Bill Gates left Microsoft today, to pursue his philanthropic causes. I have to say that I really admire Bill Gates. I say this with all seriousness: it’s not easy to be on top. When you are number one at anything, you are the target of all the haters everywhere. Just ask McDonald’s and Walmart. They know what it’s all about.

Bill Gates changed the world with a computer program. Not once, but several times. As a geek, I have to respect that, even though more than once, his products have caused me to curse.

A couple of days ago, I read a story about the release of one of Bill’s internal email memos, blasting his team for shortcomings in Windows usability. The email was a fascinating read, and an insight into Bill’s continuing vision for his company.

As he leaves to pursue other, more charitable ventures, I can’t help but notice the void left in his absence. He was an icon, a legend, and even a geeky personality. He personally represented a giant behemoth of a corporation, and a worldwide technology movement. Now we have… Steve Ballmer.

I owe my livelihood to Bill Gates and the personal computer revolution that he spawned. My IT business depended on people who owned and struggled with Microsoft-powered hardware. My photography practice depends on that same technology. Who knows where I’d be today if not for Bill Gates. Maybe in some newspaper newsroom somewhere, hacking away at a Selectric typewriter, a Brother word processor, or worse yet, a Mac!

Happy trails, Bill!

I have never seen an omelette made with chicken in it. Is it wrong to mix the adult animal with its ovum? It strikes me as odd, yet also logical.

I shot a photo the other night for the organization Heterosexuals for Same Sex Equality. The campaign is called Straight Not Narrow. They’d asked me to include the words “Straight Not Narrow” in the photo, but after much thought, I couldn’t come up with a concept that included the words. My language is photography, and I find it hard to mix English in there too. I always found photos that include words to be a bit heavy-handed. In a photo, I feel that if you can’t say what you want to say visually, then maybe you need to think about how you’re saying it. Anyway, here’s what I came up with to say “Straight Not Narrow.”

I was hired to shoot a few full days for Mazda Canada, producing images of accessories for their website and brochures. That was fun.

I finally found a use for that 24mm macro lens that I bought about 6 years ago. Hero shots!

Here’s something cool I found through Zura’s blog. It’s Wordle, which makes word art from text you paste in. In this case, it’s my Asian Wrap blog entry.