Monday, September 1, 2008 | by nathan

Vintage Post-Apocalyptic

Lake Optima, Oklahoma, July 2008. It was a post-apocalyptic "America’s Roadways" kind of stop, and almost every photo I took there lends itself to black and white photography.

Incidentally, I’ve found that it works much better taking color photos and then converting them to black and white in photoshop rather than use a black and white setting on a camera. Then I play with brightness, contrast and curves before finally running them through the "Peach II Vintage and Crack" action from the 52 Actions Set from Itty Bitty.

Sunday, August 31, 2008 | by nathan

Up

In honor of this month’s banner, I’m thinking that the Daily Photos are going to be black and white for awhile, by which I mean, of course, as long as I feel like it.

Saturday, August 30, 2008 | by nathan

The City in Question

From the Petroleum Club, looking north. Mine & Brian’s old apartment building, at 5th and Broadway, is just below the center of the picture.

Friday, August 29, 2008 | by nathan

Sam Fridays Bonus: With Thanks To Brian

Friday, August 29, 2008 | by nathan

Sam Fridays: Sam’s BACK!

Sam loved Colorado. Like, a lot. Like, so much that in the month that we’ve been back he’s been noticeably less exciteable in general. Most evenings when we get home he just sorta lays there, looking at us like, "God, you people are boring."

Really, who can blame him? In Colorado he got to go on hikes:

Where he saw - and smelled - gray squirrels and any number of other exciting things that caused his little doggy heart to pound and his ears to perk with excitement:

Even when he was getting almost too tired to keep going, he still didn’t want to go back to the cabin:

He was sad to leave, and it’s shown in his decidedly less-than-enthusiastic behavior over the last few weeks (next week’s post will likely focus more on that). I could tell the moment we got in the car for the 11-hour drive home that he didn’t want to go. Just look at that punim:

I volunteered to take the backseat for the entire return trip to Oklahoma, because I didn’t want my little brother to have to deal with Sam’s antics while he tried to sleep. So, I let Brian drive, I gave up shotgun to my bro for the first time in my life, and I packed, my camera ready to go when Sam got all cute. Mostly, the poor dog, sad to be leaving the Colorado he’d come to love, slept on me. Or under me:

When he wasn’t lying down, he loved to stare out the window. Like me, his favorite bits of scenery were the mostly-flat ones in eastern New Mexico, the Texas Panhandle, and Oklahoma:

All told, I was pretty proud of the way he did on the way back. I’ve been, at times, significantly less proud of his behavior since we’ve returned, but I’ll discuss that more next week.

Friday, August 29, 2008 | by nathan

“John McCain Doesn’t Get It”

Barack’s speech, like the rest of the convention, knocked it out of the park. As far as things he needed to do - I think he did it. He was specific with both policy prescriptions and how-tos. He managed to humanize himself and to attack John McCain without resorting to pettyness or identity politics. He addressed the controversial and scary issues of the day with grace and through finding common ground.

McCain certainly pulled an interesting - if not also a blatantly pandering - by choosing Sarah Palin, but now that things are off and rolling I’m going to just try to enjoy the fall and not get too mentally ill about the whole thing. The way to accomplish this, of course, is for no one to say the words "Flag Pin" to me.

Friday, August 29, 2008 | by nathan

Golf Is “Flog” Spelled Backward

Brian’s taken up golf since we went to Colorado, and I have to say, not only is he enjoying it immensely, but he’s getting really good. I’d much, much rather watch people play and take photos, which works out for everybody.

Thursday, August 28, 2008 | by nathan

Clinton and Biden

Once again, the Democratic National Convention hit it out of the park. Bill Clinton, whose reputation with me has been tarnished in the past year - I know, right, what does it take with me? - delivered exactly the speech he needed to both to win over his and Hillary’s supporters and to redeem his legacy somewhat after his campaign gaffes in the spring. He messed up good while he was in the Oval Office, yes, but he really was a great president and the country was better off with him in power than the guy who came after him.

Beau Biden’s introduction of his father was deeply moving; when Obama’s term is up, I say we nominate this guy.

Then Joe BIden got up to speak, and despite a few small mistakes and one "Freudian Slip" that was absolute gold, he gave what has to be the best speech of the convention so far. It was heartfelt and passionate, and it hit just the right notes on foreign policy that it needed to. I think once people hear him talk about how to redeem America’s leadership in the world, it will, at the very least, be a choice that most will have to think long and hard about. I can’t wait to see what Obama and Biden will do once in office. Great things, I’m sure. Anyway, here are the speeches:

Also, if you’re at work or somewhere where you can’t be taking up valuable time listening to speeches, the MP3s of the big speeches of the Convention are available for free download at Audible.com. Just click right here. (Sign up required but worth it).

Thursday, August 28, 2008 | by nathan

Ah-Wooga and Boomer Sooner

This Saturday is the first University of Oklahoma football game, against Chattanooga, in Norman. And, with that, my favorite time of year, namely, The Fall, aka Football Season, aka The Holidays, aka You Pretty Much Get The Picture, begins.

Wednesday, August 27, 2008 | by nathan

Meta Meta Blah Blah Blah

Ugh. I hate meta-posts, and yet, unfortunately, there’s almost no way around them. They’re like announcements in church, and in that spirit, I’ll try to keep it short and to the point.

I’ve been reading a lot lately. Ever since the summer started I’ve been devouring books almost faster than is possible to track, and in the midst of that I’ve found myself completely bereft of any desire to write the long-ish posts about each individual book I read. Instead, I’ve taken to penning a quick paragraph on the 2008 Books page along with the links to each book’s page on Amazon. In addition I try to keep my eyes forward, so to speak, as to the next few books I’m planning to read, and so if you see anything there that you’d like to read along with me, just let me know. The list may vary a bit as we go forward, especially as I’ve been reading a lot of graphic novels lately, mostly from the Joss Whedon oeuvre, and so if you have any recommendations I’d love to hear them. I usually read them in about an hour or two, but they’ve all been wondrously compelling - if rather easily digestible - stories. My next entry, though it’s not on the list, will be Joss’ comic-book sequel to Serenity.

In other blog notes, I must apologize for having gone so many weeks without any news or photos of Sam. It’s not that I’ve had a lack of news - if anything, the opposite is true and the dog’s been so blog-worth lately I’ve had trouble choosing what to write about. Problem is that the last few Fridays have been so jam-packed with activity, what with the beginning of a new school year, my ten-year reunion, and trying to squeeze in a decent night’s sleep where I can. I promise Sam will be back in force this Friday and through the fall; like election coverage, you cannot escape.

That concludes this meta-announcement-blogging-about-blogging-entry; to reward you for indulging me like this, here’s a rendering of what my yearbook picture likely would’ve looked like if I’d graduated high school in 1978 instead of 1998:

Oh, and there’s plenty more where that came from.