Well since American thanksgiving has now passed I guess that means its officially the holiday season, although I have heard/seen signs of the season since November 1st. I guess it might be because we are going away this year that it might feel like things are happening faster than normal or it could just bet hat the lack of extremely cold weather or snow makes it feel like its earlier in the year than it actually is. The tree went up Wednesday/Thursday I think, Christmas music was going during that time as well. We also had the first fire of the 2009 “winter” (‘cause its not officially winter yet) this evening, and I ended up watching the end of Elf, which just puts you in a happy mood, without fail.
This past week was pretty crazy, especially the last two days, I had three test in three periods, period 4 Thursday, and periods 1 and 2 Friday. Only upside to that was very little homework this weekend. I wrote the hardest math contest of my life on Wednesday, I ended up spending the last half of the time just doodling because I had no idea what was going on on the contest.
I was supposed to have a lot of hockey this weekend, but Friday night at our game, on one of my first shifts I fell on my wrist pretty hard and I figure I sprained it, I played the rest of the game but t’was not pleasant. So that took me out of practice/beer league on Saturday night, and exhibition game/practice today. It feels a bit better today but I wouldn’t play hockey quite yet.
I was awoken at 8 o’clock this morning by my father telling me we were going to get out H1N1 shots. Now I don’t know about you but I haven’t seen 8am on a Sunday for who knows how long. I was not happy to say the least. The clinic was pretty dead however so that made it tolerable and breakfast out afterwards made it all good. I spent a bit of time today going through last night’s parade photos which will make up some of today’s photos (oh yeah, photos, you weren’t getting bored of reading were you?).
I guess I have blabbed enough about the week that was so I guess I can get to the real reason people are here, photos. Most of ‘em are from the parade last night, with a few of some Christmas ornaments on our tree. The parade ones were kind of annoying to take because my battery needed to be charged a while ago and I was pumping the flash sometimes so recycle time was pretty slow so there were some missed opportunities. On top of occasionally trying to press the shutter with my mitts on or a frozen hand, there were a lot of photos on the way to the trash. Look at me, still blabbin away. Anyways here’s the good stuff.
This one changed into all sorts of pretty colours :P
This one was pretty cool, they had the wipers flipped up and on so the car was waving at the crowd.
“Robots need love too” ‘nuff said.
The mini OC Santa bus.
On to the ornaments!
The s’more ornaments, we have quite a few of these courtesy of Christmas Tyme in Huntsville, Ontario.
And another one from the collection.
Anyways that about sums it up for this week. I’m gonna try to keep up with daily posting but we’ll see if school agrees with that. I have a couple more parade/ornament shots that can be posted as well, or I may just put em up on flickr or facebook, or both. Until Tomorrow,
Ciao,
Dave
Well if this isn’t laziness I don’t know what is! It has been 22 days since my last post, yes that was the Thursday before hallowe’en. I guess I have just been pretty busy with school and hockey that I haven't gone out and taken many pictures recently. It seems that 67’s games on Friday are really making the bulk of my photo collection (and today’s blog post). As well, I really need to start venturing outside my backyard to take pictures, its getting really repetitive, although last time I did get a few nice shots. I won’t be titling shots or embedding the meta data today cause I really don’t have the patience to look it up for 22 shots
We ended up getting really close seats for the Plymouth game and it really helps to get nicer angles for the the shots. Well hopefully I can get back on track again and keep up my posting. I would have added captions to some photos but the formatting of windows live writer is the most annoying interface on the planet and I really don’t feel like messing with it tonight.
I have orientation at work tomorrow, which work now refers to Empire Theatres, I am going to be working at the new theatre they are opening on Innes Rd. I don’t know what I will be doing specifically yet but hopefully that will be cleared up tomorrow or Sunday, yes I have orientation for 3.5 hrs both days. The theatre I will be working at is set to open December 18th, and unfortunately we are leaving for our cruise December 19th so I won’t be working very much then.
Well that about sums up 22 days of absence from the blogosphere. Hopefully I can keep the posting up and not have to make massive posts like this again in the future.
Until tomorrow,
Ciao,
Dave
Hello again,
Back with another picture and recap for you viewing and reading pleasure. I am going to need to come up with some more interesting ways to start off these posts because I can only imagine reading hello again for the 243rd time might be a tad annoying for some. Today was not a fun day at points. I got a few quizzes/tests back that had plenty of room for improvement to say the least. I am doing this post fairly early tonight because I am going to try to get up early and go to extra help for math tomorrow morning.
Tonight because of homework and various other things I did not take an new exciting photo’s to share but I still have plenty of good ones hiding away from other days’ shooting. I did two edits of today’s photo, colour and a black and white version available here. I couldn’t really decide which version I preferred so I will leave that up to you.
I may bring my camera to the coffee house at school tomorrow night, we shall see. Then depending on whether I do or don’t bring my camera I may or may not post a picture from coffee house :P Well I ran out of stuff to say about 3 paragraphs ago so I will stop rambling now.
Ciao,
Dave
Back again for I think the 13th day in a row! A few times the posts haven't been posted on the right day but they were started on the right day so it’s all good. I ended up finishing The Digital Photography Book today. I’ve only read a few pages of Vol. 2 at this point but it seems like there is going to be a big emphasis on off camera flash which I don’t have yet, and if I want one its going to cost me a few hundred bucks. Photography is an expensive “hobby”, I already spent a crazy amount on what I have currently, and already I could spend probably at least another grand on more stuff I want. A wider lens than 50mm ( x1.6 on my body) is a bit hard to fit in some stuff sometimes but its nothing that I can’t get over. My next lens purchase, at this point anyways, would probably be the Canon EF-S 10-22mm. Add a tripod and/or monopod, a bag, a filter or two, and I’m sure that would still leaving me wanting something new in a little while, haha.
At school this morning we had the high school awards ceremony. I “helped” organize the grade 9’s from last year/grade 10’s this year. I quoted helped because I guess I wasn’t doing the job right but I was pretty much demoted to ushering people into their rows. The ceremony was pretty boring, with everyone in grades 10-12 who earned honour roll the previous year getting called up, as well as another probably 50 awards to be handed out for various accomplishments. Maybe it was just the fact that I only got honour roll that made it seem so long for me.
Today’s photo: Explanation on the title, glass through “glass”, the first glass is referring to the glass of the National Gallery of Canada. The second glass, the one in quotes, is a slang photography term for a lens. Makes sense seeing as all a lens is is a series of glass lenses (confused yet). So its a picture of the National Gallery taken from Majors Hill park a few weeks ago. Not much else to say really other than enjoy :).
Finally, before I wrap this up I want to share another video that I find quite humorous every time I watch it (which is about 10 times now). Funniest parts of the video in my opinion involve the police, lol.
Monday! Everyone's favourite day of the week no? Yeah me either. Getting up this morning, oh that was not fun. Went to bed at like 1 last night, actually heard my alarm go off at like 7:10 this morning which is pretty early, but just over 6hrs of sleep is not a fun way to start the week. I had to get up kind of earlier than normal cause we got new flooring in the kitchen/laundry room today so I needed to help move some last minute stuff. The guy came after I had left for school and finished around 1 and the floor looks pretty nice. We moved the fridge back into the kitchen from the hallway and avoided scratching/compressing the new floor.
I picked up three books from the library that came in today. I have read 143 pages of the first one (its very easy reading so that number seems like more reading than there actually was, plus its half pages, pics on top). The books are all photography related and I still have another 3 or 4 on request but 2 are more Photoshop books. The titles are The Digital Photography Book (Vol. 1 and 2) by Scott Kelby, and Understanding Exposure by Brian Peterson. Good book so far, Vol. 2 seems like its dives into more advanced stuff, so far this one has been quite a bit of stuff that I have read before, it just simplifies and explains it a bit clearer than I had previously read.
On to today’s photo, I took it at like 10:50 cause I realised that I hadn’t taken a picture for the blog today and I didn’t want to go back into my old pictures today. As you can probably tell this shot is pretty posed :P. I used a piece of red construction paper as a diffuser/bounce card for the on camera flash because ambient light just wasn’t enough to hand hold and get a sharp shot. It worked pretty well and gave it a nice even exposure.
My hockey team won our first game of the season tonight with the game winner being scored by yours truly. We played pretty well but it helped that the ref was calling a lot of penalties against them (we didn't capitalize on the PP unfortunately) and they were a pretty weak team. We ended up winning 3-0.
I don’t have class all morning tomorrow because of the High School awards ceremony which is running till lunch and maybe a bit into it. I think that about wraps up my day today so there isn’t anything else to say.
Ciao,
Dave
Real exciting and witty title eh? I’m sure I could eventually come up with something but I don’t really want to sit here for a couple of hours trying to think up something. I am going to try to get this post done in 18 minutes and then head to bed because tomorrow I have to get up earlier than usual to drive my brother to school and in an attempt to not repeat last years blood donor clinic incident of me nearly passing out I am going to try to get as much rest as possible. I drank a lot of fluids today (2 cups of hot chocolate when I got home from school, and now I just drank about 1.1L of water after hockey.
Today’s picture is a little bit of a deviation from the norm of what I have been posting here. I grabbed my camera and turned off the lights and took a shot of the light on the computer speakers. The length of the exposure and my unsteady hands made a neat little pattern. I then proceeded to take many more picture in an attempt to come up with something. Then the darker blue trails you see are from the lights on the computer tower. The picture you see below is a composite of 5 images. I did have most of the pictures I took in there but it just ended up being too cluttered so I got rid of most of them.
(7 mins gone)
We had our second hockey game of the season tonight and we had our butts handed to us by the other team on the scoreboard. We definitely got outplayed in the first period, pretty even second, and better third period. The final score was 5-1 but in my opinion 3 of their goals were lucky tips. We did have less guys show up for our team tonight and I played D so I got much more ice time as opposed to last game. I got a new stick on Sunday and today was the first time I got to use it and I must say that I really enjoyed it :D.
Looks like that about wraps it up (and early too, still 6 mins to go). Hopefully tomorrow will go fine and there will be no exciting stories to tell but if there is, all the better, makes the thinking up stuff to say much easier.
Ciao,
Dave
Back again with a post, 7 days in a row now! I’m going to keep this one fairly short because its late and I am very tired (even The Dudes weren’t enough to get me out of bed promptly). With today’s picture (another one from Friday) I was trying to get some sort of repeating lines going on. I think it kind of worked and kind of didn’t so I will let you decide if you like it or not.
This evening there was an information night for all the Ontario Universities, I went to the Western one as well as the U of T one. The only thing that they made me realize was that I am likely not getting any entrance scholarships, and I probably can’t afford to go there anyways :P
Glee was pretty good tonight and if you are following me on twitter (*read* do it if you aren’t already) you know that it left me smiling :). Anyways I am gonna head of to bed.
Ciao,
Dave
I contemplated not writing this post today but I figured I was on such a roll, why should I stop. I think I am a little tired seeing as I set my alarm to go off for 6:30 this morning, I did not wake up until 7:10 and only then because my mom came in to wake me up. The goal was to be at school for 7:30 but that didn’t really happen, I hopped in the shower and grabbed breakfast for the road and got to school for 7:40. It was fine though cause Mr. Harvey never starts extra help at 7:30, I still had plenty of time once I got to his class. The math test went alright first period, I kind of ran out of time and had to rush through a few questions, and one was ridiculously time consuming so that one didn’t get finished. The rest of the day went ok. I had subs all afternoon, chem. just for the day, french is going to be for the next month or so.
On to today’s photo. Again I am going back to last Friday's stash. This one was taken from Majors Hill Park near the lower end of the canal. The church is Notre-Dame Cathedral which is one of the nicest churches in Ottawa that I have been in, if not the nicest.
I ventured on to the Ottawa public library site today for the first time in ages. I downloaded the Frankenstein audio book because I am going to be reading it next semester in my Literature class. As well I got in some pretty big lineups for some photography books. Then by chance I stumbled upon an old favourite author of mine, Bill Bryson. This guy is the funniest “travel” writer you will ever read. I thoroughly recommend that everyone reading this reads A Walk In the Woods. I read this book in grade 7, and I remember that because I honestly nearly broke out into laughter when I was reading this (I definitely had a smile on my face the whole time). He has a book titled a short history of nearly everything, which is exactly what the title hints at. My parents both read it and really enjoyed it but I never got around to it for two reasons, 1. The size of this thing is enormous (hmm, just looked and its only 554 pages, but I’m sure its not easy reading), and 2. just the content was probably a little too deep, he describes pretty much the start of the universe in a way the average person can. I thought about getting that one too, or even going to the library to pick it up because Orleans said it had one checked in, then I though about Frankenstein and Oedipus the king and realized that would be plenty of reading for a while.
Finally I have two nuggets of internet goodness to share with you all. The first is the video you see below which was part of a Fox newscast and I just love how angry the guy gets. Secondly still along the lines of oh my god why would you do that we have this link :http://www.topcultured.com/bacon-jam-its-b...you-can-spread/ You can just read the title and pretty much get the idea but there are pictures that are really insightful.
Enjoy those? I hope so, cause I know I sure did! Well now that everyone feels like they ate relatively healthy today (I hope) I am going to head to bed. I hope that I don’t sleep through my alarm as bad tomorrow. I think part of the problem was the music choice I had, Amy Milan isn’t exactly wake up peppy kind of music (no offence Amy :P ). Might have to find some really upbeat music to start the day off. I’m thinking The Dudes might do it :) Anyways,
Well I’m keeping up with the posting now which is good. Taking plenty of shots that you like also makes this a little easier. Today’s shot is another one from Friday’s walk downtown. The colours of the leaves on this tree were so vibrant and contrasted the blue sky very nicely. I did enhance the colours a fair amount afterwards in PS using both the burn and dodge tools. I really didn’t have any final product in mind when I was doing it so it might be a little over the top :P .
To me this has a kind of HDR look to it but I can guarantee that it is only one photo :P . This tree was in Majors Hill park if I remember correctly. I think that was the only place where there were trees that I took pictures of because there were a few others that had amazing colours too them. I don’t currently have any shots lined up for tomorrow but I’m sure I will be able to find one that I have already that I like, or get out and take another one for tomorrow :).
My parents picked up some new tables for the basement/computer area yesterday and we set them up today. I really like them cause there is a lot more room than before plus its just a cleaner looking area. It was a pretty big job of clearing the space, manoeuvring one table in, putting as much on that one as possible, clearing the old table off, moving the second new one into place and finally hooking up the newer computer again. There is still a lot of cleanup of random cd’s and floppy disks that are lying around that need to be organized as well as clearing off some stuff off the table that really doesn’t need to be there. I think we may be going back soon ‘cause we are going to get some better chairs because right now folding chairs just don’t cut it. Adding that to the list of shopping that I need to get done soon which also includes, new winter shoes (mesh running shoes won’t cut it), hockey practice jersey (my old one just disappeared over the summer), and going to get a suit for our cruise.
Yesterday and last night was my final shift at the Orleans Tennis Club for the 2009 season. We had a round robin and the AGM in the afternoon and then the banquet at 6:30. Dinner was a potluck with everyone supposed to bring their specialty and then we voted on which was our favourite. Saturday night hockey started at 10 p.m. as well. It was a pretty fast pace for the first night and only 3 spares a side. That about sums up my weekend so I will end this one here.
Ciao,
Dave
Whoa! posting 3 days in a row, not too bad. I am home from my final shift of the ‘09 tennis season at the Orleans Tennis Club. I am going back in an hour for the year end banquet but that is just eating, not much work! We had a round robin followed by the AGM (Annual General Meeting) where members voice their opinions on certain things, vote in the new executive, executive reports etc. It was pretty boring and at some points even confusing. None of this relates to the title, its just a recap of what went down for me today.
The title comes from the fact that since getting my camera I have taken more than enough pictures of squirrels. I took one on Thursday, then many more downtown of this one squirrel although many were deleted. I’m doing a first today, I’m posting two pictures on one day. The first one is the one that I took on Thursday and never ended up posting. The second is one from yesterday that I call super squirrel, and you will see why if you scroll down :).
I was in the basement and my dad called me on the phone intercom and told me there was a squirrel out his bedroom bay window so I grabbed my camera and went upstairs. That’s why the perspective is eye level, I was on the second floor of our house looking straight out at this guy. It looked like he was eating a lot of the helicopter things that you find in maple trees.
Second shot for the day is, as I said, titled Super squirrel. This squirrel was in Majors Hill Park I believe and I got lucky and got him while he was airborne à la superman.
So there are just a few of the squirrel shots that I have. I managed to only take 30 minutes to make this post which is pretty quick for me, lol. I do have another shot lined up already for tomorrow so it looks good for making it 4 days in a row :) Tonight after the banquet Saturday night hockey starts up which, again as I have previously said, am really looking forward to. Thanks again to those who read, leave a comment on blogspot or FB and let me know if you are reading.
