30 Mar

Devil’s Lake and More

Nick took me on a photography adventure to the west around the Devil’s Lake area. We wandered back roads all afternoon and enjoyed each other’s company while I got to hone my photography skills.

I am getting quite good at manual focus and learning a lot about my camera. There’s a highly recommended book I want to check out of the library soon called Understanding Exposure by Bryan Peterson.

There is still so much to learn…

Here are the choice bits from the Devil’s Lake excursion!

Birch Trees

Birch Trees

Hidden Pond

Hidden Pond

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Cranes

Sandhill Cranes

Wooded Pond

Wooded Pond

Fishing Tackle

Fishing Tackle

 

Distant Lake - Depth of Field Experiment

Distant Lake – Depth of Field Experiment

"Redstick Bushes"

“Redstick Bushes”

Hovercraft!

Hovercraft!

24 Mar

If a photographer is one who takes photos…

Then I guess I am one, though not a very good one.

Of course, I am really wet behind the ears considering I just got my camera a few days ago! I haven’t gotten too many chances to use it even though I did get to take a lot of pictures at a friend’s baby shower this past weekend. It was a lot of work but also a lot of fun! However I am shy. It’s really hard to be walking around wanting to take photos of an event but also being afraid to block people’s views. It’s also hard when you have someone whispering in your ear every once in a while how you shouldn’t do his or that…

But such is life. I have to learn to not be shy if this is going to be a productive hobby!

I did get some photos in of the cats today – namely Rushuna because she is super photographic. Caim is very pretty but she’s also a spazz and doesn’t sit still long enough to take a very good photograph. Rushuna on the other hand seems to love having her picture taken and sits very prettily and still, making bedroom eyes at the camera. I also get some photos of Lucy, Kathy’s airedale terrier.

I managed to get her far whiskers in perfect focus.

I managed to get her far whiskers in perfect focus.

 

Lucy!

Lucy!

Rushuna.

Rushuna.

Rushuna again!

Rushuna again!

Other than the cats, I have a random photo of some greenery at Kathy’s house.

I have no clue what type of little plant this is however…

I have no clue what type of little plant this is however…

And also two nice shots of people – my mother and Nick!

A very pretty mother, if you ask me. Though she'll probably kill me when she finds I put this online.

A very pretty mother, if you ask me. Though she’ll probably kill me when she finds I put this online.

Also, I'll probably be killed for this one even though I think it's handsome and is nicely focused.

Also, I’ll probably be killed for this one even though I think it’s handsome and is nicely focused.

So that’s pretty much it for today. I played some Heroes but I don’t have much to say right now. It’s pretty dang fun but I’m really pooped. Nick is playing right now so maybe he’ll have something to say about it in a bit?

 

 

20 Mar

Fear Has No Flavor

So remember how I said I was interested in Heroes of the Storm?

Yeah, I got into the Technical Alpha.

[Screenshot to be inserted hear when my PC is on tomorrow.]

I’m really not sure how it happened but I feel like the most special snowflake right now! Apparently, I opted into the alpha (and beta, apparently!) some time ago – or Nick opted me in. Tonight I decided to install the Blizzard Launcher to de-clutter my task bar and upon launching it while Nick was looking over my shoulder (this wasn’t the first time I launched it; I had already been playing Starcraft earlier), he noticed I had a Heroes of the Storm thingy at the bottom. It said “Install.” So I did. Then it said “Play.” So I did.

Initial Impression: OMG THIS GAME IS FUN!

It’s got the usual Blizzard chunky look and feel. I like that. A lot. Skinny, tall characters bother me. Compare the characters in FFVIII and FFIX. I really like the FFIX style over the FFVIII type. The chunky, fun models are just more cute to me!

It also has the Blizzard sound, with the characters having the voices you would expect – their attacks having the sounds you would expect! Raynor’s rifle sounds just like it does in Starcraft and I should know since I was playing Wings like 10 minutes before I started Heroes. :3

The game play itself is… kind of like DOTA2? There’s three lanes and creep waves and towers and things like that. But instead of having hero abilities that you level up, you start out with all of the abilities and level up by choosing talents. The talents seem to be based on an either/or tree but I haven’t look too much into it yet. I honestly just played two bot vs bot matches and called it a night. I wasn’t exactly expecting to be in a game’s alpha test.

I am also genuinely entertained by the dialogue, what with Raynor’s reactions to being teleported to the Nexus (like a Protoss nexus?) and talking with Diablo and Uther.

Honestly though?

I can’t wait to unlock Tychus. :3

13 Mar

Ragnarockandroll!

So, this is gonna be an opening post. Thus, it’s gonna be about something I like!

What is it I like?

Tychus. Tychus Findlay.

Prior to this particular trailer I was not really interested in Heroes of the Storm. It’s not that the game didn’t appeal to me… more that I just doubted the actual time I would have to play it. Plus, I really do adore DOTA2’s Treant Pro and Venoman and any thought of betraying them for nelves and drainos kinda made me sad. And thus far, I don’t see a Hydralisk character in HotS.

Nope, can’t call it that. “HotS” is Heart of the Swarm which I have a very serious relationship with. We haven’t yet gone all the way, but let’s just say that it’s getting pretty Brutal between us. So we are just gonna say Heroes of the Storm even though that’s kinda long-winded.

So now I have been piqued in so many ways that it has started to get inappropriate. Granted, I don’t know too much about Heroes of the Storm but that’s how I like my games: I go in ignorant and learn on the fly and somehow kick more ass than the serious peeps. Or I just go in and make ridiculous mistakes and have a gay old time with my friends.

Part of the appeal of Heroes of the Storm (apart from Tychus’ sexy armor-encased ass) is playing with my old WoW friends. I really love the old gang and am honestly looking forward to both Heroes of the Storm and Warlords of Draenor because even if it is just a brief revival, the time spent with my good friends will be worth it.

On that note, tonight is a really good night for Roll20. For one, I am actually participating! Normally I am sitting at my desk, bored and uncomfortable, fucking around on DollDivine or some other random brain-numbing website. Tonight I decided to break my routine and sit in the bed and play on Justice (hence the blog post because Justice is really useful for this type of thing and has THE BEST keyboard I have ever typed on!!). Because of this change in location, I am both not as comfortable and restricted in what I can do to distract myself. Writing isn’t actually too much of a distraction!

I really should go into our Roll20 campaign in detail sometime but not tonight. Tonight, I shall RP and have some toast. Because I have a toaster and bread. Toast.

Tychus.