Who Do You Love?

If Jafar Shameen knew the trouble we were going through to make this POST he'd love US.

The Nasty Little Secret of the Photo Meme Hall of Shame is that We Your Noisy AND ANONYMOUS Upstairs Neighbors, in our REAL lives as the heads of the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundations end up using more than one Google Account.

And apparently in Google's never ending miserable and puny attempts to bring down our massive monopolistic empire they have made it difficult for us to switch from one account to the next...

What what else can we do?

Use Hotmail? BAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA.... yeah riiiiiight.

*ahem*

Where were we?

Yes.... Who Do You Love?

Jafar Shameen has sensed a weakness in the Force and has decided to shore it up with his new WEDNESDAY photomeme Who Do You Love?

We love the day, we love the title, we love his template, and dare we say, we love him.

Mostly because he consulted us early in his project in a way that warmed our cold little hearts and made us wish we actually had traffic to deliver to his little endeavor.

But also because we love that it makes us thing of the cool Bo Diddley song and shows us that the photomeme as we know it is not dead.

GO DO IT! WHO DO YOU LOVE?

FFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF! Two for Tuesday....

That is us exhaling out all the air in the Photo Meme Hall of Shame that we have been holding since Tuesday Challenge went on hiatus.

It's STILL on but we have heard from a direct source that the issues REMAIN temporary adn as soon as things are back on track Tuesday Challenge will return.

The reasons we are letting out our breath is because there is a NEW Tuesday Photomeme.

Introducing TWO4TUESDAY

We don't know the lovely Chad Johnson but he seems sincere and has a very nice little photomeme up and running already. You can get in on the initial week until next Tuesday when it kicks off officially.

We also had the following notes tied to rocks and throw through our windows...

From the lovely Jeroen: "Come on. 3 months is silence?"

Dear Jeroen: Yes, we were holding our breath.

And from Mike: "It's a shame you guys don't have something better to do with your time. B ut whatever floats your boat."

Dear Mike: Tell us about it.

THIS JUST IN! Re: Tuesday Challenge

When we awoke we found this tied to a rock and thrown through our window!

Hello folks

Firstly an Apology - I'm sorry that Tuesday Challenge has been off the radar for a while!Now an explanation - There has been an admin issue which popped up between myself and the server hosting company. Sadly, instead of talking to me about it and trying to sort out the problem, they just deleted the site from the server instead! This has made it a little harder to bring back to life and I've also been away on business which hasn't helped.BUT, We do hope to have Tuesday Challenge back up and running, maybe with a change to the theme system what I'd been considering for a while and possibly with a new look ( although don't hold me to that).But it WILL BE BACK, soon, ish!

Meanwhile, thank you to those that visit regularly and I hope you'll rejoin us again!

Chris / Bambography(50% of the Tuesday Challenge team)

All of this can only mean one thing. They've been drinking, were arrested in Malibu California for operating a motor vehicle whilst intoxicated, cell phone video recorded and making racist and anti-Semitic rants, and are now in Rehab but look forward to restarting Tuesday Challenge once they've dried out!

How do we know this? It is what happens to us when WE disappear for a while. Now we have to try to rehire 2 lap dancers for the Bretton Woods Photo Meme Summit and Yard Sale.

Mr. Steve Barru: Our Man in China!

We have always enjoyed Steve Barru's photos of China when submitted to the Photo Memes but we knew nothing about him. He doesn't do self portraits, doesn't talk about himself much on his photoblog, it's nearly wordless (As so many SHOULD be).

When we inquired about a possible visit and tour of the Orients he pulled the oldest trick in the book AND USED OUR SECRET CODE INDICATING THE HE KNEW OUR REAL IDENTITIES AS THE HEADS OF THE BILL AND MELINDA GATES CHARITABLE FOUNDATION! Sneaky bugger. He maintains it was coincidence.

So, without further ado...

Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

I'm a guy. Not a boy or a woman or a man or a pit bull. I don't wear lipstick, except maybe at Halloween. I came to China in 1987 to study Chinese and have been here ever since. People often ask me why anyone in his right mind would stay in a place like this for so many years. It's a good question, the answer to which is embedded within the question (hint: in his right mind).

First, I studied Chinese, then I became a part time English teacher in order to have time to study some more. These days I am back to being an English teacher again. In between, I started and ran a consulting company which tried to help non-Chinese figure out things about China, ran an international chamber of commerce, was on the board of an international school, worked for some architects.

While I have lived comfortably here, it is safe to say none of these endeavors has made me well off or even close to it. I am teflon coated when it comes to money. Well, what is one with such a resume to do? In my case, I have set my sights on being a professional interviewee when I grow up (which is going to be no time soon). And, thus, here I am.

Do you know Kerrin? (Don't tell us who else you know, if you catch our drift)

I most certainly do not know Kerrin. Should I? Do you? I don't know Jon Stewart either, but I still think he is very funny.

What are you wearing?

Almost nothing. Sort of puke green boxers and a big black tee shirt (no text, pictures or message of any kind), which does a less than successful job of concealing my even bigger mid section.

Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects?

You can see my photos on my website (http://stevebarru.com/) and that's about it. Please visit. Please. Did I remind you to please visit my website...?

What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?

I like building plastic models of WWII weapons and equipment. A Chinese friend of mine recently expressed dismay that a going on 60 year old adult would enjoy doing such a thing. If you share his dismay, all I can do is refer you back to my remark about growing up in the first section of this interview.

After many years in China, laughing and/or weeping at the Commies and their despicable Party has also become something of a pastime. Given a chance, I will hold forth on almost any topic, whether I know anything or not. I'm not sure people who know me would refer to this as a hobby.

What equipment do or have you used? Are there any manufacturers you'd like to praise or bad mouth here?

I've been using Nikon cameras since day one. In fact I still have my first real camera, a Nikon F which I bought in 1968. I'm using a Nikon D200 these days with a Sigma 18-200mm lens, no stabilization. The Sigma was less than half the price of the Nikon 18-200 and I have no regrets that I saved the money. It's a terrific lens attached to a great camera.

Right now I'm waiting for Nikon to bring a mid range full sensor camera to market and go head to head with the Canon 5D. The D3 is too expensive and too heavy for an old fart like me.

What is the best photo that you missed?

When I first came to China I took thousands of photos, on film in those days. And then several years went by during which I took next to no pictures. Hard to say which of the missed shots would have been the best one, but I certainly regret my stupidity for putting the camera down.

Tell us your worst habit.

Never do today what can be put off until tomorrow. Need I say more?

Have you ever done anything heroic? (i.e. solved crimes, saved someone from a burning building or untied them from railroad tracks, fought injustice, donated organs) If not, why not? If so, please include press clippings.

I campaigned for Eugene McCarthy in Wisconsin in 1968. Later I was tear gassed during Viet Nam demonstrations in Washington DC. Does any of this count?

If you weren't doing what you do now, what else WOULD you be doing? Photographer doesn't count.

These days I am an English teacher. As gigs go, this is not a bad one - low stress, a reasonable amount of free time and some money on top of that. What would I do if I could? Travel to all of the places I want to go but have never had the time or money to visit. The list is very long. Although it doesn't count, I would take pictures in all of these places.

Do you wear glasses? If so, describe them, if not, why not? Don't you like glasses?

Anything less than 6 feet away is nothing but a blur, so you'd better believe I wear glasses. I'm not one of those people who has something against glasses. What I want to know is what all of those people wearing contacts have against glasses.

What, you want a description too? Well, they're cheap, my glasses that is. The kind of reading glasses you buy off the shelf in Target (I don't know about you, but I haven't set foot in a Walmart in years, the evil slime bags. Can I count this as heroic?)

What did you have for breakfast?

A bowl of warm tofu covered with a sort of pork gravy and pickled cabbage. I'm serious.

Tell us something else!

Not only are the Olympics over. Yes! Finally! But on September 20 all restrictions on driving in Beijing ended. So thousands of Chinese yuppies can once again hop in their cars at will and sit in traffic polluting the already abysmally polluted Beijing air. Hurrah!

Now FLEE Hall of Shamers and Agents of Change and bask in all that is Mr Steve Barru and his outsider/insider guide to all things China and Photobloggish. But don't forget to always use your Photo Meme Hall of Shame ISP Anonymizer and Juicer so that when he sees no addtional traffic, HE'LL KNOW IT'S YOU!

OH! THE HALL!

We, your noisy upstairs neighbors, found ourselves one day with an exceedingly large amount of time which we were using for monitor the financial markets, the US Elections, learn new languages, clean the Loft of Love, do up our Christmas Cards, ring up old chums, volunteer to help dullards read, raise chickens, March for Tibet and we wondered why we had not been doing this all along.

Then in panic, it occured to us.

THE HALL! NO ONE HAS BEEN MINDING THE HALL!

We were recently in the Orient for the Olympics being shown around China and Outer Mongolia with your noisy upstairs neighbor's good friend Mr Steve Barru.

Then we turned up like bad pennies at Black Rock City for Burning Man and thought we'd try shaming 'art' installations.

Setting up a trampoline for every gold spray painted, dust covered topless tart to bounce around on in the desert wiond is not what we'd call 'art' though we do enjoy it tremoundously (sic).

Just as we were about the be chased out for trying to set the Burning Man on fire early so we could leave, we ran into your noisy upstairs neighbor's OTHER good friend, Mr Iron Flatline.

The World, She eez so big and so leetle at the same time.

So we've given up all the rest and show you you, this we found tied to a rock and thrown through our window...

Photo Friday- Extraordinary
Maile Lani http://emptycrowdedroom.com/empty/index.php?showimage=133 (Man with finger in air)

CharlesFuller http://www.flickr.com/photos/charlesfuller/2811937570/ (Man drinking orange juice in front of corn)

Blursurfing http://www.blursurfing.com/index.php?showimage=123 (girl with purse)

No Hitter! http://flickr.com/photos/stevemccoy/2859475839/in/set-72157607307657551/ (group hug)

Balloon Clown http://f128.wordpress.com/2008/09/16/balloon-animal-clown/ (err...Balloon clown)

That's all for the moment. Hey. Has Tuesday Challenge died again? - Agent T

Upon checking it does appear that Tuesday Challenge is on the fritz which means we'll have 2 fewer members at the upcoming Annual Bretton Woods Photomeme Moderator Summit. What does that mean to you? Nothing! To us? Two unclaimed lap dancers!

There is something difficult about Tuesdays. Maybe it's Monday. PhotoFrank from Photoschau and all points German used to own the day until he gave it up for other pursuits like a life and handed it off to a couple of Brits where it has sat until, seemingly, they gave up running a photomeme for a life, also. We hope this trend doesn't continue. Or maybe they are copying PhotoSharks who takes unexplained weeks off at a time only to come back like they weren't caught with their knickers down.

Much like us.

Well...except for the life part.

A Postcard from our Hols!

This forwarded to us as it was tied to a rock and thrown through our windows and retied with twine and boxed and sent my Arvin to our summer home in Mumbai

"Look, I understand that English isn't the first language of many of the meme participants, but seriously, use a dictionary.

Here is Dictionary.com's definition of a condiment:"something used to give a special flavor to food, as mustard, ketchup, salt, or spices."

Here is the American Heritage dictionary's definition of a condiment:"A substance, such as a relish, vinegar, or spice, used to flavor or complement food."

Maybe some translation services inaccurately define a condiment as "food."

Maybe there's some obscure Brittanic definition of "condiment" that I'm not aware of.

But unless you're sprinkling coffee grounds on your food... or maybe putting cookies on your frankfurters... or best of all, flavoring your food with A WALL... I'm not getting it.

End rant."

We used to tease young Carlo Ferroni for getting all hot and bothered about people posting non-macros at Macroday, not because it was wrong, but because it was OUR job to get hot and bothered for posting inappropriately.

As we have gotten older (And by God have we gotten older) we get less fired up then we used to because (And by God BECAUSE) people are just stupid gits.

Or speak a language other than the one the photomeme rules are written in.

Macroday should be relatively straightforward but Shutterday with that wordy git Homer Laffoone is a nightmare. The downside to all this is that it explains why the most successful photomemes have one word or two themes and thus barely rise to the level of 'challenges'

Does anyone besides us NOT KNOW what's happened to Photosharks? We sorta liked it because it had that cool _/)_ fing thing or whateverit was. If anyone knows. Mail us!

Gits with Shows

Found this morning on the Bare Mattress of Love was this tied to a rock and thrown threw the window:

Greetings MemeShame + MemeMonitor,

Once again I have three photos in the upcoming group show at The Center.

The opening is this Thursday, June 12th from 6pm to 8pm.

I hope to see you there! — Tom Giebel

As We See It
Fourth Annual Photography Exhibition
June 9 - August 21, 2008
Opening reception: Thursday, June 12, 2008, 6-8 pm at The Center, 208 West 13th Street (between 7th and 8th) in NYC.

View the Show Online

If any of you other gits have shows that you know we can't attend because of the disturbance we caused LAST time, mock us by sending an invitation like our friend, young Atomische.

And remember, if you click any links from here be sure to use your super secret IP Photo Meme Hall of Shame Anonymizer and Breath Deodorizer so that when people see no traffic and smell no foul breath - THEY WILL KNOW IT'S YOU!

The Good News and the Bad

We have several items of Good News and a couple of Items of Bad.

Let us start with the Good so that the pain of the Bad lingers!

Good news: We are BACK! We know, we are here, then there, then back, then away, thenover, then under, roly poly, pell mell. But this time we have a good reason and it's NOT THAT YOU HAVE BEEN GOOD GITS AND NOT POSTED CRAP TO THE MEMES! it's that we have added to our little brood. Bindi and Bobcat have a new baby sibling in Thrash, the Iron Baby. She looks disturbingly like Arvin, our driver, in the right light, but who says you can't hire good help these days?

Next Good News: A YOUNG PHOTOGRAPHER has achieved his YOUNG LIFE'S DREAM! Young ***NOAH*** from Photo Tuesday has expressly set his life goal to be FIRST on Photo Friday. Not after the winnings, but in the postings. JUST LIKE MANY OF YOU GITS! Well he achieved it this week. And congrats go to him.

MORE GOOD NEWS: YOUNG NOAH IS GETTING HIS FIRST (named) SHAMING! The Young Daft Git posted a photo of a Fountain for the theme "Difficult Shot." Our difficulty was trying to guess his. Maybe he was being chased! Maybe he was holding his camera upside down while standing on his head! Who knows? Surely not us. And mostly because we are tired from getting up all hours of the night and feeding Thrash more iron. We questioned many other of the difficult shots but chose to let Young Noah have his moment in the spotlight as his own.

You thought we were done but we have YET ANOTHER NUGGET OF GOOD NEWS: The delightful Thursday Photo Meme, Photosharks, has returned from in inexplicable one month absence. Maybe they also had an Iron Baby but had the dignity not to trumpet it.

Now the Bad News: Moody Monday is looking for help. We couldn't help but wonder if Moody Monday was on it's last legs. Site Owner Greg Tee reports he is looking for assistance with CSS and HTML. If anyone reading this know how to help or even what CSS or HTML means, email Greg and make fun of him because he didn't know something. (A nugget of Good News, Greg Tee also reports that the Meme Moderation is going to be a BIT more on track with themes and winners actually being chosen and the like....time will tell!)

THE WORST NEWS EVER followed by a revelation of GOOD NEWS: Your noisy upstairs neighbors will not be going to THIS years Euro Photoblogger's Meetup in Barcelona BECAUSE OF WHAT HAPPENED LAST YEAR! We had to skip Europe owing very largeHotel damages because VERNON TRENT and IRONFLATLINE LIES AND WE DID *NOT* have any goats in our room and besides if we did, they were just there as Service Animals....YES!!! They were Seeing Eye Goats!

The last bit of good news? The Hotel has agreed to put all of last years damage charges on Vernon Trent's American Express Black Card. Funny, we didn't even KNOW he was American.

And lastly...Happy birthday, Mememonitor, from your Memeshame.

The Occasional Odd Crop

Several weeks ago we were sprawled out on the Bare Mattress of Love and going through some interviews that were ready for publication when we noticed that nothing in The One Eyed Man's interview matched anything we knew about him.

"Canada?" we said in unison, "We thought he lived in San Diego." We read on, "One eyed? We thought he had TWO eyes but was odd!"

It then hit us that we had confused our GITS!

We figured out what had confused is is that both titles are 4 words, start with The and have capital "O"s in them. That is enough to throw anyone. We also confused the two with The Wizard of Oz, and The Story of O.

Fortunately for us, and you, both gits are highly talented and active gits and they interview quite nicely although we can't speak for how they might clean up.

Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

I'm a print journalist, one of many editors at the big newspaper in San Diego, California. I make my living mostly by reading the news, rather than writing it. I have a lovely wife, who is a journalist and a painter and is far more interesting than I am, and a fluffy, off-white dog who is almost too joyful.

I've shot photos on and off for decades but didn't get serious about it until a couple of years ago. Once I bought a digital camera and didn't have to spend money on film or processing any more, I was off to the races. After seeing a few interesting photoblogs, Chromasia and Daily Dose of Imagery chief among them, I thought, "Hey, I could do that." So I did.

Do you know Kerrin? Do you know The One Eyed Man we are always confusing you with? ARE you The One Eyed Man We Are Always Confusing You With?

I don't know Kerrin. I've seen that question in your other interviews and have always wondered, sometimes for as long as a couple of seconds, just who Kerrin is.

I have seen The One Eyed Man's fine photoblog and am delighted that anyone would confuse us. Although no one has ever seen us in the same room, I can assure you that we *are* two different people.

What are you wearing?

The same cargo pants and brown sport shirt I wear at least once a week. A pair of sneakers that have nearly outlived their usefulness.

Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects?

My handle is MarkDM in several places, including Flickr and JPG magazine. My Flickr photostream now includes a couple of videos, so some members of the site no doubt think I'm a minion of the Evil One.

Flickr: http://www.flickr.com/photos/markdm/
JPG: http://jpgmag.com/people/MarkDM/

What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?

I dabble in Web design. I designed and maintain my wife's site, DaniDodge.com. It shows her paintings and some of the stories she wrote when she was a reporter, including a bunch from Iraq near the beginning of the war (I told you she was more interesting than I am).

The bathroom scale tells me that I spend less time than I should on my bicycle, a 20-year-old Cannondale, but I still like to think of myself as a cyclist. I have the ugly shoes and lycra shorts to prove it.

That's about it, unless quoting dialogue from "The West Wing" whenever possible is a hobby. (I'll do that one time later in this interview; see if you can spot it.)

What's the coolest thing you've found and kept?

When I was growing up, my mom had a tiny, plastic figure of a construction worker on her desk. I never knew where it came from. It's about an inch tall, and the little man is sitting down, breaking for lunch maybe. After Mom died in 1996, I was going through some of her stuff, and I stumbled across the little construction guy. Now I keep it at my desk.

What equipment do or have you used? Are there any manufacturers you'd like to praise or bad mouth here?

The only camera I own is a Canon PowerShot A620, and it's fantastic. It's a point-and-shoot that fits into my pocket, but you can manually set the shutter speed, aperture and focus. The viewscreen swivels, allowing me to shoot photos of people without being incredibly obvious about it, and to shoot from angles that would otherwise be impossible. Also, it shoots decent video.

What is the best photo that you missed?

Man, there have been so many. The one that leaps to mind right now is from a couple of days ago: a guy dressed like a Prohibition-era gangster (wide-pinstripe suit, white fedora) standing on a street corner in San Diego's hip Hillcrest area. Maybe he was an actor, maybe he was best man in a cool wedding, but that dude looked sharp. He also looked about 18, which added some incongruity to the sight.

Tell us your worst habit.

No, I don't think I will. I'd hate to bore you. (Too late, I know.)

Have you ever done anything heroic? (i.e. solved crimes, saved someone from a burning building or untied them from railroad tracks, fought injustice, donated organs) If not, why not? If so, please include press clippings.

Never have. Bad timing, I guess. And all of my press clippings - from my T-ball exploits in Hastings, Nebraska, in 1970 - are lost to the ages, I'm afraid.

If you weren't doing what you do now, what else WOULD you be doing? Photographer doesn't count.

Professional travel writing would be fun. Covering New York City as a travel journalist would be fantastic.

Do you wear glasses? If so, describe them, if not, why not? Don't you like glasses?

I've worn glasses since fifth grade. (Actual quote from a friend on the first day I wore my hornrims to school: "They don't look too bad. Just ... terrible.") My current frames are oval, beat-up metal and about eight years old. The lenses are about five years old; the UV coating is pretty much shot.

What did you have for breakfast?

Trader Joe's vanilla-flavored cereal and orange juice. The orange juice wasn't vanilla flavored, just the cereal.

Anything else we should know?

If you do a Google search for "odd photo blogs," my photoblog comes in at Number 5. I'll always be proud of that.

His Blog and tagline:

The Occasional Odd Crop (http://dodgemedlin.blogspot.com): Photos of whatever catches my eye

Atomische is prounounced /Atomische/

We recently sent out another interview request of a photoblogger who we used to like and damned if when we hit the little SEND button, that we didn't notice THEN that we had just emailed under our TRUE identities....aHA! You thought we would fall for that!? We will NEVER give out our true identities purposely but we WILL give you a hint that we are the joint heads of the Bill and Melinda Gates Charitable Foundations.

Anyway, after explaining to Tom Giebel of Atomische, and bribing him and then flashing him with one of those cool things we got from Tommy Lee Jones that erases your memory, we preceeded to interview one of our favorite photobloggers.

The First Interview of the Photomeme.net era.

Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

I am Tom, a 44-year old Brooklyn-ite from Wisconsin. During my first career (Librarian) I developed an obsessive compulsion to collect, document and catalog just about everything. But now I wander the neighborhoods of New York, camera in hand, collecting nothing but images. This photography-as-therapy not only helps me satisfy the need to make order from chaos, but also provides much-needed exercise and fresh air.

How do you say your name? Mememonitor says it's pronounced Uh-tom-i-shuh, Memeshame says it's pronounced Soo-zun.

Mememonitor is correct! I get asked about the name a lot, and now it can be told: I chose a random, exotic-sounding non-English word that started with 'A' in order to appear higher in alphabetical lists. Also it had my name in it. And the domain name was available.

Do you know Kerrin? How about neene? Are you her noisy next door neighbour?

Neene has left some lovely comments on my photoblog, but alas we've never met. I don't know Kerrin either.

What are you wearing?

Boxers AND briefs.

Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects?

There aren't enough days in the year to post everything on my daily blog, so overflow gets uploaded to Flickr, Picasa and elsewhere on the net. I have some photos on Wikipedia (search for "hog oiler") and sometimes get featured on blogs like Gothamist. I'm currently putting together some images for a group show here in NYC.

What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?

Travel, nature hikes, science fiction, electronic music.

Coke or Pepsi, McDonalds or Burger King, chromasia or Durham Township?

Neither, neither, chromasia!

What equipment do or have you used? Are there any manufacturers you'd like to praise or bad mouth here?

My first SLR was the Canon AE-1. I learned f-stops and ASA with that camera, and have stuck with Canon ever since. Recently, after getting stuck chatting with someone on the street about the merits of Canon vs. Nikon, I blacked-out the logos on my camera with electrical tape. Within minutes of emerging from the subway with my newly generified equipment, I was snagged by an excited fellow who thought he'd spotted some obscure Russian brand he'd been searching for. Go figure.

What is the best photo that you missed?

Many times I pass up interesting shots of people out of fear of getting beaten. At a construction site recently I saw a several cement-trucks, waiting in line to pour their loads. I could clearly see one of the drivers intensely studying a magazine which, curiously enough, he was holding up sideways.

If you weren't doing what you do now, what else WOULD you be doing? Photographer doesn't count.

Some day I hope to create and run my own photomeme site. Everyone will be welcome to contribute, the memes will always be unique and inspiring, and the photographers will never just be looking to generate page views.

Do you wear glasses? If so, describe them, if not, why not? Don't you like glasses?

At the moment I'm wearing some rather expensive and powerful German spectacles, which I need to see the computer screen. They aren't compatible with my camera though (I tend to mash the viewfinder right up against my eye socket) so I wear contact lenses when shooting.

What did you have for breakfast? A palmful of almonds, a glass of juice, and 10 cups of coffee.

Anything else?

No, but I'll probably have an early lunch.

So flee, Agents, and check out young Tom's site and remember to always use your Photo Meme Hall of Shame Internet Anon-e-mizers and cloaking devices so that when he sees no increase in traffic, HE'LL KNOW IT'S YOU!

Introducing......

PHOTOMEME.NET Your one-stop photomeme shop, brought to you by your noisy upstairs neighbours, Memes Monitor and Shame, Esqs.

That would be us.

"Why?" You ask? Well, we made so damned much money with our PLEASE HELP/SEND MONEY link that we suddenly needed to spend it so we hired an OUTRAGEOUSLY expensive website developer and CRAZY expensive and unstable host.

That and we could never spell http://photomeme-blogspot.com no http://photo.meme.shame.com no http://photomeme-shame.blogspot.com no http://photo-meme-shame.blogspot.com YES

How any of you ever did it we have no idea and we're certain ONLY because it was the lengths that some go to when trying to hunt down prey... but whatever works.

AND...

Now don't go all sniffly and soft, daft gits, but one of the things we really enjoy about the Photo Meme Hall of Shame is the Interviews. We like you, we REALLY REALLY like you (Some of you anyway) and we ENJOY doing these daft little interviews. But more than once we have arranged an interview to have the interviewee say to us "WTF did you say the name of the wesbite was? HALL OF SHAME? FU Monkey Ass!!" You might think this an original or unique turn of phrase, but let us assure you, we hear it several times per day from disparate sources. YES! WE SHARE YOUR SHOCK!

In addition to Shaming, we also like praising and know we can do it with the same sort of glowing contempt you are used to us using to scorn. Praise and scorn are really so close. They might not be identical twins but they are certainly fraternal. So we will be highlighting a...brace yourselves daft gits...PHOTOBLOG THAT WE LIKE! We will try to do this weekly, there is no complicated algorithm, and it may only tajes us 3 or 4 weeks before we are tapped out, but we shall endeavour for you. Our beloved daft gits.

AND THAT IS NOT ALL! For 2 payments of 19.99... No, no...I am confused again and doing our late night infomercial. This is Photomeme.net. THAT IS NOT ALL! We will also be highlighting our favorite photo of the week which has been submitted to a photomeme.

So what is in this for you, now that you know what's in it for us?

There is, heaven help us, a forum. A place where if you are brave, and cunning, and shrewed, and wise, and merciful, and a git, you may, without intrusion or screening or editorializing from we, your noisy upstairs neighbours, again, heaven help us, post anything you like.

So go...take a look around. See if it works. See if you like it. If you do, then...good. If not....FU Monkey Ass!

This Hall of Shame will always exist in its present form, rest assured, but if we can roll it nicely into Photomeme.net and be a LITTLE more than just other peanuts in the gallery, than so be it.

This is like deja-vu all over again - Yogi Berra

More repeating themes!!

Furniture: Next week's Thursday Challenge and THIS week's PhotoSharks (Which appears to be back)

Odd Toys/Toys: Shutterday, then the recovering Lensday.

Memeshame out.

Dun dun dun dun dun DUN

Can't we, your noisy upstairs neighbors, take a few weeks off to campaign in absentia for our favorite US Presidential Candidates?

We have been supporting nominee Barack Obama for one reason and one reason only. On his website, you can agree to make telephone calls and sign up and he (Yeah, HE) gives you a list of phone numbers in whatever US State they are harrassing the voters of at the moment and they give you a script...

"Hullo, we are your noisy upstairs neighbours, is (insert the name of your noisy downstairs neighbour here) at home we'd like to discuss why we are supporting blah blah blah..."

So we Skype them with the best of intentions but our calls usually end up something like this...

"DO YOU HAVE PRINCE ALBERT IN THE CAN?" or
"IS YOUR REFRIGERATOR RUNNING?"

*click*

Followed by squeals and giggles as we roll around on the Bare Mattress of Love and get our headset cords wrapped around our foolish necks.

But on to all matters photomeme:

Photosharks

Agent Whatever (their name, not our dismissive title) threw note tied to a rock through our window that said (paraphrasing only as we took out the rocks and notes earlier this morning) "WTF is up with Photosharks?"

WTF indeed! We came up with several proposals the winning of which was 'Photosharks was run by the recently deceased stars of Jaws, Roy Scheider, who wanted to do something different in his retirement.'

More likely they, like us, are devoting all their time to make prank calls on behalf of Barack Obama.

If it is a difficulty of any other reason, may we take this time to offer THE PHOTOMEME HALL OF SHAME BABYSITTING SERVICE in which WE, you noisy upstairs neighbours, will take the keys of your photomemes and after a few minutes of training will get it ticking like a clock once again. We have offered this service in the past and found, to our dismay, that once you get the keys THE DAFT GITS NEVER COME BACK FOR THEM! But if that is the case Moderators of Photosharks, just throw a rock through our window and let us know what we can do to help.

SPEAKING OF HELP!!!!

The Second Edition of the Oxford English Dictionary contains full entries for 171,476 words and over half of these words are nouns, about a quarter adjectives so

((171,476/2)+1)x((171,476-1)/4)= 3,675,523,756 noun phrases.

THIS IS NOT EVEN COUNTING VERB or ADVERBS!

Why are photomemes repeating themes so often?

Eyes: Shutterday, Tuesday Challenge
Old: Shutterday, Lensday*
Game: Photosharks, Thursday Challenge
Nudity/Naked: Shutterday, Moody Monday

We can understand repeating a theme, actually. It's good for the environment by requiring photographers to go outside exhaling all that carbon dioxide and wasting battery power which would need to be recharged off the electrical grid and put there by a dirty coal fired power stations in Poland and the next thing you know they are growing grapes in Germany.

But space them at least TWO weeks apart.

LENSDAY

If you have ever submitted a photo to Lensday, feel free to do it again because they have lost everything.

The good people at Lensday were apparently changing servers or something and lost their archives so now they are back, tabula rasa, all blank slatish as it were. For those of you who like to list your photomeme victories on your photoblogs, NOW is the time to stack the Lensday column.

HELP THE PHOTOMEME HALL OF SHAME!

You think it's cheap being your noisy upstairs neighbors? Please consider making a donation to pay for all our legal fees, Agent fees, web devlopment, electricity, snacks, headset cords, new windows, Bare Mattress of Love Covers and all other expenses related to keeping you daft gits honest.

CLICK HERE TO HELP

THIS JUST IN!

Dateline VFXY!

Former Photoblogs.org gamer and VFXY founder Lev Kolobov announces new feature!

http://photos.vfxy.com/themes/

VFXY Weekly Themes is a new feature designed to collect and syndicate community-based themed postings. Themes will be as versatile, poetic, and fun as possible, and will range in matter from the simplistic to relatively complicated. In fact, if you have theme ideas, send them in using the contact page. The Weekly Themes will be announced every Friday at 12:00 a.m. EST by e-mail.

Post a URL from your current blog that matches that theme and your high resolution image will be syndicated in the same way that photoblogs are currently presented on VFXY. All postings, amateur and professional, will be accepted as long as they are appropriate for the theme. In addition, your photoblog must be linked properly or your photo will be removed by an administrator. In the future, we will implement voting and other features. If you have suggestions, ideas, or upgrades, please post them to the VFXY Google Group. Most of all, we want you to know that this is about fun, community, and great photography.

We can't wait to see what you share!

And, as always, neither can WE!

Where We Have Been. (Rhymes with bean.)

This morning I lay watching the sun in mememonitor's hair as she layed sprawled half on the Bare Mattress of Love and half on the Floor of Love, lazily planning another day of working the phones with calls to the United States of America in support of the Presidential Campaign of Mike Huckabee since we can't vote, being BOTH foreign and felons (We don't know any of his policies but Creationists make us giggle, the daft gits.) when she awoke and said "What about the Photo Meme Hall of Shame?"

"What Photo Meme Hall of Shame?" I replied.

Then I saw stars.

OOOoooooh! THAT Photo Meme Hall of Shame!

Well....2 things happened actually, that caused me some temporary blindness. Those were Shutterday: Nudity and Moody Monday: Naked.

We BEG the other photomemes, do not follow suit. We (Ok, I) SCOURED those photomemes looking for good nudity. There was none to be had. There were either nudity PUNS or bad nudity. If I want to see bad nudity I'll install a full legnth mirror on the Ceiling Of Love, thank you very much. You can't swing a cat round these damned internets or flickr without seeing GOOD nudity. Photomemes should stick with what they are best at, skies and cats.

On the BRIGHT side, we noticed today that the lovely Xerraire has one upped us in the Interview column by making hers a podcast. And it is GOOD! We'd totally copy her idea and make it our own if we had the faintest idea how. Until then (and it will be a long 'until then') we encourage you to go listen to the sexual tension crackling out of your speakers or those daft ears buds when you hear Xerriare and gumnut discuss photography at Unqie Exposures (link on the sidebar). We've been looping it in the Flat of Love all morning.

Additionally, we found this note tied to a rock and thrown through a window from Agent J under the Kitchen Table of Love this morning:

it's only been 20 minutes and already there enough contenders for an infinite number of shames for these weeks photofriday.
my particular fav is:
http://iphotos.aminus3.com/image/2007-12-09.html

love agent j

So, as you can see, all is well here at the Photo Meme Hall of Shame and now that our candidtate is nearly eliminated (We don't quite understand how or why, or more importantly, how he was even in contention anyway) we will be watching YOU the daft gits who are not quite so daft gitty as be running for one of the most important political positions on Earth, while still taking fables at face value. AND NO MORE NUDITY! Or you will be GROUNDED young gits!

I have looked out from the mountaintop and SEEN the Shame

Actually, this is sort of standing on the Mountain of Shame.

We come to you this week from the warm friendly confines of Thursday Challenge. Dale Hudjik's nice cozy photomeme an Island of Calmness and Serentiy the night before the Hell that is Photo Friday breaks out.

And what do we find?

A level of Shameless Self Promotion that would make you horse racers of PhotoFriday and double posters weep for your Mommies!

I speak of course of the HELLISH posting by the Web Wonder at www.feverishthoughts.com

Now Tricia, who ALSO posts from another blog for a total of 4 posts this week, puts you Happy Little Postmonkeys to shame because either because she never found the reason to learn the word SINGLE as in 'post a single entry' and has gotten this far in life without knowing it (She mocks you wordsmiths for knowing words that limit your shamless self promotion) AND...

Because she is doing it and has ADVERTISING on her photoblog for you to all click on.

Woe to you fools who participate in the photomemes for the fun of it. You are truly silly in her eyes.

WeeklyShut

Good Evening Mr and Mrs Photoblogs and All The Ships at Sea!

This just in over the Agent Frequencies of Top Secret Photo Meme Hall of Shame Shortwave Radio Emergency Network, Ltd!

So, it's now Weekly Shut. Brandon has closed shop after some noob was caught cheating, followed by a lot of pomposity by former members. The same people who couldn't bother to post anymore certainly bothered to post why the don't bother to post anymore... and thus adding more weirdness, snarkiness and self-righteousness to an environment they deem too weird, snarky and self-righteous. Instead of gratitude for a cool effort put forth by BS, or making an effort to help keep it cool, everyone was always quick to point out what they DIDN'T think was cool.

Oh well, on to Vazaar, where everyone can take extra time to tell each other how talented they are, without the brutal, judgmental, pitiless octagon of photography that Weekly Shot was.

Creme de Meme

And...

Happy New Year Noisy Upstairs Neighbors!

You were right about the “wheels coming off at WS”. Unfortunately it has been like a slowly-dying beloved pet, and last week began to steeply deteriorate. So it looks like Brandon Stone is going to “ put it down” so to speak. It is unfortunate really, since originally, this was probably the best of all the “meme” sites. I have been a critic of some aspects of WS in the past, mainly the ratings quotas….which I think are mainly what caused the decline to begin with since they changed ratings/comments from being interest-based to being requirement-based. But it was an ambitious project that allowed for the sharing of some truly exceptional images, and also for many people, including me, to get some great feedback.

Anyway, I attached a PDF of a post from Brandon Stone to the WS Google group, in case you aren’t already members of it ;) (Oh, we ARE)

Take care,

Agent G

Below is an excerpt from letter from Brandon Stone posted on the WeeklyShot Group explaining his reasoning.

After our little New Year's ordeal was over and I had gotten my family back home and comfortable, I decided to check my email to see what was going on in the world of The Internets. After sifting through several-hundred new emails I noticed a recent thread in this group talking about (among other things) the continued downward spiral of WeeklyShot. It seems like we're having a lot of those discussions lately.

Since New Year's is fresh in my mind, I inevitably started thinking about where WeeklyShot has been and what the future could bring. I started flipping through the older themes and reacquainted myself with a lot of top-notch imagery and interesting conversations from the past. Our first theme happened almost 2 years ago and in that time I've gotten to know a countless number of amazing people through this site. I'm sure many of you have your fair share of good memories and new friends as well.

Despite all the positive things that have happened on WeeklyShot over its lifetime, I've become increasingly dismayed about the direction of the discussions here. I've often wondered if I've been too tolerant of some of the petty and unproductive elements that have popped up here and there. Or maybe my original premise for this site was flawed from the beginning. In any event, I think it's clear that WS isn't as fruitful as it once was and it will take a considerable amount of effort to turn things around... At this point it's time for me to make a difficult decision.

Keeping in mind my many responsibilities in the coming year, I feel that it's time for me to bid a fond farewell to WeeklyShot.

We had a great time while it lasted and I appreciate the enthusiasm and talent that you have brought to this project. I consider you my friends and I hope we can stay in touch in the future. Building websites like WS has brought me a lot of satisfaction over the years, so I know I'll continue to work on projects like this. I've definitely learned many lessons along the way, and I'm excited to try out some new ideas in other places.

If you have any questions about this decision or if you'd like to talk about the details of how we should shut down WeeklyShot, let's talk about that in this thread. I would like to leave the site up as an homage to all the interesting things that have happened here, and I think we can figure out some good ways to do that.

In any event, if you'd ever like to get in touch with me or just say "hi", feel free to use my contact form at BrandonStone.com

So there you have it. Now, a comment from We, your noisy upstairs neighbors, (and former WeeklyShot participants. Shhh!)

If every photomeme closed where there was cheating, shameless self promotion, rise and decline in quality of images, off topic posts, whining and dismay of partipants, rise and fall in participation, there'd be NARY A ONE LEFT! AND MORE IMPORTANTLY NO PHOTO MEME HALL OF SHAME!!

The weak link in all of this? WeeklyShot's weakness which led to it's downfall? Letting you DAFT GITS TALK TO EACH OTHER! Did Brandon not know that they debeak chickens in chicken houses because they will peck each other to death??

THAT dear Photo Meme Hall of Shame Reader and Past, Present, or Future Shamee is why we are here, doing this for you, so that you may be safe. Daft gits.

NOW GO AND BEHAVE!

Shutterday: Bad Party

This just in from Creme de Meme who honors us with reports both large and small. We are posting this small before moving on to the large! UP NEXT!

A big Whiskey Tango Foxtrott to some of the action currently being voted on over at Shutterday:

We lead off with photo_man, who provides us with some windy goodness in response to Bad Party:http://campman.blogspot.com/2007/08/blog-post_14.html

Straight out of Flickr, f1rwb DClik gives us some Modern Dance - possibly an interpretation of a Bad Party through the medium of Mime:http://www.flickr.com/photos/f1rwb/2114074925/

thingseen apparently goes with a political riff on Bad Party:http://thingseen.my-expressions.com/archives/9088_1687835003/261643

cheneel goes with a Sudoku-like puzzle of birds... all I can say is I hope she's not wearing a dry-clean-only dark jacket under that party...http://photos.cheneel.com/index.php?showimage=16

However... big props to Mostly Sunny for pushing the Photoblog envelope. I knew it when I saw it...http://www.slutbunwalla.com/index.php?showimage=523

Memes out!

We Don't Always Do What We Do Because You Do What We Do So Well.

We had barely unpacked our steamer trunks from our trip aboard the steamer Cassieopiea when we fired up the laptop of love to see what had been happening and to be honest it was quite a snoozer. We could find very little to shame!

The folks at Shutterday had dropped the ball again with such an awkwardly worded challenge involving other photographers that almost half their participants failed for a second time to post correctly. Note to Homer Laffoone: Do not use a paragrah when a word will suffice

We noticed that young Noah of Photo Sunday had achieved his (short) life goal of being first in Photo Friday. Not in the results, mind you, but having learned from all of us, first in posting

And then we noticed the wheels coming off at Weekly Shot. We've written about Weekly Shot before and LOVE IT. It's got some of photoblogdoms best photographers and that certainly police their own. As can be seen below. We strongly suggest following the link, but in case something like this isn't allowed to stay, we chose to cut and paste the comments for your enjoyment.

http://www.weeklyshot.org/theme/four/featured/47/

Featured in Four (Response #47)
Featured 1 Day Ago by pointnshoot - - 28 comments
Photo © pointnshootUnauthorized reproduction not permitted.

User Comments

flipthom: I was wondering if someone would do this. Love the color. Might just be my monitor but it hurts my eyes to look at it. Not a bad thing at all. If I've misspelled anything in my comment, it's because I'm typing with my head turned sideways. :)

flipthom: Ah yes pointnshoot, congrats on your feature.

Nick : Neat! Four bolts.

Flatline Over-saturated, over-sharpened, and there's sensor dirt visible in various locations. This is not a great shot.

Beamer Nice idea, well captured. The red feels over processed. Don't see the need...?

Bogart Excellent. Eye-catching.

stolenlife I dont understand how/why this featured. But, the weeklyshot moves in mysterious ways.. Congratulations

Ana beyond it's bright colours and relevance, this shot doesn't hold a lot of interest for me.yes, it's featured, but seemingly this received a rush of ratings...while most other shots around it have 9 or 10.*shrug*

pete its all a mystery. i have to agree with Ana/Stolen/flat.... its very bright, and the sensor dust is annoying. if you found the time to do the saturation and sharpening, surely a little cloning as in order!!

Montage This is the only shot this week that I haven't commented on. Shame the comment has to be joining the chorus of wondering why/how this was featured so fast.

shipmate no mystery. know people who rate. They rate fairly.

pointnshoot oops I was logged in with my roomate's username.

pete your roommate who hasnt commented in 315 days?

pete or Bogart... who has only posted 1 image in a year, and has only ever commented on this one photo of yours? dude... grow up. why are you 'cheating' on a friendly photo site. what on earth are you trying to gain from this? your fame and fortune?

Flatline LOL!

flipthom Shipmate? Dude...c'mon. If you're going to cheat (and you shouldn't), at least come up with a better name. And if it really is your roommate, tell him that captains rank higher than shipmates.
In all seriousness though, your stuff is good. You have plenty of features. Why cheat?

Beamer So looks like we may now know some of the source of the many who speed rate and never comment. Must be a bitch to have to wade thru 13x4=52 ratings just so you can rate your own pic 4 times, huh "shipmate". Big OOPS!! Let's see how this works, you are a member and you can invite 3 others. So you end up with 4 accounts. 4 ratings of 25 points will sway a lot your way I would guess...?? But hey, innocent till...

pursang Sad and very unfortunate for this venue.

Beamer Very true Mark, very bad timing...

stolenlife Hey pointnshoot, are you going to come clean? I think we'd all respect you more if you did

TammyLynn His other photo he posted on this topic has a star as well. It's an interesting shot I'll agree, but it's not remarkable, it's just a snap. There are several remarkable shots in this subject and they don't have stars yet. Makes you wonder.

gorin-images THIS is exactly why I no longer waste my time on WeeklyShot anymore. It is really unfortunate that what was once one of the best concepts in photo memes has slowly sunk down to this level. Oh, and Happy New Year everyone ;)

phototext Well, my apologies if I am wrong but this looks like pointnshoot has been cheating.
How very pathetic and to make matters worse you where stupid enough to get caught using your "flatmates" login. This is a snapshot, nothing more, and a pretty poor one at that. You have dust on the sensor, the composition is poor and the over saturated colours do nothing to make it a quality image. Brings in to question all his/ her other featured images. If cheating is the only way you can get featured perhaps it's time you took up another hobby.

Ana @gorin-images. I understand where you are coming from, and I agree with you,but another reason it has sunk down, is because some really great photographers have given up on it.

TMaher This shot suxs ass.. Ooh wait - Am I another one his personalities? I haven't posted in a long time either.. haha Yeah, I remember it well. I posted one image for the 'Texture' shot and half the dopes said my image did not meet the topic.. I say dopes because they clearly don't understand what the word texture means.. As if, people think it only means coarse and not smooth.. fools.. FYI - I came to find out the guy who invited me here was doing the same thing this guy is. I only found out when I saw one his images posted by another user then the username who invited me posted to the image voting it up and praising it.. another loser.

pete while im not exactly sure what all of your post was about, it is a shame this has happened.
and while i wasnt around for the texture theme, the problem with photography is that appreciation and understanding is the job of the viewer, and if they dont understand what you are trying to show, well, then, you didnt show is clearly enough.

pointnshoot Honesty. I'm sorry you all think this way. This is my favortie site on the internet and I would not jeopordize my membership. What you r accusing me of is not true. I am sorry I made a mistake by writng my comment under my roomates log in. I just did not look, as I am mostly the person logged in However, the comments collectively looks like I am guilty. Too bad.I have one log-in. Other members have given me positive results and I thank you for you comments. I write the above with sincere honesty.


Oh it's going to be a grand 2008! Happy New Year, Daft Gits!

Love always,

Your Noisy Upstairs Neighbors.

Mr John Marquess of Mr John Marquess's Photoblog.

Many photomemes, like PhotoFriday, are horse races. One of those perennial horses is John Marquess. We'd go on and on about who he is but that's what the bloody interview is for, you daft gits!

Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

I am John Marquess. I am originally from Belfast but moved to Brisbane, Australia in February 2007. I got into photography in December 2005 when I first bought a Canon EOS 350D. I dropped out of a computer course in 2001 and took with me some web design skills. After I took a few photos that people liked I got into blogging and set up photoblog.

Do you know Kerrin?

Nope. Did a google search and found http://www.kerrin.com/ at the top of the list. I don't know him either.

What are you wearing?

Shorts, thongs and an Adidas tee shirt. It is the middle of summer down here after all.

Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects?

Apart from the only one that I ever gave away that hangs on my dad's wall in Ireland you can see my barbed wire photo on the cover of a Book. http://www.wordybug.com/Juby I sold the copyright for A$750. No other side projects as yet but I am considering setting up a staff for Christmas at the local service station

What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?

I enjoy inflicting death and cooking upon fish. I love fishing but don't get the chance to go out much

What equipment do or have you used? Are there any manufacturers you'd like to praise or bad mouth here?

Canon EOS 350D, 100mm macro 28-135mm USM and the standard issue 18-55mm. I like canon but have not had much of an opportunity to use anything else beyond an automated passport photo booth.

What is a favorite toy you had as a child? (we aren't interested current toys)

A scalextric 400 racing car set. I wish I still had it. I broke it when I gave up on the cars and sent metal ball bearing on the track at full throttle. I nearly burnt the house down.

What is the best photo that you missed?

On my way to Oz I stopped in Singapore. A new restaurant was being opened. The theme was very pretty Asian girls in pink and black french maid outfits. They were being filmed for a promotional TV piece the evening that I passed. The lighting was excellent for the TV camera and they were frolicking wildly. I was gutted. recently I also missed an opportunity when about 200 kids on trick bikes cycled past me on the footpath. Again, gutted. Never go anywhere without a camera.

Tell us your worst habit.

Talking to myself. I have got tho the stage where I do not even realise it.

Have you ever done anything heroic? (i.e. solved crimes, saved someone from a burning building or untied them from railroad tracks, fought injustice, donated organs) If not, why not? If so, please include press clippings.)

I once heroically accepted a donated kidney and had it transplanted into me - does that could. It was quite sore. I also ring and warn the occupant whenever I burn down buildings. I am a good sort.

If you weren't doing what you do now, what else WOULD you be doing? Photographer doesn't count.

I would like to be a professional fishing guide.

Do you wear glasses? If so, describe them, if not, why not? Don't you like glasses?

I am short sighted. My glasses have a nasty yellow colouration in the left eye lens that annoys me. I am too cheap to buy new ones so I wear contact lenses.

What did you have for breakfast?

2 caramel tim-tams and a cup of tea.

Anything Else?

Keep on shaming - They deserve it.

Now FLY, OUR LITTLE RIVER PIXIES OF Photo Meme Hall of Shamedom, and go see his Photoblog but remember to wear your Photo Meme Hall of Shame Cloaking Device and Voice Changer so that when he sees no traffic coming from the Photo Meme Hall of Shame - He'll know it's YOU!

So Much Shaming, So Little Time.

Last week's unusual Shutterday theme called "It's Not About You" was an attempt to get other photographers to look at other photoblogs and link an image from another photographer.

From the theme description: This theme is totally different from what you traffic craving,attention seeking, power hungry, money grubbing, narcissists USUALLY DO.

Your challenge is to selflessly highlight your fellow traffic craving, attention seeking, power hungry, money grubbing, narcissists.

Choose an image you found once when you accidentally strayed from your own photoblog (completely unaware that there were others), and gave grudging admiration to (knowing full well that if you had the same lightingcamerasubjectatmosphereicconditionseyeandluck that you, too, could have taken that photo)

It was either poorly explained, ill advised, difficult to understand, unexpected, or unwelcome because nearly a quarter of the entries did not fit the criteria.

Below are the Shutterday Rebels

Rebel Streetshooter

FromBelgiumwithLove

Deja

DutchPhotoDay

Clik and Clak

barbara

Hess

travelinma

tetsu

Eyevision

ISO1975

:photoschau

Uh!Log

photo_man

Partialsight

Welcome to My World

Daily Photo Evolution

R A Y F L A N A

Photo Friday: Shameless Self Promotion

PhotoFriday was not more than a a few minutes old in the Dead of the Night when we got a note tied to a rock and tossed through our window:

Today's LeggNett entry for photofriday "Dead of Night" gives this description under his entry:

"If you are on Facebook (or willing to sign up) and would like to add me as a friend, please do so. Just do a lookup for "Rich Legg". I shouldn't be too hard to find, I'm the one with the camera. p.s. Obviously today's image has nothing to do with this post."

I would suggest that he should has added: Obviously today's image has nothing to do with this topic either!

Any thoughts?

Agent M

Too many to mention, Agent M.

While you are adding Mr Legg why not add your noisy upstairs neighbors to gtalk, AIM, Myspace, Skype, ICQ, twitter, and Facebook? Because the blog and email isn't enough!

Update: Mr Legg's Response: ah c'mon... you could at least include a link within your witty commentary: leggnet.com

See why we like him?

Lost in Translation?

This morning as we were louging around on the Bare Mattress of Love and enjoying our Sunday Frozen Waffles we got this missive tied to a rock and thrown through our windows.

Dear Memes,

Take a look at Macroday: Anything but a Bug and Shutterday: It's Not About You and see what you think. Is this mischief or malice? Or just a language issue for theme descriptions that are too wordy? - Agent I

Dear Agent I,

We may have thought so until we went to the Euroblogger Meetup but we found these backstabbing Eurobloggers have JUST PERFECTLY FINE ENGLISH WHEN they are assuring you that they WILL NOT NOTIFY HOTEL SECURITY THAT YOU HAVE A FULL GROWN NUBIAN GOAT IN YOUR ROOM! But then they go and do JUST THE opposite! Up is down! Nein is Oui! In is Out! No Goat is Goat!

So it is with great pleasure we accept your notification of SHAMING UNTO THEE

Let us begin with Macroday: Anything But a Bug. Just don't post a bug. How hard is that?

Just don't glance at the title, see the word Bug and think AHA! I HAVE A BUG! These are the type of people Nigerians pray to find! (Greetings and God Bless and please accept this offer of 10 BILLION DOLLARS)

Those who were a bit buggy at Macroday: Lightsights, Adrian Hancu, and Journal Extime.

We'll do Shutterday after the theme closes. it looks like it's going to be a long week over there.

Macroday Smackroday!

We have been begging Carlo Ferroni, owner of Macroday, to moderate his photomeme a little less ruthlessly. "Why?" you ask. Because it leaves us nothing to SHAME.

For other shamings we have to rely on our interpretation of the thing we call art, which as many of you who have been shamed know, we know very little.

If a given theme is, say, opulent, you can post anything and we don't know. Even if it doesn't fit the theme, maybe it's satire. Or maybe you've been drinking.

But if a theme is "Blue" and you post "Red". WE KNOW! And so you your fellow participants who mock you behind your back. Not us! We do it off to the side from behind a curtain! We are no braver than they!

Which brings us to Macroday. Either something is a macro or it isn't. An angel dancing on the head of a pin? Macro. A sty on the eye of a fly? Macro. A mouse in a bowl of grain? Hmmmm....ok, maybe, maybe not. Some Abstraction? Who knows?

A Bridge? NO, YOU DAFT GIT!

So we will use the criteria that Carlo referred us to at Wikipedia. Basically when a regular sized print is made the image is life size or larger than the subject.

For MACRODAY: CLOCK

In the category of NOT A MACRO
Claus Peterson (Unless he has teeny tiny hands)
*MERDI* (Unless that can go on a chain and into a pocket)

In the category of Maybe We Just Don't Get It?
Uh!Log (Are those those dandelion things?)

*update*
We Googled dandelion clock and sure enough the dandelion 'things' are dandelion clocks. Not only should Uh!Log's photo not be shamed, it should have WON! :)

Xerraire!

In the photomeme community there are 2 types of folks. Your photomeme moderators and your photomeme participants. We understand that some photomeme moderators claim to have photoblogs but for the most part, we've never seen them. But in general, photographers know their lot in life. Xerraire is a rare exception. She's Bi-Photomeme. She dances back and forth participating freely in nearly every meme and then hosts her own very nice particpatory Saturday meme.

She recently came to our attention and took her shaming like a good sport making us like her even more.

We pleaded with her for an interview which she accepted with grace and dignity. So much so that she didn't bother answering our daft questions about what she was wearing, leaving it to our rich imaginations.

We now present: Xerraire.

Who are you and why are you doing this to us?

I am Barbara from Maryland, USA. I am a recently divorced mom who has home schooled all three of her children. I try hard to earn a living from home to support them and still continue to teach them. Sometimes we struggle, but there is a lot of love in our home.

I was asked and have somewhat reluctantly accepted to do this interview. I’ve been interviewed before, but this one seems different somehow.

How is Xerraire pronounced? 'X-rayer'? 'Zee-rayer'? Or the more commonly accepted 'Char-uhlz'? And what does it mean?

Xerraire is a Catalán word meaning talkative. I lived in the Barcelona, Spain area for about a year and I learned a little of the Catalán language. While back in the U.S., I looked for a chat nickname that might attract people from that area as I grew to love it so much. This one worked like a charm. The “X” takes on an SH sound. Phonetically I suppose you could pronounce it Shuh-RYE-Ruh. I returned to Barcelona with dozens of new friends made on the net, chronicled here: http://www.xerraire.com/spain

Where else can we see your photos? Do you have any side projects? How did you happen to start Unique Exposures? What the hell else is going on over there?

On the net I have several side projects. I do web & graphic design from my home for various clients.

I have a personal site at http://www.xerraire.com that also contains my portfolio. In 1999 I joined with partners to start MXskinz.com which was meant to be a wallpaper and skins application site. That propelled me into the skins community, who are amazing people to know. However while working on that, I met a few who were photographers disenchanted with the places on the net to upload their photos. They wanted a smaller more intimate site that was exclusively for photography and a place that they wouldn’t get lost in the crowd. So, I created www.UniqueExposures.com

It started out only as a photo-sharing gallery, then by request, I added a forum. I love my members there, however, it’s a little too intimate, and so I am always looking for new members to feel free to join. I can’t say when I started it that I knew what I was doing. I dove in feet first and am learning as I go. Later, when a few photo-memes died out, I thought to add The Weekend Photo Challenge to UniqueExposures. As I am learning as I go, there are a few features my meme doesn’t have, but I would at least like to think it’s a friendly meme where others feel comfortable joining in, if nothing else.

About the same time, I began http://www.SkinsGallery.com . It was to make my life easier as MXskinz was totally html, and I needed something more modern, where people could upload their own skins and wallpapers. Now it has expanded to include MySpace Layouts.

I have many, many interests, so I began a blog to help me keep my thoughts straight, and it has become almost like therapy. I enjoy it, and the topics range from very personal to things I am curious about. http://www.xerraireart.com/blog

The blog is on a fairly new site that continues to grow, my art site, where I post my watercolors, my personal photography gallery, my photo blog, and newly added, a lyrics site: http://www.xerraireart.com Another item of interest on my art site is the Terragens I create. Terragen is a fascinating landscape rendering program that I am crazy about, but don’t get enough time to learn more. I have sold a few Terragens, and that was rewarding that others like them as well.

What other hobbies do you enjoy or enjoy inflicting upon others?

I like to go hiking/sight-seeing and I love all kinds of music. Both my children would say are ‘an infliction on them.” My music/mp3 collection » http://www.xerraire.com/music/mp3z.htm

What gives with gumnut?

I don’t know what gives. He is more a mystery to me each day. We do have a blog we do together when the spirit moves him or me: http://johndolphin.net/bozandoz

If you weren't doing what you do now, what else WOULD you be doing? Photographer doesn't count.

I majored in school to teach Spanish, hence the living in Spain, but somehow that didn’t materialize. I suppose I would be teaching, and since I have an interest in languages, I perhaps would be learning more.

Anything else?

Thanks very much for noticing me out of a huge crowd of talented photographers.