I'll be spending some time in Florida in March, somewhere near Del Boca Vista. Maybe I'll come back with one of these.

Seeing the folks will be good, and a little bit of sunshine won't hurt. Heading in to work tonight the mercury will bottom out around -10°F.

And while a short vacation in Florida will be nice, what I really can't wait for is summer here in Alaska. Twenty-plus hours of daylight, warm weather, and grizzly bears.

Winter in Alaska is beautiful, but it's just a tad too long. Back home in New York they hope for a white Christmas; here they get snow on a different holiday.

Spring is just another month or two away. Until then, I'll be daydreaming of summer.

With a quick pit stop in Del Boca Vista, of course.

Why is this photo entitled Yes, Dear?

Continue reading "Yes, Dear"

"My dad gave me an SKS assault rifle for my sixteenth birthday. Oh, and a PPK, too."

-- Michelle

Continue reading "Quote of the Day: First Date Edition"

My little brother just turned thirty today.

Continue reading "Trooper Joe hits 30"

...the effective prayer of a righteous man can accomplish much...

James 5:16

Continue reading "Powerful and Effective"

When a small town purchases a new fire truck for the local volunteer fire department, it's often celebrated with a "wetdown."

Continue reading "Wetdown"

Via Paw Paw I found this post at Snugg Harbor. Read the whole thing.

Continue reading "Kinder and gentler?"

I've been meaning to link to the Jake Silver Show for awhile. I've known maintainers and mechanics and other fix-what-others-break types in the military, and they all remove their wedding rings when they get to work. Jake now has a wedding ring that he can wear on the job. Cool story.

Alrighty... this time for real.

A while back Bullseye [Never Safe for Work] started up a little project. Unfortunately, the little contest I tried to sponsor didn't get off the ground like I'd hoped. Days turned into weeks, and now it's February.

Have no fear, though. The Target Tour Constest is back. Details in the extended entry...

Continue reading "Target Tour Redux"

A few years ago, I was looking to take some photos of the New York City skyline. I really didn't know anything about photography, except how to point and click a disposable camera.

I did a little research on the net, and stumbled across Lost America, a website run by Troy Paiva.

Troy has some really, really cool images up. He rides around the desert late at night, recording long exposure photos on tungsten-balanced film. Between the blue cast of the film and the freaky colored lights he uses, his photos of the western United States are amazing. He put a book out a while ago, and I scored myself an autographed copy.

Many of my photos are inspired by Troy's work. Here's an example. This wonderful ride was owned by a colorful fellow named "Cowboy." The shot was taken late at night under the full moon, and a twelve hundred gigawatt spotlight was fired through some colored geletin filters.

Now, in all of the conversations I've had with Cowboy, he never mentioned anything about alien abductions or seeing a flying saucer or anything of the sort. Like I said, however, he was a colorful fellow. I wouldn't be surprised to hear him begin a story, "Bubba, you ain't gonna believe this..."

Wanna learn some more about late-night long exposures? Troy has a How To page.

I'm not very knowledgable about Able Danger, but I do enjoy reading A.J. Strata. I'm not sure if this whole Able Danger thing is some sort of X-file worthy of the Art Bell Show, or not. It'd be more entertaining it were over something trivial, like alien abduction, rather than on matters of national security.

Some folks were discussing whether Vice President Cheney's delay in notifying the press after his hunting accident was similiar to Senator Ted Kennedy's delay in notifying the authorities after driving his car off a bridge in 1969. I think one major contrast: Kennedy's passenger didn't survive.

On a lighter note, if you've seen this costume, worn by a member of the press to mock the Vice President, then you'll get a kick out of this photoshop. [both via the Insta Dude]

And I can't say that I'll miss the guy, but it's a shame he got blow'd up like that. [via D.B. at Volokh]

Continue reading "Able Danger, bird shot, and clowns"

Just after the stroke of midnight today my site meter raced stumbled past the FIVE THOUSAND mark. Since the 5,000th visitor came here via Wadcutter, head over and get yourself some big fat meplats of wisdom.

In honor of this great moment, I will now post a five thousand word essay on the theme celebrate.

Continue reading "A Milestone for Resurgemus!"

I'm finally getting around to sprucing up the ol' blogroll.

Continue reading "Some additions"

Former NHL player, now current Phoenix Coyote assistant coach Rich Tocchet is being investigated for running a gambling ring.

We could use a guy like that at work. We couldn't even get a Super Bowl pool going this year. Sheesh.

A quick notice to my loyal readers. That is, all 15 or so of you. I will probably be messing around with different spam-filters, IP blockers, and low-yield nuclear devices in the next day or so. Comments may not work from time to time. Just bear with me.

Update: Same goes for the trackbacks. I know you're all worried about civil liberties and personal freedoms, but the GWOS is going to take some sacrifice.

jp

Usually when I'm in the home studio I'm focused on getting the exposures right, making sure the pose is flattering, avoiding distracting shadows and highlights, and trying to click the shutter before they blink.

When I'm in the groove and everything seems to be working well, I try to capture a little bit of the person on film. I love to hear, "Oh my gosh, that's her!" when someone sees an image a friend, and it faithfully represents the way they view that person in real life.

It's also fun to allow someone to act out a bit, completely out of character. This is Tyler. Tyler is a tie-dyed in the wool hippie; the most mellow cat you'll ever meet.

For a few minutes the other night, he was a bad man. Bad, like Jesse James.

Continue reading "Bad, like Jesse James"

Sure, I get frustrated when I agree to do some portraits for someone, and they don't show up. Yeah, I get a little ticked off when they don't even call. And yes, I'm aware that I almost never charge for the service. I don't mind covering the $50 or so that it takes to cover the film and developing. I need the practice and I love taking photos. So you'd think I could stay angry for a while, right?

Well, not really.

Continue reading "I get frustrated"

Had some folks over this weekend. Tyler and Desi stopped by for a few hours on Friday night for some photos. I was exhausted [I worked Thursday night, and stayed up all Friday]. Hopefully I didn't mess anything up through fatigue and lack of attention to detail. I'll be getting the photos developed this week.

Continue reading "Photos to follow"

A while back Rich [blue jacket] and I headed to the range to knock off a few rounds. Elliot [orange jacket] came with us, and seemed to have a pretty good time. It's always great when a first time shooter has a positive experience at the range.

Our shift schedule is being jockeyed around after next week. We won't be working the same schedule, and won't be working with the same people. It'll be alright; different, but alright.

At first I was a little worried that I wouldn't have folks to shoot with. Rich is currently in an undisclosed location, doing some fancy-schmancy TDY job. I won't be working with Young Daniel anymore, nor with Sergeant Dan. Randy and Dawk have PCS'd to a new base. Geez... who will I go shooting with?

Then I started thinking that perhaps going to the range would be a good way to build up some comraderie with the new crew. Especially now that we're only two months away from reasonable weather. Heck, it might be late enough in the year that it doesn't drop below 0°F again until November.

Besides, all the other guys will head to their new crews and start converting the masses. Eventually, down the road when all the planets align, we'll all have an afternoon off together. Maybe we can get 15-20 folks from the unit out to the gun range the same day?

Continue reading "Two of my buddies"

On my way to Stacy and Shannon's place to watch the Super-Duper Bowl. My Giants aren't in the show, so I'll probably just root for Jerome Bettis, and hope the game isn't a blowout. That, and hope the commercials are good, too.

Continue reading "Super Bowl"

So the Boston Globe believes newspapers should censor themselves to avoid offending the barbarians.

Continue reading "Censorsh*t"

Via the Insta-dude I found this cartoon contest.

Continue reading "Fatwa-worthy"