Several pictures today and few words, and most everything is here just for my info. I spent the week finishing out some classes and bulldozing the students' last papers and tests from various flat surfaces around the house and school, and I am just about out of words.

I also uploaded the photo editing software that came with the Sony digital camera (ArcSoft PhotoStudio v2.0 SE), and I've fiddled with that a bit, learning how to use it in my usual trial-and-error fashion. God forbid I should read the directions. I've messed around with frames and shadows, and find the program to be a much better photo editing tool than I'm accustomed to (MS Photo Editor and MS Paint). And although it doesn't do everything I'd like it to do, and although it seems to ignore right clicks entirely, it does enough that I might postpone buying PhotoShop for a while.

This will be an entry dominated by the photos I took last weekend. There's not much here of significance to anyone else, but I wish to preserve these memories and images for myself. Most of the words above exist only to allow the pictures below to load. But now the boys are home from school -- today was a half day -- and Taylor advises me that he has grown accustomed to eating at this hour (it's 11:30 AM here), so we're off to roam the earth in search of burgers. While we're away, the photos below might load.

The good-looking geek on the left is mine. He attended a chorus workshop at the high school Saturday, a fundraiser for the high school kids' own chorus. The all-day event was capped by a performance that our family attended together. I'm learning that a standard 35 mm camera is still superior for telephoto shots, especially when the the subject is moving. These subjects fidgeted the entire time they were on stage.

I spent Saturday evening at this event, enjoying the dinner conversation and nodding at appropriate moments during the presentation. The handbill is a digital photo, not a scan. I first realized with this particular photo that Explorer apparently darkens the photos. My Explorer apparently darkens all the photos -- they looked fine in both the editors. Darn.

Lyman in low light still glows red, the typical color scheme in Chinese restaurants here. Or maybe it's his socialism filling the room. A distant friend and occasional ally, Lyman shares many views with me, but we've never quite hit it off. Our politics are similar, but our approaches are different. I prefer Occam's razor, while he spends too much time applying Occam's shave cream. Still, we find something to admire in each other, I think.

My dinner companion and friend, Sam the psychiatrist, remains one of the most congenial and big-hearted folks left on the planet. I did a brief thumbnail of Sam back in November. Kinda crazed looking, isn't he?

Back here tomorrow, I hope.