The Zoo over Ambuscade Street

Any soundtrack that includes the line "Shake it, shake it like a nasty boi" is OK by me. I am vastly amused.

But it took a sudden turn for the cold last night, which is much unpleasant. I liked the nice weather! I REALLY liked the nice mosquito-free weather, especially after last year when all I needed to do was think about going outside and I suddenly sported fifteen new bites. The suckers all hatched during the random freak warm days earlier this year, and then died when it froze again. Yay!

I made the joking comment on Monday that Erik was off "damaging himself" at a police bike training class. After yesterday, that comment is slightly less funny - he didn't have much luck with emergency stops or riding up stairs, it seems, and flew over the handlebars no less than twice, and fell of innumerable times. He doesn't bruise easily at all (something that would bruise Erik would probably break my bones), but he was purple from head to toe, scraped up, and bloody in more than one spot. The poor thing came home and crashed, and has to do it all over again today.

I have 8 free iTunes songs to redeem by Friday. At this point I have no idea what to get - most of the music I listen to is odd and not sold by iTunes, and I tend to already have the CDs for them anyway. I like just about any genre sans rap, hip-hop, and country of any stripe (western is OK, though).

What would you suggest that I get?

I somehow find it less than shocking that in order to get the digital camera I really, really want, or, more specifically, the features I really, really want, I'm going to have to drop over a grand. Not happening this year, I can tell you. This, this, and this were the first three recommended to me. The other were...higher on a economic scale than my current photographic endevours are worth.

I do like my Olympus. It's a good camera for playing, but its complete and utter inability to focus on anything other than what's closest (see: Harris hawk pictures from Tucson) is an incredible liablilty. Not being able to set exposure lenghts and other things I can do with my SLR is annoying as well.

I only paid about $150 for it (clearance display model with "the manager loves me" mark-down), so I don't feel like I've wasted anything with it, but I feel like it's also made me a stupider photographer. Not that I was ever anything spectacular, because I never really spent the time I needed to actually getting good, but I knew my f-stops from my apetures. I'm not quite so sure that I still do.

I think it's time to give up on the digital and spend more time with my trusty SLR. It was a high school graduation present from my father, during one of the times when he was trying to bribe his way back into my good graces - it was also the only way he was ever getting his camera (the same model he bought for me) back. I still have his tripod and all his filters, though.

I need a new lens, too. I like taking pictures while I'm hiking, but the things I tend to want to take pictures of tend to be farther away than my regular lens can reach. Mmmmm...telephoto...

I have to remember to actually develop my film in a timely fashion, too. This was more of an issue before I had a car. Old film = bad.