Day 76/365 - Tag, I'm It

Day 76/365 - Tag, I'm It

Image by Kevin H.
For this week's self-portrait I decided to get in the Christmas spirit and shoot my reflection in one of the ornaments on the tree in the lobby of my apartment complex. Also, because I was tagged on Flickr by Picture Prefect, it's now my turn to reveal sixteen random facts about myself and this seemed like a good occasion to do so.

And so here they are:

1. I was once hoisted up into a helicopter that was hovering fifty feet above the deck of a ship at sea.
2. I used to have two earrings and a body piercing, but I quit wearing them about a year ago.
3. I took fencing and bowling classes for PE credit in college and sucked at both.
4. I love musicals.
5. I once had dinner at a restaurant one table over from Condoleeza Rice and totally eavesdropped on her conversations.
6. I've been through the Panama Canal.
7. My driver's license expired about eight years ago and I never bothered to get it renewed (obviously I don't drive).
8. I once chewed the same piece of blueberry Hubba Bubba bubblegum for three days straight (it turned white eventually).
9. I've skydived and bungee jumped, but social situations scare the hell outta me.
10. Until I was halfway through college, I thought the word 'pseudo' was pronounced 'puh-sway-do'
11. I sat three rows in front of Colin Powell for opening night of 'Mamma Mia' at the National Theatre and didn't realize it until I got up to leave at the end.
12. I'm terrified of dancing but secretly wish I knew how.
13. I used to write short stories for fun in high school and college but stopped (I still think up ideas for stories but never actually do anything with them).
14. I'm really good at building a fire (both fireplace and camp fire).
15. I once stepped on the end of a hoe and the handle swung up and whacked me in the face just like in cartoons and Three Stooges shorts and I wound up having to get stitches in my eyebrow.
16. I'm ridiculously over-organized (you have no idea how much time I put into compiling and revising this list).

(December 23, 2008)

"Poured Lines: Southwark Street" by Ian Davenport (2 v)

Image by Stewf
2 years, 300 colors

I did the best I could without a tripod and while rushing to the Tate Modern. Here's a much better photo of the piece, a teaser by design firm The Chase, and a shot of the work in progress.

From the accompanying plaque:

To make one of his signature "Poured" works at this location, Ian Davenport devised a new technique pouring liquid enamel in hundreds of different colours onto steel panels, using gravity to form a series of lines down each panel. Once the enamel was applied each panel was then fired in a huge furnace at 825°C to harden the surface making it durable in the urban environment.

Davenport has achieved a fine balance controlling the application of the enamel whilst allowing the unpredictability of the material to play a part. Chance indicates that some lines run into each other, colour intensity fluctuates, and the overall composition across 48 panels pulses with an intense rhythm.

The artist, who is Southwark based, was influenced by sources as diverse as Italian Renaissance frescoes, music and TV cartoons. The painting does not have one dominant theme as the artist wants to allow a very open reading and interpretation of his work.

Opened 6th September 2006

2011 09 11 - 6336 - Washington DC - Combined Kit

Image by thisisbossi
My photo kit combined with my USAR kit. I repacked it from my previous attempt after I decided I'd rather have better back support instead of the more accessible satchel.

I'd say I was 97% certain that nothing would happen the following day, but I was trying to read into the news reports, trying to think of what the governments' agents were thinking as they considered whether to release information to the public. My guess was that they had a pretty good idea who was doing what & where they were, and by releasing limited info to the public: they were hoping to perhaps scare or hasten the suspects into breaking from their plan, potentially opening themselves up to additional evidence & possibly additional clues into others involved. Or at least that was my psychoanalytical sort of guess.

But I was going to be ready, just in case. The only things left behind were my machete (better suited to jungles than cities; and a step above the security threshold of what I figured I could explain away if questions by police), my crowbar (the tool at the middle sufficed, and again: with the crowbar bigger than my bag it'd have been difficult with the police), my hardhat (too bulky), three pieces of wood (also too bulky), and possibly a few other bits that slip my mind at the moment.

All-in-all the following day went swimmingly; no real action to be seen apart from a few suspicious vehicles here-and-there. The only thing I ultimately used the kit for was a boost to my exercise and also to tend to six separate incidents of maimed children, victims of the gravitational attraction of limbs to pavement. I used my expert band-aid skills to tend to their grievous wounds. Next time I'll get cartoon-themed band-aids.