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thedogsled · 6 years

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Hi anonymous gencest person in my inbox! First of all, I wanted to reply to you thoroughly, I just happened to not be online at the time that you sent your first message, and as a result it’s taken a little time to write this reply. You seem to be really hurt by this, but the tone of your message is understanding and kind, and you deserve to be spoken to with the same respect that you did in your messages to me. I’ve put your message under the cut to protect you a little bit (I hope that you find it).

For the folks on my dash, please don’t think this is me jumping back into it. Mostly that’s because, as you mentioned in your message, I feel like everything has gotten very out of hand. The tone of the original conversation changed underneath me, because while my issues were only with tagging, I feel like some people perceived it to be something else. I’d like to clear that up. Ad hominem attacks are always unnecessary, and they derail reasonable conversation. I also think that a lot of this jumped off the back of already raised tensions and preconceptions, and the divisions in fandom are wholly responsible for that. So that’s mostly why I haven’t mentioned it on my blog since the scuffle happened, and why I’m happier putting the rest of this under a cut. I don’t agree with what this turned into (kink shaming, and making genfic people into some sort of commodity to be shot across the battlefield like human cannons), and it’s left a bad taste in my mouth how the whole thing was handled, much as it seems to have done with anonymous.

This post is about that.

Anonymous said:The gencest wank is reaching new levels. Now people on twitter are claiming that participants "support child abuse" (which child?) and are "grooming" other people. There is disagreeing with the ambiguity the term gencest imply and there is straight up calling content creators who just want to write on their favorite characters predators. Now I feel even worse about writing Winchester Gen fic and I'm not even a participant! Are yall even going to care about that?

Anonymous said:(same g*ncest wank anon) Look, nevermind. I dont really expect anything. I was hurt by both sides when I'm at a low point and just wanted to write some S&D gen fic to cheer me up. I came to vent but it wasn't called for. I'm sorry. Have a nice day.

I’m going to start right back at the beginning. This wank started on Twitter, and it’s still continuing over there. I think a lot of the reason why things are never let go of on Twitter is because the format has a toppling effect. With things only loosely dated, and Twitter sending you notifications for things you might have been interested in, it tends to keep fires burning a lot longer. The viciousness of the conversations is one of the reasons why I’m not a very big presence of Twitter myself, not to mention block and let block isn’t considered to be a social default. People just engage with material no matter the consequences, forgetting that other people on the internet are living breathing emoting human beings.

Part of it, too, is Supernatural fandom’s divisions in general. If you look just at the wank that crossed my dash just in the last week - one week! - there’s the gencest wank, wank from old meta writers about new meta writers, wank at people who wish Cas had been in this episode, wank about Danneel--it never ends. And instead of those wanks being considered as separate incidents, they instead build one on top of another, so people come into conversations with a lot of baggage, which they aim at each other in quickfire succession.

It’s not okay. That’s part of the reason why I try and avoid engaging in ‘antis do this, antis do that’ drama, fandom dividing into sides etc. because it’s draining, it’s tiring, and it stops you from doing things you want to be doing. Trust me, I know all about the pain of just wanting to write/draw/reblog so and so, and feeling like you can’t because the fandom is a trash heap. Other multishippers feel the same way, like they can’t reblog content from certain bloggers because it’s only going to cause drama. I haven’t written or drawn anything but Destiel (apart from that one Sabriel fic for the RB last year) since I started this blog, despite being a multishipper at heart myself, because I don’t feel like that content is welcome or will be engaged with.

This fandom cultivates that kind of unwelcomeness, in my opinion, to almost everyone in it. It also prevents people from blogging on their own blog, because again people feel they need to seek out and engage with content (even untagged content) that they disagree with, or they’re not interested with, instead of just blocking it. I like talking about ships, and I like discussing how problematic some of them are. I like discussing dark fic. I like discussing tagging practices, and how to keep people safe from being triggered in a fandom which is full of people carrying their traumas with them. While I like engaging with the dark potential of characters, I do my best not to do so at the expense or harm of others. All of those things lead to conflict, and conflict I avoid so much I don’t end up using my blog as I want to. For example, just last year I got involved in a Megstiel conversation which ended in people saying rude things about me and wearing it as a badge of honor that I blocked them. I like Megstiel. I have RPed it and I like the potential the two characters have with each other. It’s not my OTP, and I’m not a relentless wave of positivity about it, but that’s okay. That’s my opinion, and not an opinion I should have to defend, and it’s okay to block people rather than argue needlessly and spread ill feeling around even more.

Staying out of other people’s opinions didn’t happen, this time. Blocking didn’t happen (the gencest mod did use her block later on, which I wholly support, when I was still following the drama, but the block wasn’t respected. When people log out to get around blocks, it isn’t respectful, and it’s part of what fans the drama higher). Not to mention all this drama came in at peak level because all this fandom is is Us Vs. Them until everyone is in a frenzied final battle situation during every incident. Sometimes the drama is being exacerbated and misrepresented, and there are absolutely trolls trying to stir the other thing to being much worse than it is “for fun”. Fandomwank and the anon comms on Dreamwidth (formerly LJ) and to a certain extent Reddit, love making Tumblr and Twitter fans go at each other, and even if we’re pretty shitty with each other already, that’s being driven and exacerbated constantly by forces unseen.

(Note: People may accuse me of making this up, I suppose, but we’re a powderkeg and people love to start fires. The fake Cas stan on Twitter from this summer is a GREAT example of this, they had Misha’s name in their URL and dropped shit on the writers and cast for a long time just to make people froth at the mouth “How could they say that to Jared” etc. I think people really underestimate how much rubberneckers love drama, and if there isn’t any they will happily start it. That said, a fair amount of drama starts organically, and I’ll concede as much, but if you think cackling supervillains are crazytalk let me introduce you to MS Scribe...)

Rambling about drama aside, because I’m quite passionate about how stupid this fandom gets, I want to get back to your ask. I haven’t touched your actual comments yet, and that does a disservice to them because this drama has genuinely hurt you. Fandom should know that. Their words hurt real people. The bickering hurts real people. It drives people away. It drives people I know away, and it’s hurting this anon as well. It’s like anon says: are we going to care about that? Because we should. We should be making this fandom a better place. We should be mending bridges, not distancing people and telling them their pain doesn’t matter. It matters. At least it matters to me. I want you to know that, anon.

That it matters, that’s why I got so passionate about the tagging issue. We should care for everyone’s comfort in this fandom, and that matters to me too. We shouldn’t shout names at each other. And maybe if people hadn’t been at a default level of at each other’s throats, we could have had a conversation about this. I honestly believe the gencest mod came at this from a reasonable position originally, with no ill intent. I may not have made that clear in my previous posts, but I was determined to give them the benefit of the doubt. I don’t think their definition was even that wrong, given that they weren’t trying to redefine the brodependency, imo. My issues only came from a need for fandom itself to invoke the terms Wincest and incest where necessary to protect the people who seek protection from those terms, who are harmed by it, and blacklist it. So that their blacklists work, and continue to protect them. That’s okay, I think, to ask for that, not at the exclusion of the gencest tag, but alongside it where it’s necessary. Incest isn’t what the exchange is about, as I understand it, but obviously the inclusion of ‘wincest’ in the portmanteau does make the real intent cloudy, and excludes people who might otherwise have been interested in it. You mentioned in your ask that the term was ambiguous, and that was my only issue with it, not whatever it’s gotten turned into, especially if that negativity is explicitly anti-Wincest. If the mod wants to use a term that invokes incest for her non romantic gen fest, then that’s the mod’s prerogative. Re. tagging, I think it matters, but tagging is different to the challenge. I’ve tried to be clear on the difference I feel about it since the beginning.

I think that when you are inside the bubble of a ship, it becomes difficult to see the issues with that ship. Let’s take it outside of the fandom and look at Buffy, for example. The fair and honest truth is that Spuffy is an abusive ship. It was literally abusive, then framed as love, Joss Whedon’s gross projection of being able to creepily stalk women and do whatever he wants to them because ~love~ and the woman will ultimately forgive him for being a ruthless monster and they’ll get together. (coughMarvelcough). It’s my OTP for Buffy, but it is what it is. In SPN fandom, Wincest has a similar problem, because it’s been around right since the beginning of the show, and there’s some people I feel who have forgotten that it’s an incest ship, you know, and forget that other people don’t say “It’s just incest” in real life. Only on the internet. (The response to poor Jason Fisher’s defense of Superwiki from the GA made that disconnect really clear to me. The GA literally have no idea why this show would defend incest, because how we speak about incest within fandom is wholly different to how it’s discussed in the real world.)

That said, boy oh boy. I’m about to open a whole other can of worms here.

Wincest folks get constantly attacked. Like I said, it’s an incest ship, and between the GA and people who are triggered by it and purity culture, you’ve got these people who just wanna write their ship and they’re constantly on the toe of everyone’s boot getting a right kicking. I’m not going to argue about the moral rights and wrongs of writing incest, because it’s none of anyone’s business. Writing incest isn’t a gateway drug to performing it any more than if you write stories about murder that’s what you’re setting up to do next yourself. No matter why someone writes it, generally speaking that’s between them and their catharsis. People get uppity about other people’s ships and kinks when they should stay in their own lanes, really.

Tagging is the key to that. Acknowledging your ship has issues and then making sure you tag those issues responsibly. That’s important. It protects us. It protects me when I write darkfic. It protects people who write darkfic because they’re survivors, and helps people to deal with those things when it’s tagged properly, when it’s given the name of what it is, rather than sanitized. That’s my issue with gencest as a tag (not as a fest), because it felt like sanitized incest. You need to call that what it is. You need to identify it. Your older brother climbing into bed with you naked and without permission isn’t gen. To some people within the ship, the identification of it is half the battle. When we tag considerately, we are being kind to people we don’t know, as well as protecting ourselves. Tags make fandom better and safer.

With the way things have unrolled, it’s made it so engaging in either fest seems like picking sides. That’s not okay. That’s not just this battle; this is just another casualty of the whole ship war, something which has sucked the fun out of many things people enjoy doing, and driven many many people out of fandom. I’m sorry that this one hit when you were already feeling so low, not least because we all deserve to have nice things. Fandom is supposed to be the place to go to when life is shitty, to give you fun and relief. It’s not meant to feel like getting sent back to the trenches. Not for anyone.

We need to mend our bridges. We need to keep making our content, and stop seeing it as ride or die. We need to keep our nasty opinions to our own blogs and stop calling each other names when we don’t agree. We need to stop seeing blocking as unreasonable behavior and not proper curation. We need to stop raiding ship tags for wank, or dumping our crap on other ship’s tags in the first place. We need to give more people the benefit of the doubt, and engage on conversational levels about out fandom and our ships. We need to call out issues from within our own fandom, so when drama is getting splashed around we need to say “hey, they have a bit of a point, here, maybe we can talk reasonably about it”. We need to stop shadowboxing with an enemy we think is the boogeyman, when in reality we’re punching real people in the face. We need to tag proactively, and kindly, and keep our fandom corners clean so that when people come to visit we can say “hey, we take our tagging really seriously, you can’t call us out on it.” That’s the fandom I want to be a part of.

Most of all we need to be kind to each other. Be better. For this anon and for everyone else who’s ever been hurt by fandom. Enough shittiness is enough.

To anon. I’m sorry you’re hurting. It fucking sucks, and I’m so sorry things got driven to the point they have now. I’m sorry you got stuck in the middle of it. That said, I want you to write. I want to read your content. Shippy or not, I love the relationship that Sam and Dean have, and seeing all parts of it, fluffy and dark and codependent and cute and playful and snarky. I love G rated fic as much as I love dark NC-17 fic, and I don’t care for people who gen shame, like fic isn’t interesting if it doesn’t have sex in it. Screw that noise. I hope you write. I want you to write. As part of a challenge or not. I hope you will. Everyone I’ve spoken to about this tells me they want more gen S&D content.

You, and anyone else, are welcome to send me any content you want, any time you like. I don’t reblog NC-17 content that isn’t under a cut, or content that attacks other fans, but you can send me any ship, anytime - anyone who loves any ship in this crazy fandom, regardless of what circle of affiliation you usually sit with - and I’ll share your content. With the right tags, of course! We don’t have to be this dysfunctional with each other. We can cooperate and coexist.

To anon: write it. Write it just for you. Write it to make yourself feel better, and write it to stick it in the eye of everyone who’s made you feel bad about it. When you feel powerless, doing it anyway is the power that you have, and you don’t need anyone to give it to you; it’s yours entirely.

I’m sorry this took me so long to post back to you. As you can see I wrote a little more than I initially expected to, and it took a while. If it makes you feel even a little bit better to read it, then it was worth it.

Thanks so much for your ask, for your patience, and for your respect. I hope next time you want to drop me an ask, it’s in happier times.

#dogsled replies #wank for ts #incest mention for ts #this is a multiship blog #ship and let ship #purity culture can eat my whole entire ass #but tagging is important

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photomaniacs · 7 years

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A Big Dumb Button http://ift.tt/2tufYsI My wife Sara and I… http://ift.tt/2sq5nj0

A Big Dumb Button http://ift.tt/2tufYsI

My wife Sara and I used to have this running joke leading up to her birthday each year. Each year I’d say, “Honey! What would you like for your birthday?,” and she would reply “I’d like a Hasselblad”. Usually with a big smile on her face, in a wink-wink-nudge-nudge kind of way.

Then I’d say “Ha ha, no, seriously, what would you like?” and we’d both laugh and move on to more serious things.

Hasselblad. The 500c/m. Man. That camera. It’s like the Rolls Royce of cameras. It would send shivers down our spines and we’d get all giggly any time we’d talk about it.

Hasselblad. We both wanted one. For me, the Hasselblad 500c/m is the perfect camera. It’s this beautiful, perfect melding of function and art mixed together. It really is a work of art; this little square box and can come all apart and attach to other things to make other types of cameras. If he was a Transformer he’d be the classiest one. He’d probably have a swirly moustache and wear a top hat and speak in an elegant accent.

Sometime around 2007-2008, I worked part-time a few days a week at our local camera shop. Three generations owned this shop. A downtown staple. The owner knew everyone that walked in. He chatted everybody up. He knew everyones stories.

A few months before Sara’s birthday, this older gentleman came into the shop. A small, white-haired guy, slightly bent over. He wore one of those blue trucker hats that had the yellow crests on the bill. It said MARINES.

The owner of the camera store knew of the little ongoing joke that Sara and I had. Those two were talking for quite a while and as they finished up their conversation, I got called over.

“Sid, this is John.”

“Hi.”

“I told John about your little joke you have with Sara. John actually works on Hasselblad cameras.”

“You do??” I asked him.

“I do,” he said. “I’m actually about to retire. I’m going to be closing up my workshop. I heard about your little run-on gag you have with your lady-friend. Y’know, I have a bunch of Hasselblad parts at my workshop still. Let me see if I can piece something together, and if I can, I’ll bring it back in here and we can talk.”

“Oh. Totally. That’s awesome. Thank you.”

And John left the store. And I figured that even if he did have something lying around, there is no way in hell I’d get my hands on one. I’d priced them on Craigslist. I’d followed them on eBay. Even with the “Great Film Crash” since the advent of digital cameras, the Rolls Royce of cameras was still at a price I couldn’t reach.

Two days later, John comes walking back in with a plastic bag under his arm. I got this tingle down my spine.

John pulls a 500c/m out of the bag. He sets it down on the glass counter and he nods for me to pick it up. I paw at it. It’s beautiful. It’s all leather and silver streamlined trim. It’s square and compact. And it’s calling to me.

“Sid. Sid. Look at me. Looooook.”

I wind it, pull the darkslide, and press the shutter. It makes that beautiful “CLOP-LOMP!” sound. Oh, that sweet, sweet sound.

I owned a Mamiya RB67 while in college. That thing was a tank. It was heavy and huge and it was near impossible for me to handhold and take a picture with it. You could drop an RB from a very tall building and the impact below would make a crater in the ground. But it would still work. That camera was fantastic.

But this camera was totally different. More elegant, refined. Not cumbersome like a blaster, but refined like a lightsaber. A more elegant weapon for a more elegant time. This was the girl that everyone had a crush on. That everyone wanted to take to the Prom.

This was the one true thing when it came to cameras.

I’m just about to start whispering sweet nothings into it’s viewfinder when John speaks up. He sounds kinda frustrated and angry. Not with me, but with himself:

“I was able to piece a kit together. The leather is good. The foam inside is clean. I put a brighter focusing screen in there so you can see better. It’s in good shape. But the serial numbers on the body and the film back don’t match. I hope that’s okay.”

I’m about to get down on my knees and propose marriage and he’s irritated with himself that the serial number don’t match.

“Uh…” was all I could say.

I paw at it some more, like a cat playing with a mouse. All of my logic is gone. All I can do is oggle the beautiful silver lines that move around the body of this camera. I’m hypnotized.

“So,” John begins and briefly snaps me out of my daydream.

“Here it is,” I start thinking. “The moment he tells me it’s like $1,200 bucks or more and I have to hand it back over to him”. My brain starts to get depressed.

“I have to ask: how much?” I say. I’m a mix of excitement but I’m ever so slightly pulling away because I know I’m going to be ripped away from this beautiful mix of utilitarianism and sculpture.

“Welp, I think it’s great that you both are photographers. And that you both met in art college. And I cleaned this thing up just for her. And since she loves photography and you love photography and she sounds like such a lovely lady, give me $200 and it’s yours.”

I was kind of in a daze. I had prepared for him to say something close to a thousand. My body was already instinctively starting to push the camera away from me when he tossed out the price. It took a few seconds for it to catch up on me.

“Wait, what?”

“Two hundred. And I might even have a prisim viewfinder back at the workshop. If I do I’ll bring it by in the next few days.”

Nobody has ever seen me run faster out the door of the camera shop, down main street and to the closest ATM. I ran like The Flash. I ran for my wife. I ran for that camera, and in my head, all the pictures I’d take and film I’d wind and times I’d just lovingly look over at it on a tri-pod.

I gave John the cash, and he again told me that if he found a prism for it, he’d bring it by in a few days and I could have it.

Suddenly I looked down and I owned the camera that was in my hand. Wait. What?

After John left, the owner of the camera store came up to me. He asked me if I knew who John was.

“No. He’s a really nice guy that just sold me a dream camera for a steal.” I said.

He told me to go home tonight, and look up the name John Kovacs on the internet. I might get a better idea of who just left.

So I did. And I wasn’t prepared for what I found.

John Kovacs.

John, it turns out, was one of the original group of technicians that was trained in Sweden many, many years ago. He had been working out of Nashua, New Hampshire, for decades under the name Hilton Command Exposures. Back in the days before the Internet, he would be the guy who’s name you would see in the back of camera collector magazines. He would be the guy that people would recommend to other Hasselblad owners when something went wrong with their camera. You popped your Hassy in a box and sent it off to Hilton Command Exposures in Nashua NH, and, weeks or months later, you’d get your camera back fixed and in perfect working order. He didn’t have a website. He worked by word of mouth.

John is the patent holder for the workings that enable multiple exposures on cameras with a film-back mechanism.

And John Kovacs was one of the original group of technicians that worked on the NASA modification of the Hasselblad equipment for the Space Program.

Wait. What?

Two days later, John came back into the camera store with a prism for me. I immediately jumped into asking him questions about all this stuff that I found online.

“Yeah,” he said with slight irritation, “that’s me.”

“Space! You worked on the cameras that went to the moon!! That’s amazing!”

John got even more irritated.

“Space,” he dryly said. “F**king Armstrong couldn’t operate the camera with his big stupid moon gloves on, so I had to create a big dumb button that he could bang to take the exposure.”

It was one of the most surrealistic moments I’ve ever been part of. Listening to someone irritated about the part they played in documenting people landing on the moon. There is a whole documentary film in his angry statement.

Shortly after he left. A week later he retired from being a Hasselblad technician, closed up his shop, sold the rest of his stuff to someone who turned around and sold all of it in pieces on eBay. The legacy of John Kovacs, and his participation in the history of cameras and photography came to an end.

John moved to Florida to live the remainder of his life happy and retired. One of the things I regret in our all-too-brief 4 day friendship was not getting a picture of him. I found a scan of a newspaper article that talked about Hilton Command Exposures back in the early 1990’s. Sitting there in his workshop, tending to someone’s mail-order, bringing a Rolls Royce of cameras back to life for people all over the world.

Sara was over the moon when she opened her birthday present that year. And, doubly over the moon when I told her the story that came with the camera. That some of the most skilled hands refurbed this camera, and that those hands adjusted the camera’s that are still sitting up there on the moon. And we got one of the very last cameras he worked on before he retired.

John died on January 18, 2013, in North Fort Myers, Florida, where he retired. He was a WWII Veteran with the United States Marine Corps. He was formerly the proud owner of Hilton Command Exposures in Nashua.

That camera will never part from us. It’s too important. There is too much history behind it. And one of the things that makes me sad is the history of photography, and of Hasselblad cameras, just became a little less because of John’s passing. These individuals who are on the outskirts of the history of photography are starting to pass. While we are obsessed with resolution and cramming megapixels into sensors and how to find the fast track to success, people like John who could turn a camera inside out and back again, are passing on.

I hope the information that was in John’s brain was passed on to somebody. Or somebodies. I hope he didn’t die with all the years of technical information and history without being able to pass all that on. Because I can’t bear knowing that he did.

Share your stories. Share the stories of those who pass those stories on to you. Photography is much larger that just taking pictures of things and putting them in a book or on a website. Share the stories, the conversations that come with them. Preserve the past and the history, however small it might seem to be.

There is so much more I wish I knew about John. But I’m glad that I get to share my story about him, however small it might be.

And every time I hear that CLOP-LOMP! coming out of my Hasselblad, I’m preserving John’s legacy and sharing who he was in a minuscule way.

About the author: Sid Ceaser is a studio and location photographer based in Nashua, New Hampshire. He specializes in band and musician publicity, press kit and promo photos, as well as headshot photos for people in entertainment and business. In addition to shooting he also teaches workshops and runs a podcast with designer Dave Seah. You can connect with him through his website, blog, Facebook, Flickr, and Twitter. This article was also published here.

Go to Source Author: Sid Ceaser If you’d like us to remove any content please send us a message here CHECK OUT THE TOP SELLING CAMERAS!

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June 30, 2017 at 09:00PM

Go to Source Author: If you’d like us to remove any content please send us a message here CHECK OUT THE TOP SELLING CAMERAS!

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My wife Sara and I… appeared first on CameraFreaks.

June 30, 2017 at 10:05PM

#photo photography art camera cameras

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packernet · 7 years

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New Post has been published on https://www.packernet.com/blog/2017/10/25/2018-first-round-mock-draft-2-0/

2018 First Round Mock Draft 2.0

Last week, according to our friends over at Tankathon, the Packers were slated to draft at number 27. Thanks to the Washington Redskins loss to the Eagles, the Packers jumped back into the playoffs but still fell to number 22 after their loss to the New Orleans Saints.

As an added twist, I decided to make my life a whole lot easier by using 1 big board, rather than an aggregate system. This week I chose to stick with DraftTek.

1. Cleveland Browns Mason Rudolph, QB, Oklahoma State

Last week: Sam Darnold, QB, USC

The first 4 picks of the draft are the same teams but for the sake of being different, I’ll do my best to make different selections.

Although Darnold is technically top of our board I’m going to just pretent that isn’t the case and make a different selection. I could have gone with something other than quarterback but if would just be stupid. All teams need a quarterback to win and the Browns have been through about 40 just in the last week.

We take the top quarterback on the board, no questions asked.

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2. San Francisco 49ers Sam Darnold, QB, USC

Last Week: Josh Rosen, QB, UCLA

I wanted to get away from QB but any time a quarterback deficient team is able to draft the top Quarterback on their board they need to do it, especially if it’s their top overall player on their board. That’s the situation here so the 49ers pull the trigger.

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3. New York Giants Saquon Barkley, RB, Penn State

Last Week: Josh Allen, QB, Wyoming

In terms of our board we have a safety and a quarterback ahead of Barkley. Safety is an option but we like our defense. They aren’t playing as well as 2016 but we know the potential is there. Perhaps we look to turn over some coaches before we look to draft new players.

As far as Josh Rosen is concerned, there were some heated arguments going on about who to draft but we have Eli Manning until 2020. He’s the laughing stock of the league at times but we know the guy can take the team all the way if the right pieces are in place.

We have a great defense, a great WR corps, adding an elite RB to the group can make this team unstoppable. Assuming we find the right coaching staff that is.

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4. TRADE: Indianapolis Colts to Tampa Bay Buccaneers Derwin James, S, Florida State Indianapolis will receive a 3rd round pick from Tampa

Last Week: Minkah Fitzpatrick, S, Alabamap

The Colts wanted Barkley bad but weren’t able to strike a deal. With Barkley off the board they decide to fall back and look for some help on offense.

Tampa paid a heavy price but their need for safety help is dire and James is a freak at the position. They knew he wouldn’t last any longer and were fortunate to find a willing trade partner in the Colts.

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5. Cincinnatti Bengals Mike McGlinchey, OT, Notre Dame

Last Week: Connor Williams, OT, Texas

Unfortunately for Tampa, Cincinnati wasn’t really interested in James either. They need a lot of help on offense and if James had fallen, may have looked to trade back.

Although they aren’t following their board to the letter, McGlinchey is their top rated lineman in a talented offensive line draft. They aren’t willing to lose him by trading and decide to pull the trigger.

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6. TRADE: Indianapolis Colts (Tampa) to New York Jets Josh Rosen, QB, UCLA Indianapolis Colts receiver a 2nd round pick

Last Week: Lamar Jackson, QB, Louisville

The Colts got bit hard by trading away their pick, not expecting McGlinchey to go at number 5 overall. They have options but when the Jets call and offer their second 2nd round pick (56 overall), the Colts can’t turn it down.

The Jets see Josh Rosen, their #4 overall player on their board fall to number 6 and are starting to hyperventilate. With Arizona on the clock next it’s likely now or never. We can wait for Luke Falk but this is quarterback we’re talking about. If this guy has a chance to be our franchise quarterback, a second 2nd round pick is easy to give away.

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7. Arizona Cardinals Harold Landry, EDGE, Boston College

Last Week: Bradley Chubb, DE, N.C. State

The Cardinals have needs all over but our top edge rusher is on the board at a great value. Landry plays most of his snaps with his hand in the ground but at 6’3, 250 pounds he’s an ideal candidate for a 3-4 OLB.

Although our defense still needs help, having Landry play opposite Chandler Jones gives us a pair of really scary pass rushers.

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8. Baltimore Ravens Minkah Fitzpatrick, S, Alabama

Last Week: Quenton Nelson, G, Notre Dame

The Ravens fell from 11 to 8 which gives them a great opportunity to draft a great defensive back. Although I’m not sure why two great safties have completely fallen off a cliff in 2017, it seems as though the Ravens could use help at the position.

If for whatever reason the safety play comes back up in 2018, Fitzpatrick is also a great corner prospect. He can be used at whatever DB position is weakest to elevate the play of the defensive back unit.

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9. Oakland Raiders Martinas Rankin, OT, Mississippi State

Last Week: Christian Wilkins, DT, Clemson

Arden Key and Darrius Guice are tempting here but both of those positions are serviceable. We have a quarterback we believe can take us all the way and he’s now been knocked out with injury twice. More than anything we have to be able to protect him.

Our left tackle, Donald Penn, is a stud but at the right tackle spot we are in a lot of trouble. We have a great opportunity to shore that up, protect our quarterback, and help our run game all at once. It’s a great pick for us.

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10. Indianapolis Colts (Jets) Derrius Guice, RB, LSU

Last Week: Saquon Barkley, RB, Penn State

For the second time they missed out on a lineman but grabbing Guice here is actually pretty awesome. The Colts not have two early round picks to help with several needs including offensive line, they were still able to stay in the top 10, and they grabbed a very good running back which will help the offense tremendously, especially their quarterback who is hit constantly by defenses that don’t have to fear a running attack.

A great back can also help the defense by sustaining drives with a slower and more balanced attack. The defense stays off the field, stays fresh, and starts to play better.

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11. Los Angeles Chargers Christian Wilkins, DT, Clemson

Last Week: Derwin James, S, Florida State

The Chargers are finding ways to win some games and it’s largely because of the play of their defense. Although offense should probably be the focus, they do have a need along the defensive line. Wilkins is a fantastic value here at 11 and gives them a scary defensive line with Bosa, Liuget, and Ingram.

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12. Chicago Bears Arden Key, EDGE, LSU

Last Week: Arden Key, OLB, LSU

It’s the same pick as last week but this pick couldn’t be any easier. Key is a good value at 12, is the highest player on our board, plays a premium position, and is a need.

The Bears defense is maybe the most underrated in the NFL. With a guy like Key, they won’t exactly be the monsters of the midway but they won’t be easily ignored.

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13. Dallas Cowboys Micah Kiser, ILB, Virginia

Last Week: Mike McGlinchey, OT, Notre Dame

Taking an inside linebacker this early in the first seems a little weird but he’s a player we really like a lot and it’s a position we need a lot of help with. We considered trading back but nobody was calling.

Jaylon Smith is playing terrible but he’s young and we really like him. If he can take a second year leap in 2018 and Kiser is able to play well, this defense will look very different next year. That’s the hope anyway.

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14. Denver Broncos James Washington, WR, Oklahoma State

Last Week: Derrius Guice, RB, LSU

A couple good wide receivers and a decent running back are pretty much all this offense have to be happy about. Unfortunately, Sanders and Thomas are both 30ish years old and have contracts expiring after 2019.

Although a guy like Kirk can slide in as a slot receiver and play right away, Washington is higher on our board and is a pick that is looking to the future, not the immediate.

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15. TRADE: Cleveland Browns to Atlanta Falcons Christian Kirk, WR, Texas A&M Browns receive a 4th and 5th

Last Week: Trey Adams, OT, Washington

The Browns have a million picks once against but they need a million and 1 players so it makes sense.

From the Falcons standpoint, giving up 2 picks when you only have 7 is awfully steep but the Falcons have a pretty well rounded team. The addition of a guy like Kirk can take this already elite offense and make it other-wordly. With the Lions up next, it’s not impossible they take away Kirk.

Considering their GM’s well known strategy of drafting for need, it’s not out of the realm of possibility.

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16. Detroit Lions

Jaire Alexander, CB, Louisville

Last Week: Harold Landry, DE, Boston College

2018 isn’t nearly as good of a draft for cornerback as 2017 was but Jaire is our top guy. At 16 taking the top corner in the draft isn’t the worst thing ever.

Darius Slay and Quandre Diggs have been great so far this year but D.J. Haden is terrible. He’s always been terrible and it’s time to move on. They drafted one of my favorite corners from 2017, Teez Tabor, but the fact that he hasn’t found the field isn’t promising.

In a division with Aaron Rodgers, having a top corner is essential. Even if Teez steps it up in 2017, doubling down with a guy like Jaire won’t be a regrettable decision.

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17. Cleveland Browns Trey Adams, OT, Washington

Last Week: Christian Kirk, WR, Texas A&M

The Browns drafted their quarterback of the future (again) and need to build around him. Wide receiver is always what people think of but there’s more to it than that and nothing is more important than wide receiver.

At 6’7, Adams is an absolute monster. Assuming Joe Thomas comes back healthy and strong next year, this is a pretty good offensive line. Add a couple more pieces and the Browns might win a few games.

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18. Washington Redskins Derrick Nnadi, DT, Florida State

Last Week: Calvin Ridley, WR, Alabama

The Redskins have some talent along the defensive line but not nearly enough. Specifically, Terrell McClain has been a massive disappointment and needs to be replaced. Nnadi at 6’1 303 pounds fills that role quite nicely.

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19. Tennessee Titans Tarvarus McFadden, CB, Florida State

Last Week: Ronnie Harrison, S, Alabama

With guys at premium positions starting to slip, teams phones are ringing off the hook with teams wanting to get guys they didn’t think would be available. Still, for the Titans, we see a guy that’s arguably the best corner in the draft sitting there and we know we need his help. It’s an easy call.

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20. TRADE: Carolina Panthers to Miami Dolphins Luke Falk, QB, Washington State Carolina will receive a 3rd round pick

Last Week: Tarvarus McFadden, CB, Florida St

The Dolphins will sell it to Tannehill and the media as a security play. We see how much it hurt when Tannehill isn’t around and we need to help secure that position, blah blah blah, but we all know what this is. You don’t trade up this far in the first round and trash a third round pick on quarterback depth.

The Dolphins have lost faith that Tannehill is their franchise quarterback and really, how can you blame them. Falk is ranked as their 16th best player on the board and available to them at 20. If they want a shot at him, they need to strike before the Jaguars pick.

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21. TRADE: Jacksonville Jaguars to Los Angeles Rams Marquis Haynes, EDGE, Ole Miss Jaguars receive a 3rd round pick

Last Week: Marquis Haynes, OLB, Ole Miss

The Rams desperately need help at outside linebacker. Glover Quin and Connor Barwin are big names but they haven’t been good players in a long time. They need to get better and they need to get younger.

At 21 there is an edge rusher and he’s number 13 on our board. With the Packers up next there’s no way we can risk losing this guy. It’s a high cost play but it’s one we can’t pass up.

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22. Green Bay Packers Sam Hubbard, EDGE, Ohio State

Last Week: Malik Jefferson, ILB, Texas

Malik Jefferson is tempting here but an ILB in the first round is not something you would expect from Ted Thompson. The Packers are looking to play for the future at a premium position.

Although there doesn’t seem to be an open starter position, there is virtually no depth behind Clay and Perry. Furthermore, having both on the field, healthy, and playing well has never really happened before this year. With Clay’s contract up in 2018 it’s a wise investment.

A further observation, some have said that the concern with moving on from Capers is the fact that the team will likely revert back to a 4-3 defense. With the exceptions of Clay Matthew’s the team would likely transition seamlessly but it would be wise to grab a guy like Hubbard who can play OLB in a 3-4 but has the build to play as a 4-3 end. Just sayin, Clay was brought in at a high price to be the 3-4 OLB that Dom needed. It would almost be poetic for Dom to be shown the door as they let Clay’s contract expire.

To get even more specific and borderline conspiratorial, there is an out in Clay’s contract after this year. It’s entirely possible for the Packers to fire Capers this year and start to look for trade partners for Clay who’s value is going through the roof this year. Again, just sayin…

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23. Seattle Seahawks Malik Jefferson, ILB, Texas

Last Week: Da’Ron Payne, DT, Alabama

The Seahawks want desperately to trade back but nobody will bite. They consider reaching for Quinton Nelson but the GM has the final call and decides to stick to the board.

Jefferson is a very athletic guy that at one time was considered a top 10 pick. Yes the Seahawks have Wagner but outside of him we aren’t exactly talking about elite players. Take the best player available, upgrade your linebacking group, and keep this defense fed with monsters.

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24. Buffalo Bills Calvin Ridley, WR, Alabama

Last Week: James Washington, WR, Oklahoma St.

The Bills are pretty upset at losing Jefferson but let’s face it, it’s the offense that needs help. This team has a very good defense, a great running back, and maybe the most underrated quarterback in the NFL. They just can’t seem to hit on a receiver. Watkins was good when he was healthy but this year has been tough.

Zay Jones hasn’t been much this year but you can always hope for a second year leap. Even if he does, Jordan Matthews adds nothing to this team and neither does anyone else at the position. They need to get better.

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25. Carolina Panthers Bradley Chubb, EDGE, N.C. State

Last Week: Sam Hubbard, DE, Ohio State

The Panthers don’t have much talent on the edges outside of 400 year old Julius Peppers. Chubb is an obsolute monster and an instant starter.

The trade back worked out quite well for Carolina. They were able to grab a pick and still draft a great player at a premium position.

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26. New Orleans Saints Ronnie Harrison, S, Alabama

Last Week: Jaire Alexander, CB, Louisville

The Saints have done a great job of turning around the defense and with this pick, adding to what they already have at corner and defensive line, you have to wonder if the team that has had the worst defense over the last ten years is not a defensive powerhouse.

You also have to wonder if it’s a little to late with Brees’ contract status still unknown beyond this year.

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27. Jacksonville Jaguars Quenton Nelson, G, Notre Dame

Last Week: Martinas Rankin, OT, Mississippi St.

The Jaguars had their quarterback stolen from them. Once it happened they started taking calls. The Jaguars are reaching here but they don’t care. This team is angry and they are hungry.

They went out and bought an elite defense, they have a great running back, and they’re stuck with Bortles. It’s time to finish building this team. We are drafting for our last few needs and we’re going to win a Super Bowl darn it!!

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28. Pittsburgh Steelers Da’Ron Payne, DT, Alabama

Last Week: Dorance Armstrong Jr., OLB, Kansas

The Steelers have a couple good defensive linemen with Cameron Heyward and Stephon Tuitt but Tuitt is hurt (a little) and Heyward is old. There isn’t much depth beyond that. Payne is a big Alabama boy that can step in and play next to these fine gentlemen week 1.

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29. Minnesota Vikings Ken Webster, CB, Ole Miss

Last Week: Mason Rudolph, QB, Oklahoma State

The Vikings have a great defense but it’s cornerbacks are a frail bunch. Trae Waynes has been a massive disappointment, Terrence Newman will be 40 next year, leaving Xavier Rhodes as the only real talent at the position.

The Vikings need to start backfilling and fast.

30. New England Patriots Maurice Hurst, DT, Michigan

Last Week: Micah Kiser, ILB, Virginia

The Patriots are a disciplined team and teams like the tend to stick to the board. Hurst is number 24 on our board and is available at 30. That’s great value.

I’m not sure how good of a fit Hurst is, being a little undersized for a Patriots DT but if he can get the job done, weight isn’t really an issue.

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31. Buffalo Bills Denzel Ward, CB, Ohio State

Last Week: Ken Webster, CB,Ole Miss

This was a tough call as not a lot of value lined up with need. They could double down at wide receiver and take Deon Cain but the Bills decide to turn back to defense.

The Bills have hit it big in the last few years with E.J. Gains and Tre’Davious White but have nobody behind them. They need the depth as well as a guy that can step in in nickle and dime situations.

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32. Philidelphia Eagles Deon Cain, WR, Clemson

Deon Cain, WR, Clemson

It’s slightly surprising how well this team is playing despite all the gaps in talent they have. Most notably the absolute lack of any talent at wide receiver. They Eagles have a quarterback that is looking to become the next great and they can’t put any talent around him except a tight end? Give me a break. It’s time to get this man a receiver.

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#draft

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photomaniacs · 7 years

Photo

A Big Dumb Button http://ift.tt/2tufYsI

Then I’d say “Ha ha, no, seriously, what would you like?” and we’d both laugh and move on to more serious things.

Hasselblad. The 500c/m. Man. That camera. It’s like the Rolls Royce of cameras. It would send shivers down our spines and we’d get all giggly any time we’d talk about it.

The owner of the camera store knew of the little ongoing joke that Sara and I had. Those two were talking for quite a while and as they finished up their conversation, I got called over.

“Sid, this is John.”

“Hi.”

“I told John about your little joke you have with Sara. John actually works on Hasselblad cameras.”

“You do??” I asked him.

“Oh. Totally. That’s awesome. Thank you.”

Two days later, John comes walking back in with a plastic bag under his arm. I got this tingle down my spine.

“Sid. Sid. Look at me. Looooook.”

I wind it, pull the darkslide, and press the shutter. It makes that beautiful “CLOP-LOMP!” sound. Oh, that sweet, sweet sound.

This was the one true thing when it came to cameras.

I’m just about to start whispering sweet nothings into it’s viewfinder when John speaks up. He sounds kinda frustrated and angry. Not with me, but with himself:

I’m about to get down on my knees and propose marriage and he’s irritated with himself that the serial number don’t match.

“Uh…” was all I could say.

I paw at it some more, like a cat playing with a mouse. All of my logic is gone. All I can do is oggle the beautiful silver lines that move around the body of this camera. I’m hypnotized.

“So,” John begins and briefly snaps me out of my daydream.

“Here it is,” I start thinking. “The moment he tells me it’s like $1,200 bucks or more and I have to hand it back over to him”. My brain starts to get depressed.

“Wait, what?”

“Two hundred. And I might even have a prisim viewfinder back at the workshop. If I do I’ll bring it by in the next few days.”

I gave John the cash, and he again told me that if he found a prism for it, he’d bring it by in a few days and I could have it.

Suddenly I looked down and I owned the camera that was in my hand. Wait. What?

After John left, the owner of the camera store came up to me. He asked me if I knew who John was.

“No. He’s a really nice guy that just sold me a dream camera for a steal.” I said.

He told me to go home tonight, and look up the name John Kovacs on the internet. I might get a better idea of who just left.

So I did. And I wasn’t prepared for what I found.

John Kovacs.

John is the patent holder for the workings that enable multiple exposures on cameras with a film-back mechanism.

And John Kovacs was one of the original group of technicians that worked on the NASA modification of the Hasselblad equipment for the Space Program.

Wait. What?

Two days later, John came back into the camera store with a prism for me. I immediately jumped into asking him questions about all this stuff that I found online.

“Yeah,” he said with slight irritation, “that’s me.”

“Space! You worked on the cameras that went to the moon!! That’s amazing!”

John got even more irritated.

“Space,” he dryly said. “F**king Armstrong couldn’t operate the camera with his big stupid moon gloves on, so I had to create a big dumb button that he could bang to take the exposure.”

There is so much more I wish I knew about John. But I’m glad that I get to share my story about him, however small it might be.

And every time I hear that CLOP-LOMP! coming out of my Hasselblad, I’m preserving John’s legacy and sharing who he was in a minuscule way.

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June 30, 2017 at 09:00PM

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