Bill, Black & White, Blogging, Eric, Formal Portrait, Jay, Jesse, Movies, Willy, Writing

Formulaic Catechism

November 30, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

As the year is winding down and I am trying to set aside more time for photo projects I have decided to do something a little bit different with this Journal in the month of December. I’ve decided to reflect on the accomplishments and failures of this past year. The tool that I am going to utilize to do this reflection is the Proust Questionnaire.

I’m sure a few people are familiar with the Proust Questionnaire. It is often used in celebrity interviews. You will find it on the last page of Vanity Fair and at the end of interviews by the heinous James Lipton.

The Proust Questionnaire is named after Marcel Proust. I don’t know if anybody actually reads Proust, but I think just about as many people pretend to read Proust as pretend to read Joyce. He is widely considered to be one of the greatest authors of all-time. His life is best summed up by this line of dialogue from the movie Little Miss Sunshine:

“Yeah. French writer. Total loser. Never had a real job. Unrequited love affairs. Gay. Spent 20 years writing a book almost no one reads. But he’s also probably the greatest writer since Shakespeare. Anyway, he uh… he gets down to the end of his life, and he looks back and decides that all those years he suffered, Those were the best years of his life, ’cause they made him who he was. All those years he was happy? You know, total waste. Didn’t learn a thing.”

But Proust did not create the questionnaire. The questionnaire was a a popular parlor game in Britain in the 19th century. It was taken by friends and families and the questions were meant to reveal something about the tastes, aspirations and personality of the person taking it.

Although this game died out at the the beginning of the 20th century, its spirit still lives on in the form of the quizzes and surveys that people fill out on social networking websites like Facebook and MySpace. An activity in which I never engage, so it might come as somewhat shocking to some that I am going to engage in this little experiment.

There are 35 questions on the Proust Questionnaire. Most likely, I will answer about 22 of those questions. I will pick out the 22 least interesting questions to answer and leave the other 13 answers to your imagination.

I do invite you to answer these questions as well in the comments section of this Journal.

However, while thinking about this questionnaire and some of the interactions I have had in the last few days I has reminded me of some photo projects I abandoned a few years back. It was definitely for the best that one of these projects was abandoned.

A few of you might remember some of these pictures and the nature of these projects from the old RMB Picture of the Day days.

The Labels Project

A Scene from the Woods

I hope you enjoy my self-serving look back on 2009.

Birthdays, FNSC, Jay, Willy

Happy Turkey Day!

November 26, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

This day is often referred to as Turkey Day in the slacker way that some people use to be overly casual about certain events in a weak attempt to display aloofness in the vain hope that they will be perceived as cool.

I am not one of those people. I can not be cool about a day that is as impotant as today. Although Willy has numerous deficiencies and I would be willing to list them for you on almost any day of the week, I do not think that he deserves to be referred to as a turkey. A bird that is both unintelligent and wretched to look at.

Willy is not a turkey. He is not even a jive turkey. Willy is merely Willy and while I have let many an important birthday slip by in the last few months, I cannot stand idly by while a member of FNSC celebrates the anniversary of his birth.

I say to you William McAlpine: Happy Birthday! You are not a turkey. Probably not a wolf either, but certainly not a turkey.

For more quality images of Willy, click on the link below:

William Ernest McAlpine

Old age never looked so good!

Blogging

Meat in a Can

November 25, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

This a journal entry that is bound to be of very little interest to most, but a little general housekeeping must be done.

The website has been hit by small amounts of Spam lately. I have had to make a couple of small and not that regrettable changes to prevent this from happening in the future.

There are not many people that leave comments on this Journal, but the handful of people that do will notice that they will have to fill out a little CAPTCHA form to leave a comment now. This is not meant to dissuade people from leaving comments. In fact, having comments left on the Journal is one of my favorites. This little added security procedure will prevent me from having to delete unwanted and unnecessary advertisements.

The other change can be found in the LINK DELETED and the LINK DELETED. People can no longer register themselves through the galleries. The galleries became very popular with a couple of big spamming companies and spending time deleting unwanted users was becoming tedious.

Therefore, if anybody would like a Username and password to have access to the extra features of the gallery, you will need to write me at bennett@photography139.com. I will gladly set you up with an account, so that you can enjoy the extra features of the galleries that come with membership:

DELETED LINKS

I understand these to not be the most popular features out there (only 1 picture has ever warranted a comment and only 20 or so pictures have been rated), but I still hope that they will catch on at some point.

Alexis, Art, Black & White, Candid Portrait, Carla, Elainie, Formal Portrait, Jason, Mom, Olympic Sports, Road Trip, Teresa

Be Aggressive!

November 24, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

On Sunday I descended into the depths of Missouri and Kansas on Sunday to watch Alexis compete in competitive cheerleading.

I had spoken with our Associate Pastor Andrea about good barbecue joints in Kansas City and she recommended Jack Stack for ribs and Oklahoma Joe’s for sandwiches. I looked into both places and found that there was a Jack Stack in the same suburb as the competition so we checked it out.

In a word… divine!

Everything was great. The fried mushrooms, the warm carrot cake, the ribs, the burnt ends, the beans… everything. I was particularly impressed with a cheesy corn side dish. Teresa is researching the recipe and we (meaning not me) are going to try to replicate it for our Thanksgiving meal.

I should point out that the carrot cake was one of the top 3 desserts I have ever had from a restaurant. Right up there with the tiramisu from Cosi Cucina or the warm chocolate cake from the cruise.

Photographing moving targets in low light does not make for the best pictures, but please enjoy a few pictures from the day:

Statue in front of Jack Stack

Alexis

Elainie

Mom

Looking over the program.

Jason

Carla

Iowa All-Stars

Now we get to the point of the pictures where it is more or less: “Where’s Alexis?”

Write down your answers to “Where’s Alexis?” and mail them to bennett@photography139.com. A winner will be randomly selected from all correct entries.

Teresa

Mom

Can you imagine what this many cheerleaders (and their moms) in one room sounds like?

Carla

Elainie

Elainie photographing.

We are the champions, my friends…

The Bennett women. I know Teresa will complain about this picture, but it was the only one of the 3 pictures I took where Mom doesn’t look drugged out.

The medal.

I’m going to call this Alexis’ gangsta look.

No comment.

It was a good trip, but I was glad to get back out of the state of Missouri. Very glad.

Art, Flowers, Kelly

Window Project #2

November 23, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett 5 Comments

Kelly’s salon recently had their Grand Re-opening after all of their remodeling.

I hadn’t put a picture up in Salon 908 since the remodeling, so I decided to do a window project for the salon.

For a closer look at Window Project #2, you will need to go to Salon 908.

Below is a closer look at the pictures for this project. It should be noted that the pictures below aren’t in the same proportions as they are presented in the window.

4 other pictures were under consideration for Window Project #2, but were rejected for various reasons. The rejected pictures:

I will be starting work on Window Project #3 possibly as early as in a couple of days. But most likely it will wait until the beginning of December. I do need to start giving some consideration to whether or not there will be a Photography 139 2010 calendar in the near future.

Derrick, Football, Iowa State, Jen

Last 2 Home Games

November 20, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

I’ve posted a few pictures from the Iowa State’s last two home games in the Snapshots Gallery.

A few of my favorites from the Oklahoma State game…

Warming Up

James Smith and Banks

This picture might be a statement on the one sided nature of this game, but while watching the water girls we determined that Oklahoma State has a disturbing hierarchy in their water girls. Certain water girls were allowed on the field while other water girls just hung out at this massive Gatorade table. But you could tell what water girls were high ranking and which ones weren’t based on their eye apparel. The high ranking water girls wore sunglasses. They did this throughout the entire game. Even after the sun had went down.

National Anthem

Only the Cowboy place kicker wore these special orange shoes. Whatever showboat!

And the winner for dumbest looking mascot to enter Jack Trice Stadium is…

Robinson on the run.

OSU also had a disturbing amount of people loitering on their sidelines. Including this lady with the world’s ugliest purse. (I don’t really have opinions on purses other than I don’t want to hold yours for you.)

Garrin on the tackle.

Tiller’s brief appearance.

Logan took Jesse’s ticket. I wish he would have been able to see a better game, but that is the nature of being a Cyclone fan.

Jen took Jesse’s ticket to the Colorado game. She saw a much better game from the Cyclones. It was exciting because it was the first time Jen has seen the Cyclones win in person. Plus, now we are bowl eligible.

Parents on Senior Day.

Hamilton.

Robinson.

Hamilton’s touchdown grab!

It takes 4 Colorado players to tackle Arnaud.

Cy!

Not on Banks’ watch!

Lenz

Arnaud slipping.

There has been some debate on whether or not the ISUCFVMB dancing was cool or lame. I will leave it to your discretion.

There is no denying that ISUCFVMB seniors leaving their shoes on the field is a cool tradition though.

Post-game Celebration

Even though it got cold in the 2nd half, Jen toughed it out! Adding another line to her “Super-wife” resume. I do believe that her toughness may have inspired somebody to join us for a game next year. In fact, I know this for a fact!

Cyclone Win!

More pictures can be found in the Iowa State – 2009.

6 wins makes Iowa State bowl eligible, but it doesn’t guarantee that we will go to a bowl game. Iowa State beating Missouri would clinch a bowl game.

I have seen Iowa State projected to go to either the Insight Bowl or the Independence Bowl. I hope these projections are correct. Either way: GO STATE!!!!

Becca, Tim

Wednesday Surprise

November 18, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

I usually spend Wednesday nights at open gym honing my basketball craft to a fine art. I had plans of continuing this honing on this Wednesday night, but it wasn’t to be.

As I was working away at the Computer Mine, my phone rang. The smiling face (not really smiling) that looked back at me when I picked up my phone was Becca. This was somewhat of a surprise because I haven’t talked to Becca in a few months, but not a complete surprise because this week was supposed to be Closing Day on Bethany’s new house. I thought the call would be related to that adventure, but it wasn’t.

Becca was in town and wanted to know if I had plans for the night.

I told her I didn’t have any plans that I couldn’t break for her.

She suggested we meet up for supper and as a bonus, I would get to meet her boyfriend Gelli.

I told her it was a deal.

I decided to shaft on basketball. Not only was Becca a higher priority, but after my performance on Sunday I know that the full arsenal of my basketball game is coming back. To practice my game even more would be the equivalent of a capital gains tax cut. The rich get richer.

Sure, some of that wealth would trickle down to the poorer players through my greatness. Assists, offensive rebounds, help defense, drawing double-triple-quadruple teams, zone stretching outside range and zone collapsing post moves are just some of the examples of ways that my teammates would feel the trickle of my wealth.

But, to improve too much more just seems greedy.

My game might have suffered slightly, but I had a great supper with Becca, Gelli, Tim and Barb.

After the dinner, I did take a picture of Becca and Gelli.

The classic Becca fake portrait smile. I prefer the Becca smirk.

But any time you can get her to have her picture taken is a victory. No matter the facial expression.

Christianity, Mark

The Taiwan Times – October 2009

November 17, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

Mark’s monthly newsletter from Taiwan.

The Taiwan Times
By Mark Wolfram
Reporting on God’s Mission in Taiwan
October 2009

“Rags! Rags! Rags for sale! Give me your old ones, I will give you new ones.” Have you ever felt like you had struggles, difficulties, or shortcomings that you continually deal with? Would you like to trade all of those “dirty rags” for a fresh clean one? This is the main focus regarding one of the skits we performed recently out here in Taiwan. It is titled, simply, “The Rag Man.”

The Rag Man is a nonverbal skit, with guitar played in the background. In the drama a strong, energetic man walks around and takes the dirty rags of people with problems, and replaces them with a new, clean rag. In our version of the skit, there was a person with headaches, a person out in the cold, a person crying, and a person with a broken leg. For each person, the Rag Man took away their problem. In the process, they received healing, and the Rag Man in turn began to experience their pain. The drama ends as they Rag Man, having taken all of the pain, stumbles around and finally falls dead. However, a little later is back to life, good as new, showing that he is stronger than death.

The symbolism, should be obvious. The Rag Man is Jesus, taking our sins and shortcoming on himself, and while he died, he rose again in victory. We have new life, “new rags” because of him. This fall, some Americans teachers and I performed this skit on two different occasions, and I would like to use this newsletter to share with you the ministry opportunities God gave us in those settings.

The first one was on the Saturday evening of Moon Festival. Moon Festival is the traditional fall holiday in which families get together, eat a big meal and celebrate the autumn. I liken it most to our celebration of Thanksgiving, however this is a bit of a stretch because it is not specifically set aside as a time of thankfulness. But nonetheless, I hope this gives a little perspective.

This year on Moon Festival, Glory Lutheran Church (our principal’s church) organized an evening program and meal for people living in a community near Concordia Middle School. The event was being put together for people who lost their homes or had severe damage from the typhoon that hit this past August. It is part of an on-going outreach by Glory Church to the people in this community. As part of the program, Principal Lin asked if any American teachers would be willing to perform a drama for the people. We did, and we used the Rag Man skit to help share the message of Jesus in a visual way. After the skit, Christy Lu (one of our Taiwanese friends) explained the idea behind the skit in Chinese to help non-Christians connect the action with the Gospel.

The second place we performed the skit was at the Senior High Chapel Service. Every Friday at CMS, students from 8-12th grade can voluntarily attend chapel from 7:30-8:15. (The school also has mandatory chapel for the 7th graders every Thursday morning at the same time.) Usually 3-4 times a semester, the Religion Department will ask the American teachers to take a chapel service. Last week, we lead the High Schoolers in songs, Bible reading, and performed the Rag Man skit. While the students are often quieter for songs at that time of the morning, all of them seemed to be paying attention to the skit, and all of them had the chance to read Bible verses both in English and in Chinese. It was a wonderful opportunity to share the message with the students here at school.

It’s Prayer Time!

1. Praise God for these chances to share the Good News through skit, and pray for those who were at both performances.

2. Pray that God would work in their lives, and also pray for the Religion Department and Glory Church in their continuing ministry in those areas.

3. Pray for my teaching, that I would also be ready to share the love of Jesus with my students, in what ever capacity God presents it.

4. Pray for Andrew, Ben and I as we plan the upcoming missionary retreat which will take place the first weekend in December.

Thanks for your continued prayer and support. May the love of Christ and his true peace be upon you all!

Mark

Blogging, History

An Old Newspaper

November 16, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett 2 Comments

This is journal entry number 700.

I started this online journal on August 9, 2006. These were the first words that I typed out:

So here is the first journal entry. I felt like having as pretentious sounding name as possible for my journal. I have a few goals about this journal. My main goal is just to actually write in it. My second goal is to be as truthful as possible towards my true thoughts and feelings. I have another journal on another website, but it is really just a collection of sarcastic statements and cheap jabs at open faced sandwiches. This journal is meant to be about what my achievements and failures are in the world of art. What projects I am working on and what I have accomplished and what I have failed to accomplish. What I am photographing and what I am thinking about entering in photo contests. What I am thinking about. It might not always make sense. It might just be things I need to write down because they strike me as poignant or inspirational. This is in a small way an online “idea box”.

I do also have a goal of producing something that makes me worthy of having a pretentious sound journal title like: “An Artist’s Notebook”.

For better or for worse, this journal has enlarged its scope to include a lot more about me and my every day life than was originally intended. I think that is okay. It is dangerous to remain static.

I mentioned in The Jupiter Chronicles that Jupiter had helped clean out my Grandpa’s garage.

We arrived at the garage under the pretense that we were going to take a cursory glance at some of my grandpa’s tools. I had already made up my mind that I didn’t need any more tools, but when I got there I noticed the most wonderful pile of garbage.

I didn’t take any tools, but I did take a couple of trunks, a milk jug, a milk crate and a small old barn door. That is just to name a few of the treasures that I saved from the landfill.

In one of the old trunks I found an old newspaper that my grandpa had saved. It was a copy of The Daily Iowan (Iowa City’s newspaper) from Thursday, February 10, 1949.

I found it interesting to look through the old newspaper and I found one picture in the paper particularly fascinating.

It is doubtful that the picture is the reason he kept the newspaper. I think it is more likely that he kept the news paper for an article on Robert Mitchum getting busted for marijuana possession.

IMAGE LOST

Family lore holds that Grandpa shared a bunk with Robert Mitchum during WWII. It also holds that Grandpa hated Robert Mitchum because he was so lazy. It might be where I get my general disdain for lazy people.

The picture that I found fascinating was of a passerby giving first aid to a man that was shot by a gunman who had barricaded himself in a YMCA.

IMAGE LOST

In light of the tragedy at Fort Hood, it reminds me that this type of barbaric behavior is not a recent invention. It has been around for a long time.

I have not decided whether or not I consider that to be a reason to be hopeful about the future of man or pessimistic about the future of man.

Animals, Baier, Basketball, Boone FUMC, Cousin Amy, Derrick, FNSC, Jay, Jen, Logan, Nader, Sara, Scottie D.

The Jupiter Chronicles

November 13, 2009 Christopher D. Bennett

The day before Halloween was a very special Friday Night Supper Club. It was special because I hosted it, The guest list was expanded, we had Casey’s taco pizza and Jay made the dessert.

Why these special things occurred can be traced back to one thing. At that FNSC I took custody of Sara’s pride and joy – Jupiter Moon.

Sara was heading to Florida for a Junck family vacation and she entrusted her 4 year old cockapoo to my care for a week. Sara decided to make the transfer at FNSC. I decided that it would be best if I hosted FNSC so that Jupiter wouldn’t just be dumped into a strange house without any familiar faces. Sara brought some additional familiar faces: Anirban, Cousin Amy, Jen and Derrick.

Jen put in a request for the Casey’s taco pizza and her wish was granted.

At about 11:30 the guests packed up and left Jupiter behind. He was not very happy to be left behind, but it began our week together. A week where I was reminded of the responsibilities of dog ownership that will face me in the spring. A week where I had an opportunity to man Jupiter up, just a slight bit.

The first night was a little bit rough. Neither one of us slept particularly well. Jupiter spent almost the entire night staring at the front door. He would occasionally join me in the bedroom, but he would just stare out my bedroom door for a few seconds and then return to his post in the living room. Staring at the front door.

Jupiter spent most of Saturday morning looking depressed. When Sara texted to ask how he was doing, I responded that he was suffering from Post-Sara Depression.

Sara texted back that she though all creatures suffered from Post-Sara Depression.

I took Jupiter outside and he helped me take down and store all of the yard furniture for the winter.

By the afternoon, Jupiter was less depressed and more or less just subdued. We listened to the Iowa State football game, made spiced apple cider and nachos.

Near the conclusion of the game, Jay came over and started his annual pumpkin carving. Jupiter seemed intrigued by this and enjoyed greeting trick-or-treaters.

After the trick-or-treaters, we watched a couple of old horror movies and went to bed. Jupiter tried to sleep with me, but he wanted to sleep on top of me. He figured out that wasn’t going to work and spent the night on the couch.

On Sunday, I got up early and tailgated for church. Only 3 of us showed up for the tailgate, but the revolution was definitely on. After church, I attended a Methodist Men Board meeting, where we discussed the upcoming chicken noodle brunch.

On my way home, my mom called and asked if I wanted to look over any of grandpa’s tools. I could have any of them that I wanted.

I was planning on taking Jupiter for a walk in the park and I knew that I didn’t want any tools, so I loaded Jupiter in the car for what I thought was going to be a quick look at some tools and then a trip to the park.

As it turns out, this was actually a clean everything out of the garage mission and while I didn’t take any of the tools, I took several things out of the “garbage” pile.

Jupiter got to assist in the manly work of cleaning the garage. Unfortunately, by the time we finished, there was no longer any time for the park. I took Jupiter back home and headed to Prairie City with the Degeneffes to try the state’s reigning tenderloin champ.

Shortly after returning from that pilgrimage, I got my basketball gear together and heading to Ames for our opening games of the Ames Rec League. To start the season, we were schedule a double header!

I got home dog tired. I showered and fell asleep. Jupiter slept that night at my feet.

I always skip bowling on the first Monday of every month for my Trustees meeting. The meeting this month was fairly short. We mostly discussed cutting a pew off at one end and nothing else that I can remember.

After the meeting I took Jupiter for a walk. We walked about 1 mile. He peed (or at least stopped to lift his leg) 12 times.

Tuesday night I took Nader out for his birthday with the Baiers. Because I got home so late, Jupiter and I didn’t do anything manly.

Wednesday night I go to open gym to work on trying to recover some semblance of what used to be my basketball game. I also got home too late to do anything very manly.

Thursday night I took Jupiter to Jen and Derrick’s for a dog playdate with Bailey and Jackson.

Dog playdate didn’t go as well as we had hoped. Jackson and Jupiter seemed to get along well enough. At least they were able to ignore each other. Bailey and Jupiter did not end up being the best of buds. Jupiter was a little growly. This ended in a tiff where Bailey and Jupiter had words. Gyro Guy pizza ended up flying through the air and some smashed into the kitchen wall. A terrible waste.

Derrick took Bailey into the other room and gave her a lecture. I don’t know what he said, but Bailey was on good behavior rest of the night. Jupiter and Bailey never got all that buddy-buddy, but they didn’t come to blows. More importantly, no more Jeff’s Pizza had to be wasted.

On Friday I went to FNSC at Golden Corral. This was the first time that we have ever been to Golden Corral for FNSC. It was okay.

Afterwards, Jay came back to my place and we watched a cheerleader movie with Jupiter. I think this might have undone much of the work I had done in trying to man him up, but Sara insists that cheerleading is a sport, so it it okay.

Saturday morning, we woke up and did a little more work around the yard. I was glad to see that some of my hard work had paid off. Jupiter was actually enjoying being outside now.

I concluded my alone Jupiter time by watching College Game Day with him.

I picked up Logan and went to the Iowa State-Oklahoma State game. After the game, we met up with Sara and Anirban at Great Plains.

Then Sara came back to Boone and re-claimed Jupiter. He is back in Beaverdale, but I am posting a few pictures from his week with me.