Thanksgiving

It's been a relaxed Thanksgiving so far, today. I stayed up last night finding a satisfactory photo editor (GIMP 2 + UFRaw). Besides saturation tweaks, photo straightening, and noise reduction or sharpening, I mainly need software to combine my images for bracketed photos and panoramas. I spent the night learning all the controls for my camera, customizing the few buttons I can. Still trying to figure out if Depth-of-Field Preview is useful to me. I'm really enthusiastic about learning photography as an art. The Black Friday sales tempted me to purchase a bigger SDHC card as well as a wrist strap and lens brush. I'm sure I'll fill up my current 8 gig card in China.

I haven't been out at all yet today. Lina told me about a lady who has students over for holidays if they are in town (at least Thanksgiving). So I will head out to be picked up in a half hour. But so far I just ate and took a shower and then Mom called. We actually had a great conversation about creativity (she had commented on my recent status about my difficulties being creative) and I'm glad she called. We don't often connect and communicate so well anymore, which makes me disappointed in myself, particularly around holidays. Martha and Brian and the kids are in Mississippi for Thanksgiving, so Mom's home alone and is under the weather.

While on the phone with Mom, Dad called, and I called him back after Mom and I wrapped up our call. I told him about my recent obsession with photography and hopefully we'll get to go shooting together after my recital, assuming he can still come visit in February. I hadn't mentioned to him that Vanderbilt invited me to go to China with the orchestra over Christmas, so I told him all about that. It was really nice talking to my family (I'll call Martha in a minute) and I wish we were together today.

After what I hope is a feast (Mom suggested I bring my host flowers, but I don't have the money and I assume all the shops are closed) I'll relax for the rest of the day and listen to my new free (with trial) audiobook that I downloaded from Audibon. I decided to buy Don Quixote. I think I'll go read East of Eden and Les Miserables (eventually), but thought something a bit more fantastic would be the best option for listening. It'll be nice to fall asleep to something besides Rob Inglis reading LOTR, I think.