Oh, e-Self-publishing Doesn’t Work?

“The Fifty Shades of Grey trilogy first emerged in the e-book format, where it found massive success. A bidding war amid traditional publishers soon followed.”

That’s the most important sentence in that article, as far as I’m concerned. Proof-positive that you can self-publish electronically, and then have the ‘old regime’ fight over the rights to your work.

It’s not my type of book, I’m not likely to read it, but good on E.L James for making the new way work for her.

New Toys: Transformer Prime

It’s been two weeks now, give or take. And I love this device. Looooooooove it. Oh, there’s a few flaws (every once in a while, it’ll burp when an app shuts down, and reboot the tablet), but it’s pretty much exactly what I need for 90% of the stuff I do with a computer these days.

For those who don’t know, the Transformer Prime is the first Tegra 3 tablet. If you want more specs than that, well, check out either of those links, and you’ll get ‘em. Performance-wise, it’s fast. Blindingly so. I’ve not managed to make it chug at all, and I Have a bad tendency to leave everything running indefinitely, and never actually shut the thing down, just put it into standby.

My Prime, with the keyboard attachement, sitting on top of my 17″ Compaq.

The weight is just about perfect. @dogandgarden has a Transformer, the previous generation, Tegra2 model. The Prime is dramatically lighter in hand, and thinner as well. Given the screen size is the same, the edges are a fair approximation of the original, minus a few thirds of an inch in any direction. What this means is that I can use it as a reader almost indefinitely: it weighs about the same as a trade-paperback.

What this also means is that it’s perfect for the stuff I want to read. Articles, especially long ones (I have a lot of love for the LongReads RSS feed) fit perfectly, via GReader Pro. The only issue I’ve found so far is that video doesn’t play in GReader Pro since the update to Ice Cream Sandwich. Flip it out to the right browser, though, and it works just fine, and hopefully, GReader will get fixed fairly soon.

The form factor and weight also make it perfect for reading comics: this is something I’d avoided on my Samsung Captivate because a 4” screen is still not quite enough to read comics on. By the same token, it’s perfect for online magazines, which render beautifully.

The same is true for ebooks. I’ve been spending more and more time reading on my phone in the last year, and this just brings it up to real-world level. I can read this thing for hours without any more fatigue than I’ve had from reading a turn-the-pages book for the same length of time.

Gaming performance is what you’d expect for an Nvidia chipset, especially a class-leading one. Stellar. I tend to bounce in and out of games and my other stuff, and it never misses a beat. To be honest, though, gaming is a bonus. It’s not why I bought the device.

There has been some minor weirdness since Asus rolled out the Over-The-Air update from Honeycomb to Ice Cream Sandwich.

The primary one of these is the mentioned weirdness in video playback.

I noticed it first in GReader Pro: the video would simply not play: just do a load and pause routine. So, I tried popping it open with the display in web browers button, and same problem there. I’ve used the Dolphin browser on my phone for ages, and I have a lot of love for it, but I wasn’t able to use the button (either in GReader Pro, or Dolphin) to bump into the Youtube app (which wouldn’t have helped with things like Vimeo, anyway). I even tried ‘sharing’ as an email, then copying the link, but when I tried to share as email I got consistent “this link is either deleted or unavailable”: for some reason GReader Pro had stopped linking properly to the video that was embedded. And, surprisingly, so had Dolphin HD. I found the same problem with the OEM Browser.

So, after a little research, I found I wasn’t the only one with this problem. While there wasn’t a fix, different browsers were, apparently, showing different reactions to the situation. Opera for Mobile, sadly, had the same problem. SkyFire was a little better, but had huge issues with Vimeo; it only displayed a big, black box where the video was supposed to be.

However, after switching, on recommendation, to BOAT Browser, most of the problems cleared up. GReader Pro is still an issue, but with BOAT as my default browser, I can open the page in the browser from GReader Pro, and it renders properly.

This is, now that I have a work around, a minor irritant at worst. Hopefully, this’ll help out other people, as I don’t think this is an issue with the Prime, but rather with apps interactions with Ice Cream Sandwich.

It should also be noted that the first thing I did in BOAT is set it to represent itself as a desktop client, not a mobile client. The 10” screen on the Prime is more than enough to render well-designed webpages as they’re meant to be seen, and not on their stripped-down mobile sites.

I’m also still getting used to the keyboard. But I can see this add-on being invaluable in the long term for me, as it makes my tablet nearly a complete replacement for my laptop.

The keyboard is somewhere between ¾ and 7/8 the size of a regular keyboard. What this means is that I get my ‘pinkie stretches’ wrong occasionally when I’m touch-typing. Otherwise, it’s brilliant. The trackpad on it doesn’t get in the way of my typing, and is pretty responsive. As soon as you dock the tablet to the keyboard, it pops a little pointer on the screen, and you’re off to the races.

The battery system in the keyboard is superbly smart too: it really does just charge up your tablet from the keyboard, under the correct assumption that that’s the one you’d want fully charged when you de-dock. Which means it makes sense to store your table on the keyboard when you’re not using it: it’s basically a big, extended battery pack.

Battery life itself is excellent. I was off sick the other day, and spent the day drifting in and out of sleep on the couch, watching Netflix on TV. In the meantime, the Prime kept me company. Read my multiple GReader Pro feeds (I think you’ve figured out by now that this is one of my primary apps), caught up on my Long Reads feed, which I’d neglected since about Christmas, browsing, social media, and games (specifically, FieldRunners HD, Pixel Rain, Wordsmith, and a Zuma clone). In ‘normal’ mode (you can switch from power-saver, normal, and performance in the taskbar/status area with a touch) I got about eighteen hours of use (including standby) with about thirty-percent left in the keyboard, and sixty-five percent left in the tablet itself. I can see an EASY seventy-two hour charging cycle, especially if you do thinks like turning off wifi and Bluetooth when you’re sleeping, even if you don’t shut down completely. Also, if you don’t geek out on the sheer power of the device, and install the matrix-style live wallpaper to chew up power (but it’s SO PRETTY).

I only had honeycomb on the tablet for a couple of days before ICS was pushed out for it, so it’s hard to compare the differences. But it definitely feels like the battery is lasting longer.

I also spent that time using my phone as a wireless access point, rather than my home network, because I wanted to see what mobile data usage was like on a day like that.

If you have less than 2gb a month, you don’t want to use your phone/tablet in this combination often. However, with a complete (and large) game download (42meg) I topped out at about 200meg for the day’s usage. The speed was probably twenty-five percent slower than my home network, visibly, but definitely useful, especially if you set your phone/WAP up where it gets strong HSPA signal. And better still if you have LTE, I guess. Some of us ain’t that lucky!

What I found out though is that with my old 6gb a month plan, I could do days like this every day, and still have plenty left over. Admittedly, this is less a test of the tablet, but the use of the two in conjunction is important to me.

As a footnote, it should be noted that my 3000Mah extended battery didn’t fare anywhere near as well as the tablet. I had to plug the phone in after about twelve hours acting as an access point: I was at 15% battery remaining.

I’m waiting for my very cheap, very basic neoprene sleeve to be delivered. Hopefully, it’ll be soon, because while the brushed aluminum (in grey, which definitely has a sheen of purple) is beautiful, I’ve already got two or three scratches on the back of the tablet from putting it down on the coffee table. If you don’t protect it, you’re going to scratch it, and the same goes for the base of the keyboard (although less of an issue: it has rubber feet keeping the aluminum off the surface you’re putting it on). Just having something to slide the whole assembly into, and/or place it on top of instead of the hard/dirty/gritty surface of a table, will make all the difference. Expect to see some battle damage though.

Unless I wanted the familiarity of my laptop for looking up issues relating to the tablet, or photoshop crunching, I’ve not turned it (the laptop) on since I got the tablet. There’s just no point. The tablet, so far, appears to be good enough that I can ditch my laptop for everything, and probably even go back to a full-on desktop, if I want to. And I’ll be honest, that’s not something I expected to happen. As I said at the start, for 90% of my daily usage, the tablet is not only capable, but better than my laptop. I’m interested to see how I feel about things after a few months, but for the moment, the honeymoon is in full swing. The only downsides are what appears to be first-out-the-gate issues with ICS, and I expect those’ll get fixed as time, and apps, develop for it.

The Car Guy Returns

It’s the first time here, but anyone who followed my previously knows that I am a car guy.  I love cars.  I test drive cars just for something to do.  And I compare ‘em.  

And, I’ll also admit, I’ve become something of a Hyundai Fanboy in the last few years.  I tried very, very hard not to be, but the strides they (and sister company Kia) have made in the last ten years are pretty spectacular.  Their sales numbers are impressive.  More impressive, though, is the quality of the vehicles they’re putting out.

I also own a hyundai.  Specifically, I committed the cardinal sin in the car world.  I bought my <a href=”http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hyundai_Genesis_Coupe”>2.0T Genesis Coupe</a> not only in the first year the new platform (BK) was available, but in the first six weeks it was available in North America.  I ordered my car on April 8th, 2009, and took delivery about eight weeks later, June 11th.  It was an early 2010.

It’s no longer quite stock, but it doesn’t stop me admiring other cars, from vintage to new. 

And I test-drive stuff.  For fun. All kinds of things.  So, you’re going to get seat-of-the-pants reviews here occcasionally. Like tonight, for instance!  stay tuned!

Tis The Season.

We’re having a bit of a horror-movie-fest here, these days. Hallowe’en is the time where, even if you’re not a horror fan, you tend to watch a few.

So, the plan for the next few weeks is to sit down, pretty much nightly, and instead of just turning on the background drone of sitcoms, gaming news and reviews, news, and home renovation shows, to find a few good (or bad, as the case may be) horror flicks.

I have a flirting relationship with horror. I’m not a true fan, but some stuff really floats my boat (or balloon: They all float down here, Georgie!). Zombies, creature-features in general, and the ‘classics’, definitely do it. Torture-porn does not.

Monday, I checked out Feast. Now, I gotta say, for me, this is what an entertaining horror flick should be. There’s some comedy, some blood, some jump scares, and some fairly creative shooting. It’s a well-worn idea (basically, a standoff, a la Alamo, or Titty twister). It’s got some great touches though, especially early on. I’m generally not a fan of sequels, but this one… Yeah, I’m going to be checking out episodes two and three, for sure. I’ll give Feast a solid 4 out of 5.

Tuesday night, Jennifer’s Body. I’ve been avoiding this one. And not because of Megan Fox. It just looked schlocky.

And it totally was. But in a really, really watchable, enjoyable way. Can you see the end coming? Totally. Do you care? Not at all. 3.5 out of 5. Definitely worth catching, as it’s on Netflix.

Wednesday night: Silver Bullet. I’d forgotten how much fun that flick was, and it was well enjoyed.

Nearly six months ago, as the summer blockbuster season started, I wrote a piece about how summer, movies, and me all come together, and my childhood with movies. I only got around to posting it recently, but something in it is relevant to this discussion: For some reason, one of the flicks that always sticks out in my childhood is The Gate, which is, by the way, a truly, truly terrible, awful and yet slightly endearing PG13 horror flick. That one, it’s not about the movie for me, it’s about the associations with the movie. I promise, I will post that piece, very late, and very out of context (I never put it up anywhere, just never got around to it) given the time frame I was writing in and about, but still. it’ll give you all (all, what, six of you, these days) an idea of what I look for in movies.

The thing is, back to the topic at hand, I have to pick and choose horror carefully. Because TheGirl(tm) is watching them this week too. And she is very, very much not a horror fan.

I recently introduced her to Poltergeist. One of the comments she kept making was “Wow, that’s SO cliché”; I had to keep reminding her that while she was right, this was actually one of the movies that the modern horror clichés came from. It should also be noted that she really enjoyed Jennifer’s Body; I watched Feast without her.

The tone is set then.

The question is, with Hallowe’en still ten days away, what else do I introduce her to that won’t put her off entirely, but is still actually entertaining?

There are a bunch of movies that still scare the bejebus out of me, in a fun way. They’re almost all classics (and I use the term loosely) of the genre.

Nightmare on Elm Street

Wes Craven’s New Nightmare

The Exorcist

Candyman

Then, there’s the schlock that hits the tropes, but isn’t really horror:

Evil Dead

Army of Darkness

Ghostbusters

I have a grave feeling (oh, I’m punny!) that both Ghostbusters and Army of Darkness will get watched on Saturday. They’re fun, perennial favorites, and it’s my birthday. Everyone I know knows every line in both of those movies, so it should work out really well.

But what else?

I don’t know if I can get her to watch the Exorcist. I never had any huge love for the Hallowe’en movies. I’m tempted to skip over the the entire slasher genre, and go straight to either Jason X, and Freddy vs Jason: both of which are wonderfully schlocky, bloody, and pretty hysterical, with decent production values thrown in there too.

I’m thinking maybe The Stuff: I’ve not seen that in years. And maybe the 80′s version of Invasion of the Body Snatchers which is still downright creepy. And elhulk has suggested PuppetMaster, which I loved growin’ up, and Ghoulies.

Decisions, decisions, decisions.

I gotta admit, horror is not my thing when it comes to movies. I enjoy ‘em, but it’s not my primary go. The big admission on this is, I tried watching A Haunting in Conneticut a few weeks ago, and the whole vibe to it creeped me out so much I turned it off half way through. Eventually, I’ll get to the whole thing but DAMN. Every creak just freaked me out! I’m such a puss. And all that said, it seemed really well shot and acted, as much as I watched. Which, really, was part of the problem. Disbelief, suspended. Mark, terrified.

What? I love these movies, but it didn’t stop me sleeping with my light on for three days after I saw Nightmare on Elm Street for the first time when I was thirteen.

Going To The Movies

Movies, and movie theatres, can be magical things. They may have become a normalcy, especially with the level of advertising, both for, and in, theatres, and our knowledge of profits on a per-movie basis (which now seem to be touted as a measure of how good a movie is: A good movie is not always a successful movie, and a successful movie is not always a good movie. Case in point, Fast & Furious), and sheer speed at which one blockbuster is replaced with another. I could, quite easily, go to the movies twice a week, and still not see all the movies I think I want to see.

But there was a time…

When I was a kid, the very, very first movie I remember going to see in the theatres was 1979′s “The Black Hole”. I don’t think I’ve seen it since it was on cable TV the first year I came to Canada (that would have been 1984). I loved that movie. Oh, I know there’s complaints about *ahem* continuity and flat out “What the Fuck..?” moments, but still. I was 7, and it was Sci-Fi, and there were robots, and there was special-effects, and it was GREAT. It’s still great in my mind, because I’ve not seen it in twenty-five years. The second I remember going to see was E.T. The Extra-Terrestrial. you know, before they fucked it up by replacing guns with walkie-talkies and shit, to make it ‘less threatening’ and ‘less interesting’. That, I saw in a theatre in downtown Brussels, Belgium: it was a full day trip for my little brother’s birthday. My turn was to come: we went to the same theatre (and stood in line!!) for my birthday, for Return of the Jedi.

The first movie I saw in a Canadian Theatre (the Cineplex in Milton) was… Ghostbusters!. It was the last movie I had to go see with a parent, I think. Saw it with my Dad and little brother (said little brother was scared to death by the Library ghost), and loved every second of it.

Fastfoward to 1987, and it was time to start sneaking into movies. Not without paying, that never seemed like a good plan: we’d buy our tickets for a PG movie, and then ‘sneak’ into the movie we wanted to see. Movies like The Gate.

I saw the commercials for The Gate, and man. That was a movie that I wanted to see. I’d just turned 14, I could go see it, it was PG13!! I didn’t have to ask or ANYTHING. I could get the ride out to the theatre, put my money down, and go see that movie.

So, on a Thursday night in the summer, my friends at the time and I did just that. All got rides, planned on the 7pm show. Got out there, got up to the gate (heh. Fewer demons at the ticket gate than in the movie, but still…) and…

“You can’t see that.”

My fourteen-year-old indignation knew no bounds. Unfortunately, neither did my public humiliation. I was being turned away from a movie I’d technically been legal to see for more than a year, because…

I didn’t look fourteen. I looked, truth be known, about eleven. I was small all the way through high-school, and I was probably 4’8″, 80lbs, and still thoroughly baby-faced in 1987.

But I was fourteen! And damn her for not being able to tell!

And me, for not having anything that would pass as ID with a valid date of birth on it: it’d be two years before I got my driver’s license, and the validity of ‘realpersonhood’ that came with it. We were turned away.

My friends at the time, geeks and nerds all (and bless ‘em for it) didn’t buy tickets as a show of solidarity. We burned ten bucks each playing video games and pinball in the lobby. Which was good, but not what we wanted. We wanted to see that movie!

So, next week rolls around, with another payday (yeah, I was working by then. Day I turned fourteen I started looking for a job, and worked at KFC on Main St, in the kitchen, for the princely sum of $3.85 an hour. Fifteen cents more than minimum wage, I’ll have you know!) to provide the necessary funds for a movie.

So, we went again. We bought tickets for … something else. Strangely, THAT I can’t remember. It was PG, and we’d picked something that would both appeal to ‘us’ (guys, age fourteen) so as not to appear obvious, and had a start time approximating that of “The Gate”.

It was our own (unbeknownst to us) carefully planned Ocean’s Eleven.

So, we got our tickets, our drinks, our candy. We posted our lookout. And we went for it.

It would probably be a better story if we got busted. But we followed a crowd into the theatre we wanted to be in, grabbed some seats in a good spot (but slightly off to the side), made sure there was an adult in the row (so it kind of looked like we were with a ‘chaparone’ even though we weren’t) and watched the movie.

And yeah, if you’re fourteen, in 1987, “The Gate” was a pretty scary movie. Especially when the “workman” falls out of the wall (at 1:17 of the trailer).

Actually, twenty-odd years later, that’s actually still a pretty decent bit of special effects. Well ahead of what was given to us in the rest of the flick. Especially the acting. The acting? Definitely sub-par.

But, it’s one of those movies, at least for me. It was a marker, a milestone for me doing stuff. Yeah, I should have just been able to buy the ticket, and it would probably still have had the same memorable quality as that “first”. But it was maaaaaaaybe better that we had to sneak in. We all still looked young, despite being old enough: Hell, we probably still referred to those around us as ‘big kids’ or “little kids”, and counted ourselves among them. It was fun sneaking in, and I’m sure it made the movie better.

We never tried to up-the-ante and sneak into an “R” movie, either. Don’t get greedy, that’s the thing!

It’s strange. Very few movie outings these days are “memorable”. You go, see the movie, leave, and forget about it. But the ones that hit me, were really good.

The Gate, obviously.

Nightmare on Elm St. Freddy’s Dead IN 3-D! was awesome, at least partly because of screaming girls, and pretending to have the car die on the way home.

On Elm Street.

What??

The first Fast & the Furious movie. Partly because it was free, and really, really, really loud, but also watching the really young’uns leaving the theatre, thoroughly incapable of driving safely.

The Mist, which has not aged well, even in three or four years, but at the time, was what I thought a Stephen King movie was supposed to be: it captured EVERYTHING about that story brilliantly, and all three of us (Jay, and I) were just boggled by it as we left.

Pan’s Labyrinth did the same thing. Partly because it’s a brilliant movie, but also because it was free. And also because of watching someone walk out of a free advance-showing of a movie because “I ain’t stickin’ around to READ a movie! I hate to read! They should tell you that before you come into a movie!”

LOTR Fellowship of the Ring, because, after fifty years, we (my brother and Dad) found a fantasy story that not only did my mom enjoy, but desperately wanted to know “what happened”. All three of the LOTR movies were marker’s for me, because they were a family event, we looked forward to it (always boxing day, for three years) and after we got mom into the first one (“Oh, I’ll go. But it’s not my kind of movie. But it’s a family thing so I’ll go” to “YOU HAVE TO TELL ME WHAT HAPPENS” which was answered with “Go read the books or wait until next year” and was followed with my mom beating my brother and I with whatever was at hand. Ok, that last bit is made up, but you get the idea)

The memorable ones aren’t memorable because of the movie. They’re memorable because of how they make you feel, and who you’re with when you see them: because of their ability to bookmark a moment in your life. And they don’t do that often anymore. Mostly, they’re consumables. And don’t get me wrong. There’s a place in the world for movies as consumables: things you enjoy in the moment, but don’t stay with you. But that spirit has to show up sometimes. They can’t all be defining moments for you, for sure. But some of them should be.

I wrote most of this, here, pretty much everything before this line, in fact, in May. Never got around to posting it! Since then, I’ve seen a few movies: the latest Fast’n’Furious; Thor; Drive Angry In 3D; Priest; Cowboys & Aliens; you get the picture?

The one that got me, though, was Super 8. Super 8 is a throw back to those movies that get you. There’s a lot that feels like them in it: The cast is fantastic, the writing is good, the pacing works. Is it a simple movie? Well, yeah, it is. And it’s not as… naïve.. as a lot of movies used to be. It channels, witout being, a bunch of those movies.

Which ones? Well, The Goonies, for one. There’s something of the ‘kids vs adults caper movie’ to it, as well, things like BMX Bandits, and to a lesser degree, Hackers. A lot of people have compared it to E.T., but I don’t think that’s actually a fair comparison. There’s far more violence in it than E.T.: and while the government cover up has a similar vibe, there’s actually a lot more validity to what the government is doing in covering the situation than in E.T. for whatever reason (telling you would be a major spoiler!) There’s some Stand By Me in there too.

But don’t think for a second that Super 8 is those movies. Those are at best comparative: more, for me to write about it, I’ve got to be able to tell you the feelings that the film drew out of me. And for the most part, it’s very similar to the feelings that those movies got from me.

Temporal setting was important too. You couldn’t make Super 8 in a modern setting. It’s all about, not only the naivety of the seventies and eighties: a naivety that I don’t think most kids have now, but it’s about a lack of communication. All the kids in it, today, would have cell phones and internet connections: they’d be making digital high-def movies themselves, not waiting for 8mm film to be processed; they’d be CONNECTED, and a huge part of that flick is being disconnected. They do something I’ve not seen in years: they communicate, bedroom-to-bedroom, via walkie-talkie.

Super 8 is, in a phrase, what I loved in a summer movie as a kid. I don’t think it’ll ever be a classic. It might. But I doubt it. Classics are few and far between these days: a movie lasts weeks, at best, in the theatre, and if it doesn’t get to number one in its first weekend open? Then it doesn’t get to number one, and that’s that. Gone are the days where word-of-mouth makes the second weekend bigger than the first: we already know (the commercials tell us) that the movie is a blockbuster and everyone loves it, before it even opens.

That was the other thing with Super 8. I skipped all the lead-up. I miss the days where you went to see a movie based on a thirty second spot on TV, that maybe, maybe you’d see twice, and seeing the poster up in the theatre. Now, by the time you sit down in the theatre to see the movie, you already know the plot, you know who the bad guy is, you know who all the primary players are, you probably know the twist, and, something that’s disheartening and becoming more and more common… you’ve already seen the climax in the trailer. Trailers which, I might add, are now approaching double-digit percentages of the movie they’re promoting, in terms of length.

Do we need to be spoon fed that much?

But Super 8, they at least waited until the week before, from what I saw and read, to really give up some details. It ‘felt’ older than it was. Once I figured out that it was going to be one of those, to use a terrible, turn-off of a phrase, nostalgia-inducing movies, I switched off. I actively avoided all the promotional materials, reviews, trailers, and changed the channel when a commercial came on. Because I didn’t want it spoiled for me.

Keep in mind, it wasn’t as bad as most: but if I’d have watched the material, I’d have known was going to happen. And I don’t get that. I don’t know when it happened, but at some point, the audience appears to have told the producers and marketers that they don’t want to be surprised: they want to know what they’re getting ahead of time, completely. It’s like North Americans going to Japan, and eating nothing but McDonalds, because it’s familiar. “I wanna go see foreign places, as long as they’re just like home and I don’t feel uncomfortable or out of place”. I don’t get it. What’s the point?

Super 8, I managed not to be spoon fed. And it was far better for it, I think.

And that’s the thing. Movies have taken one further slip, I think. They’re at best product, rather than entertainment (and there’s a difference), and at worst, they’re simply commercials. See the movie of the videogame and comic book and toys, oh, the glorous toys! (sidenote: the toys are rarely glorious these days, either) It used to be the ‘things’ supported the movie. Now, the movie is simply often just a vessel by which other products are sold: a gimmick, a label to put on things so that they can be sold and consumed. More and more rarely, movies are made and sold as movies. Oh, it happens, but that’s the land of art and drama, which are sold less as entertainment, as well, and more as high-brow product.

You can go to a movie, switch off, and enjoy it, without buying the video game, or the toys, or the fastfood-related-bonus-item. Just like you can go to a movie and enjoy it AND think at the same time.

But they don’t appear to want you to.

And what it means is it’s very unlikely we’ll see another Poltergeist, or Real Genius. And I don’t have a lot of hope for the reboot (and how I’m starting to hate THAT phrase) of FrightNight despite the new cast they’ve tapped.

I really dig this shot: it’s an older one (last winter) but I think it’s a great capture. Who doesn’t love a dog chasin’ snowballs?

Things Have Changed

Once upon a time, this was a photo-a-day blog. Then, life progressed, and generally got in the way, and suddenly, it was a photo-when-I-remembered. I recently started posting again, but, at the moment, at least, I don’t have a photo a day to put here.

Compounding the situation, I’m giving up my ‘old life’ on livejournal. It was fun in its time, but it’s not really working for me anymore, what with all the Russian spam I get. So, that blog will remain up, but effectively inactive: this will be where I do my musing now.

And yes, there will be some photography, as appropriate. But, at the same time as I’m making this particular change, I’m going to start a new photography blog. As yet, I’m undecided on the title, but it’ll probably be something uninspired, but effective and descriptive. There’s also my (rarely used) fiction blog, The Penguin Likes White Russians. If you think I was lax in my updates for photo-a-day… But, there will be updates there, sporadically too.

Mostly, this is to keep myself organized and have things the way I want them. And so you, the reader (I assume there will be SOME!) don’t have to sift through things you’re not interested in, to find the things you want.

I’m nothing if not helpful.

And I think that about covers all of that. Lets see what happens here, shall we? A new era, for me at least, begins.

The Excited One

The BarShar (Sharpei Basset Hound mix) is an odd breed. But they’re super-fun, too.

Through Multiple Viewfinders

Quick Shot of a Sleeping Dog

My little buddy was catching some zzz’s on the rug, so I got a shot good, close shot of him. Damn, but he’s a puddle when he’s sleeping!