Tag Archives: irishblogs

Tooth Ache

Some Thoughts:

  1. When you have a tooth ache everything else takes second place.
  2. Oh, and the tooth ache always happens on a bank holiday weekend, to ensure maximum pain, and remind you to go to the bloody dentist more often!
  3. Vodka, rubbed onto the infected gum/teeth is a god-send for pain relief. It lasts almost 3 hours and it’ll let you get some measure of rest at night.
  4. Have an understanding partner who’ll take care of you and fuss over you.
  5. Brush, floss and see your dentist more often.
  6. Brush, floss and see your dentist more often.
  7. Brush, floss and see your dentist more often.
  8. Brush, floss and see your dentist more often.

I’ll probably have to get a root-canal next week, the tooth is dead so hopefully it won’t be too sore. (I’m not too hopeful though..)

I'm for War…(Redux) I can’t …

I’m for War…(Redux)

I can’t believe I’m going to write this, but I’m having second thoughts about the soon to be launched Gulf War V 1.1. The breaking point came when I read what’s linked above, late last week. Yes that’s right the Bush budget didn’t have a single line in it dedicated to providing aid to or infrastructure funding for Afghanistan, the country they invaded and are now occupying. It’s colonialism with the emphases on hoping the populace will just crawl off and die somewhere.

Excellent writing, as always, Mark.

Bulletin: American people supp …

Bulletin: American people support France, Germany over Bush!

Now, polls are fickle, and one doesn’t want or expect a leader to make decisions based on them alone. But when an American leader pushes a risky and potentially difficult war, he needs more than a thin and confused margin of support — support that isn’t even really support once you look at it closely. That was the lesson of Vietnam.
Oh, I forgot — Bush wasn’t there.

Good thread on photography the …

Good thread on photography theory

  1. If your digital camera has a “histogram” feature, make friends with it. Ansel Adams’ “Zone System” is all about manipulating contrast curves to capture the shadow detail and the highlight detail, and when the scene was too high contrast, to consciously decide what throw away.
  2. If it doesn’t have a histogram feature, make friends with the closest thing you’ve got to a spot meter. Learn how far under and how far over your camera catches detail.
  3. Know this, then learn to trust the automatic metering. Don’t always be an exposure geek.
  4. Learn about The Golden Mean. If you can’t assimilate all that, approximate with “2/5ths”, and try to put points of detail on those places in the photo.
  5. Some people think that the eye scans into frame on the upper left side, goes across to the right, down, back left, up, and then exits the frame just below that point. Try to set up the lines and dominant shapes in your images to encourage that flow. When that gets boring, try to make the eye scan a different path. Remember The Golden Mean as you do this.
  6. Backlight. This counteracts everything you’ve ever been told about taking pictures with people in them, but once you understand exposure, make sure that people are always standing with their backs to the sun. Give them halos. See the light through their hair. When necessary, use fill flash, even in the middle of the day.
  7. Light from the side or the bottom. Yes, I know, I said “backlight”, but people like images that show them things they don’t normally see. They always see light overhead.
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