; Costumes suggested but not required; 7:00 pm; October 28th; 2059 Hollywood Drive (off of Bradford Road, near the Albertsons and Hooters on North Monroe); Bring a guest… or twelve; Beer is provided, but bring what you might want other than that; Kids are welcome, as we have several thousand; There will be a fire, so don’t bring cans of rubber cement (if they even make that anymore); Trampolines make folks with asthma tired, so bring your Primatine Mist; I don’t think anyone will get murdered; Sarah Mac’s band plays quite a bit, although Halloween parties only happen once or four times a year; She won the trip to London anyway, so we don’t really need to ’support’ her anymore; Did I mention that there will be beer?; I have a baby, so if you need to hold one of them you can; You don’t have to take the baby home; I have an eleven year old who you can take home; My parties tend to have diverse crowds; By which I mean philosophy people and Green Party people and advising people and nursing people; Robin tells me she is working on our costumes and they are scrumtrulescent.