Today my very wonderful UPS driver brought me my textbook and the accessories for my camera. My camera’s last known status was arriving at a FedEx facility in Bloomington, CA, so I am little worried about it, but I do have some amount of confidence in FedEx to not completely lose a package.
My camera won’t arrive until Friday, a whole day later than originally planned. This makes me want to jump up and down and scream at the sky. The worst part is, the camera is going FedEx, so I can’t do a service upgrade over the phone, and the package will likely arrive in their shipping center on Wednesday evening, in time for a Thursday delivery, but they will hold the package for an additional day because it isn’t yet scheduled. Anybody know the going rate for bribing a shipping person to release a package for station pickup?
I think I can finally relax now. I have ordered the digital camera for my summer course. It isn’t a true SLR like I was originally looking for, but its just as good for manual adjustment. I have selected the Fujifilm FinePix S5200 for now. It isn’t exactly a Nikon D80, but I think it will be a good camera to get trained on SLR techniques. The S5200 is quite an impressive camera for its model class, as well as for the price. For the technical geeks, you can read about it and drool from the Fujifilm website. For those of you who aren’t geeks, or don’t care to read that page, the S5200 is as close to an SLR camera as you can get without using a camera that has a rotating mirror inside. Because of this, the camera is substantially cheaper than the typical SLR, but provides the same functionality. Features that I like about the camera that aren’t a requirement for the course are the 10x optical and 5.7x digital zooms, allowing me to zoom up to 57 times. In addition, the camera can detect shaking and compensate for it. Additionally, the camera is designed to avoid needing flash for most situations, creating a warmer, less washed out feeling to the images. However, when needed, the camera will deploy the flash by itself (unless told not to).
I am really excited and am hoping my camera will ship on Monday, so that I may begin playing with it on Thursday. I have ordered an additional memory card for it from Amazon, as well as a compatible reader. The only downside to the camera is it uses the xD picture card format, but I suppose I will adapt, as I always have.
Today I woke up fairly late in the day and have been having the weirdest mood shifts and changes in objectives. I have a chapter to finish for my novel, I have put in several random attempts at effort on it, for the same course I also have to “explicate a poem”, which I can do, but I just have to pick a poem for it. In addition to those assignments, I also have to finish my perspective drawing to turn it in on Monday, and also draw an orange with full shading and texture in my sketch book. I have been letting all of this go through my head and I am bouncing between thoughts in my head way too quickly. I have considered working on the mid-term for one of my online classes as well, but haven’t started on it (100 questions, all to be done and turned in by April 7th, most likely by UPS).
Other than academic stuff, I have been looking at LiveCurt.net again, working on some stuff for it and trying to get a grasp of what it is supposed to be. I am feeling like I am trying to do a 4 dimensional website in a 2 dimensional space. I have played with Google Analytics some, primarily adding the Art blog to it. I have also been playing with the idea of a centralized location for all of my blogs, which I then realized are all about me, so therefore belong on LiveCurt.net (my domain-registering addiction is foiled again). Oh, and I have been trying to write blog posts on random shit, and pretty much getting no where. I played a game a little while ago, thinking maybe it would calm me down and let me focus, nope, didn’t happen, I’m still bouncing off the walls with stuff to do, but not nearly enough ambition to accomplish any of them.
Finally, I did finish my loop of looking for a digital camera for my course this summer. I still haven’t decided on or purchased one, but I have at least placed a fall-back candidate in my head. If I can’t decide on anything else, then I am going with the Fugifilm FinePix S5200. It isn’t a true SLR camera, but it gives me the functionality I need for the course. SLR cameras are a little scary with how they work. I don’t like the idea of using a camera that has to rotate a mirror to take a picture, but I guess if I find a real SLR camera that I like, I will go for it, although, the S5200 is definitely a piece to drool over.
Today I have done a lot of “half-done” things, but fully completed nothing. Maybe tomorrow will be part 2 and I will get everything done.
After spending the early part of the day reading through the syllabus for the Digital Photography course, I decided that I REALLY want to take it, and finished up the registration process. There is one thing I didn’t notice last night that I did this morning though, the course is not self-paced as I had thought previously, it is on a standard academic schedule (its a CCO class, not a SPC course). The course I selected is an online course for the Summer 2008 semester. I originally wanted to start the course around May 15th, but the summer semester begins on May 13, so I’m not too worried about timings, except now I have to find an SLR camera before the course begins.
The registration is in, the payment is being sent Monday and the textbook has been ordered. This leaves only one thing still not quite resolved, obtaining a camera for the course.
Do any of my readers know anyone who is willing to sell a used Digital SLR camera? I’m not looking for anything fancy, or even anything with any lenses. All I need is a digital SLR camera body suitable for academic use. I would like to take a Digital Photography class this summer to fill my spare time, and the only reputable institution offering the course I want to take has a requirement of a digital SLR for the course. Again, I’m not looking for anything fancy, just something to get my through the course this summer. If anyone wants to know the course I am considering taking, it is ART 390: Special Topics: Digital Photogtaphy offered by UNC Chapel Hill through the Friday center. I can start the course any time I am ready (hoping to have everything in place by May 1 and start the course May 15th if possible).
Any information leading to the acquisition of a camera for the summer would be very helpful.
This evening I convinced myself that I should never accept a good deal from a plant supplier. Back in December my mother was becoming excited at the concept of growing her own strawberries, in January, Burpee sent me an email offer for strawberry plants. I purchased 25 strawberry plants for $15. Not a bad deal, oh, but they made the deal sweeter, for an additional $10, get 50 strawberry plants… ok, no big deal, 50 strawberry plants ordered, to arrive at a later date. The strawberries left my mind until about a week ago, I received a UPS Quantum View notification from Burpee, a package was coming to me. Last Thursday they arrived, 50 strawberry plants, neatly wrapped and ready for planting. I was far from ready for the plants, so I had to make quick plans to get them in the ground.
Yesterday I obtained 100 lbs of cow manure compost (its better than it sounds) and 3.8 cu.ft. of peat moss. I prepared the ground today, placing alternating layers of peat and cow until I was satisfied that I had a good growing surface for the plants. The row was then covered in a garden fabric to keep down weeds, keep the moisture in and also keep the plants warm. The worst part of doing this today was having to soak the strawberry plants in water before planting. The water was cold and once the water became cloudy, it was hard to locate the plants, requiring me to submerge part of my arm. Twenty one holes in the fabric later (all the holes there was room for), 21 of the first 25 plants had been trimmed (roots to 3 inches) and placed in the ground. After that, I sealed the row off with a layer of straw.
Now, I just have to hope the plants don’t freeze in the next few weeks.
Related Links:
Burpee – Ozark Beauty Strawberries
When this blog began in August 2004, my mind was a scary place, full of fears, regrets and things that were just not normal. I still have those types of thoughts from time to time, but lately I have been reflecting on my recent blog entries. My more recent writings have been about personal progress, striving for a better self and just a little bit of everything from my life. There was a time when everything I wrote was more or less a censored version of a personal journal. I feel that over the last few years, my blog has matured, as have the topics which I have selected to discuss. I have been very happy in my life recently and have been finding hope for the future in the strangest places, which I suppose has resulted in me having more blog entries this month than any other month.
With all of these changes, it has me thinking that perhaps the domain doesn’t fit its purpose anymore. Chances are though, I will keep the blog right where it is, just because of its history and the fact that while I have used 3 different primary email addresses (and about 12 axillary email addresses) but only one address for my main blog. Here it was created, here it will stay.
Being around my family presents great challenges when it comes to eating healthy. With all of the southern comfort foods we all love (potato salad, macaroni and cheese, biscuits, chick and dumplings) being made fresh and put in front of us, it is hard to resist. I tried to let myself go a bit today as well as keep things in balance. Overall I feel like I did ok, although, I probably enjoyed the two pies that I made a little too much. In a few moments it will be midnight and I return to counting calories, carbohydrates and everything else that is bad for me, and start working out overtime to burn off the excess calories from today. I enjoyed giving myself the freedom from the measurements today and just being conscious of what I have eaten. Tomorrow, everything must be counted, with great accuracy.
I’m giving GrandCentral.com a try. Seems like a great service, but I don’t see myself using the forwarding features much. The voicemail is great though, I can check it anywhere via phone or web.