Torching the Midnight Oil (Wordpress Import)

I love snow. There was 4" of accumulation Friday evening at my apartment, so I was out taking photos that night. I had a great time, but am waiting for deeper snow to make my first real snowman. After all, I'm gonna need a lot if I'm going to make something as tall as me.

I skipped shopping Friday. It never ceases to amaze me how much people buy into marketing. So much so that three people were killed (that I'm aware of) in the events of this monster we call Black Friday. I have yet to find a deal of such value that it's worth fighting through the crowds and "spirit" of the retail season. I had a quiet day looking for ideas for the last few gifts I have yet to buy. I'm very happy with the items I have so far, but there are two people I have no idea what to do for.

Shopping did happen today (Saturday still feels like today since I can't sleep tonight, I'll get to that in a minute). I bought a Singer Touch & Sew model 756 today for $25 USD. It was missing the power cord and control pedal, but works hand cranked ok as far as I can tell. I ordered the parts needed from a local sewing repair shop and will see how it runs when they arrive.

It came with one of those nice sewing benches that the machine will fold down into, allowing you to fold the wing extension over the top making a solid work space for writing or some other use when not sewing. I'm still a little unsure about the hinges and just how much more the table can take since it has seen better days since it was made. I'll give it all a thorough going over when I make my first project on it. I'll be making an urban hammock using a design from [Bre Pettis] in his [Etsy HowTo]. I'm hoping I don't fall out the first time I use it. I'm also hoping to improve on the design a bit by adding wood dowels to each end to hold them out straight (like a traditional hammock).

Back to the issue of sleep. I needed this weekend. I'm enjoying my work and solving unique issues with a particular project I'm on, but I'm just frustrated right now (which could be part of why I can't sleep). We got into a funny situation where we accepted a project before we were aware that we couldn't provide the features the way we thought we could originally, so since it's on my plate, I get to deal with it and am learning a great deal about how to persuade the client to allow a feature to be removed or amended to work differently that originally requested. I also have more work to do right now than was expected as this one project is taking far longer than originally expected. I'm definitely going to have to get some help from my supervisor to catch back up.

Much excitement is beginning to collect around waiting for the replacement part to arrive for the sewing machine. I need some projects to relax/distract/divert my mind when I'm at home. Not sleeping is a bad thing for me. I greatly value my sleep.

Apocalyptica (Wordpress Import)

Four cellists playing rock/alternative. Apocalyptica is one of my favorite groups, and yet I have never purchased any of their albums. I listen to them on Pandora all the time, but just haven't been buying music lately when I can listen online for free.

Anyways, they run their cellos through processors and effect units in such a way that they sound like electric guitars or basses. Good group with a solid sound and worth checking out if you haven't before. Here's a link to their [page on Pandora].

Edit: adding link to my [Pandora profile] if you would like to follow me there.

And Miles to Go Before I Sleep (Wordpress Import)

Some may recognize that title from a line in a poem by Robert Frost. I found another poem last night that was really dark, and the way it was presented was almost disturbing. The setting was a teen girl running away from home as a five year old boy read this poem in the background while his mother put him to bed:

A man of words and not of deeds
Is like a garden full of weeds,
And when the weeds begin to grow,
It’s like a garden full of snow.
And when the snow begins to fall,
It’s like a bird upon the wall,
And when the bird away does fly,
It’s like an eagle in the sky.
And when the sky begins to roar,
It’s like a lion at the door.
And when the door begins to crack,
It’s like a stick across your back,
And when your back begins to smart,
It’s like a penknife in your heart,
And when your heart begins to bleed,
You’re dead, you’re dead, you’re dead indeed.

Best reference I could find was a [Google Book].

I guess that's what I get for channel surfing late at night while waiting to fall asleep. I like the poem, but the presentation was unnerving in it's level of darkness. Small children shouldn't need to read such things. They should have time to enjoy the world before they discover all the things wrong with it and have to start fighting for hope that things aren't all lost.

Quantum of Movie Viewing Solace (Wordpress Import)

I think that may be the first time I've ever gone to a movie alone. To be honest, it didn't change a thing about how I view the movie. I generally try not to talk to the people around me either way (depending on the movie, of course), so whether I know the people I'm sitting crammed shoulder to shoulder with or not, I enjoy the movie the same. I also went to the close theater in the BelMar area over here; it's a nice place.

Bob Marley's "No Woman, No Cry" just came on the radio. It could just be all the facination with how his weed habbit boosted the popularity of his music in the United States with a specific age group, but there is something interesting about him as a musician.

Back to the movie. Beginning to end I was facinated with the cenimatography, and the framing in particular. I started noticing them using the rule of thirds in almost every shot. I also managed to notice the dog in the bottom right quadrent, laying on the porch, as Bond casually jogs out of that building while fleeing the CIA. Look next time you watch it. The dog is there. Don't know why, it had nothing to do with the story, but my eyes were drawn to the dog just sitting there. That was the only major distraction from the general plot I noticed.

On a related note, can someone explain the name to me? "Die Another Day" is a great example of the Bond titles I'm used to and comfortable with. Most of the movie titles are taken as direct quotes or character names. I'm lost on the whole "Quantum of Solace" thing though. I know how the idea fit into the plot, I'm just saying, if the quote is in there somewhere, I missed it. Maybe after I watch it again it'll make more sense to me. I don't really care about the title, the movie itself was amazing!

So I guess the general idea here is I continue to like the Bond series and the new Bond in particular. Daniel Craig does a superb job of getting beat up over and over again and surviving just long enough to kill the other guy. Two thumbs up from me.

Tangents: I bought an eeePC 10" XP model from Best Buy last night and took it back this morning. Sorely disappointed that they put such a cheap, crappy CPU in those models (the XP versions come with a 900MHz processor that can't even play YouTube videos). I also got a trickle charger for my car battery and will be charging that some time this coming week. I had issues starting the car several times this past week with the cold weather settling in. I also picked up a polarized lens for my camera, so I'll be shooting with that some in the next few weeks, but no new photos yet. I have shots of snow and other things I've been experimenting with up on Facebook. I think that covers it for tonight. If I don't wake up sick again, I'll be at church tomorrow!

Classically Correct (Wordpress Import)

Ah, the beauty of Vivaldi and Holst. Two of my favorite pieces are ["The Four Seasons"] and ["The Planets"]. It is interesting to think that Holst refused to write a new movement for Pluto when it was discovered in 1930, four years before Holst's death, and fourteen years after he finished the piece. Did he somehow know that Pluto would not last long as a member of our official planet list?

I took a few [noob photos] tonight after work and then got [really creative] later in the evening. For those who haven't figure it out yet anything inside [ ] (brackets) should be a link you can click on. I'm thinking of changing the stylesheet so it shows underlins for the links as well.

More of the Same (Wordpress Import)

I think I'm slowley getting better.... I still don't feel great and will be stopping by the store for more meds on the way in today (or at lunch). I haven't slept through the night in about a week because I keep waking up 4-6 hours in to either congestion making it hard to breathe or blood dripping out of my nose. I think it's a combination of the altitude, lack of humidity, and possibly a perpetual sinus infection that won't let go (anyone know anything about a procedure called "scraping the sinus cavities?" I have been told it might help).

Anyways, My night last night consisted of listening to the Lord of the Rings soundtracts over and over again. I enjoy the relaxing voice of Enya in ["May It Be"], Emilíana Torrini singing "Gollum's Song", and especially ["Into the West"] performed by Annie Lennox. I am looking forward to my sail into the Grey Havens, but will do all that is necesary until my time comes.

Yesterday, dispite a bit of sickness, I had a good day at work and got some great photos at lunch and on the drive home (no bicycle for me when it's 30 degrees outside and I'm sick). Here's a public link to the [Facebook Album]. I'll add the sunset photos when I have time to color correct them.

Well, time for a shower and trip to the office.

I Am Aware (Wordpress Import)

Okay, so I know I'm not keeping this very up-to-date. Between being sick all weekend and experimenting with Twitter [my Twitter page], I honestly have done very little this weekend. Speaking of, I have an e-mail to sent to a client about some work I just finished this evening. I had to take a couple of sick days this past week and have been trying to do a little to catch up over the weekend.

There's been something nagging in the back of my mind. I don't know how to put it into words. I guess it's that I don't really celebrate holidays for me. I've been thinking about this a lot as my first Thanksgiving - away from everyone I've ever had a longstanding relationship with - draws near. I've started thinking a little about what these different holidays mean to me and I guess I never really claimed any of them. I mainly celebrate dates and commemoration because of what they mean to people I know. I debated even not decorating the apartment at all this year since I'll not even be here over the holiday itself, but I will get a small tree, I think, and a few modest decorations. A small collection of things so I can stay mobile, hoping to not be in this exact apartment for the next Christmas.

It's strange to think of things that way... to look forward to the future and ask myself what I am going to do that first Christmas I can't go visit all the family in one place. We've always celebrated together. It's also hiding in the back somewhere, in the far reaches of my mind... that question of what to do if/when I get married and her family is not within a short drive of my family. How do we split up vacations? What guidelines would we set to govern which holidays are spent at one set of parents or the other? I can mostly put this out of my mind because I luckily don't think it will be an issue for at least a number of years down the road. And there is always the chance I will be the single guy the rest of my life. This weekend in the apartment has let me settle a bit and get some perspective on my current settings and career heading.

I've also started reading real life books again (instead of everything online all the time or on the computer screen, as a better way to put it). I'm going through "Life Together," [Amazon link] a study in Christian community by Dietrich Bonhoeffer. I read it for school and honestly can't remember a thing about it, so I am starting again through all of those books that were rushed or even skipped entirely during classes. I'll have to do a synopsis of it some time for the blog.

Well, it's late and I'm beat and still recovering, so farewell for now, my readers.