Sunday's Silly Sign (Photo) NOV 6, 2011: Fire in My Hand

WARNING !

I carry a 700º C fire in my hand

WITH PEOPLE WALKING ALL AROUND ME.

Facrynoutloud dude, that looks like it could be the OLYMPIC TORCH !

This Sunday's Silly Sign was discovered at a beach, somewhere in Okinawa, Japan.

Now, I ain't giving the location away.

But, I'm sure glad that girl in her wedding gown didn't get burnt !

TO SEE MORE OF OKINAWA'S SILLY SIGNS VISIT THE DOOZIES

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Redneck Grandpa: At the Relays "Let the Girls Eat Dirt" (Photos)

We ain't really rednecks you know.  We're  just regular kinda guys.  Sometimes,  we're even gentlemen, I guess, you could say.  Here's a photo essay from a Sports Day (Undokai) in Kin Village Okinawa, Japan. 

The guy at top and center of this photo is a grandson.

He was probably thinking about the race.  He and his father would be running against a girl and her mother. He has reason to be concerned.  I checked them out with my zoom lens and they looked like they might be in good shape.  Masaki is probably thinking "What's my redneck grandpa going to say if we loose this race?"

"For sure, he's around here somewhere with that dang camera."

When the time comes, he grabs that baton with both hands and takes off like he's running from the law.

That little girl must have a redneck grandpa, too.  I bet she could outrun a fox.

Facrynoutloud,  a GIRL WAS PASSING MY GRANDSON in a relay race.  Noooooo !!!

The man in black, that'd be my son-in-law, Masa. 

He's probably saying, "Gimmie that stick, boy.  Grandpa's watchin and time's a wastin."

What you do when some girl starts gaining on you in a relay race

Is turn it on with all you've got

AND LET THE GIRLS

EAT

DIRT !

Now, please, women of the world, don't get your feathers ruffled.  I'm just joking here.

So, don't go sending piles of hate mail.  I know women can beat the guys at lots of things. OK ?

Like, there's this skinny, little gal who's the World Champion at

EATING BUFFALO WINGS.

Call me a Redneck if you like.  I just think  some contests like the one above, beer chugging and maybe, farting real loud, guys should compete against guys.  Girls against girls.  If you mix the two together don't be surprised if the dudes say "Let the girls eat dirt."

That Black Widow, whatever they call the girl who ate 183 buffalo wings in 12 minutes, I'd like congratulate.  But, I wonder if there ain't some poor buffalo flying around in circles, now.

Speed Demons: A Photo from Sports Day in Japan on a Lucky Day

Normally, a photo like this ends up in my digital dustbin but, I decided this one's a keeper.

At first, I thought of titling it What To Do When You See Ghosts but, settled on Speed Demons.  The ghosts were just kids running a relay race and I focused on the ones sitting still while the speed demons ran by with my shutter speed at 1/15th of a second.

This morning was fourth Undokai (Sports Day Event) I've been to in the past week.

To keep from burning out, between mandatory shots of friends and family,  I like to play with the camera and shoot some different scenes.  If I'd have been outdoors, wildlife would have been my choice.  Indoors, you don't get many choices.  There's only a few other things to shoot.  Fashion,  food, maybe some architecture, and that's it.

When you have a group of 500 people with children packed into a gym for a sporting event there will be exciting times where everybody is jumping up and down, cheering or applauding, then, spells where nothing is goin on.  I get bored easily.  Kids do, too.

Guaranteed, if you are patient and look around carefully at a school event like this, you will find a kid, somewhere, picking his nose.  There's one at every event.  Sometimes you can find two.  Well, anybody can take a photo of a kid picking his, or her nose; that's no challenge for me, anymore.

Today, I decided, I'd scan the crowd and see if I could find something like, maybe, two kids picking their noses side by side, or back to back.  That'd be different.  Wouldn't it ?

Hah !   It couldn't have been more than two minutes, after I got easily bored and made-up this challenging assignment that I struck gold.

It must have been my lucky day.  I didn't get one kid picking his nose, or two.

Three of the little darlings, THREE, ALL IN A ROW.

It couldn't have been done better by a professional choreographer facrynoutloud !

Now, I wouldn't post something like that here, without model releases, signed by the parents.

I'll work on it. 

 For now,  you just get to see the Speed Demons.

VISIT MY HOMEPAGE FOR THE PHOTO OF THE DAY

Chasing Butterflies at a Festival in Japan: A Photo Essay

On a hillside at a festival in Ogimi Okinawa, Japan last Wednesday this butterfly distracted me.  I'm easily distracted, I guess.  Wildlife photography, to me, is way more interesting than festival photography.

Give me a choice between shooting butterflies or a gaggle of photographers congregating around some sacred site to snap shots of a village elder performing an ancient ritual and the butterflies win everytime. 

It aint like I was getting paid to do this photo shoot.  So, I skipped the rituals part !

Not that I'm sacrilegious, or anything like that, I had photos of the same priestess, whatever they call her, from last year's Unjami Matsuri.  I figure, if I do a magazine article on the festival, the gal probably won't be too offended if she comes out looking a year younger. This butterfly was driving me nuts.

It was the big white spots on the outside of the wings that I hadn't seen on any butterfly like this before.

This character didn't like Auto Focus.  I had to go fully Manual and focus on the hibiscus flower.

Remember me saying something about packing everything because the lens you need will be the one you left at home ?

Well, my 500mm lens was in my backpack, in a car, about 2 miles away.  Dammit.

The Pentax 18-250mm would get the job done.  I wanted to know the name of this butterfly.

So, I captured as many shots of it as I could using Burst Mode on my camera.

This black, white and red butterfly with big white spots on the sides of its wings was a new one to me.

New to me, so I thought.  Until I researched it in THE JAPANESE BUTTERFLY GALLERY and discovered it's a Red Helen (Papilio helenus).

 As long as I was all set up and focused on that hibiscus I figured I might as well keep shooting whatever butterflies landed there.

Along came this character which I knew was some sort of Swallowtail.

Well, facrynoutloud, I had shot photos of the Red Helen before but this was the first time I ran across a Common Mormon (Papilio polytes).

So, I guess chasing butterflies instead of shooting some ritual at a festival in Japan wasn't such a sacrilegious thing to do after all !

Girl's Underwear on the Internet (Photos) What's Next? Facrynoutloud !

What is this world coming to facrynoutloud ?  Sitting here in Okinawa, Japan and trying to read something important on a friend's blog in Scotland about folks from THE BRAVEHEART RECRUITING AGENCY I got bombarded by Japanese girls posing in their underwear.  It happens almost anywhere you go online nowadays. Don't these people have anything better to do ?

I can read a little bit of Japanese.  It says "95% OFF".  Well put your clothes back on girl, I ain't interested.

This Gmarket is somewhere in Korea, the clothes are probably made by folks in China.  I bet if you live in Antarctia, Colombia, Bulgaria, New Zealand or anywhere else in the world, you could by these items. 

They even have underwear for people who can't make up their minds if they are a boy or a girl.  Hah !

Gmarket, don't even think of messing with me.  I gave you your 50 seconds of fame on this blog.
If I wanted to buy a lady some underwear, you know what I'd do ?  I'd go to Fredricks of Hollywood. 

They have a little more class facrynoutloud !


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Sunday's Silly Sign (Photo) Aug 7, 2011

Technically, this isn't really a silly sign.  I spotted this work of art the day I took the wife up to the village of Bise in northern Okinawa, Japan. 

It was being used as a sign, though.  The village of Bise has some very narrow streets.  An old guy at the far end of town must be a follower of Donald Trump.  He came up with the idea of charging all the tourists about five bucks to park their rental cars.

Well, I didn't feel touristy that day so, I looked for some place to park for free.

Driving back through town, I noticed a good-sized lot that was lined with fukugi trees and figured that would be a great place to pull off the road and park in the shade.  This Pop'n House thing was propped up against a tree at the dirt road entrance.  It sounded like some sort of touristy, high class place to me. Nobody else was parked on the lot. So, I didn't park there.  I parked illegally in the shade on the narrow street instead.  This old boy don't fall for those tourist tricks, ya know.

Once I got out of the car to stretch I read the sign for the first time.  Hah !  It was in English; my favorite language.  What a happy day it is today!   I have never seen such a stupid man.  Oh, look out!  Help me! 

Perfect for Sunday's Silly Sign !   But, the lighting was horrible.  I didn't want to shoot a photo of a sign with splotches of sun and dark shadows on it.  So,  I looked around to see where the Pop'n House might be. 

I couldn't find the place anywhere.  Good.  I'll see if I can move the sign to better light !

The wife would have a fit if she saw me but, she was exploring some trinket shop.  Good, again.

She probably thought I was staying outside having a smoke and keeping an eye on the illegally-parked car.

Nobody was watching so, I moved the sign to a spot in the shade.  Click, Click, Click.  Gotterdun !

Just as I was thinking "What a happy day it is today!" because I got my Sunday's Silly Sign a car beep, beep, beeped at me.  I was blocking the entrance to the lot with my tripod.  Caught !  Groan.

Having been caught a few times in my life doing stupid (or illegal) things with a camera, I've learned there's better ways to handle the situation than just running for your life. 

Sometimes, an explanation along with a smile works.  Sometimes bribery works. 

Other times, it would be best to just run.  But, I had the wife and a car to worry about.  Damn.

So, I moved my camera setup, stepped back, bowed and hand-motioned Gomenasai (sorry) and let the guy drive onto his property. He drove over to park in the shade.  Next he'll be confronting me.

Think quick, think quick, think quick !  HERE HE COMES !

Silver tongue, don't fail me now.  You've got to explain to some angry Papasan why you moved his sign and blocked his driveway. 

Speak some local dialect.  Explain why you moved the sign.  Show him how you used your shirttail to wipe it clean for the photo.  Let him know it's for a feature on Mike's Ryukyu Gallery. 

It's for Sunday's Silly Sign facrynoutloud.  Buy the guy an ice cold tea. 

Well, I did all of the above.  He cracked up laughing. 

YEAH !

When I picked up the sign to place it back exactly where I found it I noticed what was so funny.

It was a child's folding table.  The legs are folded into what I thought was the frame of a sign.

It was sodai gomi (garbage too large for a regular trash day pickup) and that's why it was propped up against a tree on the corner.  The trash truck would be able to spot it easily there.

When I told the Papasan it kept me from parking on his lot he said "I know" and laughed some more.

The copyright in the lower lefthand corner, I'll translate for you.  It says KF Product.

I'll bet Colonel Sanders and his gang never dreamed they'd be featured on Sunday's Silly Sign !


RELATED POSTS:

SATURDAY'S SHOOTIN IN BISE OKINAWA, JAPAN

TREE LOVERS, HERE'S FUKUGI TREES


FOR MORE SUNDAY'S SILLY SIGNS: VISIT THE DOOZIES.

For Crying Out Loud Friday: Astronauts Aint That Dumb !

,

Every once in awhile I like to stretch my brain.  So, I do a little research online to find something outside my comfort zone, the Ryukyu Islands of Okinawa, Japan.  All my photos are taken on these islands but, there's a whole universe out there, I can use my photography to relate to.

Like SPACE FOR CRYING OUT LOUD !

NOTE: CRYING OUT LOUD is an American idiom according to the Cambridge Dictionary of those things. 

It should be changed to FACRYNOUTLOUD, I think, cuz that's the way my Uncle Charlie always said it. 

He was an Italian guy from New Jersey but, I liked him.  Anyway....

People were passing the story around for years about US Astronauts having trouble with their ink pens up there where there is no gravity (space) and the Russian Cosmonauts laughing about it because they simply used pencils.  Astronauts aint that dumb. They went to school, too ya know.

There are all kinds of mythbuster articles you can find online telling the truth, or something close to it, about how writing in space was accomplished but,  there's a gentleman named Eugene Byrne writing for BBC'S HISTORY EXTRA COM who lays it out plain and simple.

It seems Paul C. Fisher, an American pen maker, developed the Space Pen, without even being asked.  The Russian and American space cowboys have been using Fisher Space Pens since the late 1960's FACRYNOUTLOUD !


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