Wandering through E-Space
"There's no point in being grownup if you can't be childish sometimes." -the 4th Doctor.
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My name is Romanadvoratrelundar, but the Doctor says it's too long, so you can just call me Romana.
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Thursday, January 24, 2013
Windhaven
Been a while since I posted a review, so here's one!! :-)
Windhaven by Lisa TuttleMy rating: 4 of 5 stars
Decided to read one of GMMR's earlier novels-and was not disappointed! Since I am terrible at writing reviews, I'll just make this simple-I enjoyed reading about Maris and the flyers, the landsmen, and the singers.
Windhaven is a collection of previously published short stories following the life of Maris, the daughter of a fisherman who becomes a flyer. Because a flyer's wings are inherited, Maris must challenge this tradition, and leads the way to changing the law so that a person is given wings based on merit, rather than heritage. Of course, young Maris is quite naive and doesn't fully understand the implications of challenging and changing the status quo, and we see her face and deal with the consequences as her story goes on.
For those who are only familiar with GMMR's A Song of Ice and Fire saga, this story (co-authored with Lisa Tuttle) is no where near as violent. A nice "light" read. :)
View all my reviews 0 comments
posted by Romana1 on 12:24 PM | *
Sunday, September 30, 2012
The Jammed Lens Saga
Last night I was working on a craft project, waiting for the
paint to dry when I decided I’d run outside and take a picture of the Harvest
Moon. I went out to my back porch, saw
the moon and the clouds heading my way, then ran back in to collect my Pentax
camera, tripod, and my telephoto lens, figuring I had enough time to get at
least a couple of shots before the clouds took over. I took
off my 55mm lens and attached the telephoto lens when I realized something was
really wrong: Normally when you attached a lens, you turn it about 90 degrees
before it locks into place…I had already turned it about 270 and it had not
locked into place…
Crap.
I tried to remove the lens and my worst fears were realized:
the lens had jammed.
@#$%$!!!
I tried wiggling the lens, but to no avail. The little button you press to release the
lens was stuck as well-I could move it about 90 degrees and it would pop back
up, but no matter how hard I tried, the lens would not come off.
After some more wiggling[struggling], I managed to unscrew
the lens from the mount. *whew* That was
my father’s lens-quite possibly as old as me…damage to the lens would have been
devastating to me. After removing the
lens, I struggled a bit more, then decided to remove the inner ring on the
mount. It didn’t really help so I turned
to Google…
Ever try Googling ‘stuck Pentax lens?’ 100% of your results will be about someone
attempting to attach an older Ricoh lens to a Pentax body. Yes, my lens is older-but it has a K-mount
and has successfully been attached to my K2000-I’ve got dozens of Moon (and
Sun!) pictures to prove it.
After combing through various accounts and scaring myself
with stories involving wrenches, hammers and hacksaws (yes, HACKSAWS), I found
a link to the Pentax forums. The
particular thread I found did involve a Ricoh lens, but I decided to run a
search in the forums for jammed lenses.
The results were more diverse and I discovered someone who had a jammed
400mm Ashanti Pentax lens. Turns out I wasn’t
the only one who had this problem… You know the little orange dots that help
you align your lens to remove them?
Normally that should be pointing at the top of the camera-for him it was
pointing down. I did a quick check on my
lens mount…yep-there was the orange dot-180 degrees from where it should be.
Blah.
He had done the same things I had done-removed the lens from
the mount and the inner ring-but none of those actions helped the
situation. He ended up putting the lens
back on the mount for a little extra leverage, and after 10 hours of turning
and wiggling the lens, it finally popped out.
Yikes.
Since it was already late, I decided I would work on it
after church in the morning. While I was
waiting for Perseph and Stormy to pick me up for church I decided to try
working on the mount before reattaching the lens. Nope-didn’t happen. After church I reattached the inner ring of
the mount and the lens and began to turn and wiggle the lens like the poster in
the forum had.
After struggling for about 20 minutes, it finally popped
out.
I just about cried-I was so relieved!!!
A quick check of the lens and a few test shots with my 55mm
on my camera revealed that there was no major damage-yay!!!!
Then five hours later I nearly cried again-the Pack won by
one point!!!
Come on, it’s Sunday during football season-you didn’t think
I’d do an entire post without mentioning football at least once did you? ;)
Labels: football, photography
0 commentsposted by Romana1 on 10:49 PM | *
Friday, August 31, 2012
Checking in!
Just checking in! Honestly, I really do want to post more. Now if I can just find the time. ;)
I've got so much to talk about-a weekend trip to Minnesota, the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra, Italian Band, my adventures with my new camera, work, life in general. The last two weekends have been really busy for me. First there was the Feast of the Assumption, then I did a quick weekend trip to Minnesota... Yeah, I know-Ohio to Minnesota-not really 'quick weekend trip' material, but it had been so long since I had been back, anything was better than nothing! ;) This weekend is the St. Rocco's Festival, and next weekend is our Tippit Reunion. Hmmm...not much sleep is in my forecast! LOL. It's a good thing I got my DWFO submission in for The Impossible Astronaut Suite. It's not due until the 7th of September, but if I hadn't finished it before the Feast, I doubt I would have been able to contribute to this one!
Labels: life in general
0 commentsposted by Romana1 on 12:14 AM | *
Tuesday, June 26, 2012
Craft Challenge: The $5 Challenge (sponsored by Dollar Tree)
OMG!!!! A co-worker of mine told me about this blog-I haven't been following Dollar Store Crafts for very long, but I love them! Check out this awesome contest they are holding!!!!Craft Challenge: The $5 Challenge (sponsored by Dollar Tree):
Dollar store crafting is not only about creativity, it's about big ideas on a small budget. You might be surprised at just how far $5 can get you! Take, for example, this USB desk lamp by Rebecca Made It. Can you identify all of the dollar store parts she used?
(Of course, we always encourage the use of stash items, so you don't need to count on-hand items in your total. It's safe to assume that every crafter has glue, tape, paint, and scrap fabric laying around, right?)
Here are the challenge rules:
1. Post your project on your blog, or as a post in the "Community" Section on Dollar Store Crafts. A photo of your project is required, as well as a list of materials used, which shall total no more than $5. Supplies such as glue, tape, paint, and no more than 25% worth of stash supplies are allowed.
2. Submit a link to your project using the linky submission that will at the bottom of the contest entry post.
Dates: July 1st, 2012 at 8:00 a.m. Pacific Time (PT). Linky Party closes at 11:59 p.m. PT on July 6th, 2012.
Multiple entries by the same person are accepted, however, only one prize will be awarded.
Eligibility: Residents of the USA, 18 and older
Winner Selection: There will be 1 Winner, chosen by a team of 3 judges who include 2 members of the Dollar Store Crafts staff, and one independent person with expertise in the area of crafting. Entries will be judged on the basis of the following criteria: originality, usefulness, creativity, clarity of instructions, and availability of materials at dollar stores.
Prize: $100 gift card to Dollar Tree.
More from Me: Ooooh, I'd love to do this challenge-I love the Dollar Tree!!! Dunno if I'll have time this time around, but if I don't, I hope they'll do another one! It's too bad I didn't know about this site when I made my Packer Claus last Christmas! ;) (actually, I don't think my Packer Claus would qualify. All the paint I used came from my paint stash-green, yellow, white, glitter and the glaze-that's more than 25%!) ;)
Labels: BlogThis, contests, crafty goodness, GoogleReader article
0 commentsposted by Romana1 on 12:10 AM | *
Wednesday, June 20, 2012
Promo for The Impossible Astronaut Suite
Wow-due to the unprecedented interest in the Impossible Astronaut Suite, they have to limit the number of applicants to the first 600!!! Better hurry! ;) 0 comments
posted by Romana1 on 12:51 AM | *
Friday, June 15, 2012
DWFO #4: Dalek Suite
I know, I know-I should be posting about the Venus Transit (which was AWESOME by the way!) I would like to include pictures, so I just have to decide which ones I would like to share here. :)
Until then, I would like to share with you the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra's fourth collaboration, "Dalek Suite!"
I would have to say this was the most fun to work on so far. I'm really excited about our next piece, "The Impossible Astronaut Suite". TIAS will include bits from "I Am the Doctor" (the DWFO's first collaboration). I really enjoyed "I Am the Doctor" and have often said the only thing I regret about joining the DWFO is missing out on the first piece! ;)
1 comments
posted by Romana1 on 10:29 PM | *
Saturday, June 02, 2012
Busy Bee!
Happy June! As usual, I've been pretty busy!! But I want to try to make more of an effort to post here-as I've neglected this blog (well, all my blogs) quite a bit. Here are a couple of updates in my life.I've played around with the telephoto lens that belonged to my dad-I've been taking pictures of the moon throughout it's current cycle. I need to learn to focus it a bit better, but it's still pretty cool. Too bad it's been cloudy the past two nights...
Speaking of astronomical events-the transit of Venus is this Tuesday! At first, I wasn't as excited as I should be-after all, it's not going to occur again for over 100 years. However, I didn't have any eclipse glasses or arc welder's glass, so I wouldn't be able to see it with my own eyes. Then I went to storage and brought home a box of some of my dad's camera equipment. As I was going through the box, I discovered a piece of no. 14 arc welder's glass!!! Not only that, but it was made into a filter that fits over the telephoto lens!! (Remember, if you want to watch the transit through binoculars, telescope, or in my case-a camera with a telephoto lens, the filter needs to be on the end that is closest to the sun, see Safely View the Upcoming Transit ). Although he designed it to watch solar eclipses, I think it's quite the coincidence that I found the filter just over a week before the transit! I'm sure he would have used it for the transit! I'm hoping the weather will cooperate so I can take some pictures using his telephoto lens and the filter he created. :) I'm hoping there will be some clear skies this weekend so I can take a few test shots of the sun. :)
In other news, the fourth piece from the Doctor Who Fan Orchestra is out!! I wanted to embed the video for my blog, but alas, I am on dial up, and it's having issues with YouTube-it won't let me grab the link to embed the video-I'll have to wait until I'm somewhere with a faster connection. For now, you can check out the Dalek Suite by clicking here.
:)
That's all for now-see you soon! :-D
Labels: astronomy, DWFO, photography
0 commentsposted by Romana1 on 12:59 AM | *
Friday, May 11, 2012
Yes, I am still here! :-D
Yes! I'm still here! Man, I haven't posted since January! Yikes!Well, alot has happened. Sports-wise, in football the Pack went 15-1, but lost in the first round of the playoffs. (boo.) That's ok-they did pretty well in the draft-I can't wait to see what happens in the fall!
Baseball...eh...wah. As of this moment, we are 8-23. Gah! I can only hope we will get better. I refuse to be a fair-weather fan, and will stand behind my team-WIN TWINS!!!!
Hmmm...let's see, what else has been going on? Lots of stuff-a week from Sunday I will become a godmother again!! :) Stormy is sooooo cute!!! He's such a sweetheart. Perspeh and Paul are very lucky parents!
My sister finally has a new house-woo!!!
Also, I have a new camera!!! I decided I'd finally get a DSLR. It's a Pentax K2000. An older model, entry-level DSLR, but it's in great condition-already took some fantastic pictures!!! My dad was a Pentax man, and Pentax excels at 'backwards compatibility' with their lenses (they have all be K-mounts since 1974.), so I can use his lenses (on the manual setting), and the lens from my own Pentax SLR (auto features still work with the lens!) I can't wait to post pictures...
Well, that's all for now-until next time-hopefully it won't be another 5 months!!!
Labels: baseball, family, football, life in general
0 commentsposted by Romana1 on 8:16 PM | *
Monday, January 23, 2012
Illuminated Houses
Happy Year of the Dragon!Saw this on Craft-I want to make some-they would be perfect for the mantle above my fireplace! :-D
Illuminated Houses:
These illuminated houses seen on Anthology Magazine are simply gorgeous! So romantic and dreamy, I must make some.
Labels: BlogThis, crafty goodness, GoogleReader article
0 commentsposted by Romana1 on 8:01 PM | *
Friday, December 23, 2011
Merry Christmas!
Just a quick post to wish everyone a Merry Christmas!!!I've got some more baking to do, so I better get back to it!
*hee* Well, it looks like once again my New Years Resolution will be to post in this blog more! 0:-)
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!
Labels: holidays
0 commentsposted by Romana1 on 10:44 AM | *
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