Every Picture Tells a Story: Prologue

OK. I admit it. I've been bad about posting updates to the bloggity this month.

There are plenty of reasons--excuses, really--for my absence: Busy at work, birthday malaise, general lack of things to say, blee blee, blah blah. I have, however, kept up with taking pictures on the side, even if I haven't been posting them here.

This, dear reader, is to your benefit--or, more accurately, it will be.

I've decided that, for the month of June, I will post at least one photo a day. Most of the pictures will be in color and from the last year and a half--not so coincidentally, the very same amount of time that I've had my little Kodak digital camera. I will, however, still sneak some of my favorite black & white images in as well.

So drop by every day starting next Monday--you never know what you'll see.

The Month in Photos: March 2009

The Month in Photos: January 2009

Let it never be said that i don't learn at least some small things from experience: After waiting almost exactly a year to download the photos on my digital camera onto a CD, I waited less than a month to do so again. So here, for your viewing pleasure, is a random assortment of the images thus captured and preserved. Enjoy.

2008: The Year in Photos (sort of)

Last Christmas, Mom bought me a digital camera.

This was not what I had asked for. I likely wanted something boring and practical. Sheet sets. Throws. Something like that. And, of course, she bought something else. (This year? I asked for a new electric razor, and she bought one. Wonders? Will never cease.)

Even though I hadn't asked for it, I used the little digital camera regularly. I did not, however, download any photos from it. The software that came with it wasn't compatible with my now-ancient iMac, Polly Jean (she didn't even recognize it as software), and I'd need a system administrator to authorize the installation of the software on my work 'puter (and it's not related to my job, so...SOL). That meant that I had a helluva lot of pictures stored on the camera--216, to be exact--when I finally took it to the Ritz Camera near work and got a CD burned the day after Christmas.

So here, without further comment, are some of the photos from the year that was, such as it was.

And One More

Last night, when I got back to the now air-conditioned La Casa del Terror, I scanned that older image of myself again, this time in black & white and more tightly cropped. Blogger seems to like this version, so while you won't be able to enjoy the splendor of my red sweater or brunet hair with at least 50% less gray and 0% hair coloring, you can enjoy how much thinner I was not that long ago (and will be again...someday).

Hello, It's me.

Or, rather, another photograph of me.

I've run across a couple of other shots of me that don't completely piss me off or make me cinge uncontrollably. (This is what happens when you realize your apartment is a disorganized mess, start going through drawers and storage containers to figure out what the hell you have, and find things you'd forgotten you even owned.)

Unfortunately, Blogger seems to hate one of them, a picture taken about 10 years, 5 jobs and 50 lbs. ago--it either rejects it as corrupt or sits there and does nothing, that little colorful wheel spinning and spinning infinitely.

However, Blogger did allow me to upload a slightly more recent shot, taken a few years ago in the backyard of my friends, Charlie & Teri, before we ventured out to Marquette Park for an afternoon of photography. (Charlie is the one behind the camera, snapping away with my Canon AE1.)

This is actually the second of two pictures Charlie took of me that day. The first, which I actually like much better than this one, I gave away to a friend (who was moving to another state) as part of a photo album chronicling her time spent in Chicago. I've only seen that friend once since then and never saw the photo again. (The photo I didn't miss.)

It's Never a Good Sign...

...when you try to upload photos of yourself to your bloggity and it rejects them as corrupt, even though they open up just fine on both your home and work 'puters.

Maybe the Internets would rather not know what I really look like. If that's the case. World Wide Web, you could just say so, y'know.

Until I can figure out just what the problem is, you'll just have to live with this image of me and Superbadfriend that she snapped after we saw The Fall at the Century Cinema. (If you liked Pan's Labyrinth, you'll probably like The Fall--it's similarly stunning to look at and heartbreaking to contemplate.)

Lick the Frog

I don't have very many photos of myself. This is by design--I don't like the way I look on film, so I don't allow people to take my picture very often.

There are only a couple of photos of myself that I can actually tolerate without wincing too much. One was taken by my friend Charlie in his backyard a few years ago. I don't have a print of that shot, though--I gave it away to a friend who was moving out of town.

The other one? Is at the top of this page.

I don't like it because it's a great picture of me. (There's no such thing.) I like the sheer absurdity of it, though--me leaning over, tongue extended (and for those who are wondering...yes, that really is my tongue) to lick a piece of particularly froggy public art in Fort Worth, TX.

It's only the second shot of myself I've ever posted on this blog, and I don't think the first shot made it over from the old site. (Funny how that got "lost" in the move, isn't it?) And this photo doesn't exactly look like me. Maybe that's really why I lick...er, like it.