Well, life is slowly returning to normal in these post-portfolio times.
We went on Friday night to Chilli Garden in Medford. I enjoyed it well enough, but it’s still no Zoe’s.
I’m thinking I’ll pick up a new camera soon. Anyone have any thoughts about getting a longer zoom lens (the camera kit comes with an 18-70mm zoom)? I’m torn between the cheap (but decent) 70-300mm f4.0-5.6 and buying a nice used 70-210mm f2.8 lens (which I could then use with a TC if I needed a longer lens down the road).
I went to an opening at the Griffin Museum tonight to see a piece that Scott had in the juried show. I ended up winning the door prize at the event, which comprised a Holga, some film, a few postcard sized prints by Arthur Griffin, and a copy of The Fire Within – pretty good for dropping a card in a box!
I noticed two things in the “healthy/organic” section of the Stop & Shop last night. First, I seem to have an aversion to “regular” brands also making an organic product. I saw Snyder’s of Hanover Organic Pretzel Sticks and was immediately mad that they were trying to cash in on the organic fad. Then, I remembered that I actually like their regular pretzels and the organic ones might be good, too.
Second, Annie’s Mac and Cheese is $1.99 a box (wow!) in the organic section and $1.39 in the regular aisle. Same exact box, just different locations in the store – what kind of a message is that?
The portfolio’s nearly done. A little editing tonight, a little binding and construction tomorrow and it’ll be finished – finally! I’m really happy with how it’s turned out, but I’m really ready to move on.
Cheers to Tova for discovering that the Royal Sonesta by the Cambridgeside Galleria will let you use their pool, hot tub, sauna and health club for $15 a day. Cheers to me for figuring out they have a $6/day rate for Tufts Health Plan members before I paid the $15.
Wanna see The Gates, but can’t make it down to New York before the end of the month? No problem, Somerville has it’s own installation: The Somerville Gates.
I was desperate for exercise last night, so I went for a run, the second half of which was in a reasonably heavy rain. I was in noticably worse shape than the last time I ran (two months ago), but it still felt good.
The portfolio is coming along but taking up most of my time. A week and a half to go…
It’s been a rough week already – there’s an article in the New Yorker about the US repatriating prisoners to countries when the government knows they’ll be tortured, and Gonzales was sworn in – but now we have to deal with this?! I don’t know how anyone in the Bush administration can sleep at night.
I saw five hawks in trees along the highway (spread out over a few miles) this morning, a very foggy one. I’ve also noticed that I see the hawk that lives near the office more often in bad weather. Any thoughts why? Maybe I’m just better at seeing them in the rain.
Still enjoying the new laptop, though this bug is problematic. You listening, Apple?
Since I’m starting to run out of space for the site, I’m going to be doing some reorganizing and (mostly) deleting of images in the next couple days. If you’re trying to find something in particular and you think it ought to have stayed up, you can send me email.
I’ve been using my new computer a bunch and really enjoying it. I’ve also been following this thread about getting the two-finger scrolling (featured in the just-released Powerbooks) working on older models. My vote is for SideTrack – it’s not free ($15), but it’s much more powerful, and works like a charm.
I tried East Asia last night – a hole-in-the-wall Chinese restaurant around the corner from my house – after hearing from several reliable sources that it was way better than the outward appearance would indicate. They were absolutely right, and I quite enjoyed my dumplings and ma pao tofu (with pork). It’s no Zoe’s, but it’s good enough to become my default Chinese take-out place.
After a mercifully quick stop at the Home Depot on the way home, I put together my light tent and started snapping some pictures. I think it’s a pretty good setup, especially for such little money.
You can check out the setup (pops in new window) or some sample results (also pops). [ Just a quick note: after I took the picture of my setup, I realized it’d be better to have one light on either side of the camera, so I moved the one lower down to the opposite post. ]
Gonna be in New York between February 12th and the 27th? Check out The Gates while you’re there.
The new computer rocks! I’m currently debating whether or not to buy AppleCare, the extended warranty plan from Apple. Word on the ‘net is mixed – some say you won’t need it, others swear by it. In any event, I have a year to decide, and if I’m gonna do it, I’ll probably wait to see if I get in to Stanford and take advantage of their student discount.
The project for the week is to build a light box. I’ve got to take a few more pictures for my portfolio, and I’d rather do them at home than drag out the big setup at work. I picked up some white background paper, a couple of white pillowcases, and some cheapy light fixtures this weekend, so I’m just a couple PVC parts away from a setup. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I’m posting this from the kitchen from my new computer. Yep, the five year-old iMac has been relegated to the closet (or it will be soon, anyway) and I’m all modern and updated with wireless, bluetooth and all sorts of other doodads and whatsits. Fun times.
I saw The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou last night and liked it alright. It was definitely a little longer than need be, but I was entertained by it. I liked that it was different enough from other Wes Anderson movies that I didn’t feel like I was watching one of them rehashed, but wasn’t ever really pulled in to the story.
This is the first time I’ve worn regular shoes out of the house rather than boots in quite a long time. And I probably should’ve worn boots – it’s a slushy, slushy world out there.
After looking around for an appropriate program to create my portfolio in, I settled on the new Apple program Pages. I had a chance to play with it for a little while last night, and it looks really nice. Basically, it’s a hybrid word-processor/layout program that does an adequate job at both tasks. If you’re looking for a serious page layout tool, this ain’t it, nor is it gonna put Microsoft Word out of business. But, if you want something cheap ($79 for Pages and Keynote) with a good, easy-to-learn user interface, this is your program.
Installing Pages last night reminded me how old my computer is – it’s a 400 MHz G3 iMac that’s now 5 years old. It’s time for an new computer, but I need to make sure whatever I choose meshes with plans to travel a bunch this summer and possibly go to school in the fall.
