write a novel in a month?

It’s that time of year again. The declared goal is 50,000 words over the month or 1,500/day but as you might be able to recognize, that doesn’t get you to 50,000. It’s actually 1666.667, so call it 1700 or so and be done with it.

I was pondering what I would write when I sat down to it, and two nights ago I was awakened at 2:15 with a complete story line, unable to return to blissful sleep. I had to get up, go to my kitchen table, jot down the whole thing across 4 pages of journal, and only then could I go back to sleep.
Between my weekly drawing class, camera-building and other stuff, Thanksgiving and the usual household activities, who knows if I’ll get there this year?

links for 2006-11-01

links for 2006-10-31

quoted in full

Some Avoid the Holga, Others Embrace It:

Who buys a Holga expecting results like a Hasselblad? If they do, they will be disappointed. Control over a camera isn’t always a good thing. Think about how many cameras are sold for hundreds and hundreds of dollars a piece – and the majority of the photos are garbage. Technically these “state of the art” cameras can produce perfectly exposed, perfectly in focus pictures. That doesn’t mean they are good photos, though. I think there is too much emphasis on camera gear by photographers. Learn the basics of photography and you can produce a great photo with anything from a Hasselblad to a pinhole camera. I like the Holga because it introduces an element of risk into my photography that sometimes works and sometimes doesn’t. I happen to like not knowing what I am going to get because when I plan a photo out meticulously and obsess about getting the exposure right, I rarely am impressed with the results – no matter how technically perfect the image may be.

Shouldn’t be hard to figure out where I fit in on the avoiding/embracing scale.

Sure, you can plan a shot and know what you’re going to get, to an increasingly reliable standard. But the element of chance can keep the fun in photography. Light leaks, vignetting, unreliable focus, these are artifacts of imperfection, as is everything else we do. Embrace that, the reality of our situation, and realize that your creations are no more perfect than you are but just as uniquely interesting.

links for 2006-10-30

the usual suspects

Look through the list and see if anyone from your state appears.

–AZ-Sen: Jon Kyl

–AZ-01: Rick Renzi

–AZ-05: J.D. Hayworth

–CA-04: John Doolittle

–CA-11: Richard Pombo

–CA-50: Brian Bilbray

–CO-04: Marilyn Musgrave

–CO-05: Doug Lamborn

–CO-07: Rick O’Donnell

–CT-04: Christopher Shays

–FL-13: Vernon Buchanan

–FL-16: Joe Negron

–FL-22: Clay Shaw

–ID-01: Bill Sali

–IL-06: Peter Roskam

–IL-10: Mark Kirk

–IL-14: Dennis Hastert

–IN-02: Chris Chocola

–IN-08: John Hostettler

–IA-01: Mike Whalen

–KS-02: Jim Ryun

–KY-03: Anne Northup

–KY-04: Geoff Davis

–MD-Sen: Michael Steele

–MN-01: Gil Gutknecht

–MN-06: Michele Bachmann

–MO-Sen: Jim Talent

–MT-Sen: Conrad Burns

–NV-03: Jon Porter

–NH-02: Charlie Bass

–NJ-07: Mike Ferguson

–NM-01: Heather Wilson

–NY-03: Peter King

–NY-20: John Sweeney

–NY-26: Tom Reynolds

–NY-29: Randy Kuhl

–NC-08: Robin Hayes

–NC-11: Charles Taylor

–OH-01: Steve Chabot

–OH-02: Jean Schmidt

–OH-15: Deborah Pryce

–OH-18: Joy Padgett

–PA-04: Melissa Hart

–PA-07: Curt Weldon

–PA-08: Mike Fitzpatrick

–PA-10: Don Sherwood

–RI-Sen: Lincoln Chafee

–TN-Sen: Bob Corker

–VA-Sen: George Allen

–VA-10: Frank Wolf

–WA-Sen: Mike McGavick

–WA-08: Dave Reichert

We can do better.

links for 2006-10-29

Two Random Thoughts

Two Random Thoughts:

she.jpgAbout our trip to Vietnam.
1. God, I hope in 30 years John and I will be going on a nice trip to Iraq to stay in a fancy hotel and wander around looking at historical buildings.

Will there be any left?

2. While listening to vietnamese hip-hop in the car from the airport, and comparing it to the filipino hip-hop I heard earlier this year, it occurred to me that for a group of people who have created all this world-spanning triumph of popular music, black people in America ought to be a lot richer.

Some of them are.