Best black shoes ever.

Brown shoes bare their soles.

The yellowish-brown pair, I bought my last year in England from a shop in downtown Birmingham. They, too, have been worn just about every day since. They were so comfortable and easy to take on and off. Eventually, though, they were worn through one too many rainstorm and the suede became discolored and stiff. Not surprisingly, upon inspection, they also had the outside of their heels worn down.

So now I’m wondering if I have some orthopedic problem worth correcting. No doubt there are people in white lab coats willing to sell me things to put in or on my shoes to correct my problem. Personally I’m fine with my everyday shoes only lasting 1,500 days.

You can even see the grain of my desk.

I love the starburst pattern on the back.

This is a fairly mediocre tilt-shift, I think. It was tough getting the framing walls to blur with such a straight edge. I had to crop out the people from the original photo.

This one is pretty cool. The tricky part here, besides the nearby walls like on the previous photo, was the man standing at the cash register. His body was in focus, but his head was blurred, so I had to pull his head into focus, too.

This is a ferry in a Norwegian fjord. The cut-out of the boat was a little sloppy, and the featureless surface reduces the miniature effect a little bit.

Miniature Bergen Harbor. This photo is particularly lovely to me because it’s the harbor where my great-great-grandfather, Rasmus Rasmussen, set sail from on his way to the United States.

This is probably my most ambitious tilt-shift yet. The close-up nature of the subject and the wonky nature of the depth of field line made it particularly hard. I’m fairly satisfied with it, though.

As far as offices go, TUI was pretty nice. A huge open atrium housed a canteen that quickly taught us to bring our own lunches from home, as well as a Starbucks-certified machine and barista. As I recall, towards the end of my contract, we had worked out a system where Hubbers would just jingle some change together, causing me to Pavlovianly stand up and head towards the atrium. He followed shortly after. The coffee was overpriced, but the break from the monotonous work was priceless.

The main TUI building. I didn’t work in this building. We just had to go there for pointless corporate-wide meetings.

The front entrance to the building where I worked.

This was the entrance that we used to go into work every day. This is the little waterfall that Hubbers’ photo reminded me of. Notice the CCTV cameras in all of the first three photos. It was in the good old Orwellian UK, after all.

The landing in front of the elevators on the second floor, where I worked. On the other side of the railing is the atrium. See below.

The Starbucks machine was at the far end where the two customers are gathered. The bald guy is getting a drink from a refrigerator. None of it was free, in case you were wondering.

Looking back up from the Starbucks zone.

The common lounge area on the second floor. This is where people ate the lunches they brought from home.

And this is where the lunches got microwaved.

Looking down to the entrance and pond from the second floor lounge.

Looking back up from the bridge over the pond.

All these photos were taken on June 8, 2004. To give you some perspective on how long ago that was in internet time, I remember being so happy when one of my coworkers gave me an invitation to the beta version of a new email software that Google was releasing on an invitation-only basis. It’s hard to believe that it’s been four years since I left my last shirt-and-tie, drive-to-work, cubicle job. Even though the salary was they highest I’ve ever earned been paid, I’m so glad I quit.

What follows are some photos from the archive bin taken on my desk in England, the first two in November of 2004, and the rest in March of 2005.
As an aspartame junkie and someone who is constantly playing absentmindedly with objects on his desk, it came to my attention that Diet Coke cans, at least those manufactured in the UK, have a bizarre property. They are really very easy to balance, and quite stable when balanced, on the ridge of their lower rim. It can’t be done with a full can or an empty can, but there is a fairly wide range of intermediate volumes that provide stable equilibrium when the can is placed on its edge like this. In retrospect, I’m surprised I didn’t get out a graduated cylinder and measure the exact thresholds of this nutrasweet spot.

Behold!

Clearly Diet Coke contains the secret ingredient needed to create antigravity.

Disturbing, isn’t it? Don’t be frightened. I won’t hurt you with my powers.

And now back to the theme of sunlight. I recall photographing these can reflections several times, but these are the only photos I can find of them.

You can almost read the word "COKE" there. It’s like a natural captcha.

Here I can just barely make out the toll-free number to call to complain about all the anti-graviton particles in my beverage.

Close-up of just the reflection.

DISCLAIMER: The author of this post takes no responsibility for any accidental spillage that occurs while trying to replicate the phenomena described.

Marga added some insoles to her favorite boots yesterday. Somehow, these insoles had followed us from the UK. The dotted lines intrigued me. So, while she was cutting the left foot, I stole the right and snapped a few photos.

I think I’m either 44 or 45 in Europe.

UK-to-Europe shoe size conversion chart.

© Copyright Peter Barker.

It struck me as odd, because I immediately recognized the "Old Square" sign, but I couldn’t quite place it. I figured that it must be in some commonly photographed place where a television program is shot or something. Curious as to where I knew it from, I clicked on the image, and I was blown away when I saw the tags on the photo.

This is a photograph of a place in the center of Walsall, the little, completely unfamous town that I lived in for four years in England. I’ve walked by this place hundreds of times.

Of all the photos of restaurants in Flickr, and of all the words I could have searched for, somehow this link between Walsall and me showed up. That’s a coincidence with three capital C’s.

I can’t even remember why I was searching Flickr…

I highly recommend that any of my readers see Hot Fuzz. I had a big smile on my face when the credits rolled by, and I suspect you will too.

Paella Paul – Excited to learn about the culture of his son’s girlfriend, Paul teaches himself to make the most traditional Spanish dish, the paella.

Canal Boat Captain – Captain Paul sits calmly with a martini while his crew pulls the long boat into the lock in Stratfordshire, England, in October, 2004.

Whiskey For Dad – Erik gives his father a bottle of 15-year-old Glenlivet single malt scotch in February, 2006.

Have a good year, Pops!

Hubbers’ pictures of the slides are here, and you can see pictures by other people here.

I guess “modern art” really can be anything.