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Photography | Nov 2008 | M.McKennedy

Since January 7th, 2008 I have been taking one photograph for every day of the week and creating a gallery of them.  I call this series of galleries Things I Saw.  The November gallery has been posted.

click the image to visit the gallery

The Things I Saw project began as a reaction to receiving a new digital camera from my mother-in-law last Xmas.  I decided that I wanted to try to shoot one ‘good’ photograph per day for every day of the year. I have not missed a day so far.  I have taken a total of 12,394 photographs to date of which 330 have been posted in the Things I Saw Photo Galleries.
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This experiment has had it’s challenging moments. Some days I have had to seek out the photograph for that day. Other days the photo just exposed itself and I just happened to be ready with the camera. This month has been more difficult due to “daylight savings”. I leave for work at 7am and get home close to 5pm so there isn’t much time for me to get daylight photos. That explains why you will see many night shots, or staged shots in this months gallery. I keep a camera with me every where I go and sometimes I just point the camera out the moving car’s window and shoot. Digital photography…how did I shoot photographs before you came along?

I have many ideas as to what to do with a year’s worth of photos and data about those photos. I would like to see the average times during which the photographs were taken, the various subject matter and who knows what else really. I already put together a video of all the photographs from January – June set to the song Weird Fishes / Arpeggi by Radiohead (check it out below or see it’s real home here) and I am sure that once all the photos have been collected for the entire year I will be putting together another video showcasing the entire collection.

The titles of the photographs you will find in November’s gallery are:

1. November Leaves :: 2:45pm :: November 01, 2008
2. School Bus Light :: 12:45pm :: November 02, 2008
3. Extracted 18-Wheeler :: 5:17pm :: November 03, 2008
4. Time To Vote :: 4:11pm & 4:51pm :: November 04, 2008
5. A Happy Man :: 6:20pm :: November 05, 2008
6. Sunset Over Williston :: 4:43pm :: November 06, 2008
7. Heading Home From Work :: 4:51pm :: November 07, 2008
8. Patrick’s Pizza Oven :: 7:27am :: November 08, 2008
9. Cambridge Junction Bridge :: 7:16am :: November 09, 2008
10. The Eye Of Kai :: 2:18pm :: November 10, 2008
11. Tractor Trailer :: 7:40am :: November 11, 2008
12. Dying Deer :: 7:23am :: November 12, 2008
13. The Price Of Gas II :: 4:12pm :: November 13, 2008
14. Sailing Lake Champlain :: 4:11pm :: November 14, 2008
15. Distorted Plant Stalks :: 4:00pm :: November 15, 2008
16. Coffee Beans :: 11:52am :: November 16, 2008
17. Coffee Beans II :: 8:04pm :: November 17, 2008
18. Off To School :: 7:02am :: November 18, 2008
19. The Road :: 5:33pm :: November 19, 2008
20. Street Sign :: 7:45,7:47,7:48am and 4:45pm :: November 20, 2008
21. Shelburne Road :: 4:48pm :: November 21, 2008
22. Saturday Snow Storm :: 7:51am :: November 22, 2008
23. Grazing :: 9:37am :: November 23, 2008
24. Nashville Road :: 7:22am :: November 24, 2008
25. Bridge Rt. 2 :: 4:33pm :: November 25, 2008
26. Rocking Horse :: 2:19pm :: November 26, 2008
27. Everest K2 Typewritter :: 12:12pm :: November 27, 2008
28. Sparks :: 5:22pm :: November 28, 2008
29. Snow-Capped :: 3:26pm :: November 29, 2008
30. Orniment :: 2:19pm :: November 30, 2008

All photographs are the property of me, Michael McKennedy. If you wish to use any images in any form of media please contact me as I am sure that we can work something out. Just do me a favor and don’t steal from me! It’s not nice.

Article | Nov 2008 | M.McKennedy

Calendar, spreadsheets, documents, maps, video, photographs, chat, video chat, themes, labels, oh and don’t forget email!  All of this from one email application?  From one FREE email application?  Yes!  Thank you Google!

Gmail (click image for larger view)

I assume you use email.  You are alive, you have a computer, therefore you must use email!  There are different classifications of email users, which could be another article in itself, but Gmail offers enough forms of customization to attract all types of email users – from the ‘poweruser’ to ‘emoticon abuser’ – Gmail is a breath of fresh air in the world of email!

Before Gmail came along (for me a few years ago) I dabbled in YahooMail and Hotmail for free email and Thunderbird and Outlook/Outlook Express for desktop apps.  Hotmail is a load of crap!  I will just leave it at that.  Yahoo lost me about eight years ago.  I don’t really recall what caused me to stop using YahooMail but I did.

Just last week I was at a co-worker’s desk and she had Gmail open and I noticed some text at the top of her Gmail account, it looked different from what I was looking at on my own Gmail account.  I didn’t want to stare so I made a mental note to find out what Google was telling her (and not me) and went back to my desk.  Within a few minutes I was submerged in work and forgot to check my own Gmail account.  About an hour later while talking with another co-worker I was asked, “hey, have you seen themes for gmail yet?”  It clicked, the notification in Gmail was alerting the user that something new had been added (which seems to happen quite a bit)!  I changed tab focus over to my open Gmail window, hit the refresh button but did not see any notification.  I clicked ‘settings’, and didn’t find any mention of themes!  So I did what any modern person would do when they have a question – Google it!  I typed in Gmail themes and within seconds found out that Gmail had rolled out themes and that if I didn’t have the option yet that I could expect to see it within a short period of time.  When I got home I logged into Gmail and there it was…a notification telling me out themes for Gmail!  I browsed the many variations and ended up with a theme called ‘Shiny’.  I must tell you though, I am not one to typically sit around and play with the look of the applications I use.  I am not into have one hundred ‘skins’ for my media player but here was Gmail telling me that they were giving me a gift and it wasn’t even my birthday so why was I so excited?

Themes are just a small part of the Gmail world.  Google Docs offers online spreadsheets and document storage/collaboration for free.  Google Chat incorporates chat right into the email application and now offers video chat (which by the way works quite well) and the ability to chat voicemail messages to a mobile phone and it works with AOL chat.  (I never did use AOL for much of anything but chat.)  Then there is Google Calendar which has become my one source to store all of my appointments.  My wife and I share a calendar so we can get synchronize and I have at least 2 other calendars I use for work.  I schedule meetings through Google Calendar and if I have to travel I am looking up my route on Google Maps!  That’s a whole lot of Google!

The world of email has been turned on it’s head with Gmail.   I work in the technology industry and everyone, and I mean everyone has a Gmail account! Messages are treated like conversations (unless you have used Gmail you probably don’t know what I am talking about), calendar access, Google Docs, maps, photo/video storage and chat right in one convenient place (the pre-stages of ‘cloud computing?’)!  These are just a few of the features (there are many, many more!) that Google has decided to give us, and to that I say….Google…is there anything you can’t do?

Interview | Nov 2008 | M.McKennedy

Yesterday I sat down with an old friend for a photo-shoot and interview.

Typewriter and Michael (left to right)

Michael: “Hello Everest K2 Typewriter, is it alright if I call you Everest?”

Typewriter: “Sure…you can call me anything at all really.  I just want some attention!  You haven’t pushed my keys in quite a long time!”

Michael: “Yes, you did get the shaft didn’t you?  There was a time when you were one of my main writing tools.  Then I was introduced to the Internet and computers and from that day on you sat on a dusty shelf.  I feel bad now!”

Typewriter: “Yes, you bastard!  Finally you admit to your abuse!  So does this mean that you are going to get me some new ribbon?”

Michael: “I wouldn’t get your hopes up!  You are nearly useless now.  I keep you around for historical purposes and nostalgic reasons only!  Your keys are hard to push.  You are loud!  You need a thorough cleaning and all you can really do is print letters on paper!  Did I say nearly useless?”

Typewriter: “So, why the interview?  Why the photo-shoot?”

Michael: “Well, I was looking for something to photograph and I saw you sitting on the floor behind a chair in my bedroom and I thought about the good times we had together…drinking whiskey, smoking butts, typing as though I was Charles Bukowoski! (Note: I am so glad that I pulled myself out of that hole!) That’s when I pulled you out and set you on the table and here we are….”

Typewriter: “Seems like your mind is made up.  Is there any way that I can convince you that I am much better than one of those damn computers?  I mean really, they rely on electricity!  How primitive can you get?  With me you just make sure I have ribbon and paper, that’s it!”

Michael: “You make a good point but not good enough!  You are an old friend but you have been officially replaced.  It’s back on the dusty shelf for you! Thanks for the photos and keep an eye out for your royalty check! hehehe…..”

Everest K2 circa 1950′s

click any image for a larger (therefore more exciting) view

Rocking Horse by Michael McKennedy (click image for a larger view)

The photo to the right was taken on Pine Street, in Burlington, Vermont.  Yesterday I took 5 minutes out of my work day at Dealer.com to walk across the street to Speeder & Earls to get some fresh Espresso Blend coffee beans.  On the way back, while enjoying the delicious aroma of the beans, I glanced over to the left upon an old-school rocking horse (Do you recall the time in your life when sitting and bouncing on a rocking horse was all the entertainment you needed?  I do.) sitting near the entrance to The Lamp Shop.  Not old-school as in – made of wood, lead paint flaking, clunky and decaying, I am talking about the plastic version with springs.  Springs that could easily pinch the flesh of some curious little fingers.  The kind that I grew up with in the 1970′s.  Anyway…The Lamp Shop is know for it’s interesting decor so I snapped this photo for this month’s version of the Things I Saw Photo Gallery.

Oh, and….I am drinking a fresh brewed cup of the Espresso Blend coffee right now.  And the answer is yes, the scent of the coffee was no where nearly as wonderful as pleasure derived from drinking the thick brown stimulant.

Bridge On Rt. 2 by Michael McKennedy

I wasn’t too confident yesterday about shooting a ‘good’ photograph for my Things I Saw Photo Gallery but then I was driving down Rt. 2, it was dusk and I saw this bridge over the Winooski River.  I snapped the photo while driving at about 35 MPH.

Since most of my daylight hours are spent inside working the only opportunities I get for photographs are too and from work – on the way too work I usually don’t stop to take photos because I don’t enjoy being late.  On the way home it’s always dark so I end up with lots of night shots.  I am quite pleased with this one.  Sometimes my favorite photos are the ones that I could not predict and I just pull out the camera and shoot.

Music….I listen to it in the car on my twenty-five mile commute to work.  I listen to it while I work my standard eight hour shift.  I also keep music playing in my house.  I usually create a playlist per month on the old iPod (it really is old, it’s an iPod Mini and must be five years old) and I put it on shuffle.  What the hell did I do before I had an iPod?  Well…at home I had one of those clunky twenty-five CD changers (it has been retired to the basement for potential future use and replace by a cord that attaches to the iPod) and I would put that on shuffle but in the car I was stuck skipping songs on CDs….oh iPod, I am so thankful that you came along….am I talking to my iPod again?

So why the top ten list?  You (the reader) might not really care what I have been listening to and to that I would say, “then stop reading now and go away (but do come back)”!

Anyway…here are ten songs that I listened to quite a bit back in October of 2008.  The number one song does not necessarily mean that I think this is the best song…in other words this list is not in any particular order.

1. Dead Kennedys – Buzzbomb From Pasadena (This song is a bit dangerous, makes me “put the petal to the metal” but since I drive a Kia (it’s a long story) I don’t have to worry about speed too much, the thing probably tops out at eighty MPH!)
2. Digitalism – Pogo (I really don’t know much about the band Digitalism – I was turned on to them by a co-worker but they often pump music into my ears, damn good music too!)
3. Modeskeletor – Happy Birthday (I was turned on to Modeskeletor from the Radiohead website)
4. Metric – Give Me Sympathy (off the unreleased newest album)
5. One Little Plane – The Snails Are Out (a beautiful song…simply beautiful! I think that I was turned on to this band from Mr. Yorke (Thom Yorke of Radiohead that is) – I don’t know him personally but he sure does have good taste!)
6. Radiohead – Last Flowers To The Hospital (I just can’t get enough of this one…as a matter of fact, I am going to listen to it now!)
7. Stone Roses – Fools Gold (aka “I Am The Resurrection” – this one takes me way back to 1989)
8. UNKLE – What Are You To Me (it’s just a great song! that’s all!)
9. Portishead – Machine Gun (the name couldn’t be more fitting, this song really does resemble the sound of a machine gun, wait…a terrific sounding machine gun?)
10. Metric – Joyride (from the unreased new album (possible album title? ‘Help I Am Alive’ – this one was number one for September)