My new Canon T1i

Whew! I thought the radio thing was going to be the most interesting thing that happened to me for a while, but boy when stuff goes on, it really goes on.  I'm sure I'll have a drought of stories soon enough. That's kind of the way I roll. Hot and heavy for a while, then laid back and chill for a while. I think it got into my blood back when I was doing start-ups of power plants for General Electric.  It works for me pretty well.

Last Friday was pretty low key for me. Fridays are usually reserved for my club meetings, and that's what I did last Friday. The clubs "Anti Valentines day" wopatuli party was the following night, so there wasn't a whole lot going on after the meeting, which was a long one, so I ended up at home, watching the dummy box, and loving it.

The only exception to the boring Friday was that I got a call from American appliances, and was told that my new camera had arrived.  That's right. after blogging about how much I had enjoyed rediscovering SLR photography (and especially in digital form) I ran out, after talking with a couple workmates about their new cameras, and bought my own. I choses a Canon T1i, after doing a good amount of internet research.

 I used to be a Minolta guy, but apparently they didn't do so well in the switch to digital, and they're pretty much defunct. Also the cameras I borrowed from my wonderful sister were both Canons. (I have to force myself not to type two "n" in Canon. I wonder why my brain thinks there should be two?)  Anyway, when I bought it, they had the extra lens (55-250 Image stabilized) in stock, along with the UV filter, a spare battery, a too small case that will ultimately be used for something else, a 8 Gig SD memory card, and a smile from the nice saleslady, all in stock. Everything except the camera. I had to wait.

I hate waiting. Or, I hate waiting for something, once I've decided to pull the trigger on it. I think it's my upbringing in the 70s and 80s, you know, the "me" thing.  I couldn't even charge the spare battery I had. But, as a very welcome bonus, I got time. I had time to download the owners manual from Canon.com and read though it. I actually got through the entire thing. Of course, I'm sure I only absorbed about 3 or 4 % of what my eyes passed over, but trust me, that's probably more than most people. This camera has a LOT of features. A WHOLE LOT. I love it!  I get a kick out of things where it's impossible to "know it all", where there's always room to learn more. I find that I like to learn about a lot of different things. Usually I take my knowledge level in the things I get interested in, to the point where I can comfortably converse (while it's current, or if I've refreshed) with an expert in whatever field we're talking about, and not (I hope) look like total dufus, but also not be threatening with my level of knowledge. Does that make sense?   Even with several days available to me, I was only able to skim through the main camera manual. I didn't even touch (OK well I peeked) the other manuals. There's manuals for a few different software packages that come with the camera, in addition to some others I have no idea what they are. In all I think I downloaded 6 or 7 different *.pdf files from Canon.com .

After work on Friday, but before the club meeting, I drove out to the East side, American furniture and appliance, and picked up my new toy. I ran right home, and got the battery charger plugged in and my serial numbers for the camera and the two lenses officially registered online. Hooray!

After the club meeting I went home (to my beloved idiot box) and to my freshly charged T1i battery for my new soul stealer.  Now,  I knew that I was going to have an epically long day on Saturday, so I only took a few photos before turning in for the night.  Also in my giddiness, I apparently set the date wrong in the camera settings, so if you look at the EXIF data, I had date wrong for a while. Oops.

Here's the first photo ever taken with my new chunky black cyclops friend. I almost deleted it. but that file name:  "IMG_0001.jpg" (so pure)  just wouldn't allow me to do it. I think it may be a touch of OCD. Anyway, the more I look at the photo, the more I like it. My face (or part of it)  is actually in very good focus and doesn't seem to have any blurring due to the two second exposure, and while the background is insane blurry (from movement) I can identify everything in it.  Here it is. What do you think?

Like I said, the following day, Saturday, February 20th 2010, was all lined up to be a amazingly full day. Allow me to include you in on my plans for that day. It may actually have been the fullest day of my life. I was about to be on the move for almost 24 hours, with only an hour break, on the couch. But with my T1i, two batteries, two lenses, and 16 Gig worth of storage media, I was set to document it pretty completely. It was quite a day!

There were three main events for the day, that I was committed to go to.  The first was the annual Wonders of Physics show (which I'll describe fully in it's own entry). That was on campus, in Grainger hall, at one pm.  The second was a dinner date with my friend Lisa, along with her sister and some other friends. We were to meet at Fridays, at around five thirty for dinner, to be followed by an episode of Duck Soup Cinema (which I will also describe fully in a entry to follow) at the Capitol theater in the Overture center.  The final event that I had committed to attend on this busy winter weekend day, was the club's party that I mentioned before (this one I may discuss a little, but you'll have to get an invite for next year to know what goes on there;).

In addition to those major events. I also wanted to go to the winter farmers market, and watch various events at Madison's winter festival.  I also wanted to meet up with Lisa at some point during the day to share it with her.

I think I'll make a separate blog entry for each of these different events.  I've already uploaded the lowered resolution copies (800x600) of some of my photos to my photobucket site, where I'll keep them until I become famous and need more space and bandwidth.

I hope to do a bunch of writing tomorrow, because even though I thought I used up all of my 2009 vacation, I apparently still have one more day.  Since '09 vacation can only be used until the end of February, tomorrow is the only possible day to use it.  As I see no need to donate a days pay to my company (even though I like them) I'll be taking the day off.  Maybe I'll finally get my NASA souvenirs off of my dining room table, and do something with them. Ever since Lisa said that my place is like a museum, with all my trinkets and memories displayed around, I cant help noticing it myself.  I also have laundry to do, and maybe I'll make some Cinnamon rolls as I re-watched that episode of Good Eats  (remind me to make a post about my drive to Chicago to go to his book signing)

Stay tuned for tales and images (mostly images) from the twentieth of February Two thousand ten.