Saturday, January 31, 2009

All My Bags Are... Packed?...

Dear Pip,

I'm heading out the door again -- this time to South America.

14 Days. 3 Countries. And maybe see some penguins, depending on how far down we go.

I'm taking along still cams -- Sorry, no HD this time around because I'm trying to travel a bit lighter on this journey. But I'll shoot mini-vids if something cool happens.

I'll also be bringing along an iPod Touch, so bloggers keep blogging -- 'cause I'll be reading. And posting text when I can.

Now, where did I put that toothbrush?... ;)

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Travel Flashback: Hong Kong pix...

Wow, talk about long overdue. I'm not exactly sure why it's taken me so long to post this up -- probably because I thought it'd take forever to sift through over 500 pictures of Hong Kong alone.

Actually, it only took about 30 minutes. Go figure.

Anyway, here's my fave shots I took there -- it's got landscapes, travel, people, and of course food from all over Hong Kong. Though, anytime I keep posting more often usually means I'm about to take off to somewhere... right? Hmmm... ;)

Saturday, January 24, 2009

Scenes from Guilin: A Cruise Along the Li River...

As promised, here's the other video of my journey down the Li River. Hope ya'll enjoy the ride as much as I did. Though, the first hour was pretty cool, but by hour 3 I couldn't wait to get off the ship. Here's to the magic of editing:





The link to the HD version is here

Friday, January 23, 2009

Scenes from Guilin: The Long Haired Women of Longshen...

Hey there, it's your fave slacker blogger finally getting off his ass and doing some editing of some travel footage. Below I've got two movies for your amusement -- the first is of the Long Haired Women of Longshen, doing a demo of what it's like having "Guinness Book of Records" length straight hair. Going through an entire bottle of Pantene is not uncommon in these parts:

***One more thing: If you want to watch it in High Quality, just click the little "HQ" on the right bottom corner of the video (recommended). And if you want to watch this stuff in HD quality, well, I'll mention the links at the bottom of each clip***




link to HD version here



And the second one is of Me with the Longshen Women, participating in something that I still kinda regret doing, but, well... just watch it. You'll get what I mean.



link to High Quality version here



I'll have one more by tomorrow, just in time for Chinese New Year season! Woo-Hoo!... ;)

Saturday, January 17, 2009

Cayenne...

I keep a glass of milk
right by the bedside --
"it's not for you baby,
it's for me"

We take each other in
and salsa in the horizontal
bevel -- I, nibbling
into your shoulder

Setting my tongue on FIRE,
dousing the FLAMES with
cow juice I had made
ready just for this --

You smile, realizing what I
meant all along, as I wait for
feeling in my tongue to return,
to go at it again...

o.g.062408

Saturday, January 10, 2009

CES Day 2, Over and Out! Bring Me Back To The Masses...

I am completely burned out.

It's now Day 3 of CES and I'm still only writing about Day 2 because frankly, I really can't take any more of the floors, the peddling, and the crowds. Again, seeing a lot, but not seeing a lot, that's the problem...

As the CES experiences comes to a close for me, I continue to reflect upon things I stumble upon while exploring. It seems that CES is probably the only time where you'll find a group of guys staring harder at a set of CPU processors than the lovely booth girl that's standing beside it. In fact, if a booth girl is in the way, it only makes the guys stare harder because they think they can develop X-ray vision that will see right through her, and onto the merchandise. Of course, there's always exceptions to this rule.

Like the fact that the AVN Adult Expo takes place at the EXACT SAME TIME as the CES, and they co-mingle in particular at the Sands Expo Center where the Adult Expo is being hosted. Ah, where YouTube meets Boob-Tube, and "is that a harddrive in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?" takes on SOOOOOO many different meanings. Suffice it to say, there were a lot of guys that "accidentally" stumbled into the wrong conventions. But hey, if anyone can make sense of glass dildos having anything to do with new OLED sceens, it's these geeks.

So is the dilemma of the photographers working both events. Do I take pictures of the semi-nude models dressed as porn angels ascending a flight of stairs, or should I get that shot of the new Sony Cybershot camera? Or, can I do both? And talk about feminism -- There were probably more women taking pictures of pornstars than their male colleagues. I don't know if that's progressive, but it seems like everyone's in on the joke, all genders included.

And of course, my favorite distraction was playing the game "Pornstar, or not a Pornstar." Some women you see wearing nothing but a thong, pasties, and clear platform heels? Probably in Adult entertainment. Of course, it's also a business conference, so the nerdy-looking female in the powersuit is probably trying to sell GangBang Pussies 7 onto the masses. So as vision blurs, so do the lines of what is business and pleasure.

So, what can we surmise from all this convention madness? Technology continues to get better, but computer batteries are still crappy. 3D TVs are on the horizon, but they're gonna be hella expensive. Robots may not rule the world, but by middle 2009 they will mow your lawn automatically. Apparently, you can have too many video screens in a car -- I say putting one right on the gas cap a bit over the line. And as always, sex sells everything. Sex sells itself. Sex is in the microchips and on a woman's hips.

And like every year, we're gonna want to have this stuff and not want it all at the same time... ;)

Friday, January 09, 2009

CES: It should be short for "Can't Even Sit!"...

I guess you can say that I've seen a lot and NOT seen a lot at CES so far. Seen a lot in the fact that I've roamed most of the convention center already. But not seen so much 'cause it's hard to keep my attention at any one thing for very long. My brain is on complete overload from all the gadgets and flashy TVs that inundate me left and right. Seriously folks, my head is drowning in a sea of tech-induced euphoria.

Though I've been keeping up with CES coverage online and basically following whatever the heck Gizmodo and Engadget are posting up, it is an entirely different thing to walk around with a mass of people all pushing and shoving in an orderly fashion to check out tech that they might not purchase, but drool over all the same.

As always, I'm learning a lot from this experience. For instance, no matter how super-flat that HDTVs are this year, someone in the crowd always asks "Is THAT really how thin they can get it? I thought it'd be thinner."

You find out that the "Booth Babes" aren't only pretty, but they know EVERY product that they are demonstrating. At least they sound like they know what they're talking about, which I can't quite say the same about the sales guys on the floor.

Places to sit down are scarce. Sure, they have couches and chairs smattered about somewhere, but they're never around when you need them. And when you do find a chair, albeit missing an armrest and looks like the Incredible Hulk left an imprint of his ginormous ass-cheeks in the cushion, you collapse in it anyway, relishing in the fact thay you're off your feet for the briefest of moments.

Some gadgets have unusual selling points. Samsung has created a camera that can withstand hot desert climates up to 112 degrees. That's great, 'cause It's good to know that if I'm trapped in Death Valley while on a shoot, I'm sure to die long before my camera does.

And most of all, I've discovered that for a technology convention that is forward concious about the environment and trying to be as "green" as possible, it sure as hell goes through A LOT OF PAPER! For maps, maps for the maps, books, the CES Daily report, Starbucks cups, and even paper printouts for registration, someone is printing and collating enough tree material so supplement a small industrial nation. There's also the electronic maps that people download, don't get me wrong, but don't think they aren't grabbing a dead-tree edition as a backup.

And there's 3 more days of this.

I'm putting in 2 more days myself before I cut-myself off cold turkey. Though I'll continue to explore the convention floor, I will probably leave this event still wondering:

Do we really need any of this junk?

Well, I guess a 90 inch flat plasma HDTV could be swell for "some" things... ;)

Thursday, January 01, 2009

In 2009...

Most of us will live,
some will likely die,
but life will move forward
in 2009

Change will come slowly,
it happens over time,
expect so in small steps
in 2009

Divorces will be final,
with new marriages divine,
love's still a mystery
in 2009

Rain will pound down,
as deserts run dry,
the Bushmen make do
in 2009

War looms above,
though Peace fills the sky,
may the trigger pull less
in 2009

Our taxes increase,
with jobs in decline,
Obama will fix this
in 2009

These are just thoughts,
I'm having in my mind --
the predictable uncertainty
of 2009...


***Happy New Year! And may we brave another year together, dear friends... ;)***