Mortaine’s Blog

Which of the following do you think is more true and why:

People are assholes; they deliberately do things to act like jerks.

People are stupid; they don’t even realize that there are other people around them and that’s why they seem to be jerks.

Note: No credit for saying they are both– pick a side, lazybones. No credit for saying they are neither– wake up and smell the coffee. No credit for saying they are people!!!!! C’mon in to the generalizations– the water’s warm!

I got a package in the mail yesterday. It was not an unexpected package. It had:

1.) A camera - this is a Canon AE-1 Program SLR camera from my grandmother, who died in 1992. She gave me the camera before she died, but I never had a chance to use it. It has a zoom lens which my sister was supposed to get if it fit her camera. It doesn’t have any other lenses, and the zoom doesn’t fit her camera, so she was nice and gave it to me. The camera has been missing since I left for college, and we had pretty much entirely given up hope of finding it. I’m glad we did– it’s an unexpected boon. There’s a flash, but it doesn’t work. It won’t even charge, so we suspect there’s something innately “broken” in it and will look at the cost of replacing it.

2.) Another sheet for my scrapbook. This one is “Christmas, 1974″ (my first XMas). As you could expect, it’s cute, with a 4 month old baby laying in front of the tree.

3.) My circle journal that I swap with my sister.

4.) The circle art book I swap with my nephew (it’s really spiffy, folks!)

5.) Some pictures he colored in and a maze from his coloring book.

6.) There was a tin with an envelope of photographs of my neice and nephew in it.

No cookies, though. Send more replacement cookies, please.
I shot a roll of Seattle Filmworks film last night, testing out the camera. I don’t think I’ll bother to get it developed, though, since it’s all pictures of John standing in the doorway, probably too dark and blurry because I was learning how to load the darn thing anyway.

Oh, when I got the camera out of the bag, John immediately took it out of my hands and started playing with it. I think it’s going to actually end up as his camera, but that’s okay as long as I learn how to use it. I only have 3 other cameras, you know.

Anyone with suggestions for a GREAT beginner’s photography for SLR camera owners– please post. I know how to compose a good shot, I know how to keep the camera steady (I own two working tripods), I generally understand that there’s aperture, zoom, and focus, but I don’t totally “get it” when it comes to putting it all together and taking even remotely usable shots with my spiffy new camera. I need a book for this, I can tell.

John is off to backpacking today, and we’re heading out for our mochas right now. Just wanted to share the good postal news with everyone!