A new camera, a new venture

After getting over the shock and disbelief of my DSLR crapping out on me in China (and consequently destroying ALL my photos taken up until that day there, including ones of the Great Wall), I planned on getting myself a newer, better camera.

Last week I finally did it (after 4 months of deliberation) and got myself another Canon, this time the XSi. Instead of 8MP, now I have an insane 12.2MP per shot. I don't know when I'll ever need that many pixels, but whatever.

Today I came up with the brilliant plan to start taking pictures with it to sell as stock photography. I've gotta make it worth my while, right? I got a huge sheet of white paper and started shooting whatever was around the apartment and got some decent images. Maybe I'll make enough money to buy decent lighting supplies one day. Here are a few samples.


The creepiest mask ever made


A bloody latex hand


A souvenir from China


Sock monkey


A stone stamp, also from China

In other shopping news...

...Audrey will no longer be the lucky recipient of these mittens:

It's been a while

Work, and life in general, have kept me away from my blog, but I'm back.

Since my last entry, I've been (predictably) addicted to my iPhone. I've been downloading apps, uploading photos, and Twittering (which helps me stay up to date with friends like Ross and Nicole!).

To those who have to interact with me on a regular basis (e.g., Patrick), I apologize for ignoring you in favor of my iPhone. True, it can't give me the same companionship that friends and lovers can, but it has Bejeweled 2 and texting.

On that note, I'll take my leave. There is freelance work to do and it's a resolution of mine to tie up the loose ends on these projects. TTYL

One more thing. Patrick posted a YouTube video of Fatass.

A new hobby*

*I tried REALLY, REALLY hard to not use the word "sew" as a pun in the title. You're welcome.

Impulse buy of the week: sewing machine. Well, truthfully, it wasn't really that impulsive. I've always wanted one and have borrowed from friends for small projects. Besides a straight stitch, I don't know much more about a sewing machine.

After going to a couple of art shows recently, I've been inspired to start making things. This coincided perfectly with my desire for a sewing machine; I figured if I had a sewing machine, I'd be more motivated to create. One plus one equals two, so the research for the right machine started. There were a couple that I wanted that were completely out of my price range (but one did embroidering and had an LCD display...hott), and would have been ridiculous for me to consider.

After a few hours of research, the Singer 7444 turned out to be the perfect balance between value and features. It's a nice, boxy design with electronic controls. A test drive with a piece of fabric proved that it wasn't too difficult to use. So far, I love it. Hopefully it'll be used regularly, unlike other impulse buys I've made in the past.

Oh! I also bought a caddy for all the threads, shears, needles and bobbins I'll be buying in the future. God, I'm gay.


Love.


A few test stitches. My favorite is the alternating squares.

Top 10 bands/artists to work out to

Ten of my favorites while on the treadmill, in no particular order:

1) Sally Shapiro
2) The Jesus and Mary Chain
3) Andrew W.K.
4) Sean Paul
5) The KLF
6) The Faint
7) Timbaland/Justin Timberlake/Nelly Furtado (let's count them as one)
8) VHS or Beta
9) Madonna (I had to include her)
10) Old School vs. New School hip hop remix album

Related: I bought an ab roller at the thrift store yesterday. I haven't really got it to work my abs yet, but my triceps seem to get pretty sore using it. I wouldn't mind firm, non-flabby triceps.

Sheila and I shop

Fighting our inner shoppers is hard. We went shopping for Christmas sweaters last night and ended up putting a jacket each on hold. Today, we debated going back and buying them.

Photos are taken

So after spending a fortune on new camera equipment, I still have a laundry list of things I have yet to buy. Those include a circular polarizer, a diffuser for the flash, perhaps another flash for more complex strobe photos, a wide angle lens, and of course, a new camera bag to carry all the new stuff in.

I'm trying to take as many photos as I can to justify the cost of the equipment. Here are a few examples.

It's Frivilous Friday!

That's why it's perfectly fine to buy a $300 lens with only one focal length and bid on a $250 flash on eBay (which could eventually go up even more). Nevermind that I recently put myself on a monthly budget. These two things have been on my radar for a while, so it's not really that impulsive like most of my other large purchases. I wanted the lens for its HUGE 1.4 f-stop. I'll be taking a lot more perfectly lit flashless photos. If you're reading this, you're probably my friend. And if you're my friend, you're probably narcissistic, so you'll love the fact the Canon f/1.4 50mm lens is one of the best portrait lenses. And if I win the flash, I'll be able to take your portrait even in pitch dark.






UPDATE(!!!!): It's here! I was going to bring my camera to work just in case it comes, but in my haste this morning I forgot. Looks like my ginkgo supplements aren't really doing their job.

Apple swag

I finally booked a time slot to see an Apple specialist (aka "Genius") about my laptop. For the last couple months, it would charge to 100%, only to completely shut off 15 minutes later without warning. This was strange considering that my battery only had about 115 cycles (a normal battery goes through 300-500 cycles before totally losing its charge). I also brought in my Airport Extreme, which I use with an external drive as server for my computers. It was having trouble showing the disk and pissing me off regularly.

It paid off to book a time because my wait was about 10 minutes, instead of the usual 30+ minutes. The guy was really understanding and after making sure that my battery was a dud, gave me a brand new one. Then I whipped out the Airport and without even testing it, he went and got me another. I was pretty shocked, but nonchalantly said "Oh, cool." I'm sure he saw through my facade, though. My jumping up and down while clapping my hands probably gave it away.


Brand new Airport Extreme and battery.

Luggage locks are cuter than babies

Audrey and I recently bought luggage for our (seperate) upcoming trips to New York. After reading this post at The Consumerist, I thought it might be a good idea to get a luggage lock. Up until now, I've never thought to use a lock on my luggage. Anyway, Audrey beat me to the punch and got a set of two locks, one of which she gave to me. To my surprise, it didn't look or feel cheap. In fact, it was probably the cutest lock I've ever seen (is that even possible?). So much so, in fact, I felt like I had to take a picture of it and blog about it. See for yourself.

I loathe scammers; or how I learned my lesson

Having sold some useless and some not-so-unless stuff on Craigslist myself, I assume that most people who sell on there are like me and describe their products honestly and don't try to scam. I was wrong.

The last few months I've been trying to get my hands on the Sony Ericsson W880i phone (there's nothing wrong with my old one, except that it's not new anymore), which is pretty price here since it was only released overseas. The price finally came down low enough where it was fathomable to buy one. Current price is about $300. I found a guy on Craigslist that listed it for $300 but after some sweet talking, I got him to give it to me for $280...if no one else offered him more.

Long story short, I bought the phone. I tried to import my address book via Bluetooth and that's when my troubles began. I called Sony Ericsson and they said that it would be free for the original owner, but if I couldn't show them proof that I was, it would cost $100 just for them to inspect it, and then another $200 for them to fix the problem. I laughed, said "That's absurd!" and hung up.

So I called the guy and said that the phone is not working properly and I'd like to give it back in exchange for my money. Obviously, this idea was as ridiculous to him as Sony Ericsson's price quote was to me. "What am I going to do with a broken phone?!" he asked rhetorically. "No one's going to want it when it's broken. How do I know that it was broken before I sold it to you? You probably put a virus on it!" I wanted nothing more than to reach through the phone and smash his face in with something large. After many more lies and accusations that I was responsible for the phone, I told him I just wanted my money back, that as a seller it is his responsibility to give me my money back for a faulty product.

In the end, he gave me back all but $40 of the money I paid for it, saying that he didn't feel right giving me back al my money since the phone doesn't work correctly. If I had ever had to hurt anyone physcially, it was this guy.

Lucie does geriatric drag

Looking for loafers

I'm at the Sketchers store in the Mission and Andrew W.K. is rockin' on the store PA system.

Also, there were about a million people at Dolores Park today. It makes me happy to see everyone out.

Peugeot love

Went to dinner at Puerte Alegro on Valencia (famous for their margaritas and infamous for the long waits) tonight with Mark, Pam, Tom, and a few other people from the neighborhood. It was the first time that I locked my bike on the street for more than 20 minutes, and of all places by 16th Street, so needless to say I was a bit paranoid about it's safety. Luckily, it had a friend to keep it company for the three and half hours we were there...another old Peugeot. I don't even mind the ugly bandage-colored bar tape anymore.

Ross gets surprised

Ross' awesome wife Nicole organized a surprised birthday dinner at Benihana's tonight for his 34th. I was the lookout at the window and felt like a dyslexic Peeping Tom, looking out instead of in. Ross met us with many girlish shrieks, his way of saying "Thanks for all showing up on time to surprise me on my birthday."

The meal was fun, the food was good, and Ross got drunk. See for yourself.




Happy birthday, my bald friend.


(Look for Joe Sparks walking across the screen)

I bought stuff again

I met up with Uyen and Helena at Cafe de la Presse today after work. Helena showed us around her class where she's going to make me brooches. After that we went to the Apple store so I could spend the gift card my sister got for my birthday/xmas. I've been wanting the new Airport Extreme because now you can hook up an external hard drive to it and use it as a kind of server. I talked to one of the employees and he assured me that I'll have it set up before I even knew I had done it. LIES!

I unplugged my Airport Express which I've been using (it kicks ass) and plugged in the Airport Extreme. It seemed easy enough using the setup program that came with it. After going through the setup step by step, it congratulated me and said that I was set up and connected to the internet. I was able to log onto the wireless, but it had no internet connection. I tried for another 15 minutes and gave up. I plugged my Express back in and called it a day.

Damn you, Apple. I guess I'll call tomorrow and get everything in order. I'm excited to use my external drive as a server for my computers.

Readers, your opinion counts

I'm at a fork in the road, and you have the power to driect me in the right decision. Recently, I've been on the hunt for a garlic press, since chopping garlic is, in my opinion, yucky. I've narrowed my options down to two OXO brand presses. The first has soft rubber handles and self-cleaning. The second one has a removable plate for easy cleaning and is really nice looking. It's also more expensive.

Help me choose.



UPDATE: I went with the first choice. It looks nice, but I haven't had a chance to use it yet. Stay tuned.

I just bought a couch

I wasn't even looking for one, really. I was just clicking on links and BAM!, a couch. Supposedly it retails for $800, so it was a good deal in the end. If there was an impulse buy champion, it'd be me. Now to finish it off, a leather-bound book and a nice brown throw.

The spending & reorganizing continues

So tonight at Target I got: two pillows, three expensive bath towels, a knife set, a shelf/rack to organize my closet, some tea, and some cleaning supplies. My apartment's gonna be all grown up in no time.

Yesterday I reorganized the kitchen to accomodate my new purchases, today, it's the closet. Even though my closet only accounts for a fraction of the total space in my apartment, I think 95% of my stuff is in there. I found things that I didn't even realize I still had...or ever had. Bags, action figures (of Nelly, the rapper), zip drives, sewing machines, SEGA DREAMCASTS. I was only able to get about 1/3 of it cleaned out. I did manage to neatly organize all my paperwork into an accordian file. It gave me great satisfaction.

Tomorrow I will make pancakes for anyone who drops by.



UPDATE:
A car just drove by outside pumping Quiet Riot's "Cum On Feel the Noize" out of its speakers. It's the best kind of noise pollution.

New year, new things

I've been kinda going crazy buying new things for the house. When I first moved out on my own, I pretty much bought everything second-hand. Then IKEA opened and all my stuff was either plastic or partical board. I've recently adopted the belief that if I buy something cheap, even though it looks nice at the time of purchase, said item will crap out soon thereafter.

With this new doctrine in mind, I've been replacing things around the house with upgraded versions. Yesterday I got a simplehuman trash can for the bathroom to replace the plastic one I've had for years. Today I dragged Audrey with me to a Target in San Bruno and I got a new stool (which can be seen in the reflection off the toaster oven in one of the pictures below, a few canisters for rice/sugar/oatmeal/whatever, and an awesome new set of pots and pans. I can't wait to start cooking with these.

I'm also waiting for a new home phone, researching a good set of knives (any suggestions?), and will be soon looking for a new comforter and bed set.




UPDATE:
What good are new pots if you can't pose with them?