very simple

While I hate the fact that it gets dark at, like, 4:30 in the afternoon these days, one of my favorite things about the holiday season is the way almost all of the trees get covered in lights. I rarely get to see it as a work in progress though.

one of the multitude of tom otterness statues that are scattered around the union square subway station.

This is my baby (someday, I hope to have another baby that takes pictures in full frame, but I need to get another job first).

Nikon D80, purchased in August 2007. I’m up to 3 lenses. The small 18-55 kit lens that came with the camera, and which I rarely use. It’s a perfectly adequate lens, and when I’m in hyper tourist mode I’ll sometimes throw it on because it’s really light and it’s the widest angle lens that I’ve got, but otherwise, it stays tucked away.

The lens on the camera is a discontinued 35-70/2.8 macro lens, that is my “primary” lens. This is the one that lives on the camera, and i bought it at the same time that I bought the camera, at the recommendation of my former boss who is a huge Nikon fanatic. He still uses film, but owns a ridiculous number of different format cameras and lenses, and when I was looking at what to buy, he dug up the research on this and told me I needed to get one, especially because they were killing the model. And I have to admit that I love it. It’s pretty heavy because it’s metal (the newer lenses are plastic) and it’s got a ton of glass in it. but it takes great pictures and it goes down to f/2.8 regardless of the focal length. It’s also got a macro feature that lets me take all of those close up shots of the tiny things on my desk. It’s also the reason I haven’t splurged on a true 35mm or 50mm prime lens. While I’d like the option to go down to f/1.8 or f/1.4 on certain occasions, this gives me the 35mm (prime for a digital) and 50mm (prime for a film) focal lengths (plus a bit more leeway), and f/2.8 is pretty big and gives me a pretty nice shallow depth of field when I want it.

The third lens is my most recent acquisition – a really cheap grey market 70-300mm zoom lens. Again, while I need a job before I do crazy splurging on the high-end stuff, I was looking for something that would give me more telephoto range above my 35-70. While that one is great 90% of the time, there are times that I wish I could zoom closer in on an object that I couldn’t physically get closer to. This one doesn’t have built-in autofocus (so you need a body like the D80 that’ll do it), no VR, and no aperture ring. Like I said, cheap. On the flip side, I did take all of my marathon pics with it, which came out pretty well (if I do say so myself).

and then, of course, there’s my iphone, which was necessary because I couldn’t take a picture of the Nikon with the Nikon.

Usually, I don’t understand the “modern art” piece consisting of metal slats attached to the side of the building that houses my gym and local post office. But today, I think I finally got it.

In anticipation of the arrival of my nook, I’ve been trying to make my way through some of the backlog of hardcover books that I’ve got laying around. I used to have a habit of going into a bookstore and just buying whatever looked interesting, and then putting those books in a big “to do” pile to be read later. Of course, my buying habits far outpaced my actual reading habits, and things that looked interesting at first glance in the bookstore would often lose their allure once I started sifting through the pile looking for something to read.

So now, since I’m getting a nook for Chanukah (and also for helping my dad out a bunch with his startup company, unpaid), I’ve changed methods. I created a sub list in my iphone to do list application for books, and whenever I’m at the bookstore and a book catches my eye, instead of just buying it, I instead jot the title and author down on my list. If, when I get home, there is an ebook version available, I add that book to my ebook wish list on barnes and noble. when the nook arrives, I can start going through that list one at a time and only buy what I’m actually interested in reading at that moment. This way, my “pile” is now a virtual pile, and I won’t actually pay for a book until I’m ready to actually read it. Makes much more sense. Of course, this doesn’t eliminate the problem of getting bored by a book part of the way through, but it’s still a financial and living space improvement (and, unlike dead tree books, you can often read the first chapter of an ebook without buying, further reducing the risk of buying something that sucks).

In the meantime, i just finished another book off of my dead tree pile, The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon. I very much enjoyed it (although it took me a while to get past the first chapter). Alternative history, murder, and a whole lot of yiddish. Kavalier and Clay is still my favorite Chabon book, but this one held up pretty well through the uncertain end.

I know it’s only a matter of time before this building (and gray’s papaya next door) get turned into a giant glassy condo, but until then…for all your dancing needs

and…the apple store is open (a few days early). The place was totally packed with people, and it seemed a bit more rationally dispersed upstairs, but downstairs there appeared to be two apple employees for every customer. as an added bonus, I got to annoy lots of people by stopping halfway down the spiral staircase to take this picture.

my loose change used to end up in random piles around my apartment. then I wised up. The last time I took this (and a bit more overflow) to the bank to exchange it for real money, I ended up with over $100.

yet another home away from home on the upper west side. this one is my dad’s favorite, and we meet here 2-3 times a week.

one of the sponsors of our food event last weekend was action against hunger. I ended up with a few of these.