In case any of you are still using my old site, I removed all of the posts except one which directs people here. I don’t think I’ll be using the old site much except for coding/programming stuff and maybe file hosting or something like that. Just screwing around, mainly. So Riding the Wind will be my main site from now on.
Archive for March, 2007
Oh, I forgot to mention an unfortunate experience I had today.
I chipped one of my bottom front teeth while attempting to eat chinese food in an aggressive manner. I bit my fork. It hurt. A bit of my tooth came off.
I am now dealing with an annoying rough bit on my tooth which my tongue keeps touching. I’m going to have to go to the dentist to get it filed down.
I’ve been working on my woodcarving a bit today. I was going to try to finish my arched cat project, but I ran into problems with dull tools. I was forced to stop for the day and sharpen my tools. I’m not very good at sharpening yet and I have no idea if they are sharp enough until I start using them again. I’d be willing to hear any advice anyone has on that. Anyway, my hands are sore and stiff so I decided to write on here a bit before bed.
I’ve been reading a good book called The Right to Write by Julia Cameron. I originally bought it to get around some mental barriers I have regarding writing. It seems to be helping so far. I guess I’ve always thought of creative things as a waste of time and that they cannot be constructive by nature. I guess that probably has roots in many aspects of family and societal influence upon me. I’ve got so many ideas for writing projects, and I’ve written a fair few poems. At the very least, writing will always be part of my life. I feel as if I have to write, whether I share the product with others or not. I plan on posting some peoms and writing projects on my website in the following weeks. I’ll probably post about it if I do.
Last night, a bunch of us from work and various spouses (including Steph) went to see the movie 300. It was pretty simple…an in and out and back home kind of deal, which was a shame. We wanted to go eat somewhere but there was really nothing decent open at that time of night. I’m very aware that each time I see Ryan we have less and less time together before he leaves and I wish we could have done something else after the movie was over.
I’d be kidding myself if I didn’t admit that I expected a bit more from the film, but it was an overall decent movie. I definitely think it was worth seeing, but the writer in me yearned for a bit more character development. When I see a movie which involves mainly fighting and death, I need to feel as if I have some sort of connection or kinship with the characters going through the ordeal or it isn’t very effective at grabbing me emotionally. I guess that probably isn’t a very common male sentiment, but it was something I felt. I did enjoy the many costumes and accessories used in the film and I thought that the cinematography/digital hocus pocus they used was amazing. It somehow made things more realistic than “real” although I realize that is hardly possible.
I was reading some photography websites today and I guess I haven’t been keeping up to date on camera development. Apparently Olympus (I use an Olympus E-500 with various lenses for all of my photos) has developed a new camera called the E-510 which includes features such as image stabilization within the actual camera body, live preview on the 2.5 inch LCD, and a 10 megapixel Live MOS image sensor - along with other features such as the Dust Reduction system and the Four Thirds standard which have been features in previous Olympus cameras. This was exciting enough, but then I saw an article about the P-1. Oh man. Oh man. I could finally stop feeling embarrassed around the Nikon and Canon users if I had one of those. I’m afraid of seeing the cost, though. It could continue to be….just a dream.
Today is somewhat of a sad day for me, because it is the day we all say goodbye to one of my best friends. Ryan is leaving here to go back to the US and find a job, etc. I’m very happy for him because he’ll be free from the military, but I’m also nervous for him during his job searching process. I hope he finds a nice job in a good location.
I’m going to miss Ryan a lot, because over the past few years he’s been a sort of lifeline while I’ve been through some difficult times in my personal life and at work. He’s just a cool guy and he has an easygoing way that really helps put things in perspective. We’re having a party for him today at the bowling alley, which should be fun.
In other news, I was searching for Buddhist and Taoist blogs on Google yesterday and found an interesting one which I’ll probably add to my Blogroll. Richard from A Quiet Watercourse seems to have a lot of interesting opinions on various topics and he has some good links as well. He posted about the old 8 glasses of water per day myth (snopes) back in September. I find it interesting that many people still believe this information blindly regardless of the many articles and documentaries made which dispute it. It’s nice to see someone talking about things like that.