Day Tripper (Behind the Lines)

The scene was hundreds of tourists wandering the shops, bars, and restaurants in the cruise port safe areas designated for just that sort of thing. But not me. I wandered out of the safe zone and into the streets and neighborhoods where the locals live and go about their every day tasks. Because...well...that's what I do. This time a chance encounter provided me the opportunity for an insider view and a personal perspective. It happened when I met Antonio in the town square.

A friendly fellow. We hit it off immediately. I told him I wished to see the real town, not just what the tourists normally see, and he happily volunteered to give me a tour. I know what you're thinking..."how much?" That was the cool part. I offered to give him a cash tip but he declined. I'm not naive, and I've been in similar situations before where the money exchange takes place at the end, and there was an exchange at the end of our tour. But it wasn't money. I'll explain at the end of my story, so read on. 

We walked past the main attractions of Umbrella Street and Pink Street - 

Then we went beyond the popular hot spots to see what I really wanted to see -

At one point along the way Antonio took me to a house of a friend where he asked if we could pick some fruit from the trees in the front yard. Permission granted, and this was the bounty -

We walked and talked for over an hour, until I said that I had to get back to the ship. That's when he said there was one thing I could do for him. I thought, "Great. Here comes the pitch." And it did. But he didn't ask for money. He politely asked if I could buy him some milk for his family. He actually said that - "milk for my family." I was expecting cigarettes or a bottle of rum. I told him I would be happy to do that and he led me down the street to a small neighborhood market. He picked up some milk, then asked if I would also allow him to get some flour for bread. Of course I agreed. Then came, "one more thing?" I thought, "okay here it comes." The "one more thing" was a single roll of toilet paper. How could I refuse? I paid for the items. He was genuinely thankful. We said our goodbyes. I doubt I will ever see him again, but I will remember him...Antonio...my friend in the Dominican Republic.

Roger O'Dea     1/30/2026

Best Of 2025 Part II - Photos

Continuing with my wrap up of 2025. These are not necessarily the best of my photos from last year in terms of being technically correct or outstanding overall quality, but they are my favorites because of the subject, the circumstances surrounding taking them or some personal connection. I believe the most important thing about a photograph lies not in the technical aspects but simply how it makes you feel.

           

Art alley in Rapid City. I often encounter good subjects there, some I know and some are strangers. Both instances are represented in these two pictures. Taken with my vintage Minolta Hi-Matic AF2 using 35mm black and white film. 

Another black and white. Digital this time. Taken at Mt. Roosevelt near Deadwood.

Two from the county fair last summer.

Experimented with the editing process by adding a saturated neon effect to this one. I think it only works because I was there during and right after a rain shower. Might have been rather dull otherwise.

                                   

I felt a little out of my element at this photo shoot in Spearfish Canyon. But the models were amazing and it was a lot of fun.

Another one from Spearfish Canyon. So much color there in the Fall.

I came up with this one for an exhibit at The Matthews Gallery. It was part of a show called "Mind Matters" dealing with the subject of mental health, dependency, recovery and associated themes. I called this image "A Bitter Pill." 

         

Can you tell I like shooting in black and white?

"15 Birds". A good example of a minimalistic style. Lucky to have gotten the composition just right, in my opinion.

         

I learned about Wabi-Sabi...a traditional Japanese style of art involving the concept of finding beauty in decay and imperfection. These are my interpretations.

Just for fun. Caught this guy at a political demonstration in Rapid City.

And...of course...I still shoot a lot of Polaroids so I had to include at least one -

Just kids being kids. Taken at the Black Hills Pow Wow. 

I'll be back out there in 2026 with my digital, my 35mm, or one of my Polaroid cameras. I might even break out my 1970s Kodak 110. In any case, I plan to follow the advice of Audrery Hepburn in Funny Face when she exclaimed "Take the picture! Take the picture!"

Roger O'Dea     1/2/2026

Best of 2025, Part I - Books

I like to read. So I've compiled a list of my favorite books of 2025 for those of you who share my literary enthusiasm. My hope is that you may find something of interest in the following list. It's a good list.

Poetry about life in the United States that are more like short stories than poems.

Fun read. Set mostly in western and southwestern South Dakota. It's fiction but lots of references to familiar places and actual events. And some of the characters are eerily similar to real people I've known.

This one is shocking and pretty scary non-fiction. If A.I. continues to develop on its current path we may all be doomed.

Speaking of being doomed, this one is a variation on the theme. It's dark humor and a very cleverly written novel. I couldn't wait to find out what was in that damned box.

More poetry. This time based on Lakota culture. I had the privilege of meeting the author in person. Cool guy. Wonderfully illustrated by Thomasina Topbear.

Another one with a Native theme. A journey of personal discovery.

A work of fiction but the further I got into it, the more I realized this could be real. Possibly a harbinger of things to come. I hope not. 

I didn't write this to be an advertisement but it's true that I acquired all of these from Henry's Books in Spearfish, South Dakota. It's a great little bookstore. Not as huge as Barnes and Noble or Books-A-Million  and not as easy as just clicking on a keyboard to order by mail, but it's also not as sterile or impersonal. People there will actually talk to you, make recommendations and truly appreciate your business. And it's kind of like the record store...it's a place where you can just go and visit your friends. 

Roger O'Dea   12/31/2025

I Know The Future - 2026 Predictions

This will be my first time predicting events for the year ahead. I was inspired by reviewing predictions made for 2026 by some random psychics. And I use the word "psychic" loosely. Their predictions are general, non-specific, and sometimes ridiculous. Here's what I mean -

Judy Heavenly's credits include creating the Blue Dot for National Enquirer. Her claim involves "infusing a blue dot with psychic energy." Just cut it out of the tabloid and carry it with you to the nearest slot machine or lottery retailer and you will win big. Here's what she says about 2026:

President Donald Trump will emphasize America's dominance in artificial intelligence, semiconductors, quantum computing, biotechnology, oil production, and energy independence. Key word is "emphasize." Since he emphasizes everything he says, that one is easy.

Democrats and Republicans will be challenged to collaborate on a renewed economic strategy to restore prosperity. Challenged? Obviously. But challenged doesn't mean they will actually work together to accomplish anything.

Mobile robots will work alongside human employees in warehouses, autonomously navigating aisles to collect packages. Isn't that happening now?

The Toronto Blue Jays will win the 2026 World Series in baseball. Now that one is unusually (for her) specific. BetMGM says right now they are not the favorite. This is one easy to track. And futures bets for 2026 baseball are open now so I might put twenty bucks on it. 

A few more for 2026 from various sources: 

Clint Eastwood will pass away.  Well, he's 95 so...

Several major corporations will announce they've achieved AI systems capable of genuine innovation, not just pattern recognition. Seems like we're already there, or very close at least. We've been headed in that direction for several years.

There will be technological breakthroughs and changes in communication and commerce. Happens every year.

So if that's all it takes to get published, I can do that. My predictions for 2026:

A politician will get caught in a lie, then claim ignorance or "not my fault." I can guarantee that one.

Streaming services will raise subscription prices. Just like every other year. 

Aliens from outer space will make official contact with humans and explain where we went wrong and messed everything up, and tell us how to fix it. That's probably more wishful thinking than an actual prediction.

We will ignore the advice of our alien visitors and try to fight them. They will win the fight, then leave, taking with them our last best hope for saving ourselves...from ourselves. Because we continue to be our own worst enemies.

Evil will persist and evil deeds will increase. But honest and decent people will continue to do good things. 

Residential home prices will tumble. I don't see how a two bedroom, one bath with no garage and no finished basement can continue to sell for three hundred large. 

I will break 90 on the golf course. Don't bet on this one. However, it's not entirely out of the question.

ZZ Top (what's left of them), Buckcherry, and Big Skillet will appear in concert at the Buffalo Chip. Just like they do every...single...year.

That's probably enough. So, to wrap things up, I sincerely hope every one of you have a good year in 2026. To my friends close by - let's get together more often. To my friends far away - I miss you, and if it's possible at all, let's make an effort to get together at least once. To my acquaintances - let's try to become friends. We don't need to hang out often or during the off hours at the plant, but knowing someone even just enough to be able to call them a friend is somehow...comforting. In the immortal lyrics of a favorite Bob Dylan song - Stick with me baby. Stick with me anyhow. Things should start to get interesting right about now.

Roger O'Dea    12/29/2025

Fooling Around With Artificial Intelligence: Mixed Feelings

Ever notice some images or videos online or in movies just don't look right? It's likely because they are A.I. generated. You know, the photos look too perfect. Some scenes seem almost unnatural. I don't doubt that A.I. has many legitimate uses, in technology and other applications, but I'm not a big fan in general and treat it with a good amount of skepticism. But, having said that, I found a simple application recently and decided to have some fun with it...starting with some 35mm photo prints I recently got back from the processing lab. I used a thrift store vintage Nikon and a roll of outdated Kodak color film. Here are the originals -

The combination of an old camera and expired film caused the images to be desaturated, grainy and not very sharp. My personal opinion is that those aren't necessarily bad things when shooting film. They can give a picture a little more...personality I guess. And these gave me an inspiration for the prompts I would use when running them through the A.I. photo editing application. My prompt was "Add a dystopian futuristic effect to this photo." Here's what was generated -

The artificially generated scenes actually compliment the original photos and represent the written prompt accurately, and it was kind of fun. So I decided to try an image generating function within the same application. Unlike the photo editing program where I uploaded my original photographs, the image generating program requires only a written prompt without any visuals. I used this original photo as inspiration for a written prompt without actually uploading it -

This was my written prompt -

This was the image generated -

Not bad. But it just doesn't look real. Definitely not like a photograph. More like a painting.

I then moved on to the next experiment. My idea was to ask the program to write a Haiku poem. If you are not familiar, a Haiku consists specifically of three lines with five syllables in the first line, seven in the second line and five in the third line. That's a rule. Otherwise, it's not a Haiku. Here's what I got -

Pretty. But incorrect. The last line contains only four syllables. Na-tur's-soft-song. That's four. 

I figured even artificial intelligence is allowed a seemingly inconsequential mistake occasionally. So I gave it a chance to redeem itself by asking a question which I admit is not general knowledge but one I know what the correct answer should be. The question was What Bob Dylan album and song contains the line "Is it rolling Bob?"  The answer received -

Wrong. It's on the intro to the song "To Be Alone With You" on the Nashville Skyline album spoken by Dylan to his producer Bob Johnston. It's a bit of obscure music trivia, but true Dylan fans and rock music aficionados will know this. One would think A.I. should know it, too. If not, it shouldn't try to fake it. 

Okay. One more chance. A simple question. This time it got it right -

To sum up: Do I trust artificial intelligence? Not entirely. But on the subject of chickens...completely.

Roger O'Dea     12/1/2025

Page Points, Book Darts and Good Reads

I like to read. The evidence is in the number of books I own. Some mean more to me than others. You can tell by the number of Page Points, or Book Darts, that are clipped onto the pages. 

Well, that's not exactly true, some of my most favorite books have none. But some have particular lines or phrases that really stand out or have special meaning and I want to be able to reference them easily. I think you will understand why I'm especially fond of these particular passages if you take the time to read them. Maybe they will lead you to find the book and read it in its entirety. Or not. That's up to you. But I will say that my library is open for loans. No membership necessary and no late fees. Shipping available. Returns, however, are mandatory. Or...I will find you. 

Now here are a few examples of what I'm talking about - in no particular order.

Anam Cara by John O'Donohue 

A friend is a loved one who awakens your life in order to free the wild possibilities within you.

Our idea of beauty is impoverished now because beauty is reduced to good looks. Real beauty is a light that comes from the soul. Sometimes in an old face, you see that light coming from behind the lines.

Accidental Rancher by Eliza Blue 

To put it simply, I wanted the world to get so wide, and so quiet, I could hear everything I needed to know in the silence. I have that big quiet now.

Lost Horizon by James Hilton 

People make mistakes in life through believing too much, but they have a damned dull time if they believe too little.

The Art of Stillness by Pico Iyer 

I recalled how, many years ago, it was access to information and movement that seemed our greatest luxury; nowadays it's often freedom from information, the chance to sit still, that feels like the ultimate prize. 

Psychotic Reactions and Carburetor Dung by Lester Bangs 

And finally you get to put the record on the turntable, it spins in limbo a perfect second, followed by the moment of truth, needle into groove, and, finally sound.

...a twirling melodic arch so beautiful it steals your own breath. (This line is from Bangs' Rolling Stone Magazine review of Van Morrison's album Astral Weeks). 

The Creative Act: A Way Of Being by Rick Rubin 

The artist's only responsibility is to the work itself. There are no other requirements. You're free to create what you will.

Ultimately, your desire to create must be greater than your fear of it.

Breakfast at Tiffany's by Truman Capote 

Anyone who ever gave you confidence, you owe them a lot.

Wilderness Essays by John Muir 

But it is in the darkest nights, when storms are blowing and the agitated waves are phosphorescent, that the most impressive displays are made.

The Mind's Eye by Henri Cartier Bresson 

One must always take photographs with the greatest respect for the subject and for oneself.

Polishing the Mirror by Ram Dass 

We don't necessarily see things as they are. We see them as we are.

On The Road by Jack Kerouac 

The only people for me are the mad ones, the ones who are mad to live, mad to talk, mad to be saved, desirous of everything at the same time, the ones who never yawn or say a commonplace thing, but burn, burn, burn like fabulous yellow roman candles exploding like spiders across the stars and in the middle you see the blue centerlight pop and everybody goes “Awww!"

I have many more but I'll stop here. It's late. And I have more reading to do before I sleep.

Roger O'Dea     11/14/2025