When I was a kid we always loved New Year’s Eve—staying up till midnight to bang pots and pans. It was a challenge and an adventure. It was also my parent’s anniversary. Happy anniversary, Mom and Dad!
Daniel and I managed to pick up a small tent trailer, you know, one of those pop up trailer campers? An old one, really cheap. I don’t have pictures because it’s being stored at Daniel’s work right now. It’s really basic and small, just a place to sleep—it sleeps 6. It has a sink and a little gas stove and an ice box fridge. Not sure we’ll use the sink. But I am so excited about it. Now I can go on road trips that are too far for day trips. Like the Salton Sea!
Which is where we’re going this week. I cannot wait! I’m taking somewhere around 7 cameras. Ha!
If you don’t know what the Salton Sea is, it’s a lake out in the desert. Yes, a lake, out in the desert. It was basically created by a huge man-made environmental disaster in the early 1900s. The Colorado River flooded and breached a dike in the Imperial Valley and started dumping water into the Salton Sea. The entire river almost got redirected through there. The surface of the sea right now is about 220 feet below sea level.
People built homes and motels and stuff around the lake eventually, like in the 50s/60s, and then in the 70s some hurricanes came through (yep) and flooded the area. The lake is a salt water lake, and I think after the storms, the salt content rose and caused a lot of fish to die. It stinks out there in the summer.
Now the area is full of urban decay—old abandoned buildings and vehicles. I can’t wait to get out there and take pictures.
Last night we went to the beach for a bonfire and roasted hot dogs. Spur of the moment thing. Here are a few pictures. (Mostly of Cat, the boys didn’t want their pictures taken.)
On youtube. (I already posted my most-viewed pictures.) I have no idea how accurate this list is. Youtube viewing statistics are not reliable at all. It’ll list a video that has 2,000 views above a video that has 5,000. So who knows what my actual most viewed videos are. But here’s what I’ve been able to determine.
1. 3 Inches of Blood “Revenge is a Vulture” live – viewed 5,166 times
2. Fu Manchu “Mongoose” live – viewed 2,613 times
3. New Model Army “Ballad of Bodmin Pill” live – viewed 2,220 times
4. Lichens live – viewed 1,839 times
5. The Frames “Caravan” (Van Morrison cover) live – viewed 1,693 times
Unfortunately, this video was removed from youtube because of copyright issues. I think it’s the only video I’ve ever had removed. Van Morrison doesn’t mess around, apparently.
Here are a few of the cymbals I got for Nathaniel for Christmas.
That’s his drumset now, after adding the new ones. Note the saw blade on the right. Yes that’s a real saw blade.
Here’s how happy Daniel is with the gifts I got him:
I got him a money clip that says “FERGALICIOUS” on it (had it engraved—he *loves* it); a set of bongos, which he proceeded to play throughout the rest of the gift unwrapping (“how about I play a song about that present you’re unwrapping”); and the best Christmas present ever: a GPS. He’s wanted one for awhile, for when he goes dirtbiking out in the desert. When he finds a good spot, he can bookmark it on the GPS, and then he can get back to it anytime. I found a nice one on sale for half price!
Oh and I was playing with the zoom on my camera in that pic. It was taken at his desk at work.
I gave Cat, among other things, this little film camera:
And she took some pictures with it which I developed and scanned. Here’s me on the phone, outside our door:
Our neighbor’s paper on our stoop:
For some reason I really like that one. Me taking a picture with my new Twinkle 2 cam:
Here is the picture I took of Cat in the picture above:
And one more:
I love the vignetting this camera has. What’d you give people for Christmas?
My brothers both sent me cameras. My brother who lives in Taiwan sent me two. I’m calling this one the jelly cam—the exterior is mostly soft rubbery plastic:
And this one, called a Twinkle 2:
It takes two pictures in quick succession, in one frame. Cool, huh?
My other brother sent me something similar, only it takes 8:
I tried it out already. Here are some results.
Cat, making faces:
Me and Cat:
The exposures start in the lower left and go counterclockwise—I started with the camera above us and moved it down below us. And Cat crossed her eyes about midway through the exposures.
Cool, huh? These multi-exposure cameras will be fun to take pictures of people skateboarding or dirtbiking.
Gmail has these new themes you can apply to your email. They change the look and feel of the page. At first I went with a ninja theme, but it was too different. It was a bit jarring. Very dark. So I went to one that looked basically the same as Gmail used to look. It’s called Tree. The Tree theme. It puts a little tree graphic at the bottom of the page.
But I noticed that sometimes the sun is shining on my tree, and sometimes it’s cloudy. Then I realized the theme is telling me what the weather is. That’s why it asked for my zip code when I applied it.
I found it funny since I live in Southern Cali and it’s just always sunny. Most of the year my theme will not change. Sun, sun, sun. I hope this tree is a hardy one.
But right now? It’s raining!
At least, my Gmail tree is getting some rain. I can’t tell if it’s actually raining outside. I keep the blinds shut. I’m just gonna trust Gmail that it’s raining.
Lately when I’ve been working, instead of listening to music in iTunes, I’ve been surfing youtube for music. I often just play one song on repeat, or I’ll look up a band and listen to all the related videos.
This morning I went to look up Ray Lamontagne and found this cover he did of Gnarls Barkley’s “Crazy.”
I love Ray. Love love love.
Then I started looking up other covers of the same song. It’s crazy how many people have covered Gnarls Barkley.
Here’s the Raconteurs (which features Jack White of the White Stripes on vocals):
One Republic (live):
Pink (live):
Maroon Five (live):
Beyonce (live):
Jason Castro:
He’s the guy from last year’s American Idol, I think he used a Gnarls Barkley song when he auditioned, but it wasn’t shown because the band didn’t give permission for it to be used on TV.
This is an interesting version, someone called the Spin Cycle:
And if you’ve ever wondered what the song would be like when drag queens performed it, wonder no more.
Well, the new couch finally happened. But I’d basically written off getting a DLSR this year.
Until someone GAVE ME ONE!
A flickr contact saw on my flickr profile that I wanted one. He had one to give away, apparently, because he sent me a message saying he’d give me a Nikon D200 in the spirit of Christmas. I was blown away.
I actually didn’t realize just how nice the camera (and the wide angle lens he included) is, until after he gave it to me. It’s not the latest model, but it’s still really nice. And I mean really nice. Definitely not something I could afford right now.
Here are some pictures I’ve taken with it.
At the pet cemetery:
The pet cemetery deserves its own blog post. It’ll get one eventually.
The “moat” (drainage ditch) around my kids’ high school, after we actually got some rain:
These lyrics are all by the same band. Can you identify the band?
If the band is too easy, try to identify all the songs.
1.
For a moment this good time would never end
2.
All I can say to you my new neighbor
Is you must move on or I will bury you
3.
Would you not like to be
Sitting on top of the world with
your legs hanging free
4.
This blood through my veins for you
5.
Well I know these voices must
Be my soul
6.
Why won’t you ever be glad?
It melts into wonder
7.
Brother, chaos rules all about
Sometimes I walk there
Sometimes, God knows, I take a bus there
I should’t care, I shouldn’t care,
Bereaved as I’m feeling
8.
She thinks, we look at each other
Wondering what the other is thinking
But we never say a thing
And these crimes between us grow deeper
9.
I wonder this
Could tomorrow be
So wondrous as you there sleeping
10.
You drive me crazy
Crazy is all right
With you looking at me
