95 - Bad Egg

86 - Java

79 - Looking Through A Glass Onion

75 - Cobalt

66 - Frozen Bud

We had some frozen precipitation last night.  We've had two days this year where they've called off school when there was no snow or ice to be seen, but today when we actually get some, school is still on.  I think they've used up their scheduling slack and don't want to have to figure out how to make up any additional bad weather days.  In any case, some of the bushes in the back yard were covered in ice which always looks interesting.

Photogeek Talk:  Bokeh is a term for the subjective beauty of the portions of a photo that are out of focus.   The word is a phonetic spelling of the Japanese term boke, which means blur.  The optical characteristics of a lens determine the quality of its bokeh.  There are several specific things that photographers look for in judging bokeh, but the simple version is that good bokeh looks smooth and creamy while bad bokeh looks jumbled and jittery.  Like I said, this is a subjective thing.  Anyway, this photo has a shallow depth of field from a combination of proximity to the subject, a relatively large aperture (f/4), and a relatively long focal length (70mm).  Bokeh is key in a shot like this because so much of the image is outside the focus area.  Most of my lenses have reputations for good, but not great, bokeh ("cream machine" lenses tend to be very expensive).  That said, I'm very pleased, and frankly a little surprised, by the blur in this photo.  It's quite nice, if I say so myself.  Looks more expensive than it is.

57 - Just Sleeping

45 - Individualitas

“The privilege of a lifetime is to become who you truly are.”
- C.G. Jung

44 - Winter Is Coming

I watched the season 4 preview for Game of Thrones tonight.  It looked awesome.  My favorite show on television and it's not really even close.  Just don't get too attached to any character.

33 - Maudite

One of biggest drags about middle age was the rapidly diminishing returns on beer.  I've never been a heavy drinker, but I've long enjoyed a good brew.  Unfortunately, about the time I turned 40 I started feeling excessively bloated and tired with a headache about 30 minutes later.  Like a hangover only without the wait.  Instant Karma.  It's gotten worse over time, and as a result nowadays I'm more likely to have wine since it doesn't have that effect on me.  But occasionally I'll just decide to suck it up and deal with it - like when I have something from the Unibroue brewery singing its siren song from my refrigerator.

16 - The Relentless Progression of Time

In my first post, I mentioned that time is accelerating.  I truly believe that it is.  Now, I don't think it is accelerating for everybody.  Therefore, I think the velocity of time is relative to perspective.  In other words, I think we all mark time differently.  But mark time we do, because time doesn't stand still.  It marches forward without rest and without mercy.

9 - Wine Stopper

I'm not a wine connoisseur but I do enjoy a glass from time to time.  I'm too cheap to ever really get deeply into it.  The ideal for me would be to become an expert on wines under, say, $25 a bottle.

7 - Feather

Fate was conspiring against me today.   I had something of a plan.  I brought my "take everywhere" camera to date night tonight with the wife with the intention of grabbing my daily photo either at dinner or at the fancy schmancy megaplex movie theater they have here in town.  A jazz trio was playing at the restaurant and there was a decent angle near the drummer to get what I thought would be a good shot.  No dice - the battery went dead just after I turned the camera on.  (By the way, the movie we saw The Hunger Games - Catching Fire.  Other than an overly melodramatic ending, it was actually quite good!)  We got home and I intended to get a photo of the boys peering through the railing on the staircase, but they weren't having it.  The boys weren't cooperating, I was getting very testy, and the photos just sucked.  So then I started getting desperate.  I started looking through the house for stuff to put together a still life.  Of the few dozen attempts, this one of the peacock feather was the one I liked best.  I think I need to start stockpiling ideas for the days when I'm creatively dry...

2 - Eyeglasses

I broke my glasses while camping.  It literally went down like this:

"Honey, I put my glasses on the storage box.  You didn't knock 'em off did you?"

"Crap.  I think I did because I don't remember seeing them."

"Okay, I'll look for them."

Crunch.

Fortunately my vision isn't too bad so I limped along for a couple months while waiting for an appointment with the optometrist and waiting for my new specs to arrive.  I finally got them today.  I like not having to mess with eyeglasses, but I sure missed the acuity when watching movies or trying to read street name signs while driving.