... simply my life

I've had this very strange thing going on with my DVR over the last couple of months. It was intermittent, so it took me a while to really get irritated enough to call the cable company for assistance. Finally fed up, the call was made and the tech was out today to swap out the DVR box with a new one. He fumbles through his paperwork to see that I have HD service, went through a few menu items on the box set up to be sure I was receiving HD signal in 1080p.

He blew thru this so fast that it took a few minutes for it to sink in ... yeah, I've been paying for HD, but never changed the setting on the box to make sure it was broadcasting in HD!

I remember thinking when I first received the HD channels that there wasn't much of a change from what I was previously watching. Sheesh! I fault the cable company for not telling me to change this setting when I signed up for the HD service. How would I have ever known this setting existed unless they tell me? Don't you just assume they make all necessary changes on their end?

I consider myself a fairly tech savvy person, but it's things like this that just baffle me...

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Had a photoblogger meet up this morning in the south loop area - good to see the guys again. Kind of a crap day for photos tho... I got a fun snap on my way to meet everyone, but nothing of substance while we were walking around. We ventured to the Maxwell St market and that was quite the experience. Some VERY random items being sold there...

I didn't really feel comfortable busting out the camera for fear that I'd get yelled at by one of the vendors... We did find an interesting grouping of signs at the back of an empty parking lot. I have no idea what these are actually for though. I had to really pull the color out of this one - taken with the new S90 - I feel like it's a little on the "sharp" side, I need to figure out how to change a setting or run some noise ninja on the images. Testing Lightroom 3 beta and it's a smidge different from 1.0 that I've been so used to...

Anyhoo, I can check another thing off of the "I've never done that" list. I've heard about the Maxwell Market, but have just never gone. Don't think I will ever have the need to go back, but you just never know!

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Yvette is frustrated with her photo skills as of late. I took the time to go out and shoot along the lakefront at dusk and am totally not happy with any of it. I feel like I have noise in every single photo and that nothing is in proper focus. I don't know if I'm using the wrong settings or exposures or what, but it's frustrating as hell. I'm beginning to think it might be time to go take a class. A proper photography class to actually learn how to use my camera. Self taught seems to only be getting me so far....

It's sad that I take better photos with my iPhone than with my 40D!

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I am a picky eater. 

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I've been unbelievably busy of late... I am trying very hard to stay positive and not complain.  I've got a job and we actually have work (unlike many designers) so I need to stay on the positive.  The older I get, the harder that seems to be... so let's start with the positives!

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I don't get enough sleep.
And even though I know this, I sit here and type a new blog post at 11:52 PM! I am a night owl and cannot figure out how to get to bed before 11 PM. And that's all I want ... it's not like I'm trying to go to bed at 9 or something...

I have too many projects.
Excluding work (that's a whole other post!) I have a list a mile long of things that I want to do, make or create in some fashion. I get really hot and heavy into one thing and then somehow get derailed. Once that happens it takes me months to even get back to it... if I actually do get back to it.

I don't print my photos anymore.
When I was shooting film - in the pre-digital stone era - I would run film to be developed the minute I shot the last frame. Now with digital... not so much. I have oodles of photos backed up on multiple drives (praying I don't loose any), I post them online, but I don't have "photo albums" anymore.

I spend too much time in the virtual world.
Blogging, reading RSS, social networking, whatever... I feel like the world has all started living in this strange virtual way and I'm not sure I like it. I barely talk to anyone on the phone anymore - actually reduced my cell phone plan when I discovered I had over 5000 rollover minutes! Oh I get their status updates and etc., so I know what they are doing, but that's no comparison for a face to face meeting or even a live phone conversation. I wonder what this will mean for our future.

I am addicted to chocolate.
Not to the point that I couldn't live without it, but it would be a real shame. Worse is that I like the expensive stuff best. I stopped in Vosge's on Sunday for a hot chocolate and came out with three other things! Last time I was at the Merchandise Mart I found Fran's sea salt chocolate caramels and HAD to buy them. Thank goodness I don't frequent these places, but it's an instant draw for me. I'd hate to add it up at the end of the year.

I love design.
Not that this is really a new revelation, but sometimes I get sucked into it. RSS feeds are the worst for this. It gets the wheels turning - I could to this or that or oh yeah, that would be fantastic here or there. So many ideas, so little time and money.

Ok... it's now after midnight and I MUST go to bed. Sheesh!

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