nephews and niece

I'm finishing up my vacation and starting back at work tomorrow. I sepnt most of ht evacation in Utah. Since getting back to the STL, I've been going through the pictures I took and trying to find keepers. Here's some of my awesome nephews and niece.

So that's Troy. He rocks.

And that's Sabrina. Hopefully her mom won't get ticked off that Sabrina (or "Beanie") has a dirty face. Sabrina is a free spirit. Her dirty face doesn't reflect on her parents' parenting skills.

And Colt. Colt is like a cow -- he eats almost constantly. As you can tell from the pictures, I don't really like posed pictures or pics of kids smiling. But that's me.

fun with black and white

Another picture post. Good times. So I've been messing around on the computer with black and white. Mostly, I'm going through old photos I've taken and finding the ones that are more interesting/dramatic in B&W. Most of the pictures of people that I've taken fall into that category. It makes sense when you consider that I stink at taking pictures of people.

So here's the arch. In color the picture is kind of boring. And by "kind of" I mean "really".

Another arch shot. Got to represent the STL.

Here's a bridge across the Mississippi. I cropped out a ton of bridge but wished I had a bit more river to work with.

This is my bedroom. I was messing around with the wide angle. I didn't rearrange anything -- everything is in its natural position (including random bike wheel).

My buddy Sam from when we went on vacation last fall. I kind of like how his camera blocked out his eyes. Also of note, my camera is so much bigger than his.

Doesn't he look pensive? It's no wonder everyone wants to date him. He's got the whole angst thing going on which is only magnified, I think, by the B&W.

OK, so I didn't take this one. I included is mostly because I think the B&W makes the mullet look awesome. Nothing better than the open water and the wind in your hair (or mullet).

And last but not least, and awkward self-portrait. If you squint (and use your imagination), you might just see a bit of facial hair.

a low-down dirty shame OR the saddest sight ever

I was walking out of my neighborhood Staples with my xerox copies in hand when I came across a sight so wanton and deplorable, so deprave and perverse, that it shook me to my very core. Part of me cried out to flee from such a scene, but I found myself strangely drawn in. I could not shake my eyes from the mindless destruction that I faced. I grabbed my camera phone and took pictures in the hope that the images might stir something inside all of you so that such wickedness, which should rightly be abhorred, might not be repeated. I warn you, these images might be too graphic for those of a weaker constitution.

This is the scene from further out. This encompasses it in all of its horrific horribleness.

Moving closer in to the grouping on the left. Can you see the golden spongy goodness laying battered and destroyed on the cold, hard, unforgiving cement?

And look here below, the creamy goodness lying inside a warm blanket of cake, beckoning the faithful to a heavenly center. But instead of its near-divine purpose, it lies cast aside and disregarded. And again, Eden sinks to grief.
In case you haven't yet realized what this heavenly creation is, it is in fact a twinkie. My natural inclination when facing such travesty is to try to make sense of what happened, for it is only in learning from history that we can ever hope to unrepeat it. I submit my graphical recreation of what happened here. We start with our main player, Twinkie the Kid.

Through forces unknown, Twinkie the Kid finds himself in a free fall, from heaven to earth.

Now in his fallen state, he finds himself subjected to the heartless will of the boot.

Now I can't be sure exactly how it all happened. Rather than a combat boot, Twinkie the Kid could have fallen victim to a wandering cowboy (no doubt wearing a hat black as night).

As dark as these time are, maybe in fact it was not a wandering cowboy but in fact a skeleton who happened across the fallen twinkie.

The exact details remain dark and hidden. So there it is. I leave it to you to struggle to find meaning in all this, whether you view these events as an allegory to the state of fallen man, or a manifestation of the chaos of existence, or whether this in fact has no meaning and only serves to expand the outer limits of this nihilistic void in which we find ourselves. Me, I will weep with the tears saved only for the innocent. Do not cry for spilled milk, but cry with me, brothers and sisters, for the twinkie now departed.