Wanted: Entry-level digital SLR recommendations

I've grown increasingly unhappy with the quality of my digital photos. I feel that I could be doing so much more if I had a camera with more manual options. I think I'm ready to move to an SLR.

Even though I've been taking pictures since I was a teenager, I'm a novice when it comes to camera use. I don't want to go out and spend several thousand dollars on a camera without knowing what features I want. Instead, I'd like to buy a gateway camera, something that I can use to get my feet wet in "real" photography. I'd like to spend a few hundred.

Anyone have recommendations?

Stay away from the farm: Swine flu

If you've been sick recently, doubtless someone has joked, "Maybe it's swine flu!" The name may be funny, but the issue is serious. The virus is spreading and has already killed.

While it probably started in pigs, it's obviously moving human to human now. So while avoiding pigs and birds is a no-brainer, there are other things you'll want to do as well. Wash your hands, take your vitamins, try not to touch your mouth or nose, and stay away from sick people if you can. Make sure you're getting enough sleep, eating healthily, and exercising. If you do get sick, don't go to school or work. There is no vaccine, so be careful!

Here's some general information about the outbreak.

Here's some general information about swine flu from the CDC.

Here's more specific information about the current outbreak from the CDC.

Here's the CDC's main page about swine flu, with links to more resources.

Here's an interactive map of locations where swine flu has been reported and confirmed.

And here's a dose of reality. Do some research before you freak out! Remember, you can't get swine flu from eating pork--it's a flu virus. Just do what you would normally do to avoid getting sick, and pay attention to whether or not swine flu has been reported in your area.

The Best Salad Ever

Today when I got home from a lovely hour-long bike ride at the Greeneway I was in the mood for a serious salad. I immediately started pulling all the fruits and vegetables out of the fridge. A little washing and chopping, and voila:

In this salad:

• spring mix
• locally-grown, fresh English peas
• 1 locally-grown tomato
• seedless red grapes
• strawberries
• baby carrots, sectioned
• 1/8 cup shredded sharp cheddar cheese
• a handful of celery stalks

I intended to use a packet of Berry Balsamic Vinaigrette from Chick-fil-A, but that turned out to be completely unnecessary. The salad was absolutely amazing just as it was. I enjoyed it at my desk with the blinds open while working on my laptop:

Chocolate Banana Bread and Muffins

A couple weeks ago I made chocolate banana bread and muffins. I promised at the time to post the recipe, but then never got around to it. This post is a product of my recent energy and motivation!

I got the original bread recipe from allrecipes.com, here. I made a couple of changes to the already light recipe to cut out more calories and fat. Also, since I didn't have two loaf pans, I used half the dough on a loaf and the other half on muffins.

They turned out extremely well--moist and delicious! I brought the bread to work and no one could tell it was "light".

Ingredients

• 1 cup margarine, softened
• 2 cups baking Splenda
• 2 eggs
• 2 egg beaters
• 6 bananas, mashed
• 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 3 cups all-purpose flour
• 2 teaspoons baking soda
• 1/4 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
• 1 cup light sour cream
• 1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (175 degrees C). Lightly grease one 9x5 inch loaf pan and one 12-cup muffin tin.
2. In a large bowl, cream together margarine, Splenda, eggs, and egg substitute. Stir in bananas and vanilla. Sift in flour, baking soda and cocoa; mix well. Blend in sour cream and chocolate chips. Scoop batter by 1/4 cup into muffin cups; pour rest into loaf pan.
3. Bake muffins in preheated oven 15-20 minutes. Bake loaf for 60 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.

More pictures of the baking process can be found here.

Flowers under the bridge

Near Hammond's Ferry on the Greeneway. What a great idea!

First ride since the muddy Canal

I probably ought to wash my bike...

New "Latest Links" item in right menu

I've added an item to my sidebar called "Latest Links". It pulls the 15 most recent items I've bookmarked on Delicious into this page. Now it's easy for you to see what I'm reading and looking at online.

I've been doing a lot more reading lately, and there are plenty of interesting things out there to share with everyone. However, I didn't want to become a link-poster on Twitter. Twitter's not about sharing links; it's about giving people a window into your life, and working on crafting succinct, evocative prose. At least, that's what I want to use it for!

In the old days I used to post link roundups here on my blog, but I didn't want to go back to doing that either. I often don't have much to say about a link other than a brief observation, and I don't think that warrants a blog post. If I do have a lot to say, of course, I'll post it...but I really don't have time to discuss the minutiae of everything I see.

Delicious suits quickly sharing content perfectly.

I first tried the service in 2005. Back then I was trying to use it to organize permanent bookmarks, not to share interesting links. I didn't really get it, and I ended up quitting pretty quickly. Now, though, I realize that it does exactly what I need!

You can find me on Delicious here.

The corpse of the premodern Japanese studies field

Frog in the Well posted about two classical Japanese studies symposiums, one this weekend and one coming up in May. They both sound fascinating! While I would love to go, that isn't the reason I'm posting. I just wanted to spotlight the opening paragraphs of the announcement post, which made me smile:

Premodernists, particularly those who focus on history, sometimes feel gloomy about the state of premodern Japanese studies in the U.S., where a number of large graduate programs have shrunk, disappeared, or fundamentally changed in emphasis in the past two decades. Some of us have even been known to eulogize the field, as if the heart of our collective endeavors had already stopped beating. Is the field more like a rotting corpse, or perhaps a mummified one? Have we been subject to cremation, leaving behind only bone fragments to be buried in an urn? Or was the corpse of the field left lying on the banks of the river, food for the crows and source of anxiety for locals, known as "wind burial"? (Thanks, PMJS!)

Two upcoming events prove that the rumors of the death of medieval Japanese studies were greatly exaggerated.

Love it.

The original Terminator

So apparently the next Terminator movie will feature Arnold Schwarzenegger...or at least a CGI version of him, created from a full body mold taken when he made the first movie.

I'm actually pretty excited about this. I love continuity and cameos. I was only mildly interested in the movie before; now I actually feel like seeing it.

When we first started seeing CGI in movies, I was unimpressed. It looked fake and, worse, like it was drawn on top of the scene rather than existing in it. I could spot even the best-rendered model.

Around the time of the Star Wars prequels, that began to change. Watching those movies, I knew that most of what I was looking at didn't actually exist...but it was all seamless. Nothing looked like it had been added in later. Part of that was surely due to more realistic modeling, but I believe the fact that the movies were filmed digitally also made a difference. After that, it started getting harder to tell what had existed tangibly and what had been created with a computer.

At one time, I believed CGI could never surpass stop-motion animation in terms of feeling real. Despite the sometimes jerky movements, stop-motion objects have always had a depth to them. You got a sense, looking at them, that you could touch them. But nowadays I am rarely jarred when I see a computer-animated portion of a movie, and sometimes I don't realize it at all.

I don't know if I'm just getting used to CGI or if it's improved to the point that it looks real, but whatever it is, it has changed my approach to computer animation. Ten years go, upon hearing that a CGI version of Schwarzenegger was going to be in a movie, I would have thrown up my hands in annoyance and despair. But today, I think it's going to be awesome.

Don't run

I mentioned in my previous post that I've always had a problem properly pacing myself. Here's a little story that illustrates that fact pretty well.

My first trip to Japan in 2001 was not a leisurely excursion. We were constantly on the move and we were always walking, whether it was to explore a certain area or just to get to our next destination.

In Kyoto, we spent a day wandering through the sprawling temples and shrines of Mt. Hiei. It was long day of hiking through the mountains.

Towards the end of the day we were headed back the way we came, so we could get to a trolley that would take us back down the mountain. We came to a temple at the foot of a long flight of wide stone stairs. I was feeling good. I'd made it through the long day and felt energetic enough to tackle those steps. And so I started briskly jogging up, to make the trip to the top shorter.

Our instructor Todd and my classmate Jason, both experienced hikers, immediately yelled at me, "No! Don't run!" Startled, I slowed down as they explained: running up the stairs would take more energy than walking up them, and I'd wear myself out for the rest of the trip back.

I wasn't sure I believed this was true. At least if I ran I could get it over with, and I might even enjoy it. Plodding up the stairs seemed like a neverending trial.

Still, I did as they suggested. It turned out that after that we had longer to go to the trolley than I'd thought. By the end of our hike my legs were only moving through the sheer force of my will. The trolley ride was but a brief respite, and soon we were trudging through the streets of Kyoto. When finally we stopped at a restaurant for a meal, I was so exhausted that all I could manage to eat was a bowl of white rice.

I wondered how it would have been if I had gone ahead and run the stairs. Would I have even made it to the trolley?

I realized even then that this story was a metaphor for life, but until yesterday I hadn't applied it to my work. Now I see that I've been trying to run from 10 in the morning until 7 at night. Some days I've managed it. Some days I've stumbled. And some days I've been numb while I recovered. The end result? I've managed to excel at work, but pretty much everything else has fallen to the wayside.

I want to do more. I don't want to pass out before I even get to the trolley.

I'll just have to remember, when the urge to plow into a project consumes me, the lesson I learned on that historic mountain.

Don't run.

Living life in the long term

I've done a lot of restructuring in my life in the past several days. Obviously, my blog template has changed. I've shifted from my dated, tables-based layout to a CSS layout with an external stylesheet and content elements pulled in via PHP. It's a change I've wanted to make since 2004, and I'll be documenting the process in a later post.

While I was at it, I went ahead and changed a few other things. I gave up on Google Reader, for one. I'd always felt like I should be using it, since so many others sing its praises, and awhile back I made the switch. However, I was never happy with the way Reader's blogroll functionality worked. I shifted back primarily because that would allow me to use Bloglines' nice, organized blogroll again. But then I actually went to view my feeds in Bloglines...and something amazing happened.

I started reading.

When that happened I realized that I hadn't been reading for a very long time.

Oh, here and there I'd read a blog post in Google Reader. But mostly I'd skim the headlines and mark things as read to get them out of my sight. And I had stopped reading news completely.

Something about being in Bloglines again, seeing my feeds organized in the nice folders I'd made, gave me fresh energy. I felt comfortable, yet energized.

I read.

I read blogs. I read news. I looked at photos and paintings. I began to reconnect with my intellectual side. I'd felt vaguely that it had been absent, but up until I was actually absorbing and analyzing new information, I hadn't fully comprehended the depths of my recent superficiality.

One apparent cause behind my slow slip into mindlessness was my choice to abandon my familiar tool, Bloglines. At work the next day, I suddenly recognized another cause.

I haven't been pacing myself.

I've always had the problem of throwing myself 100% at whatever I'm doing, finishing up quickly and spectacularly. This works for some projects, like a piece of writing, or an infrequent chore. Applying this overenthusiasm to things like exercise and daily work does get a lot accomplished in the short term, but ultimately it leaves me tired, frustrated, burned out, trapped.

I realized that if I want to improve myself, I have to slow down and give myself the gifts of time and energy. I can't leave work tired, brainless, unable to do much of anything besides zonk out in front of the TV. There's no room in a life like that for my personal projects: reading, writing, photography, building ideas, getting healthy. There's no enjoyment in a life like that.

I have to start looking at the things I need to accomplish, all of them, including work, in the long term. I have to step back and evaluate priorities, and string them out along a timeline in a reasonable manner--a manner that gives me some breathing room.

I've been reading more, writing more, and thinking more lately. I've also been happy. It's not the euphoria that leads to a depressive crash, either. It's a general sense of wellness, of purpose. It's the desire to better myself, and the confidence that I can do it.

This is how I want to continue living.

The Great Santini

The other day I posted on Twitter, "It is absolutely GORGEOUS outside in Augusta, Georgia!" Stu responded that that tweet put him in the mood to reread his Pat Conroy novels. I'd never read any Conroy, so I asked Stu for suggestions, and on his advice started reading The Great Santini. This post contains my thoughts so far; I've just made it to Chapter 12.

(Since I'm reading on my iPhone's Kindle app, I can't reference page numbers, so I will quote the text where appropriate.)

The book's about a family dealing with an abusive father, a Marine fighter pilot named Bull Meecham who is known as "The Great Santini". The prose simmers with nervous tension as it draws slowly towards what you know is coming, what has been foreshadowed from the beginning. You don't see the abuse directly at first. You have to wait several chapters for it. Instead, you see almost-abuse. The story flirts with the line Bull Meecham will cross, and since you don't know where the line actually is, you never know when something bad might happen. It's very artfully done. It gives you the same feelings the children are dealing with.

The first horror is a fairly small one compared to the dreadful things Bull Meecham has been threatening. But that leads to some specific revelations that up the tension. It's certainly not over yet. I'm curious as to where it will go and what conclusions will be drawn.

One thing that has struck me, though, is the somewhat uneven writing. At times Conroy's prose shines, leaves me in awe. From the last paragraph of Chapter 9:

Here in the night [Ben] thought that somehow the secret of this marsh-haunted land resided in the quivering flesh of oysters, the rich-flavored meat of crabs, the limp of the flower boy, and the eggs of the great turtles that navigated toward their birthing sands through waters bright with the moon.

But other times Conroy does a little too much "tell" and not nearly enough "show". There are even times when the perspective changes so abruptly that entire blocks of prose are cast in confusion, and I'm not sure that effect was intentional.

In Chapter 10, our third-person limited narrator brings us the basketball match between Bull and his son Ben through general descriptions of the action and glimpses into Ben's thoughts. The entire chapter could be said to come from Ben's perspective...save for an odd paragraph:

...Ben thought that he had a great equalizer working for him, called youth.

Ben was five feet ten inches tall and weighed 165 pounds; his father was six feet four inches tall and weighed 220 pounds. But Ben had been correct when he observed that Bull had thickened over the last years. He had become heavy in the thighs, stomach, and buttocks. The fast places had eroded. Rolls of fat encircled him and he wore the sweat suit to keep his new ballast unexposed. He was planning to lose weight anyway. There was nothing Bull Meecham hated worse than a fat Marine.

It took a long time for Bull to warm up and it gave Ben the chance to study his moves.

This sudden intrusion and just as sudden withdrawal of Bull's perspective is extremely jarring. This isn't the first time we see Bull's thoughts, but it is the most awkward so far. If the text had continued in Bull's perspective it would have been fine, but instead it snaps right back to Ben's.

I considered whether or not that paragraph was Ben's impression of his father's thoughts, but it doesn't really read that way--especially not the line "he was planning to lose weight anyway".

Chapter 9 begins with a description of a woman who has come to the Meecham house. We do not see her thoughts. As if watching a movie, we read about how she arrives at dawn and waits. Then we see Bull Meecham run out the back door, and before we know it we're in his mind.

The woman was sitting on the back steps when Bull Meecham hurried out the back door. He was on his way to the air station for additional briefings on the squadron he would soon command. Before he reached the first step, he stopped and regarded the dark Buddha blocking his passage. If there was a single group in America that Bull had difficulty with over the simplest forms of address, it was southern blacks. He had nothing at all to say to them so he generally retreated into his self-aggrandized mythology.

This paragraph should have stopped with the word "passage". The last two sentences give us information, but not knowledge. They sound like a description Conroy might use in a character profile to remind himself how Bull should act. As I wrote on Twitter, it seems apologist. "Here's why Bull's acting like himself."

We could understand these points about Bull by observing his actions. We don't need to have it all spelled out.

And where is this commentary about Bull coming from, anyway? Our narrator sometimes has Ben's observations, very rarely Bull's or another character's, and then sometimes, as now, a seemingly objective insight. The shifts are confusing and break the rhythm of the prose.

Just as we sometimes get too far into a character's head or receive a bit too much spoon-feeding, sometimes we also don't get enough description of the action of a scene. In Chapter 10, Bull says hurtful things to his children, but they don't seem much different from the things he typically says, so when all of a sudden the kids are crying, I'm surprised. I could have used a few more details to ease the transition. Not an explanation of why being teased for being short would upset Matt, but an inkling of his mental state before and during the teasing. Was his face flushed? Did he look earnest when he was begging to be allowed to play basketball? Sometimes you have to read a little too far between the lines, and other times there's nothing to read because it's all overexplained.

Conroy shines when he's presenting action and dialogue. One of the most powerful scenes, Ben's talk with his mother in Chapter 11, includes very little description at all. There's repetition of three themes--shoe tying and untying, cigarette lighting and smoking, and Bull's basketball practice outside--and then there's revelatory dialogue, evocative in its sarcastic directness. And that's all that's needed.

The best scenes with Bull don't go into his head at all, but simply describe his behavior: Chapters 1 and 6, in which he gets up to no good in his natural habitat, give us far more insight into the man than a discussion of his history, pride, and competitiveness ever could.

The problems seem to crop up during critical scenes involving Bull's abusive behavior--scenes between Bull and his children. I'm wondering if that's the reason for it.

It's known that this book is based on Conroy's own childhood experiences. This sort of thing has got to be difficult to write about, especially when it's happened to you. I've never been the victim of physical abuse, but I can relate in other ways. There's a guilt and a shame that are extremely hard to get past.

It's easier to deal with individual pieces of the puzzle than it is to attack the main problem all at once. That could explain why scenes involving Bull and Ben on their own are fantastic while scenes in which they interact are less so.

Were I Conroy's editor, I would suggest not writing or appearing to write from Bull's perspective at all. I'd treat all standard scenes as if I were an objective, non-omniscient observer, including scenes involving Bull. But I'd go into Ben's head. The book may be called The Great Santini, but it's about Ben. That was made obvious in Chapter 2. If Ben's in a scene, I want to see the scene through him--and not through anyone else.

Those are my observations so far. Of course, I'm not done. We'll have to see how my evaluation changes as I continue reading.

Getting there

I'm pretty happy with this color scheme. I'm going to be working on the sidebar and top/bottom navigation, so those aren't final yet. I'm also going to be adding a graphical header. But I like how it's coming along :)

Don't mind this

This is not what my blog is going to look like long-term. I just got tired of knowing my template was broken and built with tables, so I took an hour this morning and tweaked an existing Blogger template. This is step one in a redesign that I promise will be pretty and standards-compliant!

Brick Pond Park

I didn't cut my hair, it's just hiding.

New email subscription setup

Up until recently I had been using Yahoo! Groups to provide a mailing list for my blog posts. However, I've been wanting to burn my RSS feed with FeedBurner for quite some time, and I finally did that the other day. FeedBurner also offers an email subscription service, so I decided to use that instead of Yahoo! Groups.

Anyone who may have been subscribed to my Yahoo! Groups email updates will need to resubscribe via the new "subscribe via email" form in the sidebar. (I think there were two people signed up. Sorry for the inconvenience, guys! ;>)

Augusta's under construction

The following is a conversation I just had with my coworker Lisa C.

Me: I can't believe they think they're going to get a baseball stadium built by 2011.

Lisa: You never know; miracles happen.

Me: Have you seen Bobby Jones and I-20?

Lisa: I live that dream every day.

Setting a routine

On Tuesdays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays, I see my personal trainer at 8am. This causes me to adhere to a strict morning schedule. Unfortunately, on other days I am less rigid. On weekdays this means I might sleep in and not work out at all. On weekends I likely won't do anything productive.

I've decided that the best way to make sure I'm on track each day is to set up a routine that I'll do every morning, regardless of what day it is. I can then add items to my evening and weekend schedule as appropriate.

Here's a rough draft of what I'm thinking:

7am-8am: Wake up, do a little reading, get dressed in workout clothes.

8am-9am: Work out, either with N or on my own.

9am-9:30am: Shower and pack lunch.

9:30am-10am: Commute.

10am-7pm: Work. Try to get in a photowalk at lunch :)

7pm-7:30pm: Commute.

7:30pm-9pm: Work on projects.

9pm-11pm: Goof off.

11pm-7am: Sleep.

The latest step in my attempt to eat the entire universe

Chicken salad sandwich and vegetable soup.

Second measurement data

Submitted without comment (because I have no time and because I'm annoyed), here are my measurements from today alongside my measurements from last time.

Height (in)	63.3	63.3	-
Weight (lbs)	214	217.2	+3.2
Chest Girth (in)	45	45.25	-.25
Abdomen Girth (in)	40.75	41.5	+.75
Waist Girth (in)	40.5	40	-.5
Hips Girth (in)	49	49.5	+.5
Waist to Hip Ratio	.83	.8265	-.003
Bicep Girth R (in)	14.2	15	+.8
Thigh Girth R (in)	26	25.875	-.125
Calf Girth R (in)	16.5	16.625	+.125
Body Mass Index (BMI)	37.5	38.4	+.9

Pimiento cheese sandwich

Jeff very kindly brought me back an official Masters Tournament pimiento cheese sandwich. This is as close to the Masters experience as I am likely to get. I look forward to seeing how it compares to Grandma's...pretty sure it won't come out on top (because what could?) but here's hoping it makes a good showing ;)

Easy Instructions

Unfortunately I couldn't find the hard ones.

Preparing to assemble new desk

Sweet Lou's Crab Shack

Today I decided to try a new place for lunch: Sweet Lou's Crab Shack on Broad Street near 13th.

I noticed the place the other day--there's a huge blue banner with the restaurant's name and a neat-looking crab right over the door. Today, upon closer inspection, I see the name "Sweet Lou's Coffee and Bagel Sandwich Shop" on the windows. I'm not sure I would have been as intrigued by that...so bravo, Lou, on your rebranding!

The place is done up like a beach restaurant/coffee shop. You really just have to see it. I would have sat inside to enjoy the decor, but I was the only customer and it's beautiful outside, so I opted for the sunny Broad Street view.

The girl behind the counter has reddish hair and a smile like Christina Applegate's. She plucked me up a menu off the coffee table in the couch and chair lounge area near the back of the joint. Looking over the selections, I was surprised at the number of items that did not involve crab. I noted that they have breakfast, sandwiches, and entrees, and they're a little pricey. I settled on a fish sandwich called "Harbor Breeze", a fruit salad (the sandwiches don't come with any sides) and a can of Diet Coke.

I waited about 25 minutes for my food, but it was worth it. The fruit salad consisted of a large, pleasantly smooth green bowl filled with grapes, pineapple, strawberries, and kiwi. "Your fruit salad looks amazing," the girl said as she placed it in front of me. "I'm jealous."

The fish, light and crispy on the outside from frying, came on a toasted bagel with lettuce, tomato, and orange (probably American) cheese. It was delicious.

The prices are a bit steep, and the location, on a block with a payday lender, a nail salon, a planned parenthood office and an imaging service, is not ideal. But the food is delicious, the ambiance is relaxed and fun, and there are indoor and outdoor seating options. It should do well...as long as enough people discover it!

Fish sandwich and fruit salad

Trying a new place for lunch

Why Twitter's new link structure doesn't work for me

On March 31, Twitter once again changed its look and feel for a select group of users. I posted a screenshot here. Here's Twitter's explanation behind the change. Now, whenever you search or click, the content you're going for is pulled right into the white content area. It feels simpler, and in some cases faster, though I have noticed some lag on @mentions (formerly @replies) and DMs.

Slow loading times aside, the idea makes sense. It gives the information available on Twitter a more immediate feel and focus. However...it's just not working for me.

I'm something of a curmudgeon. I have certain browsing habits, and I don't like having to adapt them. I tend to keep certain websites open in certain tabs in a certain order. It annoys me if those websites aren't the first sites in each tab's history. In other words, the tab I generally keep open begins on the page I want; there's no "back" available. That way, if I do happen to browse forward, I can hit the back drop-down and select the very first page to get back to my standard view.

In Twitter's case, I like for http://twitter.com/home to be one page forward from my blog, so I can hit back to get to my blog quickly when nothing's really happening on Twitter. And after clicking on my DMs or mentions, I click the back button on my mouse to get to Twitter home.

Unfortunately, that no longer works! When I hit back, the browser URL changes, but the page's content stays on whatever I clicked last. I end up having to hit refresh to get the home screen back while keeping Twitter home as my second history item.

This causes me no small amount of consternation.

I'm accustomed to CMSes and other web apps working like this. If I had one tab that was just for Twitter, I suppose I could get used to clicking "Home" instead of hitting back. If I really make the effort, I could adjust to this.

But I don't want to! I'm set in my ways. I like how I've been using Twitter since 2007. And who's to say they won't just change it again later, forcing me to adjust again?

Damn kids...get off my lawn.

The right tools

My project for this weekend arrived yesterday: a nice flat workspace with no hutch and no drawers. Once it's assembled I'll have a great place to work on projects, on my laptop or otherwise.

I haven't been happy with my current computer setup for awhile now. Sitting in the living room on the couch or floor is not conducive to doing serious work. I typically end up goofing off online or watching anime. The point was driven home for me recently when I went to visit Sam in Huntsville. The purpose of the visit was to get some headway on a webcomic we've been working on. At first I was sitting on his couch with my laptop; it wasn't until the next day, when I created a work area for myself at his roleplaying table, that I started getting things done.

I'm very excited about that project. I'm also amped up about an online venture I devised and will be pursuing with the help of a new friend, Mike. It's important to me that I have a space where I can sit and focus, so these projects don't end up in the "I wonder if..." bin.

The new desk won't magically transform me into a workhorse, but having the right tools is essential for success. I can't wait to get started.

Lunch

Gary brought me a souvenir from Augusta National

This is one of the free water bottles given to the media. It says "SODIUM FREE Pure Cumberland Gap Mountain Spring Water" and has a list of all the holes at the course on the back.

This baby carrot looks like a finger

I ate it anyway.

Got mud?

I may have to throw my bike into the Canal before putting it back in
my car :>

Ze train, boss! Ze train!

Guacamole Pimiento Cheese Sandwich

It's actually called something cute like Avomento, but I can't remember exactly what.

Just remembered: Guac-a-Mento.

Casa Blanca's house wedge