PhotoHunt: Wild

i'm kind of backtracking, because i just started the photo hunt. this is the theme from the week of september 13th, 2008. WILD. this is my wild shiba inu, akira. okay, he's really yawning, but he looks fierce!

Photo Hunt: View

This is a view of the Black Sea through one of the church ruins in Old Nessebar, Bulgaria

Photohunt: Road

This is my first Photohunt- go to tnchick.com/photohunt to find out more

This is a shot from inside the car on the road from Koprivshitsa, Bulgaria

On The Road 1

in between ohio and pgh...

Finding Bulgaria in Pittsburgh (post 4)

On the Verizon building, there is a portal with a globe of the world rotating within. The point is that you can call anywhere in the world from Pittsburgh, I guess. Anyways, the boys took some time to find Bulgaria.

Bulgarians in Pittsburgh, Pt. 2 The Point

Bulgarians in Pittsburgh

Pavel, Other Pavel, Joro, and Rado with Roberto Clemente

on Roberto Clemente Bridge

walking by the Allegheny River

Me and Rado pose for a picture

to the Point

I know I said I'd post about my trip to Bulgaria, and I still plan to, but here is Bulgaria's trip to me! haha. The brother of Rado's sister-in-law was in Redding, PA for training and came with two other Bulgarian coworkers to visit us for a few hours... We had a blast and tried to compact the surrouding area into a few hours with success. We left on a walk from N. Side and travelled by Pirates (PNC) Stadium, went across Roberto Clemente bridge, walked along the river to the point, went to PPG Square and Market Square, ate at Primantis (A Pittsburgh Original). Then we continued our walk across Smithfield St. Bridge to Station Square, rode the incline to Mt. Washington and enjoyed the view, and walked them back to their rental car before heading off to a concert in Highland Park. What a Pittsburgh day! If they get to come longer next time we'll show them more of our lovely city, but they were very impressed by the city and said they enjoyed it more than Philadelphia or New York. That's right folks! Pittsburgh rules.

Me, Myself, and Sarah

You and me-- all that lights
upon us, brings us together
like a fiddle bow drawing
one voice from two strings
~Rilke

It all started when my name was on a poem by her, us both being in this magazine, us both being named Sarah. We dedicated our copies to ourselves, to each other. I guess it probably started before then, like when we met in poetry class, or when i gave her my mittens. We travelled together to Stratford, Ontario in 2001 and had a great time. We were separated by time and space, but reunited via e-mail, and in person in 2007. We still refer to each other as each other, and it's party a joke, but it is also partly true. We are kindred.

Puppet Photography

I've been getting professional-like photography gigs lately, as people have been impressed by my picture taking prowess ;). ha. I say professional-like, as they're not paying, but as favors to friends. I'm Chaibaba and Machete's unofficial concert photographer, I took some publicity photos for David Atkins of Go4 Design (with his Canon Digital Rebel, which was SWEET), and I took some shots of my friend Nancy's life size puppets for her portfolio. Here are a few of those that I am particularly pleased with.

Friendship is one mind in two bodies

text source: http://www.ambrosebierce.org/dictionary.htm
photo: me 'n' john the revelator

Feeding the Pigeons

Finished off a bag of dove seed. Have a slightly larger back of wild bird seed left, but in this cold it will be gone soon. Anyone want to donate to the feed the pigeons fund? just for the colder months ;)

Weather Almanac in Pictures

For some reason on the warmest day this winter and also on what felt like the coldest thus far, I decided to go for a walk. Now the warm day, most people can understand. The cold one, well I later met two others who went for a walk or bike ride that day just for pleasure and not to get anywhere, but on my walk, I didn't see anyone else who wasn't out there for necessity. According to historical weather data, the warm day January 8, 2008, was in fact the record warmest temperature for that date. Coming in at 69 degrees F, it beat the previous record holder by 3 degrees and 71 years (1937).
The pictures from Jan 8 are from Allegheny Commons and outside the Children's Museum in the North Side, and downtown.


The cold day was well below the average for that day, January 20th, 2008, but didn't get the record.

Jan 20 08 actual minimum temp: 5 F/ =15 C, Average min for Jan 20s: 19 F/ -7 C Record min for Jan 20s: -18 F/ -27 C in 1985. Hopefully I will be smart enough not to go out if it gets that cold this year!
The pictures from that day are from the old St. Nicholas R.C. Croatian Church. It was build in 1900-01, and closed in 2004. The Mary statue remains, but there were spaces where others used to be and I think they got rid of some of the stained glass and murals. Still interested architecture to look at, though.

Morning Walk in Allegheny Commons

This morning I was diverted from work to a walk in the Allegheny Commons park in the North Side. This is why I love that the spanish word "divertido" means "fun." Because when I get diverted from what I intended to do, the diversion often ends up being quite fun, and probably more fun than what I intended to do... Anyways, I got a little turned around in the park as I was probably too busy looking at everything, so it took me much longer than it should have to make my way through. However, the fruit of this is I have some neat pictures to share with you. I took them on my cell phone, so they are not the best quality, but I just really loved the yellow yellow leaves on the ground and the wrought iron fencing above the railroad tracks. I also liked all the juxtapositions of old buildings with newer downtown buildings in the distance and natural elements like the trees. Without further ado...

Gray Skies of Pittsburgh

When I was walking to my car in the Strip District this evening I was overcome by the heaviness of the air and the sheer depth of the sky. It had been gray all day, but now it was so complex and had a beauty of its own to rival a sunny sky. I only had my cell, so these pictures aren't the best, but...

What's an Adventure Without Friends?

They were in some of the previous South Side Slopes pictures, but this post is more specifically about my travelling companions in this journey, Vijay and Rachel. Vijay introduced me to the spot on the South Side Slopes, then we just drove randomly up narrow winding hills where you even have to go up steps to get to the sidewalks and there are tunnels through houses to get to the backyard. Here's one of the two of them:



Good thing they were there too, they picked me up when I fell down:


And they humoured my love of trees:

Here are two pictures that Rachel took-- I think she has a good eye for photo composition, don't you?:





Where does this road go?


Onto other places to explore: