Photos from the beautiful Rings of Kerry in Ireland from June 2009.

A footpath exposed, originally uploaded by Zardoz67.

Ok here goes. Do you remember in my Monday blog post I banged on about how I thought some of the photos I took on a beach in North Wales last Sunday were probably my best? Well now is your chance to judge for yourself. But first some background…

Thanks to the planets aligning (kids and wife at a party) I found myself with a free afternoon so I had a tough choice of going out with the camera in the rain or lying on the sofa eating biscuits and watching Terminator Salvation. Despite the rain I thought I’d take the former option and headed out towards the Welsh coast. Someone once told me that if it’s raining inland then chances are it will be clear by the sea and on this occasion the advice turned out to be right. I decided to head out to Talacre which is probably my nearest stretch of beach (about 30 minutes drive from home). Of course given my love to out-of-season holiday resorts this was also a good reason to go.

Near Flint, there is not much in Talacre apart from rows and rows of static caravans, an amusement arcade and a couple of pubs but I decided to head there because I knew the beach had a defunct lighthouse dating from the 1770s. I parked up behind the amusement arcade and headed for the beach which was pretty empty apart from coastal walkers and a few people with dogs. By the time I got there the sky was blue (although purple clouds lurked inland) but the tide was in and so the lighthouse steps were under water. I spent an hour or so taking pictures of the lighthouse and dunes, some of which I am pretty happy with but then something magical happened… it poured down. Not for long but when the sun came out I saw my second perfect rainbow of the year and you can see a picture of it here.

After this serendipity kicked in again. As the light faded the sky turned a wonderful pink colour, the tide went out revealing the lighthouse steps, and using a tripod and a wide-angle lens I managed to get loads of really good pictures – and I apologise in advance if you end up with lighthouse fatigue this week. This is actually not my favourite of the pictures I took but my wife is really impressed with it and wants a poster print for one of our empty walls, so that’s good enough for me.

I think this was the first time I have felt like a real photograher. Spending a couple of hours on that empty beach really brought home to me the magic of photography. The conditions in which I took this photograph will never be exactly the same again and that what makes it special. The darkening sky, the pink, the battered walls of the lightouse, the reflection, the ripples on the sand – all these elements make this picture work. I now truly appreciate that to get stunning shots you have to go that extra mile and shoot during ‘The Magic Hour’ – that brief period at sunrise and sunset when colour is slowly introduced/withdrawn from our world. You may have to get up early or stay up late to achieve what you want but boy is it worth it.

Comments would be welcome. Hopefully I am finishing my first year of blogging on a high.

Sometimes life gets in the way of my schedules

Let’s be honest here. There is no fucking way I am going to be able to limit this discussion of the first two episodes of MTV’s Jersey Shore to one post. Ostensibly, I will cover the basics in this post. I will introduce you to each of the eight lovely cast members and explain what happened in the first episode. I watched the second episode last night with pen and paper in hand taking notes. I had to put the pen down at points because there was just too many things that were noteworthy. Tomorrow’s post will be dedicated to the illustrious eight’s exploits in episode number dos. Every second of episode 2 is mind-blowing priceless. Also there will be an in-depth discussion of the quick shot of one of the girls (Snooki) getting punched right in the face in the “previews” for this upcoming season. This should have you more than well prepared for watching the new episode which will air at 10 pm on Thursday on MTV.

Now the question is, do the cast members of Jersey Shore want IT?

BLAM! This is the Jersey Shore, baby. Of  course they fucking want it. Hey Vinnie Boombots, FUH-GEDD-UH-BOUT-IT!

Oh my God! I love it already! Don’t you love it already? What is not to love? They’re all tan, the guys are jacked up steroid abusers with lots of hair gel, the girls are mildly attractive at best, each guy is wearing a necklace, three of the four of them have crosses on those chains, and they’re at SEASIDE! Yes, indeed they are at Seaside, New Jersey and God bless them for it. If you are unaware of MTV’s previous True Life episodes (with an “S”) about having a shore house in Seaside then you have missed out on an endless well of entertainment. MTV also had one of their summer beach houses at Seaside one year (two?) as well.

What’s so special about Seaside, NJ? To begin with… Everything. Seaside is a Mecca for beach drunkenness day and night. In the summer, people from the tri-state area descend upon Seaside to fulfill all their hedonistic desires. And with that, a self-fulfilling prophecy is made and people tend to get more insane than usual. Seaside is similar to Atlantic City and Las Vegas in that sense. People have an expectation of the wild and because of that people do get wild, they let their guard down, they drink 8x as much et cetera. But replace the gambling and shows for swimsuits, boardwalk games and lots of dancing.

Primarily, there are two areas to go to for the craziness: boardwalk and the clubs. The Seaside boardwalk is littered with litter. Literal trash. Seaside is not clean per say. They have boardwalk games where you can win cigarettes. The boardwalk is a mess of lights and store fronts like bar, food, shirt shop, game, food, bar, tattoo/piercing, shirt shop, game, food, bar and so on until you are dead at the end of it with Miller Lite and funnel cake oozing out of your freshly inked tramp stamp or tribal weave. Notable bars: Saw Mill, Beachcomber, Spicy’s, and not literally on the boardwalk, but near it Captain Hook’s. The second area of Seaside is the clubs.

The club scene in Seaside would make Caligula wet himself with glee. It is beyond belief the absurdity of these places. The boardwalk bars tend to have a rich variety of people. The bars tend to be cheaper, if you don’t like one it is very easy to move to another, there is more to do on the boardwalk, there is food, and when you need a break from the deafening music you can easily step outside because none of the bars are big. This is not the case for the clubs. Once you make the move that you are going to a club, you have made that decision for life. Besides what you see in there you can’t unsee, but once you are in it is hard to get out*.

I love it! The club in the background is Bamboo. I have been there countle- actually a dozen times. I can count to a dozen. Bamboo aka The Boo is ginormous. The Boo is also the battleground for a big chunk of the second episode. Unless you know somebody who works at The Boo, most likely you will need to stand on a long line to get in. Same goes for most of the clubs. The clubs are pretty much on one long stretch of road that is flanked by police and the drunkest idiots you have ever seen in your life wearing the most expensive yet cheap looking clothes ever. I can understand, I don’t condone, spending hundreds of dollars on a leather jacket. Why? Because that jacket will potentially live longer than you. But a t-shirt? Jeans? Spending a hundred dollars on a gold flaked t-shirt is ridiculous. That t-shirts are meant to be disposable. Jeans as well.

The clubs are all pretty much the same: big, dance floors, expensive, insanely loud music, a million people, wet and sticky floors from spilled drinks and spilled other “things”. The Boo is/was very popular. It is probably the biggest of the clubs physically. It is has a large indoor area, a second floor, and the famous outdoor courtyard area. The place also stays open until like 4 am, where as almost all Jersey bars close at 2 am. The Boo also serves a drink that is in a big hexagonal fish bowl which is filled with every clear liquor you can imagine. The idea is to share, but why share when with enough courage you can drink the whole thing until you are retarded. Nowadays the most popular club is Hemingway’s and I expect to see it soon on Jersey Shore.

Now you’ve seen two really classy pictures of the cast, you’ve heard how classy the Seaside area is, and I think it is about time to meet these classy classy motherfuckers. As mentioned yesterday, these cast members are not from the Jersey Shore and only one of them is actually from New Joisy. One term for them would be “B.E.N.NYs” and another would be “human garbage”. But first, “BENNY”. B – Bayonne, E – Elizabeth, N – Newark, NY – New York. Basically a BENNY is someone a Northerner not from the Jersey Shore area who comes to the shore during the summer. Human Garbage? We’ll get to that. Up first, THE GUIDOS!

YES! For whatever reason, the term “guido” which was a racial epithet and then became a run-of-the-mill insult is now being adopted by these idiots. Hairgel, blowouts and fade haircuts, tribal tattoos, tan beyond the color of orange, steroid big biceps, fist pumping, dancing, arrogant beyond the IQ of stupid, no shirts, and everything Italians should have pride about. Let’s meet these loveable goofballs, I mean “goombahs” (left to right).

DJ Pauly D. From where? Rhode Island! I love it. Everyone wants to stereotype that these morons are from New Jersey then Long Island then New York and, in fact, this guy is from RHODE ISLAND. Brilliant. Pauly is covered in tattoos and his hair is fascinating. He wears his Cadillac tattoo with such pride. In the first episode, Pauly doesn’t do anything all that amazing outside of his physical appearance. He has a much bigger role in episode 2. Pauly is one of the older cast members at 28/29. His bio says he is the most popular DJ in Rhode Island. Sure, why not? Does he want it? DJ Pauly D just wants a nice classy fake boobed, tan, dyed hair, slutty, Italian girl who he can spin his turntables with*, so yeah he wants it.

This guy, BREAK OUT STAR! This next sentence will change your life:

His real name is “Mike”, but everyone (including himself) calls him “The Situation”.

YES! AAAAAAAAHHHHHHHH! YES! I FUCKING LOVE AMERICA!

“The Situation”! The Situation refers to himself in third person regularly which never gets old. “The Situation” is seemingly referring to his muscular upper body which is not to be confused with his tiny legs. The Situation is apparently loved by or he “will force you to love” him. Amazing! RAPE! The Situation is already the most beloved character of this show on the internet. In the first episode, he ends up going after one of the female cast members (kind of surprising, right?). They hold hands a lot and make a lot of Junior High-esque flirty eye contact. The Situation is so in love with himself that he makes Lex Luger’s character “The Narcissist” seem like a self-loathing goth cutter.

In some regard I hope The Situation is a joke. I hope it is an alter ego that this guy Mike came up with knowing that idiot girls like his roommates would sex with. I can see that. I can see a guy who was not popular seeing that there is a place in society for these type of people and he has spent time and energy achieving this fantasy. He has taken steroids and pumped up his biceps beyond belief, he has tanned himself and primped himself beyond belief and he walks around acting like an arrogant effeminate gorilla. In the end, he gets chicks and he is on a TV show. But that is very optimistic. The Situation probably just exists like all the other people like him. They actually think this is cool and a good lifestyle and that everyone else doesn’t shake their head at them as they walk by like “that is the trash of the next generation”. But we all love The Situation as well as these other cast mates because they are infinitely entertaining.

What would your reaction be if I said this guy was “the brains” of the house? I honestly think Ronnie is the smartest of these people. Not smartest like he would do the best on an SAT because none of them would do well on the SATs, but Ronnie uses his brain the best. He has tons of common sense. He sees what is going on, he sees the consequences and he says it to. That is not unique in the outside world, but in this house with these types it is. Ronnie correctly predicts not only what will transpire in the first episode, but also what will transpire in the second episode. He is gd FUTURE SEER! What are the winning lotto numbers Ronnie!?! Tell me!

The big drama from the first episode is 100% correctly predicted by Ronnie. Pauly, The Situation and Vinny (the next guy) are watching girls walk by on the boardwalk from the rooftop patio of the house. They spot three girls and ask them to come up. Ronnie says most astutely that bringing outside girls into the house will piss off the girls who live in the house. Also, this is the second night they are in the house. The guys say fuck it. The girls come up, get in the hot tub, get drunk, naked, and mess around with the guys. Ronnie joins in. Ronnie understands the cause and effect, but that does not mean he won’t party. Eventually, Ronnie goes downstairs to the kitchen for beer. While down there he runs into two of the girls in the house, Sammi and Angelina. The two girls put on a guise of wanting to go upstairs out of sheer curiosity. Again most astutely, Ronnie states that the girls are going upstairs to make it awkward and to pick a fight. BOOM! Ronnie is a genius! Bitches hatin’ Bitches! Ronnie has seen this happen before, he has remembered it and he can spot it happening again. He is like Charles Woodson jumping a pass to the slot receiver and taking to the endzone. Except, he can’t stop the girls from going upstairs because you can’t reason with bitches. They go upstairs, make it awkward, pick a fight et cetera. Ronnie is a genius. Ronnie also plays quite a pivotal role in episode 2.

What’s the word? Boring. Completely out of place is Vinny. He is not nearly as tan, musclely or have enough hair for gelling purposes. He goes to college and lives with his parents. In the first episode they actually show that his mother still cuts his food for him. Yeah. Vinny has relatively no role in the first episode and a minor one in the second. Vinny is probably the “smartest” of them in one degree, but at the same time he is dumber than them because he does not fit in and is trying to fit in so hard. One of my favorite quick parts of the first episode did involve Vinny, but it also involves one of the girls so I’ll talk about that when we get to her. Vinny does have a minor story line in the second episode that is funny. Nevertheless, Vinny is pretty tame compared to the others.

THE GUIDETTES

I did not know female guidos called themselves “guidettes”. I also didn’t know guidos really called themselves guidos, but whatevah! Generally speaking, the term “stellas” was how I and others I know referred to elegant women that resemble these four. Up first,

Jenni or you may know her as J-Woww, is very entertaining character in the second episode. She is also the second half to that Vinny funniness. When each roommate enters the house they need to choose a room. Most rooms need to be shared. They all show up in a staggered format. First was The Situation then Pauly then Sammi (I think) and then Vinny. The Situation and Pauly are rooming together. However the set-up of the rooms are, Vinny could either snag a single room or wait on another cast member to be his roommate. He is unsure what to do. He initially puts his bags in a room with a second bed and decides if the next person who comes in looks cool then he’ll leave his bags, if not then he’ll move his bags. J-Woww is the next roommate to show up! At first glance, J-Woww has big fake breasts, tan, tattoos, was wearing little amounts of clothes, dyed streaky hair. I thought Vinny was going to be all over rooming with her. I misjudged Vinny. After two seconds of seeing her, Vinny makes a mad dash for his bags and throws them into the single room, atta-boy Vinny.

J-Woww enters the Jersey Shore house with a boyfriend waiting at home. Her boyfriend is worried she will cheat on him. Her boyfriend is not Nostradamus, but seriously take a wild guess if she cheats on him or not.

Delusional. By far the majority of the times you hear Angelina talk it some how comes around to her stating how she is A. all natural, B. curvy, C. beautiful, D. better than everyone else. A. who would think any of that is fake. B. correct. C. incorrect. D. incorrect again. Well 1 out of 4 ain’t bad, right? Angelina also has a boyfriend who is worried about her cheating on him. Much like Ronnie and J-Woww’s boyfriend, we can all accurately predict what will happen with Angelina at this house. Angelina also led the parade up to the rooftop deck to create the awkward situation with the other girls and the fight later. Angelina is a classic example of bitches hatin’ bitches. In the second episode she states that she loves being a cock block. Wonderful. What a truly wonderful person she must be? Self-entitlement and a “hater”, two amazing qualities to have when you offer nothing in return.

Snooki! Or Snickers! Or Snuckems? Her name is Nicole and she goes by the nickname “Snooki”. When was it decided we all needed nicknames? Not even a normal nicknames, but a nickname I can only imagine calling a four legged animal and not a person. Snooki? I definitely could see a woman naming her Chihuahua “Snooki” or at least calling it “Snooki”, but its real name is “The Countess Queen Snezell the Fierce VIII”. Snooki has to be sub 5 feet tall and refers to herself as the “Princess of Poughkeepsie” which by all other standards would be the Chief Mongoloid of the Mongoloids of the Mongoloid country. Nothing against the people of Poughkeepsie or at least the ones who read this blog. I am sure you were unaware of her reign as your “princess”. And she is a princess.

The first episode she immediately started pounding shots once in the house. Seemingly within a couple hours or minutes she began kissing and grinding on Ronnie and Pauly and then a bar stool and eventually a lawnmower. She also tried kissing some of the girls, shock me shock me. When the party moved upstairs to the hot tub (or at least the guys went up there), Snooki made her presence known as well as the contours of her own “situation” by getting into the hot tub in her underwear and bra. She proceeded to try and force sex on each guy in the hot tub who did not return the sentiments. She leaves them because they’re not giving her attention. She passes out and is left at the house while the rest of the house goes and walks along the boardwalk. There is a priceless series of scenes of her trying to operate the phone which for whatever reason is shaped like a mallard. Needless to say, the next morning when they all wake up to go to their first day of work (just like the Real World they have a random job, which is to work at a t-shirt store) Snooki spends the morning vomiting in the toilet. I forget why she was interacting with Sammi, but Sammi told her she didn’t want to help her because she had “vomit breath” and with that Sammi…

… is a bitch. She actually introduces herself as “the sweetest bitch you’ll ever meet”. Fantastic! Of course, that is exactly what I want to meet: a bitch. Why can’t she just fucking be the sweetest “girl” I’ve ever met or sweetest “woman” or “person”. No, she’s the sweetest BITCH I’ve ever met. I hate people like Sammi “Sweetheart”. I have met several people in life who have introduced themselves to me as an “asshole”, “bitch”, “mean” or something of the like. Why? How about you try and not be mean? Oh, I’m just a mean person. Then get the fuck away from me. I don’t want to know mean people. I don’t want to meet a “new” mean person. I wish AIDS on you “mean”, “asshole”, “bitch” people.

Back to this bitch in particular, Sammi and The Situation hit off in the begin seemingly. They hit on each other, hold hands, tease et cetera. It is an immortal love that is already blossoming amongst these two within the first minutes of meeting each other. Could this love truly last forever? Could it even last through the second episode!?!

You’ll find out tomorrow!

It doesn’t last. She hooks up with Ronnie and sleeps with him. Meanwhile The Situation picks up his broken guido heart by smoking Parliament lights all night until the sun comes up. But that’s tomorrow.

The Kooks – “Seaside”

Sigh… I love English/British bands (is there any difference?). Hip hip hooray, poppin’ champagne!
Get it? ;]

We’re going to take a brief break from Christmas decorating today to tell you about an event next month everyone at Tracery is very excited about.  January 15 – 17, the first annual 30A Songwriters Festival will be held all along Scenic Highway 30A–our home at the Beaches of South Walton County, Florida.  Featuring nationally recognized artists like the Indigo Girls, Jeffrey Steele, Shawn Mullins, Rodney Crowell, Sam Bush and Chely Wright; the event is going to a very fun weekend!  The festival kicks off Friday afternoon with a reception party for all artists and attendees at the world famous BUD & ALLEY’S Restaurant on the beach in Seaside. From there plan on three days of non-stop, intimate concerts including solo performances and multi artist “in the round” singing and storytelling sessions.  Your ticket/wrist band will allow you to travel up and down the Beaches of South Walton and freely access all shows in beautiful venues in Alys Beach, Rosemary Beach, Seaside, Miramar Beach, WaterColor and Grayton Beach.

Tracery principal Paige Schnell is one of the founders and organizers of the event and we’re all chipping in to help make this event a success.  We’d love for you to join us–January 15 – 17 is Martin Luther King weekend, so it’s a great time to head to SoWal and listen to some great music in an incredible setting.

Visit the 30A Songwriters Festival website [here] to get more details and to buy your tickets…they are going FAST and there’s a very limited number available due to the intimate size of the venues so we suggest you buy tickets NOW, not later.

We can’t wait to see y’all there!

This past Thursday night, MTV’s “Jersey Shore” premiered with two hour-long episodes, and, though I hate to admit it, the show far surpassed my expectations.  It perfectly captured the essence of the guido lifestyle at the Jersey Shore.  At the same time, it introduced the Armpit of America, and the rest of the country, to the eight dumbest people to ever reside in our state.  It is now my pleasure to introduce these guidos and guidas (or guidettes, as they call themselves on the show) to anyone unfortunate enough to have missed the premiere:

First up, Pauly.  I supposed I should introduce him by his full name, DJ Pauly D, which is a lot cooler than plain old Pauly.  He owns a tanning bed and gets hair gel by the case.   He apparently dreams of being the ultimate guido.  His other aspiration is to be a world-famous DJ.  Well, with a name like DJ Pauly D, I can’t imagine a job he’d be better suited for.

DJ Pauly D

Age: 29

From: Johnston, Rhode Island

We then meet Nicole, who goes by the nickname “Snooki” for reasons that have yet to be explained.  Snooki’s only goal in life is to find and marry a guido.  With her tall black hair and artificially tan skin, she looks more like a jack-o-lantern with an Elvira wig than an actual person.

Nicole (Snooki)

Age: 21

From: Marlboro, New Jersey

The next wannabe celebrity we meet is Mike, also known as “The Situation.”  Now, it’s bad enough to have a stupid nickname (like DJ Pauly D or Snooki).  What’s even worse is when people refer to themselves in third person.  Now imagine someone with an incredibly dumb nickname who refers to his nickname in third person.  That is Mike.  Mike is a douche.

Mike (The Situation)

Age: 27 (Don’t let the receding hairline and premature wrinkles fool you into thinking he’s older)

From: Staten Island, New York

Sammi, who goes by “Sweetheart” (what, did MTV tell them each to come up with a dumb nickname for themselves?) has a lot in common with Snooki.  Just like the Elvira-lantern, Sammi is looking for the perfect guido.  She also describes what it means to be a guidette, like taking care of yourself by going tanning.  Uh, Sweetheart?  Training your body to develop skin cancer is taking care of yourself?

Sammi (Sweetheart)

Age: 22

From: Hazlet, New Jersey

Next up at the plate is Vinny, who describes himself as a mama’s boy.  One minute in his introduction video, he’s pumping his fist, the next minute, he claims he’s not the typical guido.  Right.  Although he does go out of his way to mention that he doesn’t wear lip gloss.  I didn’t even know guys did this.

Vinny

Age: 21

From: Staten Island, New York

After Vinny, we are introduced to a nice pair of breast implants and their owner, Jenni.  Continuing the dumb nickname theme, Jenni prefers to be called “J-WOWW.”  Yes, J-WOWW.  All capitals and the extra “W.”  J-WOWW brags about being a slut and compares herself to a female mantis in the way she treats guys.  Then she says how she has a boyfriend.  Oh, J-WOWW, you’re too much!

Jenni (J-WOWW)

Age: 23

From: Franklin Square, New York

Then, we meet Ronnie, who shamelessly mentions how he just wants to get laid.  Although he brags about what a man he is, this roided up freak then puts on some lip gloss.  Wow (or should I say “J-WOWW”"?), what a loser.  Anyway, he says the Jersey Shore is all about the three “b’s”: beer, bitches, and the beach.  Can’t argue about that.

Ronnie

Age: 23

From: The Bronx, New York

Finally, we meet the eighth roommate, Angelina, who’s nickname is ingeniously “Jolie.”  Angelina considers herself to be the Kim Kardashian of the Jersey Shore.  While that may sound ridiculous, it is actually the smartest thing I’ve heard in these introductions.  Angelina and Kim Kardashian are both talentless losers trying to sleep their way to the top of the entertainment industry!

Angelina (Jolie)

Age: 22

From: Staten Island, New York

Now that the introductions are out of the way, let’s jump right into the first two episodes.

I guess I forgot to mention where on the Jersey Shore “Jersey Shore” takes place.  Well, as I assumed, it was filmed in Seaside Heights, which has long been the guido capital of the shore.  Due to its trashy reputation, the town has earned itself the nickname of Sleaze-side, making it the perfect setting for the show.

Anyway, they show all the cast members leaving their homes and driving towards Seaside.  As Mike makes his way to the house, he begins with his whole third-person shtick, saying crap like, “That’s the Situation, right there.  Yes it is.”  This is gonna get old pretty fast.  Oh wait, it just did.

So, one by one, the roommates arrive at the house, which is huge and has a rooftop deck, hot tub included.  Jenni introduces herself as J-WOWW, causing Vinny to make fun of her (in confessional).  He says how dumb it is and how he doesn’t have a stupid nickname.  Oh please.  You just know once Vin Diesel came on the scene, Vinny was kicking himself for not thinking of that name first.  The other funny part is when Snooki announces her arrival with an obnoxious, “Hellloooooo!  The pahty’s heeeaaahhh!!!”

Once they are all at the house, this old non-guido comes in.  This is Danny, who is their landlord and boss.  Just like “The Real World,” the roommates will be given jobs.  They will have to spend the summer working at a T-shirt shop on the boardwalk.  Pauly then complains and says, “I don’t wanna work…I’m a DJ!”

Later that night, the group starts drinking – only Snooki has a little too much.  She then starts stripping and jumps into the hot tub with the four guys.  She continues to slut it up as the other girls talk shit about her.  Soon she passes out, and everyone else leaves to hang out on the boardwalk.  Snooki then wakes up to realize everyone ditched her.  What follows is a hilarious scene in which she tries to figure out how to use the telephone.  Seriously, she can’t figure it out.

The next morning, everyone goes to their work orientation at the T-shirt shop.  Well almost everyone.  Snooki is late because she’s in the bathroom puking.  Once she does arrive at work, Danny lectures her and whatever.  Later on, back at the house, Snooki apogizes to everyone and says that she really is the sweetest girl.  Yeah right.  The only time she’s sweet is when you take her head and make it into pumpkin pie.

Over the past day, we see some flirting going on between Mike and Sammi.  However, things go south later that night.  The guys, except Ronnie, pick up some girls off the boardwalk and invite them into their hot tub.   A lot of stripping and making out then commences.  Angelina and Sammi want to go up to see what’s going on.  Ronnie, who has yet to wear a shirt this entire episode, tells them not to because it will just cause drama.  He’s pretty smart for a dumb meathead. Ignoring his advice, the girls go up to the hot tub, and Mike immediately realizes that he messed things up with Sammi.  But don’t worry about him.  He assures us that The Situation is under control.  Get it everyone?  He calls himself The Situation, and now the situation is under control!  Ha!

So, later on, there’s some more drama and whatever.  The girls confront the guys about picking up random sluts off the street when there are already four sluts right in front of them.  Some more stupid drama between Mike and Sammi.  Mike tells us that he doesn’t care about Sammi, because he can have any girl he wants.  Or at least their eyebrows:

Snooki then tells us that she’s leaving.  Her reason is that everyone is ignoring her because of the bad first impression she made.  I call bullshit on this.  I think the real reason is that she knows she’s the least attractive girl there and can’t compete.  But whatever.  It’s the first day of work for Pauly and Angelina, and “Jolie” is not pleased about it.  She thinks the job is beneath her.  You see, she is a bartender, which is apparently a giant step above T-shirt hawker.  Meanwhile, back at the house, Sammi convinces Snooki to stay.  The Elvira-lantern lives on.

The next day, Sammi and Mike go into work.  Mike convinces every girl that enters the store to get personalized booty shorts that say “I LOVE THE SITUATION.”  The only thing worse than this meaningless self-promotion is the girls who feed into it.  Anyway, the rest of the group gets ready to go out.  J-WOWW, who has been pretty invisible so far, makes up for it by wearing a shirt that barely covers her tits.

J-WOWWW! I think this deserves an extra "W"!

At the club, Vinny is jokingly dancing with some fat chick, who wisely didn’t agree to show her face on TV.  Meanwhile, Angelina, who has a boyfriend, is grinding and making out with everyone.  Snooki tells us how she’s on the prowl for a hot, tan, muscled guido.  Snooki then leaves the club with a pale, skinny, nerdy-looking guy.  Poor Snooki!  As all this is going on, Pauly and J-WOWW are all over each other.

Back at the house, Mike is alone with Sammi.  He senses that she is kinda interested in Ronnie, so he does his best to cock block.  After everyone else gets back, Pauly and J-WOWW continue their little fling in bed together.  He shows her his little Pauly, which is apparently pierced.  J-WOWW then says she likes pierced dicks.  Okay…..

I bet this guy gives his pubes the same treatment.

The next morning, Vinny wakes up with a case of pinkeye.  He says he probably got it from the fat chick he danced with last night.  Right, it was the fat chick that you danced with, rather than the sluts who made out with you and your friends one after the other.  At some point, Mike tells us that it’s not a matter of time if he and Sammi will hook up, but a matter of when she decides she wants it.  Right.  Later that night, the group goes out to the club Bamboo, which I’ve been to a few times and can attest to its guido overpopulation.  Things continue to heat up between J-WOWW and Pauly.  At the same time, Sammi starts making out with Mike.  He tells us, “The Situation never fails!”

But fail he does.  In an awesome move, Sammi (who, in addition to being the hottest girl, is quickly becoming my favorite cast member) then makes out with Ronnie right in front of Mike!  He confronts Sammi about it, but simply tells him, “You do your thing, I do my thing.”  Remember, he’s the one who was making out with another girl in front of her first.  Feeling emasculated, Mike then decided to start some shit with some other guys…by blowing them a kiss.  The situation (the circumstance, not Mike) escalates, and Pauly throws a punch.  The guys then get thrown out.  Mike, taking credit for the punch, tells us that if you mess with him or his boys, you’re gonna get hit.  I hate this guy.

Back at the house, Mike is still upset that Sammi was all over Ronnie.  He then says he’s gonna confront her and “Jerry Springer her ass.”  Uh, Mike?  That would have been funny in the late 90s, but not today.  So he talks to her, and again she says how they both do their own thing.  Even though he was totally rejected, Mike can’t let the situation get him down.  So, instead, he sets his sights on Angelina and says how she wants him.  Right.

The episode ends with Mike looking thoughtfully into the sunrise, as flashbacks from these first two episodes are shown.  We are then given a preview of future episodes, full of hook ups, arrests, and drunkeness.

I love this show.

]]> http://lovingphotography.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/sunrise-at-the-seaside-no-10/ Fri, 04 Dec 2009 11:13:22 +0000 Misca Andrada http://lovingphotography.wordpress.com/2009/12/04/sunrise-at-the-seaside-no-10/

No matter how “enlightened” I may feel in my remote home in the Green Mountains of Vermont, it all shifts when I return to the place of my origin by the sea.

Once arriving in the arms of my extended family, I feel both a sense of “sweet belonging” and complete uprooted-ness.

Within 48 hours among familiar faces & places, the old feelings of inadequacy, confusion and anxiety consume my previously clear mind.

I begin to panic, wondering why these old “enemies” continue to find me here.  Where do they hide?

But there are angels too. Friends who mention breath on Facebook.  You Tube prayers of peace.

And I discover something new about these old uncomfortable expressions of expectation:  If I remain present to them, they dissipate, quickly, and I am “myself” again, wherever I am–especially here among the salt water and the sand and the sea.

I used to think that life was a journey from A to Z, but now I know that peace IS an every moment kind of thing.

Kelly Salasin

[1]

Since the 1.0-beta.0 bootstrapping post I’ve released a handful of minor beta versions. 1.0-beta.4 release is targeted at providing an early alpha release of Seaside 3.0 for GLASS. If you are interested in dancing on the absolute bleeding edge of Seaside 3.0.0-alpha5.1 in GLASS, let me know (join the GLASS Beta Mailing list) and I’ll provide you with installation instructions. BTW, those of you who have already expressed interest will be hearing from me tomorrow:)

Seaside 3.0.0-alpha5.1

The 1.0-beta.4 release, marks the point at which the initial phase of the Seaside 3.0 port is complete. All of the unit tests for Seaside 3.0.0-alpha5.1 are passing and most of the functional tests are passing. The remaining functional test problems are not GemStone-specific (Seaside 3.0 is still in alpha:).

At this moment, the GemStone-specific remote debugger, object log tool and profiler have not been ported to Seaside 3.0. I have written an adaptor for FastCGI and the adaptor does a commit per request, but I have not tried running Seaside 3.0 against multiple gems and there are no start* scripts.

There is a Seaside 3.0 workspace that has an expression for starting the FastCGI adaptor (blocking) and an expression for installing breakpoints in useful spots (internal error methods).

If you’re going to work with Seaside 3.0.0-alpha5.1, then you should review this section and this section. It isn’t necessary to manually kill the FastCGI listener every time you restart the server, but if you have trouble starting the server, then it’s worth looking for and killing off any spare FastCGI threads that my be lurking around.

Seaside 3.0.0-alpha5.1 is not yet usable with GemStone/S 2.3. While I have split out the packages (using Metacello) that rely on partial continuations, there are a couple of other issues that cause problems in 2.3.

The early alpha will be based upon GemStone/S 2.4.

Release Features

GLASS 1.0-beta.1 features:

• fix a bug in ExceptionA class>>raiseSignal
• need a commit in server update code
• tweak PRDistribution class>>workspaceText with GLASS info

GLASS 1.0-beta.2 features:

• pick up improved #currentVersion algorithm from Metacello 1.0-beta.13
• fix update server logic to use #lastMetacelloVersionLoad
• add in Seaside 3.0.0-alpha5

GLASS 1.0-beta.3 features:

• Seaside 3.0.0-alpha5.1 (2.4 only)
• add #clickIconAt: support [OB]
• fix an XMLTokenizer bug [Misc/XML-Parser]
• add #should:raise:withExceptionDo: to TestCase [Core/Bootstrap]
• eliminate use of #_class for 3.0 compatibility [Core/GemStone-Indexing-Extensions]

GLASS 1.0-beta.4 features:

• fix a ChangeList>>parseSelector: bug (from Hernan Wilkinson) [Monticello/Monticello]
• fix for a problem when HyURI has a space or quote in the URL [Hyper/Hyper]
• use version 1.0-beta.16 of Metacello
• pick up Gofer package from Metacello repository

Bootstrapping Instructions

See the discussion on the 1.0-beta Configuration Structure, so you can decide which packages/groups you would like to load after bootstrapping 1.0-beta.4.

Please comment to this post or send mail to the GLASS Beta Mailing List if you have trouble. The bootstrap should work for the appliance or any version of GemStone/S 2.3 or greater.

1. Start a stone using a virgin extent copied from $GEMSTONE/bin/extent0.dbf into $GEMSTONE/seaside/data. Don’t forget to shut the stone down before copying extents around and don’t forget to make the extent writable using ‘chmod +w extent0.dbf’.
2. Download and unzip bootstrap_1.0-beta.4.zip.
3. cd to the bootstrap_1.0-beta.4 directory
4. Edit the .topazini file to match your stone.
5. Launch topaz: ‘topaz -l -T50000′
6. ‘login’ and ‘input installMaster.topaz’
7. Exit topaz. The ‘installMaster.topaz’ script installs the Dev Group which includes the GemTools.
8. Launch a GemTools Client 1.0-beta.2 image (see the instructions for creating a 1.0-beta.2 GemTools Client image) and login.
9. Choose a configuration to load by executing one of the following expressions:

   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'Magritte Dev'.
   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'SOAP Dev'.
   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'Seaside Dev'.
   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'Seaside Testing Dev'.
   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'Scaffolding Dev'.
   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'Pier Dev'.
   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'Pier Testing Dev'.
   "use 'topaz -l -T100000' to load 'ALL', since the load
    requires more temp memory"
   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'ALL'.
   "in GemStone/S 2.4 only"
   (ConfigurationOfGLASS project version: '1.0-beta.4')
       load: 'Seaside3.0 Dev'.

10. Make a backup and have fun!

—–
[1]http://www.flickr.com/photos/bombeador/2391650475/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

I’d like to introduce you to Max (little dark grey guy) and Franky (bigger light grey guy). Max is the latest addition to our household and Franky is his new best friend and our neighbors dog.

Max is our first dog here in Kuwait and the first dog I’ve had where I live in
an apartment with no garden or patio. So needless to say house training is a time-consuming challenging thing. But Max is worth the patience.

The best part about Max is taking him for early morning walks over the weekends along the Gulf Road. You find quite a few little grassy patches along the seaside which is great when it’s quite. Hence, the early morning part.

But it’s a great way to start the day.

I’m posting a ‘guest’ photographer’s photo today. My friend Ginger went to Florida with me last week and this is a photo that she took with her phone at the beach of our daughters playing in the surf. I think it is beautiful!!!! (Added a little sepia tone to it)

Thanks Ginger….you rock…and so do our daughters!

I took this picture with my iPhone of the little post office in Seaside FL yesterday… I used the ‘vintage photo’ setting on my ‘Photo Studio’ app in my iPhone to make it look like an old photo. I love the way it turned out! Seaside is the little village where they filmed ‘The Truman Show’. If you go to northwest Fl you must visit. It is a beautiful little quaint village.