external monologue

mountain sunrise

sunrise a few days before thanksgiving from the top of och's highway, just past rock city on your way down lookout mountain.

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the power is back, as is the heat. slept like a rock last night and am slowly returning to good spirits... a few recommended reading items today. first, david brooks of the new york times recommends john stott as the protestant pope; a surprisingly candid and insightful editotrial from him today. also, if you saw i (heart) huckabees you should read matt kirby's interpretation of it over at metaphilm. much like the film, it provides not only philosophical stimulation but philosophical therapy:

"The one [true] thing, then, is the only genuine instance of reality preceding language. It is the keystone of any reality underpinning the phenomenal world. Two such things cannot coexist, for the one thing makes all else a metaphor for itself. Meaning flows toward it and value out from it. With it, the world becomes a place of real people and meaningful events, where sadness and joy and humor have substance and life and death are not mere stories; without it, all existence is a tale told by an idiot."

back in 'nooga

got back to chattanooga from gainesville last night around 1am. the power at the house was shut off for some reason and the average temperature throughout the night was about 40F. i woke up cold, tired and grumpy. oh, and did i say cold? welcome home...

(this is the methodist church around the corner...)

turkey day

hey folks... sorry about the lack of photos lately. the last few days were pretty hectic at work trying to finish some things up before leaving. here's a double shot from cracker barrel last night during a drive home to gainesville. enjoy...

b.

brian whitacre is probably one of my oldest friends in chattanooga. (this shot is from the sailboat last weekend.) we lived together for my final year at covenant and the 2years following in our little st.elmo commune with bob demarco and various other folks during that time. he then moved back to cali for a time for a while we seemed to lose touch, but have recently gotten reconnected and have started meeting for coffee on monday mornings before work. brian is a pretty unique person in my life because i sometimes think that if we met today we wouldn't have developed the kind of friendship that we have now after having lived together for so long, and so i think we provide perspective into each other's lives that individually we'd be incapable of. so, here's to brian and to old friendships.

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a pretty full weekend - spent some time wandering around st.elmo house-hunting and a found a jeep trail up on seneca that provided for an interesting story that i'll relate tomorrow.

didn't get to see "friday night lights" however, so i'm thinking of going tonight at 7:10 out at the mall if anyone is interested.

seaman spanks

some of you may know micah sprunger from the old days at covenant. he currently lives in savannah at paul ferris' house. i never really knew him much at covenant, but in the years since we've developed a pretty good friendship after a few trips to savannah. micah is without a doubt one of the most thoughtful people i know and his presence seems to bring a calm to almost any situation. his being a fellow photographer, and a great one at that, certainly doesn't hurt.

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my crash course in flash programming is going full tilt the last few days. i feel like i've learned so much in just the past few days and i'm finally starting to get a grasp on how to use these tools. it helps that i've got a deadline on my first project tomorrow - i always have worked better under pressure.

anyone seen friday night lights yet? any opinions on it? i'm hoping to see it this weekend and very much looking forward to it.

boating in savannah

another photo from the weekend in savannah. this is out on simpson and brady's 26' sailboat. as you can tell from our clothing the weather was pretty chilly. that's brady and the rest of the crew pulling up behind us in the motorboat.

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very busy at work this week - not much to say - more tomorrow.

savannah crew

here's the crew from this past weekend in savannah - all 14 of us. (should be fifteen, but micah took off for the afternoon.) we had a great weekend together even though our plans for camping fell through. we did get to do some sailing and motorboating on saturday afternoon, fighting "gale force" winds and a quickly setting sun at the end of the day. brady and paul hosted us at their respective houses and on the whole everyone really enjoyed it. i've got plenty more pictures that i'll be posting all week long.

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after only 3 weeks in the flooring industry i've made my first press release! it's not nearly as impressive as my brother's soccer accomplishments, but it's nice to get some recognition. (search for "montgomery" on that page - about half-way down.)

today isn't friday, but i haven't posted any music for a while so here's an mp3. its called "couches in the alley" by a band called styrofoam that somehow incorporates ben gibbard, dntel, and some other fellows. decent stuff, a bit reminiscent of postal service with a vocoder.

choo-choo

with all the training and orientation i've been doing at work lately i haven't had as much time to blog. you may have noticed that the daily photo has slipped to more of an every other day photo. this may keep up for a while -- it will just depend on how my time works at the new job. i took this yesterday on the way to work. the chattanooga choo choo (now a holiday inn) is a wealth of photographic opportunities. i've been taking pictures there since my earliest days in the darkroom at chattanooga state. i shot this from the car while driving past.

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a shout out to younger brother joel montgomery for his recent exploits on the soccer field. he was even named player of the week a few weeks ago.

back to work...

the birds...

outside of my new offices in the southside neighborhoods of chattanooga there are always an incredible number of birds flying around and roosting on the power lines. at times its a little frightening how many there are and one has to be careful not to spend too much time looking up. the best part about it all is when you stop to watch the birds resting on the lines and see the way they push each other around and vie for space. i took this shot last night on the way over to hiroshi's for dinner.

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version 1.0 of firefox was released today. if you're looking for a better browser than internet explorer, and you should be, be sure to download it right away.

saw i (heart) huckabees again last night and loved it the second time. if you've seen the film you really ought to read this interview with the director over at christianity today.

and for anyone interested in the savannah trip this weekend to celebrate kiko's birthday and do some camping on little tybee island, she emails these details:

I talked to Brady and he says we should get there as soon as we can on Friday and we can have a night out in Savannah. Then we'll probably crash at his place. Go grocery shopping on Saturday morning and then we'll hit the islands. We all need to bring sleeping bags and everything else we take camping. (tents aren't necessary, but it would be nice if we had a couple). He also said we all should bring shoes we don't mind getting wet. Brady also wanted to know if we have a camping stove...I don't. As for the money thing, he says all we need to have is enough to chip in on the groceries and drinks.

mountain sky

more late night photographs taken at my house on the mountain. the night sky has been stunningly bright the last few nights and i keep meaning to do some long exposure shots. this is a 30 second exposure with a wide-angle lens resting on the roof of my car taken last night around midnight. i love the eerie glow of night-time photography; the way that every light source slowly grows to affect the entire scene.

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halloween party pics from last week.

saw a few movies this weekend. on friday night, the incredibles, which was, well, incredible. i think it may be my favorite pixar film yet. technically it outstrips all the other pixar pieces - a superhero flick is the ideal format to show all the cool things you can do with animation. the amazing feats of elasti-girl and frozone would never have worked with real human actors even with the most advanced computer graphics.

then last night we watched the believer over at beck's house, followed by a short discussion. (this is one of the first gatherings in what we hope will become a sunday night tradition of gathering to watch/listen to/read something and discuss it.) i was a little hesitant to watch this film as i've heard its pretty disturbing, but it turned out not to be as difficult to watch as i'd expected. it's extremely well done even though it's a fairly controversial subject and does a good job of not coming across as too heavy-handed. a compelling piece that addresses a number of very human issues but mostly focusing on the power of religion in one's upbringing.

benanna's off to nyc

anna's "green light" comment from yesterday's post means that i'm now free to make mention of their immediate plans to move to new york city. they'd been planning this move, or at least a move to a larger city since they got married, but due to a serious mold problem in their apartment in chattanooga and an opportunity to live in NY for free for a month they got the heck outta dodge. they will be missed terribly of course - i felt like i was just getting to know the new ben, married ben, and it turns out he's an even cooler guy than single ben. and anna, well, she's just the best no matter how you slice it. but, bon voyage and godspeed to you thomases - you'll be in my thoughts and prayers.

i shot this photo on sunday afternoon at jackson and grace's place. that's paul and mary on the right who are recently engaged if anyone hadn't heard yet. (man, sometimes i feel like all i do on this blog is announce weddings, births, and parties... hmmm)

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gotta run to prayer meeting. or walk as it were since the new church is now only 2 blocks from my new offices. sweet...

isla niamh montgomery

i've been chomping at the bit to announce this since saturday evening when i first heard, but i wanted to wait until i had a photo. i'd like to introduce the first montgomery girl in three generations, isla niamh montgomery. born to brother jesse and angelica on saturday, october 30 at 5:54pm, weighing 6lbs 9oz, 19 inches long, and having the most interesting, if most difficult to pronounce, name of any montgomery yet. jesse (the linguist) sent along a pronunciation key with these pictures: Isla Niamh [eye’-luh nev’], and she'll be going by niamh.

this is my first experience as an uncle and i have to say its incredibly exciting. i keep having these thoughts about this girl growing up and all the things she'll experience and how her 3 uncles will play into her life. it just blows my mind that someday she'll be 5 years old, then 10, a teenager, a college student, and i'll get to see it all happen. i don't know why these thoughts are so powerful but i tear up nearly every time i think about this kid.

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hmm... not much to say that can compare to that announcement. oh yeah, go vote. and if you can't decide, vote thunder, Ed Thunder...

"mister anderson..."

stephen and ben hosted a halloween shindig at their house on saturday night. you can probably easily guess who i went as, although it's a little frightening to me how much i actually look like agent smith. conveniently today is also the first day of the month which means it's self-portrait time again. i have a bunch more funny photos from the party that i'll post later over on montyfam.org.

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gregory baus was in town for the weekend, and we spent some good time catching up and hashing through various theological issues, as per usual. he heads back to baltimore this afternoon.

oh, and i finally picked up the arcade fire album, and i'm officially jumping on the band-wagon of people who rave about their music. the album is great - do pick it up if you can find it anywhere in your city and check out this song, rebellion (lies).