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Man, it’s been quite a long time since I blogged, and quite a bit has happened during the past month.  Had quite a few photoshoots come up, some for portfolio, and some for paid work.  And some that I STILL need to send out an invoice for haha.  So I had to pause on taking on new projects and get the existing stuff done before I head to Tulsa this weekend.

So where do I start? Well, first the car.  I WAS driving a Ford Taurus that I had bought for the low low at an auction a while ago, but it finally decided to blow it’s head gasket in true Ford Vehicle glory.  Didn’t really bother me too much since at that point, I had gotten the camera equipment that I wanted to get and I was thinking about a new ride eventually anyway.  So I go online the same day and check out a Honda Accord at carmax which met my tastes.   But when I went there, I saw something even better that I just KNEW had to belong to me.  So I ended up with a shiny black, Nissan Altima with black leather interior, moonroof, and 250 horsepower.  And I friggin LOVE IT!  I swear that this car is directly hooked into my body and feeds off of my testosterone haha.  I’ll have to post pictures of it once I get my personal plates in.

So what’s next?  Well, a lot of you peeps know that I’ve been leading the single life for a while.  So my friend’s wife Antoinette talked me into hooking up with a cutie.  I was hesitant at first, but once I saw the pictures, I had to give in to the cuteness.  We met, and been cool ever since.  Although at times, she can be a bit of a pain.   So without further ado, here’s my new kitty Isis.  Much thanks to my friend Jamie for helping me with taking the shots.  She’s already a bit bigger now than what the shots currently show, so be sure to check the gallery every now and then for updated shots.

As far as my business lately, I’m actually somewhat on a normal sleep schedule now that I’ve gone back to working days back at the job, but I’ve been busy as hell.  Getting used to working on days again.  For the past few weeks, I’ve been coming home with quite the brain drain, causing me to shut down mentally for the most part and just veg out for longer periods that I really wanted to.  But I’m starting to get used to it now, and on top of that, I’m working on my time management.  Hopefully, before this summer is over, I’ll find some time to get quite a bit of work done on Kingphotosonline.com and Marcellusking.com as well as getting some portfolio work finally underway.  My apologies to everyone who’s been waiting on me to get things together.

And last but not least, I really had to spend some time to myself in order to reflect on the loss of my father.  He had died last year in late April so I was really starting to feel the effects of that throughout the past month.  I love you dad, and I thank you for the morals and principles that you taught me as I grew from a boy to a man.  I’ll always miss you.  And while I’m on family, I know that towards a certain sibling of mine, I’ve been a hardass.  Well, we both have.  I love you and I’ll find some time to get a hand written letter to you.  Doesn’t help that we’re both bullheaded and very strong willed and opinionated men.

Welp, there’s the update! And I’ll get some of the galleries updated as soon as I work out with the people that I’ve shot so far which pictures they want to go up on my portfolio. 

Man, I have to make this one quick since I gotta hit the sack.  But basically to give a summary of what’s been going on, here you go.

• Still doing photography
• Changed shifts to the day crew.  I’m now able to sleep throughout the night.
• My Ford Taurus blew a head gasket, but I wasn’t surprised.  It is a Ford after all
• Got another ride.  A 2005 Nissan Altima.   And yes, it’s the souped up 250 horsepower version.  Needless to say, I LOVE my new ride.

I’ll give a bigger update once I got some time to sit down and type

I thought that this was pretty interesting. Considering that the bible has been around for many, many years, it should have already been established long, long ago what are considered sins and how serious they are. But I love how the catholic church comes up with these “new” sins and ignores some of the other major issues that have plagued morals and religion today.

7 deadly sins for “our times”? Since when did things change as far as God’s stance on issues. God himself does not change, and what would be considered a sin back then, is still considered a sin now. It doesn’t need to be updated at all. Also, I thought the following sin was pretty funny considering that it came from the Catholic church.

“causing social injustice”

Wow!!! I mean wow! The Catholic church has been involved in so many attrocities and wars throughout history, that the amount of bloodshed on their hands is immeasurable. Let’s also not forget about the Reichskonkordat and the Nazi party. If you don’t know what that is, then I suggest you google it.

A religious organization that makes up it’s own rules, ignores the teachings of the bible, and prostitutes itself with businesses and governments. And yet they have the guts to redefine what a deadly sin is. Go figure!

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Thank goodness for having a dvr to where I can pause this stuff and a camera handy.  Check this out.  Look at that interest rate!!   I couldn’t believe what I was seeing on the TV.  These places should be outright illegal!

In case you’re not able to see the image, here’s what it discloses on a “typical” loan of $2,600.00

• 99.25% Interest Rate
• 42 Monthly payments of 216.55
• Origination fee of 75.00

So, 216.55 times 42 equals $9, 095.10.   So for a loan of 2,600 dollars, you end up paying $6495.10 more than what you took out for the loan.  And we wonder why so many consumers are in debt!

Hmmm, this hit a little close to home.  I wonder if anyone agree’s with this concerning me

What Marcellus Means

You are confident, self assured, and capable. You are not easily intimidated. You master any and all skills easily. You don’t have to work hard for what you want. You make your life out to be exactly how you want it. And you’ll knock down anyone who gets in your way! You are usually the best at everything … you strive for perfection. You are confident, authoritative, and aggressive. You have the classic "Type A" personality. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You’re always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can’t handle you. You’re very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you’re likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are very open. You communicate well, and you connect with other people easily. You are a naturally creative person. Ideas just flow from your mind. A true chameleon, you are many things at different points in your life. You are very adaptable. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don’t get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are a very lucky person. Things just always seem to go your way. And because you’re so lucky, you don’t really have a lot of worries. You just hope for the best in life. You’re sometimes a little guilty of being greedy. Spread your luck around a little to people who need it. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don’t always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don’t have as much going for them as you do.

I’ve really dug my feet in and started working with this Joomla content management system in order to learn it and utilize it in order to build my next generation of web sites.  My first and foremost project is the MarcellusKing.com photography web site, which I’m working on now, which will be followed up by racismonline.com, and Kcphotolink.com as well as some other minor projects, which will include possibly learning some PHP programming as well as building completely new and custom templates for my sites and possibly the open source community (if I’m really feeling it after learning how to do my own).

Warning:  Upcoming rant! Take cover!

Throughout the months, there have been people that have approached me about helping them create a web site, and from my own past experience, custom web site development is both timely, and expensive.  And if there is a product out there that can already do what you need, then why reinvent the wheel?  That’s my philosophy, but people really don’t see eye to eye with me on this.  They never want to take the time to spend to sit down and learn something new, but they still want results, and they want someone to produce those results for them, for the cheapest possible price at that.

Let me honest, yea, that’s what I used to do in the past, and I have plenty of web programming experience as well a skills with databases, but if you’re going to make me pull out the stops and bust out the Dreamweaver and some html/cold fusion/database coding skills in order to make you a web site that does this and that, then it’s going to cost you a MINIMUM of a grand.  And even then, I still don’t want to do it.  The only exception to this is my boy Rob, who being a programmer, can understand how time consuming and nerve wracking it can get.

So if you don’t want to pay the big bucks, then you’re just going to have to spend the time to sit down, learn, study, and experiment with using an open source solution.   If you do so, then you’ll find that they are often MORE than capable of what you’re looking for in a web site solution.  But as your needs grow, then your web site can grow with them.  You’ll find that a content management system, although intimidating at first, is MUCH easier to manage than a custom built site.

And if you don’t have the time to build it, or the money and resources to have it built for you, then apparently, it’s not important enough to you.  So why should it be even more important to me?

So here are some questions that I get along with my typical answer.

Ok, so I’m up at 1:38 in the afternoon with jet red eyes.   Tired as hell, but can’t sleep.   Actually got 2 hours of sleep, but my subconscious really got to me this time.

So here’s the background.  My father passed away in Spring of last year, and ever since then, I’ve been having this recurring dream that he’s still alive.   And every time, this dream gets more and more convincing.   This time, however, it really threw me for a loop.  And to be perfectly open, it brought me to tears.   I don’t know know why I have this dream and why it keeps occurring, each time with more and more information.  And at the same time, it’s depressing, but I don’t exactly want it to stop either.  It sucks to wake up, but while my eyes are closed, seeing and speaking with my father feels like bliss.

So here’s the situation.   In this recurring dream, I keep dreaming that the hospital screwed up some records somehow and that dad didn’t pass away from cancer.  They got his information mixed with another patients.   And somehow, in the beginning of this dream, I already know this as this information has been carried over from a previous dream.   It’s like a god damn saga I tell you!  Well, this time in the dream, I get a call from dad (who’s still in the hospital) and he calls me to tell me that the whole diagnosis of the cancer was false as well and he’s being discharged from the hospital in a week.

It worries me because I’ve already closed out the accounts, gotten the death certificate, and all of the other paperwork stating that he’s dead, but it turns out he’s really alive.  I started thinking about that whole mess and just jumped to the thought of "Fuck it! Dad’s alive! That’s all I care about!"   I’ll get this other mess sorted out on the side.   I keep thinking about the second chances will be getting to spend with my dad.  Vacations, bbq (we love the grill), late nights talking with beers in our hands, and everything else that fathers and grown sons do.

I’m always so ecstatic at this point of the notion of spending time with my father, who I thought was dead and getting a second chance to spend with him.  I tell him that I love him and I’ll be down at the hospital soon.  At this point, I usually head off to get some important task done or head to sleep. 

It’s at this point that I actually tend to wake up in reality, and being in my groggy mode, not realized that what I just experienced was a dream.   I was actually headed to grab my cell phone this afternoon to give him a call and check up on him when I caught site of his ashes that I keep here from his cremation.   And in an instant, I’m snapped back to reality.

FUCK….THIS….DAMN….DREAM!!!

I can’t figure out WHY I keep having this dream, and why it keeps happening over and over again.  Maybe my conscious is just venting.  But this feeling that I get when I realize it’s not real is one of most horrible feelings I’ve ever had.  I just wish this dream would just go away and let it be. 

But I will say this.  I love my dad, I love the lessons that he’s taught me in life.  I love being the type of man that he molded me into.  He wasn’t a perfect man, and he had his faults.  But did his best to make sure that those same faults didn’t become a part of me.  He wanted me to succeed where he did not, to reach where he could not reach, to pursue my dreams and desires in the face of opposition, and most importantly, to be a good man.

I love you dad, I miss you!

Although it sucks to see that Toshiba has lost the format war, it should be a welcome relief to users to know that the next generation dvd format issue has been settled.  But who really lost?  In my opinion, it was all of the early adopters who bought and invested in the now inferior HD-DVD.   Apparently, these companies never learned anything from the Betamax war from way back in the day.  And now, these consumers are now stuck with obsolete hardware which in a lot of cases, wasn’t exactly cheap.

TOKYO (Reuters) - Toshiba Corp (6502.T: Quote, Profile, Research) is planning to give up on its HD DVD format for high definition DVDs, conceding defeat to the competing Blu-Ray technology backed by Sony Corp (6758.T: Quote, Profile, Research), a company source said on Saturday.

The move will likely put an end to a battle that has gone on for several years between consortiums led by Toshiba and Sony vying to set the standard for the next-generation DVD and compatible video equipment.

Toshiba to give up on HD DVD, end format war: source | Technology | Reuters

First of all, props to my new webhost hostmonster.com for the good pricing on linux web hosting. 

But anyway, here are some recent shots of various items around my apartment as I give some product style photography a try.  The shots didn’t turn out so bad at all.

Items used

• Glossy white wrapping paper
• Backdrop stand and bar to hold the wrapping paper
• Giant Softbox
• Heavy duty lightstand
• Boom (to place lightbox directly above)
• Light Meter
• Tripod (optional)

I forgot to post some pictures of the actual setup.  My bad.