"They're heeeerrrreee"

Oh wait; wrong brand.

The other day I was in one of the location retailers and went back into the various home and kitchen section in the back of the store (this is primarily a clothing store with houseware and kitchenware in the back). One aisle has a couple shelves worth of journals and sketchbooks, so I went digging around, just to look. 

Well, they had a decent amount of alien sketch books and composition books for sale, and it's not even Halloween. I can't find the exact ones on Amazon to link to, but I did find other notebooks and sketchbooks on the site. 

I can't believe how big these books were. I know sketchbooks are meant to be pretty large, but the notebooks were the same size; regulation 8x11. 

It's so weird to see them out and not have a massive amount of stock laying around, so people must be buying them. Guess they're in fashion again?

Much like the headphone bookend I saw. That's pretty cool and is great for a music reader.

If I a bookshelf with books, I'd totally buy this. However, the books I have are already in a bookcase and don't need any standing up. This probably also could be used to hold records on a shelf too; I don't see why not. It definitely seems sturdy enough to hold music, if it can hold books. 

I haven't made it back on to the playground lately, but I intend to. This week has been a little crazy and I've not had opportunity to do as much working out as usual. But I'm still trying and I'm still going. Just need to wiggle my way into the areas that need working on.

That's about it for now; just wanted to make a quick post about all the blank books I saw while shopping. It's basically a reminder for me to tell Cat, but also share the things I'm seeing with everyone else. 

Enjoy and don't get too wrapped up in chaos. The tin foil only goes so far...

Cheers;

"Play on the playground, swing on the monkey bars"

There's a skit on Adam Sandler's 1996 What the Hell Happened to Me? album entitled "Respect" (track 2 for reference). 

The skit is about a five year old little boy named Nicky, who goes to visit his grandfather and the grandfather's friends at a social club the men are at. Nicky explains what he did on his first day of school and chaos ensues among the older men after the boy explains what he did. At one point, Nicky says he was on the playground and swinging on the monkey bars before explaining a kid at school pushed him off the see-saw. The grandfather becomes enraged at this and crazy things happen in the conversation with the old men and they tend to get loud.

I am not doing a great job at explaining this ordeal and there's a very warped impression that has been left on my brain. I was 13 after all, when I heard the entire album. 

I do have to point out, this is not to be confused with that time in New London when I bought Snoop Dogg's 1993 album Doggystyle on cassette. I was 10 and in my defense, left unsupervised by adults. It went down like this: we (my cousins and I, plus one of our parents) were at the Crystal Mall and I popped in to thhe Sam Goody store. After browsing the aisles, I walked out paying for the new rapper's music (with my own money, thank you). To this day, no one believes me or remembers it happening. I swear it did because I remember one of my cousins gave me shit for it in the car when we were going back to our grandmother's. I didn't care; I bought the tape and played the hell out of it. I wish I still have it, but thanks to another friend (Todd), I own a very scratched CD copy. 

Anyway, this Sandler album is definitely not for the faint of heart or the underage. This album is raw Sandler comedy. There's a reason it's labeled "Parental Advisory: Explicit Content": more than half of the tracks are raunchy and outrageous.

The point I'm getting at is.. I went to the gym today and then to the playground  in the community where I live. There are no monkey bars or swings at this playground and I wish there were. 

Every time I look at the play area when walking to the gym, I think of that line where little Nicky says "I play on the playground, swing on the monkey bars" and laugh. It brings back memories of using a jungle gym in my backyard back north. One of those purely basic metal structured ones with monkey bars, a slide and a swing. Maybe a trapeze bar. I don't remember, but it was seriously basic. 

So this morning, I had just finished working out in the gym and decided to hang outside for a bit. It was nice enough and I wanted to get a little sunshine before I needed to be home and get ready for Easter dinner at a friend's house. 

Therefore, I went to the play area. No one was there, as the parking lot was empty. Even the pickle ball court was silent. People were home with their families, so it was my opportunity to do some basic core exercises on the playground and take some pictures of the area. 

Yes, I also used this as a double excuse to do outside exercise and take pictures. Now if we only had monkey bars and swings, I'd have spent the rest of the day there and not gone home, even though my mother would have killed me for missing the holiday meal. The pictures I've taken before have been during full moon nights and the slight elevation is sometimes better for more clear photos. 

All the pictures were taken on an iPhone 11 and put in Photoshop for sharpening and my name. 

I think some of them came out pretty good. It is almost like an urban exploration type of photo shoot. Where you expect the next set to be the Earth taking everything back several decades later. The type where mold is growing in places or the grass so high it's got weeds and vines wrapping around things. 

I don't know. That's just me. I know I did have fun going climbing on the steps and rock wall, as well as going down two different slides. I know I looked odd as hell doing it. Guess what? No one was around so I wasn't bothering anyone. I was alone and doing outdoor fun. There's no harm in that. 

The only harm is that there's one space in the climb where I was a little too fat to get through the pull, so I know I need to lose some more weight. All the more reason to continue to use the gym and sometimes use the play area when it is available. It's a test of strength for sure, because we know for damn sure that the ankle biters are strong ones. 

Until I can get more running done on the treadmill at once, take care of yourselves. Stay hydrated and keep chasing that carrot.

Cheers;

I totally need to practice macro photos

We have more flowers growing by our front door, so I figured I would take my Canon Rebel T7i outside and try to get some interesting shots with the Fotodiox Macro Extension Tube Set I bought ages ago. 

Well, I couldn't get close enough using a tripod, so I had to hand manage the photos. 

And I failed. 

Try as I might, I didn't get the combinations I wanted, even though I did capture some interesting shots. 

Yes, I used "manual mode" and fiddled around with the exposure. Which is also why I didn't edit the photos either. The sun is setting away from the bush, so everything is getting enshrouded in darkness, plus it's slightly windy out. I made the attempt in Photoshop to sharpen the images, but because they're meant to have some blur in sections due to the way macro is, they came out "okay". 

I also used the stock lens that came with the camera, so there's a combo platter with the photos below.

I think I felt rushed with these because I could have done so much better if I took my time and set everything up properly. They feel cold and look it, for it being close to 80° this afternoon. I do like the way the close up of the over exposed ones came out; they're pretty neat. But otherwise, I know I could have done better. 

I don't like standing outside too long in my neighborhood with my camera. I feel awkward and weird because I have a lot of nosy neighbors who like to cause trouble. Even though I'm taking photos of the flowers at my door, I know they're bound to ask questions. 

As it is, the people who share the walkway, the man likes to attempt to stop us and ask questions about the community, yet, he's an original owner. He doesn't pay attention to the information that gets put out to the residents, so he will ask my mom. Just like a couple other people tend to do. She's made friends with some of the single men on our street, just to say hi and be neighborly. Nothing more. These are the type of neighbors you ask stuff to - what's popular, what's bad. Not the type of people you'd want to really go out and do stuff with because everyone has their own likes and dislikes. It's just enough information from each other to keep everyone sane. 

But yeah, I know I need to practice more at my photos, much like I need proper editing equipment (computer, etcetera). One day I'll have the opportunity and I'll stop making excuses. Haha. 

It's like the other day, I used my iPhone 11 to capture a gecko I inadvertently sucked up into the shop vac when I was cleaning out the AC pipe outside.

I did try to edit myself out (poorly) because I was a reflection in the water. 

I don't know where the dude was, but he wasn't in the bucket when I put it all together. But he showed up and I put him in the flowers so he could find a new home for the moment. Let him literally hang out and dry. Catch a breath and relax. I totally scared the tar out of him because he was breathing quite heavily when he landed on the leaves. 

It's funny how I've been able to get decent photos on my phone, for as much as I don't like using it as my main device. I used to carry a point and shoot around with me everywhere, so maybe I'm used to that type of aspect. Carrying around a camera case with all the accoutrements for a digital camera is hard and you're not welcome in a lot of places sometimes when establishments see such a thing. So having a camera in your pocket can be a good thing, except when you really need to hone in on a bigger unit. 

To each their own, I suppose. 

I guess that's about it for now. Just wanted to do a quick update with some new stuff. 

Hope everyone is safe and well.

Cheers;