citizen of the planet

Just a few words on the new banner up top.  Prior to selecting an image I decided that I’d pick out the theme’s blue scheme for the month.  Having decided on that bit, I set out to pick a picture that suited that hue.  Going through my photos I found a picture of Niagara Falls that I had archived.  I have a lot of pictures of the Horseshoe Falls, but for composition I decided to pick this one of the American side.

So, the first thing I did was resize and crop it to an eye-catching portion.  I then adjusted the white balance.  For outside photos, the white balance tends more toward bluer light.  After that I used an automatic saturation balancing tool, which cranked up the blue saturation even more.  The result is the image in the banner, which really does look like a painting; the blueness of the Niagara river is rather striking.

The original image can be found below for reference.

I’m really exhausted today.  I just spent a surprisingly satisfying good chunk of the day at Niagara Falls.  I’ll write more about that in another post.  However, of interest for this post was the fact that I ran into someone unexpectedly.  Actually it was more like the guy found me.  I was standing outside of the souvenir/gift shop at the Maid of the Mist docks waiting for my family to come out when someone passed by in front of me, stopped, turned around and called out my name.  Turns out it was a cousin of mine from New Jersey.  I was either too busy being focused on the gift shop doors, or just completely zoned out (sometimes I have trouble distinguishing between my focused and inattentive states) that I didn’t even notice him passing by in front of my face. No matter–he found me. He was travelling with friend and their girlfriends. In a burst of excitement, the big guy went in for a hug and I obliged. However, he squeezed harder than I was prepared for and lifted me off the ground.

I guess this is where I wanted to bring this story. A guy like me that weighs about 200 seldom gets lifted off the ground–it’s against the mother nature’s natural order. So, this act of lifting left me feeling mildly violated.

Hey, don’t get me wrong. I like my cousin. Just…that…
Jason should never be lifted off the ground unwillingly.
Declared it. Stamped it.