Last night, I printed up four of my favorite photos (from the photos I’ve been posting these last few weeks) on my inkjet photo printer. I cropped them to square dimensions, just because I like that look.

Today, I took down all the craziness I used to have hanging above my desk at work and replaced it with the four photos and a postcard of a Charles Rennie Mackintosh botanical illustration which had been hanging there, but was surrounded by xkcd comics, book covers, and pictures of animals from CuteOverload.

I like that I will have my own photographs hanging at my desk; granted, they’re not framed or anything, but they’re lovely all the same and I’m proud of them.

There’s other excitement happening tomorrow at my desk. It will be a good day.

(Also, to bring me back from emotional wreckitude from “Away from Her”, I’m now watching Cary Grant and Rosalind Russell in “His Girl Friday”. It’ll cure what ails ya.)

I started watching “Away from Her” and I just have to pause it and pick this up tomorrow or some other night when I’m not feeling all emotional and weird already.

It’s quite lovely, though — just incredibly sad and emotionally penetrating.

Julie Christie is such a beautiful woman… she was lovely back in 1966 in “Fahrenheit 451″, and she’s equally lovely now. But I guess it’s a lot easier to remain good-looking after 40 years when you’re stunning to begin with. May we all be so lucky…

… would be Six Flags. Though, in New Jersey, we don’t call it Six Flags. It’s Great Adventure. The official name is Six Flags Great Adventure, so you’re not wrong either way.

I am far too tired right now to do much writing, but I must note that I’m pretty jazzed about two of the roller coasters we went on today - Kindga Ka and El Toro.

With Kingda Ka, it’s all about the bragging rights; it’s the tallest and fastest roller coaster in the world. It gets up to 128 mph in 3.5 seconds (via a hydraulic launching mechanism - fancy, and has to be sprayed with water after every launch since it gets ridiculously hot - or so people were saying). The main tower the coaster climbs after the launch is 456 feet high. Then we all dropped 418 feet straight down. Allow me to provide a visual representation:

What was especially nice was that we did this first thing in the morning when we got there, at about 11 a.m. Hence, the wait time was about 25 minutes. This was pretty terrific since it was up to 2 hours by the time we got off the ride. It was thrilling and exciting. Honestly, I didn’t feel very connected to my body at all through the whole ride. I had the distinct feeling that I was looking out through someone else’s eyes, though that impression passed rather quickly once we got to the little hill post-418′ drop.

And #2, El Toro. It also comes with some bragging rights, and I think my sister said it best, “El Toro wins today.” It has the second steepest drop of any wooden roller coaster in the world (76 degrees). It’s third tallest (188 ft) and third fastest (70 mph) in terms of wooden roller coasters around the world. The first drop is 176 feet down, followed by hills measuring 112 feet, 100 feet, and 84 feet. While this may not sound like much compared to the 418 feet of Kingda Ka, El Toro was actually a much more frightening/exhilarating experience.

Just by way of comparison, when we got off Kingda Ka, we didn’t really have any problems walking a straight line. It was intense, but there weren’t many lasting effects. After riding El Toro, we all felt a little drunk, had trouble walking straight and had some mild headache action.

But we had funnel cake and corn dogs (healthy theme park fare) and lots of overpriced lemonade, so it turned out OK. It doesn’t look or feel like I burned (I applied sunscreen a few times) but I’ll be certain tomorrow. I can’t feel much right now… just the Tired.

Photoshop has done this for me lately:

On the left, the original untouched photo. On the right, the same photo with some increased saturation and a fun multi-layer effect consisting of Gaussian blur on one layer, the “multiply” effect applied to the other layer and the brightness increased on the total package.

Eez very different, no? It gives it a surreal effect I enjoy. Maybe I’ll get craziness printed up and framed. Hrm.

Also - in the category of f’ed up things parents can say to their fully grown children, the following is a portion of a phone conversation I had with my father last night while I was on the train back from work. Said he:

“How much are you earning now? I’d like to be able to brag to everyone about how much money my daughter is making. The more you make, the prouder I can be.”

I wish I was kidding. This is quoted verbatim; uncharacteristically, he spoke this entire bit in English instead of Polish. There was no humor behind it (he doesn’t joke about salaries); he was quite earnest about making this a compliment for me. It backfired; I was dumbstruck and just said I’d talk to him later.

There was climbing tonight to round out my many hours of awake time. Now I’m really tired.

And there will be a large bruise on my shin tomorrow, surrounding the split in my skin where my leg smashed into an arete (outside corner).

But, on a positive note, no new blisters since my hands have somewhat re-established their protective roughness.

Man, could I go for some chicken McNuggets right now. Too bad. I’ll have a cool, refreshing glass of water instead.

I don’t find it boring, actually. I’m just tired because I’ve been up since 5 a.m. That was almost 2.5 hours earlier than I normally get up. Hear me when I say, “I AM TIRED.”

Still, I got home, ate some soup, took some photos, refilled the windshield washer fluid receptacle under my car’s hood and debated installing new wipers (but then read the instructions. Not tonight. These yotches are silicone ones from PIAA and they require some prep work. This is a project for another night.)

And now, le foto.

And below, a close-up from the first photo and a reason I love my camera. This is without a macro lens and it’s not the sharpest ever (a lens would help), but you can see the fine “hairs” around the edges of a CLOVER.

Hungry insects make quick work of leaves.

More on this last photo tomorrow…

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THE NOTE TAKER [explosively]:

Woman! Cease this detestable boohooing instantly; or else seek the shelter of some other place of worship.

THE FLOWER GIRL [with feeble defiance]:

I’ve a right to be here if I like, same as you.

THE NOTE TAKER:

A woman who utters such depressing and disgusting sounds has no right to be anywhere–no right to live. Remember that you are a human being with a soul and the divine gift of articulate speech: that your native language is the language of Shakespeare and Milton and The Bible; and don’t sit there crooning like a bilious pigeon.

Pygmalion, Act 1 - George Bernard Shaw

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This evening, I rather (uncharacteristically) went out to a bar (!) after work (!) to have drinks (!) to celebrate my work-friend’s birthday along with a bunch of people I didn’t know (!!!). I had A rum and coke, so it wasn’t like I guzzled. I don’t like beer, so visits to the bar for informal gatherings such as this are always a bit weird for me. I experience mild anxiety over drink choices and the fact that not being a beer-drinker has a bit more of a pariah-esque quality than even being a teetotaler.

ANYWAY… it was pretty fun. There was good conversation. I was glad that a good number of people showed up to celebrate friend’s birthday.

But now, I’m settled in to watch Contempt (Le Mépris) and get to bed as early as possible because I have to be up at the ass-crack of dawn (meaning 5:30 a.m., which classifies as “ass-crack” in my world) to take the 6:30 train into work to get to a hotel in Manhattan for a company meeting. Early mornings and I do not jive well.

To make things easier in the morning, I’ve already decided what I shall wear, right down to the accessories. They shall be these - adorable new earrings I got this weekend at Urban Outfitters when I went shopping with my friend Sara:

Yup. They’re awfully cute. And while I don’t wear gold as a rule, I couldn’t pass these up. Besides, it’s just a touch of gold. That is acceptable.

Please note that I do not dwell in a cave of darkness (yet); zooming in on the earrings in my hand and using the flash caused the background to drop out entirely. This is actually quite a good thing since what dwells in the background is frightening and messy and not a fair representation of me. I did give myself a quick manicure on Monday night, though. So that’s nice.

And I have devised a fantastic way of spending $400; I will use it (not anytime soon) to fund the purchase of a Sigma 17-70mm f/2.8-4.5 DC HSM Macro Lens for my Nikon D40. It’s apparently pretty good for the price and since I’m not about to spend $800 on a high-end macro lens, it will do.

I’m really enjoying macro photography and how it can make ordinary, everyday objects appear to be exciting, new and abstract, and how it captures textures. I love textures - both visual and tactile. There was a time that my friend Vin called me “Tactile Eva” since I could not walk into a store (usually a clothing store) without touching things. I like to think that a lot of people shop this way, but it seems it’s not as common as I originally thought.

Quel tragédie. Y’all are missing out.

It’s only Tuesday and this week is already a blur. Looking ahead, it doesn’t seem as though it’s going to get any clearer. There’s far too much to do in the time allotted. This is not to say I’m unhappy - simply that I’m too busy to take time to smell the roses.

And I now have my first mosquito bites of the season - most uncomfortable and annoying.

I have an early day tomorrow (and an even earlier one on Thursday), so I’d best get myself off to bed - in theory at least, since I know from experience that the awareness of any early day tomorrow will make falling asleep nearly impossible and I will not get anywhere near optimal slumber time. Boo hiss.

I could very much use another weekend day. I start getting a bit fidgety when I think about everything I have waiting for me at the office tomorrow. It’s OK, though.

The benefit of being so busy is that the week just flies by and, before I know it, it will be next weekend and I’ll be spending Saturday riding roller coasters.

There’s my light at the end of the tunnel, at least for the moment.

I need to lose myself in a good book tonight. Thankfully, I have many things from which to choose.