When a Sport Utility is not a Sport Utility

So this year I rented a Ford Edge. I requested a Sport Utility, specifically a Jeep Grand Cherokee*, because I knew we were going to go hiking and it would be handy. But it seems the people at Budget–Rent–A–Car classify an Edge as an SUV. Its a crossover (can’t the auto industry come up with a better term for this class of vehicle?) Ford classifies it as as a crossover. The car press classifies it as a crossover. The EPA classifies it as a crossover. If you don’t know what a crossover is, sometimes referred to as a CUV, its basically an SUV on a car chassis. In the case of the Edge its on a Mazda 6 platform. They have the room of an SUV, but not quite as big as a traditional station wagon, and the ride height. Also they’re usually front wheel drive with an all wheel drive option, which is not the same as four wheel drive. The benefits, clearly a subjective view point here, is better gas milage and a better ride. True, but its not a truck. The trade offs are lower towing capacity and its not something I’d blaze down a bumpy dirt trail. And all wheel drive doesn’t work the same as four wheel drive. (See here for a good explanation.) As far as the gas milage is concerned its better than an Explorer but not by much. Too be fair though, I’m not terribly disappointed. I’ve had my eye on this vehicle since it came out. Its sharp looking, for sure. Now that I’ve lived with it for three days I can say I’m pretty impressed. It has a really nice ride and handles far more like a car than a truck. It has plenty of room. The back seat has a huge amount of leg room. It has some cool options, too. Like when you’re backing up the car it’ll beep when you get too close to something behind it. Oh yeah THE most important option: I can hook up my iPod to the stereo. Priorities, man. Priorities. Right now my only complaint is the braking. This is one heavy vehicle. It seems to take a lot to stop it. I mean I have no way of testing it but I bet the braking distance in this thing is huge. Oh yeah, its very powerful. Its got a V6 but if you’re not looking at the speedometer you’ll be doing 90 in no time. I usually don’t like to used cruise control but here it was a good idea. The one really cool option is the Panoramic Vista sunroof which is a giant sunroof that covers the front and back seat. Unfortunately this one didn’t have it. That would have been cool to have on the highway and around Crater Lake where the scenery was just gorgeous. More on that trip on my next post.

*I know Budget specifies that a particular vehicle is not guaranteed. They specifically state “or similar vehicle.” That’s my point. They’re not similar.

The Crotch of The City

So it was bound to happen. I had my first real bad experience in Portland, Actually its kind of good, now I know its a normal city just like anywhere else in America, just weirder. We we over by VooDoo Donuts. Jenni didn’t have her Sunday donuts so she wanted to go there before we headed down to Eugene. We heard a lot about this place so we looked forward to going there. The first time we went it was on Saturday afternoon when we arrived here. The line was out the door and half way down the block (it actually jutted out into the street before turning back onto the sidewalk.) So Jen decided that she would rather go on Monday before we took the train south. After we checked out of The Jupiter we headed over to Amtrak to get rid of our bags. Then it was over to VooDoo. Smaller line than Saturday and we joined the queue. I wasn’t going to have any (no offense against VooDoo but I’m trying to eliminate that type of food from my diet.) so I sat on a bench outside the shop.

Before I go on I need to explain for those who have never been to Portland. There are a lot of homeless people here and many of them are not mentally sound. The state has no public facilities for the mentally ill. The state is broke. This area we were in is a habitat for them. What makes this even stranger is this part of town is littered with strip clubs and porno theaters. And a bunch of soup kitchens and shelters for the homeless. Its bizarre to walk past tittie bar and then Catholic Charities next door, but hey its Portland. Someone told me (or maybe I read it somewhere) that there are more strip clubs in Portland than any where else in America. Supposedly, its protected in the state constitution (I really need to check that out.) OK, you now can see what kind of place this area of the city is. Think Times Square in the 70s but not as dangerous, although just short of a war zone I don’t know any place as dangerous as New York in the 70s.
Back to Monday morning. So, we’re all on line waiting and we begin to hear this guy screaming. Across the street is this bald guy, I’d say late 20s maybe early 30s, topless carrying his shirt and what appeared to be his coat(?) running up and down the street. He’s screaming and cursing almost like he’s fighting with someone. He runs up the street then shows up next to us by a porno theatre, which by the way specializes in Japanese Anime Porn. He’s screaming and banging on garbage cans. Every now and then he squats down and pounds on his head. He looks to me like he’s crashing off of something, like meth. He’s obviously in a lot of pain. I feel really bad for him but at the same time this is a really scary moment here. He’s probably capable of anything violent. He walks through the line and back again. People are beginning to look frightened. He runs across the street (which by the way is a very wide street) a continues is screaming. I begin to notice that NO ONE makes an effort to pick up their phones and call the police. In fact the police are no where to be seen. Now he runs back toward the store. Right at me. I’m sitting on a bench with my back to the wall. I have my camera bag around my shoulder resting on the bench, Jennifer’s back is at my feet and I have my camera in my hands resting on my lap. I begin to panic thinking, great I’m going to spend the rest of my vacation in a hospital with a broken face or at the very least in jail for smashing his head in with my camera (this is also where I began to think, oh why did I rent a $2000 lens?) He stops about three feet in front of me and does his squat thing, still screaming. About that time the owner, or an employee, of VooDoo comes out and begins to guard us. As Screaming Bald Man comes closer he walks out toward him, warding him off. He has a cell phone in his hand. Obviously he’s protecting his interests: his business and customers. Screaming Bald Man runs off and around the corner. VooDoo Guy walks back toward the door and says: “There is a reason why they call this the crotch of Portland.” Of course he comes back screaming and cursing again and VooDoo Guy protects his turf once again (yeah, this is beginning to sound like a National Geographic Story.) Finally, Jenni comes out with a bag of donuts and walks up to me realizing that I’m upset. She was inside during the charging incedent. So I explain that I just had a really unsettling experience that had left me confused and some what frightened. By the time we get the corner a cop shows up and VooDoo Guy flags him down. I think he might have called him because the cop drove around several times looking intently out of his car. We managed to get out of there, walking about two blocks out of the way to avoid the screaming guy.

I think what disturbed me is no one seemed to lift a finger, myself included, to get help. It was as if we all just hoped he would just go away. Go have your meltdown somewhere else but not here, we’re trying to buy donuts. The owner (or employee) was concerned about the safety of his customers and rightfully so. Which is my point. How did, or does a city, get to the stage where this is an everyday occurrence? A norm that results in one’s business being located in “the crotch” of the city. It was a scary moment for me as I wasn’t prepared for that kind of behavior, even though we’ve seen the homeless all over Portland all weekend (they’re not like the bums in New York that harass you at every moment. You might get a few asking for change but generally they leave you alone.) I know we’re in a really bad recession right now, The Great Recession, but there is no excuse for a city or a state to allow people to live on the streets. They, especially the mentally ill, need to taken care of. Thats what you pay taxes for, the ones that fall into the deep cracks of our economy. At the same time when a city is trying to remake itself into a better, more productive and efficient place to work and live this is a recipe for a social disaster. My biggest fear for Portland is that one election cycle they will elect a “Giuliani” that will clean up the city with devastating consequences for those that are really just victims of our economy.
Well thats just my fucking two cents, take it for what its worth. Please, feel free to comment.

Breakfast in America

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Just wanted to try this mobile version of WordPress. I’m sitting in a Peets Coffee House using my iPhone. Just had the best waffles at the Bread and Ink. Oh for those that don’t have AT&T’s 3G service where they live (like me) it smokes. Last night I was using the free WiFi in our hotel and it totally sucked. I wish AT&T get the tethering option going already.
Also I’d like an iPhone version of MarsEdit.

Day One: Portland Again. Cool.

Well we finally got here. Its been a long fucking day, though. The two of us never went to bed last night. As we live a ridiculous distance from Indy airport we have to leave really early in the morning because our flight was at 7:00 am. By the time we got to Salt Lake City (there are no nonstops out of Indy) we both were exhausted. We had about a three hour lay over so we managed to ingest some Starbucks and threw some food down our throats. God forbid Delta should feed anyone. Well they did but it was snacks and a few bucks a pop at that (they charged us $15 a bag to check in.) They also charged two bucks for headphones too. Fortunately, most people have iPods and such so they don’t need them. Anyways, the connecting flight out of Salt Lake was delayed for what I don’t know (and he’s on third.) So we left about 25 minutes late. I slept the entire flight only to wake up with a headache. When we arrived we got our bags and took the MAX to downtown. One bus transfer got us three blocks from our hotel. We’re staying at this place called The Jupiter. Cool place but definably ranks high on the weird scale. Its like out of a John Waters film. Really. Our original reason for staying here was because our favorite industrial club, Dementia was at a nearby club. But by the time we got here (actually a few months ago) they switched to another place, which is about 20 blocks east of here. To make matters worse they only run it the first and third Saturday now. So no Dementia this year (we will be doing Hive, Shadowplay and Embers. Portland is a hotbed for the Goth/Industrial scene. One of the reasons we like it.)

So today we just roamed around, ate then went shopping. Hit the Apple store for new headphones for my iPhone. Let me say that this device is the most handy thing to have when you’re in an unfamiliar city. The GPS, compass, and always on internet is a godsend. I found an App that tells you the bus schedule, so you know how long you gotta wait. I even used the camera today, exclusively. Actually I was way too tired to carry my Nikon around. I rented two lenses, a Nikon 24-70mm f/2.8G ED AF-S and a Nikon 14-24mm f/2.8G AF-S ED for my D60. The wide angle is really cool and I can’t wait to use it I fucked around with at home with the kitties. Fun stuff. The normal lens is one of the best lenses I’ve ever used. It’s extremely useful in low light with its wide aperture. Anyways, I was way to tired to lug the camera around today. Tomorrow will be different. I got a new bag to play with a Temba Messenger Bag. Its about the size of a Timbuk2 laptop messenger but its designed to carry camera equipment. It has a sleeve for a laptop (my 15” PowerBook fits fine) plus a billion pockets. One really cool feature is a zipper on top that accesses the camera, you don’t have open the flap. Stay tuned for more in the coming days.

Oh, this is for Holly. Doc Martin sandals. Really.

For more on these images click on Tony’s Eyeview on the right.

Yard Work

When Jenni and I first bought our house we were excited about having an actual yard. Behind the house we had a somewhat large wooded area. It was real nice as many bunnies, squirrels and birds lived there. It also acted as a buffer from our neighbors behind us. Unfortunately, the woods were loaded with poison ivy which Jenni happens to very allergic to. So we made the decision to get rid of half the woods leaving the other half as a bunny preserve. Actually that half is thicker with trees and is nestled nicely in the corner between our yard and two other yards behind us. The big problem wasn’t getting rid of the trees but the fuckn’ vines on the ground. We have no idea what the hell kind of vines these are but they might as well be friggin cables. No way puling them out by hand is going to the job. After trying to peel the vines at the edge of the woods back, like a carpet, Jen got blasted with poison ivy. It was all over but covered by the other vines (hence the term ground cover for all you city folks.) This had to be the worst case of poison ivy I’ve ever seen. I’m not going to get into the details of it but lets just say she was miserable for couple of weeks (at one point we really thought she was going to permanently scarred.) So long story short we hired someone to tear out that half of the woods. Many thanks to Casey Schrock, my landscaper (I’m way to lazy to mow my lawn, besides I’m contributing to the local economy) for taking on the job. We’re very satisfied with the job. Oh yeah, does anyone need any wood?? Just help yourself.

The Image on top is from June of ‘08. Note how lush it is. The area off to the left where the really tall weeds are where we tried to clear out but gave up. Below is what it looks like now after three days of real work. There’s more pictures here at my photo gallery or you can click on the Tony’s Eye View link on the right.

The Early Bird Caught The Worm

Some Thoughts On A Long Lens…..

I’ve been living with this lens (see previous post) for five days now and have taken a lot of photos. So some thoughts on the lens. First, its incredibly heavy. My usual lens is so light compared to this guy. I really can’t image taking this on a vacation and doing the tourist thing. No way (not to mention no bag to carry it in, at least not safely. More on that below.) This lens is designed for photojournalists. It would be great at a sporting event, even in the shitty seats. Good luck getting in though with out a press pass. For a photojournalists in a war zone this could get you a great shot and not get yourself killed in the process. I’ve been using it to photograph birds. This the first time I ever attempted to capture such quick animals. My cats like being photographed. No, really. Bubbles actually poses for me. Birds are a different story though. They know when you’re there. So I have to sit outside for awhile to I become part of the landscape. Then they show themselves. The only real problem I’ve been having is finding the bird in the viewfinder once I spot him with my eyes. Human vision has a huge field of view of about 140 degrees. My camera lens is anywhere from 8 to 22 degrees. I spend a lot of time searching around. (Mostly I look for angles of branches and such, but it would be really hard to explain it here.) I am getting better at it, though. Too bad the lens goes back Thursday night. Camera shake is not as big as a problem as I thought it would be because I’ve have been shooting mostly at an f/2.8 as I just want the bird. On a bright day that gives me a pretty fast shutter speed. Gods, how I love a fast lens. Here’s a dandelion shot a f/2.8 with a shutter speed of 1/1000.

OK, enough of the bad stuff. How well does this lens work? I’m in love with it. I’ve been getting beautiful images. Of course a lot has to do with the camera itself, but the lens is great. It pulls it right in there. Some cool things on it. It has two focus settings: manual and an auto/ manual. This means you can use manual focus while in auto. Comes in handy when the camera just doesn’t want to focus, you don’t have to switch to manual on both the camera (which would be in the settings menu) and the lens. The VR (vibration reduction) mode also has two settings normal, for shakes, and an active mode. The active is for when you are shooting out of a moving vehicle. Think I’m going to try that tomorrow. When I read it in the lens manual I pictured a photographer hanging out a Land Rover on the African Serengeti chasing a herd of zebra. Another switch on the lens limits the range of the autofocus if the subject is less than 8.2 feet away. As I understand it this speeds up the focus on subjects further than 8.2 feet. I really haven’t played with this setting. Oh, yeah it also has a focus lock on the lens too. Before I go on about the good things of this lens let me say that this thing retails for about $1800 bucks. Here’s some images on my Mobile Me site.

Final verdict, well worth the rental. Hey, if your kid is playing on a hockey or football team its worth the rental. You’ll be glad you did. I think about all the times I wish I had a high powered zoom (or a good 200 mm or 300 mm prime lens) for those certain shots. From now on if I need a high powered lens I’ll rent. However, if you’re off to Disney World stick to a regular zoom, this lens is way too bulky to carry around. (It make a great weapon, though. Have fun getting it on a plane.) You’ll definitely need a big bag. I’ve been using a bag that normally I carry my D60 with its lens attached and a FG with its 50 mm lens attached and the battery charger and a slew of lens filters and a bunch of other shit I’ve accumulated over the years. This week only the D60 with the 70 – 200 mm attached is in the bag. It’s not the best set up but it’ll do. On a separate note been thinking about this bag for my next trip. I like the idea of it being able to switch from backpack to my sided for easy access.

Finally I’ve been thinking a lot about lenses lately and as a graduate of film school, the idea of DSLRs having the capability of capturing moving images in HD is extremely intriguing. With the availability of a lens like this, that puts that HD capability on the list for my next camera (along with a full frame sensor.) Being able to change a lens on the fly is what makes SLRs and by extension DSLRs so useful. Now with being able to capture moving images and have a plethora of available lenses (whether I rent, borrow or buy) makes video cameras almost a dead format to me.

New Lens For Vacation. Yes I’m Back.

I’m back. I’ve neglected this spot for awhile. It’s not that I’ve been terribly busy just lazy. I’m one of these guys that gets online and I’m finished for the day. Its amazing I even finished college. Anyways, I’m housesitting for a friend (actually dog and multiple kitty sitting) who has an awesome yard with a garden. While sitting here one night I came up with the idea to take some pictures of birds. This time of year all the real pretty ones, like cardinals and bluejays, are all over the place. Problem is my Nikon D60’s lens ¹ doesn’t get very close, its max zoom is 55 mm which translates to about 70mm on this DSLR, not to mention its not a really fast lens (f/5.6 at 55 mm.) If I’m going to photograph birds I can’t just walk up to them. So I needed a better lens, preferably a zoom. Ever price Nikon lenses? Yeah, no shit. Then I remembered some sites I bookmarked that actually rent lenses. I settled on Lens Pro To Go. To be totally honest here my choice had nothing to do with price or service. It was about availability of the lens. Period. I wanted a fast high powers telephoto zoom. I have no need for a normal or wide lens for this. I settled on a Nikon AF 70- 200 mm f/2.8 VR. Read up on some reviews and made my decision. They’re charging me $110 for the week and that includes insurance and shipping. Well it arrived this afternoon on Fed Ex. First, its packed in a Pelican case. A nice one.

I always wanted one for my cameras (wonder if they make one for laptops, oh well more time to spend on the net.) Next, this lens is huge and heavy. The package weighs in at 9 pounds and the case barely weighs anything. Its 9 1/2 inches long.

It came with a tripod mount ² Took some pictures this afternoon basically testing it. I’ll post some on my Flckr account. But here’s a sample.

That cardinal is about 30 feet up above me. I did some comparison shots between lenses. It’ll take me a couple of days before I really know if I like it. So far so good. Stay tuned.

1. the D60 comes in a kit or set which includes an 18-55 mm f/3.5-5.6 zoom lens. I love the camera but I really wish I had a better lens. Someday I’ll write about my transition from film to digital. Lets just say I went into the digital photography age kicking and screaming. ↑
2. a lens this big gets mounted on the tripod, not the camera body. Not to mention the lens mount itself swivels. I tried it on a tripod but when shooting birds (yeah, bad choice of words) I have to be holding the camera.] ↑

Why Worry?

Some co-workers and I were talking the other day about the state of the economy. I mean, really what else are people talking about these days. Anyways, I began to notice a sense of panic among them. This kind of thing can become very contagious. I can remember back when I worked for Pan Am just how contagious that line of thought had gotten. ¹ Although one should never say never, I’m not worried at the moment. Even though our volume has seemed to drop, its not such a dramatical drop where we should start running for the caves. But I can tell that some people have never been in this situation before. I have some advice folks. And as some one who has been through this shit before I know what I’m talking about. So my advice to my coworkers, and anyone else reading this blog for that matter, is simple.²
Don’t worry about it. Let me repeat that, OK? Don’t worry about it. There is nothing you can do or change, by yourself that will change economic conditions (unless you’re a billionaire that can buy everything in sight to stimulate the economy.) So why lose hair over it. By the time Pan Am shut down I was grey and balding and not yet thirty. Until they hand you that pink slip (which BTW in my case was a white form letter) no need to freak out about it. Fuck, you still have a job. Live like you do. I spent months upon months of worrying whether I should pay off a credit card or buy things I wanted. To make matters worse my debt to income ratio was completely out of whack (my fault, I’m not blaming anybody for that.) So I went into a tizzy of worry. I traded in my beloved custom van for an Isuzu Imark in a moment of panic. I’ll never be able to make those payments I thought. I also took a beating at the dealership, but thats another story. Want a new car? Go buy it. Why not? You’re employed and can afford it. “What if I get laid off”, you might ask. Well then you’re not going to be able to buy that car now, are you? In fact with that attitude you’ll never get it.
Listen folks, don’t whine about how the economy sucks if you’re not doing anything about it, like spending some of your money. If you haven’t heard three quarters of our system is driven by consumer spending. The other third is businesses keeping up with our spending. Granted its not exactly the most perfect system but hey its what we got. Want to know what I’m doing? My tax refund (along with some saved money is going to be used for a new MacBook Pro and an NAS with about terabyte and a half of storage. We just bought a brand new stove. New windows are going in the house this spring. So, got a few extra bucks in your pocket and want that venti latte from Starbucks? Fuck it, go for it. PC took a shit? Go buy that Mac you’ve been wishing for.
The one thing that sticks in my mind more than anything from my experience at losing a job, and a good one at that, is what my crew chief Darryl said to me. About a month before Pan Am shut down he went and bought a brand new Dodge minivan. I was like, Dude what you crazy? We’re all about to go down with the Titanic here. I filed his response away in my memory knowing that some day it would make some sense.

“Why worry? There’s no debtors prison.” Absolutely fuckin’, right.

1. Pan Am was obviously in worse shape than my present employer, UPS. In fact Pan Am was in the red for what seemed decades. So it was no surprise to almost all of us when she finally folded. However if I had a dollar for every time someone told me we’re shutting down before the end of the month or week I could have retired at thirty.↑
2. The other big difference is that the airline industry tends to be a lot shakier than most industries. Jesus, if some one farts in Iran, airlines in America lose money. Not to mention Pan Am was a lighting rod for terrorist, even before they were flying them into buildings. ↑

On the Passing of John Updike

John Updike, a Lyrical Writer of the Middle-Class Man, Dies at 76 – Obituary (Obit) – NYTimes.com

Sad day, big loss. I consider John Updike as one of America’s greatest writers. I was taking a creative writing class when I was first introduced to his work. It was the short story “A&P.” Sammy, the protagonist, has always been one of my all time favorite characters in literature, right up there with Holden Caufield. Yeah, I’m one of those. In that creative writing class (which by the way is where I fell in love with my wife, Jennifer) we all had to write a research paper. I can’t remember what the parameters had to be but I chose to write about how Sammy was a catalyst to the counter culture that would eventually follow in the later years of the sixties. I later expanded the paper to include Holden Caulfied for another English class at a different school. (I got an A on both papers, BTW.) Updike’s writing has always fascinated me because he made it look easy. As if. The News Hour on PBS has a great interview with John Updike from 2003. In it he talks about Sammy. Actually he’s asked about that short story. Probably because it’s become a staple in English departments nation wide. When he talks about Sammy its as if, for just a moment, he became real person for me. And Updike’s explanation of Sammy feelings in the end helped me recognize I was on the right track in my paper of long ago. So, thanks John for all your works and especially thank you for introducing me to not only Sammy but writing in general.

In Other Things Heard and Seen…

Best ad of the week: Say Goodbye To Mr. Bush

Most expensive lay: Natalie Dylan, a 22-year-old student from San Diego, Calif, auctions off her virginity. Offers are as high as 3.7 million. Hope there’s a money back guarantee.

And something else to sink my heart. Coffee to jump prices 26%. Say it ain’t so, Joe.