New photos of fitness competitor Toni A. are up on her page.
I loved the light in this shoot, and Toni was fun as always.
More of her soon…
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Category: G’villeWell, Gator baseball season is underway again, and a 3-0 start against *anybody* has to be seen as positive.
The crazy weather is bound to affect play, though. Last Saturday I got sunburned arms, by Wednesday evening it should be in the 30s– or lower. Tough for any team to cope with, says I.
Speaking of coping, I bought a four-dollar Coke at the game Saturday, drank about a third of it, then found it could be used to attract and collect gnats from as far away as Trenton.
C’mon, guys. We *know* the ticket prices are going to soar at the first excuse, and concession prices have always been a good source of abusive humor. But a four-dollar coke ought to come with a lid, at least.
From an article in the Lakeland Ledger:
A state legislator blamed understaffing by the Florida Highway Patrol for the magnitude of a deadly chain-reaction crash along a smoke-filled and foggy section of Interstate 4 in Polk County…
“I believe it could have been prevented,” Brandenburg said. “Those people didn’t have to die.”
Brandenburg said more troopers could have reacted more quickly to the deteriorating road conditions and closed the road.
Talk about clueless.
The taxpayers of Florida mandated that our government design and build a high-speed train through that corridor.
Governor Bush couldn’t be bothered, so he stalled and convinced the voters to repeal the mandate because it would “cost too much”.
Now Brandenburg wants to encumber the state payroll with more FHP troopers. While they’re worth every penny, troopers are expensive.
Why did we not have enough money to fix the I-4 problem in 2004 with the economy under full steam, but we’re being asked to fund a band-aid for it in 2008 with a recession on the way?
Presuming the Gators get invited to a bowl game next year, I think the first question to ask is, “Who’s officiating?”
The Capital One Bowl was very refreshing this year, because I knew we were going to lose and all the stress was gone. When the officials missed a blatant and obvious hold on the *very first play of the game*, one that could have resulted in two points for Florida rather than the eventual seven for Michigan, my first question was, “Who the heck is officiating this thing?”
When I heard it was the ACC, I relaxed. Game over, we lose, enjoy the show, no refunds. The ACC hasn’t been doing much right lately, and their officials’ skill in recognizing “holding” has never been a resume bullet point. The Gator jerseys must look like salt-water taffy tonight.
Oh, and there’s this new thing called “blocking in the back”? It’s bad. You’re not supposed to let teams do it.
Some of this is sour grapes, of course, and I’ve got the crud and that’s surely affecting my outlook. Yet I think there exists a fundamental issue of fairness that extends beyond a single game, or even a single sport.
The rules of a game exist for a reason: to provide a level playing field, an amount of uncertainty, to define the game itself. If one side is allowed to exploit loopholes, you’re not really playing the game.
That’s why performance-enhancing drugs in major league baseball are getting such attention. That’s why gymnasts lose major points for stepping one millimeter outside the line on the floor exercise. That’s why pinball games have TILT. Everybody has to play by the rules.
Make no mistake: Michigan was big, and strong, and fast, and talented, and certainly motivated. But then, so was Florida– maybe not as big and strong, but maybe faster and more talented. We’ll never know, because the ACC officials suppressed the TILT by failing to enforce adherence to the rules– *all* of the rules– by which I mean the old tired rant about “holding”.
(It just so happens that this particular “failure to enforce all the rules” turned out to Michigan’s advantage. I refuse to attach any more significance to the situation than an accident of topology– a failure to enforce a different subset of rules might just as easily turned the tide Florida’s way, which makes the overall situation no better.)
To reiterate the point: The rules of a game exist for a reason, and it should not be within the realm of a small group of officials to influence the outcome of a contest by applying them in an arbitrary manner. Some form of checks and balances needs to be devised in order to ensure a level playing field.
The last shots from the 2007 All-South are up, and that completes the 2007 season. (*whew!*)
As I mentioned, I went back to shooting the way *I* like to shoot at this show, and I am so much happier with the results I can’t even describe it. I hope you enjoy them as well.
Sanction Saturday went well; as usual I missed details on a couple of the shows because the room is noisy and the session goes quickly, but I got enough to put together a rough draft of the proposed 2008 schedule and I’ll have that up in a few days.
As always I was floored by the selfless attitudes of IFBB pros Dexter Jackson and Darrem Charles. Their love for the sport is unbelieveable and their willingness to help anyone is just what Florida bodybuilding needs.
Some more great news is that bodybuilding will return to Gainesville in 2008; the First Annual Greater Gainesville show is scheduled for October 18. I plan to do it, or train up for it at a bare minimum.
Now to the backlog of shoots…. :)
Shots from the 2007 Southeastern are up on the site.
There weren’t that many competitors, actually, but since they got to compete in multiple classes this one took a bit longer than anticipated.
On the plus side, the lighting was good and I was really able to bring some of the shots to life, I think.
One more show to go, then look forward to seeing some individual shoot updates and even some new pages.
Sanction Saturday is December 1. I think I am going to go. I’m desperately curious as to whether there will be a 2008 show in Gainesville– I need to train for another one soon.
Follow-up: Yes, this year will mark the First Annual Greater Gainesville show in mid-October.
Way back in November of 2005 (!) I posted a warning about the issues that were going to be caused from basing government spending projections on the windfall in tax revenues spawned by the housing boom.
Completely as an aside, one of my favorite quotes is from Die Hard: “Man, I hate it when I’m right.”
One thing I would like to see lawmakers do in this special session– *now*, when we understand the wisdom of doing so– is to pass a law demanding that windfall tax revenues may *only* be used on things that can improve the city/county/state’s long term economic situation.
I’m talking about investments, retiring bonds, bulk purchases of non-perishables, things of that nature.
Any family would call it “saving for a rainy day”. This shouldn’t be too difficult a concept for our government to understand– especially right now.
Only idiots fail to learn from their mistakes.