Uploads from Photomaginarium, tagged geekbehindthecurtain

painting the town.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 05:34:38 -0700

Gainesville, Florida -- meet New York City!

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

one of the reasons i haven't been around much lately is i've been planning for an unexpected trip. yesterday afternoon i touched down in New York City after being flown up here from Gainesville, Florida by Yahoo/Flickr Studios. I'll be able to talk about that more soon. between planning and preparing for this trip, and my fiance being sick for the last five days, i haven't had much time to hang out here on Flickr -- but i'll be catching up on your streams as soon as i can.

this composite is made of a two shots (on 8 layers) plus a homemade cloud-shaped vignette. the first shot is of some college students at the paintwall on 34th street in Gainesville which I took candidly from the car as i was driving home from work on the 18th of April. the sunset skyline of New York City was taken last night from inside a train as it came out of the underground subway system.

i was extremely fortunate to meet up with Our Daily Challenge Flickr buddy PM Breakfast. today i'm proud to call him a friend. he graciously spent six hours or so showing me around town, walking me through his childhood haunts and memories, from his kindergarten and grammar school to his dorm and then his current neighborhood. we had an absolute blast, and topped off the evening watching the international space station fly over us while we stood by the East River. Dave is an awesome and deeply authentic human being who gave up a life and 15 years on Wall Street to pursue photography full-time. i strongly recommend his light hearted and expertly lit photos on his stream.

i'll see you soon. i've only got a few more hours to take shots here before flying home. may peace and inspiration be with you.

listening to silence.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 07:16:42 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

in memoriam, to the champions of Boston.

this is a repost. it was originally called "patterns of violence." instead of creating a new image today, i just wanted to have a moment of silence, both as a creator and as an ordinary human struggling to understand.

at this link below is a talk given by the Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh after the violence of 9/11.
its a difficult letter to read, even though it is simple and clear.
it helps me calm down, it helps me breathe, it even helps me grieve.
i don't know if it will help you or anyone else, but it is here.

(if you don't know Thich Nhat Hanh, he was nominated for a Nobel Peace Prize by Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in 1967.)

may love and peace lead you.

yours,
garth

every day is a good day when you create.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Wed, 10 Apr 2013 10:20:41 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

imagination is practice. fantasy is work. creativity is a muscle.

when you engage these processes with regular mindful intention and focused concentration, then it becomes more natural, more ordinary to bring your day dreams to life in front of you.

it sounds quite dull to say it but isn't it always the case that when we practice something it becomes easier?

i would rather eradicate the Myth of Talent and democratize Art itself so that it is shared equally and freely among people out of the pure enjoyment of doing so. certainly that's a better world than the one where we're taught at far too young an age who the inborn artists are, who has talent and who doesn't. that is a world of mental prisons, and everyone suffers. the world i'm working toward is filled with grandparents building photographic masterpieces right alongside their grandchildren. and everyone who delights in beauty, or the strange, comes out a winner.

if you want to sing, practice singing. sing in the shower. in the car. wherever you can.
if you want to paint, paint. if you want to sculpt, sculpt.

if you want to change the world, change it.

that power has always been inside you.

don't worry if you only change a small part of the world.
celebrate every corner made even slightly brighter by your compassionate, creative attention.

i'm proud to be learning right along side you.
and practicing with artists like yourself.
--
(an interlocking set of personal beliefs of mine, borne out by years of repetition.)

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

shot of a guy in a hoodie at a local fair (he's on 5 layers, variously blended, so that only part of him is "solid" and opaque while quite a bit of him is fading towards desaturization and transparency). shot of clouds from today (on 3 layers, variously blended). a bit of a shadow vignette layer, mostly at the bottom. and a shot of paint peeling off a wall at a local store downtown. that final shot was layered and flipped and rotated and blended on itself around 16 times, then sent through a fractalization filter, then bits of it were copied onto 3 layers -- in order to get this background.

set your F-Stop to Infinity.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Tue, 09 Apr 2013 03:05:46 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

go on. take it all in. let it all come clear ...

... in other words, as they sang in the 70s, "Free Your Mind -- And Your Ass Will Follow!"

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

this started out as a candid, hand-held, point-and-shoot shot of a guy playing hacky sack. he's on 4 layers now. also there's a shot of sky and clouds from yesterday morning, on 3 layers, and a layer of pure whit in back.

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Photomaginarium Prints available.

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the "sacred camera" series --

cosmic aperture.
mental shutter.
F-Stop to infinity.

mental shutter.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 06:47:08 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

Open the shutter of the mind and it will be flooded with light.
--
Sri Nisargadatta Maharaj (1897 - 1981)
(was an Indian spiritual teacher and philosopher of Advaita (Nondualism). According to Nisargadatta, the purpose of spirituality is to know who you are.

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Photomaginarium Prints available.

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art collage were taken and developed by myself.

this started out as a sunrise shot from this morning (basically two-and-a-half hours ago) that i took from my car while parked at a median (on my way to work). taken with my hand-held point-and-shoot canon. as usual, all processing was done in the "open source" (free) program called GIMP. (the birds are a shot, on mulitple layers, from january.) the sunrise and treeline are copied onto 3 layers, two of them filtered with smaller and larger "cubism" blocks, and all of them blended together with various opacities of "grain merge."

it's easy to learn to do shots like this, and available for everyone regardless of income. as you can see, this is done with the humblest of gear.

that's why i like to call it, "Digital-Age Recession-Era Folk Art."

so open the shutter of your mind ...!

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the "sacred camera" series --

cosmic aperture.
mental shutter.
F-Stop to infinity.

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Explore #5, April 8 2013. thanks SO much ... !!

cosmic aperture.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Sun, 07 Apr 2013 08:21:42 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

You are an aperture through which the universe is looking at and exploring itself.
--
Alan Watts

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Photomaginarium Prints available.

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art were taken and developed by myself.

this started out as a candid shot from yesterday that i took at an art fair, taken with my hand-held point-and-shoot canon. as usual, all processing was done in the "open source" (free) program called GIMP.

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the "sacred camera" series --

cosmic aperture.
mental shutter.
F-Stop to infinity.

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Explore #2, April 7, 2013.

the door opens inward.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Sat, 06 Apr 2013 15:52:06 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

How many times... have you encountered the saying, 'When the student is ready, the Master speaks?' Do you know why that is true? The door opens inward. The Master is everywhere, but the student has to open his mind to hear the Masters Voice.
--
Robert Anton Wilson, Masks of the Illuminati

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

the main shot from today is of the wrinkled fabric of a tent set up on a street for a local art fair, and the wind has just caught the side of the tent and filled it up like a sail. i shot this down a narrow path between two tents, but ended up not liking the lines of the second tent, so i mirrored the first one instead. after i mirrored the tent to get the new path, i copied the image onto 3 layers. the bottom layer was set to "normal," the middle layer set to "grain merge," and the top layer set to "multiply." doing this enhanced the details and soft shadows in the fabric. as a last touch i came back and added in a shot of my buddy Paul from about a year ago.

Explore #481, April 6 2013, then dropped.

celebrate life.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Fri, 05 Apr 2013 13:37:12 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

whenever you can ...

smiles are infectious. pass them around.

Explore #19, April 5, 2013.

cycling past the gods.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Thu, 04 Apr 2013 15:43:27 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

Explore #33; April 4, 2013 (on April 8, moved up to #3)

This is the real secret of life --
to be completely engaged with what you are doing in the here and now.
And instead of calling it work, realize it is play.
--
Alan Watts

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

on the photography side this is the usual "hand-held, point-and-shoot" candid work that i like to play with. on the processing side this is a straight "sky replacement", which also took away a couple buildings in the background. the biker was actually really going past this giant statue which is located at the local university campus. it's got to be 3 or 4 stories tall. the exif data here is for the statue and biker; the sky in the background is from another day.

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thanks so very, very much to everyone for all the well wishes and support.
y'all are the best.

break free.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:06:16 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

spirits are using me, larger voices calling.

for charlie.

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Photomaginarium Prints available.

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a little over five years ago my first marriage completely fell apart. one result of many was that i was finally diagnosed with PTSD, after living with the predictable habits and choices it tends to produce for decades. another result was that for a period of several weeks Charlie talked his wife into letting me live in their home. during that period, one twilight on his back porch he said to me, "garth, lots of people have their own ups and downs, good times and hard times, and i wouldn't wish on anyone that particular nightmare you went through as a kid. but you know that sum'bitch who hurt you has been dead in a prison grave for more than 10 years. have you ever asked yourself when you're going to quit letting him kick your ass?"

i'm still living that question. thanks to Charlie i at least know what the question is.

i can't think of a better way to honor his memory than to say all that.

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Explore, #107, April 3, 2013. (Retro-explored, 1 day later, then dropped 2 days later).

dream maker.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 05:33:53 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

Explore! #2, 4/3/2013

the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo assemblage were taken and developed by myself using a hand-held, point-and-shoot camera. this one used a timer. the images were then developed in GIMP, an open-source ("free") digital graphics editor.

this is one of two images for my friend and brother charlie morgan, who i met late in life and very soon recognized as family. he was a dream maker, most often spending his time building up the dreams of his friends and family. i just learned he died of a brain hemorrhage monday night.

goodbye, charliemang, the most excellent chaz, you ol' cowboy.
how many times did you tell me you were growing your hair long on the inside?
thanks for being who you were -- all the time.

save a seat for me near you for the next trip, wherever it is we go from here.

i'm still learning, charlie.

memory.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Mon, 01 Apr 2013 18:47:46 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

Explore #120 -- April 1, 2013

(Our Daily Challenge: movement ...)

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the geek behind the curtain: one single shot, plus a vignette. a "mystery layer" between them. the mystery layer is a copy of the single shot, desaturated, and then posterized down to 6 shades of grey. then added a ton of noise. then blended it into the color background with the "overlay" setting. then added a layer mask and removed it from the bottom three-quarters of the image ... so it's just there, at the top, darkening the water that recedes into the distance ...

memory is a funny thing. keeps changing all the time. but we don't often notice. we remember the stories we tell ourselves about events, not the events themselves ... and over time, the chemical and electrical connections that preserve the memories get weak ... get mixed with other memories ... fade ... yet not completely ... somehow it stays in one place, in our minds, so to speak, still -- it's always moving ... drifting ... sinking ...

brought to you by: Cosmos -- the makers of tunnel-reality.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Sat, 30 Mar 2013 21:07:21 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

When we meet somebody whose separate tunnel-reality is obviously far different from ours, we are a bit frightened and always disoriented. We tend to think they are mad, or that they are crooks trying to con us in some way, or that they are hoaxers playing a joke. Yet it is neurologically obvious that no two brains have the same genetically-programmed hard wiring, the same imprints, the same conditioning, the same learning experiences. We are all living in separate realities. That is why communication fails so often, and misunderstandings and resentments are so common. I say "meow" and you say "Bow-wow," and each of us is convinced the other is a bit dumb.
--
Robert Anton Wilson

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Photomaginarium Prints available.

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

playing around with logos, advertising and philosophy. for the most part this is 2 nearly-identical candid shots from Friday at the local university, blurred and blended with some radial spikes i built, and with some fun font-work on top to give it the feel of an advertisement.

Retro-Explored (put into explore "after the explore date had passed").
March 30, #220, climbed to 161.

little brother.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Wed, 27 Mar 2013 18:51:52 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

from comic books to music to movies to world travel to the illustrations of clive barker ... everything is more fun when my brother is there. my little brother eric has not only taught me what it means to be an artist and a thinker, but also what it means to be a human being.

even if i learned it a little too late.

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Our Daily Challenge: O Captain, My Captain ...

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

this shot started out as a series of test shots (point-and-shoot camera on a tripod with timer, and two 3-dollar flashlights) taken in our garage this evening a couple hours ago. i added in a shot of my brother that i took on an Olympus OM-1 camera back in 1998 when i was taking a class on film photography and basic dark room skills. the fire and smoke were drawn by hand using GIMP tools and the trackpad on my laptop (as usual), as was the cloning of extra teeth and stretching out my fingernails to a size that my fiance simply adores on me.

my brother and i have been making art together ever since we could hold crayons back in the early 70s. he's my hero, and i judge the goodness of the world through him.

this image draws heavily on our mutual admiration of the illustrations of clive barker, in particular a self-portrait clive drew where a demonic creature is holding a tattered photo of clive.

in other news, we're back from Orlando. all's well. surgery tentatively put off until the summer, which is a blessing, unless little E's pain gets worse. thanks so very very much for all your thoughts, prayers, and wishes. you people are the best.

don't let the sound of your own wheels drive you crazy.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 20:10:04 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

and take it easy.

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Our Daily Challenge: starts with C (cargo)

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

(waiting to hear the news from the test last night.)

que sais-je? (ne pas immerger.)

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Sat, 23 Mar 2013 19:10:20 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

the beginning of the title above (translated as, "What do I know?") is a line famously attributed to Michel de Montaigne, who in the 1500s transformed essay writing into the literary genre we know today. (the second half of the title, translated as "Do Not Submerge," was written on the iron used in this shot.)

this one is for Gary. thanks for all the great tunes, the great flow of shared ideas, the encouragement, and the great work you do. if i've accidentally used your language incorrectly i hope you'll forgive me.

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our daily challenge: reflection

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

saturday was one of those days that totally backfired. i was supposed to stay away from the camera and the computer and be helping grampa build ramps for little E in the front and back of the house before running down to orlando on monday. the best laid plans.

the plans started with 13 eighty-pound bags of cement. which first on Friday after work K and i had to move from a palette in the yard to under the covered porch as it began to lightly rain off and on. (ne pas immerger.)

the next day grampa got here and before too long he discovered we had the wrong kind of cement delivered -- not cement at all, but mortar for brick walls. three hours sorting out that error, and another hour or two making adjustments to the molds/casts that he built. a new delivery arrives at dawn on sunday, so ... we'll be trying it all over again soon i guess. (que sais-je?)

the upside was i had time to get out my 2 new 3-dollar flashlights and set up the iron and the cheese graters on the floor of the bathroom for a shot. i balanced the camera on a bowl and set the 10-sec timer, and held the two flashlights up above the setup. voila. a place for "careful reflections."

*Update: they brought 13 more bags of the wrong stuff this morning. oi!!

unwrapping the afternoon light.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 19:39:07 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

sometimes you shine, sometimes you fall ....
sometimes you know
nothing at all
want to see you shine, shine, shine
like I know that you can ...
--
lyrics & song by Younger Brother

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Our Daily Challenge: let there be Light

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

this is a candid, hand-held, point-and-shoot shot. actually 3 shots -- the candid of the guy wrestling with the tarp in the wind, a quick shot of a flock of birds (and an extra layer of them to make the shadows), and the shot of the clouds, which took 5 layers to get it to look close enough to right that i was able to let it go.

SOOC steampunk.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:08:52 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

the geek behind the curtain: this shot was a collaboration between myself and my buddy Paul, using his equipment. it's a long-exposure shot (2.5 sec), at night, with off-camera flash and remote shutter trigger. the blur in back was caused by a moving bus behind me. the website logo/address is printed on the bus.

the only thing i added in processing is the black border to keep the square format which i prefer in my stream.

other details are available on the processed version next to this one.

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This image is the 500th image in my stream. =)

life SOOCs. then you process.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Mon, 18 Mar 2013 20:08:52 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

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A thinker sees his own actions as experiments and questions -- as attempts to find out something.
--
Friedrich Nietzsche

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Our Daily Challenge: The Next Level
(also Cliche, the terribly warped one in the title, and another in the tags; and also "Time's UP.")

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art assemblage were -- wait a minute!

I took it to the next level here by enlisting the help of my buddy Paul -- because i knew i just couldn't get there on my own. a lot of times in life we need friends, and Paul's a great one in all kinds of ways.

We went out on saturday night with his gear, a Rebel T2i, some off-camera flash, and a remote shutter switch. We worked trying to get his flash to fire with the "second curtain" of his shutter for about an hour, but eventually gave up and went with a 2.5 second exposure (or thereabouts) with me holding as still as possible, and Paul pretending he was a living, breathing light stand.

the idea had been that with the long exposure we'd get lots of motion in the background, and when the flash fired with the second curtain it'd freeze me in place. but no go there, the community of equipment was having a technological communication breakdown. so in the end it took lots guts, pluck, and many many tries. (this might also fit for the Lucky challenge?) it was really active here downtown, and we got all kinds of comments from the tourists, the college students, the homeless, and the wasted. the blur behind me is a city bus, all SOOC, especially in the image below. you can even see a weird "www.something" if you look close -- which is on the bus, it's not a watermark. very bizarre timing.

i was going to post this totally SOOC, but found out Paul had done minor adjustments like pumping the exposure a bit and "a couple other things" from his packet of secret sauce. after thinking about it awhile, since it wasn't SOOC i went ahead and just had fun with it. this is a pretty good representation of where I'd like to be one day, and I'm quite glad Paul was there to give me a boost along the way. standing on his shoulders we make quite a giant, or at least a terrible crazy monster with two bald heads. (my head is shaved on the inside this week.)

EDIT: turns out Paul put his secret sauce on his copy, and the "batch processing" he did on the files he sent me was just turning the RAWs into JPGs. ah well. thanks, Paul!

Say goodnight, geek.
"Goodnight, Geek."

what lucky feels like.

nobody@flickr.com (Photomaginarium) — Fri, 22 Mar 2013 19:57:25 -0700

Photomaginarium posted a photo:

Advice? I don't have advice. Stop aspiring and start writing. If you're writing, you're a writer. Write like you're a goddamn death row inmate and the governor is out of the country and there's no chance for a pardon. Write like you're clinging to the edge of a cliff, white knuckles, on your last breath, and you've got just one last thing to say, like you're a bird flying over us and you can see everything, and please, for God's sake, tell us something that will save us from ourselves. Take a deep breath and tell us your deepest, darkest secret, so we can wipe our brow and know that we're not alone. Write like you have a message from the king. Or don't. Who knows, maybe you're one of the lucky ones who doesn't have to.
--
Alan Watts

(you can read the above passage crossing out the word writer and substituting the word "photographer," or "photo artist." it works pretty well.)

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Our Daily Challenge: luck

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the geek behind the curtain: all shots and layers in this photo art assemblage were taken and developed by myself.

needed an easy one. getting to the edge of being overloaded.

candid, hand-held, point-and-shoot shot from today, and then a shot of clouds, also today.

going back down to orlando soon. some of you have been on this journey with my little family before, around this time last year, give or take. time for little E to have some more MRIs. she's been in a lot of discomfort the past few weeks.

so this is a shot, which is also a crossing of the fingers, and a bucket of incense, too.

between the massive piles of work at the office this month and then this going on at home i've been terribly distracted lately. i'm real sorry if i haven't been by to visit your stream. it may be a bit longer.

you are not forgotten.