Sold my 17-55 f/2.8, today. Great lens, but I hardly used it, and whenever I go out, it's almost always at night, and even 2.8 doesn't cut it at times.

So I opted for Canon's 28mm f/1.8 with the money I got for the 17-55. I've been wanting this lens for a long time - something similar to a typical 50/1.8 on a full frame camera. I've already got a 50/1.8, but it's a bit long on an APS-C sensor.

So yeah, that's what I did, today.

So I just rented a Canon EF 300mm f/4.0 L IS USM and Canon 1.4x Teleconverter from LensRentals.com for a week. Gonna be using it for some skydiving shots of some co-workers, this weekend. I paid for insurance, but wish me luck, anyway - there's still a deductible if I break anything. :D

Did you cry during the Wilson scene while watching Cast Away? ;_;

Never again.

Never again will I go a month without checking FA. It finally gets to me, after a while, and I'll just have to end up going through all the new submissions, again, which will be another 40 pages in a row. x_x But I'm all caught up, now, so it's 'kay. :3

So the Canon EF 70-200mm f/2.8L IS II USM finally hit the shelves - I've been waiting for it to come out, partly just to see how it performs, but mostly because it's introduction would mean more second-hand Mk. I's than I could shake a stick at for relatively cheap.

However, after reading reviews and looking at sample photos, I would reaaally like to save up for a Mk. II. This lens is fucking amazing.

A successor to arguably one of the best SLR lenses ever made, made even better; but not just better - much better. Comparing samples from the Mk. I and the Mk. II, you'll find that the Mk. II is vastly superior in pretty much every way, shape and form, including, but certainly not limited to, sharpness, contrast and CA.

Even at f/2.8, this lens is sharp and throughout the entire focal range. Very slight vignetting, wide open, but stopping down makes vignetting nigh undetectable and hardly improves sharpness, if at all. The Mk. I was not a great performer, wide open, being very soft throughout the image. Stopping down to f/4 greatly improved the sharpness, but even that isn't as sharp as the Mk. II at f/2.8. Even Canon's 200 f/2.8 prime lens doesn't compare to the Mk. II's sharpness, wide open or stopped down. The only Canon lens that seems to be on par with the Mk. II at 200mm is the 200mm f/2.0 prime, which is astounding, considering the f/2.0 costs twice as much.

Chromatic aberrations, distortion, flare - all of these are controlled much, much better in the Mk. II. CA is hardly noticeable at any focal length and aperture and while distortion is present, it is very minimal; one field the 200mm f/2.0 performs noticeably better in. Flare is not something that is going to be gotten rid of completely, but it is very well-controlled in this lens. All of this is not only true in the center of the image, but even in the extreme corners of full-frame sensors.

Alrighty, that's enough of me servicing Canon - if you want to see for yourself, there's a very in-depth review including sample images and lens comparisons available at The-Digital-Picture.com.

So my Canon EF-S 17-55mm f/2.8 IS USM seems to be, and has been, reporting that any and all photos taken with it, regardless of actual focal length, are taken at 55mm. Google didn't seem to bring up anything relevant for either this, or any other, lens.

(That's what she said! :u)

3,000 page views! o.o And almost 150 watchers. Thanks to all of you who are watching! ^^

At what point (in your opinion) does post-processing become photo-manipulation?

I see all these TUMBLRs tumblin', but were any of them born under punches?

I just got three sunflower seeds in one shell! :O

Chips and salsa. Everything is as it should be: tasty and not too spicy.

'Nuff said.

And there's a point near the beginning of the movie where Carl is in his house watching TV. You never see the TV, but you can hear it and it's obviously a home-shopping network. Not just any home-shopping network, though...

Oh, Pixar! You so sneaky!

THE FURRY ACHIEVEMENTS MEME!

How to play:
- Go here to find a good copy/paste format [if you want].
- Write yes or no and an explanation under each achievement [if you want]. Try to keep the format, and use your own judgement!
- Add up your score.
- Post your score total with the journal's subject. (ie., "Furry Achievement Score: X")

"Waited In Line For Blotch Porn"
Parameters: Go/went to a furry convention.
Score: 50
Completed?: Yes [AC twice and FC]

"Rug Burn"
Parameters: Do/did the business, with one or more partners in a fursuit.
Score: 50
Completed?: No [I would have had to have done the business in the first place.]

"It's Like A Miniature Convention!"
Parameters: Go/went to a furmeet.
Score: 30
Completed?: Yes ['Chicken' in San Jose. I blame Bunnymew.]

"FURtune 500"
Parameters: Have over 10,000 views.
Score: 30
Completed?: No [Photography < Porn]

"High Roller"
Parameters: Have your character drawn by an artist that has over 100,000 views.
Score: 30
Completed?: No [Not quite. I think the most is ProjectBlue02 at 94,000.]

"Friends In High Places"
Parameters: Have gift art of your character from an artist.
Score: 20
Completed?: Yes [Quite a few people, actually. :o]

"Different Strokes"
Parameters: Own/owned/used an animal-molded, or furry-oriented, sexual toy.
Score: 20
Completed?: No [I have no sex toys and if I did, they wouldn't be furry-oriented. :B]

"So, Yeah"
Parameters: Have more furry friends than non-furry friends in real life.
Score: 20
Completed?: Yes [I know a lot of people in person, but I consider only a few of them friends. :o]

"Stalker"
Parameters: Be friends with an artist.
Score: 20
Completed?: Yes [A lot of furries are artists.]

"Connected"
Parameters: Have a total combined buddy count [on AIM, MSN, Skype or etc.] of 200 or more.
Score: 20
Completed?: Yes [I talk to, like, 5 of them, though. :B]

"Just For The Art"
Parameters: Draw anthropomorphic art.
Score: 20
Completed?: Yes [On very rare occasions.]

"Dramatic"
Parameters: Have a LiveJournal, Facebook, FurAffinity, DeviantArt, and a Twitter account.
Score: 20
Completed?: No [I don't have a LiveJournal or a Twitter.]

"Get Over It"
Parameters: Have/had a spouse/partner/significant other/mate/whatever, in real life, that is a furry.
Score: 20
Completed?: No [What else is there to say?]

"Vanilla"
Parameters: Have nonsexual art of your character.
Score: 10
Completed?: Yes [I'm not that bad.]

"O MURR"
Parameters: Use/used the word 'yiff', 'scritch', or 'paw' when talking to a non-furry friend in real life.
Score: 10
Completed?: No [Well, I've said 'paw', but not in that context.]

"And All I Got..."
Parameters: Own a distinctly 'furry' t-shirt [something made by furries and/or for furries].
Score: 10
Completed?: No [I never picked up my shirt for AC'09. :<]

"I'm Not Even Trying"
Parameters: Have some form of furry porn on your desktop [whether as wallpaper or a file].
Score: 10
Completed?: No [Other people use my computer. D:]

"UNLESS IT'S A FARM!"
Parameters: Play/played Team Fortress 2 on a furry server.
Score: 10
Completed?: Yes [The only time I ever did play TF2.]

"Such A Cock"
Parameters: Listen/listened to a 2 the Ranting Gryphon rant.
Score: 10
Completed?: Yes [Once. :P]

"Friends With Benefits"
Parameters: Commissioned/commission artwork of a friend's character.
Score: 10
Completed?: Yes [Lots of times. o:]

"Anti-Uppity"
Parameters: Have sexual artwork of your character.
Score: 10
Completed?: Yes [Mehbeh. : .]

"Don't Knock It 'Til You Try It"
Parameters: Roleplay/roleplayed your character over a messenger service/in a game of some sort.
Score: 5 for having done it at all, +5 for having done sexual roleplay.
Completed?: Yes [IRC!]

"NO FRATERNIZING WITH THE ENEMY!"
Parameters: Post/posted on 4chan or SomethingAwful.com
Score: 5
Completed?: No [Ew, 4chan. :<]

"Furries Ruin Everything"
Parameters: Post/posted a furry image on 4chan.
Score: 5
Completed?: No [Ew, 4chan. :<]

"You're Doing It Wrong"
Parameters: Post/posted on fchan or TGFB [http://dammitfreehaven.com/].
Score: 5
Completed?: No [I do nothing to contribute. :D]

"The Greater Good"
Parameters: Post/posted an image on e621.net.
Score: 5
Completed?: No [I still do nothing to contribute. :D]

"O.. murr"
Parameters: Use/used the word 'yiff', 'scritch', or 'paw' when talking to a furry friend in real life.
Score: 5
Completed?: Yes [Once again, I blame Bunnymew.]

"How Did That Get There?"
Parameters: Have a folder dedicated to furry porn.
Score: 5 for having a folder, +5 for having a folder of 1gb or larger.
Completed?: Yes [Well, I wouldn't say 'dedicated'. <.<]

"THIS IS THE REAL ME! YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND!"
Parameters: Commission art of your character.
Score: 5
Completed?: Yes [Chyeah. :o]

"SRS BSNS"
Parameters: Tell/told a parent/friend that you are a furry.
Score: 5
Completed?: Yes [I supopse I could have flown to Pittsburgh without telling my parents...]

"Ding, DONG"
Parameters: Have a male character.
Score: 5
Completed?: Yes [Hello.]

"Tits or GTFO"
Parameters: Have a female character.
Score: 5
Completed?: Yes [Not my fault. :<]

"It's A Trap!"
Parameters: Have a herm/shemale/transgendered/etc. character.
Score: 5
Completed?: No [Nein.]

"Dime A Dozen"
Parameters: Did/do another furry meme.
Score: 5
Completed?: Yes [I did that FC meme thingie, though aren't memes so much as they are surveys.]

"You're It!"
Parameters: Tag at least 1 person after doing this meme.
Score: 5
Completed?: No [C-C-C-COMBO BREAKER]

Do eeeeeeet.

Sketch by  BunnyMew, colored by moi. :D

MS Paint is actually pretty damn good at resizing photos. :o

...Are fuckheads. Got the front bumper/left fender smashed in on my car while I was parked and eating inside a restaurant, and no sort of information was left. :/ Not a huge deal, seeing as I can still drive and insurance should cover it, but it still pisses me off that someone would hit-and-run.

http://i73.photobucket.com/albums/i....._4053_1024.jpg

If you can call it a meme. More a survey. Regardless!

1 Where are you staying?.
Good question! :o

2. Who will you be with?
 Junowolf was kind enough to put me up in his room. :)

3. Do you do trades?
If you're willing to trade for photos, I'm all for that. :D

4. What suits will you have?
No suits, sorry. :P

5. What is your gender?
I'mmah dude, dude.

6. How old are you?
20

7. Can I touch you?
Preferably nothing more than customary (handshakes and the like). : .

8. Can I talk to you?
But of course!

9. Can I buy you lots of drinks?
If you wanna take that risk, go for it. :P

10. Can I give you lots of money?
If you insist. o.o

11. Can I hug or snuggle with you?
Hugs, maybe. Snuggles are probably a no. <.<

12. How tall are you?
5'11", last I checked. That was a couple years ago, though, so your guess is as good as mine. :P

13. You look pissed off out of suit can I come up to you?
lol wut?

14. Are you nice?
I like to think so. :o

15. Are you cliquey?
I suppose if you consider hanging around friends from online as cliquey, then yes. Don't let that discourage you if you're Blue from talking to me, though. :D

16. Can I stalk you?
I'd like to see you try.

17. How long are you going?
Wednesday night through Sunday evening. I've got class on Monday. :(

18. Do you have an artist table?
Pfft.

19. Do you like parties?
A pants party? :o

20. If I see you, how should I get your attention?
Saying something about cameras is sure to get my attention.

21. Can i take pictures with you?
If you really want. :o

22. Any pet peeves i should be aware of?
Shitty drivers, but I don't think I'll be having to worry about that. At least, I hope not. o.o

23. What are you going to buy at FC?
Anything I find interesting enough to spend money on. And food.

24. What do you plan to do at the con?
Hang with peeps and peepettes. :o

25. Anything you want to add?
I apologize in advance if my camera bothers you. D:

I just found a box Chocolate Chex cereal in my pantry.

I think I came.

So my 1TB drive went tits-up on me, about two weeks ago. This was, unfortunately, the drive where my My Documents folder was located. My My Documents folder was, unfortunately, where I stored every photo I had taken since March of 2008, before I even got my 450D. After trying everything I knew to recover any data I could unsuccessfully, I looked at professional data recovery, only to find that my fears of that being rudely expensive were unequivocally true. Fortunately, however, my friend's dad is a CSI, and while the show is absolutely ridiculous with some of the technology they portray, they can do some pretty nifty things as far as computer forensics goes, e.g. recovering data from a hard drive.

Long story short, all my 184 GB of, and 27,500+, photos are safe and sound currently residing on my external hard drive. Now I just need to poke Western Digital about their 5-year warranty and look into backing stuff up. :D

So I've had my cat, Ziggy Stardust, for a while, now - I think he's about a year-and-a-half old - but a few months after getting him, he walked into the house covered in mud, dirt and scratches from getting in a fight. After I got him all cleaned up, I noticed some of his scratches were pretty severe and took him to the animal hospital just to be on the safe side. While he was there, he was tested for FeLV (feline leukemia), which, unfortunately, came back positive. I had the option of keeping him or having him put down. After doing some research, I learned that FeLV isn't always immediately life-threatening and symptoms may take years to develop, so I decided to keep him and decide what to do when his health began to deteriorate.

That was back in May. Forced to be an inside cat to keep from contaminating other cats in the neighbourhood, he hadn't gotten much exercise, but other than being a bit on the large side, he always seemed healthy. He would run, jump and play when in the mood, again, only hindered by his weight and nothing else, and was just as affectionate as ever, always waiting for me on the stairs when I got home, poking his head through the handrail for a pet when I walked by.

It's now the beginning of the new year, but Ziggy isn't with me as I type this. Instead, he's with old friends in a new home.

I knew it was possible for no symptoms to be present so early, but on a whim, I decided to have Ziggy checked, again, for FeLV. I really had no reason to and the vet, while not refusing, did warn me that the chances of a negative result were very low, but the test was only $45 and I figured that was at least worth the peace of mind.

The test is very quick. I brought Ziggy to the hospital, checked in, he was taken in to have blood drawn and was back with me in the waiting room in just a few minutes, but I still had to wait for the results. In the meantime, I grabbed a Cat Fancy magazine and began flipping through the pages, skimming. I reached the end of the magazine, closed it, then noticed on the cover that there was an article for a drug to help with, and possibly fight against, FeLV and FIV. Just about the time I flipped to the article, the vet came into the waiting room with the results.

It actually took me a second to process. I honestly had very little hope that the result would come back negative. The vet explained that when the last test was done, Ziggy was still young and that a false positive was most likely a result of the parents' anti-bodies still being present in his blood. (That's what I remember hearing, anyway - I'm not going to pretend to understand it). So after those many months of dealing with a cat that would constantly attempt to get outside (and occasionally succeed) by knocking out window screens and waiting for the front door to open and would not always use the litter box, instead opting to use the carpet or pool table, I now have one less fatally ill cat and one more healthy cat who is currently at my dad's house getting reacquainted with his two cats.

Though he's still just as fat.

Have some pics.

My 7D is in the mail. Merry Christmas to me~ :>

I know too many people on FA whose names have 'blue' in them. It gets very confusing. D: