Baby I'm amazed by you

~Lonestar

I've been researching digital cameras for a little over a week. I love photography but I get easily overwhelmed by all the photography jargon. Exposure, ISO, Assist focus lamp, effective pixels, aliasing, live view, metering, aspect ratio, ... ouch...my head hurts already. Anyways I've decided to get a 'serious' camera and gently ease myself into understanding all the complicated photog speak. I scoured the web, blogs, user reviews, photography websites (btw, dpreview.com always rocks when you need indepth reviews of cameras/lens) and narrowed down my choices to two cameras. The Nikon D60 and the Canon EOS 450 (Rebel XSi). Both cameras are great on paper and have awesome reviews so it was tough choosing one.

A lot of users on photography forums recommend going in to a store to handle the cameras and then choosing the camera that 'feels' good to the individual (with regards to comparing these two cams specifically). Based on this, I went in to Best buy to check both cameras out in person. I quickly spotted the Canon and walked over to it. On picking it up I realized it was turned off and attempted to turn it on. When it didn't come on, I asked a sales rep for help. She played around with the camera for a few seconds and said, "I'm sorry, the battery is dead." Well charge the darn thing then, isn't that why you have the bad boy on display! But I didn't say that. Instead I kindly asked if she could charge it but her answer was that it would take too long. I was like WTH?! Too long for...? I then asked if they had the Nikon D60 and she went off to check. She came back with the Nikon but said it was broken. I couldn't even look at her for fear she'd see the sheer disgust on my face. This would never have happened at Circuit City. If my precious CC were still around I never would have ventured into Best buy in the first place. Needless to say my trip to check out the cameras in person was a waste.

After my futile visit, I did some more research and finally (after almost basing my decision on a coin toss) chose one!

The Canon 450D!




Images courtesy of dpreview.com

Totally drool-worthy no? I finally ordered it and it's scheduled to arrive tomorrow!!! I can't wait to start getting to know my new baby!

You raise me up

to walk on stormy seas ~ Josh Groban

I was watching a PBS special on David foster this morning and Josh Groban(!!) came on and performed his infamous 'You raised me up'. Words cannot express how much I love this song. God bless the writer, composer, Josh Groban for performing it, and everyone who had a hand in bringing this song to life.

Ooh I want you, I don't know if I need you but ...

~ Savage Garden

I'm in the market for a new handbag. I've looked high and low online, in stores, ebay, bag forums, friends, and the only thing I've seen so far is way beyond my budget. It's totally drool worthy, don't get me wrong, and I've been to the store a few times to check it out. The sales guy must think me weird for walking in, making a beeline for the shelf on which it sits, pulling it off the shelf, and holding it in my hands as I check myself out in the mirror (automatic bigz girlz status might I add=^). Then I gently place the beauty back on it's throne and walk out. Without further ado I present the holy grail of accessories...

...The Louis Vuitton Trevi GM (currently $2020)*

Affordability is not the issue, it's the unwillingness to part with $2000 for a mere ... accessory. All that cash for ONE item just seems so...wrong... but I've yet to meet a handbag that's made me drool this much in...forever. I wish I weren't so tightfisted and could just close my eyes and buy this baby but ...I don't think I have it in me. I should just stop day dreaming about the Trevi but it's hard! I want it so badly that I wish I had rich friends, or a rich uncle or something, lol. Until then though, a gal can dream...*groan*.


*Image obtained from here

Oops...!

No seriously, this site has the funniest collection of TMI crap...

STFU, Marrieds

I wanna sex you up

~Color me badd

Assumptions. Preconceived notions. They are all so annoying.

Why do folks use the term 'love life' in reference to having sex? (As in 'We have an active love life'.) Is that all there is to love? Sex? So as a single christian who believes premarital sex is a sin, am I incapable of love because I do not have sex with my boyfriend? After all, my answer to the 'How is your love life' question would be 'It's Non existent'. The use of the term 'love life' in reference to having sex is indicative of society's skewed values and increasing distance from God's mandates. Also, why do folks automatically assume a couple is having sex just because the couple live together? We're not all rabid animals lacking self control once we get within 2 feet of each other. Why can't I live with my boyfriend in peace (if I so choose) without being subjected to judgmental stares and snide comments? Why?

Too much information running through my brain ...Too much information driving me insane

~ Sting & Police

I totally cracked up when I saw this on one of the many blogs to which I subscribe via my Google reader. It's a hilarious site calling out sappy givers of TMI on FB. Click here -> Stfu Marrieds.

You know you know me know you

So that makes no sense and I don't really care cuz that's kinda what I'm going for.

As high school gals, my (then) best bud and I had diaries (or journals as we called them just so we'd sound more mature) into which we always poured our deepest thoughts. We also had younger brothers who made the secrecy of the contents of these journals impossible. Is the term nosy younger brother redundant? I think so. So we devised a means of hiding our journal entries in plain sight - via a code/cipher. Well, she had hers and I had mine. While, in light of today's methods of encryption, ours were below rudimentary, they served our needs quite well. Mine worked soo well, in fact, that you'd practically need a degree to encode and decode my entries. My bud's cipher, while not as strong as mine, was probably better suited to satisfying our two immediate needs. 1, keeping our brothers away and 2, enabling us to encode and decode on the fly , and without degrees. It made no sense to anyone but the two of us. We both decided to use her cipher and 13 years later, I still use it. I have to admit that I never totally discarded my cipher. I still use it for my super secret entries - all in fear that someone might decipher my friends cipher. In the event that happens, however, hopefully, my super secret thoughts will remain protected.

For years now I've thought of automating the encoding process. Creating a program which would eat up plain text and spit out text encoded by my friend's cipher. And alternately eat up encoded text and spit out plain text. I've thought about it for a while now but something always seemed to come up and distract me. Well, on Friday, I finally did it. It was pretty exciting as it took me back to high school and brought back memories of my bud. We've been out of touch for a while now... And while it was the easiest program I've written - save for the infamous 'Hello World' code- I guess nostalgia made it's coming to fruition so satisfying. Ah, It's the little things...