Bands timeline

My bands over the years. All super famous and known around the world.




1995-1996 Grasshopper/Her Majesty's Secret Service




1998-2000 While Away

2001 Ethyl pre-Brett



2001-2003 Ethyl



2003-2004 StarChief





2005-2013 Lund Bros.



2007-2013 The Scheme



2013 Shake Some Action!

2014- The Navins

The following bands I sat in on a few shows for here and there.



Static Radio

2011-2012 Yakup Trana



2012, 2014 Sightseer

Quiet Wednesday afternoon musings

I'm planning on seeing a couple friends play in their new band tonight. I was hoping to get in on the guest list, but that's a no-go, so I figured, no big deal, pay the cover charge, enjoy the show.

As I'm not the home treasurer, I asked the home treasurer about getting $7 to go to the show. I was shut down. When I checked the bank, let's just say that even $7 was too much.

Both Marci and I got paid last Friday, and, being the middle of the month, the mortgage is due. After the mortgage and some groceries, well, we're tapped out. Usually our paydays don't fall on the same day, so this shouldn't happen too often, but, still, it sucks.

Then I hear that good friends of ours just made an offer on a house. A very expensive house. And large.

I'm super excited and happy for them, as they've worked hard and earned their success, but I'm also so envious.

It's not so much about the money. Sure, it'd be nice, solve some problems, alleviate some stress and frustrations. I think for me, it's more about just being able to exist comfortably and not have to wonder if it's OK to go to a $7 show.

It seems like I have lots of friends that are very successful. Lawyers, doctors, accountants, my own brothers, salespeople, you name it, they do it. And then there's me. Making an hourly wage that gets us by, but Marci really has to do some juggling. Not only that, she's working 30+ hours at her school and trying to get a home-based business started AND being a once-a-week nanny for some friends.

All this done by a woman who has MS and whose best way to treat MS is to take it easy.

Right.

I keep telling myself that we're lucky. And we are. Nice house, awesome family. Great neighborhood and neighbors. Full time employment with a company I love working for.

But I can't help but feel like a failure sometimes because one of my primary reasons for being (a provider) is not completely being fulfilled.

I'm not providing enough.

So, how do I provide more? I can't work more hours; they've put a big emphasis on watching our hours at work. I don't buy stuff. And before anyone hollers at me about the watches, I will say that those have come by way of selling other stuff or getting gift cards.

I have reached out to someone who I used to work for. I'm hoping that either she can mentor me or give me some tips and pointers on how to move up in the world. What I am doing currently is ok, but it is not going to get me anywhere, really. I need to go look for it and get it.

In the meantime, Haley let me borrow $7. She has already told me twice to not forget to pay her back.

#welcometosouthcenter

• Flossing and mall walking. Who knew? ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬
•  Cheesy pretzels you smell so good. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬
• Kam Chancellor at Sunglass Hut next door. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬
• Surprised Sunglass Hut isn't busier because ain't nobody likes their sunglasses more than people at Southcenter like their sunglasses. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬ 
• Mom's sweater says, "Merry Christmas, bitches." Daughter's age, about 6. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬ 
• Women, when you highlight your hair, is there an option called, "striped, like a tiger?" ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬ 
• Apparently shower slippers are not just for showering. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬ 
• What is it about leaving the Disney Store that causes kids to lose their minds? ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬ 
•  This mall needs a "leashes for kids" kiosk. Print money, I tell you. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬
•  Today I saw a child on a leash walk by a dog off a leash. The irony was not lost upon me. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬
• Sunglasses are not chinstraps. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬.
• Doobies, Bee Gees, Streisand? Oh yes, it's 70s rock on the mall PA today. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬
• Man stabbed last night close to my office. I was at home, but saw it lead off on KOMO at 11. ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬ 
• So excited! ‪#‎firstmallshooting‬ ‪#‎welcometosouthcenter‬ ‪#‎thankgoodnesswe‬'reok 

Seiko SNN079P2: It's a Watch!

 

My latest addition to the rotation. It's made by Seiko, it's quartz, it's not as big as I thought it would be, and it's my favorite watch.

 

I have another Seiko chronograph and since last summer, that was my favorite watch. Take a look:

 

 

I love this Seiko SDNA65 and it was my most worn watch over the past 6 months or so. I love the black PVD style, the orange second hand at 9 o'clock and the large chrono second hand. I love how when I reset the chrono, all the dials spin (especially the 1/20th second hand at 12 o'clock). It looks sweet on any of my NATO straps and the lume is outstanding.

 

Even so, I wore the watch once every few days, as I rotate my watches daily. I always got a kick out of being in a bright space our outdoors, then walking into a dark area and seeing that face just pop. Super cool.

 

After getting SDNA65, I got a few more watches and they all became part of the rotation. At Christmas, I got a digital watch that seemed to have a faulty countdown timer. I mean, if you're not going to beep as the time runs out, what's the point? Back to Amazon it went and the credit sat in my account.

 

I went on the hunt at Amazon with a criteria of a chronograph watch between $50 to $100. I wanted to pay as little out of pocket as possible. I ended up adding about 50 watches to a wish list, ranging from Casio to Timex to Android to Seiko and others.

 

I ended up seeing the SNN079P2 and it was at the top of my list for a bit, but just in case I saw something I liked even more, I kept on looking for a bit.

 

There were a few Seikos that eclipsed the $100 mark, but I decided that was more than I wanted to spend, especially when there was such a good looking watch below that. Plus, with some extra Chinese New Year cash, I was able to get the SNN079P2. I ended up paying only .12 cents out of pocket for this watch.





 

I ordered the watch on a Friday and I received it the following Tuesday. Out of the box it came and immediately I was struck by how not big it was. It wasn't necessarily small, but for whatever reason, the pictures at Amazon seem to make it look quite big. But that's OK. I'm not a big dude and I don't need a giant watch on my wrist.

 

It came on a plain two-piece black strap. Nothing to write home about, and it didn't float my boat. Lucky for me I still had a few dollars left and, since I work at a mall, I stopped by my local Fossil store and picked up a nice leather NATO strap. This watch is 20mm at the lugs; most of my NATOs are 22mm, so that's sort of a bummer, but on the flip side, new straps!

 

So this little watch has the beautiful orange hands, plus the word TACHYMETER in orange. It has that super cool date window at 9 o'clock, with 3 numbers visible. And it has a super unique coin bezel, which I wasn't too sure about at first, but now I really dig it. Pair it up with the gray/olive green NATO and it is a sharp looking unit.

 

Field trip

Last week I got to spend an entire day off as a chaperone on a field trip with Haley and her band/choir/orchestra mates. My group was with Hay and 7 of her female cohorts.

8 tweens.

Luckily, it wasn't as daunting as I thought.

We started the day at the school, where simply by default, I was going to be the cool dad. Even if I wasn't already cool, I still would've been the cool dad. My goodness, were some of the other parents super dorky.

Luckily, one of Haley's friend's mom was on the field trip too and, since we're already friendly, ended up chatting on the bus into Seattle.

Haley's group of girls was all good, too. Nice, listened, and generally had a good time. I just told them where to meet me and what I expected, and that I was going to be cool dad, and we were all good.

In Seattle, we stopped first at Benaroya Hall and saw a portion of the Seattle Symphony perform during their rehearsal. The conductor, who either had a Russian or French accent (I couldn't tell), was very interactive and took Q&A during the rehearsal. The kids were encouraged to use microphones to ask questions as well as volunteer to help conduct the orchestra.

 

The orchestra, as expected, sounded outstanding and for me, it was quite cool to hear these musicians at the top of their games. To have some of the technicalities and nuances of the music explained right after hearing it was pretty cool too.

From there, we walked a few blocks to Westlake, where we stood in line to jump on the monorail.

 

After the monorail, we ended up at the Seattle Center Center House, where we had lunch. I was approached by a long haired older Asian man and we had the following exchange:

 

Him: "Hey, man, you look coooool."

 

Me: "Right on. You look cool, too."

 

Him: "What's your name?"

 

Me: "Gwon. What's yours?"

 

Him: "John. This is for you."

 

He handed me a flower made from a leaf or something.

 

Me: "Nice, thanks."

 

And I thought that was that. Then he said, "Hey man, you have any change? I'm really hungry."

 

...

 

I gave him a few bucks and felt stupid for getting hustled. But he didn't look homeless!

 

Anyway, Hay, me and our friend Jennifer had lunch at a Mexican restaurant (not great) and then made our way to EMP.

 

 

 

EMP was cool. I had never been there and though it would have been cool to visit with my family, I have a feeling I'd be fighting the kids as they would have been quite bored. However, with Haley and her friends, they all just zoomed off, leaving me to the EMP by myself for a bit.

Which was sort of fun.

I got to see a bunch of Nirvana memorabilia, British Invasion stuff, Jimi Hendrix items. There was a horror exhibit, a fantasy exhibit, a Seahawks fan exhibit, and an area to play instruments upstairs, or at least attempt to play them. Only one bass exhibit though, I'm sad to report.

We got a nice, long time to hang out there, but even so, we ended up running out of things to see. I did get to hang out with Haley and her friend, Jilly, for a bit, though. That was fun. I had let the girls run around doing what they wanted, but Hay and Jilly got bored and tagged along with me for the rest of the time. That was fun to hang with them. They really get each other and it was a blast for me to just be with Haley.

At the end of it all, it was back on the buses to the Eastside. It was nice to get into Seattle and not have to pay for parking or have to rush around anywhere. It was sort of like being a tourist.

But the best part was just hanging out with Haley and having fun in our city.

So many shows, so little time

What I'm watching now to fill my football void, in no particular order:

• The Walking Dead
• Better Call Saul
• Unbreakable Kimmy Schmidt
• Last Man on Earth
• Top Gear UK
• House of Cards
• Parks and Recreation

With Game of Thrones and Mad Men on the horizon! And, time willing, I've been wanting to check out The Americans and Homeland too.

I really need to get a life.

Small world

I'm in another band now, called the Navins. No idea what it means but there you go. We meet once a week in West Seattle and have been practicing for about 3 months now. We have a show coming up on 4/4 at Slim's in Georgetown, so for the one of you reading this, come see us play.

I still don't know the guys all too well as we get together once a week for about 2 hours at a time, play some songs, work on some stuff, then go our separate ways. They still tell jokes about their old bassist and talk about stuff I have no clue about. But from friending up 2 of the other 3 guys on FB (one guy doesn't have an account, it appears), I'm learning a little about them.

Like the drummer, Corey, for instance. Today happens to be his birthday (thanks, Facebook). When I first met him, he was the contact for the band, he placed the ad on Craigslist. He worked for Microsoft at the time as someone in marketing, or something like that. But, I digress. He has a blog (seemingly dead for now) and he has taken lots of band pictures. In perusing the pictures, it appears he was at a show I played with the Lund Bros. way back in 2007. In fact, I swiped a poster and have it in my basement.

There were 5 bands on the bill. Lund Bros., The Beltholes, Glossary, Never (something), Never Still and Grand Champeen. Sadly, Corey only took pictures of the other 4 bands and none of Tacoma's Finest Power Pop Band.

I'll have to hit him up to see if he has any archival footage.

Latest obsessions

Like the title says, things I've obsessed about recently:

• Watches. I got bit by the bug around my birthday last year and have amassed a collection of 11 affordable (sub-$100) watches. I wore my Omega Seamaster (received in 2000 as a wedding gift) for the previous 14 years.
• Binge watching tv shows. Let's see, I've watched Game of Thrones, Louie, Breaking Bad, The Walking Dead, The Fall, Top Gear, Orphan Black, House of Cards, Hannibal, Bosch (just started), True Detective, among others.
• Fieldgulls.com. This website offers awesome analysis of all things Seahawks. It's pretty in-depth, but makes for great Monday morning reading after games.
• Mixcraft recording software. My new bandmates are all iPad guys and use Garage Band to record their ideas. Not only have I started to write some music, I needed to find a way to do it. Internet searching for a Garage Band equivalent for PC led me to Mixcraft. My 14 day trial is over, but it gave me a taste of what my PC, a USB Rock Band mic and some bad drum loops can do.

Oh, hello.

I must really be bored. Dusting off the old BlogSpot website, looking at my hipster-foray into tumbler. But, while I wait for Riley's macaroni-and-cheese water to come to a boil, I figured I'd see what was up.

Looks like it has been nearly 3 years since I last posted here. Not sure why. I guess it's just not being motivated to, or laziness, or out of sight, out of mind, I suppose. Certainly there are things to write about, but for whatever reason, I just didn't.

Whatever.

I don't care/know if anyone else reads this or even cares, but I get a kick out of looking back every so often to see what was on my mind or what I was up to, etc., etc.

Currently, it is mid-winter break for the kids and Marci. I am on my first day off in 12 days. One of my co-workers is on vacation and was supposed to be back last night. However, due to Epic Mega Snow Storms in the East, she isn't and despite that, I'm still not working today. Go me!

Speaking of work, still working for Microsoft, however now I'm an assistant store manager in the lovely city of Tukwila, working at a Specialty Store in the Southcenter Mall. Kiosk life, there's nothing sweeter.

Marci is still teaching, but also getting off the ground with a home-based business for a company called Plexus. It's helped her health greatly and we hope it helps us with our finances as well. She's really busting her butt to make it work and it is slowly growing. Keep your fingers crossed!

Haley is in 7th grade and will be 13 in a few months.

13!

I can hardly believe it. She is so awesome 99% of the time. That 1% of the time she is just being a 'tween and I need to be better at recognizing that and walking away! She sure knows how to push my buttons, though.

She's doing a lot of running (who knew!) and plays bass clarinet just like I did way back when. She sounds pretty good and her teacher wants her to try out for all-city band next year.

Riley is now in 5th grade and he started playing trombone this year. It's pretty funny to hear him. The trombone is a fitting instrument for him. What's cool is hearing him progress. He definitely has improved since he first started and he is sounding pretty good. When he and Haley play together, it is a hoot. Marci and I have been trying to get them on video, but they freak out and stop whenever they see us filming.

So what else has changed since 2012? Well, as far as music goes, I haven't been playing with the Lund Bros. In fact, 2013 was the last time I played with them. We had a show at Slim's and since then, the only contact has a been via Facebook. It's too bad, really, as the guys are great and I love the music, but that commute to Tacoma is just too much.

After the Lunds, I filled in that summer (I think! I can't remember) with a band called Shake Some Action! (yes, with the exclamation mark). We played a few shows here and there, and then James, the singer/songwriter, put it on the back burner to focus on having a baby and writing music for licensing purposes.

I also ended up filling in with my old friend Jason's band, Sightseer. It was cool reconnecting with him; we had a bit of a rough go when he used to work for the family business, but it is all water under the bridge now. I played a handful of shows with them and it was fun, but it wasn't 100% my type of music, good as it was.

So the last time I played out was with Sightseer in 2013, the day of the Seahawks Super Bowl parade. We played at the Nectar in Fremont, which was sparsely attended, but fun. Since then, it's been tumbleweeds and crickets.

Late last summer I started looking on Craigslist and found an ad. I ended up meeting with these guys and after a few rehearsals, they offered me the gig. It took me a bit to succumb to the music though. It's pop, not as powerful as Lund Bros., or as melodic as the Scheme, and a bit more garage-y than I was used to, but it grew on me. Plus, to spice things up, they wanted me to sing on some songs and after stumbling through a few practices, things have gotten a lot better.

I've even taken to writing a few songs. It's been fun, dialing it up on my computer, using software and a Rock Band USB mic to record. We are working on a song I wrote but we are really still trying to piece it together. It's a basic song, but truth is, that's really all you need. I'm working out a muscle I've never used before and it's really cool. Some lyrics here and there, some chord progressions and poof, there's a song!

Hmm. I guess I could've split this post, but I just started typing. Let's see if I keep things up.

Riley is my pal

I have today off and had to take Rye to his speech appointment at Children's. Afterward, we hit up Dick's on 45th and porked out on a couple of Dick's Deluxes in the car. Tasty.

Right now, the girls are out, I'm on the computer (duh) and Riley is watching Who Framed Roger Rabbit? He looks super cute in his red sweats and red long sleeve t-shirt, engrossed in the movie.

I told him today that sometimes he's a huge pain in the butt, but sometimes he's pretty awesome.Right now is one of those times he's pretty awesome.

Good week at work

Some cool stuff at work this week. I was chosen as the MVP for the month of March! Pretty excited about that. I also finally got some comments from customers (in writing) about the good service I provided them. And for the store as a whole, we learned on Monday that this weekend, all store employees will be getting new Nokia Lumia 900 smartphones! Super cool!

I turn 40 in a few weeks

And I’m not sure what to do about it.

Marci keeps asking what I want to do. Trouble is (big surprise), our money is better spent by not being spent. I mean, I know we wouldn’t do anything extravagant, but quite honestly, it’s been so long since we’ve done anything fun just for fun that I don’t know what to do.

What do you do on a 40th birthday? She mentioned something about friends but, I dunno, I have a hard time thinking people would be terribly excited about coming to my birthday party. I’d just as soon not have one, I guess.

I told her just being with her and the kids would be fine. We may go out of town for a day or so, but that costs $$$ and it’s just hard to get out of that mindset. Things are slowly getting better, but that doesn’t mean we can go out and spend $200 on a few days out.

I stupidly spent $50 a few weeks ago on parts I thought I needed for a computer I was trying to resurrect. They were used parts (RAM and a video card) but I ended up not needing them as the processor I used was incompatible with the board I had. Trouble is, the parts could only be returned for store credit only. Well, I’m keeping an eye out for used speakers for Marci, but that’s about it (the place where the credit is good for is a recycled parts shop).

Anyway, my point is I think just laying low and maybe doing something cheap with the family will be the way to go.

Haley lost a tooth last night.

Music-y stuff

1. Recorded some bass tracks at London Bridge last week. Sean had some songs put together and he and Chris recorded guitar, drums and vocals. I had the roughs and of the 3 had only played one with them before. The other two were new and I had to work out some parts. Sean came up a week or so ago and sat with me and I thought I had some stuff that would work.

As it turns out, the night before recording, I sat down at about 11pm and played through the songs again. I came up with 2 new parts to the new songs and ended up using them in the recording. They turned out pretty well and Sean seemed pretty happy about them as well. With any luck, we should have a CD’s worth of material by the end of the year.

2. Got an email out of the blue from our old friend Scott of the Hard Way. His birthday is at the end of the month and he wants us to play with him at the 4th Ave in Olympia. We figured we would; we seem to draw well there. I’ve invited my work mates and, them being young and all, they may come out. At least that’s what some of them mentioned to me tonight. That would be cool, methinks.

3. And that’s it.

New friends like old friends

Had to say goodbye to a friend tonight, but not in a “he’s dead, Jim,” sort of way, thankfully. No, a guy I worked with at MS and only within the past 2 months got really close to has accepted an offer to go be an assistant store manager in Chicago.

When I started at MS, I knew Mike as a guy who ran the inventory room. He knew his stuff back and forth and was really good at it, but as I was a tech, we didn’t have a whole lot to talk about most times.

After a few months, he got promoted to a tech position and that was when we really started hitting it off. He came in knowing just a bit about the tech side of computers but was always willing to learn and pitch in. We had a good time in the back room, talking tech, and other things.

What I really liked was that he and I just clicked. I get along with pretty much everyone else but, for whatever reason, Mike and I seemed to get each other. I think the fact that he was just learning the tech thing and I was the greenest of the existing techs was what drew me to him. That, and he was just a good dude.

Well, just about a week or two ago, it came down that Mike had been offered a gig in Chicago (as mentioned above). He thought about it and, much to many of our dismays, he accepted the offer and is on the fast track out of here.

Tonight was the goodbye party for Mike (and another guy, Gilbert, who is pretty killer too) and it was my first foray into an after-hours type thing with my co-workers. And it was great. Got to chat with people and, though we did talk about work a lot, it was terribly fun to see people out and about.

As the elder statesman at work, I get ribbed about my age, my food, etc, and it’s great fun. Tonight, though, it felt appropriate to drop wisdom and advice as Mike is moving on and leaving us behind. It’s breaking his heart to leave such good friends and co-workers, but I told him to hold his head up and that he is going to kill it out there.

It’s funny how you just meet people sometimes and a bond is formed. Though I’ve only really known Mike for the past 2 months or so, it just seems like longer. The reality is, we’re just scratching the surface of things and I told him I wish I had known him for longer.

Despite it all, we’ll be able to keep in touch via IM at work and, well, I still have his Batman: Arkham City in my Xbox. I’ll have to get it back to him eventually.

Things for which I am thankful

In no particular order:

• a house in which to live
• a furnace for which to heat
• a dog for which to mock/walk/talk (to) and be entertained by
• a job for which to make a few dollars (and new friends!)
• a daughter for which to be proud of, cherished and loved by
• a son for which to be proud of, to play with, and to watch grow
• a wife for which to hold near, dear and true to my heart

Ok, so it’s a little sappy. I think I’m just nervous for Black Friday.

I’m also thankful for:

• my mom, pitching in when I need help
• my brothers, for being my brothers and always being cool
• my dad, for being “out there” and “always around”
• my friends, for caring and reaching out

But wait, there’s more!

• my Kindle, it’s always by my side
• my basses, neglected recently, but will go with me to the grave
• my VW, 2 idiot lights on at all times and I still love it so
• my bed, where the magic happens (SLEEP)

Speaking of sleep……… zzzz

Back, what is up with you?

Somehow, some way, my back hurts. I have been lucky to not have back issues for the past 39 years, but for the past few days something has been up.

Today, my back hurt a bit at work but nothing terrible. It’s just above my left hip, maybe about two inches above my belt/waistline. I would stretch it a bit between tech appointments, but it was manageable.

For some odd reason, once I got home and had dinner, it really fired up. It hurt to sit, then it hurt to stand. I ended up heating up a heat pad we have and strapped it on before heading to a Boy Scouts meeting.

At the meeting, shortly after Riley’s den did a little skit (best of the night, IMO), I realized that I simply couldn’t sit anymore. I ended up standing and leaning in the back of the church. After the meeting was over, walking to the car was actually pretty painful. Grimacing, breathing through my teeth, all the signs of OLD AGE that I think are catching up with me.

Once I got home, a friend of mine who is a LMP called me at the request of Marci and gave me some tips and pointers. Then Marci slapped some weird homeopathic medicine on my back. All that did was make my back cold and clammy. Weird.

Now I’m slouching on the couch, surfing Facebook and typing up this quick entry. It’s still sore, but not as bad as earlier. We’ll see how it goes tonight. Hopefully it feels better for work tomorrow.

Books

I’ve been tracking the books I’ve read since 2009. Here they are:

2009

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons
A Winter Haunting by Dan Simmons
Rock On: An Office Power Ballad by Dan Kennedy
Killing Yourself To Live by Chuck Klosterman
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
The Poet by Michael Connelly
Persuader by Lee Child (on Kindle)
Afraid by Jack Kilborn (on Kindle)
Child 44 by Tom Rob Smith (on Kindle)
Whiskey Sour by J.A. Konrath (Kindle)
Bloody Mary by J.A. Konrath (Kindle)
Rusty Nail by J.A. Konrath (Kindle)
The Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett (Kindle)
Serial by Jack Kilborn and Blake Crouch (Kindle)
The Scarecrow by Michael Connelly (Kindle)
Cemetery Dance by Lincoln Child and Douglas Preston (Kindle)
Be the Pack Leader by Cesar Millan
Paranoia by Joseph Finder (Kindle)
City of Thieves by David Benioff
Cesar's Way by Cesar Millan
The Last Detective by Robert Crais
Alive in Necropolis by Doug Dorst
Collision by Jeff Abbott
The Ice Man: Confessions of a Mafia Contract Killer by Philip Carlo
The Pesthouse by Jim Crace
A Few Seconds of Panic by Stefan Fatsis
Soul Patch by Reed Farrel Coleman
The Secret Speech by Tom Rob Smith
The Given Day by Dennis Lehane
Nine Dragons by Michael Connelly
Fuzzy Navel by J.A. Konrath
Dirty Martini by J.A. Konrath
Cherry Bomb by J.A. Konrath
Borderlands by Brian McGilloway
I Love You, Beth Cooper by Larry Doyle
The Watchman by Robert Crais
Mystic River by Dennis Lehane
Chasing Darkness by Robert Crais
Shutter Island (again) by Dennis Lehane
Sunset Express by Robert Crais
Gone, Baby, Gone by Dennis Lehane
Indigo Slam by Robert Crais

2010

1. Under The Dome by Stephen King (Kindle)
2. The Girl Who Played With Fire by Steig Larssen (Kindle via library)
3. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets' Nest by Steig Larssen (Kindle)
4. A Drink Before the War by Dennis Lehane (library)
5. Darkness, Take My Hand by Dennis Lehane (Kindle)
6. Sacred by Dennis Lehane (Kindle)
7. Ariel by Steven R. Boyett (library)
8. Elegy Beach by Steven R. Boyett (library)
9. Prayers for Rain by Dennis Lehane (library)
10. The Pawn by Steven James (Kindle)
11. The 25th Hour by David Benioff (library)
12. Frankenstein, Book One: Prodigal Son by Dean Koontz (Kindle)
13. The Dark Tide by Andrew Gross (Kindle)
14. Digital Fortress by Dan Brown (Kindle)
15. Boy's Life by Robert McCammon (Kindle)
16. The Boy Who Couldn't Sleep And Never Had To by DC Pierson (library)
17. The Tomb by F. Paul Wilson (Kindle)
18. Fever Dream by Preston/Child (Kindle)
19. Legacies by F. Paul Wilson (Kindle)
20. Conspiracies by F. Paul Wilson (Kindle)
21. Patient Zero by Jonathan Maberry (Kindle)
22. The Dragon Factory by Jonathan Maberry (Kindle)
23. The DaVinci Code by Dan Brown (Kindle)
24. Swan Song by Robert McCammon (Kindle)
25. The Devil's Star by Jo Nesbo (library)
26. The Redbreast by Jo Nesbo (library)
27. Nemesis by Jo Nesbo (library)
28. The Redeemer by Jo Nesbo (Kindle)
29. The Snowman by Jo Nesbo (Kindle)
30. The Reversal by Michael Connelly (Kindle)
31. Moonlight Mile by Dennis Lehane (Kindle)
32. In The Woods by Tana French (Kindle)

2011

1. The Likeness by Tana French (Kindle)
2. Let the Right One In by John Ajvide Lindqvist (Kindle)
3. Catch Me If You Can by Frank W. Abagnale (Kindle)
4. Faithful Place by Tana French (Kindle)
5. Prince of Thieves by Chuck Hogan (Kindle)
6. High Fidelity by Nick Hornby (Kindle)
7. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold (Kindle)
8. The Fifth Witness by Michael Connelly (Kindle)
9. The King of Plagues by Jonathan Maberry (Kindle)
10. Gideon's Sword by Preston/Child (Kindle)
11. The Zero Game by Brad Meltzer (Kindle)
12. The Ghosts of Belfast by Stuart Neville (book!)
13. Collusion by Stuart Neville (Kindle)
14. Red: My Uncensored Life in Rock by Sammy Hagar (Kindle)
15. Never Let Me Go by Kazuo Ishiguro (Kindle)
16. Those Guys Have All the Fun: Inside the World of ESPN by James Andrew Miller and Tom Shales (Kindle)
17. The Lock Artist by Steve Hamilton (Kindle)
18. A Cold Day in Paradise by Steve Hamilton (Kindle)
19. The Terror of Living by Urban Waite (Kindle)
20. The Leopard by Jo Nesbo (Kindle)
21. Cold Vengeance by Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child (Kindle)
22. Headhunters by Jo Nesbo (Kindle)
23. Stolen Souls by Stuart Neville (Kindle)
24. War by Sebastian Junger (Kindle)
25. Cherry Bomb by J.A. Konrath (Kindle)
26. The Killing Moon by Chuck Hogan (Kindle)

I’m currently listening to The Drop by Michael Connelly. Does that belong on the list?

Books are cool.

Happy Brain Transplant… er… Surgery Day!

My running joke for Riley is that Dr. E switched his brain with another brain 3 years ago today. The reality is that Riley had brain surgery 3 years ago and it really changed his life.

More recently, his headaches are way, way down. No longer is he using pain patches on a daily basis. In fact, I can’t remember the last time he used one. So, that is quite awesome.

Some of his other issues are still works in progress. Speech, drinking, fine-motor, all coming along, but still not where we’d like them to be. But, as usual, he just goes with it. It’s part of his life and he doesn’t know any different and, the truth of the matter is, life is good.

Weekend update

Yes, as a matter of fact, it is my weekend today and tomorrow.

I am loving my job. It may still be the honeymoon phase, and even though when I walk through the mall to get to work, I think to myself, “Man, I work at the mall,” I still love clocking in and helping people.

Funny thing is, some days are weird. When I get customers and they have issues with their computers that I have a hard time with (re: OUTLOOK!), I get bummed out. Every once in awhile, I get an issue that is quite easy (last night, helped a customer burn a song to his mp3 player) and I end up feeling great. Then I get a tricky one (and maybe with a less-than-patient customer) and BLEH, it feels rough.

The kids (so young! and smart!) I work with are FANTASTIC and I’m learning from them all the time. It’s hard to flounder around when I get a tricky question, but thankfully, everyone I work with is super-helpful and patient.

***

The next few weeks should be interesting. For now, I have Thursdays and Fridays off, which for now, is kind of cool. What’s not kind of cool, though, is that when Marci and the kids have Sat and Sun off, I’ll be at the mall, getting my retail on. Which isn’t so bad either; I am getting paid, after all. But for the rest of the week (Mon-Wed), the earliest I am off is 8pm. In other words, I’ll see the kids for about 30 minutes before school, and for 3 other nights, they’re asleep when I get home.

I’m feeling some daddy guilt since I’m not seeing the kids as much. I’m feeling some husband guilt as I’m not around to help Marci, but during the day, I’m trying to keep busy. Dog walking (since Friday, 4 walks with Bella!), dishes, laundry, garbage, etc.

Anyway, I keep thinking to myself that the scheduling thing will change soon enough. We’ll all be super-busy at work during the holiday season, so that’s to be expected, but afterwards, I’m hoping to get at least one weekend day off, as well as one or two nights a week where I can have dinner at home.

***

Next week I’ll be heading to the studio with the Scheme to record some… backing vocals? I think? Way back in February we recorded 7 rhythm tracks. David has gone in and finished up some guitar, vocals, stuff like that. My plan is to go in on Friday and lay down some velvety, syrupy backing tracks. It’ll be my first time-I hope they don’t have to autotune me.

***

Last thing. Can we have a running game on Sunday? Please? I want to see some BEAST MODE.

"To bad being stupid isn't painful"

I drove by a car with that written on its license plate frame and I couldn't figure out if it was supposed to be ironic or not.

Were they being overly clever and in on the joke? Or simply stupid? The mind boggles.

Late nights, bored

The past few nights I’ve worked the late shift at, er, work. It’s kind of cool to do as it gives me all day to do what I want/need, but man, it sucks for the family life.

I got home last night at 10:45 and tonight around 9:45 and the kids are asleep and the wife is turning in. I suppose I’ll go to bed soon as well, but I’m not quite ready and, well, it’s boring without anyone to talk to. I can only check FB so many times. People, do something interesting!

Tomorrow I should be home after 8, so in time to see the kids a bit, as well as Marci. And then Thursday I think I’m off at 7. But next week it’s still the weird late hours. Not sure how it will be the following week.

They did say it was a 40hr/week job, which it has been, but it’d be nice to be able to have dinner at home/see the family a bit more than I have been as well.

And sorry for the weird formatting. For some reason, Windows Live Writer is doing something to something. I will try to figure it out.

I saw Fountains of Wayne the other night

Growing up, my favorite band by far was Rush. Then it was Boston. I was lucky enough to see both of those bands in concert (though with Boston, it was way late in their career). As I got older, college age, I developed more mature (yeah, right) tastes, branching off into, er, chick rock, mainly with Juliana Hatfield and Aimee Mann, both of whom I’ve also seen in concert.

After my college days, I just played in bands and didn’t listen to much new music. And then I really got into power pop bands as I am in power pop bands. Stuff like Weezer, Oasis, and, most recently Fountains of Wayne, none of which I had seen live.

Until Friday.

Fountains of Wayne released a new record earlier this year entitled Sky Full of Holes. I wrote about it here.

When I found out they were coming to town, I was pretty excited. My friend David was kind enough to spring for tickets, so all I had to do was wait.

Anyway, Friday rolled around and it was off to the Croc for the show. Curiously, it was an older crowd at the Croc. Not a lot of youngsters there. I’d say that the average age of the club-goers was probably 35 or so.

I got there a little early so I had to wait through the opening act of Mike Viola, who was an excellent guitarist and singer. Sort of like FoW light, as all his songs were catchy and told stories. All in all, a good fit for the night.

FoW finally took the stage and they started with Little Red Light from the excellent Welcome Interstate Managers record. It sorely missed the keyboard line present on the recording though as they only brought the four band members.

And I think that was why I felt pretty underwhelmed by the band for the night.

FoW is an ultra-slick and polished band in the studio. They are tight and everything sounds incredible. They have horns (listen to Mexican Wine for example), keys, more guitars, percussion, and chances to make everything sound right.

Live? Well, as much as I enjoyed the music, the live performance left me wanting more. It seemed that Jody Porter, on lead guitar, didn’t want to be in Seattle at all. He basically wanked his way through some solos and played just adequate guitar.

The other guys did well enough and I guess that was cool. Then they tried a little cover song medley in the middle of one of their older songs, including riffs from Burning for You (BOC), Carry On Wayward Son (Kansas), Do You Feel (Frampton), among others, and the wheels kind of fell off.
I don’t know. Maybe they had a bad night? I just felt a little unfulfilled. It certainly wasn’t like when I saw Muse for the first time, or Rush at the White River after their 5 year hiatus.

Ah well. I’ll still watch them on Leno this Wednesday and listen to their CDs religiously. And maybe I’ll catch them if they ever come back to Seattle.

My nightmares are to become reality

I realized recently that the holidays are just around the corner. I recently started working at a local mall.

What happens at the mall during the holidays?

CHRISTMAS MUSIC.

Aside from the long hours, tons of customers, Santa, kids everywhere and providing excellent customer service, I will be subject to at least 9 hours a day of at least some Christmas music.

I can’t imagine they’ll play Xmas music for all the music in the mall and/or Microsoft Store, but I know that there will definitely be some.

And to me, that some is simply too much.

Don’t get me wrong; I’m no Scrooge or anything, but my feeling is that Christmas music should be played at only one time: Christmas Day. None of this starting-mid-October stuff. Christmas and Christmas only is when those tunes should be played.

Well that only took all night…

Goodness. Yet another several hours fixing what should’ve taken just a little while.

After upgrading my computer to Windows 7 yesterday, it made Marci’s computer unable to print. With the previous setup, the printer was connected to my XP computer and she was able to print via the network.

For whatever reason, the printer was still seen on our network after the W7 upgrade, but it simply wouldn’t print.

I removed the printer several times, tried downloading drivers, researched the internet, and could find nothing indicating what might have been the matter. I brought her laptop downstairs and plugged it in directly to USB and it worked fine, so I know it wasn’t a compatibility issue. Plus it had just worked less than 24 hours before!

Anyway, I did some more reading and realized that Marci’s laptop was running W7 64-bit and my computer is running the 32-bit version. Someone mentioned downloading the WinXP 64-bit driver, which I did, and lo and behold, we have a winner!

Canon (the printer manufacturer) doesn’t have a W7 64-bit driver, but the XP one works fine anyway.

Problem solved.

Randomness on Saturday

I finally got Windows 7 on my computer. Good news is it is installed and running well. Bad news is I had to pull out a bad stick of RAM in order for it to work. So, though it works, it’s a mite slow.

___

I’m drinking coffee now. I have some flavored creamer and I keep forgetting there’s already sweetner in it, yet I keep adding sugar. Extra sweet, I guess.

___

I really need to clean my desk. Or, rather, junk-holding-apparatus. What a mess.

___

Working Sunday through Thursday is taking me some time to get used to. True, I had yesterday off but being with the family just for today is sort of weird. Plus, when I would work on a Sunday, it was always a shorter shift. The mall, however, is a beast that never sleeps. I’ll do 8 hours tomorrow. Plus, I have to miss football, but it’s sort of fun to blast through it on DVR after the kids are asleep.

___

Fountains of Wayne at the Croc next Friday! Can’t wait to see them.

___

Have a good weekend!

Dogs, they are a barkin!

I just finished my first week at the Microsoft Store. Though my official capacity there is on the technical side, I do spend a bunch of my time on the floor helping customers, greeting customers, and basically hanging out with customers. As such, I’ve been on my feet a lot and I’m discovering that I need better shoes.

Or, more specifically, I shouldn’t wear my old boots anymore. Or my newer Pumas. But possibly only some Adidas cross-trainers I bought last year.

So far, I had one day where I worked in the back tech room, where I could sit a little. But the other days, it was go-go-go on the showroom floor.

But even with all the standing and fatigued legs, you know what?

I’m diggin’ it.

So far, it seems I’m making a great impression on the folks I work with. They’ve had a chance to see how I work with the customers at the Answers Desk and, though I don’t have all the answers, my demeanor and rapport with the customers is calm and engaging.

Or so I’m told.

Anyway, it’s exciting to be there. Still a ton to learn, but it is fun and I am looking forward to continuing for a long time.

Riley time

Marci and Haley left the men today to go on some horse thing over in Cle Elum. So what did Riley and I do today?

Well, I did some laundry and some dishes. We took Bella to the local grooming salon as she needed to be, ahem, excreted (don’t ask), as well as have her nails done. After that, I drove around to some local parks and let Riley run around for a bit. He’s nuts.

From there, we hit the library, then a few drug stores. I’ve been noticing for months that my eyes can’t seem to focus very well on computer screens. Basically anything that’s maybe 2 to 3 feet from my eyes is blurry or just barely out of focus. When I cover one eye, it’s better, but still not perfect.

To Marci’s great pleasure, she offered me the use of her reading glasses and to my great chagrin, they seemed to make things clearer for me.

Anyway, in the drug stores, there are plenty of options, but I don’t know exactly what to do or to look for. I’m figuring that since I’ll be getting some great benefits with Microsoft, I’ll wait until they kick in, then go see my eye doc and have her tell me I need reading glasses.

Wow. Did I digress?

For dinner tonight, I was going to take Rye to the Outback Steakhouse. Marci had gotten a free steak dinner card in the mail and since Riley loves steak, I figured we could go there.

Then I read the fine print: Valid Monday through Thursday only.

Oops.

Being that it was Saturday, the Outback was out of the question. But since I am a quick thinker, I dropped the Five Guys Burgers & Fries bomb on Riley. He’d been there before, but not like this.

As he’s getting older, we’re finding that the skimpy little kid’s meals offered at most restaurants simply don’t fill him up. I figured a gut-bomb of a burger would do the trick.

We got to 5 Guys and I ordered the “small” bacon cheeseburger (one patty as opposed to two) for Rye and I. He got mayo, ketchup, mustard, relish, grilled onions and mushrooms. The girl behind the counter said, “He’ll eat all that?”

I said, “You have no idea.”

I got myself mine and we sat down for some chow. Once we got it, I prepped him on how to eat it (squish it down a bit, tuck it in your mouth, and BITE!), and we got down to business.

He DOMINATED that burger. His mouth and hands were’nt quite large enough to do it the way I showed him, but he made it work. Add in a handful of fries and he was one stuffed dude.

We then came home and just hung out the rest of the night.

Sometimes I forget how much fun it can be to be a dad.

Back to Blogger… for now

I haven’t been blogging much at all for the past few months. It just seems I have not much to write about. Or that I do, but I find it terribly boring, and if I find it boring, well, goodness knows what anyone else would think about it.

Anyway, with my new job at the Microsoft Store, I’ve been trying to learn more about the MS products, one of which is this free program called Windows Live Writer. It’s basically a word processor, but it imports your blog settings (in this case, Blogger’s settings for the original So Yummy blog), and it allows you to write within the blog itself, instead of Blogger’s horrible back end. Imagine writing with the power of MS Word, and when you’re done, you press “Publish,” and, POW, it’s published!

Pretty cool.

Trouble is, WLW doesn’t support tumblr. I guess that’s not a terrible thing, but it just means for now, I’ll be bouncing back to Blogger.

154/365

I forgot to post a picture and have no computer with me so here's a picture of a picture I took tonight in Fremont. More tomorrow.

Moving on...

I've been a user of Blogger since 02/05. I've written about a lot of stuff here, ranging from my music to my kids to my dad's passing. I'm still going to write, but I'm moving the writing to a different blog host.

Not that there's anything wrong with Blogger.com; Blogger's been great to me. But I came across a different blog host that seems a little neater with some cool bells and whistles.

I've imported the last 50 or so posts from here to the new link so you can check it out. In the meantime, if you are looking for new So Yummy content from me, check it here:

http://soyummy.tumblr.com

I'll continue doing P365 with Blogger.com for the time being. I like the format there, but I will mess around with tumblr's templates to see if there's something else that's better suited. Plus, I'm hoping the switch will inspire me to post more boring stuff to entertain you with.

Hit it!

I feel like such a slacker!

It has been almost a month since I last blogged here! I've been spending most of my time blogging pictures. I figure I'm not important enough to have to blog here as well. Then I read someone else's regularly update blog and thought, "What the heck? Let's blog!"

It's been the same old, same old on the job hunt front. I've been looking, but to no avail. I'm pursuing this photography thing a bit more seriously, though. If you haven't already seen, I'm putting some of my better shots (IMO) on a fan page at Facebook. There's no nice, direct link, but if you click here, you'll go to it.

The past week I've been able to get out and shoot stuff I don't normally shoot. On Friday, I asked some skater kids if I could take their pictures and they let me. I put the ol' camera in sport mode and clicked away. The shots turned out cool and you'd never know that they didn't land any of the tricks.

Yesterday I hit up Capitol Hill in the afternoon prior to and after a gig we played at the Comet. Talk about an awesome place to take pictures. Everywhere you look there's something interesting and colorful. I have about 200 shots to wade through before putting them up.

I hit up Discovery Park last week to scout locations to shoot a friend's sister's engagement photos. I think the location is incredible and the light will be great in the late evening, but with the daylight stretching out until after 8pm these nights, we'll be out late if we want to capture a nice sunset shot. Trouble is, we haven't been able to hook up yet. Hopefully time and weather will cooperate this week.

I have some photos I shot of my hairdresser's family at Gene Coulon. I've been editing them and hope to have them up for consumption sometime soon. We really got unlucky on the weather; that day, it was pouring intermittently and very overcast and gloomy. We did the best we could and I think I got some good ones. I'll post the best ones for viewing soon.

As I've been working with photos, I've also been deleting a ton, trying to conserve hard drive space. It's a good exercise, though, as who needs 14 shots of the dog panting in the grass? I'm also trying to develop a better work flow, especially with shots I'm putting up on my P365 blog. I'm finding myself leaning toward a high contrast, slightly desaturated look. I'm so new to things, I don't know if that's lame or not, but it's how I like it to look.

These days, I just need to find a block of 2-3 hours where I can edit, learn, and put myself out there. Trouble is, between the kids and stuff around the house, the only time I'm finding that kind of time is after 10pm or so. Makes for late nights. Then, I feel like I need to be out shooting and trying to get out of my comfort zone, so sitting around the house doesn't feel as productive as it could be. Add in the looking for jobs thing and I seem to stay pretty busy without a lot to show for it.

I'll keep plugging away, though. I think I have my picture for day 136 shot (just did it). It's nothing spectacular, but I think it'll be pretty cool.

In the meantime, keep reading, keep checking my photos and, hopefully, keep enjoying them. I love putting them out there for you to see, that's for sure. Here's a dude checking his phone.

So slow. So very slow.

Last week I hit Fry's to buy memory for my computer. I've been thinking I needed memory because of all the photo editing and multi-screening I've been doing, so I added 1 whopping gig of RAM to my aging rig.

When I built this computer back in September of 2004 (OMG), I just wanted it to be able to run Half-Life 2. And it could, but not all that well. I forget how much RAM I had in it, but until last week, it was 2gb. And in some horrid oversight, the board I bought could only hold 3 sticks, so unfortunately, I'm stuck with 3gb max (and, IIRC, Windows XP only sees 3gb anyway, so more wouldn't help anyway).

It's been a week now since I've upgraded and... I'm wondering if I should just build a new rig. Or repurpose an old rig I have from the old business that's just sitting around.

I got a new camera (used T1i) yesterday and it's been fun playing with that. Trouble is, when shooting in RAW, the files are twice as big (15mb) as on my ol' Rebel XT. So downloading the pix takes... a... long... time. Though I think there's something up with my Photoshop Elements. I switched over to Lightroom for now to import the pix in.

Either way, this computer is starting to show its age. For surfing, movies, light gaming and daily duties, it's just fine. But for what I'm trying to do with it, photo editing (and not even that intense), it's getting a bit porky. Turn on an mp3 player (MediaMonkey) in the background and it's positively glacial at times.

Oh well. I will soldier on.

Snow, brush with death, working late

We took a mini-vacation to the great state of Leavenworth this week. It snowed today. In order, we did the following:

• Took a hot tub in said snow (kids and wife, not me)
• Visited Jim and our dog, Bella. Not as much snow at his house.
• Went to lunch with Jim, no Bella, at the Gingerbread House. Tasty sandwich and soup!
• Went back to Jim's and geeked out on photography and stuff.
• Drove to Smallwood's and looked at peacocks, colored chicks (literally), goats, alpacas, sheep, pigeons and lots of candy.
• Drove over Blewett Pass, saw a SUV going uphill somehow fishtail, over-correct, then plow into the car RIGHT BEHIND US. Whew. Not us.
• Drove to I-90 and had clear sailing until the base of Snoqualmie Pass, then it was everyone stop and put on chains.
• Drove over I-90 and felt sorry for everyone that had to put on chains, because, in reality, you didn't need 'em. SUCKERS!!
• Stopped off an exit because Riley had to pee, and man, did he have to pee! Melted about a 2'x2' patch of snow.
• Drove to Issaquah, almost got blinded by sun in the low western sky and also its darn reflection DIRECTLY INTO MY EYES LIKE A SODDING LASER BEAM! Almost death again, but I'm being dramatic.
• Ate dinner at Pallinos Pasta or Pasteria. I simply don't remember.
• And now I'm working on updating my P365 blog to look nicer. It's not a cool gallery format, but it's free and I'm liking where it's going.

So, back to that blog. Back to Bellevue. Had tons of fun in Leavenworth and look forward to doing it again.

Peace out.

Hello friends

Day 84 is up and done! It's been fun and most days, I totally look forward to shooting something for my P365. Other days? Not so much. Either I need to get out of the house more or I need to start finding beauty in the mundane.

Seriously, how many more shots of flowers and junk can I take???

In lieu of killing myself with boring shots, I've been working on learning more technique (using the histo more than ever!), post-production (just got a refurbished Wacom tablet for my controlling pleasure), and setups (lightbox, anyone?).

The past few days have been a little off for me. I think I have a sinus infection. I don't feel horrible, but I do feel off. Like on a 1 to 100 scale (one is good, 100 is bad), I feel about a 5. Just enough to notice, not enough to care, I suppose. Hopefully it's not a sinus infection and it goes away on its own... but I think it's a sinus infection. Bleh.

Oh, hey. I cleaned my desk today!

I'm trying to set up a gig for the Lunds at the Comet on Capitol Hill. I have my friend's band, the Hard Way, willing to play with us. Now I just need another. It'll be for May 15th, and it's a "matinee" show, meaning late afternoon. Know anyone??

I guess that's it for now. Here's what the tablet can do!

Bring on spring

I am sick of being cold!

In other news, I had a job interview today. In fact, I had one on the phone yesterday, so I'm on two interview streak. Both went pretty well. Both are for jobs that would pay less than what I'm getting via unemployment. However, I am totally putting the cart before horse here, so until something gets offered officially, I'll just keep thinking about things.

The job I interviewed for today was at a high-end car dealership to be a porter. You know, the guy who brings the car around, gets it cleaned up, runs all over the lot, etc. That guy. It's an entry level job that pays as such, but I'm trying to look at it as a foot in the door. Doesn't mean I wouldn't do my best at it, but it's not necessarily a career move (being a porter).

One interesting thing about the position would be the scheduling. 3 days on, 4 off. And those 3 days? You work a lot! 12-13 hour shifts! But, having 4 days off would be cool. Take a day to cool out, hang with the family for a few days, then work on photography and building that up!

Speaking of photography...

After the interview, I headed around Chinatown in Seattle to take some pictures. It was a little rainy so I was trying to be selective of shots and standing under awnings, etc. I was going to shoot an old decrepit sign when the darn camera locked up again. :( So, I missed the shot, of course, and had to worry about the stupid thing all the way home.

At home, though, I was able to get the camera up and running again, but I have no idea what's causing the issue. I have not been able to definitively link it to any one thing, so it's a little troubling. I guess the good news is that I don't have any big "shoots" to worry about in the near future.

Speaking of shoots...

I was lucky enough to be asked to shoot a family for their portraits last month. I took a ton of shots and whittled them down to the best ones. I did some PP (post production) on them via Photoshop Elements and have uploaded them to a free smugmug.com account. I do have their permission to post, so here's a link to the site: link.

Anyway, take a look at the pictures and make some comments. Also, if you want me to take pictures for/of you, let me know. I am starting out and I am reasonable and I want/need the experience!

Camera update

Well, so far so good. I did some troubleshooting today and found some tips regarding yesterday's ERR 99. Apparently it is a kind of "catch all" error, meaning that it's nothing specific, but it's still an error that needs to be reported. According to websites out there, it can be caused by a CF card, battery, shutter, lens contacts, and other things.

I tried messing with the CF and battery and that didn't seem to do anything. Then I tried using a pencil eraser (as advised!) to wipe down the contacts on the lens and the camera body. At first I used a yellow eraser and that didn't seem to work. Camera was still dead and I was still panicking. After that failure, I tracked down a pencil with a standard red eraser. Did the erasing and a different battery. That seemed to do the trick! I've been able to take more pictures tonight than I did yesterday and this afternoon and so far, it seems to be working. (Please, please!)

Time will tell, I suppose. Here's a shot from today to prove that it works. Get ready for something amazing.

I guess we need to dust...

Camera woes

We took Bella out for a romp at the dog park in downtown Renton today and I had my camera and new lens in tow. I was all excited to shoot and see how things would turn out.

A few shots in, the shutter closed and did not open again. I saw "ERR 99" on the screen. Flipping the switch didn't do anything so I removed the battery, which usually resets everything. Well, after doing that, the screen stayed dark and I had no power or anything.

Weird.

I thought it might have been the battery and, since I didn't have my spare, I was out of luck.

Once I got home, I did some research and found that "ERR 99" is kind of a general error, meaning anything from a bad connection between lens and camera to a faulty memory card and anything in between. Using my masterful deduction skills, I deducted that my problem was due to my CF card being weird. It's said that instead of simply deleting photos off the card when you don't need them, you should use the camera to format it from time to time. I don't know if that was the issue, but after pulling off a few sorry pictures (my P365 will be lackluster yet again), I formatted that sucker in the camera. So far so good.

Last thing I need is for my camera to fail me. I love this old thing and would be bummed if it took a nosedive.

Here's a picture from a day without technical difficulties.

Friday, Friday!

Did some cool stuff today. In no particular order, I:

• Drove my mom's new BMW into Kirkland for an errand.
• Picked up Riley from school for the first time in a while. It was his "half-birthday" today.
• Had lunch with a new friend and hit it off quite nicely.
• Received a new lens from said friend. Thanks!!
• Talked photography for the better part of an hour over Thai food.
• Took mom's new BMW to BMW Seattle with the kids. Only made it to Mercer Island with the top down before the kids started getting too cold.
• Saw my brother at BMW Seattle.
• Took some pictures of the kids dancing at the new BMW parking lot. It's quite the facility.
• Met a neighborhood dog in our back yard at home. We think it belongs to a family around the corner. Very friendly Golden Retriever.
• Decided to try to teach Riley how to ride a bike sans training wheels. Was minorly successful. He did better than I thought he would.
• Had breakfast for dinner.

Not a bad day! :)