BiddiesInMyBrain

Can't Tell You How Many Times...

...I have clicked on this "compose" page in the past two days and realized I have, well, nothing to say.

It's not a bad thing - I have just been doing other things and finding myself in the midst of them rather than here. I'm finishing up my GIS class - I have the power point done and ready to present on Tuesday - and am working on a paper for the 27th for my Directed Readings course... only two or three more papers after that and I will be done with that course. And, I am forging ahead with some of the database cleanup that needs doing for the GIS side of my dissertation (that will take a while).

Meantime, I have been continuing to fuss with the camera and lenses. I was able to put together the makeshift "tripod/unipod" thing, but I made it about four inches too short, so I am going to make another one here in a few minutes to work with tomorrow. Even with the shortness of it (I had to really scrunch over to take pics), it *did* reduce shake at the longer reaches of the telephoto lens, so I think I am on the right track.

Had a baby blue jay fall from a tree/nest yesterday. And yes, I took the opportunity to take pictures. I did not, however, mess with the natural course of things... I let mama and papa try and fend for it, but I fear that one of the neighborhood cats got it once I went inside. I mourn for it, but it is one of those things; there was no way I could save it... and even getting close enough to get pics ired the parents enough that they swooped down on me... no way could I get anywhere closer to scoop it up and put it somewhere safer - if such a place existed.

Terribly tired today - just plumb worn out. I slept in this morning until 11:30, got up and went to a neighborhood picnic, did some running around, came home, fiddled with the stabilizer for the camera, fed Crash, went back to bed for two hours, got up, am sitting here now... and am looking forward to going back to bed - even before Crash comes home tonight.

Off to work on the camera.

Trying to Master a Lens, and Other Miscellany

Still not entirely happy with my 100-300 lens... mainly because I am still dealing with shake - and I took nearly 100 pictures today in the yard playing with various applications of the lens. Will jury rig a travel "tripod" I have seen on YouTube and see how that works... I don't want to drag my real tripod everywhere, so this might be an option to help deal with the shake. If not, then for the train ride I am back to the 18-55mm. Dang it. Any ideas? It's not too bad at the closer (100mm) focal length, but the 300mm is almost useless without the tripod. Meanwhile, I *did* figure out several other features on my camera... and the remote, too, so I am *really* happy. But this lens is making me nuts. I get tremendous results between 100-150mm, maybe up to 200mm, free-held with a relatively near subject... but anything at a distance is just, well, it's out of the league of this lens without something for stabilization.

They got the floor furnace out of the front of the house today - yay - but the house smells like pipe dope and moth balls (they had to cut into an old closet that had, you guessed it, moth balls secreted waaaaay in the back. Naptha and I don't mix). Yech. I haven't been able to have the windows open for a lot of the day because of the rain coming through, but they are going to come flying open in a minute, and I am going to don a sweatshirt. Not much else to do for it, and it's giving me a bad, bad headache.

I am *almost* done with my GIS class - much closer than I *ever* realized - and I will be officially DONE as of early next week. YAY! Meeting with that prof today was extremely heartening. If I get a burst of energy, I may finish the project tonight, and put the glossy touches on it tomorrow.

Regrettably, I think my workhorse of an HP computer is coming to an end to its usefulness for my needs, and I am going to have to spend the summer looking for a replacement for Fall term and into my dissertation. I've had this one for three - nearly four - years, and it has just chugged along, but when I defragged and moved things around last week I realized I am almost out of room ... and my poor baby really has been getting slower and slower despite my best efforts. New software (especially the ArcGIS software I need for the mapping end of my dissertation) just makes it harder and harder to keep up (and I shouldn't have to wait four to five minutes for this puppy to boot). HOWEVER, Crash will love using this computer for school - his software for music will work fabulously on this - and I will be glad to have my baby see more use. It's a terrific little workhorse and should chug along for a long, long time (I have been very kind to it). The only thing I *don't* like - and I *really really really* don't like this - is having to go with Vista. I am absolutely disgusted with that, and am not even sure that ArcGIS will work with Vista yet - they just went through an upgrade that may have incorporated it (I need to read the most recent ArcGIS News which came in the mail last week), but I know the last one didn't - and I can't say I blame them.

Don't know much else - it's been a relatively uneventful day - really! Hope y'all had a good day... and that things just go terrifically for you tomorrow.

::smooches::

Tum De Dum

:::twiddling my fingers:::

It's been a good day!

Except that somehow my knees are hurting. A lot. The right one swelled to the size of a small grapefruit. The left one just HURT. No clue why. All I did was work in the yard this morning!

But I'll take that - my mood is good, and the day has been a productive one. I'm happy, content and...

Dang. Is this for real? ME? Happy... and content... and smiling?

Even snuck in a short nap with Crash. ::beaming::

Yup. ::poking self:: It's a good day.