Shadee’s Blog

I decided to make a lolcats caption out of one of the squirrel pictures I took while I was at the zoo

Submitting it to icanhascheezburger and maybe lolcats too.
But you guys get the full size version right here!

-Dee.

Turns out today was a pretty decent day after all. (Well it looked that way anyway, we did get one big downpour but luckily it didn’t last more than a few minutes). So we ended up going to the zoo. Well, it’s not really a “zoo” but it’s a family run thing at a farm where they have a bunch of (mainly rescued) animals, ranging from groundhogs to Kodiak bears. So it’s always a fun place to visit.

I managed to give the camera a good test run. I got a lot of crap which is to be expected, some actual decent shots. And also some which were decent given the circumstances (sometimes there’s just no way around the chain link fencing unfortunately.
Also got some unexpected entertainment. Two young squirrels were play fighting on/under a bench. Took a bunch of shots which aren’t great quality, because we didn’t want to get too close and disturb them, but they certainly more than make up for it in comedic value. So I’ll see if I can compile them in a way that makes for easy viewing and sharing

Not right now though, it was a very long day. So I’m completely exhausted

I will post a comparison between a groundhog photo with my old camera and my new one though.
(Just so you know, the shot I posted of the new camera is resized to 25% and saved as a jpg so the file size wouldn’t be insanely big).

Old camera groundhog

New camera groundhog

More to come later when I have more energy

-Dee.

[edit]
Posted some more shots here.
[/edit]

Since my new camera and the fact that it’s just so much more awesome than my old one had really put me in the photography mood I went on-line to search for extra bits and pieces to actually make wildlife photography fun. The first thing I searched for was a telephoto zoom lens. The lens it came with is great for standard photography, but when you’re taking shots of skittish creatures it’s nice to have a long range option.

After a bit of research I decided to go with the… *takes a deep breath*… Canon Zoom Telephoto EF 75-300mm f/4.0-5.6 III USM Autofocus Lens (Oh yes, I copy and pasted that one). It’s a great lens and since it’s a bit of an older model it’s not as expensive as most either. So I figured it was a good choice all around and will be great for me to learn the ropes with. After already having ordered it I came across it on Amazon too and was amused by the fact that it seems to be the most bought lens in combination with the new camera I have. So I guess I did alright.

Also, a great tip for your avid gardeners btw:
If you want to keep unwanted pests and wildlife out of your yard, my advice would be to buy a new camera with the intention of taking wildlife shots and get excited about testing it out on “insert any and all local wildlife species” in your back yard.

I swear, everything’s been making a detour around our yard ever since I got the stinking lens Well, except for one squirrel. Unfortunately since it was my first attempt they all turned out blurry. Though I was very much amused by the fact that I managed to get the stereotypical newbie photographer shot of the blurry back end of a squirrel as it’s darting out of the frame lol.

Unfortunately the rest of mother nature refuses to humor me too. It’s supposed to be nasty and rainy all weekend So no fun trips to test the camera out yet I’m afraid.

-Dee.

From the very first time I saw the movie teaser poster (with no text, but just a little robot) for the new Disney-Pixar movie Wall-E I went… “ehr… there’s gonna be a new Short Circuit movie?” and “WTH did they do to poor Number 5!?”.

But apparently this isn’t Number 5… It’s Wall-E.
And he’s completely different… yeah.

Number 5 doesn’t seem too convinced though…

Apart from that it seems like it might be a cute movie though. The previews did seem amusing. But I have to say that I’m a bit disappointed that they weren’t a tad more original in his design. They could’ve made him to be a bit less of an obvious Number 5 derivation and have less of the people who grew up watching Short Circuit cringe at the idea.

Because Number 5 is alive!
He is in my childhood memories at least.

-Dee.

Yesterday I was busy in the kitchen when I saw something dangling on the other side of the kitchen window. I leaned over the sink to look at it more closely and it was a moth. One of those really fuzzy ones. It was dangling from a bit of spider web. And even though it wasn’t moving, it didn’t look dead to me. I’m not sure how to explain it but there’s just a difference between dead bugs in spiderwebs and live ones. I guess the dead ones have a bit of a withered look to them. Anyway, I blew on it through the bug screen and it did indeed move a bit so I went outside.

The thing is, it wasn’t caught in an inhabited spiderweb, it was just a bit of old cobweb really. So I thought it was a shame to leave it there to die for nothing. If it’d been someone else’s snack then at least there would’ve been some natural purpose to it’s death. So I untangled it and let it sit on my hand for a bit. It’d obviously been hanging there for a while because it’s little legs were all stiff and it took a while for it to get back to walking properly. Then it sat and gave it’s wings a test run. Letting them flutter at ultra speed for a while and then it took off.

It flew around the back yard, then up as high as the roof, then back down again…
and managed to fly right back into the exact same bit of spider web I’d just pulled it out of
I don’t normally talk to insects, and especially not out loud, but at that point I couldn’t help but go “Wow you’re a real dumb ass aren’t you…”. So I got it out of the cobwebs again and let it fly off again. And it flew off into the neighbor’s yard that time. I quickly went inside after that. I’m sorry but after saving it twice it’s on it’s own, and I didn’t want to see it if it did something retarded again XD. I did get rid of all the remaining old cobwebs in that window frame though, just in case lol.

This morning I let the dog out and as I headed back to the door I spotted something in the same area of the window frame, and I thought… “nah… coudn’t be”. But there it was lol. Exact same type of moth taking a nap.
And I know it might be a completely different moth, but the thought that it could actually be the same one amused me nevertheless. So I took a snapshot It didn’t turn out great but I didn’t want to disturb him too much either

-Dee.

Props to Mord for pointing this one out to me. I laughed my ass off.

Even wonder what your WoW characters do for fun when you log off?

-Dee.

That’s right.
I was so tired of the way it would suck dry 4 AA batteries after just a few shots and just the general bugginess of it. And of course the fact that it would only be buggy and crap out at the worst possible times.
So I decided it was time to get a new camera.

I started out looking for not too expensive “SLR-like” digital cameras just like the one I had, with a built in zoom lens. My old one has 3x optical and 6x digital and 3.3MPS. But the more I looked the more I went blaaargh. The on-line reviews were pretty useless. Sure I care about specs but I also wanted to see image examples to see what it can cough up for myself! And oddly enough very few of the review sites actually had example photo galleries, and the ones which did only had very few photos, most of which were just of far reaching meadows, boats on a lake and city buildings. Which is fine for some people maybe, but I want to use my cam mainly for nature and wildlife shots, including close ups and I was seeing none of those as examples. So after a long time of searching and finding contradicting written opinions about the few models I’d narrowed it down to, I suddenly had a brain fart.

It was right in front of my nose and I was just being so stupid!
What I did was go to Deviant Art, the place I lurk every day And I searched the wildlife photography section. There I found an all-the-thumbnails-you-can-eat- buffet of example shots. and because of the JPG readout thing they implemented, next to every photo I viewed there was a nice little bit of text telling me what camera they’d been taken with!

After clicking a bunch of the thumbs that caught my eye and looked like the type of quality I was looking for I kept seeing the same camera name and model pop up over and over… and I came to the conclusion that, instead of buying another cheap digital camera which might be a tad better than what I had but with no possibility to upgrade in the future, I should probably spend some money and actually invest a bit in this hobby of mine which I’d probably enjoy a whole lot more if I wasn’t working with crappy hardware.

So instead of going “SLR-like” I went actual Digital SLR instead with a nice starter lens.
It’s not a -zomg professional grade I have to take out a loan for this- camera, but compared to what I had it’s -Christ that’s pretty amazing!- instead of just something slightly better. So I’m very happy with it and I’ve already taken a few test shots.

Note that this is my very first SLR and I haven’t yet taken the time to figure out any of the settings. All I did was point, zoom and shoot. And this was one of the results (Half the props go to our pets who were nice enough to pose together for me lol).

Ah and a warning, if you click this thumb you go to the original size which is pretty huge.

-Dee.

Hey… pssst!… Dee’s got a new blog entry… pass it on to the person next to you!…
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Hey… pssst!… Dee’s got a new blog entry… pass it on to the person next to you!…
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Hey… pssst!… Dee’s got a new blog entry… pass it on to the person next to you!…

heheh, no I don’t really have any news, I just happened to check out my maploco map and found the pattern it had on it today oddly amusing.

-Dee.

(PS, if you thought you were secretly stalking me all this time but weren’t aware of my maploco map and are freaking out right now, is’ alriiight… don’t worry about it, you’re allowed to lurk and I won’t ruin your creepy fun. )

What’s POTCO you ask?

It’s Pirates of the Caribbean On-line. And I downloaded it a few days ago just to see if it was any good. I wasn’t expecting much, especially after finding out how tiny the download actually was, but I’d already created a 7 day trial account so I figured, WTH, might as well log on and give it a go.

The graphics aren’t amazing but they’re not bad either, there’s some bugginess and lag here and there but oddly enough apart from that the game is actually quite fun You create your pirate, and the main story/quest line involves the major characters of the movies, so yes you even get to help Jack Sparrow on occasion. And you get your own ship, and can buy better and bigger ones when yo have enough gold

It’s a lot of fun with friends too because besides normal combat on land you do actually get to attack ships at sea. You can put together a crew of your friends and they can man the cannons on your ship while you sail it.
So yeah, I don’t know how long it’ll keep me entertained content wise, but so far I’m pleasantly surprised and am still having fun with it

-Dee.

Well that was an interesting and new way to get interrupted in my sleep.
And before you say anything, no, don’t worry, this isn’t a tmi post

I have no idea what time it was exactly but I got woken up by this loud “screaming” sound outside. I put the word “screaming” between quotes because I have no idea how to exactly describe the sound. It sounded very unnatural, sort of like screaming, but it wasn’t just one tone either like most screams. It kinda changed pitch in a hard to describe way. And I can’t say I know anything that would make a sound like that. So as I’m sitting up in bed listening to it and going WTF, I get pretty uneasy so just to make sure I wasn’t going nuts I woke up Mord and asked him if he knew what the hell that screaming sound was. Of course it’d stopped for a bit then. But soon enough it started again and Mord had the same “WTH is that” reaction I did.

So all I can say is that I’m pretty sure it wasn’t human. And it didn’t sound like any animal I know, although I have heard that animals in severe distress can produce some pretty horrifying sounds sometimes so one of the possibilities I guess could be that it was something that was being eaten :/ But I don’t know, the pitch changes seemed pretty deliberate.

So yeah, there are two types of screams you can hear at night.

The type which ‘ll make you go: “Oh crap, sounds like someone or some animal is in trouble!” And your instant reaction is to go out there and see if you can help.

And then there’s the type which ‘ll make you go: “Jesus Christ, WTH was that!!?” And you think “You know what? I don’t think I =want= to look outside and see whatever the hell it is that’s making that sound”.

The sound last night, was the latter.

Course this morning we started coming up with silly explanations to lighten the mood.
I suggested the Jersey devil, and Mord came up with the idea of a lake monster in our local lake lol.

But yeah, I guess we’ll never know what it really was, and who knows, maybe it’s better that way

-Dee.