From the weekend, courtesy of the Llama & his mad video-making skillz: Ally vs. RC Mouse



:-D

~PS

As I'm sure many of you know, our lovely Internal Revenue Service has been issuing 'stimulus checks' to many people in hopes that consumers' spending of said money might defibrillate our economy. While I seriously doubt this will work out as intended, if our government, which has taken a rather substantial portion of my money over the last decade or so, wants to give me some money to spend, I'm strangely ok with that.

So Sheri & I got our 'stimulus check' a few days ago, and we have been pondering what to do with it. The forces that went to war over this issue were the large part of me that exclaimed "woo-hoo! free money! lets do something fun!" versus the significantly smaller part of me and the majority of sheri which shouted "we should do something responsible, practical and (if at all possible) boring with this money". When the dust from this epic struggle settled*, we had pretty much decided the predictable thing: We're gonna spend half the money on some things for the house that we need and/or could really use sooner rather than later, and the other half we're dividing such that we can each spend some on something fun - and here's where the "It's sad, really..." part comes in.

As much as $300 is a lot of money, pretty much all the things that fall under the "if i had the money, i would love to buy x" fall considerably above that mark - things like nice camera lenses, computers, guitar amps, etc. Apparently, I'm quite expensive now. Sad, really. The other side of that coin is that a lot of the other things i'd like are considerably below it - things like gaming books, movies, cds, etc. So I'm trying to think of something in the middle that would be cool, that I otherwise wouldn't buy. Current ideas include:

- A nice flash for my camera
- A couple of boss pedals for my electric guitar
- A Wii console (if I can find one)

..amongst other, random stuff.

I have a feeling I know what my friends' input would be, but i'm still incredibly undecided. Also, a part of me figures that if i'm having trouble deciding, I probably don't need any of it and I should just use that money toward something more practical too. You guessed it, that's the boring part of me. Man, I hate that guy.

~PS

*Events depicted may have been dramatized and/or embellished

After last week, i was ready for the long weekend. The downside is, I've now been back at work for two days, and I don't think i'm ready for it yet. I'm not sure if I needed the long weekend, or more of a vacation.

Well, it's not that bad really. This week has been a lot better. Just. Eh.

Anyway, the weekend was fun. We had a couple of cookouts - one here for Kevin's birthday/graduation and one at Robb & Edie's for Memorial Day. Much fun was had and many kinds of games were played. We introduced a couple new people to Kubb and played some rather epic games (the second time where we've been down to no kubbs and come back to win!).

We've also started finishing Spare 'Oom. Last week sheri cleaned out pretty much everything in there (no small feat!) and so far we've primed and got one coat of paint on it. I'm planning on putting the second on tonight (if it dries in time - it's really humid/rainy here). I'll put a picture up when we get it done. I'd put an 'in progress' picture up, but i'm feeling too lazy for that atm.

The yard really needs mowed too, but it's been raining. Gonna be pretty rough once i'm able to do it, i'm afraid.

~PS

As I mentioned a while back, I've been cleaning out the office closet. Well, as of yesterday, it's as cleaned out as it's gonna get. Freed up a lot of room in there by tossing a bunch of junk and boxing up the stuff i don't want to chuck just yet. It was during this massive excavatory (not a word, should be) undertaking that I unearthed this priceless treasure.

The experts are still debating the artifact's authenticity - see, it's not *exactly* like the legends depict. Still, it is undeniably very, very close. If past experience can tell me anything, I figure this object has the potential to make me rich beyond all necessity - if I can just get to Hyrule somehow. Everyone knows that empty, corked, glass bottles are by far the most valuable commodities in that realm.

Unfortunately, I don't know anyone who knows how to get to Hyrule, and even if I did, it would probably be in the midst of some tyrannical rule or buried beneath the sea knowing my luck. Then I'd have to find the Hero of Time and/or wait 7 years or somesuch. Yeah, and then he'd probably just take my bottle in the name of 'saving the world' or something. Pssssh. Maybe I could at least make him beat me in several, annoying swimming races first...

Anyway, given the circumstances, despite it's obvious and undeniable pricelessness, this wondrous item will probably remain here on my desk, collecting dust. And any faeries I happen to come across.

***

In other news, we've made some progress in cleaning up other parts of the house as well - the land of Spare 'Oom is looking much better thanks to Sheri's efforts, and the basement is getting tidied a bit as well. This is partially in preparation for the upcoming GitP meetup (t minus 5 weeks and counting).

This weekend we are to have a sort of going-away party for Eric and Kevin will be in town to celebrate his birthday and graduation with us. Should be pretty fun all around.

~PS

Is it friday yet?

This week has been unusually and inexplicably tense. It sucks. I'm never this on-edge, but i've found myself quite stressed for no discernible reason lately. Like something isn't quite right with the universe. I need to do something relaxing. And fun. Maybe a hike or something.

*checks calendar* Maybe i'm going through gaming withdraw? It has been...almost 2 weeks. Heh.

Hopefully this condition is temporary.

I mean the stressfulness.

...well, and the sparse gaming too i guess.

~PS

This is my first attempt at the HDR technique. It's got plenty of flaws and I haven't bothered posting an image at any higher res, but i'm pretty happy with the theory and the general result. I didn't play with it a whole lot, I just wanted to see what could be done on the surface. If and when I find a more interesting subject, I'll spend considerably more time on it.

Still, it's a good start I think.

~PS

So, in case you haven't seen the gallery, I've been having a lot of fun with my camera since I got it in december. I haven't really had the chance to go to many interesting places to shoot as yet, but I've been having fun with what's around.

For anyone who's interested, I've also found a few camera/photography blogs/sites that I've found to be very entertaining and informative:
- OnTakingPictures
- CameraPorn
and, to some extent,
- PhotoJojo.

One of them recently had an article about Canon celebrating producing its 40 Millionth EF lens - which included the picture here, which, in turn, elicited ooh's & ahh's from some of us. So then I got to thinking about lenses i'd like to get at some point. My 28-135 IS lens is a great multipurpose lens - but it doesn't do everything as well as I'd like, so ideally, i'd like to eventually get about 4 others (probably in something like this order):



I do have specifics in mind for most of those, but by the time I'm able to afford any of them, there may be more options available. I still periodically add stuff to my wishlists on bhphotovideo.com to keep up with the options. I'll also want to get a nice flash eventually, though I'd prefer to use fast lenses instead where possible.

~PS

Well, the week went by alright. It was pretty dull as well, but the weekend was good. It occurs to me i haven't had anything interesting to say in a while. Maybe i'm just being lazy. Anyway, just some notes on what's gone on...

Played Exalted on monday, which is always fun.

I ran one of my d&d games on friday - which was a great session (i'll get updates for you all soon).

Saturday we did some work around the house. Sheri potted some of her plants. We went to Erwin for a dinner thing. Stopped and took some photos of geese (including fuzzy babies) on the way (though i goofed and my camera settings weren't ideal).

Had church today, but didn't have to stay in Erwin since there was no choir practice. Instead we hung out with ginger and nick and played a AoEII (conquered the world). Also, we talked to our mom's since it's mothers' day.

Now it's late. I should head to bed soon.

~PS

Looking at my calendar for last week, there's nothing. Nothing but get up, work, go to sleep. I think I mowed part of the lawn at one point. Yay rah. We did hang out with some friends on friday and saturday, but we didn't do much besides just hang out. Not that that's necessarily a bad thing I guess...

I'm hoping for a little more fun this week. We have a couple of gaming sessions planned, and it doesn't look like it's going to rain on saturday (as of now, anyway) so maybe we'll get to do something cool like go hiking or play some kubb or other outdoor stuff. I'm wanting to enjoy the not-too-hot-not-too-cold weather while it lasts.

~PS