kelseybacon.com

This is a moment in time that is worth noting, especially in the terms of blogging.  Today I got hold of my new Netbook at last, and can now blog from just about anywhere, so long as I can turn it on.  Of course, POSTING has to be done wherever there is online access!  But I am writing on it now…  And so far, I think it is pretty good.  I can type fairly fast on it, and have not had to adapt much at all for the primary keys.

I got a Toshiba NB 200, brown lid, 250 GB hard drive, 1.66 GHZ processor, and for the moment there is 1 GB RAM, though that may increase to the max 2 GB RAM in a couple of weeks, if I find I need it, or maybe even if I don’t.  So far, I cannot complain for a glorified PDA.  It certainly is much better than trying to write from a Palm Pilot.  I can run most everything I could ever want to, so I am pretty good here on that end.  It is a good travel companion with a 9 hour battery.  Happy me..!!  🙂

I am paraphrasing Jordan in this one because he said it a bit differently, but the logic was this:  “It is not my fault that I blame everybody else for everything.”  Nice one Jordan!  It is a great way to start off this post because it cuts to the core of where I am at right now.  I love my kids, more than they will ever know.  Their logic, and their work ethic, and such has put me to the point of madness though, and I have decided that the reason men are the bread earners in society is because of this.  You see, one day Zug was at home with his kids, Ugh, Oomph, and his lovely daughter, Uh-oh.  They carried on like mine do all day, and when his wife Huba Huba came home, he said, something to the effect of “That’s it!  I have had enough!  Working all day in a senseless grind for an unforgiving bastard who drives me into the ground with no remuneration worth bragging about has GOT to be better than THIS!”  And off went Zug to work… 

Okay, things could be worse, I know.  But it does really run a guy thin on his sanity sometimes.  I just thought I would share.  By the way, if you are new here, I have been home schooling for five years now, so this is not like something I am a total wimp at!  Any questions?  See my kids…

So now my wife and I are in charge of all the boys’ chores.  She has had enough of the arguing, and the blaming others for not doing, and the fact nothing ever gets done to a decent standard…  EVER.  To the point my 13 year old cannot wash the dishes and get ANY of them clean, even after five years of trying to and trying to get him to get it right.  The 11 year old can, but he is constantly leaving the job unfinished, and complaining about having to do it.  This is an argument that is past it’s sell by date.  So, we have taken over absolutely everything, and their pocket money too. 

Thankfully I have given up adding sugar to my cereals, eating syrupy French Toast every Monday, and having coffee, and sugar in my cups of tea.  It has stopped me having headaches and feeling constantly like I have been run over by a truck, so maybe now I can get back into better shape, and these extra chores can be a way of getting some more exercise!  That’s a good thing! 

I have been reading 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens with the boys again.  I don’t think they really get it at all.  But I have to try!  One of these days they will tell their therapist that I tried everything but still screwed their heads up.  It should be interesting!  Such is life…  But at least it won’t be their fault. 

2009 has had its ups and downs, but the biggest downer has been feeling like total crap so many days out of the year.  It really has been a bummer because it makes me to wonder what quality I am getting out of my life.  It makes me to want to do more to see if forcing myself to live will help me to live, and it makes me to want to do more just so that whichever way I feel, I am living more!  You won’t get to see it.

The thing is that I am going to follow Katrina’s cue and try to be sure I am doing something new each week.  That is only 52 new things to do.  It seems a good way to learn some things!  🙂

Some days I just feel like swearing as many times as I can at the top of my lungs!  Not for any particular reason.  I just feel like belting out a few thousand foul words.  Today is one of those days, of course, which is why I bring it up.  Is it the result of some natural repulsion to some part of my life?  Is it a primitive feeling that resonated from the days my ancestors crawled from the cave and into the light of civilization?  Is it a reaction to pressures that I have not acknowledged?  Is it the kids?

There is a lot going on right now in life.  We are paused for the moment with the VISA applications in order to get through Christmas and get back on the ball with the money end of it all.  The economy is tough on us at the moment, and frankly I cannot figure out just why.  The money is vanishing, and I can’t tell you where to!  But we are budgeting to figure it all out and push out of here so hopefully we can situate ourselves for a better lifestyle in America. 

Our dear friend Pat has left Worcester once and for all.  She is due to fly out of England on the 13th, and won’t be back except for visits.  I am sure going to miss the sanity Pat has provided us for so long.  But more than that, I am going to miss her insanity. 

Katrina’s grandmother passed away on the 27th.  She is going to be sorely missed too.  My moms fiancé passed away on the 13th of November as well.  Wow, what a tragic month…  It was all started with someone I had a massive crush on in high school losing her dear mom.  Of course, when your contemporaries start losing their parents, it starts putting things into perspective for you.  Well, it has for me!  I was sad for her loss, then along came mom’s, and now my dear wife’s…  Well, Thanksgiving was good anyway.  We ate chicken because frankly we could not justify the cost of a turkey when the bills needed paying and the rest of our money so tight. 

But none of this is why I want to swear today. 

The need to swear is more innate.  It is like the drive for sex.  It is coming up from some place in my mind that just tells me I must stand up and belt out a few of the dirtiest words my kids have never heard loud enough that my family in America could hear them.  Let’s hope I figure it out before my kids learn some superfluous language that won’t do them any good except when they feel like swearing, and don’t know why…

Kelsey

PS…  It is 2:00 PM, and it is sooo dark out that I can hardly see the keyboard in front of me right now.  Have we moved closer to the North Pole?  Can’t wait till winter has gone by. 

I sold the Tamron a couple of weeks ago, and now I am on the hunt for a new lens for the Nikon D300.  I have in mind the 17-55mm f/2.8, which has a rounded diaphragm, thus creating more natural bokeh, in the blurred out areas of the image, rich contrast, and a very sharp image and super fast, silent auto focus.  I have scoured eBay and can find reasonable used ones going for around £600.  Naturally I have less than that in the bank, and need to add more from my allowance in order to even pick up a used one.  Then there is the Jessop’s option of only £870 for a new one.  I could use an increase in photo sales…  ;-)  Oh well, I will keep scouring till pay day. 

I think the 17-55 is the route Nikon took to cover the range below the 24-70 FX lens, thus allowing a little overlap when you consider the 1.5 crop factor of the DX range cameras.  It would be a fair starting point to the high end lenses, and would suite many of my travel habits, though I think in the long run, I would be very happy to get my hands on a 24-70 or a 70-200mm lens in order to really boost my portrait capabilities.  But in all you are talking over  £3,000…  Too many other things needed still to complete the pro kit. 

I have thought more about this little door knocking episode from last night and have determined that I am not a street smart person.  Of course the neighbours are worried about me taking pictures of their windows with the young lads selling pot and who knows what else there!  I shouldn’t be so silly!  I MUST remember to respect their privacy!  I must not interfere with such a home based business..!!  After all, who does not need a supplemental income in this recession? 

Of course, I could be a little more tolerant if I felt I could let my kids out of the house, or if there weren’t people coming by every day and honking or yelling at the bedroom window next door and saying “I want to buy some weed!”  Maybe if they were not parking out in front of our house and waiting casually as though nobody notices them, or if they came over to get drunk and did NOT throw cans at our house and then when we have gone out and thrown the cans back and hit them with them, they did not stand there and deny having thrown it in the first place.  Or maybe if the lads would not go up into their bedroom and open up all the windows and turn the music up full volume playing some British Rap horseshit that sounds like a funk between Jamaican and LA Rap in an English accent.  (I’d love to see any of these guys turned loose on the streets of LA for ten minutes at night…  LOL) 

Of course these are small issues.  And of course I have too much time on my hands being here with three kids all day.  Maybe if I were the type who smoked the wacky-backy too, I would just leave this issue alone because I might hardly remember last night anyhow, apart from the food.  Silly me for wanting to have a safe neighbourhood for my kids. 

So, I am not street smart.  It is foolish of me to not realize till this late in the game that this is all about pot, and nothing more.  After all, the “Wayne” that would have been across the street reporting my moves to my neighbour has got to be the one two houses down from me, and he is a customer. 

I just got a knock on the door at 10:30 PM.  It was the woman next door.  She said that a guy over the road said that I was shooting pictures of her window.  Having not been out there at all this evening I could not think at that moment what they could be on about, and as I never take pictures of her windows, I certainly had nothing to relate it to or explain it clearly, so I did say that I do shoot scenery which he may have seen me doing.  We live on a hill, and the views are pretty good over the Faithful City. 

After thinking on it a bit more, I thought of what the guy over the road could be on about.  I have lived here for eight years, and have taken thousands of pictures of the scenes around here, being careful of my neighbour’s privacy because I know already how uptight they are.  What’s more, the window I would have to be shooting pictures of are covered by shoe polish and plastic bags all the time as a sign of how paranoid this neighbour is.  (Why they can’t just buy drapes, I am not to know.)  And the guy over the road, WHO is he?  I don’t mean that like, “who is he and I am after him,” but literally WHO?  I have never met a “Wayne!”  But that is no surprise here because I do not live in the kind of neighbourhood where you are going to be getting a housewarming party from the neighbours and a Fourth of July BBQ. 

So, without further adieu, here is a copy of the picture I think is in question…

I am often doing negative image shots of this pole as practice.  The light and the moon of course made this day a wonderful time to shoot.  The line at the top of the frame connects to the the neighbour’s house at left.  This was shot 4 November 2009 @ 7:50 AM.  That is apparently the same time that my neighbour over the road is peeking outside looking for paparazzi.  Clearly, none of my neighbour’s house is in the image, or you would be able to see what was holing up the phone line to the top left of frame.  As for the house that is in the photo, I do not consider that to be a highly invasive photo. 

Do I expect another knock on the door?  This time from the police?  Actually, yes, somehow I do.  People in the UK are just that petty, narrow, and prejudicial. 

The real killer?  The knock came from the woman whose sons are selling pot out of the house, and causing a constant flow of traffic out in front of our place.  There are the smells, and of course the occasional beer canning incident where they lads get drunk and throw their cans into our garden.  It is all really conducive to our raising children next door.  Can we move out now?  England is pissing us both off. 

People, not everybody who has a camera in hand is a seething pervert, and for fuck’s sake, say ‘hello’ to the people who live around you rather than just watching them out your windows and reporting them to everyone when you have no clue what they are doing! 

England sucks!

I think it is a funny thing how I am sat here for the last week watching the prices of camera equipment on eBay.  I have a lens listed that I am more than happy to get rid of.  It is in perfect condition and barely used two months, but I don’t really need or want this particular lens, and would much rather put the money to use on getting a lens I do want, and need.  The price on my lens went quickly from £0.99 to just over £100.  Now it is sat at £155, and has remained there for several days.  I would really love to get £250 out of it.  It should go for more, but I set my expectations and hopes lower. 

Then there is the lens I want to get.  It is a genuine Nikon lens, and it zooms from 17-55mm.  It also stays at f/2.8 through that entire range, which is G-R-E-A-T!!!  The only thing is, it retails for over £1,000!  I have found one new on eBay for £800.  Would I love that lens?  I think so!  I have tried it out in a shop, and WOW!!!  The focus is so fast, and dead silent.  It zooms beautifully, and feels like a rock hard piece of kit in my hands. 

So, I am watching the prices of the dream lens, hoping it will stay down while watching the price on my lens, hoping for it to go up! 

Yesterday I went out to shoot a wedding party, and though it was full of surprises, nothing was more surprising than when the entire party lined up against a wall to be shot. 

Really, they were a lot of wonderful people!  I wish I was better with names, and could have remembered everybody’s.  That is a skill I will have to work on.  But going back to the group living up to be shot, I was really surprised at how easy it was to get the whole group to do one thing or another.  I simply suggested at one point a semi circle behind a flower planter, and they all did just exactly that with no trouble at all.  They were all very easy to work with, and I am glad I was able to do it! 

I have reviewed all of the images, and I think just about every one of them will be workable in one way or another.  Today I am opening files in Photoshop and correcting colour casts, and clearing up some softness that I despise one of my lenses for.  What was I thinking buying a Tamron lens when I bought into this system because of the reputation of Nikon lenses?  I definitely must buy into the more expensive, but worthwhile Nikon lenses. 

I tried yesterday to fight against my habit of cropping too tightly.  That is why I kept hold of the Tamron 10-24 mm lens.  But even so, there were a couple of times I did crop it in my traditional manner, and of course, those shots are very satisfying, even with the imperfections that I pour over that nobody else may ever notice. 

For increased personal satisfaction, I am working backwards in the sense that I have rated the focus on each picture, and any that are unreasonably soft are the ones I am working on first.  That way when I do the bulk of them, the work on each will be lighter, and easier.  I am also a lot more patient on the first images I work on than I am on the last.  That’s important because after all, it is not the Devil that’s in the details, I am.