[The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind] Baby, I'm crazed...

Wooo...

Now, since every inch of my pudgy, little paws are really sore today, I'm going to try to cram as many thoughts as I can into today's picture entry. The planet's been considerably more schizophrenic than usual it seems, and to say it's not been gnawing on my brains would be a huge mistake.

First, today's picture is an attempt of mine to get creative with some off-camera lighting in my laundry chute. I placed my Vivitar flash with a blue gel under the chute and set it to bounce off the water-heater back there.

The other flash, my Nikon SB-600, is up above with a red gel.

Now, obviously, those colors make a huge difference in this black and white image. As you can see, the reds really jump out at you. And the blues? Well... If you don't feel as though you're sitting on a beach sucking Mai Tais somewhere in the tropics, I don't know what to tell you. I mean, look! It's just...

Yeah. The colors sucked ass. So, I made this image black and white and handled the opposing lights with level adjustments in Photoshop. I think it turned out kind of creepy. I mean, if I was a little more disturbed (and this laundry chute was maybe a little stronger since it threatens to crumble into kindling if I toss a wet towel down there), this is where I'd keep my victims before introducing the chainsaws, rats and meat hooks.

Thankfully, I'm a nice guy and not that crazy... yet.

Anyway, it's a neat thing, I think.


Now, the stock markets... Oh boy.

I have no idea what's going on since I know next to nothing about those sorts of things. However, I don't think the bailout is the answer since it seems to me that it is nothing more than a Band Aid on a bullet hole.

Everyone is losing as a result of this. Some are going to be smacked quite hard, and some, not so much. I don't think we'll see the the results of this corruption until several years from now, however.

Still, it's a puzzle that I don't think anyone really understands. These banks go under, yet these fat cat bosses receive millions in reward instead of a nice, long rope with which to hang themselves. Take Alan Fishman, for instance. This asshole puts in seventeen days of "work" at Washington Mutual, and for such loyal and devoted service, he's getting almost twenty million dollars as a shiny golden parachute/severance package.

He didn't earn that. He doesn't deserve it. But, America is a confused, greedy and corrupt place these days, but he's going to take it, and he's going to run off into the sunset laughing as the people he's robbed are unable to retire.

Now, I know all of you would like to be able to work for two weeks and get that sort of scratch, but we also know that should never happen because, in the real world with real money, things aren't supposed to work that way. Ever.

Nonetheless, take it for what it's worth, people. As I said, I don't understand this mess.



And, finally, AOL Journals is falling out of the tubes, and, as of November 1st (just a little sudden), you who use AOL as a blogging platform will be essentially homeless. Now, the folks over at Magic smoke are rattling on about there being some sort of means to transfer your AOL Journal over to Blogger; however, not a single one of them has said just what that procedure is or how to go about it.

Hopefully, they will share this secret wisdom soon before people start swinging knives. I know there are a whole heap of older entries I'd like to move over to my Blogger blog, but, until now, there was never an easy way to do it. Unfortunately, with AOL being AOL, I'm thinking there still isn't going to be an easy way to do it.

I'll be honest, I have mixed feelings about the end of AOL Journals. I'm sad to see them go since, not only are there some truly amazing and awesome bloggers over there who have really made a difference in my life with their words, it's where I started when I decided to immerse myself in scribbling upon the world-wide-weird. It's always been such a wild and crazy community, and I am certainly going to miss it.

Unfortunately, a long time ago, AOL started causing more problems for me than I wanted to deal with, and I simply jumped over to Blogger and was happy to maintain my AOL Journal as a mirror of my new, shiny blog. Ironically, I actually did that in orderto have some sort of back up for my mad ramblings.

Anyway, I'm sure I will write more about the end of AOL Journals in the future. We've got a month, after all. And, I hope we can make the best of it. And, trust me when I say this, Blogger is really not so bad. There is much more freedom in page layout, and you can easily add your own features and make your blog truly yours through any number of widgets and whatnots out there.

Well, I think I've typed more than enough today. My knuckles are a-screamin'. So, good luck, and don't forget that I'm looking forward to some new neighbors here on my little slice of the interwebs (so much for that quiet blog in the country, though).

-DP

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Posted By Dan to The Wisdom of a Distracted Mind at 9/30/2008 04:18:00 PM