Toys that make Noise

Merry Christmas to me!
I'll say thank you to my parents for these two new toys! I'm sure they'll bring me hours and hours of entertainment... oh, wait, they already have. :)

Numark DJ IO soundcard:


Numark Total Control (controller):



These pictures don't do these two gadgets much justice... really it's something you have to hear!

I plugged in the soundcard this afternoon and was floored at how much different it was to mix with monitors! And then after a few hours of playing with that I went and picked up the Total Control which is kind of an entry level pro DJ controller but has had good reviews (and is significantly cheaper and lighter than the VCI-100). I've been playing with it for about 3 hours now and I have to say... WHEEEEE!! It's so much fun!

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In response to Sol's question regarding which pictures were printed... here they are. I think most of them were posted here during my trip or during the summer.

601


Hong Kong


Tokyo - Yebisu the Garden Place - Sven Vath (DJ) - this picture turned out really well printed... it's pretty noisy but when printed it actually looked surprisingly good


Chiang Mai (Songkran Festival - Sunday Night Walking Market) - I'm not so impressed with this one


Angkor Wat (Cambodia) - the only "postcard"-type print


Osaka


Thailand Beach - Rum Buckets



Not sure which ones are going up on the wall yet... I still have to get frames (at least 2) and then I'll decide.

The pictures have finally been printed!

Task #2 is complete! (well, kind of.) I've been sitting on printing out pictures for a few months now. Mainly the problem was picking just a handful of pictures that would look ok once printed at a size of 12x18".

So yesterday morning I sat down, narrowed down the choices, called Ryan over and we decided on 7 pictures to print. I went and had them printed - super-easy, fast, not too expensive and amazing results. One of the pictures I printed had quite a bit of noise in it but I wanted to see what it would look like printed. I was pleasantly surprised by the result. I almost opted to get them printed on nice paper but this being the first time I had anything printed in larger sizes I opted for the least expensive (or complicated) option. Next time... maybe I'll try the Baryta paper.

Anyway, the pictures look amazing. Now they need to be framed. And once that's done they'll have to somehow be placed on my wall (which wouldn't be so bad if the wall weren't made of cement.) We currently have 4 anchors on that wall. I don't think I want to use all of the anchors for pictures. I'll probably pick up two frames this week and see what I can do with them.

Other than that... the VCI-100 has burned itself into my brain. After doing some research I found out that this controller is actually pretty good. The only problem is that my soundcard wasn't made to receive a monitor signal from my computer - only from recording sources plugged into the card. This is really annoying because the VCI-100 doesn't come with a built-in soundcard. Buying another professional soundcard would be expensive. And how many pro soundcards does a girl need? I like my soundcard and up until this point haven't been limited by it. I don't particularly want to have to replace it just yet. I've looked at other controller options in the same price range (Hercules DJ Console RMX has a soundcard built in) and they just don't look as good (based on both reviews and look of the unit.) So... I don't know... maybe I'll just hold off... maybe I should just get a very basic controller... I don't particularly like any of the basic ones - they seem really limiting and are only partial solutions to the problem of having to use a mouse / keyboard while trying to mix.

Edit: yes, I admitted above that I'm essentially mixing deaf. Which is a terrible thing and which explains why it takes me forever to finish a mix. It's essentially a guessing game whenever I'm mixing. I think maybe it's time to replace this soundcard.

My research has also had me wondering what is wrong with my version of Traktor - software I use for mixing. It sounds like a lot of people are using this. Whenever I use it I have major issues - blue screens of death whenever I try to save and clipping when mixing. I really thought that maybe it was because I was trying to use it in Vista but apparently it is supposed to be compatible with Vista... So now I'm wondering what's wrong... maybe there's something wrong with my setup... more research will need to be done on this one.

Yeah, I know. This is all really quite boring. I apologize. I don't have much else here. This is what happens when I get stuck in Toronto for a week. At least I haven't started writing about my piles of laundry.

Controller Controller

I woke up this morning wanting to spend money. The only thing is that... well, I don't need or want anything really. This of course is not a good thing. Honestly - I realize this is really dumb (it's not like I have tons of money!)

During this morning's 4am coughing fit (third night in a row now) I looked at various lenses and other camera stuff on the internet. There wasn't really anything that I really wanted.

With this desire in mind and wondering what kind of deals were out there today, Ryan and I went for our usual Boxing Day walk. I was strong... until... we walked into Moog Audio. I should know better than to go into that store. Ryan and I had been kind of joking about buying CDJs - which is a pretty ridiculous idea and then I remembered....

CONTROLLERS!

Controllers are awesome. They are essentially a box with knobs, buttons and wheels that you plug into your computer. You can map the buttons / knobs to various functions in whatever software you're using and then can use both hands to control something on-screen. I think in some way it engages you more in the computer-music-making process. I had completely forgotten about these until I saw this lovely thing: the Vestax VCI-100... [insert sound of angels singing]. It looks pretty cool. And from quickly touching / playing with it in store, it felt pretty good too.

We walked out of the store empty-handed. I really wasn't convinced but it got me thinking - something like this would be really fun to play with.

I'll let the boxing day spending urge pass... I really can't justify spending so much money on something that I think would just be "fun to play with." I really should think about paying down the mortgage, future travel plans, paying taxes, etc... before I spend lots of money on something that I don't know that I'm going to use very much.


As for yesterday: it was a long exhausting day spent with the extended family-in-law. I just don't do well in these situations (in general - not just with in-laws). I don't really know what's wrong with me. Being surrounded by a large number of people for 8+ hours, having to make small talk just isn't my thing. Add in the uncle who keeps making really inappropriate jokes and has had too much to drink and I'm surprised I didn't end up hiding in the bathroom for most of the night.
And for some reason it's not over yet... there's another epic marathon-like 8+ hours to follow tomorrow (I really don't get why we need to do this again... but whatever.)

I realized on the drive home last night (at 1am!) that this is what "christmas" is all about. It isn't about what I really want but rather about making other people happy. That no matter how much I disagree with what the drunken uncle is saying, that I just need to smile and nod and be polite. I guess I was spoiled as a child. We always had a very small, intimate Christmas either at home or with my cousins in Ottawa. We would wake up, eat, slowly open gifts (it was a multiple hour ordeal - I admit that was a little painful) and then usually go for a long walk and then come home, eat some more and spend the evening listening to music while reading or playing with our toys together.

Anyway... I managed to coax Ryan into giving me a few hours yesterday before going to his family's to go out walking. It was nice. I'm glad I had that at least.

One fun part of the evening is that everyone gathered around and pulled out their fiddles and started playing together. I pulled out my camera, put on my 50mm prime and took a few pictures...




I really do like that prime lens. And it felt so much easier to use last night than I remember.

Hope everyone had a very merry Christmas day! Happy Holidays! I'm sure I'll write some more soon. :)

Cubist

I realized this morning that this cube must be at least 20 years old. This would probably explain why playing with it hurts so much. Rubik's cubes shouldn't be stiff should they? It also sometimes makes strange noises.

I solved it 3 times today. Yep, I think it's time to move onto something else on my list.

rubik's and the holidays.

I spent about 3 hours last night working on my Rubik's cube. It was really irritating. I solved it once. And then when I tried it again I just kept messing it up. By about 10:30 I was getting really frustrated and my hands were starting to get sore. I had to fight the urge to take it and whip it at the wall... [SERENITY NOW!]

I'm not sure why I started doing this - well, actually, I found the cube sitting on my nightstand a few nights ago and thought to myself that it would be kind of fun to be able to solve it.

This is how I chose to start my "staying at home" holidays this year. I have a list of things that I'd like to do this week - rubik's was on it but after last night I think it may get removed from my list.

If only I were feeling better though... I'm fighting through my second coughing fit of the night. The first one was at around 1am... it's currently 4am.

My head hurts from coughing too much. I'm tired. And no amount of water seems to help. I took a lozenge during the first one - that made things worse. So now I'm trying staying upright and drinking lots of water. Such a strange cold... I usually get a pretty bad cough when I get sick but I usually get sick first. This jumped right to the cough, no real sickness. It's making doing stuff kind of hard because I start coughing.

Also - it looks like it finally stopped snowing for the night. I don't remember it ever snowing this frequently. It seems like every afternoon big clouds roll in and it starts snowing. It's cold so the snow isn't melting just yet (we have over a foot now).


I realized last night as I took a few pictures that my hands are surprisingly steady when I take pictures. It's kind of crazy. The picture above was taken at 1/6 of a second. No tripod, just me standing on a street corner quickly snapping shots. Same with this one: (shot at 1/3 of a second, hand held)

I mean, they aren't completely clear but they're not terrible either. (And this is on a non-VR lens!) [These pictures aren't particularly interesting, just kind of me documenting the amount of snow we have.] Also, I've definitely noticed that Auto-ISO is off on my camera. It's so much better now that it's off!

I'll probably end up working on some more HDR shots tomorrow while I wait for my turkey to cook - yes, that's right, I'm cooking a turkey... on Christmas eve. I'm irritated that every year I never get to make turkey (for ANY of the holidays) and never have turkey leftovers or have bones to make turkey stock with. So I decided to cook a turkey. I'm going all out for this one: stuffing, turkey, cranberries, some sort of mashed potato, something green (salad or brocoli or both...) There'll be way too much food but it's okay. Let the holiday indulging begin.

so tired... need more sleep... I think the coughing has subsided for now... I'm going to try going back to sleep. Wish me luck.

Auto-ISO

ARGH.

So I just realized that the D40 has two places where you can set the "Auto-ISO". I had only seen the one. And so as I struggled to take some HDR photos today (I had tried doing this a while ago but gave up because it wasn't working) I realized that my problem was that my ISO was changing with every shot (increasing noise in some of the pictures!)

I figured out how to turn the second auto-ISO setting off... and now I'm kind of annoyed because my lack of attention means that my pictures for the last year have in a lot of cases been auto-ISOed. *sigh*

This really explains a LOT... I'm glad I figured this out.

Here we go:

HDR shot of the Massey Harris building

I don't know... I'm really not convinced. I should try this again earlier in the evening before the street lights turn on and when less light is coming into my room (there are some reflections of the glass in the picture - not exactly ideal...)


The city has been blanketed in a thick layer of snow (it just seems to keep snowing!) No it is not a disaster, we don't need the army, we're doing okay here. People seem to be quite sensible about it and roads have been pretty deserted. I went out on Friday night with a few friends and everything was ridiculously quiet. I think this was probably for the best - it forced me to come home shortly after last call. I've developed a bad cough lately and staying out late and drinking alcohol do not seem to help at all.

Anyway, my Weezer album is done, I've got nothing interesting to say or to post here, it's getting late and I want to go read a bit before falling asleep. Goodnight.

Schmap Toronto!

Little victories!!

I just got an e-mail this evening letting me know that Schmap Toronto had selected one of my pictures for the 6th edition of their Toronto guide. I had received a message a while ago asking me if I'd be interested in having them potentially publish a picture if they selected me... I guess they selected it.

Here is the link. Nothing special. It looks like it's the first picture for the Distillery District set. Shmap is kind of like a travel site where you can find pictures of places, reviews, that kind of thing... I've never actually used this site. It's kind of interesting to have something on there though.

The picture in question (shown below) happens to be a (handheld) panorama that I did during my worldwide photowalk back in August. There was some interesting cropping that had to happen as subjects in the various exposures (can you even call them that when you're talking digital?) were moving and so appeared more than once in the completed panorama.

the holidays

I have a week and a half off starting next week. I'm not sure what to do with it just yet. I'm not a huge fan of the holidays. I always end up feeling like I'm getting pulled in all directions and left feeling pretty exhausted. Every year it's the same thing. And so... I keep thinking to myself "maybe I could just go..." but where? Where would I go? The idea at the top of my list is New York City. Then maybe Montreal (though I really don't know what I would do there other than eat bagels - ha!). I also, out of curiosity (and research) looked at flights to Tokyo (that's just ridiculous I know).

Unfortunately, I think I will be stuck in Toronto for the holidays yet again. And this is disappointing. That being said I have a trip planned in March to Paris. Mais Oui! Paris! I've been there before and wasn't a huge fan the first time around but maybe this time, if I spend a week there I'll like it better? My friend Aleks has been living there for the last 4 months now and I would love to go visit her. I'm debating whether to stay with her and save a bit of cash or if I should do a hostel adventure. The thought of staying in a hostel is really exciting (is that bad?) - I'd be able to meet some new people, possibly go out and also have some independence. I guess I'll see what prices are like... I should start doing some research for good photography spots before I go!

Which brings me of course back to... Tokyo. So this evening I started re-reading my blog about my trip. It's funny to re-read it now. The further the trip seems to get from me the more the blog is meaningful - it reminds me of so much (though it seems that at times I said very little.) What does this have to do with Tokyo you may wonder? Well, nothing really... other than I really want to go back and reading about it really makes me realize how far it is. Both in distance and in my future plans. I will be saving up my vacation time next year to go to Japan in December (most likely for most of the month if possible.) In the meantime, I'm working on getting some basic level of conversational Japanese happening. I'm taking courses (I think I mentioned those here before?) and going to meet-ups to try practicing. Also... I'm doing research as to places I would like to go, things I'd like to see... mainly this is surrounding photographic opportunities.

I know... maybe I'm crazy for thinking so far ahead... I admit, I have a slight obsession about this...

And in the meantime, I will try to keep my wits about me here. Study hard and take pictures when I can... Here are a few from the last 4 weeks:

North Edmonton:


The Bell Conferencing holiday party which I photographed (pro bono):


And the Movember Gala which was probably the highlight of November for me. Tons of fun, amazing pictures and lots of moustaches!