Being a kid from Kansas, I grew up thinking the colors of fall consisted of yellow and brown. Oranges were rare, and reds practically unheard of. I was given the enviable assignment to document the foliage around Peoria a few weeks ago, a fun task under ideal conditions. But we were in a period of dreary darkness, with wind and rain the whole week. So I made the best of the flat lighting and I think it may have turned out better than if I had relied on the photographer’s crutch of warm, buttery sunlight.

You never realize the big bunches of leaves shading the land or the sound a breeze makes blowing through them until they’re gone. A grande finale for the outdoors, a sure sign to gather cans of soup and throws to keep warm by.

Shot in two days, with narration by naturalist John Mullen of Forest Park Nature Center, I present to you a Soundslide on fall.

update! My dad took umbrage at my Kansas slight, sending me these photos of trees in my former Wichita backyard. I’m impressed.

A bittersweet day… word that another coworker is leaving the paper before the year is over. I suppose that’s “the way things are,” testament to a transient world where no one stays anywhere for very long. Selfishly, I feel like the battle to be a journalist gets just a little bit harder each time someone heads toward greener pastures.

I need a haircut and my stylist is on vacation until the end of November. I’ve brought back the beard, but remain undecided about what to do with the rest.

The maples are bare after catching fire just a few weeks ago, and within 5 minutes of my walk back from the library, I ran into two other coworkers who took buyouts in the last year. One was waiting at a light, yelling my name from his car… and the other now works at my neighborhood Starbucks.

But there is still beauty out there…. the oaks are finally changing colors, one of the last to do so each autumn.

Shugo Takumaru – Sleet

It’s a little disconcerting when you’re eating a late-night bowl of soup with some bread, washing all this down with a nice tall glass of water, and you notice a piece of glass missing from the part of the rim where you’ve been drinking. Is this now in my stomach? People eat strange thing all the time and end up fine, right? Or was it already chipped prior to dinner?

Tomorrow I’m covering the ABC show “Extreme Home Makeover.” It’ll involve an all-day stake-out and lots of guessing. These TV shows sure are secretive.

Photo not taken today: a pair of older women waiting at a bus stop near downtown in the dreary mist. Each had an umbrella; one a green toad with little eye flaps on top, the other a ladybug. I pulled a U-turn right in the middle of the street, parked, and watched them fold up their umbrellas and climb aboard the bus.

I’ve been staying up terribly late this week… you see, I’ve found comfort turning on a solitary desk lamp in my home office. I sit at this old bank desk – a free find on the street –  jamming on the keys and shuffling paper around, with my Tivoli table radio tuned to 700 WLW out of Cincinnati. Truckers call in to a talk show for hours on end, spouting nonsense from meteor sightings to political ramblings to major slowdowns on the inbound I-983 at the junction interchange thingie. It’s a beautiful thing.

As you can see, things look just slightly different around these parts. Consider it a tweaking, a new coat of paint for an otherwise ugly jalopy.

At your left are my most recent Flickr uploads. These are usually party photos and otherwise shitty quality camera phone pix. But it’s sometimes the best way to see what I’m up to on a day to day basis.

Below all of this is the new “Daily Bread” section. I’ve ditched the separate entries used for interesting links and have gone to a real-time list instead. I think it’s much more practical and easier to quickly browse when you’re at work and supposedly working. Get to it!

But most important is the fact that you Internet Explorer users never complained about things being all crazy looking… nothing was lined up as it should have been, and I apologize. I installed Vista tonight and immediately set about fixing it. Man cannot live on Mac alone?

I now know what that anticipatory feeling sports freaks get prior to “the big game.”

8pm, Palin v Biden.

(so much for keeping commentary on this thing during the debate… I had a coworker over for beers while watching. I’m going to bang something out right now.)

I planned on having a debate party, but that sure did fail spectacularly. When pitted against a Cubs playoff game and the usual Thursday night activities (band practice? trips to California? salsa dancing?), all bets are off.

So I have to thank intrepid JS reporter Frank for pitying the fool, begrudgingly watching a lackluster debate between papa bear Biden and hockey mom Palin. Let’s get down to brass tacks.

What did the punditry think?

There were two debates going on in St. Louis Thursday night. Joe Biden was debating John McCain. And Sarah Palin was debating Sarah Palin — at least the version of her that most of America has seen on TV for the last few weeks. – Mike Madden for Salon.com

Joe Biden and Sarah Palin were talking to two different Americas Thursday night. Actually, that’s unfair to Joe Biden; he was trying to talk to everyone. I can say for certain, though, that Sarah Palin was talking to — and winking at — her own private Idaho, and for long stretches of the debate, it was an unnerving experience. – Joan Walsh for Salon.com

Palin, in her 90 minutes on the stage Thursday night, left the firm impression that she is indeed ready to lead the nation — with an unnerving mixture of platitudes and cute, folksy phrases that poured from her lips even when they bore no relation to the questions asked.

“Let’s commit ourselves just everyday American people, Joe Six-Pack, hockey moms across the nation,” she proposed when asked about the mortgage crisis. – Dana Milbank for the Washington Post

Although immediately receiving two strikes against it because of an 8:30am Saturday start time, I really had a blast at the Illinois Tree Climbing competition last weekend. First off, it sounds like a joke. I imagined some nerdy 20-somethings pulling themselves up trees with their trendy shoes and well-kept messy hair. Wrooooong, mister. These chaps (and misses) were decked out in some serious climbing gear: safety harnesses, goggles for a few, proper shoes, and even adventuring beards (ladies, not mandatory.)