9-11

Human history is filled with war and conflict. I myself have seen it and been to:
Pearl Harbor and stood looking into oily water.
Munich and walked the streets of Nazism's birth.
Hanoi and cringed at the cells of Hoa Lo prison.
Little Big Horn of last stand fame.
Rome with its Coloseo of ritualized killing for entertainment.
Israel, the West Bank and Jerusalem.
Iraq in depth from Basra, Kirkuk, Tikrit, Baghdad to Mosul.
New York City and ground zero.

In our enlightened, modern society it may not be correct to think like this but violence has been part and parcel of human existence from the beginning. From the jealous slaying of a brother to world encompassing wars. Conflict and struggle are never going away.

My question to you is, on this day when so many remember victims, the dead and what it all means is this;
Are you going to be the one acting or the one acted upon?
What in your life is worth protecting and fighting for?

Patrick Henry said it soo eloquently with these quotes - “We are not weak if we make a proper use of those means which the God of Nature has placed in our power.. the battle, sir, is not to the strong alone it is to the vigilant, the active, the brave.”

“It is in vain, sir, to extenuate the matter. Gentlemen may cry, Peace, Peace--but there is no peace. The war is actually begun! The next gale that sweeps from the north will bring to our ears the clash of resounding arms! Our brethren are already in the field! Why stand we here idle? What is it that gentlemen wish? What would they have? Is life so dear, or peace so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God! I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!”

TIAAWA

Things I Am A Wuss About.

Soaked in sweat along my whole backside, from head to toe. How I was when I got out of the oral surgeon's chair for the second time in a week. I had a piece of bone poking through my gum all weekend that cut a huge gouge in my tongue and inflamed my gum. Thus the need for a second visit. For shots under my tongue and grinding down of my jaw bone. To which they said I was a trooper for suffering all weekend through what they actually called a "ginormous" piece of bone doing all that damage.

It really is not big surprise a trip to the dentist would have me covered in nervous sweat, as it does almost every one. But here on my blog I try to present for the most part a certain view of me, Rowdy. One of action, perseverance, toughness, excitement and a happy-go-lucky life. But there are things I am a wuss about. Believe it or not Ripley.

1. Food. Raw meat. Under cooked things. I hate hate pink hamburger. I hate touching raw meat in the kitchen. I just see it as one big germy thing waiting to strike me with hours of sitting in the bathroom.

2. Talking on the telephone. Unless you are a family member I probably won't talk to you on the phone unless you really really pressure me.

3. Being cold. I can handle heat. But get me cold and I will whine. In my mind I'm calculating my chances of permanent damage to my toes and fingers. Cold kills me.

4. Nauseousness. You'd think I have soooooo much experience with this I could be like a boss and just own it. But if my stomach is truly 'upset' I'm done. Fork. I can handle colds, flu, headache or whatever. But please please don't get me nauseous or I gotta retreat into myself for a while.

5. Snakes. In my mind every single snake has only one thought in mind and that is to attack me and bite me. With no intent to devour me but just to cause me injury, pain and fear. My friends with snakes as pets I will not even go to the door. I wait in the parking lot and honk. It's that bad.

6. Singing. Whenever I actually try to sing I get goosebumps all over my arms. Without fail. I know I don't sing well at all but if I am actually making an effort to make the noise coming out of my mouth match the source I'm listening to.... well I just get goosebumps terribly.

7. Dentist. My dentist thinks I have a great attitude, and an extremely powerful bite!!, but I am putting on a front for her. I leave every trip to the dentist, even for just a cleaning, drenched in a cold sweat. Or as a subset, if someone comments on my teeth not being perfect it also really hurts my feelings.

8. Scary movies. I can not do these. Nope, no way. OK, let me define this a little better. I can handle "monster" movies just fine. But I can not handle scary people movies. No slashers, killers, psychos, torture, gorey anything. If the evil character is a person, I can't watch it. If I do I will not sleep at all and all the lights will be on and I'll be freaking out.

9. Diet drinks. I will suffer dehydration requiring hospitalization before drinking a diet drink of any kind.

Doheny Days Music Festival

Jane's Addiction
Santigold
Jimmy Eat World
Beats Antique

These good bands, festival food, good vibe and outside at the beach. Really a great time! To me, Santigold rocked it best. She even had like the two first rows jump on stage and dance with her. And asked people to get off the stage who were taking cell phone pics rather than dancing! Which I totally approve of. She crushes Lady Gaga or MIA in my opinion. All in all a great time and I'd for sure go again.

www.DSLRclasses.com

Before my trip to Norway and Israel earlier this year I bought myself an early birthday present of a Nikon D3100 dslr camera. Or as I like to call it, "a real camera".

I mean, you could leave it in the auto mode, treating it like a fancy point-n-shoot. Many people do; I feel that is doing your camera and yourself a disservice. But what to do with that nice piece of equipment you don't totally understand?

What I did was to thoroughly read the manual. Then I talked with people who had a similar model, asking them questions. I watched tutorials on Youtube. I bought a book on composition and studied it for a month. I even tried to take a photography class at community college, but they were full.

Google. Yep, so I started Googling photography lessons in San Diego. Most were too basic, some were too complex. Too short in time or I just didn't perceive them as a good value for my time compared to what I wanted to learn.

Eventually I ended up HERE. Reading a book and the internet can only teach you soooo much. To really succeed you need professional, in person, instruction. And I got it with Hector of www.DSLRclasses.com.

Hector worked with me and the two other students about getting the class on a day off his regular schedule that worked for us. He communicated quickly with me in getting the class set up through email.

On the day of the class he was on time, personable and obviously totally well prepared. He has an easy going, friendly manner and related to each of us students in a nice, personable way. He totally was beginner friendly.

The course cost $150 and we were there for 9 hours. To me, that is a total bargain. He answered every singe question I had about my camera, my technique and general photography issues. This is a great first step for someone serious about using their camera.

If you ever wanted to know what aperture, shutter, iso and focal length mean, what they do, how they are all interconnected AND then how to use them to shoot technically superb pictures, this is THE class for you. I would recommend this class to every single person who has a DSLR and wants to take pictures that are actually good.

Easily the best $150 upgrade to your camera, improving your own skill and knowledge.

(me in the course of the class)

Lyrical Haunting

I speak English as my primary language. In high school I took 3 years of French and one semester of Spanish. Later in college I had a Mexican (born in Mexico) girl friend and picked up much more Spanish. Immediately after graduating college I lived in Arizona and had days where I only spoke Spanish.

I've taken a semester of conversational Spanish at a community college, getting a D, and a two month class at Language Door, where my ability really increased.

Then later as I traveled the world or met people from other places I picked up the basics of hello, thanks, no, goodbye and such in Japanese, Arabic, Russian, Brazilian Portuguese and Norwegian. (with SuperD knowing German, French, Italian, Swedish and Russian we can talk to people almost anywhere but Asia) But Spanish would definitely be my second language based on my level of diction, sentence structure and so on.

I like watching TV and movies in languages other than English, but I very rarely enjoy contemporary music from other countries. I mean, I did listen to Juanes, Paulina and Shakira in Arizona but just 'cause of where I lived. But now......

Carla Morrison. As you can tell from all the above information, I am used to hearing conversation and such around me in something other than English and enjoy it. Finally I have found something musically where I feel the same way.......Enjoyment.

Time Travel

Normally my time travel machine works OK. I get into it, lay down and boom, I open my eyes and it's seven hours into the future.

But thanks to a trip to the oral surgeon I was only able to sleep from 1am until 3am. Yeah, not even 3 Vicoden and being totally comfortable on the couch helped.

I sure hope this doesn't happen tonight. Really though, everyone is tired so I should just shut up about it and do what I need to do. We're all tired. Hopefully this most recent cause is a transient one.

Yesterday, Wednesday, I spent the day at a photography lesson. The whole day, like 9 hours. It was a great learning experience. All of the pictures I took were basically exercises to understand aperture, shutter, iso and focal length.

And then from there figuring out how they work together and are interconnected. All with the idea of managing light and your subject.

I know these aren't amazing photos as far as the composition, but they are ones from doing all the drills and learning stuff, so I still feel like posting them anyways. I mean, after spending hours taking pictures of water bottles and stuffed animals I gotta do something with them!

I will write a real review of the class and such later this week.