Spice Up Your Photos: eBook giveaway

Make sure to enter a free download giveaway of the book Spice Up Your Photos at:
http://modpodgerocksblog.com/2013/02/spice-up-your-photos-book-review-and-giveaway.html
3 winners will be announced in 4 days.

International Street Photography Award 2012

Posted by Brett Jefferson Stott

THE STREET PHOTOGRAPHY AWARDS
International Awards 2012

The International Street Photography Award is looking for exceptional international photographers that display a unique style and depth of work in the genre of street photography. The genre crosses over into portraiture, documentary and art photography.
See the 2011 winners

What is street photography?
The London Street Photography Festival defines Street Photography as:
“Candid photography which captures, explores or questions contemporary society and the relationships between individuals and their surroundings.”

PRIZES & CATEGORIES
The international winner will receive £2,000 cash PLUS a solo exhibition in London PLUS an all-expenses paid trip to the exhibition launch and awards ceremony in London in June 2012 – total value £10,000.
Selected finalists will be exhibited and one image from each entrant will be showcased in a digital display in the same gallery.
The first 500 applicants will be automatically entered into a draw to win some fabulous prizes including: a signed print from one of the 2011 exhibitions, an Olympus PEN camera, £100 Blurb voucher, a Crumpler Muffin Top camera bag, photo-books by Magnum and Thames & Hudson. Categories include an overall winner, a runner up, and 10 finalists.

ENTRY FEE
£30.00
• Participants from certain countries receive a 50% discount on the entrance fee.
• You can submit between 5 and 8 images within the fee.
• One image from ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS will be displayed on a large screen during the Awards exhibition and profiled (optional) on the LSPF website.
• ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS who enter will receive a £28.95 voucher to print their own book with Blurb, which expires on 31 March 2012.
• FEEDBACK: For an additional £15, LSPF can provide written feedback by an Award judge on your submissions. Choose the “Written Feedback” drop down when you submit your images to the Awards.

REGISTER ONLINE

APPLICATION DEADLINE
05 January 2012

My new website

Today I would like to invite you to my NEW website: Photos by Nitsa . com

This website is the home for my online portfolio and so it features my photos, books and prints.
I will be updating the website constantly and always add new photos, providing any relevant information, such as camera, film, place and technique used.
So if you are interested make sure to bookmark or subscribe to the RSS at the bottom of the home page.

I will still continue to write great entries here on my blog but if are interested in just photo updates, photosbynitsa.com will be the right place to visit.

Thank you all for your continuous support; thank you for buying my books, photo prints and all your wonderful emails. .
I don’t often say it but it is highly appreciated!

PHOTOS BY NITSA .COM

PHOTOS BY NITSA .COM

Would you like to sell your darkroom supplies?

Hi everyone! I’m looking for darkroom supplies with a low price tag.
I need stuff like: Film developer, stop bath and fixer, dial thermometer, 1 oz. beaker, 32 oz beaker, Photoflo 200, 14 X 17 Universal four bladed easel, 8 X 10 fiber paper, 11X14 fiber paper, 11 X 14 blotter book, spotting brush #000, etc….
Also if you have a 1 degree spot meter you don’t need anymore, for the right price, I will be happy to take it off your hands.

So if you have inexpensive darkroom supplies for sale, please contact me with details and prices here: http://nonphotography.com/blog/contact-me/

A change would do you good

In honor of 2011 I’ve made a few little changes around here. The first is the modification I’ve made to the blog’s title, from Still Alive to More than Photography, which I feel works better with my current experiments in the land of photography and of course works better with my recent book: So Much More than Photography.
In addition I’ve created a new Facebook page where I’m going to share not only my own creative techniques but also search around the web for great creative photography tips and cool diy photo projects.
So feel free to join me there

More than Photography

Promote Your Page Too

International Street Photography Award

Posted by LondonStreetPhotoFestival

Hi all, I am Director of the London Street Photography Festival and wanted to tell you about our very new and exciting Street Photography Awards.

The International Street Photography Award is looking for the world’s best street photographer as part of the first annual London Street Photography Festival in 2011.

Open to photographers (and photographs) from anywhere in the world.

THE INTERNATIONAL WINNER RECEIVES:
• £1,000 cash
• All-expenses-paid trip to the exhibition launch in London to the value of £1,500
• An Olympus PEN camera (worth over £500)
• Open Award catalogues and £100 book voucher from Blurb to print their own books

HOW TO ENTER:
1. Submit five to eight of your best street photography images from anywhere in the world.

The London Street Photography Festival defines Street Photography as:
“candid, un-staged photography which captures, explores or questions contemporary society and the relationships between individuals and their surroundings.”
Street photography is perhaps more easily defined as a method than a genre. The results can fit into documentary, portraiture and other genres, but the key elements of spontaneity, careful observation and an open mind ready to capture whatever appears in the viewfinder are essential.

APPLICATION DEADLINE: 31 March 2011
ENTRY FEE: £30.00
SELECTED ENTRIES submitted will be projected during the Awards exhibition and profiled on the LSPF website.
ALL PHOTOGRAPHERS who enter will receive a £28.95 voucher (free!) to print your own book with Blurb.

Go to: London Street Photo Festival

Posted by LondonStreetPhotoFestival

So much more than photography

My book So Much More than Photography is now on a special holidays sale through Amazon:

So much more than photography: creative and experimental photography [Paperback]
By Nitsa (Author)
Paperback: 172 pages
Publisher: CreateSpace (August 12, 2010)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 1453771018
ISBN-13: 978-1453771013

So Much More than Photography is a book of ideas, inspiration and actual practices for creative and experimental photography. Every photographic and mixed media artist is sure to find something they can apply. Start the journey with exploring new methods and ideas to approach photography without following the rules. Next, learn numerous ways to present your photographs artistically such as image transfers, texture layers, and mixed media photography. Discover how easy it is to apply these creative techniques, taking your ordinary photos to the next level. And finally, find out everything you need to know about print-on-demand, read selected entries from “Still Alive” photography blog, and final thoughts. All the processes in the book are easy to follow and will sure to inspire you to create your own photo-art work.

Nitsa on facebook

Black and White edition

So Much More than Photography is now available on Lulu.com in a Black & White Edition


BOOK DETAILS
Edition Black and White Edition
Publisher Skylightweb
Published September 28, 2010
Language English
Pages 172
Binding Perfect-bound Paperback
Interior Ink Black & white
Weight 1.21 lbs.
Dimensions (inches) 8.5 wide × 11.0 tall
PRICE: $20.

Get a discount on my new book

Subscribe to this blog and receive $5 off the print edition of my new book:
So much more than photography / Experimental and creative photography

If you are already signed up, email me for the discount.

Thank you for your support!

Moving a blog to a new host

While most people use the weekend as an opportunity to relax and enjoy life, I spent my weekend transferring my blog to a new hosting account.
This move was long over due;
I guess I shouldn’t even tell you this as I’m going to look quite foolish but just in case I can help a few others who are as foolish as I am, here it goes:
In the past, whenever I bought a new domain I also got a web space to host this domain.
Until last year when I found out that it is possible to host a few domains under one account and have each domain point to its own folder. Duh!
Bluehost (my very favorite web host) allows 5 add-on domains and practically unlimited space and transfer.
So, now when my nonphotography.com web space account was due I decided it is time to pull the plug on this account and move my files/website to my main account.
Not only I will save a nice chunk of money but it also makes more sense to manage all sites from one place.
Moving a website is actually quite an easy thing to do; however, I was a bit uneasy about moving my blog around without messing up the database and the whole structure of files and settings.
So I made sure to read everything I could and sufficiently educate myself on successfully transferring and duplicating a CMS system such as WordPress.
I guess my overly cautious attitude paid off, as the move was delightfully smooth.

Ok, so this is how you move a wordpress blog (moving a different blog system will probably be somewhat different though I’m sure the general idea is the same)
1 ) Make a backup copy of the blog’s database from your server using the phpMyAdmin tool which should be available in your Control Panel. You will create an .sql file that you need to save to your hard drive. You can also make a copy of your database using a database backup plugin. (I used both methods)
2 ) Make an Export file using the import/export tool in WordPress. WordPress will create an XML file for you to save to your computer. This file contains all posts, comments, categories and tags.
3 ) Using an ftp tool such as FileZila you need to create a copy of your files (i.e. download) especially the themes, plugins and uploads.
4 ) Next, install a new blog on your new server.
5 ) FTP the themes, plugins and uploads into the new server.
6 ) Use the import tool in your new blog to import your old posts, comments, categories, tags and all the rest of the content from your old blog.
7 ) Now use phpMyAdmin to import your old database into the new database which was created when you installed your new blog.
8 ) That’s it. Your new blog, currently an exact copy of your old blog, should be up and running.

And now the weekend is over…

Register and contribute to this blog

I activated a blog registration opportunity for anybody who’s interested in contributing to this blog.
Obviously, you can write about anything related to photography; reviews of cameras, software or other products, tips and techniques, Photoshop, thoughts about photography, I mean, anything!
Also if you tried any of my techniques presented here such as: image or inkjet transfers, mixed media transfers, distressed or aged images, painted photographs etc. I would love for you to share the process and final masterpiece. I will definitely consider including some of these in my next book which is currently at work!

You can go ahead and register here.
Next, login with your user name and password,
write your post (if you don’t know how to write a blog post try this link ),
and finally submit your post for review.

Joomla vs. WordPress

During the summer I decided to teach myself how to install and employ a Content Management System. And since my smart & handsome little brother recommended Joomla, I took his advice and I installed it on my server.
Essentially my intention was to transform an old site of mine, Streets of Los Angeles.com, from a site that was built plainly on HTML and CSS, to a full CMS structure. So I had to start from scratch and than just write over the old site.
(btw, feel free to visit the site and let me know what you think)

I have to say that Joomla is quite more challenging to learn than WordPress, but once you figure it out; there are plenty of applications to help you manage your site.
And by the way, this is not at all a proficient comparison between these two systems; I’ve been using Joomla only for about a month now while my knowledge and experience with WordPress spreads over a much longer period of time, so keep that in mind.

The main difference between these two systems is that WordPress is a blog publishing system that grew into a Content Management System while Joomla was developed to be one from the start.
As far as the ease of use and the learning curve WordPress is far ahead of Joomla. WordPress is simple, clear and straightforward which makes it a better tool if you want to install CMS for a client. It takes less than an hour to teach a reasonably intelligent client how to use WordPress. Right now, I doubt that any of my past clients would have been able to utilize Joomla in their business without much difficulty.
So what is Joomla good for? Joomla is the right choice if you need a community based portal with multiple user signup and login.
The main thing I didn’t like about Joomla is that it offers only a limited number of add-ons, many of them are actually not free, whereas WordPress seems to have a larger community of developers who create a wealth of (free) plug-ins.
At any rate, to sum up my non-expert opinion: Choose Joomla if you need a powerful multiple user system otherwise I’d be quite happier with WordPress.
(And I seriously hope my little brother doesn’t read this!)

Its time to tweet!

This is probably the first time I’m writing here and not quite sure what to say or where to go with it. In fact, I’m quite uncomfortable writing this post after freely bashing twitter and the 140-characters-or-less culture, in a previous post.
As my new web design business (Don’t be afraid to change February 2009) is taking off (Ok, its not really taking off its just still gaining speed on the runway) I’m finding out the real gain and mostly the best opportunity for a stable income in an unpredictable business such as web design, is by offering internet marketing and web promotion.
And as I’m learning everything I can possibly learn about web promotion I recognize that Social Networking is an important element in online marketing. So basically, unless I want to lose a few of my potential clients when they discover I’m anti-social (networking) I’d better give it a try and learn how it works.
Recently I had a client who was just surprised, not to say disappointed, that I, the great Internet guru (only in her eyes, I can assure you), didn’t have a myspace or facebook account and basically did not know much about the subject. Such a rip-off!
So I’m heading over to twitter right this minute and I’m going to set up an account. I’m not sure what to expect but I bet I can count on you guys to help me figure it all out.
At least, hold my hand

And talking about social networking, I noticed that Flickr has a slideshow feature which can be embedded into your site. Like this:

They are stealing my photos! – Update

This is an update of a previous post.
The first step I took was to make screen shots so I have an evidence they actually used my photos on their website. And of course I made sure I have a couple of witnesses as well.
I then sent them an email and as suggested by Paul I sent them a letter thanking them for using my photos on their site. This letter was shortly followed by a paypal invoice. I charged them $125 for each image they used on their site (and I’ll leave the exciting math calculations to you).
They answered immediately but all they said was that they don’t have a paypal account… Not the response I was hoping for but at least they didn’t’ dispute the fact they are using my photos. And they did not ignore me as well. Well, not yet.
Meanwhile, they did not take the pictures down like I expected they might do but also I didn’t hear from them at all. With heavy heart I knew I should probably plan for a day at the small claim court, what a pain! But this time I was willing to do what it takes to bring justice to my poor abused photos.
I waited until the holidays were well over and I sent them another invoice. This time I increased the total by $150 for 2 weeks overdue.
This time they responded and said they are willing to pay the original amount. I agreed.
And they in fact paid.

So the lesson here to you my dear readers is that you should always fight for what you believe is right. Seriously. Go for it!

clearly it feels good to have this extra $$$ in my account but the real prize here is not the money. It’s about honesty and what’s fair.
and something called justice.

They are stealing my photos!

It came to my attention that a certain real estate company lifted six pictures from my site, without attempting to purchase them from me or even ask me for permission, simply put: they stole my pictures.
This type of thing happened many times before. People always felt free to “borrow” my pictures and use on thier sites or other applications. I usually just let it go. Rarely I’ll bother and email them asking to remove my picture off their site.
But this time I’m just sick and tired of people ripping off my work when it’s obvious on my site that I do offer my photos for sale and that they are copyrighted.
Its one thing when my pictures are taken by someone for personal use, it’s irritating and maybe not a nice thing to do, but I can be big enough and let it be.
But when a company who runs a commercial business is using my art to make their presentation look better and attract online business, without the courtesy of even acknowledging these are MY photos, not to say compensate me, then its just wrong and probably illegal! Honestly, I don’t see much difference between doing so and taking something from a store without paying for it.
I’m planning to email them and ask for the payment for making use of these photos (I’ll charge them my usual price). This time it won’t be enough if they just take the pictures down.
And I want to do it for everybody out there who had their pictures stolen.

You can see my photos on these pages:
http://www.mchughproperties.net/about.htm
http://www.mchughproperties.net/Resources.htm
(scroll down, my pictures the third and forth one from the bottom)
http://www.mchughproperties.net/contact.htm

Plese visit and check out these pages and then let me know your thoughts on the matter.
what do you think I should do???

just me

This one is for all of you who are asking (not to say hassling) for a more recent picture of me (and you know who you are!). This one was taken by David Morgan last week while hiking in Palos Verdes. I hope its good for another year or so.

Andy

Today in History:
Twenty four years ago, on May 16, 1984, Andy Kaufman died in Los Angeles.

I made this video a couple of years ago using pictures and videos I took
on Sunset blvd. where he lived and preformed.
I also combined a few authentic performences and photos along with
REM’s Man on the Moon.
that’s it. I really have nothing much to say here.

and another one

Here’s a preview of my latest book:
I am not an artist – unconventional and creative photography.

Earth day

Other than the obvious things such as reducing unnecessary electricity usage, planting something, recycling failed photo papers, bicycling, walking or taking the bus to work, all of us photographers (and non-photographers of course) ought to just turn off our computers, grab our cameras and go out there (i.e. walk, bike, take the bus) to make pictures of our beautiful planet.
Ah? How about that?

Back it up

I had a portable hard drive scare today.
I use this external hard drive as a back up drive for all my files in the last few years but in reality this hard drive is not a back up anymore. Since I got a new PC a couple of month ago the back up drive became the only copy to some of my files. And for a while now I meant to make a copy, but it’s always tomorrow, not right now. So it didn’t happen.
Well, it turned out the drive is OK, just a problem with the enclosure, but if nothing else this is a good reminder to BACK UP everything, and back it up NOW!
I know you hear it all the time. Me too. Yes, yes, I’ll do it soon. Just as soon as I finish what I’m doing.
Also, it’s a good idea to copy your files to another medium such as DVDs – 2 back ups are better than one!
And by the way, I have some back up DVDs out of state, some in Connecticut, some even in Israel. With the big earthquake (replace with: flood, fire, mud slide, hurricane, tornado, etc.) just around the corner. You never know.

Sad News

This is probably the saddest news I’ve heard in a while: Polaroid is ceasing production of its instant film!
I’m not even sure how I feel about it though I think I’m a little angry…

And by the way, in case you didn’t know Polaroid had secretly stopped making their famous instant cameras about a year ago.

Now, before you know it, there will be a Fake Polaroid Photoshop effect.
Just wait and see.

My new book is here!

I AM NOT AN ARTIST – Unconventional and creative photography

My new book is now available for sale here
Topics in the book include: image transfer, film and scanning, textured layers, aging photos, cross-processing, using Polaroid, toy and classic cameras, mixed media collages and more.

If you are wondering why I decided to title the book “I am not an artist”, it’s because everything I share in this book, is simple and easy to do and does not require any special skills, or talents.

If you buy this book, I would love to hear from you. Any comment you might have, maybe a question or even if you found an error of some sort. No promises but I might even listen to some advice and suggestions

The pains of publishing a book

Today I uploaded my latest book to Lulu.com and sent it out for printing (Yay!)
I created this book using Adobe InDesign CS2 (recommended!) and when it was done I could export the book’s separate chapters into one PDF file.
The tricky part about publishing the book (well, other than actually writing the book) was uploading this large PDF file (307MB) to lulu.com.
My ISP provides me with a great downloading speed and I can download large files in just a few minutes, but uploading is a whole different story and can take forever at a rate of 30kbps
(and if you’re bored you can have fun calculating how much time it actually takes).
But the main problem with uploading such a big file is not the time it takes (which was no doubt quite frustrating,) the real issue is that the connection to the server at Lulu.com was timed out or totally lost every 15 minutes or so. Every time it got disconnected I had to start uploading the file all over from the beginning. This whole experience made me feel like Sisyphus of cyberspace. Ridiculous!
To solve this difficulty I decided to look for ftp software which can resume an upload from the point it stopped. In the past and for many years I used WSftp as my ftp software of choice for its simplicity. But now I needed something more capable. So I found FileZilla (recommended!) which is free open source software that supports resume and transfer of large files up to 4GB. Problem solved!

So I ordered a proof of my book and needless to say I can hardly wait to hold it.
After approving it I will make the book available for sale to the public.
So stay tuned.

Book details -
Title: I am not an artist – unconventional and creative photography.
Size: 8.5″ x 11″
Binding Type: Perfect-bound — Bookstore-quality, standard paperback

Price: Print $32.00
Download $12.00

And now, on to the next book!
just kidding; even I can use a break sometimes

Greenwich Village, NYC
[cross-processed and extreme scanning]

Be happy

I would like to wish all visitors to this blog ( yes, all 3 of you) Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Stay safe and warm and remember it’s not true what they tell you throughout every media advertisement possible; the holidays are actually NOT about shopping craze, crowds at the mall, long lines and awful traffic. Really.

Christmas in Farmers Market

Distributing a book

At last I decided to order the Lulu distribution pack for my book
No Rules Street photography.
With the distribution pack the book is assigned an ISBN number and is then submitted into the global marketplace. This marketplace includes international bibliographic databases as well as leading wholesalers and retailers including Amazon.
You might have noticed that I have made a new cover page for the book but other than that everything else is unchanged.
I’m really looking forward to see if being in this promised land of Global Marketplace will translate in a meaningful increased in the sales of the book. It takes about 6 weeks until the book will be available through these online and retail book outlets. I will make sure to keep you informed.

New book: collection of black and white street photos

These days I’m taking a break from working on the “art” book to quickly put together a book with a collection of black & white street photos I’ve been taking in the last 5-6 years.
When it’s ready, probably in a day or two, I’m going to publish it in a hard cover with Lulu.com. This will be my first hard cover book. I’m very curious to see the quality and what it will look and feel like.
Right now the book has no title yet (do you have any suggestions?) and I find the task of choosing the photos that will go in the book to be really an elimination of the ones that won’t make it

Just released

NY 75 is a new record just released by Witchwood Records (UK) of a 1975 live concert by the Strawbs in New York.

Its true I’m only mentioning it here because they used one of my photos for the CD cover
(original image here) but I have to say, I’m listening to this CD right now, and it’s awesome!

You can get your own copy here.

Why photoblogs are dead

I think Flickr killed them.
About two weeks ago I’ve finally joined Flickr after it’s been around for 3 years or so. Back then when I learned people began joining Flickr I just didn’t get why and what was the purpose of it. If one can display their beautiful photos on their blog why upload them to a photo storage site such as Flickr where the photographer has no control over the layout and hardly over the organization of the photos. Isn’t it just looking for more and unnecessary work?
So I just avoided Flickr all together.
In the last year or so I’ve noticed an immense decline in the world of photoblogs. Photoblogs.org which was a lively and a busy hangout for photobloggers is quiet nowadays, not to say dead silent. Many photoblogs simply disappeared or not being updated and the ones that survived do not get much of the crowds anymore.
So basically all the activity moved to Flickr where the real action is. Simply put you’ve got millions of people who not only share their love of photography but also thier divers methods, techniques and styles.
So you upload your photos, submit them to the appropriate group and you get an immediate feedback. You can even enter your photos to different contests and see how they do. If you are one of these people who’s looking for a deep and profound analysis of their photos this is not the place for you; most feedback you will receive is concise and fits the fast moving pace of Flickr.
So pretty much Flickr solved two basic problems photoblogs users experienced;
1) you don’t need to worry about bringing the visitors as they are already there
2) You don’t need to hassle your visitors for some feedback as it is an integral part of Flickr.
Also as the nature of photoblogs is to be personal it didn’t quite help in creating a large community and bringing people together based on their approach and use of photography but really all they had in common was that they were operating a photoblog.

If you are at all interested you can check out my Flickr page at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nitsaa/

And by the way, one of the features I like best which is particularly useful for my needs when putting together a book, is the Popular page where I can see my images listed in order of popularity and with some statistics: http://www.flickr.com/photos/nitsaa/popular-interesting/
As you might notice the image above is currently my most popular photo.

Hollywood Nights

I wanted to share this video a while ago but my previous blog (on pixlepost) didn’t let me embed it in a post like I wanted.
This video was put together by Mike from Mojogoon and basically its a blend of music and photos: a song he wrote, Hollywood Nights, which he put together in a video with my photos.
Take a listen.
(Mike, you’re the best!)

To the east coast

I’m leaving to the east coast today.
I’m not sure if I’ll have time to post from there, so no promises. But I’ll be back here in a week or so with lots of new, hopefully with a flavor of old, pictures to share.
So here’s George Washington, my favorite American, in front of University of Texas in Austin.
No surprises, on top of my list is a visit to Washington’s home in Mt. Vernon, Virginia

ta ta.

Google book search

Today I did a Google book search for books about street photography. I was, and I guess I shouldn’t be, surprised to find my book somewhere in the top results.
For some reason Google indexed the old version of the book, which is much the same like the new version, only it was a square format and the current edition is a nice 8.5” X 10”.
On the right, there’s a list of places where the book can be purchased, however, at this time my book can only be purchased through Lulu.com the publisher. So I’m not sure what purpose it serves to list all the places (like amazon.com) where you CAN’T get the book… (well, other than to get the desperate and exhausted user to buy another book)
By the way, most of the books under the ~street photography~ search results seem like good books HOWEVER, they were mostly books with collections of street photos or books about photography which happen to mention Street photography, but none of them was actually ABOUT street photography.
Think about it.

Street photography in Washington?

Next week I will be going to Virginia and Washington for a few days and since it’s going to be my first time in DC I was wondering if anybody has any suggestions of good areas for street photography. Let me know.

New techniques page

As promised, last night I quickly put together the techniques page.
It’s a quick and dirty tutorial on some of the techniques I use, and even though it’s not much of a thorough explanation it will definitely help to get you started.
I would appreciate any questions in the form of comments (not emails).
Also as mentioned on the page I’m currently working on a book which will include all of these techniques and many more in much detail.

So if you would like to be notified when the book is published you can sign up here.

upcoming tutorial

I thought about Andy’s comment and I think it’s a really good idea to write a tutorial about image transfer. In fact I think I will write concise and easy-to-follow tutorials about other techniques as well. so stay tuned.

blogging tools

Here’s my new blog I set up using wordpress publishing tool.  There were a few (good) reasons for the big transformation but mainly it was due to Pixelpost being unstable lately and ever so limited with its choices to expand. And to be honest I think I simply got tired of the one- picture- a -page uniformed appearance of most photoblogs out there. WordPress, on the other hand seem to have more flexibility in layout and other variables so I’ll be probably changing stuff around here. quite often. Good.