Close Meditations of a Visual Kind

Not sure I've the heart to tell the Border Collie Bros that today being Ofuroyama's birthday is a bit of a... prank. Just a bit though.

Saw the gist of this elsewhere, the one with the Star Wars theme. Thought I ought to repost or something, because, well, yes, snort. Popper told me nay, don't repost it. So we did the newest Fruity Product thing (iSteal) and here we are...

( Popper's Holiday Greetings )

( Pacific Northwest, Near This Time Of Year )

Why do I photograph stuffed toy otters, you don't ask which is OK because I'm not exactly going to answer. Though I'm also not exactly leaving you in the dark, either.

October is an odd month for me, and after last September with some more similar events added to the memory tree I find myself pausing at certain odd thoughts running through my head. In short, lots of oddness. Sort of like a grown man playing with stuffed toys.

I've been riding this third stone from the star around that same star for nigh onto 21,184 days now, which is 508,416 hours or so of varied enjoyment. This is one of the thoughts that spun out of another one over the weekend, and this one is related to a measuring device called a Hobbs Tachometer. Tachometers usually measure the frequency of revolution of some object, such as the engine in an automobile. Hobbs Tachometers don't measure revolution. They measure time, usually in hours. They're used on machinery that will need particular types of maintenance at regular intervals, just as a car needs the oil changed at certain intervals usually measured by distance. These other machines may or may not be going somewhere in distance, but they are going someplace in time.

Like my Ford 8N tractor. Tractors are one of those devices that frequently use Hobbs Tachometers because they need maintenance and oil and other fluid changes after so much time operating. Measuring time, but not telling time.

But that's not the thought that I thunk over the weekend; that one came along today while I meditated on that thought thunk over the weekend. That thought involved the fact that I, Me, let's see oh yes, that part of me that Rene Des Carte described with the 'Cogito, ergo sum' comment, I don't feel old. In fact, I'm not at all sure how old I am. I mean, really, I don't know. What time am I?

Now, this vehicle that I'm operating, if you will, the one that let me bounce out that comment about 508,416 hours plus some bit and counting, the one with the sensors that let me perceive environmental space and the bio-mechanical activators to move through that environment, sometimes creaks and groans and pops and such from the wear and tear of 508,416 hours of operation. I mean, it's a fairly good bio-mechanical vehicle, mostly self-repairing with some fuel and some rest and some raw materials with which to refurbish. It is still showing some signs, just like Sydney SubaruOutback does, of going around the block, or that star, a few times.

But me, the operator if you will, I don't feel much different in a lot of ways than I did when the vehicle could claim a mere 157,776 hours on its Hobbs Tachometer. In fact, I don't feel a lot different than 61,368 hours, when some of the fellows that I went to school with at the time started giving me a hard time (that would persist for another 52,584 hours) because I still played with stuffed toy animals.

The stuffed toy animals are somewhat peripheral to this philosophical treatise of me, myself, I not feeling Old. What isn't peripheral at all is how this thought caused me to pause and look around my current universe here, and think 'Yanno, I expect this is something that my parents, my brother, my sister, and countless others felt over the passage of far more of those hours than I care to enumerate because I'd need scientific notation and it would look something like, oh, 92 x 10 to the power of 11 or some other fantabulously large number. Every now and then, the absence of those same individuals brings me to a pause as well, like when I think 'Gee I need to tell my brother that he'll really enjoy it. Oh. Right. Don't have that phone number any more, different Plane of Existence. Those pauses make the Vehicle Operator (as it were) pause and do a self-check of sorts.

And the answer still comes back, Right, the Hobbs is turning over but how old am I? I'm... dunno.

Then I see one of these photographs I made either of or with one of the Otterz Mob and I smile again, gleeful, joyful, maybe wishing I could speak Klingon. Because all those hard times those fellows gave me about playing with stuffed toy animals some, oh, 447,048 hours or so ago? All that D00d, you're so weird to still be playing with little boy toys? I received money for one of those pictures. Someone paid me for that play. Revenge is best served cold. It's sweet, too.

And if all of that seems sort of disjointed and doesn't make sense? That's OK. I'm going to go for a walk with my dogs now.

And you know who you are...

Two Lumps Today!

It's so totally true, and one of the reasons I so like you blokes.

Maybe the last in the grouping, depends on if I get enough time today to work up another one for variety. Deadline for submissions to Camera Club #1 for Tuesday coming meeting is Sunday evening.

( High Key Devilish Otterz )

Again, selected from previous work rather than spending time in Studio, and post-processing to achieve the High-Key effect. Appreciate your comments so far; for those able to take the poll (crossposting to another blog, where there is a poll capability), please do so. You don't need to feel 'qualified', as that bit is a game of sorts. How will the poll results compare to the actual competition judge results?

( Otterz Love Sashimi, Submitted to Camera Club Colour B )

I've been cross-posting Pic'o'Day postings, starting here and crossing to LJ. However, the source host, Flickr, has made the whole process a bit more time-consuming with a Shiny! New! Improved! viewing page. I've verified the process used today (not crossposted, because over on LJ there's a poll involved and I'm still unable to submit polls here) works on LJ. It will probably work here as well, as a picture poll.

On another level, it's got me thinking harder about obtaining my own domain and hosting my own photos...

I feel like Tanuki in the fable about the tea house. Too hot! Too hot! And like Tanuki, running around doesn't really help much.

The past couple of nights are quite loud outside. Not people loud. Crickets, frogs, probably cicadas, and all of it combining to create a sonorous cacophony. It is impressive; not so loud that a television (with windows closed and AC running) can't drown it out. However, opening the door to take out Houdini for evening constitutional, or the Kittehs of Apocalypse, and the sound envelops you.

During the day, cicadas sing as well (or is it play, actually, since they make their sounds by rubbing their legs together as crickets do), and lo those many years ago I learned a local 'saying' that when the cicadas sing it is officially hot. This is related to ... well, biology of course, because they don't get energetic enough to sing until ambient temperatures get quite warm enough.

Firesmith commented to my pool photos theme that he'd like to see something cool (like, in a pool) continue. So here we are. The photo itself is a link to the Flickr site. Click on it; it's the first in the series. Then look for the little 'projection screen' icon in the 'Set' box to the right and click that. Watch the series as a slide show.

( Flamimgo Resort, Las Vegas Waterslide... )

( Is that a Banana in your belt, or are you just happy to see me? )

The event? Fred-Con. That's the name we gave it, the group of us who in some cases knew each other face-face, in others knew each other via Blogspace, and all of us knew Skippy & Fat Fred Otterz. Someone suggested we ought to get together. Someone else said sure, where? And... Lost Wages, Nevada got mentioned.

What happens in Lost Wages, mostly stays there. Mostly. This is during brunch (bit late to be like Breakfast, really, too early to be Lunch) our first morning there. Otterz and Humanz getting together for a meal, getting to know each other face-face. Even the waiter got into it with us. Grand time.

Posting Pic'o'Day now because this evening I will be at Hospital. Morning chores on teh Ranch are done. Laid in more feed (the never-ending story), replaced a couple of the old feed barrels due to age and cracks in either the plastic barrels or the lids. Yes, I said plastic. The kind used to import olives and peppers from Greece, big barrels, they hold 250 pounds/ 113.6 kg of feed and are weather-proof. Those barrels/lids being replaced are on the order of 8 - 10 years old, and they live outdoors here in North Central Baja Jorja through the heat and sun of summer and the freezing of winter.

OK, so our freezing isn't usually as low nor as long as say South Dakota. It does freeze here. Froze here quite a bit, for the geography, this past winter.

Those cracked barrels (and a few lids) are no longer weather proof. The plastic however is still useful for other things, and likely to show up in other projects as a result. Once it's totally worn out, then we recycle it. Best we can do given circumstances.

Also filled Forrest NissanPickup with petrol, plus a bit for Herself's yard tractor which gets a lot of use around here. Harrison Ford8N Tractor also gets a workout, but he's a bit much weight for mowing over the septic tanks or drain fields, eh? Plus, with moving the adolescent doelings last weekend (and continuing to move them into their new digs) their old spot, out in front of Studio 318 needs to be tilled and planted as a garden.

Will get some other photography work done today before Hospital work. Tomorrow weather permitting, experimental under-water photography in a friend's pool. That will be on film, so delayed gratification for all of us.

( Read more... )

The Ottarz at Fred-Con made a pilgrimage to Rub de Buddha. Group portraits of tourist crowds are obligatory, of course... Feel free to click through to Flickr (the photo is the link) for a Notes Roster of Who's Otterz Who.

In other news, re-shaped the Adolescent Doeling pen today, providing them with some greenery as well as moving it a bit closer to the Holding Pen entry to the Goat Paddock. We will re-claim unused portions of the Adolescent Doeling pen to help re-configure the Buckling Pen into separate but equal (oh, bad Madshutterbug, bad) Buckling and Adolescent Doeling pens inside the Goat Paddock. Worked on that until it got quite too warm out, then retreated inside.

Inside I worked on post-production preparation for the Participant Proofs Disks from the Summer Fae shoot. Only 100 images left to prep, oh my. Rather cross-eyed now so not going to work on those just yet. Should still be burning those disks by Sunday evening (Saturday is a Hospital Work Day, today is Off for that reason).

Joy.

( Not 'the Blues', Blue... )

This is in the lobby, after the show. Cast of the show line up to meet and greet audience as they leave. This includes musicians, dancers and such as well as the Blue Men themselves. Thing I liked about it? While the musicians and such did talk with Audience, answering questions and such, the Blue Men stayed in character as mimes.

The show itself is spectacular, fun, impressive, Loud, and if one has problems with flickering light may be problematic.

In other news, I am tired. Surprised? Nah, neither am I. We are definitely into a Scrub shortage at Hospital, as I've been Scrub Nurse three days out of the four so far. One more to go, anyone want to start a pool on my being Scrub Nurse again? Not sure what the prize will be if you're right.