Emily died. Suddenly. Unexpectedly. In a rather terrifying manner involving a slippery staircase, a glass pane and high heeled Jimmy Choos. At first, Steve wanted her back. If that wasn’t possible, then he was going to join her. Still, he never felt death reach out with its claws to grapple that soul of his. Which made him wonder whether his soul fled, never to be caught, or whether he was yet to see what was to become of him.

Do we love to love or do we love to live? To feel that which is part life part eternity A certain escape of the self that is both nothing and infinite Our own little parade in the vastness of the universe Yet we remain as we are one and many many and one Only to be taken once again into the depths of the universe

And so she is. Some countries are not unlike a bashful debutante. It seems that in the midst of a technological storm that’s bridging people, cultures and countries; some governments are all frets over people discussing, opinionating, debating, and shredding to bits the actions (including follies) of politicians and the like. You could almost hear certain quarters of governments say, “Oh, why would anyone want to speak in a popular and benevolent manner of such matters as rights, freedoms, conspiracies and other such fancies?

Many might have kid about Bahrain’s most popular blog, Mahmood’s Den, being blocked one day. It seems that day will be tomorrow according to a ministerial order. While one can only speculate on the reasons for the block, some have pointed out that it most likely has to do with the Bandargatescandal. Mahmood has been quite outspoken about the issue on his weblog, and has also started the much commended Just Bahrainicampaign.

What better way to pass a lazy Friday afternoon than Photoshopping some old travel photos? The basis for the image above is a snap I took while crossing from Dubai to the Omani border a couple of years ago. The cars, falconer, camels, jets, coffee stain, grocery list and note scribble, folds and other effects are all Photoshop magic! The original base image is this: What in the world is Wunderistan?

_Listen to podcast: _ [audio:lfdpc1.mp3] Transcript: While research suggests that people are connected to one another within six degrees of separation worldwide, one of the charms of a small island country like ours is that everyone on it seems to be connected within a degree or two at the most. Such closeness of relation in large cities or countries provides for happy coincedences, perhaps even serendipitous encounters. Yet in Bahrain finding out that for instance a certain stranger in a restaurant happens to be a friend of a friend does not call for celebration.

Following up from my earlier post on 35mm DOF adapters, here’s the way I’ve built mine. Note that this is revision four, which uses much better materials, including a Thorlabs 2″ lens tube (my earlier designs were crudely made out of cardboard, file dividers and lots of electrical tape!) This design borrows heavily from Richard Mellor’s. Although the DOF adapter is considerable in length; it’s not heavy. I’ve never had any problems using it on my camera; a consumer Panasonic NV-GS3001/4″ 3 CCD with a 37mm thread.

No, nothing to do with another daytime television show about speed house remodeling or a popular regional dish (machboos.) Rather, Space Invaders and Machibuse here refer to classic arcade games. Those of you who have not played the original games might still have come across the many versions and clones of Space Invaders and Pac-Man (Machibuse is the original, Japanese name of the pink ghost Pinky in Pac-Man. Incidentally, Pac-Man was originally called Pucman in Japan.

I recently caught (pun intended) the Steve Irwin Memorial Show as broadcast on Animal Planet. While I cannot claim to have been a big Irwin fan, I can say that his antics did compel me to watch Animal Planet every now and then. It’s all very easy for someone to become cynical, sputtering sardonic diatribes while lacking any true passion for life (need proof? Just peruse some of the blogs out there.

CNN reports that Christopher Tolkien has edited and will release a new book by his father [JRR Tolkien.] From the article: ‘Christopher Tolkien has spent the past 30 years working on “The Children of Hurin,” an epic tale his father began in 1918 and later abandoned.’ [via Slashdot]