The Construct

I haven’t really tried using my camera for anything else than a few test shots here and there. But so far, I’ve clocked around 424 shots already and most of them are crap. Here are a few of my attempts at using this contraption. And yes, I suck. At least that means I still could get better. I hope.

Now on with the crap.

Some random vegetation from the backyard.

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I have to admit that I haven’t watched the new Indiana Jones movie yet since I rarely watch a movie without my fiancee (no rings yet, semantically, at least) but Iron Man, I watched twice. At least, I’ve seen the first three Indiana Jones movies unlike probably many of the kids who have watched/will be watching the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

My sister and Risha would probably attest to this – it’s awfully hard for me to appreciate a movie on the surface level. As a student of discourse and critical theory (mostly post-colonial thanks to Sir Neil Garcia), I am known to ramble on and on about how Hollywood propagates the notion that without the United States, we’d be ravaged by megalomaniacs from Asia or Eastern Europe. (Hey, has there been a megalomaniac villain who came from Southeast Asia or South America featured in a Hollywood blockbuster?).

Take the two recent blockbuster movies for example. Both of which, would surely annoy anyone who is (too) sensitive about these ideas.

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My phone buzzed early this morning. Yes, I always keep it on silent mode so it’s just the vibrating alert that buzzed against the glass top of our coffee table. A missed call from Grace’s number.

It was a bit weird since Grace would be one of the people I’d be amazed to give me a call. Being English majors, we have taken classes together but we never really were in the same group even back in our undergrad days. In fact, it was only during our recent graduate classes that we’ve bonded together as classmates. But since it has been six months after our last class together, the call was out of the blue.

Then I received a text message, again from her number.

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I am an Arsenal fan. Blame it on youth and inexperience but they would’ve won the Premier League and the Champions League cup if they only kept their form, ultimately denying all the celebrations over at Old Trafford. And, I so swear that I hate Manchester United. I hated them since Cantona, and I hate them still (though former United striker Ole Gunnar Solskjaer and Ryan Giggs remain to be personal favorites).

If there are two football clubs that make my blood boil in the English Premiere League, that would be Chelsea and Manchester United. Too bad they were the ones battling for glory in yesterday’s Champions League final. Less reason for me to keep track but I was secretly wishing that Sir Alex Ferguson’s boys would take an ass-kicking since between the two, I hate the boys in blue less.

Since I decided that cable TV isn’t all that necessary, my sister was getting her almost play-by-play from Dorian (hehehe). At the end of regular time, it was a 1-1 draw, that meant that the game will be decided on penalties (which, is, to this day, probably the crappiest way to decide a football match).

The result – 6 to 5 for Manchester United. John Terry missed a golden opportunity to clinch the win by hitting the post. Though I loved it when that bastard Christiano Ronaldo missed United’s third try. Hehehe.

After a week of GAS-ing, I gave in to my wanton desires and got me a digital camera. Call me crazy but I did spend a lot of sleepless nights thinking of whether I buy myself a camera and if I decided to, what type would I get.

I decided that a camera’s a good investment since I am solely dedicating a large part of my time to my blogging endeavors (Oh yeah, a side announcement, I am not a full-time faculty of UP anymore, though for some reason I still am operating at some capacity in the department). I have been wanting to provide more creative pictures for the blogs that I handle and getting a decent camera should do the job.

Next came the harder part – whether to get an entry-level DSLR, or a good-enough prosumer camera. That left me with two options given my budget – a Nikon D40 (the DSLR) and the Canon Powershot S5 IS (the prosumer). For many hobbyists out there who would be stumbling upon this, one ready quip would be, “I bet you went for the D40.” Probably 90% of all forum threads I’ve read would say that the decision’s a no-brainer and that the DSLR trumps the prosumer any time. But you might cringe on what you’re going to read next.

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