Did he bring me a wife?

Wow, I’ve not had that much fun in months. I really wasn’t looking forward to it at all. I was in fact dreading it and had been for several days. I’ve been in the doldrums as of late, so I wasn’t in the mood to be social, but damn I had a good time. I’m not sure I’ve ever had so much fun at the expense of drunk people, and boy are they funny. At the beginning I was pretty stiff, still not really wanting to be there, but after a little while I started to loosen up, for whatever reason. It probably had to do with the fact that everybody was drunk and wasn’t going to remember this, ever. I also started not caring whether people cared if I was taking pictures of them, so I started to take a whole bunch of pictures. I ran down my battery, let it charge some, ran it down again, let it charge some, and then ran it down again. I’m beginning to think I need a pistol grip battery along with some new glass. Looking at the pictures now, it seems like my primary issues were focus, lighting, and framing. I became more and more aware of being too close to the people in the picture, so I would back away and let the flash travel a bit (if I had the space to take a step back). The place was pretty dark, so I was using a flash, and wasn’t really in the mood to try any manual aperture mode. I figured that the reason why the camera was intent on pre-flashing alot was due to the low light and not being able to autofocus, which I also imagine didn’t help the battery situation much. Since I was blinding a bunch of people and didn’t have much battery to spare, I didn’t really feel like making them sit through several takes. And finally since it was also dark, I had some trouble seeing what I was photographing through the viewfinder. So, to recap, I need to pay more attention to framing (I was just being lazy mostly when this happened), bring a better battery, take at least 2+ of everything (to aid in better odds of a good autofocus), while simultaneously getting better at paying attention to the focus before taking the picture and being more diligent about checking the proof. I guess that part of it was that sometimes it just didn’t want to take, so I would hold down the button so that it eventually would take (which could have been a bunch of them). By then I didn’t have too much control over what exactly was in focus and didn’t want people to have to pose any longer.

In other news, I am in serious want of a wife…

I am a seeker in search of miracles.
For ceiling’s and wall’s.
The conditionally perceived illusionary surroundings require examination and overcoming.
His exaggerated approach to sci-fi and surrealist subjects are fresh and twisted, with commentaries, accomplishments, and future goals as well.

I have only until recently gained a significant appreciation for Scrubs. I essentially watched the first two seasons this past weekend, and I now understand why Adan, et. al. liked it so much, and I now like it, too. :) I really need to procure and watch the rest, which I imagine I’ll get on it right quick-like.

For everyone who understand the difference between a dollar and a penny and can do dimensional analysis, you MUST WATCH THIS ROTF LMAO LOLOLO!!1!!!1. If the math is too much for you to follow, just use Google Calculator.

Update: For those of you who would like to keep up with the saga, check in over at the blog this guy set up for this.

I really hate being ignored. The frequency with which I feel this is quite small, but potent when it does occur (hence this post). And indeed more often than not, I am quite content to be ignored. But there are those times, when someone asks something of you and asks that it be done in an expeditious manner and then promptly ignores you, like it’s not really all that important (of course I never do that myself…). Those are the times that irk me the most. I’d like to believe that I’m a pretty low maintenance guy and that my friends don’t have to dote over me nor pay me much attention. Hopefully they acknowledge my existence, which usually of itself is enough. So, please, if you ask something of me, and I follow up with some sort of quandary in response to your request, be quick to respond, lest I think you don’t care that much for what you asked. Man, I just hate it when I ask a simple and reasonable question and get no love… I really hope I don’t do that.

I really could kill the developers over at Pixelpost. Hulk gets angry when he reads the forums. Hulk gets angry when he looks at the code. Hulk gets angry when things that should be in the upstream codebase aren’t. Hulk gets angry when he spends most of the day patching the new code (not that he minds that much, and not that it’s the worst way to spend a Saturday, but I really shouldn’t have to). hulk gets angry when he gets the impression that the developers just want everything to be made into an “addon” when “addons” won’t really get you very far for some feature requests. Things that Pixelpost really needs to focus on and put in their roadmap/milestones (if they have any which I would doubt):

internationaliziation
exif data in rss/atom feeds
thumb/full/no image in rss/atom feed
consistency in rss/atom feed content
rss/atom comment feeds
individual photo comment feeds
code formating/styling/standardization
code reuse/breaking into functions
out of the box anti-spam and captcha
header/footer in templates
<site_aboutlink>
prettier urls: simple: /photo/1 and more complex slugs: /2006/12/01/kids
database independent
remove “no intrusion”, 404 crap
standardize checking of possible x= parameters

And probably many more. It’s really not that bad of a product. And of course I use it, and I used it for Marc’s and Ben’s photoblogs, because when it comes down to it, it does its job, and it does it in a pretty short amount of code (because then it’s easy for me to hack on), but it really could use some polishing. I could probably easily get a dozen patches in to the development team, but I hesitate because if I did a whole lot of work to break all of my code updates into patches and then submit them to the developers, only to have them thumb their noses at me, well, I don’t want that to happen…

</pixelpost-rant>

I just saw the new Bond flick “Casino Royale” which was pretty good. I dunno if it was 8.0 IMDB good, but it was good. It was also really long, clocking in at 2.5 hours. Most movies nowadays last no longer than 1.5 hours, while most older movies will be 2 hours long. There were a great many things that were different in this one, straying a lot from many of the common devices in most of the preceding Bond films. Things such as Q, lots of gadgets, lots of sex with lots of Bond girls, not the normal martini, not the normal card game, not the normal bond girl, no Money Penny (but an allusion to), new Felix Leiter, et al. They also seemed to try to have a throwback to some nostalgia in the first few minutes. Both of the studio logos were in black and white, yet were the current logos. Then the first sequence of the film was in black and white, with what I considered to be way too much grain. I watched “Roman Holiday” for the first time recently and in one of the dvd features, they explained how they had painstakingly restored the film. This process was excellent whose end result was a film without grain. They also left their trippy psychedelic main titles, with a little less lsd. In addition to the black and white grain, the way in which the opening sequence was shot was very much modern as well, not really lending itself to continue this theme of an old film noir movie. Also, as I was watching this, I really wanted them to do the titles in an old style as well, but it was not to be. So, while I’ve heard a person or two mention that they don’t like the new Bond as a blond, I didn’t really mind it. This guy was so young and buff that it really reminded me of what must have been the films during Connery’s peak physical shape. Having the franchise break out of the mold was a great stroke, I thought. They tried to focus a little more on story (which is why I would guess that the film is so long), which has been quite lacking as of late. Also, it seemed to me that they finished up rather quickly and in not so interesting ways (verbally for a bunch of it). You would have thought that with 2.5 hours they could have done a little better with the pacing. They still had the blockbuster action sequences which I would also guess would be the bulk of its appeal to the general audiences. I just wish that there would have been better writing and better story telling. I would love to see another in this departure from the cookie cutter Bond film, hopefully with a better story with some real twists, and perhaps shot in a style more in sync with this older time period in Bond’s life. I would imagine that those two things would really revive this dormant dynasty. Join us next time when we’ll discuss Alfred Hitchcock’s timeless and flawless “Dial M for Murder”. :)

I am waiting for a few more minutes here in the Rick Husband Amarillo International Airport with free wifi and figured that I might share some thoughts while still fresh. I was glad to be home and out of Atlanta, but I am also now glad to be heading back to Atlanta. I can only take so much of the “what do you want to eat”, “where do you want to eat”, “did you get enough to eat”, “do you have everything (luggage, camera, tickets)”, etc. I feel pretty hen pecked when they take my temperature on virtually everything. I know that they’re just trying to make my trip as wonderful as possible by making sure that they’re doing what I want to be doing, but in reality I don’t really care that much and am pretty low maintenance (or at least I like to think so) and so I would almost just rather prefer that someone else picked and I will be content with whatever decision is made. I think that my Dad is getting sappy in his old age. I would guess that my Mother is the same way, but knows to hide it a little more from me and to try and not be so Motherly (which I assume that she learned from the empty nest phase during the first few years of me being in college and some talks that we had). I guess they will always be parental, but for theirs and my sakes I wish they’d worry a lot less. It’s surprising that neither one of them has gotten ulcers… Somehow we managed to not see any movies nor did we talk about Baxter. I suppose that I was party to both counts, it seemed a little odd, especially that Baxter never came up. He’s buried in the back yard, so I went to see him twice and took some pictures. I thought that I would feel differently seeing the grave, but I guess that it’s been long enough that it didn’t really evoke much, which in itself made me a little sad.

I got to see Role and Jackson for most of the day on Friday, which was really good. TJ even stopped by a bit, being in Amarillo. Also, while my sisters and Mother shopped in Hobby Lobby, I wandered around the store and caught up with both Max and Ann Murphey (well she used to be Ann Murphey), both of whom I hadn’t talked to in quite some time, so it was good to catch up. All in all a really good weekend, getting to see the fam and getting to see and catch up with friends.

Apparently I have bad luck when it comes to air travel, as everyone seemed to mention it. My parents and even the neighbor mentioned my trouble. Anyway, it wasn’t something that I had even really thought about until several people brought it to my attention. In my mind, I really didn’t think that I have had too many issues… Odd how perceptions are different. I guess it’s just not one of those things that I think about or linger on. I figure that I’ve got bigger fish to fry.

I better sign off as I imagine that we’ll be boarding soon. Hope everybody had a Happy Thanksgiving!

I flew American Airlines this trip, which I am not sure if I will do again. For the leg from DFW to AMA, they would not issue me a seat assignment until I arrived in DFW. Upon my arrival (and with the skylink broken) I walked to my gate and received a seat assignment and a boarding pass. They announced around the boarding time that they were overweight and needed 4 volunteers to bump. None did and they basically recalled/confiscated my boarding pass. At this point, I’m wondering if I am going to get to Amarillo that night, as the flight that they mentioned during the bumping announcment was at 6am the next morning. But, they must have loosed some weight somewhere, as I think that all of the 4 of us that might have been involuntarily bumped weren’t, so I made it home as planned. A little disappointing, as I was almost in the mood for a tirade about their policy towards their customers. I even had a decent analogy to how it appears to me how baseball game tickets are also a racket, as you are not given re-entry rights. It’s like you aren’t buying/renting out a seat so much as buying a one time ticket through the door.

I read “The Bear and the Dragon” (which is actually Chad’s book) during the flight. I figured that I need the mental exercise in reading instead of sleeping. I got like 130 pages into it, I think.

On the flight from ATL to DFW, I did sit next to a very attractive young lady. I eventually built up enough courage to chit chat with her. I stammered something about whether or not she was flying home for the holiday. To which she replied that she had a wedding to go to this weekend and hence the trip. I tried to continue the conversation, which lasted for a couple of minutes. I figured that I would be polite and only carry it on if she did, which she didn’t, so that was that.

This is not a new sentiment, and I don’t know if I have ever mentioned it here, but some attractive woman is going to have to club me over the head. I can probably read women about as well as they can read me so I really just give up trying. So, like I said, this is not a new revelation, but perhaps worth repeating.

In other news, both my parents made mention of the possibility that I’ve gained some weight. Thinking about it now as I write, I am curious why they didn’t mention it before when they were in Atlanta… But, my Dad got the scale out and it weighed me at just under 200 pounds. It’s a nice feeling when you think that you’re gaining weight and then it is more or less confirmed. I think that I’ve floated around 185 for several years. I’ve had that sinking feeling about my metabolism slowing since I’ve moved to Atlanta, plus the fact that quite often I eat pretty late at night. Two factors that are not contributing to my skinniness. Like all good parents, I think that they were spining it and back pedalling, and I doubt that I could get a straight answer now about what they really thought, even if I asked them point blank. Maybe the bike was a good purchase after all.

Well, it’s rather late, even my my standards and I’m getting up “early” in the morning to head out to Palo Duro Canyon for a little photo shoot with Cole and Rachel. Should be fun.