My GPS Camera Phone

First, I want to acknowledge and thank Diane at Much of a Muchness for recognizing me as a Breakout Blogger, an award originating from Bob at bobbarama. Many thanks. If you have yet to visit Diane’s site, you need to because she has an incredible talent for making books (not the betting type!). Stop by and check out her creations, and help me persuade her to open up an online shop. Seriously, it seems like she produces a book each day!

Second, I want to say that if I owe you a meme, it is coming. Promise.

Third, I am stoked to be a member of the sooper-seekrit, members only Cliq group called Network of Blogs that Don’t Suck. Cliq is a new service that is going to beat the hell out of BlogRush, that is, if they have planned for mass casualties, unlike the people at BlogRush. (Seriously, what were they thinking?)

Cliq has taken the RSS feed to a whole new level. You join a cliq, apply the widget to your blog and then post stories as usual. The feed goes to Cliq and then displays your content on your cliq’s widget, which should be on your cliq’s blogs. Their visitors click on your cliq’s widget which gets you rated higher in your cliq. By the way, cliq is actually spelled clique, so don’t get confused when I say something like, “Join my cliq simply by clicking on my cliq’s Cliq widget.” (That q is starting to look like a g.)

D. I just want to say thanks to everyone, especially my wife, my muse, my set-me-straight counselor, Nancy. (She will be today’s Wordless Wednesday photographer – look out for it soon!) I’ve been busy, but I will eventually reply to your comments. I’ve taken a page from the books of Rolando, Jon, Opal and Joanne regarding life priorities, so I’m not on this site 4-8 hours a day anymore. I appreciate the time you take to contribute and look forward to reading what you’ve got to say. Have a great day!

I love how fire equipment caters to the lowest common denominator. Something about the simplicity of it really draws me in. I have this visual of a building up in smoke, with some guy standing next to the alarm (which was just pulled) and wondering what to do next. Maybe these should state something like, “Pull down and exit building,” or “Pull down and run!”

The irony of this photo, however, lies in the background. Yes, concrete. Non-flammable concrete. This got me thinking about how we talk about buildings catching on fire. Is it the building catching on fire or all the stuff inside it catching on fire? I know that when my office was renovated, the resulting smell was so toxic that there’s only two possibilities: 1) my office is impervious to fire from all of the fire-proof materials used to renovate it or 2) my office is a tinderbox of man-made office decor. I’m guessing it’s the latter.

The kicker: in the stairwells, there’s a fireplug (with no firehose) and a simple pressurized-water fire extinguisher. Like that is going to do anything against a raging office-carpet inferno!

There’s many good reasons to have a natural yard.

• You don’t have to water it.
• It goes totally dormant every winter. This means no lawn mowing for about six months!
• You get all kinds of weeds. The bonus to this is that if you let them grow out a little, most of them will produce colorful blooms.
• Fairies and leprechauns prefer to live in your yard.
• No money spent on fertilizer and other chemicals.
• Mushrooms. Lots and lots of mushrooms.
• Lots of cool critters like bees that dig burrows like ants do and the occasional grass snake.
• You don’t feel bad about tilling a plot for a garden since there was really no lawn there to begin with.
• Big patches of clover, as seen in this photo. It’s everywhere.

While I do like the visual appeal of a closely manicured lawn, I can’t see myself ever maintaining one. I thought about planting a “nice” lawn, but the native plants and weeds would take over in no time. Why try fighting what’s going to happen anyway? There’s certainly more things for me to photograph.

UPDATE: Debo Hobo pointed out the correct name of this stuff as sour grass, aka broadleaf woodsorrel. Thanks!

More on Oxalis latifolia

Nature does not care about man’s attempt to cover her over. Build your parking lots, apartment buildings, interstate highways, office complexes. She laughs and carries on as she has for millions of years. Time to break this asphalt apart.

I’ve been on a brief hiatus from posting and visiting everyone’s blogs so I could take a step back from this project I call Me and My GPS Camera Phone. It’s only been two months and the reception I’ve received from the blogging community has been inspirational and revealing. What started as a “me” project got me wondering – why did I not see the “they” and the “you?”

A long discussion with Nancy – my friend, true love and wife of 6 years – yesterday over coffee helped me refocus on the purpose of this blog. Where is it going? What is my ultimate goal? Am I straying from the original intent? Ads? Affiliates? Both? There’s so many possibilities to consider and filter out. Waking up this morning after a night of subconscious processing and a weird dream that included Britney Spears, I realized what the blog is about.

You.

I am only the catalyst. I present my ideas captured through the camera lens and the rest is up to you. It is you that take the images to the next level, give them new meaning and provide an incredible amount of inspiration to keep me going. You that have made me see that there are real people behind the comments.
With a renewed focus and fresh-brewed coffee at my side, I’ve decided to make a few changes around here. If I tell, though, it would ruin the surprise. But I can tell you that the ads are gone and there MIGHT be a template change to 4-column, just so I can get all of my friends “above the fold.” There may be a return of ads or an affiliate program, but I assure you it will be disclosed and not so obnoxious (I hope).

The big surprise will hopefully go over well. I’ll need some time to get it going, but let’s just say it brings you into the fold, far beyond simple commenting. I hope I haven’t said too much already.

Until then (which could be weeks or months), I’ll continue posting and reading your blogs. I’ll return to my roots and continue waxing poetic about a piece of grass or a clod of dirt. I’ll remember that this blog has a personal side to it that has apparently affected quite a few people. I’ll read my “about” page more often.

Thanks to all of my visitors for your friendly reception, awards and camaraderie.

Welcome to my blog.

I captured this right before I left work for the day. The light was good, the shadows long and the desk had an empty spot. This moment was ripe for photoey-camera-phone goodness. Any guess what I was working on in the notebook? It’s not that hard to guess if you run a website. Happy Friday!