The water's edge

 

By The Still Water's Edge

I gazed down from the water's side

To see a silver gleam
And standing staring looked and tried
To see beyond the stream.
The clearest water sparkling pure,
Below me stilled and calm;
Its cooling, soothing, fooling lure,
Seductive in its charm.

I saw a young man peering on
With eyes that conquered all.
But in a moment, he was gone ~
Uncanny, I recall.
Beneath the surface he was there,
A soul of twenty-four,
Then vanished in the swell somewhere
And left me by the shore.

Again, he came when it was staid
And braved another glance.
Had I his acquaintance made
Long, by-go, by chance?
He spoke and told me in a rhyme
He yearned that he was me;
Though musing swept me back in time ~
I longed that I was he.

Alan S Jeeves

Escape

The view through the bars at HMP Beechworth

Boundary

There are several boundaries here.  Night/day, Sea/land and earth/sky

Pebbles

Pebbles casting long shadows on the beach.

Dawn over the Prom

Penny and I had a trip away for the last couple of days...  It was good for the soul after what seems like endless lockdown's here in Melbourne.  This was taken at dawn from the beach below our accommodation.  Pictured is the skyline of Wilsons promontory framed by water and sky.

Penny's hunt images

Here are all of Penny's hunt images for those that may be interested

Hunt contact sheet - Penny

For the record I did not participate in the current hunt.  I did however collaborate on ideas and execution with Penny and this is the result for this round. The words left to right and top to bottom are.  Backlight (Third place), Collection, Cow (First place), Crooked, two shades of Green, Party, Reaction, Temptation, Tin (honourable mention) and Tool.

I can say that Tool was my favourite.  The idea was to present the word tool in AUSLAN (sign language) and also show that a hand can be a versatile tool.  In this case for communication.  My other favourite was Crooked.  All of the images on the wall are straight on the horizon however the frames are not.  This is a nightmare if you have OCD.  Do you straighten the frames or the image...  You decide

Stop right now

To all those people that believe that it is fashionable, or the myriad other reasons to not get vaccinated. I ask you to stop right now.  You are not cool you are not fashionable, you are not even making sense in some cases...  You are selfish. You will only hurt yourself, your friends, family and others around you.  Some people cannot get vaccinated and you are putting them at a higher risk of serious illness and even death.  

The stakes are very high.  As at today in Australia we have had 194,119 cases and 1,922 deaths.  Near enough to 1 in 100 who have got COVID 19 in Australia have died.  Now if you take away the numbers that have been fully vaccinated and got COVID 19 (Very few of these go to hospital let alone die) and you will find yourself in a lottery where the chances of survival are slim at best.  Don't be that person.  

Do not expect me to have any sympathy for you when you get sick.  Do not expect me to care if you are increasingly ostracised from society.  You have a choice.  Get vaccinated and carry on living or not and potentially suffering the consequences. As so many of you have pointed out it is your choice and you are welcome to it.  Even if it is selfish.

This image also works for Word of the day - Palm  and on this day as I just took it for this post :)

Across the lotus

Word of the day Palm.  View across the lotus flowers at the Botanic gardens in Melbourne.

Holy cow

Congratulations Penny on a first place for the word cow in the current scavenger hunt.  This makes up for the break in on my car while we were out taking this photo.

Up on the stage

Congratulations Penny for your third place in the current scavenger hunt.  The word is backlight

Conspiracy theorists

Right now we have a scavenger hunt being judged and the first up is the word tin.  Penny got an honourable mention for this image of me :)  Well done Penny

QR codes

It seems that these items are here to stay...  That is until they are not.  See after next paragraph for my story.

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It can be assumed that nearly everyone knows what a QR code is and if you live in a location where they use them for contact tracing COVID exposure then use them all the time.  It is better for all of us if contact tracers have accurate data.  Can the government track you through these.  Of course they can and I am sure that some governments are.  However the greater good says to use them.

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I am here to talk about a potential issue with QR codes.  Specifically that from the static QR code you cannot tell visually where the QR code will take you on the web.  The QR code below takes you to https://blog.ttwl.studio/ , however there is nothing contained in the code that tells you this.  That makes it a simple task for a malicious user to redirect you to any site of their choosing simply by replacing a QR code. 

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There are recorded instances of people going around replacing check in QR codes that take the end user to a marketing website. Here is one example https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-56933845 

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As with all things tech...  Be alert but not alarmed.  Sometimes what you see is not what you get.  Stay safe everyone.

If you want to create your own QR code navigate to the web page in either chrome or Microsoft Edge and you will see an icon in the address bar that looks like the one highlighted

The first hug

On this day last year I completed a family photoshoot as at least one of the great grand parents was unwell and may not be around for too much longer.  At the time we had just been released from a very long period of lockdown due to covid.  This image is the first hug and was not part of the photoshoot.

New toy

Just like Lene Lovich, I got a new toy yesterday

'I got a new toy oh oh oh

I feel my head expanding'

There is nothing like 80's music.

New toy by Lena Lovich

Leafless

 Same tree two different views

Spring freedom

Today I went for a walk in a local park.  It was excellent..  There was a deep blue spring sky that goes on forever.  The air was so still that all you could hear was the birds and the very far off hum of traffic.  The path follows a creek down to a small lake.  The round trip was around one hour.  There is but a short amount of time before lockdowns end forever here in Melbourne. Pictured are the flowers on a late blooming wattle.

Distracted

On this day four years ago Penny and I visited the National Rhododendron gardens at Olinda in the Dandenong ranges east of Melbourne.  These two where so distracted by their devices that they failed to notice the magnificence around them

The lens

Recently I have been reading the Foundation series of books by Isaac Asimov and also watching the same story on Apple+.  Coincidentally the show on TV is only loosely based on the original story.  I have also been watching a Netflix series called "The billion dollar code".  This story is about a group of German hackers (Art+Com) that created a program called "TerraVision" in 1994.  It is essentially Google Earth but not on any computer.  The story is about how they sue Google over who invented Google Earth.  

After rereading the Foundation series, I believe that neither Art+Com or Google invented the idea of Google Earth.  It seems that in the book "Second Foundation" (on Page 32 of my digital copy) is a description of a device called "The lens".

Excerpt from Book "Second Foundation" by Isaac Asimov

The Lens was perhaps the newest feature of the interstellar cruisers of the day. Actually, it was a complicated calculating machine which could throw on a screen a reproduction of the night sky as seen from any given point of the Galaxy.

Channis adjusted the co-ordinate points and the wall lights of the pilot room were extinguished. In the dim red light at the control board of the Lens, Channis’ face glowed ruddily. Pritcher sat in the pilot seat, long legs crossed, face lost in the gloom.

Slowly, as the induction period passed, the points of light brightened on the screen. And then they were thick and bright with the generously populated star-groupings of the Galaxy’s centre.

End Excerpt

The description of the lens is almost word for word the same as how TerraVision is described in the Netflix series.  The main difference is the scope.  In the case of the "Second Foundation" the scope is an entire  Galaxy and TerraVision/Google Earth restrict themselves to the planet earth.

Either way the idea for what we now know as Google Earth can trace a genesis back to Isaac Asimov and potentially any patents may actually belong to him and his descendants?

Isaac Asimov was the person that ignited my love of hard science fiction. His books still to this day stand up to technical scrutiny.

Image #feetupfriday waiting for the show to begin :)

Tree

During lockdown here in Melbourne taking photos has been difficult. I like to get out and about and take photos in the city or the country. Most of the time I have been restricted to just a 5k radius of my home. As I couldn’t travel I found myself photographing a specific tree from the balcony here. Apparently Google Photos doesn’t provide a preview so you will need to click through to see the album of images all different days focal lengths, leaves/no leaves, landscape and closeup. Enjoy

https://photos.app.goo.gl/4p9TPLfsrwK9wSEJA

Negative space

Frankston beach on this day four years ago.  I missed this image at the time and rather like the way it came out after editing

Scam by SPAM

It seems that the old Nigerian scam is still alive and well.  It is a number of years since I received a similar message to the one pictured.  Send $135 USD plus full name, address, phone number and profession.  The scam will not end with you losing $135 USD.  You have been warned

Orange

for word of the day

The Kiss

Taken as part of the Weekly Photo Project back in February 2014.  Presented for Word of the day : Lips

Not in my name

Last year I posted under the word freedom Here is the original post. The events in the city of Melbourne over the last couple of days included men carrying "The Eureka flag". Pictured is the original hand drawn design for the Eureka flag.  The ultimate symbol of democracy here in Australia. What happened in Melbourne is not democratic.  They do not carry it in my name.

Macro

On this day last year I found a needle in a haystack while searching for the word Needle in the scavenger hunt.

Portrait

High key portrait 

Model: William Emmons (Actor)

Cut

On this day in 2017 I was involved in the movie making process

All at sea

Sailing off Mornington in high key

Dawn in the desert

Pre dawn light in the desert around 10 kilometres from Kalgoorlie.  Taken on this day in 2012.

Over the water

The view across the water from Frankston looking towards the Melbourne CBD and the Macedon ranges on the horizon.  Taken on this day in 2015.  Hopefully I will be able to take images like this in the near future :)

Wave rock

On this day in 2012 Penny and I visited Wave rock in Hyden West Australia.  It is completely made of granite and the distinctive shape is due to water erosion millions of years ago.  It is in what could be described as a barren area of Australia.

Sunrise over Albert park lake

This image was taken with a mobile phone on this day in 2013.  I gave it the cinematic treatment for this post

The dive

Word of the day Saltigrade.  This was taken at Frankston Pier back in January 2014.  I used it for the weekly photo project the.  The theme was action /motion

Lights camera action

Letter of the day A for Action

Plethora

For word of the day...  A plethora of vehicles.  The scene from the top floor of Melbourne's terminal 4 looking towards the long term car park.

Skateboarder

On this day in 2018 I was on the way to work.  Skateboarder on Southbank in Golden hour.  Melbourne CBD in the background.  I really love the vibrancy of this scene.

Arête

A sharp crested ridge in mountains.  This is the eastern wall of Wilpena pound lit up in the morning sun.  This was Word of the day yesterday...  Apparently I am late to the party

Frankston Pier

On this day four years ago I took this early morning view of Frankston Pier