The Bakist

Cammila is the most enthusiastic baker I've ever known. She whips up delicious creations with what would appear to be ease, if it weren't for all of the jumping, excited yelling, and laughing. Seriously, it's almost maniacal. It's certainly both a joy to witness the process and consume the fruits of her labor.

I can't even produce appropriate onomatopoeia to convey the types of gleeful noises that come from this woman when she's baking.

From humble beginnings, our delicious deserts are wrought.

Presentation is everything, 'eh?

P.S. The lighting in this place has taught me a lot about adjusting tint and temperature.

Agricola

My friends have become enamored of a certain game: Agricola. Now, a few of my friends are absolutely nuts about various board games, but not board games that most of you have heard of. No, these are . . . unique geames. Ever heard of Settlers of Catan? That sort of thing. Anyway, the newest great game is Agricola. Let me explain it to you.

First off, there's the craps table element. Ever been to a casino and been blown away by how many hands are moving around, doing various things at one table? It seems like chaos. This is nothing in comparison to this game.

The fundamental elements of the game are pretty straight forward, though. It's basically a mix of checkers, Magic the Gathering, Jenga, Risk and Beer Pong.

As far as photography goes, this one was my favorite shot. The other two, honestly, weren't that great. This one is . . . pretty alright.

views from the job front

We had a snow day today. Well, it wasn't exactly a "snow" day, but an excessive cold day. When school was called off, the ambient temperature was reading -15 F, with a windchill of at least 10 degrees lower. Anyway, I ended up going into work for a couple of hours anyway . . . got some paperwork done, met with my principal, took some pictures.

I share an office with a good friend of mine, Amber. This is her desk. I would have uploaded a photo of mine, but it would have taken too long to clear off.

One of our science teachers has a lot of plants by his office. This one apparently clones itself. Near the center of this shot, in the most focussed area, is one of these little clone pods. The concept is kind of frightening.

Even on "snow" days, the central office is a very busy place.

Yet in the chaos, there is still a bit of peace. You just have to get real close to focus on it, and even then it doesn't seem to quite stay in focus for very long (that was a poetic way of saying that I didn't quite get exactly the shot I wanted here).

The Gods have Forsaken Us

And here's how I know. Last night, David yells to me, "What the hell, come look at this right now!" He showed me something . . . something terrifying. He had been unpacking some things that he had taken to his parents' house the week before, and among those things was a portable USB drive for his XBox 360. When he opened the case (seen below), something moved. But no, moving does not accurately describe what we saw. Something pulsated and undulated. Something writhed. What was it? Inside a small, silk sack, a spider spun and kicked, as if this sack were some sort of unhallowed womb. After staring at it for a moment in horror, mouths agape, he commanded me to "do something about it." At first I just took the case in my hand, dumbstruck by the command. Then a more precise utterance issued forth from his lips: "Either kill it or shoot it with your fucking camera."

I immediately chose the latter. Here you can see its abdomen and back leg. Please click on the picture to see it in more horrific detail.

Here you can see the legs coming out from underneath the case. Apparently there was a small hole there, and that hole was the exit from its damnable encasing. As you can see, I was so afraid that I couldn't get a very clear focus on this shot. Verily I say unto thee, I thought it was going to eat my face.

Once it evacuated its prison, I considered David's two commands, and I decided, my job as an artist done, that the former of the two was now in order. This spider is no more. But be warned, for the next time you open some innocuous case, who knows what you'll find pulsating inside.

Proof of concept

I've been in bands. Several of them. I've also played at The Elbow Room, at which the sound board guy tends to take lots of pictures and later post them on the venue's site. These photos are often intollerably flat, washed out, grainy, or all of the above. I once thought that this was simply due to the fact that the stage was dark, and, well, what are you gonna do? Here's a suggestion: set your camera up correctly. Here are what even a novice like me can accomplish after just a little bit of calibration.

These are not the greatest show shots ever, but they're a lot better than The Elbow Room's.

The Official Ryan of 2009

Late in 2008, after watching some asinine commercial claiming some product was the official "whatever" of 2008, I said, "Is that really how it works? If that's true, then as of right now, I'm the official Ryan of 2009!" Now you'll have to live with that fact all year long.

My New Year's Eve was somewhat different than I had expected it to be. Instead of getting to take shots at a show north of Detroit, I was honored to take shots (digitally and otherwise) at Rob and Cammila's apartment. It was a low key event, but it provided for a few nice pictures.

Cammila and Rob got a very pretty punch bowl for Christmas from Cammila's mother. Unfortunately, it was not filled with spiked punch.

At one point in the evening, we were visited by a ghost. He clearly just needed a snack.

Tesla was sick and tired of all these snakes photos.

And there were various sweet treats to eat.

Thanks for having me over, Rob and Cammila! I'm not sure what I would have done without you!

A sudden uncertainty.

This is an orchid that I bought Annie several months ago. Due to circumstances that were largely out of her control, she was unable to tend to it for quite some time. Now it is malnourished, the leaves are wilting, the flowers have died and refuse to bloom again, and its life expectency is uncertain

It is also a metaphor.