IThanks to Mustang for bringing this message to us again on this, our country’s birthday.
All posts by Mustang.Koji
Ewww….
As my little 11 year old Cake Boss would say when I would light up a cigar, “Ewwww, Papa! That’s gross!”
Well, you have no idea of “ewww” or “gross” until now.
Unfortunately, I used the last of the soap yesterday… It was too late when I stepped into the shower that I had forgotten to buy soap.
I was confronted with not washing at all…or…
…use my little Cake Boss’ soap… Excuuuuse me. Shower gel.
I now smell of Cranberry Twinkle.
No, I reek.
It stinks.
Ewww.
Gross.
And the smell won’t go away.
Gotta light up a stogie to mask this wretched girlie odor.
Wait a minute.
I can’t. It’s 1:30 AM.
Damn.
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Not that anyone should notice but my attention had been diverted away from WordPress the past month or so. I decided to try and build a small (potential) income stream by (possibly) selling my photographs on websites. You know. Like for prints, greeting cards, cell phone cases and the like. Frankly, I don’t know why anyone would want to buy a photograph versus a painting but what the heck.
So my days outside of dealing with the ex-wife – who thrives on interfering during my supposed time with my kids – has been focused on setting up a (cheap) studio and shooting macros of flowers and the like. Plus having been an amateur FILM photographer in my youth, all this “photo editing” stuff has been a huge challenge. I’m up against young(er) pros who all they know is digital photography. You know. Fred Flintstone meets Captain Kirk. Oh well.
I also don’t know why I focused on macro photography for a niche market since I never had attempted it before… and the only thing I know about flowers is how to kill them. Certainly, other niche markets like patriotism, sports and pets would be broader but macros would be doable and without much expense. Besides, nothing would have to die.
Anyways, here’s a few of my recent snapshots:
And for a finale… Isn’t this a face only a mother could love? It is an actual flower called a Cuphea, or a “purpurea Firecracker”. Aren’t you impressed with this old former mechanic?
One of my websites is here: Fine Art America.
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Time to light up a stogie.
I know. Ewww.
But it’s better than smelling reeking like Cranberry Twinkle.
Our Promised land
A most powerful reciting of us – and “others” – today. What will you REALLY do?
Smoothvini
And this great magician is a Marine!
Just Some Snapshots 8
Putz’d around again around my tiny makeshift (and nearly killed) flower pots…
…and if you have the chance, please let me hear your feedback on my little store: http://www.zazzle.com/socalblooms*
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Since today was Flag Day and the 200th anniversary of our national anthem, a flag as a backdrop.
FLAG DAY
Nice story for this Flag Day! Thanks, gpcox.
For this years Flag Day, I chose to help celebrate the Star Spangled Banner’s 200 years! As national treasures go, it was a bargain: $405.90 was paid to Mary Pickersgill of Baltimore, who fashioned it from red, blue and undyed wool, plus cotton for the 15 stars to fly at the fortress guarding the city’s harbor.
A collage of 2 women, 1914, at the Smithsonian working to restore the Star-Spangled Banner in a room with a model of a giant squid; by Terry Winters.
An enormous flag, 30 by 42 feet, it was intended as a bold statement to the British warships that were certain to come. And, when in September 1814, the young United States turned back the invaders in a spectacular battle witnessed by Francis Scott Key, he put his joy into a verse published first as “Defense of Fort M’Henry,” and then, set to the tune of…
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The Forgiveness of a WWII Sailor
Father’s Day is just around the corner. While we will be seeing my father who is now 95, I thought I’d selfishly reblog my own earlier story of Old Man Jack in honor of this Father’s Day…
In an earlier blog, I praised Old Man Jack for his forgiveness. It is not possible to write about what he did or saw out on the god-forsaken islands in the Pacific during World War II. Only he truly knew what was in his soul.
But in spite of his exposure to combat in that very personal and bitter war, Jack’s practice of forgiveness was his most important contribution to the healing of this world. The world we enjoy today. I truly believe that.
Old man Jack loved my kids – perhaps his warmth and the forgiveness in his heart will shine through.
Jack was in the hospital often in the last five years of his life. We went as often as we could to say hi.
When Jack was laid up in the hospital and couldn’t make the block party, my kids wrote him a special 4th of July…
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Put Into Perspective
D-Day’s 70th “Anniversary” has passed.
But I don’t know if “anniversary” is the correct term. Is it commemoration? Hard to say since so many young lives were ripped away from the world so violently. Many were never found.
Blogger Mustang had forwarded some “then and now” images last week but here is another one. If you get past the first two images (a then and now), please click on the subsequent images singularly to see the “now” photo. Look at all the young faces…and realize that many must have been killed in the next months…or days.
http://www.theatlantic.com/infocus/2014/06/scenes-from-d-day-then-and-now/100752/
It is humbling to see the devastation of 70 years ago but in today’s life…but only “they” know.
After 30 Years…
Going back to work after 30 years…
And you have to “be of certain age” to understand this. 🙂
Unsung Hero: A Little Something to Warm Your Heart
There is a SUPERIFIC message… Get your Puffs ready.
“Kindness is ever the begetter of kindness.”
~ Sophocles
Deliberate Acts of Kindness
Many of us have heard the phrase “Random Acts of Kindness”. Well, this beautifully filmed, inspiring Thai commercial is about “Deliberate Acts of Kindness”.
I love it when a YouTube video with a great message goes viral (it currently has 14.5 million hits), so I thought I’d keep on spreading the joy. Unsung Hero is a beautiful short film with a beautiful message. It is exquisitely filmed, so I recommend watching it in full-screen mode in high definition (HD).
I truly believe that inside each of us lives a heart of goodness. Not that I think it is humanly possible to always stay completely connected to this wise, beautiful and good aspect of ourselves, but if we choose to, I believe that all of us can connect with it more frequently than we often allow ourselves…
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Masako and Spam Musubi 