FRANKENBLOG

I’m only posting to host the photo of my bike so I can send it elsewhere, don’t pay any attention to this post.

-Dan

I’ve been going out, almost daily, and spending time learning about my camera, and how I can maximize it’s potential. I went to the park, on a moderately sunny day to try doing some hi-speed photos. The only things moving fast at all were birds, so I tried to capture them. Not very easy to do. Focusing on a quick target is tough, I didn’t get any good ones of the pigeons, they move too fast, and fly in random patterns.

The seagulls were easier.

This little blackbird was flittering around, and I managed to get a good shot of him.

I size down all of the photos I put on the blog by a large amount, this photo is the one of that bird cropped, at it’s full size.

The Girl brought some crazy heating/cooling face masks from Lush to my place. We decided to apply them at around 2 am. We danced, and took pictures while we waited for them to dry.

While we were dancing, the camera caught some thing odd, that I wasn’t able to replicate: The Reverse Bicep! Behold!

Then when we were all done dancing, and our masks were dry, we both made faces to get the mask to crack and fall off.


I think hers is scarier. Yipes.

-Dan

The other day, The Girl, and her friend Cory invited me to get Vietnamese food with them. I happily agreed. We all got the house specialty: Vietnamese Vegetable Noodle Soup. I also got some Imperial shredded pork rolls. The Girl didn’t have any of those though, she’s a pescetarian (veggie, with fish). It was delicious!

This is her friend Cory.

This is the super Noodle Soup!

Until next time.

-Dan

So for christmas, I sold my point and shoot digi-cam, and bought myself a Digital Rebel XT. Yowza, it’s an amazing piece of machinery. Mix that camera, with a healthy dose of photoshop, and there isn’t much you cant do.

I thought I’d show you some of the pictures I’ve been taking.

This scene looked a lot like it could have been from 1961, so I shot it, threw it into photoshop, and made it look even more like an old photo. I like the way it looks a lot. You may have to right click the picture, and say open in new window, or something to that effect, to see the car as well. It’s a bit large.

I liked the way this looked. All alone on this wall, MUSH! This picture is now my computer’s background.

Sure some of these might look a little “first year photo student” but that’s what I am, this is my first nice digicam! Don’t judge!

There’s this artist Kenji Hirata, and he does really cool graffiti art. This is his work.

He also did a series of Absolut Vodka ads that were pretty cool, although I don’t see what they had to do with vodka.

I was playing around with 30 second exposures in a dark room, and I would stay still, look at the camera for about ten seconds, then move my eyes all around. The effect was retty much a dead on zombie impression. Creepy.

I went to Union Square today, and just sat around taking pictures of people, playing with exposure settings, and generally getting comfortable with my camera. I liked the way this photo looked, because it was so bright out, I had to lock down the f-stop, and throw the iso, and shutter speed up into the thousands. Here are some other fav photos, ala danny!

Super Mario, on the loose!

This is my favorite photo I took all day, look at the jowls on that guy!

I call this one “South-American Gigolo”

Oh noes, it’s teh Batmans!

And at long last: The obligatory flower photo! Isn’t it purdy?

That’s all for now, but I’m going to post pictures of “The Girl” and of our Vietnamese dinner with friends soon!

-Dan

Right now, I’m posting while outside, at the lovely Ferry Building. I get wireless internet, because San Francisco wants to make the entire city WiFi enabled, for free! Information to the masses! There are wireless internet hot-spots all over this city, it makes homework much more fun, because you can do everything from the shade of your favorite tree.

Here’s where I’m posting from:

So, I guess I’ll get around to making a post about my trip to michigan, sans Chuck, Georgia, I.B.S., and strip clubs.

I flew into Detroit on the night of the 22nd, I was supposed to meet my Dad outside of the departures lot, but we missed each other, and I spent an extra hour at the airport looking for him, because he refuses to move into the wonderful world of the cellphone. Finally we find each other, and we head to their new house, which I hadn’t yet seen. I was exhausted from the flight, I got into a fight with two religious zealots on the plane, and I was still upset about it. I wanted to be done traveling. It was odd seeing all of the brown and grey foliage, and the miles and miles of flat, empty countryside.

We get to Dad and Nancy’s (my step mom) new house, and I am actually really surprised, it looks like the kind of place where little kids learn how to ride two-wheeler’s, and leaf piles create hours of fun and games. The house is great. I am instantly more comfortable there than I have ever been at any of Dad’s other places.

In California, I’m a bit of a night owl, generally staying up until around two or three, so once in Michigan, the television became my only friend. Everyone went to sleep around ten o’clock Michigan time, if I were to follow my San Francisco schedule, I’d be awake for another seven or eight hours!

Because I was tired from travel, I got to sleep at three.

I woke up to the smell of cheesy eggs, and smokey links, mmmmmm. I open my eyes, then panic, because I am supposed to meet my best friend Jeff for an early lunch at Zingerman’s Deli! I look at my phone, and relax, because it’s only 9:51, I have plenty of time…whoops, phones on Michigan time. As I realize this, my still powering up phone tells me I have voice mails, and text messages. I get an “Are you standing me up?” from Jeff sent at around 11:20. Shit, I feel bad, so I sheepishly call to apologize. He says it’s no big deal, and that he figured I’d still be asleep.

I have a great breakfast, then Dad drives me over to my Mom’s house. Mom has decorated the entire place, it is amazing looking, every little nook, and cranny is stuffed with holiday spirit. There is also a lot of dog hair everywhere.

She had themes for each area of the house, like the silvery, wintery, fantasy, welcome-to-Narnia christmas dining area

my picture doesn’t do it justice.

I was surprised, we got an oversized Charlie Brown tree this year, it was really sparse, and it was just raining needles, but we all loved it anyway.

Mom got me a sled, and it is a pretty amazing sled at that, but I never got a chance to use it…bummer.

It was surprisingly warm, the night Chuck, and Georgia took me out, it actually rained, and we had a pretty loud thunder storm in the morning. Global warming, people.

The night of the 23rd, Sam took Chuck, and I, along with Ryan Recla, Steve Moody, and Peter Go-Karting in Detroit. It was insane, these karts are stupidly fast, and the track, all indoors, is huge. We have the track to ourselves, and we buy the Gran Prix option, this gives us two time trial races, and one real, off the line race. I of course crash so hard during the second lap of the third race, that I am kicked out.

Let it also be known that there is a FULL bar there. Between races, we were just getting blitzed.

After racing, we went to the cheesiest steak house in Detroit, the Lone Star Steak house, and tried to soak up some of the booze.

Festivus went great, got some good loot, laughed a lot, got to play a marathon session of Risk (the game of world domination). We did the airing of grievances, and feats of strength at Grandma’s in East Lansing.

I had fun, and I look forward to next year’s drunken go-karting christmas.

So on Skype there is a little “Skype me” icon that you can put on your account, this adds you to a list of people, currently on skype, who have their “Skype me” button turned on. So I looked for Japanese people who spoke english in my age group, that lived in Tokyo. I was going to Skype them and ask them about Tokyo, and hopefully they could tell me a few things that might be helpful. The following transcript is insane. The person was insane, and possibly a Harvard grad. She (?) didn’t want to use a mic, only IM.

I give you Oh Em Gee: Japanese edition!

1/2/06 3:17 PM
Dan Maxwell
howdy, I just found you on the skype list, I’m coming to tokyo for the summer, and I noticed you spoke english, so I was hoping I could ask you some questions about Tokyo

1/2/06 3:18 PM
YUKIKO NOMURA
How can I help you?

1/2/06 3:20 PM
Dan Maxwell
Well, I have TONS of questions, I have never been to Japan, but I have always wanted to go, so I’m going to try to get an internship, at an American ad agency there. I need to know what neighborhood I should stay in, and how much it will cost to live in Tokyo for three months.

1/2/06 3:20 PM
…
Also, what things should I see while I’m there? What can’t be missed?

1/2/06 3:21 PM
…
also, you list english as your spoken language, why not Japanese?

1/2/06 3:21 PM
…
also, why no mic?

1/2/06 3:22 PM
YUKIKO NOMURA
Do you want me to chat with you or are you going to question my motives instead

1/2/06 3:23 PM
Dan Maxwell
ok… I guess I’d rather not talk to a weirdo, japanese or not. have a nice day.

1/2/06 3:24 PM
YUKIKO NOMURA
My advice would be to contact the firm that is giving you your internship. They may be able to help you, they know best what you will earn, and therefore what you can afford, also, how close to their office, they will know best

1/2/06 3:24 PM
…
You are a fresh little jerk, enjoy Tokyo, you will be very lonely, nasty little bug

1/2/06 3:25 PM
Dan Maxwell
thanks, for the advice…weird person

1/2/06 3:25 PM
YUKIKO NOMURA
For your information, I attended Harvard, and you are still a jerk

1/2/06 3:26 PM
…
not to mention, that if that is indeed you in that picture, perhaps I should not be rude, God has punished you enough

1/2/06 3:27 PM
Dan Maxwell
Congratulations on attending Harvard, unfortunately, being intelligent doesn’t guarantee you won’t be odd. I’m not saying you’re mean, or ugly, or stupid, just odd.

1/2/06 3:31 PM
YUKIKO NOMURA
Your fixation on odd as you put it stems from yourself..In the words of one of your famous LA Dodger baseball players….Fuck OFF, and as far as ugly…well poeple in glass houses asshole

1/2/06 3:33 PM
…
Caesar si viveret, ad remum dareris.

1/2/06 3:34 PM
Dan Maxwell
Woah, relax, you keep messaging me. And if you re-read that last line I said I WASN”T calling you mean, ugly, or stupid. Also, that jab about my looks was surprisingly painful. I think I’m going to change my picture because of you. How unnecessary. Please stop being mean.

1/2/06 3:36 PM
…
Why would Caesar have me chained to an oar?

1/2/06 3:39 PM
YUKIKO NOMURA
Because simply put…. you are a rude Gaijin and you will learn this only to well in Japan. Just as I suspected a jerk, picture or no, you can’t change what you are

1/2/06 3:40 PM
Dan Maxwell
well you are a rude little japanese girl. I hope more of your countrymen and women are more polite than you.

1/2/06 3:41 PM
YUKIKO NOMURA
bye asshole the pleasure comes from me blocking you\

Holy moley! The people you’ll meet on teh interwebs…

-Dan