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It\u2019s been quite a long time since I\u2019ve posted anything. All of you clamoring for my return will be happy at last.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s officially summer, and school is out. Well, the regular school program is out; the summer school program is just starting. I am driving summer school again this year. I\u2019ve driven summer school every year since I started this job excepting one. It\u2019s strange for me to say, but that year I was off too long. I became restless and consumed with boredom. Granted I didn\u2019t and really still don\u2019t have the means to do any fancy vacations or much traveling at all. If I can swing it I hope to do a bit of light traveling in July, but circumstances will dictate that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It\u2019s Monday. When I wake up and drink my coffee I usually watch the ABC morning news show. I know, legacy media yuck, blah, blah, blah. And I tend to agree with that negative view of media in general, but I seriously doubt that journalists will out-right lie. Lies by omission, they\u2019d do that all day long, but a bald faced lie, thankfully it hasn\u2019t go that bad, yet\u2026<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Anyway, what I saw on the news this morning, the thing I\u2019m thinking about now, was more or less the same exact thing I\u2019ve seen every Monday for the past two months, war. Yes the war that started last month that I mentioned in my last blog post. It\u2019s not really a war by the way, even though everyone including the President of the USA call it a war, but that\u2019s only when he\u2019s talking unofficially about it. Officially it is an action or something like that. Double speak bull sticks! Anyway, we won that action\/war the first three days of of the action\/war, at least that is what the President of the USA told us. But\u2026 and that\u2019s a big butt\u2026 it really hasn\u2019t ended yet. Just last night Israel and Iran shot missiles at each other directly for the first time since the cease fire that is supposed to be in effect. But don\u2019t worry! The President of the USA says that we are days away from a good deal that will bring peace to the middle east and return the world to normal business. Heh, yeah, okay.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Every week it is the same thing. President reassures the world that peace is around the corner. More shooting and killing and bombing and whatnot take place to ruin the current optimism. Then on Friday that president goes on the verbal offensive, and offensive he is, and tells the world, \u201cWell, we got that little mess under control and will work hard all weekend to find a solution.\u201d The stock market rallies. The good people of the world leave work, go home, go swimming with their kids, or burn some hamburgers on the grill. Monday comes back around, and we are day\u2019s away from a deal. Then Israel, or possibly our own glorious US war leaders, do something to muck it up. The cycle starts all over. Week after week. Month after month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Our leaders are so dumb. What I see happening is that this cycle is going to continue on for more months. Mid term elections will come around. That is going to be line of demarcation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I\u2019d like to think both houses of congress will change leadership, but I doubt it will work out that way. I doubt it for several reasons, not the least of which is the current leadership have already proven to be unsupportive of the nation\u2019s current standards and practices, to put it politely. Anyway, after the mid terms the ground invasion will start. It doesn\u2019t really matter who controls congress at that point. The opposition party\/Democrat party will be powerless to stop it. The current leadership\/Republican party will have still have the President, and the President will do what he want\u2019s regardless of what the people want. Of course it depends on which people you ask, as is always the case with war. The business people that stand to make a profit will be supportive of the war, and there are a lot of people who stand to profit from a new protracted, bloody, disgusting war. There will probably be more people, including the ones that will have to fight and die in the war, that don\u2019t support the war. But the Republican party and MAGA\u2019s have really got their ducks in a row this time. Business will win and poor people will die, as always. But we\u2019ll remember them all fondly next Memorial day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Okay, enough of that. I really haven\u2019t done much in the way of photography lately. I have been doing some novice gardening type things that have been one of my creative outlets. I\u2019ve also been reading more lately. In the last few weeks I\u2019ve finished \u201cWuthering Heights\u201d, and the \u201cGreat Gatsby.\u201d Both of which were excellent. Im currently reading \u201cThe Children of Strife\u201d by Adrian Tchaikovsky. It is the fourth in a series of Sci fi books that I\u2019m very much enjoying. I\u2019d highly recommend them. They are kinda weird and deep, but that\u2019s how I like it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
With some of gardening experiments I attempted to start some seeds in my house. I am learning as I go. With my first attempt I used some \u201corganic\u201d soil. Apparently the soil had worm casings in it, which is basically poo. I think that the casings are probably the secret ingredient that led to my prolongs misery. At some point a fruit fly got into my house and found this rather desirable condition and decided to stay and put down roots. Before I knew it I was running a fruit fly, I guess that\u2019s what they are, sanctuary. They breed fast. It was driving me insane having to share my space with all those little buggers. I thought about it. I thought there must be something I can do. The solution was simple. Fly strips. It\u2019s not something I\u2019ve really every used before myself. I\u2019ve seen them used in some places, but never my house. I guess I\u2019ve been lucky, or maybe hygienic, who knows. Those fly strips work very well. They aren\u2019t a perfect solution, but they brought the population down to an acceptable level. I ate having them fly up my nose or around my eyes, yuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I mention all this about fly strips and fruit flies because it is today\u2019s photo. I didn\u2019t spend much time on this. It is kinda morbid and gross. But I had an idea to photograph the fly strip. I took a few shots and decided to try to do a focus stack, which turned out pretty okay. It got a good bit more of the scene than without the stacking. It\u2019s still a very narrow focal band, but it\u2019s kinda cool.<\/p>\n\n\n\n