Mutterings and Musings

I took over 600 photos today and I can't even begin to go through them all before I have to go to bed. The goal for the day was to photograph birds. This morning I went snowshoeing at Millcreek Canyon, where I saw exactly two birds. One was a black-capped chickadee (Poecile atricapillus) that I may have got one good picture of; the other I didn't see long enough to identify. Millcreek Canyon is NOT a good place for birds in the winter. After that I went to the park in Sugarhouse - the one that has a duck pond in it. I'm not sure what it's name is. After that I went to the Tracy Aviary.

I got this one of a mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) with an 80-400mm lens that I rented. I'm pretty happy with it overall, even though the focus at 400mm doesn't appear to be particularly sharp in the details. I may be asking too much.

I'm taking some people snowshoeing tomorrow, so I went and got some things in preparation for the trip. Snowshoes, obviously, and a long(er) lens because I'm hoping we'll see some birds. The long telescoping thing on the left is a monopod - it provides some stability when taking telephoto pictures like a tripod, but is easier to carry when hiking. The little rectangular thing is a remote shutter release, for low-light photography so you don't jiggle the camera when you push the button. Hand and foot warmers are for the person who will come dressed poorly for the weather, or in case someone has had a cold weather injury in the past. (If you've ever had frostbite, getting it again is MUCH easier.)

I checked on avalanche conditions where we were planning on going and they're pretty bad. We're going to Mill Creek Canyon instead, which is supposed to have plenty of flat, open space. I've never been there, so I hope whoever told me that is right.

I got several pictures of the moon rising over the mountains, but none of them turned out as well as this one. This has encouraged me to attempt more night photography. One of the things this means is that I will need to get a remote trigger.

Also, I uploaded about a week's worth of photos and backdated all but this one. If you're seeing this via your LJ friend list, you might have missed some.

This is part two (and eventually, three - but that won't start until 2011) of my Exploring Utah goal. Part one you saw yesterday - I'm going to ski at every skiing resort in Utah. Part two is taking a picture of every bird in Utah. I expect this will take several years but I can start now. You can probably figure out what part three is. If you don't know why I can't start until summer of 2011, I can't tell you. If you do know, keep quiet about it.

I went skiing on Monday night with Zac. I don't know why it says FRIENDS!! on it.

Sunlight coming in through an upstairs window onto a Lladro sculpture. I debated between the photo you're looking at and this one.

My newphew Xander. He is also known as the Destructobot 2000. One of my PADs is going to feature a little project we started upstairs as a result of his antisocial behavior.

It snowed today. My love for snow is well known.

My two favorite Christmas presents. (A little bit late, I know. I needed a PAD.)

Went to a UPHPU meeting (Utah PHP Users) and we went out to dinner afterward.

My parents got a new water heater today. The pilot light on the old one kept going out, even after hundreds of dollars in repairs. I helped install the new one. (By which I mean I hauled it downstairs and then helpfully stood by while the plumber installed it.) He did a pretty solid job.

Wendell at my CrossFit affiliate doing overhead squats. I think that's 165 but I don't remember for sure.

This mobo is pretty old but I'm going to try and breathe life into it anyway. Wish me luck! If it works it's going into my parents basement to be a file (and possibly other things as well) server. Not because they need a file server, but because the thought of having my very own RAID array (possibly in the terrabyte range) has always pleased me.

I got my first letter from the FAA today! It's almost as good as being a real, actual pilot! (Only not because I'm not gainfully employed as a flying-things-guy.) Still, it was exciting.

I got the first DVD from Netflix today and watched the whole thing in one sitting. I was surprised at how good it was. I'm also consistently annoyed at how LiveJournal thinks anything I post past 10 pm is after midnight, and therefore the next day.

This is less than half of my books. I debated listing all the titles but I decided that if you really want to know, you can look at the image in "large" size and read them yourself. Yes, I have read all of them, except for books which are reference material (Gray's Anatomy) and Les Mis, which I really, honestly tried to get through but just couldn't.

Some of my more recent acquisitions (mostly Russian classics) aren't here.

This is a unit patch for an Apache (and possibly other aircraft) unit that I believe is located in Saudi Arabia, though it may be Kuwait. I saw a picture of the unit insignia (same as the patch) on a picture at Ft. Eustis and mentioned it to one of the middle eastern guys there that I had gotten to know a little bit. He asked if I liked it, and I said yes. About a week later he gave me this.

I went to the credit union today to talk to their financial advisor. I got a shot of the flag in front of their building (which I was going to use) but it also had a utility pole in the background, which bugged me.

I read this book almost in one sitting.