The Last Of The Trips

Still going through Thanksgiving pics so another catch up post.

Luke had his wedding less than a week after Adam's which meant it was the last trip Yachi and I would take for the summer to see a wedding.

NYC is always fun and this time we got to hang out with more people and do slightly more touristy things even though we were staying in the middle of nowhere Queens.

At the wedding which was outside and beautiful:

 

The newly married couple:

Getting the groove on at the party:

 

Not sure what is going on here but at least we caught it on film:

One of the many obligatory chugs.  The good thing about hanging out with UMich people is you know there is going to be a lot of this.  The bad part of hanging out with UMich people is you know there is going to be a lot of this:

After the wedding we headed back to the happy couple's apartment for an after party which was a choice I probably would not have made if them.  Woo ended up passed out on the marital bed so I am not sure where they slept.  Brett also convinced Brad to take some absurd number of shots of Absinthe to prove to Luke's Stuyvesant crew that UMich people could drink.  It ended up being a blast.

We spent the next day walking over to Chelsea from Queens to catch some lunch and saw some sites along the way.  Everyone should know what this is from or go check 30 Rock right now:

 

Yachi's first time in Times Square:

Outside our hotel in Queens:

Sharing The Pain

Last weekend I met up with Tim and Ann for the anti-passing prop 8 parade.  I think there was a more succinct name but it is escaping me right now.  I was impressed with the amount of families there.  It was also good catching up with Tim and Ann.  I brought the camera with me and here are some of my favorite photos from the day.

This was at the beginning and one of my favorites:

The guy's jacket has a cross on it so you know I am going to like it:

Tim and Anne walking up the street:

Further down Pine with one of the better signs:

This was probably the best picture which really showed how many people there were.  I am not sure of the exact number but it looked like it stretched from Westlake Center to Broadway at one point:

A true patriot :):

A little confrontation:

 

Additional pics are here.

B-A-N-A-N-A-S

It won't let me embed it but everyone should check this video out.  It would have been crazy to see James Brown at the top of his game.  This is him live in Paris (I am assuming as it has French credits).  His energy is amazing.  Perhaps he truly was the hardest working man in show business.

I know I promised pics and those will come soon but I have finally had a chance to catch up on 250+ blog posts on random music blogs I try to read and this is some of the best stuff I found that I thought a wider audience might like (Booyaa backhanded compliment!).

Pic of the day:

A silhouette of Tim loosing all his money at cards.

Something To Brighten Up Your Day

Not sure if it is the song or the dancing but made me smile.

Pic for the day:

Throwing the big switch.

The Second Of The Photo Shoots

I finally went through all the random shots I had taken over the last couple of weeks and put them up.  As I am trying to limit my learning to the camera none of these are photoshopped or changed much.  I got the white balance I liked and cropped but that is primarily it.

It always amazes me how much cats like boxes and since most of the time I have to play around with the camera is at home, they end up being what I focus on.

They kept jumping into the box onto one another but I was unable to get that so instead you just get the eyes:

Yachi is another favorite choice of picture material even though I am playing with fire when taking shots of her as she is not too fond of the camera.

This was after a hard day for both of them:

 

And this is me taking shots of my toes in memoriam of some movie that I cannot remember and my external brain is failing as well:

There are more here.

The First Of The Season

For whatever reason this past summer was the one of weddings.  I guess all of my friends made the same decision at approximately the same time.  Anyways that led to 9 weddings this year.  This was the first that Yachi and I went anywhere for.  Adam got married in LA which meant it was my first chance to hang out there.  I was excited as it was the first time I got to see my friend Brett in a ridiculous amount of time and it is always good to see Adam, Brad and Jivs.

The wedding was gorgeous and the weekend was a blast.  I am still not sure I would live in LA but it was a good place to visit.

Yachi and I got all gussied up for the rehearsal dinner which was awesome:

Where we caught up with the happy couple:

And headed to a bar afterwards where we saw John C. Reilly and the most awesome paintings I have seen in a bathroom:

The next day we spent walking around Rodeo Drive with friends where Brad found his dream car:

And then we all got ready for the event.  Here is the married couple:

And the rest of us all dressed up:

The reception was great.  They had a photo machine and scrapbook table which really brought out the competition in Brad and Sara.  Also I spoke to Adam later and they got all the pics that were taking on the machine on a CD and he said there were a fair amount of pics that people had not turned in, ranging from the bartenders taking pics of themselves to some more risque fare.

Our table decorations:

 

And us all hanging out:

Posing:

Here are more pics.

Georgia Peaches

So as part of taking a bunch of pictures with the new camera I uncovered a huge set of things I had meant to post over the summer but due to laziness I never got around to posting them.  I am going to try to get them all out soon and mix up some posts of the new pics.

Here is a weekend I spent in Duluth Georgia hanging out with family and getting to see my niece Calla being born.  Needless to say it was one of the highlights of my life.  They are coming out to visit this weekend for Thanksgiving so I wanted to get these out so you can see how bigs she has gotten.

Here is my dad and Morgan waiting for the baby.  There was a lot of just hanging out which was cool while waiting:

We also took lots of walks and trips to the park, especially when Kip's family showed up.  This is his nephew:

And Kip driving Morgan to the hospital, looking surprisingly relaxed:

Here is the moms getting checked in at the hospital.  Obviously Morgan is starting to have pretty severe labor pains

More waiting in the waiting room:

With things rapidly getting less serious as the night wore on:

Until finally Calla made her grand appearance:

The new family together.  I also really like the look I managed to catch on my dad's face in the background.  I pretty aptly captures what I am sure was on mine as well:

Morgan getting to hold Calla after things had calmed down a bit:

The new Aunt:

The cousins passed out:

Changing the first diaper.  It smelled as bad as you would assume seeing Kip's face:

The dads and son:

Here are the rest of the pics.

K'naan

I have been tangentially aware of this guy and his music for a while now but just sat down tonight and listened to some cuts of his.  I was pretty impressed.  He has a crazy life story that he goes into here:

And makes some compelling music out of that as evidenced here:

Breathing Room

Work was relatively hectic this week so I did not have as much of a chance to take photos as I would have liked but Obama did become our 44th president so there is that.  Apparently there was a huge party on the street just a couple of blocks down from where I live and even though Neville, Yachi and I heard it (The distant roar of the crowd) we were able to convince ourselves it was the sizable group out side of the neighborhood bar instead of huge group it was.  A guy at work took some awesome photos which you can view here and someone close to the Obama family posted a bunch of candid shots of Barack and his family here.

Now I am able to hang out at Yachi's store which has been amazingly busy today.  This forces me to sit in the back and look at random things on the interweb like this amazing video shot only with a DSLR.  Also I took myself off of all mailing lists or at least attempted to.  We will see how that works.  Now I will go through the few photos I did take this week to post tomorrow.

Making a chocolate shake out of a vanilla one:

New Camera Pics

Available here.  After waiting 3 years to buy a SLR I have to say I am really happy to finally get this.  I picked up a Canon 30D from Ebay through the current Live Search 25% cashback offer which means I got it for about $350 which is a smoking deal.  I also picked up a really good cheap lens which is a prime so less moving parts which makes me focus exclusively on learning the body which has been cool. 

Overall I have been really happy playing with the camera and enjoy even my crappiest pics which I am going to force on all of you here.

The first pic ever taking with my uncooperative model:

On the walk to the store:

At the store:

 

Outside the store:

With a slightly more cooperative model:

 

And the most cooperative:

About To Start

Under 3 minutes now until live results start coming in.  Man I am much more excited than I thought I would be.  Like jittery feet pacing around excited.  Tomorrow really has the possibility to be no fun.

Crazy Day

http://sports.espn.go.com/nba/news/story?id=3679931&campaign=rss&source=ESPNHeadlines

I am not sure how I feel about Billups no longer wearing a Piston's jersey but I have to admit having my favorite non-Piston on their team makes me more excited to watch this season than I was.

Oh yeah also VOTE!!!  I don't care for who but get out there and do your civic duty.

New Toys

Got a new camera.  It is a Canon 30D and it is sweet.  I am still converting all the pics I took this weekend with it and will share some tomorrow.  To hold you over here is a child that reminds me of myself:

And here is an homage to Titanic: