Duchess of Evil

There (likely) won't be any news on my friend until Wednesday, after they run more tests. For the moment, she's back home but feeling awful. They gave her fluids and electrolytes, and a shot of some kind to stop the bleeding again, and sent her home (apparently you have to be literally on death's door for an actual transfusion, because of the risks associated). 

In the meantime, I am distracting myself with things like school, jewelry, and the internet. I'm also unofficially doing Nano, with a total so far of 9500 words. Not as much as I'd hoped, but there have been things going on, obviously, that have derailed some of the writing time. The good news, however, is that actual writing is happening! 

Now, here is one of the distract-y things I found on the internet! Some of you might remember that a while back, I invested in a DSLR camera set up for taking better photographs of my jewelry. I could go on and on about how much I looooooove my Pentax K-7 and accompanying lenses, but this isn't about my camera; it's about the bag! As useful as the K-7 is for jewelry photos, what's the point of having such a great camera if I don't use it for things like travel, right? Carrying my camera round my neck by the neoprene strap is okay for short day trips to the zoo, but that really doesn't work for me when I'm going ALL DAY to somewhere like Disneyland, where I'll be riding rides and occasionally experiencing attractions that include water. My K-7 is "weather-resistant" but that doesn't mean waterproof. A purse doesn't have the appropriate amount of padding, but camera bags tend to be bulky and, well, ugly. Since we're going back to Disney in March, I've decided I need something to carry my camera body, an extra lens, as well as my ID and some cash. It also needs to be small enough to be easy to carry all day in a theme park, and secure enough to take on rides, while being stylish enough to 1) not be horribly looking, and 2) not scream "expensive camera bag". 

I've been searching exhaustively, and it turns out there is a pretty large community of girls who shoot DSLRs and want something stylish to carry their equipment in. While a lot of these options are nice looking and functional, most of them are still BIG. That's great if you're going on a day shoot specifically for camera work, shooting a wedding, etc, but not so awesome for a busy trip to Disneyland. Finally, I found something that works for me: Porteen Gear. Her stuff is stylish, well constructed, and comes in multiple sizes, including small! I ended up buying this bag:



Super cute, with just enough room for my K-7 with one lens attached, plus my 40mm pancake lens, some cash and my ID! Exactly what I was looking for. If it holds up to my expectations in person, I may put a medium one of these on my Christmas list (for when I need more lenses with me, etc). 

I'll post a review after I get the bag. :)

 ~ What is with all the damn LJ comment spam these days? Aaaargh.

~ Saw Transformers 3. It was, IMO, the best of the three, and it was definitely leagues better than the second. The model who replaced Megan Fox was a better actress, thank goodness, and the stupid humor was kept to a minimum. 

~ Why, On Demand, why?? Why have only the first two episode of Rizzoli & Isles, instead of the whole first season?? This is a great show! I want to catch up, and your "past season catch up" section sucks. *pouting*

~ Mark is back from Japan, and his jet lag is proceeding as normal. Meaning he can't sleep until the wee hours of the morning, and is groggy and tired when he gets up around 11:00, needs a nap by 3:00, and then is wide awake until it starts all over again. Poor guy.

~ While he was gone this year, I spent five days up in Seattle, and we went to this great small zoo and got to take some pictures of tigers from, like, four feet away. Maybe less. There was a piece of plexiglass between us, and that was it. I'm still processing all of the photos, but here's a sample. You can see a jeans-clad leg reflected in the plexiglass if you look closely at the bottom, showing just how close we were. No zoom, just a 50mm prime lens, which is called "the natural lens" for a reason - you photo very close to the world as you actually see it. This is Taj, a beautiful and rare golden tiger:



And Almos, a still rare, but not quite as rare as the golden, white tiger:



When I get done uploading them to my flickr account, I'll post a link.

 * Gratuitous Photo Post

I've finally figured out most of my focusing issues.  We've had thunderstorms all day, but this evening there was about an hour break between one group of thunderclouds and the next, so I went down by the river and snapped a few photos of our bridge.  I think they turned out rather well, so I'm sharing:


 ( One b&w, and one not. )