Without The Dark

Took a few more photos at work, this time earlier in the day, so there's more sun.



This is the kitchen. I tried to replicate the angle in the following W----- photograph, which was impossible. He must have been using a wider lens camera.



Full frontal housery.



Door, I liked this angle.



For the best lighting, I should probably get there earlier in the morning, but I don't see that happening. Anyway, it continues to make for an excellent model for my noodling around with the camera.

Wild, wild, life

I finally got a chance to see the deer my parents have mentioned they've spotted behind my house. And I had my trusty new camera with me.



And here's a video for the more motion-inclined.


About just as soon as I stopped taking photos the groundscrew that my father hired came along with their weedwhackers and such, assuredly frightening the animal away.

Curiously, this event echoes what I read in another blog I've been reading recently.

Simpsons Christmas Boogie

I've been seeing a lot of ads lately for the Simpsons movie. Things are not looking promising. The jokes in the previews are lame, including referencing two other popular summer movies (Spider-Man and Harry Potter) in an effort to garner more widespread appeal. My secret hope is that the worst jokes they put in the ads because they have the greatest chance to appeal to a wide audience, but I'm not very hopeful.

If maybe the Simpsons had made a movie about seven years ago, it'd be great. But it's a little too late for that, needless to say. I don't know why the Simpsons has been so mediocre these recent years, but I'm willing to guess it's simply because they've run out of material. That, or the writing staff has cycled to crappier and crappier members.

I could be wrong. I'll probably see it anyway.

Rhapsody in Green

I heard Rhapsody in Blue in the car this morning, while driving to work. Coincidentally, I had started re-reading The Great Gatsby during my downtime at work. Rhapsody in Blue and Gatsby are two pieces that have always gone together in my mind, the only two cultural touchstones of the 1920s that I've really been familiar with. Of course, Gatsby was part of my grade school curriculum, not once, but twice, due to the fact that I changed schools. I always felt rather intrigued by the whole wild '20s atmosphere presented in the book, and not just a little envious as well. However, it struck me recently that I've never actually read the whole damn thing! American classic, and one I enjoyed enough when I read pieces of it, but never sat down to absorb the whole thing. So, I've been picking it up while at work.

It's usually rare for me to actually read a piece of literature in my spare time. I can pretty much count the books I've done it for on one hand: 1984, Brave New World, Animal Farm. Hm, rather three fingers I suppose. Hopefully I'll persevere through the rest.

Work It Harder

Time to talk a little bit about my life. CAN YOU FEEL THE EXCITEMENT?!



This is where I work, at the W__________* House, as a guide. I suppose you could use the word docent, but that's mostly used for volunteers. You can probably tell that there is a slight bent to the photograph, this is not due to any natural sloping, but due to the fact that I think my neck is a little crooked naturally. So pretty much every photograph I take slopes one side or the other. Great, my career as an amateur photographer is over before it started.

It's usually not terribly busy while at work. I happened to take this photograph during work hours, so you can see that I have the opportunity to mess around and do things like... take photographs.



My workspace is located in the 18th century warehouse to the left of the mansion. You can see various cards here which describe the former inhabitants of the house, this is nice because it means I don't have to do the spiel every time somebody wants a tour. Plus, I think people enjoy reading more than listening to some young fellow like myself.



This is the view out front, on the Piscataqua river. Not a great photograph, but it really is quite a nice location. There are definitely worse places I could be working.

And now for something completely different.



M_____'s* our new cat. Well, new as in a year old. She's crazy. Meows all the time, jumping on bookcases and refrigerators and the like, but I'm a big fan of hers regardless. She's got personality. And camouflage designed for my parents' bed, apparently.

In other news, my parents apparently both saw a deer outside the back of our house. My mother saw it in the morning, and my father in the afternoon. What a perfect opportunity to use my new camera! Alas, when I tried hunting for it (not literally) my quarry had disappeared from the small woods behind my house. He'll probably be back though. They always come back.

*I've chosen to block out all names due to some unnecessary desire for personal privacy, but also because it's like you often see in 19th century novels, and I get a kick out of that.

The Least Popular Breakfast Cereals of 2006.

Robert Frosted Flakes
Apple Johns
Condi Rice Crispies
High Fructose Corn Syrup Smacks
Brunch in a Box
Crouton Crisp
Soggix
Burnt Toast Crunch
Hilton-O's
Cracklin' Goat Bran