Friday, March 26, 2010

I will be shot at high noon




I've taken a few days off from taxes, but I will resume this evening ... hopefully. I've never been as far behind on our taxes as I am this year. I still have a few more people to bring their stuff by, but like me, they won't file until the last minute. I applied for a mega-buck loan through a Chinese bank but was turned down. Serves me right for not shopping more at Wal-Mart.
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Saturday is supposed to be a decent day for shooting, but the Lady Vols play Baylor in early afternoon and I don't want to miss the game. The Tennessee women beat Baylor pretty easily in the first game of the season, but the Bears are much improved since then. Maybe I can get out later in the day for some photo attempts. Much of the stuff I like to shoot isn't quite ready for me as yet. Birds are not yet plentiful in several species, wildflowers are nowhere near peak, and deciduous trees are still mostly barren of leaves.
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My old squirrel friend Little One must have died; he had been eating peanuts from my fingers since just after his mother put him out into the world on his own. He was very old as squirrels go, and had become stiff and crippled from what I feel was arthritis. He was no longer swift enough to avoid the neighborhood cats and he hasn't been seen for a couple of weeks. Just another on a long list of good friends I have lost over the years. Cat owners whom allow their pets to run loose are not on my Christmas card list!
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After spending just a little bit of time on Megashot then going to Flickr, it is almost blinding. The white glare at the latter site is very annoying when trying to view photos. Yahoo needs to make Flickr more appealing instead of just sticking money in their pockets. Megashot is growing by a few members each day, and those new ones are telling more of their friends about the advantages of displaying photos there. I'm not spending a lot of time at either site, but Megashot is becoming much more photographically appealing. Flickr is still the place to be if you crave the social aspects, but Megashot will be a pretty good place for personal interactions, too. I cannot see myself purchasing another Flickr Pro account next year, but I will probably continue to post photos just to keep contact with some people I care about on the site until they move to Megashot. Let me put it this way; Flickr is fun because of the social interactions whereas Megashot is fun without them; it will be unbelievable when more people join and begin using it the same way they do Flickr.
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My Pentax will be two years old in a couple of weeks and their new K7 model is mighty appealing. The worst problem I can find with Pentax is they are not up to par with other camera brands when it comes to making good photos at high iso ranges; both Nikon and Canon kill Pentax in that department. The K7 is much improved with its cutting edge sensor, but it still has a ways to go. Another thing that bothers me is that Pentax is now owned by Hoya and I have no idea what their plans are for camera innovation. Hoya makes some great glass filters, but bringing the Pentax brand into the same everyday conversations that Canon and Nikon enjoy is a daunting task. We who use Pentax know our cameras are superior in most ways, but Nikon, Canon, and Sony spend the big advertising bucks.
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Sorry to be so boring lately, but there is just not a lot going on that I want to talk about. Mark again has me stirred up a bit about the Republicans; I hope they have a Tea Party around here for me to attend. That will be something to write about; if they allow me to have pencil and paper in my cell.
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Have a super shot day!
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10 comments:

Tammy said...

ok so I am lazy. I could go walk across the house and get my bird book but instead I'll ask you. I see a jay and what is that red-headed bird? Woodpecker? I don't have them round' here. I get the pilliated woodpeckers which are amazingly statuesque and I just love them and the littles ones of course. Ken if I catch one more squirrel in my kitchen I swear I'll box her up with a bag of clementine oranges and send her to you. I caught one with the pool net last week and I got to rub her little head, much to her dismay. They haven't pulled up my pea seeds yet thankfully. Mike finished our taxes thankfully. hateful stuff those taxes.

have a good weekend whatever you do. I'm counting on some sun and garden time. We have a WW2 plane exhibit at our local airport which Mike will drag me to. He loves the old WW2 stuff. I'll be patient as he explains to me the history of each plane and watch as he chats w/ the old vets. happy friday finally.

Anonymous said...

It is a red-headed woodpecker, Tammy. It and the big pileated used to be very common here, but both require a lot of range and have mostly moved to the mountains. I still see one or two pileateds each year, but this was the first and last red-headed one I'd seen in more than 10 years. BTW, the red-head won the stare-down with the jay.

Just send the clemmies along to me and the squirrel to Mark; he might appreciate some company from home.

I gladly would go the WW2 exhibit with Mike; I love the war's history.

Thanks, my friend.

Anonymous said...

Did you watch the Tennessee men's game tonight. We won. Very exciting game.

Anonymous said...

I didn't watch and that is probably why they won. Every time I watch a big game of the men's, they lose! I will probably watch the next game and that will be all she wrote. :-(

Are you going to watch the women tomorrow?

Thanks, dear Alice (if this is Alice). :-)

Mark said...

You missed agreat game. Now if Puke could lose I would dance a jig.

The design of the pages on Megashot do make the pictures look much better than the glaring white of Flickr.

I think I'll pass on the squirrel.

It's time to fire up some rants.

Anonymous said...

Megashot is well designed; I think Cyrus did a lot of pre-planning and then changed things to suit him as he went along. It took him more than two years to get the site built from beginning coding through to Beta where we are now.

Squirrels are very good skillet fried; don't tell Tammy I said that!

I await your rants of wisdom.

Thanks, my friend.

Anonymous said...

Ken
Yes, that was Alice. I realized that I hadn't signed it after I hit submit. Yes, I will be watching the Lady vols play this afternoon.
West Virgina and Kentucky play in the men's tonight but I won't get to watch it because I have been invited to Greg's father's birthday party,
which I will probably attend.
Alice

Anonymous said...

Ken
Yes, that was Alice. I realized that I hadn't signed it after I hit submit. Yes, I will be watching the Lady vols play this afternoon.
West Virgina and Kentucky play in the men's tonight but I won't get to watch it because I have been invited to Greg's father's birthday party,
which I will probably attend.
Alice

Anonymous said...

Hi Alice,
You will probably be for Kentucky. I like Kentucky only because they are an SEC team, but I like W.VA. because I worked there for so many years. There is a huge state bragging rivalry there. :-)
Maybe you can sneak a few peeks at the game while at the party.

Anonymous said...

Hi Ken
I may get to see some of the game since Greg and his Dad are big sports fans My sisters live in W.VA
So we always make a fun game out of this one.
Alice

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