hot weather
May. 26th, 2010 12:19 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dragonlady7It's suddenly hot in Buffalo. This past week it hit the 70s, and climbed, and is in the 80s now and we're all in shock. Two weeks ago it was snowing! Heavens. I feel ungrateful for putting the A/C on, but if I don't, well... I've already got my first recurring heat rash of the season, right across the middle of my chest. Attractive.
I didn't update after the bout, with my camera review. I was going to. I have a lot of thinky thoughts. I should be making more notes.
I took 1280 photos. The memory card, 8 GB, filled up entirely and I had to hastily delete some pictures. I had never even considered it, but a 12.1 megapixel camera is going to take much larger photos than a 6 megapixel camera. I just hadn't realized *how much* bigger they'd be.
The pictures turned out awesome. I should have them edited and ready to post soonish. I put up a preliminary, unedited batch on Facebook. Everyone at work has been kinda nice about them too. So that's nice. I printed some, and want to print more, of course...
I do need to do a little Photoshopping, though. It's so time-consuming. I just need time to sit and do it. I had thought I would: I was summoned for jury duty Monday morning, and sat there all day. I got pulled into a chamber with like fifty people, and wound up in a group of 14 that the attorneys asked questions of (though I was the only one who had no questions directly addressed to me), and then, as I had been sort of dreading, they called six of us to stay, and swore us in, and dismissed us for the day. Told us to come back Wednesday, and they'd pick the other eight (six more, plus two alternates) while we were gone. So I went home, and went into work today, and regarded the schedule glumly: I had requested days off, almost the first days off I'd asked for since Christmas, and with all the erasures and frantic scribblings, it looked really dire, and I felt guilty.
I also was a bit glum to realize that jury duty pays $40 a day, and while I make very, very little money, I still make almost twice that in a day. So this is a pretty heavy financial burden to me. Plus bus fare, and I have to buy lunch while I'm down there, and so on.
But I was interested to serve on the case. It was a criminal case, a homocide, and while I don't care to be involved in such things, still someone has to. At least there was no death penalty in this. So I was at least looking forward to a somewhat interesting debate, perhaps. Sort of. OK not really. But I had no choice, and there I was.
And then this afternoon around 4 I got a phone call from the judge's office. The defendant took a plea bargain. The case is over. I don't need to go in again.
Of course I immediately Googled the guy, because I was curious as hell now. And what a mess. Some guy got shot, but apparently the shooter was aiming for someone else in the car, but the guy he shot? Had previously run over and killed some old man, like on purpose, and served time for it. And the shooter had already served time for beating up a disabled guy. What prize citizens. And then the cops couldn't find the gun, and it just was this whole mess of ick. I am very, very slightly disappointed not to have had this little bit of variety in my life, but mostly very relieved that I didn't have to spend a week thinking about this whole matter. I mean ew. No thanks. I feel fortunate and privileged that my life so far hasn't involved anything nearly so awful, and would like for it please to stay that way. Please and thank you.
So anyway. I had a bad case of The Anxieties this morning. I joke about it, but I'm surrounded by people who have serious clinical anxiety and panic and similar disorders, and I am horrified and sympathetic because very occasionally I get what Fi used to call The Anxieties. I am antsy and spacey and can't focus and just sit and fret, often over nothing in particular. It was quite bad this morning and I spent the first hour I was at work, fortunately alone, pacing aimlessly and disorganizedly trying to get myself in order. It was probably noon before I could function normally. I wish I knew what caused things like that. Because I really hate it and want it to go away. I am, again, fortunate and privileged, however, that that's as bad as it gets-- I can get through it, and it passes quickly, and I don't really flip out. Knowing so many people who really have this type of disorder, I know how lucky I am because I know how bad it could be. Ditto for depression-- some days I just can't deal, and no amount of Trying To Cheer Up will help, and it gets pretty bad sometimes, but again, never so bad I can't function, and it passes very quickly. It's just bad enough that I know how lucky I am. And there are things I can do to help it pass-- mostly by involving myself in things and using the distraction of routine to switch it off. Sometimes exercise helps. This is another thing where I worry what on earth I will ever do if I ever have to stop roller derby. If I'm feeling really down or have the Anxieties, I won't go and exercise under my own initiative-- I need to have someone there taking attendance and know I'm required to go. And then I can go and 9 times out of 10 reap the benefit of it. (Let's not talk about that one time out of 10, which is miserable. It's not foolproof. But even that one time out of 10, I'm better off for having gone, if only because someone will say something nice to me at some point. It's not enough to cheer me up, but it's a little gleam of sunlight in the gloom, and it's something.)
(Have I mentioned I skate with the sweetest people? Really I do.)
OK. Bed. That was rambly enough. Pictures soon. Did I ever link to my last couple of galleries of pictures here? I think I did not, and am remiss.
Alley Kats vs. NEO Audio Assault:
Suicidal Saucies vs. Devil Dollies:
Lake Effect Furies vs. NEO Rockin' Roller Girls:
This new batch of photos? Enormously superior. So I'll post those as soon as I've edited them. Holy schnikies, the difference an updated sensor makes is enormous.
I didn't update after the bout, with my camera review. I was going to. I have a lot of thinky thoughts. I should be making more notes.
I took 1280 photos. The memory card, 8 GB, filled up entirely and I had to hastily delete some pictures. I had never even considered it, but a 12.1 megapixel camera is going to take much larger photos than a 6 megapixel camera. I just hadn't realized *how much* bigger they'd be.
The pictures turned out awesome. I should have them edited and ready to post soonish. I put up a preliminary, unedited batch on Facebook. Everyone at work has been kinda nice about them too. So that's nice. I printed some, and want to print more, of course...
I do need to do a little Photoshopping, though. It's so time-consuming. I just need time to sit and do it. I had thought I would: I was summoned for jury duty Monday morning, and sat there all day. I got pulled into a chamber with like fifty people, and wound up in a group of 14 that the attorneys asked questions of (though I was the only one who had no questions directly addressed to me), and then, as I had been sort of dreading, they called six of us to stay, and swore us in, and dismissed us for the day. Told us to come back Wednesday, and they'd pick the other eight (six more, plus two alternates) while we were gone. So I went home, and went into work today, and regarded the schedule glumly: I had requested days off, almost the first days off I'd asked for since Christmas, and with all the erasures and frantic scribblings, it looked really dire, and I felt guilty.
I also was a bit glum to realize that jury duty pays $40 a day, and while I make very, very little money, I still make almost twice that in a day. So this is a pretty heavy financial burden to me. Plus bus fare, and I have to buy lunch while I'm down there, and so on.
But I was interested to serve on the case. It was a criminal case, a homocide, and while I don't care to be involved in such things, still someone has to. At least there was no death penalty in this. So I was at least looking forward to a somewhat interesting debate, perhaps. Sort of. OK not really. But I had no choice, and there I was.
And then this afternoon around 4 I got a phone call from the judge's office. The defendant took a plea bargain. The case is over. I don't need to go in again.
Of course I immediately Googled the guy, because I was curious as hell now. And what a mess. Some guy got shot, but apparently the shooter was aiming for someone else in the car, but the guy he shot? Had previously run over and killed some old man, like on purpose, and served time for it. And the shooter had already served time for beating up a disabled guy. What prize citizens. And then the cops couldn't find the gun, and it just was this whole mess of ick. I am very, very slightly disappointed not to have had this little bit of variety in my life, but mostly very relieved that I didn't have to spend a week thinking about this whole matter. I mean ew. No thanks. I feel fortunate and privileged that my life so far hasn't involved anything nearly so awful, and would like for it please to stay that way. Please and thank you.
So anyway. I had a bad case of The Anxieties this morning. I joke about it, but I'm surrounded by people who have serious clinical anxiety and panic and similar disorders, and I am horrified and sympathetic because very occasionally I get what Fi used to call The Anxieties. I am antsy and spacey and can't focus and just sit and fret, often over nothing in particular. It was quite bad this morning and I spent the first hour I was at work, fortunately alone, pacing aimlessly and disorganizedly trying to get myself in order. It was probably noon before I could function normally. I wish I knew what caused things like that. Because I really hate it and want it to go away. I am, again, fortunate and privileged, however, that that's as bad as it gets-- I can get through it, and it passes quickly, and I don't really flip out. Knowing so many people who really have this type of disorder, I know how lucky I am because I know how bad it could be. Ditto for depression-- some days I just can't deal, and no amount of Trying To Cheer Up will help, and it gets pretty bad sometimes, but again, never so bad I can't function, and it passes very quickly. It's just bad enough that I know how lucky I am. And there are things I can do to help it pass-- mostly by involving myself in things and using the distraction of routine to switch it off. Sometimes exercise helps. This is another thing where I worry what on earth I will ever do if I ever have to stop roller derby. If I'm feeling really down or have the Anxieties, I won't go and exercise under my own initiative-- I need to have someone there taking attendance and know I'm required to go. And then I can go and 9 times out of 10 reap the benefit of it. (Let's not talk about that one time out of 10, which is miserable. It's not foolproof. But even that one time out of 10, I'm better off for having gone, if only because someone will say something nice to me at some point. It's not enough to cheer me up, but it's a little gleam of sunlight in the gloom, and it's something.)
(Have I mentioned I skate with the sweetest people? Really I do.)
OK. Bed. That was rambly enough. Pictures soon. Did I ever link to my last couple of galleries of pictures here? I think I did not, and am remiss.
Alley Kats vs. NEO Audio Assault:
Suicidal Saucies vs. Devil Dollies:
Lake Effect Furies vs. NEO Rockin' Roller Girls:
This new batch of photos? Enormously superior. So I'll post those as soon as I've edited them. Holy schnikies, the difference an updated sensor makes is enormous.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2010-05-26 08:20 pm (UTC)Why does stuff like jury duty always come up at the worst possible time?
no subject
Date: 2010-05-26 10:43 pm (UTC)Thanks! They came out a lot better than I'd thought they would-- having a 2.8 lens helped a lot. But this next batch is really great-- because the newer camera has a better autofocus, better ISO handling, and generally a lot more options. Which is good, because the newer flash I was using totally sucked. I didn't have a good diffuser on it, though.
Phooey, I really need a new camera and don't think I can wait until fall or whenever. :/
no subject
Date: 2010-05-28 02:40 pm (UTC)