Filling the blanks.

I promised some updates in February, so here they are.

Jujitsu and self-defense classes.


Starting a couple of weeks ago, we've attended to martial arts training.
The sedentary life that installed in this cold season, didn't quite fit our adventurous spirits. So, we decided to do some physical workout and also learn a useful skill during the process.
What can I say.., it is very interesting as some defense/attack possibilities are incredibly effective and easy to apply. Admittedly it is also hard and pretty painful in some cases.
A general pain usually settles in the next day after each session, and lasts until the next one.
It is amusing to see us - young people, walking around like centenaries - whining constantly about all sorts of pains in muscles we didn't know they even existed :).

Board Games.

Our 1st game - The Dominion, arrived this Friday.
We played it once and then played it again and again and again. It is awesome and we totally love playing it; Andra a bit more than myself: she always wants us to have one more round at the end of each one.
This kind of games got to us, and I'm sure we'll make a somewhat of a hobby out of them. Especially because they are fun to play with friends, have a higher complexity that normal card games, and implicitly have a strategy available to develop. Also, they benefit from the "luck" factor, which is much more controlled, thus a good player can always have higher chances for winning.
Today we had a marathon playing several different games for half a day, with some friends.



London and Transatlantic Sessions concert.

For too long we've seen the world through others' eyes; now it's time for us to actually leave again and visit a new area.
This time is London where we'll be attending at a concert called "Transatlantic Sessions".
The whole package is a present from Andra, received on my birthday in December. So, I'm taking the opportunity to thank her again for the unexpected and amazing gift received.

Rocky road to Dublin.

This is one great Irish song I've discovered recently.
Last night, after more than one month without any guitar rehearsals whatsoever (yeah, I was lazy in this regard), I decided to give it a try and learn the song.
What used to take me weeks, this time happened in a matter of hours when I was able to play both guitar and voice in the same time; granted that my voice still needs training :).
Being rightfully called a tongue-twister song, I was able to memorize and play properly the first verse; four more remaining to be learned these days (hopefully).
The funny thing is that after a strong pain started developing in the left hand fingers - because of the lack of repetition for such a long time - I decided to numb the pain with two glasses of strong wine.
It did work and I was able to play another hour and a half; but boy I was so far gone..that night.


Cheers!

Photography - improvements.

I found some time to update a couple of photos. They seem more expressive in the new state:


Other than this, things are pretty normal around here. No special events in the last couple of weeks.
The next week and February will bring some changes though; but all in due time.

Hobbies: Photography

Lets talk about hobbies and their benefits.

First - photography.
In my case, everything connected to photography started not longer than 2 years ago.
Before that, I only had a long term passion - reading, and some others that didn't last in time:
- programming: it was a real hobby for 1-2 years, as i enjoyed making programs and especially small games like: chess, table, poker, X-0; star-trek :). This passion has chances to reborn soon.
- building electronics from scratch. In high-school, there were almost two years of experimenting with electronics. I electrocuted myself a few times :) (my younger brother had something to do with it in one case), I burned my fingers in other occasions, and sometimes I even managed to build/modify something. For example, with some help I made a converter which transformed 9v into 700v - in order to power a fluorescent bulb from batteries (it is still working); also turned recorders into radios (by building a oscillating antenna circuit directly into the recorder unit); repaired broken equipment etc.

Anyway, that's in the past now.
My first digital camera was a second-hand one (3MP). No auto-focusing, poor sensor - awful pictures :), but good and useful experience.
Second camera: Canon A430 - a lot better picture quality, a form of manual control, and my first introduction into manipulating the camera settings in order to capture a good photo.
Third camera: Fuji S5600 - dslr like, but only on the outside. An improvement though reported to the previous one, but only comparing the manual control; the picture quality was lacking, especially in poor lighting conditions.
Fourth camera: DSLR - finally :). Nikon - D40, a whole new world for me.
Latest camera: Nikon D80 with the following lenses: 50 mm, 18 - 135, 55 - 200.

Considering that "a picture's worth a thousand words", I'll better let some of my dearest photos say the rest ;)

I'll conclude with an introduction to hobbies benefits in general, and related to photography.
A hobby is a way to enjoy something, and sometimes even excel in that particular thing. Some hobbies can become a vice (gaming for example), but that's a completely different matter.
Doing something else, other than the normal chores, enables one to exit the comfort zone and experiment new things. Furthermore, these kind of activities help in meeting new people with the same interests and skills (motorcycling has definitely done that for us).
Concerning the photography, first it helped us understand that there is more to taking photos than point and shoot. In my case, it helped me understand the technical stuff behind the process (I believe in being more than just a consumer) and also helped in the creativity area, as the whole photography concept requires sometimes seeing things from a different perspective. But I admit that in many cases it is useful to be in the right place, at the right time :).
Last, but not the least, it's good to have something else to do when you're getting bored :) in various situations: by the talk around you, in a filed trip or in the bus towards an objective, at a party etc.

More to come on the hobbies matter. Andra will have something special to present soon ;)