|
|
|
December 14th, 2009
December 12th, 2009
mermaidkween
 | 02:56 pm - OMG
TECHNO CHICKEN
|
mermaidkween
 | 01:55 pm - LJ Idol Topic 07: One Touch
(This may or not make it - if it doesn't, it's my "intended" entry like the time with the roller coasters. If I get it in, it's in, if I don't, well...I have a bye.)
We are lucky to live in a Digital Age. We can watch movies that look way more real than anyone could have ever imagined, computers do things in a much more precise way than humans, and heck, I don't even have to leave the house to get groceries if I don't want to.
These things do have a price, though, in a "use it or lose it" sense - Any ability I might have had to draw a graph or do calculus or even read a clock with hands has gone out the window because I simply haven't been able to do it. Yes, the price of some things have gone down because of robots and computers and things that beep, whiz, and whirr, but the mental price is more.
The first time I put my fingers on a digital camera, it was the coolest thing ever. The Circuit City in Orlando, FL had a display with maybe twenty of them, and the number of megapixels per camera was front and center. I pressed the shutter release on each of them and scrutinized the end result for the five seconds I had before the picture disappeared into the digital ether.
Now, with what I know now, I shouldn't have been picking a camera based entirely on that number. But in 2001, I didn't really know much better, and neither did anyone else. I picked the largest number that my Dad would buy me (which was 3.4), got minimal supplies for it, and we went on our way. Best birthday present ever, I thought. It didn't feel rinky-dink, it felt like a real camera. Granted, it was enough like a real camera that fitting it in my pocket was nigh-impossible. I didn't really go for form over function.
That night, I taught myself a lot about photography: How to change my shutter speed, aperture, and then how to use the multiple settings that did that stuff for me. Well, okay, there were four of them.
The pictures I took that first night were largely bland and boring because they were all of the furnishings in our timeshare condo. But they were practice.
The next day, we went on an adventure to one of my favorite places. Islands of Adventure. Yeah, again. It was probably my third or fourth time there. But I took pictures all day. Birds perched on Poseidon's trident, the Enchanted Oak, Jurassic Park - they were all part of my playground. I exhausted what I thought was an awesome digital zoom on almost every picture.
Funnily enough, that camera started to see its end at the same location almost two years later. I was lucky enough to be able to go on a high school band trip to Orlando, and we hit up almost every theme park there was. In the morning, I played my oboe, in the afternoon, I played.
I wasn't nearly as careful with my camera at that point and was carrying it around in a blue Cinderella bag purchased at MGM. A bag with zero padding. A bag that I dropped on the hard pavement.
Only one emoticon fits my facial expression. :O
Luckily, it wasn't shattered. It still took pictures. But it wasn't until I started college in 2005 that I noticed the world...well, it was a little purple. Granted, I didn't really mind it too much - until the purple just stopped going away after a few taps.
Canon #1: Retired. Currently lives in a drawer at my mom's house.
Canon #2 is a PowerShot A630. I knew enough to know that what I wanted more than megapixels was a big optical zoom. And I got it. Well, as big as the store had in a point-and-shoot, anyway. I had to sift through models with mostly digital zoom to find it. It was only 4x, but it would do.
I like having minute control, and I like having things work automagically. For the past three years, this camera's taken me a few places. It's gone out of the country every time I have, and it's been with me in my theme park playlands. It has taken some artsy photos, and it's taken some photos that have ended up in print. It's been a reliable little guy, and he's even impressed people who know a thing or two more than I do.
But now I'm moving up again - the Canon T1i. It's not in my hands yet, but in the first week of our acquaintance, I'm going back to Universal Studios. History is clearly a sly mofo.
------------------
If you liked this entry, which ironically contained no photographs whatsoever, please vote for it if it makes it into the ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/community.gif) therealljidol poll. If not, just let me know so I feel loved. If you do want to see pictures that may or may not actually be any good, go here. I make no guarantees that any of the pictures in question are excellent. Many are overexposed or underexposed to fit print guidelines. Many are over- or underexposed because I don't know better. Oh well. I am also accepting suggestions for lenses, since I'm still trying to figure those out.
|
December 9th, 2009
kerodge1
 | 01:12 pm
It's my last day to be 24. 24 has been a bit of a nothing age... kind of like age 11. 11 is the year after double digits. Nothing incredibly special. Same with 24. Tomorrow I'll be 25. 25 feels like a huge number. I know I'm not that old, but it sure feels it! It's a quarter of a century! And I'm still in school. And still 3+ years from ordination. I won't be ordained until I'm at least, what, 28? So then, how do kids fit into that if I have to be in full time ministry for the last 2 of those 3 years? I don't want to be one of these parents who has a kid, takes a few weeks off work and then puts them in a day care where they basically raise the kid instead of me. I mean, that's part of why I want to be a deaon, not an elder. I want to be able to have a family, take a few years off maybe, go to part time work at least until the kids get in preschool, etc... (and of course the other part of wanting to be a deacon is that it just fits me better - and because I want to do specialized ministry... children's ministry). Anyway. Maybe it's that it's the end of the semester, maybe it's that I'm turning 25 tomorrow, maybe it's that I'm frustrated with the slowness of the ordination process, maybe it's that we just don't know where we'll be or what we'll be doing after May.
|
December 7th, 2009
mermaidkween
 | 03:51 pm - It's happening!
So, if you didn't know (or care), Alabama is going to the college football championship in Pasadena, California.
The guys are going, and I am coming along! I wish we were flying, but we're not. We are driving. One stop in Austin to stay with Leland's family, and then on to LA or Pasadena. We don't know where we're staying yet, but splitting a hotel room with two or three other people will be helpful, so we're doing that.
On January 6, we're going to a taping of The Price is Right - we're trying to get 15 people confirmed so we can have guaranteed tickets. It would be really nice to win some money or a new car or both or a bottle of Pine-Sol or something. The taxes might not be that fun, but I would be willing to just take the money, use it to pay the taxes, and then keep the rest for whatever.
On the day of the game, I think I'm just going to hang out with ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) courtney_beth, since I can't get a ticket to the game at all and I need to see her SOMEDAY. Like, it is ridiculous that we've been friends this long without even a hug. Must fix this. I'll keep up with the game some other way. I'll Metrolink down to Anaheim or Orange and yay.
So that sale I kept talking about earlier will most definitely have to happen. Probably this week.
I'm still so excited about going this far west. EEEE. After this, I will have been on both coasts. My previous record was my grandparents' house in New Mexico. :)
(Also, as far as LJ Idol goes, this makes me really glad that I didn't take my bye this week. But at the same time, who knows if I'll even make it until then?)
|
December 6th, 2009
mermaidkween
 | 10:50 pm
The UN attempted to collect all countries' opinions of the question: "Please tell us honestly what is your opinion of the problem with lack of food in other countries."
The attempt failed because of the following: Africa didn't know the meaning of "food," Eastern Europe of "honest," Western Europe of "lack," China of "opinion," South America of "please," and the United States of "other countries."
|
mermaidkween
 | 06:57 am
Today, I learned that Vanna White is a thoughtful and unique person.
What? You can make a stew with leftovers?
Backing up your computer is a good idea?
Putting multiple school photos in one place is a good way to keep track of them?
You looked horrible at your high school prom in the 70s, too?
Vanna is just like us, guys. She just wears designer dresses and touches computer screens for large sums of money.
Sigh.
|
December 5th, 2009
mermaidkween
 | 05:58 pm - LJ Idol Topic 6: Sunrise
I have a good relationship with my bed. Like, way too good. If I could spend twelve hours in it every single day, I would be happy (and probably healthier, too - I get sick more often when my bed and I aren't well-acquainted).
It's not just that Bed is warm and comfortable. It's my own personal Dreamland. Good dreams happen, I'm sure, but I never seem to remember those. It's the bad dreams that always seem to stick.
Stuck alone with my great-aunt in an RV. Middle of a tornado. The vehicle is stuck in the ground. It's buried. I don't know why. These things never make any sense. Zero. Look to my right, and through the window, I see badgers. Trying to bury their way through the window. The glass starts to break just as the roof gets a hole and I feel the rain hit my face.
I wake up and the sunlight hits me, and the tears make streaks as they fall. I'm not crying anymore, but they still let gravity get to them more than the situation.
I don't know why, but the freshest rays of sunlight hurt the most. When they hit my eyes, already stinging from the crying I didn't even mean to do, it's like the light and my brain collide and the grenade just goes kablam. Pow. Whammy. It's always a surprise.
My ears even ring. They sound like this. (It's the mosquito noise, so don't click if that bothers you.)
If that ringing sounded like a sizzling branding iron, things would make more sense, I think. But this just sticks with me. Other dreams fall away like petals on a rose that's needed a good watering for a week.
But it's the improbable one that makes me cry. The nightmare that will never, ever make sense. The situation that would only happen after being deliberately set up. It's like the world ended and I found it a hundred years later. What is this? Why does it haunt me? And why won't it go away?
Maybe this is why I always sleep in on Christmas Day.
-----------
This post was written for therealljidol. If you liked it, vote for me when the poll is up!
|
mermaidkween
| 01:05 am
God. I am having trouble coming up with what to write. Again.
I am afraid that if I just take the first thing that comes to mind, it will put me out of LJI, but if I take my second bye, I'll be safe until I accidentally forget or something.
|
December 3rd, 2009
mermaidkween
 | 11:49 pm - Rumor confirmed: Michael Jackson wrote the Sonic the Hedgehog 3 soundtrack
I'd heard this rumor for years, so it's nice to see that it's finally confirmed.
"Rumor no more! Are you standing? Then sit down. Are you sitting down? Then stand up, then sit down again, for there’s huge news to share: Michael Jackson is now confirmed to have written the music for Sonic The Hedgehog 3. There’s a magazine in France called Black & White. It’s Michael Jackson’s official magazine over there. Check out the cover:
Looks great, right? Right.
In the latest issue, composer Brad Buxer said the following:
B&W: Can you clarify the rumor that Michael had in 1993 composed the music for Sonic 3 video game, for which you have been credited?
Buxer: I’ve never played the game so I do not know what tracks on which Michael and I have worked the developers have kept, but we did compose music for the game. Michael called me at the time for help on this project, and that’s what I did. And if he is not credited for composing the music, it’s because he was not happy with the result sound coming out of the console. At the time, game consoles did not allow an optimal sound reproduction, and Michael found it frustrating. He did not want to be associated with a product that devalued his music…
B&W: One of the surprising things in this soundtrack is that you can hear the chords from Stranger in Moscow, which is supposed to have been composed later…
Buxer: Yes, Michael and I had composed those chords for the game, and it has been used as base for Stranger in Moscow. [...]
So there you have it, Michael Jackson did, in fact, write the music for Sonic The Hedgehog 3, as the rumor had gone for so many years."
Musical comparison under the cut.
( It don't matter if you're blue or white. )
SOURCE: http://www.crunchgear.com/2009/12/03/confirmed-michael-jackson-composed-the-music-for-sonic-the-hedgehog-3/
http://vgmdb.net/forums/showthread.php?t=3511
Current Mood: ![[mood icon]](http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v334/magicalmuggle/SatCTheme/amused.gif) amused
|
|
|
