How I got a burn on my arm and had to set the oven to clean

The other day I was putting a frozen pizza in the oven, my arm hit the inside of the 450F door. I yelled and flinched, dropping the pizza. The pizza ends up sticking straight up in the crack between door and oven. Toppings everywhere. Remember, the oven's hot, so those toppings start sizzling right away. I gave up on pizza for dinner and started something else to eat, as the oven now is out of commission. Hubby ended up nuking the pizza Stromboli style and ate that. Apparently the oven hadn't been cleaned in a while, because those fumes were noxious! All the windows were open and my eyes were still watering! House stank for two days afterward. All because I couldn't handle a little burning sensation. Click for full post and comments

Summertime VI: Lightning bug roundup

Here's a compendium of my attempts at photographing the lightning bugs in my back yard.

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A Lesson in Depth of Field

This a purely amateur post on the subject.

Depth of field means how much of the picture (foreground through background) is on focus. (what does "in focus mean"? It when the rays of light from an object converge on one point, the "focal point".) This is determined by the aperture setting on the lens. It doesn't make sense (at first), but looking though a big hole (large aperture, small f number on the lens) means a short depth of field. Only things within an inch or so (in the case of my lens) of the focal point will be in focus. Looking through a small hole (small aperture, big f number on the lens) means a long depth of field. Things many feet away from the focal point will be in focus. This is because there is an inverse relationship between the size of the aperture (D for diameter) and focal length (f). The f number is written as f/D.

The following two pictures are taken with the same settings except f stop. The first picture was at f/5.6. Only a few raindrops are really in focus, everything else is slightly out of focus. More importantly, look at the background between the two pictures.

This one was at f/18. Notice how the whole flower is in focus, and the change in the background.

The cartoon below is showing the pathway of light (pink) from an object outside somewhere to the film (or sensor in a digital camera). The aperture is allowing certain amounts of light through, but in this simplistic explaination also bending the light by certain amounts. The larger aperture (small f number) bends the light a lot to get the object in focus on the film (a known focal length and doesn't change). Because it bends the light so much (the sharp X shape it makes at the point where the film is) just a small change in your position when taking the picture will bring the object in and out of focus.
But when the aperture is small (large f number) the light is only bent a little (shallow X shape at the point where the film is). Now the range of focal lengths is big, so you can move around a lot and your object is still in focus. Also meaning things in front of and behind your main object will be in focus.

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Your day could have been worse

This happened while we were at our regular Thursday function at the local bar. Thing is, I had been saying all week how I wanted to sit outside this time. Good thing (for me, anyway) all the tables were filled up. Thankfully, no one was hurt. The area isn't really that big, only maybe 5 or 6 tables fit there, and the car would have hit maybe one table. I heard the bang of stuff getting knocked over, but people must have been able to react in time to get out of the way. The guy driving was taken away in handcuffs.

If it had been a woman driving, I would have labeled this under blonde moments.

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Summertime V

Had a rain storm earlier today, so I hunted raindrops while I was cleaning up the aftermath of a strong gust of wind.  Click for full post and comments

Discus are here!

Finally!

I swear he's smiling. I got them a few days ago, they are 2.5-3 inches big. They are just starting to not be totally afraid of me, and they love frozen blood worms. I have not yet tried to get them to notice floating food, so I make the frozen cubes sink with lead weights (I know, I'm bad). I want to eventually get some flake food into their diet, but so far it's just some fast sinking pellets, slow-sinking Tetra color bits, and frozen blood worms of two varieties (one plain and the other with brine shrimp and other creatures). I have a boat load of flying foxes in the tank, and so far they don't seem to bother the discus too much. They are a little wild, and I will move some or most or all out if I have to.

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My Holiday Weekend

Friday we threw a pretty good BBQ. Here's the spread, before the meats and sides and everything everyone else brought. We ended up coming out ahead in the beer department. I obviously didn't carry my weight!

And it was my birthday, along with our country's, so I made a flag shortcake. (SaraLee did the actualy cake part)

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Summertime IV

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A visit to Philly (or, hippie hunting season is ON, baby!)

I spent a few hours in Philadelphia today, the day after Independence Day. I was expecting huge crowds but it was pretty low key. Perhaps the fact it was approximately 1E6% humidity. There was a long line for Liberty Bell, so I didn't go see that, and I didn't do any tours. Just strolled, took a couple pictures, took it easy. Until I noticed a rally. Then I was obsessed with hunting hippies. Good thing I brought the telephoto. 

That's the whole rally. Count them. Use your toes, if you must.

You could hear the instigator a long way off, his speaker was really loud. My first picture of Independence Hall (above) had a conspicuous layer pink, American flags, peace symbols, and signs. I went to investigate more closely. 

Alas, the American flags were not Patriot Guard Riders, or some such anti-antiwar protester. They were the ones with the peace symbol in the blue field. I didn't catch a picture because they started lining up for their "parade" just as I came up. The front of this guy's shirt says "arrest Bush."

Through this series you'll see the same people over again, because there was only like 20 people there. Seriously. 30 tops.

Here they are starting their lineup. The yellow signs are preprinted by AnswerCoalition.org. Isn't that funded by Soros and the Communist party? Note the bell (the greenish object on the very right edge). This will come into play in a minute.

The orange shirt is not a World Can't Wait shirt, just a local sports club.

The old men are all wearing (or maybe I'm remembering the same man over and over again) Vets for Peace shirts. The Arrest Bush guy haz bukkit. This comes into play in a minute also.

The lady in the center's sign says "Abolish Nuclear Weapons" so we're dealing with basic peace-loving hippies here, not the crazed, militant sort you find in CA or Seattle.

Code Pink made an appearance. With two (2) people. Srsly. Two. Awesome.
So then they marched off, chanting (just the instigator on the mic) and banging bukkits. 

Here they are coming around Independence Hall from behind. So they have come from the front, up one side, around the back, and now down the other side toward their starting point.

Be vewy, vewy quiet. I'm huntin' hippies!

Note the horse and the two people calming it. Remember what I said about bukkits (and the banging thereof)? and the bell? Oh yeah, and the guy on the loud mic? Get a load of the that punk ass bitch in the left center looking STRAIGHT at horsie while he's banging bukkit. 

Yeah, the older carriage driver up ahead was yelling at them to stop the nonsense around the horsies. They finally did, sadly no hippies got trampled. So that meant there was a moment of blessed silence. Desperate to be chanting something, anything, up goes a cry of "animal liberation!" (srsly, not making it up. I laughed out loud. Those horsies are treated better than most people treat themselves). They passed by, I got bored, and look some flower pictures.

Met up with them a THIRD time at their final formation place just further down from Independence Hall, so now they are right across from Liberty Bell, closer to the visitor center.

This guys shirt says "peace please" in english and, presumably, arabic.
This is just towards the end of the "rally". The main instigator has been talking at this point (in this spot alone) for upwards of 30minutes. Notice everyone sitting and looking bored. That's the sign of successful protesting! yee haw!

So all-in-all, not impressed with their turnout, but I was impressed by the fact that every peace symbol I saw was correct, not a Mercedes advertisement. Did I mention my camera strap is rainbow? They prolly thought I was fer 'em! Yay war! Yay Haliburton!

Now a palette-cleanser. Two nice flower pictures. Yay hippie-dippie flowery fluff.

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