Geek Habitat

The Olympics brings us many time-honored truths and ritualized behaviors, one of which is near and dear to my heart:

You can NEVER have too many cameras or lenses!

If an athlete shouts, “Show me the money!” the photographers just need to point in unison at their assembled camera gear.

If a big bag o’ money fell out of the sky, I’d really have to fight with the devil on my shoulder not to run to buy at least one new camera body (while I’m dreaming so vividly, it would be a Canon 1D Mark II).

In a very roundabout way, as is the nature of the Net, I was introduced to SOCNET — a website by and for the Special Operations community (the elite; the soldiers all other soldiers hold in highest regard — Special Forces, Rangers, etc.) “Civs” — ordinary civilians like me — are merely tolerated on the forums, and for good reason. We don’t get it, and even if we try, we foul it up with political correctness and assorted B.S., part a fault of Hollywood and part a fault of just living in a different world than these men.

You’re still here?

I haven’t been in a blogging frame of mind thanks to a raging toothache and allergies. Instead, I’ve found myself living in Beyond Compare (programming tool for comparing different versions of the same file/folders) as I work to update one of the primary apps I run on another site. Allergies and a toothache don’t really mesh well with coding, but I’ve been slogging through just the same. Tomorrow, I’m going to call the dentist — it’s to the “Cannot delay any longer!” stage, now. The annoying thing is I saw the dentist months ago for the particular tooth, and he just buffed out a rough edge on the old filling and sent me on my way. I gave him the benefit of the doubt that the occasional pain it was giving me was just irritation, not a cavity. Sure enough, it’s a raging cavity. I can tell this one’s going to be a root canal by the way the pain spikes and subsides to a dull, background sort of pain.

No updates until Sunday or so. We’ll be on the road tomorrow after morning rush hour, heading to Houston to visit Brazos Bend State Park and other sights. I’ve been keeping really odd hours (even for me) lately, and my wrist has been killing me for the past week, so this is a good time to get away from computers and desk-bound work for awhile. Of course, I trade a keyboard for a camera with a heavy lens, so it’s not like my wrist truly gets a break! Really, when you think about it, I’m not sure *what* hobbies don’t potentially cause wrist (or elbow, shoulder or neck) strain when done frequently. Sleeping, perhaps, but that hardly qualifies as a “hobby” (unless you’re a CAT!)

Words We Should Say Every Day
* “Thank you!”
* “How was your day?”
* “I love you.”
* “I love the way you… [fill in the blank]”

Anyone who knows me knows I am an introspective, introverted person. To those who don’t know me, I come off as shy, at best, aloof at the worst. I’ve worked hard to “open up” over the years, but in large part I am content with who I am. I’m just built this way, and would no sooner change my personality dramatically than I would go and get cosmetic surgery.

Reading a soldier’s account of yesterday’s battle in Mosul, Iraq, reminds me of something — our soldiers, the folks most in need of a real vacation, are dealing with some serious shit. The more tired, stressed, scared and battle-weary they get, the more danger they’re in. And what are we accomplishing? We “handed over Iraq to the Iraqis,” but we can see how well that’s working out.

“End of hostilities?” Tell that to a soldier and see how many seconds it takes before you get shoved on your ass!