Long time

It's been a long time since my last post, and for good reason, I've been busy.

And the future isn't looking like it's getting any slower.

This weekend I have 2 photo sessions, one at a club with a bodypainter, and another on Saturday to photograph some musicians at a festival. Still no paying gigs for this, but it helps to expand my portfolio.

I'm going to have more time to work on my hobbies now, I've since split up with my wife. And now I need to get a loan for my trip to Sweden, and that's getting harder and harder to accomplish. We'll see what happens.

I hope to have an online portfolio of some of my images shortly. Give me another week and I should have something up.

Sports and pictures

Well, Saturday (St. Patty's day) was also game day at the 67s game. We had box seats for it, which I might add totally rocked. Sure you're up higher than anywhere else in the arena, but the view was amazing! Was fun being there, Mike was there, Mark, Robyn, her 2 brothers, Elaine and I. Somehow we still managed to rack up a $140 tab while at the game. It's just easier to drink when you don't have to go far. That's right, a stocked fridge. Worst part was, they had to restock it during the 2nd period.

Being in the box gave me the opportunity to take some really cool pictures of the game. I'll post a few here later, I still have to get them off my camera. I got a new lens this past week, and I love it already. It's a Nikkor 70-300mm lens. Man does it zoom in. Well, I'll be able to demonstrate that in some of these pictures. Our box was at the one end of the ice, and I was able to zoom in really well on the goalie at the other end, almost as if I were standing in front of him.

After the game Elaine and I went back to Robyn and Philippe's for dinner. We watched some funny videos on youtube for a bit, and decided it was time to go home. Robyn wanted to go out for a bit, so her and I went to the bar for a drink. It was good, gave us a chance to chat a bit. We'll be heading out again Tuesday to continue our chats...

They're baaack

Omg, I just read at one of my favorite online comics (http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/index.php) there is a new movie coming out.  How did I not hear about this until now?  This is a pretty long trailer…in fact, it's a featurette, not a trailer. http://raincloud.warnerbros.com/wbmovies/tmnt/featurette/tmnt_featurette_500.mov  Watch it, be in awe of it. 

I'm so there when this comes out.  Seeing this on the big screen is a big deal.  Hey George Lucas, you could have done Star Wars like this and made it just as good.  No wait, you still needed a plot to make it happen.

Anyways, this looks like a great movie.

Shipment out...

Well, I just saw that my shipment of scales and rings was sent yesterday.  This is awesome, I may actually see it tomorrow.  I hope so, cause I have lots of plans for these scales.  You see, I did the chainmail jewelry thing, but it wasn't going as well as I had hoped.  Sure I made some basic stuff, but it wasn't selling.  So I've decided to stick with larger, clothing style items.  I'm going to have a chainmail clothing line soon.  That should be fun.  I'm hoping to get it into a few stores.

As far as camera work goes lately, I got my lens that I won on ebay, and found that it doesn't work with DSLR cameras.  So it's back for sale on ebay.  But I do have to get that good lens soon.  I'll probably pick it up tonight when I go out.  After work I'm going to hit a few of the photo shops downtown to price and try out some lenses.

67s game this weekend, and I'm totally psyched up for it.  Go 67s!!

Not much else to discuss here I guess.  It's a pretty slow week.

Bus complaint

Ok, I had to write this today to the bus company here.  This letter says it all…

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I'm not one to normally complain, but today was a very exceptional day.  And not in a good way.

I took the #15 bus to work as I usually do.  I happened to get to my bus stop a bit early and caught the 7:00 bus from Slater and Bay.  There were two of us getting on the bus (I do not know the other person).  3 people were exiting the bus from the front, so we waited.  As soon as the last person got off the bus, the driver closed the doors, almost closing it on the arm of the girl getting on the bus.  As soon as she was in the door, he tried to close the door again, this time on me.  I asked him to at least wait until I was on the bus before closing it.  I was told he didn't see me.  Now, to make this clear, I'm 5'8", weighing in at about 215 lbs, wearing a bright red jacket.  If he didn't see me, I'm worried about his vision.

Part way up Montreal Road, I hear a loud bang/crash sound like he hit something.  Sure enough, he hit a telephone pole with the side mirror and smashed it into the bus.  He couldn't open the front door as it was jammed with the arm of the mirror.  After prying it open, he told everyone to exit the bus as he could not continue.  About 5 minutes later, I'm guessing after talking to someone at the central office, he told everyone to get back on the bus, that we would continue.  This can happen, and it has happened with me on a bus before in the past.  But what I heard next as I was getting on the bus did it for me.

He was asking passengers if they knew where Den Haag Road was, as he was supposed to turn there and didn't know where it was.

Do the drivers not get briefed on their route beforehand?  I've never heard a 95 driver ask where the transitway is before.  If you're on an unfamiliar route, familiarize yourself with it before you go out.

Anyway, the bus number was 4004, but you probably already know that by the busted mirror and glass in the door that was broken.

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New info!

Well, we got some more info on the dig in the fall.  Looks like it will be happening right where it was planned.  Dan is now making the reservations at the Cottages for us.  This is getting more and more real as the days pass by.

I'm heading back home for a few days, and want to make sure I can chat with my Grandfather about his father.  Being I'm planning on visiting my great-Grandfather's birthplace, I want to know a bit about him.  I'll post that info here when I get it.

Went to the hockey game last night, Sens won 5-1 over TO.  Not much of a shock this year.  Got a new Sens sweater as they were on sale.  It's nice, and very business like.  There are so many projects I have on the go right now.  I'm thinking I need to move ahead with the Social Engineering course I was planning on running.  If I can do that and make some money at it, it can go towards the trip to Sweden.  I also want to go camping at some point.  I read about Echoes, and I'm not sure, but we may go to that.  We'll have to see…it's like $70 per person.  Either that, or I just go camping at a campground…

I can't believe I'm talking about camping when it's still -20 outside.  Yeah, I'm a bit crazy, but not crazy enough to go camping in -20 weather. 

Just waiting for my rings to get back to the ring lord so I can get my next order in.  I want to get a big order in soon so I can make a scale shirt for myself.  I need just over $100 US in scales, plus another $20 in rings to make it.  Not cheap, but when I'm done, I'll be happy.  I should also finish up my existing shirt…hmm.

I'm working diligently on a website for my photography. I won't be posting in public until I have a few more photo shoots with some different models under my belt.  This is by request  ;)   But I should be able to arrange that shortly.  I think having a few more props will help me out.  I'm hoping to rent the club soon so I can do a shoot there.  I figure I'll offer it inexpensively (maybe free) and just get permission from the models to use a few of the pictures on my website.

I really need to get our color printer up and running so I can do some prints of the last shoot and make a portfolio.  See the tangents I'm running off on?  OMG.

New piece!

Well, before we even get started, here is a shot of the new piece (no straps, but you get the idea). It's made from 14kt gold plated scales. This is a very impressive piece when seen in person. The shine from this is just fabulous! I can make on of these for you (if my supplier gets stuff back in stock). Cost on a piece like this, with straps of course, would run about $500. Keep in mind that this is 14kt Gold. I have considered also making a matching skirt to this.

As for other news, on my photography front, I have done my first photo shoot (this was one of the photos) and it turned out quite well. We did an initial review of the photos with the model, and we're going to go over them again and finalize my portfolio of that shoot. Any more volunteers for modelling?

The model I had is going to go with me to other places to do some more interesting shots. I just have to figure out a time when we can do it and when I can afford to rent the space.

Blogger just told me that it can't save anything. Odd. If I lose this, I'm going to be pissed.

See how I can go off on tangents? Anyway, I hope to have a website at some point with my photography going, but that has to get clearance from my models of course. We'll see how things go over wine this week as we review the photos.