The trip that grabbed my interest was Kauai and the fundraising goal for that is $4950. But the others — Yosemite, Grand Canyon, Rocky Mountain National Park — are also pretty appealing and I expect a lot less expensive.

Since in the past 10 days, I have

• donated 750 billion platelets
• donated 1 pint of whole blood
• and submitted a sample for an HLA screen

maybe a fundraiser for blood diseases is right for me.

Let me know if you think is a worthy cause or if you have any experience with it.

Origami is a small, easy to build and inexpensive folding dinghy. Don’t be fooled into thinking that a good folding dinghy needs to be complicated and expensive. Most often, simple is best. Origami is full of character, yet is surprisingly capable for such a tiny craft. Its square shape gives immense stability and good interior volume. It folds up and away in just a couple of minutes. Its light weight (about 26 pounds) means that it’s child’s play to launch and to retrieve. Even stowing is easy – just lay it on a bunk down below or lash it to the rails on deck.

[video]

Nicolai_g has a new shot up called “bad motel painting” and my mind immediately flashed to this shot I scanned and posted a day or so back. Same tonal range, innocuous subject. Maybe a challenge is in order: find the most mundane landscape or cityscape that could still be hung in a Motel Western Terrace Inn . . . .

Arrcgh. this should be longer and show more of the shell . . .
Taken at the prelims for the Head of the Lake Regatta this past weekend and blustery Green Lake.

Holga 120S, 35mm film shimmed, trimmed and wedged in there, frame-counting as best I could tell. First time I have tried this, but encouraging results. Small light leak as well, but I’m lucky it was so minimal.

Not much to tell, since I don’t know how it happened. I suspect it was a trip to a local beach yesterday — very windy — and a piece of grit somehow put itself in a position to descend into my left eye four hours later. Diagnosis was quick and relatively painless and the linked article explains what they did and why. Sometimes medicine seems quite low-tech: paint the surface with this dye and look for reflections/shadows/anomalies. No radiation or electromagnetic devices required. And to some degree it’s more comforting that way, more human.

So lots of irrigation, some funky stains in the eye (makes everyone else look that they have jaundice), and some take-home meds (antibiotic and Vicodin [roll on, search queries!]). Oh, and they felt compelled to give me a tetanus shot <grumble>. I think I need the pain meds for that more than the injury.

Many forums tolerate what are called “thread Nazis” (this is what they’re called—it’s not my term), whose self-appointed task is to keep all the discussions strictly on topic, never suffering anyone to stray.

Apparently, this refers to a comment I left, wondering if a rundown of upcoming TV series premieres could be run on a personal blog rather than one called “The Online Photographer.”

Rather than leave another comment, I’ll just unsubscribe.

I like the idea of group blogs that focus on an area of expertise, kind of like a magazine (remember those?). If I pick up a copy of a specialist magazine on photography or watchmaking, I don’t expect or want to see an article on upcoming TV shows or snacks or sporting goods. In fact, I would read an article about watchmaking in a photo magazine if it was up to the standard of the photo articles — informative, well-written, and worth my time.

The comments from other posters approve of the rambling, saying “it’s your blog, do what you want.” But it’s a group effort, as well, with the other posters staying on topic and shedding light on photo-related stuff.

And at the end of the say, who am I to accuse anyone of being boring? I have never claimed an area of expertise: in fact, a lot of the posts here exhibit a complete lack of any.