Day: July 7, 2010

ZOMG! You blew up my oil rig!

~ Jeremy ~ Leave a comment

You can’t believe what has surfaced in the tumultuous seas of the Internets … a board game from BP itself called:

OFFSHORE OIL STRIKE!

Get a load of this:

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The game came equipped with “hazard cards” with one that says, I shit you not, “Blow-out! Rig damaged. Oil slick clean-up costs. Pay $1 million.”

The game’s a reality now, bitches. Now “FIX IT!!!”

Beaucoup de choses à faire

~ Jeremy ~ 16 Comments

I’ve been racing around getting my life together before my trip to Thailand, Cambodia and Singapore. I leave next week Thursday.

I’ve been gearing up (literally). I bought rain gear and better camera carrying equipment. I bought a 24 to 105 mm lens, which will provide a little versatility between my 16 to 35 mm and my 70 to 200 mm. I have other less-pro lenses, that I won’t bring.

There really is no “perfect” lens. On photoshoots, I often look like “that” photographer sporting two cameras dangling around my neck. I’m only going to bring one camera and my iPhone on the trip. I figure between my dad’s point and shoot, my 5D and phone, we should be covered.

My itinerary is:

  • July 15. Chicago to Abu Dhabi. Flight time 14 hours.
  • July 16. Abu Dhabi to Bangkok Thailand. Flight time 6.5 hours. Arrive in Bangkok on July 17 at 7 a.m. local.
  • July 18 to 19, we work in Bangkok. We have to secure more flights once we’re there for traveling. I’m unclear what other work we’ll be doing there. I plan on trying to get my bearings from jetlag and seeing what I can get by with on the streets shooting there.
  • July 19 to Chiang Mai, Thailand, which is the northern most marker on the map above. I’m still unclear exactly what is there apart from the camps that I mentioned we’ll be visiting.
  • July 22 we fly to Phnom Pehn, Cambodia, where we will travel by four wheel vehicle (during rainy season) to the highlands of Cambodia near the Vietnamese border.
  • July 23 to 26, We will be in Mondulkiri provence of Cambodia (which is the right most indicator on the map above).
  • July 26 and 27, we’ll be in Singapore, where I’ll be leaving from and return to Chicago by July 28th.
  • July 31, T and I fly to Asheville North Carolina. We shoot regular reader Xina’s wedding on August 1 (woo!) and then my brother is going to pick us up in Asheville and brings us back to High Point, North Carolina where we’ll visit with friends and family for a few days.

We return to Chicago on Wednesday and I shoot another wedding downtown on August 7 amid the Lollapalooza weekend.

So if you’re going to stalk me, now you’ll know where I’ll be. I’m still trying to come up with a name for the trip. Something succinct like when PZ Myers named the creation museum trip “CreoZerg”.

Maybe you all can help me name my trip. What’s your suggestion? I’d say 8 to 10 characters tops.

“Wait, I thought this was 2010” of the day

~ Jeremy ~ 1 Comment

Two videos I found over at Atheist Media that disappoint me. I work with clients who are behind the times in terms of social media and I think it’s a big deal.

But these two examples of Islam either stymying progress or definitively dragging progress back 2,000 years or more are ridiculous.

Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning (by stoning!)

July 5, 2010 on CNN

An international campaign has been launched on behalf of an Iranian woman sentenced to death by stoning after being convicted of adultery.

Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani’s family says she has already been punished with a flogging of 99 lashes, The Guardian reports. Her 22-year-old son, Sajad, and 17-year-old daughter, Farideh, told the newspaper she committed no crime.

“She’s innocent, she’s been there for five years for doing nothing,” Sajad said. “Imagining her, bound inside a deep hole in the ground, stoned to death, has been a nightmare for me and my sister for all these years.”
Read more

BBC: Muslim Parents ‘Banning Children From Music Lessons’

July 1, 2010 on BBC News:

Hundreds of Muslim parents are withdrawing children from music lessons because their beliefs forbid them from learning an instrument.

The Muslim Council of Britain (MCB) said music lessons were potentially unacceptable to about 10% of Muslims.

This could equate to hundreds of Muslim children being withdrawn from the lessons, the MCB said.

It said passages from a collection of the Prophet Mohammed’s teachings banned instruments.
Read more

Keith and I playing futball

~ Jeremy ~ 1 Comment

Today after the Holland vs. Uruguay match, my friend Keith and I went and kicked the soccer ball around. Another friend John was riding by on his bike and he took this video of us. Then he uploaded it to his YouTube account.

It’s uncut video so it’s pretty boring. But I thought you might get a kick out of it … maybe.