And then sometimes - in the darkness of the soul - a flame burns that illuminates everything.

In my New Beginnings post in early January, I vowed to "going back to Burning Man - because there's no reason not to." I bought my ticket January 17.

I also promised myself to "pay more attention to the people I love and care about, and tell them so. Especially my family and friends."

So when my girlfriend Evelyne called me from Switzerland and told me how much she wanted me to attend her wedding in June, I decided to give the thought of flying to Europe for the occasion some serious consideration.

Granted - I had only just been back to the homeland last November/December. The airline now wanted roughly double the price for the same *exact* flight (WTF? $750 vs $1400? That's just extortion!). I was a bit hesitant to spend the money. There are so many places in the world I still want to go to and explore!

But - I finally realized that this will be a once-in-a-lifetime occasion. Someone I deeply care about, have known since we were both 18, has lived through some exhilirating and crazy times with me, and who has stubbornly kept in touch despite the 5000-mile separation for half our lifetimes, has asked me to share one of the most important days in life with her. What is money and time in comparison to *that*?


My friends Thomas, Evelyne and her husband-to-be Kaspar lounge around

I booked my flight yesterday. I'm taking almost 3 weeks (from May 24 - June 13) to go hang with my friends and family. So what the hell - why not go tramp around Europe too a bit while I'm there? And what do you know? My all-time favorite band Simply Red is actually playing live in concert in London's Royal Albert Hall on May 30 & 31 - during the exact time when I'll be in Europe. Hurray! I've been wanting to see them again for ages - I saw them twice when I was a teenager, and consider them to be one of the best live acts I've seen. Ever.

Thanks to a low-cost airline called Easy Jet, a quickie trip to London becomes actually affordable too. It's going to be about 45 bucks for the roundtrip fare. Yes, there is a god.

And hey - my sister has volunteered to come along, so we'll just turn it into a minor sightseeing/shopping spree/sisterly bonding affair for a few days.

Credo #2 for the year accomplished.

Back in April of 2002, I wrote about my friend Ranka Gatu's oh so cool Marionette Theatre.



I've just figured out that they have a totally revamped website now - with so much fun content! (Nice job on that btw, Laura...)

Like this quirky guide to making your own puppets.



What a cool idea. And not just perfect for creating that life-sized, anatomically-correct voodoo doll of your evil mother-in-law (no, I'm not referring to my own, thank you. I speak in *general* terms) - but also maybe a project for a fun-filled snowy/rainy Sunday afternoon with your kids.

So people: go out, buy some foam, drag out that old yarn you've been hoarding, that tanktop you were going to donate to the Goodwill - and get creative!

Or even better - if you live in the San Francisco Bay area, go see Ranka's highly entertaining revue. I've seen it, and it totally rocks.

It's only 10.35am, and the day has already brought me a hilarious hightlight. A boob job. A digital one - that is.

A web-designer friend (who shall remain nameless) refused to alter the endowments of below model in a shot for her company website. Poor girl though - looked deformed. Something had to be done. So I volunteered.

Here's the shot - before:



Looks *wrong* - doesn't it? Does she even have boobs? That odd sweater roll can't possibly be them.

So this is what it looked like after I gave the girl a digital boob job:



Yay. I feel better now. Charity has been done. The world is a better place.

How do I know that I'm a geek at heart? I lust after pretty hardware. Sad. I know. But there it is.

Example? A friend sent me a link to his newest gear acquisition today: a Origen case that houses his home entertainment system. Onto which he's currently slapping the Linux distro Ubuntu (thanks to Jake and Jon for the tip ...).

Alu case. Blue power button. Touch screen! This - coupled with a projector and a huge slide screen - promises to be one of the most rockin' movie-watching systems. Ever. I have a case of major gear envy right now.

Drool.

Plus - this comes on the heels of watching Stay Alive last night - a sort of "Ring"-esque teenager horror movie. Substitute the vidoe tape with a video game, and the creepy girl with a demented countess, and you have the basic plot. Not too terrible of a movie too, actually.

Fun thing though: all the gamer characters in the movie used AlienWare hardware. Which is oh so damn pretty. And it made me drool, as I've been lusting after an AlienWare case for a while now (if only they weren't so damn expensive ... grumble ...).



And the total kicker in the movie? The main character defeats the evil-video-game-countess-come-alive by pointing his super-shiny AlienWare laptop at her, in substitution for a mirror. How cool is that? I knew hardware like that can come in handy ...

Amongst all the spam I get on a daily basis, the one with the subject line of "Advertising on emeraldbayphoto.com" did quite effectively catch my attention. Mostly because I couldn't figure out why anybody would want to advertise on my site. But hey.

The email turned out to be from a lady called Linda, a rep for "InfoHub Specialty Travel Guide", asking if I were interested in becoming an affiliate. I followed the link to their program page, and as I read, I recoiled in horror.

To keep it short, here's the email I sent back to the rep:

Hello Linda,

I am not and never will be interested in working with InfoHub. Why? Read on.

1. I greatly dislike the way you want to present your advertising to my site visitors.

On your affiliate program page it says: "When browsing through travel packages, the "InfoHub" logo remains invisible. Your web site visitors will therefore think that all the listed travel packages are offered by you!"

Why would I want that? I'm not a travel agent, I'm a photographer. Wrong target market here, lady.

2. "Each time a visitor of your web site orders a Free Brochure, you earn $2.00."

Please. That's pathetic.

If I wanted to pollute my website with advertising (which I don't) I'd more likely go with GoogleAds. Not only would I undoubtedly make more money, but at least they're honest about labeling their efforts as advertising. And my visitors wouldn't have to give up address information (which you undoubtedly resell), get their mailboxes crammed with dead-tree spam, and most of all *wait* for your information to arrive. Why bother? When all the information about traveling to any location in the world is available ONLINE.

So in short - no thanks. Please take me off your list of potential targets.

I sometimes honestly wonder about the schemes companies dream up (and base their business plans on) to make money. InfoHub's seems to be especially idiotic. I can't wait for Linda's response.