Addiction is a funny thing...

funny thing about addiction, just when you think you can walk away, they go and post your photo here.
And then you're back in the office uploading photos until 3am.
Oh wait, make that 4am. gah! damn you flickr!
Oh, in other news. The video that I've been working on for the past 15 months is a shade away from being done. So that's nice too.
Ok, everyone go back here.

Canadians in all their splendor

In order to show both my intellectual book-reading side as well as my misguided, frothy-mouthed national pride (misguided in that it only manifests itself when I read something on the internet about the latest embarrassing thing that members of my northern nation are responsible for), I draw your attention to this. While I really enjoy Atwood's books, and love that she's Canadian (if for no other reason than the fact that every time she releases a book, the CBC reads it on air, in it's entirety; thereby saving me from actually having to buy the thing. that is, provided I actually lived in Canada and could listen to the CBC. But I digress) this really is one of the more ridiculous things I've seen. Why not just make a stamp or something? Really now.

The Three Legged Duck

I kept trying to think of some way to tie this into a clever entry about the diversity of blogs availiable in the universe and how some are crap and some are gold and then I was going to link you all to this one.
Penned by a dear friend, this is the ultimate in the wild and intimate. It's like going for a ride inside someone else's imagination. A crazy and shimmering look at the world through the eyes of someone who never sits still.
It is simply awesome.



ps. if you don't like it, don't bother trying to tell me. Cause I won't believe you.

672

well, at least I got work done today.
And the photo posting has slowed slightly. I only posted 4 today. down from the 10 of yesterday...
Although I did find out that if you scroll down my blog a bit, until you can see my little photos over on the left, and then you hit the page refresh button, the page will load 4 new photos. Just like a little random photo album. Oh the wonders of the inter-web.

more flickr madness

oh my...
I swear, it's just like crack.
Anyway, just incase no one noticed, there are now going to be some random photos displayed over there on the right side. Right over there under my archives.
You can click on them and they'll take you right to my flickr site. Where you can view more of my photos. And leave comments. And feed this horrible, horrible addiction that is eating up my life.



oh, and as of 5 seconds ago, my flickr gallery had been viewed 522 times.
um, make that 523.

America's favorite theme park.

I don't think that people see all corners of the globe in order for their lives to be complete. I appreciate that not all people enjoy exploring towns and country sides far from their own. But at the same time, I think that this is fairly (incredibly) stupid.
It seems that Guy Trebay, crack reporter for the New York Times, has just uncovered that there is a big wide world out there beyond the horizon! And just how did he come to unearth this gem? Because, apparently, Americans go there! Who knew?
And how does Mr Trebay feel about these strange and mysterious lands that lie beyond the boarders of his own? From his article: "For recreation [William Sofield] ventures mainly to South Asia where, along with garden variety worries like Delhi belly [Delhi belly? is this guy for real?], it turns out that visitors run an increased risk of encountering earthquakes, landslides, cyclones, tsunamis or floods."
O My GOD! Good thing there aren't any of those in America!
What a dork.
But it gets better: "As has never been clearer [one assumes that he is referring to the tsunami in Southern Asia], risk is the constant, the unwelcome reality underpinning all the tempting commercial come-ons and the brochure blandishments."
Uh, Mr Trebay? Risk also happens to be "the constant, the unwelcome reality underpinning all the tempting commercial come-ons and the brochure blandishments" of automobile ownership. Or eating.
Really, it's amazing that this guy even gets out of bed in the morning.
But really what annoys me about it all is that, while acknowledging it as an incredibly dangerous place, where theives and kidnappers, bad food, worse hotels and even nature itself conspires against you [well, as long as "you" is an American you], he neglects to mention (or seemingly to realize) that the Big-Wide-Scary-World (including what he so charmingly refers to as "what used to be called the Third World") is an actual place. Where actual people live. People that don't work in hotels.
Again, from Mr Trebay: "For the past quarter century she has spent six months of each year traveling mainly to what used to be called the Third World [there it is!], she said, places where 'fishermen are actually fishing and not selling T-shirts.'"
Imagine! Fishermen who catch fish! Somebody call the New York Times! oh...um, nevermind.
As if he assumes that most fisherman stand around all day hoping to sell "My aunt Sally went to the Andaman Islands and all I got was this lousy t-shirt" t-shirts to chubby American "global nomads". bah.
...
I think this little rant has gone on long enough...
here's a little photo from "what used to be called the Third World":

300

Just great.
I'm in the throes of a great photo-posting addiction.
I've hit 300 views on my gallery, and my last picture seemed well-loved. And while I won't be running out of photos to post anytime soon, I do worry that I'm not getting any actual work done.
Oh well. There's always tomorrow I suppose...

the m word

So, one of the downsides of working nights is that I never see my roommates. I get home at 4am and collapse into bed and by the time I'm up they've left for work and I won't be home again until they've long since gone to bed. So back at the beginning of December I didn't even notice when Max, my Ghanaian roommate, went home to visit his mum until he had been gone for a week. Even then, I wouldn't have even noticed that he was gone execpt that someone remarked that I must be enjoying having the apartment to myself (my other roommate, a wonderful guy from the phillipines, is home even less than I am. He spends 5 nights a week at his brother's house). So when Max got back from Ghana I continued to not see him for days at a time. No big deal.
Well, this morning, as I was on my way to work I ran into a friend of mine. She told me she was on her way to my house to see Max.
Me: "Oh, he's at work."
Her: "ummm...no, I'm pretty sure he's home. They only let him out of the hospital yesterday."
Me: "..."
Her: "You knew he was in the hospital right?"
Me: "..."
Her: "He was there for three days."
Me: "..."
Her: "He's your room mate! Don't you ever see each other?"
Obviously not.
So I finally found out that my roommate, upon returning from Ghana, had come down with a little case of malaria and they locked him up in the hospital for a few days. And I know how much fun being malarial and hospital bound in Israel can be, having suffered the same fate during a brief trip through Haifa in 2001. No fun. Although the russian speaking nurses are entertaining.
So anyway, what kind of a crap room mate am I?
Especially after I tell you that I had stuck my head into the kitchen this morning trying to locate the source of a particularly offensive smell and determined that it wasn't my mess so I'll be damned if I'm going to clean up after him. I'm going straight to room mate hell.
But I've heard that Max is doing fine and probably won't even cough on me when I get home later tonight. Or release a flock of malarial mosquitos in my room. Maybe I'll sing him the malaria song... my sister might have to help me remeber all the words. I get lost after "...nacho cheese doritos..."

confessions of a flickr addict

So, I signed up for flickr the other day (which is why I have suddenly sprouted photos on my blog) and I have since become a bit of a flickr addict. I sit in my office dropping photos into my gallery just so I can see them pop up on the communal flickr page. Then I rush back to my own gallery to see how many people I've lured in. It's horrible I know. But I just can't help myself.
For instance, my latest photo got 7 views and 1 comment in less than five minutes and my page has been viewed 92 times since I first started posting.
And I'm sure I can hit 100 before the night is through.