BANANA GRABBERS DOT COM

I was in Chicago for three days last week. The Writers House had its first ever event out there. I was fortunate enough to read at the event -- I opted for "Short Story Outline" (in case you're wondering).

I arrived late on Wednesday, and departed early Friday, so it's not like I had three entire days to spend in the town. Throw in work and I had very little time to explore, but I made the most of it. My first stop was Wrigley Field. Then the Art Institute of Chicago. Then Millennium Park. Then Union Station. Then lunch in Greek Town. Then ... I crashed, and later went to our Writers House event. Busy day, eh?

Naturally, I toted my camera around the Windy City and fired off some shots. You can view them here, or by clicking the image above. In addition, I'm editing and posting my favorite shots over this next week at Test Specimens. I hope you'll check back every day for a new photo.

Now, if you'll excuse, I need to go back to daydreaming about my return trip, which will hopefully revolve around a Phillies/Cubs game at Wrigley Field! I'll leave you with Sufjan Stevens' "Chicago" -- yes, I'm that guy who listens to any music with ties to the region when I travel. I don't always remember, though. I don't mind, I don't mind.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

I have a new blog. I know what you're thinking: why do you need another blog? I asked myself the same thing while I made it. But it's not just any blog: it's a photoblog! But still a blog.

Probably the one thing I've never liked about my current blog layout is that it's not photo-friendly. The largest image I can post here is 425 pixels wide. That's fine for linking to my new Flickr sets, but not really helpful for posting photographs that I'm quite happy with. And thus, Test Specimens was born.

It will be a daily photoblog, or as close to daily as I can get. It's a little buggy right now (you have to click on the image to get the next/previous buttons working; the comment form is a bit weird) but I'm quite pleased with it. Not only do I get to post bigger images, but I even get to change the color for every page. So no, your computer isn't acting up -- every page has its own color, selected specifically for the image you're viewing. The search function ain't bad either -- start typing and the site will bring up thumbnails of every image that fits your search.

In addition to providing a larger "canvas" to work on, Test Specimens also is the first time I've used Textpattern. I've mostly been a Wordpress man (save for my Phillyist stint, and my livejournal stint as a younger fella), so it was nice to get behind the wheel of some new software. It's pleasing in a way Wordpress once was -- not obvious or easy, but pleasing in learning how to properly use it. Wordpress these days always feels like it's getting in my way -- I know what I want to do, and it's "user-friendly" features all too often prevent me from doing what I want.

Test Specimens has its own domain, but is hosted right here on BANANA GRABBERS DOT COM. Feel free to bookmark either link -- the domain or the subdirectory. There's also a RSS feed. I'll still be posting about Test Specimens is all about working closely with specific images, which I've only recently started doing. These images may be quite new or quite old.

If you find any bugs, feel free to comment about them here or there. I'll need all of the help I can get.