As you can see from this picture, my new camera & lens is significantly larger then my previous one. And after only using the D200 for less then a week, I don’t know how I ever got along without it. Everything is designed to be able to access and change it quickly, in the dark, without moving my eyes from the viewfinder. It’s an absolute dream. I’m really looking forward to using it in next month’s “In The Loop“, since it’s going to (tentatively) be shot from a nearby homeless shelter - should lend to some interesting and powerful shots.

So, it seems like ever since I got the check, I’ve been spending roughly $500/day on.. I don’t really on what, exactly, but it’s been some quality stuff! An example of that quality stuff would be this pic of the tin of tea we purchased yesterday from Teavana. It’s a mix of 2 blends ; one is “Jasmine Dragon Phoenix Pearls” and the other is “Roobios Tropica” - it smells (and tastes) simply amazing - I might just be going off coffee for awhile. I like it so much so that the same night I went and made a big order from Stash Tea - a coffee cup infuser and several hundred grams of fine tea - including Earl Grey (Learn about Earl Grey tea here!)!

Saturday was Bobstock, Mishka’s Father’s yearly celebration of the life and music of Bob Dylan. It was a great time with a lot of interesting people, made even more interesting since we brought the Wii along. So it was more like Celebrate the life and time of Bob Dylan…. and kick the crap out of each other in bowling & boxing. At least the kids had something to do!

During Bobstock I was talking to Mishka’s mother for a bit, she’s a wise over-achieving IT nerd like myself, and was lamenting to her about the current state of my life, how I’m at a crossroads and need to dedicate several years of college aside for my art and so on and so forth and she said “No you don’t, you simply need to get the information you’re missing”. That’s a simple statement, but damn it all, she’s right. So to help improve my photography, I’m trying to learn how to draw. On Sunday I picked up the book “How to Draw What You See” and a sketchpad and I seem to be picking it up. Though to be honest, my picture taking abilities have greatly increased, especially when you throw in the confidence boost that is carrying around a professional camera - it gives you more of that ‘I belong here’ cred that when combined with an NPPA badge affords you more access then you think you’d get. It’s a wonderful little secret I tend to exploit as much as possible!

I don’t know if I’ll ever photograph professionally, I have my writing and art to pursue in that vein, though I do think I’ll keep at it for the rest of my life.
Mishka graduates this year (For her second degree - overachiever like her mother) with her Interior Design degree. There’s a lot of places in the Twin Cities that she could go to, and I know she’ll do amazingly well - she’s found her niche, her calling, and it’ll net her cash. Hell, she completely amazes me with what she can accomplish in a day - like her new job, the first week, she’s already organizing events and talking to places to do co-op deals - she’ll go far. Hopefully, she’ll go far enough so that I can stop working IT full time some day and do it part time (Even though she says that even doing it part time, I’ll still make more money then her for a few more years hehe), then using the rest of it for writing, art, and photography. Hell, writing is already paying off.

I’m really starting to like how my life is panning out. I’m in love with a wonderful woman I’m sure I’ll marry (She doesn’t read the blog, and no one tip her off, eh, even though I think she knows), I’m contracting at a place the is paying me really well and where I really fit in, I’ve setup some personal goals for myself (save up money for a nice ring + wedding, then for a loft/house, then work on art skills), am working hard to broaden my abilities, and generally growing as a human being.

And sometimes, I wonder, if it is all thanks to a broken Maneki Neko.
A Maneki Neko, literally meaning ‘beckoning cat’, is a Japanese good luck symbol from the 1800s. It’s told that the cat holds one paw upwards, inviting money, good will, customers, etc into the owners world. I bought one. I had it on top of a CD tower for the longest time.

One night, the CD tower fell, probably due to the fault of Ebbie, my very real cat. And with it, the beckoning arm fell off as well. And after that, things started to happen.
Perhaps it was a sign that I no longer needed a lucky charm, I made my own. Maybe it was a sign from above telling me to get moving. Or maybe it is just a bad idea to put stuff on top of CD towers - either way, I’m doing better now.

Anyway, this post has taken me, literally, 4 hours to write - as I did it in between work assignments. And now I’ve totally lost my train of thought due to a little fire, so I’ll just end it here. Ciao!

Now I’m not saying I got a fat check recently or anything, but when I get home today I’ll have a new Nintendo Wii bundle waiting for me, which I’ll have to come back and grab since I’ll need to unload my new camera and lenses!

YAR!

Damn, where is it?

And by ‘it’, I refer to my advance check for my book, ‘<Bah, title has been changed =\‘. It was said it could take a few weeks, but I want it *now*.

Why?

All new camera gear! Rawr!

Here is what I shall be getting, complete with links:

Nikon D200 dSLR with 18 - 200mm f/3.5 - 5.6 ED-IF DX AF-S VR II Lens

Nikon Zoom Super Wide 17 - 55mm f/2.8 ED-IF AF-S DX Lens

Nikon MB-D200 Vertical Grip

Nikon GPS Adapter cable

Plus some other odds and ends like a couple of 4GB CF cards and probably yet another camera bag.

Damn, I really need to love this blog a little more, get a theme going on it and add some links. There’s a real cool Unix command line theme I like, but most people probably won’t be able to use it - still, I might do it anyway. Cause it’s for ME, not YOU!

Other news: There’s now a website about the new book, well, about me anyway. And no, you can’t find it. I’ve written it under a pseudonym Those there’s always the possibility the title doesn’t get changed (For the 4th time) and it goes up under that name. But I’ll always refer to it as “Bah title has been changed =\” because I think that’s the best title so far, and it’s one I came up with, not the publisher’s marketing droids.

Anyway, till the next time.

JDP

News. Couple of months ago I wrote a short story. Today I got a thick letter from a certain writers magazine. Inside was a ‘Congratulations, we’d like to publish your story’, documents to sign, and quite a nice offer of money for the privledge of letting them publish it.

Well I’m no dummy, so yours truly is now, technically, a professional writer - I’ve been paid & published. The editor seemed to really dig my story, he thought it was quite original and spoke of deep emotions. Yay me. You can read a big chunk of the story as it’ll be printed over at the other blog.

But I have to write something about myself in the bio section on this document, dunno what I’m going to write.

I’ll post about it after it’s already been published and a sure deal.

Oh, also, I’m not doing the Fringe Fest this year, I just don’t have the time and Mishka is really busy with things as well. So, lamenting this to a friend also in the Fringe, he said he’d love to take a couple of my original character ideas and incorporate it into his play. So whilst I’m not putting on my own deal, I will have part in one - yay me!

Tomorrow is the MN Fringe Fest lottery. I’m #9. I’m one of 382 applicants for 150ish spots. I’m nervous and yet excited. Wish me luck, eh?