Help Me Carmi-wan Kenobi you’re my only hope!

I really admire the pictures that Carmi takes and asked if he would be willing to give tips. Silly boy said yes. Unfortunately I do not know enough to even ask a question, so I am going to post a few photos to see if he can tell me what I might have done to make them better.

I may be asking an impossible task, and if so, I guess I will just have to try and remember what I was doing the next time I take pictures. I am also a very proud mom and almost all of my pictures are of my boy, is it just difficult to get the perfect shot when dealing with kids? These were all taken with a regular camera. A Cannon EOS RebelX. I believe I took all of the shots with the 300 zoom.

The following photos were taken with B&W film.

I was trying to get Spotty with the waterfall behind him, but somehow he is blurry and it looks like the rocks are in focus. Any clue as to what I did wrong? Is it because he was in motion and I was not using the “motion function”?

This is an ok shot, but I was going for FAB. Again they are blurry. I am pretty sure I was using the auto focus and not manual, although I do try that on occasion with extremely varied results.

Meh, it is so beautiful in the White Mountains, but this is just a lame ass photo, I was trying to capture the power of the water

Ok I am adding this to show that I can take a decent picture, it’s depressing looking at just the crappy ones.

These photos were taken with 400 Kodak film

We were in Cape Canaveral at the Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge after a shuttle launch. What could I have done to make this look less crappy? I know there are settings for night/dusk, but haven’t the foggiest how to use it.


I like this photo and don’t mind the sun sparkle but could I have avoided it?

That's between you and your god. Oh, wait a minute. You are your god. That's a problem

I am on Season 3 of SG1 and can I just tell you how much I am enjoying this show? Season 3 has a lot of episodes that I have never seen (sly lie must not have bought the set) which is like going through your bookshelves and finding books by an author you love, that you have never read and is part of a series. Don't get me wrong stand alones have their place, just not in my bookshelf…well, ok that’s not quite true, I think I had a bookshelf for singles, but as they all fell over and books now cover my entire house in no semblance of order whatsoever and I can't find a frelling thing EVER...What the hell was I talking about?

So there I am a happy little commuter sitting on the train, watching my SG1 happy as a pig in poop until….Sam’s dad is dying, so I bawl my eyes out, Daniel’s wife dies, so I bawl my eyes out, Jack wants to keep a girl from getting her memory wiped…Daniel leaves SG1...do you know how pathetic it is 1) to be bawling your eyes out on the commuter rail with only a shirtsleeve to keep you company and 2) to be bawling your eyes out to SG1? This is of course my light bulb moment that I really should be taking my happy pills regularly.

Luckily it's not all gloom and doom sometimes I laugh my ass off.

General Hammond: You ever think of writing a book about your military exploits? Jack O'Neill: I've thought about it. But then I'd have to shoot anybody that actually read it. pause That's a joke, sir.

O'Neill: I thought you said it was Greek.
Jackson: Oh, um, Mycenae was an ancient city in the southern Peloponnesus region.
O'Neill: Where's that?
Jackson: Greece.
O'Neill: Why do I do that?

O'Neill: We'll just have to cross that bridge when we come to it.
Bra'tac: No, the bridge is too well guarded.
O'Neill: No, actually, there I was using a cliche.

O'Neill: Well, I suppose now is the time for me to say something profound... Nothing comes to mind.

Carter: This tastes like chicken.
Jackson: So what's wrong with it?
Carter: It's macaroni and cheese.

O'Neill: It's "O'Neill," with two L's. There's another Colonel O'Neil with only one L, and he has no sense of humor at all.

Teal'c: If you once again try to harm me or one of my companions, my patience with you will expire.

An officer asks them in Russian if they're spies.
Jackson: Nyet.
O'Neill: Daniel
Jackson: He just asked if we were Soviet spies and- realizes the problem
Guard: Come with me.
O'Neill on the way out: Nyet?

O'Neill: You know that "we come in peace" business? Bite me.

Teal'c: Undomesticated equines could not remove me.

O'Neill: Well, it's hard to say.
Thornbird: Some sort of state secret?
O'Neill: No, just difficult to pronounce.

Carter: Actually, I'm a Major now.
Aris Boch: Oh. Well, how very important. I'll inform the galaxy.

Well…maybe you had to be there

Book Review – Naked Empire

Sword of Truth Book 8
Finally I want to slap the shit out of someone. It’s been awhile but I am glad that this series doesn’t disappoint me. Although surprise surprise, it isn’t Kahlan this time. It’s Richard. Damn this boy gets on his soapbox and just does not get off. The story picks up right after the Pillars, so Jennsen, Tom, Friedrich, Cara, Richard and Kahlan are trying to figure out what to do next. “When out of the darkness clearer and clearer, the sound of sobbing comes nearer and nearer”…sorry, reading this with my son, and this phase is just stuck in my head. So out of nowhere appears Owen, and everyone has a bad feeling, drink. Owen wants Richard and team to come liberate his people, the order has come and he needs the savages to come and get rid of them. His are an enlightened people that do no violence. Richard sends him packing. Soon after meeting up with Owen, Richard who has been getting headaches due to his magic, starts feeling even worse. But it’s not until a group of the Order soldiers try to take them out and Owen weasels his way back to the group that we find out that Richard has bee poisoned and must go with Owen and get rid of the Order before he gives him the antidote. Wacky high jinks ensue.

Where does my slapping Richard come in? When he meets up with Owen’s insurgents he starts to wax poetic on the philosophy of life and freedom, for like hundreds of pages. I am not sure why this annoyed me so much, but it did and I have come to accept it and move on. We do find out more on where the folks invisible to magic went.

All is not slapping, Zed and Adie are kicking about and damn I just enjoy them, even when there is torture about.

If this is wrong...

I don't want to be right...

Disney Hunks the way mama likes them...can you say ME-OW!

Upper GI

Piece of cake. No eating after midnight, well much as I like to eat, when you are having a procedure done I know I tend to loose my appetite. In the documentation they give you it says no drinking 3 hours before your arrival, for some reason I had it in my head that you couldn’t drink after midnight either. No big whoop. We dropped Spotty Chop off at day care and then went on our way. When I got there I handed over all the paperwork I had done (medical history, meds etc.). Then we waited. When it was my turn at 10ish they told Boy Toy to be back by 11:15, 11:30. I had a great nurse who explained what was going to happen and made jokes. She also put in the IV line so I could eventually get drugs. I was able to read for a bit before another nurse came by told me we had the same birthday and the two of them wheeled me into the room where the procedure was going to be done. She hooked me up to all sorts of machines and my doc came in to say hi, check my heartbeat and see if I had any questions. The only one I had I said was that I couldn’t get my head around him putting a camera down my esophagus. He laughed and said he understood, and that is why he was going to give me great drugs. I cheered.

I lay on my side and was looking at monitors with what looked like IP addresses on them. The nurse first gave me a drug that was like valium and then a narcotic. It pinched a bit. As I sat there wondering when this crap was going to hit me, the doc came in. The nurse (I think her name was Katarina) said “I just got started with her” and he said “no problem”. Next thing I knew I was waking up. I know they were telling me stuff, but I have no idea what. I tried walking and thought I did well, but they told me to rest for a bit, 30 or 40 minutes later (or so they say) we tried again. I felt nauseous and they said my blood pressure may have dropped and to lie back down again. Eventually I sat up and they took me out to Boy Toy (who had no idea what was going on and was getting worried). They told me to only eat soft foods so I asked BT to get me a vanilla shake from Old McDonalds. He put me to bed and I remember Spotty coming in to give me a balloon around 5:30. I got out of bed around 7:30 because Boy Toy never called my mom to tell her I was ok, and she was panicking. I talked to her, watched spotty watching TV. Around 9:00 I was reading Spotty stories and I climbed into bed with him because I was so frelling tired. Boy Toy put us both to bed in our room and I woke up today around 7:40am.

So don’t bother running out for your favorite series on DVD and pay twice what you would pay at Costco, because you aren’t going to watch it. Even if you did open it up and put it in the DVD player.