Tie-Dyed

Well, I decided to stay home tonight instead of playing poker. I thought tonight I'd rather spend some time with Stephanie, since that time is few and far between. Steph had a creative outburst today, stemming from her purchase of a new sewing machine. She spent a couple hours doing some tie-dying, and the last few hours making a skirt from fabrics she bought Friday.

Regarding Tuesday's post, I found a printer that will print my blog in a hardcover, bookstore quality book for around $60. I thought that was a damn good deal considering everything else I've seen was around $40 for a 20 page book. This is for roughly 200 pages, which will be more than enough. I've also reserved the web address on blogger for "Photo a Day: 2008 Edition". I don't know if I will continue with this through next year, but I just wanted to make sure I had it. If I can keep this going indefinitely, it would be great to have books printed every year, sort of like a high school yearbook of my life. Who knows!

Another Poker Night

Tomorrow night I will again go to Gary's house for a little poker. This time it looks like we'll be playing just a small cash game, since the turnout probably won't be that great. It's hard to get a lot of people on a Saturday night when the weather is so nice. I actually prefer a cash game to tournament style when it comes to Texas Hold 'Em. While the potential winnings in a tournament game are typically much higher, a cash game allows you to play a little looser and take more risks. I've certainly won far more money in tournaments, but it always seems like I have more fun at the cash games.

Back to the Doctor

Well, it's been about a month since I last visited the doctor, and I haven't seen any improvement. I still have discomfort in my chest, difficulty breathing, and some coughing. Of all the potential things that the nurse practitioner said it could be, the most likely seems to be asthma. The inhaler really helps, but only for about an hour, then all the symptoms return. She told me that there are medications that will last throughout the day, so that will probably be what I get from all this. Unfortunately, my crap health insurance doesn't cover office visits or prescription meds. The last visit, with the prescriptions, cose me nearly $170. Hooray for illness!

Strays

Our small town is filled with stray cats. With all the farmhouses on the outskirts, the population is on a steady upswing. We also have a neighbor that we feel may actually be an animal hoarder. I'm sure that's probably way off base, but the guy always seems to be surrounded by cats. Every year another of his animals has a litter, and the whole process starts over again. This year there was three kittens, and I'm quite certain they're related to our cat Cotton. Cotton was a stray that we rescued, and I've seen cats around town that look very much like him. We'd love to take care of all of them, but it's just not possible.

Empty Albums

I know I've talked about this before, but one of my pet-peeves about digital photography is that I rarely, if ever, have prints made. I was listening to one of my favorite podcasts at work last night, when the host, Leo Laporte, was talking about things we grew up with that are no longer around. The one thing he talked about that really resonated with me was the photo album. With photo hosting sites like flickr, it is far easier to show and view our photos than ever before. These sites are great and convenient, but there's no replacing the sensation of holding a print (or a book of them) in your hands. I started thinking about that in relation to this blog. What's going to happen after the year is up? It's very likely that I will continue to do something very similar to this, but what happens in 20 years after the fact? 30 years? Will Blogger be around then, still preserving my year of photographs and writing? It's not likely. I've been seriously considering, after the year is up, having the entire blog, photos included, printed in book form so I have something physical I can pick up and look at 30 years from now. I just think it's important that I preserve this year of my life in something more permanent and secure than a couple websites. Can anyone recommend a service that does things like this?

Favorite Shots #9: More Wedding Stuff

Since I've shot about 550 pictures in the last three days, and frankly, I'm really sick of my camera right now, I thought I'd put up one of my favorite wedding shots. The above shot was one of those "happy accidents". For some reason, the camera metered off the window behind the couple instead of the couple themselves, and the result was this beautiful silhouette. This is one of those things that you're really happy to get, but it can frustrate me to know that it was a total accident. Fortunately, when these things happen, you learn that not only is it possible to get these shots, you learn how they can be done.

Hi Rich!

Editing

Now comes the fun part! Now I will take the roughly 500 photos I shot yesterday, look through them with iPhoto, pull the good ones into Photoshop, and do any touch-up work that is required. For all the formal shots, I usually take three of each so I know I'll have one good one. You want to account for people blinking, not smiling, etc, plus you want to take a shot exposed correctly, one that's overexposed, and one that's underexposed, just in case your meter isn't quite reading correctly. It's a lot of shots to take, but when you're shooting digital and you don't use up any film, so who cares, right? The iPhoto is something I'm really using for the first time, and unfortunately for you PC users, it's only on the Mac. It allows me to easily import all my photographs from the memory cards, then look through them all and decide which ones I'll run through Photoshop. I used to pull them all into Photoshop, but this is much easier. I really love it. It will take me about a week to go through all the pictures, sice I prefer to process them in bite-sized chunks. It would be far too tedious to do them all at once, and I really want to do the best job I can. I do admit, however, that as tedious as this part can be, looking at all the shots for the first time with digital is a close as you can get to the excitement of cracking open that envelope of fresh prints and seeing all the shots you took with your film camera. It's not quite the same, but it's close.

The Big Day

Man, what a day. Today was Dan and Michelle's wedding, and everything went off great. I got a bit of a sunburn, took about 500 pictures, and drove myself to the point of exhaustion. I wouldn't have it any other way.

The day started (for me) with photos before the wedding at roughly 12:30. The wedding started about 1:30, ended at about 2:00, and we finished with the "formals" at exactly 3:00. For any photographers reading this, you know that these are the toughest shots. Multiple set ups, a lot of people in your ear, and a lot of running around, this is the longest part of the day. I was lucky to have a great group of people, and a lot of help, so things went very smoothly. The reception came and went, with the entertainment provided by Mic Hog Karaoke, which coincidentally, is a business owned by my dad! He did a great job, and really worked his ass off for 8 1/2 hours.

These three shots I've posted are a few that really stuck out while i was uploading tonight, and it's shots like these that really make me love being a photographer. I'll happily sit through all the formal portraits just to get these gems. Although I'm certainly done with weddings, I still smile when I see shots like this.

Rehearsal

I'm sure I've mentioned my brother in law's wedding this Saturday, but I don't think I've mentioned that I'm doing the photography. I've also decided that this will likely be the last wedding I shoot, unless I'm absolutely hard-up for money. It's just a little too stressful for me. I couldn't have picked a better wedding for my last. The location is in a local arboretum, and as you can see from my picture today, it's absolutely beautiful. It's going to be a bright, sunny day, and although it's going to be pretty hot, at least there's no rain in the forecast. I'll be sure to put up a few shots from tomorrow so you can see some of my "professional" work.

Movies, Disappointment

I joined my dad at the movie theater this afternoon to finally go see Spiderman 3. As I said yesterday, I've heard that it sucks, but I really wanted to see it on the big screen as I've seen the previous two. I should have waited for the dvd. Now don't get me wrong, the movie certainly had its moments. Venom was amazing, and the fight scenes, especially the final battle, were awesome. I do not, however, under any circumstances, ever again want to see a brooding, emo Peter Parker. What a load of crap. The whole concept makes me nauseous. I also think this movie fell into the Batman trap, in trying to cram too many villains into one movie. The first Batman movie was fantastic. Only one villain to contend with, providing plenty of time for the development of the character. The sequels, however, all had multiple villains, which made the films seem rushed, with virtually no character development whatsoever. I think Sam Raimi really tried to do too much here. Having the New Goblin, Venom, the Alien Costume, and the Sandman all in the same film was a total overkill. You could've just done a film with Venom and it would've been great. The movie wasn't horrible, but to call it good would be a bit of an overstatement.

The day wasn't a complete loss. I did get to spend some time with my Dad, which I don't do often enough, and we also stopped over at my sister Jennee's house to visit her, her husband Jason, and my nephew Nathan. It was good to see you guys!

Finished Product

This is a shot of some (slightly bug-eaten) Day Lilies growing in our yard, and is a good representation of some of the beautiful stuff I had to take out on this newest project. Fortunately, I finished it today. I went into Rockford this afternoon, bought a truckload of mulch, and put it all down. What a difference a little mulch can make! It look much better than the overgrown mess that used to be there. Now we just need to replace those boarded-up windows the previous owners left us with.

I didn't get quite as much done today as I had hoped, but it was so damn hot today, and since asthma has been an issue for me lately, I didn't want to over do it. I guess I can leave the mowing for Friday. Tomorrow I'm going to (finally) see Spiderman 3 with my dad. I know, it sucks, but I want to see it anyway.

Here's a shot of the finished product:

Bricklayer

Today I've spent about an hour digging a trench and laying the border bricks in the area I've been working on. Today I was supposed to go get the mulch, but I'm not really keen on getting red dye all over our new recliner, so I'll put that off for tomorrow. It was no surprise that my measurements were a bit off, so I was short two bricks. It's no big deal, but it is a bit of an annoyance. When I go to get them tonight, I'll also be buying some of that black paper stuff that blocks the growth of weeds and grass in areas such as this. I'm looking forward to having this finished so I can relax on my vacation.

Happy Birthday Mom!

Under Pressure

Wow. Sometimes I really have no concept of time. I didn't get nearly as much done today as I thought I would. I decided to pressure wash the siding first. I got started around 1:45, and the next thing I knew, it was 5:00! It really took me far longer to do that then I ever planned on. So unfortunately, I didn't get time to start putting the bricks in. That means I'l have to get an early start tomorrow so I can get them all out of my truck. On Saturday, Steph and I bought a new recliner at Slumberland, and I have to pick it up tomorrow. The truck was overloaded enough with hundreds of pounds of bricks in it, there's no way I'm going to add more weight then drive it around some more. As to the pressure washing, you wouldn't believe how well that worked. The house needed it pretty badly, but I really had no idea how bad it was until I started taking the stuff off. The house was so bright that with the sun hitting it, you literally couldn't look at it directly. Yowza, that's white!

Supplies

Since I'm off all this week (huzzah!), I'll be doing some much needed work around the house. My first job will be to finish the job I started a couple weeks ago, by taking these bricks we bought tonight and putting up a small border around the newly planted bushes on the South side of the house. They were really far more affordable than I had anticipated. I actually thought we'd be spending twice what we did, so that was a nice surprise. We also picked up a pressure washer, as our siding is looking pretty dirty.

More eBay Madness

Every once and a while, I go through my collection of games and try to figure out which games I'll likely never play again. Those games are destined for the auction block, and often that money is used for new ones. Looking through my DS games tonight, I picked these eight to be listed on eBay. With the retail usually running about $30 to $35 on these things, I'm pretty happy with $20 to $25, and that's what I consistently get. Taking games I never play and getting back some money from them is pretty gratifying.

In case anyone's interested, here's a link to my 8 listings.

eBay Crazy

I love eBay as much as the next guy, but this is crazy. Steph and I sometimes pick up her Grandma Johnsons mail, since she doesn't get out too often. I don't know if I've mentioned this before, but her Grandma is a major doll collector. I'm talking hundreds of dolls here. She just finished having her garage converted into a usable room so she has an accessible place to keep them all. Yes, she has that many. Anyway, I'm a little off track. When I went to the post office this morning to get her mail, she had all these packages waiting for her. Apparently her daughter Diana has been buying dolls on eBay and having them shipped directly to her. A nice gesture, but holy cow! How many dolls does one person need?!? I thought Steph's growing collection was bad. When they get everything set up in the "Doll Museum", I'll be sure to get some shots up here. If dolls creap you out as much as they do me, prepare to be horrified.

Popcaps

Ever since I went a little crazy on a great sale at Woodmans for Vault, I've been collecting these bottle caps. Each one has a 15 digit code under the cap that when entered on their website, gives you three points. I've drunk all the pop I bought, and another guy I work with, who also bought two cases, has been giving me his caps as well. Right now, I have 198 points, which is the equivalent of 66 bottles of pop. Unfortunately, after browsing the stuff you can get with these points, I'm starting to wonder if it's even worth it. Since then, I've just been kinda throwing the caps into this empty desk drawer.

Oh, and in case you're wondering, I entered those codes visable before I posted this picture. No stealing!

Grados

When I started 3rd shift, I knew I'd have a lot of time on the weekends where the only thing I can really do is either watch tv, a movie, or play Xbox. I really enjoy great sound on two of the three things, but I can't very well have the stereo cranked while Stephanie is upstairs sleeping. I decided to get some headphones. The first set I bought were some wireless Sonys, but the results were less than spectacular. They were constantly full of static, and the sound was awful. After doing much more research, I decided to go with these beauties. They're called Grado SR60s, and man are they amazing. They are a little pricey, but you certainly get what you pay for. Movies and the Xbox sound great through them, and music is unreal. I recommend these to anyone looking for a great set of headphones.

Souvenir

Dad stopped by tonight with a nice little surprise. He bought me this autographed 2005 World Series Baseball signed by White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen. I'm a really big White Sox fan, and the Sox wining the 2005 World Series is one of my fondest memories. Thanks Dad!

Oh! I forgot to mention that on Monday morning I found out that my request to move my vacation from October to next week has been approved! They were really reluctant to allow me to change it, and I never thought for a second that it would happen. It was a nice surprise, and now, instead of working 3 of the next 4 Saturdays, I only have to work 1. Very nice!

High Definition

About a week ago on eBay I bought a HD DVD player. HD DVD is just like DVD, only the video is High Definition quality. Microsoft, who is the maker of my current favorite game system, the Xbox 360, also makes the player that I bought. It connects to the Xbox, and provides HD DVD and DVD playback agt a very affordable price. The player in the stores runs about $200, but I got my player with three movies for a cool $150. This was a great deal considering the average HD DVD player is about $500. The movies are about $20 each, so really the $200 player only cost about $100. The movies that came with it are The Departed, Batman Begins, and King Kong. These are all pretty good movies, but the real reason I wanted this player is for the BBC documentary Planet Earth. It was shot entirely with HD cameras, and is supposed to be amazing. I just ordered it yesterday, and I'm really looking forward to watching it.