Saturday, February 28, 2009

Much less of me to see these days

Sorry for the long gap between posts! I am still here, and still taking photos, but the subject is pretty boring: me. I've been on a big weight-loss effort since January 1st, and it's coming along great! 28 pounds so far. As part of it, I have been taking photos of myself to mark the changes, which has been both an eye-opener and great motivation to continue. But it's not the most exciting blog subject, so I haven't been posting them here.

That said, here's a good visual of the changes. Same outfit (the top, at least), four months apart.

October 2008
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February 2009
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Yay!

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Calendar: December 2009

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Winter Wonderland at the Chicago Botanic Garden. That is a replica of the B'nai Temple.

Monday, January 19, 2009

Calendar: November 2009

Ice Rinks

Chicago
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Detroit
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New York
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Saturday, January 17, 2009

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Calendar: September 2009

From the Glass Exhibit at the Museum of Science and Industry:

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Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Calendar: August 2009

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Sunrise fishing on Lake Michigan

Sunday, January 11, 2009

Detroit, decaying

I'm interrupting the calendar series to post some links about Detroit. Time.com had a link to a stark article about the ways big and small that Detroit is dying. It's a wrenching article, very hard to read but not one you should skip. There was also a link to a Detroit photographer who is blogging the decay of the city, and that is equally wrenching and important to see. They don't even have working fire hydrants anymore. How can that be?

I have grown to love Detroit over the years; it's ugly and sad and broken, and it hurts to see an American city brought down to its knees like this. (In comparison to Detroit, New Orleans is thriving.) But it has been trying to recover, and many of my photographs that I take when I am there celebrate that. The article and blog above force me to acknowledge that the growth there has been is still far surpassed by the decay and desperation that remains. For every step forward, Detroit is still fifteen steps behind.

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I took this on Christmas Eve day 2007. That white bundle is a homeless person sleeping above the steam grate for warmth. (The steam grates are frightening things, imo; at night they make the streets feel threatening when all you see are shadows of people walking out of the smoke. They're used for a purpose in movies, and it's all the more unsettling in real life.) The thing about this photo that is the most unsettling is that this is the "nice" part of the city, between Greektown and the RenCen.

Saturday, January 10, 2009

Calendar: July 2009

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We just got 10 inches of snow, so looking at a picture from the summer isn't such a bad thing today.

Friday, January 09, 2009

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

Calendar: May 2009

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From my trips to Tucson.