Cold Rides Cometh

Every year I look forward to riding in the cold weather of late autumn. The leaves have left the trees, the temperature drops and it is the perfect time to bundle up and spin. My first ride of this lovely season was on Riverside early Sunday morning with Mike. We took what has become our new standard loop for a 19ish mile warm up to this coming weekends World AIDS Day ride. More on that later, but the rest is in the pictures...

Mehtul muffinsMmm!

Mike and me

"S" turns on the side

Train bridge in autumn

The check

Christmas in November

It has a been a long while since I actually wrote about photography here. Yesterday my Christmas present arrived however and now it is all I can think about. The photo above was taken with the new camera. It is nothing special, but demonstrates one of the many advantages of the Canon s90 over my old jam. It has a faster lens speed (f2), which means better pictures indoors without the need for a flash. Previously a shot a night with only the lights from our house would have resulted in a blurry mess. We have ditched many a good shot of Kaden because it looked like someone smeared vaseline on the lens.

Of course I am not satisfied with just having a better camera now. I want lighting, not expensive stuff mind you, DIY stuff. LED's seem like the cheapest option, but ring lights and modified halogen work lights seem like worthy pursuits as well. There are a number of sites that I have been picking through in anticipation of my new toy. DIYPhotography, Strobist (which I have linked to previously) and Photojojo.

The photo to the right was taken with even less light (ceiling fan) than the one above and also demonstrates Kaden's favorite new hobby. Standing up on his own. We would have never gotten this shot before with the old camera. Considering we take probably three times more pictures this year than we did last, getting this camera makes it even easier to capture every stage of his development. If you can't tell I'm happy with our purchase. A few more shots are available at my gallery.

Dragon Warfare 2

Modern Warfare 2
The PC community has been up in arms for the past month about the sequel to COD4:MW. There are no dedicated servers, the multiplayer cap is 18 players and my dear God in heaven you can't lean! Lets see, I don't play competitively or obese over realism, check. Anything over 18 players gets unruly and just ask begs for spawn camping, check. I don't camp and therefore have no need to lean wit it, check. How about is it fun? Um, yes, very, check! All of this protesting seems like calorie burning that could be focused on a better cause. The single player, while not as good as COD4, is still over the top fun. The multiplayer is better than COD4, in that it offers more kit options and balances game play. Get over yourself and get this game on the PC.

Uncharted 2
I picked up my PS3 less than month before Uncharted 2 dropped and choose to forgo new titles for at least 4-5 months while I played the back log of games I had missed. I had a spreadsheet even. Well after being blown away by the original Uncharted and being lukewarm on MGS4 I threw that plan out the door. Uncharted 2 is a knock you socks off action movie that damn hard to put down. Like the game before it I chugged through it in less than a week and enjoyed every minute of it. The locations you visit are far more varied and the game play feels even more polished. While the ending is a bit of burnt toast on an otherwise tasty egg sandwich, it does a better job of wrapping things up than the original.

Dragon Age: 2 Origins
After logging nearly 40+ coop hours in Borderlands I think it was probably a bad idea to pick up another long run RPG. While Dragon Age seems to be a fantastic game and easily deserving of it's 91, it suffered the same fate as Mass Effect on my first attempt to play it. I just didn't have the time given the hectic fall game release schedule. I did try to let it hook me at least. Think of me as a suicidal fish, swimming up to various lures placing my mouth on them and waiting a pull on the line. Nothing. The ": Origins" part of the title does seem to be the most interesting part of the game I saw. Depending on the class and race you choose at the start you get a different 1-2 hour intro to you "origin". The rest of the game is peppered with dialogue references to your beginning, so it all feels meaningful throughout. Maybe next summer I'll actually play it.

Kaden in Autumn

Say goodbye to the heat of summer and hello to the cool breeze of fall. Kaden has not had a post specific to him in sometime. Even though pictures of him still flow like wine, words are always good for a growing boy. Pay no attention to the Dad behind the curtain who hasn't posted a video since July. I will right wrongs, fear not.

Back to the topic at hand, Kaden is on the move. He is rolling from stomach to sitting up like it is the greatest thing since a knife met baked, leavened and kneaded dough. His crawl is getting coordinated, as knees and hands become aware of each other, he is getting from one side of the floor to the next. Apparently unsatisfied with just sitting and crawling he has started to stand. We have found him on numerous occasions holding on to the rails of the crib to keep his balance in a wobbly, but confirmed case of standing up.

He recently found his voice. Mind you he isn't reciting Walt Whitman at the dinner table, but none the less he is vocal. "Da da da da" and "ma ma ma ma" are his favorites, but he goes from hard to reproduce clicking noises to shouting for joy in restaurants. In other mouth related news, we have teeth! As previously mentioned, but now there are five. They are razor sharp too. Don't have a pacifier, think your hands are clean and want to sooth him with a digit? Think again, those things hurt like the dickens.

Being a Dad was fun already, but now that he is starting to get a personality it is just getting better.

P.S. New video is forth coming, Tabib scouts honor.