Author: Johnnyboy

My new camera arrived this morning in the mail from B&H Photo in The Big City and so far I am very pleased and a little intimidated with the thing. It has been a long time since I have used a real SLR camera and the added digital gizmos tend to make me a tad nervous. You can be sure I’ll be asking my friend Aravis about some of the workings…I can see why some people didn’t like the unit already. There are a couple of manual setting switches that are a bit awkward, but I’ll get used to them.

The cable guy has come and gone, and left a new cable extension in what will be my mother’s new bedroom, i.e. downstairs in what used to be the guest bedroom. The telephone man comes tomorrow to do essentially the same thing.

Above are two pictures taken with my new Canon Rebel XT. One is called ‘Elephant Nuts’ and the other is ‘Sweetie Pie’. On both I used the autofocus, but set the ISO and so on my self. This camera is several steps up from the little point-and-shoot Canon I have.

If it’s not technically spring outside, it sure as hell feels like it. The birds are singing spring songs, my cat is running about in the snow (which is melting quickly) and the sun is shining in a clear blue sky. On top of that I stayed up late last night and worked on some science homework, woke up early this morning (8AM) and wrote 2 pages of a paper due by Monday, and have now returned from running errands in The Town of the Miller.

All in all, I could go back to sleep and still call the day a success, and it’s only 12PM. I have a lot to do before I nap (oh, yes, and I will…) this afternoon.

I have decided to not leave my current homegroup, but rather celebrate at two groups next year. There are no rules that say I cannot. At this point there is no conflict of voting seeing as the smaller group does not hold business meetings or whatnot. So the Village by the Lake still remains as my primary HG and the Other Place is my secondary.

I should be receiving my new camera soon. I purchased a Canon EOS D350 (aka, the Rebel XT) and it should arrive this week. I’m hoping tomorrow. This has not been an inexpensive purchase, but a necessary one if I plan on moving on up in the world of f-stops and other features. It has an 18-55mm lens and a 2gig memory chip already installed. I have also ordered a shoulder bag to go along with it. With this camera I do not trust my messenger bag for complete protection. I have purchased a bag that is actually too large for one camera and lens. This is so I can still bring my little Canon as well as use the bag for my other carry-on items like notebooks, maps, pens, tickets, cellphone, etc…It’s well padded and made by Tamarac, which is a dependable company. I can also configure the protective compartments inside as I wish, leaving me the space I deem necessary for the above collection of stuff.

So today I am very grateful, and the fact that I am sober because of my HP and not my self-will is a humbling experience. Through my positive, life-affirming actions today, I am planting the seeds of the next right thing of tomorrow. I have discovered it is my own foolishness that turns sunlight to grey and makes me look the dolt.

There is so much freedom in the world that it can be very scary sometimes, but to misquote Werner Heisenberg, sometimes there are things so scary that we have no alternative but to laugh.

Johnnyboy