noinput.net | plug it in

I read a blog post the other week that mentioned “If you run out of things to say on your blog, write about yourself”. I don’t know. I’ve got a folder full of video clips that I can compress and another couple full of random things to post, but for some reason nothing seems all that exciting tonight. It’s Monday and it’s going to be a long week. Big production deadline for Friday, I have a slew of things to finish on my own, going to vegas this weekend for a bachelor party, a pile of bills to pay and nothing left in my fridge to eat other then some frozen food momma gave me a few weeks ago.

I got home this evening and scored a parking spot right in-front of my place. It’s pretty funny how I rush to get home from work these days because those 10 extra minutes I may take to stop and take a picture could equal those same 10 minutes of walking from my car once I park and lug my camera and gear back home. Sort of depressing but still as annoying as always. I even got a call that my realty company is FINALLY going to work on my bathroom shower today - only told them about it 11 months ago, pretty good timing. Yea, waited all day with the hopes to come back to a mildew-free bathroom and a wall that’s not peeling only to realize no one showed. Lets make that 11months and counting.

Walked in the door and as normal, plopped in my chair and turned on the monitors to check my email. Funny, but the last thing I wanted to do tonight was stare at my screens. Instead I poked around some shows I’d recorded on my DVR and enjoyed an evening of HD which I pay way too much than I should for - the bill came in today’s mail to remind me of that. After a few hours of the tube and my last burrito from Del Taco which was sitting in the fridge calling my name I figured it was worth 10 minutes to browse a few flickr photos and take a trip down memory lane from the archives on my trip to europe. Immediately I fired up a browser and went to my paris webcam only to find this image which brought sort of a wierd and nostalgic feeling back. I’ve talked a lot about it in the past, all of which I mean dearly, but man do I miss traveling. I must have the bug again. Probably because I’m tired of my apartment and I have the vacation time to kill. It’s rough knowing that life so different that’s so far on a map is really so close I can’t stand it. Even if just for a weekend, sometimes I think it’s worth it. Something about that image that really got to me tonight. Maybe just the color, or maybe the fact that I happend to pull it up just at the right moment (that perfect time of the day), or maybe because I remember seeing it first hand and think about how much better my life has gotten since… all valid points.

The more I think about it, the more I realize I’m trying too hard with photography. Sometimes I feel like I have to impress everyone but myself so at the end of the day I still don’t have a style or a plan for who/what and how I want to shoot. I spend all my time touching up all these photos to get them “perfect” in my eye, and then I’ll do something like run a black/white filter by mistake and realize it was better that way all the time.

Thumbing through some of my favorites, I keep coming back to this shot taken by a photog in my contacts a few weeks ago. The photo alone is striking enough, but reading the story about this guy posted below it just amazes me. Also reminds me of the time I was shooting a couple in a park for their wedding and this sketchy dude was just watching my every move with the camera. He started following me and acting covertly, and then as I walked by him he started to talk to me, asking about my rig, lenses, if I thought I should use direct/bounce for the flash and what kind of format the shots are in. Before I knew it I had stopped talking about myself and what I was doing and started listening to him tell me about his days as a photographer. The man was a war journalist that worked for Associated Press and dropped in with troops on Vietnam. He told me about how he shot a cover of Time Magazine, and how it changed his life. Told me he hasn’t even touched a camera in 10 years, he can barley afford to live let alone do the one thing that used to make him happy. Told me that talking to me about photography was the highlight of his week, and funny enough, I think it was the highlight of mine too. Goes to show you can never know who hides behind a pair of sunglasses.

There’s a lot of things we take for granted in this world, and I think feeling taboo about society and the guy/gal next to you is one of them. I’m going to try to beat that one way or the other, and maybe it will help put one more thing behind me I still have yet to discover and accomplish. I’ve made a lot of decisions already in life to simplify my stress and enjoy a little more. I think it’s time I start to take my own advice, and take it easier, think a little simpler and not look so hard to what’s in front of me. I’m going to bed, at 11pm, for the first time in a while… and it’s a start.

Talk about going all in for the prize. I think everyone as a kid (or so) can at one time remember at least contemplating a way of reaching your arm through the prize drop opening to see if you could get in there somehow.. I know I did, that was before I acquired my awesome skillz as a claw-machine aficionado. heh.

While his grandmother, Fredricka Bierdemann, turned her back to get another dollar for a second try, Robert took off his coat and squeezed through an opening in the machine. He landed in the stuffed animal cube.

“He was having a ball in there, hugging all the stuffed animals,” Bierdemann said. “He was so good-natured, but I was shaking like a leaf.

Firefighters broke one lock but then spotted two latches inside the plastic cube. They passed a screwdriver to Robert, who eventually freed himself.

He went home safe, but without a stuffed Sponge Bob.

Reading through my morning news and links today seemed like all tech talk going around the blogosphere. Here are a couple of articles that caught my attention. Work is a bit crazy this week, hope to pick back up on posts over the weekend and next week.

• BitTorrent Site Admin Sent to Prison - dont worry, it’s not the guy with the cat
• Office Genuine Advantage (OGA), Now Mandatory
• Allofmp3 slowly bleeding to death
• iTunes Copy Protection Cracked’ - and here
• Vox has just launched and it looks mighty nice.
• Microsoft will allow 10 Vista Activations - but none at the same time.
• and Microsoft released it’s fiscal Q1 report. - 10b, wow.

Hasta soon.

In lieu of our boy Jeffrey Skilling’s solid 24 year sentence to jail, I found this site to be a bit more interesting then before. Behold the Email Explorer. Crazy stuff, phone numbers, personal notes and everything readily available for google to index.

It’s not every day we cheer for Microsoft making more money, but in cases like these it’s well worth it. Looks like the worlds biggest know spammer is faced with a 7m bill after Microsoft opened suit when him in 2003. The lame site optinrealbig.com is said to have sent 38billion emails a year to unwanted users. Microsoft caught about 8,000 of them containing 40,000+ fraudulent statements. Linky

I would say good riddance to this idiot, but the sad truth is he’s probably a multi-millionaire from soliciting junk mail, so I’m sure he will have some sort of a payment plan with the DA of New York and sell some stock to cover his ass. It’s sick that it’s probably true, really .

Congrats to my good homie Jay Dabhi for signing with UK based VIP records. Well deserved and about damn time. Much love man, looking forward to hangin’ with you soon.

This is just way too tech for the room. Good stuff from the people at Ambient. This widget and soon to be device runs on their own nationwide wireless network and syncs up to your Google calendar to display your 2 Favorite calendars, drive time and even another persons calendar. All in virtual real-time what better way to track your day then kicking back and watching your geek-clock update aye?

You can try it here. Only takes a couple steps and preferences to get going. Very nice.

While we’re on the google geek-tip, anyone else see the post on their blog about co-op?

Wouldn’t it be cool if you could easily build a search engine on your blog or website tailored to the topics and areas you know and love the most? You’re not alone if you’d like that — we’ve heard from partners large and small, and users across the web who want access to the Google search platform, and want to customize and make it their own.

nice.

UPDATE: Bush said on CNBC that he uses “the Google.” That’s on “the internets,” right?