(no subject)

I lost out on the 17mm lens I was bidding on while I was at the movie with folks last night. But you know, that's ok. It's a discontinued product that I've been looking for, but it didn't take too long to find one and I'm sure another one will come up. In the meantime, I have a little more money to tuck into savings.

I was over at my dad's for a couple hours tonight. He needed some outdoorsy pictures to be used with a projector for a play he's doing and I brought a set over that I'd taken with posicat and another friend from work at a park in Grayslake this summer. A few of them met his criteria and I gave him copies. In return, I get photographer credit in the playbill. Nifty!

I also showed him how smoothly picture editing on the tablet goes, and we got MAME running on the pocket PC I gave him a while ago. Yay!

I have almost entirely cleaned the bedroom, and right now the curtains are closed and candles are lit and it's very warm and happy. I walked into the computer room before sitting down to type this and just said to myself 'Our house is finally looking nice!'.

I just rebuilt my desktop with XP instead of 2000. Unfortunately, my volume key no longer verifies so I can't get automatic Windows updates. I guess I'll work with it for a while and see how big a problem that causes. I may end up installing with an OEM key later if I need to. So far it's just causing annoyances like having to download the redistributable .net 2.0 package and install manually instead of getting it through Windows Updater.

I finally got moiracoon set up on her laptop. She decided to work downstairs at the dining room table on it. I went downstairs with her, made sure she was plugged in to power and on the wireless network, and generally all set. As I was going back upstairs, I stopped at the landing and called back "I feel like I'm sending you away to summer camp!" Of course, as mocha_mephooki pointed out when he called a few minutes ago, that means I can expect a letter once a week and some arts and crafts projects upon her return. *giggles*

Though I feel a little weird and lonely without her at the desk next to me, I think it's a good situation. I intend to have a spot where she (or other people) can bring mobile computers by and plug in if they want to, and I'll have extra space for projects at the same time. Plus, we won't be bugging each other all the time with videos and stuff while we're trying to work, and she has a computer that's about three times as fast as her old one and that she can take out to coffee houses and stuff. I think overall it's a better arrangement, and I suppose I'll get used to sitting in here by myself, though I hope she comes to visit sometimes.

I'm going right over to my dad's school after work this Wednesday. He wants me to shoot pictures of his dress rehearsal, 'just like I'm getting pictures for the newspaper'. I'm really excited about trying something like that. I hope I get decent shots. I'm going to use the 50mm lens since it'll open all the way up to f1.8; I think the f3.5 zoom I have wouldn't work nearly as well for existing light shooting in a blackbox theatre, and I definitely don't want to use the flash if I can avoid it. Hopefully lack of a zoom in a relatively small space like that won't be an issue. If it is, well, I'll bring the zoom along as a backup anyway.

The movie yesterday was pretty good, and the company was even better. Thanks to everyone who came along! It was really nice to see you all again. And Tybis; thanks so much for the hot sauce; yum!!

I'm starting, after a long break, to use Google Calendar again. I've updated my work schedule there to match my vacation, and I've added Christmas breakfast with my parents, and a bill or two. As soon as I figure out when I'm going to Gary and to the photography museum, I'll add those in too. Now I just have to track down decent software to synch Google Calendar with a pocket PC. Anyone have experience with that?

'Till next time!