philly

Bucks County Photo Shoot

I spent most of the day up in BEAUTIFUL Bucks County on a photo shoot. Exactly what it was for and who, I'm not gonna say just yet as I haven't cleared it with them to spread the word as crudely as via my own little personal blog. We were up in Doylestown and Tyler State Park and some other places. We did a lot of driving through the farms with the gorgeous rolling hills in the distance.

We took shots by creeks/rivers in front of covered bridges - which totally had me feeling all Ichabod Crane - in some nice fields. Very autumny, very Bucks County I'd say.

I noticed a ton of really nice cars while on the road. We passed three Dodge Vipers - my favorite car, but oh so gas unfriendly. But so cool!

I had a great time. It was the first extensive photo shoot I've ever done and with people. I burned them a CD of the ~300 shots I took over three-plus hours of shooting and showed them the shots on my laptop while we had some grub by the trainstation. They were happy with the first look. Now, to go through them and cull the out of focus, closed eyes, in-between faces, blown out and underexposed shots and then pick out maybe twenty-five or so. They'll pick out about that many too and we can compare and see why each of us like what we like and then make a nice print selection.

Oddly, I wasn't nervous. Well, I was a little for a bit, but it wore off pretty quickly and I was quite comfortable doing my thang and with them. I had a great time.

Exciting!

And now, to go get ready for the show.

PodcasterCon

Audio blogger from North Carolina and my Live8 Philadelphia houseguest, Brian Russell of Audio Activism is one of the people behind PodcasterCon 2006. From his post:

• It's FREE as in free beer. It doesn't cost money to enter.
• Anyone can attend
• Anyone can propose a session subject
• Everyone can talk to each other, if they care too
• Being there physically is ideal but not required.
• It'll be documented for future use by all
• English may not be the only language used at the event or for documentation.
• White males aren't the only people who will attend

Events about social movements like blogging and podcasting should be two way read/write activities. To do otherwise is wrong.

Registration is open right now for the January 7th event in Chapel Hill, NC. Keep up to date with what's happening via their, duh, blog.

Brian told me about this when we first met in July for Live8 and was kind enough to even open up his home to house me if I were to go down. He asked me about it again when we met up in DC for the March for Peace in September. I really really want to go. Not just for the conference though, for the BBQ too! I hear it's unreal down there. Mmmm. Sans a car, I'm gonna have to get creative though.

Pakistan Earthquake: Firsthand

I don't recall exactly how we came across each others' blogs, but Rachel of My Life in Spain and I have been in contact for a little while now through emails and reading each other's blogs. She is a former Philadelphia resident who now resides in Spain. She and her husband were in Pakistan when the quake hit three weeks ago. Needless to say, it's changed their lives. Here's an excerpt of an initial recounting of the first moments.

* * * * *

Just before the earthquake struck, I decided to go to the edge of the river, which was down a small bank below our stone cabin, to take in a bit of the tranquil setting before breakfast, which we were to have at 9 am. When the earthquake began at 8:50, it took a couple seconds for me to realize exactly what was happening, the ground below me twisting and turning like the floor of an amusement park funhouse. There then was a series of very loud cracks as rock began to free itself from the mountain just opposite our cabin and then begin its long freefall into the valley. I watched some boulders fall into the river, realized the danger, and then turned around toward the cabin. The pine trees that lined the bank were moving in such a way that made them appear like figures sliding back and forth on a fussball table. For several moments, I was frozen as I tried to figure out how I was to escape. There was a sensation of being trapped by the falling boulders on one side and the girating trees on the other.

* * * * *

Her full post is here with some incredible photos of the area.

CT For the Weekend

This time around, we got ourselves a Toyota Corolla. It got all the way to CT [~250 mi] on half a tank of gas, quite nice. We got a bit of a late start, but we made good time with me behind the wheel. I was beat when we finally got there and immediately zonked out about five minutes afterwards.

Today was the 61st Anniversary party of Lady's grandparents'. It was pretty funny, they all know me and know that I take photos. Almost nobody brought a camera with them fully relying on me bringing mine and taking photos. Which I did and did. After that we all went to Lady's aunt's villa by the lake down the road. The photo above is a shot of across the lake with the 80-200 f/2.8 at 80mm. I was thinking of going back to the car and getting the 18-70 for a nicer wide shot, but it was cold outside and I didn't feel like fiddling with lenses anymore in the cold.

Tomorrow afternoon we head back to Philadelphia and hopefully, the gas in Cherry Hill will still be at $2.29 or so.

Oh Craigslist

I love me some craigslist and I've been using the Philly incarnation since before Day 1 of living here. I just saw this posting which may be one of the weirder ones I've ever seen. I shall cut & paste it in its entirety in case it expires soon [reposting of the posting is checked as okay].

* * * * * FREE plane ticket to AZ... Drive w/me back to Philadelphia...
Reply to: [email protected]
Date: 2005-10-22, 4:45PM EDT

1st- If you decide to take me up on this offer I will want to see a picture of you and a good description. 2nd- I will be paying for a plane ticket to fly you to Tempe, AZ and we will be driving back together...

i'm a friendly, talkative, sweet, non smoking, massage student trying to get back to Philadelphia, PA so I can be closer to family and friends there. I have no pets, kids or drug habbits but am very open minded and creative.

I will be paying for the moving van, gas, and food during the road trip back. You need to have a good driving record, or have a good licence so that you can secure the truck - I don't drive or I would do this alone if I could.

Besides taking a fun road trip with a fun girl, with all food, gas and return fee's covered - I'm willing to give you my used lap top computer for helping me or my new souround sound system thats got a built in VCR/ DVD player. I have other things as well you could look at and decide on when you get here but I will give you somthing valuable for helping me...I just don't have that much money.

Please PLEASE... get back to me as soon as possible so we can start making the arrangments. I HAVE TO LEAVE BY NOVEMBER THE 1st or BY THE 3rd OF NOVEMBER...!

- Jeni

* Job location is PA to AZ to PA...
* Compensation: USED Functional Laptop computer, Free plane ticket to AZ, Free food on road trip back, etc.
* This is a contract job.
* no -- Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster.
* no -- Please, no phone calls about this job!
* no -- Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.
* yes -- Reposting this message elsewhere is OK.

* * * * *

Sounds like an adventure. Something like this would be a great story to read about and blogged about. And photoblogged about. Even video blogged. I think I'd take this person up on the offer if I didn't have a job right now.

My Sister's Getting Married

So in about eleven hours we're leaving for Long Island to attend my sister's wedding. That's so weird! In about seventeen hours, my sister is gonna be married. She's ten years my senior, but that's still weird. I'll be snapping away at the wedding. Lady and I are going to be the greeters so I'm gonna try to take a photo of every single person who comes in and signs the book.

Hybrid Car Rental

I wonder why rental car companies haven't started buying up some hybrids to add to their lineup. I know that they want to get their maximum return on an über cheap car with no extras, but I think people would want to rent a hybrid. The thought of not having to shell out extra money in gas would want me to step up a class or two in car rental price.

March for Peace Photos - Edit 3

My third and final edit of my images from the March for Peace in D.C. are now up. I didn't post about my second batch, but they're up too. Fifteen images in all culled from 450 or so.

You can see the first edit that went straight to flickr without any PS7 adjustments here.

Eating and Drinking in DC

So our crew bussed and flew down to D.C. from Philly and Chicago. We stayed at KT's place. We marched on the Mall and in front of the White House. But where did we eat and drink in between?

Friday night was a night out at an old favorite, Cactus Cantina. Where the AU kids go to eat, to drink and to work. I've know my share of classmates who waited tables there in my three years. And I've had my share of pitchers of frozen margaritas and delicious Mexican food. Friday night was no exception.

After digesting, we headed over to Old Ebbitt Grill to meet some of AK's people from Chicago who were also law students / legal observers. I had never been there before, but judging by the location and the name, I thought that it would be a pricey and WASPy place to go. And it was. To no fault of his buddies though, they were all out of towners.

After having a couple of beers, we headed over to Dupont to grab a few more drinks at Lucky Bar. I was happy to see a shitload of soccer goods everywhere. Scarves on the walls, posters and the TVs showing matches at midnight! We plopped ourselves in the nook on the second floor and rested a bit more. And then it was to the dance floor to rock out to some horrible, horrible music. Included in the mix was CeCe Penison's Finally and 95 South's Whoot There It Is, you know, the classics. I have no idea if it was a theme music night, like 80s or something. It didn't seem to be. Maybe the theme was "Really Shitty". Oh but we danced away anyways. KT or AK thought that there may have been a dentists convention in there. I don't think they were kidding.

And then it was time to fetch a cab home. An un-metered cab ride. Oh how I forgot how much I hate the DC cabs. No meters. Just zones. Zones that seem to be indescriminately crossed and assessed to the bill. And the $1 surcharge per passenger for gasoline. Nice. $20 with tip the ride was. Jeez. I don't recall having paid more than $10 for a cab in Philly yet in sixteen months. The $20 isn't the worst part though. It's the not seeing the money tick away on a meter that really gets me.

Saturday's yummy lunch was subs [a.k.a. hoagies around Philly] from Lindy's Red Lion over by GW. I had me a turkey club. I scarfed it down while waiting in the rain by the ellipse.

After marching for several hours, we decided it was time to get some drinks to refuel. It was off to GW bar The Bottom Line. Aways a good place to hit up for cheap drinks. They have a $1.50 Happy Hour on Friday from 10p to close I think the sign said. That's a good deal, if you like Miller Light [blech].

It was back to the Mall to take in some music. But another hour or two later, we got hungry again and it was back to Lindy's for dinner. We sat upstairs and ordered burgers and pitchers of beer [four?] until it was time for Jägermeister shots. Oh Jäger, my favorite shot. It's the only licorice-flavored thing I like. I don't suggest getting the Burles Ives burger. I didn't have it, but I still don't recommend it. It just looks wrong.

I think we may have to take Messy and Picky on the road and add an "Out of Town" category or something. Ya gotta eat wherever you go. And occassionally, we do go.

Philly to DC on the Chinatown Bus

Above are our roundtrip tickets from Philadelphia to D.C. on the Chinatown Bus. We leave at 5p. It'll probably take two hours, even with traffic. Those drivers are nuts. I don't know how they do it. Keeping my fingers crossed that there are no accidents on the way down.

We're meeting my buddies from college down in D.C. AK is flying in from Chitown, KT is already representing in the District as it is her home, errr, city-state thingy. And coming out for drinks [and maybe we can get her to march with us the next day] on Friday night will be me, AK and KT's roomie from the summer of 2001 Ms. ATL herself.

Now I'm mulling bringing my laptop down as well. I'd like to see the photos before coming back to Philly. I think I will. I'll just leave it in KT's apartment during all the festivities.

Didn't have time to pickup any honey crisp apples tonight. I'll get some on my way home tomorrow.