Thoughts on Lightroom and Other Things

Ooooh, what a mysterious title!

Whoever posted that link to the photo contest, I appreciate the gesture, but I don't have anything to submit that would fit the theme, unfortunately =(...also...the prizes seemed...biased...like, technically I'd enter under the amateur category, but even the grand prize seemed like a bit of a copout (point and shoot camera and some other stuff). I was tempted to enter the professional division, if it wasn't for the like $50 entry fee. So, yeah, thanks for the suggestion =) I might enter a picture or two into JPG Magazine again soon. In fact, I had a few that fit the "On Stage" theme they have this week, but I wouldn't be able to get a model release in time from Illuminations =(. I entered one photo a long time ago with Soyoung in it and everything blurry. I think it was themed like "What would you see in heaven" or something, and I liked the blurry abstraction of a friend who greets you standing in front of a foresty-looking/green background (background was the slope, but the blurring made it seem more 3d).

Richardson, the only Chinese music I have is F.I.R. and I like them a bit. Any suggestions? Trying to get Jiyeon and Soyoung to help me with Japanese music, lol.

So, I used the beta version of Lightroom 2.0 on this machine because of the 64 bit support. Kinda like how I used the beta Lightroom 1.0 on my old computer. As I expected, there were QUITE a few feature changes/upgrades in the real version. The full retail version is decidedly quicker and a bit more intuitive, and it hasn't crashed yet (beta version crashed often)! As such, I have to heartily recommend Lightroom 2.0 for anyone with photos...it isn't as powerful as Photoshop, but it really doesn't have to be.

Anyway, I have restarted my horrid Lego addiction! I started because I saw this video. I don't think it's healthy to replace WoW with ANOTHER massively multiplayer online game...especially a Lego one, since that will probably be more addictive...Oh well, it's not out yet...Oh, yeah, so it restarted my Lego addiction because I starting looking around at stuff...and...I mighta bought some stuff...like 2 ice trays, a popsicle maker, and a t-shirt...moving on, I found a pretty cool blog dedicated to Legos! I'll link it here (http://www.brothers-brick.com/), and I'll add it to the side, as well as a Lego section =).

Also, I have Rosetta Stone and will be trying to teach myself some languages! I'm starting with Japanese, cuz technically I've wanted to learn it since middle school. I want to eventually learn Korean and Spanish, relearn Mandarin, and maybe relearn French. They had a CD for Arabic too, and that sounded very cool...even if it'd be very difficult...oh well, never give up, I say!

I should finish packing...I'm going back to Ithaca this weekend! So yeah, packing and Japanese!

Stay Tuned.

LIGHTROOM 2.0 CAME OUT LIGHTROOM 2.0 CAME OUT LIGHTROOM 2.0 CAME OUT LIGHTROOM 2.0 CAME OUT LIGHTROOM 2.0 CAME OUT LIGHTROOM 2.0 CAME OUT LIGHTROOM 2.

http://www.adobe.com/products/photoshoplightroom/
YAYAYAYAYAYAYAYYAY

Sorry for the essentially meaningless post, but I wanted to say this as it's now out of beta and hopefully won't be as buggy....

Now that it's not beta, I can fulfill Directive 1 of photos! No temporary software to process my pictures! Should be a deluge of photos coming soon.

Also, I'm going to quit WoW cold turkey. At least for a few days. I have other things to do with my time during the summer. Today I'm going rock climbing and will probably edit photos...tomorrow is probably editing photos...lol....

Plus, it gives me free time at work. This summer I'm doing a lot of project management, so I kinda sit in my office and wait. I used to use that time for reading about gaming and WoW and stuff, I think I'll study my GRE vocab all day instead.

Oh yeah, I still want some recommendations for music for my slowly-being-rebuilt music library!

Speaking of which, time to whip out the flash cards!

Back from the Dead! Mostly

Hey guys,

I finally got my computer back up and running! Vista64 didn't want to play nice with 2 of my older hard drives (they were PATA attached to a RAID on the motherboard, for those of you who care), so I took them out and got another Terabyte drive. Now I'm slowly rebuilding my photo and music libraries, as well as my bookmarks and stuff. If you guys have any recommendations for music, let me know! I like listening to a lot of different artists and styles. However, any suggestions may have to wait...I have to refind all the music I listened to before, plus go through a 59 gb backlog of music I downloaded but haven't been able to convert, much less listen to yet =(.

But yeah! Hard drives are up and running, Lightroom 2.0 beta sorta works (its amazing when it DOES work, but it crashes for no reason sometimes), Zeke is bored most of the time though.

I'm looking at getting more photography stuff. I really want a fisheye lens! They have a 180 degree field of view that's distorted and looks pretty cool. Specifically, I like this one. How useful is a fisheye lens? Not really. Look at pictures taken with fisheye lenses and you'll see why. How COOL are they? Tres cool. So cool, I don't even need to put in the proper accent.

I also want a normal wide angle lens, like this one. The super wide looks awesome...plus, L-series glass is pretty phenomenal (my white lens is L-series).

I might also replace Zeke with a newer model in the fall. I want a full frame sensor, which Zeke doesn't have...I dunno what I'm gonna do with him! I don't really want to sell him since 1) my dad wants a camera and 2) Zeke really likes my white lens...

Also, these things aren't cheap...gotta keep scrimping and saving...

Been playing WoW a lot lately...I didn't work out so much this week because I basically had 2 weeks of no exercise and my body couldn't handle my normal exercise...oh, I should detail that I guess

Monday: 30 mins cardio, arms and shoulder resistance training, 3 X 15 reps of 80% max capacity
Tuesday: 30 mins cardio, upper torso resistance training, 3 X 15 reps of 80% max capacity
Wednesday: 30 mins cardio, lower torso resistance training, 3 X 15 reps of 80% max capacity
Thursday: 30 mins cardio, legs resistance training, 3 X 15 reps of 80% max capacity
Friday: Open
Saturday: Open
Sunday: Open

I want to fill in Friday, but I tend to travel Friday afternoon, so it screws things up...

But yeah, 2 half weeks of work screwed my schedule really bad and I have to get back on track. I think I lost like 10 pounds, but vacations kinda messed that up...by last check I lost 6 pounds. Yay! I'm going to sign up for a gym membership at school, too.

Anyway, I'm gonna stop this post now. Feel free to sound off in the comments!

Stay Tuned!

PS. Dark Knight put a smile on my face.

Restarting Again

Hey guys,

Yeah, I'm at work. It's about 10:45 am so I've been here for like near 5 hours today (needed to be here early). I figured I'd restart the blog again. Or try to. I'll hold it to myself to upload at least a picture a day and maybe a story or something every week. Normally I'd do this at home, but I just reformatted my computer and tried to install Vista 64 bit on it...and...it was working fine til I tried to install the drivers for my wireless card...the drivers didn't really install I guess since the computer couldn't recognize when the card was plugged in (USB card), so I restarted it to let it finish Vista installation and such....and now....it won't turn back on. There's a few things that aren't working on the thing...sound card...RAID card...which sucks cuz the RAID card has the hard drive with all my photos...just stuff to do before I leave this weekend.

Speaking of which, I'm heading out to California for July 4th! I'll be in/around San Jose and apparently going to Lake Tahoe.

Anyway, I should be going back to work now.

Stay tuned!