Car Show

It's been along time since I've seen a exhibit of drag racing cars. Most of the cars at this show at the local K-Mart parking lot were drag racing cars. The sanctioning body was the Southern Drag Racing Association. The SDRA set the rules for competing as well specifications for the cars. I was surprised to find that none of the cars were fuel injected, four barrel carburetors were common. NOX was used on almost everything. I talked with a guy that raced a Baretta. It had a small block Chevy engine and turned 148 mph in the eighth mile. That's haulin' and on the bottle. There were other cars such as a bathtub Porshe kit car. It was immaculate powered by a flat four with dual down-draft Webers. The most interesting thing I saw were the junior dragsters. Designed for youngsters, they have one cylinder engines. It was a lot of fun and I would like to smell the rubber burn.

Homeward Bound

Who says you can's go home? I thought it would be a good idea to put together a little video of Bradley, SC. I pondered the format and look a bit. i finally decided that a slide show would do nicely. The use of black and white images would give at somewhat of a vintage effect. Initially, I was going to use handwritten captions but that did not work out. Actually, it would have been too time-consuming. I did not have enough close ups. A crude attempt at humor was made.

Watchmen

The Watchmen is a superhero movie. Someone is killing superheroes and it must be stopped. Time: 1985. Place: USA

The movie is too long, about three hours. They could have cut an hour out of it and had a better movie. The first half really drags as the story is set up. The entire movie is full of hyperbolic action. After a head is smashed a couple of times, continued smashing is purely gratuitous. Most of the movie is dark or shades of gray and when color is used it is less than intense. Character development is fairly well done but could have been better. The flashbacks were kind of annoying. I did like the movie and the sound track was great. Perhaps if I had read the graphic novel?

Common Sense

An Obituary printed in the London Times - Interesting and sadly rather
true.


Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, Common Sense , who has been with us for many years. No one knows for sure how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He will be remembered as having cultivated such valuable lessons as:

- Knowing when to come in out of the rain;

- Why the early bird gets the worm;

- Life isn't always fair;

- and maybe it was my fault.


Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don't spend more than you can earn) and reliable strategies (adults, not children, are in charge). His health began to deteriorate rapidly when well-intentioned but overbearing regulations were set in place. Reports of a 6-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate; teens suspended from school for using mouthwash after lunch; and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student, only worsened his condition.

Common Sense lost ground when parents attacked teachers for doing the job that they themselves had failed to do in disciplining their unruly children . It declined even further when schools were required to get parental consent to administer sun lotion or an aspirin to a student; but could not inform parents when a student became pregnant and wanted to have an abortion.

Common Sense lost the will to live as the churches became businesses; and criminals received better treatment than t heir victims.

Common Sense took a beating when you couldn't defend yourself from a burglar in your own home and the burglar could sue you for assault.

Common Sense finally gave up the will to live, after a woman failed to realize that a steaming cup of coffee was hot. She spilled a little in her lap, and was promptly awarded a huge settlement.

Common Sense was preceded in death, by his parents, Truth and Trust, by his wife, Discretion, by his daughter, Responsibility, and by his son, Reason.

He is survived by his 4 stepbrothers;

I Know My Rights

I Want It Now

Someone Else Is To Blame

I'm A Victim


Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.. If you still remember him, pass this on. If not, join the majority and do nothing.

To crop or not to crop, that is the question.

To crop or not to crop, that is often the question facing a painter or photographer. Why are we asking this question? It is because we are trying to improve composition. Occasionally I finish a watercolor which has great color and technique, but it just doesn't look right. The composition need work--that is my gremlin! I more frequently crop photographs for the same reason. Maybe the horizon is not level or a church steeple is not plumb and must be fixed. I have cut away half a sheet of watercolor with some very good brushwork just to make a good picture. The good brushwork just did not add to the picture.

The photo above is one of my Alaskan photos. I have beefed up the contrast and desaturated the color a bit for the look of a cold day. Although it is good I thought the cropping would make it better. To me landscapes almost always look better in a horizontal format. After deciding that I wanted a distant point on the river to be my focal point is began cropping.

You will note that I cropped off the top of the mountain. I felt it distracted from the river. Notice that almost every line in the landscape leads your eye to the river. Be aware that the center of interest is at the intersection of the lines that would be drawn for the "rule of thirds". Man-made elements are removed as well. I like it. Don't you?