We Can't Make It Here Anymore

the scariest essay i've ever read mostly because it rings so true... this should probably be read while listening to James McMurtry's "We can't make it here anymore" song... you can downloaded it for free if you don't have the CD yet. (it's a great CD, by the way, so you should get it.)

2 big hogs, 3 big fish, and 2 big cats

Ok... i know this is old-skool web, but hey it's fun. Here's a few photos i've snagged off the web that i've had for a while and have meant to post 'em as a page of "Big Animals". I'll probably never get around to it, even though i have the data, names, and such of where these animals came from somewhere deep in some file on some computer somewhere.... probably in my barn on an old hand-made box i used to use on my old ISDN line back in Houston... (whew... those were the days).

Anyway, here's 2 big hogs, 3 big fish, and 2 big cats. Click 'em and save 'em to disk or something.... just fun to look at.

One of these days i'll drag up the actual "python eating a man" picture. But its pretty gruesome.

Charles Bukowski Poems

I'm not a poetry reader but these were actually fun to read. Charles Bukowski was a horrible fellow who lived what I would call a horrible life that wrote good poetry. He eventually made some money at it, but I don't think he ever quit his job at the post-office.

Here's the one I liked the most.

NIGHT SCHOOL
from Dangling In the Tournefortia

in the drunk driver's class
assigned there by division 63
we are given tiny yellow pencils
to take a test
to see if we have been listening
to the instructor.
questions like: the minimum sentence for a
2nd drunk driving conviction is:
a) 48 days
b) 6 months
c) 90 days
there are 9 others questions.
after the instructor leaves the room
the students begin asking the questions:
"hey, how about question 5? that's a
tough one!"
"did he talk about that?"
"I think its 48 days."
"are you sure?"
"no, but that's what I'm putting
down."
one women circles all 3 answers
on all questions
even though we've been told to
select only one.

on our break I go down and
drink a can of beer
outside a liquor store.
I watch a black hooker
on her evening stroll.
a car pulls up.
she walks over and they
talk.
the door opens.
she gets in and
they drive off.

back in class
the students have gotten
to know each other.
they are a not-very-interesting
bunch of drunks.
I visualize them sitting in a
bar
and i remember why
I started drinking
alone.

the class begins again.
it is discovered that I am
the only one to have gotten
100 percent on the test.

I slouch back in my chair
with my dark shades on.
I am the class
intellectual.

Ease of Alteration Creates Woes for Picture Editors

This is old news, but in case you don't know the details, "Little Green Footballs blog" bustered a Reuters photographer for doctoring his photographs. Here's an example where he took two photos and merged them into one to make an American soldier seemingly waving off a father with one hand while holding a machine gun. The father is holding what appears to be a possibly wounded small child.

This is also the same blog responsible for revealing the details that led to the resignation of Dan Rather.

Now it seems that some photographers are actually staging photographs even to the point where they are digging up buried children.