What’s new?

Everyone keeps asking me “What’s new?”  I hear it all the time. “What’s going on?”  For the lack of any good stories I’lltell you about two insignificant events that happened recently.  The first isan act of stupidity, the second a minor miracle.

Last week I observed a bunch of boys playing with guns behind my house. I live on a greenbelt, so my back yard looks out on a wide green strip of grass. It’s the perfect place for boys to play with guns.  There are trees andbushes and places to hide.  I was observing them from my second story windowwhen I noticed a few of them hiding behind the bushes next to my fence.

My dog Sammy and Diane’s dog Luka (who’s taken up permanent residenceat my house) kept running outside and barking at the boys.  I kept waiting tosee if the kids pointed the guns at the dogs – which they never did.  Infact the kids were pretty well behaved.  I had to leave to go on some errandsand thought I should check to see what kind of guns the kids were playing with. They were shooting at each other so I figured they couldn’t be anything tooharmful, but they were all wearing face masks so they must have been a little dangerous. My fear was that they would hurt the dogs.

I went out in my back yard and called a few of the kids over to my fence.  Theycame right over.  I asked them what kind of guns they were using.  Theysaid, “oh these are just air guns.”   Oh cool.  I knowa guy at work who has a cool air canon called an Airzooka thatshoots air.  We play with it all the time, it’s really funny.  I figuredthese were just the pistol version of the Airzooka.  That certainly wouldn’thurt my dog.

One of the kids then said, “yeah, these are air guns, we shoot each other withthem.”  Then he shot a kid in the leg who was about 10 feet away. The kid jumped a little and everyone laughed.  Cool, I thought.  I wouldn’tmind being 10 years old again, running around and playing with nifty guns that shootair.

When I was growing up we had Daisy RedRider BB Guns.  They were awesome, but we NEVER pointed them at a personor animal.  That would have meant losing the gun and facing some major discipline. The Daisy could easily put an eye out.  So learning about new toy guns that shotair was revolutionary to me.  What could be more fun than that?

I had to see one of these guns for myself.  So I asked one of the kids to letme see his pistol.  He handed it right over.  “Where do you buy thesethings?”  I asked.  They told me I could pick one up at Wal-Mart orany number of mega-stores.  Hmmm, maybe I could get one of those…

I really wanted to see how much air came out of the guns, and make sure my dogs weregoing to be OK.  So I held the pistol in my right hand and pointed at my openleft hand about two feet away.  Just before I squeezed the trigger I heardone of the kids shout out, “Be careful with that pistol!”  I squeezedthe trigger.

An immediate sensation of pain hit me.  My pinkie had been hit, but not by air. In my mind I began to scream “$*#@# *%#!!!!”  It hurt, it REALLYhurt.   It felt like my finger had been blown off my hand and that flameswere shooting out of the open wound.  Every heart beat was focused on thesmall area where I’d been hit, emphasizing the pain like some sadistic metronome.

I looked at my pinkie and there was a giant blood blister where normal tissue wasjust seconds before.  I realized that this gun actually had ammo, and it wasn’tair.  I wanted to cuss out loud, but I had to set an example for the kids. Kids who, in all fairness, had warned me about shooting my own hand.

“Ow, that stings,” I said in my best Mr. Rogers voice. “That reallystings.”  I took a look at my wounded pinkie and then at the wide eyedkids just over my fence.  “So this thing shoots some kind of pellet?”I asked.  “Yep, they’re rubber.”  Wow, you could havefooled me.  It felt like a hammer had just smashed my finger.

After further investigation it turns out that the “air guns” are the samething as the BB guns I used to play with when I was a kid.  The only differenceis that the BB’s are now rubber and the air is more powerful.  I thankedthe kids for the lesson and told them not to play near my dogs.  They were goodkids and have moved down the greenbelt to safer areas.  At least they are allwearing full face masks.  And I think they have a rule that says you have tobe at least 15 feet away from someone to shoot them.  Hmmm, I’m not sosure about that.  I’m not sure I like kids pointing guns at each other.

My hand has since healed, I just have a BB size bruise on my pinkie now.  I noticedthat as I was eating my sandwich at lunch today.   My pre-made sandwichfrom the local cafe.  I was in a hurry and had to grab a pre-packaged sandwich. There was no way to tell them to keep the mayo on the side.  As long as I canremember I’ve hated mayonnaise.  But today something changed.

When I took the first bite I thought, “mmm, that’s tasty.” Then I realized that my sandwich was full of mayo.  Mayo was something that wouldmake me skip lunch.  Mayo was the enemy of good taste.  Mayo was to be avoidedat all costs.  And yet it was tasty.  Perhaps a miracle had occurred. Some strange force changed my yucky mayo into a delicious culinary accoutrement. I couldn’t deny it.  The may was good.

I’m not sure what to take from these two random experiences.  Maybe I’mgrowing up.  I’m learning that food is good and guns are bad. That things that nourish and keep us healthy are to be sought and things that arenegative and destructive are to be shunned.

Or maybe it’s just stupid to shoot yourself in the hand.

Posted by admin Posted in: Random Stuff No Comments » August 2005

Corporate Coffee

I just have to pass along this post from Digital Bohling.  It’s too funny to miss.  Ha ha ha.  Clickhere to laugh along.

Posted by admin Posted in: Humor No Comments » August 2005

New Digital Photography Forum

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I’ve just created a new place for photographers to post questions, discuss phototopics, and get to know each other.  It’s the new DigitalPhotography Forum right here on the Mark Wallace Megasite.

In addition to having a bunch of cool forums to learn new things I’ve also addedweekly photo challenge.  This week the theme is “Stuff You Find On A Table”. It’s open to all photographers, so join the fun.  It’s free!

I hope to see you on the forum soon.

Posted by admin Posted in: Photography No Comments » August 2005

First Chip of 2005

 

I’m casting my first chip of2005.  I’m throwing a chip for War Photographer.  I’ve watched this documentaryseveral times this year and it’s really influenced the way I think about taking pictures. It’s a documentary, and not one that’s easy to watch (sorry for that).  I thinkJames Natchwey has some legitimate things to say and I’ve adopted some of his credoas my own.

Cecil, Diane,and I have had endless conversations about this film.  I used the principlesof Nachtwey’s photography when I was inIndia this year.  Earlier this week I did a presentation to a photography clubusing the film as my framework.  So I’d have to say it’s chip worthy!

Clickhere to buy War Photographer

Click here to go to theWar Photographer website.

Also worth noting (though I’m not going to chip it because too many people are planningon seeing it anyway): Crash.  To date I think Crash is the best movie of 2005.
 
And for those who don’t know what a chip is clickhere.

Posted by admin Posted in: Movies No Comments » August 2005