i went on a little bit of a shopping spree today. i didn’t mean to, but there was something that i was interested in getting so i went around hunting for just the right thing.

primarily, i was looking to find some cheap gels for my flashes, but that led to also trying to find backgrounds for portrait photography. man, what an undertaking!

my first stop was aaron brothers. they were absolutely, completely without a doubt unhelpful. nothing. they didn’t have anything i wanted. my next stop was TAP plastics. it was the first time that i set foot in that store and i felt like a little kid walking into a toy store for the first time.

it’s not that there’s really anything particularly exciting about plastic, really…but there was something about the fact that pretty much everything in that store was made out of plastic that really piqued my curiosity. i went from aisle to aisle looking at all things plastic. i was tempted to grab a whole bunch of stuff but then i started to ask myself questions like:

“why do i need a 4 foot, 1/4″ neon orange dowel made out of plastic?”

“why do i need a plastic cube?”

“why do i need sheets of plastic?”

but it’s still fun to take a look at all of the things that they have. so that’s what i did, i looked.

finally, i got what i went there for: sheets of acetate paper. i wanted to see if i could make my own colored gels for my flashes and it all began at TAP plastics. they had 4 colors: red, green, blue, and yellow. i got a foot of each of them. it’s too bad that the sheets are about 4 feet wide because i only used about 20 square inches for the gels. what am i going to do with the rest of them?

after the gel purchase, i started to think about getting a backdrop for portrait photography. so i went to the local fabric store and looked around. while i was shopping there, one of the customers came up to me and asked me if i worked there. i told her that i didn’t and she apologized explaining that i looked so at home at the store that she mistook me for an employee.

i sort of stood there dumbfounded. this was the first time i had ever set foot in a fabric store so her comment was a little disconcerting. but i picked up two cords of cloth and had 4 yards cut out of each, so hopefully they’ll work out ok.

after that i headed out to borders at oakridge to check out the new store. while there, i was reading up on portrait photography. there’s one book that i really want to buy, it has a lot of good advice, however the store copy was very worn, so i didn’t want to buy it there. i’ll probably check out another borders and see if they have a copy of it.

as i was leaving borders, i saw that the da vinci code was on sale and since i had heard so many good things about it, i decided to pick up a copy. i hope it’s worth it!

—–

happy birthday to me!

thank you to everyone who wished me a happy birthday today, it means a lot to me that you remembered.

my brother ordered me felt so that my table can now be felt-covered for poker nights. my sister ordered me a reflector to complete my lightning equipment purchases for my camera gear and tomorrow, the umbrella, light stands, and light clamps i ordered are supposed to be shipped to the office. mmmmm, it’s all coming together.

i can’t believe it. i was just stumbling through the net when i came across a newly formed xanga site. and whose site is it? none other than my brother’s! woah. it’s weird seeing him put his thoughts into words. he needs spell and grammar check pretty bad though. i think it’s a pet peeve of mine to see misspelled words. anyway, it’s definitely interesting to see his mind work.

i wonder if he knows about this page.

i wonder if my family knows about this page.

hmmmmm.

i got home to find my dsl modem’s lights all solid green. i went through the install process and sure enough everything was working just fine. i’m now cruising the internet at double the speeds i used to at half the cost. it’s just marvelous!
—–

i forgot to mention that my oreo cookie ice cream came out pretty good. a lot more creamy than my first batch, and i’m definitely looking forward to tonight’s batch. we’ll see what ice cream flavor it’ll be. i’m thinking maybe, just maybe i’ll try chocolate chip.

—–

[url=http://www.randomcuriosity.com/journal/]david[/url] wrote an interesting piece about things that he always does. i thought it might be fun to chime in with things that i always do as well.

i always put my right sock before the left.

i always check my email first thing in the morning to clear out the morning spam. it’s a chore, like taking the garbage out.

i always have the same morning routine: brush my teeth, wash my face, gel my hair.

i always put sugar in my mocha from starbucks without checking to see if it is sweet enough for me.

i always use the same recipe to make cheesecake.

i always clean my bathroom countertop beforehand if i know guests are coming. it peeves me if other people know how messy that can be.

i always drink my pearl tea drinks in a perfect combination that ensures that there will not be any excess pearls or tea at the end of my drink.

i always have to turn off any music or tv in the background when i read because i can’t concentrate on two things at once.

i always take pictures by rotating my camera clockwise.

i always shower at night.

—–

that’s what i keep hearing whenever i seek advice for ice cream recipes. tonight was relatively relaxing. no poker night, instead, i made my second batch of ice cream. this was actually the most stressful part of the evening, as i was trying to prove my co-worker wrong. he claimed that it was impossible to get the ice cream to the same kind of texture that is sold at the grocery store.

so i was a man on a mission.

tonight’s ice cream flavor? chocolate oreo cookie! we’ll see how it turns out.

—–

[url=/image.php?image=/images/2004/0310/IMG_4150.jpg&title=ice+cream+maker][/url]

so my [url=http://www.villaware.com/product_view.asp?itemid=97]ice cream maker[/url] came in the mail today. it wasn’t exactly what i expected, but maybe i was expecting too much. i thought that the ice cream maker would also refrigerate the contents of the mixer, but such is not the case. you still have to pre-refrigerate the main canister. so basically, all this does is replace the hand crank with an electric motor. still, not bad, though.

i have the waffle maker of this brand and it is VERY cool. it has a timer and buzzer to tell you when the waffle is ready. i’m hoping that the results from this ice cream maker will be just as good.

i put the main canister in the freezer and tomorrow i’m going to go and buy the ingredients for my first batch of ice cream. i wonder what i shall make. hmmmm. i don’t think that i’ll play it safe and start with vanilla. it’ll have to be something a little more spicy.

cookies and cream?

chocolate?

mint chip?

it’s too hard to decide!

Mad World

All around me are familiar faces
Worn out places
Worn out faces

Bright and early for the daily races
Going nowhere
Going nowhere

Their tears are filling up their glasses
No expression
No expression

Hide my head I wanna drown my sorrow
No tomorrow
No tomorrow

And I find I kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it’s a very, very
Mad world
Mad world

Children waiting for the day they feel good
Happy birthday
Happy birthday

And I feel the way that every child should
Sit and listen
Sit and listen

Went to school and I was very nervous
No one knew me
No one knew me

Hello teacher tell me what’s my lesson
Look right through me
Look right through me

And I find it kind of funny
I find it kind of sad
The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had
I find it hard to tell you
I find it hard to take
When people run in circles it’s a very, very
Mad world
Mad world

Enlarging your world
Mad world

—–

i haven’t seen them in a while, so i’m guessing that amazon has stopped their amazon nickels promotion, but it was good while it lasted. i only had $2.50 worth of nickels saved up, but i finally got around to using it today. what did i get?

i finally broke down and ordered the [url=http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/B0001BXCFS/qid=1078505803//ref=pd_ka_2/102-1653407-0976909?v=glance&s=electronics&n=507846]creative labs muvo 4GB player[/url]. though amazon says that you can preorder it, it looks like they are actually shipping them out. I told myself that if i find it again for $200, i’d grab one and rip it apart for the hitachi microdrive. what i can’t figure out is how hitachi wants to sell this drive for $500 retail, yet devices that use this drive are much, much less. this must mean that hitachi is giving these manufacturers a huge price discount. i just don’t see why.

from what i hear, the apple ipod mini also uses the 4GB microdrive, but i haven’t heard too much about people hacking the ipod mini yet. there are rumors that hitachi turned off CF support or something which makes it useless for digital camera users.

i also ordered an ice cream maker. why? i don’t really know. it was cheap! it looks neat! i’ve always wanted to make ice cream. we’ll see if this will live up to all of the hype.