[Yoyo]

I guess none of us have office jobs?

Glad that I don’t, that will suck the life out of you.

Nah. I loved my cubical at Los Alamos. Herman Miller was a genius (although the Aeron chair is an over-priced piece of crap). I wish I could find some surplus cubical pieces to outfit a home office in my unused dining room.

[Yoyo]

I guess none of use have office jobs?

[Yoyo]

Flare or flair?

[Yoyo]

Are feral domestic animals allowed?

[Yoyo]

Is the theme that hard to understand? I ask because it seems to me that there are several entries of stock looking cars. I also wish voting was enabled on the ’76 cop car. I guess I’ll leave theme interpretation accuracy up to the voters. On the plus side, it seems like we’re got some new players this week.

[Yoyo]

Yes, fully custom built vehicles would qualify for this one (even if that’s not the main intent).
Besides have you ever seen a rail dragster that didn’t have nice visuals?

Now a stock body 5.0 Mustang with a 460 under the hood would be right out, as the idea here is for visual modifications, not mechanical modifications.

[Yoyo]

The vehicle in question should show evidence of visual modifications.

If it’s a stock fire truck, then it’s stock. If it’s a fire truck that the municipality had repainted pink to support breast cancer awareness, then it’s not stock. If it’s a fire truck that has custom engine-turned gold-leaf applique… (Mind you, I have not memorized the America-LaFrance catalogue, and I doubt most voters have either.)

CISS, I’m not sure I understand the difference between “customized” and “not stock”. I suppose if you’re talking about a Harley-Davidson, you could totally customize the bike with all stock parts (i.e. optional parts that H-D dealers keep in stock). If this is your question, then I’d be cool with “customized”.

[Yoyo]

I recently switched from MS Skydrive to Dropbox. Uploading to Dropbox is as easy as drag-and-drop and getting the img URL is as easy as right-clicking. So far so good after 3 weeks.

[Yoyo]

La Posta is well liked by local as well but it’s about $5 nicer than Andale, and La Posta has a much better tequila menu. La Posta, as its name might indicate, is in a building that was formerly a Spanish post office. Andale being much more modern however does have the DIY salsa buffet and gives free lunch to veterans on Veterans Day and donates all paying customer tabs to the DAV. Then Chope’s in La Union (south of Las Cruces) had the benefit of not carding very strictly and also serving quarts in the restaurant. We have a Mexican restaurant for what ever your desire is, strangely enough even if your desire is Taco Bell.

[Yoyo]

Andale is a good choice, but I would have recommended La Posta for the more touristy experience. Your picture here looks like a mesquite bush, or what we New Mexicans call “lush greenery”.

[Yoyo]

Too bad I’m in KC visiting my relatives for X-mas, or I would have invited you to stop in for a hot beverage. My house is only 2 blocks from I-10 in Las Cruces. Plus, I think I’ve got a spare CP in 58mm. C’est la vie.

On the positive side, don’t you just love how haze free Arizona and New Mexico are? Even if the sky always blows out, that’s a sacrifice I’m willing to make for clear landscapes 350 days a year. And if you really needed the CP, you could always have stopped and bought one. If I never bought camera gear while traveling, I wouldn’t have half my stuff. (Of course, I’m including long duration business trips.)

[Yoyo]

All this reminds me that I need to check the camera repair shop for something in a M42 mount. Good thing he’s right across the street from my bank. Dang it! Now I remember when I was looking for the frame shop, I read his sign and he’ll be closed until after I leave town. 🙁 Oh well, I can still check out the retail shops.

[Yoyo]

I applied w/ Photojojo, but I’m not sure that they’re actually hiring since the position is still listed. I think they might just be trolling for new merchandise ideas.

Adorama seems much more businesslike. Good luck getting the job, and feel free to list… um… CISS…, yeah CISS as a reference. 😉

[Yoyo]

Oh, I also picked up my gift to myself a Nikkor 50mm f/1.8 G. All I can say so far is that it will take a bit to get used to it. I’m not used to prime lenses at all.

Nothing like zooming with your feet!

Unfortunately, I often run out of room when zooming out with my feet while shooting inside. I love my EF 50mm f/1.4 for the large aperture (35.7mm) and the ability to take those horribly cliché non-circular bokéh shots especially at Christmas time for my sister-in-law. I could get really stupid with the stencils and my 85/1.8 but I’d need to be in a mansion.

I like the simplicity of primes. I don’t need to worry about how much I want to zoom in or be very precise with the framing. I just take the wide shot and decide how to crop it later. The 28/1.8 is a nice normal length for APS-C sensors.

This is my youngest niece Sammy. She’s a better model than her two older sisters. They’re always laughing and moving out of focus and out of frame and getting distracted. Sammy takes directions well.

[Yoyo]

Now that X-mas has come and gone, it’s time to dish about all the loot.

I got a pair of Cole-Haan loafers from my mom without a lot of her typical trying to cheap out and find them at an outlet store. And these are the new model with Nike Air technology. I’m thinking about picking up another pair of the original version from Zappos. I don’t really know what these have to do with photography, but black patent leather shoes really do reflect up, just in case you were wondering.

For photo related stuff, I picked up a kit of a dozen foam photo-frame DIY ornaments, and assembled them all with portrait pics of my nieces et al. from last summer’s family trip to Disneyland. They were very popular with mom and grandma. I also got my sister-in-law a nice glossy photography tutorial book put together by some British photo magazine. She got a nice Canon P&S (5-25mm, f/2.8-5.6?) with full manual modes (including manual focus) from my brother, so the book goes with that.

[Author]

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