Captured right before the rain fell. It was moving WAY FAST. Stitched together with hugin and uploaded… Now this just gray, wet and blah out there. Sometimes its all about being ast the right place at the right time!

Scientists have discovered that uttering swear words can help to lessen the feeling of physical pain.

The study by researchers at Keele University found that volunteers were able to withstand pain for longer when they swore compared to when they used words which were not offensive.

Dr Richard Stephens, who conducted the study at the university’s school of psychology, believes it may explain why swearing is still common place in languages around the world.

He suggests that swearing could have evolved as a way of raising aggression levels and reducing the feeling of pain to allow our ancestors to flee or fight back when attacked by predators.

Remember this the next time someone says, “Well, I’m sure that was helpful…” after hearing you cuss after stubbing your toe. Then tell them, “Damn right, motherfucker!“

I’ve got an old Canon EOS 630 film body that I got from EBay little more than a year ago.  Paid $19 (plus shipping) and used a little bit of elbow grease to clean up a sticky shutter.  I’ve run dozens of rolls through it since and haven’t had a single failure (other than the “operator” kind) to produce great pictures.  It uses any lens made with a Canon EOS mount.   My sweet sister donated two old zooms to me (thanks, sweetie!), and I’ve been using the snot out of them.  Whereas the fancy digital camera you buy now will be obsolete in a year or too, people are taking great photos on 50 year old film cameras.

As for film, there’s still plenty out there.  You might have to search it out on websites like Adorama, but you can get it.  For low prices you can get good performing negative film (Fuji Superia 400, $7 for five rolls at Walmart), or for a few bucks more, you can get excellent performance from slide film (like Fuji Velvia).  I use negative film because of the ease of getting it developed and scanned at places like Target, getting big clean rich 18 megapixel digital images that I’ve never had issue with.

I’ll have to shoot a lot more rolls before I’ll ever come close to matching the price of a digital SLR able to give me the same images.  I can afford to shoot film and find myself taking more time to make sure the image is right before I take the picture.  I’m still quite the amateur when it comes to photography but even I can see a small improvement in my skills.  A fancy camera does not make you a skilled photographer.  But a photographer with skills can get more out of a good camera than a crappy one.  But a very skilled photographer can get stunning results with a plastic P.O.S. like the Holga.

I don’t have one of those.  I have a Lubitel, though…

And I’m spent…

From 2004’s Blast Tyrant, a big fave from Clutch. Lyrics:

Please allow me to adjust my pants
So that I may dance the good time dance
And put the onlookers and innocent bystanders into a trance

Give disease so the swine will marry and propagate lies.
Tough luck for elected officials. The beast you see got fifty eyes.
Bring it on home, spread the wealth. Play it cool, the hand’s been dealt.
Now, all the odds are in our favor. Save the victory speeches for later.

Streets on fire, the mob goes wild.

21 guns, box made of pine, letter from the government sealed and signed
Delivered Federal Express on your mother’s doorstep.

Condoleeza Rice is nice, but I prefer A-Roni.
And that man on the T.V. who speaks to the dead, you know that man’s a phony.
Everybody move to Canada and smoke lots of pot.
Everybody move to Canada right now. Here’s how we do it:
Bum rush the border guard before he and his dog ever knew it.

Streets on fire, the mob goes wild.

21 guns, box made of pine, letter from the government sealed and signed
Delivered Federal Express on your mother’s doorstep.

Columbus, Ohio – The original commercially-successful online mail service, CompuServe, has been shut down by its owner, AOL.

The clunky but much-loved service debuted in 1979, offering electronic mail, technical support and moderated technical forums. In 1980, it became the first online service to offer real-time chat online with its CB Simulator. At its height in the early 1990s, the company boasted of having half a million users online simultaneously.

But after AOL bought the company in 1997, the brand was allowed to decline. The current version of the service’s client software, CompuServe for Windows NT 4.0.2, dates back to 1999.

I can’t even remember my user id, I’ve not messed with it for “decades.” Truthfully, I didn’t even know it was still around.  But I did cut my teeth on it learning my way around the precurser of the “IntarTubes!” You had to be careful, before they went to unlimited pricing, you could run up a big bill, real fast.  Using their service taught me a lot.

Goodbye, CompuServe!

My 15 year old grandson wants my old one, he styles himself a computer geek and wannabe hacker. He was openly disappointed that the almost 4 year old laptop was a single core processor with an paltry 80 gb hard drive. Oh, well… I guess he really doesn’t need it.  I remember my first PC, a 10 Mhz 80286 with the two 30 mb hard drives, each big enough to kill a gazelle with. With my lovely sixteen-color EGA display and a dot-matrix printer that used to rock the little table something fierce.

I have not an ounce of pity…

Whaddyaq think?