Have you lost your camera?

Check here! Someone may have found it.



www.ifoundyourcamera.net

Powerful photos from 2011

http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/the-most-powerful-photos-of-2011



Wow... I find it hard to believe that all of these things happened this year. So much chaos and violence. Kudos to the photographers for capturing these striking moments in history... too bad the list couldn't be longer, and more events, such as those in Libya, couldn't have been shown as well.

Don't buy cheap DVDs if you don't want to fail

Got this e-mail recently. It's a good thing to know. Slightly altered to remove all personal info, just because.



I want to take a moment and relate something interesting that happened.

Your photo collection from your trip occupies 9 DVDs. Since I made two copies, that came out to 18 DVDs required for the task. Because I both burned and verified each disk, figure on an average of 30 minutes per disk, partly because I shuttled back & forth between the burning and doing other things. It took me large chunks of two days to finish the job.

I used some Sony DVD-R blank disks, which took me thru Disk 7, Copy #1. At that point I switch over to Staples brand blank disks. [I had accumulated some money in rewards points at Staples and bought the Staples brand because they were on sale.]

Therefore, I started using the Staples disks with Disk 7, Copy #2. Obviously, Copies 1&2 are identical, and I didn't make any changes to the source files before starting the next burn. The burn process failed about half way thru. I tried a second one, just in case the first disk was defective. It failed identically. At that point I went thru every one of the source files (~4.3 GB of pictures) to verify none of them were corrupt, although that really should not have caused the problem. Also, since this particular disk was very close to its maximum capacity, I shuffled the source files to reduce the size slightly. No joy - same problem happened.

At that point I called it quits. Went to Staples the next day and explained the problem. Their customer service people were great, not questioning why I wanted to return the two spools of disks. The exchange took a while because I no longer had the receipt and the credit card had changed. Got the same Sony disks, as before.

Returned home and finished the burning job without any more problems. The lesson: don't buy Staples brand CD or DVD blank disks.

Your school photos were never THIS bad...

Bahahaha. Here is one of those websites that eats your life. But I love it.

Woooooot mullets! Laser backgrounds! Bad quotes! Prom queens posing with farm animals!



http://www.awkwardschoolpictures.com/



I love how it looks like a time capsule... until you see a lame photo from last year. YES. Bahahaha again.

Matthew Gray Gubler opens a few doors

If you don't know who this guy is, you should check him out. He's got a fun Twitter page (@GUBLERNATION), and plays the fantastic Dr. Reid on Criminal Minds. I just thought that this was cool.



http://flaunt.com/flaunt/whats-your-fridge-matthew-gray-gubler

Dear photograph...

This is a very cool art project, which reminds me a bit of Post Secret. Take a picture of a picture from the past and post it with a brief story.

I'd love to try this sometime!



http://dearphotograph.com/

Summer in the Pacific Northwest

Unfortunately this picture was posted on Imgur with no photographer listed, so I also can't credit it to anyone, but it's so damn true. Most of the country is frying like a slice of French toast, while Washington and Oregon are pulling on their sweaters. Oi.

Bent Objects creator takes on a world of art

I believe I may have directed you to the Bent Objects blog before. Artist Terry Border uses food, wire, and other little things to create humorous characters and scenes, and released a book a while back. (Anyway, in case you've forgotten-- bentobjects.blogspot.com.)

He's just started on a new project in which he interprets other pieces of art in his own, epically twisted way. Oh I am so looking forward to all his future posts!



http://myresponseproject.blogspot.com/



And actually, I wouldn't mind trying my own version of this, too. Hmmm...

How do Pastafarians feel about rice?

Church of the Flying Spaghetti Monster? Can I meet this guy???



http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/07/15/137824732/austrian-man-wins-right-to-wear-pasta-strainer-in-license-photo

Stained glass, pop art style

Dare I say that this is beyond epic? Can I... buy this place and live there??









For this and more epic wins and fails, check out http://wins.failblog.org/2011/07/07/epic-win-photos-stined-glass-windows-win

I... suddenly feel like creating an insane amount of art. Trippy.

Can I be reborn as a tree?

I like to consider myself something of a modern-day hippie, although I definitely don't live in a geodesic dome or grow a garden. But, I love me some oldies, classic rock, and floral prints in hues of burnt orange and yellow. Oh, and trees. I love trees.

So, I found this collection of tree photos to be very deep. Pause and ask yourself, what would you be if you were a tree?...



http://pinterest.com/jenny_doss/if-i-was-a-tree/



If I was a tree, I would feel the universe breathing with me. :)

Lost their meaning, grew their beauty

One thing I love about the mid 1900s is the trend towards futuristic artwork and design. I don't know much about its impact outside of the US, but these Yugoslavian monuments certainly look like someone's take on the Space Age.



http://www.cracktwo.com/2011/04/25-abandoned-soviet-monuments-that-look.html



I think these are all gorgeous and breathtaking. The fact that their significance has been forgotten makes them even more interesting-- I believe, as I stated in my post on the Neo-Nazi codes, that all symbols are arbitrary. So, these could have meant anything, although we could make some guesses based on the location of each piece and the local history. But the fact that I can look at any one of them all day and never know for sure makes me feel as though I am staring into the future. And the past. And my mind melts a little bit as reality shifts.

Fun with giant food

...or very tiny people-- take your pick. I found this blog via the Bent Objects blog (which you should totally check out if you haven't already. You can find it at bentobjects.blogspot.com).

It's got sort of a similar nature, being food art, but this takes on a different perspective, one which I think is pretty cool. Don't you remember pretending that broccoli pieces were trees when you were a kid? And me personally, when I was little, I would pretend that I was a giant monster destroying a city when eating watermelon slices, which were apartment complexes full of people/seeds.

Oh, good times.


http://tinyside.com/

Pit bulls: A baby's best friend

I did not know this, but apparently, pit bulls used to be "nannies" for small children. It's astounding what's become of their breed today.

I believe very strongly in the notion that a bad dog owner is more to blame for a pet's behavior than the pet is.

Good dogs > Bad humans


http://beta.news.yahoo.com/blogs/upshot/pit-bulls-surprising-past-nanny-dogs-195612543.html


I recommend that you look into the links within the article. I love that one of Michael Vicks' former fighting dogs was given an edible key to the city of Dallas. Go look at that photograph. Sweetest dog ever. I fail to see animal abusers as fully human.

The President is folksy?

...interesting notion. But I guess it's true. American idealism is the reason why we still believe in the Old West, the American dream, apple pie, and so on.

But I guess times change?

Anyway, it's interesting to note that waving actually is a pretty weird practice, especially when having one's picture taken. In all honesty, I wonder about a LOT of the poses we assume and gestures we make when people are photographing us! Ahh, subconscious culture.


http://nymag.com/daily/intel/2011/02/president_obama_waving_grudgin.html

A beautiful thought for you to find

Things like this make me happy. I love the notion of people leaving little pieces of happiness scattered around for others to find. And I do believe that everything happens for a reason, so I'd like to think that each person who finds one of these gifts needed it.


http://theblossomingthoughtproject.tumblr.com/



This is similar to a blog here that I've been following--


www.thingsweforget.blogspot.com

Norwegian Icebreaker heads up the Mississippi

(As the e-mail stated it...)


How's this for international cooperation!

Norwegian Icebreaker heads up the Mississippi River.

As you may have seen on the news it's been very cold in Iowa.

So cold, in fact, that the US Army Corp of Engineers has borrowed a visiting Norwegian Icebreaker to clear the Mississippi River for freighter traffic. The Icebreaker is starting near Davenport and working its way northward.


Here is a picture as the hard work of ice breaking begins. Impressive!





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...giving you some scrolling space to add to the element of surprise...








...

Cars that go RAWR

Aaaaaaahhhhhhh. Classic cars... one of the few parts of the old days that even those of us who missed out on that generation can still get a piece of. I want one. This was back when cars were art, and they were hot.

This video takes you back to the old styles, as well as the media that they inspired. Does anybody write this much music about cars nowadays? I don't think so.

*Sigh* I wanna buy one of these.

Enjoy!


http://oldfortyfives.com/CarsWeDrove.htm

Lots of nostalgia

http://www.bentbay.dk/in_oldDays.html


Just some old time banjo music with a ton of memories and photos from around the 1950s. As I've said, I wasn't around to enjoy this stuff, but I still think that it's super cool. and as a 90s kid, I can see which of these things, such as playing "Mother May I" lasted through the decades all the way up until my own childhood. I don't know if it's still around, though.

Cheezburger sucks?

*Sigh*

Oh, the new moral issues that arise with the evolution of technology! One of the first blogs that I ever followed on Blogger was Bent Objects, by artist Terry Border. He's the guy who takes photos of his food/wire/everything art. I love his stuff, and recommend that you check it out.


http://bentobjects.blogspot.com/


Anyway, his most recent blog post is a complaint about Cheezburger and similar websites. You know, the "i can has cheezburgr" cat, etc. People submit photos from everywhere, and the photographer never gets any credit, and this has happened to his own work.


http://bentobjects.blogspot.com/2011/05/cheezburger-network-of-sites-sucks.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+BentObjects+%28Bent+Objects%29


After reading his post and scrolling through comments left by his followers, I'm feeling a bit like I should be taking a step back to think. You've seen the stuff that I've posted, and so far this is barely even a fraction of all the awesome links and e-mails that I've received over the past seven years. Yeah, I've got links that take you right back to the source, and you can see the author, artist, publisher, etc. But I've also got uncredited things. I receieve tons and tons of e-mails with uncredited photos. And hell, if I like them enough, I'll save them to my computer or forward them onward into cyberspace. Never once thought about the photographer.

Sooo... hmm. I'm not really sure what to do at this point. Only post and pass on things that I can actually credit to people? It's only fair. Honestly, I've taken tons of pictures that I'd love to post to Flickr or someplace where they could be enjoyed, but I never have out of fear of having my work stolen.

I guess I'll be working a bit harder now to find out where what I post came from. Less convenient, but perhaps if we all tried a bit harder, more people would be getting credit for their talents.