Today's Star Wars Reference

Pretty funny comic strip that references Star Wars here.

Yikes

If you were photographing a young couple on their wedding day and an earthquake started would you have the presence of mind to keep taking pictures?

Downtown Panorama
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Yesterday I went downtown for a meeting at the Main Library. I parked at the top of the parking deck called Seventh Street Station. I took seven pictures for a panorama. Got the meeting early, dumped the files onto my lapttop's hard drive, stitched them together with Autostitch and uploaded them to Flickr using the library's wireless connection. I had to redo the panorama later after I noticed that a portion of the photo was out of focus. This should be a wider view but I had to scale it back because one of the photos was no good.

This shot is looking north.

Pat Robertson

If you read one article about Pat Robertson and the rise of the Christian right, please, make sure it's this one.

As I mentioned below in my diatribe about our worthless president, is it scarier for one of these guys to be using this far right Christian strategy for what it can achieve or if he believes every crazy word he says? To me it's more frightening if he believes such nonsense. As an American I have the normal amount of respect for the swindler, like the king in Huckleberry Finn. It's the true believer that freaks me out.

Unassisted Triple Play

The second basemen Cabrera, from the Indians, performs the rare feat. If you don't see anything below it was probably deleted by Youtube for copyright reasons.

Our president, the simpleton

From his speech in front of the Israeli government: “Some seem to believe that we should negotiate with the terrorists and radicals, as if some ingenious argument will persuade them they have been wrong all along,” Mr. Bush said. “We have heard this foolish delusion before. As Nazi tanks crossed into Poland in 1939, an American senator declared: “Lord, if I could only have talked to Hitler, all this might have been avoided.” We have an obligation to call this what it is — the false comfort of appeasement, which has been repeatedly discredited by history.”

What simplistic and naive baloney. Again, one has to ask oneself, "Does he really believe this crap or is he just masturbating his base?" The constant reference to World War II by these jackasses is infuriating. Bush always wants to compare himself to Churchill, and in one way, he is very much like Churchill. Both Bush and Churchill enjoy war. So, there you go, George, you are like Churchill in your enjoyment of war. If you don't believe me find that video of Bush's comments after the July 7, 2005 London subway bombings. The jackass is practically dancing because he's so happy to play war president again. This ridiculous attitude explains why Syria and Iran are doing pretty much what they please. He thinks communication is appeasement. Rolling over and giving a future adversary anything they want because you are unprepared militarily (England in the days before WWII) is appeasement. Sitting down and negotiating with potential future adversaries is not appeasement, you fear mongering piece of crap, it is diplomacy. You know diplomacy, it's that thing Condi rushing around trying to do in the Middle East so your presidency doesn't end up looking like the complete failure that it is.

Drive by Truckers

Shonna and Cooley from the Drive by Truckers
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Melanie and I went and saw the Drive by Truckers in beautiful Greenville, SC on Monday. It was an incredible show (I haven't seen an average DBT show). I took a bunch of pictures, especially after Mel found a nice close spot to the right of the stage. This picture is the favorite one of all I took that night.

We were really impressed by downtown Greenville. There were nice restaurants and shops all up and down Main St. Not only that, we saw what can only be called controlled development. There was a condominium development right outside of downtown tucked in along the river. The condos looked looked well made and fit in with the neighborhood. As a resident of Charlotte I always get jealous when I see a city practicing smart growth.

Mel also pointed out that I spelled "hallowed" incorrectly. I can't seem to change it because I used the 'blog this photo' option on Flickr.

Hollowed Ground

IMG_1257
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Yesterday we arrived in Greenville, SC for a Drive by Truckers show. Across the street from our hotel is a graveyard called Springwood. Buried in that graveyard are 80 unknown Confederate soldiers.

Plant and Krauss

I'm sure I have mentioned here how much I like the album Raising Sand by Robert Plant and Alison Krauss. I read in a comment on a writer's website that they performed The Battle of Evermore at this year's New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival. I had to check Youtube and see if a video exists. It does and it is below. You have to watch it until around the four minute mark when they get to the "bring it back" part. It'll rock your world.



For a little background information on the project you can see an interview with the two below.

Dig the Ant

IMG_1083
Originally uploaded by zzazazz

Today I played around with the macro setting on my digital camera. I love the macro setting. The only problem with macro is the narrow depth of field and, with the way an ant scurries, it's hard to get the little three-segmented bugger in focus.