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Yeah… I am a master of all things… including screwing up.

1. There is a lot of terrifically talented people in the world.
2. A lot of them are my friends, and folks I am getting to know.
3. You can be disappointed even when you are an old guy.
4. Hasselblads take great images, but you gotta make sure that bad-boy is focused.
5. The Westcott 50″ box is one helluva light – even with only one small speedlight in it.
6. There are such things as Red Bananas.
7. I have 3 more stands than I thought I did because I never opened a box I ordered from MPEX a long time ago.
8. When going on location, my new ‘muscle car’ doesn’t have as much space to pack gear as I thought it did.
9. Being paid a compliment from someone you respect feels pretty great.
10. I can eat Mexican food every day of the week and then sprinkle in a bit of Chinese for variation.
11. I can fix a broken LumoPro 120, but I cannot make it LOOK that good.
12. Looking good is not as important for a flash than working good.
13. It takes about 6 hours to organize my gear into bags and boxes for on location work.
14. I will never let my gear become disorganized again because of #13
15. Red Bananas rot very fast.
16. I suck at being on video. 
17. I have wonderful, supportive friends who will give me their all when asked.
18. Blue is not my color.
19. I need 6 more sales to make it to the next ladder on 
Amazon.
20. I didn’t know Amazon had ladders of commission. I may be rich really soon… well, in about 568 years… but still… RICH! 

“I was swept away when I walked into these places,” she said. “I found myself taking pictures and not thinking about any consequences. I was seduced.” There were obstacles, though. One was coming to terms with photographing objects, she said, and finding a way to give them some emotion. She began creating close-up images, as with a nightdress worn by Emily Dickinson. Leibovitz zoomed in on the intricate detail. ~ Annie Leibovitz

APE: Tell me about yourself and how you got started as a photographer? Jake Stangel: I was that dude in high school whose hands always reeked of D-76 from processing tri-x and printing in the darkroom without tongs all day long. I was fortunate to go to a public school that had a great photo program and provided all the black and white film I could shoot. Photography is just literally how I’ve identified myself since I was 15 years old, it’s been ten years now. Just constantly shooting, constantly out and about with a camera, always loving it. There’s never been a day I’ve been “over” photography, and I feel really fortunate to have that kind of relationship with the medium. ~ Jake Stangle

And automation is not just coming to manufacturing, explains Curtis Carlson, the chief executive of SRI International, a Silicon Valley idea lab that invented the Apple iPhone program known as Siri, the digital personal assistant. “Siri is the beginning of a huge transformation in how we interact with banks, insurance companies, retail stores, health care providers, information retrieval services and product services.” ~ Tom Friedman

While I particularly loathe the loathsome Friedman, this is naturally what will continue to happen. No matter who takes the White House this year, the perfect storm of Boomers, Technology, Massive Debt and Inconceivable Denial by the morons in charge will lead to more and more misery. It is inevitable, and the more the government tries to borrow against it, the harder it will hit.

Stunning use of space and typography to condense a lot of stuff – and still have an open feeling to it.

JLern Design