Social Gatherings and a Nikon D3000

And, most unfortunately, exams.

For almost every day last week I went into the local photography store, looking for the store owner, as he was the one who was willing to give me the sale price on the Nikon D3000 early. Every single goddamned day we missed him. On Tuesday, "He won't be back 'til Wednesday". On Wednesday, "He gone out for a few hours". On Thursday, "He's gone out, we're not sure when he'll be back". We went home and waited thirty minutes before calling, "He won't be back in today". On Friday, "He's not in today." I had the feeling I was never meant to get a DSLR camera.

On Saturday, the clouds aligned and I finally met with the store owner. He talked me into a deal which means I now own the Nikon D3000 with the kit lens, a Nikkor AF-S 18-55 mm, a Nikkor AF-S 55-200 mm lens, two $22 UV lens filters, a 2GB memory card, a $60 tripod and a $50 camera bag. All for $1100. The only downside is the I now owe Dad $300. Ah well.

So, anyway, I now own a DSLR camera. How wonderful. I'm yet to find a spot to make good use of it yet, but here are I few shots I took when I traipsed through the garden after the 1 hour 40 minute wait for the battery to charge. You could view the images in all their fine details by clicking on them. But only if you want to.

 The pointy little plants. In pots!

The non-pointy little flowers. Also in pots!

The random creepy little inanimate men at Magic Mountain:

 

One of the many Lorikeets which we've successfully tamed without the use of animal cruelty:

 

So, after the novelty of walking around taking photos had worn off (slighty), I went to a wonderful social gathering at a friend's motel. You can't, of course, sleep at a social gathering with  friends. Especially when you have Twister! We all conveniently forgot about the four exams we were to have throughout the next week,  and spent the night swimming, playing ping-pong and doing all those drugs.

The next day (Sunday), I got home wide awake and full of energy, completely motivated to start studying for the next day's Maths exam. That lasted five minutes. I slept for the next six hours, and I was lucky enough to get up just in time for The Simpsons. I then did a little more studying. Just enough to know that I don't know enough about any of the topics that were to be covered in the exam.

Anyway, the exam went alright, I think. I had to guess a dozen questions and there was one I didn't have time to answer, but apart from that I think it was passable. We'll see. I have Geography up tomorrow, and I'm writing this blog instead of studying for that. Good times.

Tonight's Simpsons episode was a rather good one. Sideshow Bob becomes mayor, don't cha know. When his fraud is revealed in the courtroom, he comes up with the wonderful A Few Good Men parody, "You want the truth? You can't handle the truth! No truth handler, you. I deride your truth-handling abilities!" Wonderful.

That's all the super-exciting tales from my life that I have right now.

In memory of the wondrous art of pre-emptive gluing,
Nick.

A Week in Review

This week, surprisingly enough. Summed up, for the most part, by a Facebook status I saw yesterday: "Another boring week at school."

I don't know if it's because our usual Computers teacher is so lax with the actual teaching part of his job or we just don't have enough variety in Computers teachers, but whenever we have a substitute teacher they always seem really strict and uptight (see my second blog post). On Wednesday, when we had a double lesson of Computers (that's a straight 104 minutes), we had yet another annoying Computers substitute teacher, much like the one I wrote about earlier, except this one thought he was much cooler. He looked a bit weird, too.

Friday was the day of assessment tasks, starting with a HSIE in-class essay on "The Challenges and Changes Faced in both Urban and Rural Communities", in which I managed to write two and a bit pages in the 50 minutes allocated even with the precious little preparation I did. I then had to present my HSIE speech, which involved reciting the 23 lines of Romeo and Juliet I'd memorised. I think it went alright, although I'm not sure anyone was listening to the quality content because they were all so busy laughing raucously at the many hilarious puns I'd subtly added into the speech.

Yesterday, (that's Saturday) I was lamenting the loss of the internet, which was due to the terrible internet provider we're with, when Dad offered to take my sister and I down to the beach. We were getting ready when Danielle announced she needed to buy new swimmers. A relatively easy and quick job, I thought. How wrong I was. We spent over 90 minutes (only 14 minutes short of a double Computers lesson!) going through every surf and swimwear shop we could find in Merimbula and Pambula. We met one of the store owners, who seemed to be like that creepy uncle that no one really likes, who only owns a surf shop so he can convince teenage girls to wear bikinis, before we went down to spend only half an hour at the beach.

Today Luke is coming round so we can do our Health homework, which will just be lots of fun. I then have to try and remember some of the highlights from the Sydney Camp, as I have to present a thankyou/highlight speech to the teachers on Monday. Joyous days.

In better news, I'm about 80% sure on the DSLR camera I am going to buy, which is the Nikon D3000. It has almost identical specs to the Canon EOS 1000D, but is several hundred dollars cheaper, and all my Dad's and my Uncle's old lenses should attach to it, which will save me even more money. It is only $800, so I can already afford it, and I may even be able to buy it this week. Here's hoping.

Anyway, anyone who has read that should now go and blog some more, as no one else seems to be doing it at the moment.

In memory of the wondrous art of pre-emptive gluing,
Nick.

Sydney Camp 2009

As outlined in my last post, Year 9 of my school was lucky enough to head to Sydney for three nights. For the most part, it was fun. We camped out on Cockatoo Island, an industrial ship-building site turned camp ground, and my friend Luke and I got a tent on the waterside by chance. We had a good view of Sydney harbour.

We travelled around Sydney looking at all the highlights, like the Jewish Mueseum (wow!), the Maritime Museum (exciting!) and The Rocks (amazing!). It was basically four days of doing nothing with friends, which I was perfectly happy to do. I also wore a tuxedo for one of the days, which was fun.

Here are some photos:

There I am on the left.

At Luna Park.

And on the monorail.

That's all for know.

In memory of the wondrous art of pre-emptive gluing,
Nick.