Thank you Mom, Dad, and eBay. My MBA graduation/24th birthday present is a wonderful delight! Initially, I thought a Canon Rebel XT would rock my world until I started checking out the Nikon SLR cameras. This one is the fifth in Nikon's lineup, trailing the $4700 top model by quite a lot, but I was quite happy to find this for less than 1/10th of the price. All the lenses, batteries, and flashes are interchangeable, so whatever I spend accessorizing will carry over on the next upgrade. A telephoto with macro lens is on the top of the list then maybe a wide angle, dedicated macro, or ridiculously huge telephoto for wildlife. This is all fairly new but old for me - I grew up with film cameras and was reading about apertures when most kids were taking their first piano lessons. I don't feel like I'm entitled to this, that I've arrived anywhere.... but I do feel like taking lots of pictures. You know me, no Photoshop tweaks whatsoever. This is straight out of the camera.

Even the sweetest, most wonderful-seeming girlfriends (see picture above) have this intense desire to put their significant others to the limit, testing them to see how much they can get away with and how much they can ask for before they hit the max. Well, Esther has found out that she can ask anything of me. Drat. Why did I not see this coming. "Hey Nick, can you dig out an escape window and install a stone wall in your spare time?" << Should have given her an automatic, "I love you, but I'm really busy." No. Nope. Nothing close. Well, I hope I learned a lesson, but judging by my last credit card statement, there's a flight out to England coming up in September that I bought for myself... At any rate, I did enjoy working with her on the project, and we did get to help out her family (they really needed the help), and I do enjoy this kind of work, strangely.

Standard click for bigger images (I'm going to stay in the habit of resizing them smaller so that people can't waltz off with a free full-size picture). Yes, I like pictures of flowers, insects, bugs, even worms, flowers, amphibians, birds, reptiles, flowers, goofy people, and surprise candids. I've got two more photo entries stashed away as private for tomorrow and the next day.

Nick
Need [red Dakota] truck
2001-2004 range
low mile/red

__________________________________
My life has got to be so far in the eccentric category that my dad is leaving me notes to buy a truck,  presumably for the company or someone in the company.

Lately, though, I've found some great deals on eBay and craigslist. Most recently, a lawn spreader, a digital SLR from Nikon, plastic door hanger bags, and computer memory are some of the recent purchases, and DSL modems, textbooks, and regifted books have all gotten sold off with ease. Go eBay. Plus I snagged an HDTV for less than you would even imagine and got a power supply in Bay View for $15. Anyone wanna buy my truck? Or a little VW Jetta?

Beth scored a 30 on her ACT.

Chris and I were flying high on our scores until this happened. While I'm proud of her, I'm mad! I wanna go back and retake that test myself just to show her! Yeah, yeah, it wouldn't prove anything. Still. Well, congrats, Beth. (It's like scoring a 1340 on the SAT I...she had a perfect score in one of the sections)

Sorry, ghoti didn't fit into the headline.

I haven't had a rockstar post in a long time, but it felt good. One of those things I've meant to post for such a long time and finally put it into words when I was in a good writing mood. This is not one of those moods. More accurately, it's too late at night to be in one of those moods.

So please enjoy this little photo series.

What it looked like when I woke up Esther. It was 4am, and I had told her it would be an early morning of...something.

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Here I am showing off my catch. I was excessively proud and made too big of a deal about pictures, nearly chucking the fish overboard after this last shot because I was more concerned with how I looked in the picture than with the fish who was just looking for its 15 minutes of fame.

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Esther is demonstrating the salmon shuffle. It somehow involves the hands, feet, hips, and face.

Less than a year ago, she thought you could see across Lake Michigan. Little did she know that she would be holding a chinook salmon before 9am this summer.

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Lehnert, with his enormous - uh - catch,  put the charter together like Jake did last year, only this year we left from Port Washington for salmon versus last year's depature from Kenosha for trout.

Jake with his dad. Lehnert's dad is in the background. Good times, good times.

When Salmon Fishing

1. Focus on the fish.
2. Hold it under the gill for a picture.
3. Focus on the fish.
4. When a line starts getting pulled out, grab the rod and reel, and get cracking immediately.
5. Pause the Hearts game.
6. As in, put the cards down.
7. Peek at cards of person reeling fish.
8. Ask for steaks of salmon as well as filets.
9. Tip the people well.
10. Wear warm clothes.
11. A jacket would have worked well.
12. Wake up early. Really early. Thinking of a number?
13. Earlier than that.
14. Focus on the fish.
15. Save glamour shots for later.
16. Bring food besides the sushi you're catching.
17. Take Dramamamamamine.
18. Get ready for the "may cause drowsiness".
19. Bring friends.
20. Pfocus on the phish.

I fixed that song! Here it is.

Did you click it?

A Cheap Guide to Xanga Commenting

• Ever done the "I don't know this person, should I comment dance?" - here's help! - People love comments, even from strangers. If you aren't trying to pitch something, you probably won't get deleted. You could even wind up with a *gasp* subscriber!
• Ever done the "I know this person through someone else dance?" - haha, no help here! - That's a sticky one. You can come across as over eager to get visitors, so move gradually. Don't leave tons of footprints, but if you can relate to a post, give it a shot.
• Ever done the "This person visited my site, should I say anything dance?" - mmmm, my favorite - I have a couple friends like that, but usually you get ignored. People used to freak out back when [the old days] the Xanga Anti-Stalker Module was the way to find out who visited your site, before Xanga incorporated the footprints feature. Still, some people just want to browse and not be bothered.
• Ever done the "No one has ever commented on this person's site before dance?" - yeah...weird feeling right? - It's just like when I was always watching for street snipers on empty streets in Cuba. Something must be wrong if nooobody is commenting. Then again, maybe they're lonely and would like a comment. I flip a coin on this one. Oh, did I say I'm not liable for any miscomments left after reading this cheap guide? What'd you pay to read this? Yeah, that's what I thought.
• Referencing other people's comments is dangerous.
• Never ever, ever, tell people to go visit your site in a comment. Taaacky! If you can't leave an interesting enough comment with a cool enough display pic, don't ask people to visit your site and read your "cool entry about what they were just talking about" because they'll read it on their own if you can just leave a decent comment.
• Telling people about other people's sites is good. Especially if that person is overseas in Jordan and is writing killer articles about life over there beginning with the words, "You whore".
• If you talk about a blogger on your site, it's a good idea to link to them IF you know them personally. If you don't know them, they'll get a whole bunch of visitors from your site and wonder what the crap you're doing talking about them, ya weirdo.
• Xanga is a world of positive affirmations. If  you don't say something mucky sweet about someone's rough day, you're banished to the Xanga Gulag and will likely get hate comments from offended unrelated third parties.
• Return comments. Return comments. Return comments. Comment back. Leave a comment for the person who left you a comment. And yeah. On their site not yours. This is the basis of Xanga and its eProps system. On LiveJournal, you reply to comments, on Xanga, you comment back. Not commenting back is loserish, selfish, and well, makes me feel like an idiot for always leaving you unresponded comments.
• Being the first to comment is a great way to show how you waste a lot of time online. Be creative and be the second or third to comment once in a while. It's....better for you.
• Lots of comments on a freshly posted entry either means you just updated the time stamp or you were actually being interesting for a moment there. People will tend to scroll back up on their subscriptions and actually read it. So if you catch a good post, comment right away. It makes people feel good.
• Saying
  "interesting post" actually gives away the fact that you skimmed their post. Yeah, be real funny and leave that as a comment for me on this entry, will ya.
• Sarcasm is gooood for humor. But not on a serious post. Seriously. Well, if they're being melodramatic, yeah, slap 'em up. Let them know that everyone has parents who yell.
• FYI. This is a winner of a post. It follows Chris's patented method of posting and is linked back to him as one ought to. Notice how I talk a little about myself (not exclusively), I talk a little about other people, especially those who read this site, and I touch on the human side of sociology/psychology [required in blogging, I don't know why....I wish it were the human side of arboriculture]. Plus, come on. It's funny to read people who are ridiculous. And no, not ridiculous within reason.

Click it.

A couple thousand flyers in the Milwaukee area had this sweet pic [cropped, though] across the front. I already know it's beautiful. I'm in that kind of a mood.

I have never used a dating service, and for the longest time, I thought online dating services like Yahoo! Personals were strictly for posting phoney profiles or posting friends of yours as a gag. Then maybe a month ago, someone told me that they met their current longtime boyfriend through Yahoo!. Humph. This kinda screwed with my preconceived notions.

Having never used a dating service, it made me wonder if all the guys really do have modeling careers. Or if all the girls really are blonde and fabulously hot with very nice, well, non-existent outfits for every day of the week. I'm beginning to think that it probably could be an ideal way to land the finest catch of a lifetime and really make Lovespring International the Last Dating Service You Will Ever Use.

Never having used a dating service, I wonder if this is true. Oh wait. I lie. I DID sign up for a dating service! David made me do it back in the UWM computer lab when his membership expired, and he talked several of us into signing up so that he'd get five free days. That guy... I was almost able to say that I had never used a dating service.

Having used a dating service, I did find fabulously hot girls. But they never responded. Perhaps their memberships had expired or perhaps my e-message was buried under a pile of messages that David had already sent them. (He has a way of finding and messaging people [read: hotties] with his gobs of injured time.)

I have used a dating service, and for the longest time, I was ashamed of it. I still am. But I did meet a cool person there and rediscovered old friends through her, one of whom I saw at church again for the first time in a while. It's not such a weird thing as it gains in popularity (kinda like blogging before it was cool [Tracy...]).

Having met my girlfriend online, I'm kinda kosher with these knew kways of kmeeting kpeople (silent k's for kalliteration).

Never having posted a picture on this site before... hehe...

(1) Tweaked the color, of course. But Jojo was actually there, looking out at Sam Neill's house.
(2) Lovely!
(3) To go, you just ran off a platform on the side of the mountain and paraglided all the way down over the river.
(4) Try to Photoshop THAT.
(5) The moon was competing on the other side of the sky.
(6) Try to Photoshop THAT.
(7) Try to smoke that! Haha, only in New Zealand.
(8) Try to Photoshop THAT. I think I made this shot by snapping the pic with a flash then flopping it over backwards to catch all the lights in the room. Turned out better than I could have possibly imagined!

Have you ever thought about the difference between the words

Fathering
&
Mothering

Maybe you have, but does it strike you that to "father a child" is along the lines of "siring a line of fine thoroughbreds" or something to the effect of, well, simply passing on genetic material? Mothering has this involved character to it with mothering starting from birth or slightly before and going on until it transforms into grandmothering. It's such a lovely thing while guys get stuck with the quick hit father role. Considering how men have tended to shape word usage, though, I'm beginning to think it was something that guys opted for - to have that abbreviated parental role.

Allow me to strike out on my own here - who's with me? How about fathering lasting at least 18 years? I'd be more of a crusader, but the next confessional just loaded. Perhaps I'm just furthering the fathering problem here with my easily-distracted-by-the-internet problem.

Nacho Libre was hilarious!

Viva... um... Viva... Viva Jack Black!

He embraced that part so fully, it was beautiful. A man beast of a fighter, the movie started and stayed funny with an actual storyline to follow. Versus The Breakup or some other sissified movies out there, this one is of substance. Think on that...and let the picture whisper sweet nothings into your ear until you feel compelled to comment. Por favor.

Yeah..new pics! =) on facebook too.

Edit: Fixed link. Anyone wanna tell me when I post a dead link? Sheesh! Where is the commentage these days? My brother just got married! I was the best man! These are big things for me!

Oh hey, yeah - my brother got married today!

Harken back to last year...

Decorating the wedding mobile with Alex and Yusen.

The lovely Esther and I. =)

The wedding party went wild with their honeymoon suite - rose petals all over the place, dozens of candles, wine, champagne, vodka, chocolate-covered strawberries, and inappropriate notes all over the place.

Chris was pleasantly shocked after he saw the room. But not for long. He had things to get back to...

Good luck and congrats, bro!