"Photography is the power of observation, not the application of technology."

i read that title on someone's website today. how true! photoshop might help you in some sort of art and expression... but i contend it's cheap photography. clicks of the mouse button, voila! patience is required with photography, a trained eye, not just a creative mind. all the same, i like many shots after they've undergone the photoshop treatment... but it's not my personal preference... even if i have been sucked into the digital world at last, I know I still plan on sticking with the original image for the most part. because that is the real challenge, to get it right the first time, in the moment.

i fell asleep last night with humid air, still hanging with dampness from the brief rainshower, blowing faintly into my room through 3 windows. i leave all the windows wide open when i sleep, because i turn the a/c off. (my bill was even higher than last month, when it had doubled, so i am really confused... i've cut way back on a/c usage! my apartment is conspiring against me, revenge for abandoning it in one short month.) it works ok, i sleep ok, that is, until 6am this morning - a good 30 minutes before my alarm is set to go off, mind you - when the garbage truck pulls up in the parking lot, conveniently, right below my apartment windows, and makes such a racket lifting up those massive metal trash bins, knocking it, 3, nay, 4 times to empty it, waking me up by the mere sound of it's squealing breaks, just so i can enjoy a rude disruption from my sweaty sleepy state when i only am getting 5 hours of sleep as it is.... well, i wasn't happy, to cut to the point. this happens every week, and i've never slept through it. and then i have to think, i am really sorry for those truck drivers. what guilt at disrupting sleep of hundreds of people!! not to mention putting up with the racket yourself.

the high point to today: dinner with the bowman's

low point today: the garbage man, and realizing that the public library is a pointless institution. their purpose? to provide books for the community. my problem? i'm part of the community and the library has NOTHING i need. what's the point of a library when everything you look for is either "lost" or "stolen" or "overdue" .... ?? what would my company do if all their products were stolen?? or lost?? they'd replace them!! but sadly, i am pretty sure the funds are lacking for such an enterprise. really, who cares about libraries these days? public libraries that is. their fan base i think is dwindling as americans find more joy in building their own libraries. the joy of writing in their books, reading them on their own time frame... greatly outweighs the checking out process, searching through the multitudinous stacks for the right copy, and then only to return it two weeks later. but i'm glad libraries are around... i just wish they fulfilled their purpose.

sigh. another pointless rant.