[Leica] PAW WK5 and Happy New Year!!!

[richard-lists at imagecraft.com (Richard)]

At 10:10 PM 2/11/2005, Nathan Wajsman wrote:

>Hi Richard,
>
>The week 5 picture is very good!

Thanks.

OK, I will eat crows. I am back. If anyone wants to snicker and say, "yea, 
we know you will be back," go right ahead...

For those who think "who cares, shut the f*ck up" well.... pbbbbbtttt///

>Regarding the puppy pictures, they were not up to your usual standard. I 
>still enjoyed looking at them because I love my own dog (and cat) and I 
>love pets in general. So I shared your joy with this new member of your 
>family.

This is EXACTLY why I left in the first place. Not so much that the 
photography or even the dog were criticized, but that I was extremely 
saddened to see that some people did not see that these pictures, lousy as 
they are, were the proud snapshots of the new parents. The babies may be 
bald and ugly and the Kodak 110 pictures may be out of focus or badly 
colored, but the parents are showing them off because they feel love for 
the kids. I am going to turn 43 this year, and my wife, despite being only 
29 forever, is not much younger. We have decided not to have any more kids. 
When our first dog died last June, we - I, cried my eyes out. We waited a 
while before we seriously looked for another pup, and this one once again 
came to us serendipitously.

Lets face it, I am probably on the young side of the LUGGERs. With us 
getting older, it is bound that we will hear sad news of losses (speaking 
of which, I do not feel any animosity toward Sonny. I lost my mom 18 years 
ago, and every year I still cry my eyes out...), I was just so overjoyed to 
share my love toward the puppy that I posted those links. Why? It is 
exactly because I felt that as contentious and cranky as this group is, 
that we deserve some good news rather than just losses. It pained me to the 
heart that people are not saying, "god, what awful crappy pictures, but 
Richard must love that puppy!!" Yes, I do, she sleeps on my bed and some 
times on me.

In fact, the msg was an extract of my wife's blog on LiveJournal.com, and 
the reactions can not be more different.  While I did not expect oooohhhs 
and ahhhhhhhs, I wasn't expecting being trashed either. What got me to 
leave was to think that if there is one person complaining, certainly there 
are other people who must feel the same ways. You show crappy baby pictures 
to your friends because you think your friends would tolerate your 
indulgence. I felt sadden that I was so wrong.

I suppose whether I am here or not makes no difference to most of you. I 
certainly hope that I did not actually make any enemy that would be glad to 
see me gone. OTOH, if such person exist :-p pbbbtttt. If I made a big deal 
out of leaving, I may as well make a big deal out of coming back. Sonny 
does not need my forgiveness or any crap like that, but a small number of 
you clearly show that perhaps I was not so wrong after all. To those, I 
raise a virtual glass to you and say, "Thank You."

// richard (This email is for mailing lists. To reach me directly, please 
use richard at imagecraft.com)