Man, this 40D sure feels nice!

Right now, going through the gyrations of installing software updates and registering the camera… can’t wait to…well.. use it 🙂 Short note… so best regards to all 2 of you who read my blog! 🙂

Oh boy… scheduling run amok…

Where to begin?

Nah, where to end: Jan 1.

There, now that that’s settled. Seems I need to be in 4-5 different places on Thanksgiving. Possibly. We’re not sure yet. Of course, once the idea is set, new information changes it.. so who knows. I’ll certainly be offering thanks when it’s in my rear view mirror…

Today is new camera day, if all goes well. I’ll be swinging by on my way into work (after jiffy lube, chiropractor, and packing) to pick up a new Canon 40D (not to be confused with a Nikon D40… I wonder how long calling it a 40D got debated… ) Hopefully my wonderful good luck will hold, God willing, and I’ll continue to be in the right place at the right time for some cool shots 🙂

In the meantime, still breathing, and currently contemplating various measures and breadths of site redesign in creative places. Amazing what resources one can play with.

Best to all,

Mark

PS.. maybe one of these days I’ll remember to tag the post befroe clicking PUBLISH! haha.

Nice weather… too bad I have to sleep through it!

By the temps outside ride right now, it’s gonna shape up to be a really, really nice day. I’m starting to get that itch again… Now, if I just knew the box dimensions on a 40D, maybe I could ride in today…. have to look that up… Hmmm :=) There -is- an advantage to Jesse bags :=) Of course, there’s also a nice advantage with that huge bestrest backplate I strapped the pelican cases onto… Lash ‘er down! Yarr!

Whelp, one of the advantages of having a cable modem, is that I have a cable connection… time to enjoy it for a bit.

PS… For those who have TS…

I know there’s a surprise factor out there for some (particularly some of my former players and coworkers) who have never once seen a symptom… but it’s for good reason.

I got lucky… I gave up the pills when I was 14, and after figuring out how to control them… or at least delay them.. they started to go away on their own. Sure, I still get em when I’m really, really tired.. or really, really stressed… or both 🙂 If it was anything that helped get it under control for me, it’s breathing and focus.

time to go get some sleep.

Some mornings just shock you..

I’m driving home listening to NPR, a show called The Infinite Mind and today’s episode was part II about a disease called Aspberger’s Syndrome. Oh, my God, what an uncanny sense of “Whoa…” it was. The link to the audio program (part II) is Here

Without repeating my comments, this sure sounds like a really plausable explanation for all the hassles I’ve had. It just strikes me as a voice from my past.

Sorry for the lack of updates the past few days. 12 hour shifts with no blog connectivity really don’t make for happy blogging love.

Take the time to listen to the program.

In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit.

Driving home this morning, listening to NPR on WAMU, The Writer’s Almanac pointed out that on this day in 1937, JRR Tolkien first published “The Hobbit”, and the title of this post were the first words written on the story in 1928.

What a marvelous, marvelous creation. source

Literary and Historical Notes:

It was on this day in 1937 that J.R.R. Tolkien published his first novel, The Hobbit. He was a professor at Oxford, and in the summer of 1928, he was in the middle of grading a stack of student papers when he wrote the sentence, “In a hole in the ground lived a hobbit.” He had no idea where the word “hobbit” came from. It had just popped into his head. He later wrote: “[Hobbits] are (or were) a little people … inclined to be fat in the stomach; they dress in bright colours (chiefly green and yellow); wear no shoes, because their feet grow naturally leathery soles and thick warm brown hair like the stuff on their heads (which is curly); have long clever brown fingers, good-natured faces, and laugh deep fruity laughs (especially after dinner, which they have twice a day when they can get it).”

Thank you, Mr Tolkien, may you look down and smile. Thank you, NPR, for the reminder 🙂

Wierd Weatherings… Wonderful Wonderings.. Wacky Website Widgets.

So I just get off the phone from my friend in Texas who informs me that Hot, Dry, and Dusty West Texas has not been such all summer long. Lots of rain, only 5 days over 100, and all expectations are for a snowy white winter.

Must…find… snow….thrower!!!!!

Life here in Virginia might get a bit interesting if it’s SNOWING IN TEXAS….

I managed to get at least one of my photos submitted to a contest sponsored by Canon. It was one of those surprise photos that I didn’t think would turn out just from the immediate take on it, but once I got them off the camera, knew what I had in front of me. I’m still waiting to hear back from the company running the contest on what qualifies for the other… If they don’t answer, I don’t know which I’ll send in…

Signed up for BlogRush last night…. having a few issues getting their widget to acknowledge install, though. I tried a dozen or more times, and no matter how many times or how many places I put it in the layout, it won’t ack and I have to click skip… but for a site less than a week old, they’re allowed a bug or two :=)

That’s life in a nutshell…

Cops Put Squeeze on OJ

Hahahaha. I’ve been dying to say that for years. Who would have thought that such an overrated guy could get into serious, felony trouble twice. What did he not leearn from the first time around? “Wait a minute, let me get the maid’s story” the famous “Minute Maid” defense 😛

Poor OJ, if he only knew how badly the world is laughing at him right now.

Hey, even Gary Coleman got a clue…eventually.

One of those mornings…

So I’m driving home from the day job this morning, and passing the pond by my house, I see this wonderful mist rising off from it.. the water is dead still, and the reflections of the morning light in the sky were shining almost as brightly as the sky itself… and I knew today was the day. I finished the drive home, fed the cat, grabbed the camera, and drove back to get a few shots. Talk about Opportunity knocking…

I don’t know if any of them have turned out yet, 12 hour night shifts aren’t exactly made for doing photprocessing at 7am, but… I have high hopes that I’ll have at least one really nice frame to post in the next day or so :=)