Or rather, most of the center of a daisy. Sure is hard to get the DOF to look pleasant in photos like these.

Not really a macro, but eh ….

I was doing dishes today and noticed how nice and shiny the ball on top of the kitchen faucet handle really was. Which of course meant I had to pull out the camera and experiment. I didn’t pull out the tripod so it’s just a “goofing off” shot, but I guess I’m a fan of the round ball reflection concept. I think it looks cool. The bulb’s distortion makes my hand appear as if it has monstrously long fingers, haha!

Yes, I played with the color/contrast and yes the sink is full of dirty dishes. :P

Not a “new” photo, but thought I’d toss another macro up to help counter all the American Idol posts I’ve been making lately. :P
The raindrops are hanging off very tiny tree buds - the ‘twig’ is attached to a large tree in the backyard. The camera was pointed upwards.

Blake Lewis, who almost won last years AI, performed one his singles at the beginning of the show. It was terrible. Of course, I never liked him that much anyway … his beat-boxing stuff was inventive, but his vocals and charisma aren’t there. But hey, AI had some time to fill …

I’ll keep the rest short because none of the performers eliminated were a huge surprise to anyone, I think. Kady Malloy - no shocker. Luke Menard - ditto.

The only one that did surprise me just a little was Asia’h Epperson. I thought she might have had a bigger fan base that would pull her through. I have no rational reason for thinking that, but there you go. In terms of Chikezie vs. Danny Noriega, for me that was a toss-up. I really had no idea which one would have the lower votes. Both have their pluses and minuses. But apparently the voters decided (as I had) that Danny wasn’t entertaining enough to gloss over his lesser vocals and so out he went - torturing us with another performance of “Tainted Love”.

It’s uncharitable of me, but the past few days I find Paula Abdul so distracting I can’t focus on the show. Every time she opens her mouth I just want to roll my eyes and press the mute button. I know, I know, I should try to focus on the fact that Paula is cheery & sweet and that she tries hard to be nice and caring. I don’t mind that aspect of her TV presence at all, actually. It’s the blathering on and on and on and on to what amounts to completely useless (for the show) dribble … judging American Idol isn’t a personal video blog on YouTube where you can babble inanely about whatever pleases you for as long as you want. Argh … ok, I’ll stop ranting about Paula now.

Sorry, too much stress the past few weeks from all the buy-a-house stuff. I’ll be cheerier again in a few weeks, I’m sure - with new photos to boot. :D

Y’know, I was really looking forward to “80’s week”, because I loved the 80’s. But I haven’t liked most of the songs the contestants have picked. I didn’t pay attention to Whitney or others in that genre (because I don’t like such music), so perhaps this shouldn’t surprise me. I’ll never understand the whole almost religious reverence for Whitney and co. Anyway, on to my opinions of the gals this week. Quite frankly, I don’t find the women very impressive or even interesting this year. Loved the women last year, but this time around … meh.

Paula proved once again that she should be fired. Her incoherent rambling this time around - along with the chaos it causes - meant they actually took too long commenting on the first 7 gals this time, so the last performer of the night had to be satisfied with nothing but brief “Good.” “Good.” “Good.” from the judges. It was abrupt and in my opinion, unfair to the performer, since how the judges respond (well, how Simon responds) to the performance is often influential to voters - now now, don’t deny it isn’t true.

Asia’h Epperson: The first catty impression I had - “OMG where’d you get those pants?!” Horrible purple thingamigs. She sang “I Wanna Dance With Somebody.” Vocal was ok, but like with Michael Johns, she seems a bit one-dimensional in her performances. All that same head-shaking and dance moves. I keep wondering if her neck is double-jointed. She’s likely safe, however.

“Robotic” Kady: Unless she’s saved by youthful males full of raging hormones, she’s not safe and likely going home. Of course, many of us thought that last week too, so you never can quite tell. Still, she’s struggled since Day1 and her performance of “Who Wants To Live Forever” wasn’t anything memorable. It was, perhaps, her personal best performance, but that’s not saying a whole lot. I will say I give her props and respect for holding up so well to Simon’s constant “you’re a robot” comments. Many people twice her age would’ve been tempted to give Simon the proverbial finger by now, but she largely holds her cool.

Amanda Overmyer: Party on, Wayne! She sang “I Hate Myself For Loving You” and it was pretty good. She needed to “shine” this week, after a couple lackluster performances, and she did. Amanda’s vocal range and style is very limited, but she picked a good song for her voice this time around. I can understand that her gruff vocals aren’t for everyone, but I personally like her.

Carly Smithson: Good overall vocalist but way over-hyped. She came out singing “I Drove All Night.” Her “big notes” on this song sounded like nails on a chalkboard to me. I still don’t like her. And why is she so out of breath after she sings? She’s panting like a dog at the end, from ONE song. Does she have extra-small lungs or something? Learn to pace your energy, Carly. This doesn’t exactly bode well for 1-2 hour long concert performing. She’s definitely safe tho.

Kristy Lee Cook: I know the guys all pant after this woman just as women pant over Michael Johns, but vocally I’m not a fan. Plus she needs to stop with the whole “leg way out in front” thing; the only reason it wasn’t as noticable this time around is because the song wasn’t a “rockin” tune so she didn’t want to bounce around to the beat as much. But she did turn a Journey song into a passable modern-country melody, so I’m guessing she’ll be around next week. Then again, most of the others did a little better, so maybe she’ll go.

Ramiele Malubay: I like her, not because I love her singing, but because she’s short, like me. Heheh. I’m getting tired of all the “short” jokes/references by Ryan and the judges, tho. Her height has nothing to do with her vocal ability, guys. You’d think they’d never seen a woman slightly under 5 feet before. Ramiele sang “Against All Odds” and it was ok. A little off in some spots and no really “big moment”, but ok. She’s safe enough.

Brooke White: She’s no Pat Benatar, but she came out singing “Love is a Battlefield” anyway. And surprisingly, she was fairly effective. I think her performance of sitting on the edge of the stage the whole time was dull, but she tried to do something different with the song and made it work with her folksy voice. Safe enough this week.

Syesha Mercado: From the first, I thought she might have one of the better vocal instruments for the women this year, and I still think that. But she’s in danger of getting lost because she’s not doing anything to make herself memorable to voters. Her song selection of “Saving All My Love For You” was passable but nothing special. I agree with Simon’s comment that it was “a bit predictable but good.” I also think someone needs to tell her that she should change her basic hairstyle once in a while. The big poofy way-over-and-out-the-back-of-her-head style - I’ve had enough of that. She was really cute in her “embarrassing moments” video bit, with the cap perched slightly off-kilter on her head. Do something like that next time, please. If there is a next time.

With two cats in the yard,
Life used to be so hard,
Now everything is easy ’cause of you.

… our loan approval came back and we’re “in”. Hence the quotation from the Crosby, Stills & Nash classic tune. Of course, in our case, it would be “With one cat in the yard” - “Life just became real hard” - “Now nothing will be easy ’cause of bills.” But other than that, the song fits perfectly!

Yeah … like so many others before us … we now own a piece of the so-called American Dream, and maybe one day we won’t be broke because of it.