Food for Thought

I was having lunch with my friend Greg today and we ended up talking about a few household items (among other things).
Which way should you store your drinking glasses in a cupboard? Top down (bottom up)? or Lip up (bottom down)? Apparently, the way you store them depends on how your family stored them in the cupboards. We are such creatures of habit. I have always stored my glasses upside down so they do not collect dust in the part you drink out of. My family does the same thing. Yet Greg stores his glasses the way his family stored theirs, Upside right or Rightside Up so that the lip is not touching the cupboard shelves. Hmm, after all these years of doing it one way I wanted to know which way was correct and if there was a scientific reason for one way or the other. I found the answer here.

OK, so the next obvious kitchen question was, when loading the dishwasher, do you load the flatware (spoons, forks, etc) handle up or handle down? I was my knives handle up, but everything else goes handle down so when the water runs down them it does not collect on the part you eat off of. I guess that is correct, but I could not find a definitive answer since the site I found referenced "load according to manufacturers instructions". That did not quell my curiosity completely.

How do you store your glasses in the cupboard?
How do you load your flatware in the dishwasher?
If you handwash your dishes, do you use the same towel you dry off your hands with or do you get a new towel out that is used only for drying the dishes? I have a dish towel and one for my hands. All of them get washed weekly.

Those are my deep thoughts for the day. Silly, but Oh well. I am sure there was a Seinfeld episode that had similar questions.

walk the line

I finally went to see the Johnny Cash flick Walk the Line. It was great. I could not stop myself from moving my leg or tapping my hands to the beat of the music and found myself wanting to clap a couple of times when they were done performing. Had I watched it on DVD I would not have found the urge to clap after the songs. They did a great job with the movie, filming, editing and acting. Reese Witherspoon and Joaquin Phoenix did a great job and were very convincing.
One of the other things that kept going thru my mind was what an incredible time for music that was. Many of the greats travelling together on the road. I think it is very different now. There are so many one-hit wonders these days and perhaps more music is being produced so nothing stands out as great. I don't know. I enjoy music but am by no means a music critic.
At any rate, Walk the Line was a great movie and should win a few awards at the Oscars.

Ice Storm and other crazy weather

Maple tree is touching the ground.
The cedar tree reminds me of a Dr. Seuss tree. : )

Yesterday was a day full of weather depending on where you were in the state of Michigan. To the North they were buried in snow receiving about 12" during the day.
Here in the Grand Rapids area we had snow (on the 15th) and rain, thunderstorms, high winds, hail and freezing temps (on the 16th) which produced a beautiful icy day today. South of GR (in Kalamazoo) they had 59 degree temps, thunder storms and tornado warnings. Kalamazoo is just an hour south of GR. How bizarre. So far today we have 21 degree temps in the GR area. Tomorrow should be even colder with highs of 10 degrees. (A good day to stay in the house) I wonder if ice will be able to melt from the heat of the sun since the air temp and wind chills certainly will not allow it. I only lost a few branches this time and did not lose my power. (Yahoo!)
At any rate, all the ice made for a few beautiful pics.

A few dollar store items

In my attempt to shoot a bunch of tests to see how my new lighting works, I ventured into the dollar store to see what stuff they might have that I could shoot.
I found a good variety of stuff but my two favorite items were the "school projects" dissection toys? I found Human Body Man (made of clear plastic and an opening so you could go in and remove the major organs) and then I found the classic Frog. I remember dissecting a frog in high school. Yuk. I hated the smell. This plastic one, although probably not very accurate smells like nothing or at the very least plastic. So I wonder, were these actually meant to simulate a dissection? Surely not. Perhaps it was just to get kids thinking. And interested in something other than video games? The parts are pretty small and probably a choking hazard so they would not be for the little ones. Hmmm...Maybe that is why I found them at the dollar store?
OK. Another dollar store find? Monica Lewinsky's biography just after it was released (years ago). I guess it was not the big seller they thought it would be? I bought a couple of them and sent them off as gifts for people to read. I thought it was interesting. The dollar store is full of surprises.

Test images

When my contract ended in December, I recevied a great gift certificate from the Marketing dept. to the local camera center. So, I decided to update my studio equipment and buy some new lighting gear. I have had studio lights for awhile but needed to get some diffusers, reflectors, etc. So, the gift certificates bought me some new gear.(with $3 out-of-pocket expenses--it was a very good gift) So, now I am shooting lots of tests of things I did not shoot before. Here are a couple of samples.

a visit to the Auto Show

It has been years since I ventured into the Auto Show. My friend Sam called to say that he was going to the show and asked if I would like to attend. Sure, sounds good and off I went. (it was also good for me to get out of the house that I have been spending far too much time in these days)

Growing up in the Detroit area afforded me a love of the automobile and an annual trip to the Detroit Auto Show. It was great to go down with my family to check out all the cars and get all the freebies (which are very different now). It's funny, 'cause now I don't even want the freebies and since I am not in the market for a new car, I have no reason to pick up the new car brochures. The brochures always spurred on dreams of a new cool car and the fun times that would be had in it. Now it is just more paper to add to a landfill or hopefully a recycling center.

I did spend time looking at the cars. I got in a few of them but behind the wheel of none. The kids seemed to love getting into the cars and I was hit by a few anxious kids running from one car to another to get in to the car of their dreams. Kids don't really see adults they just seem to see what they want and go for it. There were some very cool cars there. Some crazy 4-wheel thing from Jeep (a concept vehicle) and a pretty cool looking truck from Dodge called the Dude? I have tried to locate it on one of the websites, but cannot locate it. I said that Sam needed to buy the Dude(Assuming it is a real truck) since he says "dude" a lot. The only thing I could think of is the movie "dude, where's my car" or in this case, truck. How much research was done on this name? I am sure it must be a challenge to name a vehicle that isn't already used by another manufacturer, but Dude? Could it be confused with Dud? You wouldn't want to buy a dud... Perhaps they are marketing this car to the 18-25 year old male pot head or surfer that says Dude far too much. Not sure, but thought it was an odd choice.
There were lots of convertibles to look at. Honda has a new one that reminds me of the Mazda Miata. I thought it could have been cooler looking. Honda makes a nice car.
The other thing I noticed was that many of the cars look like the cars by other manufacturers. Like they are all trying to compete for the same buyer so all the cars regardless of manufacturer have very similar features. Nothing really stands out as "brand x". They seem to be homogenized.
There was a Kia that had the front end of the Jaguar and a few brands that had the same back ends. (Not like GM vs Pontiac but GM vs Jeep or Ford.)

Pricing was interesting. Some of the cars you would think were "cheap" actually had a higher price tag (Kia was a good example of this). Also, there were some cars that seemed awfully expensive for the style and fuel efficiency that they had to offer. With the price of gas these days, I was surprised to see so many gas guzzlers on display. However, there are people making lots of cash and feel it is important to look good in whatever car/truck/Hummer they buy. My car has not gone up much in 4 years which is good.
All in all, it was good to go downtown GR to people watch, look at cars and have something to blog about. : )

Live Music - Truck stop style

Last night I went to a bar to see my good friend Greg (as seen behind a few guitars at the drum set) play with his latest band the Truck Stop Cobras. They are an offshoot of Los Cobras by adding a singer to the three-piece instrumental surf band from Grand Rapids, Michigan. It was their first public performance and it went well.
The music was soulful and had a nice groove to it. Job well done.
I was able to photograph the guys "in action" but it was my first time shooting a band. I am used to studio or outdoor shots. Oh well, here are a couple of the shots. Check them out if you are in the Grand Rapids area and would like a change from the everyday.

The holidays are officially over

Well, it seems that the employed are back to work after recovering in January from a long holiday break. Either that or they are just now are getting UN-buried from the work that slipped away during the holidays. At any rate, those adding employees to their companies seem to be calling now. January was a rather slow month in regards to hearing from companies and this week things have really picked up. I am now getting calls daily about possible opportunities. (This is good.) I hate not working and not hearing from people.
So, to all those people who told me to try and enjoy some of my time off, I am. (This is the first time in nearly 7 years that I have not been working.) It feels weird and I want to work again. I actually enjoy working and helping people out where I can, but I am enjoying some of the down time.

The other thing I discovered on my time off? How little money I need to spend on a daily basis and how much I was spending. (Ouch).
Oh well, this time off has been a good learning experience. (Trying to figure out what I can do, what I will do, and what I won't do for a living.) I know that I do not want to work fast food, be a door greeter or a receipt marker at the big box stores, do tele-marketing, sell insurance, or drive a truck for a living.
At this point, relocating is also not an option. I have had 2 offers to do that and I am not interested in moving. I own a home in town, my friends are here, and my family is within 2.5 hours of me. So, I am not willing to move to Bloomington, IL or Auburn Hills. : (
Call me crazy, but I like it here in GR.