Category: Theme Thursday

The Marketing Department Needs a Hard Slap Across the Chops

Several years ago I did quite a riff on stupid car names. It’s good stuff, go back and read it if you get a chance.

In that same vein comes today’s post.

Stupid cell phone names. Yup, the mobile phone manufacturers have gone well past idiot car names and have slipped into ridiculous.

Since I work way, way too much with mobile phones, I have to not only see these dumb names, but utter them aloud.

Here’s my personal top eleven list of “Someone Should Get Slapped for that Brand Name”


  1. HTC Salsa: Seriously? Salsa? Because I’m going to dip a chip into the device? Bleah. Just Bleah!

  2. Palm Pre: The suffix pre means before. So this is the phone that’s what? Before the actual phone? Before the demise of Palm? Before HP killed it?

  3. Samsung :): Oh how I wish I was making that up. The actual name of the phone is :) How do you even go to the store and ask for that? “Um, yes, I’d like a sideways smiley please?” Lame. Lame. Lame.

  4. HTC Rhyme : Rhymes with stupid.

  5. Casio G’zOne Commando: First of all I can’t get over Casio, maker of tacky Dad-watches is also making phones. This is a kind of cool looking device, but godDAMN it’s a bad name. First of all, what the eff is G’zOne? And second of all, commando makes me think of going without chones. I don’t think my mobile device should evoke that.

  6. Motorola Citrus : Mmmmm! Lemony!

  7. Motorola Photon : I tested this device and I actually liked it a lot. But neither The Good Man nor I could stop pointing the device at each other and going “pew pew!” It is, after all, a photon. Pew!

  8. LG Remarq : One, you misspelled it. Two, my remarks are “WHAT THE SEVENTEEN KINDS OF SAM HELL ARE YOU THINKING with this name?!?!” That concludes my remarqs.

  9. Sanyo Innuendo : I heard a rumor this was a cool device, but it was just innuendo.

  10. LG Rumor : Oh for crimeny’s sakes!

  11. LG Thrill : I’m left…unthrilled.

That’s it, I’m done. I could go on and on. There is really no end to silly device names. I think the phone manufacturers think they are being clever.

I think they are anything but.

Not for nothing, but these are almost all Android devices. I used to think iPhone was a boring name. Right now it looks pretty damn good.

Don’t EVEN get me started on Google’s cutesy operating system names….




Cell phone art by Rob Pettit




This is a pretty tenuous use of Theme Thursday‘s theme of: Thrill


Wilde-y-Beast-y!

(Warning: this is me blogging on hardly any sleep and LOTS AND LOTS of caffeine. A dangerous combo.)

Oh fabulous wildebeest, woolly haired cattle of the African plains.

You feed on grass and travel in packs.

You are so unpretty and yet so graceful!

Sometimes you hang out with zebras. Strength in numbers, dontchaknow? Heck, with your stripey coat, you look like you kinda could be part zebra, too.

The good people of Masai tend to find you tasty in the form of biltong.

You are an odd looking creature and…..

Hmm? What? Wassthat you said?

Oh. Really?

Ooooooh I see. New. The word “new”. That’s the Theme Thursday this week. Not Gnu? You sure?

New. As in “what’s new?”

Myyyy baaaaaad.

Here’s what’s new.

We just had a 3.2 magnitude earthquake. Just a little rattler, really. A teacup shaker.

My boss is visiting from the UK. He’s freeeeeaking out.

It’s all new (gnu?) to him!

Ok, I’m done here. Carry on.





Image by Muhammad Mahdi Karim is from Wikipedia and is used here under a GNU Free Documentation License. (hee! What’s Gnu with you?)



Communicatin’

When I read that today’s Theme Thursday is communication, I had to laugh to myself.

See, communication is a great big part of my job. I wear many hats, but day in and day out I’m inundated with communication devices. In fact, stashed in the corner of my office I have a fully loaded box of very old cell phones. Due to a weird contractual issue, I’m not allowed to ditch them to a recycling company. No one wants these damn things (least of all, me) but I have to hang on to them until the contract runs out.

So when I saw today’s theme, I thought “hey, it would be cool to lay all those crappy old flip phones out in a cool design and photograph them.

A short Google search showed me that a man named Rob Pettit already had this idea. And he executed it so much better than I could have.

From Rob’s webpage:

“Rob Pettit, a 2007 graduate of the SMFA, creates cell phone art to high light (sic) the proliferation and waste of cell phones.”

I’ve got a big box of throwaway gear that backs his viewpoint.

Behold the intricate beauty of Rob’s work (visit his website or click image for full size photo):


These particular devices are what I have a’plenty in my office. Maybe when I’m released from contractual boundaries, I can ship them off to Rob.




Remember StarTac phones? They really work in the outer rings of this piece.




Who would have thought that ugly gray candy bar style phones could be so intriguing? This has an almost industrial, cog in the machinery feel to it.





There’s This Tree Out On the Bosque…

Today’s Theme Thursday is tree, and since I’m on the road today (doing the vacation thang and all) here’s a photo of one of my favorite trees.

This old friend lives out on the Bosque in that little slice of land between Los Lunas and Belen known as Los Chaves.

My folks used to live out that way and I alternately loved and was afraid of walking in the Bosque. Lots of wonderful stuff and lots of ways to get lost and encounter odd people in that underbrush.

Over time this particular tree became my beacon. I knew I was headed in the right direction as long as I could find this little tree and it’s natural archway to my favorite path.

This photo was taken back in 2005 with my simple Sony point and shoot. I went back a couple years later with my good camera gear and better photographic knowledge, but that wonderful arching branch had been cut back. No doubt trying to control the overgrowth due to annual fire season. I was a bit sad, and that makes this photo all the more dear to me.

Good memories. A little homesick now, actually.
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Aug 15th Edit: I talked with my mom last night and she told me she knows and loves that tree too. Seems the beautiful tree is a family friend.



Cottonwood on the Bosque


You Want Bridge? I got Bridge.

Today’s Theme Thursday is bridge, and since I have a mild obsession with photographing bridges, this is right in my wheelhouse.

I like to photograph bridges from a car while traversing them (an iPhone camera is perfect for this task), which is both fun, and creates some unique shots. Here are a few of my favorites.

Let’s start with photos of the Golden Gate. It’s so beautiful that honestly, it’s hard to take a bad photo. The challenge is creating something that’s not been done before.

I have a lot of photos of the Golden Gate since I can’t be in the vicinity without snapping a few shots, so there was a lot to choose from.

The most unique of all my Golden Gate photos came from the QuadCam iPhone app. The balance of blue sky and orange bridge knocks me out. This exactly how it looks when The Good Man drives and I hang my head out the window to see the bridge as it goes by.

I never get tired of it.



Copyright 2010, Karen Fayeth

For years I was so enamored of the Golden Gate that I all but ignored the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge. It’s an odd ball bridge, a mash up of two styles. But the more I drive the bridge, the more I appreciate both halves of the Bay Bridge and just how hard this poor bridge works every day.

Here’s the eastern span (soon to be replaced by a new design):



Copyright 2010, Karen Fayeth

And here’s the western span, a fascinating suspension:



Copyright 2010, Karen Fayeth

How about the lesser known but still really cool Carquinez Bridge? Like the Bay Bridge, it’s got two looks depending on which direction you are driving.

Heading north, it looks a lot like the eastern span of the Bay Bridge:



Copyright 2010, Karen Fayeth

Heading south it has a simple but elegant suspension design:



Copyright 2010, Karen Fayeth

Northern California has so many beautiful bridges to keep me and my lens occupies for years. And then, every now and again, I get a chance to get out of California and photograph other bridges.

I fell head over heels in love with the Brooklyn Bridge the instant I set foot on it. That stone structure is so incredible and powerful. And again, it’s so often photographed that I tried very hard to see something different through the lens.

I’d love to go back and try again since my photography skills have improved a lot since this was taken.



Copyright 2006, Karen Fayeth

There is a little bridge that crosses a bit of the Bay inlet near where I work. I’ve been thinking about that bridge for several weeks and it’s next on my list to photograph. It’s a short pedestrian bridge but comes with no small amount of charm.

I do love bridges

If you want more of a New Mexico flavor, keep an eye on Jim Baca’s blog, Bridges on the Rio Grande. It’s a project to document every bridge over the sometimes muddy sometimes mighty river from the Head Waters to the Gulf of Mexico.



All photos copyright Karen Fayeth and subject to the Creative Commons license in the far right column of this and every page of this blog.