Over the past couple years I’ve established this as a photography blog unsullied by excessive amounts of these pesky word-things, largely because I spend much more time these days taking photos than I do putting together word-things but also because it seems to function well as a humble record of the local events I photograph.

I’ve been pretty happy with this arrangement…until recently, when a certain blogger friend of mine started pestering me for a guest post for his blog.  I hemmed and hawed for a little while — okay, for several months — until I finally glued together a bundle of nouns and verbs for his blog.  I thought that was the end of it…until last week, when I glued together another bundle of nouns and verbs for another blogger friend.  If you’re curious and haven’t yet seen the posts, here’s what you need to know:

The first post appeared over at Ricky Anderson’s blog.  It’s a relatively lengthy piece detailing my perspective on life as a Euphemism-American.  If you don’t know what a Euphemism-American is, then you should go read the post.

The most recent post appeared over at robshep.com.  It’s a shorter piece detailing the efficiency of the A-Team’s methods and how their expertise could help the federal government with its debt problem.  I gave it to Rob because Ricky has never seen the original A-Team.  (I’ll wait while you pick your jaw up off the floor.)  If you’ve never seen the A-Team, it might not make much sense to you.

If you just come here for the pictures and don’t much care what I have to say with all those word-things, then you should probably forget you ever read this post.  Otherwise…enjoy.

The 2008 Stronghold Christmas card is done!

Front:

Inside:

Back:

(You can see the 2007 card here, and you can purchase it here.  This year’s card will be available for next Christmas.)

High School Staff Farewell for Ron Mead (9 June 2008).

The CHS staff held a farewell lunch for Ron Mead.  After lunch, they presented Mead with the use of a Ford Thunderbird (generously provided by Palmer Ford) for the last few days of school.

(Full gallery.)

A couple weeks ago, Artist Ashley told me about the Circle of Art, a fundraiser the Saline Picture Frame Company holds to benefit Food Gatherers, a local organization dedicated to feeding the hungry. The fundraiser asks local artists to donate works of art, which SPFC then auctions, and the proceeds from the auction — which begins online and ends at a party at the store — are donated to Food Gatherers. I liked the idea, so I submitted an 8×10 of a photograph from my trip to Dayton last summer:

The photograph is now on the SPFC website, and bidding is now open, so go check it out and place a bid! Do it soon, because online bidding ends this Saturday (17 May). Come on … you know you want to own a real print of a real Burrill Strong photograph and help out Food Gatherers at the same time. It’s for a good cause! (And I don’t mean my artistic ego! Although that may be a good cause, too.)

Also, I can’t neglect to mention Artist Ashley’s piece. I’ve seen a similar piece of hers in person, so I can confidently say that this piece is 100% certified awesome. See, I’m giving you a choice here: if you’re not so much into photography but you like crazy-cool fine art, you can bid on Ashley’s piece. There’s something for everyone!

So, who wants to bid on my photograph and on Ashley’s piece? You want to bid on my photograph and on Ashley’s piece!

If you delved into my family history, you’d find a number of good solid British names, including the name Goodenough (which is, of course, not pronounced as it looks). In a recent fit of Googleosity, I took a wander through the internet to see what those nutty Goodenough folks are doing these days.

Probably for obvious reasons, one particular site caught my eye: in the beautiful country of New Zealand, there is a photographer named Stephen Goodenough. And, as this particular shot of his site shows, his work exhibits all kinds of awesome.

I prefer to believe that I am distantly related to him; therefore, I prefer to believe that it is genetically inevitable that I will produce equally all-kinds-of-awesome photography.

I know my almost week-long absence from the Mindreader has been a hardship, but take heart: I am back. I left for Kansas — the state, not the band — on Thursday, and I returned on Monday, and now my car and I are experiencing a bit of separation anxiety.

Anyway, be sure to come back. I will be posting a few pictures from Kansas.

If you’ve noticed the links along the right side of the page, you may have noticed the link to Uni Watch.  I’ve been reading Uni Watch for a while now; it’s a great place to find commentary and obscure observations pertaining to the details of sports uniforms.

Last summer, I managed to get myself mentioned in one of the posts, thanks to an Ohio town named Uniopolis; on Thursday, I managed to get a link to this very blog.  I sent Paul Lukas, the man behind Uni Watch, a link to my recent post concerning those pesky Esurance ads, and he saw fit to mention that “pretty amusing blog entry” in Thursday’s Uni Watch post.

What makes this particular linking notable is its effect on my site statistics:

The first two days of May were reasonably typical for my site (maybe a bit above-average), and April was a good month to this point in my site’s existence.  Until Uni Watch linked, anyway.  Then everything exploded, and I got more unique visitors in the first three days of May than I got in the entire month of April.

Not too long ago in this space, as I was giving my impressions of my MacBook, I said I would soon be acquiring a 20″ Apple Cinema Display for my photo work. Well, the time has come.

No, your eyes do not deceive you: it is awesome.  (Believe me, I can’t photoshop that kind of awesome into a picture.)

(If you’re curious, the desktop picture is from a Chelsea baseball game at Ann Arbor Huron last year.)

Some impressions after a couple weeks of exploring my MacBook:

• The Dashboard and its many available widgets are fun. I can see why Gates and His Merry Band of Bloated Software Purveyors decided to incorporate a similar idea into Vista.
• iDVD? Amazing. Seriously. My team DVDs are (I think) more attractive productions, and they’re easier to make. For that part of my work, iDVD went a long way towards justifying the cost of the MacBook.
• For some reason, Firefox does not like to cooperate with certain page elements (flash or java applets). Sometimes they display, sometimes they don’t; typically, they display only if I scroll down so they’re at the very top of the screen. I have no such problems with Safari. Out of curiosity, I may try Mozilla’s Mac-specific Camino browser to see if I like it.
• I don’t know if this is my imagination or not, but it seems to be a bit more mysterious about its inner workings. It seems a bit hesitant to communicate even things like, “Hey, I’m really busy thinking right now, give me a moment.” Really, that’s not much of an issue; it’s just a difference I may not always like. But let’s be honest: it’s not like the countless cryptic messages and error codes of Windows are particularly informative.
• The remote is fantastic. I love it. It may not be a true necessity, but it’s nice to have. Like power steering and elevators.
• The monitor is a bit of a sardine can — this 13-inch display has a slightly higher resolution than does the 15-inch on my Dell — but I knew that would be the case before I bought the ‘Book. From the start, I planned to buy a larger monitor for photo editing purposes (both for photographic accuracy and so my eyes don’t have to focus on small objects for long periods of time); since spring sports will begin soon, that purchase is in the very near future. Most likely purchase: the 20″ Apple Cinema Display (but refurbished, so cheaper).
• On the positive side of the sardine can: it’s small. Very portable. And yet the keyboard is pleasant to use. That, I think, is a major accomplishment.
• The apple on the front lights up. It means nothing for performance, but it’s worth some cool points.

Overall: I like it. No buyer’s remorse here.

When last we left the story, my chair at the university looked sad and lonely, like a Michigan State football coach who just realized the astounding futility of his job. It’s been a week, and my chair almost certainly continues to be sad and lonely. But this is not about an inanimate piece of university property (my chair, not the men’s basketball team); this is about the inanimate piece of blog author whose words you are reading.

The end of my temp position left me with a world of options, if “a world” can be translated to mean “I have no idea what’s going on.” As my last day approached, I assumed I would fill the void simply by seeking another MoFri job teeming with equally menial minutiae, gathering a regular paycheck while living a cell phone life (coming alive in the evenings and on the weekends). It was the safe, obvious option.

If you’ve been reading this site for any length of time, I’m sure you’ve noticed an unusual number of photographs of high school sporting events; this is a pursuit of mine that has grown significantly over the last year or two, as I have gained further experience and equipment. The response to my efforts has been pleasantly positive, and I have enjoyed the time I’ve spent around the teams; as one who enjoys both photography and sports, it has been a natural fit.

Despite that, I never saw it as a potentially serious career. I thought I should just keep it on the side, doing what I could outside my work schedule. Trying to make a living mostly off high school sports photography? That’s not safe, right? Not for a while, at least. So even though I enjoyed my photography, I assumed it would take a back seat to that desk job that had to be out there somewhere.

As it turned out, God wasn’t focused on the safe, obvious option. I suppose that shouldn’t be surprising; He often has a much larger view than we (I) ever do. While I kept looking at the safe option, God kept nudging me with the option I’d discarded as unrealistic. And over the course of one weekend, when the thought of seriously pursuing photography wouldn’t leave me alone, I went from scarcely considering it as a possibility to considering it my primary choice. Or more accurately, God took me from one to the other. If left to my own devices, I’d probably try to be as safe as that kid wearing a life vest and floaties in swim class. And, like that kid, I’d be totally safe … but I’d never learn much of anything.

So, when my job ended on 06 March, I left my position as Minister of Menial Tasks and Other Minutiae, and I accepted the position of Minister of Myriad Megapixels.

I could elongate this post with piercing narratives and pithy anecdotes from the last week (like the humor of telling people, “I don’t have a job! Oh, and I bought a computer”), but the fruit of today’s efforts sums up everything quite nicely.

Lest you think I have gone off the deep end, let me assure you: I’ve actually gone off only the somewhat deep end. If my photography ventures don’t yet generate enough to keep me out of the poorhouse, I will eventually supplement that business with one of those aforementioned desk jobs.

But you never know what tomorrow holds.

“Many are the plans in a man’s heart,
but it is the Lord’s purpose that prevails.”
Proverbs 19:21