Play this: “Lost In The Supermarket” – The Clash

Play while you read: “Blinded By The Light” – Manfred Mann

Thirty-six hours straight! When someone asked me what I was up to this weekend, that’s how long I claimed I was going to sleep. I figured that was about how long it would take for life to finally leave me alone. If I could sleep for thirty-six hours, maybe my problems would forget I existed and move along.

When I woke up this Saturday morning almost exactly twenty-eight hours shy of my goal, I didn’t feel as if I had failed. Yes, life was still there, a brutal tiger pacing outside my cave waiting for me to show. But, there was no pressing reason for me to go wrestle with it. I slept in and browsed Flickr instead. Ah, visual heroin.

As I clicked around, I also pondered a theoretical brunch of diced chicken with melted cheese in a tortilla — the only food left in the fridge at the moment. Rather randomly, I came across this improbable photograph on Flickr of a fireworks show and crowd that simultaneously captures a spectacular distant lighting burst. What are the chances? And, oh by the way, there’s also a comet right in the middle of it. A freakin’ comet. Really. Here’s the link again. Go ahead click and understand. It’ll open in a new window so you can come back here to finish reading.

So this is what I’m up against, I thought. No problem. I could dedicate my life to photography, but how am I ever going to get a shot like that? Curiously, I wasn’t defeated by this. No, I was moved. I didn’t care what was going on. I was headed out into the world, and I wasn’t coming back until I got my own Lightning-Fireworks-And-a-Comet photo! No sweat! I threw on jeans and a t-shirt and sneakers with no socks, fastened my ballcap to my head, and bolted out the door. I didn’t know where I was headed, but nine times out of ten, hitting the pavement is the best medicine.

Did I mention I didn’t bring a camera?

I walked. I was hungry. I walked by El Pollo Loco which I never, ever go to. But, I saw a poster for their New! menu item. That looks good, I thought and went in. Something New! sounded like just what I needed. After I ordered, in my innocence, I realized abruptly that the New! Grilled Chicken Tortilla Wrap was exactly what I could have made for myself at home.

Like the cat said, I has a pifanee! With strawberry soda to wash it down.

I was back on the street and found myself at the door of the local camera shop that is always closed when I’m near it. I’d never been inside. But, now it was open. I went in just to see what it was. Small, cozy, and manned by someone eager to not have me browse. I asked him for a couple rolls of black & white film, hoping he’d have something besides Kodak and Ilford Delta.

“Which kind do you want, the Kodak or the Delta?” He asked.

“Anything but the Kodak,” I said. As if I had a clue what I was talking about

Another man’s voice boomed out from behind me. “Phillies? I can’t believe you let him in here with that hat on.”

I forced a smile and tried to think of something. “Hey, its not over. You still have a chance,” I said. For some reason I wanted to console him. He said something about how he was used to disappointment, being a Dodgers fan.

“Like, I’m not?” I said, inexplicably trying to establish empathy. Brotherhood in a history of baseball futility? He didn’t get the connection and looked like I was trying to pick a fight with him. Another personal interaction failure for my bag. I left. But, I had some film.

Outside the shop, walking aimlessly down the street again, I reflected on all this: The baseball, the lightning-fireworks-and-a-comet photo, and my quest. I passed a family getting ready for lawn sale. Then, I passed people going to the lawn sale. I said hello to one man. He smiled cheerily and said hello back. Moments later, another man carrying a lamp and looking agitated. I said hello again. He instantly brightened and smiled back as best he could. Time stopped. If there were clouds in Southern California, they would have rolled by.

I knew what I was going to do. I walked to the grocery store. No sweat!

Whitening, Fire (Works!) and, uhh, Comet!

Listen while you read: “I Don’t Wanna Hear It” – Minor Threat

You may or may not have seen the new Flickr Home page. You can read about it at the Flickr blog, or at Wired if you want an objective take. Like any update, there’s a handful of useful tweaks that will please some, and enrage a few. You should check it out. If’ you’re not seeing the new page, look at the bottom of the page for a link to turn it on.

Here’s my favorite tiny detail:

Flickr has long understood that people need a way to follow the responses to their own comments. So they’ve had a prominent way to see “Comments you’ve made.” This lets you see if anyone said “thanks for the nice words”, or “screw you, I like it underexposed”, or answered your burning question on how they got that heart-shaped bokeh. It was a great feature that encouraged a lot of back-and-forth, the sort of sticky social interaction pageviews that sites love.

The problem came if you commented on a picture that was destined for popularity. If you commented, and then a hundred other people commented, you’d see all the follow-up comments in perpetuity — comments that had nothing to do with you.  In fact, if you’re a jealous sort, they’d eventually start getting on your nerves. “Nice capture?” That’s a dumb comment. Or, hey why am I not getting all these great comments? Ah, please shut it off! And the way to do that was delete your own comment — a really anti-social solution for sure.

But, with the update tweaks to the Flickr home, they’ve offered a mute button for individual items. So you can stop seeing followups long after it’s clear that the original photographer is never gonna thank you or say hello or whatever, and you don’t want to be confronted with how popular they are while you suffer in obscurity. Here’s where the glorious mute button is hidden, under a mouse-over in the time-it-was-posted element:

Flickr blog: There’s No Place Like Home

Wired: Flickr Home Page Update Exposes Hidden Social Features

Play this while watching: “Dog House Blues” – Bill Monroe

The adventures of Peri and Sophie at the dog park, gettin’ into all kinds of good clean trouble. Dont forget to hit the music playbutton too. Wish they could sync up. Thanks to Greg for coining the term “DPU”.

This photo of mine from months ago is suddenly getting dozens and dozens of views on Flickr out of completely nowhere. It seems to be the last thing uploaded to the Flickr pool The 101 ways to make ketchup. Anyone know, was that group was posted on Digg or something?

A note about the pic. It was a test shot using that dumb Lensbaby “selective focus” lens that I can’t stand. The selective colorization was very sloppy, too. Ugh. I did this setup specifically for the Ketchup pool. I wanted to do something a little brighter with more negative space, but I just couldn’t find the right setup. I was having a bad night in general, from the grocery store getting the tomatoes on forward.

Why can’t I stand the Lensbaby? I’m just no good with it. For some reason, I just can’t see the picture I want to be taking with it. It’s like my brain is on a different wavelength. I’ll hang onto the lens for another seven years when I’ll (hopefully) experience some flip in my brain chemistry and I’ll get it.

On the egocentric tip, I’ve now had 32 photos make Flickr’s Explore pages. That means via a secret formula of views, comments, favorites – each of these photos was at one point one deemed of the 500 most “interesting” photos uploaded that particular day to the famous photo site.

There’s much debate about the secret formula, and a lot of resentment from people who somehow get many more views, comments etc. but never seem to make Explore. Some people also notice the relative vapidity of the photos that make it — a lot of sunsets, HDR, babies, pets, and hot chicks exploiting themselves, that tease the tasteful limits of self-indulgence. And, it’s all true! But, whatever. People like what they like, I guess.

But, somehow I made it thirty-two times, and I’m shamefully proud of that. And, since that’s a number that fits naturally on a BigHugeLabs Flickr Scout poster, I thought I’d fire one up. Some of these were really random unartistic snaps. But yeah, those can be “interesting.” What’s this say about me? Nothing good, I suppose.

Mick O on Explore!

FYI to my Flickr-loving friends. Quirky cute Flickr-integrated printing site MOO.com now has full-sized business cards for you to design and purchase.

Yes the tiny Moo cards will still be distinctive and cool, but sometimes you need a real business card.

Flickr Co-founders Join Mass Exodus From Yahoo

TechCrunch reports this sad news. Their replacement (at least on the product side), Kakul Srivastava, was the driver behind Flickr video — and the one who wasn’t too receptive to my idea for an L.A.-local Flickr product evangelist position for the Media group when I was DFA’ed the first time at Yahoo! Sure, my idea smacked of a cool-cushy job for me, but we could have discussed it more. (insert-smiley-face)

Since I felt Flickr Video was a mistake, I can’t like this news for my favorite site on the Web. I predict further dilution and decay at Flickr without Stewart and Caterina there to demand excellence. For example, I bet Flickr’s excellent customer support gets folded into the crappy Media group support. They can’t keep spending money on dedicated support for one site.

Then again, can you really trust people named Butterfield and Fake?! Maybe this is for the best after all. Is it telling there’s nothing on Flickr.com about this? Where’s the heartfelt goodbye, we’re-sure-nothing-bad-will-happen, great people, time-with-family, etc. etc. letter? Coming soon I suppose.