I took a ton of pictures on this trip; some of them didn’t turn out as nice as I would have liked, but that’s how it goes sometimes.

I also went to my first Packer game over the weekend. It was only a preseason game but it’s better than nothing, and now I can say I’ve been to one. I just wish I would have brought a camera besides the one on my phone.

Bowl of popcorn

I finally made the plunge and bought a new camera, but this time went for a Canon SLR. It’s only an entry level model (Rebel XS), but it was a really good deal on Newegg.com; plus it came with a telephoto lens. I should have plenty of fun with it.

At least now I can get back to taking pictures again. All I need now is a decent bag for it.

I dumped some of the photos that I’ve taken with this camera in the last day on my Picasa photo album.

My Jack and Jill drawing

I just finished the last of the illustrations for the thermodynamics textbook I’ve been working on. Hopefully everything comes through okay, and my part is finished. I can finally focus more time on my own book and other things.

I’ve also been looking at getting an iPad to use as an inexpensive drawing tablet. I currently have a very serviceable seven year old Wacom Intuos tablet, but I still have some trouble drawing strait lines and shaping objects on it. And I’m still in the market for a new camera as well.

Oh, and I hope to install the latest Ubuntu sometime this week as well.

Over the last month, I’ve been compiling the hundreds of illustrations for the second edition of the thermodynamics textbook my dad wrote in the late 80′s. It’s been a pretty grueling process going through each drawing.

Also, the second edition of Exploring Engineering is now on Amazon.com. It contains most of my original illustrations with a few changes.

My calendars

I really like having a personalized wall calendar. Normally, I have been using the freebe calendars provided by a realtor, which isn’t all bad, because they’re peppered with virtually all the  local events. But, I personally prefer to display my own artwork on my walls, even if it’s not the best.

A couple of years ago, I made a calendar based on my illustrations from Mistletoe’s Night. I used iPhoto on my Mom’s Mac to assemble the calendar and add holidays and personalized dates on it. I was really happy with the final product, even though it was a tad pricey.

Last month, I made another calendar, based on some of my photos, using the same tools I had used the last time with the same results. I really wanted to try a different service like Snapfish (to get away from Apple), but I really didn’t like the general look of their formating. It was a little hard to tell from their illustrations what the final product will look like, but I wasn’t terribly keen on their options.

Mass Effect was another game on my short list. It was pretty cool for the same reasons I liked Bioshock. The story and setting was well crafted, even though the game felt a little short and combat was a little goofy, but it was a good set up for future installments.

The last one was Oblivion, which improved upon many of the glaring short-comings of Morrowind, but still, the game is missing something. I just can’t quite put my finger on it. Either way it’s still a pretty fun game.

After that, I still need to pick up Half-life 2 and Crysis, plus some of the games coming out this Winter look to be worth checking out.