I am planning to buy a digital SLR camera sometime in the next few months and I need recommendations. I've read through some review sites and based on that, I'm thinking about a Canon Rebel XS or XSi or a Nikon D60, D3000, or D5000. I'm looking for something in the $500-$650 range for the camera and standard lens, and ideally for a telephoto lens also (I'm pushing my luck a bit there, but Amazon has a few packages like that).
I wish I knew a little more about the technicalities of digital photography. I'm doing some reading online, but it's difficult to keep all the terms straight. I've read that you're supposed to think about what you take pictures of, and for me that's mostly landscapes, macro photography of nature, and documenting events (portraits of people standing in front of something). However, I've been saying I'd upgrade to digital SLR on the occasion of either going on a major trip or having a baby, and we're planning a trip to Scandinavia this spring. Thus, I'm planning to use this camera to take pictures of interesting things I see while traveling, and later on when we have kids I'll use it to take pictures of them.
From what I've read, it seems like the cameras in the category I'm looking at (bottom of the price range for dSLRs, good for someone like me who is not a professional photographer and just wants better picture quality than a point-and-shoot can provide) are all about equal in terms of photo quality. So how do I figure out which one to buy?
21 November 2010
10 November 2010
A Blanket for Hope
I have been very crafty lately. And when I say crafts, I mean sewing. I took a quilting class this summer and have been excited about using my sewing machine for the last several months. A recent project was this:
I made this blanket for an adorable 5-year-old girl named Mia. She is my coworker Michelle's daughter, and she was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago. The orange ribbon for awareness is associated with childhood cancers, and Mia's family has adopted the orange ribbon as a sign of hope and support. Last year, they had a banquet and auction to support her cancer treatment. (They sold t-shirts with "Cure LeukeMIA!" on them - isn't that creative?) This year, Michelle was planning another event, so I told her I'd make a blanket to auction.
I used orange satin for the back and trim of the blanket, and picked a pink and orange heart patterned fleece for the front. "Princess" Mia is a very girly girl, and I thought pink hearts with orange satin made a sweet, spunky blanket to support Mia and her treatment.
As I was working on the blanket, I decided I'd tell Michelle that she could decide whether to auction the blanket or to just give it to Mia. After all, I made the blanket with Mia in mind, and it was a gift for her either way. When I took it to work, Michelle decided to give it to Mia. Apparently, Mia loves blankets and always has them with her.
Today, Michelle shared some great news on Facebook -- Mia's doctors say she has just one month of treatment left before she will be considered cancer-free! So I'm glad to be able to share about the blanket, and joyful beyond words for Mia, Michelle, and their family that Mia's road to recovery is almost over.
(I've made another blanket for another adorable little girl - Ross's new baby niece - but I won't post pictures until we meet her and give her the blanket at Thanksgiving.)
I made this blanket for an adorable 5-year-old girl named Mia. She is my coworker Michelle's daughter, and she was diagnosed with leukemia a few years ago. The orange ribbon for awareness is associated with childhood cancers, and Mia's family has adopted the orange ribbon as a sign of hope and support. Last year, they had a banquet and auction to support her cancer treatment. (They sold t-shirts with "Cure LeukeMIA!" on them - isn't that creative?) This year, Michelle was planning another event, so I told her I'd make a blanket to auction.
I used orange satin for the back and trim of the blanket, and picked a pink and orange heart patterned fleece for the front. "Princess" Mia is a very girly girl, and I thought pink hearts with orange satin made a sweet, spunky blanket to support Mia and her treatment.
As I was working on the blanket, I decided I'd tell Michelle that she could decide whether to auction the blanket or to just give it to Mia. After all, I made the blanket with Mia in mind, and it was a gift for her either way. When I took it to work, Michelle decided to give it to Mia. Apparently, Mia loves blankets and always has them with her.
Today, Michelle shared some great news on Facebook -- Mia's doctors say she has just one month of treatment left before she will be considered cancer-free! So I'm glad to be able to share about the blanket, and joyful beyond words for Mia, Michelle, and their family that Mia's road to recovery is almost over.
(I've made another blanket for another adorable little girl - Ross's new baby niece - but I won't post pictures until we meet her and give her the blanket at Thanksgiving.)
17 July 2010
John Updike's Churchgoing
On the way home from running errands, NPR was airing a tribute to John Updike episode of A Prairie Home Companion, and this striking (at least to me) bit of prose is what I heard Garrison Keillor read:
from Churchgoing
There was a time when I wondered why more people did
not go to church. Taken purely as a human recreation, what
could be more delightful, more unexpected than to enter a
venerable and lavishly scaled building kept warm and clean
for us one or two hours a week and to sit and stand in unison
and sing and recite creeds and petitions that are like paths
worn smooth in the raw terrain of our hearts? To listen, or not
listen, as a poorly paid but resplendently robed man strives to
console us with scraps of ancient epistles and halting accounts,
hopelessly compromised by words, of those intimations of
divine joy that are like pain in that, their instant gone, the
mind cannot remember or believe them; to witness the
windows donated by departed patrons and the altar flowers
arranged by withdrawn hands and the whole considered
spectacle lustrous beneath its patina of inheritance; to pay, for
all this, no more than we are moved to give-surely in all
democracy there is nothing like it. Indeed, it is the most
available democratic experience. We vote less than once a
year. Only in church and at the polls are we actually given our
supposed value, the soul-unit of one, with its noumenal
arithmetic of equality: one equals one."
--from Churchgoing, from Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories, 1962, pp 249-250
(Text pulled from http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2009/01/31/scripts/updike.shtml, where you can also find a link to the audio.)
from Churchgoing
There was a time when I wondered why more people did
not go to church. Taken purely as a human recreation, what
could be more delightful, more unexpected than to enter a
venerable and lavishly scaled building kept warm and clean
for us one or two hours a week and to sit and stand in unison
and sing and recite creeds and petitions that are like paths
worn smooth in the raw terrain of our hearts? To listen, or not
listen, as a poorly paid but resplendently robed man strives to
console us with scraps of ancient epistles and halting accounts,
hopelessly compromised by words, of those intimations of
divine joy that are like pain in that, their instant gone, the
mind cannot remember or believe them; to witness the
windows donated by departed patrons and the altar flowers
arranged by withdrawn hands and the whole considered
spectacle lustrous beneath its patina of inheritance; to pay, for
all this, no more than we are moved to give-surely in all
democracy there is nothing like it. Indeed, it is the most
available democratic experience. We vote less than once a
year. Only in church and at the polls are we actually given our
supposed value, the soul-unit of one, with its noumenal
arithmetic of equality: one equals one."
--from Churchgoing, from Pigeon Feathers and Other Stories, 1962, pp 249-250
(Text pulled from http://prairiehome.publicradio.org/programs/2009/01/31/scripts/updike.shtml, where you can also find a link to the audio.)
14 July 2010
Summertime
Seventeen school years is enough to train a 23-year-old person to expect something different by the time June rolls around, and this is the first summer in my memory that has not included a significant change of pace (read: a different job). It's weird. I have no better way to say that.
The spring went by so quickly. It had just been Christmas by the time it was Ross's birthday (April 8) and there was scarcely enough time between his birthday and mine (May 19) to get anything done. Now, though, we're halfway into July and it feels like May was forever ago. The summer is just dragging on. Fortunately, I love summer, especially in Colorado, where yesterday I went to Lilith Fair in 98-degree heat and enough sun to give even my resilient skin a sunburn, and it wasn't even a problem because there is NO humidity here. Colorado is the best. In Kansas it would be 104 and 95% humidity.
Anyway, June and July have been full of events -- camping, friends visiting, our anniversary, two weddings in Kansas, farmers market on Saturdays, quilting class on Wednesdays, recreational kickball on Mondays, Lilith Fair... and yet my longing for newness in everyday life has kept all these events and commitments from feeling like a whirlwind.
I should be grateful that this favorite season of mine is taking its time to pass, yet I have been uneasy since the beginning of May. That expectant student whom I am used to being is still in the stressful May-time when days and weeks never seem to end and yet are never long enough, waiting for finals to be over, for a break from classes and juggling work and extracurricular activities, waiting to escape to a 9-to-5 workday for three precious months. Only now that the 9-to-5 workday is the everyday normal, I want to escape from it.
The spring went by so quickly. It had just been Christmas by the time it was Ross's birthday (April 8) and there was scarcely enough time between his birthday and mine (May 19) to get anything done. Now, though, we're halfway into July and it feels like May was forever ago. The summer is just dragging on. Fortunately, I love summer, especially in Colorado, where yesterday I went to Lilith Fair in 98-degree heat and enough sun to give even my resilient skin a sunburn, and it wasn't even a problem because there is NO humidity here. Colorado is the best. In Kansas it would be 104 and 95% humidity.
Anyway, June and July have been full of events -- camping, friends visiting, our anniversary, two weddings in Kansas, farmers market on Saturdays, quilting class on Wednesdays, recreational kickball on Mondays, Lilith Fair... and yet my longing for newness in everyday life has kept all these events and commitments from feeling like a whirlwind.
I should be grateful that this favorite season of mine is taking its time to pass, yet I have been uneasy since the beginning of May. That expectant student whom I am used to being is still in the stressful May-time when days and weeks never seem to end and yet are never long enough, waiting for finals to be over, for a break from classes and juggling work and extracurricular activities, waiting to escape to a 9-to-5 workday for three precious months. Only now that the 9-to-5 workday is the everyday normal, I want to escape from it.
09 June 2010
One year
Today is Ross's and my first anniversary. It's been a wonderful year.
I have heard that the first year of marriage is the hardest. If that's true, it bodes excellently for the rest of our marriage.
I have heard that the first year of marriage is the hardest. If that's true, it bodes excellently for the rest of our marriage.
03 June 2010
Tropical Dinner Party
Last weekend, my college roommate/sister-in-law Meredith stayed with us, so we had Ross's cousins over for dinner. I had been craving coconut shrimp for at least a month, so I knew I wanted to make that. From there, I decided that a tropical theme for the meal would be good. So here's what we had:
Coconut shrimp with dipping sauce (which was delicious, by the way)
Kebabs (pepper, onion, pineapple, and optional chicken)
Mixed greens salad with Annie's Organics Papaya and Poppyseed dressing
Basil rice
Colorful potatoes with peanut sauce
Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures. I didn't even think about it until we were finished eating.
Coconut shrimp with dipping sauce (which was delicious, by the way)
Kebabs (pepper, onion, pineapple, and optional chicken)
Mixed greens salad with Annie's Organics Papaya and Poppyseed dressing
Basil rice
Colorful potatoes with peanut sauce
Unfortunately, I failed to take any pictures. I didn't even think about it until we were finished eating.
14 May 2010
Name Nerdery: Twilight
In my last post, I mentioned that Isabella and Jacob, the SSA's #1-ranked names for 2009, have gotten some press because they are both used in Stephanie Myers' Twilight series. I thought I'd expand this a little further.
A name can get all the pop-culture references you can shake a stick at, and unless it fits parents' collective naming taste -- a trend -- it won't rise in popularity. Take, for example, the show Friends. It was extremely popular, and aired from 1994-2004. During that time, the names used on Friends got a lot of exposure. Phoebe was the only name of a main character that rose in popularity. Chandler got an initial boost in popularity in 1995, and then along with all the rest of the main characters names, fell steadily during Friends' ten-year run.
In 2000, though, when Phoebe was the surrogate for her brother's triplets, one of which was a girl she named Chandler, the name Chandler made it onto the top 1000 for girls for the first time ever. But at the same time, traditionally male trade names for girls were gaining popularity: Taylor was popular throughout the '90s; Hunter peaked in 2000, Tyler gained popularity in the late 1990s, and Piper and Parker made it onto the charts in 1999 and have been rising ever since. Hearing Chandler used on a baby girl on Friends probably sounded fresh and unique to expectant parents who were drawn to girls' names like Taylor, Hunter, and Parker.
So how are the other characters' names faring in terms of popularity? Pretty well, it turns out.
Edward was in the Top 10 from the 1880s through 1930. It has slowly decreased in popularity since then (it was in the Top 100 until 1997), and there does not appear to be a Twilight-induced bump in popularity despite all the Edward fans.
Alice peaked in popularity in 1906. It has stayed in the Top 1000, but since 2005, when Twilight was released, it has increased 156 spots in the rankings, from 414 to 258. The number of babies named Alice since 2005 has gone from 751 to 1,251. It is worth noting another pop-culture reference to Alice -- comedian Tina Fey's daughter, born in September 2005.
Jasper peaked in the 1880s. It was on the Top 1000, but relatively obscure, throughout the 20th century. It started regaining popularity in 2000. Since 2005, it has moved from #537 to #337 -- 200 ranks in 5 years.
Esme has never been in the top 1000. (But on a personal note, I wish it would be! I think Esme is a lovely name that deserves to be used.)
Carlisle has never been in the top 1000, but the spelling Carlyle peaked in 1918. It hasn't been in the top 1000 since 1950.
Rosalie peaked in the 1930s and declined off the charts afterward. It popped back up in 2009 at #840.
Emmett peaked in 1895. It also stayed in the Top 1000. Since 1990, it has been coming out of obscurity (from 964 into the 500s), but Twilight probably gave it a boost -- between 2008 and 2009, Emmett jumped up 215 ranks, from #547 to #332.
The names from Twilight work the same way. Isabella and Jacob were popular before Stephanie Meyer wrote Twilight. In fact, the author has said that she used Bella's name because it was the name she had chosen for the daughter she never had. According to Wikipedia, Meyer's sons are named Gabe, Seth, and Eli -- like Jacob, biblical names that have been gaining popularity in recent years.
Names tend to be popular in cycles. Every generation has its own unique names, and some names are eternally popular (Elizabeth and John, for example) but as a whole, names fall in and out of popularity with time. Parents tend to think that names that were popular for their own, their parents, and their grandparents generations sound too dated. Names that were popular in their great-grandparents' generation, though, sound fresh -- because most people's lifespans don't overlap with their great grandparents'.
Cullen is a an exception. The name has been used as a first name on and off since 1880; consistently since 1978. In 2009, it hit a 129-year peak in popularity: #485, with 555 babies named Cullen in 2009. This is one name that is almost certainly attributable to Twilight. Cullen was declining steadily -- from a previous peak in 1997 (#505) down to #782 in 2008. There is really no force other than Twilight that would reverse that decline so sharply. Similar-sounding names Colin, Collin, and Calvin have been fairly stagnant in the past decade, and Cullen is not a recycled great-grandpa name -- it was obscure 100 years ago.
The vampires in Twilight are all just about 100 years old -- great-grandparent age. And in fact, their names are period-appropriate. For her protagonist vampires, Meyer presumably chose names that sounded old enough but also appealing to her. And since Meyer is in today's parent generation, is it any surprise that the 100-year-old names she chose are ones that appeal to other modern parents?
A name can get all the pop-culture references you can shake a stick at, and unless it fits parents' collective naming taste -- a trend -- it won't rise in popularity. Take, for example, the show Friends. It was extremely popular, and aired from 1994-2004. During that time, the names used on Friends got a lot of exposure. Phoebe was the only name of a main character that rose in popularity. Chandler got an initial boost in popularity in 1995, and then along with all the rest of the main characters names, fell steadily during Friends' ten-year run.
In 2000, though, when Phoebe was the surrogate for her brother's triplets, one of which was a girl she named Chandler, the name Chandler made it onto the top 1000 for girls for the first time ever. But at the same time, traditionally male trade names for girls were gaining popularity: Taylor was popular throughout the '90s; Hunter peaked in 2000, Tyler gained popularity in the late 1990s, and Piper and Parker made it onto the charts in 1999 and have been rising ever since. Hearing Chandler used on a baby girl on Friends probably sounded fresh and unique to expectant parents who were drawn to girls' names like Taylor, Hunter, and Parker.
So how are the other characters' names faring in terms of popularity? Pretty well, it turns out.
Edward was in the Top 10 from the 1880s through 1930. It has slowly decreased in popularity since then (it was in the Top 100 until 1997), and there does not appear to be a Twilight-induced bump in popularity despite all the Edward fans.
Alice peaked in popularity in 1906. It has stayed in the Top 1000, but since 2005, when Twilight was released, it has increased 156 spots in the rankings, from 414 to 258. The number of babies named Alice since 2005 has gone from 751 to 1,251. It is worth noting another pop-culture reference to Alice -- comedian Tina Fey's daughter, born in September 2005.
Jasper peaked in the 1880s. It was on the Top 1000, but relatively obscure, throughout the 20th century. It started regaining popularity in 2000. Since 2005, it has moved from #537 to #337 -- 200 ranks in 5 years.
Esme has never been in the top 1000. (But on a personal note, I wish it would be! I think Esme is a lovely name that deserves to be used.)
Carlisle has never been in the top 1000, but the spelling Carlyle peaked in 1918. It hasn't been in the top 1000 since 1950.
Rosalie peaked in the 1930s and declined off the charts afterward. It popped back up in 2009 at #840.
Emmett peaked in 1895. It also stayed in the Top 1000. Since 1990, it has been coming out of obscurity (from 964 into the 500s), but Twilight probably gave it a boost -- between 2008 and 2009, Emmett jumped up 215 ranks, from #547 to #332.
The names from Twilight work the same way. Isabella and Jacob were popular before Stephanie Meyer wrote Twilight. In fact, the author has said that she used Bella's name because it was the name she had chosen for the daughter she never had. According to Wikipedia, Meyer's sons are named Gabe, Seth, and Eli -- like Jacob, biblical names that have been gaining popularity in recent years.
Names tend to be popular in cycles. Every generation has its own unique names, and some names are eternally popular (Elizabeth and John, for example) but as a whole, names fall in and out of popularity with time. Parents tend to think that names that were popular for their own, their parents, and their grandparents generations sound too dated. Names that were popular in their great-grandparents' generation, though, sound fresh -- because most people's lifespans don't overlap with their great grandparents'.
Cullen is a an exception. The name has been used as a first name on and off since 1880; consistently since 1978. In 2009, it hit a 129-year peak in popularity: #485, with 555 babies named Cullen in 2009. This is one name that is almost certainly attributable to Twilight. Cullen was declining steadily -- from a previous peak in 1997 (#505) down to #782 in 2008. There is really no force other than Twilight that would reverse that decline so sharply. Similar-sounding names Colin, Collin, and Calvin have been fairly stagnant in the past decade, and Cullen is not a recycled great-grandpa name -- it was obscure 100 years ago.
The vampires in Twilight are all just about 100 years old -- great-grandparent age. And in fact, their names are period-appropriate. For her protagonist vampires, Meyer presumably chose names that sounded old enough but also appealing to her. And since Meyer is in today's parent generation, is it any surprise that the 100-year-old names she chose are ones that appeal to other modern parents?
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