Archive for the 'Personal' Category

No Love…

Published by -MiKe- on April 11, 2008 in Personal and Photography. 0 Comments

Isn’t it always how it is? I go on a mini blogging vacation. Leaving my poor little website to sit and cry, alone, in the cold, dark, world wide web…

It’s pitiful… :-(

I am sorry, dear website… For your struggles, I shall show you some love.

Jen and I spent this past Saturday (the 5th) at Cony High School, in Augusta, helping judge the 2008 Odyssey of the Mind Tournament. We judged Division I & III of the DynoStories problem.

Talk about some intelligent Elementary School kids!

I used the experience to test out my new(ish) Holga. Came out of it with about 6 usable images, for the low low price of only $20! Jeezze… I am finding cheaper film, and a cheaper lab!

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Unfortunately, I ran out of film (so, 12 frames per roll? fun) and was unable to get any shots of the solutions. But I did get this priceless shot off between sessions.

This weekend I am going home for a bit, and I am pretty excited. My studio equipment finally arrived. I’ll be sure to tell you all about it… You know. Next month. :-D

Impending Doom of Miss America.

Published by -MiKe- on December 21, 2007 in Personal. 1 Comment

I’ve got this problem/gift that haunts me to this very day.

Historically, when it came to intimate relationships with a certain gender, that isn’t mine, I’ve been able to see the future.

I know, I know, “impossible, no one can see the future!” You say. But I insist. Give me one, maybe two months, at the longest half a year, and I can tell you the very quality of the relationship that will have it ripping at the seams, given time. And thus far, I’ve never been wrong. Take Jen and I. I’ve got nothing… And you know what? Still strong after a year and a half.

But I’m not talking about certain significant others here. I’m talking about the Miss America Pageant.

A few days ago I blogged about a certain Reality TV show Miss America lowered themselves into recently, Miss America: Reality Check. Now, my gut instinct is to toss you a link to the show’s website, and I’m going to (you can find it here), but that’s not without a cacophony of protest from my better judgment.

By now you already know I am not a fan of the idea.

Take a piece of America’s history, an icon, if you will, and exploit it. Great idea. One of the toughest stereotypes for the Miss America Organization to overcome has been the idea that we are nothing more than a “Beauty Pageant,” it’s a struggle as old as time, and now TLC wants turn MAO into a reality TV show. So now, not only is it still a Beauty Pageant to most, but now it’s cliche.

But its not just that. Over the years the Miss America Pageant has remained primarily unchanged, largely unmolested by time. Timeless.

So what do we do? We take something that is Timeless and we make it better, we make it Modern. Brilliant.

One of the wonderful things about tradition, about “timelessness,” is if something is timeless, it can’t truly die. Something that is timeless exists in it’s own little world, it’s own bubble of protection. It’s the reason why nothing will beat the original Dracula. It can be remade and remade to high heavens, but we will always look back to the original for the inspiration, while remakes come and go with the wind.

Remakes, remasters, remixes can be forgotten. Sure, they can be popular for a time, but because they are “modern,” tailored to a generation, they are a fad, and fads fade when modern moves on.

Yet it gets worse. If Reality Check were one of a kind, without competition, it would at least thrive for a short time, a season or two in the lime-light. But we aren’t so lucky. Sure, we have the “original” thing going for us, but now we have to compete again (as if competing against Miss USA wasn’t bad enough), now we have Crowned pushing in on us.

So now we not only have to fight the stereotype of the Beauty Pageant, but heads with Miss USA, and conform to the Modern appeal, but now we have to bend over backwards to struggle for network TV ratings against a free form “pageant” that, unlike us, doesn’t have traditions or morals to consider in it’s programming.

Mark my words, this is the beginning of the end of the Miss America of old. This is the end.

A cold, wet, windy, weekend…

Published by -MiKe- on November 7, 2007 in Personal. 2 Comments

It’s funny. I was telling Jen the other day. I wanted to write an entry about my weekend, and when I started summing up what I had done, I lumped Friday and Monday into the mix as well. It’s sad when you have a three day work-week.

I really am a slacker…

We went to Jen’s house this weekend, seeings how we are going to mine, this coming weekend.

It was pretty relaxed, for the most part.

Before we left, I made the mistake of asking what we were going to be doing a few too many times. Alone, it’s an innocent question, but in mass… well… I guess it gets pretty trying…

That said, I made the second mistake of asking what was on the docket while sitting in Jen’s living room, and next thing I knew we were in the car, headed to some park in Saco that none of us had ever heard of.

Wet

It was cold. It was wet. It was windy. But it wasn’t half bad.

Sure, in the moment it was mildly miserable, but it was good to get out, and she was right, it was better than sitting on the couch all afternoon…

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Other than that, it was a pretty simple weekend. Which was good.

Jen got some much needed sleep, after two weeks of intense tests in some of the hardest undergrad classes Husson offers. We got to see Jens parents, and I got a few pictures.

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We also go the opportunity to work out some things that have been bugging us. We got into a bit of an argument over a game of Bull Shit. Primarily about how we handle conflict, and how I support (or don’t) Jen.

At one point it got pretty heated. Luckily, Jen’s family is pretty laid back, and they actually helped us out a bit. Mediated, if you will, and in the end, we were better for it.

Now we’re going through the “what the hell is going on next semester!?” phase, as Jen finds out she needs 19 credits int he spring, plus and additional 3 credit Open Elective course. Basically, its going to be hell.

Shit-Storm

Published by -MiKe- on October 24, 2007 in Personal. 0 Comments

What a wonderful few days I have had. I suppose things aren’t as together as I would have liked to think they were.

It’s a lot of personal stuff, that centers around Jennifer and I, and communication and (my) lack of time management. That said, I don’t really want to get into it much, but it seems we’re doing better, so fret not.

On a happier side, dinner went well this Saturday. Jen decided not to go on the Canoe trip, in favor of keeping our prior plans for Bowling on Friday night, and an awake, and timely, diner, Saturday. Unfortunately, this didn’t work quite as planned, with the other couple we had been planning on going bowling with canceling last minute.

We made the best of it, though, watching the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” with Ben (and drinking a small bit…). Actually, I think it worked out quite well. It turns out the “Rocky Horror Picture Show” is actually a fabulous movie. Kind of wish we could show it as a school. Problem is, it’s a bit too “graphic” for Husson’s taste. Anyway, we had a good time of it, and it was nice to just hang out…

Back to Saturday.

I took Jen out to Ichiban, a local restaurant with Sushi Bar, in Bangor. It’s one of the better sushi joints I’ve ever been too, and we are both INSANE fans.

It went awesome. We had a really good time, ate a lot of good sushi, socialized a bit with other patrons… It was good.

We made a good night of it, and even Jen admits it was nice being able to enjoy dinner, knowing that we had gotten some school work done, and not being tired and cold from being on the water all day. Honestly, we probably could have done dinner, even if we went on the trip, but it was nice to be productive a bit…

In other news, I may be taking an independent study next semester.

More at 11.

:-)

Vacation at Val’s

Published by -MiKe- on July 15, 2007 in Personal. 1 Comment

So yeah, I made it to Valerie’s in one piece yesterday, and the shit hit the fan. Talk about a circus!

Val's House - Morning After - Front Yard(ish)

I came down to take pictures for Al’s 70th Birthday Party, and it was crazy. Over 180 people attended. There was a live band, a convention-sized tent, four fully stocked open bars, an inflatable “moon bouce,” movie screen and full buffet. The total budget ran right around $15k, to give you an idea, and it showed it.

Val's House - Morning After - Back Yard

I got up around 4:30am yesterday morning to catch a plane at 10am in Manchester, NH and arrive in Radnor, PA at about 2pm. Basically, I am exhausted.

All in all, though, everything went pretty well. Recently all of my 1gb CF cards started dieing on me, so I had to pick up some new 2gb CF cards for a whopping $21.99 (big money, big money, big money), and they worked out pretty well. I did have a scare in the beginning, while my short lens was having some connectivity issues with my Maxxum 5D. I would lose control of the camera for a second or so at a time, while the camera was under the impression that there was no lens attached, and I was losing shots because of it… Luckily the symptoms subsided after a little while, and the night when on as planned.

It seems like Al had a great time, so I am pleased as pie right now.

Since yesterday was so crazy today is my vacation, and I am about to go take it. Heading out to the pool now, for some fun and sun. Later this afternoon I am heading to the Genius Bar to get my Mac looked at, then Verizon for a new phone. Happy days…

Thats awkward…

Published by -MiKe- on May 29, 2007 in Personal. 1 Comment

So, I was looking at visitor statistics for no steam shovel yesterday afternoon, and I came across something very unnerving, and, a little bit funny (depending on how you look at it)… I have visitors coming to my site from Susquehanna (or in relation to, rather) University.

Evidently there is a new college-search website out there that pools blog posts mentioning various colleges and displays them on the college information pages, and my last post evidently made a blip on their radar…

Needless to say, I was quite surprised to see a few visitors originating from: http://college.mychances.net/college-1274-Susquehanna-University.html. Yet, in a way, it was a pleasant surprise…

I don’t know how it finds posts mentioning these colleges. I didn’t link to the university home page (and won’t) and I highly doubt the school has a ping-back server… As far as I can tell it identifies posts based on tags (as thats the only thing that identifies the university, other than the text, in my post). If thats the case, they must find pertinent posts via Technorati. Very sneaky.

How ever they do it, maybe now I can say all those unpleasant things about SU that I have been harboring for so long, and someone will actually read them… Excellent…

Unfortunately, they don’t seem to have a listing for NESCom, so all my praise will unfortunately fall on deaf ears… Alas… Can’t win them all… :-D

Jenifer and I are going Kayaking this afternoon. Where to, I have no idea, but it will be fun never-the-less.

She should be arriving shortly, so I should probably get things cleaned up a bit before she arrives.

Hope you had a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend.

Aaaand we’re back… again…

Published by -MiKe- on May 23, 2007 in Personal. 4 Comments

Geez, keep taking these breaks… Have to get a handle on that.

So! Summer is finally here! Made it through another school year, I’m out of that damn apartment in Old Town, and I’ve got a new kitten. :-D

Meet Mali.

Summer is a kitten.

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Sorry, couldn’t help it. She’s just so adorable. Stole her from my ex-roommates actually. Jen and I bought 4 cans of cat food, fed her one, left for two days, came back, and there were still 3 cans left… So I fed her some and waited to see if Caleb made a move to feed her. He didn’t. Fed her the next morning (both times being careful no one noticed, to see if anyone else cared to feed her), Caleb left for work, making no move, so I left for home. With the cat. And if you are reading this Caleb, tough.

:-D

Wow, that was all kinds of grammatically incorrect. Oh well.

So school is out and I am back to mowing. Every day. All day. From 8:30am till 6-9pm… And I enjoy it. :-D

God I am happy to be out for a bit. I mean, I love NESCom (MUCH more-so than SU), but I was dogging it there in the last few weeks. Mostly because of English (contrary to the stereotype of most Bloggers, I HATE structured writing…), which I was sure I would nearly fail.

That in mind, imagine my surprise when I received my grades the other day and pulled in a B+ or higher in every class but Intro to Media (C+). Yeah… That look you just made? Imagine mine…

Pretty much, everything is awesome right now, save the back of my hands, which are sun-burnt to the very edge of blistering…

I’ve spent fair amount of time with Jen the past two weeks. Once last Wednesday, then again this past weekend for my birthday, for a full two days. Makes me smile, real-big-like. I’m going back to Waterboro tomorrow night, Justin in tow, to catch a 1am showing of Pirates of the Caribbean 3 with Jen and the crew. Should be fun. And then we’re going kayaking next Tuesday.

You know, I think I could dig this woman. ;-)

Got some pretty cool stuff on my birthday. John and Cathy (Jen’s mum and dad) got me a remote-controlled helicopter, which absolutely kicks ass! I am in the process of calibrating the tail rotor over the past few days… Out of the box they are only roughly calibrated to stay straight, but if you want, you can fine tune it to stay more true (not spin around in circles). We’ll see how it turns out.

Jen’s Grandma got us tickets to WARPED TOUR 2007! Fucking right!

I played with Jen a bit (I got both tickets in my one card), and I think she actually believed I was going to take Justin with my spare. HA! Right…

Jen got me a “Meh.” shirt (much cooler than you think, I can assure you), and a book on photographic lighting. I only looked over the book briefly, but I can tell I am going to like it. I will review it after I get some time to go through it in detail…

And last, but not least, mom got me a watch (which I have yet to really wear, as I am afraid to dirty it), and some shirts…

But not just ANY shirts… Company shirts. Namely, CoverThis Photography. I really can’t describe them, so I will have to post a picture at some point. :-D

There was something else, but I can’t place it… :-/

Anyway, the past few days I have been dubbing around, trying to get Step Mania to work on this old laptop. Had a turn for the better this afternoon, but still not quite there. I’ll document it here in a few days.

Right now, however, I need a shower, and some aloe-vera. Just wanted to check in, tell you I’m not dead, and such. So, that said, have an evening…

And we’re back.

Published by -MiKe- on April 20, 2007 in Personal. 1 Comment

So, looks like summer decided to get off its fat ass and show up…

The first shot is from two weeks ago, but really, it looked the same up until last Friday. There was snow on the ground until just a few days ago…

Husson a few weeks ago...

And this one is of the exact same branch, at the same angle at the same focal length… This afternoon… It was like 70+ degrees out… Well, actually, I guess I was a little closer in the second shot, but whatever…

Oh what a beautiful day...

It is about damn time…

I have a SHIT ton of work to do this weekend. I have a business plan to write up by 5 this afternoon… Did you catch that? :-( I have a video to finish by April 10th… I have a video to shoot by next Tuesday. I have a research paper to write by Monday. I have commercial product shots to shoot by Tuesday. I have two sites to design by Monday. I am shooting the hypnotist this evening, and I need to set up at 8:30. And to top it ALLLLLL off, it is Jen and I’s 6 month. Well, it was the 16th, but we agreed to celebrate this weekend…

Wow… It seems like an awfull lot of work when I writ it out like that… Gah…

Eviction, and how it affects you…

Published by -MiKe- on April 12, 2007 in Personal. 0 Comments

You know it’s been a slow set of days when you get serious responses to photos like this:
Happy lunch

So, I narrowly missed getting evicted today…

Hows that for catching your attention?

Evidently I was quite literally “A day late and a dollar short.” Seven days and three-hundred dollars, to be exact. But I’m all set now, for those of you who care, with no ill effects. On this note I would like to inform you of the consequences of being evicted. I, myself, was not fully aware of such matters. However, it was rather nice of my landlord to provide me a paper with an easy to understand list:

1. Eviction Court: This will be humiliating, and a matter public record.
2. Dispossession: This also will be humiliating, and a matter of public record.
3. Judgments: This too will be humiliating, and a matter of public record.

I will tell you, the pamphlet was quite helpful and informative, I practically feel like I was there…

Actually, we were all served (Caleb, Danny and I) an eviction notice, and come to find it was primarily Danny’s fault, such a nice change. However, I am sure I didn’t help the matter.

God I have to get out of this house…

For more about work, school and the unraveling of modern society, read on…

Continue reading ‘Eviction, and how it affects you…’

Maven Winery, New Zealand

Published by -MiKe- on April 4, 2007 in Personal and asides. 1 Comment

By pure chance I have had the pleasure of meeting a one Bethlene Jobin, from New Zealand. No real significance, no… But she does work as the Marketing & Export Executive for this fantastic winery in said country, and I think you owe it to yourself to check it out. Introducing…

Maven Winery Logo