Poker Night

Played poker tonight, as you can see. It was a lot of fun, and I actually won some money! We played a cash game with a $5.00 buy-in, then if you run out of chips you can re-buy for $5.00 unlimited times. I was lucky enough to not need a re-buy, and walked away ahead $11.00.

This is one thing that is really difficult with my new job. Working 6 days a week, third shift, we haven't been able to spend much (if any) time with our friends. I just hope they realize that it's not that we don't want to hang out and do things, it's just very difficult when you only have one night a week. There are people who Steph and I really value as friends, and we don't want to lose that.

Too...Many...Books....

Is it possible to have too many books? Well, there's certainly too many books on this shelf. Steph and I both read pretty constantly, so we've amassed a small collection of paperbacks and hardcovers. She probably reads more that me, but an hour lunch break will do that to ya. I thought I'd list some of my favorites and recommendations.

We both really like Stephen King, and although he's no Chaucer, he's certainly entertaining. Even if you don't like his typical fare, I would recommend his Dark Tower series to anyone. This series is King's Lord of the Rings.

I just finished reading The Prestige by Christopher Priest. Wow. Absolutely fantastic. There was a movie based on this book in 2006 that I really wanted to see. It was actually a sleeper hit in 2006 and was nominated for an Academy Award. I'm looking forward to its release.

For those of you into fantasy/sci-fi, one of my all time favorite series is the Death Gate Cycle by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman. I've probably read this series about 5 times. No small feat considering it's seven books.

Finally, I want to mention the Bourne series of books by Robert Ludlum. These are the Bourne Identity, The Bourne Supremecy, and The Bourne Ultimatum. If you liked the movies, you should love the books. They're very intense, and very fast paced.

If any of you have any recommendations for me, feel free to post them in the comments. I'm always looking for something new to read!

Pitchers and Catchers Report!

Possibly the four greatest words in the English language, the title of today's post is the unofficial start of Baseball season. I can't wait! After the Bears dropped a deuce in the biggest game of their lives, I've been counting down the days until the opener. Oh, it's 46 in case you're wondering.

Okay, so I want to clarify what I was alluding to in yesterday's post. From the New York Times:

"The Chrysler Group is set to announce a restructuring plan Wednesday aimed at securing its place in the crowded American car market — and within DaimlerChrysler.
The plan is expected to include the elimination of about 11,000 blue- and white-collar jobs along with the closing of one and possibly two assembly plants — in Delaware and Missouri — people with direct knowledge of the plan said this week."

This is obviously big news, but I'm not quite sure that's it's bad news...yet. This could be a really good thing for me. It all depends on the amount of people that will take the expected buyout/early retirement packages at the Belvidere facility. They're going to need people to fill those positions, not to mention the positions myself and people like me are currently filling. On the other hand, since I'm considered a "temporary" worker, they could just sack the lot of us and call it a day. Right now, I really don't know how to take this announcement. I remain cautiously optimistic.

My Wii is Glowing!

I'm a gamer. No surprise there, right? For all of you living in a third world country, this is the Nintendo Wii. It does this really cool thing where if you have a message, the disc slot glows blue and pulses! Very distracting, but very cool. The games are controlled by moving the controller in physical space. No 16 button controller here. Very simple, very accessible, very hard to find. My Wii isn't feeling so well right now, so I'm sending it back to Nintendo for repairs. No big deal, it's all covered under warranty. Nintendo has the best customer service around!

I decided to stay home last night, because the road conditions were not good. I hate to miss any work, especially considering DaimlerChrysler's recent announcement, but sometimes you have to be safe.

*edit*
To give you a better idea of what this Wii thing is all about, here's a short video of Dad and I playing Wii Sports: Bowling. Please ignore Dad's comment about his "gay" pink bowling ball....

Third Shift Annoyance #4: Shoveling in the Dark

Fun, fun, fun! I love to shovel! Nothing beats a huge pain in the back, biting sub-zero winds, and soaking wet shoes! Not to mention it's pitch black outside! WOO-HOO!! Picking up the sarcasm yet? Yeah.

So we've been hit again. We actually didn't get that much snow, but add the 20+ mph winds, and you've got some serious drifting. On the way home this morning I saw 4' drifts on the road. Needless to say, the plows were running a bit behind schedule. I parked my truck in the driveway when I got home, and when I went outside tonight, there was a 3' drift right up next to it. I tried to move my truck to the street, backed up too far, and immediately became stuck. 1/2 hour later, I finally started my favorite chore. I'll be parking on the street until this crap melts, but Steph can get in and out of the garage now. Your welcome honey!

Harmony

I had some seriously disturbing dreams last night. I won't get into details, but it was one of those dreams that stays with you after you wake. Have you ever had a dream that put you into a very strong emotional state, then when you wake up you still feel like that? It was one of those.

I must say, however, that I am far from a "normal" sleeper. I talk, toss and turn, steal the covers, and occasionally I'll just have a walk about the house. Far from normal. I had a sleep study a couple years ago, but since I was incredibly uncomfortable, I couldn't sleep when I was there. The doctor said I woke up something like 47 times. Some ridiculous number like that. Needless to say, the test was inconclusive.

High Fructose Corn Syrup

It's everywhere. It's in your soda, it's in your fruit juice, it's in your candy, it's in your Miracle Whip. Since its inception in the 1970s, and its adoption by the soft drink companies in 1982, it's been an all American staple. Because of the high availability of corn and the tariffs imposed on sugar imports, it has become the go-to sugar substitute. Many researchers believe it's also a key ingredient to the American obesity epidemic.

Steph and I try to avoid it as much as we can, but sometimes it's just not possible. It's become so pervasive in our diets, that all the processed foods we dump into our bodies contain it now. Do yourself (and your kids) a favor and read your labels. Try to avoid large quantities of soda. Get some exercise!

Okay, I'm off the soapbox.

On a totally unrelated side note, today's my birthday.... :)

Dinner at the In-Laws

Wow! I almost missed the deadline!

Steph and I went to Pecatonica today to have dinner at Melanie and Joe's (Stephs Sister and Brother-in-Law). We usually get together this time of year to celebrate Joe's, Dan's (Steph's Brother), and my birthday. It was a good time, but unfortunately I was really tired all night. I think I only really slept about 6 hours today. Yup, that will do it. This is a really good shot I took right before we were leaving. My Niece Juliana was reading to Stephane, and laughing the whole time. It was really cute! They have two really great kids.

Pit Stop

For some reason I'm always tired on the weekends. It never fails, no matter how late I sleep or how early I go to bed, when I'm not working it's like I'm sleepwalking. Every Saturday night (I'm not working Saturday this weekend so we went tonight), Steph and I run our errands. We get groceries, we go to Target, sometimes we go to a couple other places as well. By the end of the night, I'm usually falling asleep on the way home. I decided tonight to make a pit stop and get some kick-ass coffee to keep me going. I think it's because I'm not used to getting right out of bed and leaving. I guess this could've been included in the "Third Shift Annoyances" series!

On a side note, I've decided this will likely be the last cell phone shot I post here. The quality is just terrible. It's always painful for me to look at these shots, I can only imagine how painful it is for you.

Sometimes I Hate Illinois

This shot's for Kathie. She was telling me how she especially enjoyed the snow/winter shots, so here's another. Kathie moved to California some years ago, and apparently has forgotten how freakin cold it gets here. When I left work this morning, it was -3° with a wind chill of - 21°. STAY IN CALIFORNIA!! You now know what you're missing.

Another slow one at work tonight. We've been sent home early 3 out of the last 4 nights. Normally, I wouldn't mind so much, but not working this Saturday will put a serious hurting on my check. Well, it could be worse.

Breaking Rules

In the composition of photography, and in composition in general, there is something known as the Rule of Thirds. This is a basic fundamental of photography, and many believe that in order for a photograph to be a good one, this is a rule that cannot be broken. To hell with that. Looking at this shot, you could say that vertically I'm following the rule, but I did a couple of things that normally shouldn't be done. The subject is centered in the the shot, and the corner of the wall is directly behind it, seeming to sprout from it's head. Following the theme of yesterdays post, here's what I was thinking as I composed this shot.

I wanted to create a lot of space above the subject to make it appear small and insignificant. At the same time, I feel that having the straight line "emanating" from its head makes me feel like this is a holy icon. The centering of the subject gives it importance and balance.

One thing important I took away from the few photography classes I took was that sometimes you need to go against the grain and break the rules.

Behind the Scenes

I've decided to give you guys a look at what is sometimes required for even the simplest shots. This is a basic overhead shot of an open sandwich. I could've spent a ton of time on this just eliminating the shadows, but decided to go the quick route since I have to leave for work in an hour or so. You see the shot, now this is what it looks like when I'm shooting it:As you can see, it's not quite as simple as "1. Hold the camera, 2. Press the button." Often in these situations, a tripod is essential due to poor lighting. The temperature of indoor tungsten lights is much lower than that of sunlight, so it takes a lot more of it to light the subject. The camera compensates for this by letting in more light. This can be done two ways. The first is by opening the aperture, the second is by slowing down the shutter speed. (You can actually increase the ISO as well, but digital noise is not pretty to look at. I always shoot at 200 ISO unless I'm forced to change it.) The aperture was all the way open, and when you have very slow shutter speeds, if you are not using a tripod, any movement of the camera will completely blur the entire shot. The white thing in my right hand is actually a flashlight. I was getting a really nasty shadow on the right of the shot, so I wrapped a flashlight in a paper towel and used it to add to the lighting. The paper towel diffuses the light to spread it evenly on the subject, and it eliminates a spotlight effect that you normally get from a flashlight. There are obviously far better ways to light a shot than this, but you gotta use what you got! Photographic lighting is very expensive.

In Hibernation

This is where I chucked my hat after the game yesterday, and this is where it will stay until late August. The shirts will slowly be pushed to the back of the closet, and my Sox stuff will slowly make its way forward. I had a lot of people asking me at work today, "Where's your Bears' hat now?" I just couldn't bring myself to wear it. In retrospect, I really am happy they made it as far as they did. It's not often your favorite sports team makes it to a championship level. It just seemed so one sided! If they hadn't come out and played so badly, I wouldn't feel so bad. Losing a close game is one thing, but when the only bright spot happened 15 seconds into the first quarter and the rest was downhill, it's pretty frustrating. 44 days until Opening Night!

Grossman Sucks

Need I say more? Obviously, I'm a little salty. The Bears just got dominated, and Grossman is to blame. I've defended this guy all season long. That's over. He was horrible in the most important game of his life. I can't wait to go to work and listen to all the idiots chirp all night....

This is going to be a short post, because frankly, I'm in no mood to be doing this. This is me and Dad, and as I said yesterday, Dad's a pretty big Packer fan. This was obviously taken before the Bears took a massive nose-dive. How the heck did he find new Packers garbage the day of the Bears' Super Bowl? Unreal.

The Day Before

Tomorrow's the big day! Super Bowl XLI! Chicago Bears vs Indianapolis Colts, just in case you've been living in a cave the last 3 weeks. Dad's coming over to watch the game with me. I was invited to a Super Bowl party, but since I have to work tomorrow night, I opted to stay home. I'm also happy to spend some time with my Dad, even if he is a Packer fan. Work has been interesting the past two weeks. There are a lot of people who hail from Indianapolis, so a lot of smack talk has been thrown back and forth. It should be a whole lot quieter on Monday.

Holy crap, it's cold today. When we were in Rockford around 8 pm, all the bank signs read -5° or -6°. I'm pretty sure the wind chill is pushing -30°. We've had the thermostat set at 68° all day, but it hasn't even reached 64° yet, it's that cold. It doesn't help that our house is over 100 years old, and very poorly insulated.

Lofty Perch

I know I promised not too many "cat shots", but these two were just begging for it. They never sit still this long. Surprisingly, this shot was very challenging. I took approximately 20 shots before I got this one. The lighting situation was very poor, so I had to use a flash. Normally, I use a technique called "bounce lighting" or "bounce flash" for this kind of shot. You aim the flash to reflect off the ceiling, and it softens the light and gives the subject a very natural look. That way you avoid getting the very hard shadows directly behind the subject.

In this case, since Punkin was in the top of the shot very near the ceiling, so he was getting much more light than Cotton at the bottom. I was having difficulty lighting everything in a uniform way. In the end, I managed to get just the look I wanted with near-perfect lighting. I did get a slight shadow in the upper right corner of the shot, but overall I'm happy how it turned out. I'm really pleased how this blog has forced me to think again about composition, lighting, and all the other technical aspects of photography.

I know, a cat shot coupled with come technical nonsense.... Pretty riveting stuff, right?

Bean Burritos Baby!

This is what I generally eat when I get up late and I'm feeling a bit lazy. Coincidentally, this is also the type of photo I post when I get up late and I'm feeling a bit lazy. I really dig Mexican food. Even pseudo-Mexican food like this or Chipotle, I love it all.

Well, today is February 1st, and the year's looking like it's going to be a long one. I can't believe I've been doing this for a month already! Once again, I really appreciate all the great feedback I've received from everyone, and all the great comments. I'm looking forward to the next 11 months!

Third Shift Annoyance #3: Only Wal-mart is Open at 6 am!

I hate Wal-Mart. I really do. Unfortunately, when you get off work at 7 am, there is no other option. I did, however, get a kick out of this creative display that greeted me as I went in this morning. Made of milk crates and suspended from the ceiling, this display of Bears Pride really brightened my morning.

We had another loooooooong night. I literally sat from 3:30 until 6:00 without touching a car. Some major breakdown in the Body Shop sent a 3 hour gap through the assembly line. Kinda nice to do nothing and get paid for it, but being the fidgety dude that I am, it was certainly a long night. They finally sent us home an hour early, at 6 am.

Procrastination

pro·cras·ti·nate [proh-kras-tuh-neyt]
–verb
1.to defer action; delay: to procrastinate until an opportunity is lost.
2.to put off till another day or time; defer; delay.
Ex. Jason procrastinated taking over the recyclables.

If you were to open the dictionary right now, flip to the "p" section, and look up "procrastinate", you may see something very similar to this. This is what happens when you add these four factors together:

1. A very procrastinative husband
2. Very cold, harsh, Illinois winter weather
3. People tearing your home apart for 10 days
4. Excessive amounts of cardboard from the 11 new cabinets you just bought

We recycle. Unfortunately, due to high "energy costs", the garbage company does not pick this stuff up for recycling purposes. No problem, right? We have a recycling bin right down the street! Yeah, no problem in the balmy months, when the most you have to worry about is a gentle spring rain. Well, the winter is another story. I tend to procrastinate a bit more when it's 4° with a -16 ° wind chill. That's not taking into consideration the blowing, stinging 2 1/2" of snow we got last night. Enough excuses, right? In my defense, the majority of this stuff is from the kitchen cabinets, and we wouldn't have had so much other cardboard if we weren't forced to eat frozen dinners exclusively for 10 days. Meh. I'm ranting. There is a moral here, and I'm sure once my brain thaws out it'll come to me....

Cracked!

What you're looking at is a DS Lite, the latest handheld videogame system by Nintendo.
Now what you're looking at is a cracked hinge on said DS Lite. This is the second time this has happened to me. I wasn't too upset this time, since I was just going to return it, and now I can get a black one. Unfortunately, you can't find the freakin things anywhere! Much like the Nintendo Wii, the DS Lite is nearly impossible to find. Being the Nintendo fanboy that I am, this is great, but I really am annoyed with these hinge problems.