Nontrivial Exercises

Darling, Have I Ever Told You the Way I Want to Hold You?

Eastside Village

Indelible Fingerprints of the Allmighty

God does not die on the day when we cease to believe in a personal deity, but we die on the day when our lives cease to be illumined by the steady radiance, renewed daily, of a wonder, the source of which is beyond all reason.

— Dag Hammarskjold

Small Words, Big Impact

I went out shooting today at lunchtime to downtown Plano, just about 10 minutes from where I work at the dayjob. It’s a somewhat historic town-square type of downtown area that the city has restored. There are little shops, a few open-air cafes and some new loft-style apartments right in the middle of it. It’s a fun place to walk around and even though it’s a modest attempt at some pedestrian culture for the Dallas area, it’s still a pleasant experience.

I was walking around taking photos for about 45 minutes. I was heading back to my car when I passed by a restaurant with people sitting outside. This man and his wife were sitting on the end of the seating area and stopped me as I walked by. They had seen me taking pictures of signs and shop windows and other not-often photographed things and were just curious about what I was doing.

I explained that I just love to take pictures of what’s around me, to find the beauty in everyday things and many things we easily overlook. We chatted for a few minutes and then I took a couple of shots of them, then headed back to the dayjob.

Sometimes just a small word of interest can make someone’s day. Rather than hassle me about taking pictures of things, he just expressed interest. He even took the initiative to stop me to ask about what I was doing.

I love to talk about photography because images can speak. A photographer gets to help tell a story, and decide what part of it to tell. I love to tell about the beautiful things around us and the beauty in people all around us, because it enriches my soul. It was fun to talk about that just for a few minutes with this couple.

You can see more of my photos from downtown Plano as I process them here.

Technorati Tags:
photography, photowalking, Plano, Texas

Clockworks

Nothing is Impenetrable, I Learned

Glory Softball

My wife has been playing on a co-ed softball team for the past few months, and she really loves it. She played softball in high school and apparently was a pretty good pitcher - the fast-pitch, underhand style.

They played under the lights tonight and I was able to go watch and, of course, get some photos. I’ve created a smartset on Zooomr for all the photos I’ll be able to capture this fall - you can check it out here.

The team’s name is Glory, and they usually beat their opponents by the 10-run rule before they run out of time or innings. Their secret? They have girls that can hit and field.

Burn for More

Who’s Reading My Mail?

From an article I’m reading about choosing and changing careers:

Job mismatch

Job mismatch is the most common justification for people to quit their jobs. Experiencing a lack of fulfillment and corresponding low motivation toward work, along with a sense that they have chosen a field of work that is not a good match for their talents, are the primary factors that have caused people to quit their jobs without having other jobs lined up. The vast majority of these who quit their jobs are stressed out, even to the point of not wanting to go to work every morning. In some cases this job stress has been so acute that it has resulted in health problems. So, to ensure a less stressful and healthier life, they have quit their previous jobs and are job hunting.

That’s me!

I’m really learning some things about myself and am coming to terms with who I am and what talents and abilities I have. I have learned that I really want (need?) to create things.

I won’t bore both of my readers with my thoughts and how they’ve come about - at least not now - but I know this. I want to be a photographer and a writer. A creator.

Here’s a first start: Matt Hollingsworth Photo.

I’m not sure what’s next. Prayer, contemplation, and action are what I plan. And I appreciate any and all moral support.

THE Biggest Stevenote Surprise - iPhone $400

I watched Gizmodo’s live coverage of the Apple Media Event / Stevenote extravaganza this afternoon during lunch and conference calls. Of the 3 sites I watched - Gizmodo, Engadget and Macworld - Gizmodo was by far the best coverage. They updated the fastest, had the best photos and the blog post was organized with the most recent updates on top. This made it faster to see the latest info as I didn’t have to wait for the rest of the page to load and all the adservers to dish out their content.

First, for the second most surprising announcement: the iPhone Fatboy, er, uh Nano. The leaked pictures were amazingly accurate - it’s an iPod nano that’s suddenly become vertically challenged and horizontally endowed. It looks a bit weird, but I must say that the thinness of it redeems the overall design and isn’t half bad. I’d like to reserve final judgement until I see one in person.

Next, we had the iPod Classic, which proudly shows off the latest in micro-hard drive technology, sporting an 80G and 160G offering in the more traditional iPod form factor. Interesting, but it seems more like a way to fulfill a big contract with Hitachi (or whoever they buy their hard drives from) and find a way to use some left over hard drives. This will make a very nice portable storage device that also plays music, however.

Then, the least surprising announcement of the day is the iPod Touch - essentially the iPhone without the phone, a bit thinner and with some extra flash memory. There is an 8G and a 16G model and both have WiFi. I surely saw this one coming, as I’m sure most people did. The 8mm depth and extra memory compared to the iPhone are nice extras.

That brings us to the third biggest surprise of the day - the mobile iTunes Music Store. While not as unthinkable - to me, at least - as the iPod Fatboy coming true, I didn’t see it coming today. I don’t think I need to espouse the coolness of being able to buy music right from your music device, but no one else can do this (see Zune).

And, to add to my boring enumeration of surprises, I’ll say the fourth biggest surprise of the Stevenote was that Steve wants one to pay another $0.99 just to make a 30 second ringtone from a song we’ve already paid $0.99 for. Forget that.

The Starbucks integration and FREE access to a STORE (insightful comment originally made by Jason Chen on Gizmodo’s coverage) when in Starbucks is very interesting and I think very innovative. It’s a sign of Apple’s interest in partnering with others, in a very controlled, Apple-beneficial way, but still partnering. Returning to my strange rankings, I’ll put this as the most interesting and innovative announcement of the day.

Which now brings me to the #1 most surprising announcement of the day: iPhones for $400. 33% price reduction after 68 days on the market where demand has been almost unfulfillable. Simply amazing, especially for Apple.

I’m guessing they are feeling some of the upcoming pressure from competitors, e.g. Helio Ocean, Nokia, new HTC models and other yet-to-be-revealed knock-offs. There will be a much smaller gap between the iPhone and other wanna-be’s compared with the distance between the iPod and other also-rans. Maybe putting 16G in the iPod Touch made the 4G iPhone simply unmarketable and the 8G seem a little bit flash-challenged compared to the 8G and 16G iPod Touch.

The big question in my mind is did the Apple Master have this up his black turtle-necked sleeve from the beginning or was this a sudden change in pricing strategy? His Jobsness doesn’t do much on a whim, especially when it involves eating into his extremely rotund profit margins, but it certainly feels a little strange and early to slash the price on your flagship of innovation.

Whatever the reason, I’m just about as close to getting my hands on an iPhone now as I am to eating another one of those Almond M&M’s sitting innocently in my pantry. Both will cost me (I’ve efficiently downed my weekly - perhaps monthly - allotment of 45 of these goodies this morning while on my endless stream of conference calls) but both are now within reach.

I’ve been very disappointed that my budget hasn’t yet supported an iPhone, and now I’m extremely excited that’s it’s actually within my reach now.

Beans and rice for lunch through the end of the year? Well, after today, I’ll be able to eat Subway again by Thanksgiving!

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apple, I want an iPhone, iPhone, Steve Jobs, iPod, iPod Touch, iPod Nano, keynote, SteveJobs