General's line of the week...

Watching war documentaries, seeing how eager people were to join the war, I finally understood why anyone would wanna give their lives for crazy old men politics: because that ugly puppet  Hitler was so gruesome, everyone with the slightest bit of wit indeed wanted to contribute a part, however small, in putting an axe through his heart. So I said, quite feisty, I would have done the same! I would find the way to fight such a monster!

    And General replied: yes. You would be his bunker keeper / secretary. You'd kill his ficus in a week. There goes the reich.

Galapagos tortoise :D

Spent five hours talking over coffee with my old biology professor, possible future astronomy colleague and certainly someone who knows what I mean when I talk crazy passionately about other cultures, off-road travel, strange tales of history and connections that they don't teach you about in school. That was actually an uncannily excellent evening. Two steps closer to signing up for the astronomy club.

... and now this is what I am starting to fantasise about.

Patch 5.4: Siege of Orgrimmar trailer is up...

... Ah, Garrosh, Garrosh, you sexy beast, what are we going to do with you. I pray a decent bitchslap will be enough to sober you and you will continue to prove a good choice for Warchief. Otherwise Orgri is in for a nasty make-over. 

Movie update mental list

I have recently seen (it's been a wild few days, regarding movies):

- The Bling Ring
- The Parent Trap
- Iron Man 3
- Elysium
- R.I.P.D.
- The Conjuring
- and something else probably, that I currently can't remember, because I am out of coffee for ever and my brain stops working by nine PM. But I am going to review all of them tomorrow. Morning. Right after coffee.

Doggie walks are starting to feel like autumn ...

This is very post-socialistic heavy-metal still-life expressionsim :D

Notice the dogs? :D

Another lesson in much to learn

Somehow I have managed to shoot the night sky from 3 - 4am DURING a Perseid (meteor) shower and after a 100 frames of long exposure, I have not a single photo of a shooting star. Oh, I've seen plenty. We must have seen close to fifty of them. Some overwhelming. Usually when we were setting up the camera/behind us/in between the takes - and it takes two seconds to press the big button ... But it was an adorable night, if unusually cold, and the drive was solitary and relaxing.

Figuring out tow to steady the aperture, I have made great progress since two weeks ago, but I can see where the problems are. The mirror hits summat viciously, so that's something I have to fix next time. I didn't think it would, but it really does. Also, my sensor is a junkyard. Need to have that cleaned, seriously. It wouldn't hurt to have a (much) wider lens. Hmmm... Thinking.... Naa. Not until I get serious with this. 

Shooting portraits and landscape is a lot easier. Or at least not as precise. Different game anyways. I enjoy having to study something from scratch. That gives me a great sense o conquer. Of course, I also need to remember more stars. My confusion when looking up at that mess is alarming. I mean, I know WHERE the constellations are, but I can't make them out. I know exactly where Perseus is (actually it's really hard to miss, because it's right between two very obvious constellations, Cassiopeia and Pleiades) and for all intents and purposes, I can see it, I just can't interpret it. Make heads and tails of it, so to say.

Fun fact. It takes 28.7 seconds for the stars to show movement on film. Marki doesn't have a switch-on-switch-on mode - if you want longer exposures you either need a remote or to hold down the button. It's bulb is limited. You know how long the bulb lasts? 30 seconds. Makes you suspect the makers of Marki were stargazers :D

See? Perseus. No, I don't see it either. But that's where it is.

Maribor haze in the far distance. Pleiades up right

One thing we did catch was a plane, though

Celje haze in the distance and Saint Rosalia, glowing it on

From the balconi, back home

Towards the old castle

... and dawn

Morning storms :)

It is getting difficult to inhale, the air is so dense. We started the doggie walk at 5:30, but as soon as dawn broke, the show started. Two massive storms circling in. Nimbuses around us are blinking and rolling booming barrels. When lightning strikes very close by and the cracking ripping sound shakes the street, it always feels like a wooden battleship just fell from the sky. The two colliding nimbus's right now aren't either large or low enough to bring havoc on their own, but all around the sky is closing in. Large, hot rain falls scarce. It will fall better later. The colours are very dark and very rich. Oranges, blues, greens, purple. Everything is in the shadow and yet glowing. The power will have to take a break in a minute, so I imagine the rest of the early morning will be spent with me reading to the General. We're at "Breakthrough at Tolmin" by Rommel. It's a detailed account of a bunch of guys taking back Spindle mountain near Isonzo. Perfect read for a lightning storm.

Ho'ing for the cam :D

Pikaboo :D

The Titanic survivor

... and stuff :D