Recently in friends Category

The picture's a couple weeks old, but I still love it. It was a sort-of-miracle capture. I'm walking down the street, in the cold, while my friends are goofing around and walking at the same time. It's dark, I don't have a flash. Even shooting wide open on a 2.8 lens, all my shots were blurry. And then there was this one.

We'd gone out to a club (Spellbound) and gotten kicked out at about 2:30 in the morning, as usual. We were walking down the street to a crepe place that stays open ridiculous hours just for such stupid people. And Nguyet wanted a piggy-back ride.

This was a pretty good weekend. I really didn't get enough work done, but I did get to relax. After the stress of last week, and the likely stress of this coming week...

After spending some time with Vail, Jessi, and the Boy down on the Mall, we all headed out to Sarah's "Living in Sin" party. I love having friends that I can spend 9 hours crowded into a small space with, without wanting to commit various homicidal acts.

It's a shame I didn't have time to grab my flash. I'm happy overall with my photos... but...

I went ice skating last night, for Sarah's birthday. Which was fun, itself. I haven't really skated much since grade school. And I got my balance fairly quickly. Never once did I fall on my face. But that's mostly because I stopped myself by smashing into the wall, shoulder first. It must have been a minor spectacle, because everyone looked at me like I was crazy. I suppose the fact that it shattered the front of my skate didn't help much. I'm still a bit sore today, but mostly when I stretch or sneeze. No great pulsating bruises or anything fun like that.

Bad this week: My power adapter for my laptop choosing to die for no particular reason. It worked just well enough to keep the computer running, but not to charge the battery. But...

Good this week: Apple replaced the adapter under warranty in less than 24 hours.

Also good this week: Dave and Shannon helping me to get a new web server up and running. I'm hoping to put all my clients who ask for help finding a server on there. Not only does it give me a bit more control and a LOT more options, but I could concievably make a little money off it. Not much, but every little bit adds up.

And recent "meh": I picked up a free external camera flash from the freecycle mailing list. a REALLY nice flash. Tilt, swivel, programmable, fill flash, etc. About 23 years newer than my current flash. And it powered up just fine. But... despite being only a couple years old, it was never built to handle digital cameras. So while it would focus and program itself just fine, it refuses to fire.

Poo.

For now I'm holding onto it. First, I don't know anyone who shoots film anymore that doesn't already have better equipment. And since it can be slaved, it can still act as a secondary flash. Plus, one of my goals is to get a Canon AE-1 to play with. Ought to work fine with that.

Another one of my favorite photos. This time, it's Shannon, as taken at the halloween party thrown by Jeff, last year. I love the look on her face, and the hair being pulled up by the static electricity. I love the ominous balloon looming overhead, and the skeleton peeking over one shoulder. This night was my first real test of my external camera flash, and the lighting came out great, here. There's detail and texture I never would have captured with just a fast lens. And I love it because it's such a wonderful picture of a friend. Shannon so often goes blah in front of a camera, that I love it when she's playing it up here.

I think I love that photo. Instant classic.

Yesterday was Nguyet's birthday party. Which means, you know, lots of people in one place, to annoy with my camera. Oh, I tried to behave. Really I did. I was probably there for 2 hours before I ever pulled out my camera. But when someone else stuck the frog on their head, I really had no choice. You can't blame me, man. The whole set of public photos can be found on my flickr account.

And it was actually a great night overall. I got to see many friends, even if not for as long as I might wish, for most of them. Was able to talk to Dave about some of my hosting questions. (i'm trying to find some industrial strength hosting for a couple clients.) And that eventually evolved into talking about databases and work, and even assholes. And Nguyet and Doug had their usual ridiculous amounts of very good food. But by the time I got home aorund 3, and managed to process most of my photos, I was passing out hard. I literally passed out just as I finished posting my Daily Photo.

Daily Photo: There's a common practice on flickr, usually referred to as 365, where people generally take a new picture of themselves every day and share it. They're usually pretty posed. (And they're usually pretty women). A friend suggested a similar project, albeit less structured. The original, basic idea is that you take and post a new photo each day of anything. But even that's mostly a guideline. Certianly very few of the people are posting every day. And of those that do, I can only tell a few who are actually taking new photos every day, as opposed to once a week or dipping into their archives. You know... whatever you want to do. But I'm sticking to the original concept, because it's the only thing that challenges me. Collecting a bunch of shots once week is nothing special. And pulling from my archives would make it just an exercise in ego.

Anyway... happy birthday Nguyet:

I have always liked wandering around in cities at ridiculous hours. Everything takes on a surreal quality. I used to work a semi-third shift at a newspaper, and would come home at 3, 4, or 5 in the morning, in a small town. And everything was quiet. It was when I first notice that night time tends to have no weather. Especially no wind. It's a Twilight Zone episode, where you're wandering around an abandoned city and nothings moving. My favorite memory of that job and those people happened when two of my coworkers, driving home from the same job, pulled over and started a snoball fight, in a suprisingly bright street at 3am.

The last couple weeks, I've gone to a club about 6 or 7 blocks away. It's very nice not having to think about how I will get home. If someone offers me a ride, great. But otherwise, it's nothing more than a short walk. And I've been stopping at CVS on my way home, since I'm inevitably hungry by the time I get out of the club.This CVS just makes me cringe in daylight. It's every depressing aspect of city life all rolled into one little cell. But at 3am, even it becomes fascinating. And everyone wandering the aisles looks briefly at you as you pass, probably wondering why you would be out at such a strange hour in a place like this, (forgtting of course that they're also doing the same).

About 4 o'clock this morning, I went down to the lobby to get a soda from the machine. Someone was running the dryer in the on-floor laundry room. That's life in the middle of the night. You know it's out there, but it's all locked up behind walls and doors.

(click image for more)

I think I may be addicted to Root Beer. I really can't stop thinking about it. The good stuff, that has some kick to it. Not the overly-caramelized crap.

No doubt it started at Fuddruckers on 18th, sitting there until 4 AM with a bottomless cup of soda and an ever cooling tray of fries.

How long before I'm selling blood to buy a Hires?

I think maybe I need something new in my bag.

I carry a bag. It's really a purse by any other name. But it's big and bulky and I take it everywhere. It's the stuff I need on an average day while traveling through the greater Washington area. There's an umbrella so I don't have to check the weather report every time I want to run out. There's a book, because you can be sure no matter where you're going and how you're getting there, you will have to wait, at some point. There's my camera. Originally I said that this city was so crazy that you needed to always keep the camera with you, on the off-chance that something interesting suddenly took place in front of you. But now, I'd say it's just because I'm a photography fanatic. My iPod is usually in there somewhere, too. And I like the bag, because it's big enough and generic enough to hold all this and more. Most photo bags or courier bags are too specialized to hold an umbrella, or the book.

But I want some kind of vacuum pack of supplies for a night out. The odds seem to be pretty even that any time I go to a planned 'event' with my friends, I won't come home ’til the next day. But I hate wandering around greasy and feeling grungy. So I just want to vacuum-pack a t-shirt, boxers, and a comb, maybe. Enough so I can walk into someone's bathroom in the morning and come out feeling like I won't scare yuppie families in the park.

Just... you know... something the size of those little travel umbrellas or smaller. Or is part of the fun of going out, in coming home completely burned out and in need of showering?