I loathe technology

I've just spent a ridiculous amount of time attempting to figure out how to open the raw files from my new camera. Reading forums by photo nerds talking inane, typo-ridden tech talk. And I still can't open my damn files.

Basically, in getting the newer version of my old camera (It was only $100 more and has all this extra stuff, I thought), I'm now stuck with the lovely dilemna of incompatible file types and downloading new programs that don't work for this reason or that - basically all that I hate about digital photography and computers in general. The absurdity of it all is mindboggling. It cannot possibly be this difficult.

Oh, the poor camera store clerk that has to deal with me tomorrow...

at last

I have a camera. About bloody time.

Such delight.

I don't understand the French language

I'm working on my transcription job tonight, and in our last meeting Blair kept using the term "chargé d’affaires" - a term for which I knew neither the spelling nor the meaning. Not wanting to appear like an idiot, I figured I'd look it up later. I now know that it's not all that easy to look up words for which you know neither the spelling nor the meaning. And attempting to look up French words phonetically is quite comical. But I guess that's one of the things I like about this job - I'm learning things, even if I do take the long way about it.

chargé d’affaires: a diplomat ranking immediately below an ambassador who deputizes in the ambassador's absence

nuri bilge ceylan

My roommate just sent me the link to this guy's work. Stunning. Here's his website.

current favorite lyrics

Squint skyward and listen
Loving him, we move within his borders
Just asterisms in the stars' set order.
We could stand for a century,
Staring,
With our heads cocked,
In the broad daylight at this thing
Joy,
Landlocked
In bodies that don't keep,
Dumbstuck with the sweetness of being
'Til we don't be.
Told: Take this,
And eat this.

- From Emily by Joanna Newsom

forts

I wish that, as adults, we still made forts - you know, where you take assorted blankets and the kitchen chairs, and suddenly you have this haven from the outside world. I think we should start that back up again.

speaking of it being cold out...

weather.com says it might snow on Wednesday. So freaking excited.

(insert big, stupid, child-like grin here)

Fred is dead

Fred was the spider that lived above the front door to our house. He was probably the only spider I've ever not been afraid of. He was big and spotted and would sun himself during the day and curl himself up into a ball and wedge into the boards of the porch at night. He freaked me out at first, and I would duck when entering the house even though he was nowhere near my head, but after awhile I got used to him, at which point I named him. For awhile there he had a companion spider, whom I named Ethel (of course), but she left relatively quickly (how fickle we ladies are). Anyway, I came home the other night, and Fred was nowhere to be found. Troy said it's too cold out now for spiders and that he probably died. I won't lie - I was a little bummed.

So yeah, I felt that Fred deserved a little obituary. So there you have it. He was a good spider.

from ages ago

Ok, only about 3 years ago, when I was living in NY. Found this while going through an old CD of pics just now. Had to post it because it made me smile.

I'm so domestic

I made cranberry sauce today. It's probably the easiest thing you could ever make from scratch, but I'm nevertheless pretty darn proud of myself.

On the flip side, I almost burned down my apartment attempting to make toast this morning.