I'm alone again. I'll stay busy for a while catching up on bill paying and such. I've let myself get behind with these chores, due to working with the old photos and negatives. I may grab the camera and head for the higher hills for a shot or two.

I believe that this will be a good day.

A friend once advised me to take a picnic under a full moon. Maybe some wine and such. Looks like the moon will fill in the next day or so, and I think that I will give it a try. I hope that Miller High Life beer will suffice, as I'm not much of a wine man, unless it is Mad Dog or something of that pathetic nature. Perhaps that friend will be picnicking at the same time?

May I Have This Dance?

Going out for a night of dinning and dancing? The dinning is fine but what is with the dance? Do we watoosie or mash potato?

If you are going with me, it will have to be something even less formal than these. I'm speaking of dancing close; I mean close!

There is nothing better (well, one other thing maybe, but I'll get to that later) than being on an intimate dance floor, holding an attractive woman in my arms. The perfume of her long, blond hair in my nostrils, the suppleness of her breasts against my chest incites my heart to palpitate and my knees to weaken. Will you be my consort for tonight?

The music is soft, the wine is fine, the time is right. There may be many couples on the floor, but there is only one that matters. I take that first leading step while you gently follow, and we begin moving together as one, experiencing each other, learning our rhythm. As the music continues, we slowly cease moving our feet; we hold one another with less intensity, relaxing as our hearts begin to dissolve.

I gently press my lips against your neck, a caressing kiss that begins near your soft ear, and continues slowly to your shoulder. Your response is a short catch of the breath which becomes a long, soft sigh. Then, I feel a slight difference in the way you move. Subtle it is, but the gesture of your hips is shifting to a circular, slightly back-and-forth motion. Both of our movements become slightly erratic, for we have found that for which we were longing when our fingers first touched. Thus begins the foreplay, for we know that we are desiring the same, ultimate resolution.

After a few more sensuous turns, we walk hand in hand, heartbeat by heartbeat to the elevator, which takes us directly to my penthouse suite and to a room with a moon lit balcony overlooking the palm-wreathed bay. A chilled bottle of champagne has awaited our arrival. There, in the warm night air, we kiss that first long, passionate kiss, and the rhythm of our hips begins anew. Our fingers slowly and softly begin searching each other's bodies as we eventually move toward the lace-curtained bed...


I don't know what happens next, because I always wake up at that spot. Jeez, I'll end up dancing with myself again, no doubt.

B&W

Working on these old B&W photos for the past few days has made me realize one important thing about myself... I'm not comfortable doing color photos.

I don't know why, either. The tonal range of the B&Ws is the thing, I guess. Also, for two great semesters in college, all we shot was B&W. I could—and probably would—have participated in some color classes if I hadn't run out of funds. Another thing is that my new camera doesn't have a B&W setting. Do any of these new digitals? Converting color shots to B&W isn't a proper thing to do with film. The dyes in the color film are not engineered to to do gray scale. It just isn't the same.

I'll have to experiment with some film and with the digital transforms to find for myself if there is a great difference.

Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Tonto—not knowing that The Lone Ranger had disguised himself as a pool table—racked his balls.

Tired

I've spent a good part of the past three days scanning old photos and negatives. I have thousands of B&W negatives going back to the early nineteen eighties. I'm using a Canon document scanner that has an attachment for such, but of course I can scan only one at a time. What else have I but time?

I have contact sheets for about half of the negs., but still, it isn't easy going. I also have several hundred color negatives and slides that have no contact sheets or enlargements. Color negatives are the toughest to judge as to quality.

I've adjusted and uploaded a few photos to my Flickr, but it is slow going with one or two at a time. Nay the less, succeed I shall, at least 'til my time runs out.

Note to Alice: I've placed some photos on Flickr that you may want (or not) to see. I've got to dig the old shoe boxes out of the closet to find the ones when all of us were together. We should both shed a tear and have a laugh at some of those. The fewer memories that we have left, the more precious they become.

"If there is nothing wrong with me, maybe there's something wrong with the universe." - Dr. Beverly Crusher

pastel

When words become unclear, I shall focus with photographs. When images become inadequate, I shall be content with silence.
Ansel Adams

Shot Day

Looking forward to getting my skin pierced... again. I've had so many injections that my skin has toughened somewhat.

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Got my methotrexate shot. For the first time in a long while, I had to use my cane just to negotiate the few steps from the truck to the doctor's office. I was completely worn out when I got back home. Que Sera, Sera!

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A note to Alice. I hope your sister gets well. You, like I, have lost so much. My heart is heavy for you and the family.

I Am Sad

Dave Friday Dec. 12, 1957-April 24, 2007

Another of my old watering-hole buddies has passed.

Rest in peace, Dave.

Dave was a musician and a friend. Everyone knew Dave, and Dave liked everybody.




"Some days you're the windshield, and some days you're the bug." -Chuck Roberts of CNN Headline News.

Only in America

Richard Vega, 24, competed in September 2005 to win a Nissan pickup, the prize going to the contestant who endured standing beside the truck with a hand on it longer than any other. After standing for 48 hours, he walked away, broke into a Kmart across the street and, with a shotgun taken from the store, shot himself in the head.

In their petition his family alleged that the stress of the contest caused Vega “to become “temporarily insane and to take his own life” and Patterson was negligent in not providing psychiatric or medical monitoring to contestants.


Do not let any sweet-talking woman beguile your good sense with fascinations of her shape. It's your barn she's after. -- Hesiod

Camera

I've been an hour trying to figure how to attach the neck strap. Going by that, I'll learn how to turn it on in a couple of days.

Monday, Monday

I think I'm suffering a hangover from yesterday's jaunt around the beauty of the hills. That or allergies; maybe both. Blurry eyes, etc.

On the way to post some mail today, I stopped and shot a couple pics. It's difficult to get serious work done with a point-and-shoot camera. No exposure controls.

The dark areas beneath the overpass need to be opened--and I tried to do just that with software--but the fine detail was not captured. So, I used a cheap trick to draw your eye away from that problem area.

You know what I'm leading up to, don't you? My new camera is supposed to arrive tomorrow. I'll eat an allergy pill a couple of hours before brown truck arrives.

If you are at the center of your universe, you are a very lonely person. KenA

I'm A Card Carrying Revolutionary Bomber

What the hell is happening to this country?
http://www.citypaper.net/articles/101801/news.godfrey.shtml
And you wonder why I'm cynical!

This photo was made this morning overlooking Watauga Lake in Carter County, Tennessee. There is no cynicism here, except that over population will soon completely bespoil this view.

A man's silence is wonderful to listen to.
-Thomas Hardy

Okay. I've gone and done it. My 2mp camera just wasn't cutting it for hi-res pics, so today I ordered a 6mp. I don't expect my mediocre photography skills to improve with it, but I will feel better.

It isn't an SLR like my Nikons, but it will do. A bit complicated for someone of my advanced years, but if I can get the manual mode to working, I should be just fine.

I Am Just A Dreamer, But You Are Just A Dream...

Here's thanking everyone for viewing and commenting on this and my other photos. Please feel free to critique my work, good or bad. I won't hate you for long.

This afternoon landscape photo was made with a 2.1 megapixel point-and-shoot digital camera.

I fooled around with Paint Shop Pro 8's filter creation tools to get this. I wanted the result to be grainy as if it had been shot with high speed film. The foreground color was added last. The mist was slightly enhanced.

I've been using Paint Shop Pro for more than ten years, and have learned to twist it's tail to my liking. I once tried Photoshop, but the learning curve was more than I cared to undertake. PsP allows me to do most of the things that Photoshop can do, plus it uses most of the after market filters that are made for Photoshop. The price for PsP is right; less than $100.00. Advice, don't buy this program in a version later than v.9. Corel Corp. bought the programming rights from Jasc, and the Corel versions have bad reputations.

I use a Wacom tablet and pen for detail work.

On my Linux machine, I use the Gimp, which is open source and totally free. It is a very good photo editor.

4:30 pm Just got back from the eye doc, where I had my eyes dilated. If this stuff is written worse than usual, well...

Photo copyright© 2007 by Ken Anderson. All rights reserved.
Headline lyric is a copyright of Neil Young.

The house is quiet now. I have a sense of loneliness about me. Too many hills to climb and so little time.

There is some sadness here. A member of the family—pictured— is very ill. Get well, Travis.

Cripes! I'm gonna grab a beer and go out and throw some peanuts at the squirrels. Don't think for a minute that I don't have a life.

I think that we will head off to Cade's Cove, maybe this weekend, for a day of ubiquitous relaxation. It is one of the finest places in the world to be alone amongst people. Sharing a baloney sandwich and a coke in a wilderness-like setting is a good thing.

Listening

Old man look at my life
I'm a lot like you were
-Neil Young


Listening to two-fers on the the classic rock station, but they don't go back far enough into the sixties. The "summer of love" was one of my favorite years, music wise. Yeah, I was a half-assed hippie, with the exception that I had to work.


I get a kick from the fifties stuff, too. The Platters were my favorite.


No one; NO ONE, will ever be the peer of Patsy Cline. Her's was the most mellifluous voice to ever touch my mind. Almost makes me forget that I am a card-carrying grouch.




Photo copyright© 2007 by Ken Anderson. All rights reserved.

We spoil our kids to the point of no return, and they show their appreciation by going to school and killing our grandchildren.

Thoughts and Activities

Rain today and getting colder. I was thinking of contemplating my navel for a few hours, but a sore neck prevents me from looking down. I took a picture of it instead and will spend the rest of the day studying that. If anyone would like a copy of that particular photo, leave me a message and I will promptly forward one. It would be great to have such fine art framed and displayed in a prominent place.

Yesterday, Carolyn and I drove to a farmer's market on 107 and then on to Clark's Creek. The area has been reopened after a recent wild fire. Unlike the "old days", there was no one camping anywhere along the main road, or anywhere else as far as I could tell. The place was quiet, serene, and beautiful. Seeing a solitary male pheasant on our way out added to our happiness. We will probably try to camp there a time or two this summer, as these mountain valleys and ridges feel like my real home. A house is a place to abide when you can't be in that green heaven. Thoughts of these hills make me both sad and joyful. Thus be life.

First Line

This is the first line of a possible story:

After washing down his Viagra® with a slug of prune juice, Mr. Jenkins doddered to his walker and cruised the hallways of the old folks home, hoping to get lucky.

What do you think?

Friday 13th

You wouldn't listen! I warned you nearly a week ago that it was coming!

Talking Heads 2

The previous post is no longer news. Mr. Imus has been fired. The shame continues.

Talking Heads

I told a friend yesterday that I'm a cynical person. Want to know why I'm distrustful?

Why did it take a full week for the Imus show sponsors to jump ship? Are they so uncaring that they would have stayed with him if the negative things he said had not been so widely denounced by the people that do care?

It took them a week of hoping that it would go away before action was taken. Not only that, I don't believe that CBS would have discontinued the show if the sponsors had stayed aboard. NBC is still "weighing" the matter. Shame! It gives me the cold robbies.

What about the fence-straddling, talking-head politicians? Mr. Imus abuses them and they in turn use his show to further their careers and pad their pockets with ill gotten publicity and money? They don't care. Some, after "weighing" the matter*, will offer a token tongue lashing, but little else.

All of these people involved in this scandalous event, including the networks, sponsors, and politicians are just as guilty as the show's host and crew.

The people that listen to the disparaging remarks of Mr. Imus and his clones? I'd better keep my own mouth shut about that.

The best thing for all concerned is an apology from these sponsors and the networks, and Mr. Imus resigning from NBC and going to paid broadcasting.

I was raised to honor the "American Way", but if this is what it has come to, I've lost my respect for this institution.

*Weighing the matter means that anything thing that doesn't harm their aspirations is okay.

Desktop

I read that you can tell a lot about a person from looking at their computer "desktop".

On my monitor, Otis is facing right. Does that mean that I'm a right-wing conservative? On my laptop screen, he is facing left. I guess that makes me confused.

Some people who think that they know me may be surprised because I have a Bible program on my computer.

Well, don't be. I've read the entire KJV Bible and have studied the meaning of a lot of things that it contains. There are several other Biblical reference books on the hard drive. Also studies on other religions.

Of course, Darwin's On the Origin of Species may possibly be found there.

Some of the desktop icons are redundant, but I've found uses in all their associated programs.

Some programs such as my word processor and spread sheets are invoked using hot keys instead of icons.
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Things are slow today. I believe that I have a hangover from working so hard on the taxes. Carolyn is visiting the hair dresser and I'm listless.

I feel the mountains calling. I think that I'll drive over there and walk around for a few minutes. I love sitting under a hemlock tree, listening to the whispering drops of rain. No pics, because I don't have film for my Nikons, and these digital gadgets are a pain in the butt with their complicated controls and mediocre results. How I love the old grey-scale films. I always use 400 speed film, exposing it for shadow detail (pushing), thus giving me some leeway in the darkroom to bring out details in the light areas.

Is anyone else happy that the cold spell is over? My granny called the chill of this time of year "dogwood winter". Carolyn is being difficult as she lost nearly all of her hostas.

Is Don Imus a complete putz?
----------------------------------------------------
Following are a few lines of a new poem that I've begun. The first line is always the easiest to complete. These are not necessarily in their finishing order.

Delight of a dawn's quiet rush
Thoughts of a bond never broken
Joy of love's first blush
Echos of words unspoken

Tax Day Minus Seven

Busy day, and I'm pooped.

• Finished income taxes, with zero help from that lout, Joe.
• Prepared quarterly 941 tax report.
• Prepared SUI taxes online.

I hope everyone enjoyed the weekend. Jeremy, our grandson, came in from Atlanta. He's made a demo CD of his music, a combination of rap and reggae. He is cultivating some good contacts in the big city. We all wish him well, don't we?

Sunday Morning

Under the hen house on my knees
I thought I heard a chicken sneeze
It was only the rooster saying his prayers
And handing out hymn books to the hens upstairs

Poem taught me by my uncle Roy. He taught me others, but it wouldn't be polite to say them in public.

Dogwood Winter

Beware! Churchy's Almanac claims that Friday the thirteenth falls on Friday this month. Nothing good can come of this.




<<<<-------- Easter Penguin





The whole history of science has been the gradual realization that events do not happen in an arbitrary manner, but that they reflect a certain underlying order, which may or may not be divinely inspired. - Stephen W. Hawking

Photography 101

No shot today. I went to get my "fix", but the doc's office was closed. Took a bath for nothing.
--------------------------------

A thought or two on taking photographs, brought on by a friend's Flickr post of yesterday. She is a professional and knows and uses these techniques.

Before you snap the shutter, try to make sure that the picture that you want is what you see through the view finder. Nothing more or less. It is called in-camera cropping, and it is the method that most professional art photographers are trained to use. It doesn't always work for snap shots of the kids or sports photos because of the obvious time limitations.

How to use in-camera cropping? If you have a zoom lens, use it. Taking a step forward or backward, left or right can make a dramatic change. Get up high or get down low to change your perspective. If you get used to using the procedure, it will make you a better photographer on any subject. You will develop an "eye" for what is correct. It worked for the likes of the immortal Ansel Adams, and it can work for you.

Sure, you can use computer software manipulation to crop images, but for every gain with this method, there is a loss; namely pixels, or picture elements, and each photo has a limited number of these. If you remove the unneeded top portion of a photo, then you have to remove something from the side(s) to make up for the lost top dimension. In other words, you are removing pixels. Then you have to enlarge the cropped image to get back to your original size, thus spreading the limited number of pixels over a larger space. This may cause grainy and artifact blemished works.

There are other easy tricks that anyone can use, such as framing the shot, but I will get into them later on.

Class dismissed. For today.

A Day

There ain't nothin' going right today. It's got to get better.

I don't know what's colder; Tennessee weather or Tennessee women!

O' yeah, that's much better.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

Fall in love or fall in hate.
Get inspired or be depressed.
Ace a test or flunk a class.
Make babies or make art.
Speak the truth or lie and cheat.
Dance on tables or sit in the corner.
Life is divine chaos. Embrace it.
Forgive yourself. Breathe.
And enjoy the ride...
-Solbeam

Rocky Top!

Feeling Green

Early Spring! A time for reflecting and for planning; and planting. Take some time each day for meditation. For me, it is a quiet place where I can be alone and at peace for an hour or so. Green grass; green leaves; the scents of mother earth; birds singing; small creatures making a living.

There are moments when one feels free from one's own identification with human limitations and inadequacies. At such moments one imagines that one stands on some spot of a small planet, gazing in amazement at the cold yet profoundly moving beauty of the eternal, the unfathomable; life and death flow into one, and there is neither evolution nor destiny; only Being.
-Albert Einstein

Monday, Monday, can't trust that day
 Monday, Monday, it just turns out that way
 Oh Monday, Monday, won't go away
 Monday, Monday, it's here to stay
-John and Michelle Phillips

Sad, Sad Sunday

By popular demand, this post has been pulled.

"Believe nothing, no matter where you read it or who has said it, not even if I have said it, unless it agrees with your own reason and your own common sense."
-Lord Buddha