Mele Kalikihanakwanzamas!

We'll be heading up to G-ma's once again this holiday, so we won't be around drop any HOHOHOs on any of y'all, so I'm droppin' 'em here. We'll be returning to the 619 around the 28th (my birthday is on the 26th, so I gotta figure that into the equation [yes, sometimes I get more presents, but sometimes I get fewer, but bigger, presents]), only to hop on a plane for Vegas on the 30th. That's right--Ren and I are hittin' up Vegas for New Years, baby! We're actually going for a wedding (Ren will be the ring bearer, and I will be playing photographer). What might be the most exciting part is that this will be Ren's first trip on an airplane!

So have a Happy Happy, everyone! See you next year!

F#¢k!ng Eh, Blogger!

I know my blog header isn't affected by your recent brilliant idea to "automatically resize uploaded [header] images", but I do admin a blog that is.

Couldn't this have been announced before roll-out?

I hope someone is working on this to at least give us (who don't need every little gorramed thing made 'easier') a choice as to whether we want our images resized, just like we have a choice to use classic templates or go widget-style.

The Eyes Have It

I went to the optometrist today.

I've been quite the lagger, and now I'm coming up against my drivers license expiry date. I know that the DMV will just send me to get mis ojos looked at, so I went ahead and got an exam to preempt them. Can you believe it's been 20 years since I've had an eye exam?! Yeah, the last time was for when I got my DL in the first place. See, I gots me a lazy eye, and I needed to bring a doctor's note to the DMV that said to just give me the damn thing. Well, that was then. Today, I got a prescription for some specs and a note from the eye-doc saying that if I have any restrictions it should just be glasses while driving. And they actually did improve my vision, so I guess I'm cool with it.

Anyway, the crazy thing about the visit was getting my eyes dilated. Wow. Trippy--but not really. Like taking acid, but without any of the fun stuff.

And isn't the eye-chart I found t3h r0xx0rz!!!!1!11??/??

Rudy blowing it with first two at bats

Listening to the Republican debate in Iowa. Not that I'm really rooting for any of these dicks, but man, Rudy sure blew the first two questions, in my opinion.

"homosexuality is an aberrant, unnatural, and sinful lifestyle, and we now know it can pose a dangerous public health risk"

Like Doctor Bill Frist, who said he wasn't sure if HIV could be transmitted via sweat or tears (did I mention Doctor?), Mike "I don't heart" Huckabee "once advocated isolating AIDS patients from the general public, opposed increased federal funding in the search for a cure and said homosexuality could "pose a dangerous public health risk."

This is who is posing the most valid threat to Cli-bama.

Can you see a Huckabee/Romney ticket? Sure, the Christian [yeah] Right is not big on the Mormon, but we've already got a President who claims to be doing God's work, with a VP who shoots his friends in the face. That don't sound exactly Christian.

Cabin Fever

After pointing out that I'd posted three entries in two days, I went without posting anything yesterday. Not that I'm trying to do some NaBloPoDaMo (or whatever the hell it was). I just made the observation and thought I'd drop something in here.

Ren's been home with a cough all week, so we've gotten progressively more and more stir crazy as the effects of cabin fever set in. It was becoming quite apparent into the second day, so it was perfect that it happened to be Big Wednesday. I thought it would do us, and Ren's lungs, some good to go down to the shore, enjoy some ocean air, and maybe catch some big waves (with the camera, of course).

I didn't want to drive very far, so we just went to IB. After seeing some other photos on Flickr, I wish I would've gone further north.

I love this photo, but if you look at his cheek, you can see what I mean by 'stir crazy'. If we spend too much time indoors, Ren will start drawing all over his body.


Thankfully I've gotten into photography rather than tattooing. Experimenting with light is a lot less permanent.

If all your Blog-friends jumped off a cliff, would you?

Before I begin, I just want to point out to Lauren that this is my third post in two days. Nothing compared to your post rates, I know, but you were getting on me about posting.

Plus, I just read your latest, and thought, They're all posting about this, so I might as well post about...

My Secret Boyfriend.

I can has a man-crush, too, ladies. It may have been two years, but I'm secure enough in where my predilections lie to admit that I love watching this man work.


What can I say? The man has the wit of Jon Stewart, the polish of Steven Colbert, and he can go from calling out the President the Asshole in the White House to commenting on NFL highlights. In fact, Keith started his broadcasting career as a sportscaster. Imagine, we could talk about the worst people in politics and in sports, and then cuddle up to watch the Daily Show, the Colbert Report, followed up by replays of Colbert's Bush roasting at the Press Club Dinner, and Bill Moyers' interview with Jon Stewart.

Explore on Flickr

I swear, I'm not an 'Explore Whore', as they say on Flickr. As in someone who pimps his images in as many places as possible, in order to get more views, comments, and favourites--all of these somehow working into Flickr's mysterious algorithm for determining "interestingness". I don't care for any such 'popularity' contests, especially on Flickr (or anywhere online, for that matter), where things can get quite nasty.



Be that as it may, I am quite chuffed to learn that three of my photographs have garnered the distinction of being in the top 500 'most interesting' photos on Flickr at one time or another.



What does this mean, to be 'seen in Explore'? It means that when someone navigates to Flickr's Explore page, s/he is greeted by one of 500 photos swimming around in the pool of Interestingness at that moment.



The first two photos were taken with my new light-sucker, the Panasonic Lumix FZ8, and were taken 10 days apart. The bottom photo was taken way back in January, when I had my first 'photo shoot', and was taken with my recently deceased Fuji Finepix F470.

Ain't no Elfin' Around!

Following Lauren's lead, I had to get us in on the Elfin' (Elven?) Action!
The other guy is Tetsuo, from the anime movie, Akira.

Yeah, we got friends all over.