Don’t get me wrong – I love spring and summer too.   I’m not a HUGE fan of winter, but that’s mostly because I don’t really appreciate driving in snow and ice.  Or being cold.   Autumn is just special for some reason.  

This weekend was fun and relaxing – a great combo – and was much needed after a fairly crappy week last week.  Saturday started off great – with an email from the helpdesk manager at work informing me that a brand new shiny Macbook Pro would be awaiting me upon arrival at work on monday.   Ann and I were fairly lazy in getting up and ready – again nice.   We had lunch at Noodles & Company, before driving to Zionsville to pick up a case of wine my dad ordered.  After we got done with that, and watched an episode of The Big Bang Theory (hilarious show, btw), I went up to Trevor and Landon’s new place in Westfield to play Beatles Rock Band (and assorted other games) for the afternoon/evening.

Sunday was more relaxing, a few errands, a wonderful grilled dinner, a bike ride (with camera), and a nice wind down before what promises to be a hectic week for both Ann and myself.

This morning was nice – the helpdesk manager was true to his word – a new 15″ Macbook Pro was sitting – in it’s box – on my desk when I walked in my office this morning.  I am quite pleased with it – it’s noticeably more responsive and appears not to have the same underlying issues that plagued my previous Macbook Pro (leading, I believe, to massive data loss on no less than three occasions).  I’m very pleased with the upgrade, and it’s made for quite a nice day for a Monday.

I’m looking forward to Halloween this weekend – Ann and I are planning on handing out candy to the neighborhood kids before heading to my parents house to catch some halloween shows on cable (since we don’t have cable).

Also – Friday night is another Indiana Ice game (so, you know, you should totally come…) which I’ll be at taking pictures again.

I’m looking forward to a great week!

This Saturday Ann and I spent the majority of the day being completely and utterly lazy.  We watched some TV (finishing off Leverage season 1) and lounged around the house.  Late saturday afternoon, however, we got cleaned up and went down to our friends house in Greenwood.  These same friends were the awesome photographers who shot our wedding.

We had a wonderful time hanging out with friends  - they are currently on a very short list of “married friends” – grilling ribs, drinking beer, and enjoying a gorgeous saturday evening.

After dinner we went out to the fire pit in their back yard to burn some excess wood that they had laying around their garage – which gave me  and John (his name is John too) an excuse to get out our cameras and do some photography (always fun!).  I’ve really been on a photography kick recently – wanting to grab my camera and just shoot anything and everything.   I’m not so much concerned about getting lots of great photographs as I am just getting photographs.   I experiment, try new things and see what works and what doesn’t.  I shoot digital and have a large storage capacity in my camera, so I can afford to experiment.   Eventually I will dial it down and start shooting more conservatively – focusing not so much on getting lots of pictures – of which one or two are really great.  Instead I’ll focus on taking few pictures, but having ALL of them (or close to it) turn out great.   That’s what I aspire to,  and that’s what I tend to call a good (or great, awesome, stupendous, amazing, incredible) photographer.   For now, I’m still an amateur.   I’m OK with that.

While we did that Ann played with their daughter Molly – a 45 minute game of tag combined with swinging on a swing set and generally being silly.  I could tell Ann was having a blast, as she seemed to have a big grin plastered to her face the whole evening.   She loves kids, and consequently is great with them.   Molly seems to really enjoy playing with Ann too and I got several pictures of the two of them goofing off.  It made me look forward to when we have kids of our own, knowing that I’ll get to see that kind of joy – and get to photograph it – as they grow up.

We also played with their dog – a beautiful German Shepherd named Rain – for a while.   That might just be one of the most hyper dogs I’ve ever seen.  She got super-excited by a group of ducks that she took of running after them – running right through the invisible fence that kept her in the yard.  She took that opportunity to run around the pond adjacent to their house, prompting John and Molly to go chasing after her.   Eventually they herded her back towards their house and I crouched down and called her over as she approached.  Much to my surprise – rather than running from me she came right up to me to be petted.  It *almost* made me want to get a dog.  Ann really wants one, and I don’t.   I don’t think we’ve got enough space, nor do we have enough time, to really take care of one.

Rain was tired afterwards and laid down to rest – giving me a great opportunity to snap some pictures.  I’d not taken pictures of dogs before,  mainly because we don’t have any.   I’ve done cats plenty of time, and they rarely give me the opportunity to frame a good shot.  Rain, however, seemed perfectly content to lay there as I took pictures – allowing me to get a few good ones that I really liked.   I’ll admit, it was a nice change over shooting Cats.

Once the sun started going down the mosquitos came out en-force.  Ann was tired after running around with Molly, and John and I had taken all the photos we were going to.   The fire had wound down as well, so we decided to head back in the house where John and I played Nazi Zombies (part of COD World at War) and Ann pretended to study (but instead watched us play.   This also got her to say that she really wanted an XBox).   And so the rest of the night went,   a mixture of rounds of Nazi Zombies and hanging out, snacking and talking.  It was an awesome time hanging out with friends, and something we certainly don’t get to do often enough.

Now, I look forward to the week ahead and all of the exciting things that are part of it.  Tuesday night brings the Cloud Computing group meeting at BlueLock, which I’ll be attending for the first time.   Thursday brings a much needed back massage and dinner / hanging out with my good friend Jason.   Add to the week my first batch of Chili this season,  probably grilling several times, and spending time with my best friend (who is also my wife), and I’ve certainly got a lot to look forward to.

To see more photos from that night, check out the Flickr set I created for them.

Some nights, though,  we eschew the normal routine and do something a little different – and tonight was one of those nights.  While trying to decide what to make for dinner (rifling through our pantry trying to figure out what we even HAD to make), Ann made an offhanded comment about our neighbors bbq-ing. That in turn made me want to grill,  so we decided to go to the store and get some hamburgers to grill (and pick up a few other things we needed anyway).  So – off to the store we went.

When we came back, after putting away the groceries, I went outside to fire up the grill.   Ann followed me out,  school book in hand, to study outside on the deck while I grilled.   After starting the grill – I went and grabbed my camera to do some photography in the backyard.

And so it went – Ann intently studying on the deck while I wandered around the back yard taking photographs of anything and everything I could think of.   I used a short wide-angle lens to do nearly every shot I took – trying to get used to shooting in that format in preparation for a new lens I’m getting soon (a 10-20mm super wide angle).  I have to say I enjoy it a lot more than I thought I might.

I took some shots of plants,  of Ann,  of the grill and my yard in general.   For the first time in a few months I really enjoyed the photographic process and it has made me want to shoot more, and try new things again.   I also thoroughly enjoyed spending time in close proximity to Ann and grilling burgers for dinner.   I’m pretty happy with the photos I managed to snap as well – and look forward to doing more and improving as I do.

After dinner we did go our separate ways – Ann to her office and me to mine, though Ann did get some poking and prodding with her instruments in as well.   I think I’ve had my ears, eyes and nose checked more in the past few weeks than in the previous 27 years I’ve been on this planet.   I don’t mind, though – at least I know I’m healthy.

I also found out through a friend at work, a fellow photographer, about a photography club here in Indianapolis that meets weekly.  I’m considering checking this out as I want to a.) meet new photographers and b.) enhance my own skills and experience.  Photography comes in as my third favorite thing in life (behind Ann and computers, in that order).  I think it’s time I gave it a little more attention and nurture my fledgling skills.

For those wondering – all of the images in this post were taken this evening while out goofing off with Ann.   I posted a few more than these on my flickr page (linked to the right), if you’re interested in seeing more.

After college, while I was working on building up Proxito, I decided to take the plunge and get a digital camera.  Being new to photography, and much closer to being broke than I’d like to ever admit ( I co-founded a startup – I did NOT have money at this point in my life), I bought a fairly cheap point and shoot from Sony. It got the job done, and in the process awoke something in me that I didn’t know was there before, my inner-photographer.

About a year and a half ago I took the plunge and – for my birthday – bought myself a D-SLR from Canon. I got an entry level camera, the Rebel XTi, and made the (unfortunate) decision to get the body WITH kit lens. For quite a while I had just that one lens, which I now look on as an embarrassingly bad lens. Over the course of that year and a half I bought progressively better lenses, including the crown jewel of my lens collection – my Canon 70-200mm f/2.8L USM, which I use for shooting hockey (thanks Wikman!), amongst other things.

As my buddy John Wikman – a fellow photographer – told me: The bug has definitely bitten.

I recently picked up a photography field guide from the folks at National Geographic. It’s got some good tips and pointers on catching great shots with greater consistency, and I am looking forward to putting some of them into practice. I’m looking forward to the fall, with the changing colors all around. It should provide for some great stuff.

On May 30th, a few short weeks ago, I got married to a wonderful, amazing, beautiful woman – Ann. The wedding ceremony was beautiful, and the reception was everything I hoped it could/would be. The ceremony was at Holy Rosary Catholic Church in downtown Indianapolis, and was followed by a reception in the back yard at my parents house. The weather forecast called for rain most of the day, and that morning I prayed for the weather to hold out until AFTER the reception. I believe my exact words were something along the lines of “just please let the rain hold off until after the reception, then you can unleash whatever hell you want to”. Interestingly enough, about 5 minutes after the reception ended the severe weather sirens went off and we spotted a funnel cloud with a tornado starting to come down. It was, thankfully, moving away from us.

Ann and I followed our wedding with a week in Florida, which provided a nice and relaxing start to our marriage. You just can’t beat floating around in a pool, relaxing on the beach, and getting splashed by a 12,000 pound killer whale. We also saw dolphins, both in captivity and in the wild (feeding them in captivity, and having one swim up and past us slowly in the wild, we believe to say hello). We spent several evenings in a pool-side spa drinking wine and watching the sunset. We ate some really great food (including an absolutely amazing peanut butter chocolate truffle pie) and generally had the time of our lives.

Then we came home and opened wedding presents. It was like Christmas. We got a lot of great and amazing stuff. We also had a huge volume of trash from boxes, wrapping paper, etc. I think the trash collectors hate coming to our house now. Ann says he looked especially pissed off this week.

Things are starting to settle down, now, and Ann and I are relaxing into our lives together. I couldn’t be happier than I am now, waking up next to the love of my life every single day.   

Now, you’re probably thinking “so, if you got married on the 30th, and only took a week for the honeymoon, why have you not written anything about it until now?!”

The answer is fairly simple – it’s a matter of time. I’m back to work full time doing information security work for an amazing one to one marketing company. On top of that I’m helping some friends at the Open InfoSec Foundation by performing some contract work at night and in free time.

This coming Saturday I’m getting my feet wet with Motor Sports photography, as I’ve landed some credentials to shoot at the Mid-Ohio grand-am race. We’re leaving at 3am to make it to the track in time to get setup and start shooting when the drivers and cars come out, and the actual race is at 5pm, meaning it’s going to be a VERY long day. It should be fun, though, and having access is always nice.

My new job has been, to date, fantastic. I thoroughly enjoy the work, as well as the people. The company itself is great – they demand a lot from their employees, but they reward that by giving employees everything they need to be successful and taking care of employees. It’s a wonderful change of pace from my recent employment where they demanded a lot but gave little back to the employees. They would be angry at me if they heard me say that: as far as the leadership team there sees it – they give a lot back to employees. Unfortunately, the leadership team for the company is out of touch with the Indianapolis office, and are only slowly becoming aware that it’s not a friendly or nice place to work. The contrast between where I am now and where I came from is night and day.

In other developments – This past weekend was decent. It would have been great, but Ann’s mom was in town (which in and of itself isn’t a bad thing), and Ann and I did not get to spend the weekend hanging out together like we normally do (which in and of itself IS a bad thing). My buddy Trevor had a birthday party (along with his sister and two of her friends whose birthdays all fell within roughly a few weeks of each other). It was…. interesting. There was plenty of drinking going on, as I expected there would be. There were also a lot of weird people who I did not know all that well (I had met most of them before at least once, but didn’t know any of them beyond having met them in passing). One of these strange people insisted that I looked very much like Steve Guttenburg, to the point where he was asking random other partygoers what they thought on the matter. (For those who have no idea who Steve Guttenburg is, he was Carey Mahoney in Police Academy, and one of the dudes in 3 Men and a Baby). Personally, I have no idea what the guy was talking about – I look NOTHING like Steve Guttenburg.

In other, other developments – I bought a new lens for my dSLR camera. It’s a Cannon 70-200mm f/2.8L, and it’s awesome. I plan on using it quite a bit in the coming months – first and foremost to shoot hockey with, but also to shoot nature and other stuff while I am out and about with Ann. The only downside is that it’s bulky and kinda heavy, but that’s the price you gotta pay for good glass. Well, that and the actual price of the lens.

And with that, I leave you all. For now. This coming week at work is New Employee Orientation (NEO), which I’ve been told will last approximately 4 days. Normally this would be the first thing a new employee is exposed to, but due to my circumstances they allowed me to start two weeks ago – so I’m getting it on my third week on the job. I have a feeling I will be putting in a lot of work from home in the evenings to make sure I’m caught up.   

Maybe I’ll write some more in the near future

* Blagging is taken from the XKCD web comic. It’s a mispronunciation of “blogging”, and is used in the comic as “blag”. Click the link above to see the actual comic.

Part of being an adult is finding a job,  and then using that job to catapult your career forwards.  Some find jobs and stay with them indefinitely.  Others hop from job to job every few months.   Still others stay for a while, but over time trend upwards in their positions as promotions are passed down to them.  Very few, however, really enjoy their work.  How can I make this claim?     Well – it’s based off observation.  How many times have you heard someone say “Wow, I LOVE my job!” versus someone saying “Work sucks, I want to go home”?   I hear the latter more often than the former. 

That’s a pretty big problem, hating your job.  Since you spend the VAST MAJORITY of your waking adult life slaving away, it’s probably pretty important that you actually enjoy what you do – otherwise you’re in for a world of hurt.  You can probably survive for a year, maybe two, but eventually you’ll just grow to hate it so much that the thought of going into work will cause physical manifestations of your dislike for it.  I have SEEN someone get physically sick because they remembered on a Sunday afternoon that they had to go to work in the morning.

I KNOW this, yet I find myself where many Americans (and probably other nationalities too) find themselves – in a job I don’t particularly like.  It’s not that I don’t like the TYPE of work I am doing, or even that I don’t like the company I’m doing it for (both, on their own, I like). It’s when you put the two together that I don’t like it.

I currently do more policy work, and attending meetings, than actual hands-on technical work.  I miss the hands-on work, the stuff that I really enjoy doing.  I hate policy (especially when nobody reads it and gives you feedback on it…. After over a month….. and after requesting a response on it, repeatedly…. I digress), I abhor meetings (especially pointless ones where nothing happens) and I dislike working for a company that doesn’t give me the authority to operate effectively. 

I’ve been trying to determine my calling.    To figure out what, exactly, I’m supposed to be doing with my life. 

This past weekend I went with the team photographer for the Indiana Ice to go photograph one of their games.  I’ve been into photography for a while, but just this year got more serious about it – getting a DSLR and trying out new and different types of photography.  The chance to try sports photography from an incredible vantage point was awesome – I couldn’t pass it up.     

I had a great time at the game and really hope I have the opportunity to do it again.  You can see my pictures from the game here.

If I thought I could make money doing it, I’d turn to photography as a career.    I know I’m not nearly good enough a photographer to do that, though, so onward I march in the rat-race I call my career.