DrHogie.Com A blog about me. Whoever that is.

One Day At A Time

So I've decided to pick up photography as a hobby. It actually started when I got my wife the DSLR she'd been wanting for awhile for Christmas. As she learned more about her camera, she started looking into more lenses and accessories for her camera. I started trying to learn about all the wonderful terminology of DSLRs to help her decide . . and found out I was getting interested myself. I started asking around to see if someone had a good used DSLR -- turned out a friend of mine did indeed have a used XSi that he had upgraded from. And so it began.

Since I got the camera about a month ago I've taken more pictures than I generally do in a year's time. I still know very little about the camera, but an article from Merlin Mann from a few years ago stuck with me from the beginning: The best way to be a better photographer is to take pictures. A lot of pictures. A LOT of pictures.

Tonight I realized I hadn't taken any pictures in a few days, so I set out to the backyard with our dog and my wife's lens collection she was kind enough to let me borrow. Much like Merlin, after a few initial shots I got down even with the ground to try some depth-of-field shots with the kids' trampoline and toys. After the dog say down to watch me, I started taking pictures of him too. Twenty minutes later I had taken over 150 shots.

It's really unusual how it works out -- as you go back through the pictures, there really are some shots that stand head and shoulders above the others. It's not the first time I've gone out and just shot whatever crossed my path. Plenty of those times I'll not have a decent shot at all. This time though, going through the shots That One Shot stood out. It's not going to win any photography contests, it may never get framed on a wall.

If nothing else, getting That One Shot gave me a feeling of accomplishment -- that maybe I'm starting to figure out just a little bit of how to take a not crappy shot Here's hoping I keep progressing as time goes on.

Only One Child Tonight…

Our oldest is spending the night at a friend's house for her friend's birthday party. And the youngest stayed up till 9:30pm. Here's hoping we can sleep in tomorrow, provided the dog allows it...

Almost there

Only one more day until the weekend. I'm typing this up on my iPhone because, quite frankly, I'm too tired to go to the PC. I'm really hoping the kids and animals sleep through the night.

I wouldn't know how to act with eight consecutive hours of sleep.

Getting Old

I know I'm not ancient (34) but one thing that sucks these days is being tired as all get out at night. I used to be able to stay up late and get a lot of things done. Now, 9PM rolls around and I'm ready for w long winter's nap. It's just frustrating. Granted, I've been playing Hero Academy when I could have been writing. But, c'est la vie.

At least the streak is still alive. Kinda.

Distractions.

I honestly had a big idea for a post, but I got completely sidetracked tonight between Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Slotomania HD for iPad. It's a nifty free slot game that runs well enough on iPad -- just these dang "10 Free Spins for Friends" doesn't appear to be working. All the better for you to buy coins, I guess.

Here's hoping for tomorrow.

Wheeeeeeee

Working late trying to get EOY books finished. Really gonna try a full post tomorrow night. Even got a few drafts cooking up -- I've just got to make the time to get them typed up.

Yeah, posting like this just makes the posting streak a formality -- but for me it's not so much the content starting out. It's building up the habit of knowing I should post every day.

Nothing to see here — please disperse

A day that was full of laziness, where very little was accomplished. I'm hoping it will give me a great recharge for the week ahead.

At least I remembered to scoop the litter boxes.

Trampoline . . . yay?

I got the trampoline built that the kids received for Christmas this year. It's a long story as to why the trampoline wasn't built on Christmas Day -- but it's built now. It was right at dark when I finished it, and a few kids from the neighborhood came by to try it out. I spent the entire time hovering around the trampoline watching everyone like a hawk, waiting for that moment when someone would get a busted nose or a broken limb. Like my 6th grade teacher used to tell me, I'm a huge worrywort. Having kids just made it worse.

A comical note about the trampoline was the numerous notes stating the trampoline could only be used by one person at a time. A fifteen foot trampoline -- and only one person at a time. I guess you say what you have to when you're preventing lawsuits. Needless to say, that limitation lasted all of 30 seconds.

The Weekend

Quite thankful it's the weekend. I did bring a good bit of work home, but it'll be a great chance to recharge my batteries and get everything lined up for next week. Of course, there will be plenty of XBox time as well. Maybe even a little XCode time if I can get an hour or three where I won't be bothered that's before 10pm (as if).

Here's hoping the animals and children actually let me sleep through the night tonight.

Why am I doing this?

I was trying to think of a topic for a post tonight, and I started thinking about why I'm attempting this "Blog 365" deal. I've had this domain for years now. I've had a blog in the past but rarely posted on it. Lately though, I've had this urge to start the blog again. I think the main reason is because having to get my thoughts onto a screen/paper forces me to slow down and think about it. I have a lot of issues with slowing down and taking my time -- so any practice I can get with it helps.

Another part of it I think are the different writer's websites I read every day. My favorite to read are a lot of the "Mac pundits": Gruber. Merlin. Shawn. Marco. Brooks. Hackett. These guys do a masterful job of writing and telling a story, or giving their opinion, writing a review, or just commenting on something outlandish. I'm nowhere near their level and probably won't ever get there. But there's a part of me that thinks I can. The only way I'll ever know whether or not I'm capable of it is to try. I might succeed . . or I might fail. I'm starting to learn there's nothing shameful about failure. There's shame in being so afraid to fail you never try. There's shame in learning nothing from your failure. But failure is one of life's greatest teaching tools. And so, I write.