another quick link...

For those of you interested in another spin on the world, I encourage you to go here and check out the columns by Ron Ferguson. Ron is an ordained Church of Scotland minister turned journalist -- and while his life is more secular, his soul is not. This is simply to say that he's introspective, intelligent, and approaches life as someone trying to live a Christian life. Even as a relative heathen, I still find a lot of sense and compassion in his meditations on the world.

a quick pic...

Thought I should post something cheery after venting about George Vecsey. So, anyways, went to the B&H Photo superstore this morning and essentially swapped my medium-format rig for a schwanky new Panasonic TZ3 point-and-shoot. I think this camera is smarter than me.

In any case, here's a rather relaxed picture of His Majesty flaked out after his afternoon walk. It's hot and humid here in the city... no place for dogs or humans... and sadly, around the marsh that was such a beacon for woodcock headed north in early April, exactly the place for mosquitos. Damn them all!

wieners whining...

George Vecsey just wrote an opinion in yesterday's New York Times titled 'A Sport Can No Longer Peddle Denial,' claiming that with all the revelations about doping in cycling, it has as much credibility as professional wrestling. 'Bogus' was the word he used.

When will you understand, George, that the world is rarely a fair place and that even some of the smartest of us are duped from time to time? Don't take your bitterness about believing that Bjarne Riis (amongst others) was a clean rider out on the hundreds of riders who ride substance-free, or dismiss cycling 2400 miles in three weeks during the three Grand Tours (whether hopped up on steroids or not) as not being an achievement worth attention. You make it sound like sponsors are leaping off the sponsorship bus, when you have several adamantly standing behind their teams (like T-Mobile) especially because they have former riders coming forward and confessing their use of dope. You're a weanie, not for being duped like the rest of us, but for imagining that you couldn't be.

The argument simply doesn't hold water coming from a sports writer in New York City after one of its most prominent athletes was revealed to have taken amphetamines, even after they had been recently outlawed in baseball, and even after he had lied to a Grand Jury about his use of steroids. So, before we start calling cycling a 'bogus' sport, we should keep in mind that it has far more scheduled and random drug tests than any other professional sport in the United States.

another love of my life

I used to race bicycles about ten years ago... in all honesty I did a handful of local cyclocross races back in Michigan, moved to Oregon, realized that Oregonians love riding bikes a lot more than Michiganders, actually trained seriously for a year, but then got a dog (Molly) and realised I liked spending more time with the dog... but still follow professional cycling with a fervor.

In light of the recent revelations about blood doping, I just want to set the record straight: I have never used any kind of blood-doping products, knowingly or unknowingly, nor have I ever thought about doing any kinds of blood doping products in the past, present, or future. I don't know any Spanish or German doctors, have little or no knowledge about bio-medical science, and have never had any contact with Floyd Landis. I did see Jason Giambi in the street once.

(For the record, though, I have no idea whether Floyd is innocent or not. I have to admit that what little I know of Dick Pound, the WADA, and the French testing lab, a lot of high school science experiments seem to have more integrity. While there are so many bizarre details about his case, I have to admit that his lawyers' argument that why would Floyd take synthetic testosterone, a stimulant with no known short-term benefits, to win a stage knowing that he would definitely be tested at the end of it, is pretty convincing. I hope I'm not gullible.)

In any case, the Giro d' Italia is currently about halfway through. While few of the major contenders will race both the Giro and the Tour de France, the Giro is a serious test of teams and team management... and that can give a few clues for how the Tour and the third of the major tours, the Vuelta d' Espana, will turn out.

For all things cycling related, I go to cyclingnews.com. If I'm being a major dork and have the time to spend, I go here to find any live audio and video feeds. I think I watched a fair chunk of last year's Tour on Serbian video with English audio, and the cyclingnews.com live ticker.

While it's a little late to join the overall competition, folks who are interested in participating in a free fantasy cycling league should go here. The only winnings are bragging rights. I'm hoping to take my third consecutive win in the sub-league that I and three friends are in. Would love to finish better than 53rd overall at the end of the year... but I think all this blood doping is making some of my selections rather difficult.

Memorial Day...

As the United States winds up to remember and celebrate its soldiers, sailors, and airmen, past and present, I thought it fitting to remember two wartime heroes in my own family... my mother's father and mother.

My grandfather served in the Royal Navy in WW2 as a medical petty officer. He served in the Pacific and in the North Atlantic, was sunk once by a Japanese submarine and survived several days in the shark-infested Java Sea. While his behavior was commended in dispatches on a couple of occasions, the only medals he received were his regular Navy service medals. I know enough about the North Atlantic convoys, even those later in the war, to know that these were no cake-walk, that rough weather was a blessing, and that the few moments of levity were absorbed to the full. (One of few stories he told was of the accidental slaughter of a surfaced whale by an escort plane thinking that it was a submarine ready for attack.) The first picture is of his aircraft carrier in heavy weather; the second picture is of the sickberth staff. He is seated on the right with the full beard.

The other hero was his wife, who was a nurse during the war. Arguably, the greatest task she took on was being a newly-wed wife and mother, getting pregnant during one of his infrequent times at home, and giving birth and raising my mother while he sailed in some of the most dangerous places on Earth. (The third picture is of her with my mother as a newborn.) This was a time of telegraphs and letters... where somehow partners tried to convey their commitment and love through short phrases and sentences, knowing that every intimate word would most likely be read by a censor. My grandmother celebrated her 75th by crewing on a tall-ship across the Atlantic... maybe raising a child during wartime wasn't so hard, after all.

My father's mother, my gran, certainly also deserves a mention for raising my father in wartime Glasgow, and managing a family after they were evacuated from the city to the Isle of Arran to avoid the heavy bombing over Clydeside. I think there maybe some pictures of them from Arran somewhere in the family, when I find them, I'll post them. And without diminishing my gran's strength of character, he was born before the war broke out, where my mother was born shortly after D-Day. Nevertheless I'm lucky to have been surrounded by strong women in my life.

cameras...

... for taking pictures of bird-dogs. I have a small dilemma and sufficiently limited cashflow that I can't just go buy another camera. All this bloggery has me thinking that maybe it's time to finally take the bull by the horns and go digital.

My dilemma is that I have a very nice 35mm set-up and a nice medium-format set-up. They both take great pictures, but neither is especially spontaneous. But the medium-format was never intended to be and I love looking down into a waist-level finder on a TLR. Between that and thinking in squares (rather than rectangles), I just find myself composing pictures differently. However, the 35mm takes gorgeous color slides and, frankly, can make good enlargements up to 16x20". So do I need the extra resolution on a 120-format camera? Probably not. But if I need a portable, point-and-shoot, why not sell the 35mm and keep the 120-format for exactly what I bought it for (tripod-based, largely posed portraits and still-lives)?

two blogs to look at...

Here are two blogs I found recently.

Chiendog is by Craig Koshyk, a pretty damn good photographer out in Winnipeg. He seems to be in the lucky position of being able to get paid for travelling around Europe to take pictures of beautiful hunting dogs in action

Urban Mutt is the blog belonging to Brisztow Jones, a "Vizsla puppy who is learning how to take a bite out of the Big Apple." Who knew. And Brisztow's mom cracks a Regal Beagle joke in there, too. Looking forward to checking out their adventures.