The Juggler

29 January 2008
Many years ago, I worked in the Comic Book industry. While in that job, I found a product line called "Pocket Dragons." They're a wonderful creation by Real Musgrave who happened to live in the DFW Metroplex. Real Musgrave had also done posters and sculptures for both Scarborough Faire and the larger Texas Renaissance Festival close to Houston. I find his work to be comically engaging and full of fantastic life. My wife and I both are fans of his work and own several pieces. These are two of them:
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Cheers.

~KR (Written on 31 January 2008)

Listening to:
Arthur's Theme (The Best That You Can Do) by Christopher Cross
from The Very Best of Christopher Cross

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: POCKET+DRAGONS, FANTASY, DRAGONS, PHOTOBLOG

The World As I See It...

29 January 2008
...through the bottom of a glass.
What a day. Luckily I managed to sneak in a photo early in the day because the rest of the day got shot to hell. There are two caveats to that statement. First, my wife came home from Floriday yesterday after a nine-day visit with her family. Welcome home, sweetheart. Second, the day ended in fine fashion playing trivia with good friends at No Frills Grill in Arlington. We played a number of games, and with the exception of one game, one of the three of us won each game (my wife doesn't actually control her own trivia box, she just feeds us answers). That was fun. So, the photo:

This is a glass tumbler that my wife made with her very own hands. It's hand-blown in traditional manner and I couldn't be more proud to keep it on my desk. I also have a "blob" that was one of her very first pieces, but I can't drink out of that.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 30 January 2008)

Listening to:
I Can See It by Blancmange
from Best of Blancmange

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.125 sec (1/8)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: GIRL+GLASS, FAIRE+MAIDEN+GLASS, GLASS, HAND+BLOWN, BLUE, PHOTOBLOG

My Boots

28 January 2008 
I've played football, what American's call soccer, for most of my life. My first memory of playing the game was in an apartment parking lot in Germany in the early 70s (72ish). I've never really questioned the passion or the desire, I've just presumed it to be part of me despite the pressure from the North Texas community to embrace American-style Football as my sport of choice. I'll never do that; soccer will forever be "my" sport. But, perhaps it's time I give up the playing of it. Arseblog wrote yesterday "I think I might retire. When the idea of sitting around in a dressing gown eating toast is more appealing than going to play football you know it's probably time" and I can't disagree with him. For a number of seasons now I've been contemplating it without really knowing I've been contemplating. I tried coaching the team to get my mind and passion back into it, but the politics wore me out even more than the actual playing. Nowadays it seems the team is even less focused than I am and getting a training together is more and more difficult. I'll need something to do to keep in shape, but, for now, perhaps it's time I hang up my boots. *sigh*

Cheers.

 ~KR (Written on 28 January 2008)

Listening to:
Nausea by Beck 
from The Information

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 1 sec (1)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: ADIDAS, SOCCER, FOOTBALL, BOOTS, PHOTOBLOG

Beer Fridge

27 January 2008
Yesterday while visiting NFG Arlington (see yesterday's entry), I was speaking with Jason, the manager about Shiner. He let slip that the NFG in Mansfield had the new Shiner Black on draught and that he would be on duty during the day on Sunday. So, after making sure my computer was working properly and was downloading the many, many megs of necessary updates, I went to NFG Mansfield. Nice place. The bar is big, the patrons friendly and bartender, Annie, very pleasant and knowledgeable. As expected, NFG Mansfield has a good selection of brew both draught and bottle. This is one of the visible beer coolers stocked for the day.

Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 January 2008)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.04 sec (1/25)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 800
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: BEER, FRIDGE, COOLER, NO+FRILLS+GRILL, MANSFIELD, PHOTOBLOG

NO in Red

26 January 2008
A virus. A bloody virus got on my computer through all the firewalls, antiviral protection and simpe safe-computing habits I've built up over the years. A bloody virus and my day is shot to hell. I got up in the morning, knowing the virus was on the computer, and watched some footy on the television anyway. Some enjoyable FA cup football to relax me a bit. Then I started on the various repair techniques; none of which worked. Eventually, I had to fit in a trip to Fry's because all of my thumbdrives have gone walkabout and I desperately need to transfer necessary driver files from a laptop to the newly formatted and installed desktop. Well, what's a trip to Fry's without a side-trip to NFG, right? This is the firelane curb in front, and slightly to the side, of the front door. It pretty much sums up how I felt. NO!

Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 January 2008)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.004 sec (1/250)
Aperture: f/8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 80
Exposure Bias: 0 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: NO, PARKING, RED, FIRE+LANE, PHOTOBLOG

Finger Reflection

25 January 2008
The day at work, again, and no photos worth a damn. It's difficult to continually locate something worth photo'ing when you see the same thing over, and over, and over again. So, all I wanted to do when I got home was put fingers on my wife's mirror:

Heh.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on 27 January 2008)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 1 sec (1)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: REFLECTION, MIRROR, PHOTOBLOG

I'm a Geek

24 January 2008
In all my writings and ramblings and photos, I'm not sure one thing has ever been totally clear. I'm a geek. It's true. I'm a geek. I'm a nerd, in that I'm a programmer. But at heart, I'm a geek, at least in the modern sense of the word. Science Fiction movies and books are my favourite pasttimes; and no pasttime has been quite so prevalent in my life as comic books. In 1972 (or so) I bought my first comic book (a Daredevil) on an Air Force base in Munich, Germany. I've never quite looked back from that momentous decision. My tastes in comics have changed over the years (I'm more D.C. and Indie than Marvel, now) but I still revere the Daredevil comic. In fact, I have a complete run up through 2002 when, due to economic restrictions caused by 9/11 I was forced to make sudden, certain cutbacks in my spending behaviour. I even worked in the industry for a number of years in the mid-late 90's. This is a photo of the cover of issue #206, my favourite Daredevil issue ever:
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The serendipity comes from the fact that my wife (not my wife at the time) bought the original coverpage art (seen here) for that issue for me as a birthday present. I now have framed and hanging on my wall, the cover of #206 next to the original cover art and a published, coloured version of the page. It's a lovely treatment and one I'm proud to own.
Cheers.

~KR (Written on: 27 January 2008)

Camera: Canon PowerShot SD850 IS
Exposure: 0.2 sec (1/5)
Aperture: f/2.8
Focal Length: 5.8 mm
ISO Speed: 200
Exposure Bias: 0/3 EV
Flash: Flash did not fire

Tags: DAREDEVIL, COMIC+BOOKS, MARVEL, PHOTOBLOG