RIP DAVY JONES

As long as I can remember, I have been a huge fan of the Monkees. I loved them, despite the fact that the shows originally played a couple of years before I was born. Of course syndication meant that the wonderfully silly shows were played for years afterwards.

I grew up with a younger sister and brother. We used to have 'days'. On your day, you got to choose what was on TV after school, you got to sit next to Dad at the dinner table, you got to sit in the front seat of the car if Mom was taking us somewhere. You also had to put all the dishes into the dishwasher after dinner, but it was worth it for all the awesome stuff that came with 'your day'. Every single 'my day', I'd choose to watch the Monkees, which was on TV right when we got home from school. On my sister and brother's days, what do you think they chose? They were younger than me and I was a very dramatic, emotional kid, so they'd take great pleasure in choosing anything BUT the Monkees. Many, MANY tearful and dramatic scenes were a result of this torture at the hands of my younger siblings.

But when the Monkees were on... it was Heaven. I wanted to be there! I wanted to be part of the life they had, that to an elementary school kid, HAD to be what REAL life was like when you grew up.

My love of the band, of the shows, never faded. And it's been 40 (plus) years.

I started battling depression and anxiety as a preteen. At some point in my 20's, I learned that the best way to get out of a depression was to sing to happy music and most of the time, it would be the Monkees that would get me out of that funk. The songs were fun, they were easy to sing to and they brought me back to younger, simpler times. I dread to think how many times people thought I was crazy, singing Monkees songs like a loud maniac in my car.

I never got to see them live. I don't know that I ever wanted to. I liked my fantasy that the characters were real and that world was real. I didn't want to see the real people. I didn't want to ruin who and what they were / are in my imagination.

Last week, I listened to several of their albums, repeated over and over on my iTouch, at work. I'm pretty sure I broke into song more times than my boss is happy about.

Today Davy Jones passed away from a heart attack at the age of 66 in Florida. I'm so sorry to hear of his passing, for his family and friends, and for his fans. I'd be lying if I said I haven't shed a tear or two (or ten). RIP Davy Jones. You were the epitome of cute little English men. You were my first crush. And somehow the world seems a little less brighter without you in it. Thanks for the infectious smile and the laughs. Thanks for helping me become who I am. Thank you.

366 of 2012 - Day 60

366 of 2012 - Day 60. Maple leaf buds. It's the same tree as yesterday's photo, but I took this one today.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/4, 1/200 sec., ISO-250, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, no flash, camera hand held. Applied Unsharp Mask and High Pass Filter, only very slightly, in Photoshop when I cropped an added text.

Picaboo's new Weekly Challenge is up. Photography Basics - Understanding Exposure.

Y'ALL

366 of 2012 - Day 59

366 of 2012 - Day 59. Maple leaf buds. I think.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/4, 1/160 sec., ISO-80, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, no flash, camera hand held. Applied Unsharp Mask and High Pass Filter, only very slightly, in Photoshop when I cropped an added text.

Picaboo's new Weekly Challenge is up. Photography Basics - Understanding Exposure.

366 of 2012 - Day 58

366 of 2012 - Day 58. Moon with Jupiter (I thought it was Venus, but nope) in lower left corner. Shot last night.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/4.5, 1/50 sec., ISO-80, 30 mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, no flash, camera hand held (impressive, eh?!). Adjusted Brightness slightly in Photoshop when I cropped an added text.

Picaboo's new Weekly Challenge is up. Photography Basics - Understanding Exposure.

366 of 2012 - Day 57

366 of 2012 - Day 57. Duck!

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/4.5, 1/160 sec., ISO-250, 30 mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, no flash, camera hand held. Adjusted Levels slightly in Photoshop when I cropped an added text.

Picaboo's new Weekly Challenge is up. Photography Basics - Understanding Exposure.

366 of 2012 - Day 56

366 of 2012 - Day 56. Snow Goose having a stretch.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/4.5, 1/160 sec., ISO-320, 30 mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, no flash, camera hand held. Adjusted Levels slightly in Photoshop when I cropped an added text.

Picaboo's new Weekly Challenge is up. Photography Basics - Understanding Exposure.

366 of 2012 - Day 55

366 of 2012 - Day 55. Seagull.

Taken with Canon PowerShot G12, f/4.5, 1/160 sec., ISO-250, 30mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, pattern metering, no flash, camera hand held. Played with Levels, Hue / Saturation and Unsharp Mask to the bird only when I cropped and added text in Photoshop.

366 of 2012 - Day 54

366 of 2012 - Day 54. Picaboo's challenge for this week is 'Shooting With Creative Angles'. This is a little Santa Gnome that I painted 15 years ago (approximately). I hate the lines on the wall, and I tried to re-shoot this many times, but the angle I wanted required a lot of blank space and there is no other spot in our house with as much blank space as this spot, despite the stupid wooden strip on the wall (is there a technical term for that stupid decoration?). I even tried a huge piece of cardboard, but it wasn't high enough to get the angle I was going for. So despite all that, I still mostly liked this shot and I'm using it.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/20 sec., ISO-1000, no flash. I will try to re-shoot this again. I used Unsharp Mask on the photo, though only very, very slightly. Cropped and added text in Photoshop.

366 of 2012 - Day 53

366 of 2012 - Day 53. Like yesterday's shot, I didn't quite stick with the theme of shooting with creative angles. But look at my cute kid and her puddle shadow! It's an awesome shot!

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/3.5, 1/30 sec., ISO-80, no flash, white balance auto, camera hand held. Adjusted Exposure and applied Unsharp mask in Photoshop, but only very slightly. Cropped and text added in Photoshop.

366 of 2012 - Day 52

366 of 2012 - Day 52. I didn't quite stick with the theme of shooting with creative angles today. I just really like this picture. I did get pretty close to the ground to get it.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/4, 1/160 sec., ISO-160, no flash, white balance auto, camera hand held. Adjusted Exposure and applied Unsharp mask in Photoshop, applying only to the reflection of the trees in the water, boots and front ground. Cropped and text added in Photoshop.

366 of 2012 - Day 51

366 of 2012 - Day 51. Picaboo's challenge for this week is 'Shooting With Creative Angles'.

Any ideas what this is?

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/20 sec., ISO-1600, no flash, camera hand held. This is a SOOC aside from the crop and text, which I did in Photoshop.

Give up? It's a forced air heating vent in our home.

366 of 2012 - Day 50

366 0f 2012 - Day 50. Picaboo's challenge for this week is 'Shooting With Creative Angles'. I can do that. I put the camera on the floor, aiming up at the ceiling, and tried to entice Tibboh the Terrible into coming close to have a sniff. I won't lie, the end result required a bit of force. But I promise, no Tibboh's were harmed in the taking of this photograph.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/20 sec., ISO-1000, no flash. Next time I'm going to try doing a project like this with a remote shutter release! Adjusted only slightly in Photoshop - Vibrance and High Pass Filter (but only a tiny bit in both cases).

366 of 2012 - Day 49

366 of 2012 - Day 49. Picaboo has challenged us to do self portraits. I'm not doing a self portrait today, but here is a picture of an object I deal with frequently at work.

Can you guess what it is?

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/20 sec., ISO-1000, pattern metering, no flash, camera hand held. Applied Unsharp Mask, though only very slightly, cropped and added text in Photoshop.

This is a stainless steel 4 vane paddle for a rotary machine that works with dry bulk materials. I work for a company that deals with process machinery and though we don't stock much, we do stock replacement parts for some of the machinery we sell. Don't ask me much more about this thing - I deal with the bookkeeping end of it, not so much the sales. Amazed, eh? Yeah, process machinery is all kinds of cool!

366 of 2012 - Day 48

366 of 2012 - Day 48. Picaboo has challenged us to do self portraits, this week. The shot for today is of me and my daughter. I don't much care for the photo. I like the two of us, but I don't like the colors or the background and I couldn't manage to fix it to a point where I liked it. But Weeb and Wonko both like the shot, so here it is (like the rabbit ears the kid is trying to add to my head?).

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/3.5, 1/30 sec., ISO-320, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash, white balance auto. I applied a slight Unsharp Mask adjustment and fiddled with Exposure a bit in Photoshop.

366 of 2012 - Day 47

366 of 2012 - Day 47. Picaboo has challenged us to do self portraits, this week. Like my last couple of self portraits, I have completely demolished the original shot in Photoshop.

Original shot taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/50 sec., ISO-800, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash, white balance auto. Applied a Dark Strokes filter, adjusted Color Balance and Exposure in Photoshop. I promise I'll stop now. LOL

366 of 2012 - Day 46

366 of 2012 - Day 46. Picaboo has challenged us to do self portraits this week, but my daughter wanted me to do a portrait of her in the style that I'd done my self portrait yesterday.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/15 sec., ISO-1600, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, white balance auto, no flash. I went crazy in Photoshop again, altering Color Balance, Hue / Saturation, Exposure and Curves.

366 of 2012 - Day 45

366 of Day 2012 - Day 45. Picaboo has challenged us to do self portraits, this week. As I mentioned a couple of days ago, I'm not of fan of having my photo taken. I'm not keen on my hair or eyebrows or skin. And yet somehow I'm still completely gorgeous! This is the curse and benefit of being a Gemini. So sorry that this isn't as great as yesterday's snow drop photo. And like my last self portrait, I have completely demolished the original shot in Photoshop.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f2.8, 1/30 sec., ISO-400, no flash. Altered Color Balance, Curves, and Hue / Saturation in Photoshop when I cropped and added text. This makes me laugh. But really, it is far more of my face than anyone needs to see. My apologies for that. LOL

366 of 2012 - Day 44

366 0f 2012 - Day 44. Snowdrops. Not feeling good so not really into the self portrait thing today.

Taken on Canon PowerShot G12, f/4, 1/40 sec., ISO-80. Cropped to 5" x 6" 180ppi, because it was just the best crop for the photo. Applied Unsharp Mask and High Pass Filter in Photoshop when I cropped and added text.

366 of 2012 - Day 43

366 of 2012 - Day 43. Picaboo has challenged us to take a self portrait. Like many photographers (good or otherwise), I would rather be on the other end of the camera. So if I HAVE to take pictures of myself, I'm going to Photoshop the crud outta those shots.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/20 sec., ISO-800. I messed with Brightness / Contrast, Curves, Hue / Saturation, Unsharp Mask, you name it. I love Photoshop.

ANIMAL ABUSE PREVENTION FAIL

Seriously. Knock it off.

366 of 2012 - Day 42

366 of 2012 - Day 42. I love the sky, especially when the clouds are putting on such an awesome show!

Taken with my Canon G12, f/4, 1/80 sec., ISO-80, 6mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, white balance auto. I monkeyed with Brightness / Contrast and Levels in Photoshop, when I cropped and added text. Like the previous 2 days, cropped to 180 ppi, rather than 72 ppi.

366 of 2012 - Day 41

366 0f 2012 - Day 41. Trees. You're amazed, I know.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/4, 1/250 sec., ISO-80, 6mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash, white balance auto, camera was hand held. Adjusted Exposure, Vibrance and applied Unsharp Mask (only a little bit) when I cropped and added text. Like yesterday, I cropped to 180 ppi rather than 72 ppi to try and capture the details. It's amazing how much you lose when you reduce to 72 ppi. Photography and web graphics are completely different sciences!

366 of 2012 - Day 40

366 of 2012 - Day 40. You know what's almost as good as Picaboo's theme of sunset silhouettes, this week? Moss.

Wait. What?

Okay, that's only going to be funny to fans of IT Crowd... and really, even then it's not really that funny, but I'm tired, so these are the jokes, folks!

THIS is my moss photo. Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 on Auto, Macro setting, f/3.2, 1/30 sec., ISO-80, 6mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, white balance auto, camera was hand held. Unsharp Mask and High Pass Filter applied (only slightly) in Photoshop when I cropped and added text. I cropped this one at a higher resolution than usual, because the fine detail is quite pretty and it just got lost in the 72ppi reduction.

366 of 2012 - Day 39

366 of 2012 - Day 39. Picaboo's challenge this week is for sunset silhouettes. I did a foggy Weeby nearly silhouette. I did a sunset Weeby silhouette. I did a just-past-sunset, awesome dark blue sky, complete with sparkly star, Weeby silhouette. Today I did a sitting by window Weeby not-quite silhouette. Nailed it. Sorta. I like it, in any case. It just proves to me again that I really need to learn how to use the settings on my camera. All the settings are daunting.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, f/2.8, 1/125 sec., ISO-1600, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash, white balance auto, used a tripod. I adjusted the Brightness / Contrast a bit when I cropped and added text in Photoshop.

ANOTHER UNDERWEAR RANT

When I was pregnant, I had issues with maternity panties. They are the reason I only have one child.

A few years ago, when I was no longer pregnant, the brand of underwear that I had been purchasing for YEARS changed from S, M, L, XL, XXL to size numbers. That annoyed me and it took several purchases before I figured out my magic number. It took me a while longer to realise that not all makes of that brand fit, even though they were purchased at the same size number.

I hate underwear makers. But as I imagine the actual people making the goods to be children in third world countries, making pennies a day so their families may eat more than mud soup, I let it slide. I mean, those poor underwear making kids!

Now it is strange to admit this, but a family friend passed away (I still miss her) and her husband was giving away her possessions to family and friends. He gave some underwear, still brand new, with tags on and everything, to my mother. She gave them to me. I said, "Those are not going to fit me, Mom." She was quite insistent that they would and it was time for me stop wearing baggy, ugly clothes and start dressing like a real person and not a bag lady. Okay, she didn't say that with words, but she said it with her eyes. With love.

So I took them home.

And they sat in my dresser.

For weeks.

Then it occurred to me that my clothes WERE getting a bit baggy. I decided it was time for some new undies, since the ones I had been sporting were becoming akin to a horrid display of droopy granny panties. Then I started to accept the fact that I had been losing weight and maybe... just MAYBE these panties from a friend who had left us much too early, panties much nicer than ones I'd ever bought for myself in years, mind you, they MIGHT just fit. But they probably wouldn't.

So I tried them on.

They fit.

They fit!

How odd.

It had to be a manufacturer's error. Surely if I went and bought new panties at this size, they would not fit. I'd been fooled by numbers in the past, after all.

So Wonko, Weeb and I went out shopping. Weeb needed new socks. And underwear. So I figured I'd look. Just look.

I kept looking at the packages. What a lot of stupid underwear choices. I don't want so many choices. And how am I NOT in XXL territory? I FEEL XXL. I pick up a package and show it to Wonko. "These won't fit me."

"They will," he says.

"Nope, we'll buy them and take them home, I'll try them on and just feel sad," I said.

"They'll fit," he said (in a way that suggested that he was quite DONE with being in the mall and wanted desperately to NOT be in the mall OR hear me complaining about panties anymore and just by some already).

So we bought some.

But they were not going to fit.

So when we got home, I tried them on.

And they fit!

Amazing!

Now, and this is why I continue to hate underwear manufacturers, the blues ones fit. Those were the ones I'd tried on right away. The white ones fit. I tried those ones on the next day.

The problem was the black ones. One pack consisted of a blue, a white and a black pair of panties (why are they called pairs?). The black ones, in both packages I bought, were SLIGHTLY smaller, slightly tighter than the other two pairs in the package.

WHY is one pair of panties smaller than the others in the pack?!

I check the label. It says the right size. But for some reason, it's just a bit tighter and makes a glorious ripping sound at the elastic when I was in the bathroom doing bathroomy things that involve underpants.

I curse you, underwear manufacturers! I curse you to heck!

(And in case you are interested in the Panty Rant from Pregnancy, go here: http://yasherthegreat.blogspot.com/2010/03/maternity-panties.html.)

WINNING - SHOWER

I love those special moments when you get out of the shower and realise that you've forgotten to rinse the conditioner out of your hair. Winning!

BRILLIANT IDEA

Brilliant idea! Make re-usable lunch bags with FML printed on them (with 'forgot my lunch') printed underneath in tiny letters. Get rich!

366 of 2012 - Day 38

366 of 2012 - Day 38. Picaboo's challenge this week is silhouettes at sunset. Weeb and I missed sunset, but how could we say no to that beautiful blue sky? So here is Weeb, who was much more cooperative than yesterday, with Sirius in her hands.

Tell us a little bit about Sirius, Yasher! Okay. "Sirius is one of our closest stellar neighbours at only 8.6 light years away, making it the not only the fifth closest star but the brightest. It is only outshined by the Sun, Moon and a couple of planets. A true powerhouse, Sirius is about twice the diameter of our Sun and pumps out about 23 times as much light."

Now tell us about the picture, Yasher! Okay, I can do that, too. Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, probably on Auto, though I was fiddling with settings, so I'm not positive. F-stop f/2.8, 1/20 sec. exposure time, ISO-1600, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash, white balance on auto, used tripod. I did adjust the Curves a bit to make Weeb's silhouette more silhouettey. It also made the sky a teensy bit bluer than the original photo, but I think it's closer to the true blue of the sky, at the time. Cropped, text added when I adjusted Curves in Photoshop.

What? You want to know about this picture, too? You're very demanding tonight! Weeb was doing butterfly hands. Why? We just thought it would look cool. You have to admit, it kinda does. F-stop f/2.8, 1/13 sec. exposure time, ISO-1600, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash, white balance on auto, used tripod. I adjusted the Exposure a bit to make Weeb darker. Adjusting Curves just made it look too harsh for some reason, though it worked well on the photo above.

So what's this all about? Well it's the Moon. A few marvellous photographers have been taking moon photos and with tonight's full moon, it was hard to resist. Except it was cloudy, as you can tell from the above photos. But our 'moon hunt' was amusing. Not too bad for a non dSLR camera and a cloudy night, eh? They don't call us Yasher's Crappy Pictures for nuthin'! I took this on Manual mode, but had NO idea what I was doing. F-stop f/4.5, 1/125 sec. exposure time, ISO-80, exposure bias +2 step, 30 mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, pattern metering, no flash, white balance on auto, used a tripod. Cropped, applied a very slight Unsharp Mask and added text in Photoshop.

366 of 2012 - Day 37

366 of 2012 - Day 37. Picaboo challenged us to take a Sunset Silhouette. So I did. And it's awesome! Well, it doesn't suck, so I'll take it, for now. Weeb was not a happy participant, so luckily I got this on my first shot (though I made her suffer though a couple more). No hands were frozen completely in the shooting of this photo, despite what she might tell you.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, on Auto, I think, though I might have been on P mode. F-stop f/4.5, 1/1000 sec. exposure time, ISO-200, 30 mm focal length, max aperture 4.34375, pattern metering, white balance on auto, no flash. I did adjust the Brightness and Hue in Photoshop when I cropped and added text.

366 of 2012 - Day 36

366 of 2012 - Day 36. Another foggy day. I don't think we'll be seeing a sunset for a while, though I'll keep my camera at the ready for Picaboo's sunset silhouette challenge.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 on Auto, f/4, 1/1250 sec., ISO-160, 21mm focal length, max aperture 4, pattern metering, no flash, white balance auto. I applied Unsharp Mask in Photoshop when I cropped and added text, but only slightly. I mucked around with vibrancy and color tones, but I liked the photo as it was originally and only sharpened it to make the branches at the top pop a bit.

366 of 2012 - Day 35

366 of 2012 - Day 35. Picaboo's challenge, this week, is to take a silhouette shot at sunset. So Wonko, Weeb and I trudged out to Steveston to meet my folks for a sunset walk, three cameras and two tripods in hand. The closer we got to the little fishing village, the foggier it got. We figured it might still make for some cool photography.

There was something evil in that fog - it was called 'The Butt Chomping Wind of Chilliness'! Plus our lenses kept succumbing to moisture, so we made it a short trip. But we did get some nice shots, even though nothing quite fit with this week's theme.

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 on Auto (my gloves wouldn't have allowed me to change any settings, even if I'd wanted to!) - f/3.5, 1/80 sec., ISO-80, 14 mm focal length, max aperture 3.625, pattern metering, no flash. This is a SOOC (straight out of the camera) shot. I only cropped and added text.

I'm adding these pictures, because I liked them too. The last shot is the Fisherman's Needle.

366 of 2012 - Day 34

366 of 2012 - Day 34. This is one of the crystals that hang in my front window. It makes awesome wall rainbows, from time to time. I didn't like the original photo, so my altering of the Unsharp Mask and High Pass Filter, which I do to most photos, I went BIG TIME with today. I liked the result, though it's certainly not a sign of good photography. Hey, if you want GOOD photography, there are billions of blogs for that (this just isn't one of them). Heck, it's not even a sign of good Photoshopping!

Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12 on Auto - f/4, 1/40 sec. exposure, ISO-160, 6 mm focal length, max aperture 2.96875, pattern metering, no flash, white balance auto.

366 of 2012 - Day 33

366 of 2012 - Day 33. Not a lot of sunrise opportunity today, but I did manage to catch this shot. I had to take a video of the trees behind me as well, as the birds were all singing to each other. It was a beautiful sound and so reminded me that spring is coming!

Shot with my Canon G12. I was playing with settings and I think this was taken on the P (program) setting, adjusting to Sunny. Details: f/4, 1/1000 sec., ISO-80, 12 mm focal length, max aperture 3.625, pattern metering, no flash, white balance on auto. Hm. Maybe this was an Auto shot, after all! I did tweak the Vibrancy slightly in Photoshop when I cropped and added text.

366 of 2012 - Day 32

366 of 2012 - Day 32. You want a sunrise, you got a sunrise! Well, not exactly a sunrise with all its awesome color, but the sun WAS rising and it has given me a cool ray burst. (I'm tired, I won't tell you how much thinking it took to sort out its vs it's and effect vs affect, which I ended up not even using.)

This is the same photo, cropped in different ways. Taken with my Canon PowerShot G12, set to P (program), using the default P settings (they must be auto): f/4.5, 1/1250 sec., ISO-200, 16 mm focal length, max aperture 3.625, pattern metering, no flash, white balance manual on Sunny.