March 26th, 2009 - Things & Stuff

Things. Yes, well Einstein may have said, "Time is so things don't all happen at once," but they still do. At least fast enough so that to humans it seems that way. Too fast for me to get them all up regularly on the blog anyway. Here I have some "things."

I was talking to a neighbor at the local java stop, the "Nokomis Beach Coffee Shop." As we were yammering about blogs, Facebook, and other internet topics that you seem to overhear everywhere today, I realized that I was fixated on the glass-block windows over his shoulder. We chatted, looked at the patrons, etc., but I kept coming back to these two windows on the bottom row that reminded me of the "Comedy & Tragedy" masks. After he left I went over to take a few photos and realized they were more like "Evil & Not So Evil" masks. Makes me wonder if they are always there, or if just the light and whatever cars were parked outside formed them...

Gulls are just so, I don't know, peaceful, when you see flight pictures of them. When you're there in person they could be dive-bombing the sun-seekers and squawking bloody-hell, but in photos, especially black & white; peaceful. Ahh.

Speaking of things, I'm reminded of my former co-worker Roger. Once we were talking about travel and language barriers, and he was telling me about visiting Finland. He said he was in the photolab installing some equipment and said to the Finnish technician something to the effect of "like this stuff..."

And the Finn said, "Vat is dis... stuff?" He said, "You know, um... stuff. Things. Everything."

The Finn stared at him dumbfounded.

I walked Hapdog over to the Falls after the coffee shop and took a few "normal" pictures of the falls, then got to thinking, what if I set my shutter speed low and try to pan with the water...? 

Or furthermore, what if I do that and "pull zoom" at the same time?  Results above. Click to see bigger. Kinda cool, stops the water in mid-fall, but smears the rest. Learn something new everyday if you're not careful.

Our neighbor's "sweet ride." And another sign of spring, I guess...