Tag Archive for 'General'

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.

Monte Zucker - Passing of a Legend

Published by -MiKe- on April 4, 2007 in General and Photography. 0 Comments

Those of you who are photographers may or may not know the name. I didn’t until just the other day… A day late and a dollar short.

I often frequent the site of Ken Rockwell, an esteemed photographer, and evidently a man who doesn’t merely adjust his depth of field, but changes space-time. He is very knowledgeable in the ways of photography, and tells things how they are, without all the measurbation everyone else gets caught up in.

I was on his site the other day when I noticed a fleeting obituary.

… Monte Zucker, the world’s most famous wedding and portrait photographer, passed away from pancreatic cancer on March 15th at his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, USA. He was 77.

I am ashamed to say I had never heard of Monte Zucker until I read this, and I didn’t, at first, realize how much of a loss this really was.

Monte Zucker is an AMAZING wedding and portrait photographer from Fort Lauderdale, Florida. It’s not that his photos are fantastic (they are much more), but that he is such an amazing teacher. Within moments on his website I learned more about posing for portrait photography than I have all year at NESCOM. Yes, it is Bridal portraiture, but the concepts are pretty much universal, and to a growing photographer, invaluable.

His death is a huge loss to the photography industry, both for the loss of all the wonderful images he could have taken, and for the loss of his wealth of knowledge for all the aspiring photographers of the world. If you are interested in the what knowledge he left behind for the lost of us, his educational videos are still for sale here. However, I would expect there would be a delay in processing and shipping while his family mourns his passing.

A true lesson as to the frailty of life, and speed and ferocity with which it can be taken away still stands on his site with his listing of class schedules:

Seems as if some serious health issues may cause a slight change of my schedule. As of now, I’m planning to go through with most of my plans for this year and next year.

Doctors today confirmed that I have a form of pancreatic/lymphatic cancer. I will begin treatments December 11th. The prognosis is that I have 9-12 months to live. Plenty of time to get things in order.

My goal is to teach my Las Vegas/WPPI class, and to teach once more in my home town, the Washington, DC area. I am also going to do everything in my power to teach the class in France.

Anything after that I’ll just have to wait and see.

Monte Zucker passed away on March 15, 2007, at a young 77 years in his home in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.

From his website:

The Passing of a Legend
Monte Zucker: 1929-2007

Celebration of the Life of Monte Zucker
Sunday, April 22, 2007, 1-4 pm

It had to snow…

Published by -MiKe- on April 3, 2007 in Personal. 0 Comments

It’s freakin’ APRIL! Gah… It’s been nearly shorts-weather for the past week, few weeks, and now its just as white outside as February… Ew… It’s not even cold enough! It’s still kind of warm out…

Whatever.

I feel I owe you, dear reader, an apology.

It seems my “update” yesterday was more of a rant than an honest, all encompassing, update. And I am sorry…

Sure, some bad stuff has gone down, but things have been on the up ‘n up too. And here’s where I get to boast…

Continue reading ‘It had to snow…’

The long awaited…

Published by -MiKe- on April 2, 2007 in General. 0 Comments

So, it seems the powers-that-be find an update is in order. So an update they’ll get.

Hello dear reader, its been a long time since I’ve seen you last… The clock’s gone by, tic-tock, tic-tock, tic-tock…

No, I didn’t die over the past few, long, weeks. I did, however, come very close one day. And since I really don’t know where to start, I’ll start with the most interesting.

I got into a car accident a few weeks back. Kind of sort of beat the hell out of Jen’s car too.

I was heading back to school one morning in Jen’s car (Jen in tow), when I, for some reason, decided it would be a wonderful idea to rear-end a Ridgeline… Well… Not so much.

Continue reading ‘The long awaited…’

del.icio.us

Published by -MiKe- on February 15, 2007 in asides. 0 Comments

I’ve been wasting a fair amount of time this afternoon on the blog, trying to integrate del.icio.us and such. I thought I would get AdSense up and running, and then I decided not to be a sell-out. So pretty much, today was wasted… Damn…