1. Me with my little girl, Ginger. 2. A picture Karen took of me with my camera and the Retro Camera. It adds the old fashioned frame and funky colors. I remind myself of Michael Corleone in The Godfather. 3. Extreme close-up! I couldn't tell if the camera was working. This was from a fun trip to St. Louis. 4. From a photo show in New York. Andrew Davidhazy, a professor of photography at RIT, had a set-up where you would stand on a turn table and spin around while the camera was in one place. 5. At the Franklin Institute, they had a camera that would take your picture and the plotter that would draw the picture. 6. The finished picture from the plotter. 7. The image from a Christmas card in the mid-90’s. This was my first photo editing job on my own equipment. 8. I went to a conference in San Francisco and they had an artist doing digital portraits with a Wacom tablet. She would give you a print and e-mail you the file. 9. A representation of a nickname I’ve been given, Sweeney Dodd. 10. Me, in a devil costume, not being dramatic, but trying to keep warm by the fire. 11. A picture of me and Karen, taken as we watch the hot air balloon inflate. The balloon was taking us on trip over the Masai Mara, in western Kenya. 12. Two giraffe from that wonderful trip to Africa. 13. In Kenya, we went to a resort where you held grain in your hand and the wild Colobus monkeys would come down from the trees and climb on your shoulder to get to the food. 14. The pelicans dry themselves off after a dip in the fresh water of Lake Manyara, Kenya. 15. A siting of a rare Abyssinian Fox in the highlands of Ethiopia. 16. A troop of gelada baboons digging for grubs in the highlands of Ethiopia. There were about 200 of them and they would always stay just so far away from you as you walked around them. 17. A Malachite Kingfisher from my trip to Ethiopia 18. Our Ethiopian tour organizer, Dereje Debaba and myself in front of the “Grand Canyon of Africa.” 19. Karen and me, overlooking the glaciers of Alaska. 20. The seals were sunning themselves on the buoy. The one on the lower right wanted up, but the ones on the buoy wouldn’t let him up. 21. We saw a few whales in the waters of Alaska during our small boat trip. 22. Karen and I on the porch of our hut in Tahiti. This trip was my birthday present for my 40th birthday. 23. I was able to geek out with a laptop on my trip. Why? You may not be able to tell how bright red my skin is from a burn I got on the first day there. (Yes, I used sun screen and covered up, but the sun is very intense.) 24. A morning look at the water from our hut in Tahiti. 25. Karen and I head into the water on one of our certification dives in Bonaire. 26. A Damsel fish spotted on the Tahitian trip. 27. Jeff feeding said fish. 28. A lemon shark resting behind the red jack fish from a Hawaiian dive. 29. Jeff and Karen in our diving class. 30. A green turtle from a dive off of Maui. Many years ago, I was snorkeling in Hawaii and I felt someone tapping me on the back. When I stopped to look at them, it was a turtle tapping me. 31. Jeff from a dive in Bonaire. 32. Randy giving me my certification card. 33. A picture for our Christmas card one year. I added lights and red ornaments to the palm tree for the front of the card.

34. The Eiffel Tower. Karen and I went to Paris for our 20th wedding anniversary. 35. The anniversary couple with the city of Paris in the background as taken from teh Eiffel Tower. 36. A “balloon dog” sculpture by American artist Jeff Koons, at Versailles. 37. Monet’s Water Lilies at the L’Orangerie in Paris. This painting fueled my passion for art. 38. I’m with my mom at a Phillies game when the Cardinals played in Philly at their new stadium. The Cards lost this game. 39-40. I played softball on a team at TV Guide. When I played for the IT team, I was horrible. When I played for the Production team, I was the pitcher and we won the championship two years in a row. 41-42. I was a decent hitter but was slow on the bases. I was always happy to make it to the base. 43. I volunteered on the weekends at the Philadelphia Zoo in the lorikeet cage. Here I'm being mugged by seven of them. 44. I tried to use my time in the cage for pictures of the birds. 45. Five weeks after Hurricane Katrina beat the southern coast, I went to Baton Rouge for a week to help out a bird rescue. There were over 250 birds rescued from homes in New Orleans being kept at this house. 46. We used my construction skills to build an enclosed porch to provide more shelter outside for the birds. 47. In the 2004 election, we worked to get an intelligent, qualified person into the White House. We delivered Pennsylvania, but failed on the rest of America. 48. With my Dad and Karen in front of our Victorian rose bush (all of the blooms come at one time). 49. My toy, Buzz, a Pontiac Solstice, in my signature color, “Mean Yellow.” 50. A self-portrait of me driving my little toy on a beautiful, sunny day. 51. Me with my other little girl, Cindy, in my seasonal-persona. I play Santa for Cat Tales pictures. 52. Me, in the suit, at the store, with Riley and Dora, the trainer's dogs. 53. My newest boy, Lucky, giving me a picture for a Christmas card. He followed this blank expression by giving the little cat ornament to his left a beat down. 54. We made the table in the foreground from two drawing drawers I got from my high school. The table top is painted, using leaves from plants in the room, as stencils. The photos on the wall are mine as well. 55. The picture is from the Sunday market in Lalibela, Ethiopia and the wooden wart hog is part of a collection of animal sculpture we've collected. 56. My 5-foot tall wooden giraffe that we bought in Nairobi, Kenya. We paid more than we should have, but we love it. 57. An architectural detail we added to the living room and dining room, shelves for Karen’s coffee cup collection. It started as a CD cabinet from Ikea and was fastened in between the studs of the wall. 58. Just a few shelves of my camera collection. I doubt any are valuable, but I enjoy them. 59. My printing press. Real iron. My first contact with printing was on a press like this when I was in the 6th grade. This would work, if I could get a new set of rollers. 60. I love unusual puns. 61. Jaded Duck Media Design, my company. 62. Eastman likes to sit on my lap while I work on the computer. 63. Another LOL cat. I love the expressions and the attitude. I also spend WAY too much time on LOL cats, but they make me laugh (most of the time). 64. Eastman comes across the kitchen to see what I'm doing. 65. Eastman doesn't understand “personal space.”

My children:

My children are covered with fur and walk on all fours. They are (in order of acquisition): Moo, Boo, Pablo, Eastman, Ray and Lucky. As they get older, their perspective of you changes: you are a heat source when it gets cold. (We've come to describe the overnight temperature as "it will be a four kitty night.") The boys treat me like a remora: they climb on my lap while I'm at the computer and wait for me to brush the loose hair off of them.

 

Pictures:

Mouse over the pictures for the captions and click on the picture for a larger view of the image.

Favorite movies:

These are movies I like to watch over and over again, or go out of my way to see them. Some I like because they were iconic for me at that time of my life, the music or they have visual appeal. They are presented here according to release date.

Metropolis (1927), M (1931), Duck Soup (1933), The Maltese Falcon (1941), Citizen Kane (1941), Casablanca (1942), Yankee Doodle Dandy (1942), It's a Wonderful Life (1946), Singin' in the Rain (1952), Guys and Dolls (1955), West Side Story (1961), The Graduate (1967) The Godfather (1972) Monty Python and the Holy Grail (1975), Manhattan (1979), All That Jazz (1979), Breaker Morant (1980), Body Heat (1981), TRON (1982), Hardbodies (1984) (yes, it's trashy, but there is a story behind this...), Brazil (1985), Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade (1989) Le Femme Nikita (1990), Unforgiven (1992), Nightmare Before Christmas (1993), Dave (1993), Groundhog Day (1993), Forest Gump (1994), The Usual Suspects (1995), An American President (1995), Toy Story (1995), Apollo 13 (1995), Saving Private Ryan (1998), Memento (2000), Sweeney Todd (2007),

Favorite plays/musicals:

Sweeney Todd (and most any Sondheim musical), West Side Story, Les Miserable, Dangerous Liaisons, Lion King, Baz Luhrmann's La Bohème, Chicago, The Wiz, Little Shop of Horrors, Oklahoma, Evita, Fosse's Dancin', Radio City Music Hall Christmas Show

Favorite TV shows:

Still on the air: The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Rescue Me, Burn Notice, Mythbusters, Robot Chicken, 30 Days, White Collar.

Sadly no longer on the air: Hill Street Blues, The Shield, Sopranos (but only seasons 1 and 2), Max Headroom, NUMB3RS, Twin Peaks, Ken Burn's The Civil War, Life on Mars (BBC version), Faulty Towers, Ally McBeal (early seasons), Overhaulin’.

If Discovery Channel (and sister stations like Nat Geo and History Channel) and Comedy Central were taken off the cable system, what's the point of having a TV?

Favorite quotes:

I love the abstract observations of life. Like the quote on my home page. I also like this commencement speech, attributed to Kurt Vonnegut. I wish I had heard in in 1979, and understood it.

"Ladies and gentlemen of the class of '97:

• Wear sunscreen.
• If I could offer you only one tip for the future, sunscreen would be it. The long-term benefits of sunscreen have been proved by scientists, whereas the rest of my advice has no basis more reliable than my own meandering experience. I will dispense this advice now.
• Enjoy the power and beauty of your youth. Oh, never mind. You will not understand the power and beauty of your youth until they've faded. But trust me, in 20 years, you'll look back at photos of yourself and recall in a way you can't grasp now how much possibility lay before you and how fabulous you really looked. You are not as fat as you imagine.
• Don't worry about the future. Or worry, but know that worrying is as effective as trying to solve an algebra equation by chewing bubble gum. The real troubles in your life are apt to be things that never crossed your worried mind, the kind that blindside you at 4 pm on some idle Tuesday.
• Do one thing every day that scares you.
• Sing.
• Don't be reckless with other people's hearts. Don't put up with people who are reckless with yours.
• Floss.
• Don't waste your time on jealousy. Sometimes you're ahead, sometimes you're behind. The race is long and, in the end, it's only with yourself.
• Remember compliments you receive. Forget the insults. If you succeed in doing this, tell me how.
• Keep your old love letters. Throw away your old bank statements.
• Stretch.
• Don't feel guilty if you don't know what you want to do with your life. The most interesting people I know didn't know at 22 what they wanted to do with their lives. Some of the most interesting 40-year-olds I know still don't.
• Get plenty of calcium. Be kind to your knees. You'll miss them when they're gone.
• Maybe you'll marry, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll have children, maybe you won't. Maybe you'll divorce at 40, maybe you'll dance the funky chicken on your 75th wedding anniversary. Whatever you do, don't congratulate yourself too much, or berate yourself either. Your choices are half chance. So are everybody else's.
• Enjoy your body. Use it every way you can. Don't be afraid of it or of what other people think of it. It's the greatest instrument you'll ever own.
• Dance, even if you have nowhere to do it but your living room.
• Read the directions, even if you don't follow them.
• Do not read beauty magazines. They will only make you feel ugly.
• Get to know your parents. You never know when they'll be gone for good. Be nice to your siblings. They're your best link to your past and the people most likely to stick with you in the future.
• Understand that friends come and go, but with a precious few you should hold on. Work hard to bridge the gaps in geography and lifestyle, because the older you get, the more you need the people who knew you when you were young.
• Live in New York City once, but leave before it makes you hard. Live in Northern California once, but leave before it makes you soft. Travel.
• Accept certain inalienable truths: Prices will rise. Politicians will philander. You, too, will get old. And when you do, you'll fantasize that when you were young, prices were reasonable, politicians were noble, and children respected their elders.
• Respect your elders.
• Don't expect anyone else to support you. Maybe you have a trust fund. Maybe you'll have a wealthy spouse. But you never know when either one might run out.
• Don't mess too much with your hair or by the time you're 40 it will look 85.
• Be careful whose advice you buy, but be patient with those who supply it. Advice is a form of nostalgia. Dispensing it is a way of fishing the past from the disposal, wiping it off, painting over the ugly parts and recycling it for more than it's worth.
• But trust me on the sunscreen."

Author: Mary Schmich (USA)
First published: July 1, 1997
Copyright: Herald Tribune

 

• Money will buy a fine dog, but only kindness will make him wag his tail.
• If you don't have a sense of humor, you probably don't have any sense at all.
• Seat belts are not as confining as wheelchairs.
• A good time to keep your mouth shut is when you're in deep water.
• How come it takes so little time for a child who is afraid of the dark to become a teenager who wants to stay out all night?
• Business conventions are important because they demonstrate how many people a company can operate without.
• Why is it that at class reunions you feel younger than everyone else looks?
• Scratch a cat and you will have a permanent job.
• There are no new sins; the old ones just get more publicity.
• There are worse things than getting a call for a wrong number at 4 AM. It could be a right number.
• No one ever says 'It's only a game.' when their team is winning.
• I've reached the age where the happy hour is a nap.
• Be careful reading the fine print. There's no way you're going to like it.
• The trouble with bucket seats is that not everybody has the same size bucket.
• Do you realize that in about 40 years, we'll have thousands of old ladies running around with tattoos and rap music will be the Golden Oldies!)
• Money can't buy happiness – but somehow it's more comfortable to cry in a Porsche than in a Yugo.
• After 50, if you don't wake up aching in every joint, you are probably dead!
• Always be yourself because the people that matter don't mind, and the ones who mind, don't matter.

Interests:

Photography and cameras. Someone said I had enough small cameras that I could run my own black ops. Travel.

What I do in my spare time:

I work on my house, doing remodeling, but most maintenance. I'm the treasurer, marketing person and web-master for a small, non-profit cat rescue in Central Bucks County, PA, Cat Tales, Inc. I've been able to use my photo and art skills to help kitties get new homes. Nothing is as fun as the wide-eyed amazement of a kitten watching you rip open a bag of food.

Why I went to my high school reunion:

I went to my 30th high school reunion because Bill Canham (remember the art teachers?) said any reunion after the 20th is fun, because everybody has pretty much achieved what they want and there is less pretension.

If I could live anywhere, it would be:

In a real fantasy, Port Douglas, Australia. It's a peninsula on the north east coast of Australia. Karen and I were there is "summer," but it was pleasant temperature. There were wild Rosellas, Cockatoos and Rainbow Lorikeets that fly about in the trees. The Barrier Reef was nearby for snorkeling and scuba diving (that I'm now certified to do!) and if it gets too windy or hot, in 20 minutes, you can be up in the Kuranda Mountains.

More realistically, Kaua'i, Hawaii, "The Garden Isle." We stayed at a bed-and-breakfast near Lumahai Beach. It was December, rainy and cloudy, but it was still beautiful. The beaches were great and the highlands are breath-taking.

My dream job(s):

To work at home, to use my art skills and to have time to travel.

My views:

I've taken on-line quizes to identify my “liberal political identity.” No big surprise here.

What's happening right now:

A link to my Twitter postings. I make no guarantees on the insightfulness of my comments.