logo upgrade

as seen at www.karmabugphoto.com

new pictures

some of what i've been looking at lately:

a better view of the lake i can see from my living room.

some nice timber work.

i think laura lives here.

hay, check these guys out!

may pole type thing. still not clear what they do with it, because i'm told it's not what i think...

infrared effect.

next town over. i just increased the color saturation.

non salire

this was a sign on a bus in italy that kevin drury took. the original message was "non salire o scendere durante la chiusura," but I couldn't resist.



but i can't decide which one i like best. feel free to vote!

oh, deer

A couple of weeks ago I was driving to my new house when I had to stop for a deer crossing the road. While I was explaining to my brother the setting of my new house, I used this as an example.

"The other day I had to stop for deer on the way home from work."

"Oh yeah? What does he do for a living?"



(I don't care what you say. I'm submitting it to Reader's Digest.)

sylvester 2008

on the rathaus bridge, bamberg

on the way to munich

we were in awe of the frosted trees and light gray sky, so when i saw a lake on the gps ("tinkerbell"), we took a detour and found this. so now i have a pic for next year's holiday cards!

karmabug photography

this is my new logo for karmabug photography.

wwvjd?

what would vacation jonathan do?

if only "day-to-day jonathan" was half as cool as "vacation jonathan," what a life i'd have! i'd have more fun, savor my time, disregard trifling minutiae and enjoy my friends more.

i think it was rabbi harold kushner in one of his books that talks about how keeping kosher, while placing limits, ends up providing more variety. the principle is that when a resource is limited, the more creative you become. i think of some of the amazing work i did in organic chemistry when a lab report was due the next day, the gourmet dishes i've cooked when i was vegetarian or on the south beach diet and the momories i've packed into a single week while traveling. so what did i do that was interesting this week?

of course vacation jonathan would have massive debt and no retirement.

maybe i should just go kosher.

Ouch

A person who knows three languages is trilingual, a person who knows two languages is bilingual and a person who knows one language is American.

yo, 'sup dog?

my nephew, mr. cool.

the kayak trip

near innsbruck, austria with my friend kevin.

maui is paradise

it's not easy to impress a floridian with a beach, but maui does it.

the lunar landscape of haleakala crater. this is 10,000 feet --those are the tops of clouds in the background.

i'm too sexy for this island.

helicopter ride over maui and molokai.

hawaii so far

since i've been here i've spent most of my time sitting on my ass in a conference room with no windows. i am surprized just how mentally and physcially exhausting that is. klair is having much more fun: going to the beach, window shopping, reading, relaxing, sleeping in... i'm jealous.

the real fun for me begins tonight. training is over today and we fly to maui. less buildings, cars, people, noise and shopping.

i'll post pictures soon!

sea elephant

this manatee is just like a cat i had: would rather drink from a dripping faucet than his bowl. in russian, it translates into sea elephant. wouldn't sea walrus be more accurate all around?

happy to be in florida

at the don cesar on st. pete beach

fresh from the field

duh

i try to keep a low profile when i travel. many people are not so fond of america. i even went so far as sewing a canadian flag on my backpack when i went to turkey. with all my practice, i can still be picked out of a crowd. in moscow, i asked klair why this is. she couldn't really put her finger on it either. "you clothes, your hair --" but couldn't be specific.



i know that one thing that gives me away is wearing sneakers all the time. but this is non-negotiable, so i try to at least wear black or gray ones. i bought a new pair in preparation for my trip to moscow. a week or so after i returned, i noticed the complete design of what i had been wearing:

well, duh.

straight poop

i'll be in florida in 4 days! yay!

if you want to see the specifics, check the google calendar to the right --> (damn i wish i bought stock!). you can even click on any one of those things and get more info if i've posted it yet. not enough to steal my identity or anything i hope.

so, if you care enough to read this, you're probably one of the people i'll be seeing! yay!

jd

did i win the lottery?

so, yeah: hawaii. very cool. hmmm. how can this get any better? oh yeah: klair is coming with me! that's one hell of a second date.

i met klair (la moscovita formerly known as sveta) on my last night in moscow. i'm still pissed that in 9 days i only met her the last night. klair says everything is exactly as it should be.

after hawaii, we are going to manhattan for a few days. i've signed us up for dave letterman tickets, wish us luck. klair doesn't know who he is. so, i get credit for introducing her to dave? wow. maybe we'll get real lucky and get to play, "know your cuts of meat." perfect. i've been on atkins!

phonics lesson

i was going over the sounds “c” and “k” with my kindergarteners. one student recognized that c and k are in ‘duck.’ yes, i said, duck does have a c and k in it! this is what we call a teachable moment. so i veer of into leading the group to spell ‘duck.’ ck are the last sound, what sound is in the beginning? d—d—duck. right! d. now what vowel sound do we hear in dU—U—Uck? i went through the list of vowels hanging on the board. is it dA-Ack? nooooo. is it dE-Eck? noooo. is it dI-Ick?


i swear, i didn’t see it coming: i had to hear myself say it. it's a good thing they're in kindgergarten.

newest photos

last weekend i did some portriats for a friend's daughter. i wanted to use these rapseed fields before they're harvested.

Amy Winehouse -You Know I'm No Good

mmm... sublime. a nice jewish girl from london.

if the video freezes or is choppy, try pausing it for a few moments.

is it HaVaii or HaWaii?

a man asks a stranger, "is it pronounced HaVaii or HaWaii?"
the stranger responds, "HaVaii."
"thank you."
"you're Velcome."


my job is sending me to hawaii this summer! dig it. volcanoes! woo-hoo! maybe i'll get to see them filming lost! hmmm, martha's picture with john locke...

germanization

in honor of earth day, i bought my very own gnome. the earth day connection is is outfit. now that's biodegradable. understand that around here, gnomes are not so kitsch. they're disturbingly common.

that's a snail in his hand. c'mon, you know he's cute.

HAPPY wipe my ass EARTH DAY!

singer cheryl crow has announced her plan to save to planet: one square of toilet paper per trip to the loo. i'm sorry, cheryl, i don't have a square to spare.

perhaps if we spent less time talking about how to wipe our asses and hybrid cars that real people can't afford, and spent more time learning about who we can vote for, we wouldn't be so hopelessly behind in LEGISLATION.

pictures of moscow

on most of these you can click and see it larger. saint basil's cathedral. brought to you by dr. suess. ("God is good, God is great, hurry and pray, or we'll be late!")

st. basil's

kremlin

looking through the kremlin gate at the top of the history museum

another cool church in red square. on saturday before eastern orthodox easter, women brought food for easter sunday into the church to have it blessed. he sprinkled holy water (a.k.a. god saliva) on them and their food. i got sprinkled as well. it didn't burn!

kremlin from the bridge over moscow river

the beautiful klair.