Newt Gingrich made a great point earlier this week: he first mentioned how the U.S. constantly makes sure we don’t offend any other nation with our stances and policies. That much is a given. He continued on, however, to make a point which I had never considered… that being that we never concern ourselves with why the rest of the world couldn’t care less if it offends us. We’re so wrapped up in ensuring we don’t do or say anything that may rub any other nation the wrong way that we fail to consider that we’re the only ones that act that way. Since when did national self interest become something about which we had to defend ourselves?
Two photos this week. One is a super duper processed shot of my dad and Eva in my parent’s condo in Chicago. It’s HDR and textured. The other is of the cobblestone road leading up to the porch of my parent’s first house in Aspinwall, a suburb of Pittsburgh.
Chicago, IL, Eva, HDR, Pittsburgh, PA
Obama said BP should pay its employees for not working. He would say that. He infuriates me beyond words. I’m glad the oil spill happened on his watch. He’s the worst.
On a lighter note, a 15 year old Mexican boy was shot and killed here on the El Paso-Mexican border a few days ago. He and others had surrounded a border patrol agent that was responding to a human trafficking report and were throwing fist sized rocks at him. So, he shot one of them and the rock throwing pretty much subsided. Imagine that. Of course people are bitching. These same people are, however, generally uneducated, unemployed, don’t pay taxes and are therefore just as inconsequential as the dead rock hurler. Fitting.
The shot today is of the Pittsburgh skyline from right near Heinz Field.
Pittsburgh, PA
My dad took this shot of my sisters and I in Pittsburgh. We were all there for an engagement party my aunt and uncle threw for Eva and I. If you know us, our poses pretty well illustrate our personalities. From left to right Laura, Erin, me.
Pittsburgh, PA, Rick
My first attempt at this. More to come in the future as I start actually taking photos intending to process them this way. That being said, this kind of thing will decidedly NOT become my primary photographic focus. I think it’s neat, I think it looks cool, but it’s gimmicky and I like regular pictures better.
I took this in Pittsburgh when Eva and I went there the weekend before our wedding.
Abstract, Pittsburgh, PA
This is the street in front of the house where my parents lived in 1982 when I was born. It’s in Aspinwall, a borough of Pittsburgh. My Mom was 21, my Dad was 22. My grandparents Ann (Mimi) and Denis (Denny) Dice owned it. Denny does not like to be called Grampa. By the time my parents were 25 they had 3 kids. I remember being on the playground at St. Mary’s Catholic elementary school in Bellevue, Nebraska and telling my friends that my parents were 29. How insane is that?
HDR, Pittsburgh, PA
Google has a feature, much like many other sites/interfaces with search bars, which populates a drop-down window with the most common search topics associated with the words you have entered so far. For example, if you enter “how many” into the Google search bar, it drops down “how many weeks in a year” with 54 million associated results, “how many ounces in a pound” with 514,000 associated results, and so on. (holla back Kurt V) Given my extensive training in both neolithic skull identification and abacus construction, I decided to run an investigative experiment of my own.
“Search Phrase”: Most Common Result; # of Results
“you make me touch”: you make me touch your hands for stupid reasons; 418K results
“barf and”: barf and puppies; 106K results
“Barrack Obama has”: Barrack Obama has a posse; 331K results
“fat girls”: fat girls fighting; 977K results
“I really love”: I really love your peaches want to shake your tree; 137K results
“how long does”: how long does cocaine stay in your system; 877K results
“how long is the average”: how long is the average novel; 20.9M results
“dumb people are”: dumb people are happier; 186K results
“more people are”: more people are killed by donkeys annually than are killed in plane crashes; 64K results
“every time you vote republican”: every time you vote republican God kills a kitten; 39K results
“every time you vote democrat”: every time you vote democrat Bush eats a kitten; 48K results
“Google is”: Google is your friend; 48.8M results
Yes, simply fascinating, I agree. Below is a shot I took in Pittsburgh the weekend before Eva and I got married when my aunt Mary and uncle Jim threw us an exceptional engagement party.
Abstract, HDR, Pittsburgh, PA
I would be remiss.
And yes, I certainly DID paint this on a rock wall in downtown Cleveland. By hand. During the day. Wearing a Polamalu jersey. And those Cleveland wussies didn’t say s***. Typical.
Let’s face it people, victory is imminent. I’ll put it this way: the Super Bowl tomorrow is like the 1997 movie, Titanic. We already know how it’s going to end, we just want to see what goes on in the middle.
My predicaroonie: Steelers 27 – Cardinals 16
Go Steelers.
Pittsburgh, PA