Hey Ya - Matt Weddle
I know everyone’s seen this already, so this is more about archiving this song for myself.
This guy has an awesome voice, and the cover of this song is very, very cool.
Arizona Crud
I’ve been trying to convince myself that I didn’t get myself sick, but the jig is up: I have an ugly chest and sinus thing going on that I’m sure I picked up last Sunday morning. It all started to manifest itself Tuesday with a hacking cough and has continued to morph into a stuffy head like I’ve never had before. I would have left work early yesterday had 1) two other people hadn’t called in sick, 2) I hadn’t just gotten back from a 7 day work absence, 3) it wasn’t the last day of the month.
I really feel like crap.
To add insult to injury I got an email yesterday from a girl I dated a very long time ago. She was a high school sweetheart who did the Texas-two step all over my heart twice. Once in high school, and then once about five years later. Sure, I should’ve known better the second time around, but I gave her the benefit of the doubt to the extent that i was able to. At first I wasn’t going to reply to her message, but the more I thought about it, I felt like it was due to me.
I don’t think I’ll ever hear from her again, which is a good thing. She was bad news, and whether or not she’s changed, I don’t really care. Just because someone apologizes doesn’t mean the person being apologized to has to accept it.
Lessons Learned: Photographing Grand Canyon
I learned a couple of things while standing against the railing at Yavapai Point.
- Batteries and cold weather do not mix
- Cold air + high humidity = camera as moisture magnet
I’m not sure how to fix problem two, but I saw a clever trick on ChaseJarvis.com (via The Strobist) to help with number one. Chase uses chemical hand warmers to keep his batteries nice and toasty so as not to lose charge due to the cold.
Really, I was not prepared for how quickly my batteries died while waiting for the sun to come up Sunday morning. My batteries could stand replacing anyway, but the cold seemed to reduce their functional life from a usual hour or so of semi-steady shooting to about 20 minutes. Almost as soon as I popped one into the camera, the charge meter dropped to one bar. More evidence of the phenomenon is how quickly they recharged once I returned to the indoors.
The condensation issue is one I’ll have to research further. Assuming I hadn’t gotten out to the point as early as I had, things might have been easier to manage since the camera would have had less time to cool to the point where the humidity in the air would stick to it . As it stands, I lost a lot of photos to condensation accumulating on the front element of my lens. Once the sun came up and started burning off the moisture, the problem wasn’t such a big deal.
As big an amateur as I am in regards to photography in general, I’m a complete spazz when it comes to landscape photography. I’m planning to make a few trips up the Blue Ridge this spring with the intent of increasing my experience level so that whenever I make it back out west (Bryce… Zion… I’m looking at you), I’ll have a better idea of what to expect and to do.
Vegas Adventure: Post Script
So, I’m home. Finally. I’m beginning the arduous process of going through the photographs I made… all 1250 of them. I’m really hoping to end up with a 25% keeper rate.
The flights back to Richmond seemed to go much faster than the original trip to Vegas. Maybe it was because I knew what to expect… or maybe it was because of the Bonine I took before leaving McCarran to ward off any motion sickness. The pills helped a lot, and left me drowsy enough that even if I didn’t actually fall completely asleep on the plane, I catnapped the whole way home.
Ginny and David met me at the gate in the airport in Richmond which was a great way to end the trip. After picking up my luggage we stopped at the Chinese take out place that I used to order from when I lived on that side of town (they have THE best dipping sauce for Fried Dumplings). and then took the food to my house for dinner. During the meal I gave Ginny a couple of thank you gifts I picked up for her. One was a horribly gaudy 3-d picture frame from the Rio, and the other was an equally bright pair of socks from Grand Canyon. She took them both in the spirit they were intended.
David and Ginny left shortly after we finished eating and I started unpacking. After 24 was over, I ran up to the cleaners to drop off some clothes so that they’d be ready for pickup this evening.
I slept until 9:30 this morning. It was wonderful to just lay in bed with nothing to do. I called the office and left a message with the girl who’s been covering for me. If they need me, they’ll call. Otherwise they’ll see me tomorrow. I won’t say I’m looking forward to going back to the office, but I’m not dreading it like i have after other absences. It’ll be nice to get back into a routine again, and hopefully I can make something of the momentum I built up in Vegas.
Today is going to be mostly about laundry, and organizing the pictures. I’m planning to put together a slide show from the pictures that will be set to music… we’ll see how well that turns out.
Vegas Adventure: Sunday 5:39 PM
I’m back from Grand Canyon and finally have internet access again. At first guess, I think I took 600 or so pictures. Obviously it’s going to take quite a while to go through them.
In the meantime:
I’m in the middle of repacking for the return trip… so this will have to do. All I can say is that it was an incredible experience. It’s the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Vegas Adventure: Friday 6:55PM
I think I’m officially over Las Vegas. Nothing bad happened, I’m just done. I think I’m beginning to get a little homesick. Thankfully I leave for the Grand Canyon tomorrow morning.
I went back to the strip this afternoon. I ended up spending about 30 minutes in front of the Venetian taking pictures, and and then I walked down to Treasure Island only to discover that the Siren’s Cove free show didn’t start until 7:00 PM. At that point I wasn’t prepared to wait around for another hour and a half. I took a cab back to the Rio and here I am.
I need to repack a bag for tomorrow’s overnight trip, and then I’ll head down and get something to eat. I’m planning to head out of here at about 9:00 AM which means I could conceivably be at the GC by 3:00 PM.
Vegas Adventure: Thursday 9:00 PM
Room service rocks the house. I just got back from my first trip to the strip. I skipped the cocktail reception and took the shuttle from the Rio to Caesar’s Palace around 4:30 this afternoon. I ended up walking from the Caesar’s to the Luxor… I took about 200 pictures along the way.
My goal was to be at the Luxor once it got dark, and I managed that with no problem. My feet, however, were toast when all was said and done, so I got a taxi back here from The Excalibur—$15 well spent.
Once I got back I realized that the gelato I got at The Bellagio wasn’t going to hold me over. I called down to room service and ordered a corned beef reuben with the best onion rings I ever had. Hell, the reuben was probably the best I’ve ever had. The guy who brought it up was very cool too… very friendly, and well deserving of the tip I signed for him.
Which brings me to an observation I’ve made. The service people her in Vegas are, for the most part, the best I’ve ever encountered. They really get it, and seem to genuinely appreciate the tourists who come here and dump untold amounts of money into this desert town.
I’ve posted a whole raft of pictures from this afternoon over at my flickr account. I’ll eventually bring over a few of the better shots here, but in the meantime, go to flickr and enjoy.
Okay… here’s one that turned out pretty well. It still needs a bit of retouching in photoshop, but the first draft isn’t too bad.
Oh, and if you couldn’t tell, I absolutely love the new Sigma lens.
Vegas Adventure: Tony & Tina’s Wedding
I can’t remember when I’ve had a more enjoyable evening. I found myself amongst a great group of people from all over the country to enjoy the show with. The show… my god was it funny.
The moment I walked into the “reception hall” I knew it was going to be a riot. Vinnie Black, Jr.—a greasy, guido of a guy with gaudy rings on every finger, wearing a gold lame jacket–greeted us as we entered. He shook hands and I commented on his jewelry… he replied that he “liked to wear the bling, like all the kids are saying.”
Basically, it’s immersive dinner theater. You’re a character in the show, a guest at the wedding of Anthony Nunzio, Jr., and Valentina Lynn Vitale, two very, very Italian kids with one hell of a lot of baggage. Tony’s Grandmother came by to thank us for coming to the wedding almost as soon as we sat down. She is a cute old lady full of smiles and obviously proud of her Tony. Tony, Sr., joined his mother and thanked as all as well. He, too, was a wonderfully funny stereotype of the proud Italian “faddah.” No chance of him getting married, he told us… “What, do I got stupid written on my forehead?”
The prelude is a lot of improv with the actors circulating among the audience and striking up conversations and introducing themselves. You meet everyone from Tony, the groom, to Tony, Sr’.’s hot stripper girlfriend, Madeline. Once the show actually begins in earnest there’s a whole lot of audience participation, from dancing, and limbo, to conga lines, and the Chicken Dance.
The best part is watching all your friends come out of their shells. The show was great and I can see going back again and again. Yeah, the basics are the same, but there’s so much room for the actors’ to play around that every show has to be a unique experience unto itself.
My only regret was paying attention to the warning not to bring a camera. There were many cameras in the audience, and they made no attempt to hide things. Nor did the cast make any issue out of being photographed, and in fact would stop to pose, guido-style, when they saw you sizing up a shot. I did take a bunch of snaps on my cell phone, but I don’t have a way of transferring them to my computer, and I honestly don’t think any of them are worth keeping anyway… my cellphone takes really crappy pictures.
If you like to laugh, and have a chance to catch the show in any of the eleven cities it plays in, or the national tour, do it. It’s more fun than you can imagine.
Vegas Adventure: Wednesday 5:00 PM
What a day. I’ve been in sessions basically nonstop. I’m skipping the last session… it’s for something more technical than I’m willing to commit to right now, plus, it’s been a long day already.
Did I mention it’s been a long day?
Mostly the sessions were informative. One particular session nearly spurred a feeding frenzy on the presenter. It was a for a new piece of the system that clearly hadn’t been thought out very well. For everything Activant does right (which isn’t much depending on who you ask), they are notorious for releasing features that aren’t ready for primetime and it appears that the Manufacturer’s Rep Order Processing is a long way from ready. I’m going to make a point of tracking down the lead developer tomorrow to see what the next steps for the functionality are. Not sure if I’ll make an impression or not. he thing is, they either make something too cumbersome, or not robust enough. This one’s a case of the latter.
Lunch was nice enough. Buffet style hotel food… salad, roasted potatoes, fruit, steak, salmon, or chicken. Much, much, much better than anything my kite friends and I have endured at various awards banquets. The steak could have been hotter, but the taste and texture were fine. I also had a conversation with a couple of folks who were just in the beginning phases of their implementation. It was informative and allowed us all to gripe a bit.
I visited the tech center this afternoon and found a lot of useful information. An addon application that DOES appear to be right. The price will be another question, but it might be the solution to a few situations that have recently come up.
I’ve also made a lot of notes today… and not all specifically related to the sessions I attended. I think that the change in scenery is jump starting some ideas that have been developing in my head but hadn’t really formed completely. There’s going to be a lot to talk to Bob & Jerry about when I get home.
I’m about to take a shower before going back down for Tony & Tina’s Wedding at 7:00. It should be a hoot.
Vegas Adventure: Wednesday Morning
For being in the city that never sleeps, I sure did a bunch of it last night. I went down to register at the conference yesterday afternoon and then decided to make my way to the strip. As soon as I stepped outside I was pelted in the face by big fat raindrops. WTF? I thought I was supposed to be in the desert. I ducked under an awning in the pool area and took a picture of the tower my room is in:
Yeah, so the rain… I went back into the hotel and found a bar that overlooked the event stage to watch the free show (pictures in earlier post). It was loud and bright, and I enjoyed it thoroughly. I had a couple drinks, and then made my way up to the room to see if any of the pictures turned out. It was about 5:30 by now, and after processing the pictures, I laid down on the bed to watch the weather.
I woke up four hours later.
When I saw the time I called down to get a wake up call and then decided to roll over and go back to sleep. I’d been up for eighteen hours, running all over god’s creation… I didn’t realize how exhausted I was.
I’m heading down to the conference in about 45 minutes. Tonight is Tony & Tina’s Wedding, so I’m not sure if I’ll make it to the strip this evening or not. Thursday’s wide open, so in the least I’ll go then. Plus, I still have Friday and Sunday nights here in Vegas to see the sites.
