You Can't Just Give it Away

From this point forward, I will no longer be posting my pictures on this blog. If you want to see my pictures, you'll have to purchase them from istockphoto.com

istockphoto is a website that sells stock photographs to companies needing images for the websites, brochures, etc... I'm kidding, of course, about no longer posting my pictures here. In reality, a lot of the pictures I'd post on my blog wouldn't really be stock-appropriate pictures. They are pretty strict in terms of what the accept, both in terms of the 'stock worthiness' of a picture and the technical quality of the image. It took me a while to be accepted and I've had quite a few images rejected already, but have built up a portfolio of 5 images at this point. The image below was initially rejected for having at least 5 different branded logos showing. I was successful at removing them via photoshop, so they accepted it.

You can view my portfolio here.

Man...I sure do know my wife

As you have no doubt read in Beths blog, she recently had a question she wrote published in a local Hong Kong magazine. What you don't know is how this was discovered:

I was reading this particular magazine and this guy's column, "Mr. Know it All". I read the question from "Clare" and automatically knew that she had written it, even though she never told me that she sent in a question to this guy. How did I know that she had written this?:

• Beth is clearly working on a fiction novel, which isn't her preferred method of writing, but she has gotten positive feedback on it from those around her (including myself)
  
• The story is about 25 pages currently.
• Her little humours quip: "the overwhelming pressure (I mean joy from their continual positive feedback) keeps me...."
• "Clare" Daines is one of Beth's favourite actresses, at least until she acted in this movie.

So, I ask her "did you submit a question to Mr. KIA? "yes...." she says. "Well, I think they published it!" See, I told you I knew my wife!

While Mr. KIA, must think that I am one of her "indulgent friends with nary a hint of literary appreciation abilities", I can safely say that I am married to a future bestselling author and her book will do quite well, thank you very much! And yes, I do have more than a "hint of literary appreciation abilities" I am quite well-read, FYI.

But, I do have to admit to pressuring her to finish writing this book...and why? Cuz, I want to know how it ends! It's a page-turner..can't put it down!

Letter from Birmingham Jail

One of the readings assigned to us in my philosophy course, many years ago, was "Letter from Birmingham Jail" my Martin Luther King Jr. It is a fantastic read, not only relevant to the civil rights issues he was fighting in his day, but also to people everywhere: the oppressed, the opressor, those fighting oppression and those just standing by.

The letter was written to 8 clergymen from Alabama who had criticized King for coming to Alabama to peacefully protest the social injustices occuring there. They called his actions "unwise and untimely." You can read the full text of the letter here.

Here are just a few of the quotes that stood out to me:

"Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere. We are caught in an inescapable network of mutuality, tied in a single garment of destiny. "

"We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed."

"We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the hateful words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people."

"So often the contemporary church is a weak, ineffectual voice with an uncertain sound. So often it is an archdefender of the status quo. Par from being disturbed by the presence of the church, the power structure of the average community is consoled by the church's silent and often even vocal sanction of things as they are.
But the judgment of God is upon the church as never before. If today's church does not recapture the sacrificial spirit of the early church, it vi lose its authenticity, forfeit the loyalty of millions, and be dismissed as an irrelevant social club with no meaning for the twentieth century. Every day I meet young people whose disappointment with the church has turned into outright disgust."

I'm sure may who have read this letter, like me, have looked with disgust upon the clergymen who wrote the letter of disaproval to King. Who are these men, whom history has surely forgot? I did some research and wasn't able to find information about very many of them, save one: Joseph Aloysius Durick. At the time of the letter to King he was a catholic bishop in Birmingham. What happened to Mr. Durick after he got the response from Dr. King?...He changed Joseph Durick became an outspoken advocate for civil rights in the South. How did his congregation thank him? By branding him as a communist and a heretic.