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I’ve used Ofoto before to mixed results. I just assumed it was because I was editing the photos to look good on a Mac and I should have been editing them with a PC gamma setting in mind. From the looks of this comparison though, the problem may also be with the service itself. I don’t make many prints, but I may need to look into EZprints all the same.

Tannhauser Analyzes the Poetry and Majesty of Bon Jovi

Trying hard to capture
the moment this morning I don’t know
‘Cause a bottle of vodka
is still lodged in my head

The casual reader might think that this means that somebody - possibly that treacherous swine Richie Sambora - has hit John in the head with a vodka bottle with such force that it is now embedded in his skull. This is, of course, one “available reading” of the “text”. However, it can also be taken to mean that he drank a bottle of vodka last night, and is still a little hung over. Thus, the bottle of vodka is metaphorically lodged in his head, although actually it is on the draining board, empty. Either of these readings can be given primacy without harming the sense of the poem - it’s the doubt in the mind of the reader that creates the frisson.

And, it just gets stranger and more beautiful from there folks. This person (Tannhauser not Bon Jovi) is clearly a genius. Via Mefi

I took a very short weekend trip to Hawaii. I mean seriously, seriously short. I think the flight over lasted longer than my stay (or maybe it just seemed that way).

I didn’t have a chance to do all that much, but I made the best of the time that I did have. I hiked up to the top of Diamond Head (feel the burn). I got a little too much sun (feel the burn (despite the fact that I wore bunches of sunscreen and didn’t lay out or anything, and mostly tried to hide in the shade whenever possible)). I drove around the island to check out some of the sights (here it was my maps that burned me or maybe just the fact that the roads there are crazy).

Beautiful scenery though, and while I prefer LA’s lower humidity (at least when it’s not cold and raining!!!), I do like the fact that the days last so much longer in Hawaii’s more southerly latitudes.

Oh, and there were photographs of Oahu of course. I mean, why else would I fly all that way?

Somebody who uses an alphabet I can’t read draws a woman from the skeleton up. It’s sort of an interesting effect. I was hoping the artist was going to use color and get to something that looked closer to real. It’s all just lines to indicate shape and shadow though. Still, kind of interesting to watch how few lines it takes to pull off that indication.

The Museum of Comic and Cartoon Art (yeah, I never heard of it either) has an online exhibit called Now Then.

It features current artwork from a bunch of illustrators and also drawings they did as kids. The contrasts aren’t as interesting as I would have expected them to be, but some of these artists (none of whom I’d ever heard of), are doing some amazing work currently. Really, interesting stuff.

Clearly I need to take a closer look at comic and cartoon art because I am missing out.

Eye of Science features some great, super-close macro photographs of germs and plants and insects and stuff. Very cool looking images.

Reason has an interesting interview with Neal Stephenson. I need to get around to reading The Baroque Cycle one of these years (decades?). I think I even went so far as to buy Quicksilver, but I’ve been putting it off because it seems too formidable.

The book I’m reading now (which I can’t even remember) is not taking root in my brain. I’m not sure if that’s the book, or the fact that I’m trying to start reading it at 2 in the morning when I really should have been asleep 2 hours previously. Maybe I should switch over to Neal instead.

Oh, by the way, Jeremiad: A literary work or speech expressing a bitter lament or a righteous prophecy of doom. I had no idea.

Grandaddy’s Nature Anthem Video is disgustingly happy. I mean like, “I’d like to buy the world a Coke” happy. Still, for some reason, the little squirrels really made me laugh.

I’m linking the pseudo training film, Make Mine Shoebox, because it has the line “Shortly after the deadline has past, the artist will begin to think about submitting his work to the Art Director for approval.” Now, that’s a really funny line. The rest of it is funny too, but not quite as funny. Still, worth checking out.