Bong Picture
A football player from Chamblee GA took a trip to Oregon.
@DavinBellamy17 Oregon trip going better than I thought 12:46 AM – 3 Feb 13
He posed for an embarrassing picture. The internet never forgets.
Christian comments: “The UGA chapter of the KKK is not gonna like this.”
Alcohol Fueled Automobiles
Sometimes not knowing what you are talking about can be fun. When you say what you would have done, you don’t have to face the consequences. When you speculate about the past, all you do is produce food for thought. This can be a tasty snack, or gluttonous indigestion.
There is a radio show/podcast called 99 percent invisible. It is facilitated by Roman Mars, who went to grad school in Athens GA. Last year, another podcaster interviewed him. In the resulting audio tract, the lady asked Mr. Mars if there was anything he would like to redesign. A light bulb went on in PG’s head.
When the motorcar was being developed, there was a question on how to fuel it. At the time, America was in the grip of a temperance movement. It was feared that if automobiles were fueled by alcohol, then there would be a still on every street corner. At some point, the decision was made to use gasoline. At the time, gasoline was the useless byproduct of refining crude oil into kerosene.
So it goes. The world went on the path of fossil fuel consumption. The cost to mankind, in terms of wars and environment damage, has been staggering. What if we could go back, and choose a different path for the motorized vehicle?
If laboratories were to research the uses of alcohol fuel, maybe they could find a way to make it more powerful. Even if they didn’t, and people were accustomed to cars that did not go as fast, maybe the roads would be safer. There are possible down sides, but you only learn about them as you go down the path. Often there is no going back.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress. This feature is written like Chuck Palahniuk.
Golf
A patrician New Englander
Who drank way too much
Mister Holmes had respect
For one thing
He would pause
Take a breath
Have a moment of silence
Tilt his head
Fifteen degrees to the right
Blink with both eyes
Say the word
Golf
Live Or Memorex
It started when PG got an email from a longtime friend. He has recently produced a book of photographs, something in my eye. On the last page is a statement: “All photographs in this photo journal are taken exactly as the Camera and I see them. Life is much more interesting without alteration.” The wheels of thought started to spin. If you saw a mushroom cloud rising over Peachtree Industrial Boulevard, that might have been it.
PG sent a reply, “I disagree with the concept that life is more interesting when it is not altered. The world is big enough to handle both points of view.” The next morning there was a reply. “your alteration is completely different and stands alone on its own excellent merit and as its own artform. I mean reversing pix, airbrushing etc. I would not even use the word altered on your artwork. Maybe surgically enhanced! but you know what I mean. Your stuff by altered becomes something that is creating something completely new and original.”
As the reader(s) of this blog know, PG likes to play with pictures. It is a good hobby. No talent or education is required. The software is a free download. Have fun, and don’t spill your beverage.
When the blogging thing started, PG had a dial up connection. When you upload 4kb a second, you like to keep the file size down. One way is to reduce the image to the size the blog has room for. The typical picture today starts at 2048×1536(pixels), with 666 kb of memory. If you reduce this to 720×540, the file size drops to 198kb.
The image size needs to be adjusted to go anywhere. Negatives have been replaced with code. If you are going to put out a dead tree book, you need to find a size for the image. The same goes for a blog.
You don’t have to use the entire image. Most raw images have parts that are not interesting. PG likes to use the golden rectangle (1612:1000) as a default when he crops images. This is usually more pleasing to the eye than the 4:3 ratio used by most cameras.
Most images can use some work in addition to cropping. Level adjustment and color balancing can add to almost every picture made. What the camera sees is often different from what the eye sees. The mechanical tool can use some help.
The camera has always been an adjustable tool. The settings, whether manual or automatic, play a role in how the device records the image. The way the image is rendered for viewing can change it’s content. Ansel Adams is as famous for his darkroom skills as he is for his photography.
Does anyone remember those memorex commercials? (The person who cleaned up the broken glass does.) The voice over says ” is it live, or is it memorex?.” When the commercial played on tv, it was a reel to reel tape, from an unknown manufacturer. The tape used was usually the one the producer got for the lowest price. The spell check suggestion for memorex is memorize.
The memorex ad is a bit quaint today. Cassettes have been replaced by compact discs, which were replaced by the MP3. A recording studio has all sorts of gizmos to corrupt correct the original. The recording studio has long been a creative instrument, rather than a facility for catching sound waves. The same is true of the camera.
There is nothing wrong with trying to get the reproduced image as close to natural as possible. The world is indeed an interesting place. It is just that the technology which is available to anyone with an internet connection, can change what the camera sees to more like what the human being saw. It can also create beautiful images that found their starting point in the original.
The pictures for this post are by chamblee54, and were taken March 18, 2011. The first four were taken on a walk through Chamblee GA. The second one illustrates where manipulation tools can give the illusion of reality. It is almost impossible to photograph a rectangular object and have all the lines come out evenly. This picture was cropped with the no smoking sign in the middle. GIMP has a tool which allows you to pull out the sides. This enables you to have the borders appear to be portrayed as flat lines with ninety degree angles.
These pictures are presented today in the order in which they are shot. This is another option the presenter has. That evening, PG went to a discussion group. The best comments were by a dog. After that, the group went to a bar. The facility next door had a drag show, with the performers waiting on the sidewalk before they went in. This adds a new dimension to the concept of real versus altered.
Summer Rental
Ellis Sullivan is in a world of trouble. She loses her job. The plan to rent a beach house with life long friends is intact, and Elly Belly drives down to Nags Head in the middle of the night. She arrives early, and goes to check out the house. It is not ready for the girls, and won’t be for a few hours. Ellis goes for a walk on the beach, and sees a man standing on the porch of a garage apartment. The man takes a leak. It is the first exposed man Ellis has seen in eleven years.
(Spoiler Paragraph) Romance story veterans should not be surprised at what happens four hundred pages later. The garage dude begs Ellis to move in with him. After a gunfight, the story concludes. With a couple of exceptions, most people in the story have happy endings.
This is the world of Summer Rental. by Mary Kay Andrews. If nothing else, Summer Rental is a delightful waste of time. There was a surge of excitement when PG found a new Mary Kay Andrews book at the Chamblee library.
Summer Rental does have a few flaws in logic. Ellis and her bf only have a handful of dates before he decides it is true love. There is a subplot, involving a New Jersey lady on the lam from her killer husband. Dorie, one of the lifelong pals, invites Jersey girl to stay at the house. Julia, the third lifelong pal, is suspicious, and breaks into Jersey girl’s room. While Julia is in the room, she discovers a cash stash, and a pistol. Julia takes the pistol. Jersey girl does not miss the pistol, until killer hubby comes looking for her. This does not add up.
Mary Kay Andrews always seems to have a gay man in her books. He is usually an antique dealer, with flawless taste. In Summer Rental, Dorie is married to Stephen. It turns out that Stephen left Dorie for Matthew. The new bf has a fabulous house. Dorie,the discarded wife, has a baby on the way.
Despite the holes in the plot, Summer Rental is tons of fun. Most of the one star people at Amazon talk about wasting money by buying the book. The library copy is just as good as a bought copy, and they will find a place to keep it when you are through. Buying a book is always a waste of money, especially at retail price.
Mary Kay Andrews is in good shape, and should be producing fun books for at least twenty more years. The same cannot be said for Ferrol Sams. Sambo met his maker Tuesday, at the age of ninety.
Dr. Sams grew up on a farm in Fayette county, and went to Emory Medical School. He took a break in his education for World War II. Sambo finished his Doctor training, took a wife, and practiced medicine in Fayetteville for many years. After having four children, Sambo had an emergency vasectomy.
When he was in his fifties, Sambo decided to start writing books. A trilogy followed. Run With The Horsemen is about growing up on the farm. The Whisper Of The River is about college at Mercer University. When All The World Was Young is about World War II.
The earth does not own people like Ferrol Sams. Humanity rented him for a month in the summertime. Pictures today are from “The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
The movie is courtesy of The Atlantic. This was written like James Joyce.
Mister Giggle
Louie Giglio
Pounding passion putrid poop
Idiot shut up
Just a gigolo
Louis Prima song and dance
Ain’t got nobody
Mister giggle high
Louie Louie way down low
We gotta go now
Conversation
hey there you look douchy today
what a sweet thing to say
you know i try
you clean up well yourself
Is Gnarlene coming today?
No she isn’t feeling well
Bless her heart
Ringing The Pastor Bell
By now, the story of the Applebee’s tip has gone megaviral. The server who posted the reciept got fired. The Professional Jesus Worshiper who wrote a tacky note on that reciept has her picture all over the internet. The PJW is getting tons of attention for her stunt.
A few years ago, Pastor was a job description. It was not used as a title. To introduce yourself as Pastor Jones would be like saying Plumber Smith. People in both occupations should not bite their fingernails.
The practice of placing “Pastor” in front of your name is showy and pretentious. The PJW works at a storefront church with fifteen members. One wonders why the mother of three can afford a $34.93 meal every Friday night, with or without the tip.
The person that introduced PG to this custom was a coworker at Redo Blue. At first, this person called himself “Minister Jefferson”. (The surname has been changed.) Later, this became “Pastor Jefferson”.
One day, there was something stinking in the refrigerator. PG looked, and found a styrofoam plate with rotten food inside. On the lid of the plate were the words “Minister Jefferson”.
The third commandment says not to use the name of the LORD in vain. Writing a snarky note on a restaurant receipt would seem to be a good illustration of this.
Pictures are from The Library of Congress.
Whale Tale
Memory Palace has a new episode,
Fifty Words Written After Learning
the Arctic Bowhead Whale Can Live up to Two Hundred Years.
One mythical whale escaped the Nantucket whalers in 1850,
and heard thousands of animals singing. .
The episode was 89 seconds,
disappointing some Memory Palacites.
Cluster Bombs
During the 2008 campaign, there was a little bit of discussion of cluster bombs. Supposedly, BHO wants to ban the use of such weapons.
WHAT ARE CLUSTER BOMBS? Cluster bombs or cluster munitions are large weapons which are deployed from the air and from the ground and release dozens or hundreds of smaller submunitions. Submunitions released by air-dropped cluster bombs are most often called “bomblets,” while those delivered from the ground by artillery or rockets are usually referred to as “grenades.”
Evidence that BHO is opposed to the use of these weapons is here: “In the autumn of 2006, Diane Feinstein (D-CA) submitted an amendment (No. 4882) to a Pentagon appropriations bill to the Senate. It banned neither the manufacturing, stockpiling nor the use of cluster bombs. It merely forbade their use in “any concentrated population of civilians, whether permanent or temporary, including inhabited parts of cities or villages, camps or columns of refugees or evacuees, or camps or groups of nomads.” Senator Feinstein couldn’t have made voting for the bill more pain-free. Senator Obama voted yea, McCain, predictably, nay.
These reports are five years old. Is the United States still using cluster bombs? That is a silly question. “Cluster munitions have demonstrated military utility. Their elimination from U.S. stockpiles would put the lives of its soldiers and those of its coalition partners at risk. Moreover, cluster munitions can often result in much less collateral damage than unitary weapons, such as a larger bomb or larger artillery shell would cause, if used for the same mission.”
Pictures are from ” The Special Collections and Archives,Georgia State University Library”.
Boiler Room
The house dick at the Carson Hotel did not like the boiler room.
“It smells like the smelliest hobo to ever stink up G-ds green earth died there,
And rotted right into the concrete floor. The lighting is bad too.”
The Nine Horse
The storm was moving in, so there would be no bicycle riding today. There was a Charles Bukowski file to listen to. A collection called “70 minutes in hell” played, and a few pictures from The Library of Congress were converted. This is not going to be an afternoon to make sense. Making sense is overrated.
The pictures were Union soldiers from the War Between the States. The idea was to kill Confederates, or die trying. That is another thing which makes no sense at all. We don’t know what it was about 150 years ago. It might have made sense then.
When the decision to write this feature was made, the first thought was to find a link to Mr. Bukowski. (Spell check suggestion: Buckskin) The thing would be easy enough to find, but a certain attitude crept into the picture. If a person wants to find the file, then Mr. Google can work for them just as easily as it can work for this slack blogger.
Poetry comes into the room like water, pouring though the mouth of a river flows into the Gulf of Mexico. When a cup of water moves from fresh water into salt, no one cares where it comes from. All that a body of water knows is that it is one cup larger.
These files are fun to listen to, without the cigarettes and beer spills. When you are tired of listening, you click on the spot and the noise goes away. Mr. Bukowski was talented, and prolific. If you keep the quantity up, the quality takes care of itself. The problem is, for every Charles Bukowski, there are a million useless urinal feeders.
Mr. Bukowski was at the racetrack, and took an emergency bowel movement. Before it was too late, he saw his wallet in the bowl, floating on top of the waste product. The billfold was extracted from the zip file. Mr. Bukowski took a ten dollar bill out, and bet it on the nine horse.
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