I’ve just been browsing through some neat and amazing photos on flikr. I’ve known the photographer for a very, very long time and have seen a few of her images, but haven’t really stopped and took a good look them in quite a while.

The pictures are really, really good.

Makes me quite proud!

You see, she’s my daughter and I think I might be able to learn a thing or two from some of the pictures she’s been taking. Cool!

Sycamore Leaf

Originally uploaded by wanwu

Several years ago — OK, it was a long, long time ago — I was attending college as a non-traditional student, finishing up my degree while working full-time. George Herbert Walker Bush was the president of the United States and Al Gore was a United Sates Senator who hadn’t invented the internet yet.

One of the classes I was in was a college algebra class. It was the first college class that I had ever had that required a calculator — the only calculator I had used in high school had been a slide rule.

The airhead I was sitting behind was having difficulty getting the answers and kept asking the professor questions about how to do the calculations for the problems on the black board.

Exasperated, the professor finally asked, “What kind of calculator do you have? It’s supposed to be a scientific calculator.”

The airhead replied, “Well, of course it’s scientific — it’s a solar calculator!”

Funny Monday

There was an interesting little contest put on at the Sabrina’s Money Matters blog. Sabrina had a “Win a Gameboy Advance SP!” contest. In the end, all it took to enter the contest was a comment on her blog. The Gameboy was to be awarded after only 25 entries.

The way that she announced the winner was pretty cool.

Sabrina had a drawing that was recorded on video. She then posted it on You Tube and published the You Tube video on her blog. To find out if you won or not, you had to watch the video — and believe me, no one was giving it away. The winner — and losers — had to view the video in order to learn the results.

I think this is a cool idea that other bloggers might be able to use in some variation or another to reward their readers.

If you’re interested in learning who won, watch the video.

For some link love, — and so that almost everyone will get a little bit of something out of this — I’m posting all of the entrants and the links to their sites, where applicable.

Charlotte Green; Steven Wilson; Leo; Bev; DCR; Bob; Zybron; Mahdi; Joanne; Pete; Debo Hobo; Mike Goad; Terence Chang; Lewis Empire; Michael Kwan; Ann Clemmons; JD; Erina Hart; Doug M.; Chessnoid; Jake; ALilSumptinSumptin; Sean O’Connor; YC; And Trudy!

This article is also a short story. Unfortunately, it’s a true story.

Written September 15, 2004, moved here from an old website I’m retiring.

I don’t know which one I should be angry at, my friend or that damn doctor.

My friend didn’t take care of herself. On the surface she was a laid-back, easy-going person, seemingly without a care in the world — everyone’s friend. Yet very few of the people who knew her really knew how sick she was… and how depressed she was.

Several years ago she had heart related surgery. I don’t remember exactly what.

She didn’t take care of herself the way that heart patients are supposed to and had to have another operation.

She still didn’t take care of herself. Her health deteriorated.

We had met her and her husband when we joined a mixed league for bowling many years earlier. They were also just starting in the league and ended up being our bowling partners — and friends — for years.

As her health deteriorated, she was no longer able to bowl. Her husband stayed on the team, but another lady took our friend’s place.

Our friend developed diabetes, and didn’t take care of herself.

She was everyone’s friend, but very few people really knew her.

Part of the reason she didn’t see a doctor was that she knew she would be told that she would have to have more surgery. They still had debt from the previous surgeries. Her husband was self-employed and they didn’t have insurance.

She didn’t want to build up more debt.

She didn’t take care of herself.

She had suffered for years from depression.

A sore — a blister — developed on one of her feet.

She didn’t take care of herself.

The sore didn’t heal.

After several weeks she finally decided she had to see a doctor.

The sore had developed into something worse. She was a diabetic and had not taken care of herself.

The doctor was not a doctor she had seen before. It seems that whenever she would go to see a doctor, it would be someone different than she had seen before.

The doctor — I don’t know his name, and I’m not sure that I want to know his name — apparently really laid into her when he saw the condition of her foot.

He asked her — practically accusing her — if she was an alcoholic, an addict, if she was on meth.

He told he that the sore had developed into gangrene and that they probably wouldn’t be able to save her foot or her leg, and, “oh-by-the-way, you might lose your other foot, too.”

Years ago, a lady that our friend knew had been hospitalized from complications arising from diabetes. She had a lot of problems, including the loss of both legs, before she died after a lingering illness.

Our friend didn’t want that to happen to her.

Our friend disappeared.

She was missing for two days.

Two days was the waiting period for a handgun.

——–

I miss my friend, especially on Wednesdays, like today. On Wednesdays we go bowling.

My friend didn’t take care of herself. I miss her and I’m angry.

I don’t know which one I should be angry at, my friend or that damn doctor.

——–

October, 2007

I’m not angry any more. I just reflect on how unfortunate it all was.

Unfortunate that she didn’t take care of herself.

Unfortunate that the doctor wasn’t more humane in her instance.

Unfortunate for her husband who has had a host of problems in the time that’s passed.

Unfortunate for the poor soul that found her body.

I took this photo on May 12th in the Clinton Library in Little Rock. With the light background, it appeared that all I had of the fellow I was taking a picture of was a silhouette.

I was taking photos and so was this gentleman, except that I noticed that he was using film. After every shot, he would roll the film to the next position. Wit the number of photos that I’ve taken over the last several month, I certainly do not miss that — or changing the film out when I get to the end of a roll — or the expenses of the film and getting it developed.

It’s taking a bit of trial and error practice, but I am learning to be more effective with my digital image editing software. Without a darkroom, there’s no way that I could have salvaged the above picture other than as a silhouette. However, with with the software, I was able to obtain this image — without losing any of the background. That is just so cool!

The rule in Yellowstone and Teton National Parks is that all pets must be on a leash at all times, especially dogs.

Dogs have a tendency to chase after critters bigger than themselves, which can get them and their owner into BIG trouble — even death of the pet or owner.

This guy wasn’t following the rules.

A few hundred feet from where I saw the man playing with his unleashed dog, we saw this:

This bull moose had already gotten antsy earlier in the day with all of the people in the area trying to see it — gettin too close in the process — and nearly charged some of them, including a park service worker who was trying to keep people away from this one and an adult cow with a calf.

As well, yesterday, people had apparently been tossing rocks toward it to try to get it to stand up so that they could see it better — throwing rocks at animals is also against the rules.

Imagine if that dog had caught wind of Bullwinkle.

Not following the rules in the wild can be dangerous — and deadly!

Those lower tines on those horns look kinda sharp!