MikeBrum.com

Woo! Yeah! Holiday weekend – company holiday. Aww yeah baby!

Wait… I have to work tonight. Awww indeed. :(

At least I have today to do stuff. Probably going to go for a walk and get some ice cream. Mmmm… ice cream.

Most of the day, however, is going to be spent on my other computer in Photoshop working on my photo project. I think I finally know the whats and hows of my plan, so I can move forward with some purpose. Sure it means wasting a beautiful day inside, but that’s the kind of week this week is going to be – me doing a ton of stuff that I’d rather not be doing, while I’m unable to do the things I’d like to do.

Anyway, thems the breaks. At least there’s ice cream.

Today marks Corinne and my two year anniversary. It definitely doesn’t seem like it’s been that long – but at the same time, so much has changed – but I think all in good ways: jobs, our apartment, two remarkably dumb but incredibly cute cats, two trips to Hawaii, one to Grand Cayman and the fact that we’re fairly avid certified scuba divers.

…and that’s just the big stuff.

I never would have expected to be where I am right now two years ago – or have predicted how impossibly happy I am with pretty much everything in my life. That’s not to imply that we’re codependent – our relationship is remarkably healthy and we still have the things that we do on our own. It’s just that Corinne is at the center of all the things that I enjoy and she (with the patience of a saint) supports me in all the stupid, odd and goofy things that I do. It still baffles me – but I definitely got the better deal in this relationship!

So here’s to two great years – and hopefully many, many more.

Love you – *k*

Monday night is D&D night, so I tend to get home late. I think it was at 1:30 that I came up to this stretch of the Providence Turnpike.

Cruising along around 50mph, I noticed something odd… a deer just hanging out in the middle of the road. This was the quintessential “freezing like a deer in headlights” situation. I had to flash my high beams a few times and the deer jumped the divide and headed to the west.

It was all very neat and the first time I’ve come across a deer “in the road”. I’ve noticed deer on the side of the road plenty of times in plenty of places, but never _in_ the road. I’m also glad I was paying attention since I was moving at a decent clip. I was the only car on the road for a few minutes, so it would have been bad had I hit it. I hope the deer was spooked enough to stay off the road for a while.

What a few fun days it’s been in terms of random animal encounters!

Today we really went for a walk in the park. The arboretum, actually. I took out my macro rig and decided to bring out my 70-200 w/ my new 1.4x TC “just in case”. I’m glad I did, because the few macro critters that were out weren’t in places I could get close to. I think it’s just too early in the season just yet. The next few weeks should result in a lot to shoot if the number of tadpoles is anything to be trusted.

The toad, dragonfly and robin shot were at max zoom. So on the crop sensor 30D and 1.4x TC, that’s an effective focal length of 448 (200 * 1.4 * 1.6). What I really need to invest in is a nice 400mm lens (like this one, which is remarkable for its price!).

Like almost all of my photos, none of these are cropped – just resized for the web. Click for larger versions.

Today has been pretty low key – no complaints here.

We decided to go for a walk earlier today. Not in the park, or anywhere near a park, actually. We went to get ice cream. Mmm… ice cream. I decided to take my camera, and I’m glad I did. I tried to take some pictures of bees in some flowers, but with the wind being what it’s been this year and the bees cruising at full throttle, I didn’t get much that I was happy with.

But the highlight of the trip was about halfway, where I spotted a small garter snake resting on top of a hedge. It wasn’t until it was fully in my periph that I noticed that it was laying there, basking in the sun. I immediately stopped and took a ton of pictures of it. Below are a few of the ones that I like the most. He was SUPER patient and only moved if I moved quickly or touched him – but even just a few inches from his face with a flash firing away, he didn’t seem phased.

As for the pictures, they’re not cropped – just resized for the web. I used a couple of them as practice for dust removal (I need to get my sensor cleaned again), but as for color and sharpness type edits, I only spent about 30sec top on each pic. They’re very close to untouched.

I haven’t posted any photos in a while, but I’m still shooting. I’m working on my final project for my photo class and I’ll be posting a bunch of stuff at once after it’s done. I took a bunch this morning before I left for work – gotta get some in before the rain comes back… which will be soon. I just wish it wasn’t so windy. It really makes my job difficult!

Yesterday when I was coming in I saw some birds bustling around in some bushes. Then a bug came flying out with two birds hot in it’s tail. I don’t know if it was a bee or a wasp or some other random flying insect, but it was hauling ass. I guess I would be too if my life depended on it.

…and given that about 5 seconds after the chase started the bug got eaten, it totally did.

I just like little glimpses of nature like that even though I spend all my time in the city. It was pretty cool.

Just before I got into class last night, I totally ran into Amy, who I haven’t seen in person for a couple of years now (no real excuse given how close we live). I was all, “Hey!” and she responded with a clear look of confusion and an unspoken, “Who the fuck are you and why are you talking to me?!?”

I guess the sunglasses and the fact that I’ve gone from super long hair to shaved head + mohawk can account for that.

It was nice to catch up for a little while since I had time before class.

I’m glad today’s Friday. I have a lot of prep work to do, but no “real work” per se. Given that prep work is such a large part of what we do, I should probably consider it more important than I do, but whatevs. I’m surprised that the amount of “paperwork” (it’s all electronic) that I have to do hasn’t gotten to me yet. I guess it’s probably because it’s mixed in with what I consider real work enough. Meh – it all needs to get done.

Speaking of which… back to work.

I drove over to Harvard Sq. after work to pick up Corinne and to swing by a flower shop.

I have a project for my photo class and I’ve decided to shoot flowers – specifically macro/close-up compositions. Unfortunately, the weather the last few weeks has been less than helpful – it’s either been raining, windy or very, very windy. In an effort to catch up, I bought some flowers to shoot. Initially I just wanted to shoot flowers around the city, but with the uncooperative weather, I needed to find other alternatives.

Gonna read some comics, watch some Hellboy and head to bed.

And that pretty much sums up today.

Yesterday was bookshelf day. We went to Ikea in the early afternoon and picked up a 6′x6′ shelf unit for the office. We’ve been painfully low on storage space and I wanted to put an end to it.

The original plan was to move our current (and much smaller) bookshelf somewhere else, while the new one would merely add some capacity. Luckily, the new one didn’t really get in the way and we were able to keep both. Yay @ space!

I then spent some time playing with my RC helicopters and came to the conclusion that they all suck. I need to pony up and buy one that costs more than $10. This is clearly a market in which you “get what you pay for”. Does anyone have any recommendations for a good RC heli that works WELL and does more than basically hover up and down and uncontrollably side-to-side?

Got the soft top put back on my Jeep today. Once the weather finally figures out wtf it’s doing, it’ll be nice to get the doors off and pull down the top. Woot! I just need to get a washing soon – it’s kinda filthy.

I think that’s about it. I’m going to try to get in some GTA, but we’ll see if I’m motivated enough.

Tonight is going to be a late night. I’m sitting around babysitting some stuff for work. Could go as late as 5am. Ugh. At least I’m not expected to show up at work tomorrow. I’ll just work remotely for a few hours tomorrow.

In the non-work front, I have a huge boner for Marvel Zombies. I read through the first 5 issues last night. I need to get my hands on the second volume of 5. I’ve never been a huge buyer of comics, but this series has definitely changed my mind. It’s just fucking awesome through-and-through.

With work, the weather and the unending wind I haven’t gotten much time to take pictures… which is disappointing. Hopefully something gives soon.

In the meantime, I’m just trying to keep my head above water. Wheee…

I rarely ever play around with black & white, but I really liked the contrast and decided to snap off a few shots. I was on the southbound orange line platform at the Downtown Crossing train stop. “The T” (as our public transport system is known by) is notoriously anal about people not taking pictures (even before the whole 9/11 paranoia), so I knew I didn’t have a lot of time so I fired off a few shots and put my gear away.

Anyhow, here it is. Click for a larger view: