bits and bobs

First off...out there in the wide world of wacky cuisine is...

...the bacon and pancake cupcake.

With real bacon.

For those of you who shovel your pancake-laden fork into a slice of bacon and then scarf it all down...together...then this pancake is for you. I opted for the tres leches cupcake which was fantastic. Supposedly the bacon was pretty dry yet salty and tasty and the pancake part of the cupcake tasted like...a real pancake.

I'm trying to be more brave taking super-sekret photos of people. I've progressed to...

...butt shots. I call this one "Yep, bus not coming...yet."

Waiting for the bus can be the most horrific, painful part of modern life. It can be fun...and it can mainly be irritating. This man in the suit spat in the road twice. On a windy day. Me...downwind from suit-man. Me...wishing evil on suit-man. If it's not dorks like suit-man spitting in the street, it's inane conversations where I swear someone said to her friend, "Like, it's philosophy." Personally, never place "like" before any word that expresses anything more advanced than "I gotta pee." or "I can't believe he said that." or "Those pants so don't go with that sweater."

But, no. We as a society have folks who feel it's fine to tell us that, "Like, industry recapitalization is going to be impossible this year." Or maybe they don't go that far. It's probably more, "Like, the economy sucks."

Continuing with the blurry photos and segueing quickly past my irritations...

...isn't this a beaut? Not the photo, the photo was tweaked ad nauseum. No, the car. It is gorgeous and sitting in an auto repair lot. Poor thing.

Now, let's look at a very creative house in my new 'hood...

They have a narrow bit of grass going up to the roof. That looks very nifty, eh? A question arises, however, as to what it's like to mow that itty bitty patch of grass. The momentum down to a swift end of the grass and kersplat into the rusty wall must result in a tetanus shot or two. Also, how long before the intentionally rusty outside starts to break down too much...especially with all that mowing-kersplatting action?

Now to end all of this with...

...the first meal prepared at the wee little place. Mmm, bacon *and* eggs. It was delish!

holy moly

Damn, the sky sure was gorgeous tonight.

surrealism, ask me how

Take a plastic camera, a fisheye lens, one exposure of a river, another of a tree and its multitude of hanging berries, a gal who doesn't really know what she's doing, a strange leak of light onto the film, a flash with a yellow filter, and what do you get?

I'm not really sure...but, hey, it sure is strange looking! I will proceed to pretend that I knew exactly what I was doing.

First attempt at scanning negatives was rocky at first. Do you know how scary it is to cut film into 3-image portions? It feels wrong! It's scary. What if I cut at the wrong place? Is that really the edge of the image or a trick of the light? It's...like I was asleep and woke up in scrubs, a nurse handing me a scalpel, and there's this guy on an operating table looking peeved at me, "C'mon doc, it's just an appendectomy!"

Snip.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAh! That was my pinky toe!"

It went okay. No image was harmed. Best of all? Only ordering negatives instead of printed photos or contact sheets is blessedly cheap! No need to spend so much while *learning* how to photograph with the Diana camera. Huzzah!

So far...having nabbed the Canon CanoScan 8800f for almost a hundred less than list price was...fabulous! Last week it was $101 on amazon. This week it's back up to near its list price of $199. I never score like this! Well, except for the once expensive Pebl phone that I only paid about $20 for...but that was the whole, "Switch to our cellphone service and get this nifty phone for practically free...and we'll overcharge you for the rest of your contract. Nice, eh?" Yeah, in the long run not so "Score!"

Anyway, nifty new scanner that can do 35mm film and slides and 120 film...all while saving on photo printing.