John's Blog

Various Pictures

I hadn't downloaded the photos from my camera for several months, until just last week.  Here's a few shots of what I found.  You can click on most of them for higher resolution images.

Omaha's first real snow of the season.  November 21.

When it has to get there, and you don't really care what shape it's in when it arrives: choose UPS.

Attempts to teach Midnight to make a decent White Russian met with only moderate success.

Christmas is the time for noogies.

Payback!

Sammy in his new cat cube.  You got a problem with that?

I played Rock Band for the first time over New Years.  I played bass, on easy, and I still got this giant blister.  I still give the game a thumbs up.

Here's a picture taken from the middle of a group of Nebraskans caucusing for Obama.

Here's the same photo, with labels.

Lincoln

I went to Lincoln yesterday, and the only particularly interesting photo I took was this one.

(Not that I had any whiskey when I was there.  Although Maker's Mark is a-ok in my book.)

It was good to see Jesse again.  Among other things, we played that Star Wars collectible miniature game.  Honestly, it made me reminisce about when I was a kid playing with Star Wars action figures.  I'm not positive if we were using 100% of the rules, but as we played it the rules were nice and simple and didn't get in the way.  Refreshingly simple, I'd say.  It uses a map, which is nice.  And each figure had a card, but the cards didn't have too much on them -- four stats and some special rules.  The special rules we used all seemed pretty clear at first reading.  It's unfortunate I always feel so ambivalent about the collectible games they sell randomly.  Only time will tell if I ultimately break down and buy some of these.

This will never ever get old. (Ever.)

So, the Canon SD1000 is not a serious camera.  It is a fun camera.  And it has a couple wacky features.  It lets you pick a color and shoot photos in black and white, except for that one color.  They call it color accent.  Check it out.

What if the normally vibrant green, purple, and yellow storefront of the Jazz restaurant was, instead, gray, gray, and yellow?

These colors don't run!  (Except for maybe the blue.)

I don't remember how it tasted, but I remember the coffee was Starbucks branded.

I predict that this will never, ever become an overused effect.  (Ever.)

New Lenses

Here's a quick glimpse at three lenses I picked up this week. 

I actually got not one, but two new pairs of glasses.  (One pair not pictured here.  Don't strain yourself.)  If you live near one of their stores, you've probably seen some obnoxious television commercials for America's Best.  They tell you how you can buy two pairs of glasses (designer frames, blah blah blah) for some low price (in this instance, $69.95.) 

Being skeptical, I walked in sans appointment last Saturday to find out what they'd actually cost.  I know how this goes.  Maybe some fool with very mildly underperforming vision could walk away with two pairs of glasses for $69.95.  In my case, the total came to around $300.  (That included upgrading to high index lenses.)  Which, actually, is really darn good.  I paid less for these two pairs of glasses than the last pair I bought at Pearle.  I just picked them up today, but so far so good.

The other thing I picked up was one of those digital cameras that's smaller than a deck of playing cards.  My last digital camera wasn't really that out of date, but it's large enough that I didn't want to carry it with me.  This new one is pretty easy to slide in your pocket, and, therefore, more likely to get used.  My advice:  if you're looking to buy a digital camera, consider checking prices at Amazon.  I don't know if it's the cheapest available price, but I picked up the SD1000 there for nearly $50 less than what they want for it at Target.

So that's how I spent $500 in one week and improved my abilities of seeing into the present, and the past.

Photographic "evidence"

As it's been three weeks since I've blogged, I'm dedicating this post to some of the various photographic evidence I've accumulated in that time.

On Memorial Day I went down to the Henry Doorly Zoo to try to find the aforementioned miraculous shark.

So, they actually had a fair number of sharks there, and I have no idea if I found the right one.  But, you know, even if I didn't find that miracle shark, I think I may have found a little bit of myself.

Also, I think I found evidence that they electronically track their sea turtles.  (Can you spot it here?)

The following weekend, I got together with relatives.  Posting photos of my relatives on my blog would be a little to obvious.  Instead, to back up my claim, I offer you these pictures of a dog and a Beetle shell.

The following week, I had an opportunity to walk by Taste of Omaha.  I don't know what to say about Taste of Omaha.  I'm not much of a fan.  You can walk around and... buy food from local vendors with tickets that you have to purchase at the intuitive price of 8 for $5.  Here is a picture of a scene adjacent to Taste of Omaha.

"Taste of Omaha" is to "an excellent outdoors activity" as "my phone's camera" is to "an excellent camera for outdoor landscape photography."

And, at last, here's my final bit of photographic evidence: proof that the government's evil black helicopters have been circling my house.

I think that's all the evidence of a conspiracy we need right there.  I rest my case.

My little phone camera does a perfectly fine job of capturing high-speed sports events.

In case you were wondering.