Money Well Spent

Water Camo, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

So I went to new Academy of Sciences Museum in Golden Gate Park yesterday. It was my first trip to the new museum. As the old Academy was my childhood museum I was a little concerned. And yes there were some things I missed. I always loved the San Francisco skyline built into the wall at the old Morrison Planetarium although they did keep a piece in the gift shop. And the alligator grotto feels more like a museum exhibit and less like gators had snuck into your steam room and were hanging out with you.

Still the new museum is a wonder. I have no idea if we saw everything because my nature sense of direction was annilited by the rooms and bridges and elevators and passages and such. It is the Winchester Mystery House of museums but I loved it all the same. I bought a membership of course and am looking forward to returning (on a weekday) to take more pictures.

But this entry isn't about the Academy of Sciences. It's about my Nikon D90 that arrived on Wednesday and got its first real workout yesterday. No-flash museum photography especially aquarium photography can be challenging. I was somewhere I had never been before using a camera I only had a couple of nights to work on. Lets just say there was much tweaking of settings and discovery that I had the camera set for a completely different set of light conditions. Despite my befuddlement the camera performed beautifully. I was most struck when I put this picture up on flickr after doing some work in Photoshop and checked the iso setting. I shot this one at 3200 a setting that my d40 simply could not produce useful images. I think I might just love this camera.

New Camera

Coming Out of the Barn, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

Well the camera I've been waiting to get since it was first announced arrived last night. I worked all day so I wasn't sitting on the steps waiting for UPS. That was a good thing because when I got home at 6:20 it still hadn't been delivered. It was a few minutes later but I was pretty cranky for those few minutes. Anyway after an agonizing hour and a half for the battery to charge I spent the evening learning the in and outs. Big thanks to Ken Rockwell's guide for setting it up. Of course Ken's article on jpeg over raw got me re-thinking my workflow for the umpteenth time but that's for another post.

Anyway I got up early this morning and took my no traditional Cable Car Ride down to Aquatic Park and back to break it in. As I'm a little out of practice I didn't have the best shoot but I did get a couple I liked. I'm sorry this one doesn't show off all that the camera can do but I liked this one and this treatment the best. I will say that it was much easier to get it to do what I wanted it to than my D40. This was pronounced because I was trying to shoot from a moving Cable Car mostly before dawn with a very very slow lens. Suffice to say I'm very happy with my purchase and a big thumbs up to Abe's of Maine for delivering as promised with a rock bottom price.

New Pictures!!

Blowing the Horn, originally uploaded by lacadaz.

After the longest absence in well over a year I began posting new pictures to flickr yesterday. It was tough to resist the pull of one of my favorite neighborhood events so Saturday I marched down to Sutter and Kearney and set up shop for a night of picture taking. A number of things contributed to this being a better picture year. First a year with the camera made me a better photographer. Second I learned my lesson and did not try to shoot a parade at night without a flash. Third the worst storm of the year did not happen on Saturday night resulting in me being unable to stop shivering for 48 hours as a result. After blowing $30 on a bleacher seat and then having the parade route being pretty empty because of that storm last year I decided to take my chances on the street. I got to the corner at 5 and ended up with a position about as good as I had last year so that was $30 saved.

The one issue I am having is that as I haven't been working on post production in so long I'm having to re-remember my favorite techniques in Photoshop. That is why the five pictures I've done so far all have a bit of a different look to them.

The next big event is the Valentine's Day Pillow Fight on Saturday. I'm crossing my fingers that I get my tax check today or tomorrow so I can order my D90 in time to use it this weekend. Although I wont feel too disappointed if it doesn't make it as the pillow fight is actually the one event that can be brutal on my camera. I would hate to do damage on the first day out in the field.

88 Lines About 44 Things

Yet another Facebook list has crossed my inbox. Since I've been trying to post more and I don't have anything ready to go tonight I'm going to fill out this questionnaire. 

1. Do you like blue cheese? Yes but only crumbled on a steak or in salad dressing.  

2. Have you ever been drunk? Is this a trick question? Why is it phrased in the past tense?

3. Do you own a gun? No. What the hell would I do with a gun?

4. What flavor of Kool Aid was your favorite? Red. 

5. Do you get nervous before doctor appointments? I don't remember. I haven't had a doctor's appointment in maybe 15 years.  

6. What do you think of hot dogs? I like them. Hebrew National, with mustard and cheese and a little bit of relish, perfection. 

7. Favorite Christmas movie? A tie between "The Ref" and "Shop Around the Corner".   

8. What do you prefer to drink in the morning? Coffee.

9. Can you do push ups? I don't know about he plural part of this one.  

10. What's your favorite piece of jewelry? The only piece I wear a Tissot Automatic.  

11. Favorite hobby? Photography.  

12. Do you have A.D.D.? How the hell would I know?

13. What's your favorite shoe? Sperry Top Siders. 

14. Middle name? Anthony 

15. Name 3 thoughts at this exact moment?
- I'm so glad I ate Dinner before I freaked out and through my computer out the window. 
- I like this movie (Deconstructing Harry) though the dialogue is really forced. 
- I'm glad it started raining again. 

16. Name 3 drinks you regularly drink? Water, Coffee, V8 

17. Current worry? About a meeting I don't want to go to at the end of the month. 

18. Current hate right now? The way Adobe Bridge copies and pastes metadata. (See throwing computer out the window in #15)  

20. How did you ring in the New Year? I don't remember. I probably slept through it. 

21. Where would you like to go? New York. 

22. Name three people who will complete this? I'm not sold on the chain letter aspect.

23. Do you own slippers? No.  

24. What color shirt are you wearing right now? Grey.     

25. Do you like sleeping on Satin sheets? No. I like to stay put when I sleep. 

26. Can you whistle? Yes. 

27. Favorite color? Grey

28. Would you be a pirate? I'm gonna reserve my 5th amendment rights and skip this one.    

29. What songs do you sing in the shower? I make them up. They are horrible and not to be repeated.  

30. Favorite Girl's Name? Jane 

31. Favorite boy's name? Richard 

32. What's in your pocket right now? Nothing 

33. Last thing that made you laugh? A cartoon from this week's New Yorker. (page 91 '09 Anniversary Issue if you want to follow along at home)

34. Best bed sheets as a child? I don't think I had printed sheets. The white ones. No, the off white ones. I don't know. 

35. Worst injury you've ever had as a child? I was playing on a hill covered with brush and slipped on a board that was under said brush. Unfortunately I sat right down on the nail that was sticking out of the board. Ouch. 

36. Do you love where you live? I do. I love my building and I love the location downtown. Someday maybe I'll move somewhere where I can fit a third person in the room but for now I'm doing great. 

38. Who is your loudest friend? Mike. 

39. How many dogs do you have? None.  

40. Does someone have a crush on you? I really don't think so. 

41. What is your favorite book? "Love in the Ruins" by Walker Percy. 

42. What is your favorite candy? Violet Crumble.

43. Favorite Sports Team? The SF Giants. 

44. What song do you want them to play at your funeral? "Hope" by Bauhaus. "Your mornings will be brighter, Break the line, Tear up rules, Make the most of a million times no"

25 (not so) Random Things About Me

So these lists are making their way around my Facebook circle and I’m in a take stock of myself kind of mood anyway so I decided not to completely blow this one off. But I thought I’m going to do it right. I’m really going to make it 25 random things about me. Not 25 semi-interesting, semi-connected minor factoids. No I was going to make a truly random snapshot of my personality. So I spent a couple of days doing free associative writing. All the events and emotions of my life I could think of were there on a long numbered list. All my plans, dreams, schemes, pains, joys, fears, lusts, triumphs, secrets, shames and embarrassments were all there. Then I plugged the whole thing into a number generator to get a truly random look at me. 

The results were astounding. A quick view snapshot into my very psyche. Publication of such a document could be such a release. A release, for example, from my job. From the small circle of friends I’ve managed to hobble together. From all family ties. Not to mention probable inditement from local, state, and federal officials. Possibly even a war crime tribunal. 

So I did what I had to do. I selected all, and hit delete. And then did a secure empty on my computer’s trash. And then over wrote all the blank space on the drive. Then formated the drive with 7 passes of write zero. Then removed the drive, dismantled it, scratched the beginning of the Gettysburg Address on the platter, took all the pieces on the Larksburg Ferry and dropped them into separate areas of the bay. Then I went home and wrote this collection of semi-interesting, semi-connected minor factoids about me. 

1. I had my 1st pacemaker put in the week of my 4th birthday and mylast one taken out just before I started High School
2. I may not have a phobia about doctors but I sure do avoid them. It's been 15 years since my last office visit. 
3. I mocked my friends for playing MTG when it came out and kicked myself hard about missing all the classic cards when I got into it 10 years in. 
4. I have a pretty dim view of sales and salesmen. Guess what I've done for a living for the past 10 years.
5. The only thing I miss about moving out of the burbs is the Stanford Theater. 
6. I haven't driven a car in over 3 years. 
7. For the first time since I was 18 I have no points on my driving record. 
8. I live a couple of blocks from Union Square. For the year I ran our store downtown I hardly ever ventured outside a 10 block radius. 
9. I used to live on a sailboat that was too small to stand up in.  
10. After that experience my present 250 square foot apartment isn't a space issue. But you can believe it has high ceilings. 
11. I spent the first 20 years of adulthood mucking up my health, finances, romantic and work lives. 
12. So far my 40's are all about repairing the damage of my 20's & 30's. 
13. This is the happiest stage of my life so far. 
14. My wedding day remains the happiest day of my life. 
15. All I wanted to do after high school was get a job and apartment by myself in The City and embrace some kind of artistic expression.
16. The above plan did work out. It just took 20 years longer than I expected.  
17. While I complain about it as much as any other San Franciscian, I secretly love Muni. 
18. I have a 500 movie collection on my computer attached to my TV. 
19. I haven't had cable in over 3 years. 
20. I keep my movie and music collections sorted by year. It's the only way I can find anything. 
21. I went to cancel my land line and they told me it would reset my Internet and I would be unplugged for 3 days. I said forget it, I'll keep the damn phone. 
22. Bankruptcy may have been the smartest thing I've ever done. 
23. I've always been a big history buff. Every school bond issue that comes up makes me remember the American History teacher that gave me an F. My vengance is my no vote.     
24. I've been known to get up for popcorn when the car chase starts. Really I've seen this part before. Get on with the plot and the character development already.
25. My Christmas tree goes on top of the fridge. It's the only place it fits. 

I am forgoing the chain letter aspect of this exercise as I don’t want to inflict the above on anyone else. Even though I remain convinced that this recession came about because someone refused to forward a list of happy thoughts to ten of their friends last spring. 

Happy Birthday

So this post is a special call out to that one reader we can all rely on. Mom. Happy Birthday Mom!

It is a property of our new age that I don't get the "you never call" or "you never write" guilt. I only get the "you never blog" guilt. Don't worry Mom I give myself enough of that already. Yesterday I had a great day off. I planned out a budget for the whole year. I finalized my automatic savings plans. I finally figured out my pension benifit at work. I configured a new home page. I took a long walk and bought my Fast Pass. I had a nice write on a friendly bench overlooking the Bay Bridge on a perfect day. I didn't spend a dime over the Fast Pass cost. I stayed to my diet and lost the weight that spiked up three days ago. By any account that's a good day. But there I was at the end of the day feeling like a failure because I hadn't blogged yet again and no longer have the concentration to do it at night. I did not spend too much time beating myself up. That is another habit I'm trying to get into. Stop listening to me when I start to nag or berate myself. For far too long I've been the one to beat myself into wounded puppydogdom. You know puppydogdom probably isn't a word but it should be.

So in an attempt to get me to shut up I'm going to try to be more dilligent about posting. It is likely that the quality will drop and you the reader will have to suffer. For one thing it will mean more posts written from the 3 bus on my phone with it's limited spellcheck abilities. That combined with my non-existant internal spellcheck abilities may make it less than perfect. But I'll fell better and isn't that what's important anyway? That I feel better? Anyway happy birthday mom