Thank goodness that's over. For those of you who don't know, I was asked to play a piano solo in the Premier's Concert (also, the orchestra I'm in was playing as well...). Just got home a few minutes ago from it and I am SO thankful it's over.
Why am I telling you this? Well, the whole thing was professionally recorded and we'll be getting our copy of the recording hopefully sometime this week, and I plan to upload parts of it here to the blog. Watch this space! Something's actually going to happen for once!
Saturday, November 20, 2010
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Paris Day 7
Whew. Finally. The entry for the last day.
Okay. So. We took the train to Sacre Coeur (spelling subject to correction), a church in Paris. Let me change that. We took the train to a place relatively near the church and then walked several blocks through mobs of scam artists (there were at least 5 "shell games" per block), got physically grabbed by a few others (the apparently wanted to tie a string on my finger...), and then finally arrived at the church itself. Oh wait, no, we then had to climb several flights of stairs covered in mobs of people. Then we were at the church.
All right so I exaggerated the walking bit but the mobs of people and scam artist bits are not exaggerated in the least.
Inside the church was amazing, as usual of churches that one makes special excursions to see, but as was also expected there was a strict ban of cameras (also irksome: the patronizing way people tell you you're not allowed to use cameras. They assume anyone with a camera is an ignorant fool who never sees the signs banning cameras...and sadly for the most part they're right...).
We spent the rest of our time there wandering around the area; there was an artists area which was really cool to see...all painters and sketchers working outside where anyone can watch...it was fascinating to watch a painter change what was just a flat bit of colour into a corner of an apartment building with just a few applications of colour.
We also stopped by the wall where "I love you" is written in over 300 languages....including such languages as Cuneiform, Hieroglyphics, Latin, and sign language. Funnily enough, while I found all those and the English version, I never found the French translation...one would have thought that would be relatively prominent. We also probably ended up being in the background of some students' news project...
Onwards to the Eiffel Tower! Someone had recommended we go in the evening for the sunset views and supposedly smaller crowds. Well. If those were smaller crowds I don't want to see the big ones. As the line for the elevator to the second deck was jam packed we decided to take the stairs (at the second level you can't take the stairs any further...elevator only). My dad, my brother, and I decided that we would run up the stairs to the first level. I made it first in just under three minutes. The bad news was that about three quarters of the way up my legs just completely died. You know how people always say "I was so tired my legs felt like jelly"? Yeah. That. With no exaggeration. I'm actually not quite sure how I lifted my legs up the stairs for bit after that...I seem to remember using my arms and the handrail a lot. When I did get to the first level, panting and exhausted, I tried to get my camera out to take some pictures. Nope. Wasn't happening. Waaay too tired. In all seriousness I almost passed out while recovering from my epic but somewhat foolhardy ascent. It took me at least fifteen minutes to be ready to start the next set of stairs. So; what's the moral of the story? Do NOT attempt to run up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower two at a time unless you are hyper fit. I mean REALLY fit. Even if you think you're in really good shape and have great endurance...think twice. My dad is one of those people...but he was also really exhausted after the climb and it took him 50 seconds longer.
Moving on...away from the subject of climbing the Eiffel Tower. One of the irritating things about the structure of the Tower is that as people walk around on it it shakes the floor, which means the tripod shakes as well. That made it well-nigh impossible to take any scenery shots.
Oh, and did I mention it was absolutely freezing? And windy? It was COLD up there. And at the top...whew...apparently it was -20 Celsius with the wind chill (which was pretty significant, let me tell you). Luckily they had an indoor area up there as well but it was still cold. Brrr. After a few failed attempts at a shot of the moon rise we went back down. (also, try handling a metal tripod when it's freezing cold and you have no gloves. The things I go through to take pictures...)
And...well...that's it.
Pics pics pics
I just loved this shot. My mother, on the other hand, didn't love the way I took it.
Sacre Coeur
Walking around the town area...took a lot of these kind of shots.
My dad walked into the frame just as I took the shot. It came out well enough that I didn't have to be frustrated. ;-)
The stairs up to the second level.
As I was picking out the pictures for this entry I figured I was going to commentate on this one by saying that it was the only semi-decent landscape shot i got on the Eiffel Tower. Turns out that one of the failed moonrise shots actually had some pretty sharp city scene. Cropped, straightened...and below.
Thank goodness for elevators. That's all I can say.
The aforementioned failed moonrise. The city scenery was just too sharp to discard. In the other landscape it's all a little fuzzy if you view it full screen but this one came out really nice and crisp. Ah, serendipity.
Thus concluded our trip to Paris. It was an amazing trip and I loved it all...except the cold. That we could have done without. And now I guess I've saved you guys from having to hear my (try) to sing "Hail to Bermuda"...trust me that would not have been a pleasant experience for you or me.
Okay. So. We took the train to Sacre Coeur (spelling subject to correction), a church in Paris. Let me change that. We took the train to a place relatively near the church and then walked several blocks through mobs of scam artists (there were at least 5 "shell games" per block), got physically grabbed by a few others (the apparently wanted to tie a string on my finger...), and then finally arrived at the church itself. Oh wait, no, we then had to climb several flights of stairs covered in mobs of people. Then we were at the church.
All right so I exaggerated the walking bit but the mobs of people and scam artist bits are not exaggerated in the least.
Inside the church was amazing, as usual of churches that one makes special excursions to see, but as was also expected there was a strict ban of cameras (also irksome: the patronizing way people tell you you're not allowed to use cameras. They assume anyone with a camera is an ignorant fool who never sees the signs banning cameras...and sadly for the most part they're right...).
We spent the rest of our time there wandering around the area; there was an artists area which was really cool to see...all painters and sketchers working outside where anyone can watch...it was fascinating to watch a painter change what was just a flat bit of colour into a corner of an apartment building with just a few applications of colour.
We also stopped by the wall where "I love you" is written in over 300 languages....including such languages as Cuneiform, Hieroglyphics, Latin, and sign language. Funnily enough, while I found all those and the English version, I never found the French translation...one would have thought that would be relatively prominent. We also probably ended up being in the background of some students' news project...
Onwards to the Eiffel Tower! Someone had recommended we go in the evening for the sunset views and supposedly smaller crowds. Well. If those were smaller crowds I don't want to see the big ones. As the line for the elevator to the second deck was jam packed we decided to take the stairs (at the second level you can't take the stairs any further...elevator only). My dad, my brother, and I decided that we would run up the stairs to the first level. I made it first in just under three minutes. The bad news was that about three quarters of the way up my legs just completely died. You know how people always say "I was so tired my legs felt like jelly"? Yeah. That. With no exaggeration. I'm actually not quite sure how I lifted my legs up the stairs for bit after that...I seem to remember using my arms and the handrail a lot. When I did get to the first level, panting and exhausted, I tried to get my camera out to take some pictures. Nope. Wasn't happening. Waaay too tired. In all seriousness I almost passed out while recovering from my epic but somewhat foolhardy ascent. It took me at least fifteen minutes to be ready to start the next set of stairs. So; what's the moral of the story? Do NOT attempt to run up the stairs of the Eiffel Tower two at a time unless you are hyper fit. I mean REALLY fit. Even if you think you're in really good shape and have great endurance...think twice. My dad is one of those people...but he was also really exhausted after the climb and it took him 50 seconds longer.
Moving on...away from the subject of climbing the Eiffel Tower. One of the irritating things about the structure of the Tower is that as people walk around on it it shakes the floor, which means the tripod shakes as well. That made it well-nigh impossible to take any scenery shots.
Oh, and did I mention it was absolutely freezing? And windy? It was COLD up there. And at the top...whew...apparently it was -20 Celsius with the wind chill (which was pretty significant, let me tell you). Luckily they had an indoor area up there as well but it was still cold. Brrr. After a few failed attempts at a shot of the moon rise we went back down. (also, try handling a metal tripod when it's freezing cold and you have no gloves. The things I go through to take pictures...)
And...well...that's it.
Pics pics pics
I just loved this shot. My mother, on the other hand, didn't love the way I took it.
Sacre Coeur
Walking around the town area...took a lot of these kind of shots.
My dad walked into the frame just as I took the shot. It came out well enough that I didn't have to be frustrated. ;-)
The stairs up to the second level.
As I was picking out the pictures for this entry I figured I was going to commentate on this one by saying that it was the only semi-decent landscape shot i got on the Eiffel Tower. Turns out that one of the failed moonrise shots actually had some pretty sharp city scene. Cropped, straightened...and below.
Thank goodness for elevators. That's all I can say.
The aforementioned failed moonrise. The city scenery was just too sharp to discard. In the other landscape it's all a little fuzzy if you view it full screen but this one came out really nice and crisp. Ah, serendipity.
Thus concluded our trip to Paris. It was an amazing trip and I loved it all...except the cold. That we could have done without. And now I guess I've saved you guys from having to hear my (try) to sing "Hail to Bermuda"...trust me that would not have been a pleasant experience for you or me.
Saturday, November 13, 2010
Bad News
Okay I have some bad news. No, it's not that I utterly failed to put up the Paris pictures or the pictures of the week...thus far. You already know that. The bad news is that my hard drive is practically full. As in, less than a gigabyte. I had to uninstall a bunch of stuff to make room to copy my Paris pictures that I had on my dad's laptop onto my own desktop. I'm hopeful to get either a new computer (this one is on its way out after 8 years) or replacement parts for this one (motherboard, processor, RAM, and hard drive...) in the near future. So HOPEFULLY I'll be able to take a ton of pictures to make up for all this emptyness here lately but that won't happen until I get more memory space...
Fun fact: Did you know you can purchase a 1 terrabyte hard drive for under $200? That's 1000 gigabytes. Or around 50,000 pictures (on my 10 MP camera). I wonder how much my 150 GB hard drive cost back when it was purchased...probably more...ah technology.
EDIT: I've noticed that several different people have logged in over the past 24 hours...I think this is being frequented more than I thought. I feel no pressure..:-P
(Paris pictures WILL be up today or tomorrow. If they're not, I will film myself doing a handstand singing "Hail to Bermuda" and post that along with the Paris pictures.)
Fun fact: Did you know you can purchase a 1 terrabyte hard drive for under $200? That's 1000 gigabytes. Or around 50,000 pictures (on my 10 MP camera). I wonder how much my 150 GB hard drive cost back when it was purchased...probably more...ah technology.
EDIT: I've noticed that several different people have logged in over the past 24 hours...I think this is being frequented more than I thought. I feel no pressure..:-P
(Paris pictures WILL be up today or tomorrow. If they're not, I will film myself doing a handstand singing "Hail to Bermuda" and post that along with the Paris pictures.)
Thursday, November 4, 2010
The Future..
Did you hear that? That...that clicking? Yup, that's me typing. On this blog. Again. It's actually happened. I'm about to make a post. Wait...change the tense. I have made a post...at least, I will have once you read this. Right now I'm about to make the post, but right now I've made this post. Hooray for trying to write blog posts that transcend time in their text while discussing it at the same time.
ANYWAYS, this post represents the glimmer of hope and faith that something new will be posted here in the near future. I have some plans to carry out for this that I'm going to quickly outline below and I'm definitely open for suggestions from the...um...one or two people who read this on any regular basis.
Things I want to do/put up:
Soooo, yeah...hopefully my posting this will drive me to carry through with these faster than I would have without posting this. :)
Stay tuned.
ANYWAYS, this post represents the glimmer of hope and faith that something new will be posted here in the near future. I have some plans to carry out for this that I'm going to quickly outline below and I'm definitely open for suggestions from the...um...one or two people who read this on any regular basis.
Things I want to do/put up:
- The last day of Paris pictures. Expect these up very soon.
- Catch up on my pictures of the week. Hopefully soon as well.
- I'm still trying to figure out how to attach my little video camera to my bike/helmet.
- Sunsets. I really want to get some sunset shots in the near future. There are so many places to get beautiful shots here in Bermuda...some of which are on the opposite end of the island.
- Music. I'm trying to get some recordings done...key word "trying".
- Macros. Of anything.
- Ideas? Anyone?
Soooo, yeah...hopefully my posting this will drive me to carry through with these faster than I would have without posting this. :)
Stay tuned.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)