He is big, the biggest I have ever known.

This is Max, an almost 8 year old male Great Dane that came into our lives in November 2002 when he was a year and a half old. I went for a ride at Poplar Tent Mtn Bike park and when I signed in on the board I noticed that there was a 3 x 5" index card with his for sale notice on it. I called the number later that day and learned that the 18yr old kid trying to sell this dog actually meant that he was for give away to anyone who could provide a better home to this large K-9 than what he was able to do. It turns out that the kid was on his way to boot camp for the US Coast Guard(hahahaha) and he let the dog be in possesion of a relative who had Max tied to a stake somewhere behind a single wide trailer in Iredale County. The following morning this Coast guard recruit drove down with a Max who stepped out of the back of the pick up truck rather malnourished and sort of scared. Once Mary and Danger came over and gave a sniff the pack quickly opened up and accepted the third which within minutes all were frolicking in the back. The kid drove away leaving his dog in a way better situation. Over time Max's health inproved and in the now he is very happy to be part of the pack. He is a gentle giant that has no idea of his physical size which is presently 145 pounds, a healthy weight for his size. Great Danes are a German breed that came about in the late 16th, early 17th centuries to hunt out the wild boar. Apparently men on horseback would follow these big dogs running through the woods as they chased out and exposed the boar for the men to kill. I have taken Max out on the trail and have been chased by him in the rain, what a sight 30 or 50 of these animals would be running through the woods.

The weekend was good, I was able to get in two rides. Saturday was some mountain bike time at Sherman Branch and Sunday I broke out the road bike which needed some maintenance before going out for 2 hours. I wound up on some roads I had never been on and even in the strong wind coming out of the south and west I managed to have a good time in the saddle by myself. The only thing that would make me feel better about my road bike right now would be a new saddle which I will be keeping my eye out for.

Meet Ying,

he and Yang are new to these parts and as you can see he owns the rights to a mad skill set in the uptown jar. Bicycles tend to bring out the individuality of persons in society and at the same time can draw people together based on similarities of the mechanical common denominator. I shot this little clip of Ying rolling through the grit on Church St yesterday afternoon. I wish I knew how to put some music behind it, I would select U2's Stranger in a Strange Land.

Charlotte is going Bum friendly

Seeing that going Bicycle friendly in a town that rewards people for being entrapped in an elevator with a free carwash has not been going so well Charlotte Planning has decided to shift the focus to aid the plight of the modern day homeless. Here we can clearly see that what used to be a bicycle lock up has been easily converted into a bum stuff rack. It only makes sense that all bicycle improvement infrastructure should be turned over to the needs of the homeless as soon as possible. The first reason is that there are thousands more homeless in the QC than there are people dedicated to utilizing a bicycle as their day to day transportation. Secondly as each 24hour time period ends there are actually more cars on the widening streets making it more scary and less friendly to the bicycle riders anyway. We as a community should salvage our dignity, give up on a futile attempt to creat a bicycle friendy east coast utopia and just get on with helping those actually in need to have safe places to leave their meager belongings. Charlotte is bum friendly, more friendly than it is bicycle so with that said talk to a bum today and you will be suprised at what they will have to say~

Follow up to the "Entrapment Incident"

Okay as you already know last week myself and 4 others took an eventful elevator ride up then down to the basement of the One Wachovia Center where we remained not lamenting our situation for 10 minutes or 600 seconds. Two days later on Friday I was contacted on the tele by Phil Maxon representing building management who let me know that he was doing some follow up on the entrapment incident that I was involved in. He gave me a standard run of corporate induced questions making sure to sense out whether or not I planned future civil action against the ever present property. He was satisfied with my answers and ended the conversation by letting me know that his boss the property manager had something for me that they would like to know where to deliver. I told him that they could just leave it at the service center for the firm that they tracked me down to and I would pick it up when I was there. Later that day the center called me to let me know that an enevelope with my name on it has come from Childress Klien. I could not stand the anticipation so I raced over there to see what type of release and covenant they were about to have me sign. When I opened and read the letter I seriously laughed so hard I scared the folks in the quiet service center. A car wash, wow, nothing says sorry for the entrapment like a car wash. Now the only problem is what to do with it. Should I just roll in on the Fillmore and tell them I got an extra 5 if they hit the wheels real nice or do I drive in in my 1991 Montero that has been collecting the hair of many dogs ever since.

Super Bowl XLII, nobody was killed

and the commercials were funny at the rate of a 10 million a minute or more, what's the dif who needs money? They keep trying to throw me these emotional curve balls. I used to swing and miss alot but these days it is like I'm dropping the bat as the ball is approaching the plate, I reach up with one hand eyes focused on the movement of the sphere and I catch it, stopping it's motion from fooling me. I look at the ball, I see the stiches, the imperfections and the contour of the little orb that up until now was curving past me. I notice it is shaped like a globe, it in it's idle state is easier to deal with and understand for what it is no matter how scary the curves seemed to be in the past. This is the now and we must never look away, we must square off and stop swinging at the decoy of a curve ball.

In case you were wondering, this is what was happening on the other side of the globe while America got to see the big game:

BAGHDAD, Iraq (CNN) -- Coalition forces killed nine Iraqi civilians and wounded three others near the town of Iskandariya, a U.S. military spokeswoman told CNN Monday.
There was one child among the dead and two children among the wounded on Saturday. The injured were treated at U.S. military hospitals.
Lt. Col. Maura Gillen, a U.S. Army spokeswoman, said coalition forces were pursuing suspected al Qaeda in Iraq militants south of Baghdad when the incident occurred. No additional details were provided, but Gillen said the incident is under investigation.
"We offer our condolences to the families of those who were killed in this incident, and we mourn the loss of innocent civilian life," Gillen said. Leaders with the coalition force met with a sheik representing local citizens.
Iskandariya is about 30 miles south of Baghdad.
On Sunday morning, an Iraqi Interior Ministry official was killed when a bomb attached to his car exploded in western Baghdad, and four members of a neighborhood watch group were found shot to death in a house north of the Iraqi capital, officials said.
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The U.S. military also reported the death of an American soldier during a patrol in eastern Baghdad last week.
The Iraqi official, Lt. Col. Mohammed Ibrahim, worked in National Police Affairs, an official with the ministry said. Two police officers in the car with Ibrahim were badly wounded in the blast, the official said.
In Diyala province, the focus of a recent U.S.-led push against Islamic militants loyal to al Qaeda, the U.S. military confirmed the death of four young men who were part of a "concerned local citizens" group in northern Iraq. The men were 17, 18, 20 and 21 years of age.
Authorities discovered their bodies in a house in Baquba, the provincial capital, said Staff Sgt. Sam Smith, a U.S. military spokesman.
Concerned local citizens organizations are neighborhood watch groups that patrol residential communities and report suspicious activities to Iraqi and coalition forces. Their members, some of whom are paid by the U.S. military, conduct security support tasks such as manning checkpoints.
No group has taken responsibility for the shootings.
In Baghdad, a U.S. soldier died when his vehicle was hit by a rocket-propelled grenade on the east side of town on Thursday, the U.S. command in Iraq reported. His death brings the number of Americans who have died in Iraq since the nearly 5-year-old war began to 3,938, including 40 in January. Seven civilian Pentagon contractors also have died.
Elsewhere, a mortar landed on an Iraqi army patrol in northern Baghdad's Seleikh neighborhood at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, killing one soldier and wounding three civilians, the official said. E-mail to a friend
CNN's Yousif Bassil contributed to this report.
All About Iraq

Header Image

I took the above picture of a piece of clover in early April of 2006 after working on the idea for three weeks. The image came to me as an idea for a birthday gift for St. Lissa who was told over 20 years ago that one day a picture of clover would be in her home. Getting the shot for this one and trying to see through to the final composition wound up taking some time. I started by locating the biggest clover patch I could find which happened to be in our back yard near our corner garden. Then I started with 35mm chrome in my ole trusty Cannon AE-1, for some reason I have this idea in my head that with a fixed 50mm lense and the approriate exposure you can actually bring something this small to the shutter. A few tries and a few rolls of film later and all I had was equalling nothing so I decided to try the medium format 2 and a quarter inch negative Hasselblad 500c with the 80mm lense. I would take it out back trying to be stealthy in the evening and free hand some vertical shots like the above and also some laying down looking at the clover from within. The Hassy also has a 180mm lense and from 10ft up I thought I mighta had something but once again my lack of photography understanding and conceptual practical application left me with nada. Two and a half weeks, 2rolls of 35mm film, 2rolls of 120mm film and collectively I was unable to get through to the compostion I was looking to present as a piece of Clover. Alsas, not to lament the emptiness which is creative failure. With less than a week to go my friend let me borrow a small diggy point and shoot, a Cannon A620powershot which I think was a 6.1 meg camera at the time. The night that I made this image of this piece of clover which was being lit by the low angle of light coming from a setting sun it was one of 33 which I narrowed down to 12. I asked for help from Shawna who happens to be my rookie's wife in the editing and presentation of the image. She and all of her mad skill editted out the slight imperfection(a tiny but distracting brown worm hole) that was on the bottom leaf and cleaned up the shot selected as the one. When she gave it back to me I went to print with it and made this really neat looking 10x14" portrait which gives the clover a bigger than life appearance.

Meet Dick, watch him SUV it out of Charlotte real fast like.

Yesterday morning I had the chance to roll up on the Vice Presidential visit to the Charlotte Chamber of Commerce where Mr. Cheney was to give an economic speech to those republican business folks in town lucky enough to get the invite. I leaned my bike on a gargabe can and took up position with the press corps which was one other photographer(Observer Staff) who recognized me as that courier he has been seeing for awhile. We introduced each other and he told me that the VP would be coming by vehicle in less than 5mins across Tyrone on MLK Blvd against traffic. I was amazed at the amount of public resources on the ground, in autos and in the air devoted to the protection of our fine VP in an American city, especially a city like this. Covering his SUV exit were at least 35 motor bike police including the CMPD, Mecklenberg Sheriff's Department and NC State Highway Patrol. Then there was another 25 cars representing the same departments and of course a half dozen secret service blacked out vehicles. All of a sudden the other photographer said, "Okay here they come, save your exposure till his truck gets through". All the protection support vehicles sped through the intersection then a little gap and there he was, a cry of some sort of muffled applause came from the half assed crowd standing about and I snapped two frames and he was gone. Quick, here he comes, don't blink.

This was yesterdays Anarchistic movement, simialr to everything else in town.

Are there more law enforcement humans in this photo than there are public citizens?

Come on man, have you not heard how good this or any war is for our economy, I mean the treasure wealth of the top 2% of the American population is doing great by any standard.