Maybe I am a professional photographer (Maybe!)

After our wedding, we spent buttloads of money on the professional photo album. After everything was said and done, we “earned” our “negatives” which is to say, the photographer handed over a DVD with all our pictures on it. And a copyright release. I think it’s very close to extortion, but I understand that a photog needs to eat, too. (But really, what was she gonna do with the photos if she didn’t give them to us?)

Anyway, some of my friends who didn’t order photos have asked about them, so I sent some to Wolf Camera to get printed. Well, this afternoon I had a message on my cell phone from someone at Wolf Camera telling me they couldn’t print my photos unless I showed them a copyright release. Okay. I have heard of this, so I wasn’t surprised, but I am still annoyed.

First of all, how do they know I didn’t take those photos? My mom took plenty of photos, and they theoretically could have been just as good as the photographer’s. Who makes that judgement? I happen to have had photographs published in a major(ish) Chicagoland weekly newspaper (har!)… Maybe I am a good photographer with a good camera.

Okay, the person I spoke to gave me a runaround about how since it was my first time developing photos there, she wasn’t familiar with my work, or something like that. I did own up that they were professionally done, though, and I told her I’d bring the release tomorrow.

But SECONDLY, the copyright release is a stupid business letter on regular paper. I could have forged one of these things in 2 minutes. Instead, I am honest and instead of picking up my photos after lunch, I have to wait until tomorrow so I can show them the stupid release.

In all actuality, they are just taking my word that I didn’t forge the copyright release. I’m sure it’s just to cover their asses, but if they’re just taking my word anyway, why not just have a box on the order form that I can mark to indicate that I own the copyright to the photos? That’s just as reliable as the letter itself, and then I would ALREADY HAVE MY PICTURES.

Anyway, I think she said they keep the copyright release on file, so if anyone wants any pictures from the wedding, let me know. I’ll be posting some here, too…

Currently listening to: esquivel! space-age bachelor pad music (zu zu zu!)

August 31, 2006 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

14 whopping hits today

Geektastic was getting some Google love today because Jeremy Piven wore an ascot to the Emmys (Emmies? Emmy’s?) I went on record earlier this year about Adrien Brody’s ascot at the Golden Globes, and I have not had a change of heart.

The only two people who are allowed to wear ascots are Hugh Hefner and Charles Nelson Reilly. And what do those two men have in common? They are both a) very old and b) very creepy. On second thought, maybe that ascot was a perfect statement for Mr. Piven.

August 28, 2006 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Another vacation update

Here’s the hotel we chose for Buenos Aires:
Aspen Towers

August 27, 2006 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Stalkeriffic: In which You Learn that Sitemeter is (not) your friend

Was checking my sitemeter statistics this week when I noticed that I had a visitor who spent 20 minutes on the site and looked at 42 pages. That is 42 times more pageviews than 99% of the visitors to this site. 42 pages! Do I even have that many pages?

Anyway, Web Site Stalker is from Melrose, MA and has come back to visit 3 more times. Stalker or Fan? Hmmmm….

A classier person would not mention that my ex-boyfriend lives in Melrose, MA. But, I never claimed to be classy.

So I don’t really think it’s stalker-y to read up on your exes, just a little uncomfortable. Not quite as uncomfortable as being called out on it, but…

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America’s Heart[attack]land

Nothing like a visit to a neighborhood festival to make you believe everyone in the world is fat and slow. Visited Cornfest yesterday. The corn was good and the beer was cheap. I was carded at The Annex but not at the discount liquor store, so by my calculations, that makes me only 50% too old for a college town. Besides, at 3 p.m. on a Saturday, I was one of the youngest people in The Annex. And the $2 pints are almost worth the gas money it takes to drive out there.

I’m writing an article about DeKalb, so I had to stop by Elwood House and some other historical sites that I never knew were there, even though I lived there for 4 years. We actually took the 1-hour guided tour of Elwood House, and Jay was nice enough to not complain even one time. I could see him die a little when he found out the tour was an hour long, but we had already paid by that time, so it was too late. Luckily, the antiques were lovely.

We also took a stroll past the Glidden Homestead, and holy crap, I probably drove by that place 1000 times and I never knew it was there. The birthplace of barbed wire is sitting, preserved, between a Burger King and a copy shop. Weird. It’s only open on the 1st and 3rd Sunday of every month, so we didn’t get to go inside.

We also visited good old Reavis Hall, and I was both happy and sad to see that they’ve moved Circle Drive and put in a huge park in front of The Armpit of the University. It actually looks pretty nice. So I was happy to see that my former homebase is no longer a hideous eyesore, but sad because why couldn’t it have looked like that when I was there?

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Just say no to bedbugs

The cool thing about South America is that we can afford 3 and 4 star hotels. In Europe, our budget only covers 1 and 2 star hotels, which means we get a bed, and it may or may not be comfortable. 3 and 4 star hotels mean hotel bars and restaurants, outdoor swimming pools, and almost 0% chance of bedbugs. Here’s what we have so far:

Rio: Hotel Orla Copacabana

Iguassu Falls (Argentina): Hotel Cataratas

Santiago: Cascada de las Animas

Anyone know of a good hotel in Buenos Aires?

August 24, 2006 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

The Yuppie Diaries

Things that made me happy this weekend:

A new garage door opener remote control thingamajig. Now I don’t have to go in the house through the front door by all the huge spiders.

Finally having time to spread mulch in the garden (front and back). That is not a euphamism for anything.

Sangria. Martha Stewart’s Peach Prosecco. Recipe provided by Lacy.

Cheese brats. Are these called chedderwurst, or is that something different? I don’t care if they scream “Wisconsin,” I love them.

Bowling. 109 average over 4 games.

I’m a simple person, I guess. And by simple, I mean boring. Eh. Do you think 2-day old Sangria will make me sick? Tune in tomorrow to find out!

August 21, 2006 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Leavin’ on an airplane

Well, Michigan went well. We ended up sharing a cottage with some friends, and a lovely time was had by all. Our friends hooked us up with the cottage, which is owned by their next-door neighbors.

We even got a ride on a pontoon boat. Why don’t I have neighbors like this?

Does someone out there want to buy a pontoon boat? We can’t get one ourselves, not just for the monetary reasons (although, that’s certainly a factor), but also because we can’t handle the commitment that comes with boat ownership. But if a friend or neighbor would come through, we could just catch a ride a couple times a year… Someone has got to step up here.

***

We’re planning a trip to South America next spring, and the vacation planning is driving me mad. MAD! On Thursday, we found round-trip airfare to Santiago, Chile for $517 each. However, Jay wants to double-check with his boss that he can take a week and a half off of work. So we don’t jump on the fare.

On Friday, the fare has gone up to $906. !!!!! One day’s wait has now cost us almost $1000 as a couple. So I find a fare on another airline for $546 each. I have now learned my lesson, so I booked the flight. If we have to change it, we’ll pay $100 fee, but if we waited, the cost might double. (I’m working with rudimentary knowledge of airline ticketing, so I could be wrong on this point.)

Then I’m wondering about the airfare we’re going to need once we’re in South America. We want to go to Rio de Janeiro, Iguassu Falls, Buenos Aires and Santiago. So once we land in Santiago, we want to fly to Rio and then work our way west across South America back to Santiago. But the flight from Santiago to Rio on LanChile is more than $800 per person! Yikes. However, once we add in airfare from Iguassu to Buenos Aires and Buenos Aires back to Santiago, the cost is just $700 per person. Huh? We just added 2 more flights and the price goes DOWN $100?

The flight from Rio to Iguassu is the most difficult. I can only find 2 airlines that do that trip. Between when I check in the morning and when I check in the evening, the price went down $50. Who knows what it will be when I actually go to buy it.

Booking airfare is not good for the obsessive compulsive in me. I feel like I could just sit at home all day and check airfares, and I still won’t feel comfortable with what I end up paying.

So anyway, we’re going to Chile in the spring. Not sure about the rest of the trip, but we’re definitly going to be in Santiago.

August 19, 2006 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Everybody’s working for the weekend

Headed up to Michigan for the weekend. Not sure exactly where, or what kind of accommodations we’re staying in… I guess that’s what happens when you let your husband plan a weekend vacation. (Just kidding, Jay. Not really.)

I haven’t been blogging much, this week because I spent quite a bit of time during the early part of the week in an especially pointless online argument about gay marriage. It turned into a religious discussion, which of course makes it even more pointless. For some reason, I always get tangled up in religious arguments.

It’s so frustrating to argue with someone who not only doesn’t believe in logic, but whose own beliefs have no internal logic. It was driving me crazy, and then I remembered that one of the great things about having a blog is that I can speak my mind without having to listen to any moronic counter-arguments. On my own blog, I can have completely one-sided arguments, and I can delete any comments I don’t like. I’m the dictator of Geektastic!

So I was having this pointless argument… The guy said that gay marriage should not be legal because the Bible says gay sex is immoral. Of course, the Bible says sex before marriage is immoral; sex for pleasure is immoral, blah blah blah. So I was asking this guy if he believed everything in the Bible, like that the proper punishment for prostitution is stoning, and that tatooing your body is a crime against God. Because if you’re going to be a literalist, you should at least take the entire Bible literally, not just the parts you pick out. (Of course, this was a bad approach to take and I shouldn’t have been surprised that it didn’t go anywhere.)

Strangely enough, I might have respected the guy’s opinion more if he took the entire Bible as literal fact instead of just bits and pieces. On the other hand, no, I wouldn’t have respected the guy’s opinion any more, but at least I couldn’t argue against it. On my densest, most obtuse days, I don’t believe in evolution. It’s ridiculous, I know, but I can actually completely identify with someone who lacks all rationality. Because sometimes it’s easier to believe in magic than to try to comprehend all that science. On days like that, I will tell you that I don’t care about the fossil record; I just can’t see how an ape could turn into a human, and God must have put those fossils there to trick scientists. And you can’t argue with that because there’s no logic in it at all. It doesn’t stand up, but I know it.

Anyway, he just absolutely would not answer my question: if the Bible is wrong about stoning prostitutes, could it possibly be wrong about gay sex? I guess he did answer my question, although indirectly and illogically. He pointed out all the places in the Bible where it says gay sex is immoral. But he never addressed whether or not it could be wrong.

Not that I don’t think there are some good lessons in the Bible, but I think it has to be interpreted in the context of the present day. Which is why we don’t stone prostitutes and kill their children. They do that in other parts of the world, and I think we in the West can almost unanimously agree that it’s not right.

But I started to feel bad, like I was trying to convince someone not to believe in his religion anymore, which is totally not my goal. I guess a good liberal would be more sensitive about someone else’s religion, but I also think that sensitive liberals are letting these people ruin our country with their live-and-let-live philosophy. It’s one thing to let someone live their life without interference, but if that person won’t let other people live the same way, then something has to give. In other words, the guy on the message board is an idiot and should be kicked out of the country ASAP.

Woowoo! Long rambling post! Sorry… Headed to Michigan now.

August 11, 2006 | Geektastic | Comments Closed

Are you ready?

FOOTBALL! Football is on! I think I’m going to crank up the AC and put on a sweater so I can watch the game how it was meant to be watched.

August 10, 2006 | Geektastic | Comments Closed
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