DSLR Practice

It was hard to get the color temperature of the photos right because it's an overcast day, so they came out a bit yellow (my Photoshop skills need some help too); but I'm really happy with the depth of field and the sharpness:

Great Expectations

Source: timeout.com via Nick on Pinterest

I stayed up until midnight last night finishing Charles Dickens' Great Expectations, and I am so delighted with the book that I just had to post something about it.

As most of you probably know, Great Expectations is the story of a poor boy who is befriended by a ghostly old woman and falls in love with a scornful rich girl, both of which make him decide to be a gentleman; but when he suddenly becomes heir to a large sum of money and property from an unknown benefactor, he encounters many trials, adventures, and heartbreaks as he tries to realize his "great expectations" (which would today be translated as "high hopes" or "big dreams" or something similar).

I had first become familiar with the story through the old Wishbone TV show, then I watched the 1946 movie. The movie was fabulous and I thoroughly enjoyed it (and I can now vouch for you that it is almost perfectly accurate to the book except for some condensing and lightening the ending), so when I downloaded the book on my Kindle app, I decided to take a little while and read it.

I couldn't put it down. I read it instead of studying last night for my linguistics test tomorrow. I have never experienced Dickens before, and I am completely in awe of his ability to tell a creepy, sad, heartbreaking story like that one and make it so dear and beautiful and uproariously funny. But he did. I laughed so hard - even when it was after midnight and I was sitting in the middle of the living room floor completely by myself with all the lights off in the house except two, I was laughing out loud at the part where Pip spends the dreadful night in the Hummums. And the second that Joe came to him (toward the end; you might know the part, but I won't spoil it), I started to cry and I cried all through the rest of the book. It was so beautiful.

Here are the quick opinions I can blurt out about the book before I run off to class:

- Herbert and Joe. I am head-over-heels in love with Herbert Pocket. He is sweet, funny, optimistic, lively, gentle, innocent, and modest. If I could find a man like that in real life! And Joe - there are many, many men in the world like dear, honest, simple Joe; and I'm very glad of it, and I'm going to do my best from here on out to appreciate them instead of being like arrogant Pip. Because Joe might have been a very common type of man; but in reality, he was the rarest gem of all.

- Miss Havisham. She is terrifying. She is insane. She is WAY creepier in the book than in the movie.

- Estella. I never knew that Estella was as heartless as they made her appear in the movies, but she is! And worse!

- Biddy. I hope I can be like Biddy someday ... she also is sweet and gentle and modest.

- Pip. I don't like Pip very much, but he did remind me a lot of a Robert Louis Stevenson character, which was interesting.

Uh-oh, I'd better run or I'm going to be late ...

Love,
Vicki

Calligraphy

I indulged myself in a few hours of Irish calligraphy yesterday ... it was wonderful to get to spend some quality time with my art supplies again!  :-)

Yes, I ran out of room ... yes, it was frustrating ...

Love,

Vicki

A question about Josh Groban

Okay, I need to ask your opinion on something. Through my little sidebar poll that I conducted a week ago, I found out that there are at least one or two of you who also like Josh Groban and/or his music. Those of you who are fairly familiar with his music over the last several years, I want to ask you a question:

Have you noticed a rather drastic change in his voice? My sister and I have noticed it with what kind of amounts to horror - his voice has really changed over the last couple of years, in our opinion. It used to have this big, flowing, soaring quality; but now he sounds really tight, like he's constantly straining to get the notes out. He's always flat and his vibrato has gotten much too dramatic and fast.

Let me illustrate what I mean. The first video is from what looks to be about 2005 or 2006; the second is from 2011. They are both live, so they are more "natural" and contain a few flaws; but notice the huge difference in his voice (mute my MixPod for a minute, at the bottom of the page).

See what I mean? I'm not the only one who notices a difference, am I? As a moderately diehard Grobanite, I am moderately disturbed by this and would like to know if anyone else is, too ...

Yup, a completely frivolous and irrelevant question for your Saturday contemplation.  :-)

Lots of love,
Vicki

Just gaze at this painting for a couple of moments

Source: theheavingsurface.tumblr.com via Cody on Pinterest



Isn't that incredible? It reminds me of Captain Blood, or The Sea Hawk, or Master and Commander ...

... and now I'd better get to class.  ;-)

Love, Vicki