Jpatrickm

One thing blogs have helped accomplish is the instantaneous circulation of news, events and stories around the world online. In much the same way eBay has done for buying and selling products, blogs have opened the way for the mass exchange of information and ideas to a limitless audience. I don’t think there is a better use for blogs then to raise awareness, cultivate truth and educate us all about the world around us. Instead of global syndicated news sources selling us their interpretation of our world, blogs provide millions of individual voices that are the world around us. The unedited stories of each of us that give us a unified purpose, a cause. Cause is defined as “a basis for an action or response; a reason. The interests of a person or group engaged in a struggle.” A hundred billion different lives living and struggling simultanously each day in The Great Struggle. Blogs unify the cause and make us all part of something greater then ourselves.

And so I pass on to you the story of Sean Voisen — a young man who survived leukemia and has been in remission for two years. He is running a marathon to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. His goal is to raise $1,500, and he needs your help. As a reward, every dollar you donate buys one ticket into a raffle for an iPod Shuffle.

Just today, make your cause… your reason, something greater then yourself.

Visit voisen.org/donate.

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Here is the latest addition to my arsenal of photography equipment. I know, I know… more! This is the Canon SD200, 3.2 Mega Pixel Digital Elph. It is one of the smallest compact digital cameras on the market. I am a big Canon fan so, of course I stayed within the Canon family of equipment. Up until now, I’ve been using my digital SLR Canon D30, which is great for pro shots but is heavy and cumbersome to carry around for everyday use. They are both the same Mega Pixel so aside from the features, capabilities and optics of the pro D30, the two cameras produce essentially the same image quality and resolution. I’m using the new SD200 because I wanted to have something more portable and easier to use for candid spontaneous shots. It’s also much easier to use for my other photography project at 50prime365.com. Taking a self-portrait using the D30 is a tricky task to say the least. It’s heavy to hold in one hand and isn’t exactly discreet when holding it up at arms length. I’ve missed the opportunity for some pretty cool shots in some pretty cool places because I just couldn’t swing the D30 up in crowded public places without looking like a complete jack-ass. Plus the focal length on the SD200 is a very nice wide 17mm so it’s easier to compose a cool shot at close range.

The SD200 also has video capture capability, which is something I’ve been wanting to dabble with on this blog. The latest and greatest craze is videoblogging, the posting of a small video clip instead of a written entry or still photo. I’ve seen it on a number of other blogs and I thought the idea was cool. I also already have a digital video camera, the Canon Elura, but the same issues arise when trying to carry it around everyday and take quick spontaneous clips of random scenes. Anyway, stayed tuned for that.

I did a lot of research on compact digital cameras so if anyone has any other questions about why I chose this particular model, feel free to ask.

So, let the posting of random, nonsense, meaningless, abstract pictures and video clips begin!

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I ran across a new book (courtesy of Oh la la Paris) by Alison Jackson that is absolutely brilliant and so I just had to share. It’s a compilation of photographs that appear to be real celebrities and members of the Royal Family but are in fact impersonators used in a setup to imply a certain scene. There are more photos on the book’s official website, including some funny ones of Tony Blair, Queen Elizabeth and Prince William.

It’s very well done.

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I just thought that in the absence of anything important to say, I would just post a photo today.

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Just a couple of shots of the sunset tonight at Mission Beach.

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I FINALLY got around to posting some new photos in the gallery. There is a new album with images from my drive across country with Jason and there are also a few new additions to the San Diego album from roaming around La Jolla today. The pictures from the cross country trip aren’t the greatest and I didn’t take as many as I’d hoped. As I said before, we drove mostly at night so it was difficult to take pictures and when we weren’t driving, we were either sleeping or bar-hopping in New Orleans without a camera.

Anyway, enjoy…

Photography Gallery >>

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I’m back in San Diego now. My flight left Manchester, NH at about 11:30am yesterday and I flew to Chicago O’Hare. I took off out of there at about 4:30PM local time, an hour late. The plane was completely full and of course, as luck would have it, I had a center seat next to one of the largest men I’ve ever seen sitting in the window seat. He took half of my seat. The armrest between us would only go down all the way if he leaned against the window and squeezed it down forcefully past his gut. His tray table wouldn’t even lower. He also was sweating profusely and spoke broken english with a very strong Russian accent. It was one of the longest 4 hours I’ve spent trapped in my own mind.

On the bright side, it’s about 70 degrees today without a cloud in the sky. I walked up to get coffee in shorts a tee-shirt and flip flops. It was actually quite hot just walking in the direct sun. It’s an odd sensation to go from extreme cold to warm weather like this without any change of seasons in between. It’s like you just woke up from sleeping for 7 months. The only bad part is that I actually have to try and get some work done because I live here.

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