Random thoughts

...while waiting for 305 to start in an effort to drive the pretty black girl I saw on the west lawn from my mind.

1. Pizza and beer is the best lunch.

2. People seem to think that I hate kids.

It's not that I hate children. I'm not an ogre. I just hate screaming, whining, crying and temper tantrums so endemic to children as a whole.

Take the two kids I met over the weekend while I was at work.

Saturday night, a 9-year-old girl was at work, eating with her parents. To be precise, her parents were eating, she was not. She was sitting there reading Calvin and Hobbes.

So I struck up a conversation with the child. Calvin and Hobbes is, she said, her favorite comic strip. Mine too! Cool! I said.

The mother's "My child is conversing politely!" smile fell hard and fast when I mentioned that I'm going to be getting Spaceman Spiff tattooed onto my arm.

"COOL!" the child said.

The other kid was a three-year-old boy on Sunday afternoon. He had a Day-Glo green band-aid on his chin and was eating his hot dog and bun separately. Turns out he had gotten stitches on his chin a few days earlier. We bonded (I showed him my own scar on my chin, visible through my stubble). It was awesome.

Especially when she told me that he had to be forcibly strapped to the operating table.

When I ran down a steep hill and into a fence in New Jersey, I was seven. I remember my mother, father and a nurse lying across my body and barely managing to get me still enough that the surgeon could stitch me up.

Either way, this kid was sticking out his chin and proudly displaying his wound. Then he lifted his shirt to show off the scar that ran directly across his belly.

"Chicks dig scars," I told the kid. Then he fist-bumped me.

Three years old. This kid is going to turn out well.

TEXT BLOG: A NEW ERA DAWNS

Sitting around in Wysocki DOCTOR Wysocki's web publishing class. We are, evidently, to set up and establish blogs in class today.

So, insofar as I'm already ahead of the game, I get to save a few minutes of time that I'd otherwise be spending on thinking up another Ghostbusters reference. With this wealth of time I'm now, uh, writing this.

youwillperishinflame.blogspot.com shall live on, upward, not backward, forward, not upward, and always twirling, twirling, twirling towards freedom! Huzzah!

DID YOU KNOW? I HAVE A TWITTER! So, like, add me or whatever.

On a completely unrelated note:

So, you know how it's weird and all when someone you don't know calls you by name?

Well, when it's the chick behind the counter at the pornography store, it's about ten times more awkward.

Leftovers (bone yard)

Night time / is the right time

Flash portrait of Amber. After 10 minutes of washing her face out I managed to get a couple of good shots, this one being my favorite.

Not pictured: She broke my glasses.




Castillo de San Marcos. This one came out kind of gritty, which I was disappointed with. I wanted to get a sense of how massive this wall is, and wound up playing with the shadows. No flash, the light is coming from a spotlight set up on the ground against the moat wall.




This is the street between Procter Library and Ponce Hall. I got to climb up on the stone parapets facing King Street, which was a big moment for me (I like to climb).

Good: The yellow of the street lamps bring across the moody ambience of St. Augustine at 1 in the morning.

Bad: The damn lights are bright as hell and one was RIGHT IN THE WAY. I tried to get the lamp in the direct foreground as non-invasive as possible, with limited success. On the other hand, I was more interested in playing around with the vanishing point in the far background. I still like it, I just wish I could have gotten that stupid light right.

In-class assignment.

Good: I somehow managed to get the eyeball clear and sharp through the lenses of her glasses. On the other hand, I was maybe six inches away from her face.

Bad: Tried chatting her up but, like a moron, the only thing I could think of to say was, "Hey, cool, you have the same name as my mother," so I made a hasty retreat before I put my foot even farther into my own mouth.

Good: Eyes clear and sharp. Had the presence of mind to face him not-into-the-sun, so he's not squinting. And I got him in focus, too! I rule!

Bad: I like this one. There's nothing in the world wrong with it, and you know it.

Stupid blur.

I really liked taking this set of photos. The shot of the blacksmith stoking the bellows is one of probably a dozen shots I took of the man. I really wanted to get a good shot of the fire shooting up. Only problem was, he was stoking these bellows like a madman, so his face came out blurry.

Photos.

These photos I took for the people at work assignment. I followed Billy Bickford, who works at Five Guys Burgers and Fries in St. Augustine, through the nightly closing routine. Here he's taking a smoke break, cleaning the grill, hosing out a grease filter, and counting a register drawer for the nightly safe drop.