Wednesday - But mostly working!!!
Good morning. This is me. Not sure where we’re going this morning. Seems like we have to get to work. Seriously – but, then here we are again writing instead of stacking up those Qnotes … maybe we should at least get out the stack? Ok, good … we got out the paperwork, the flash drive and the template.We aren’t ready to do any more, but that’s an improvement. It says that we’ve turned some corner. We’re a bit concerned that sister wants to take a look at the Q’s progress. I suppose we could bring up files from before, but that seems to be cheating and the whole thing now is about coming clean with where we are and being upfront about getting the work done, because in reality we really do have an inspection coming up.
Ok, that’s enough stress for the moment. We’ve been bobbling around this morning. We woke up about 3:50 am, but we came in and out of sleep and couldn’t do anything productive. I think we were in and out of news. Britney had a flat tire so just left her car on the parkway so the police towed it away.
She got a ride home with the paparazzi. I guess it didn’t occur to her to call AAA. *Sigh* Another big news story today was that Hillary and McCain came ahead in the New Hampshire primaries. I have unwavering hope that Obama’s the guy to do it! We went through about 150 pictures of the day in the events following the primaries. Hillary was busting at the seams … I think she needed that victory. I’m almost glad she got it … Women can be emotional about that kind of stuff … c’mon Hillary … win some/lose some, y’know? I wouldn’t be overly disappointed if she got it either … just as long as the country went democratic. Again I think an Obama/Hillary ticket would be the ideal. That’s why I hope they keep it nice between them. I don’t think they couldn’t be beat.
Ok, that’s my news stories of the morning. There is almost more, but I always have just a few headliners.
I left off on news from the events of Sunday … I might have to do that … except
a couple of paragraphs? Not sure where we are with that. I feel like we’re missing time with that, but I don’t think we have the time now to go through it properly. I’m thinking that it’s already Wednesday, so I’m hoping that it’s safely locked in our mental vault and can be resurrected on Saturday. I’m not sure what Rich is doing, but we should be able to touch regular bases and figure out a few things, plus we have some great pictures that should scare up some thoughts. Have you seen them yet? They are great! I think I’ll read a few paragraphs now, but then from the day before – Monday, but try to get on to Monday and Tuesday so I can start today fairly … Nothing much to be said, I think, except there is stuff that went on with yesterday’s Dr. appointment. Ok, let me read. Aha!! Not far past the camera … this is what we came up with … our next camera goal. It’s about $650 in a package with the basic two extra lenses. I searched a lot of PROFESSIONAL review sites before I settled for Amazon’s price.
I’ll show you the pictures and then the AMAZON version of the PRODUCT DESCRIPTION – we’ll put on it a
START HERE:
Product Description
Manufacturer DescriptionThe Olympus EVOLT E-510 digital SLR is a great camera to help you evolve as a photographer. Only Olympus digital SLRs are engineered to be 100-percent digital. Simply put, this means your pictures will have stunning edge-to-edge sharpness that can’t be beat. Olympus’ Live View LCD technology is a unique feature that enhances your picture-taking experience. Whatever life brings, whatever you’re photographing, you’ll capture colorful memories with the E-510’s proven Dust Reduction System and powerful, 10-megapixel imager.
EVOLT E-510 Highlights
Innovative 2.5-inch Live View HyperCrystal LCD The E-510 features a Live View LCD to provide users with the freedom to choose how they compose their shots, using either the LCD or the optical viewfinder on the back of the camera. The Olympus Live View LCD empowers users to easily compose their subjects live on the LCD before the shot has been taken, offering a level of versatility that cannot be achieved by other digital SLR cameras that only offer an optical viewfinder. By holding the E-510 away from the face and using the Live View LCD to compose, it’s possible to shoot upward from a low angle for dramatic composition, in close for detailed macro photos of a butterfly’s wings or photographing a parade over a crowd of people.
The E-510’s big and bright 2.5-inch LCD display with approximately 230,000 pixels includes HyperCrystal technology, which offers many times the contrast of conventional LCD monitors, and enables images to be beautifully displayed in vivid color -- both in preview and playback. The HyperCrystal LCD also provides a wide viewing angle, which ensures images can be composed from even the most obscure angles. The larger LCD makes viewing icons and text on the camera’s menu a squint-free process.
Detailed, bright, and colorful photos with 10-megapixel Live MOS image sensor The E-510 is loaded with an impressive 10 million pixels for high-resolution photos. The 10-megapixel sensor gives photographers the flexibility to blow up their prints to the large sizes supported by many of today’s printers, or crop the image to print only a part of the image that is important to them. The high-performance Live MOS image sensor in the E-510 delivers excellent dynamic range for accurate color fidelity, and a new state-of-the-art amplifier circuit to eradicate noise and capture fine image details in the highlight and shadow areas.
Mechanical Image Stabilization for sharp images Unlike other digital SLR cameras in its class, the E-510 employs Mechanical Image Stabilization, which compensates for camera movement. This new technology complements Digital Image Stabilization, which compensates for a moving subject. Combined, Mechanical Image Stabilization and Digital Image Stabilization provide a powerful solution, ensuring blur-free photos even in active shooting situations where photographers may encounter camera shake or a moving subject. This powerful combination resides within the camera’s body, translating to blur-free images taken with any of the more than 30 digital-specific lenses.
Dust Reduction System for spot-free images Olympus’ Dust Reduction System produces spot-free photos with the exclusive Supersonic Wave Filter. The patented ultrasonic technology vibrates to remove dust and other particles from the front of the image sensor, and captures the debris on a special adhesive membrane every time you turn on the camera. These spot-free photos liberate users from hours spent retouching photographs at the computer or sending their cameras back to the manufacturer to remove dust trapped inside.
TruePic III for image clarity Olympus’ enhanced TruePic III Image Processor produces crystal clear photos using all the pixel information for each image to provide the best digital images possible for every photo with accurate color, true-to-life flesh tones, brilliant blue skies and precise tonal representation in between. TruePic III also lowers image noise by one step to reduce noise in images shot at higher ISO settings, enabling great results in low-light situations.
Lens compatibility All E-Series cameras support the Four Thirds Standard whereby Olympus and various other manufacturers produce high-quality Four Thirds-compliant lenses and accessories that are specifically designed for digital SLR image capture. Because the E-510 is part of the Olympus E-System, it is compatible with a large and growing range of Olympus E-System accessories to further enhance personal shooting styles and applications. This includes the full line-up of Zuiko Digital Specific lenses and flashes.
Easy-to-use, easy-to-handle light and ergonomic design The EVOLT E-510 is extremely portable, measuring 5.35 inches (136mm) by 3.61 inches (91.7mm) and 2.2 inches (56mm), excluding protrusions, and weighing 16.2 ounces (460 grams) body only. The new camera has a classic penta-mirror design that is light and compact enough to comfortably shoot with all day. Beyond its portable size, the E-510 delivers unparalleled ease of use -- from menus that make sense and buttons on the body that are easy to understand and operate, to automatic settings for every imaginable situation.
While the E-510 includes a full range of manual control options to customize your creativity, it also has 28 shooting modes designed to provide the ideal settings for a variety of shooting situations automatically. These include Digital Image Stabilization, Night Scene, Fireworks, Beach and Snow, and Candle Light to name a few, as well as an xD Panorama mode (for use with Olympus xD-Picture Cards). Users also benefit from special color modes and the possibility to apply a variety of Black & White filters.
Accepting both CompactFlash Type I & II, Microdrives, and xD-Picture Cards, the camera provides a choice of data storage options for enhanced flexibility, and it is possible to transfer image files from one card to the other right inside the camera.
Included 14-42mm f/3.5-5.6 and 40-150mm f/4.0-5.6 Zuiko lenses The versatility of the Olympus E-System comes from delivering the largest selection of "Designed-for-Digital" lenses -- more than any other manufacturer to date.
Olympus’ Zuiko Digital Specific Lenses come in a wide range of focal lengths to achieve the best image result in any given situation, and impress with their spectacular clarity and edge-to-edge sharpness.
The E-410 one-lens outfit includes a compact, Zuiko Digital ED 14-42 mm f3.5-f5.6 Lens (equivalent to 28mm-84mm in 35mm photography) that perfectly matches the imager so light strikes the sensor directly to ensure rich, accurate colors and edge-to-edge sharpness. Its 3x ED Glass zoom lens covers the range most frequently used in everyday photography and weighs just 7.5 ounces, offering users an extremely dynamic, portable everyday-use zoom. Close-ups as near as 9.84 inches (0.25 m) are also possible throughout the zoom range.
The E-410 two-lens outfit adds the Zuiko Digital ED 40-150mm f4.0-5.6 (80-300mm equivalent) Lens, which provides users with greater telephoto power for far-away shots in a compact size. This telephoto lens is smaller than many standard zoom lenses at 2.6 inch diameter x 2.8 inch length and a weight of 8.8 ounces -- a real benefit for anyone who wants to pack a powerful zoom lens without taking up much space. It also has great close focusing abilities, and is able to capture a subject up-close from a distance of 31.5 inches (.8m).
Both lenses are exceptionally compact, allowing unimpeded mobility. They are sized for comfortable handling and designed for maximum image quality at an excellent price. Most important, these new lenses have the world-renowned ED lenses that deliver stunning high-quality images.
All E-Series cameras support the Four-Thirds Standard whereby Olympus and various other manufacturers produce high-quality Four-Thirds-compliant lenses and accessories that are specifically designed for digital SLR image capture. Because the E-410 is part of the Olympus E-System, it is compatible with a large and growing range of Olympus E-System accessories to further enhance personal shooting styles and applications. This includes the full line-up of Zuiko Digital Specific lenses and flashes.
Product DescriptionOlympus EVOLT E-510 digital SLR is a great camera to help you evolve as a photographer. Olympus digital SLRs are engineered to be 100-percent digital. Simply put, this means your pictures will have stunning edge-to-edge sharpness that can't be beat. Olympus' Live View LCD technology is a unique feature that enhances your picture-taking experience. Whatever life brings, whatever you're photographing, you'll capture colorful memories with the E-510's proven Dust Reduction System and powerful, 10 megapixel imager.
Creative photography shouldn't necessarily be complicated. Using Zuiko digital lens technology, choose among auto and manual focus modes. You can select exposures manually but there's a wide scope of automatic modes to choose from. 29 exposure modes including 10 advanced modes and 19 Easy to Use Scene Select Modes. Simply select the right mode for your shot. The easy to use Scene Select Modes make you an instant expert, even with the most demanding shots. Choose from any of the 19 selections like Fireworks, Beach or Snow. The E-510 takes care of the rest. It's the digital SLR you've been waiting for. Adjust ISO 100 to 1600 Built-in multimode electronic-flash (external available.
Inactivation is available to set) Shutter - Auto mode - 2 - 1/4000 sec. (depends on settings) 2 Mode self-timer Multifunction display menu Up to 650 pictures recordable using optical viewfinder per fully charged battery (with 50% flash light) (with BLM-1 under CIPA testing standard) Unit (body) Dimensions 5.35 in.(W) x 3.6 in. (W) x 2.67in. (D) / 136 mm (W) x 91.5 mm (H) x 68 mm (D) (excluding protrusions); Weight 16.2 oz. / 460 g (body only)
Finish here
Ahh, Nice, Hmm? It took us the rest of the afternoon and into the night to figure that out. We haven’t figured out the necessary accessories. We are satisfied with the lenses for now. There’s always something to add, but we just need the beginners stuff one is for regular and can shoot stuff real close or real far away – well! They are both covered in the $650 tag. You still need at minimum a case, an extra battery, maybe a charger, a memory card, and a cleaning system. I think the extra flash would be nice too, but we’re running pretty high as it is.
I think Rich is going to have a fit, but the other camera was expensive too. I think I might have paid like $3-400 for the camera then added accessories.
The other camera was a very nice “point and shoot” camera … the next step up is a SLR, which I think means a single lens release, but I’m not sure what that means, but the cameras go from $500-1200 easy, and most likely more. They seem to be for experienced photographers before getting into the pro cameras, though probably even the pro photographers carry a SLR on them just for the easy shoot. It’s a nice digital camera to have handy. The problem we had with my camera is that it started sticking at the end of the day so that we had to take time to close it, first 5 minutes, then 20 minutes, and then a couple of hours. We had tried to change batteries, but that didn’t seem to be the problem. It’s put the camera in an unstable mode.
I think we will pick up some new batteries just in case, because I don’t want to give up on it. Rich said at first that we could work on it, and I said maybe toward a birthday, but that’s not til July. He said sooner. But, I know that he has to do the families bathroom first and that just came in at a rough estimate as $10,000. He’ll get the paper estimate today. I think though that Rich likes that we get into the photography. Later if we get the camera and get used to it for a bit, maybe we can take a couple of photography classes at one of the community colleges – that would be fun. Maybe later when I’m better able to walk and I can fit in a chair. *Sigh*
I love the part and we got into it yesterday that we can save pictures of the adventures that we go on with Rich. He’s such an excellent model – I would love to catch him face on – but I don’t think we’re ready to get a 2nd boat for that hehehe. Silly guy. I’m not sure how he felt about being photographed so much. A lot of the time I don’t think he was aware what we were doing. We were wearing the shawl and we mostly hid the camera when we weren’t taking pictures … most his fishing pictures were again from the rear. The few that we got with him facing us were the shy, smiley pictures of him. I think he felt good, but not sure of his exact feelings when watching the slide show. We know he was already feeling good because he had been fishing all day and was heading toward his back rub – it had been a great day and then that. I don’t think he’s good at putting that kind of stuff to words. Him thinking we could move up to a better camera is a good sign though. I just don’t know if he knows how much we put into the last camera. I do know though that he knew that his son’s camera cost $1000, so maybe he is prepared. Pshwoo. Let’s hope so … Let’s hope my camera holds up til July – and it’s just a really fine present!!!
Ok, we are obsessing … let’s use the washroom and come back to a new topic ok?
Hmm, more stuff in the staff dining room. Came out with just one chocolate covered half graham cracker … man the two nuns are just brow beating us. It’s 8:37 am now. Brandi and Candice and clients were on the Internet on the way out … I thought I shouldn’t say anything, but on the way back they had work up. Umm must be a good influence?
Whoops. It’s gotten to 9:15 am. Went out … talked to Theresa about her giggling in church – something about a client’s bedhead … I don’t know silly staff hehehe. And, then we came back and reviewed Candice’s last papers turned in … it was a set of goals and objectives – including long goals. The first one of three I won’t make any changes to. The second one is a big more confusing and the third one just needs some tidying up. I’m supposed to have a client coming in for her music goal after chapel, so I’ll talk to Candice afterward. I let her know that was the plan. Ok, that’ll jolt us back to common sense.
I might have to then breakdown do no stories and then start the Qnotes. I’m not progressing fast enough to be getting the work work done. I feel bad about that. Rich is right … I need to be setting the example. Especially, if Sr. Theresa is collecting. That would be fair. I don’t know about coming in tomorrow … I’ll have the appointment at 3 pm. But, I don’t know if I could focus on 2 meetings immediately before – 12, 1, and then leave at 2, and be at meetings at 3, and 4:30 pm. That’s a lot for us right now. I’ll have to figure that out. I still have to straighten out the little blog before we go into the 3 pm meeting. The last couple of days we’ve been terrible as to our home time … they’ve just been a daze … a lot of staring and grazing … mostly without the food … but when with the food … we’ve been trying to hold it to the liquid diet food – like popsicles and jello. This morning our weight came down to 115.8 pounds. I know that is going to change, but we will go with that for a bit. Nice to break it. I’d like to see the range held of 112 next. Have to work for it though.
Ok, let’s think work. The client is not here … we called the room about 10 minutes ago and nobody answered … must have been a long service. We’re going to cancel the meeting soon if she’s not here … window of opportunity is closing. I hate to do it to the client. But, I have other things to be doing. I’ve got a sticky thinking situation coming up with Candice’s goal. And, I gotta get through some Qnotes. PERIOD. I’m afraid to go on out of order … let me call again.
WooHOO… That’ went better than thought. It turned out the staff had taken her group WITH the client on a field trip and she’d forgotten me all together.
We’ll chastise her a bit on her return and then let her go hehehe naw little
problem, but it did free up that time so we gave it to Candice. We gave her a bye on the first goal it seemed pretty good
Ack – dentist got us … she said that we’ve got an outstanding dentist bill since August 22nd of $140 yikes … I surely didn’t know that had happened. I’ll have to figure that out, but it won’t be able to be fixed until after the 15th. Like to pay it off, but I don’t know if I will be able to … be worth making the effort though. Ok, done deal. I paid an extra $1830 last year, but she was right – checked the bank account … I thought I’d been making payments … it was getting written down $50 each month, but I must have cut short. That means a couple others getting cut short too. I told Elaine that I’d make the payment in full after the 15th, and then after that was paid, and since we’re on a fresh insurance year, would make by February another appointment to have a general checkup. That seems like a good deal. *Sigh* Pretty sure we’re going to get yelled at for not taking the appliance out of our mouth. Not sure what the damage is going to have been done L Have to face it though. I like having those teeth back there L Ok, stop with the unsmiley faces … we got to FACE UP!!!
Ok, shhhh nuf of that
Back to the Candice situation. We’d forgotten about the notecard we’d made on the second goal. We went over it with her and asked her to clean it up and then we’d go over it again – mostly we wanted her to piece it together – what was the meaning of all the elements and how did the journal on top tie to the elements on the bottom which didn’t have it. These things are hard, but its important she can think through them. It’s a good start – glad she’s in a strength mode. Should make me there too. What would it take girls? Hmm, 9:59 am. Seem like just the time.
posted by Ann Marie @ 1/10/2008 07:01:00 AM
Comments: 0
