Tamales

It had been awhile since my last batch of tamales, and after a late start I made a "small" batch of about 90 tamales on Saturday. They weren't my best, but other people find even my average tamales to be really good. I took some to Jason's school for his teacher. When I picked him up, I learned his teacher never saw them--the morning teachers ate them all! This is not the first time my tamales have disappeared during delivery.

Jason and I were watching Monday Night Countdown earlier tonight, and they showed a clip of one of Rex Grossman's interceptions. Without any prompting from me, Jason said "Aw, man!" in clear disappointment. He's already a Bears fan.

DPC: Candy

Forgotten Treasure

My latest DPC entry was not well received, falling to 2nd from last out of over 100 images. I tried a minimalist style, just one skittle under a soft light, alone like homeless person under a street light. The skittle's surface gave off a glare that made the color version look too washed out, so I desaturated it.

Ambient Light

Yesterday I had my very first photography class, organized by the Chicago MeetUp social network. Eight of us were split between the Ambient Light and Studio Light. The instructor chose to use nude models, explaining that if we could learn to control light and shadow on something difficult like a nude model, we'd be fine for other subjects. Jill and Irene, the models, were patient with those of us who were new to working with models.

I was in the Ambient Light group. We did use a modeling light, since the room was very dark otherwise. Even so, I found I had to set my ISO to 800, and open my lens to f/1.6 to f/1.8. Some of my 170 pictures turned out very well, and will find their way online soon.

Week 1 in the NFL

I watched most of the Bears/Chargers game, and the Bears are going to really miss Thomas Jones. Cedric Benson, even in the preseason, looks hesitant behind the line, and lacks the burst of Jones. I think the Bears will still win the NFC North, but it might be with just 9 wins.

Patrick Willis looks like he'll be a dominating linebacker for a very long time. Good pick by the 49ers.

In FantasyLand, I got absolutely crushed in my normal league, got knocked out in the survivor league (thanks, Miami), but my Loser League overcame the strong game of Lamont Jordan. My scrubs were so bad, most of them won't be starting next week.

Jason's Pictures

I'm well aware that the website I have for my son can be very slow, and most of that is the fault of my webhosting service. Dreamhost is fine for email, online disk, and a remote shell, but having it host a site using Gallery has been getting to me. I'm looking into writing a web gallery template for Aperture, and posting static pages of pictures. This might take me awhile, given life's other priorities.

Finally..

It's been a long summer. The only baseball team I follow, the Oakland A's, have been reduced to "playing out the string" for some time now. I have no interest in the local teams, though it is sometimes fun to read about Ozzie Guillen cry about his team's woes. But now, it's Football Season.

Go Bears!

I've thrown myself into three fantasy football leagues: a "normal" one hosted by Yahoo, a "pick a loser" survivor league (also hosted by Yahoo), and I've set up a Fantasy Scrubs League. I've been playing Madden 07 on my Wii (which has much better feel than Madden 08), and I'm ready to enjoy some real games.

Totally Random Predictions: Division Winners
NFC West: Seattle Seahawks
NFC North: Chicago Bears
NFC East: Philadelpha Eagles
NFC South: New Orleans Saints
AFC West: San Diego Chargers
AFC North: Baltimore Ravens
AFC East: New England Patriots
AFC South: Indianapolis Colts

Superbowl: Colts defeat the Eagles