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mercyless1
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Name: Ming Country: United States State: Illinois Metro: Chicago Birthday: 11/22/1976 Gender: Male
Interests: Cycling, books, photography, sports, driving, music, movies, poker, shopping, ice cream in large amounts, traveling, food, museums Expertise: Mercyless galactic conquest, spilling drinks into my keyboard, xtreme eating, being awesome, stealth photography, talking out of my ass and making no sense at all, making fun of my friends, embarrassing myself and those around me, sleepoholism, mystery and sex Occupation: Ramp Rat Industry: Travel
Message: message meEmail: email me Website: visit my website
Member Since:
3/1/2003
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| blackbird (not the Beatles' song)  while at Northerly Island i also saw blackbirds at least i think that's what they were. there was a sign nearby that warned that they nested in the area so i guess these are blackbirds, cuz the other birds i saw there were crows
 perhaps i was getting too near. this one started puffing out to try and scare me. maybe
 then another flapped it's wings as warning
 finally, there were verbal warnings, so i left | | |
|  i recently returned to Northerly Island, which was once a small airport known as Meigs Field. it was during winter that i was first visited, so there wasn't anything on the ground. there's not a whole lot there now that it's summer either. just grass and several species of wild flowers indigenous to the area (i think). i didn't read all the signs. and thus, i cannot name the flower species below. at first i thought they were sunflowers. but they're just upward facing, and not turned toward the sun. besides, the center area on sunflowers don't look like the ones in the images below. maybe. i dunno. anyway, enjoy.
didn't have a macro lens with me at the time, otherwise i'd have tried to get a macro bug shot but i might also have just scared the bug away
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| Tour de France update i know, the 2009 Tour de France began a few days ago. in years past i would do updates of cycling biggest event every day for the duration of the race. it was easy then, as Lance Armstrong was winning them year after year. but when he retired, i loss a little bit of interest. i like cycling, but it's not the most fun to watch. i still tuned in, tho, and was pleasantly surprised when another American, Floyd Landis, won the next Tour. unfortunately, he was found to have been doping and was subsequently stripped of his title. then i rooted for an Italian, Ivan Basso, the last year. he was booted for doping. then i heard that Armstrong was coming out of retirement. he wanted to ride the Tour de France again, not so much to win it, but just to be out there, raising awareness for cancer research through his LIVESTRONG™ campaign. my interest was piqued. i mean at 37 years of age, and a few years removed from the Tour, how much would the Texan have in him. he started riding in smaller races and events, doing just ok, not winning any of them. perhaps he was just riding to ride. but he is one of the most fierce competitors in any sport on Earth. how long would the beast be on a leash? strangely, Armstrong joined Italian team, Astana, and would not be the team's leader. what that means is that he would not be the member that the others on the team helps to try and win the Tour de France. the leadership role went to Spaniard, Alberto Contador. Armstrong might not have even been the best rider (on paper) on that team. Astana also includes such notables as Germany's Andreas Kloden and another American, Levi Leipheimer, who was once one of Armstrong's lieutenants. the team, incidentally, is managed by Johan Bruyneel, who managed Armstrong's previous Tour teams, US Postal and Discovery Channel. how long would Bruyneel stick with Contador has been a popular question. an answer may soon be coming, as Lance Armstrong pulled ahead of his leader, Alberto Contador, in total time today after the Tour's third stage. the Texan is now third place overall in the standings, 40 seconds behind Saxo Bank's Fabian Cancellara and Columbia - HTC's Tony Martin. Contador is in fourth place overall. is Armstrong making a move to assume leadership of Astana? who knows? it would be pretty awesome if he does and then wins this year's Tour as well. but there's still plenty of riding left. i'll be staying tuned. however, i will not be updating on a daily basis like i did in the past. i'm just too lazy for that now. pic of the day:
 art by Frank Kozik (KOZ!K)known for a lot of artworks, including art for major magazines and famous rock bands, Kozik is also known for illustrating and/or painting different characters smoking cigarettes a lot of those pieces have also been turned into collectible vinyl toys | | |
| Happy Independence Day!!  every 3rd of July, Chicago puts on a fireworks show the fireworks are launched from a barge just off Navy Pier there's usually like 90,000 people downtown and along the lake to watch this stuff i never go cuz, well, i don't like people i live about 5 miles (give or take a mile) from Navy Pier, so i can see the fireworks from my neighborhood some buildings, trees, and bridges are in the way, but i managed to get some usable images. enjoy
 incidentally, this is the first time i ever shot fireworks
 it's pretty cool how many different looks there are to the fireworks show
 they can even put faces into the fireworks!
 image quality suffered, as i had my zoom lens zoomed all the way that, plus a slow shutter, and i couldn't hold still for every shot
 too bad this building's in all my shots
 the grand finale!!
 the end | | |
| the black crows (not the band)  here's some extra crappy shots of some crows for ya while i go thru the sorting/editing process for better pics
 this one's giving me the evil eye
 somehow the one on the left knew i was taking their picture. creepy... | | |
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