kjp
Yes, I realise I haven't put much up here in a while. So by popular demand (har!) here's a collection of stuff of my recent shenanigans.
I've been slightly sick (sort of) for the later part of this week just past (Wednesday to Friday). This was annoying. I took it fairly carefully (early to bed, etc), as I am about to go on holidays (!). Last thing I want to do is take a cold to the beach down south: I fly out of Brisbane on Saturday morning (the 11th); spend two weeks down the coast somewhere with family - south of Batemans, I think - then a week in Canberra, then back to Brisbane on the 3rd of January. Back to work the next day.
The past two weekends have seen me go up to Caloundra to go swimming. After both, my shoulders (left one in particular) have been a bit sore. I think that I'm swimming differently to my usual: stretching out a lot more when diving under waves. This was helpful today, when the surf was a bit more choppy / messy and harder to get out (although still quite possible). Just ducking down and letting today's waves wash over you would have meant that you got pushed back to the shore. I was vaguely considering getting my fins out... next time. Presumably I should be doing push ups / shoulder exercises to get them moving more / more strength. I'll be taking the body board down to the coast - should be good.
Today, after getting back from the surf and showering, changing, etc, I went to the Brisbane Institute of Art (BIA). They run a range of art classes, and are currently exhibiting the student's works - En Masse. It was pretty good - enjoyed it. The works from the Digital Imagery course were very interesting - gave me a few ideas. A crazy idea is for me to do a course or two there...... dunno.
The reason I stumbled upon the BIA website was because my singing teacher (!) ("singing teacher?" I hear you say) said I should do more artsy stuff. Yes, singing lessons: I have had three (so far) of them (and have every plan to continue). I've been really enjoying it so far: it's really good to be learning music again. What makes it good (I think) is that I'm actively working at it, learning new things. My recent clarineting has been good - however it has been to just get where I was when I stopped playing (ie: clarinet playing for me is fun and good music, but not "exciting" (wrong word for it...)). At the moment I don't really want to push the clarineting envelope. Maybe into next year I'll try and find a band of a higher standard: that would be good. Also, the voice lessons are ridiculously convenient (just a few, well, 9... steps away), very cool interaction with the teacher.
In case there's any doubt of this, I present the three stickers (badges of honour!?!?) I've received after each lesson: "Very Good"; "Wonderful Wonderful Wonderful", and "Good Boy". They take the prime position in my room (not) - stuck to the yellow pages that prop up my computer monitor :).
After the Art this afternoon I cruised around Chermie for a while. I've only got a couple of days to get a whole pile of Christmas / Birthday presents, of which I have precisely none at the moment. Great. Have a few ideas though - will be going to the shops again tomorrow to pick some of them up. The rest will wait until I get down to the coast. The advantage to getting them later is that I don't need to take them in my luggage.
An recent addition to the pile of things I call "my stuff" is a quartet of chairs - bought from a guy at work who was selling them cheaply. Comfy & solid. What more could you want?!. Wooot.
The living arrangements for next year are a bit up in the air. I will definitely be moving at the end of January (when the lease runs out). However, my current housemates have said that I can move with them - which would be cool: we get along well. Just a matter of whether where they want to move to matches where I do...
I've missed the last 3 Go nights; sigh. First two were because I was busy, most recent because of the cold that I sort of had and was tired... Hopefully will be able to go this coming Wednesday - last opportunity for a while.
Last weekend I came back from the coast (Sunshine Coast) via Redcliffe / Scarborough peninsular. No reason in particular - just to check it out - haven't ever been around there. Nice area, nice views of the bay. Not sure that I'd like to live there: not really near the city, nor the beach - for me it should be one or the other.
Last weekend (at night) I went out to the airport to try and take some photos of planes landing. I parked myself near the freight / warehouse area (the oppose site of the runway to the terminals) - near the edge of the runway. On the night that I went this was the end of the runway that the planes were landing. I was trying to get the moon, the plane landing and the silhouette of the trees in the one shot. However, I did not succeed in getting any decent images (hence not make the cut into my collection, which recently has had a couple of minor additions). From where I was the moon was at the wrong angle to get the approaching plane - only got the side / rear of the plane. I should have ditched the idea of the moon and just gone for the plane instead. I wonder if that's what the airport security guys would have said if they stopped as they cruised past me...
Other than the composition of the shot, another thing that was difficult is the timing. For low light shots I usually set the camera up so that it takes the image "in 2 seconds" - to eliminate the effect of the camera moving due to me pressing the "take image" button (whatever it's proper name is?). This would have been tricky to get right for a fast moving object (although possible if you figured out how fast the planes were moving, etc, etc), so I didn't in this case. However, this had the negative side effect of there being some movement in the camera. You can see it in the oscillation of the wing lights of the plane at the far right of the image that is due to the movement of the camera. A shutter release would have been good, however my camera doesn't support it. Next camera, maybe :). I completely forgot (until the last couple of shots) about the ISO setting on my camera - stupid! It should have been more than 50!.
It would be interesting to try again (remembering ISO speeds, etc), taken of planes approaching the camera (either landing or taking off). There would be more light (from all of the lights at the front of the plane), so the results would presumably be more impressive. I probably could use the 2 second shutter delay in this case. However, thinking about this (of cars moving on Sandgate Road at night): the camera does not pick up the light reflecting from the cars (or planes) from other external sources (eg: street lights). It is only the light generated on the moving object (head / tail lights)... hmmm.
I may try having the runway lights in the foreground / base of the image, with a moving plane travelling toward me in the air / taking off. Trouble with this is where do you go to get the image... Not sure - more exploring required. I think to get a bit of height you would need to be in the terminal itself, but then this limits your field of view - there's terminals and stuff everywhere to clutter the shot... If I go another time (and am outside) I will have to remember that the airport area is effectively on the edge of a swamp / mangroves, so long pants and sleeves might help against the mozzies!
The Qute 3.0 theme (by Quadrone) for Firefox 1.0 has been released - nifty: a lot nicer than the default theme, methinks.