View allAll Photos Tagged Inaction
Tbilisi is again gripped by protests - this time Rustaveli Avenue was occupied by representatives of the opposition, non-governmental organizations and journalists who accuse the authorities
The death of Georgian journalist Lekso Lashkarava, who died a few days after he was beaten during the filming of an anti-LGBT contract, shocked Georgia.
The top officials expressed official condolences and promised an objective investigation, and the opposition accused the authorities of inaction on July 5, when the city was engulfed in riots and more than 50 media representatives were injured.
The opposition and civil society activists announced rallies demanding the resignation of the government at the parliament building.
Edgar Bloom announced his decision on a Tuesday morning, shortly after breakfast, while the kettle was still warm.
“I am going to do nothing,” he said to no one in particular.
At first, it sounded like the sort of declaration people made before eventually doing something else. Edgar, however, meant it with the solemnity of a vow. He sat down in the armchair by the window, folded his hands, and waited for nothing to happen.
Nothing obliged.
From that day forward, Edgar committed himself to inaction with an almost athletic discipline. He did not work. He did not marry. He did not travel, protest, invent, create, improve, or regret. He allowed food to be placed near him and consumed it without preference. He slept when sleep arrived and woke when it left.
At first, people took note. Newspapers ran short items: “Local Man Chooses Nothing”. Philosophers wrote letters asking if he might clarify his position. Edgar did not reply. Children visited him on school trips. They stared, waiting for something interesting to occur. One child asked, “Is he finished yet?” A teacher said, “No, he’s still doing it.”
Old age came without ceremony. His body continued its private negotiations: bones thinned, breath shortened, skin folded itself patiently. Edgar made no comment.
On his final day, the light through the window lingered longer than usual. He lay still, listening to the smallest sounds: a clock ticking, the soft cut of wings passing overhead.
It was then he decided to speak. When a visitor asked him, gently, “Why?” Edgar considered this for a long moment, as though testing the weight of the word.
“I was afraid I’d choose the wrong path through life,” he said at last. “So I chose none.”
He paused. “And somehow,” he added, “it still took me exactly where I was meant to go.”
or maybe, the inaction you've taken :-)
― Steve Maraboli
HBM!!
butterfly, eastern swallowtail, sarah p duke gardens, duke university, durham, north carolina
Emptiness comes as a sunset comes of an evening
That emptiness of the mind cannot be produced: the mind cannot be made empty, cannot be put together to be empty. That emptiness comes as a sunset comes of an evening, full of beauty, enchantment, and richness; that comes as naturally as the blossoming of a flower when there is no fear, when there are no escapes, when there is no boredom, and when there is no seeking. And, that is the most important of all - there must be no seeking. Because, you cannot find; you cannot find the everlasting. That which is beyond time you cannot search out. It may come to you but you cannot go to it because your minds are too shallow, petty, empty, full of ambition, fears, ugliness, and distortion. Therefore, the mind must empty itself - not because it wants that. Because, when you want that, you have a motive and, the moment you have a motive, you have lost your energy.
Therefore, it is only the mind that is completely empty that is in a state of inaction.That inaction is action. And, it is only such a mind that is being passionate; it is only such a mind that can live with beauty and not get used to beauty - the beauty of a tree, the beauty of a face, the beauty of an eye, of a smile, of the ugly, dirty road, the squalor, the dirt, the poverty, it is only the passionate mind that can live with it and not get distorted. And it is only such a mind that is so completely empty that is in a state of meditation.
Krishnamurti
I very nearly talked myself out of attending this carnival. In the end, it wasn't so much a strong desire that brought me here. Rather it was a premonition of how bad I would feel the next day if I had blown it off. Truly a case of motivation as a result of negative consequences. Over the years I've learned that the outcome of events such as this are unpredictable. But there is the absolute certainty of failure through inaction. The carousel of life gives you only one ride; best to make every moment count.
My ambivalence with carnivals stems from the fact that they make me sad. I walk through the venue surrounded by people having fun, yet everything I see creates a sense of melancholy. I'm detached at the surface level, but deeply engaged in the visuals. The camera is able to frame my feelings into something tangible. Here the chair riders are cast into a blur as if being spun around a luminous water fountain. Simultaneously magical and utterly forlorn.
"This famine is not a natural disaster; it is a man-made catastrophe and an utter failure of our shared humanity. In 2025, allowing people to starve is not just a policy failure, it is a moral collapse. Every statistic is a human life, a mother, a child, a family — and the world's inaction is costing them their future."
Jackie Trainor,
Concern Worldwide (UK) ▪️▪️▪️▪️▪️Marchysgallen y gerddi (Cynara cardunculus) Cardoon cy.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marchysgallen_y_gerddi - Aberglasne/ Aberglasney, Sir Gaerfyrddin/ Carmarthenshire
The Royal Albert Bridge
In 1846 the Cornwall Railway Act received Royal Assent and one of the stipulations was that the ferry at Saltash should be replaced by a railway bridge thus linking Cornwall to the rest of the UK by rail.
Isambard Kingdom Brunel was appointed as chief designer and engineer. His challenge was to build a bridge to span the River Tamar which at this point is some 1100 ft wide. At first he intended to construct a single span bridge of 850 ft but the constraints imposed by the Admiralty ruled this out. These demanded the deck of the bridge be 100 feet above high tide and that the river remain fully operational to the Navy at all times.
Having considered several plans he decided that the bridge should have a single pier mid stream which would support 2 spans and a further 10 approach spans on the Cornwall side and 7 on the Devon side.
It was originally intended to carry a two way track but the Cornwall Railway Company had insufficient funds – the reduction to a single track saved £100,000. After the first contractor went bankrupt, Brunel decided to take on the contract himself.
An adapted diving bell, into which compressed air was then pumped, allowed up to 40 men to work underwater at any one time. First they had to excavate 12 ft of mud followed by 3 ft of rock before a suitable foundation was located. Work then began to build the central tower of brick. On July 4th 1853 the foundation for the first of the Cornish piers was laid by the Mayor of Saltash.
His Royal Highness Prince Albert officially opened the bridge on 2nd May 1859.
Brunel did not attend the opening due to ill health. He finally crossed his bridge on an open wagon two days later, but died later that year.
Tamar Bridge
The Tamar Bridge is a suspension bridge in the south-west of England, carrying the A38 trunk road across the River Tamar spanning between the City of Plymouth on the east bank and the town of Saltash on the west bank.
The Bridge is in public ownership, being owned and operated jointly by Cornwall Council and Plymouth City Councils. These Joint Authorities formed a special partnership in 1950 to lobby national government to fund a fixed crossing of the Tamar, but in the face of government inaction, decided in 1955 to go forward with the scheme themselves as a local enterprise financed from tolls.
The work was completed after two years and three months at a cost of £1.5 million, with up to 300 men working on the structure. The Bridge was opened to the public on 24th October 1961, and was formally opened by the Queen Mother on 26th April 1962 in a grand ceremony involving a fly-past and two naval frigates.
Since that time the Joint Committee has continued to operate and maintain the Tamar Bridge, and between 1998 and 2001 the Bridge underwent a major rejuvenation when it was both strengthened and widened. The work was undertaken while the crossing was open to live traffic, ensuring adequate load carrying capacity for the future, and also adding an additional traffic lane and a dedicated pedestrian/cycle lane.
More recently, during 2006, the tolling function has been upgraded with a major refurbishment of the toll plaza, and the introduction of electronic toll collection.
The Bridge is now carrying over 16 million vehicles a year – over ten times that carried in the early years. The construction, operation, maintenance and improvement of the crossing continue to be financed from toll income.
Adapted from
Continuing with the blue EMDs, we turn now to an overcast summer afternoon in Connecticut, where we find New England Central train 608 rolling south through Stafford Springs.
I normally don't go out too much in the summer months, but anytime NECR puts together a matching pair of Blue & Golds, I'll try and get there, especially as their numbers have dwindled - there are two left serviceable on NECR, and one on the neighboring Connecticut Southern.
For more NECR action (and inaction), click on the album that I finally got around to making.
On the 12th of May, 1943, Szmul Zygielbojm committed suicide. Szmul was a member of the Polish Government in Exile. Being in London, he was aware of the Warsaw Ghetto and also of the Jewish resistance movement there with its tunnels and bunkers. This resistance was crushed by the Nazis and the Ghetto was stripped of its Jewish inmates. Szmul's farewell note contains this paragraph:
"I cannot continue to live and to be silent while the remnants of Polish Jewry, whose representative I am, are being murdered. My comrades in the Warsaw Ghetto fell with arms in their hands in the last heroic battle. I was not permitted to fall like them, together with them, but I belong with them, to their mass grave. By my death, I wish to give expression to my most profound protest against the inaction in which the world watches and permits the destruction of the Jewish people."
Fuji X-Pro1, Helios 44M-7.
© Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved
Street photography from Glasgow, Scotland.
Colour re-edit of a shot from this day, 9th June, in 2017.
Seems it was a chilly start to summer in 2017 just as it is now in the UK.
This is nothing compared to what would come with the collapse of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) which is showing signs of possible early collapse perhaps as soon as the 2030s. If the AMOC were to completely collapse the climate in the UK would be colder than Iceland is currently. European food production would plummet. Famine would result.
Anthropogenic climate change does not mean 'global warming' will be universal. While the average global temperature rises there will be localised anomalies due to heating effects upon oceanic and atmospheric currents and circulations.
We are not acting fast enough. Mainstream media are ignoring the rapid escalation of weather extremes. We have seen 11 consecutive months of global average temperatures being 1.5C above pre-industrial levels already. Oceanic temperatures are rising higher and higher. Heat records are being broken around the world.
We are at the 'Don't Look Up' stage of climate inaction.
What a species we are.
Take care.
"Firestorm" is a piece of digital art that I thought was also appropriate for a discussion on a book I've just read, called "Burning Down the House: Reconstructing Modern Politics".
This is only a short book, more like an essay, but it is utterly brilliant.
It provides perhaps the best description of the moral decline and ineptitude of the Morrison government, discussing bushfires/Hawaii, the governments capture by the fossil fuel cabal, climate change inaction, mistreatment of the financial underclass, financial mismanagement, cruel and inhumane treatment of refugees, failure to assist those who gave help in Afghanistan, misogyny and lack of action on issues of equality and domestic violence, ineptitude of COVID response and abandonment of Australian citizens overseas and of course the constant corruption and rorting.
It then goes on to discuss (in less detail) the failures of the Labor party as an opposition and the constant use of "wedge politics" by the LNP to weaken Labor.
Finally it celebrates the rise of strong independent candidates.
The author of the book is Jo Dyer, herself an independent candidate for the SA seat of Boothby.
I have followed Jo on Twitter for some time now, and she is eloquent, intelligent and an outstanding candidate in my opinion. If I was in Boothby she would get my first vote. Jo came to prominence during the Christian Porter alleged rape case last year, she was a friend of the victim who committed suicide. It was Jo Dyer who challenged Christian Porters lawyer and won, causing the lawyers withdrawal due to a conflict of interest. Porter and his lawyer were later instructed to pay all costs, leading to the "blind trust" scandal.
Jo is one of many strong female independent candidate standing for the first time in 2022. Whilst independent of each other, many are running on similar platforms centred around women's rights. climate change and the removal of corruption from government. They are a force to be reckoned with, and a very positive step forward in my view.
Bring on the election.
Explored! 18-Feb-22 # 249
Just as iron rusts from disuse...
even so does inaction spoil the intellect.
(Leonardo da Vinci)
Crazy Tuesday - Rust
(photo by Freya)
Thanks for views, faves and comments! ;-)
Pica-pau-de-topete-vermelho
Ivory-billed Woodpeckers
Crimson-crested Woodpecker
(nome em Inglês)
Campephilus melanoleucos
(nome científico)
Picidae (Família)
Piciformes (Ordem)
Pássaro Silvestre
Observação de pássaros
Área de Proteção Ambiental
Parque Nacional de Brasília
Água Mineral
Brasília, Brasil
Southern Lapwing (nome em inglês)
Vanellus chilensis (nome científico)
Charadriidae (Família)
Charadriiformes (Ordem)
Pássaro Silvestre
Área de Proteção Ambiental
Parque Nacional de Brasília
Água Mineral
Brasília, Brasil
Zero Image 6x9 Pinhole with Kodak T-Max 400 developed in HC-110 dilution B.
“Become a river and then nothing is needed. That’s what The Secret of the Golden Flower says: Achieve inaction through action, achieve effortlessness through effort. But first comes the effort, the action—it will melt you—and then the river starts flowing. In that very flow it has reached the ocean.”
― Osho, The Secret of Secrets
"You never let go ~ by Matt Redman"
THANK YOU so MUCH for your kind visits, faved and comments.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I can't believe so much has changed since the last time I actually shared anything on any platform. Life has simply got in the way, not to mention other distractions (yeah, I am going to blame my inaction on the pandemic just like that :))
I suddenly realised it has been 2 years since I last stepped out of my home to roam freely about, go after that perfect light, bask in it and listen to the roar of a cascade as the night gently descends upon you - things that I had appreciated very much but had always taken for granted, made me wonder how much time will it be before I can go anywhere trouble free - just pack a few clothes, pick up my gear and jet off?
This was my second trip to Iceland - at that time, I thought I would visit Iceland every year henceforth, at different times and even made plans toward it, because you can spend eons there and the chances of you getting astounded by something you come across is still substantially high.
This time around, me and my old buddy from the states met up for a good 10 day road trip around the island. I had been to Dettifoss before, but accidentally ended up on the other side of the gorge - truly spectacular nevertheless, but the view from the eastern side (depicted in the image above) is breathtaking! Getting here however is a tad tricky and might be passable only in the summer months.
Dettifoss is part of the Vatnajökull National Park and easily the second most powerful waterfall in Europe.
As Nostalgia shrouds my sense of disbelief at the state I am finding myself in, alongside most of you - here's to celebrating the open road - and real soon, who knows we may be out and about?
Thanks for viewing and have a lovely day ahead!
1972 - Rome
Ogni anno il Papa partecipa ,insieme ai fedeli, alla rappresentazione religiosa della Via Crucis.
Questo avviene nella serata del Venerdì Santo al Colosseo di Roma. E' una foto che ricordo molto bene per la grande difficoltà tecnica per la sua realizzazione. Infatti bisogna ricordare che siamo in presenza di uno scatto di 51 anni fa. La Canon che avevo a disposizione era una buona macchina fotografica ,di certo non professionale. Quindi gli asa (allora si chiamavano così) erano massimo 1000, la pellicola era una HP4 Ilford (allora si chiamava così) tirata,e l'obiettivo era un 50 mm. 1,8. Cosa principale non c'era un filo di luce e mi trovavo contornato di persone con scarsa agibilità per la scelta dell'inquadratura come avrei voluto realizzarla. Per farla breve chiesi di potermi lasciare un pò di spazio e riuscire ad incastrare la macchina fotografica in un arcata del vicinissimo Colosseo. Il tempo di scatto fu lunghissimo a diaframma tutto aperto riuscendo a creare l'effetto bokeh della croce. Chiaramente la suora con la sua altissima concentrazione ed il suo immobilismo mi aiutò moltissimo ad evitare... il mosso.
Every year the Pope participates , together with the faithful , the religious representation of the Via Crucis .
This takes place on the evening of Good Friday at the Colosseum in Roma. It ‘ a photo that I remember very well the great technical difficulty for its realization . In fact, we must remember that we are in the presence of a burst of 51 years ago . The Canon I had available was a good camera , certainly not professional. So the ASA ( then called it that) were up to 1000 , the film was a HP4
Ilford ( then called ) is pulled, and the target was a 50 mm. 1,8 . Main thing there was not a ray of light and I was surrounded by people with poor practicability for the choice of the frame as I wanted to achieve it. Long story short I asked to be able to leave some space and be able to embed the camera in an arch near the Colosseum . The shutter was open all long diaphragm being able to create the bokeh effect of the cross. Clearly, the nun with its high concentration and its inaction helped me a lot ... to avoid camera shake .
[Smart Photo Editor]
~~~ Thank you all for viewing, kind comments, favs and awards - much appreciated! ~~~
Razvan Tudosie of Romania swims in the Youth Men's 50m Breaststroke Semifinals 2 in the 2010 Youth Olympic Games (YOG) at the Singapore Sports School, Aug 19, 2010. Photo: SPH-SYOGOC/STEVEN TOR
n.* *Deadlock
1. A state of inaction or neutralization resulting from the opposition of equally powerful uncompromising persons or factions
2. A situation in which no progress can be made
3. A situation wherein two or more competing actions are waiting for the other to finish, so neither ever does.
Winter Imbroglio, Winter 2003, Ile d'Orleans, Quebec, Canada.
Note:
Frozen waves! are not waves but look alike created by icebreaker navigation causing the ice to be pushed down which in turn causes the ice to split and break off in chunks. These chunks when covered by blown snow look like waves.
View on a black background here.
Greenwich Park - just a short bus ride from where I live in London - parched by the heat and lack of rain on 12 August 2022. It was not just the bleached grass that was shocking - many of the trees were already losing their leaves and younger trees looked seriously stressed. London and much of Europe have seen many weeks of extreme heat and drought.
The mainstream media reprimands individuals for wasting water, justifiably exhorting us to limit our showers, but all the while ignoring the highly profitable water companies which fail to invest in infrastructure, reservoirs or leakage prevention. The media also overlooks the devastating impact of large scale agribusiness, particularly livestock farming, which places an increasingly unsustainable demand on the planet's scarce water resources, as well as further inflating emissions and driving deforestation.
Meanwhile, corporate greed is accelerating the consumption of fossil fuels and water and turbocharging climate change. We need rain. We need more regulation. More action. We need to get to net zero asap and water management should not be in private hands. Water companies are siphoning off enormous profits from a vital public utility and failing to invest anything like what is needed.
The head of Thames Water (the same company which dumped raw sewage into rivers over 5000 times in 2021) is set to pocket £3 million as a 'golden hello' for signing on as CEO ,while in total the UK's water companies have handed an average of around £2 billion every year to their shareholders in dividends since they were privatised. If they were nationalised, those profits could instead have been invested to upgrade the infrastructure and mitigate the impact of climate change and have even provided extra funds to promote sustainable alternative energy sources.
www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/apr/20/thames-water-...
www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/jul/01/england-priva...
As Caroline Lucas writes in the Guardian (12.08.22) - ' (Drought) is a consequence of years of inaction on the climate emergency. This is producing a perfect storm of energy insecurity, food supply chaos and extreme weather that is wreaking havoc on society.'
www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/aug/12/drought-uk-...
n. *Quiescence:
1. quiet and inactive restfulness
2. a state of quiet (but possibly temporary) inaction.
Early Morning Quiescence, near Lunenburg, Nova Scotia, Canada. (2004 archives)
PixQuote:
"With photography a new language has been created. Now for the first time it is possible to express reality by reality. We can look at an impression as long as we wish, we can delve into it and, so to speak, renew past experiences at will."
- Ernst Haas
Good Morning and Good Day to all.....I will catch with you later!
The apocalyptic end of civilization unfolds as the sun struggles through choking smoke above a dying chorus of scorched cottonwoods. Far above the smoldering ruins of what humanity has wrought, a skein of surviving cranes feels its way northward following the ingrained memory of generations, perhaps hoping that something, somewhere remains green and able to support life.
In reality, the previous sentence best describes how I feel about the future, at times, when I pause to think how little humanity is doing to address the climate crisis. Collective inaction prevails, even as the embers of scorched forests blown from hundreds of miles away have come wafting down over the plains for much of the past few weeks. Trees taken flight, immolated, the ashened spirit of their remains floating east to fertilize corn field, prairie and pothole. No, what we are really looking at is one of the few sunsets that may have left a permanent imprint in my neural circuitry. These are Lesser Sandhill Cranes (Grus canadensis) coming in to roost for the evening on a sandbar at the Rowe Sanctuary on the Platte River in Nebraska. This migration of cranes is the largest remaining animal migration in North America. Over 600,000 cranes pass through en route to breeding grounds further north, and this number is added to by numerous geese, ducks, and shorebirds. The Sanctuary has become a critical stop along the Central Flyway as the birds make their way north.
Think of the Central Flyway as a giant hourglass, oriented roughly north-south with the narrow waist occurring on the landscape as an approximately 80 mile stretch of land in Nebraska that corresponds more or less with the course of the Platte River. The Cranes have been making this journey for millennia, and making the journey successfully requires safety from predators when it is time to roost for the night. The Sandhills solved this problem by learning to roost while standing on one leg in shallow water, or by seeking sanctuary on a sandbar surrounded by water on all sides. Coyotes can swim, but they are not very stealthy or hidden while doing it compared to their stalking abilities while on land. Consequently, the Cranes lifestyle is dependent upon marshes with open, shallow, productive water, and multi-channeled, sandbar-rich river courses.
The name 'Platte' is derived from the French word 'plait,' which is 'braid' in English. French fur-trappers explored these reaches in the 18th century, and the name they bestowed is an accurate description of what happens when the snow in the Rockies melts in spring and a large pulse of water travels at once over the relatively flat surface of the Great Plains. Channels and furrows abound. The River uses each at its whimsy, and sometimes doesn't fancy any of the existing options and so charts a new path. The productive wetlands that surrounded the Platte absorbed flood water like a sponge, and fueled an incredible migration of millions of birds.
The Platte has been dammed at numerous points over the past century, and in most years, dams have a way of preventing the old spring floods from scouring the channels and spitting out sandbars as they once did. Without the floods, sandbars are eventually overcome by willows, and wetlands are easily converted into prime agricultural land. Rowe Sanctuary is a place where Audubon Society funds are used to bulldoze a 5-mile stretch of the River every year to keep the willows at bay and create a haven of sandbars for the Cranes. Farmers leave corn on the ground in the surrounding fields, and the Cranes gorge on dent corn kernels instead of the invertebrates their ancestors found in the mud of the Platte-borne marshes. The beauty and sound of them as they move through the air is completely dependent on us and our continued stewardship. With great power comes great responsibility, so they say. We have held our obligation to the Cranes in Nebraska so far. There is yet hope or them and us.
Nature knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.
Johann Wolfgang Von Goethe
Super Chill Personality German Shepherd Celebrity Kennedy Ponders His Place In The Universe On The Oceans of Time & Space At Apollo Beach On Tampa Bay Florida - IMRAN™
(My 121st Flickr Explore!)
My beautiful very alpha but super chill personality German Shepherd Dog,, Kennedy, often surprises me with how humanlike his personality traits and actions, and sometimes even inactions, are. On this gorgeous early morning on Tampa Bay, as I had just taken the dogs for another walk on the beach at my blessed Apollo Beach home neighborhood, he walked to the edge of the sand, and sat down. I quickly captured this magical moment. It shows his incredibly large almost-celebrity type personality and zen-like appreciation of nature.
© 2022 IMRAN™
I have been in complete inaction for the past few months. Work-wise things are kinda on the outs and so it has managed to dismantle my resolve to keep up with photography. Now I know how difficult it is to keep up with what you wanna do..inspite of loving it so much. I wonder how you all manage it better than I do...I wish it continues to be that way for all of you :)
So I finally managed to dig something up from my archives..I am yet to even venture outside for a shoot..I hope it happens soon enough...This was shot while I was in the US...actually at the fag end of my stay over there.
When I knew I had to get back here, I decided to go to some of my favorite places. Ever since I knew about Monument Valley, I have always visualized myself being there amongst those wonderful mittens..Sunset is typically more beautiful over here than sun rises although I managed to get there for the day's dawn as well. This place is heavily visited by a lota people from all over the world..and rightly so. It is a breathtaking view. This is a cliched view of the valley itself for that I apologize.
I had scouted for different foregrounds all day and managed a few more from other places which I will try and post it someday soon :) The glow of the rocks in the evening sun is just how I imagined it will be. I am not a fan of these red rocks without a reason...nowhere else will you be able to see these radiant and vibrant looking colors. The sun gradually descends into the valley while I stood there just speechless...well not that I had company to talk to anyway :P but there are times when you dont want anyone with you...this was certainly one of those times :)
I really wish I had spent more time going through all your wonderful work. i hope to get more regular starting next year. Till then, I will be on and off. I had the chance to view some of your work..I am amazed how much each of you have managed in this short time...kudos!!
I am really looking forward to catch up with all of your work..slowly but surely!! have a nice weekend!!
It's three thirty in the morning. From somewhere far off, I think I can hear my phone ringing. I attempt to build it into my dream...but I cannot.
Eventually it stops. I settle back into the downy comfort of sleep for a few precious seconds.
Then the ringing starts again.
I get out of bed, grumbling, threatening and stubbing my toe and stugger (a cross between "stumble" and "stagger") downstairs to the phone.
It's Larry Talbot.
"I have a splendid picture for your flickr site tomorrow," he tells me. "I think even Easy Rider will be impressed."
"It's three thirty in the morning," I growl. "What the *** is wrong with you?"
My complaint is met with silence. What I have just said is of no interest to Talbot.
"Go to your mailbox," he says. "There I have put the image for tomorrow."
We argue about this for a moment...then I hear a low guttural warning growl...and I set down the phone and go to the mailbox.
The image you see above is there. I pick up the phone again.
"What the heck is that?" I ask.
"It's an image of me. And it's what you call SOOC," he says. His chest used to puff out when he was a kid in the midst of saying something really stupid. I imagine it happening now.
"SOOC?" I ask, looking at the image.
"Absolutely."
"SOOC means 'Straight Out Of the Camera,'" I say.
"Indeed."
There is a silence between us. I hear a faint crackle on the phone line.
"Larry, there's no way this is SOOC. You've Photoshopped the snot out of this thing."
"Nope," he says. "SOOC. Even Olaf agrees."
I visualize Talbot's massive manservant/minion.
"It's not even actually very good Photoshop," I say finally. "If I put this up, people are gonna think I did it."
Silence. A sulky vaguely threatening silence.
I sigh.
"What's going on in this image?" I ask.
"I am looking outward, from the very computer screen into the lives of those around me," he says.
"Why?"
"Because I may yet take a stronger hand in the promotion of my words on your little flickr site," he says.
I bristle just a little at his description of 'my little flickr site' but I think of Olaf again.
"What are you going to do?" I ask.
"Perhaps I have already started," he says.
I press him for details...but he gives me none. He tells me that he has also included a fresh article from his ancient Helium writings...
HOW TO AVOID FIGHTS IN YOUR MARRIAGE
by L. Talbot
Being married is wonderful. Personally, I have been married eight and a half times. Fighting in marriage is inevitable. But it is in the arena of AVOIDING fights where the truly experienced husband shows his skill.
There are two phrases that are absolutely KEY to staying happily married.
"Yes, dear," is used when you see your spouse's face start to change colors, from a healthy pink to a menacing purple. At this point it may still be possible to avoid the head-spinning-around and things-being-thrown phase (otherwise known as DEFCON 7) a carefully rehearsed "Yes, dear" is the precise strategic strike that may avert disaster.
Any thinking male entering into any long-term relationship must take the "Yes, dear" gambit very seriously. Insert just the right measure of sincerity and humility. Practice in front of a mirror. One must not mewl like a kitten…or rage like a lion. One must make “Yes, dear” sound as though a thunderbolt from Heaven has just penetrated your thick skull with an epiphany…an unexpected understanding of your own dense-ness.
These two words must encompass a surrender with dignity, an understanding how of how far one has carelessly and willfully stomped over the very last vestige of tolerable behavior by wiping one’s hands on a clean towel whilst said hands were still dirty, or by failing to divine that a small book placed in the precise middle of the staircase has been put there so that you, great lout of male waste that you are, would carry it up and/or down the stairs…or even worse: that you, in an attempt to show initiative and to fake sensitivity, have carried it in the WRONG direction entirely.
Plan A is “Yes, dear” in which the wise husband carefully fabricates sensitivity.
Having said this, I must add that Plan A does not always work.
At times a fight is as unavoidable as a tropical storm. They get too big too fast. You can't fly around them and there is nowhere to hide.
She's mad and you're handy. Keep in mind that you have probably actually done (or not done) something that is very small in your eyes. This action (or inaction) may have actually taken place at any point over the previous thirty years.
It is very likely this is a thing you have done (or left undone) a number of times before and it has only now resulted in the prickly and extremely dangerous creature you now face. Don't even try to understand it.
Begin by NOT doing the following:
•Say "Where did THAT come from? We were talking about cheese. . ."
•Stop speaking altogether. This will be viewed as an effort on your part to escalate an already volatile situation
•Speak. No matter what you say (other than the Magic Phrase below) will be viewed as an effort on your part to escalate an already volatile situation
•Leave the room and/or house. This is a coward's way out and besides you will pay for it. Later.
•Attempt to hug her. If you do, you WILL wind up in traction.
•Begin stating your case and/or try to WIN the argument. (I chuckle at the very naivety of this notion.) Clearly, this is a Newbie- defining mistake. Experienced husbands know you will never actually win an argument. Never. Ever.
Your goal is to minimize the damage and restore peaceful relations before the game starts on TV. Be warned, men: unless you move quickly and decisively to stave off disaster there's no way you are getting fed.
The Magic Phrase (MP) is comprised of three carefully designed and tightly compacted apologies. They have been loaded into one package for maximum impact.
The MP: "You're right. It's my fault. I'm sorry."
These seven words that can be like a cooling balm on the open confrontation. It must sound sincere and heartfelt…or you're a dead man.
So do what I do: as you deliver these words think about your wife. Remind yourself of the way she looked the day you got married and of the last time you laughed together. Think of how her eyes light up when she smiles.
THEN (provided her claws have been retracted) hold her for a second.
Later when it's safe, consider what annoyed her to begin with. Think about it honestly. Chances are that on some level you were actually being a caveman. Or not.
Does it matter?
© Leanne Boulton, All Rights Reserved
Captured at an anti-Trump demonstration in Glasgow, Scotland, in 2017 while out street shooting.
I did not want my 6000th Street Photography image on Flickr to be such a political post but given overnight events I feel the need to speak up.
I did not upload this shot when a narcissist with no political experience was elected to the 'most powerful' office on earth.
I did not upload this image when a small majority of British people believed the lies and propaganda resulting in a Brexit vote that has devastated British business and economy ever since.
I did not upload this image when a right wing 'clown' was elected to high office in the UK by ordinary hard working labourers in the north.
I did not upload this image when the UK Government failed to publish the Russia Report which was expected to shed light on the amount of Russian influence and finance in the heart of Government.
Make no mistake - President of Russia, Vladimir Putin, has his hand behind all of these events. Russia and Russian money have been on a prolonged attack to destabilise democracy and partnerships all across the west for years through disinformation and interference. This was a part of the long game for Putin and his long held desire to reunify the old Soviet Union at any cost.
When Hitler marched into Austria we stood by. When Hitler marched into the Sudetenland of Czechoslovakia we stood by. His ambition was not curtailed by words and inaction, and Poland was then invaded.
We barely acted when Putin took South Ossetia. We barely reacted when Putin marched into The Crimean Peninsula and installed unflagged mercenaries in the Donbas. He then invaded Ukraine.
Putin will not stop at Ukraine. He has earmarked his ambition to reunite all of the former USSR. Ukraine, Belarus, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Moldova, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia, Lithuania and even Finland are in his sights. His 'essay' and speeches have pointed in this direction.
Other autocratic nations around the world may now feel emboldened to take, by force, regions that they feel belong to them.
If we stamp down on the invasion of Ukraine hard we risk massive global consequences as Putin has made clear. He threatened actions the like of which the world has never seen should the west intervene in Ukraine.
If we do nothing the global risk is immense as it sends the signal that the borders are meaningless against military might and the international rules based law is pointless. Either way the global consequences are immense as I am sure you are all aware.
I was awake at 3am GMT when the attacks began and watched live Tweets and video streams from ordinary Ukrainians as their country was attacked.
I went and held my loved one close.
This is war, completely unprovoked, in Europe in the 21st Century. This is insanity.
Mankind's inhumanity to mankind will be our downfall.
We are one species on one tiny blue planet in the vastness of space. We, as a species, do not deserve this beautiful earth.
My thoughts are with the people of Ukraine.
Be safe my Flickr friends.
*whether you agree with me politically or not, please show respect. Innocent people are being killed right now.