MikeBrum.com

Finally saw Batman last night. It’s been a long time in which I’ve walked away from a movie feeling that it was perfect. Everyone did an amazing job at bringing their characters to life (and thankfully Katie Holmes was nowhere to be found).

I unfortunately didn’t get to see it in iMax and that might be something to do before it leaves the theaters. It’s very rare that I see a movie in a theater more than once, but this might be one of those times.

Very, very impressive.

I’ve definitely entered into the “zomg itchy” phase of healing. Not enjoying it at all. Trying not to scratch, but success is variable.

I saw Hellboy 2 earlier. I got out of work early and swung by the theater. I figured that with the Batman craze in full force, that it was a good time to see Hellboy since I hadn’t seen it yet. Given that there were about 10 people in the theater, I’d say it was a good call.

I liked it well enough – it was fun and campy in just the right ways – but I wouldn’t say that it was amazing by any stretch. Certain parts were really cool though. If you really enjoyed the first one, you’ll enjoy the second one enough to see it in the theater. If you were “meh” on the first one, you likely won’t feel any better about the second.

Not sure what’s going on this weekend – hopefully something fun comes up. At the very least, there will be catching up with sleep – which’ll be important.

I took a bunch of pictures while at the fair last Saturday. I carried around my tripod and I think it was worth it in the end.

Canon 30D + 24-70 f2.8.

I’m sitting around waiting for some automated processes to do what it is they’re supposed to do. Only once they’ve completed can I check a few pieces of data and then go to bed – assuming it all works with no problems.

Work looked like it was going to be nice and breezy this week – not a lot going on and what I did have to do seemed like it was going to be a piece of cake. Unfortunately, my work tonight went from a 1900-0200 window to possibly 1900-0600. I also may have to do another few really big tasks this week – we’ll see how it all shakes out.

In the meantime, I’m just hoping that what I need to get done gets done so I can get some rest and actually be able to survive my 3 hour meeting tomorrow.

I went to see Joe last night for a few hours to get some more lines done for my leg work. Still not enjoying getting tattooed on my upper thigh or back of my knee. Hell, or over my kneecap either. My calf… well, you can tattoo that all day and I won’t care. It’s amazing what a few inches in one direction or the other can do for pain.

Now I’m all gimpy due to everything being sore and puffy. I’m working from home in the morning and I”m going to go into work in the afternoon for a meeting and basically come home. It’s a nice option to have. It’ll give me the opportunity to wash my leg an additional time before having to deal with it at work.

That’s that. Nothing else really to report.

I don’t know what it is, but I’ve been exhausted the past few days. I went to bed last night at 10 and I still woke up at 5:30 for no good reason even though my alarm wasn’t set to go off until 8:00.

I’m getting tattooed tomorrow night and I’m not really feeling it. I’m sure that’s just going to make things more uncomfortable. Blech.

With my leg all freshly tattooed, scuba diving is definitely not on the table for this weekend unfortunately. From the weather report, it sounds like the perfect weekend. The strobe for my underwater housing was sent back to the manufacturer for some repairs. I should get it back in a few weeks, which I’m excited for.

I’ve been reading a bunch of zombie and Cthulhu comics lately, which has been a lot of fun. I just made it through the first TPB of The Walking Dead. I have the next two on the way from Amazon. I also noticed that Marvel Zombies (hardcover) 2 was out, so I threw that in the basket. Should show up in a few days.

I think that covers the high points. It’s hot. I’m tired. I wanna go home. Yeah, that should be it.

Had a good day of diving. I forgot how cold and bulky temperate water diving is. I’ve also lost my fondness of most shore diving. The week and a half diving from boats in Grand Cayman has spoiled me a wee bit. I guess that means I’m just going to have to get Corinne to go on more vacations more often.

In other news, slightly related to diving, I just learned that the dive instructor that we got certified through was arrested in March for gun possession charges. They’re not “minor” charges either. Here’s a brief excerpt from the report:

…was found to be in possession of six semi-automatic pistols, two rifles and two boxes of ammunition for various pistols and rifles, without any license to carry

Wow. I always knew she was one of those “really crazy people that probably made a lot of bad decisions”, but seriously? At least she’s a good dive instructor.

Fucking weird.

Tomorrow will be our first day diving since our trip to Grand Cayman earlier in the year. While it won’t be anywhere as beautiful (chilly green Boston waters vs the clear and blue tropical waters of the Caribbean), it’s still good diving and we’re excited.

I picked up tanks on Thursday and I just gave all our equipment a once over to ensure that it’s all working and looks fine. Everything’s now all packed up and ready for the morning. Since we have to be out of the door early, it makes sense to spend the time to pack the night before.

The rest of the day has been nice and relaxed. I got Corinne to start watching Lord of the Rings. She’s been very resistant, but after 2 years of constant request, she finally gave in. We watched the first DVD of the extended version of Fellowship. She had to go into work for a while tonight, so we’ll pick up the second one sometime later – but she seems into it (which is what I was expecting).

Now I just need to stay awake for a little while longer and not nap so I can sleep well tonight and be rested for diving tomorrow. We’ll see how well I do.

Driving into work this morning was super easy. Seemed like nobody was on the road – probably taking advantage of the long weekend.

I have work to do this afternoon, but it’ll be super easy and pretty straight forward.

Already looking forward to leaving!

I got some time to process and post some images from Seaworld last weekend. I’m typically not a fan of “composites”, but they’re probably the best way to capture the “action series” when I was shooting in burst mode.

As for the technical, all shot with my 70-200 @ f2.8. Most of the day was shot on aperture priority. I had to progressively increase my ISO as the day wore on to deal with the drop in light. All-in-all, I’m rather pleased.

Click the thumbnails for larger photos.