Phones on a plane!
Posted by scott on May 22nd, 2008If ever there was an opinion poll destined to change radically over the next few years, this one is it.
Smiley Face Killers crossing Wisconsin? I don’t think so.
Posted by scott on May 21st, 2008Creepy. But I’m still not convinced.
Best. Chase. Ever.
Posted by scott on May 19th, 2008What’s your all-time favorite chase scene? The Blues Brothers? The Terminator? The Matrix?
I have my own favorite. Select the invisible text below to see what it is.
My favorite chase scene is Wallace & Gromit in The Wrong Trousers. Watch the scene here.
Obama’s VP choices
Posted by scott on May 13th, 2008Check out this discussion on Obama’s possible VP picks. I agree with it completely. Weird that it was written back in January but still holds up even after all that’s happened between then and now.
My money’s on Clark.
You know what a cautious fellow I am.
Posted by scott on May 12th, 2008That’s why I now possess ten advance tickets to see Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull at 7pm, May 22nd–opening day.
Yes. I will be decked out in full Indy regalia. Like you had to ask.
The Democratic race
Posted by scott on May 7th, 2008Here’s a fun game over at CNN.com. It’s a calculator in which you can adjust sliders corresponding to all six remaining Democratic primary contests as well as one for the remaining superdelegates. Play around with it. I did and I learned something stunning: if senator Clinton were to win every single remaining contest by 55-45 and also took superdelegates by a corresponding amount, Obama would still win. That’s how far be hind she is. One has to suspect that she’s remaining in the race primarily in case Obama self-destructs so badly that he literally has to withdraw from the race. She. Can’t. Win.
More than her refusal to admit this and drop out, what really bothers me is the media. For months on end we’ve all listened to pundits, analysts and other talking heads tell us that this unusually long primary race is terrible for the Democrats in November. We’ve heard endlessly that a “decisive” contest is just around the corner–and then after the results come in exactly as predicted, told yet again that the race will continue just as it did before. The worst, however, is the endless parade of media Jeremiads who seemingly never tire of wringing their hands over how damaging this all is to the Democratic party.
If I had to predict it, I’d say we’re in for a decisive Democratic win in November. And it’s not just because the Current Occupant–the most unpopular president in history–has an R after his name. It’s because the Democratic primary race has gone on so long.
One of the things you often hear said is that the unusually long contest is causing these candidate to spend lots of money that they would otherwise use to beat McSame in November. I guess this is true, as far as it goes, but I don’t think anybody is actually predicting that the Democrat is going to be outspent. So if it’s universally accepted that we’re going to raise and spend more money than they are in spite of the way the primary has occurred, why the worrying?
Another thing you often hear these doomsayers telling you is that Democrats are so gosh-darned divided that no matter who wins a significant number of them will stay home or even cross party lines in November. I think Democrats will unite quite nicely behind senator Obama. But more than that, Democratic primary races have seen record turnout and record voter registrations. For the first time in who knows how long Democrats other than ones who live in Iowa or New Hampshire actually got to participate in this decision! And it’s all happening precisely because of the long primary campaign season.
Finally, a note to Clinton supporters. First, your candidate cannot win the primary election. Second, I’m not sure why you’ve been supporting her in recent months, as she’s clearly the weaker of the two come November. As I’ve said before, senator Clinton can do the one thing that John McCain cannot: unite the Republican party. The reasons for this are many and varied–and some of them are frankly unfair and rooted in sexism–but the fact still remains.
Prediction: Clinton stays in the race until the nominee is won. That will happen at least by mid-June. All of the primary contests will be over and superdelegates will have nothing more to wait for or hide behind. The majority of them will go for Obama, making him the nominee.
And that is her best case scenario at this point. Other than Obama being found in bed with a dead teenage boy–and Osama bin Laden.
Juno
Posted by scott on April 30th, 2008Gilmore girls with a twist of Little Miss Sunshine. B+.
Treadmill
Posted by scott on April 28th, 2008Lacking anything more interesting to blog, I’ll tell you about something I did on Saturday. I ran on a treadmill for the first time ever.
You may know that I used to be a regular runner. I never ran more than 5 miles at a crack, and never more than three times a week. But hell, even running 3 miles three times a week (as I did for a couple of years) keeps one pretty fit.
That was, oh, thirty pounds ago. Sigh.
Now I’m afraid to run! I always had to kind of baby my knees. At this weight I’m scared to do more than a mile or two. But Saturday morning I reulctantly got on the treadmill, expecting to hate it a lot.
But I didn’t! I set it for 30 minutes and ran 4k, no problem. A nice easy pace, no knee pain, no problem. I’m ready to do it again as soon as I get the chance.
One tip, though: don’t close your eyes. You’ll end up getting spat off the back end of the treadmill.
AdWords, Dummies, ziplens.com and 85mm
Posted by scott on April 28th, 2008Ha! Scored another wedding contract today. This in spite of my complete inability to figure out Google AdWords. I make an ad. It gets an average position of between 4 and 6. It gets a couple thousand impressions. And it gets two clicks. Two. Each of which costed me exactly $0.19.
But there’s hope. I bought AdWords for Dummies, and so far it’s pretty good. I just need a couple hours here and a couple hours there to sit down, focus, understand, and do. Maybe this coming weekend.
In other photographic news, I have had an epiphany about my lens collection. I think I should trade out my 50mm f/1.8 for an 85mm f/1.8. The 50 has a lot going for it in terms of image quality, but it seems to lack a clear purpose. I believe that purpose will be much clearer with the 85: it’s a superb portrait lens and is long enough to be useful shooting indoor sports or wedding ceremonies in available light.
But I don’t have to guess. I rented the 85 for a week from ziplens.com. It should arrive in a couple of days.
Three things
Posted by scott on April 23rd, 2008Catchy title for this entry, eh? Shut up.
First, I bought me some advertising on Google. Now when people search for “waukesha wedding photographer” and other key phrases, they’ll see my ad on the right hand side of their results. I pre-paid $50-worth of ads, but the cool part is they only ding me when someone clicks on the ad. We’ll see how it goes. If the $50 dwindles and no customers have materialized, I’ll rethink this strategy.
Second thing, also ad-related. I got another email today asking me if I’d place a text ad on several of my blog pages. I replied that I had said yes to this before (I didn’t tell him i’d also said no on one occasion), and asked him what the product was and how much he wanted to pay. So we’ll see where that goes. Who knows, maybe placing an ad on my blog for shaving cream will pay for my Google ads.
Third thing. Maybe I should join CoPA, the coalition of photographic arts. They’re all so “artsy,” though. I’m not sure if a utilitarian-minded event photographer like myself would fit in. But maybe it wouldn’t hurt to attend one of their schmoozing get-togethers to find out.