Food stop

Food stop, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

It was out last chance to eat, the day had been long, most of it spent on the road.  We headed for the first place that looked open and grabbed enough food for all of us, and headed out.  It was going to be a long night of driving.

Back to school

Back to school, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Another summer comes to an end. The process starting all over again, and time marches on.

Politics

Politics, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

A self-serving world of lies

It's always something

Didn't time to sort out the issues with linking flickr and blogger yesterday, but hope to get back to that today.  With any luck flickr has sorted this issue out.

Drive around

We'll I was going to do some different blog posting this morning, but ran into some technical issues and the link between blogger and flickr isn't working.  Drats....

Technology is great until it doesn't work.... it's a blog eat blog world folks.

No resistance

No resistance, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

The world builds cages around dreams,
restraining them from ever coming to be

Shaped Reflections

We see our past passing by in glimpses, reflecting back the slow changes brought on by time.  Lost in changing seasons, and fading memories.

Summer Camp

Summer Camp, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

As summer comes to an end,
it becomes another year for the memory book.

United We Stand

United We Stand, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

The country falls
more divided
than ever

Politics

Politics, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

A divided nation,
lost and spinning,
has lost its way...
sinking further,
each passing day

Tell your story

Tell your story, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

I awoke this morning
but my muse wasn't there
She'd left without warning
I looked for her everywhere
mumbling and cursing
she'd climbed my attic stairs

When the future was bright

When the future was bright, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

The only place I ever wanted to go was forward,
there never was any reason to stay in the past,
a place best forgotten as soon as possible....
stop stirring up those ghosts of days gone by,
it doesn't serve us well, and brings our journey
to an unwanted standstill...

Ready to shift

Ready to shift, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

I took this with my iPhone, and yes I know it's not the world's greatest photo.  The story behind this is the big changes in photography, the mechanics behind it actually.

I was at a car show and ran into a friend from the local camera club and we were talking about cameras (of course) and the upcoming club discussion about small cameras. 

There's been much excitement over the new mirrorless cameras coming about, which are quickly being adopted by club members.  Weight is one of the biggest reasons, these things are light.

So we stood and chatted a bit and I told her that I didn't think it would be all that long before you did everything on the camera, including post processing and uploading to the cloud.  So, I did a quick demo on my phone, the result being this image.  The point I was trying to make is that we'll soon be able to take the computer and photoshop (as we know it today) out of the equation.

She was impressed with what my little phone could do, and a bit discouraged at the same time, and I don't blame her.  Photography enthusiasts have spent substantial amounts of time and money on their passion of making images.

Needless to say, she agreed that we'd soon be using internet connected cameras that had an operating system that allowed for post processing on touch screens.

So I'm reading my news feed today and what do I run across?  An article about a new Nikon camera running Android.  I kid you not.

Feel free to chime in on the comments on where you think cameras are headed.

Reaching Out

Reaching Out, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Reaching out to persons unknown
from behind my mask that keeps me safe
and hides me from myself

Where they know my name

Where they know my name, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

There are environments that just don't lend themselves to creativity, which is unfortunate.  It's a situation that many find themselves in, and something that has to be worked around and overcome.  It can be done.

Our Summer Excursion

Our Summer Excursion, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

We'd head for the hills, to a little spot just off the road where we could park the car and sit beneath the trees.  It was our summer tradition, a time when the whole family could just get away and briefly enjoy being together, away from urban madness.

Bribe money

Bribe money, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

I was reading that during this election season, it's estimated that the campaigns will spend two billion dollars collectively essentially insulting each other.  After the last bit of mud is tossed we're supposed to pick someone we like?  Someone of character?  Someone qualified for the job?

This big business game of lies is disgusting.  Everyone is in it for the money... forget the issues, the public, the future, the voters, the country.

There are other candidates of course, and they care about issues and the country, but they'll never end up at the "debates" nor get mentioned by the "news media".

American politics has become just more "reality" entertainment, and as such Kim Kardashian would make just as good of a "President" as anyone else running for office.

It's a game of fools, where we do get fooled, and the new boss?  Same as the old one...

Load of paper

Load of paper, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Buried in the mundane,
each day starting the same
as the day ended before

Summer Clouds

Summer Clouds, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

As the season passes by,
we've got one less summer,
and less time to make memories

From another era

From another era, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

By many different means,
we've learned to get to the same place,
By many different means,
we've managed to change little at all

Poor Man's Vacation

Poor Man's Vacation, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Four years and running,
the great recession unending,
complicated by an election,
and streams of media lies,
the common man caught
without fanfare, in the middle

Root Feast

Root Feast, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Molly never imagined that raw potatoes would probably be her last meal, but she was grateful for them.

She'd lost so much blood from the gunshot wound in her leg she was delirious.

A storm was fast approaching, and she could hear howling dogs and gun shots off in the distance.

The burned out building she was in offered little shelter, she would be lucky to make it through the night.

Wounded and on the run, she just took what she could to survive.

All that glitters

All that glitters, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

We're in the era of cloud content, there's no question about that.  And yet, it seems that there are and will be many questions to answer.  Such as what happens to that digital content once a person passes away?

Cloud content, the version we're being sold now, has been around for less than a decade.  Prior to this, most music content was stored on hard drives and iPods, and in the case of movies much of that was still on DVD, and books were still printed on paper.

This has started to change drastically with the advent of the iPad, Kindle, Kindle Fire, Roku, Apple TV, an expanded iTunes, and Amazon Instant Video store.

You can now buy and store your content in the cloud and access it almost anywhere.  This is a great convenience, and sure makes for a lot less clutter and reduces storage issues.

But just like physical media in the days before the cloud, digital media accumulates, and rather quickly.

I'm sure it won't be uncommon to have thousands of dollars worth of digital media stored on servers on person's personal accounts that our family and friends may not know about, but might want none the less,

So again, what happens to it when we die?

It's been bought and paid for... does it just go away?  Poof?

At this point I'm just curious, but I'm sure it's an issue that will need to be addressed and probably very soon.

Crossed Up

Crossed Up, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Five thousand words and a few hours is about how long it took me to realize that I've got to take a new approach to putting together a draft ebook from a manuscript given to me by my elderly mother.

Getting this document, which I didn't even know existed until a month ago, into digital format is just going to be the first part of this exercise.  A time consuming one at that, but still something that needs to be done, and is the part I've spent most of my time on so far.

There's a lot to like in what I've worked on so far, and more to like I'm sure in the parts to come.  My thinking now is to finish a complete read through of the manuscript and mark up minor typos and such, and get a feel for the overall piece.

That should help editing, especially thematically, later on.  This is a very interesting process, and a learning experience for me, with the biggest challenge being managing a limited amount of time to work on this.

So, back to it I guess.... I'm curious where this project is going to end up.

Inner urban

Inner urban, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Inner urban
living under
lock and key
spending
our days
pretending
to be
happy

Long Stroll

Long Stroll, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Headed towards places best reached alone,
those far off places of the mind,
mapped out in the quiet of the night,
the corners of memory where you dwell...

Dialed in

Dialed in, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

we may think we've got everything under control,
only to find it really isn't so...

Apples

Apples, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

It was early morning,
two hours before dawn,
when the music stopped

The gathering just came about,
an informal collection of friends,
nothing had been planned

The news of Ben's leaving spread,
the spark that brought tears,
and a night of goodbyes

He was headed back to the farm,
his childhood home waited,
to fill a dying father's void

Burger Time

Burger Time, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

The small towns along the way connected the empty road,
dot by dot we'd check them off the map as we rolled along,
stopping now and then to stretch our legs and get something to eat...

They were our lifeline, a place to get supplies as we moved on
and off the grid... we had a long way to go, yet no particular destination...

Our goal was to put miles behind us, to keep on moving, before anyone
realized we were gone...

House be gone

House be gone, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Abandoned dreams
sitting in decay
in the hills above
a home of yesterday
void of life and love...

Topped off

Topped off, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

daydreaming in the dark,
as those dreams slowly fade,
or are taken apart...

Days of a life

Days of a life, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

All those experiences we've had during our lives can be gone in a flash, really, an instant is all it takes.  That's not such a bad thing, but over the years a lot of family history can be lost.

If you're like me, you may have parents that are getting up there in years whose memories are becoming more unreliable, making it hard to separate fact from fiction, and that will only get worse.

I'm lucky and have a good relationship with my mom, and enjoy spending time with her, and helping her around her place.

The thing that I've found extremely rewarding is helping her with setting up a Facebook page (though it's not about being on Facebook), scanning old photos, listening to stories (though you get the hear the same ones over and over), and posting this info online (with discretion) so that other family members who live in far off places can enjoy it.

My mother has kept journals and written poetry for most of her life, so we've been able to build her a blog, and a Google Plus page.

The point of all of this has been to really engage with my mom, cull interesting stories I've forgotten about, and to share with family.

Our memories of special moments don't have to be lost like tears in the rain.  We can pass them along.  It's like curating family treasures before they get lost to the sands of time, and building a stronger connection to your roots.

The days of a life count for something, and that should never be forgotten.

Empty seats

Empty seats, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

I miss innocence
childhood friends
who only visit now
for a moment or two
in early waking hours
a lift when down...

Fused

Fused, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Voices beckoning from the night
hiding behind eternal darkness
come - come - come
reptilian waste scattered
across the barren desert highway
deceit calls out from beyond the black
hideous relief found in plight
bring salvation, take way the night
end this dream, turn on the light

Loose

Loose, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Unused pieces of the day,
lost in shadows of neglect,
to taunt us with vague memories...
and search though we may,
recollections don't connect,
leaving doubts and worries...
all pieces of yesterday

Quarters

Quarters, a photo by Damian Gadal on Flickr.

Lenny couldn't by a song,
not to save his life,
he'd lost that at the tables,
the rest at the slots...
He took a chance,
and lost....