Growing up on a tiny island in the middle of the Philippines meant that, for the most part, we were fairly behind on the States when it came to new fads, TV shows, fashion, or other pop culture. While normally an annoyance, it worked in my favor when, in 1985, my best friend came over with this game his dad had brought back from Japan, Dungeons & Dragons.

Tonight I learned that there are essentially two types of people that will venture out into a blizzard-thunderstorm in the middle of the night: dog owners, who gladly brave the cold so that their pooches can do their dirty sinful business, and nutcases who look at the snow pouring down and think “I bet that’d make a pretty picture!”

Home again, home again, after a good three weeks or so back in California.  As much as I love traveling it pretty much hobbles much of my updating.  Since my laptop has a glossy screen, photos I edit on it usually wind up a lot darker than they seem at the time.  As such, I tend to shy away from photo work on the road.

Apparently there’s a Wordpress app for Android. This I’d especially fortuitous because just today I resolved to do a lot more shooting. Lately it seems like the only shooting I do anymore is for jobs or friends. I hardly ever shoot for me anymore.

So Fourth of July weekend is upon us, and for some reason that made me feel extra-compelled to go out and do something than any other Saturday. Go figure. In any case, I promptly hopped on my trusty steed (the Manhattan-bound N Train) and galloped (commuted) my way into town,

Today presented an interesting situational dichotomy as I spent it hanging out with different friends. In the morning, I met up with a good friend of mine, Iñigo (in whose spare bedroom I’m crashing while in Manila) and some of his friends for lunch. We ate at a nice upscale Japanese restaurant before retiring to one of the friends’ houses for sangrias.

The shot above was taken while on a karaoke outing with some coworkers the day before last. We had a private room and a lot to drink — the perfect recipe for fun karaoke times.

So I’m a good day or so into the ‘cleanse’ and it’s going well so far. It’s actually a little scary how much more time I have in the day, just from cutting out twitter, facebook, and other “distraction” websites.

I’ve seen a lot of Christmas decorations in my time, but this has got to be one of the more macabre ones to date. It reminds me of those witch doctors’ shrunken heads you’d see in cartoons and comics. The only things that are missing are lifeless eyes and sewn-shut lips.

A friend of mine makes little creatures. More to the point, she crochets little critters into being. She makes other things, too, like clothes and jewelry, but really it’s the critters you keep coming back for. She also makes little tiny versions of people, usually to order.