Yeah, yeah. Long time no post ....
Long days and getting home after 7 is like that. Also no pictures due to the -30 degree weather we've been having. Both my ass and my camera have been reluctant to venture forth.

Anyways ...
It was thoroughly satisfying to see the Pope of Ontario, John Tory , take yet another nose dive into his ass this morning. I can't believe the effort this guy has gone to in order to ensure the Liberals maintain power. I swear he's on the payroll of McSquinty as a corporate level danglie-twiddler.
After his third successful attempt to sabotage his party (fourth if you count that religion in schools thing ... five if you consider his leadership campaign), he's finally getting the message that we don't like him.
This round, the bi-election has cost his party an heirloom seat in Haliburton-Kawartha Lakes-Brock (formerly held by Laurie Scott). Apparently her father was an MP in the area for nearly 30 years and this was a PC stronghold since '94.
Nice job.
I am genuinely curious though, did he really figure out that Ontariates think he's a douche, has he run out of MPP's willing to give up seats to the Liberals, or is there simply a mob forming outside his window led by Christine Elliott.
At the very least, I hope it was a pleasant slap in the nuts for politicians trying to return god-fearing religions to schools.

"Stupid is forever, ignorance can be fixed." - Don Wood

Proof positive that white collared priests are still no match for angry monkeys bearing monoliths.
... Then again, why let a little thing like facts get in the way of the poor judgement of the godly devout?

(for more information be sure to check out the WikiHow article on "How to Avoid Becoming a Religious Zealot")

Location: ??.????°N, -??.????°W Alt: ???m
	Photo Date: 1 October, 2008
	ISO: 100
	Aperture/Shutter: F/6.3, 1/20"
	Focal Length: 78mm
	Camera: Olympus Evolt E-510
Category: None

My experiment is concluded! I have indeed confirmed that my days are, in fact, mind numbingly boring!
Not surprising given my capture and subsequent enslavement by the bureaucratic establishment. However, as promised, I will subject you to it all in glorious and excessive detail!.

My day began with a greeting of a pile of union propiganda on my desk. Obviously dropped sometime overnight to remind us of our impending walk outs and the unique abilities we have to vote for our next employer. Not many people get this strange collaboration, but I assure you, it doesn't help our plight to fare wage any.
The colours where a nice mix however and,with a slight arrangement of bands, it seemed good enough for at least a quick shot (I'll probably email it to them actually). the shot above is, of course, the finished product. Adjacent, you can see that the limitations of my wrecked nerves and poor lighting did require some slight adjustment to the image as it came out of the camera.

Behind the Lens Details
As I've already stated, the bands did not fall naturally this way but where slightly arranged. Also, due to the low light and several different types of florescent lights, the colour is a little off.
First order of business is to assault the colour with Curves (in PS CS-3). Setting the white to the page (it was, after all, white) and the 50% grey to the baffle wall at the top of the image, gives us a pretty acurate correction of the colours. Also the histogram is still pretty intact with no drastic spikes or gaps.
Next the tone. As some colour was subdued by the lighting and subsequent Curves changes, a slight tweak to the Saturation and a bit of reinforced contrast where added to finish off the shot.
Total post-processing time: about 5 minutes, including load times.

More of my day tomorrow afternoon!

Well, it finally happened. Age caught up with me and I can officially declare myself old (by the definitions of the young).
The dreaded 'Big 3-Oh' has arrived and somehow, it's everything I imagined.
A depressing reminder of my mortality and utter failure to find immortal youth.
In order to commemorate this auspicious event, I've decided to borrow an old photography inspiration technique. Camera in tow, I'll be taking a picture of wherever I am for the course of the day. Every half and hour to an hour or so.
Posting them all, in the raw, I should be able to examine each for the pros and cons of the actual image and turn it into a bit of an educational exercise. I'll go step by step through any corrections and adjustments to show a standard work flow.
Yup, there's going to be some crap in there that would normally be filtered out by good sense, but sometimes it's important to realize that happens and discuss why a photo may not make the grade.
If I'm going to be old, I might as well be sage and wise as well.

Project Gutenburg never ceases to amaze me with it skill at ensuring that classic materials are made easily accessable by the public. In a time when profits are more important then philanthropy and Pirates are once again the scourge of "The Man", they continue to upload 1,000's of books weekly.
When browsing, I noticed that several of their books have gone audio. Great news for the visually impared, young or busy (and lazy) sorts that can't take the time to whip out the ol' PDA for a few hours to read.
Now you can hear Nietzsche in German as it was intended ... or just in English if you'd rather know what the hell is going on.

Technology and geeks with OCD are an awesome combination!

All photo bloggers are familiar with the typical friendly, but largely uninspired comments like "That's nice" or "Awesome!".
While I'm glad you stopped by and made your visit conspicuous, and I do appreciate visits, these sorts of comments do not do much for the actual progression of the skill on display.
Even bad comments, if well constructed and thought out, can be extremely useful ... actually in many cases the disappointments of the viewers can be more helpful.
I fully welcome comments and critiques of my work regularly and, granted, may not heed all of them, but I certainly reflect upon them and my work.
The nature of pleasantry or limits of experience, for some, does tend to restrict the extent of comment they are willing to provide. In order to help educate the commenter (as there really isn't a course for it), I've found an article from the Digital Photography School website that has a few great tips on leaving better and more useful comments.
Even if you consider yourself a good commenter, it's worth a quick browse:

"How to Win Friends and Influence People - A Guide to Commenting on Other People’s Photos"

As technology progresses, we become closer and closer to being able to engineer life forms (or portions of them) in order to serve us better. Biotechnologies will allow us to have organic computers, light bulbs grown in tubes and a wide array of other, no doubt, handy items.
Bio-mimetics and Cyberware are also on the very near horizon, but have the added advantage of being morally neutral; that idea of subjugating living creatures for our own use is often frowned upon by a significant portion of Western culture (I'm looking at you PETA). Granted, I'm not entirely on board with the idea either, especially when there could be other options (even riding horses makes me uncomfortable for that poor bugger that has to tote me around).

"Science is one thing, wisdom is another. Science is an edged tool, with which men play like children, and cut their own fingers." - Sir Arthur Eddington

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