Lomography pictures from Inauguration

Just posted my pictures from the Inauguration on flickr. Check them out! I’ll be back to write more later.

Potholes, a solution.

We all complain about potholes and damaged road surfaces, but do most of us actually do anything about it? We just think the city isn’t doing its job. Well, what are they going to do, drive every street and look for damage themselves?

So, it’s our tax dollars and we have a right to complain, but not if you don’t do your part as a proactive citizen. So if you are in Los Angeles you can report potholes and a bunch of other things to the city using this site www.lacity.org/boss Then if they still don’t do anything, well complain as loudly as you want!

TGIF!

It’s Friday! Yay! It’s strange, and it always happens, that 4 day weeks feel longer when you have the Monday off. I wonder why that is.

Last night I spent most of the evening scanning my negatives from our DC trip. I should have them all done by the end of the weekend. But hopefully I will have some images to flickr tonight or tomorrow so stay tuned!

Birthday party tonight for GR. I’m excited!

10 Random thoughts

1. I love Harry Potter. I admit it. I’m a dork. I don’t care!
2. I love MyLeaky! I admit it. I’m a dork. I don’t care!
3. February is a stupid month and shouldn’t count.
4. 4 day weeks are better when the day off is Friday and not Monday.
5. Sweaters are great.
6. Lunch time is the second best time of the day.
7. Leaps are great but scary. But sometimes you just got to get over whatever it is you need to get over.
8. I love my writer’s group.
9. My summer is going to be crazy!
10. I can’t wait until April.

Water Water Everywhere but not a Drop to Drink.

I’ve been saying it often in the last few months and it looks like it just might happen, California and Los Angeles in particular is going to have to enforce water conservation to survive a this latest drought.  Despite the huge amounts of rain we have been getting in the last week, it is not enough and our water supplies from elsewhere are also experiencing frighteningly low levels.

I am certainly an American who loves her water. I love drinking it, I like clean clothes, I love flushing my toilet, I love long showers and I indulge in hot soaking baths. But I think it is time for me to change my attitude on the resource I love the most or all these things that I love won’t be available any more or if they are, it will be at a heavy price. Imagine if water were as expensive as gasoline. That is a scary thought.

This world only has so much drinkable water on it. No matter what solutions we may invent in the future the bottom line is that everything we do will have consequences. The best thing that we can do is to start to conserve now. Not because the city is going to fine you if you water your lawn after 7:00am, but because as global citizens we should.

So, I’m going to make a promise here that I will do everything in my power to conserve water and I hope that, even if you live in a place with plenty of water, you will join me.

Play Ball!

The sights and sounds of baseball gearing up has gotten me excited! This Saturday Jana and I sat down and picked out a whopping 27 games to attend this season and that was just for the mini-plan we were ordering. We were already making plans for certain individual games we might have to get on the side. On top of it all, in just a few weeks, Jana and I will be taking our first ever trip to Spring Training! So, as I stare out into a dark and cloudy sky I am itching for Spring and reflecting on my own passion for the sport.

Sometimes I listen to Jana with deep envy, my passion is not the same as hers. Her love for baseball and the Dodgers goes back to childhood, and a connection with her father and brother. An obsession fueled by the energy and time of youth. I often sadly wish I could share that with her.

But, it is this exact passion in my friend that has made me a Dodger fan. She was the one who took me to my first game as an adult. She was the one who taught it to me. She was the one who showed me how to keep score. She was the one I turned to, and still turn to, when something happens that I don’t understand. Her enthusiasm has become my enthusiasm.

But there were two other reasons for why I fell in love with baseball, and Dodger baseball in particular:

First, Dodger Stadium. The view of the field as you walk out to the top deck is awe-inspiring. There is nothing else like it. I tingle just thinking about it. You feel transported to a different time and all that is in your mind is baseball.

Second, Vin Scully. There is nothing in the world that can quite compare to listening to the voice of Dodger Baseball. My heart aches for future generations who will not know what it is like to listen to him call a game. Listening to Vin is like stretching your own soul across both time and space.

Dodger baseball connects me to history. I have great pride in calling the Dodgers my team. It doesn’t matter who the players are, or whether they win or lose, they will always be my boys, my bums.

But on a more general level I love baseball because it is the one sport that appeals to my nature.  It is  a game of contradictions.  A game of statistics and averages that can lead to predictable outcomes. But also a game of amazing feats, simple mistakes, and bottom of the 9th comebacks.

Proof I really do bleed Dodger blue.

It is a team sport and there is nothing like watching a well oiled machine. But it is also the simplest of duels between two individuals, one with a ball and the other with a bat. It is a slow methodical game and yet sometimes you wonder where the last 8 innings, 8 games, 8 months went.

Baseball is also a game of second chances. You can be down, but you’re never out. You can always get a hit next time, wake up tomorrow and try again. It is a game inherently about hope.

I can’t quite say why I love baseball.  It is more an emotion and a feeling.  I can’t quite say why I love the Dodgers. It is like the love you have for an extraordinary friend. But what I can say is that there is nothing quite like Dodger baseball. There is nothing quite like the excitment of Spring!

My new Canon 5D!

Palms on my street

I finally got to take my new camera and lens out for a test drive this weekend. I shot some beautiful snaps of my courtyard on Saturday.  I was utterly amazed when I uploaded them into my computer. Sure they could be tweaked in lightrooom, but they didn’t need to be.  The images were so crisp and clean. The amount of contrasts and depth was perfect.

My new lens was a great buy.  I tried to choose something that would give me lots of range for the price. I ended up getting the Canon EF 28-105mm.  Not only do I have the variety of focal length, this lens also shoots in macro.

Ashes

Without much effort I can now take the perfect portraits.

Yesterday, I popped on my flash and took some shots of my cats. I was utterly amazed at the images I was able to capture.

You can see my flickr page for more samples of the test shots I took.

I am deeply in love with my new camera and know that very soon it will become my new best friend.

The Good, the Bad, and the Cold

This past week I have been pretty sick. I don’t really know what I had/have. I am pretty sure it wasn’t the flu, but boy did it wipe me out.

As much as I hate being sick, in a lot of ways I think it was exactly what I needed. All last week I wanted to take a vacation from life. To just sit in some secluded place and not think of the million things I have to do. Maybe it was exactly because I was mentally and physically tired that I did get sick. But it was a nice vacation from life. Exactly what I think I needed. Cheap too! No guilt, no worries, no stress. It was just me and my body, resting.

Well, now that I am feeling better it is back to reality.