?

When's the last time I posted in here? Wow, a month and a half ago.

I don't know what to say, though, besides the fact that I got through Miles Edgeworth.

I burned the right corner of my mouth this past weekend.

With a soldering iron.

...yeah.

I've probably mentioned before that I don't type with the home row method. I instead learned to type as a kid probably by repeated trial and error. This results in a typing method that defies easy description.

For instance, my "home" positions on the keyboard vary, but the keys my fingers land on at rest follow the natural curve of my hand. My hands are spaced out a bit more on the keyboard than the home row (with my right pinky reaching to the Enter key), and I instinctively use different fingers to strike keys as required by the other keys to be typed. For instance, with "different", I would use my left middle finger to hit "e", but then with "keys", my left hand rotates a little bit to the right so that I can reach the "y" with my index finger, and end up hitting the "e" with my ring finger. This happens seamlessly; if I type "different keys", by the time I'm about to hit the last "e", my hand is already rotating to bring the "y" in range.

I suspect if I studied it for awhile, I'd be able to see basic principles in it, but at least on the surface, there is no apparent logic. It just works. And it works pretty well, enough so that typing with the home row method seems extremely cumbersome.

I'm weird.

While out wandering around Buntzen Lake this past Boxing Day, my camera broke free from its strap, and it fell, hitting the ground on the bottom front edge of the 50mm lens that was on it.

Both camera and lens are fine. But due to scuff marks, I won't be able to sell either as "Excellent Mint Condition No Dust" on Craigslist now.

Shucks.

(Or, to put it another way: how come there are so many things listed that way on CL? Do the sellers just never use them?)

It's a new year, and as usual, I'm late. Well, I guess I'm only late in the sense that I haven't done any of the usual new year/decade stuff everyone else seems to be doing. I'm not going to bother, though; the three of you who read this can bug me if you want, and I'm sure I'll say something like "I resolve to eat more fish".

I'm supposed to be doing work, so I'll try to write more later (or not, depending on who actually reads this, and yes, I'm watching you through my computer screen, and please put them back on). In the meantime, I just wanted to say: eglBindAPI is one of the biggest kludges I've seen in a long while. I think I know why they went with it, but still. Eww eww eww. It makes baby hackers cry.

The list of presents: a USB LED light from my older brother.

That's it.

I don't mind, though. It's all about spending time with loved ones, anyway! (Or at least it really ought to be.) And between fixing HD OTA reception for my parents, sharing soup dumplings (小籠包 in centerspeak) with my brother, and helping fix up a big and totally untraditional Christmas dinner for my family, I can't say I feel the need for presents anyway.

While half the city was freezing outside at Boxing Day sales, my little brother and I were freezing outside on the way around Buntzen Lake again.

VoicePost 266K 1:26

(no transcription available)

VoicePost 145K 0:47

“Hi ___ Jerald, bore boring voice post number one. I'll make it short. I'm just leaving Reding. I actually end up leaving around 9:15 which is about 15 minutes late but I guess not previously late. They were sunny when I left but just like had 84. It's pretty much clouded over and except for a little tiny bit ___ Creek just to know over Cast ever since. I'm guessing that it's probably gonna continue and so until then end of the day. See I guess 419mi have been sense(?) 70mi now at 6 hours but I bet you which ever side” Auto-Transcribed Voice Post

Weekend plans! I suspect most everyone who cares knows, but just in case...

I'm heading up to BC to spend the holidays with my folks. I leave here on Saturday (ideally before 9am, but we'll see if I even am awake at that point) and plan to crash in Portland for the night. c_wraith generously volunteered sleeplessone's place for a meetup, so if you don't already know, and want to wander out to, say, throw pies at me or something, there you go.

I intend to proceed up to Seattle on Sunday afternoon. For now, I've proposed meeting up at Acme Bowl late afternoon to early evening, less so for what it's got and more so because I know where it is and it's kind of between Seattle and Tacoma. This is a bit of a question mark; I realize some people (firesplace comes to mind) may not want to wander down, so I'm open to doing something totally different, or stopping in multiple places. But then I realize most people probably have work during the week. (I don't have much of a time limit, myself; I want to be at my parents' place by Tuesday afternoon, but that's it.)

I'll probably blow right through both places and stop in Corvallis on the way home.

So, besides the people who responded on Facebook: is anyone else interested in meeting up?

It sure seems like we have a mad bout of Seasonal Affective Disorder going on here; more than a few people I know are facing personal demons or otherwise just feeling squished. I'm no exception.

( blah blah blah emo )

I don't remember exactly when I first heard it. And I think it explains itself nicely.

On a whim I picked up David duChemin's three available e-books ($5 each, pixelatedimage.com). I already went through his first book and, while it doesn't directly affect what I'm trying to do (the book, I feel, is more angled towards people photography and photojournalism), it was a very interesting read. So I decided it was worth $15 to find out what else he had to say.

The first one, simply entitled Ten, is a "top ten"-like of suggestions to improve your photography. The first one: "Get pickier." As someone with nearly 35,000 images under his belt so far (some of which are actually okay), I definitely could stand to do that. But this bit really got me snickering:

"Once the initial thrill of using a camera begins to wear off in exchange for the thrill of creating great images, and you've got all the requisite shots of cats and your own feet out of the way, start getting pickier, more selective."

Touché. (How many hundreds, no, thousands do I still have to go through, and how many am I not permitted to delete...)

Nope, but everyone I know who hold contrary opinions to mine respect my opinions, and I respect theirs. To me, that is the important part, and the one part that everyone depressingly forgets. This country has a major problem right now with intolerance of differences of opinion, and I think that things would be way better off if people could learn to see and appreciate where others come from. I'm not holding out any hope, though.

(edit) huh? what's with the tags?

I can has $150 back plz?

Desktop Wallpaper Meme
The Rules:
- Anyone who looks at this entry has to post this meme and their current wallpaper.
- Explain in no more than five sentences why you're using that wallpaper!
- Don't change your wallpaper before doing this! The point is to see what you had on!

( mine )

Been awhile, so let's see if anyone bites.

Ask me 3 questions about anything you like and I will answer them.
then, repost this in your journal (or comment here) and I'll give you 3 questions to answer.

My pictures from Hot Tub 2K9 earlier this month

I don't think anyone present at that event is on LJ, but I know there are some people on here who probably would find it interesting, so here you go. I hope to make the whittling down and posting of pictures a habit, but when I started at the beginning of my DSLR era, I quickly got overwhelmed by all the cat pictures. XD

(I guess this means I really should buy Lightroom now, too, and not just wait for the trial to run out before doing so...)

Is this thing on?

If it is, sorry. I've lost my voice.

The results of the poll are sufficient for me to start wondering if I should just stay away from roads. I do know that "texting while driving" is ill-specified -- some of you might only send messages when stationary, some of you might only send messages when nobody else is around, some of you might send messages while plowing through crosswalks. I dunno. For the record, I have read text messages while driving, but I absolutely refuse to send them, if only because there is no way for me to enter a complete message in the time that it takes a traffic light to turn from red to green.

Anyway, one week to Hot Tub. Woo!

Holy crap, this thing is pretty sharp. (And I should've probably stopped down more.)

50mm f/8 + 12mm extension tube + pop-up flash at -2 EV (it seemed blowout-happy, like it wasn't sure what to make of the tube)

( enormous image from the cat picture maker )