I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday season! I’ve been running around like a mad person searching for presents since I waited until the last minute to get them. Being busy doing things I haven’t had the time to update the blog, but here I am now! Some of you know that Santa visited my house early this year with a Nikon D90 just for me (if you didn’t know, I guess now you do). I’m assuming he read my “10 Item Geeky Christmas List” cause he sure read my mind. I do have video footage of the opening of the camera, but I realized once I uploaded it that iMovie doesn’t have the editing capabilities that I needed. Poo! I’ve been debating on booting up the monstrous Gateway and using Windows Movie Maker. Hmmm.
I’ve been fiddling around with the Nikon D90 since I’ve gotten it but haven’t had the best test subjects. I headed towards downtown Winston Salem two days ago during “magic hour” hoping to find what I was looking for. I got some pretty neat shots and I picked out my 3 favorites.
I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year!!!
Seeing that Christmas is almost a week away it’s about time to make my official Christmas wish list.
Nikon D90, $999
Adobe Photoshop CS4, $699
iHome iP27BR Portable Speakers with Alarm Clock for iPod and iPhone, $119
Aliph Jawbone Bluetooth Headset in Black, $129.99
Rain Design iLap for 15-inch Notebooks, $54.90
G-Technology G-Drive, $159 (500 GB and 750 GB) – $179 (1TB)
UPEK Eikon to Go Digital Privacy Manager for Mac, $48
iWear AV230 XL, $199.95
Wi-Fi Detecting T-Shirt, $29.95
40″ BRAVIA® XBR® LCD Flat Panel HDTV, $1999
*Note: Some prices that are shown have special discounts due to the holidays.
On Sunday my friend and I decided to go to the Lazy 5 Ranch in Mooresville, NC. The website said they closed one hour before sunset and we figured that if we got there at 3:30 that we would have enough time. We made perfect time, pulled up to the grounds and drove up to the entrance kiosk where they told us that they stop admitting people into the ranch at 3:00. Shouldn’t they either A) have that on the website or B) let us fellow people who arrive 30 minutes late in. Apparently not. Despite that whole shabazz I was still able to capture a few shots of the animals that we were greeted by at the entrance and am planning on going the weekend of the 19th. So look for more storytime, pictures and hopefully some HD video. =]
The entrance, which basically says enter at your own risk. (They’re not reliable for anything that happens to you or your vehicle.)
Oh, and no alcohol allow on the premises since it doesn’t mix with the animals. ;]
Mr. Llama was thinking that those people might just have some food. Probably not since they were also 30 minutes late arriving.
To view more pictures from the short time at the Lazy 5 Ranch, view my set on Flickr.
[See them side by side]
The next generation of WordPress has been released, WordPress 2.7. In case you’re wondering it is named Coltrane after John Willam Coltrane, who is a favorite jazz Saxophonist of Matt Mullenweg. It has been confirmed that it is very stable by being well tested this past week on WordPress.com.
The first thing I noticed was how much the interface has changed and that it customizable by the drag and drop feature. I love being able to customize the more important and my most used items, because it’s different for each user. This feature can be found on each screen, including the post page. In the top rigt corner there is even a screen option pull down where you can select what shows up and what doesn’t. Everything is straight in plain sight now instead of being clicks away, perfect! I can’t wait to use the reply to comments from your dashboard feature! So many new features and neat things, check out the video below for a visual introduction of Coltrane
[Video from official announcement]
Since I can remember I’ve always been able to sleep through any kind of alarm I have had. Ok, I take that back.. When I find an alarm that should wake me up it works for the first couple of nights and then I learn to sleep through them. I’ve even contemplated on getting a serious vibrating bed shaker but having a water bed doesn’t allow this option. While looking for Christmas gifts and ideas I found two alarm clocks that might just do the trick of waking me up. Hm, I wonder. Even if they fall into the categories of the other clocks I’ve had at least they’re uniquely awesome. =]
The Flying Alarm Clock does exactly what it says, every time the alarm sounds (Foxbox compares it too the Star Trek red alert siren) the propeller flies from the clock and doesn’t turn off until you replace it on the clock.
The Sonic Bomb Alarm Clock goes to a shattering 113 decibels when it sounds and comes with a “Super Shaker Bed Vibrator”. I would obviously have to put the shaker in one of my pillowcases, but it hopefully would do the job.
This past weekend, after hunting online for light displays around North Carolina, I headed to McAdenville, North Carolina, also known as Christmas Town USA. It’s a small town just west of Charlotte, near Gastonia, where residents decorate for the holidays. This year the lights are on display from December 1st to the 26th.
If you are following me on Twitter you will know that I was looking for a Flip MinoHD for the trip but could not find one anywhere in Charlotte. I’ve ordered one from the Flip website and hope to have it between the 16-19! I did manage to take one video of my favorite part, which was the pond surrounded by huge lit pine trees and a blinking Santa and snowflakes up on a billboard frame.
My friend and I parked there and walked to see the bridge that they have cut off from traffic during the hours of operation. I recommend seeing McAdenville on foot rather than just driving through cause there are so many small things that you wouldn’t notice. I have to admit it was freezing and we got lost on the way up there so we had to rush a little bit and didn’t stay out in the cold for long.
You can find more pictures from the trip here.
I’ve been thinking about paying the $24.95 to get an Pro Flickr account for a while since I was so limited on how many pictures I could upload a month. Then yesterday I got a pop up that said I was at 183 pictures and that they would only display the most recent 200 pictures if I didn’t sign up. I of course didn’t know of this limitation.
On that note, I did decided to sign up for a Pro account. I can now see stats and have unlimited storage for a year. Be ready to see lots more pictures go up on my Flickr Account, and if you have one be sure to add me as a contact. 
Cathryn Gray is a new media chic with many passions and interests, including photography, modeling, blogging, social media, design, gadgets
(especially those Apple ones), traveling and more.
