Now what to do...............

So last Thursday I got my prints back from Shutterfly, who do an excellent job, and got them mounted and matted. The picture above is the other one I will submit for the Gallery if the first one sells. I bought frames for them and I have dropped the black and white chair picture off at the gallery. But now I have a problem, a good one. I had the picture above matted in about the same color as the palm cross. When I had this printed I had it done glossy. Now I like this one more than the other and think I should put this in at the opening. I have it framed in a light tan frame and it speaks to me more than the other picture. I think I should go with this picture first. My gut tells me this is better for many reasons. Subject, color, appeal and so on. This is more like my photo hero Eggleston than the other picture.

What do you think?

Panic in my brain

This is a picture of the Sidney Lanier Bridge in southern Georgia. It takes one too and from Brunswick, Georgia. Ever since I had a panic attack going over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge, a bridge I had driven over countless times, I have not been able to drive over bridges that have any height to them. This is one of those bridges. I have no explanation for this as the panic attack came out of the blue. This bridge has 185 feet of clearance from the river below at its highest point. So even though I wanted to check out Brunswick for photo opps there was no way in hell I was going to go over this bridge.

When I had the panic attack I was close to the top of the Sunshine Skyway. This is 173 feet above Tampa Bay. Go figure I want to stay away from bridges this high. This is not a place I need to experience a mental freak out.


If you have a panic attack you will understand.

And I know one person who reads this blog who will find this to be totally funny because I gave this person a whole load of crap for not wanting to drive over these things. Payback from the brain is a bitch. :)

Google these bridges for the facts. Interesting.

Get a Guru

One of the trips I made on while vacation was to Tarpon Springs. Just trying to find some next little things to photograph. One of the neat little stores is this place called "Get a Guru". They usually have tons of different scents of handmade soap. This time they did not have many scents. Business has been good lately. They use olive oil with assorted scents. I bought one with basil and anise. It smells great. One strange side effect of the scent is that last few days when I have come home from work the house smells like the soap. At first It was wondering what the hell the smell was. I was an unexpected pleasure.

Its Friday. Ye Haw. Will be going out to see folk artist Ruby C Williams tomorrow and also dropping my picture off for the art show. Trick or Treat and enjoy your extra hour of sleep.

Off to work..............

Open for Who?

Most big banks are making huge profits, not lending money, paying big bonuses and raising rates on credit cards to huge apr's. Despite the fact the media would have you believe the housing market is recovering I say it is not recovering. If not for the tax credit there would be very little in the way of home sales. Gas prices have risen 30 cents in the last 30 days. GM needs more money. The recovery is stalled in my opinion.

The tax credit for homes should expire so that prices would free fall to a affordable level. Once this was achieved then you would see new home starts rise. I think they are still too high. That is still the case for much of the Tampa area.

Most people did not get raises in 2009 and I bet companies will use the poor economy as the reason for no increase in 2010. No increase in salary means no recovery in the economy. I know that some people in my company will have gone three years with no increase. As of January it will be two years for me. It is not like my cost of living has decreased in the last two years.

Until people see reasonable increases in take home pay the only people who will see any benefit in the economy are corporations.

Heavily manipulated picture from a BBQ joint in Woodbine, Ga.

Running Late

Running late this morning. Quick post.

We got hammered with rain last night. Been getting hot and humid again. Were is the fall weather.

I will start posting some vacation pictures on Flickr tonight. I got some great shots. I am thinking of taking a bunch of my junk to sell at a flea market soon. They charge $9.00 for the table. Good way to get rid of some stuff. Price it low and watch it fly away.

The picture is charcoal kilns. These are near Dunnellon, Florida. I could not believe it when I saw these. Never had a clue these things were anywhere in Florida. Very neat find.

U BULY U

It was so fun going back to work yesterday. We all had to go in early for a meeting. We got bitched at for a half hour. Thanks for the comments and veiled threats. We appreciate it.
We have gone from 26 employees in the Florida market to 16 employees in the last year and are expected to be able to do the same job. Seems a little unrealistic to me. We did not get a raise this year and I bet none will be coming in January. Time to ratchet up the job seeking. What to do.......... Once again he brought religion in a meeting. We have been sold and he just had to mention that one of the new owners is a Mormon bishop, like the current president our company. Stop with that crap. I COULD NOT CARE LESS.

Keep your eyes out as I will begin to post pictures from vacation. There as some goodies.

Picture taken in Ybor City on News Years day.

My show submission

Back a few posts ago I mentioned that I wanted to put some work in the Tampa Artist Emporium. Well with money being very tight I have put that on hold. However I stopped in on Thursday for look around and ran into a guy who used to work for me at Big Lots. It has been 8 years or so since I had seen him. Well come to find out he and his wife are co-owners of the gallery. We started talking about the shop and they told me about an upcoming show for emerging artists. The show is called "Sticks of Fire" a Tampa Theme Show. They thought there was one spot still left for the show and said I should put something in the show.
Well I submitted the picture above and got accepted for the show. So the picture above will be going in and hopefully it will sell. If it does sell I can put in another picture as the works get to stay in the gallery for a month. I am going to get this professionally matted and framed and see what happens. Keep your fingers crossed. I know mine will be. The picture was taken in an alley in Ybor City. I think I will name it Ybor's Torture.

Avett Brothers Live at NPR

Now I know I post music that many of you may not like but here is a band on the move.
I saw the Avett Brothers at Springfest in 2007 and they put on a great live show. Some much energy from a band playing music of this style was music was fantastic.
They just released their first major label record which was produced by the master record producer Rick Rubin. If you do not know Rick Rubin check him out. He is the best in the business these days by a long shot. Anyhow their album was number 16 in the top 200 albums in the U.S. the last time I checked. When you think about that it really is amazing considering how much crappy overproduced music the public buys and how much real music get lost these days. It is a testament to how good these guys really are. Congratulations.

Repent Now

My immediate supervisor is disappointed because I went on vacation this. Because we are short a person in the office due a health issue we have been shorthanded. I offered to delay my vacation until we came back to a full staff and you chose not to accept that offer. You said take it next year. Well there are several reasons that is not acceptable. I am not a slave to you or the corporation. It is me and my life before work. We also have been purchased by a new corporation and who knows what changes they will make in HR policies. We earn our vacation time and while it may mean nothing to you it does mean something too me. It is clear you really do not know me as a person, although you think you have quite the clear vision. If I offer to delay my vacation I am doing it because I feel it is the right thing to do for my "FELLOW CO-WORKERS". You should have thought about that. You were not thinking about that at all.

Your whole vision is clouded because I know you that you do not like me one single bit. I know you wanted me to be fired earlier this year. You think I make too much money. You have told people that you are not sure of what my value is to the company. Since you have terminated so much staff over the past 18 months I am now doing the jobs of two and half other employees beside what I am supposed to be doing. How the hell is one supposed to properly do ones original job when you are spread so thin. Remember I hear all you have to say about me. You view of me is so clouded by dislike you have no idea who I am.

You claim to be this super Catholic and are always trying to sneak little Christian themes in conversation where you think you can. Believe me I notice this and it pisses me off. You see the thing is I do not care if you are a Christian and want to pass some of this of were you think you can. Your actions show me that you need to practice what you preach. Go back and read your bible and understand what it is saying to you. REPENT NOW.

Trials of Life

Another long time friend of our family passed away yesterday. Barbara Grieder passed away yesterday at the age of 65. When my brother and I were kids we spent a fair amount of time with her daughter Laurie, as we were all pretty much the same age. When my brother had his race team Barbara's brother worked on the team with my brother and Web Lewis who passed away two months ago. It must be tough when you get to that stage of life when you start to see your friends pass away. Rest in peace Barbara.