Things I've learned from the new camera so far:

1. How to take photos of nanking cherry blossoms in the middle of winter. Riiight. Of course this is still an old photo, people.

2. Subject is too dark is the camera's polite version of you forgot to take the lens cap off again, Dee. Sigh. It's been a long time since I've dealt with non-automatic lens caps, did I mention?

3. I've kind of forgotten how to hold a camera. I think it's going to take a little practice to get my hands out of point-and-shoot mentality, but I'm looking forward to it.

I'm also looking forward to having some actual subject matter. Geez, winter is boring for a person who likes spiders and flowers.

Speaking of winter, I just went out and plugged in the car. Now, for those of my two fans who are unfamiliar with Alberta (or Canada in general), plugging in the car does NOT mean that the car runs on electricity. One of my favourite -- and I suppose in a way unfortunate for the person involved -- plug-in-the-car stories goes back to when I was living in rez during my first year of university. I've probably told it before, but what the heck. Tis the season for repeats, after all. One of the guys on my floor was from California and had driven his car up to Edmonton for school. When the first cold snap was expected, he came up from the parking lot all excited and puzzled because he didn't realise that we already had so many electric cars in Canada. When we asked him what he meant, he told us he'd noticed that most of the cars in the lot were plugged in. That's when we broke it to him that it was going to get cold enough out there to freeze his engine block, and he'd better go have a block heater installed asap.

Having grown up with block heaters and the like, it's hard for me to imagine a the wonderful world where people don't even know that such a thing exists or is needed.

I probably didn't have to plug the car in today because it's only -17C at the moment (only -17C? Well, heavens. The past few days it's been in the mid -20s. -17C is balmy after that, isn't it? Hmm. Not so much, but let's pretend it is), but I figured I'd give it a warm since it's been sitting for a few days. Besides, I really hate the sound of an engine trying to start cold. Something about the mechanical strain makes me even more nervous about winter driving than I am anyway.

Oh, I should clarify that. I'm not so much nervous of the driving, per se. I don't find winter driving terribly pleasant, but I'm reasonably competent at it. No, what I'm nervous about is the possibility of mechanical failure or accident that might leave me stranded on the highway or something. Sure, the highways are fairly busy and it's not like I wouldn't be found if for some reason I couldn't just phone. Being stranded in the cold, though, can be dangerous. Doubly so for someone who's allergic to cold.

Of all the stupid things to be allergic to in Canada, cold has to be one of the absolute stupidest. And for anyone out there who doesn't know what I'm talking about, google it. I'm not in the mood to get into explanations yet again.



Aaanyway. The car's plugged in, and I'm planning to head home this afternoon. It may (for a change) not mean I'm disappearing from the blog, though, since I'm planning to go into work tomorrow. We'll just see how hectic work is, since I haven't been there for a while.

Later, all.

Art-like things and pointless photography

My two fans will know that today's title is one of my regular post labels. It's typically me, really. My doodles? I can't think of them as art, so they become art-like things. My photography? Well, I'm not being modest when I say that it's pointless. It's meant to be pointless. I've been doing it with a little autofocus camera that's (more than) a few years and 10, 000 photos old now, and while it's been a good little camera there's no doubt that it has limitations. That's been part of the fun, really. A lot of the photos you see here on the blog are the result of me trying to fool the camera into doing things that it doesn't think it can do. What can I say? I like playing with futility.

I also like taking pictures. I've liked it since I was a kid with a 110 camera. Um... for those of you out there who don't actually remember film cameras (sigh), here's what I mean. I took loads of pictures with that and a few other cameras. Dad even taught me the basics of f-stops and shutter speeds with his Pentax. I loved taking photos... until I was old enough to pay for my own developing.

Ouch.

Boys and girls, photography used to be expensive.

I still took pictures after that, but not quite as... extensively, shall we say. I still took pictures, and my parents bought me a nice Minolta SLR in high school for the trip to France that wasn't (our school trip supervisor used a flimsy excuse to back out at the last minute, so we never got to go. I've still never been to Europe. Thanks a lot, Teacher-who's-pointless-to-mention-since-she's-dead-now). The camera got used, though. I took it on tour with my university choir, and if you look through my photo albums you can even see the barest beginnings of my current (weird) photographic point of view. Only the barest, though. We're still talking film cameras here, and I couldn't really afford to waste money on experiments.

But then. Oh, then.

Digital, baby.

As many  pictures as you wanted, and you could see them without paying the local film lab.

Awesome.

First, I played around with the 1M jobby that my father bought once the units became less expensive (and faster. How many of you out there remember how slooow digital cameras were at first? The one we had at work -- for a nature centre -- couldn't have taken a picture of an animal unless it was stuffed). A few years later, I was given the Lumix I have now. 3M, Leica lens, tiny screen, no image stabilisation or anything fancy like that, but I've sure enjoyed it. My dad currently has a... 5M, I want to say... autofocus that I've used a few times, but the vast majority of the pictures I've taken in the past few years have been with the Lumix. As a bonus, by the way, images from a 3M camera don't take up too much of the limited memory space that Blogger offers for their in-house image hosting, so even after all these years of pointless blog photos I haven't had to switch to linking from my Flickr account (which so far hasn't even been used, so don't bother looking for it) or anything like that.

I wonder how that's going to change now?





I GOT A CAMERA FOR CHRISTMAS!

Of course, anyone with half a brain who read yesterday's post had probably guessed that already. Or anyone with less than half of a brain who's been reading this one.

Yours Pointlessly has officially entered the world of DSLRs, folks. I'm debating on whether to give you the specs of the thing (although it'll be pretty easy to find that out from the Exif data once I start posting photos from the camera), but let's just say that it's considered an "entry level" camera (which is plenty for the kind of puttering around that I do) that I see has some decent reviews. It came with the pretty standard 18-55mm zoom, and I expect that I'll be saving my pennies for a macro in the nearest possible future.

Yep. I'm actually going to have to start thinking about photography again instead of just point-and-shooting it. I'm reeeally rusty on SLRs at this point, but the advantage of today's cameras and their automatic features is that I'll be able to use the camera even while I'm still figuring it out.

I have to say, I'm looking forward to actually being able to focus a shot the way I want to. I haven't done that for a long time. And I must admit, there's something very satisfying about feeling a shutter snap when you take a picture, rather than just hearing a computer simulation.

So when will you be seeing my first efforts? There's a question. The camera didn't come with a cable (which, wtf company-that-I-haven't-named-yet? You can't be bothered to include a cable? It was bad enough when they started doing that with DVD players), and the card reader on this computer has never worked properly. It'll probably have to wait at least until I can get in to work, I guess. By then, though, I might even manage to have something worth looking at.

Or maybe I should make it completely pointless, just to show you that better equipment doesn't change the weirdness of the photographer.

Either way, I'm feeling -- as I said yesterday -- royally spoiled, but at least it's spoiled with something that will be put to good use. Or pointless use. But use all the same.



Poor blog. What are you in for?

Merry Laundry fa la la

It's December 25th, and I -- as you may have guessed from the post title -- am doing laundry.

Well... what do YOU do for Christmas?




Now, if this is sounding kind of depressing to you, it shouldn't. It's just that Christmas is pretty low-key here, that's all. We've done presents already, there's not too much to do for supper since we rotisserie the turkey (and as I say every time I mention this, rotisseried turkey is sooo much better than just about any other way you can do turkey), there's no small children to entertain, so why not do laundry in the meantime? It has to be done eventually, and it's not like I'm beating it against a rock or anything.

For those of you who are having a more hectic, full-on family Christmas, remember to try to take the time to enjoy the company of the people that you're with. No one's going to care if everything's perfect, and if they do they should probably be looking at adjusting their priorities.

For those of you not celebrating Christmas for whatever reason, have a good Tuesday.

Oh, and today's photo? Obviously not new. There will be new photos coming up, though. Yes, even though I don't like taking pictures of winter. There'll be new photos because someone in this room (and except for the fish, I'm the only one in the room) got royally and unexpectedly spoiled. More on that later. As for the other things under the tree, well, let's just say that I have a couple of very thoughful people in my life, and thank you. Speaking of that, though, I really should take just one quick new photo. Gimme a sec...

Yes, that is a picture of feet.

Somebody out there knows why.





Merry Christmas, everybody.

So yeah...

Haven't been around a computer much (or at all, the why of which we're not getting into at the moment), feeling a little droopy (which almost makes today's not-new photo have a point. Sorry, blog), spent too much time just now trying to catch up on some of the internet silliness I've missed, and a fish is staring at me.

Um, the fish is across the doorway from the computer here at my dad's place. Fish-staring is a bit of a creepy hazard.

Are you getting the feeling that this isn't really going to be a post? It isn't. I would like to know, though, why it is that I spend so much time watching tattoo shows on the television when I'm sick. I get why I spend so much time watching wedding shows (to laugh at and be puzzled by the people who are willing to go into so much debt for such silly things that no one will ever remember, if you wondered), but tattoos? I mean, I have nothing against tattoos and have thought for a long time about getting one or two myself, but why was it my personal theme on TV for the past few days? That's just weird.

Ah well.

I promise I'll try for a real post or two sometime in the next couple of days. Now, though, I should head upstairs and actually show my father that I don't just come here to use his electronics.

Oh, and for anyone who was curious, Max the cat is still around. Still eating, still interested, just getting slower and slower. Tenacious animal, that one.

Happy Christmas if I happen to not post tomorrow.

I probably will, though.

Have to make up for this past week somehow, right?

Look, a bird

Ok, so it's a ladybird rather than a bird bird. And yes, I grew up calling them ladybugs like 99% of the people on the left side of the Atlantic. The professional naturalist in me knows that they're beetles rather than bugs, though, so I've tended to shift my terminology over the years. Just like gophers have become ground squirrels, especially when I'm talking to the public. Er, except for the Pocket Gopher, which isn't a ground squirrel (and is, in fact, a gopher).

But that's not why you called.

There's a whackload (the official scientific term) of chickadees outside my office widow right now, cracking open sunflower seeds from a nearby feeder, chasing each other around, and generally being distracting. It's not unusual to see birds outside the window here; the nature centre is, after all, at the entrance to a wildlife sanctuary, and there's a cluster of bushes right here that gives them perfect roosts and shelter. Lately we've even had a flicker coming by regularly and sitting on the top of the window frame. We generally only get to see his bottom half, but we figure that he's probably cleaning dead insects and such from the building. If that's the case, more power to him. Or it. I haven't got a good enough look to know whether it's a he or a she.

All this is probably making me sound like I know what I'm talking about, but mostly I suck at birds (and I've really got to start watching how I use the phrase suck at. The person who asked for permission to use my ground squirrel -- not gopher -- drawing yesterday found it in a post on the other blog in which I boldly stated I suck at ground squirrels. It made for an interesting exchange of business e-mails afterwards, I can tell you. Note that you used the phrase professional naturalist a couple of paragraphs above this, Dee. Suck at doesn't really indicate professional anything. Well, one thing, maybe. But we all need to get our minds out of the gutter at this point). Oh, I know my basics after all of these years doing the job I do, but I always hesitate to answer bird questions. It's partly because I'm not as comfortable with birds as I am with mammals and plants (of the three, by the way, mammals are by far the cuddliest...), but largely because there are so many real birders out there. Birders can tend to be obsessive, and if I'm asked a bird question by somebody other than a child or someone who's just put up their first bird feeder, the chances are that the person asking the question already knows about five times more about the subject than I do.

Aaanyway. The reason I started this post, and the reason for the post title (which has become something of a shorthand amongst some of us for Sorry, but I just got distracted) is that work, health, and life have been a bit like a shrub full of chickadees for me lately. I seem to be chasing around branches, twittering (as opposed to tweeting, which I've also been doing. Only on the work account, though) and flighty, and not really getting much done for all the distraction. The blog's suffered, obviously. Will that continue? Oh, probably. I'm going to try to make it more than the once a week effort it's started to become, but no promises. Whatever happens, happens.

And there'll likely be more birds along the way. Especially with this office set-up. Back to work for me, now.

Quick photoless post

Kind of busy right now, but I just had to say that the internet is a weird place sometimes. A random (well, ok, not entirely random) doodle of a ground squirrel that I did a while ago has attracted the attention of someone who's putting together the program for an upcoming hibernation conference.

I've been asked for permission to put my doodle on the title page.

Yep.

My doodle. Doodle. Non-artist doodle.





The internet can be a weird, weird place all right...

There were words here yesterday

There were. I saw them. There was an actual, blathery post on the blog yesterday.

I don't think that there will be today.

It's been one of those mornings where I've just been fooling around catching up with some of the internet nonsense I didn't have time to keep track of during the week, and somehow or other all of the silliness made whatever thoughts I had about a post vanish.

I did have thoughts, you know. Or at least I thought that I had thoughts.

You'll notice, by the way, that we're back to old photos from last spring again. I just can't bring myself to go outside and take pictures of snow. It'll happen eventually, but for now I think I'll just stick to my stock of happy memories of warmer days past.

I suppose after my morning's internet travels I could make a quick yet again comment on the subject of black blogs. Black or dark backgrounds with light type, I mean. My two fans will have heard this from me before, but for those new to the program I'll just say that I really wish that people would stop doing black blogs. Sure, they may look good from a stylistic point of view, but for a large part of the population they can become almost unreadable. For me, with my myopia and astigmatism, the after-images I get after trying to concentrate on a black blog for any length of time are more than just distracting. They're almost headache-inducing. There's more than one black blog I follow because I really like the content, but I dread seeing long posts appear when I click on their updates. And there are plenty of wordy posts out there that I just haven't bothered to struggle through for very long because of blackblogitis.

It makes me a little sad, honestly, when I don't get to read your thoughts because I can't handle your design choices.



Ah well. None of this really matters to the people who have black blogs, so I don't know why I keep going on about it. I guess this is enough post for today. Happy Ada Lovelace's birthday, everyone.

The times they are a changing

The blast from the past you see in today's pointless (and rather awful. It was a quick one-off shot) photo are bottles from a trip to Hawaii my family took when I was in Grade 12 (so, sadly, over a quarter of a century ago now. And you kids get off of my lawn.). Times have changed in the sun since then, don't you think? Note the list of just about every kind of oil you can imagine on the Royal Hawaiian bottle -- and the thing's about half used, so my mother at least must have been slowly sizzling the whole time we were there. Also note the astonishing sun protection factor of 6 on the Bronztan. That would only be for the fair-skinned Irish amongst you in those days.

Those days being only 25 and some years ago, remember.

There's also a bottle of Royal Hawaiian after-sun lotion that I couldn't manage to hold at the same time for the picture. You had to soothe the lobster effect somehow, I guess.

Today? Well, even my daily make-up foundation has SPF 15. Changing times, indeed.

Oh, and don't even ask why we still have old suntan oil bottles around the house. I honestly couldn't tell you.

----------

I've been debating on whether to mention the other sign of changing times here since I usually like to keep things light, but I suppose that I may as well. The sad fact is that my father's place will soon become a petless household again.

I don't count the fish. Sorry ichthyophiles, but in the end you and I both know that fish are more decor than pets.

This house was always filled with pets when I was growing up, but after my brother and I left home my parents didn't replace pets as they reached the end of their lives. There was a time when this really was a petless place, and it was kind of a weird feeling. It must have eventually felt weird to my folks, too, because back in 1997 (I know the date from old vet records, in case anyone's thinking right now that I have a much more incredible memory than I really do) the house became pet happy again. First it was a dog. That'd be Rikki. Shortly after came Penny the cat, and a couple of weeks after that Max arrived to keep her company. That was 1997, though, and pet lifespans (well, all lifespans, of course), are finite.

The dog went first. Not surprising, since dogs generally don't get too much past a decade. A few months back it was Penny. Now, I'm pretty sure we won't have Max for too many more weeks, if that.

Now, keep in mind that this is a nearly 16 year old cat. I know that there are cats out there that've lived longer, but overall 16 years is a decent age. It's sad to see the end of a pet era, though, and Max? Well, Max is a pretty neat cat. He certainly has more personality that just about any other cat we've had, and we've had a few over the years.

What'll happen (petwise) when he's gone? I really don't know. My dad's talked occasionally about getting another dog, and it wouldn't surprise me too much if he did. Maybe he'll decide to take a pet break for a while to make up his mind, though. Tough call for someone like him who's had animals pretty much all his life except for the short period I mentioned above. No doubt I'll keep you posted either way, since it'll end up being blather worthy and Whomever knows that I'm usually short on blather.

Gee, this was a happy post. I need to end with something lighter, I think. Something pet related? Sure. Let's see... A parrot driving its own car? Why not. There might be a few of you out there who haven't seen that yet.

Incidentally, it's a good thing that this guy's pet wasn't an octopus. Wheat and I have a theory about the oncoming octopus world domination. They're going to take over, folks. Remind me to tell you why sometime. It'll freak you out, I promise.

Ok, here's a question:

How's a person who has two personal blogs and also manages the work blog supposed to keep all three current when she doesn't even have a computer at home?

Read that as: I got busy with a post for the work blog, so this one's getting shorted today. And as for the third? Oh, I just haven't been doodling much worth posting this week. I've been in pattern mood, and while that may make my hand and my brain happy, it's basically wtf as a blog post, really.

Today's pointless photo, then? Currant flowers from last spring. Currant flowers are bizarre, fascinating-looking things. You should look them up. You know, if you're lacking reading material because I can't be bothered to put together two proper posts in one day.

Catch you later. Later might not be for a day or two depending on what I can fit in between programs, but there will be a later at some point.

Bye now.

Damn you, expensive tea!

In honour of the fact that I had to dig my car out from what the news is saying was 11 cm of snow this morning -- and not a warm morning either -- today's pointless photo features apple blossoms.

I miss apple blossoms.

And I hate that my brain automatically decides on an Andrews Sisters earworm every time that I type apple blossoms...

----------

Ok, before I really get into this you should know that I'm not a coffee drinker. Never have been, never will be. I've never been to Starbucks, and I've never debated over the vast selection of K Cups that seem to be everywhere these days (incidentally, and not to be preachy, but people do realise that all those little plastic cups aren't biodegradable, right? My office mate was on a bit of a rant about them this morning). I've missed the fad, but I have a lot more money in my bank account because of it.

I am, however, a tea drinker.

Not in a several pots a day kind of way, but if I know I'm going to be at my desk all morning I'll have my insulated mug's worth of tea made. I guess that would equal about two standard cups of tea, but it's all I'll have for the day. Not that more would be a problem or anything. I'm just trying to give you an idea of the consumption here.

Now, I'll admit to being a semi tea snob. Semi in that I'll happily use bags if that's what's available and I'm not about to sit in a coffee bar ordering the fanciest, fussiest serving of perfect chai that anyone's ever heard of. Given my druthers, though, I'll use loose tea and not-quite-boiling water whenever possible.

Um, the boiling thing? Most teas, especially the cheaper teas in tea bags, don't do well with water that's too hot. It can make them more bitter.

The world of loose teas can be a dangerous thing, you know. Bigger range of flavours, actual identifiable tea leaves instead of the near dust in bags, and varieties that are hard to find in grocery stores. Like Darjeeling.

There's my downfall. I'm not a huge fan of Orange Pekoe or Earl Grey, but as an everyday tea I really like Darjeeling. There was a time when you could find Darjeeling in some of the grocery stores and I'd happily buy that (yes, even in bags), but it's a rarity nowadays. That means that a trip to the specialty store to satisfy my Darjeeling craving, and that, as I said before, is dangerous. For one thing, you never buy just the Darjeeling when you make the trip. It's Darjeeling and... well, maybe I should try a bit of this. Oh, and what have they made up to sample today? It's pretty good.. I'll just get a little of that, too.

And the Darjeeling?

There's a choice of Darjeelings. Darjeelings, plural. Yay Darjeelings. I should just get the standard stuff, but I wonder what makes this one so expensive? Do I want to smell it? Sure, why not?

Hmm.

Ok, I'll try that one this time. But just this time. Next time, it's back to the Darjeeling that costs half as much.



Yep. That's how I ended up with the stupidly expensive Darjeeling a while ago. I'm not even going to tell you what kind of Darjeeling, because if I do and you look it up and find out just how expensive it is you'll be saying you paid THAT MUCH for tea???

I did.

It's good.

It's better than good.

And I'm almost out.





Sigh.

Ah well. What with Christmas coming and all, I may -- just may -- be able to convince myself that I should use up some of my other tea before hearing the siren song of the stupidly expensive Darjeeling.

Maybe.

Just maybe.

Even if it's really good.



Dammit. It's not going to work, is it?

Sigh.

Chapter 1671: Wherein Dee is... random?

We're under a snowfall warning, which means of course that today's pointless photo is of a clematis with a fly on it.

They're called pointless for a reason, is what I'm saying.

Plus, I don't want to take snow pictures. I'm holding out for as long as I can on that one.

----------

The problem with blogging after not blogging for a week is that I have plenty of thoughts, but most of them aren't fleshed out enough for a full post. Plus, I'm at work at the moment so I really shouldn't be taking the time for an actual blather. So what to do? Maybe mention the fact that life would be a lot less rich without mustard (mmm... mustard...) but I don't really get the whole thing for Dijon mustard (mmm... mustard with wine...?). I'm not saying that I don't mind stronger mustards than your standard North American yellow, but give me a good deli-style or even English-style mustard over the Grey Poupon any day. Maybe it's just because I don't have a limo, I dunno.

You see now why this kind of thing can't really turn into a whole blog post by itself?

Ok, another thing on my mind because it's come up over and over again on television lately. It bugs me enough that I've mentioned it before, but it's SO much a headdesk for me that I have to get it out somewhere. Caution: lady's privates ahead. I promise it's PG, though.

Ladies. Read and learn. It embarrasses me to no end that you don't know your own  anatomy. It's becoming more and more apparent that a vast number of you don't know what your vagina is, or where it can be found. Look, even if you go out in the world's shortest skirt and no underwear, and even if you dance the dirtiest dance that's ever been danced, no one is going to see your vagina. No one. Because -- and it's so depressing that I even have to say this to grown women who should know better -- your vagina is INSIDE your body. Inside. As in, not visible from the outside. The only person in an average woman's life who will ever see her vagina is her gynecologist.

I learned that when I was in elementary school. If you didn't, go here and read about what a vulva is. Family-safe link, I promise. Maybe you could teach your daughters? I mean, really. I don't hear any men out there mistaking their scrotums for their penises. It's basic anatomy, folks.



Um, anyway. Vaginas and mustard is a weird combination to end on, but I need to get back to work. I'll try to get back to regular-ish posting soon, but I can't guarantee what the week will bring.

Except, apparently, more snow.