Annuals

Once again, I didn't get here to write.  No apologies.  I could have found time, but I might have had to give up some of my precious down time.  I did get oodles done yesterday.  Work, some accounting homework, more work, real socialization, history class, electronic socialization, and some photography.  Okay, it's not nearly as impressive written down as it felt at the time.

Accounting homework SUCKS!  Actually, the homework itself is alright.  It's the interface that really sucks.  It's inefficient to move around in.  Really.  It's worse than if we had to use those lovely green columnar papers.  Yeah, the ones I am young enough to never have had to use.  The homework, practice test, and a few other exercises are all done through an online interface on the computer, and typically, you get a big chunk of information at the beginning and then you scroll down to enter numbers and accounts based on the information provided.  In some cases, you can "pop out" the information so you can see it while you're entering.  In others, you have to scroll back and forth.  At some times, the "popped out" information you can drag and drop to a slightly better location, allowing you to SEE where you're entering answers.  Other times, it's not mobile.  The inconsistency of the interface adds to my frustration with it.  Sadly, the teacher is kind of the same.  Sometimes she's really  helpful, but when we students were reporting problems with this interface (ex. a question repeated 2-3 times in an exercise), she merely offered to remove the exercise.  I think she was offended.  Also, her communication methods are about as inconsistent as our homework interface is.  Don't get me wrong, she's probably a great accountant, but I've been less than satisfied with my experience with her as a teacher.

One of my gal friends at work asked me to take a picture of these pretty little flowers growing in a bed outside our building.  Last night I got the chance.  I know the yellow one is a pansy (or at least I think it is), but I don't know what the purple ones are called.  They smell good.  And I meant to get some for My Amazing Boyfriend for Valentines day, but I couldn't find any of the bulbs.  He ended up with what will hopefully be cala lilies.  While I was shooting these pictures, I got caught.  Another lady from upstairs suddenly calls out, "What are you doing?"   Because I was sitting on the ground with my bright pink Pentax camera pointing a giant lens at the flower bed.  (I thought it was kind of obvious.)  So we had a brief discussion about getting into photography.  She liked Pinky.  And here's one of the results from last night's little shoot!

Some observations about what might make this a better photo:  light for one thing.  There just wasn't much available at the time as the sun was going down and it was a bit overcast.  I had the aperture ALL the way open so I could get more light in there, which affected my depth of field significantly.  Two technical aspects would have helped this "session".  A tripod (even a monopod would have made some difference), and/or a speedlight with a diffuser.  I don't like to use the incamera flash as it is harsh and glaring.  Some times that's appropriate, but I didn't think this was one of them.  Yes, I have speedlight and diffuser on my wish list.  Maybe I should do something about that wish list!  I did just get my tax return and a portion of that money is supposed to go towards the wish list.  Amazon, here I come!!