Thomas W.P. Slatin

Closing Time — November 28, 2008, Fred’s, 60 Main Street, Stamford, New York

Halarious failure of a vending machine complete with a handful of idiots. See what happens next when a kid fly-kicks the glass window of a vending machine! I originally found this video here.

• FutureTweets
  Schedule automatic tweets for the future!
• twhirl
  A desktop Twitter client.
• TwitterLocal
  Search for tweets from a specific location.
• Tweetburner
  Not to be confused with FeedBurner, but a similar concept.
• SnapTweet
  Tweet your Flickr photos!
• TweetStats
  Graph your twitter stats!
• Twitterfeed.com
  Got a blog?  Feed it to Twitter!

Other blog posts about twitter tools…

• My Essential Twitter Tools
  A small handful of resources; worth a look.
• 58 Twitter Apps (and then some)
  Take a look at this!  It makes my speedlinking twitter post almost obsolete!

toilet cam

Originally uploaded by Thomas W.P. Slatin Photography

toilet cam

The following was sent to me by a trusted source.  However, I was unable to verify the accuracy of this information.

I wanted to give everyone a heads up that if you tend to give gift cards around the holidays, you need to be careful that the cards will be honored after the holidays. Stores that are planning to close after Christmas are still selling the cards through the holidays even though the cards will be worthless January 1. There is no law preventing them from doing this. On the contrary, it is referred to as ‘Bankruptcy Planning.’ Below is a partial list of stores that you need to be cautious about.

• Circuit City (filed Chapter 11)
• Ann Taylor - 117 stores nationwide closing
• Lane Bryant, Fashion Bug and Catherine’s to close 150 stores nationwide
• Eddie Bauer to close 27 stores and more after January
• Cache will close all stores
• Talbots closing down specialty stores
• J. Jill closing all stores (owned by Talbots)
• Pacific Sunwear (also owned by Talbots)
• GAP closing 85 stores
• Footlocker closing 140 stores; more to close after January
• Wickes Furniture closing down
• Levitz closing down remaining stores
• Bombay closing remaining stores
• Zales closing down 82 stores and 105 after January
• Whitehall closing all stores
• Piercing Pagoda closing all stores
• Disney closing 98 stores and will close more after January
• Home Depot closing 15 stores
• Macys to close 9 stores after January
• Linens and Things closing all stores
• Movie Galley closing all stores
• Pep Boys closing 33 stores
• Sprint/Nextel closing 133 stores
• JC Penney closing a number of stores after January
• Ethan Allen closing down 12 stores
• Wilson Leather closing down all stores
• Sharper Image closing down all stores
• KB Toys closing 356 stores
• Lowes to close down some stores
• Dillard’s to close some stores

• Conserving Open Space With Conservation Subdivisions
  An interesting website featuring a DVD about a change from urban sprawl to “green” development.
• A 20-year-old model photographed as if she were 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, and 60 years old
  Kinda makes you wonder what tricks of the trade are being used in commercial photography.  Interesting post, with pictures (obviously).
• The Winners of Twitter Writing Contest 2 Are…
  It seems that folks are using Twitter for all sorts of new and exciting things.  Take this Haiku writing contest with just under 1,000 entries!
• Birthday & What Not
  An aspiring photography student, 19, with an impressive online portfolio.  By the way, check out the rest of her blog, not just the post about her 19th birthday!
• Faces of Bellingham
  Pictures of ordinary everyday people, not celebrities!  A fantastic blog with lots of pictures random folks!  (Also on Flickr!)

This Is Just A Drill…

Originally uploaded by Thomas W.P. Slatin Photography

This Is Just A Drill…

It’s strange that back in 1991, the Crash Test Dummies predicted in their lyrics something that arguably could have taken place immediately following the September 11th attacks in 2001.  What happened following the attacks was a feeling of nationalism; the sense and idea that we as Americans, should help our fellow Americans.  At the time it wasn’t about getting paid or expecting a favor in return, it was about helping your fellow American as a way to show the enemy that we will stand by one another in hard times and do whatever it takes to rebuild America.  At the time, nobody was seeking fame, money, or anything else; folks just felt the urgency and came out of the woodwork nationwide to stand up and help.

The song in question is Superman’s Song, and you can watch the music video by going over to this blog post.  I’ve got the CD somewhere, but in all of these years, have never seen the video until now.  It’s a sad video in which Superman dies and all of his middle-aged superhero friends attend his funeral.  It’s so sad that it actually brought tears to my eyes.

The lyrics to the song show Superman (a fictional character, of course) to be a do-gooder who goes out and makes the world a better place by stopping crimes and rescuing strangers without the expectation of payment or return.  I think that there’s a lesson in this for everyone that if we all were just a little nicer and more compassionate towards one another, this world would be a better place.  Although in the song, they mention that Superman had a straight job, it goes to show you that he would even go to great lengths to keep his personal life out of the public eye by changing into his superhero outfit in public phone booths.

I think that 9/11 brought out the Superman in all of us for a short time, but the failing economy in this country has had the opposite effect on us.  I think that now, instead of helping one another through these difficult times, we are all out for ourselves.  Something has got to be done about this, because unless we start banding together and helping each another through these hard times, we will all soon be destined for failure.

coffee addiction

Originally uploaded by Thomas W.P. Slatin Photography

coffee addiction

please wait here

Originally uploaded by Thomas W.P. Slatin Photography

please wait here