Emily August

So, I photographed two pups this week for the shelter, and visited the cats for the first time. Check out my photos here and click on any of them to venture into flickr territory and see more.

For more information on these animals, please check out www.libertyhumane.org!

Also, I am getting psyched to help out at Willie Mae Rock Camp in a few weeks! Stay tuned!

Emily’s twitter on our TV, by ahemler.

Rory is a crazy programmer.

Image stolen from Allison’s iPhone.

Rory created a tiny computer module to display text pulled from the internet onto our television. He didn’t invent this, but soldered a little chip (ybox) that came in the mail, based on instructions. Still, it opens up the television as a medium for several ASCII-driven projects, experimentation, and generally ironic or funny aggregations. The information is character based and won’t show videos or photos or anything, but I love the old school gaming look and feel of the screen.

I guess this post will reveal in part my obsession with 8-bit technology, and cross-platform metaphors.

Also, Rory wants me to clarify that he didn’t program anything. But still!

Thanks to Meg at Decor It Yourself on Threadbanger for featuring my Bathroom Scale Redo on yesterday’s episode! Decor It Yourself airs Tuesdays, and be sure to check out Thread Heads on Fridays.

What a nice surprise. The episode features some great tips, especially for using old bath towels to make a new bathmat.

I covered my bathroom scale with an old shower curtain, because I was tempted to buy myself an entirely new scale from the store, just because the old one looked kind of cruddy. It works great, and I recommend you tare the weight to adjust for any change due to the weight of glue and fabric.

I’ve been really into using up the things I have before buying anything new lately. Some mundane examples are: combining the leftover bits of shampoo at the bottom of several bottles, using the back of scrap computer paper, eating food that’s been sitting in my pantry rather than going out to a restaurant, reading the books i have on my bookshelf instead of allowing myself to set foot in a bookstore. This has especially helped me in my relentless pursuit to pay off my credit cards (I’m winning!), and reclaim some space on the home front, but I have to say that its nice to ‘waste not want not’ whenever possible. There is just something satisfying and calming about making a wise choice and not wasting money or creating unnecessary waste.

Try thinking this week of one thing you could reuse instead of buying something new. I’d love to hear about it.

This is the park that is right near our apartment. The farmer’s market started recently and runs throughout the summer months and into November. I plan on getting fresh fruit and veggies here on Saturday mornings, because I think its important to support local agriculture. Everything is really fresh, and you get to meet the people who are growing, baking, and making the food! This morning there were three vendors, and I got a substantial, sustainable haul for a mere twenty bucks.

fresh flowers out on the sidewalk.

This fellow Dave has been selling at the Van Vorst market for five years. I grabbed up fresh Jersey corn, apples, small red potatoes, onions, strawberries, and blueberries from him. He also had good deals on potted herbs and flowers. Regular customers were stopping by to talk with him, and he seemed to really enjoy his work.

Hoboken Farms was offering fresh bread and mozzarella (such the Hoboken specialty item), as well as cold-packed fish, chicken, and hand-made pasta.

I met Celeste from the Made with Love Organic Bakery in Hoboken, who was offering a great selection of sweet treats and organic bakery. I immediately picked up a scone for breakfast, and if I weren’t trying to shed a few pounds, I’d have bought the whole table.

The bakery focuses on organic ingredients, and offers products in sustainable packaging. Check out their Mission Statement for more information, and stop by the park next Saturday to say hello!

Celeste was also offering these adorable dog treats for her canine customers. What’s great is that she was set up right outside the dog run at Van Vorst, so I am guessing she’ll find these to be a popular item this summer.

I also met this cat named Moses on Barrow Street.
Just sayin’.

I love my neighborhood.

Image via Eugene Ahn.

This post on the WIRED blog talks about the project Cyrano Suit by Eugene Ahn from ITP. Click the link for the WIRED article, and you can watch the film that was made in our apartment in Jersey City, and in nearby Van Vorst Park.

Here are some shots that I took of Eugene explaining her suit at the ITP Spring Show last month. I noticed she’s using the same adjustable dress form that I have at home, but she told me it belongs to NYU.

Thanks Paul Henry for finding the WIRED blog post, and to my sister Sarah for forwarding it along! The joke is that Rory keeps appearing in everything that Paul Henry reads (MAKE magazine, WIRED, etc.) and he will start popping up where you least expect him.

Just a quick note that if any of the dogs I photographed this week have caught your eye, you can now look them up online. The profiles are viewable through the Liberty Humane Society dogs page, or via their site on Petfinder.

The pups I met were:

Sharky
Tonto
Cinnamon
Donovan
Tank

As the official web photographer for the shelter, I’ll be heading back this week to shoot more animals looking for homes, so stay tuned.

Upcoming events!
Date: 19 July 2008
LHS to have a fundraiser with the Newark Bears!

Date: 21 September 2008 11:00 to 03:00
LHS has set the date for our largest fundraiser of the year – Bark in the Park!

After several meetings and emails back and forth, I finally had a chance to start photographing dogs for the Liberty Humane Society in Jersey City tonight. Turns out that its a bit difficult when you are working with dogs that don’t know their names and have no training for words like “Sit” or “Stay” or “Calm down please you are just a blur in the lens, mister”.

Tonto was the first one out, and he took about ten full minutes to stand and pee all over the ground. Things got a little easier from here, though. Here are some of my favorite shots of the evening, but click on any of the pictures to check out my set on flickr, where there are a lot more photos. These will soon be uploaded to the shelter’s site on Petfinder, with profiles for each.

I think his name is Sharky. He is the coolest!

This guy was hard to photograph, but the moments he sat still were really striking.

This little mama was surrendered with her pups by a family that wasn’t caring for her properly. The pups were taken away from her to be put into a rescue, and she’s really shy and lonely. I wanted her to come home with me.

This guy rules. His name is Muggz.

I want all the baby dogs in the world.
Give them to me now.

Dexter died some time late this morning, half in his nest. A carrot lay uneaten in the corner of his cage where I tried to rehydrate him last night.

He was the sweetest hamster I have ever had, even sweeter than Emo and Simon were. He had a king sized cage meant for a chinchilla, because he had a king sized heart and an uncanny ability to pry open a habitrail. He loved his plastic ball, and yogurt drops. He never ate any seeds he didn’t like, but would pick out only his favorites and leave the rest behind, then bite on the cage bars to tell me he wanted better food. He would hang out with people and pay attention to them and run towards them instead of away (kind of a big deal for a hamster to do that).

I’m glad he waited until we got home from Ireland to go.

Dexter, I love you. Thank you for your friendship, little ham.

Tonight we are having a dance party to celebrate his life.

We are giving him a sailor’s funeral tomorrow at dusk.