Evidently, they do windows, too. Look at the shine on those things!

Now, is this skillful marketing, or what? I'm thinking the answer is "or what". I guess the store sells plants, but I'll bet they don't sell a lot of them.

Ah, planning. It doesn't always work out, does it? This place has been empty for at least a couple of years now. A very expensive error. Or con job. The building, that is. What genius decided that a high-end retail mall would be a success in the heart of Vancouver's Downtown Eastside? Say "Oops", boys and girls.

For some reason a cat that seems to be waving good-bye is a good luck symbol in a lot of Japanese restaurants. This isn't a Japanese restaurant, however. It's.....um....well, to be honest, I'm not sure what this place is. Other than the previously-pictured School of Hypnosis. Squirrel hypnosis, at that. So, a "bye-bye" kitty? I just dunno.

The glowing building in the background, however, is a place where folks whose luck has gone bye-bye often wind up. If they're lucky. Paradox - what a thing!

I've been a big fan of the New York Review of Books for a long (really, really long) time. Got an interest in art? Literature? Science? History? Politics? Philosophy? Anything? Go buy a copy.

Vancouver's a great place to go out for dinner in. It's a small town, and almost anywhere you might go will likely be in walking distance of your home. Which, as long as dinner goes on long enough, will give you lots of opportunity to wander slowly home, taking pictures.

There's a flaw in this story, I know, but....

Oh, and the "title" for this photograph is "Dive". For at least two reasons. Details - it's all in the details.

Soooooo, McCain won in South Carolina. Phew. Shows that there are at least some Republicans who aren't completely insane. Still, the fact that they're Republicans at all is some cause for worry.

And Hillary won in Nevada. I'm thinkin' you want Obama, folks. Don't get me wrong, Hills would be O.K., but she'll be pretty much status quo if she actually makes it to president. Obama might actually offer something new. And, with a little luck, that "new" thing might actually be better. It's worth a shot. Things pretty obviously can't get any worse.

Take your choice in Chinatown.

I think I've mentioned this before - Vancouver's got the world's most colourful "bad" end of town. Things may be falling apart, no one's got any money, but - wow! - somebody's got access to paint.

I know, I know - you're thinking, "Gees, could this guy boost the saturation any further?!?". Well, I didn't boost it at all. This is exactly how it is. Which makes me wonder - is my town just unusual? Are the crappy parts of other cities really gray and dingy? 'Cause they sure aren't around here. You want colour? Go to the downtown eastside. Want drab? Follow the money.

Maybe it's just that most people who photograph in areas like this seem to have a preference for shooting in black and white. Preferably with lots of grain. Maybe "gray" just says "poverty" better?

Heading home from a hard day at work.

Speaking of which, this Sunday I get to play Santa Claus. Uh-oh.

While our pals to the south are enjoying Thanksgiving, our mighty Refor......er, Conservative government is, once again, displaying its "Musharrafian" ("Opposition? I see no opposition) tendencies. And doing its utmost to delay any meaningful moves on the climate disaster.

And, while we're on the subject of some things never changing, there's this review from the New York Times of a recent Sly and the Family Stone concert. I went to one of their concerts in (oh, golly) 1969? and it was exactly the same. Wait, wait, wait some more, wait, here they come, they're coming, wait, wait, wait, yes!, no, yes!, 3 songs, gone. You've got to admire consistency. And the music. Of course, if you plan on admiring the music, you're probably best to admire it on CD.

On the other hand, some things do - and for the worse. Sorry, folks, but I made the grievous error of updating my template. "It's new! It's fun! It's easy!", quoth the Boneheads of Blogger. It ain't. You'll notice the layout's now completely screwed up. Now, were I at all interested in learning HTML (or whatever Blogger uses), I'm sure I could fix it all up in almost no time (depending on your notion of what constitutes "no time"), but I'm not. The old template worked the way computers are supposed to work for most of us - "Yeah, that's what I want - click." And, looking for help on Blogger's pointless, too. Can you say, "opaque"? Oh, well. We'll all adjust, won't we?

It's morons like this who ensure that people and places like this don't change. Unless, of course, there's big real estate money to be made.

I think these guys moved off-shore a looooonnnnngg time ago.

And, speaking of "Duh!"...

Though I have to admit I do like to see stupidity get what it deserves. Charlie Hilton (any relation, do you think, to Gay Paree Hilton? He seems to have the requisite low I.Q.) would be a prime case, just waiting to be hit with the Stupid Stick.

Come on in! We got it all!

Just more of the rapidly vanishing part of Vancouver's downtown.

I suppose, in this neighbourhood, you might be considered lucky to be able to afford a room in this fine establishment, but.......

Royalty just ain't what it used to be.

I think I've mentioned "The Strobist" before. If I haven't, well, click the link over on the right. I've never been a big fan of flash photography - maybe because I never really understood how to use it properly. Well, reading the information provided on that site has gotten me curious. Damn. I hate that, 'cause it means I'm going to have to spend money. But, if you're nervous about off-camera flash and want to learn how to use it (and you do want to learn, even if you don't know it yet), this is definitely the place to go.

Not that it's not without stress. I've got a Nikon D50. Nikon says, over and over again, "Oooooh, boy! Don't ever, ever, ever use anybody else's flash but ours! Oh no, oh no, oh no - you could totally fry your camera if you do!". But, Nikon's flashes cost pretty much as much as a new camera! Sooooooo, having read that Vivitar 285 HVs work fine (and, since I've got an old 283 that was fantastic on my old FM), I decided to buy a 285 and see what happened. I bought it last Saturday. And stared at it for the rest of the day. And half of Sunday. What if it fried my camera? Did I really want to replace it if things went hellishly wrong? I'd have to buy either a D40x or a D80. The former is affordable, the latter not so much (not that that would have stopped me). I finally gathered my courage Sunday afternoon. I hooked everything up. I tripped the shutter. And, as you've probably guessed by now, everything worked fine. Very big sigh of relief. And now you can look forward to "interesting" flash photos. Maybe. We'll see.

But, do check out "The Strobist". Darn good stuff.