179 posts from 2007

I got a new toy for my Nikon D50 camera this Christmas - a speedlight! I love taking pictures, but I hate taking pictures indoors. I can never get enough light without the flash, and the on-camera flash makes everyone look all harsh and blown-out. If I turn the flash off, everything blurs... which is sometimes cool, but sometimes you just want to take a good picture of someone.

I think this thing will help. It attaches to the top of the camera and tilts upward, allowing you to bounce light off the ceiling or other light-colored objects. The result is indirect light, which creates a warmer feel with more depth and shadows.

Check it totally out with this hot model I pulled off the street.

No bounce:

Bounce:

See how much better that is? Now I just need that little diffuser that attaches to the speedlight for even softer lighting... Oh, and that 18-200 VR lens. kthxbye.

I used to do Illustration Fridays a lot more often. I'm going to try to do more of them in the future. I know I have illustration weaknesses; anatomy, lighting, composition, line, perspective, etc. elude me... I've never taken classes so I've always considered myself a hack. This year I'd like to get a few books and practice all those things that vex me so.

In them meantime, please "enjoy" my hack illustration. This week's theme is "soar."

...the previous post. [Warning: High Disney geek content]

We drove down to Southern California to celebrate Christmas with Paul's family (and of course, they're my family too, but I just needed to clarify). Michael had been wanting to go to Disneyland for a while, so I offered to take him on Christmas Eve day. Since we were attending church with the family at 5:00, I explained it would be a pretty short trip. It would require leaving the house by 7:00, and we'd probably head for home around 1:00. And it was understood the park would be crowded.

I told him all of these things up front not to dissuade him, but to set realistic expectations. He chose to take a rain check, but thanked me profusely for the offer.

I, however, needed my fix, so I got my slightly hungover self out of bed at 6:30 am (the night before was Paul's cousin's annual "Eve before the Eve" celebration, and it was a particularly rowdy one. The neighbors were treated to many different carols, including "Don't Stop Believin'"), swung by Starbucks, and pulled into the Disneyland parking lot right at 8:00. I was in the park by 8:20, got my Space Mountain Fastpass by 8:35, and took a detour through Storybookland before hopping on Small World. I dallied a bit after that, killing time by taking photos before heading back to Space Mountain.

After Space Mountain, I got in line for Peter Pan, but it was 9:15 or so, and the 40-minute wait would have eaten up a lot of my precious Disneyland time. I booked it for New Orleans Square, saw the line for Pirates was snaking toward the river, so went to check out Haunted Mansion Holiday. My plan was to get a Fastpass, then go back to Pirates.

When I got to Mansion, however, there was no wait at all. Walked right in. As I waited in the foyer, I noticed two Cast Members at the far end. They weren't dressed in Mansion garb. I eyed them suspiciously. Security? Sweepers? Who were they and what were they doing there? I got my answer soon enough. As soon as the doors closed, one of them spoke up: "Good morning!  We're the Disneyland Dream Team. In celebration of the Year of a Million Dreams, we'd like to award you the Disney Dream Fastpass!" I jumped up and down and clapped, but there were a lot of people around me who just blinked at them. I ended up explaining it to a circle of people around me. Basically, it's a front of the line pass for most of the major attractions at both parks. AWESOME.

Problem was, by the time I got off of Mansion, it was about 9:45. I needed to be back on the road by 1:00, and I had a bunch of Fastpasses to use. I needed to switch tactics. My Disneyland trip to check out a couple of rides, take pictures, do some shopping and have some hot chocolate changed to a mad race to see if I could get to AS MANY RIDES AS I POSSIBLY COULD.  In the three hours that followed, I didn't eat, I didn't go to the restroom, I didn't take photos. My only concern was using those Fastpasses... GO GO GO! MOVE IT, GRANDMA! ANNUAL PASSHOLDER WITH A DISNEY DREAM FASTPASS COMING THROUGH!

My like-the-back-of-my-hand knowledge of the park layout served me well; after Mansion I jumped on Splash Mountain. From there I maneuvered my way through Adventureland and hit Indy, then cut back over to Big Thunder. I couldn't pass up another turn on Space Mountain, so it was back to Tomorrowland. I still had Autopia, Roger Rabbit, and Buzz Lightyear passes, but I decided to forfeit those and go across to California Adventure. There, I had just enough time for Soarin' Over California and Tower of Terror. Sadly, I ran out of time, and had to leave my California Screamin' pass unused. I thought about giving my pass to someone else, but I figured it would be of little use to just one person. Or I'm just selfish and wanted to hang on to the lanyard. You choose the scenario.

When I told my family about my day, Michael was initially disappointed, but I assured him had he been with me we probably wouldn't had been at that exact place at that exact time to receive the passes.  My sister-in-law had her own explanation as to how I got those passes, "God wanted to make sure you got on the rides as quickly as possible so you could get to church!"

Maybe. I hope God wasn't watching when I mowed down that little kid. Oops.

I won!

...What this thing is supposed to be...

Singing us a song. Awesome.

Were your holiday cards store bought, handmade, online, TBD or MIA?

I illustrated my cards this year and ordered cards from Moo. They took longer than I expected to get here, and are now sitting on my dining room table waiting to be sent (they look good, though). I may or may not get to it this year. Luckily, I didn't put a date on them, so I can send them next year if need be.

Here's the illustration. No, it's not meant to be me. I guess I just draw chicks who look like me.

You may want to stop reading now.

No, really.

I'm about to talk about my dog. My dog... and her diarrhea.

A lot of you know Bliss. She's a good girl. A smart girl. And a very, very floofy girl. There's actually very little dog cocooned in an enormous amount of floof. That's one of the things that make her irresistible; strangers will stop us on the street so they can plunge their hands into that cottony cloud of a coat. It's endearing, really.

Until she gets diarrhea.

On Friday, I needed to leave Bliss alone in the apartment. When that happens, she gets her "Bliss Spa" set up in the kitchen, including music, aromatherapy... and a treat-filled Kong. I use Kong Stuff'N, and up until now, have had no ill effects. Oh, how I wish I had given her something else. Anything else. Chili may have been preferable. Because that night... it started.

Michael took her for one of her regular outings. He came back in and announced, "Well, Bliss has diarrhea." He's prone to exaggerate, so I figured, you know, her stool wasn't quite as firm as it could be. She needed to go out again a little later, so I took her out. (You sure you want to continue reading this? You can opt out now.) She heralded the arrival of the emission with a series of watery trumpet sounds, followed by a stream of the nastiest, vilest substance you can imagine. Oh, it was foul. And it was all over her butt.

I brought her back to the apartment, but made her wait on the stairs while I retrieved a roll of paper towels. Michael watched as I cleaned her matted, nasty butt. I said, "You sure you want a dog of your own?" A couple of hours later we went through it again. And then again. And then again at 1:00 am and 3:00 am and 6:00 am. It wasn't letting up at all.

"Surely," I told Paul, "this has to end soon." I had given her a tiny bit of her regular food, and as much water as she wanted, so I assumed that basically she would just run out of things to expel. I was wrong. All day Saturday she continued to coat the streets of San Francisco in her version of Magic Shell. Since we have no backyard, each time she had to go (and thank God for the fact she would tell us), I would have to take her outside. There was a point, at 2:50 am, in the cold, damp air, when I thought a goldfish was an excellent idea. The feeling became stronger every time I had to scrub her seeping, crusty ass (I said you can stop reading at any time).

Finally, after a 1:00 am awakening, it was time to take action. I trudged sleepily out to the local Safeway, purchased Pepto Bismol, white rice, canned pumpkin, and canned chicken. I gave her the Pepto (she hates it; she whipped her little head violently around, thus spraying the kitchen with droplets of sticky pink stuff. It looks like Hello Kitty vomited all over the place. We're still cleaning it up), and cooked up the rice to make a batch of homemade dog food. I also put a little soup stock in her water to encourage her to drink. Since she wasn't lethargic at all (actually, she was in a pretty good mood) I wasn't too worried. Michael took pity on my sleep-deprived self, and took her overnight so I would abandon my idea of trading her in for an Aibo.

She is now on the road to recovery, and I think I'm going to have a hard time convincing her to go back to dog food after these home-cooked meals.

And I will definitely need to take a hose to her.

That dog is stanky.

I came here to post this screenshot:

I wanted to show y'all that TMBG's kids' podcast is number one right now, beating out the likes of Sesame Street, Radio Disney and Dora. Then I was going to say something like they should get Dr. Teeth to join the band to make the metamorphosis complete (or Animal. I like Animal), blah blah blah. I hadn't fully formed the thought yet. But then I saw something far more interesting:

Why did they feel the "clean" tag was needed? OH MY GOD - Is there an explicit version?! Is Elmo getting it on with Prairie Dawn or something? Does "cookie" mean something all together different? Were today's letters F and U? Or were people buying Avenue Q by mistake and being horrified when they found their children singing along to, "The Internet is for Porn" thus forcing Apple to reassure parents that these were the non-sexually-active puppets?

All I know is, if there's an explicit version of the Sesame Street podcast floating around, somebody better give it up, like, NOW.

The worst of the jet lag has subsided, and I've had a little bit of breathing room to get my Berlin photos up on Flickr. Most of my time was spent in the office, but I did have the opportunity to stay over the weekend and I crammed as much sightseeing and shopping as I possibly could into that 48 hours.

Berlin is beautiful. It's a great mix of old and new architecture. I was incredibly lucky that two of my German counterparts generously took their Saturday to drive us around the city and show us the sights. They couldn't have been more gracious hosts and tour guides. There wasn't much time to actually go into a lot of the places we saw, so this trip served as an appetizer for my next trip which I'll be sure to make longer.

I don't speak a word of German. I have a little French and a little Japanese, but no German. And once you leave the comfort and safety of your office and hotel, man, you need that German. I ended up pantomiming a lot and got my point across, but I felt like an ignorant American. Overall, though, the Germans were very polite and friendly; more than once I heard, "Ladies first!" The food is good but heavy, and it turns out it's cold there in the winter.

Here are a few photos; you can see the rest of them on Flickr.

I took this picture on a Sunday. The street was deserted. The stores were closed. I had wanted a picture of the Smart Car, but hadn't run into too many cars that weren't gray or silver. I finally found two in a row! I snapped a few pictures and was headed on my way, when a woman came out of one of the rare open shops and in German, demanded to know what I was doing (my deduction). I blinked a couple of times, then pointed at the cars. "Smart Cars." I pointed to myself and shook my head. "We don't have them." She got it. "Ahhhh, you're from the States, yes?" "Yes!" I said. "Ahhh, okay, okay." She smiled and went back into the shop.

"Ampelmannchen" roughly translates to "little traffic guys," and they're seen mainly in the East Berlin area. I love these little guys. I guess a lot of people do, because they sell souvenirs with these guys on them. I hear tell there are Ampelfraus as well.

A close-up of the few remaining sections of the Berlin Wall. Funnily enough, there's a standing piece behind our Germany office. I told one of my colleagues I'd like to see the Berlin Wall and he said, "Oh, there's a piece of it out back. I'll show you." Just bizarre.

I stood and snapped pictures, explaining, "You know, I'll take these pictures. Then I'll go home and look at them. And I'll forget how truly awesome this is." And I was right. I have. I remember that it was awesome, but you can't explain in pictures or in words how you feel when you stand beneath a structure like this.

It was a wonderful trip. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to go. I can't wait to go back. Travel agrees with me.