Coming Out

So far, I've been quite indulgent and just kept this blog for me and since I've only posted about 6 times in the last four years, this wasn't that hard. But, today, I got brave and posted the link on my Twitter account. I know I know. Pitiful.

Winning isn't Everything and Neither is Losing

Well, six months have gone by and it's time for another post. After hearing that I won both the Canadian and U.K. lottery today, I decided to get philosophical about winning and losing. Also, it's almost time for football season again and unless some kind of miracle has occurred, I expect that as a Dolphin fan, I better not get too used to winning. Might spoil me.

Sometimes we get too interested in winning but really, it's not all it's cracked up to be. For example, if you do it all the time, you never really learn anything except maybe how great you are (which is not actually all that true for anyone so not really a valuable thing to learn). Losing can be better. In fact, sometimes when you lose something, you find out that you are really better off without it. Just a thought.

By the way, if anybody cares how the photography class went, it was good. I learned a little about what kinds of photos other people like and why and quite a lot about digital cameras. I think I probably need a new one if I'm ever going to go further with it but I'm not sure I want to. I do like to take my camera out now and then when I go for a walk because it forces me to look at things in ways I might not have thought of. As my e-mail signature says - wherever you are, be there - I have to remember to do that all the time and the camera helps.

Well, we're off to watch the Dolphins win their first pre-season game (I guess optimism is a good quality too. I'll try not to get a swelled head).

p.s. My instructor thought that my favorite photo was the best one so I guess my eye isn't totally off.

Nature Photography

Starting next Saturday, I'm going to be taking a beginner course in Digital Nature Photography at Gumbo Limbo. I'm quite excited about it although I'm becoming very aware of how profound my level of ignorance on this topic is. First, the instructor sent us all an e-mail with our first assignment - finding out how to take RAW pictures on our particular camera. After some research, I believe I have determined that my camera, a Nikon Coolpix 775, will not take pictures in the RAW format or even in the TIFF format. Already, right out of the chute, my photos aren't going to be as good. They're going to be "lossy". I'm so ashamed.

Anyway, undaunted by this, I set out this afternoon to Spanish River Park to take some "nature" photos. I soon discovered that I don't know for sure what "nature" is. Will any plant do or does it have to be wild? Animals are completely out. By the time I get my inferior camera pointed at it, the animal has gone away. I did manage to get a picture of a lizard but it is very difficult to spot in the photo.

At one point, I actually saw a larger animal but after pursuing it, discovered that it was only a cat - probably not considered nature. Still, I did want to get a picture of it but it ran away. Dave thinks I spend my days looking for pictures of cats on the internet so I would have liked to put one there but, oh well. Here are some more of my efforts.

I think this one is my favorite:

So, stay tuned for further information about adventures in nature photography. For example, what is white balance? Is it okay to use the image sharpening feature or is that cheating? Is the spider that lives in my bathroom considered nature? One way or another, I'm going to be learning something.

Regular posting is regular posting

Well, it's been about a year. Time for another post. Since last year, I stirred up the dust a bit. (I know. I know, the metaphor is getting old but since I'm the only one who ever reads this stuff, I can indulge myself). I got a new job that I love. I also had a great boss for a while and even though he left, I still love the job. As Dave puts it, I'm a professional bitch. Finally, a job that calls upon my most powerful personal talent. I was a bit worried at first when one of my new co-workers decided to have a nap while working ... thought maybe this was just some kind of Florida thing but apparently, this is indeed unusual and since then, he's gone off to get more rest elsewhere. Everyone has been very nice which is sometimes tough to do with me.
We have a pretty good time and everyone is only mildly disturbed when I curse at my computer and talk spiritedly to myself and jobs like that are tough to find so I hope this takes. In fact, I'm feeling quite optimistic for the new year. After several months of craziness (about which we will not speak further - she says darkly), one of my co-workers even played a practical joke on me on Monday. That hasn't happened since Darrell left. Things are looking up. Anyway, my list of resolutions is quite long this year:

• Lose weight.
• Get fit.
• Beautify the blog with CSS - that I will learn in more detail.
• Love myself more.
• Post more often.

Check back to see how that goes.

My Brilliant Career

Living in entropy is not working out ... or is it? I think the universe is trying to push me around or at least provoke me a little.

I find myself in a most peculiar position. I have this job that should be amazingly simple. However, due to an positively spectacular lack of management, it is not.

When I first started, I was a little concerned about the lack of direction we received. My boss showed me all sorts of fancy software that tracked how productive I was and how accurate (this last was based on an evaluation of my work by a more experienced colleague). However, I diligently asked many questions of my colleague and it didn't take long for the answers to start becoming contradictory. Furthermore, I wasn't completely unskilled in this area of work and occasionally, I realized that my colleague was just wrong. Even so, if I was going to get a good evaluation, I had to go along so I muscled on and tried not to think about the truly bone-headed decisions I was making. All this came crashing to the ground one day when I noticed that my colleague was sleeping while he was performing my evaluation. So much for quality control.

At this point, I lost it. I railed against the injustice by arguing with this guy to such a point that I managed to convince everyone that I was a complete bozo. After many months of laying low, I believe that I have finally managed to dispel that image - or, at least, dim it.

Now, I think that the powers that be might be on the verge of finally realizing that a little more actual organization was maybe required and Sleepy LeBoeuf was maybe not the guy to do the job. I think I can convince my boss that I should be allowed to retool the project. However, to do this, I need old Sleepy to be gone and I can't get rid of him. Everyone loves him too much.

What does this mean? Should I give up Entropy as my guide after all this time? Have I been trapped by entropy?

All this has got me to thinking about how things work. If you read the magazines, there are always lots of helpful suggestions about how to take power in the office, influence people and try to take over the world. I don't think that will work for me. I do want to write up my proposal so that my boss can understand it but I think a little Entropy is still the way to go.

"Dust that moves and shadows of the afternoon" are not necessarily bad as long as you aren't singing those self-defeating lies while you lie around drinking and watching TV. (see Plea from a Cat named Virtute by The Weakerthans).

See you next year.

Cough cough cough

Man! It is dusty in here. It's been a long time and two more moves since I was so anxious to get started with collecting dust. After several false starts including a manic sojourn as the fax girl in Plantation and a near-miss where I almost had to move to Indiana (in the winter!), we have finally ended up relatively rooted near the beach in beautiful Boca Raton.

Unfortunately, last month my new landlord revealed to me that he's thinking of selling and wondered if we wanted to buy the place - we don't think we do - so the dust hasn't settled yet. Stay tuned.

Moving ... or not.

Well, I'm back in Florida and find myself in the unusual state of moving but not. We can't move into our new apartment until next Monday and the previous .. well, actually, I guess they're the present tenants .. but anyway, they have done nothing about cancelling their phone, electricity, etc. so these agencies can do nothing about arranging for us to connect them. All we can do is sit around and wait but since we have to do this at the home of our poor suffering friends Don and Cathy, we also cannot start recollecting the usual stuff of life or even arranging the pitiful amount we had left when we left Barbados --- more about that later --- so no dust bunnies are forming at all just now. What kind of universe are we going to end up with in this situation? We can but wonder.

Inspiration

I've always wanted to blog but have never felt inspired to do it until today. Some years ago, my friend Pamela noted that the dust bunnies under my bed were achieving a certain state of embodiedness. She wisely suggested that, rather than succumbing to this senseless need for cleanliness that has been sweeping the planet, I should leave the dust and see if entropy would eventually form them into real bunnies. I eagerly agreed to this but sadly, we had to move and when we moved the bed, our experiment in entropy was ended. Today I discovered that according to the latest theories on the formation of the universe, if I could just have waited a few million years more I might have had a whole new universe under my bed. All I can say, as I move into my new apartment is: "Let the research continue."