most folks know i'm in the process of buying a serious upgrade to my current camera and purchasing a dSLR.
but then, i have a great day shooting film with results straight out of the camera like this, and it makes me think, "do i really need a $1400+ camera when my little film russian toy camera kicks major ass?"
my mother started radiation therapy on tuesday, the first of her daily visits for a six-week period. she had a simulation last week where they permanently marked the area for radiation, almost like tattoos. she had an abdominal ultrasound last week to try and determine the cause of her unexplained weight loss and stomach issues. she also had some unusual things come up in her blood work, most notably an elevated something-liver-related (dunno what the proper term for it is). when she meets with her primary care doc next she'll find out the results of this. despite all this, she seems to be in good spirits. she's in the beginning stages of quitting smoking (yay!) and is being aided by zyban in doing so.
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if last year was my year of travel (utah, maui, new york twice, various trips to tahoe) then this is my year of travel on the cheap. i'm going to seattle and vancouver in april for the sum of 20,000 miles and a whopping $5. i'm going with my friend matt, who will be attending a conference that is paid for by his work. yay for free lodging! i'm also going to vegas sometime hopefully soon with some tickets gifted to me by my folks, long beach in july for a wedding (driving down and free lodging) orange county for my cousin's wedding in september (more driving and free lodging) and a couple of other similar trips as well.
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i'm stocking up on polaroid film now. bastards! and just after i finally bought a polaroid camera last month! last week's haul brought me three packs at a 20% discount.
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i'm seeing more movies than ever lately, 18 last month and 17 this month thus far. in related news, i canceled my cable tv and am relying on netflix and especially its "watch it now" feature. i saw a disturbing documentary last week that i can't get out of my head. stupid me decided to watch it just before going to bed. ijit!
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speaking of movies, i called up my moms on saturday and asked her to a movie. she chose a horrid one (welcome home roscoe jenkins, as she digs martin lawrence) but it was definitely more about spending time together than what we saw. we had dinner together afterwards and had a lovely afternoon and evening together. 'course my sister, once she got word of what we'd done, thought i was conspiring against her to spend more time with our mother and thought i was trying to "out-do" her. sibling rivalry rears its ugly head, i suppose.
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i had monday off, and went to santa cruz, my president's day tradition of doing so is in its fourth year. the weather wasn't great, but i had a good time photographing the beach, boardwalk and downtown. i did some antique (window) shopping, photoboothing, and lots of walking. 
ah, yes. it appears i've chosen too soon.
certainly, i knew the risks of choosing a format during the so-called "format wars." this is not to say i don't fully enjoy my HD-DVD player and its capabilities, only to say that it will likely be a long time coming before i purchase a Blu-ray player.
Answer the questions and type them into a Google image search.
Post a picture from the first results page.
1. age on your next birthday
2. place you'd like to travel
3. one of your favorite places
4. favorite object
5. favorite food
6. favorite animal
7. favorite color
8. place you were born
9. place you live now
10. name of past pet
11. best friend's nickname
12. your screenname
NO RESULTS! ha!
13. your nickname
14. your first name
15. your middle name
16. your last name
17. a bad habit of yours
18. first job
19. grandmother's name
20. major in college
21. favorite holiday
22. your job
23. preferred hobby
24. your plans for the night
25. make a wish
26. your weakness
27. your strength
28. your relationship with your mother
29. the last thing you bought
30. the way you think people see you
31. one word to describe yourself
this is the first of the "found" photobooth pics that i picked up at a local antique store. my excitement when i came across this in a large bowl full of pics from someone's family history is indescribable. i love the look of indifference on this boy's face, almost as if someone forced him into the booth, and his nautical-inspired shirt. these details and others make it my favorite of the vintage found photobooth pics i have.
i like to think he grew up to be a nice guy, one of those quintessential all-american 50s leave it to beaver letterman jacket wearing guys that drank martinis and said things like, "hi honey, i'm home!" without any hint of irony and had a house full of furniture i'd drool over.
trolling craigslist, i came across the following in the "free" section:
i'm all for recycling, but this is a bit much. who's gonna revise the sign to reuse it?
first you no longer support hd-dvd, now you're suggesting MXC because i liked the bridge? something seems fishy with your recommendation algorithm.
super tuesday + fat tuesday = super fat tuesday.
i'm watching "eddie murphy raw" right now. i remember it coming out in 1987 and knowing i wanted to see it, if only because my parents said i couldn't.
i'm pretty sure lewis black ate at one of my restaurants today. i mean, the guy looked like him, sounded like him, so it must be him, right? sadly i didn't have the courage to ask, and neither did the person who pointed him out to me.
i did recognize ronnie lott when he came in just before christmas to a different location of mine. that was cool, seeing a childhood hero, in the flesh, downing a corona light with his daughter.
the cake decorating class is over. it turned out to be lots of fun, i only wish the "final" was on a weekend so i could have dedicated more time to making sure my cake looked as good as possible.
the decorating process:
