What's been going on....



OK, been a while. Let's see what's going on. Well, a bunch of things, actually been rather busy:

• Life - busy. Russia - been there, done that, still haven't processed the pictures though... It was wonderful, wonderful wonderful. Do I need say more? And I will miss everyone I visited there dearly (and you too, Masha!)


• Work - pulled off my "normal" project to work on a proposal for Singapore. This has been somewhat hectic, but at the same time, somewhat enjoyable because I can actually FOCUS on something, i.e. I usually have only one thing to do at one time.


• Work travel - none for the last two months, but next month is going to be a doozy. I start off going to San Diego for several days, then depart from there to go to SINGAPORE!! I stay there a few days and then come home. The flights to/from are 19 hours continuously in the air. THEN you get to connect airports!


• Visits - Olga (Natasha's sister) stayed with us for 11 days while attending an OpenWorld seminar in Rochester. She is the director of tourism for the Novgorod region of Russia, and spent almost all of her time going to meetings. But in between times, we had a great time.


• Obsessions 1During Olga's visit I was obsessing on finding specials on electronics, and at the same time, found some things for myself. All were great deals (I think). First, I got a set of Turtle Beach noise cancelling headphones for $29, which really is $30 lower than what everyone else sells them for. They work fine. Then, there was an rather amazing price on a universal laptop converter, which allows it to be used in a car, plane or standard plug. At $50, it was $100 less than anywhere else. The question is why? Well, satisfaction is guaranteed, so if it doesn't work... it goes back.
• Obsessions 2 - portrait photography. I did this for Nina, now I have a better camera, and am trying to improve on what I did before. I have learned quite a bit about lighting and posing and what not. I have a new background, but its still darker than I would like - oh well, it will do just fine...
• Obsessions 3 - Facebook. Well, not an obsession, but trying to figure out what it is good for, and how to work it. But I expect that I'll never have enough time to keep up with it, and it will quickly fall into disrepair like the rest of my life :-)
• Obsession 4 - Sailing. The racing season is going pretty well, no complaints, really. I have not done much non-racing sailing, though. But it HAS been a busy summer.
• Obsession 5 - EBay. Well, not really. But I sold the electronic flash for my Canon G3 (a 420Dx) and with the proceeds bought a similarly "almost brand new" flash for the Nikon D80 I have now.

That's all for now. At least that load is off my mind...