Take it or Leave It

September 1, 2004

I really like the blending of images and words together in this medium.

I've had an online presence now for a while, as this represents my sixth year of journaling and remembering.

The images from today are from a lake that is quite near to my house and one whose images have appeared here and on my website from time to time.

Actually it's the website that prompts this entry but first let me grab my new birthday present (Manfrotto wilderness tripod) and let's head out to the lake.

I think there might be a decent sunset.

Almost no one ever reads anything that I write here on my website. Sure I get some visits, but I can tell from the site stats which pages are seen the most, and which don't ever show up on the lists.

But that's ok. I've been thinking of doing a bit of house cleaning here though, because I think I'll have bit more free time on my hands these days.

I've got some ideas for new galleries, for sunsets, lighthouses, birds and stuff like that.

I've been taking sunset images since I got my first roll of color film. I love to see how the sky changes from view to view, lens to lens and as the light drifts out of the evening sky.

That's called a sun pillar up there - the shaft of light that rises up into the twilight.

Ok, so I lied.

I get more that a few visits to my website.

In fact, so far in the last 6 months I've had over 20,000 unique visits that have produced over 550,000 "hits" on the site.

What I find really kind of cool, is how frequently the site is found on the first page of either Google, or Yahoo and other search engine responses.

And that got me thinking.

Sometime during the second week of July I had to deal with turning in my car and leasing another one. Although I knew better, I went to a dealership and ended up having one of the worst 2 hour "car buying" encounters of my life.

As I fumed I thought to myself that I ought to write about that place, especially since there is appears to be some power to the pen, especially with over a million hits a year.

The clincher to this thought came on our trip to Sedona. My son-in-law told us about a "must experience" diner for our breakfast that morning.

And so we went.

And I took along the camera and figured I'd write and shoot and write the kind of thing you might find in a travel magazine.

I'm here to tell ya that I left that diner completely inspired.

They couldn't get anything right.

Not one thing.

The coffee was lousy, the pancakes were burned, the omelet was rubber, the biscuit was dry and the hash browns were old and burnt as well.

So it's getting written about in a whole new review section that I'm going to create and call Take it or Leave It.

I'm not quite sure how I'll rate the places I visit, but one thing is for sure, you'll get my votes for the best, and the worst.

I'm not quite ready to start that portion of the site, but I've got the thinking cap on and if I see a good idea, I just might take it and use it.