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Showing posts from August, 2014

Bees

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I got stung by either wasps or hornets the other day while mowing the lawn. I guess they had a nest IN the lawn, and they didn't like me mowing over their front door. Don't know why, but since then, I have been on a bee photographing kick.

Taste of Fort Wayne Fashion Parade 2014 Take Two!

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I didn't have time to post all of the pictures I took, so here's round two. Thanks for holding my beer, dad. This is Painting With a Twist . Don't worry, I didn't hear him say anything about making trees "happy." Obviously a commentary about what's happening in Ferguson, MO. A M.A.S.H. reference. Kevin Harris of Balloons to the Moon . I think he was at Three Rivers Festival as well. Ice Mountain water from the guy who runs the Stellhorn and Coliseum Subways, and I think Georgetown as well. Smooth Edge 2 was at Taste of Fort Wayne. They were just one of several performers there. Bill Blass was from Fort Wayne! This cookie, with chocolate chips and pecans and I don't know what else was really good. I think it had toffee in it, as well. Get it at Vanilla Bean here in Fort Wayne. This is smoked gouda cheese dip with a few crackers and some pita bread. You can get this as an appetizer (in a much larger q

Taste of Fort Wayne 210415 Fashion Parade!

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On one of the muggiest days of the year, I was downtown for Taste of Fort Wayne. Let the parade begin! You ccan't help but wonder about their sex life. I bet they think reverse cowgirl is boring.  Now trending: EXTREME GLADIATOR SANDALS!!! I know it was a cool summer, but you picked the wrong day to wear a wool hat. They put a pond downdowntown and took all the fun out of it. Hey kid! Can't you read??? No hotdog, you can't go wading or swimming either. More pix to come! I gotta go clock in now.

My Lack of Willpower

When I'm anxious, I tend to eat junk food. And I've been worried about a new life path and my ongoing lack of money. I've got to stop this eating though.

An Interview With Brandon Vaughan

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I can't remember how I became Facebook friends with Brandon. Since we have at least one mutual friend, I think it was recommended that we become friends. Anyway, Brandon is a writer, and he always has interesting Facebook posts, so I checked out a couple of his short stories, and I was struck by his vivid descriptions. They can be both tender and brutal, but you always get a sense of "being there" when you read his stories. I asked him if he would like to be interviewed, and he said yes. The following is a transcript of that interview. Wait--can I call it a transcript if the questions and answers were emailed? It says you've been a writer since 1976. You're 38, right? That means you were writing since you were a baby! What the fuck, dude? All writing comes from life experience. As soon as I could open my eyes, I began recording and storing away sounds, colors, and flavors. Writers tend to remember everything for later reference. Actually, no one has ever c

Robin Williams, R.I. P.

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I gasped audibly. I was looking at AOL's home page, and I couldn't believe it. Robin Williams was dead. I know we all have to die someday. But no one was expecting this. Or were they? Williams has had problems with drugs and alcohol for years, and the news reports said he'd been struggling with severe depression recently. I've been depressed a lot in my life. But it never got so bad that I tried to commit suicide. There are issues I have had to deal with for decades, and I still can't really figure them out, or pinpoint where or how things went wrong, although I'm trying. I'm also trying to make peace with things I don't know how to change, no matter how hard I try. As depressing and hopeless as the problem seems, that isn't the MAIN thing in my life. There are other aspects of my life that I do enjoy, and I try to experience those things as much as I can. Who DIDN'T love Robin Williams? Rarely do you see actors/performers who can do both c

DIY Name in Lights!

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If you want an inexpensive but really cool gift, try making a Christmas light sign out of cardboard. Go to a home improvement store or somewhere they sell appliances and get a washer/dryer box, or a refrigerator box. Cut it to the size you want. I made my sign about two by four feet. Trace the saying or name on the cardboard in pencil, so if you make a mistake, you can erase it. Measure the distance between the bulbs. My bulbs were about two and half inches apart, so I penciled holes about two inches apart. I used a drill to make the holes. I gradually used bigger bits so I got holes that were just a hair smaller than the bulbs. This is after I drilled the holes. If you don't have a drill, that's okay. Use a box cutter or Xacto knife to cut tiny x's in the cardboard so you can fit the bulbs through. This is the drill I used. I think the bit size I used was 15/64. I already had paint so I didn't have to buy it. I used Olympic Icon Satin and the c

Begging For Scholarship Money

Well, I’m back in school again. And of course, I’m broke. So that’s why I’m writing this blog post. I’m trying to win a scholarship. Since I scored a 5.5 out of 6 on my analytical essay writing portion of my GRE, I’m hoping my kick-ass writing skills will get me some money for school. So, the topic is “How Technology Helped You Explore Your World.” Well, if I want to see famous cities that I can’t afford to visit, I’ll go to Google Street View and type in an address, and I can see it. I’ve used this several times to check out the hotel where I once stayed in NYC (it’s not the same one anymore) and also to check out where killer Canadian Karla Homolka lived. I’ve also used Google Street View for my creative writing. Say I’m writing a story, part of which takes place in New York. If I want to have my protagonists sitting in a cute little Italian restaurant, I’ll go online Google Italian restaurants in NYC,  and pick a place for them to eat. If I want them to order the signature dish

Lovelace The Movie

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I stopped by Delmar Video to rent Her , which sounded interesting. I thought the cover looked rather funny, sort of like a 1970's porn movie, with Joaquin Phoenix staring out with his green eyes and pornstache. I haven't watched it yet, because I picked up Lovelace , and wanted to watch that first. I've read Ordeal , Linda Lovelace's autobiography about what it was REALLY like being America's biggest porn star. She met up with a jerk named Chuck Traynor, except he didn't seem like a jerk at first. I've also read the sequel to Ordeal as well. Those familiar with Lovelace's REAL story will probably be disappointed with the film. Some parts of it ring true, but of course, the abuse isn't shown. Neither, of course, is the Deep Throating. The film depicts Linda, portrayed by Amanda Seyfried, as the naive, seemingly up for anything girl who falls into Traynor's clutches. At first, everything looks good--the young couple in love, taking picture

Prince Charming Vs. the Bad Boys

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Prince Charming as he SHOULD be: in shape, and NO tattoos. Facebook is interesting in the sense that you can people watch, but it's more of a reading exercise. You can usually spot patterns: the FB friend who only posts political stuff, which gets annoying, even if you agree with it. There's the eternal cat pictures, food photos and people who seemingly don't have a life at all, it's just re-posted stuff regarding politics, religion or philosophy. Then, there are the people who post about their love lives. I've spotted a pattern with a FB friend who moans about not finding a guy, then finds a guy, falls in love with him within minutes. There's two weeks of bliss, of declarations of love eternal, lots of pictures. Okay, maybe three or four weeks of this. Shortly thereafter, there are cryptic posts about thinking they know what love is. Following that, the inevitable sad posts of love gone wrong. And then the cycle starts again. I've seen one FB f