Often in my house I get the question ‘Are you laughing at me?’ To which my reply is usually ‘No. I’m laughing at what you’re going’. This is a very important distinction to make, because as long as the person in question can see that distinction they’ll realise that I’m not being harsh.
The simple fact is that I’ll laugh at people doing silly things regardless of who they are, including (most importantly) myself. In fact I’m quite often the source of my of my own laughter, due to some of the silly things I do (Like Mirror Cam).
Here’s how I see it, if you do something silly, but which has humerous connotations, then if you have the abillity to see the funny side and essentially laugh at the action rather than the person, then you’ll never get laughed at again.
The adage ‘Laugh, and the world laughs with you’ could not be truer. In fact you could add to it ‘Don’t laugh and the world laughs at you’. Although in my personal opinion that’s pretty much implied in the first saying.
Even though I have no idea of the context that it was originally used.
Rob quickly turns to google
Although I can save face by saying it was originally written in a poem by Ella Wheeler Wilcox
research research research

A poem called solitude published (I believe) in 1917.
In fact with a breif scan of the poem it does seem that the original context was intended to be slightly different, but I stand by my comment, I feel it still makes a good point.

For a long time now I’ve been involved, in the loosest sense of the word, with a photography forum started and hosted by Denyerec.
A topic that has come up in the past is the equipment carried on a standard photography mission. It soon became apparent and has been pointed out to me by the other members that I take too much stuff with me, a partial contributor to my lack of photo expiditions.
Here is a list of items usually found about my person when going out to take photos:

  • 1x D70 camera body
  • 1x 60mm Macro lens F2.8
  • 1x 18-70mm Zoom lens F3.8-4.8
  • 1x Ironing board
  • 1x Lens cloth
  • 1x Leaf blower (medium)
  • 1x compass
  • 1x Water mellon (ripe)
  • 1x Road atlas of southern France
  • 2x Kendal mint cake
  • 1x Tub of margarine
  • 1x Armadillo trap
  • 1x Eager scouts disguise kit (with moustache extras)

And the list goes on…
I think I need to put a bit more thought into what is actually required.

Dislike early mornings anyway, I think it shows I’m not getting enough sleep when I wake up in the morning, look at the clock and simply think ‘Go Away’. A thought directed at time itself.
When my alarm did rudely awaken me from that happy place know as sleep all I could think was ‘why Why WHY!’

On a completely different note, I noticed today that the author of a photography book on Low light photography that I own is called ‘Lee Frost’.
Now I don’t know about you, but if that was my name I’d be hard pressed to resist the urge to go out, get a son, and call him Jack. At the soonest possible moment.

I forgot to blog about it, but last week I nearly got hit by a car on the way to the station. You could say that this was a catalyst to the whole ‘Live Now‘ post. Although these things were already being considered by me as I’ve been reading some philosophy and psychology books and webpages of late. I am actually going to try (probably) to re-write that post in a way which better articulates what I am trying to get at.
Before you all go worrying about a near death experience, (like you would) I’d like to point out that it was more of a near nasty-bruising experience – at worst.
Difficult to tell whose fault it was, I was standing in the middle of the road, well actually crossing at the time, but then he was on the wrong side of the road. Major cutting of corners was going on by the driver thats for sure. Fortunately I had my wits about me and calmly stepped back to let the car pass a few inches in front of me.
Not the most advisable way to wake up in the morning, but it certainly works!

I went shopping this morning, I nearly bought a book called ‘Teach yourself: Speed reading’, but I’d finished it before I got the the check-out.


Comedy drum hit PLEASE!

Today, someone added a comment to my blog.

Not a spectacularly exciting event you may say. This comment however was by someone I don’t know. And it was relevent to the post. It was not spam!!!

Wow, I felt pretty excited when that happened, perhaps my blog is entering a new stage of existence!

I am a worrier, and recently I’ve been trying to get over this. As I think I’ve said before, worry can be the straight jacket to action (Yes I did).
I also have a habit of overly planning what I’m going to do, what I should do, and what I could do.
Yup, when the scouts said ‘be prepared’ I don’t think they expected me to take it this far, not that I actually was a scout or anything but hey. I’d plan things like what I would say if I bumped into that guy I knew from school six years ago, for example.
So I’ve been trying to counteract this excessive worry and planning by Living In The Moment. Something I think probably a lot of people do anyway, but for me it’s quite a challenge!
It is quite a meditation/zen monk, spiritual type thing to aim for; to live completely in the moment. Not the past i.e. thinking about whats happened. Not the future, i.e. whats going to happen, but right now.
Admittedly it is sometimes necessary to plan things, like doing washing. But as far as its possible I’m trying to live right now.

Perhaps if I’d planned this post a bit it may have got more of my point across.

That would be ironic.
Perhaps I’ll post a better version when my thoughts are in a better order.

Well I went to the osteopath again on tuesday, more fixing required but not as much as last time. Apparently I don’t breath properly, which is mildly disturbing. Fortunately he’s given me some excercises and explained where I was going wrong, it’s not as easy as you might think!
So anyway I felt on top of the world after that session, walking down the street smiling at other pedestrians hunched over against the elements. I had to quell the urge to dance to be perfectly honest, I was feeling that good!!
Plus, Tim the osteopath said I only need a single session next week, which will be cheaper, and I managed to arrange it to be much later in the day so I don’t have to take the whole afternoon off.

The price of pillows and swimming trunks in a department store that shall remain nameless bought me down a bit from this walk-tall, breath-deep style happiness. Only a bit though.

I didn’t buy a new pillow or any swimming trunks on that day.

Can you imagine what moon cheese would taste like?
Assume for a moment that the moon was made of cheese, what would that cheese be like? It would certainly give people an incentive to go back to the moon. Perhaps moon cheese would taste different depending on where it was mined from: ‘That’s a fine specimen of tranquility blue’ people could say at a blind moon cheese tasting competition.
Its rarity would make it a very expensive delecacy ‘With this moon cheese you are really spoiling us ambassador’ and would be in the same league as caviar.
Just imagine the swankiest restraunts in town selling moon cheese toasties at an enorously inflated price.

It would be great if the moon was made of cheese, but perhaps we just need to dig a bit below the surface.

I think this would be a great idea. I’m sure I’m not alone in making silly faces and gestures when looking in a mirror (assuming no-one else is around).
At least I hope I’m not alone, I don’t think I’m that weird.
Actually I don’t think I’m weird at all.

But yeah I think Mirror cam has great potential to be funny.

Honest

Try some faces out for yourself, its a simple and cheap way to lighten up your day.

And if that doesn’t sound like a good advertising campaign then I don’t know what does.