Serendipity

We went to Las Vegas a few weeks ago, and I got to play with my new camera a bit (Canon Digital Rebel XTi). I'm still learning the manual settings on it, so quite a few pictures didn't turn out so well. But some turned out great. You can view them all (plus everyone else's) here.

Even though I did quite a bit of fiddling with knobs and adjusting exposure, aperture, etc., I think one of my favorite shots was a fluke. We were walking down the strip, and this guy had some sort of lizard on his arm, possibly an iguana.

Without aiming, or even looking through the viewfinder, I swung the camera to the left and snapped this photo. I think it turned out great. The depth of field is perfect. You can just make out the look of wonder on the kid's face in the background (amid the blue paint - WTF?). And the lizard looks like he's looking right at the camera.

The Vader Gallery

Check out these amazing variations on Darth Vader's helmet. This one is my favorite - I just think that's what his helmet would have been like as he rose through the ranks of Imperial pilots.

Christmas With the Cramps

Well, we just got back from two days at Anne's parents' house in the desert. We decided to spend Christmas with them this year since we're moving to Pennsylvania in a few months and will be holidaying with my family mostly from here on out.

Her parents live a seven hour drive from us, and there's no convenient air service. That would be bad enough, but the night before we left I caught some sort of stomach virus, which meant I didn't get much sleep and my whole body had a migraine. My lovely wife Anne valiantly drove the entire way while I dozed and turned green in the passenger seat.

She was not immune to it either, as she caught the bug the next night.

On the positive side, neither of us gained the usual holiday pounds, since we were not eating much of anything. Or drinking, for that matter. You can really tell I'm sick if I don't want to drink - especially on a holiday.

Anyway, we're back and recovering. I'm working on some ideas for posts, which I'll hopefully get to soon. In the meantime, here's a picture of Anne's parents' dog Chara, dolled up for Christmas.

She's a sweet dog, but being a whippet, which is basically a half-size greyhound, when she curls up next to you it's like cuddling a sock full of sticks.

And, for some reason, her eyes look green in pictures. Is this the canine equivalent of red-eye? Are dogs' retinas a different color than humans'?

Welcome to NeoZAZ

Hello, and welcome to the official blog of NeoZAZ. I will hopefully update this fairly regularly with an assortment of essays, short fiction, and other random items.

Topics for essays will probably include, but not be limited to: movies (especially sci-fi like Star Wars and Star Trek), atheism/skepticism, software development, travel, and any other things that come to mind.

The main reason I'm starting this blog is to practice writing. So please feel free to critique me in the comments. I truly want to get better. My hope is that by writing something every day (or as often as possible), I'll, uh, have, uh, better words, and stuff. Ideas. Yeah.

I guess I could tell you a little about myself (which I should probably do in my Profile anyway). I'm a software developer in Santa Cruz, California. I've been in the software industry for about 12 years, most of that in the Silicon Valley.

Before that, I was educated at Drexel University in Philly (shameless name-dropping commences) where I went to school with John Gruber and Eric Minbiole, two of the smartest guys I know.

Other than software, I like to make movies (mostly with my friend Matt), write stories, and avoid learning how to play the guitar.

That's it for now. Thanks for listening, and stick around for the first real post. I'm sure it'll be a doozy.