My newest Christmas card is out in the mail.
My old cards are neatly assembled in this gallery.
Many greetings of the day
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Tag Archives: photos
Down to the see in ship-like, high-tech vessels
The America's Cup race isn't until 2013, but San Francisco is gearing up for the major event. This weekend's prelude was the World Series races.
Simulating the yachting lifestyle, M. and I hung out by the Bay. More photos here: https://dee-rob.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/08
Posted with BlogsyWhere the fuck am I?
Dateline: Nighttime. Not in the Serenghetti.
Even without the local labeled wine I drank, thank you Russian River for rolling along next to some grape vineyards, I'm sitting here in 11 shades of crazy.
I may be sleepless from a flock of flamingos yakking it up all night and day. I predict sun cutting in at a sunrise kind of hour, slicing my canvas walls and eyeballs into some kind of daytime. I'm not sure, but I think that's what the sun will do or what it thinks it ought to do.
Before said wine and some huge ass barbecue pit ribs, I watched giraffes. Later the Big Dipper smacked itself onto my retina like a picture book constellation. Straight up, the stars are right where they say they are in the guidebooks.
Where the fuck am I? I am in the craziest place on earth. In California. Nay, in wine country in California, hard by Santa Rosa and Calistoga where folks go to see geysers, rejuvenate in healing waters and drink the local fermented libations, that's where I am. I'm also some place where some other folks imported animals. African animals.
In California. We're all just chilling. I'm smack dab in it. Me, the giraffes, the lemurs, the monkeys we are all from someplace else. But now we are here. Here in California.
You can look it up. Safari West, it's called. I'm not in Africa and neither are the animals from there.
Looks like we all might live.
Very little of interest
No one should really care but me, but I’ve spent the past week moving this website from one hosting site to another. So while no words have appeared in this space, I have been working on the behind the scenes of this weblog.
By way of review, my website was hosted on Bluehost.com, because eons ago WordPress.org, the software on which this page runs, had a promo partnership. It seemed like a good buy, and they were the scrappy new comers in webhosting.
Now, they have grown into suckitude. Once upon a time, if they did an upgrade or wanted you to reset something, the email would be friendly and clear. The other day, they sent one telling me to update my spam protection, and, boom, I deleted a bunch of email that may or may not have been spam based on their instructions. Thanks guys.
When I called the tech line, they offered nothing. Even their “sorry” wasn’t forthcoming, as they went through the steps to determine it was all my fault. There was barely any acknowledgement that their own email lacked pretty crucial information – before doing as we ask make sure everything is all cleaned up over at Postini, because as soon as you do like we’re telling you, you’ll never see that data again.
I think that is what was so frustrating. They turned off my Postini account before I could go through it. Presumably, there my data still sits somewhere in Postini’s servers, unaccessible to only me. I can’t imagine that canceling a subscription equals – POOF! instant data gone.
An email to their founder, Matt Heaton,who implies in his blog that he’s happy to hear from customers, is to date unanswered.
Since my website subscription with Bluehost had only just automatically resumed, I looked around. One thing I found was that I was not alone in my lack of being happy or impressed with their customer service.
The other thing I found, which falls under the allegedly category, and I’m not sure whether it’s fact or bigotry, is that Matt and/or Bluehost may have written some checks in support of California’s Prop. 8, banning gay marriage. He is a Mormon, and the company is based in Utah.
It could just be anti-Mormon rhetoric making the Prop. 8-Heaton connection. Or, it could be true, in which case I’m perfectly happy not giving more dollars out of state that comes back to fuck up my laws.
The only thing people might notice with this change is I’ve added a basic home page at http://dee-rob.com and a new face to my photo gallery.
Other than that, it reminded me that working on websites is a little bit of dorky fun. So, there may be other changes afoot.
Oh, and I’m finally sorting out how to use WordPress.org’s iPad app, so maybe I’ll write more. Pictures like these, look amazing on Apple’s new toy.
Phone writing
I have been unbelievablely not writing. Part lazy, sheer, ugly bone lazy. Part ennui or something like it. Any thought to write has dribbled into lack of action then nothing.
But, I was reading Tony’s Blog Emporium. He’s writing more or trying and so should I. He’s like a champion role model, only of the comedic variety.
Meanwhile, WordPress.org released software for the old Droid telephone I be using. So there’s that.
On the creative brightside, I haven’t totally given up or killed my soul. After taking 36 million pictures or so on our last trip I felt crafty inspired. Awhile back on an impulse buying whim, M. had thrown a giant frame with a mat full of windows suitable for throwing up a collage of memories into our shopping cart. It has haunted me.
Haunting became the right word, when I finally felt resolve to do something with it. Back in the way, way east (or the east that white cartographers decided was east) there’s a nifty little tradition based in Taoism. Because ancestral spirits like to keep an eye on things, and venerating the dead is an important pasttime, you’re likely to find some great old family pictures on a Chinese family’s wall. I don’t know from burnt offerings or lighting joss sticks next to a homemade altar heavy with tangerines and whatnot, but I like cool photos. M.’s mom has great ones. I’ve taken a few pictures of her pictures.
Stepping back, one thing M. and I have in common is families that have clocked some years each generation. I think his grandfather on his mom’s side would have been about 10 years younger than my mom’s dad. This grandfather is the adventurer who headed off of China’s Hainan Islands and found his fortune in Malaysia.
We each grew up with images from early last century, sepia and gray-toned history. Like my grandfather’s wide-brimmed hat and gaiters, a young doughboy headed out to fight the Kaiser’s army.
That and our tremendous egos and equally tremendous cache of photos of each other and ourselves and ourselves together provide the nugget and the expansion if the craft project. A collage of us and of family.
When all is settled, I’ll probably figure out a web version or maybe just post something here with the rejects. A little bit of honoring the ancestors and a little bit of self worship.
More photos of Alaska
I’m done uploading. Tomorrow I may actually write words in this space.
(I’ve added more to the Tracy Arm pics since yesterday, and I added new albums.)
http://dee-rob.com/zenphoto/Alaska/
2008 Edition – Photoshop Christmas card
For everyone out there, many greetings of the season.
Random in Cali
I’m actually writing this completely horizontally on my iPhone. I should be sleeping.
By the way, like the big douche with disposable income I am, I did upgrade to the faster phone. It’s M.’s fault or maybe his company’s. They gave him the latest in corporate tethering, aka a Blackberry.
So, at the mall to buy a bag worthy to hold two cell phones, there was nary a line and about 15 minutes later we had new toys.
Anyway this picture if it comes out was on my walk to work. I couldn’t resist free apricots.
Back in the U.S. of A.
I’m back at work, back at home, back in the U.S. and just plain old back. It’s nice to be back, and I’m hoping after about seven days of sleeping normally, I might even feel back to my old self again.
Meanwhile, I’ve started going through a half a million pictures of Uganda. I took tons. Some of the cream of animal depictions can be found here:
There will be many more to come, along with a lot of verbiage I suppose. For the short term, though, I plan to try to shake what is probably an ordinary head cold, but I imagine to be a rare tropical illness.
Been awhile
After a week (or a tad less) back at work, and some much needed sleep, we’re almost back into our routine (i.e. boring) lives. Thank god.
The fun thing back at work was due to a leave that meant I hadn’t seen my boss since before Christmas, and left on vacation right before we would see each other again, a few official things were a tad delayed in our office. Among them was the official word on annual salaries. Right when I came back, voila, letter about my salary. It was good news all around and a bit surprising. (Well, not that surprising, since for a full year there’s been convos about how the work I was doing didn’t quite match the cash, since the position I was hired to had once been filled by someone half my age with no prior experience.)
Of course, because of past experiences with my so-called real jobs, I’m in a bit of neurotic zone. If past performance is an indicator of future success, then I have a couple more years of impressing the powers that be and taking on more responsibility so my value and earnings increase. Then, I will flame out in an amazing blaze of glory. I wonder how it will be this time.
On the political front, now that I am back in the U.S. of A., I’m in awe of how truly fucked up the Bill and Hill show has become. They were the ones with the campaign chops, the machine, the ultimate strategies. Now it’s a bit sad. Like a prize fighter staying in the ring that one last fight past his prime. Or some other hackneyed metaphor.
Once Obama seemed like the unlikely young also ran, now it seems like his game to lose. My feminist side does weep that Hillary was the best we could do at this historic moment.
Meanwhile, is anyone fucking surprised that McCain is cozy with lobbyists. I don’t believe the grumpy, old man nailed Vicki Iseman, mostly because she doesn’t look the sort who wants to wake up and wash the old man smell off herself.
What amazes me is the McCain hubris. Other politicians according to his world run the risk of being tainted with their associations with fundraisers, corporations, lobbyists and whatnot. But, not John, nope he’s impervious Apparently, all other pols are weak-willed and susceptible, but he has integrity.
I mean obviously, anyone who learned such a lesson in corruption by helping to fuck up the savings and loan industry would now be a pillar among men, right? Someone like that would never again associate with questionable characters and appear to peddle his influence. Oh wait, he would, but he’d no better and his new lobbying friends are the good guys.
Other than that, same old, same old, and I’m happy to be back in it. I also have photos up here: http://gallery.mac.com/dee_rob and here: http://dee-rob.com/zenphoto for different viewing experiences (and so as not to direct co-workers who asked for pics to this particular site of web ignominy).
M. particularly likes these shots.
I can’t believe that his aunt asked if I wanted “black jelly,” and I said yes.
