Things and Stuff

For a while now, I have been using Twitter, but my friendslist is woefully short. So, if any of you are also doing the Twitter, you can find me here :)

I just had a pretty big whoa-moment. I was browsing the Live Music Archive at archive.org, and found a gig of Ben Lee playing at the El Mocambo in Toronto. Major flashback :)
I remember seeing Zuul's Evil Disco there, way back when I was in Toronto. Good times, good times... :)

Babe we both had dry spells
Hard times in bad lands
I'm a good man for ya
I'm a good man

I can't believe that it took me 31 years to getting around to listening to "The Birth of the Cool" by Miles Davis.

That is some seriously delicious jazz. And for something that was recorded in 1950, it sounds amazingly fresh.

You make me nervous
You make me jealous
You make me wonder when you lie
You make me want to vomit
And I promise
I want you 'til the day I die

A while ago, I reinstalled Oblivion. The first time round, I was wowed by the graphics (having upgraded my graphics card specifically for this game), but after playing Morrowind, becoming the Nerevarrine and practically invincible, I found Oblivion sorely lacking in the pwning-everything-in-site department.

But I did not want the new gfx power to go to waste, so I decided to give it another go. This time, instead of a fighter, I chose the way of a sneaky assassin, hitting people from afar with poisoned arrows. That turned out to be a lot more fun than rushing in and bashing people on the head.

Funnily enough, I managed to become the Arch-Mage of the Mages Guild, while having only very rudimentary knowledge of magic. Well, it's the evil necromancers fault for being all squishy and easily one-shotted out of the shadows :D

Maybe I'll try and have a pure caster become the head of the Fighters Guild, just for shits and giggles:

"Which end of the sword am I supposed to point at the enemy again? Oh, screw it! *enemies ASPLODE!*"

Seeing the Light
Originally uploaded by Rickenharp.

Top phrase that pops up in my head when using the internet:

"What the fuck is wrong with you people?"

Seriously, the Internet can be a very scary place sometimes.

These days, I only shoot in RAW, because it gives you an incredible amount of control over the final image. But getting there was quite a journey.

Compressed, it looked a little like this:

• Why would I use RAW, I can get three times as many JPEGs in the same space


• OK, so I have to fiddle with all these buttons to get an acceptable picture? Forget it.


• Interesting, so that's what exposure compensation is good for.


• Damn, I wish I had used RAW for those old shots.

I used Raw Shooter Esentials and was quite happy with it, especially considering that it costs nothing. The workflow seemed logical to me, and I quickly got used to the UI.

But after trying out Raw Shooter Premium I decided that the extra features and the fact that they offer Essentials for free were well worth the price. The crop and levels tools alone are quite a timesaver.

What I find really amazing about RAW files is the ability to modify the white balance. Taking pictures of something illuminated by orange streetlights, and with one movement of a slider the orange tint is just gone. And if I just want to tone done the colour tint, but not remove it completely, to keep a certain mood, that's also possible.

So, go ahead and try RAW shooting, it's well worth the initial learning curve.

Lately, I have developed a growing interest in digital photography. I had my DSLR for a while now, but I didn't really use it that much, mostly because I wasn't all too thrilled with the pictures I took.
Technically, they were quite OK, but they weren't really interesting, just kind of...blah.

But that all changed when I found Flickr, particularly the "Groups" feature. There are groups specifically for getting tips on making better pictures, and the discourse is quite enlightening. And seeing a lot of great pictures by some really talented people makes me want to take more pictures and get better. Which is a very positive synergy, because ultimately, the only thing that makes you a better photographer is taking more pictures.

And you know, I actually enjoy this newfound hobby. It mostly takes place outside, with fresh air and sunshine (unless I'm shooting something like this: ), and it can be done solo, or as a group activity. And it's kind of a creative endeavor, which is a nice contrast to my programming day job.

So I am going to resurrect this LJ to post my photography-related stuff here.