Just trying something new: June 2009

overheard

Fo' Shizzle is like saying Amen
Vivian, class of 1967

Embrace the pain to learn its lessons well
C.S. Lewis

I don't understand why people would be offended that I have wished them merriment on a particular day. I wonder if they would be as offended is I wished a "Merry 25th of December?" Probably not. I do prefer to wish "Happy Holidays" in the month of February. There are plenty of holidays in that month with Presidents Day, Valentines Day, Groundhog Day, Lincoln and Washington's Birthdays. I sometimes worry that someone who doesn't believe in Pres. Lincoln will be offended.
Anonymous Life Hacker, on "Happy Holidays" versus "Merry Christmas"

Dear Future Generations,

Please accept our apologies. We were roaring drunk on petroleum.

Love, 2006 A.D.
Unknown

Consploded!
Rev, unaware that it is actually pronouced "exploded"

...Where debt is dumb, cash is king, and the paid-off home mortgage has replaced the BMW as the new status symbol of choice.
Dave Ramsey, financial counselor, and the tagline he uses to begin each radio broadcast of The Dave Ramsey Show

...You can have more degrees than temperature, but...
Pastor Paul Shepard, explaining that head-knowledge doesn't necessarily equate with relationship savvy

Most of us, as children, view parents as extensions of our own needs, not as frail, passionate individuals. Parents themselves are complicit in this deception, concealing grief or desire in order to reassure us.
Katherine B. Weissman in her short story Forgiving my Father

While previous youth movements have challenged the dysfunction and decadence of their elders, today we have the "hipster" -- a youth subculture that mirrors the doomed shallowness of mainstream society.
Douglas Haddow for Adbusters

The home, not the school, was the original educational system. The school, not the home, is the substitute.
Raymond Moore

Making the decision to have a child - it's momentous. It is to decide forever to have your heart go walking around outside your body.
Elizabeth Stone, journalist

Pull my finger...
Freud

You're the one person you can't get away from.
Joyce Meyer

Sometimes the best consequences are the natural ones.
unknown

Why must you always be so contrarian to me
a fellow argumentative co-worker

Mom, but if you have a pimple on your nose, how will you be a girl?a very concerned Rev

Quack, you shouldn't go eating things you find on the floor; they might be somebody else's hobby.Peep, from a recent webisode of Peep and the Big Wide World

Confession is not negative, it's just getting rid of the junk. Every morning it's so sweet to confess, "You are. I'm not!"Howard Higashi

A pedestrian pedests into a bar...Mysterious co-worker via messenger, after a lunchtime discussion about the various definitions of the word "pedestrian."

24 June 2009

Testing a new lens

Considering buying this new lens. Have actually been considering it for several months, but finally got around to renting it! Will be using it for work tomorrow, but this afternoon, took some shots in my backyard to get familiar with it. This thing weighs almost 5 lbs! For comparison, the actual camera body weighs less than 1 lb. You can't imagine how lop-sided this rig is!

But it lets in lots more light! These photos were taken at 8pm and look how bright they are!

Luna loves baseball!

I was trying to get sun glare here, and I saw it in the viewfinder, but the lens took it out! I guess that's a good thing for most situations, but not when someone is WANTING glare...

Texture.

This was actually taken last week at night time. I have never seen the bug that leaves these exoskeletons everywhere, so I had to snap a shot. This little creature was drying off after his recent metamorphosis, I suppose.

Ok, back to the backyard. Here's the rope for the tree fort. Loving the short depth-of-field. Also loving the bokeh in the background.

Ahh, love relaxing in this hammock!

Lens is pretty sweet, no?

12 June 2009

What the what?!

What is this? Someone, s o m e o n e, please explain what this is. Is this a joke? Surely some enemy of mine has left this as a joke. It's real? Are you sure? Did an animal leave it there for me? My dog didn't do it, she was inside all day. How could something like this happen on accident?

I came home from work, nothing on porch. I ran to the store and came back to find this:

I'm thinking to myself. "Sweet, someone left me a surpri...oh gawd! what is that!"

You can see in the picture above that Luna is just as confused as I am. Did this bird fly into the window to kill Luna and meet an untimely death itself? If so, why is it perfectly perpendicular to the doormat? Does a flying bird not ricochet off of glass at some angle? Is it scienfically possible for it to fly into glass at such a velocity so as to kill itself and then deflect directly backwards?

Now, about getting that thing removed...?

On another note, is this a Mockingbird or a Dove?

10 June 2009

Welcome to the World, baby!

A couple of weeks ago, Sam and Vanessa asked me to do some family portraits before new baby was born. Today... after a long wait, baby arrived, making this trio a quartet! Welcome to the world, baby! This is what your family looked like before your grand entrance.

We took these shots at sunset along a nearby creek. The setting sun made for some nice backlighting.

Here, Benjamin gives baby sister several kisses. Here's one of them...