this is the way the world ends...

not with a bang but with a whimper...
what a great and true line by ts eliot...

stoked for the end of a lot of things, and the beginning of more.
finally no longer strictly an employee, but a self-employed..
and other things i finally managed to complete, or end... everything about the dreariness of tokyo has left my mind, am in the all too vivid world of the tropics, but enjoying the vividness..

well, settled in here in bali for at least a month, far from settled right now, but at least to the point that i do not think i have to leave for anything other than a visa run within the next 30 days...

back in bali...

but is full everywhere due to others from indo coming here for the end of ramadan...
staying in sanur, is ok no waves anyhow... will go elsewhere tomorrow or the next day...

my flips...

busted out the flash for the first time in quite some time....
a bit of humor - meghan was going to us my car, i said that she may want to check the registration, it could have expired since i left - well if i left in 2006 that would have been the case!!!!

gloomy japan...

cant wait to get the hell out of here, it has been cold and rainy, and i have no shoes! ive had a cold since flying to korea, finally it seems to be lessening today...
listening to probably too much elliott smith, and too many emails with an old friend, not really uplifting stuff... all combined, i need to get the hell out of here, and get in the ocean!!!!
only one more night, after which i have to spend a night in korea again before getting back to where i should be!!! having some wine, not good wine whatsoever, but since i really have not had wine much of late, it tastes like ambrosia... course i have no clue whatsoever what ambrosia tastes like...
spent a little time toying with my new lens, and even though this shot is completely out of focus and underexposed, it seems to capture something of me (my first self portrait!) in this country (ive been saying that i dont think i am going back to the usa, well, i dont want to come back to japan either!!, probably much more so...)

all you can do now is watch the shells
the game looks easy that's why it sells
frustrated fireworks inside your head
are going to stand and deliver talk instead
the method acting that pays my bills
keeps the fat man feeding in beverly hills
i got a heavy metal mouth that hurls obscenity
and i get my check from the trash treasury
cos i took my own insides out
--elliott smith..

i wanted to shoot this spider thing, but thought the sign made it all that much better..

not sure which focus i like better, i think the one with the spider in focus, but not sure...
these were shot with the new lens (shot at 2.0, i am afraid of 1.2 still!)

since i sold a few lenses and im currently in the land of lenses...

lenses, lenses everywhere but not a picture took.. rainy and cold..

well, figured if i am ever going to get some good pix, i need all the help i can get, so just got the 85L cannon - ive seen so many great images out of this lens, perhaps i can get one to come close! for the price of two really good lenses, i get one really good lens...
so really only need 2 more to make my collection complete - the 35L and the 600L, almost did the 35L here instead of the 85, but have seen so many amazing pix from the 85, figured i should go with that... so dreary and cold here, have no ambition to shoot here - hopefully it warms/clears here... if i get a shot, will post...

finally opened the pix of ulu

not the greatest, but here are a few lineup / wide angle (fisheye) shots....
looking online, these look completely washed out, guess shooting mid-day in the tropics really does not work (they do look better as complete images, trust me!).