An Item off of my Apocalyst

There was a fairly short lived show called No Tomorrow. The basic premise was that one of the two main characters believed that a comet was going to hit the earth in several months and wipe out all life as we know it. He had tried warning everyone and failed, so had resorted to living out as many amazing experiences as he could. The other main character was his new girlfriend who didn’t always believe him, but was enamoured by his desire to live life to the fullest.

This inspired me to create an actual Apocalyst of my own. It’s a real book that I really add things to.

Today, I got the chance to cross the very first thing off of it.

Flexibility is NICE

I don’t mean the bendy kinds. I wouldn’t know what those were if they walked up and punched me in the face.

No, I mean the sort which allow you to do what you need to when you need to do it.

You see, my kid, Mal, was the first kid born in AZ in 2013. I would say that is some sort of PII (personally identifiable information) which should never be shared, but there were news articles written about it. He’s never going to be able to use his birthday as a secure method of password retrieval, that’s for sure! But the other down side is that he’s never going to get very good birthday parties. He’s always going to be out of school and the like. And as a guy with a late December birthday, I feel his pain.

Flip a coin, what shall we talk about?

Last night Kendra and I kicked off her Amazing Birthday Adventure (she will be turning *ahem* years old next week, and we’re going on a trip to celebrate . . . in fact I’m writing this post from the airport. Look! The future!) with a concert.

My longest-standing favourite band ever ever is Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers (previously known as The Refreshments of “Banditos” fame). They’re a band local to Arizona and despite getting brief national/international fame, they’ve stayed true to their Southwestern roots. I’ve seen them in concert more times than I could possibly count.

Meet Bessie. Two.

I have a new special someone in my life. She’s wonderful. Amazing. She’s just absolutely gorgeous.

I think I love her.

Deeply, though of course cautiously.

(I have been burned before, after all!)

But there is a passion here. A passion that only a photographer can feel for his ridiculously expensive new camera . . . that happened to arrive just in time for a trip to one of his favourite cities, no less.

Internet, I’d like you to meet Bessie II, or B2 for short.

Agincourt600 – The Trip!

Back in September I subjected regaled you all with a short history lesson about the Battle of Agincourt and why I thought it was awesome (hint for those who didn’t read it don’t remember: A) because it was historically important [duh], B) because I studied it in grad school, and C) because I was going to the battle site for it’s 600th anniversary!).

Well it’s now been a couple of months since that 600th anniversary trip and I have finally taken the time to process and upload the photos from that trip, so I thought I would tell you all about it . . .

A visit to Olympic Game Farm

I am fairly infamous amongst my family in my dislike for zoos. When I was younger I was like any other kid in loving them (so I’m told), but as I grew older I started being a bit snide and calling them “animal jail,” and as an adult I’ve basically refused to go.

But apparently I have a price.

That price is an adorable brown bear which will wave at you if you throw him bread.

No shit, my heart just melts every time I see that video. I can’t even stand it. I have had a thing for bears since just about forever, and when I found out that this guy’s home was “near” Seattle, I demanded we go.

Then I forgot about it.

Tradition

I like creating traditions. Following them I’m not always super fond of (the traditional hazing at my various high schools, for example, left something to be desired). But when you get to create the traditions, I think there’s all sorts of fun to be had.

As an example, I stole an idea from a co-worker of mine and every 4th of July I read the Declaration of Independence out loud to my family. My wife puts up with it and my kids are too young to understand, but I look forward to when they actively attempt to be elsewhere on that day. Similarly, I recite Henry V’s “St. Crispin’s Day” speech from Shakespeare’s Henry V on every October 25th. Why? Because A) I can and B) when you write a Master’s thesis about the Battle of Agincourt, that speech can’t help but become part of you.

1st Day!

I know that the typical season for posting First Day of School photos is early autumn, but my son just turned 2 on January 1st (yeah, he’s a New Years baby) and so he only just started his very first day at Pre-School today.

Wow. How amazing is that? I would willingly swear on anything you asked for that he was born just a month ago. Last week he said his first word (“dada,” naturally). He only took his first steps yesterday.

I have no doubt that tomorrow I’ll be teaching him to drive (while using every trick at my disposal to seem as calm as possible) and next week I’ll be watching him graduate from college.

Just. Crazy.

Two pirates walking to class.

Dear Realtors: An open letter.

Dear Realtors:

I know that tone mapping is fun and that it really makes the photos of your properties “Pop!”, but seriously. Cut that shit out.

Let’s chat.

Let’s talk about Vegas, shall we?

So I had to work Friday night. It sucked all around. It was a REALLY bad night money-wise and I was not happy. But I headed home asap and of course could not sleep (which is pretty normal for me the night before a trip). We got up and the airport was its normal awful self. The flight was more-or-less uneventful and I didn’t freak out too much — which is ALWAYS welcome, especially to those who I am travelling with.

We hit Vegas and immediately made our way to Caesar’s where we managed to get into our rooms despite it being only about 9:30 am. We then discovered that not even Margaritaville was open for lunch that early so started losing money at some crappy fake-Irish bar/casino across the street.

You know what? This is gonna take forever. Let me just break down the highlights: Vegas ROCKS. I saw all sorts of beautiful sights in those casinos. Their attention to detail is nothing short of amazing. That first day we walked a lot and ducked into places like Bellagio, MGM-Grand, NYNY, etc. We then managed to meet up with Carrie and Ruth who were in town because Ruth is shipping out soon to Italy where she’ll be stationed for who-knows-how-long. To be perfectly honest, they made the trip. They allowed me to get all drunk and stupid, and they allowed my parents to let me get drunk and stupid because it’s all a lot more OK when you’re accompanied by two beautiful women. The highlight of Saturday came at the end when the two girls and I went down to Freemont Street and BOTH of them won pretty big on nickle slots. Ruth won a total of about $180 and Carrie won $40 or so, both on a Monopoly themed slot.

The next day the girls had to leave for home, so it was just Mom, Dad, and me. We walked some more and went to Wynn, where I actually decided to play the same Monopoly-themed game the girls did. I sat down, fed the machine a 20, and promptly got to play the video-monopoly part. And play I did. For a while. A LONG while. I didn’t even occur to me that I was doing particularly well until a woman started staring at me.

So turns out I ended up winning a bit. Like $450. On a nickle slot machine. It was awesome.

Over the rest of the day I actually hit it semi-big twice more. Once for $250 and a final one for $50. In all I pulled about $750, not counting the many times that I came out even or a few bucks ahead. It was, in short, a VERY lucky time for me in that ol’ City of Sin.

That’s about it as far as adventure goes. We went and saw a VERY abbreviated (and thus very disappointing) performance of Phantom of the Opera. The casting was great and the effects were wonderful, but a 3 hour play simply CANNOT be performed in 1:45. It just can’t.

So, to see all the pics, you just need to go to wsfits.com/vegas06.html to see the whole grand adventure in picture form.  Not really of course, because unlike Ruth, I didn’t bring my nice camera, so was stuck with my uber-crappy old cybershot which just isn’t as much fun!  Nonetheless, there are a few nice snaps so enjoy.

Take care everyone.  It’s now just after midnight on what is now Christmas Day.  It’s not really my thing, but I still feel like I should be in bed by now!

Hasta,

~Ash.