The Farmhouse Gallery.

Today I was over at the San Fransisco flower show. Ug, Don't ask. It was going to be cars today, but it's raining. Which is a bummer because my car sugar is low.

Anyway, It can have some really interesting stuff. It will also make you leave in a rage. I mean - I don't understand why you have to stop in the middle of an isle and have a conversation. But I'm getting off track.

Normally I'd just give you a picture dump, but there was one artist from Canada that I found kinda interesting. His stuff was well lit. Loves it. It was different. I mean, I'm not sure what his customer base would be. But I liked it in a weird way. So I gave him a whole post. I couldn't find a webpage for him, but I did run across this article talking about the artist and has his contact info.

Take my poll. --->

Boy - President Money Bags is squealing really hard for someone who thought five dollar gas, was no big deal.

The scopes.

The above three shots are from CES2012. The company is Dino-Lite. As I recall they ranged from 250 bucks to 500 bucks. I'm not going to spec them out now because my ADD is off the charts. I'm trying to focus today.

I thought it was interesting the example they were using to sell the product was currency dealers. Or watchmakers. I thought of half a zillion other uses. If they wrote a software package for my cell phone, I'd take this thing completely mobile.

The bottom two shots are from a Photonics conference I went to. The microscopes were way more expensive - but, oddly they were using the same examples for how people might use them. If I were the company from the second set of shots, it might put a shiver up my spine if I saw this post. Obviously their product is going to be slightly better. But the Dino-Lite ones might be just good enough for what most people want to do.

And now for something completely different.

One of the trends I saw emerging at CES was these inexpensive handheld USB digital microscopes. I took a few pictures, but I got sidetracked, or became too ADD to get a coherent story about them on the blog. They had pretty good resolution for being so inexpensive. Honestly, the very same month I went to a conference where people were selling high powered microscopes, and wondered if they knew these handheld devices would eventually become more commonplace and eat into their profits.

Anyway...

Mr S. bought me one for my birthday in Feb, and I just never got around to playing with it. But, now I welcome you to the world of micro photography.

Dear Jeffrey Immelt. Fuck you.

"Jeffrey Immelt (r.) is reportedly disgusted by Obama’s allegiance to growth-killing policies. Friends describe Immelt as privately dismayed that, even after three years on the job, President Obama hasn’t moved to the center, but instead further left. The GE CEO, I’m told, is appalled by everything from the president’s class-warfare rhetoric to his continued belief that big government is the key to economic salvation." Source.

One of the things that pisses me off the most about the current climate of politics is how the filthy rich poisoned the well.

Oh, we don't mind paying our fair share, they said. "I've never made a decision based on taxes", I saw one filthy rich dude say. Which was fucking amazing, because I am not filthy rich, and every decision I make financially is partially based on tax repercussions. "Tax us more!" they said. Bill Effing Gates was even trying to get an international Global Tax imposed.

So, what do you think a tried and true socialist President would do? Take them up on their offer of course. And now they are fucking crying?! Fuck all of you. I hope you get a energy efficient light bulb crammed up your asses.

When I look at the occupy movement, I see it being directly spawned from the passive filthy rich. "Lets see if we can get this asshole to tax all of these people more!", they said loudly. But silently they thought "because I know my team of lawyers and accountants will be able to find me enough deductions so it won't matter to me". The whole time egging on the unions - because, the really rich are just completely embarrassed how little they pay in taxes. They would gladly let President Money Bags redistribute their wealth. Because they are so lame, they can't even write a check themselves. Their dishonestly on display for all to take advantage of. Warren Buffett. Showing themselves as an example of all that is wrong with the world. Pitting poor against rich.

And who would have known Immelt was a republican. I thought he was a tick on the Presidents ball sack.

I watched time after time while titans of Silicon Valley bellied up to the government bar. This was after they'd spent their whole careers operating outside of government control. They started putting people like Steven Chu and Al Gore on boards of directors, just so they could gain political and financial pull. Then said, we didn't get your money fair enough. So, we must get President Money bags to embrace a global tax. So the UN of all people, could full fill some Global Poverty Act. THE UN!

And then, the real salt in the wound is this article was written by Charley Gasparino. The apologist for all bad behaviour on wall street. If there is a naked shorting story, out will pop Jim Cramer. If there is an MF Global style fraud, out pops Charley to explain why they weren't really stealing any ones money.

Makes me wonder if he thinks President Money Bags might not win, and now his buddy will have to go back into the civilian world. And he's here to tell us why we wasn't a bad guy, he was just trying to change the administrations mind. Well, except for that part where he took all of our money for his shitty douchebaggy light bulbs.

Two years of angina and hysteria over Greece for a week of up days and one 50 point down day in the market? Seriously?

A very boring update.

It's been raining the last couple of days - which has sent me into a complete frenzy. The ground is soft, Yo! So I've been trying to get things done before high pressure builds back in, and ground work comes to a halt.

This means, preparing my garden. Fixing sprinklers, and maybe getting that mow strip closer to being in. Ripping stuff out that should have been dormant all winter long. Eff mother nature.

The plan was to let it rain all winter to soften the ground, so I could dig out the strip. Well, that didn't happen. I didn't even start any of my garden seeds since it didn't rain all winter. So I figured rain might be pushed out this year. The past two years I've gotten blight.

You want to kill yourself now for even reading this post, right? Hey, I can't make this world look glamorous all of the time. This is the real world people. Drudgery.

Then, I am going to take a stab at my taxes this weekend. So don't expect anything amazing from me. But keep in mind I might just get a giant stick up my butt and go on a flame fest. You regulars have been through this before. I'm patchy.

The line between good and evil.

My girl has a funny shed line right now. So, the top is grey and the bottom is tan.

Normally you would get a hole where the new hair is much shorter than the rest. But her hair is so short, she just turns a different color. And she still has control of that one ear. She's a half lop.

Things are getting gappy.

For the last week, it's been noticeable that people seem to be driving less. There are still a lot of people out and about. They tend to be clustered up though, and often you can look long distances down roads and see few cars.

Last week the market was just happy because we didn't have as big of a stockpile increase. We'll see what they say this week. And when did that become good news? "We are floating on oil". We're just happy we aren't floating on more.

Caught in your undertow.

If you are ever near Martinez, you have to make it by this town Port Costa. It's as if Twin Peaks had sex with Sedona Arizona. It is kitchy. And with a town of 250 residents, it's quirky. There once used to be a doll museum. I swear I don't know why some budding film maker doesn't shoot a horror film there. The town is perfect for one.

The town basically consists of a few stores, a hotel, and an old biker bar. Which obviously is the main attraction. It has a giant stuffed bear in it. And when is the last time you've seen that? The walls are filled with kitchy stuff. Next door they have an oddities store. But, it was closed.

It's the sort of place you could lose yourself for a day, and feel like you've stepped back in time. And you'd play that Twin Peaks theme song in your head every moment you spent there.





Mr S. and I considered buying a house and gentrifying it. But only if we could get amazon to deliver stuff to the house. The roads in are sort of narrow. At one point I'd asked one of the people who lived there if they got Amazon deliveries. She'd never heard of it. AMAZON! No one she knows has ever said the word amazon.com? They must not get TV there.

BW high dynamic range.

Not sure I'm in love with it.

A funny thing happened on the way to breakfast.

Today, Mr S. and I were going to check out that town Port Costa. This meant finding a breakfast place somewhat near. You know how I love my weekend breakfast.

We decided on an okay chain in Clayton which is typically a magnet for seniors. Which is always a bad sign. But we were getting a late start - so we were settling.

Since we didn't know the area, I was trying to get one of my three GPS apps to give us direction. It was hard getting signal there. So, we pulled into a neighborhood because it can take a few minutes to gain a one. After we got google maps up, we thought we were on our way. But off in the distance I could see this mess of a house.

Whaaaat the hell is that - I said. It was after one o'clock, and I was starting to get crashy. Still we stopped to see what the hell was going on with this house.



There were sculpture animals everywhere. Even on the roof. At first the whole thing was a bit of sensory overload.



But here and there was some interesting stuff. Like a giraffe.





They had a zoo section.







You can see here just how cluttered the place was. The owner was super nice. I guess they must get people who stop all the time. But wow. From a distance, that whole thing just looked like a mess.

The world in sepia.

Oh wait. That is just the real world. HT SFist.

"This shot, snapped today by djhexhector, shows a thirsty vineyard crying out for rain and fruit in Healdsburg."

It is going to be a rough, rough, summer for those who want things to live. Sure, in the day it's been a pretty nice winter. But, we've had way more freeze warnings this year, which is unusual.

So, it's just not the lack of water, but the frost that comes in night after night and just ravages stuff. It is just really dry in Cali.

A lot of days, my hair is just floating in space because the moisture levels are so low in the air. I've already started preparing my house for fire season. Which sucks, because I'm still sitting on a cord of wood. eep!

Turkeys attend church.

Even the turkeys are voting Santorum. Hey, they can't cast a ballot can they? I mean - I used to know how the world works. Now, not so much.



This last photo really isn't needed. I just kinda liked the 3D-ish nature.

Eye Roll.

Postal Service to suspend closures during election season.

"The U.S. Postal Service plans to suspend its planned closure of processing facilities and post offices during the November election season in response to concerns from state officials that the delivery of absentee or mail-in ballots might be lost or delayed in the shuffle."

First it's a delay due to tax season. Then an election season. Then, it will be tax season again.

If I'd have known the world was going to turn out this way - I would have taken a completely different path in life. First, I would have worked for Antioch. Then when I put in my 30 days of service - I would have worked for the post office. Oh wait. Why would I even work at all?

Clearly I am the biggest sucker alive.

Scuttlebutt sounds like a condition you should have someone look at.

Don't they know they have to keep the market up until facebook goes IPO? What will California do?

Stranger with a strange tree.

As someone who has bought super crappy houses - you sort of look at every house as if you would have to rip something out. Big ticket items like trees are the first thing you take into account. So, I thought I was pretty familiar with the sorts of trees we had around here. Palm trees - really expensive to rip out. Mostly because of dumping.

I've never seen a tree like this. I don't even know how you would rip a tree like this out, if you had to. It blocked the whole view of a Chrysler300. And not from just one favorable angle. It blocked the entire view of the car.

Still.. it's a funny looking tree. Made funnier by someone tagging it. I might have to go back and get better shots, because it's just that funny.

I thought this was kinda interesting.

I've been spending a little time out in San Mateo lately. So, I've had to travel across the San Mateo bridge. On one side of the bridge I'd seen these cranes and this new structure they were erecting. I thought it was geometrically interesting. I'd never seen anything like it. So, this weekend we went to investigate.

Mr S. pulls right on the property. There weren't any signs posted not to. I popped out and walked about a hundred feet to the middle of this pond. I liked the structure reflecting off the water.

As soon as I got my camera up, in the distance I could hear "excuse me". And in my peripheral vision, I could see about three people walking towards the car where Mr S. was.

Now if you've ever been shut down photographing and filming - you start to develop all of these ways to get the shots you want before you are kicked out. So, I just kept taking photos pretending I didn't hear the woman. She kept calling for me. So after I'd gotten a couple of shots - I walked up to her. I was sure this might be my first no trespassing ticket, or she'd try to force me to delete the shots. She only delivered the predictable "you can't photograph here". I was done so I didn't care. But I did ask her what that thing was. Which turned out to be a natural gas power plant. I thanked her for being so nice when she kicked me off the property. I was nice. She was only trying to do her job. Everyone was cool. And really - you can find out a lot of information if you are just chill with the people.

When I get back to the car (escorted), Mr S. was talking to one of the construction dudes who was there for backup. I assume. After he realized we weren't terrorists, it seemed like he would have spend a lot longer talking to us. He wanted to talk about the structure. He kept getting called on the radio, but he kept talking to us. It was only when they started calling him so many times we parted ways. He also gave us a few new places to go photograph stuff. Like out by Crocket, and Portacosta. Which made me happy I didn't get all shitty on them. Because there really weren't any signs posted that said I couldn't do what I did.



It did make me wonder though - how many of these things they are building. It was actually relatively small. I bet the whole plant could fit on maybe 5, 10 acres.

After all, this could alter my feelings about green cars and crap.

HDR today.

I've been trying to figure out High Dynamic Range for a year or two now. I've found it incredibly difficult.

I try. Give up. Try. Give up.

It takes some experience to figure out what will even be high dynamic rangeable. And if you will even be able to stitch 2 or more shots on top of each other.

I got stuff that was at least postable today.

Pictures I should have posted.

So jealous.

Have you seen this Global Rainbow stuff?

How did they get permission to do that?! I have a really powerful laser pointer, and I stopped using it a couple of years ago because of the tards who shine lights on aircraft.

You should really go see the photos over on laughingsquid too. Here.

It isn't a political thing.

You've probably all have heard by now about the Volt line being idled for 5 weeks.

For as much as I bitch about alternative energy stuff - I don't mind the cars. I mean, I don't get it. Transferring the pain of oil prices onto an electrical grid that is only "mostly" reliable. Made more unreliable by adding cars who have to charge for hours. If this economy was healthy and growing, that would become a huge problem.

I also don't believe that more than a niche group will be willing to wait for hours to fill up your car. Which is also why I am absolutely against subsidising them.

Right now you go to the gas station, fill up your car within 5 minutes, and you are on with your life. We used to be a mobile nation. Still, I do think the concept is kind of neat. When I saw these inductive charging pads at CES this year, I kinda went... hmmmm. Maybe.

But then, maybe I was biased because it had a lighted circle like an Xbox - and I can become a real tard when that happens.

I do find it interesting that it's been a couple of months since CES, and I didn't see anyone blog about these things.

A couple of days ago Mr S. turned to me and said "some days I like to pretend there are two Elon Musks". I turned to him in my "oh, let's hear this" kind of way.

He says - on one hand there is the good Elon Musk who is almost a science fiction hero who builds rockets. And on the other, there is the douchey Elon Musk who sucks up taxpayer dollars for cars that no one wants.

I can't say I disagree. Those Tesla's were mildy interesting before the government got involved. They seemed a little cheaply built. But, that is all better now. Thanks to you taxpayer.

Huh, thats weird. That Syria thing is all over. Never mind. You can all go home now .

It feels like Iraq all over again.

I was a little surprised to see the market get so excited over the "alleged" Saudi pipeline attack today. I've already stated in previous posts that a pipeline disruption anywhere will result in an oil spike. But, after watching the videos coming out that show the oil fire over on ZeroHedge - I felt a little set up.

For example - the Homs Syria pipeline that got blown up on Feb. 15th could be seen from space. Barely anyone reported on it. Source.



I've been trying for three weeks to figure out exactly what the deal is with Iran and Syria. Every day I think I will be able to formulate a post about it, but my opinions keep shifting.

In regards to Syria, at first I couldn't believe people were turning a blind eye to what is going on there. Humanitarily, things are as bad as they get. However, as time went on - I started to shift a little.

Like when I read that Occupy was sending reporters to the city. It immediately made me suspicious. As well as every single video that isn't shot on the street, has the same exact doctor in it. I am not going to list his name because I don't want that kind of traffic. I know it is a small city, but I never see any other nursing staff or medical staff. This bothers me. It reminds me of the beginning of the Iraq war, there were all these reports coming out that Iragi's wanted to be saved. There even was this one specific blogger that became really popular. I can't remember the name now.

I've just sat back and watched because Mr S. reminded me of my bitterness of how the world treated us in Iraq. We were just occupiers. I hate to see the stuff happening in Syria, but I just don't think we can do any good there, and all that goes bad will be blamed on us. I'm pretty sick of it.

And scene.

What a shock to wake up to this. I never could get a face on shot of him. I tried for a while. It gave me the impression he was less comfortable with the camera than his media persona would have you believe.