blackout

[sandman]

O.K i'll start, we all heard about the terrible blackout, in northern U.S. this weekend, but how did it affect you guys in general,
There are several members from that part of canada and what i would call the great lakes states.
did it affect any photo work, did anyone get any good pix?. that you'd like to share with us ,these photo's are not for show, just to show us what it was like.

I'm pleased we've got this forum, lets use it correctly and try to make sure it really works . It should also make the other threads run more smoothly, if a lot of the small talk is directed to here . a lot of the threads are going to be disjointed due to the time difference's and also the fact that not all members are on line when a questions directed at them . but thats the same as now.
Well thats enough talking , welcome folks lets get to know each other

[Wichita Wayne]

I was blacked out from drinking too much Everclear (ethanol) that I use to clean my CCD. But I do have a really clean CCD now. Wish I was in your part of the world knocking back a few pints and talking to the magpies.

[sandman]

meant to ask you wayne , what's everclear, ?, sounds like it is a adative to a windscreen bottle. as for magpies ,i've got 7 in my garden now , can't get rid of them , ..... talk to them , yea i talk to them, keep shouting ...CLEAR OFF.

[Wichita Wayne]

Everclear is a brand name for grain alcohol or ethanol. It is a term that Americans understand because it is an American Brand. It is like saying give me a pint of Guinness, only in this case it is 190 proof grain alcohol rather than beer. And I thought it was bad luck to say mean things to the magpies. Anyway that is what a Scouser frined of mine told me. Maybe it is a Liverpool thing or something.

[Swampy]

Blackouts did nothing to me. My wife, who works at home for IBM got to "go home" early though. Seems IBM's East coast servers shut down so she couldn't work out here in California. Other than that, no harm done to us out here.

There was a few cities that blacked out for most of the day yesterday, but not my city, probably 10 miles from me though.

[sandman]

I think the old saying goes something like'' if you see a magpie at the begining of the day you'll have bad luck all day'', well i see about a dozen every morning , i don't do the lottery any more, no point.
No ,i think it's a common saying all over G.B, i,m a Liverpool F.C. fan have been for 40 yrs , all my mothers family come from liverpool and the surrounding area, ormskirk, preston, poulton. lovely part of the world.

[CaptJR]

grain alcohol!, now that brings back memmm, hmmmm, nope, guess that doesn't bring back anything. They're all blacked out.

:)
JR

[lightwrangler]

I was out of power for about 14 hrs, but nothing photographically was lost (food in the fridge was a different story). I continued working on my Powerbook G3 for a couple of hours, thanks to a new battery giving me around 5 hrs of on time. I even sent and received email on a dial-up connection. I didn't shoot anything of the blackout, but I did retire to the backyard in the evening to look at stars the likes of which I had never seen in the city before. One job was rebooked for this week, but other than that, I stayed home and out of trouble.

The next day was a bit of a chore, the stores and gas stations were scenes of chaos and many people were in panic mode acting as if the end of civilization was upon us. Traffic lights were not working in many parts of the city and of course the concept of a 4 way stop was lost on your average Torontonian. I resolved to leave the city for the weekend and did so on Saturday. All in all it was an pain but certainly not a crisis for me at least. While some of you may be used to occasional blackouts, we in this part of Canada take power for granted and that I believe has changed forever.

[Wichita Wayne]

Last fall we had a wedding to shoot in Sligo, Ireland and decided to make a trip of it. We rented an Renault Kangoo (my son loved it) and drove all over Ireland and the UK. My wife is in an internet poetry group that is hosted by a man in Liverpool. So on the way home we stopped in Liverpool and visited all of her friends. They even had a reading in a pub for her. It was all great fun and I cannot wait to get back over there and wonder around some more. The only large cities we visited were Dublin, Liverpool, and Edinburgh. The rest of the time we stayed in B&B's in the country. We took over 700 digital photos and at least as many 35mm and medium format shots.

[sandman]

Thanks lightwrangler
I had a friend leaving cleaveland on friday to fly back here , she said the flight was delayed for a couple of hours ,not too bad , mainly due to increased security, not the blackout.
But she did tell me before she left , the power was on , but they had no water , that was causing a lot of concern
Another relative of mine lives in hamilton , near toronto, his story was like yours, phones on, lights out. i'm hoping to visit him next year. like to go on the canadian pacific, maybe do the rodeo in calgary.

[lightwrangler]

Sandman; Hamilton is a short drive from Toronto and there is much there to shoot if you decide to visit. And if you do, let me know and perhaps we can get together over a cup of coffee or tea or even a beer. I can direct you to some good photo spots.

Lumens; As a first generation Canadian from Dutch immigrant parents, I have many relatives in Holland and believe that I once was in your town (polder country if I recall correctly). Certainly it surprises me to hear that the Netherlands has power shortages. I have always thought that the Dutch were far ahead of us North Americans when it came to conservation and new ways of generation. I agree with you - power generation and management shouldn't be left to private corporations.

[sandman]

Thanks lightwrangler i'll hold you to that. Next summer maybe

[bebop1065]

Here in Southern NJ, we had no problems. I work for a large Telecomm here and we had very many telephone calls from resellers asking about our status.

Nary a hiccup here.

SPN

[GCertain]

My photos are ok but my 1 day old server and my feet haven't been the same since the black out. I had to walk home from work ... three hours. This is one shot i took along the way home i know the quality is poor but it gives you and idea of what it was like. (walking was much faster than driving - no traffic lights = lockdown gridlock)

[sandman]

Quality's not what this part of the forum's about .(in my view), just like to know how some of you guys ,and gals ,coped . I saw the news reports on t.v. and it looked terrible ,the pictures from the subway of people trapped, and the sheer amount of people trying to get home, confused, tired, and some scared this might have been another sept 11th. It made the main new over here all over the weekend. how did the rest of the world report it. we've got members in the ukraine, moscow, thailand,australia,fiji, so tell us if it was as big a story where you are.

[dhani2489]

In Thailand we saw a picture of all the guests slept in the lobby of Marriot Marquis Hotel 'cause they were not allowed to stay in their room. It's in the first page of Today Post Newspaper with the subheadline that 50 million of American and Canadian were in trouble.That's all.
dhani

[SSonnentag]

I was deeply affected way over here in Arizona, 3000 miles away. There were a couple of websites that I wanted to get to that must have had power cut to their servers. :)

Shawn

[sandman]

Well i had to happen , last night london got a 1hr power failure. and i quote.
''more than 250,000 commuters were trapped on trains, 150,000 homes lost power and roads were gridlocked when more than 270 sets of traffic lights were knocked out''.

i'm 30 miles from london , but it did effect me , in that my daughters in laws ,father was caught for 1hr in a tube ,and missed coming down to see me, so i had to buy my own drinks.

shot the front page of tonights london evening standard

[Swampy]

What about that Britney/Madonna thing first....? :D

[sandman]

should have known which story you'd read.
if you really want to know ? i'm reading it as i'm answering.

madonna kissed both britany and christina aguilera on the lips during a MTV awards last night . shock, horror, !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

not my normal reading i'm usually reading the shares page, to see how much more cash i've lost.

[Swampy]

yeah, the guys I work with were doing nothing but talking about that. Not all that shocking really though.

[smunky]

Kind of gross, its like kissing her mother. And think about all the places Madonna has been.. and i dont mean geographically.

[sandman]

Hey what about our blackout, who cares where madonnas lips have been? (no!no! please don't answer that). bloody typical ,start a serious thread ,and you yanks turn it into a talk about sex.

[Swampy]

What do you expect? Post a picture with two [popular] women doing a little more than kissing each other. That's the way most of the world is. Besides, this IS the [Almost] Anything Goes forum. You want a [ONLY] Serious Goes forum too? :)

Power is a big problem everywhere in the world. Having been around electricity all my life, I could watch all of this building up. California's blackout's, east coast blackout recently, and other places. You want crippling? Power grids around the world are overloaded and just waiting for one little glitch to happen. Wait until someone gets the idea to cause more than a glitch.

[lightwrangler]

What Madonna, Christine and Britianny have in common with a blackout; the ability to shock normally sensible people into hysterics. The reaction to all of this really does amaze and interest me more than the act itself. After all this is a staged bit of theatre - designed to shock and titilate. But I'm with Smunky, I think Madonna lips are high mileage and not terribly alluring in the first place.

But that's just me.
:D

[Tom Nolle]

The southern part of NJ didn't even have a brownout. We aren't part of the same power grid. I had a few consulting clients who were shut down for a couple of days, though.

Tom

[sandman]

Ah well , If you can't beat them !!!!!

[Swampy]

Don't forget, Madonna needs some extra rope to floss between them two front top teeth too... :P

[Rockyw]

I live in NW Ohio. The area around here lost power several times but it came back on right away. In Toledo Ohio ( about 40 miles north of me) they were out for most of the day after the black out . It hit here about 3.50 pm, it was the worst in Mich and then into Canada and NY. We were lucky here compaired to others.

[bebop1065]

I live in So. NJ and true, the lights didn't even blink here.

Secondly, I could use a little publicity by kissing one of those women onstage. I'd surely have my Maxwell Smart fake-lip guards on though.

I think everyone in no-business/show-business are involved in a huge time expanded orgy. There ain't even six degrees separating people in that world.

[Steve Wynn]

I'm in NW Ohio, just north of Lima. Didn't even know anything about it...until I hear the hourly news. I did have a film proofing order, YEAH....Still struggling with lighting for the digital work at weddings. North American Photo had the order, and they were put out of commission for a couple of days. I had a little slack time when the film didn't make it back as scheduled but no big deal.. By the way Rockyw, where are you located? I'm now just south of Columbus Grove, Ohio.