Wedding Pictures

We’re back from our honeymoon (was awesome), I’ve started my new job and I’ve got a bunch of wedding day pics up in my gallery now check em out. Pictures from bachelor/bachelorette parties, rehearsal dinner and honeymoon will be up soon.

Wedding Gallery

The Sibling Post Trifecta

Been a month since my last post and much has happened in that time period. Since The Blarg and MRI both updated I’ll finish things off with a sort of sibling blog hat trick if you will.

First off I left my position with the consulting firm I had been with for the past year. My last day was July 6th and I’m taking a month off before starting up at LA County with their Web group. I’m really looking forward to the change, hopefully the work will be more challenging and rewarding. The benefits are excellent and you can’t beat a 2.5 mile commute (I was doing 25 miles each way to Diamond Bar and my gas bill was approaching $180 a month).

Wedding stuff: 4 days and counting and nearly everything is done. Taking time off helped since I was free during the day to do whatever needed to be done. Took some late engagement pictures last week and got those printed up (thank you Richard!), printed up place cards, table numbers, programs and made favors.

Our new place: With my sister, MRI, moving to San Diego they needed to rent out their condo. With Sarah and I getting married we needed a place to rent. To say the least there wasn’t much debate about what we should do. Sarah is already moved into the condo and we’re getting settled in. We have the 2 most important things already: a bed and a HDTV.

Previously mentioned HDTV: My new toy is a 42″ Panasonic Plasma and I’m loving it. We’ve been watching TV on my 20″ LCD for about a year and I was ready for something really nice. Cashed in credit card rewards and got a free HD-DVD player (would have had to spend $100 on a player with HDMI anyways) and I’ve got the receiver already. OTA HDTV and DVDs look gorgeous. Pics of the setup will definitely be posted once I receive my speakers.

Honeymoon: I just need to do some last minute confirmations but everything is booked and we are picking a few things we want to do. I just kind of want to explore and take a bunch of pictures. Kauai and Maui here we come.

Photography experiments: My goal is to come back from Hawaii with a bunch of awesome pics to print and fill our large empty walls with. One of these pics I want to be a nice big panorama and to facilitate that I’m taking a tripod and new gadget to make sure it is perfect.

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That’s where the Panosaurus comes in. It positions the camera in the portrait position and you calibrate it to rotate around the nodal point of the lens so things line up properly as you rotate the camera. I’m thinking a 360 view from the top of Waimea Canyon would be pretty sweet. And here’s a quick test I did of my bedroom (12 pics stitched together with a manual exposure, I only have 2 light bulbs in so one side of the room is darker):

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On a side note I think it is pretty interesting that you’re possessions can really demonstrate what type of person you are. Some interesting observations about myself/room (I’ll work left to right):

  • Homemade rear speaker stand made from metal bookshelf end spray painted white and screwed to wall.
  • Box with water bottle wrapped in paper with line and nail in front, Panosaurus calibration equipment.
  • Phone which hasn’t actually been plugged in for several months for some reason.
  • Numerous pictures of soon to be wife.
  • Cluttered desk
  • Bookshelf. Normally top shelf dedicated to SNES game collection and other video games. Next shelf dedicated to miscellaneous literature: Greek mythology, WWII and Vietnam books, fantasy and sci fi. Next shelf would be almost completely dedicated to a mostly complete Star Wars book collection. Next 2 shelves are filled with math and programming books. Wow that all just screams nerd.
  • Boxes in living room ready to be moved out.
  • Boxes in bedroom ready to be filled.
  • Wardrobe consisting mostly of t-shirts, that might have to change soon.

That might be it until after the Honeymoon since the next 4 days are going to be pretty busy with Rehearsal dinner and getting all the last minute things ready. In the meantime stick it to the RIAA man and download Prince’s new free album.

Long Beach at Night

Went down to Downtown Long Beach this past weekend to get some drinks and dessert at Parker’s. Sounded like a good idea until we got down there and found out the Grand Prix was the next day. We finally got there, ate and walked around to take some pics. Here’s a couple but check them all out here.

Downtown Long Beach at night   Queen Mary at Night

Backyard Creepy Crawly Pics

Found these two guys hanging out under the patio furniture today, took pictures before they got torched with BBQ lighter.

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Got your good old Black Widow (Latrodectus hesperus)

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And one I’ve never seen before, after a little research it seems to be bold jumping spider (Phidippus audax), great markings.