in other news, some heavy family stuff has been going down and I don’t quite know what to say about it just yet. These past coupla weeks have been hard and long. I look forward to working less, so I can relax and get back to a normal surfing (and posting) schedule. i have a ton of photos and no time to pick through and post them.
Our project had it’s debut last weekend and we’re starting to take the wraps off it. so I’ll start posting more about it in the next few weeks. It’s really exciting and I can’t wait to share.
When I first began this blog, however long ago, I decided to use Flickr for image hosting and I love the community aspect of the site, although it does feel a bit like that post-friendster quite period, where my lust-interaction with Flickr has settled down. Recently, Flickr added printing to it’s services. real quality printing. Unfortunately, I’m in Mexico and the the broadband experience down here isn’t so broadband. we have it, it’s just that someone forgot to put the ‘blazing’ in ‘blazingly fast’. So When it came time to upload a bunch of photos to Flickr, I choose to upload smaller versions at around 500px x 300px or so. This was to avoid having to wait forever for the uploads to finish. And that’s all well and good, but now that I’d like to print photos I’m a bit skee-rooed. I’ve thought of re-uploading a large selection of photos I’d like printed, but then I’m stuck with the dilemma of having two version of the same photos in my photostream. This is annoying.
And then out of the blue, Flickr has just introduced a neat little “Replace” feature in the interface that allows me to replace photos with a new one using a nifty little ajax “Choose File > Upload” interface. This little feature is a much needed step towards getting printable photos up on Flickr, but uploading large files one at a time is not my idea of fun. This option makes sense for a really good photo here or there, but i could use a good ole batch processing feature to work this out. I’m not sitting around waiting.
This past weekend, while we were in Guadalajara, I took a full roll of film (yeah, that analog gelatin type stuff) with my Lomo. the best 35 bucks I ever spent. I made a conscious effort to take photos of people. close up photos. a small girl on the street selling chiclets. an old man drinking coffee in a courtyard, bookstore cafe while noodling his palm pilot. a teenage couple laying on the grass, looking up in the sky. photos not just of people but of specific color combinations. lush vibrant colors. people and color. living together in harmony.
ok, i over did there a bit. I’m sorry. I take it back.
So i take the roll into get developed today, and nothing. the film hasn’t been exposed. I curse the heavens. and check the shutter mechanism. It’s not opening, when I take a picture. All those glorious images lost. This wasn’t the first time this has happened with this camera, the last roll I took did the same thing, but I thought it was the metering and a dead battery. I was wrong.
I am the sound of Ed’s steaming pissed-off-ness.
Well, there are a thousand more images in my head. and one of these days I hope to pick up a mediumformatcamera, so yall can see ‘em. until then, well, we’ll all have to wait.
Guardian: Thousands flock to see meditating boy ‘Buddha’: “A teenage boy who has been meditating under a tree in the verdant forests of southern Nepal is attracting thousands of pilgrims who are convinced the youth is another Buddha.” Happy Thanksgiving!
Marcia and I headed up to Guadalajara for the weekend, again, so she could see her family and grab some warm closes for our pending trip to Los Angeles (Dec. 8th-12th).
We got in last night and had dinner with her always lovely mom, Martha, at the best pizza joint in the world, Funicula. I know I talk a lot about this place but I´ll be damned if it ain´t the best freakin´pizza evah.
After a great little dinner, Martha has the movie What the %$& Do We Know on dvd, pirata-style, so we watched it. What a great flick. If you haven´t seen it, stop what yer doing and go see it, now. It´s a documentary hybrid film. It has a filmed story mixed with documentary style interviews and computer aided animation. Some parts of the film are a bit silly, but the subject matter kicks so much ass that I´d say it´s one of the best movies I´ve seen this year. It´s that good. The subject matter is all about Quantum Physics, sounds boring but it effects everything we do, think and feel. The movie explores our personal experience, relationships, religous beliefs, how you relate to the world, how you see yourself, basically, everythign having to do with who we are and what we are. It will blow your mind, if you let it. It´s not saying anything new, that quantum scientists haven´t been saying for years, but it conveys some seriously hard concepts to grasp in easy and understandable ways. Try reading this stuff in books, zzzzz. But the story telling devices mixed with very interesting interviews and you get mind warping concepts in easily digestible nuggets.
I especially enjoyed the religious and spiritual implications brought up in the movie: Quantum Physics is completely in line with several religious philosophies including Buddhism (which I am partial to). It is a science of the experience and the farther you delve into it the more mysterious it becomes. I never understood why people latched on to ¨Intelligent Design¨ as a way to ¨prove¨ that God exists, while Quantum Physics brings an end to a thousand years of science without God. But the God of the past two centuries, a physical manifestation, is replaced by a truer God that exists within everyone and everything. It blows my mind, but I´ve felt these things for years, long before I had even heard of Quantum Physics.
I feel like I just hit the digital jackpot: 55mm is a photoshop plug-in that contains a gang-load of filters for processing photos. Simulate kinds of film stock, cross processing, color correction, effects etc. and it’s free. I’m the sound of Ed’s inner nerd. update: it’s not free and the interface is jenky, but the controls are pretty nice.
As we move on through November, the water is getting pretty cold, like “time to get a thin wetsuit” cold. Nights can be chilly, requiring the use of a light cotton throw-over. Days can still get pretty hot, but the rank humidity has toned way down. For a gringo whose spent the last 6 months in a 90+ degree / 90% humidity environment, I now have a new definition of the meaning of “getting cold”:
It’s “getting cold” when I’m sitting out on my patio at night, in my underwear, and I even get the slightest feeling that I could use a tshirt.
That’s when I know it’s getting cold.
We’re thinking of going to LA, sometime in the next few weeks. Sunny, palm-tree, bikini LA. To me it sounds about as warm as Vancouver, right about now. But hey! at least I’ll get to wear pants!
This is the most strangest and wonderful email I’ve received in a long time, from my homie at large Isaiah Seret:
hi -
this guy just came to fix my tv. actually, he didnt touch it, he just took some pictures of it (the top half is darker than the bottom), i should have recognized when he said i should do some funny moves in the photo while holding up a clipboard, because when he was done he showed me some flix of his wife bellydancing. i dont think he likes repairing tv’s so instead of messing with it, he told me he was going to tell them he swapped out some boards but it still didnt work and was going to make a reccomendation that the bring us a new one. he called me the proud winner of a new tv. but still, i did not know what i was dealing with until he showed me his website. everybody is a star. http://www.elefunt.com/ray/
much love -
i
ps - this is the first time i have actually wanted to start a blog - off the hook.
Thank you for sharing, Isaiah. I miss you, like whut!
My good friend, Phil Skiba, sent me the most awesomnest email tonight with a heads up to check his Flickr photostream, so I headed on over to find two pictures from a trip we took to Phil’s summer house on the shore in New Jersey. I’d say I was 15 in this picture. Marcia saw them and laughed, she says I look the same. I guess I always was a surfer at heart, but why did it take me another 15 years to learn how to surf? ain’t nothin’ changed but the waistline.
My good friend Mark asked me to step in to help him on a project photographing taco stands, signage and the beauty of mexican street life. great stuff. and right up my alley. He needs the shots on film. yes, analog film. I don’t think I’ve picked up a film camera, other then my neat little Lomo, since well, since my sister stole my camera, my first year of college. that’s easily 10 years. 10 years!
So I turned to my dad, who’s got quite a set up, a Nikon with various lenses. While sorting through his gear I noticed he had three camera bodies. I asked him about them, and he said, “Oh, remember this one?” and he hands me a beat up Pentax with a 28mm lens on it. I’d recognize that camera set up anywhere, it’s mine. and dad relates a story of how he stole the camera back from my sister and then absent-mindedly forgot to give it back to me. I wondered to myself how long he’s had it for. Through a tiny random action, my long lost camera has ended a 10 year journey, back to it’s rightful owner.
Yesterday I went out and shot with dad’s nikon and it was a great experience. I love getting back into film, but it’s hard without the immediacy of knowing that the pictures are coming out ok. I have fast respect for film photographers, it takes capital “S” Skillz to deal with film. Not that it’s particularly hard, but to know that you got it right, or as close to perfect as it can get, without being able to flick on the ‘pic review’ button of a digital camera. Extended shots at night, with little light, different lens set ups, tripod, f-stops, shutter speeds, films tock, processing technique. so much fun to play with and each option making such a strong impact on the shot. One of these days I’ll get me a really good digital camera, and I hope it’s 1/5th as cool as a film camera.
As i was rummaging through my dad’s gear, I found his 90-250mm telephoto lens. What is this good for? Well, it’s the perfect lens for sitting on the beach, taking action shots of surfers hundreds of meters away. Let’s rock!
On Monday, we went to the first night of the festival to see Elizabethtown and as I just checked the festival website, I could swear I saw Alfonso Cuarón in the lobby on monday.
The past couple of days have been hard. taking it easy is hard. sitting around all day is hard. staying off the computer is hard. Marcia would tell you that basically I spent all day yesterday on the computer, ignoring my doctor’s orders to rest. but isn’t it resting when you are in bed, in your undies with the computer propped up on your knees?
ok, too much info.
Reports of my demise have been premature. I am back with a vengeance. er, um, well, too be honest (and slightly less melodramatic) I feel pretty good. Other then the shot I received today, in the arse, I feel great. more so then I’ve felt in a while. no lethargy. no tiredness. When I first got this typhoid action, we thought that maybe I had gotten it last weekend at our favorite little beach side eatery at Destiladeras, but the more I think about it, I think I may have had this sucker for a lot longer then that. this thing had been brewing, me thinks. The tricky part was how fast it attacked. Usually typhoid brews and comes and goes. With me it was sharp and violent. and it left just as fast. Talking with the doc, today, I’m pretty sure that when I almost passed out on his desk on wednesday and he took my blood pressure (it being so low) he thought I was going to literally check out, on his desk. I could see it underneath his words and in his eyes that he was very happy to see me doing so much better, today. A small town doc, used to treating most likely 10 odd diagnosis, he probably hadn’t had a scare like that in a while.
Well, it’s good to be back in the land of the normal.
Discover new music: Pandora. The coolest thing about the now defunct file sharing network “Audio Galaxy” (besides an infinite amount of downloadable music) was it’s ability to suggest similar kinds of music to the ones you were downloading. And un-like amazon’s feature, AG’s was always dead on and helped me expand my musical tastes. This is kinda like Audio Galaxy’s feature rolled as a stand-alone flashed based, streaming web app. I’m not too keen on the flash GUI but i’m impressed anyway.
Hey, whaddya know?! This photograph is featured on Weblog Inc.’s “The Digital Photography Weblog” as the Digital Photo of the Day. With comments from the editor.
So I woke up this morning with a terrible stomach ache. bad. like I had a bunch of rocks in my stomach. In the shower I started to get dizzy and nauseous. Something was wrong. I stayed home from work to take it easy, staying close to the bathroom if you catch my drift. I talked to mom, sometime in the morning. I related my symptoms and she was convinced I have Typhoid Fever. A bacterial infection caused by eating unclean food. Both my parents have had “The Fever” and my mom has diagnosed it correctly each time. But I was skeptical.
At lunch time, Marcia came home and we went to the doctor’s office. I related my symptoms to our small town doc. And after a few tests, he promptly diagnosed me with food poisoning. He said get some rest and just in case, we’ll do a blood test for Typhoid. Marcia and I drove up the street to the lab and I got my blood taken. On the way out of the cubicle, my blood pressure started to drop and I became dizzy again. My hearing and vision both started to go (I have chronic low blood pressure, so I’m familiar with most things related).
Marcia helped me into the car where I promptly proceeded to shut down, like an electronic device with no juice left. I could faintly feel Marcia slapping my face and yelling at me. This was no joke, I awoke a few blocks away in a cold sweat and just the deepest of bass notes coming through my ears, as Marcia drove me back to the doctor’s office, it was as if I was 100 feet underwater. We make it back to the doc’s office, just as the dizziness starts to wear off.
The doctor says that I need electrolytes so Marcia buys me some Pedialyte. At this point I’m ok and reading an article about Nike’s founder, as I’m sitting in the doc’s waiting room. I’m coming in and out of it, trying to stay concentrated on something. Marcia goes back to the lab to get my test results and the doc takes my blood pressure. Just a little bit low but nothing to worry about. I wonder to myself what will happen when I stand up again. The doc brings me into his office and proceeds to give me a shot in the ass with some anti-nausea shot. I immediately start to black out and have another episode as my head rests on his desk and I sweat profusely. He once again he takes my blood pressure and its 50/20. ridiculously low. I’m literally green at this point.
Marcia comes back in with the results and sure enough it’s Typhoid Fever. The doc seems a little shocked. He gave me another shot in the ass for the Typhoid and a full army of medicines. And now I’m supposed to be bedridden for three days. So we came home and watched Episode III. It’s the nerd in me.
I’m feeling much better now, but that’s because I’m in a a more or less horizontal position. Every time I get up, I get the spins again, not hardcore but enough to make it hard to get to the bathroom and back.
shee-it.
As a little lesson for other gringos who come after me:
get your typhoid vac. before you come down.
if you get food poisoning while you are here, make certain to get tested for typhoid. It only takes 20 minutes and it costs 200 pesos.
Food poisoning usually comes from uncooked things. like vegetables and salsas. sure, that taco stand looks dodgy but it’s not the meat that’ll get you, it’s the salsas that have been sitting out all day and double-dipped.
A lot of people down here actually carry small amounts of Typhoid in their system. not enough to show symptoms but enough to pass it, through exchange of bodily fluids. and unclean hands.
Don’t let it get worse. If you feel like you have rocks in your stomach, you may have amebas or you may have Typhoid. Untreated Typhoid can lead to really bad intestinal issues.
ok, so I haven’t updated in a while. Things have been crazy the past coupla weeks. The client for the house in Punta Mita came in to town last week and so we were working right up to the minute he got here. The house looks gorgeous and he was very appreciative. He then went on to ask us to change somethings that we’d rather not. Nothing too big, just some paint colors and tiling here and there. So i’ll have to get good pictures before we go and ruin it.
I’ve been designing out a lot of the marketing material for our “large” project and that’s all going smoothly. We’ll go to print soon, on the brochures and I’m already wondering how badly I’m gonna screw up the colors. The printer is great, but like most other services, doesn’t speak any english. that’s gonna be hard, especially on color proofing. I’ve been learning InDesign and I hope to goddess I can pull it together enough to get something that even slightly resembles what I’m seeing on the screen. Printing a 25 page glossy perfect bound brochure is hairy. wish me luck. One of these days I’l upload a sneak peak.
My good friend, Lisa Candela, has been supplying me with the most awesome photos to use in the marketing material. her photos are insane, full of interesting personalities and colors. her photos define the word “resinate”. and in exchange, I’m designing a photography website for her, using Word Press, so that she can update it herself. The site is very simple, based on a liquid layout, tons of colors and really large type with some cute little css tricks and a javascript trick here or there tucked in for good measure. I’m coding this one by hand and it’s been a breeze, well mostly a breeze, I knocked out most of the design and functionality this past weekend and now I’m about to port it to WP templates. I can’t wait to see it go live. We are both very stoked on the bartering thing, artists helping each other out.
And last but not least, the ocean has been flatter than a pancake for over a week now. It’s grueling when there’s no surf. I miss my “me” time. re-watching A Broke Down Melody makes me fall into a zen like bliss, but it’s no substitute for the real thing.
For the past two friday nights Andrew has been having live music at Roots. The band is called “Frijoleros” and they are a boyfriend/girlfriend (husband/wife?) duo. They are like one part traditional mexican duo, one part manu chao inspired world travelers. Very modern mexican folk music. 2 voices, a guitar and a stand-up bass. All soul. I recorded a little audio:
I’ve been messing around with SlideshowPro, a customizable flash based image gallery viewer. It has built in support for Flickr’s RSS feeds, but Flickr limits those to the last 10 images and I was looking for something a bit heftier. I found Brian Sweetings’ FlickSSP a php mod for accessing all of your Flickr sets using an API key. It allows me to access all of my Flickr photo sets directly from this site. It’s a great little gizmo.
Hi, my name is Ed Fladung, I'm a recovering web-designer who moved to Mexico about 4 years ago. Learned to surf, got married and bought a nice camera. This is my weblog/photoblog. It covers broad subjects like becoming an ex-pat, surfing, photography, graphic design, music, art, architecture, living in mexico, all things Apple and WordPress related, etc... You can find more about me here. I hope you enjoy.
Powered by WordPress and my own home-rolled flavor of the Qwilm! theme. I call it the QPwilm! theme and you can download it if you'd like. This is my 4th iteration past the publicly available QPwilm! theme.
