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Where the heck did August go? It seems like it just got here and now it's at a close. Speediest little month there ever was. And of course it's decided to end on a rather hot note. Man, what's up with that?

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My brother picked the perfect day to go on his motorcycle trip. We went back up into the 40s with the humidity today. In fact, I don't think we were legally allowed to take the kids out this afternoon. Nuts, isn't it?

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Downtown was loud, noisy and busy. Add in the return of the heat and things were pretty warm. We wanted to get a cheap thing of nachos, but we had to order a drink for it to happen. Well, I ordered my drink. It was blue.

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Went down to see Arts in the Park today. It was very cool. Stopped to talk with a photographer, Bob Anderson, for a little while, and he even gave me a few prints. It was very awesome of him. The picture you are looking at right now are little party mice or something made by Jayne Ayre of Kismet Clay Designs. I didn't buy a mouse but I did buy a mushroom.

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I had a kid snarl at me today. Not just like a growl, but an actual curling his lip back and snarling. All because I offered him apple sauce. What is this world coming too?

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Today I actually worked in the kindergarten room. I haven't done that in forever. I think the last time I was there may have been in June right at the start of the summer. I know I haven't been in there for more than covering a lunch since the summer started. Today I was there though, working the opening shift. I've decided that's the shift I like, I want more of those.

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So apparently if you hold the lens of a camera up to the camera backwards, you can get a macro shot with it. It's sort of hard though, holding the lens in place and keeping the aperture open as wide as it can get, but it's something worth looking into. I can get a ring off of ebay from China that would let me screw my lens into the camera backwards. Very cool sounding, I just don't want to accidentally break something.

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Sorry, not terribly creative today. Literally stood on my driveway and spun the camera around in a circle. Today I was more creative in processing than taking pictures. I seem to have gone right back into DeviantArt. I'm actually getting a bit of feedback now, it's exciting.

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It's sort of weird when you're supposed to work and then you don't really but you do get called in for the people you weren't supposed to work with.

Also had an awesome dinner with Brandi's parents, my parents, and Brandi too. If you're in Ottawa, try the Works.

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I am not very happy about the temperature today. While I love the rain, I do not love the fact that I wore pants today for the first time in many moons.

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So I was testing out something I read about on a forum, and I managed to make the image you're looking at now. The only thing I can think of while looking at it is "Damn, my eye does get lazy when I'm tired".

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All done for the week. It was supposed to be my last day in the Kid's Club, but apparently I'm working there Monday now too. I love that at this age we could actually convince them that pirates came into the classroom and stole their box of prizes. Some of them seemed pretty sure I had taken it and buried it in the sand (they were wrong of course, it was Laura) but I could see the glimmer of doubt that maybe... maybe a pirate actually -did- come in here and take it.

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Last exam today! Last exam of the summer! Get to stay home and do it from my bed, but it's still an exam! With this, I am officially done all the schooling I need to do until September rolls around. Feels nice.

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I had to teach a kid about stealing today. Not one of the better sides of working with kids, but something that has to be done. He stole something which was mine (and really, it was just a hot beads rainbow horse I made) which is good, it means just he and I were involved. It's a little sad seeing really good kids making bad decisions, but I guess that's how we learn. We make bad decisions and then see where it leads us.

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So I am thinking or maybe selling prints to raise money for a food bank + charity. There are reasons why I really want to do this, one of them being that it helps hungry people. There's also the whole part where I am hoping to prove someone wrong.

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Late night movies make so much less sense the day after.

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The rain was on, the rain was off, the rain was on, the rain was off. It would have been nice if it would just stay one way or another. I know most people would have preferred off, wow did we get a lot. Of course I was inside most of the day so it didn't affect me all too much.

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The day that was supposed to be nice and sunny turned out to be a little more cloudy than I would have liked. That said, it was still a fun day and I think everyone had fun. I'm going to try and see if we can have everyone over for a swim thing one more time before the end of the summer and it gets too cold to swim. Though I say that like... mid August.

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I'm glad it's Friday. Today felt super relaxed and just sort of... relaxed. Still, I'm glad it's Friday. Next week is my last full week working at the Daycare this summer. Wow, this summer has gone by fast.

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What's cuter than a bunch of 6 year old girls in big poofy Disney Princess dresses? Not a whole lot really.

Also, I am amazed at the immaturity and hostility toward women I've been having to deal with lately on the internets. It's absolutely amazing.

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Today was an Internet eventful sort of day. I can't believe I had to deal with such foolishness. The kids though offered a good distraction, except for the small poop throwing incident.

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You know what's hilarious? Boys are so much easier to plan for than girls. By leaps and bounds.

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Back at the Daycare for another week. Should be fun. It's hard to believe that I have 2 full weeks there for the summer, then that's pretty much it. Seems like this summer went by really fast.

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And the rain rain rain came down down down.

So this week I work the whole week, but I have no school what so ever. Is it sad that it's going to feel like a vacation, work aside?

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The city is very neat, especially if you know where to go. The problem, it seems, is that people have no idea where to go. Some people don't even seem to know that we have a small water fall in Ottawa.

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Since I read about this really easy way to remove colour from a picture but add colour back, I've been sort of playing around with it. Some things work well, some things don't. The old method I was using before was so much work. Now, it's a breeze.


Out of my old pictures I've been playing around with, this one is my favourite. I really like how it turned out.

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What do you do when you don't really need to do anything? Apparently you go into work and show them how to play a game that they didn't know how to play. And then you go for pie. Mmm pie.

Yesterday I took this picture of a rainbow. It's been run through photoshop a few times, but I really like the way it looks.

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I tried something again today. Seems whenever I try something I find on the new forum I look at, the Digital Photography School, I fail at it. This time it was capturing the movement of the water as the berry was landing in it. I know why I failed, I didn't have enough light so I wasn't able to get my shutter speed fast enough. That said, I liked the way it looked just sitting there in the glass. That's probably because I like raspberries though. I think the next thing from there I plan to try is the shaped bokeh.

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Could it be allergies, or could it be coming down with a cold? It's very hard to say.

And does anyone else have the same frustrating problem I have taking pictures of my dogs? They are perfectly set up, and the moment you get close enough to take an actual picture they look at you, give you this "Oh no, I don't think so" look and walk away. Sheesh.

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Today had less picture taking and more sleeping. Apparently it rained this afternoon, and I missed the entire thing. Huh.

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I've been having lots of fun with this lens. The image quality is sharp, and I find I'm able to crop things closer than I could with my zoom lens. I think I will be keeping this lens on for a while so I can learn to use it, then go back to the zoom with fresh eyes later on.