Tedium

Oh my gentle readers, I am suffering from tedium. Strictly speaking that's not entirely accurate because one of the meanings is boredom which has never been a problem for me, however, cleaning out my photo library these last two days has been a tedious task.

Matthew explained to me that the photo libraries I'm using aren't designed to handle the volume of photos I currently have. Yes, I have an external hard drive, but still I have too much. You've always heard photographers say that you're only seeing their best work, that they take loads of terrible pictures,  which in my case is SO true. Hundreds and hundreds of bad pictures. Probably more like thousands if the I'm being completely honest. For an example, I saw this blue dragonfly perched on a stick in our front beds when I was getting the mail. 

It took about fifteen tries before getting one decent shot. In fact, upon loading them I was getting discouraged because picture after picture was bad.  Apparently, these type of dragonflies are territorial, perching in one place, so it wasn't a question of him moving--more like getting the camera to focus on the dragonfly. Typically I don't trash the bad ones right away, thus the overload. I MUST adopt this procedure in the future! Normally I can tell by the tiny thumbnail if something is going to be good and that's when I need to delete the bad ones. Everyone is always saying how great it is that you can delete in camera, however, when you wear reading glasses, as I do, this doesn't work so well. I want you to know that all fourteen bad ones are already in the trash!

I spent a good part of yesterday moving a years' worth of market photos onto discs. That was not quite as easy as it sounds, mostly because I'm not so great using a computer, doing things the hard way because that's all I know.  Finally, finally, I had 2009 done. The count? Over 2,000 less photos to clog up the system. I'd already done the same with the Sand Lake market a few days ago. I'm making progress my friends. Today I deleted almost 1,000 bad, or redundant, photos. It's kinda like cleaning out a closet, not so much fun while you're doing it, but once the task is completed, you feel like a new person. Still much work to be done, but I'm getting there.

Yesterday, before the photo marathon session began, my mobile phone rang. The conversation went sorta like this:
me: "Hi Bill."
Bill: "Hi Mom, what are you doing?"
me: "Christmas shopping."
Bill: " What? This is only July."
me: "Yes, that's true, but Nordstrom has only one anniversary sale, so I take advantage of the       discounts when I can. What is your waist size?"
Bill: "It might be different by Christmas!" (still looking for work, boo hoo)

Although the sale started some days ago, there were still nice things to be found. Last year I got Jonathan the cutest hat during the sale, which I was lucky enough to see a photo of him sporting at last weekend's music festival. I'm delighted with my purchases thus far. I only wish I knew what to get those sons of mine this year.....

That said, I do have a house warming gift for Matthew, which I'm hoping he'll like. Can you imagine he's got a British mortgage?  By this time next week, he'll be the proud owner of his first home! That's saying a lot when you're buying in central London. Why does this not surprise me? http://www.thestyleking.com/compass/bethnal-green-victoria-park/ Matt has about a month to turn his little slice of London into a show piece, and I've no doubt, no, nary a doubt, that he will.

Can you believe I've still got more to say? Well, hold your mouses still, I'm not done yet!

My intention when thinking about this post was to bash the movie, Inception. Here's what IMDB had to say: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1375666/ I was not so thrilled. In fact, I hated every minute of it. Leaving the theater,  I told Bruce that I'd do terribly with torture. We all know I'm a wuss when it comes to most things physical, however, up until seeing this movie I'd not experienced much in the way of mental torture. Now I have. I've often heard folks complain about the length of movies and frankly, I never got it. Now I do. Early on, I leaned over, whispering to Bruce, "No wonder they are called actors, WHO ELSE could deliver such inane dialogue and not break into laughter?" Apparently I didn't get it. What I seriously dislike in a film are car chases/crashes, stupid violence, and over-use of computer manipulation. This film had all three in spades. Not to mention that the admission was $10.75! Maybe I'm crazy, or just maybe, everyone else is.

And, with that rant behind me, I'll go out with a bang!