7 Color Lagoon

Weddings have been a two-sided sword in my life.  Mine (ours) was considered hippy-like back in ‘69 and hated by the respective families.  We eschewed having anything but a very private function in our favorite formal garden at Blithewood on the Bard College campus.  It was limited to my in-laws who would have wanted a large, public gathering in suburban New York, a pair of friends from law school and the Reverend David Pierce.

David saved the day by making everyone comfortable as he invented a service that met the needs of marriage-bonding and charmed my wife’s parents with his blue eyes and flowing, blonde hair.  He later “lost his calling” as an Episcopal minister, changed religions and went different ways.  We became friends when he was, many years later, our editor for photographic essays of an academic bent for the Hudson River Regional Review. 

The garden had been our favorite playground during college and was the place we returned each year until illness forced me to move us to Mexico.  It was one of the ties that bind, a ritual pilgrimage that always brought us back to the time the bees buzzed by, David intoned all the words of bonding and the sun shone on the July blooms of the 19th c. enclosed garden.

Later, as a photographer, I shot one or two weddings a year for editors and friends.  It never became a major part of my work but the intricacies of putting the wedding affair not only together but as an event that forever spells the nature of the relationship was made known to me.  It ain’t easy!  There are family frictions, tensions and worries, friends (and those who call themselves that) and associates and all the knots that bind those people together to each other and The Couple.

Beyond the emotional ties and bonds and the fears of actually “tying the knot” lay the myriad details of putting together a spectacular event that is to entertain everyone, please families who might not be as comfortable with each other as the wedding couple, and coordinate the food and venue, the band, flowers, honeymoon plans, Aunt Hattie and Grandmother Jill and all their needs and do it seamlessly, seemingly effortlessly and, if it all works, without anyone noticing that it was hard work to orchestrate.

And there is the photographer — picking one, paying one and being happy with the results.  My rules for such a choice will be held for another time.  I was a fine photographer and made, I thought, emotional and sensitive pictures in a photojournalistic fashion.  But I was not a good wedding photographer because the mechanics of putting together albums and bookkeeping the thousand pictures for all those who wanted them was too far from my usual academic and industrial work.  In these computer-days of digital photography, web-sites and emails, digital movement of images and services that will take digital files to create albums and send them to those who want them I might have looked for more weddings.

I was in upstate New York.  Now that my time is spent in Mexico (where photography is very primitive and little understood) and in Miami which is conducive to both Miami Weddings and photography because of its sub-tropical light, exciting locations (Vizcaya comes to mind along with the Biltmore Hotel), great restaurants and a place far-flung family and friends look forward to visiting.  I was directed to a web site that includes a terrific guide to creating a Miami Wedding.

This is the stuff of the modern world.  The site offers up a directory of all the services needed to plan your own wedding spectacular or have a professional planner do it for you (like Geraldine Chaplin in the Robert Altman film, The Wedding).  Naturally I was most interested in checking out photographers and found that they had ads for 9 photographers (in Miami — the site has scores of locations).  Rodrigo Varela presented a great web presentation of photos in a sophisticated flash presentation (evocative, heart-felt pictures, too) as well as more formal photographers.  The site, unlike me, also pays attention to all the details of the wedding process — bands, balloons, gowns, flowers, planning professionals, transportation services, ice sculptors, personal chefs, yachts (it is Miami, after all), Jewish wedding specialists, and, I love it!, personalized wedding chocolates.

The site is: 1 Wedding Source (.com): Miami for Miami Weddings.

This is Blithewood Garden in the Hudson Valley where we were married.  Picking a spot you will want to remember and return to to celebrate a romantic time is an important wedding decision.

Doesn’t that sound great? Apple could announce their new addition to the attempts to design the digital alternative to our beloved books, newspapers and magazines that are held in the lap, folded into subway squares and tossed away into the street, used to wrap fish or, trust the British, wrapped around fish and chips. But Steve Jobs hasn’t tackled the project. At least so far.

So I made my own.

Or, rather, I found something wonderful to do with my (now) slow iBook 900 ghz G3 computer. It was my first and stood up to my errors and ignorance when I first bought it in 2003. It still hums along minus its built-in 56K modem which was blown out by some power surge from the wondrous quality of Mexican utilities — CFE (the state electric company) or Telmex (Carlos Slim’s monopoly telecommunications giant). It has been replaced by the new MacBook Pro 2.16 Intel Core 2 Duo I bought last January which is even more perfect. The G3 seemed slow and its screen is both smaller and reproduces less well.

It was still too disloyal and wasteful to treat it as a doorstop but too foreign (Mexico is still enmeshed in Windows systems with HP and Dell high on the list of appliances in use) to sell here. So I was keeping it charged and its software up to date but not finding a lot to do with it that I wouldn’t rather do on the MacBook Pro.

Now that I upgraded its Panther system (10.3.9) to Tiger (10.4.11) it is even slower but much more useful. The recent Java updates made the screen images far more satisfying than I thought they could be. I began to look for what my old friend would do well that didn’t require blazing speed or state of the art technology.

Then I opened a pdf book and downloaded Adobe’s Digital Editions reader. They both work and require no massive speed. ITunes works fine and Apple has kept iTunes and QuickTime up to date for Panther and Tiger systems. So my old friend can show me books and present audio recordings (with headphones since the built-in speakers are laughably bad). It will even play a movie. The screen may not equal the MBP but it doesn’t have to to play, for instance, the free and legal downloads in the public domain from the Internet Archive.

It found its job and now hangs out on the table where a book used to be propped on something to be read when passing by or eating alone. Since my eyes have deteriorated badly in old age and both had cataracts removed in the past year, it does something all those lovely books can’t — changes text size at will. It can be set to show text at a height that I can read it from across the table, across the room. OK. It isn’t wireless (but neither is Mexico) and it is the model with a 14 inch screen. The 12“ would have been a bit better for this and fit more easily in the lap but it is the one I have.

An old Apple is not a bad Apple. Don’t contaminate the environment with old computers thrown out; put them to good use. Read a digital book today.
It is possible to find great uses for aging digital appliances.

Google Earth came along — even for Macs — along with the Map It version and I played with it. Fun. But only recently have I realized that it could be used, as it improves, to go aerial shooting without the plane and altitude.

I love planes and altitude and had been doing some aerial photography in a pal’s plane when jobs came along to pay our way. But my heart attack put an end to any altitude and would probably balk at aerobatics for fun. And fun they were.

So I finally began to explore Google Earth as a means to recover some of the beauty and fun of aerial photography. No camera. No plane. No wind in my face. No rolls to catch a straight-down shot. No gravity with which to fight. Less fun but pictures nonetheless.

The last “little” upgrade of the Wordpress blogging platform left me blog-less, frustrated through a week of trying to find it in the shambles of the files for the beast and vowing only to upgrade again for the most dire reasons or tempting changes. The developer of Wordpress also had the audacity to suggest blogging about the experience and how easy it was.

“Hah”, thought I, “not very likely.”

I had just written an article for Blogcritics Magazine as a satire on the complexity and problems of running even the smallest site. Even there I had to admit to the seductive beauty of WP all pimped out and tweaked with her shiny ebony skin.

Who was I to rock the boat to go from 2.2 to 2.2.2 in one fell swoop? What would happen if the whole site was lost no matter how many backups I made? I made lots.

Then I found the plugin, Wordpress Automatic Upgrade, made by Keith Dsouza. The man is flirting with genius: it worked.

Instead of the hours on hours of mistakes, repetitions and worry of the last time when I followed WP instructions line-by-line and still had problems; this time the whole process took about 15 minutes. That is not counting the extra backup(s) I did beforehand just in case it did not do as promised and backup my database and all my WP files automatically.

With the magick of the Little People this plugin not only did the deed of the upgrade but my blog seems to function better. Perhaps Keith’s program was far better than my first attempts to upload a Wordpress package?  We shall see how she works.

So I have now ended up doing just what was suggested: sitting back to congratulate myself on a job well-done and blogging about it to try out the old WPware freshly minted.

Sexy Blogware Seeks Driven Blogger For Matrimony

Please help a blogger who lost his way. I have dallied with more than one piece of blogware, shamelessly used a few blog editors, and taken a web host. Do I need blogger absolution or can I learn to live with the situaltion?

I was seduced. Some pretty blogware wagged its back end at me and my mind numbed. My fingers took over and stroked those keys as if words could be coaxed from them. I admit it. I lost control. Pretty, sexy, amenable to change, she posed prettily with all her 3 columns of goodness just running over. Now she has become teasingly difficult, hard to handle, prone to tantrums, stubborn and, I fear, slower and fatter than I would have liked. There is still something about her I love but blogging with her has its drawbacks.

The foreplay to this tragic tale of being drawn like a moth to the gentle, embracing light of the computer display is that first rush of pride that the words people read, the pictures they look at, the thoughts and feelings exposed are the self-caress of my psyche. The hidden exhibitionist cries, “Look at me, world.” WordPress took me away with her into the depths of blogospherical depravity. What would I not do for a sweet, pretty, amenable, friendly and all-embracing blog system to expose for the world to see?

Blogging caught me up with my first computer a few years ago. Like my past life where newspapers, magazines, annual reports and books published my work; blogging seemed like self-publishing. Is a web log vanity-publishing or just vanity? I push “publish” therefore I am published. Or is it just another self-caress brought to us by the magic of the Internet?

I lived with Blogger for years and played around with more than one Blogger Blog and Blogger Betas searingly hot off the press. I tweaked them and pimped them, asked much and they returned my lusty exhibitionism with placid restraint and engaging loyalty.

Oh, Miss Lonelyblogs, I did not give them the respect they deserved. So now I keep some Blogger blogs in a harem. Am I a bigamist or blogamist? (more…)

So little on the ‘Net — or so little I have been seeing — makes me laugh. This YouTube video I first saw on Lifehacker did.

We take time out for a commercial break. This one is fun. You can find the Disclosure policy at the bottom of the sidebar.

When I started my Monday — after email perusal and some time with investments — I did not plan to take any of the possible commercial references that could be put on my blog. I was far more distracted by the painters starting on the house, decisions as to where to move if I sell it, and the difficult decisions of how to manage a stock portfolio. I am, after all, a photographer-writer with cardiac problems and not a financier.

Then I ran across Mr. Beer which is the portal to TV Products 4 Less. It was my downfall as this expatriate re-acquainted himself with the wonderful attractions of a lifetime that used to only be found on TV when the late movie was over. This company is on-line and offers those great pieces of all-American (no matter where they are made — probably in the East) kitsch. What childhood in America would have been complete without a Chia Pet growing clover. They have Chia Homer and Chia Shrek and now there is a great Chia herb garden I would like here in Mexico for some tastes more American than my chaya, a green leafy jungle plant in my garden that is sort of a cross between spinach and chard — sort of. And I have hoja santa, the “sainted leaf” which is also called hierba acuyo in Veracruz and has some Mayan names I have forgotten. It has a pungent perfume-like taste I find hard to describe and is great wrapped around a chicken breast or fish to impart its taste. But these are jungle things not the foods nor sights of my American life.

Better, they have what I have been madly searching for here in hardware stores and the new Office Depot that recently appeared in the new mall in Chetumal, the nearest city. They have the Cable Organizer:

“This cable management kit organizes cords at home or in the office. The patented “zip clip“ easily locks around the loose cords and cables and then zips them into the cord organizer in one simple motion. Each kit includes: 8 feet of zipper cable, 1 zip clip, 2 wall mounts and 12 pairs of labels. (Note:: Cable Zipper can easily be cut with scissors to any length needed) Available in medium and large sizes. Medium size is meant for a few cables (or phone cables); large is meant for more cables (or computer cables).” I am so tired of being swamped by USB cable from printer, flat-bed scanner, film scanner, Mercury Hard Drive, power adapters for both my Macs, and (before I followed a Lifehacker design to organize a charging center for all the cell phones, cordless phone, etc) those cables hanging out in knotted clumps as well.

It was the kind of discovery that could talk me into moving back to the good ole US of A just to have the plethora of Things that we have available. From iPhones to Cable Organizers. Even their Mr. Beer kits as well as Mr. Ale for you Anglophiles. For those of us who suffer gout there was a wonderful temptation in the Mr. Root Beer Kit. If real ice cream was available here rather than just helados which are frozen confections that are popular and seem a lot like ice cream but hold up to traveling in the tropical heat; I could make my own root beer, pour it over chocolate ice cream and have the Black Cow I used to crave from a certain drive-in ice cream place in Tampa 50 years ago. Up with Black Cows you lucky Americans. Enjoy the wonders of democracy and freedom. Tend your Chia Pet, don’t fall over the cables and pull the laptop onto the floor and then settle back with a Black Cow, a fine book and, oh yes!, clap your hands and The Clapper will turn on your reading light.

Back to mulling over plans for my future, researching stocks to consider or avoid and writing a piece I had planned for Blogcritics Magazine.

This has been a word from one of our sponsors and a voice from the heart of the American Experience.

I have learned — so far without a major loss of data — how important backups are. I have surmised from minor losses and scares how annoying the major loss of data would be. I did my first erase and install on my iBook G3 about a year ago.

After backing everything I could possibly find onto CDs I took the plunge and made the installation of a fresh operating system (OSX 10.3.9). Then some of those CDs had less on them than I thought and some files had been forgotten. I have re-installed the system twice, once it really seemed to need it. Each time some information is lost in the cracks, forgotten or corrupted. Yes, I have learned to double-check each backed up file to make sure the information is there. Still, something always leaks away into the digital void called “erase”.

With two machines some things are now backed up on the G. And I have a Mercury 80GB traveling hard drive that boots my Macbook Pro and has a clone of my system. But that should be kept somewhere else and somewhere safe and locked. I use it too much to do that. Therefore I still have a security hole in my digital life.

Now that I am running all these blogs and considering adding to my sites, the idea of Online Storage begins to make sense. IBackup.com offers a reasonably-priced package with 5 GB of secure storage and software for the Mac (and the other platforms) that looks like the image for Mac’s iDisk and allows drag & drop with methods to manage files suitable for personal storage to large web businesses.

They are promising that their service outperforms competing servers by 30-50% and is secure and running on a 24/7 basis.

The IBackup application is hosted at multiple world-class datacenter locations including El Segundo CA, Fremont CA, Newark NJ, London UK among others. The Data Centers provides the physical environment necessary to keep the servers up and running 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. These world-class facilities are custom designed with raised floors, HVAC temperature control systems with separate cooling zones, and seismically braced racks. They offer the widest range of physical security features, including state-of-the-art smoke detection and fire suppression systems, motion sensors, and 24×7 secured access, as well as video camera surveillance and security breach alarms.

There is, of course, the paper back-ups in those cases where I still get a paper statement and haven’t bothered any longer with the paper. It is green but it is also because mail takes from 2-6 weeks to get to us in Mexico. And there is the problem of procrastination and disorganization. Both are undoubtedly emotional. Neither will soon change. They seem to be inherent. Therefore, the more backup the better. The safer the better.

Note that my policy of full disclosure for subsidized posts is on the Disclosure Page in the Pages menu above and there is a link in the Sidebar.