Interesting

I haven't blogged about politics in awhile. It's been mostly pictures, but since the primaries are kicking up I keep getting more and more fascinated by what's going on. Reading through my normal roundup of political blogs today I saw an interesting piece related to yesterday's NH primary. Of course the big question on every political website today has to do with why the pre-primary polls in NH were so inaccurate in relationship to last night's results. One news story presents an interesting and seemingly plausible answer: it has to do with how the election itself was setup.

Read more here, but my summary of what they report in the article is that NH has, in the past, rotated the order of names on the ballot. This year they did not, printing a uniform ballot where the Democratic candidates were listed in alphabetical order starting with Joe Biden (who has dropped out of the race) then Hillary Clinton, and about 21 names later Barack Obama. Now, this alone wouldn't be super interesting if it weren't for the fact that studies by the author of the article linked above have shown that candidates can often get at least a 3% bump in voting based on their placement towards the top of a list on the ballot.

Anyway, that aside, I think yesterday's results in NH are an interesting and healthy development for the 2008 elections, and for America. I think we'll all benefit from having more states weigh in on deciding who the two bigger candidates are, and I hope that this process allows us all to learn more about who the candidates are, how they respond to adversity, what their policy positions, and how we might be able to read their likely approach to leading our nation.

I personally all but dismiss the same questions that cause much hand-wringing especially around Obama's preparedness and experience. I base that personal bias on my own sense that many who are steeped in and attuned to the Washington game due to years of playing it often seem far from my own policy preferences, world-view, and vision for what America should hold up as its ideals. I know getting things done involves compromise, but look at all the compromise congress has done this year, and how much it has caused them to be berated from both their opponents and their own supporters. I really do hope this election might bring some substantive change, in the form of a new vision, a new day where we can think as a nation about the future we want, and how we can get ourselves there... building new and interesting coalitions to make change happen, and thinking creatively about how to strengthen all our systems, both the truly hurting ones (let's see... healthcare, education...) and the ones that work well now but seem in danger down the road.

Wow, that was quite a ramble. Thanks, New Hampshire, for getting me churning there. Congrats to all the Hillary supporters out there. This Obama supporter can't wait to see what the next few months bring.

Streaking

Rock Tree 05, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

The last few days I've been holed up in my room, trying to get over a cold/flu/general nose-running throat-aching crappiness. Welcome to 2008, right? Anyway, it's funny how when you spend so much time in or close to bed the world seems to streak on past you. Nothing stops because your head is clogged up and you sleep until noon. Perhaps, however, this is a reassuring thought more than anything else. Who would want for things to screech to a halt because they felt crappy?

Ok, enough about that. Moving on, the photo above is one I took in NYC last week while I was breezing through with Joseph, Michael and Satako. The colors are from Christmas lights on the tree at Rockefeller Center. I took a whole series, and I am planning to post a bunch, but of the ones I've pulled through photoshop and up into the internets this is my favorite so far. I like the short uptick before the streak to the left. I like it a lot. Most of the others have a more elegant curvature to the movement of the light streaks, but this one has such an fascinatingly linear shape. As I've looked at this pictures and the others I snapped like it, I've come to enjoy an almost textural element that I think is produced by the varying density of lights in different areas of the image. There's something ghostly there. Anyway, this is a photo I was particularly excited to get up onto the blog.

As I continue to hydrate, rest, and try to make my way back to the land of the living, I hope that you are having a great week, and look forward to getting into such shape that I'll be getting a little more fresh air and sunlight soon!

Until then, at least I've got a ton of interesting photos backlogged for editing and upload!

Cheers!

++ John

Climbing the CN tower

Climbing the CN tower, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Wow... let me tell you, last year ended with a bang. Just as the days were growing limited and there appeared little chance for new adventure and excitement, along came Joseph, Satako, and Michael to say, "Hey, let's go to Canada."

Sure, when you heard that you might have said, "but there are so few days in which to drive all that distance!!!" And you would have had a valid point. Fortunately for me, I ignored the little voice in my head saying, "this is crazy, and said Yup! That sounds like a plan."

The next day we set out on a three-day adventure that would take us from Philly to NYC to Connecticut, to Toronto and then on a whirlwind descent from the northern Canadian Ice Wine Country back down through the deepest darkest reaches of rural New York and home again to Philly mere hours before 2007 was to end.

While in Toronto I climbed the tallest building in the world by hand. See the photographic evidence above.

Cheers, and happy new year!!!

2008!

Petunia and John 04, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Wow, I've now been blogging for 3 calendar years... sure it still only adds up to around a year and a half, but as I was thinking up a first blogpost for the year that was the first thing that crossed my mind.

Also, seemingly notable to me right now is that I've been doing a boatload of traveling in the past couple weeks. In the month of December I spent time in Connecticut, Boston MA, New York City, Atlanta GA, Burlington VT, Philadelphia PA, Toronto CA, and soon I'll head back to CT. It's been quite a whirlwind end to the year, and has me feeling like I constantly am in need of a nap.

Whew. Time to rest a bit, edit and upload some photos, figure out what this New Haven place is actually about, and focus in on some work I've been pushing aside as I jaunted around to various places.

January is a good time for that sort of thing, right?

To anyone and everyone I've seen, I hope you have a great start to your year, and if I missed you in my travel-crazed frenzy, perhaps we can catch up soon.

In store for 2008 on The Best Way to Have a Good Idea is To Have Lots:

* Many new and exciting photos
* Reviews of Songs or albums
* Guest bloggers
* Political commentary

So... basically... more of the same, except for the guest bloggers thing... that's a new idea. We'll see how it goes.

Got an idea? Why not blog it here!?!?!

Robot Attacks!

Robot Attacks!, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Recently I was attacked in my sleep by a small green robot. He sapped my ability to write blog entries, so that's why you haven't heard much from me in the last month. Luckily, I have made a full recovery and plan to re-emerge, complete with photos, bizarre ramblings and useless insights galore.

I know you're excited.

I sure am!

Merry Christmas

Adrift

Jellyfish, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Hey, wow... been awhile, right?

Yeah, I haven't been blogging much lately. I also haven't been home much, haven't been sleeping much, and haven't been keeping track of everything I should be getting done any given day. Wow. Luckily, I think things will settle down a bit in the next week or two, and hopefully a bit more thereafter. I'll keep my fingers crossed for now on those predictions, however, because I think there's a fair chance neither will come true.

This weekend I was in Atlanta to celebrate my brother's completion of his PhD. Click a link to my Flickr photos if you want to see some more pics from that event (I've got a few up now, hope to add more quickly). While I was there we all went to the Georgia Acquarium and this is one of the few pictures I was able to snap (camera battery decided to go kaput!).

Anyway, more soon, for now this is one picture I'm very very happy with.

Taking Time to Think

bike shop 01, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Ahh... the alliteration of it all!

I have been looking back at photos a bunch lately (see the post about Red below) and I can't believe I never posted this one to my blog. When I took this picture, I had a feeling I really liked it, but over time I've come to realize it could be one of my all time favorites. Andrew is an interesting little character, and one of the things about him I love is the way he gets truly fascinated by things, especially mechanisms.

Watching him that day in the bike shop, he was so unlike many children. I think lots of kids who were along for the ride on their big sister's bike shopping trip would pull the, "I want one too!" card. Not Andrew. He got himself into the shop, and very quickly became interested in the mechanisms of the bikes, the brake levers, the chains and shifters, the way the pedals turned the chain to turn the wheel.

For the 15 minutes we were in the shop he went from one bike to the next, exploring their differences, playing and prodding, very content. Sure, once we all went outside for Emily's test ride, he did want to hop on and test out the bike himself... but while he was playing with those bikes, he was a character truly absorbed. It was a fun thing to watch, and a neat thing to capture.

I also love, in this shot, the way that his bright red shirt plays in a field that is dominated by shades of gray and black.

Old Tricks, New Dog

A lot of recent changes have found me returning to interesting old patterns. I recently moved... twice, actually, and I'm realizing that one old habit I need to break is never quite figuring out how to settle myself into a space. Still, while I'm not yet settled into my new home, I am finding some comfort activities that make me feel new in my old ways.

One, the big one of the day, is that I joined a gym today, and I hope to go regularly to a gym for the first time in years. Now, this is not to say I haven't worked out, but I've done so in a more private setting for the last year or more.

Today I returned to that sweaty semi-social environment where people gather with a collective purpose and move... sometimes in parallel, often in varied patterns, all in a close proximity. It was exhilarating to get off my ass and do this, and I'm very glad I finally did. Signing up and starting to go has been a to-do list item for a couple weeks now.

Going back to the gym is not isolated in its status as a newly re-established old practice of mine that is helping me feel a bit renewed. Another such activity has been a recent re acquaintance with and focus on actively listening my way through the vast collection of music I've compiled in the last few years. In the last few weeks I've found myself pulling out the CD books to discover discs I never uploaded to my ipod (or discs I only uploaded partially and have found myself wanting to hear more of). This has all been a very therapeutic way to spend time, and has had me dreaming up new runs of mix CDs to send to good friends and family and all kinds of other things.

A third activity on the list has been a renewed interest in both photography and Flickr as a venue for photography.

Others I hope to add to the list in the not-too-distant future include reading more, cooking more, finding a church that I like in the area, spending more time outdoors, and signing up for some sort of class by January at the latest.

I have often expressed here my love for turning things on their heads, and this is one entry where I feel the adage I used as a title is really apt. I've been trying some old tricks out for the first time in awhile, and man if they aren't helping me feel, in some small ways, like a bit of new dog.

Woof.

Color

Fall Red 03, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

I recently reviewed all the photos I have up on Flicker looking for photos that included or highlighted the color Red. Doing so was great fun, and shortly after that activity I remembered having recently taken some photos in the neighborhood of fall leaves, including the one above.

There's something I find irresistible about light caught in bright fall leaves... and this jumble of bright red, light in the sky and dark branches is a great example of what I hope to grab when out on a leaf shooting expedition.

Random... I know... but that what this here blog is all about.

Duck Butt

Ducks in the creek 01, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

After posting a long wordy rant about my new favorite sitcom (wow... not a statement I can make often) I needed to put up a picture as counterbalance. I'm glad I found this one to toss up.

Just some ducks in a Tookany Creek near my mom's house in Philly. Take a couple weekends ago while on a walk one unseasonably warm Sunday afternoon.

On Being a Convert

I was home for Thanksgiving, and among various conversations I had in the course of this Tuesday-through-Sunday visit to Philadelphia many stand out in my memory. One involved how my mother almost was confirmed into the Catholic Church over 3 decades ago. She ended up not only joining the Episcopal Church, but eventually being ordained as a priest in the Episcopal church and is active in ministry to this day. Today, as I return home with many major projects on my plate, one brought me back to thoughts of conversion.

The project I have in mind is one I've been dreaming up for awhile and involves a combination of uploading new music to my almost year-old ipod and creating playlists that I hope will soon feed into a flurry of holiday musical gift giving. Along the way I was also hoping to get myself into the habit of reviewing some disks here and there and posting them to a certain blog... eh hem... this one. What? Who said that!?!!?!?!

Oh wait.

Yeah, I've been posting that thought for how long now? Crapsticks. Anyway, I was working my way through some music today, and I was thinking about when somebody tells you about a band that you've heard about but has never been of interest to you. One example for me is Martin Sexton, who a friend told me about years ago. He's got a very gospel-tinged singer songwriter sound, and one that I really just couldn't get into when I first heard about him. This was back in college, and I was very steeped in a number of types of music very distant from gospelfolk. In September I saw Martin Sexton perform live in New Haven at Toad's. Talk about a conversion. Wow... what a show.

Martin Sexton was not, however, the conversion I sat down to write about. Nor did I intend to write about my mom's religious life. I wanted to write quickly about a new joy in my life, 30 Rock. Until the last month and a half, I entertained a curious dilemma. On one hand, I had my love for Tina Fey, something true and heartfelt... but it was tempered by an ill-conceived notion that 30 Rock simply wasn't that strong as a show. I now am unsure how I came up with such a bizarre idea, but I am glad to say, such craziness is no longer part of my life.

In late October I started watching episodes of the first season via NetFlix, and was hooked right away. I'm now all caught up and seriously frustrated with waiting a week between new episodes. I also dread the prospect of the writer's strike taking away new episodes for a long period. Isn't it bad enough that we're without new Daily Show and Colbert Report?


Supposedly there's a chance the strike could be ending this week... at least the blog over at unitedhollywood.com talks about such rumors today. I say... the end can't come soon enough, and I hope all the writers make a reasonably nice haul out of this whole strange thing being resolved. Imagine... the people who are responsible for all the laughs, all the cleverness wanting a cut of the online $$! Incredible that more major media companies aren't being overthrown by the power and possibility of new avenues.

Along those lines, check out:
www.pandora.com where you can type in songs or bands you like and have a radio station created that will try to match your interests with other similar bands or songs (and you can always veto their choices if you don't like 'em)
www.funnyordie.com which is more-or-less just a comedy focused skin of youtube but they've got some great original content from Will Ferrell and his buddy who started the site.

...and my new discovery of the day:
www.etsy.com where you can see, learn about and purchase all sorts of hand-made goods. It's like a ginormous craft fair that's searchable.

In the Hood

In the Hood, originally uploaded by Chambo25.

Who are the people in your neighborhood? Well, on Saturday, the majority of the people in my neighborhood were in some way associated with one or the other of two top Ivy League institutions, as blocks from my house Yale and Harvard's football teams met at the Yale Bowl.

Until Saturday morning I had no idea such an event would be taking place so close to me, and in response I took a little journey around the area. I snapped no great pictures of football action, but many random photos of fall foliage, etc. As I wandered home, I cam across this hood, lost by someone, and left atop a pole near the entrance to Edgewood Park.

I thought the hood was kinda fun, and so here it is, atop my weekend wrap-up posting. I'm hoping to soon follow up with a post about two new albums I've been listening to a bunch. They're two pretty new releases from pretty reliable bands, Wilco and Radiohead.

So stay tuned for that, and in the meantime I hope you had a wonderful weekend yourself. Nate, thanks for coming to visit and helping me discover Rudy's and a bit more familiarity with the ins and outs of New Haven. See you later this week.