She's Very, Very Quiet

You haven't been reading any comments from my mom lately, because she's here with me. She and my dad are over for a visit, which is also the reason I haven't been writing much - I've been pretty busy with them and with the little chick.

We're going to go to Rome for a few days, and I'm pretty excited. I think it's going to be a pretty nice break from work. And they make the best coffee in the world. And I'm going to take a bazillion pictures. I'll even show you the good ones.

Other than that, I don't have a lot to report. I hope you're doing well, though.

Chopsticks

I was at home on Saturday after the little chick left, and I got a call from a friend. He works for a relief agency, called the global hope network, and they concentrate on caring for the most destitute people in the places where CNN isn't focusing, where other relief agencies aren't going. They're worth looking at, and supporting - you can see some more about them and their programs here.

Anyways, they were having a fund-raising concert - a classical pianist - and my friend wanted to take some pictures to use for publicity after. He was wondering about what kinds of settings to use on his camera, how to be able to do it without a flash... and since I hate explaining stuff like that, I offered to come and shoot some for him. He took me up on my offer, and these are the pictures that came out.

Turns out that Pascal Solomon, the pianist can really, really play. I'm not much of a classical guy, but even I dug this. And it was fun to be able to get some pictures of him at work.

You can see the rest here.

Secret Agent

The Little Chick and I went to the park today. It was windy, so she wore her trench coat. And, she got new sunglasses, so she wore those, too. I didn't let her carry the gun, though.

You can see the rest here.

LOL

I've watched a few movies lately that, while clearly not for everyone, I actually found pretty funny.

The Promotion - is about a recently married grocery store assistant manager who is looking to make it to the big time: to be promoted to manager. Just when it looks like he's got the job, a French-Canadian rival shows up, and crazy hijinks ensue.

The Love Guru - I'm not usually much of a Mike Myers guy, but this one also featured a Quebecois in the antagonist role, made me laugh a few times and, mostly, made me remember how much I really, really, really miss real hockey. Plus it has a fantastic Bollywood-ish ending. Slightly less toilet-humor than his other outings, which is a nice change.

You Don't Mess With The Zohan - not quite what I had anticipated in terms of plot (okay, "plot"...) but actually did make me laugh several times. Predictably offensive (Adam Sandler), it started with me wondering how Palestinians felt about it. It left me pretty sure that no one who takes themselves seriously would feel that good about it, Palestinian or otherwise. Still, some funny moments.

I think it might be time for something blowing up, right after I get through the second disk of my camera one. By the way, one point I would like to clarify there: when I said they had women to explain how to attach the strap and so on, I didn't mean like Italian game show women. Best guess is that she came with the guy with the safarri hat, but didn't have the good fortune to have brought her own. Maybe in disk two - I'll keep you posted.

Read My Lips

You can't spell it "Favre" and pronounce it "Farve". It's just wrong.

Picture This

So I've been watching an instructional camera video... trying to pick up a few pointers. It is fantastic, and even if you don't ever plan to use the camera they're talking about, I would highly suggest that you watch it... preferably, with me. Why do I love it so much?

It's all shot inside, but one of the presenters is wearing a safari hat. Here's what I think: if you're bald, either embrace it, join the hair club for men, or stick with your initial gut feeling that you shouldn't be doing video for public distribution. Some of those are better options than others, but you'll notice that "wear a safari hat" does not make the list, even as a footnote.

It's a great tool if you know someone who wants to shoot an instructional video without a script on the basis of "it's okay, we really know the topic". If you are interested in saying things like "here's the daylight savings time setting - we'll go ahead and switch that on because, hey - you never know" and "you change the ratio... no, wait, the ratio stays the same, you just change the balance...", then on-the-fly is a great way to go ahead.

There are even women in it! Men explain how to use the camera; women, how to attach the strap or play back the images. And no, I'm not kidding.

I think the best part, besides the safari hat, is where one of the guys is showing a picture of the stars at night... a picture that, even though I was trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, is notably unremarkable. What, exactly, is it that he so loves about this picture? It shows not only the stars, but clearly captures his amateur radio tower.

Yeah.

So next time you've got a Friday night free and are looking for a little edu-tainment, I'm your man.

Bring your own hat.

Like, Totally, Dude

I have a friend who is very, very English. He has what the English refer to as a posh accent... which does not mean, as you would expect, that he sounds like Victoria Beckem, but instead that he sounds (more or less) like he has money. Every once in a while, he decides to speak "American", which basically involves speaking in his normal, posh accent, and then adding "...dude" at the end of each sentence. It's pretty funny.

I kind of felt like the little chick should have been doing that a couple nights ago. When I was putting her to bed, she looked up at me with a big smile and said "You're awesome, Daddy, and wonderful for taking such good care of me!"

Needless to say, she absolutely melted my already-pretty-soft heart. It's an incredible thing for a three year-old to think about expressing, in my opinion. It wasn't until later that I realized I have no idea where she picked up "awesome". It certainly wasn't from me. In any case, it made me one pretty happy dad, dude.

Dancing Cell Phones

For some reason, cell phone operators LOVE advertising on CNN international. Irascom Telecom was a big one for a long time - handy for everyone looking to be traveling in Iraq and not sure about who their provider will be there when they arrive.

The one thing that they all seem to include is a series of shots of people dancing... always in native garb, and frequently through rolling green fields in the sunset. I just finished watching one for Pakistan... it had a guy riding in a private jet, the usual dancing, a lot of fantastic buildings. It left me with a question: when I'm traveling to a country on another continent, do I really care that much about traditional folk dances, or could I be more concerned with, say, if they have coverage at the airport and how much a text message is going to cost?

But then, I barely ever travel. What do I know.

Ain't No Sunshine When She's Gone

I love that tune. Thankfully, it didn't hold true today.

I had a very special morning today - I did some engagement pictures for Dan and Catherine a while ago... I was looking for some practice, and they were looking for something to commemorate their engagement. It worked out pretty nicely for both of us. Well, today I got to do the pictures at their wedding.

In the sunshine.

Yesterday, it was pouring. Last night, it was pouring. Today, the forecast is that it would, in fact, continue to pour. But what looked like scattered sunshine this morning turned into barely a cloud in the sky by lunch time, so we had some pretty nice conditions for our pictures. I'm glad... not just because it made it a whole lot easier for me, but I'm really happy with the way the day went for Dan and Cat, and I'm glad I could share it with them.

Here are a few of the shots I took. I have some more of my favorites here, if you'd like to see them.

Airport Security

As time goes on, I find myself less and less concerned with who may be carrying a bottle of water onto a plane, and much more regularly affected by people who seem to have missed health class on the day that they talked about why showers and deodorant are a good idea every day.

I'm okay with them making people take off their shoes as they go through the security check. But maybe instead of sending the shoes through the x-ray machine, they could just take that opportunity to give them a good smell; if they fail the smell-check, it doesn't matter what the machine says... they don't get on the plane. They can either take a shower or check themselves into the hold.

THAT I would wait in line for.