The Camera Eye

As many of you know (many being like 3 of the 4 people that read this) I have become a little interested in photography lately. I like to carry around a digital camera and snap pictures of random stuff. First it was just a way to document parts of my life for the blog, but then I got more interested and started taking pictures of things I didn't have any intention of ever posting. Eventually I decided I would share some of those things with you. As always, feel free to click on the pictures to see the full-size version.

For some reason one thing that really captures my imagination is clouds, so here are a few of my favorite cloud pictures that I've taken:

Here is the road leading to my parents' house. Years from now this is how I will remember the drive to their house (and yes of course I stopped the car before taking these):

My brother Brian grilling up some delicious food:

Rush in Rock Band (I hadn't yet beaten YYZ when I took this):

My uncle Russ' new old Camaro - it's a '68 that he just finished rebuilding:

My stove - probably some chili or spaghetti brewing:

My grandpa's barns (for you city people, tractors and horses don't just exist on TV):

IS THAT A FLYING SAUCER?!?! Why yes, it is a Frisbee flying straight for my face. I do believe Anderbra is reponsible for this mess:

Kaeden chewing on a bike tire:

Nikki, Kaeden, and someone trying to fish:

I hope you enjoyed my random pictures. Maybe some time in the future I will post more of them. Last but not least, I leave you with a weird juxtaposition. This is one of my favorite pictures I've taken, but it's also one of the few that looks worse when you zoom in because it's a little blurry.

So peaceful.

A Milestone

Due to my lack of access to a real drum kit, I mostly satisfy my drumming fix by using my electronic kit (e-kit) to play Rock Band 2. It's pretty realistic in the sense that I have a full drum set of pads to hit, and I can hit the correct ones to play the game. For example, in 99% of all cases the green note in Rock Band games is either a crash cymbal or a floor tom, so my e-kit has a crash cymbal and a floor tom both mapped to green. It's up to me to hit which one is correct based on how the song sounds (even if I hit the wrong one the game counts it as correct, but it's more satisfying and realistic when I hit the right one). I've mentioned this before but I wanted to say it again anyways.

So as I played through the songs of Rock Band 1, RB2, and DLC (downloadable content) on Expert, the list of songs I couldn't beat got smaller and smaller. I don't want to get your hopes up - I haven't beat them all yet, but today I did hit a milestone. There's a song called Visions which in my opinion is terrible. It's fast growling metal, has very little discernable rhythm, and often times feels like you're just pounding on the drums with no regard to any sort of song structure. This was the hardest song in RB2 on drums because of the above characteristics. I tried it a few times and then for the longest time didn't even play it because I thought it sounded awful. I finally decided to try it again and beat it, the last song in RB2.

(By the way that 53 note streak is hilarious. Most songs I have over 200 note streaks.) I have now officially beaten all Rock Band disc songs on Expert drums. That means that I have finished all of RB1 and 2, and only have DLC to go. The last songs for DLC that I can't beat are:

Prequel to the Sequel (Between the Buried and Me)

More Human than Human (White Zombie)

Jesus Christ Pose (Soundgarden)

Stay Away (Nirvana)

I think on a good day I could beat Stay Away (I've gotten as far as 90% through the song) and maybe More Human than Human (if I can ever learn the weird disco beat). The others, though, are going to be very difficult. Jesus Christ Pose has a pretty constant pattern through the whole song and the farthest I've gotten through it is like 15%. Prequel to the Sequel just has sections that are ridiculously fast that I can't keep up with. Maybe someday...

Is Three-peat Actually a Word?

Quick picture post today - just wanted to congratulate the MCM Ducks on winning the Portland Roller Hockey Championship for the third year in a row. Part of me secretly wished they couldn't do it without me, but I am happy for them regardless. Here are some pictures of their final game.

My photographic skills didn't get much use until the third period. The Young Guns (in red) were down 5-2 at one point, until two goals by Chris Griffin make it 5-4:


Here you can see that they tied it up at 5 shortly before the end of the third period. We're going to overtime!

The fans are tense as the game goes into overtime and the sun begins to set:


Overtime fails to decide the game so it heads to a shootout:


Two shooters go but the goalies do their job. The next Duck takes his turn and barrels toward the Young Guns' goalie. He scores!


Two more shooters are turned away so it comes down to the final shot. Young Guns star Derek Brown needs to score to tie up the game and send it into extra shootout rounds:


But fate was not with the underdogs today. The Ducks skate off with their third championship in as many years.