The Decline of the Written Word

"There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit down at a typewriter and open a vein." ~Walter Wellesley "Red" Smith

"The act of putting pen to paper encourages pause for thought, this in turn makes us think more deeply about life, which helps us regain our equilibrium." ~Norbet Platt

"Ink and paper are sometimes passionate lovers, oftentimes brother and sister, and occasionally mortal enemies."  ~Terri Guillemets

"The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug."  ~Mark Twain

Model, Melissa

NPR had an episode today on its Here and Now program entitled, "Sifting Through Love Letters Of The Past". I thought they made some interesting observations. It aired on the heels of another segment."Postal Service Plans Thousands of Closures", where they discussed the US Postal Service's need to reinvent itself and thus both issues were connected. The Love Letters segment was of particular interest because it dealt with the seeming loss of the Written Word. This interesting discussion brought to the forefront of my mind the truth of how lovers now communicate. One of the reasons the Postal Service is losing business is because we now have the internet and email to communicate electronically. We have America Online, YahooMail, GoogleMail, HotMail, etc. A plethora of venues to open as many email accounts as we choose to keep track of. We no longer require the hand written note that where the time to reach the recipient is measured in days, not minutes, which has given the rise to the moniker...Snail Mail.

We can reach anyone anywhere instantly, as if email was not quick enough. We can now text a message to someone else who has a cell phone. On the computer we can INSTANT message someone to text in real time. In fact, presently we can use Skype to actually talk and video conference a person if we don't feel like typing. With a microphone and a video cam, we can see and hear each other in real time with barely any hesitation in the connection speed. The Postal Service has been impacted from many of the free or low cost instant services. Personally, I rarely ever need a stamp. UPS, FEDex, and DHL have steadily eaten into USPS market share to deliver the products we order online. Technology has advanced at an alarming rate and many of us take it for granted. We expect the instant contact. Many cell phones can also allow video while you talk much the same way we once saw only on Star Trek or Dick Tracy.

So what has been the impact on these tech advancements? What have we lost? Well, for once, we've lost a means of expressing passion. I HEART U in a text message doesn't quite do it the same way a hand written note  expressing the same sentiments might. We have also lost a portion of memorabilia. I still have in a box ALL the handwritten letters I sent to my wife while deployed overseas. That was my means of staying connected. I wrote in volumes, trust me. In this same box, I also have to my knowledge all the handwritten love letters I wrote my wife when we were teen-agers first falling in love. Some are written on Braum's Ice Cream napkins from where we both worked, met, and fell in love. I took the liberty of scotch-tapping them to plain notebook paper and putting them into a binder with the rest of the letters. I wrote poetry and poured out my feelings for her in page after page of romantic script. Our relationship was one of scandal in that she was of a particular religious faith that prohibited our relationship to the extent of risking her relationship with her own family. She chose me at the expense of all else. Her parents disowned her and she was forbidden contact with her other 7 other siblings of which she was oldest. Her church turned its back on her as did all of her friends. I am almost certain that my two grown up kids would not exist today had it not been for those letters.

Now granted, I don't believe the human population has been subjected to any sort of risk of reduction in numbers because love letters as we know them have potentially reduced. Hormones, Hollywood, and porn will still see to that. But I do think there is a quality of life that is no longer with us when the written word has been truncated and replaced with OMG and LOL. Handwriting used to be a learned skill...a craftsmanship that was held to high regard. Calligraphy used to be a recognized art form. The one who possessed the skill of penmanship and eloquent prose melted hearts in a way that cannot be compared to the cold verbage in an email. It was personal. It meant something. Since listening to these two broadcasts, I've retrieved the letters from my former marriage that lasted some 17 years. They are memorabilia and keepsakes now that is so much more meaningful that your Inbox file history on GMail. Change is inevitable. There are great benefits to technology and scientific advancements. Mankind moves forward with time, but it does not do so without sacrifice...the merit of which is not presently fully understood.

Enjoy these shots of Melissa from a while back.

Sophie's Recovery and "Are College Degrees a Waste of Money?"

"Yeah, It Sucks"

I've had such an outpouring of unexpected affection for Sophie. Some of my friends who whom I never talked to about Sophie wished her well or inquired as to her health. It all caught me off guard. I didn't know they had been following my blog. Well, I am pleased to say she is doing extremely well. The Vet said she was ahead of schedule compared to other dogs. That was last week when he took off the bandages the day after my post. This week he said she is still doing well, but he wanted the staples to stay in another week. They were supposed to be out today, but he wants them to heal some more instead. I kept the next photo rather large, so when you click on it, you can scroll down and see where she was stitched up along the inside of her knee as she sticks out her leg to show you. Sophie is quite the ham when it comes to the camera. I don't think she's quite up to par with Wegman's Fay Ray, but when a lens is pointed at her she knows what to do. BTW, she doesn't have to wear this contraption all the time, just when we are not in the area so as to keep her from biting the staples out of her leg.

On another off topic, I want you to take a listen to this 16 minute segment: NPR Talk of the Nation's May 12th clip entitled "Are College Degrees a Waste of Money?". (If that link doesn't work, try ->THIS ONE <-). This is a interview of career coach Marty Nemko who thinks today's college degrees are America's most overrated product. They are just not worth it when you look at it from a cost-benefit perspective. I looked up this article again after listening to it live. Along with my last post on Subprime Lending, this was the next most impactful interview that I've listened to in a while. I've had to rethink my own circumstances when I concluded my ordeal and challenges are local to the Vegas area. I've recently graduated with TWO masters degrees, a MBA and a MS in Telecommunications Systems Management. Vegas gives not a flip about a master degree. I met a guy parking cars with a masters. He told me he came here with high hopes and would have starved trying to make that degree work for him. Now he can earn more than $60K a year as a Valet.

I've got another friend with a 9th grade education earning a comfortable living as a painter and out-earns his wife who is a CAD engineer! At one point, he was poking fun at the irony of society's mentality ... "Go to college so you can make a lot of money and get rich". He doesn't even have a GED and is out earning 80% of the city. This NPR article addresses this faulty thinking of an outdated concept. There's been a paradigm shift and I've only just now realized it. I've had to rethink my efforts of hammering own kids who were in college this last year. Neither of them wanted to be in school. It was ticking me off something fierce to see my well capable kids failing in school, when they did not want to be there. It was actually prior to me hearing this segment on the radio that I talked to them and re-evaluated my thinking. If they didn't want to be in school then they had to give me their plan to do something else. Besides, all they were doing was wasting grant money that could have gone to another kid who really wanted it. So take a listen to the piece. I promise to get back to the nekkid chicks next time.

And on one final note, its was a surprising and sad thing to lose an icon of American politics and journalism. We say good-bye to Tim Russert who had a sudden heart attack today. Some speculate that he worked himself to death from being so dedicated to his work, his peers, and his family. Can you imagine how this year's election in November will play out without Russert at the helm explaining it all? I'd always respected him as a noted journalist. I figured I'd always get a fair perspective from him and could trust him to dig at the truth. It was only after I listened to the audio version of his book "Big Russ and Me" that I became a fan. It was a truly heart-felt and genuine piece of work.

Bye, Tim...

Sophie's Surgical Woes and the Low Down on Subprime Lending

"Photography records the gamut of feelings written on the human face, the beauty of the earth and skies that man has inherited and the wealth and confusion man has created."

-Edward Steichen

"Do Not Pity Me"

Neither of these two topics have anything to do with my photography, except for the fact that I've had to delay a scouting outing to help tend to poor little Sophie. This is my girlfriend's 7-year old Boxer who underwent TPLO surgery earlier this week. As active as she is, this is pure torture for her to be restricted to a few walks outside to potty and the occasional stroll through the house. Outside of that, she's stuck in a pen for the next 8 weeks, but at least its spacious...about 30 sqft, and its in the living room. The upstairs is off limits to her for obvious reasons. She's used to sleeping under the bed, so that's also got her a bit peeved. She has no idea on why we are being so "mean" to her, and I am sure its a bit confusing. Then again, she's also quite complacent for the time being since she's got a Duragesic patch stapled to her side releasing pain-killers (narcotics, actually) directly into her bloodstream. I think next week is going to be a totally different experience for her. The patch will wear out by then. Even though she'll still get pills by mouth, its not going to be the same stuff. I don't recall whats in the patch right now, but its supposed to be the good stuff.

We can't afford to let her romp around with her pups, Sidney and Stanley, both about 4 yrs old. The probable risk of further complications is just too high, so we've had to maintain a measure of separation between them. If you haven't been around boxers, you don't have a clue how much of a jumper these dogs are. Sidney hangs on the 6ft cinder-block fence in the back yard with her front paws to investigate the on-goings of the next door neighbors. We used to get periodic screams from next door when Sidney suddenly popped up next to an unsuspecting person standing too close to the wall. So anyway, Sophie is going to be imprisoned for the next 2 months. That's my girlfriend Angel with all 3 of them taken several months ago.

One other thing that I'd like to share is a NPR feature about the Subprime lending debacle that has turned our nation's economy on its ear (along with a few other things like the oil and gas crisis). I know its not a photo topic, but I've had a few people ask me about it since I've studied finance and economics in school. In most cases, I attributed it to greed from the banks and wall street and ignorance from the consumer which added up to a perfect storm of a debt-laden cocktail of poison. Its affect has reached to more than just our national limits, but many banks in Europe have had to close or take a big hit. Everyone who put their hand in this pot came out dirty. This May 9th collaborative article by Chicago Public Radio's "This American Life" and NPR's "All Things Considered" is the first explanation that I've seen or heard that really breaks it down to where anyone can understand it. Its both informative and entertaining. It doesn't have a free podcast download, but you can still go to the link and listen to the archived segment. For the full version is an hour long, click "This American Life: The Giant Pool of Money". Then click on the Full Episode link on that page. Or there is a 13-minute synopsis at "All Things Considered: The Global Pool of Money Got Too Greedy". I fully recommend taking a little time out to lean how greed and ignorance led to the default of several banks and the foreclosure of many, many homeowners. Nevada was hit hard and trust me when I say the after-effects just keep mounting. I implore you to learn a bit about what's happening in your country. Chances are, it has a direct effect on you.

Supporting the Arts

Something else I have been working on is posting my work on other public galleries. In August I put together a gallery on BetterPhoto.com which I mentioned in one of my blog entries. I would say that it can definately bring in more exposure to your work as well as feedback from other artist and viewers. I have also set up at PhotoClicksPro.com where I have been getting several views but not too many ratings. Stop by and rate my site if you've got a second.

Next, I opened a gallery on Altphotos.com and now you can also visit my work on Community Zoe. You can rate and comment on my images on both of these sites, but you first need to register on Community Zoe. I have contributed to some of these sites which I believe is also important. I invite you, the reader to do the same if you are not already doing so. I guess it was about 2 years ago that I decided to make more of a monetary contribution to the arts as I began donating to my local art guild. I then tried to patron any of my contemporaries when they had shows, exhibits, or help with pizza on late nights. I have also realized that I listen to NPR an awful lot and have never contributed so when the campaigns started a few weeks ago, I felt compelled to give. Ironically, I had just been discussing with my son how he can benefit from listening to National Public Radio, so now I had to back up my words with some action.

Give to the arts. Its one of the most neglected areas in our schools as well as our communities. I am just getting to really know Vegas and can't say I am all that excited where art photography is concerned and even moreso with artistic nudes. Maybe I can do something about it, or maybe I can't but I think I will at least feel better if I try. I need to begin somewhere, I guess. Right now, I am still job hunting. I have been working as a project manager for the last 6 weeks, but all projects end and this one was no different. If I can still be compelled to contribute, then by golly gee so can the rest of us. Where ever you are, help out...time, money, whatever...start contributing. And for those of you who are, keep up the good work. Support the Arts, people.