the current currents in shiny things

Still completely and totally dead at work. To ward off slipping into a coma from the boredom, and to bludgeon the crawling time, a "currents" entry sounds like just the thing. I'm much too bored to come up with a proper entry. That's what currents are for.

Current Location At work, with absolutely nothing to do. I don't even have the boring stuff that I normally put off. Because I've already done it. I need to do some planning for the hell that is due this fall, when we change our graduation application process completely, and for the one semester will be doing December graduates the old way at the same time that we're doing May (and I think August 2015) graduates the new way, but it's so massively confusing that we've all agreed we're really going to have to learn as we go. Because it makes no sense and nobody can visualize exactly how it will work. Because it probably won't work!!! But hey, we're all being forced and at least all the Dean's Offices are being forced together. It makes my head hurt to think about it though. On the plus side, I'm sure it will generate plenty of anguished/ranting entries.

Current Television Well, "current" as in recently, not right this moment. Obviously. We're devouring True Blood -- the last season, since we don't have HBO and have to wait for the DVDs. I'm very pleased- it kind of went downhill for a few seasons, I thought. I did like ... season 5?? Yes, we're on 6 now --- but couldn't remember what happened. When we watched the recap before starting on this season, we were both going, "What? When did THAT happen??? I don't remember that!! Wait, he's DEAD?!?" etc etc for the entire recap. Anyhow, I'm very pleased. And really hoping that since The Last Season has just started on HBO, they'll do what they did with Dexter's last season and get it out fast on DVD. As opposed to making us wait a year.

The other kind of odd thing I've been watching myself, because Baker B watched one episode and was so unimpressed he fell asleep so now won't give it another chance, is Only Fools and Horses. Despite our serious British TV addiction, we'd never seen it before, although it's one of the highest rated shows ever in the UK. I'd only vaguely heard of it, until one of the main characters died recently. The only way to watch it here is DVDs from Netflix (and apparently they only have like one set as there's always a wait on random discs) so I decided to check it out. And I really like it -- it's kind of dated at times (it started in the very early 80s), but it's really funny and after the first season takes an occasionally somewhat serious turn, which I like. I can see why it was never a hit here because it's REALLY British. Which is why I like it. Duh. I will be watching it for the rest of my life- there were seven seasons (I think) and about 12 million specials.

Current Anticipation I've decided to... buy a new camera!! I had already decided I want to get a new one before we go to England again, but since we are hopefully doing that next summer, it's time to start Camera Planning. My SLR is seriously ancient and was my uncle's before it was mine. (Just went and checked my photos on Flickr and I've had it for 6 1/2 years - I actually thought it had been longer- it's probably 10 years old). It's a Canon 10D; they're up to 70D now. I love it and it takes great pictures, but it also has spots that repeated cleaning can't get rid of, and it seems time for an upgrade. I want another Canon since I love that one so (and have always been happy with my Powershots) and I want to be able to use my old lenses. The current version - the 70D - is really amazing ... and really really expensive. Like $1000 for just a body. I'm not sure I need to spend that kind of money, as I'm not a professional and it's not likely I'll be turning professional anytime soon.

And... a big consideration ... I want a light camera. Lighter than what I've got. That's a heavy camera, especially to tote around all day. So today I used my boring free time to start doing some research and found this one:

It's a Rebel SL1. It weighs 14.4 oz. And it's around $700 with a couple of lenses, or one lens and a bunch of accessories. And it's got very good reviews. Part of me wants the professional grade camera!! The best one I can realistically - as opposed to a $2000+ one- afford!!! but the other part of me is saying, OMG, this will weigh nothing and it will still take fantastic photos, and hellllloooooo, I'm currently using a 10 year old SLR that I'm very happy with so it's going to seem like a huge upgrade from that ANYHOW. AND it's way cheaper!! Do I need to be spending over $1000 right now?? NO. I seriously do not.

I'm not getting one right away, so have plenty of time to consider all the angles. And go find one in person to examine. And if anyone has any suggestions, suggest away.

Current Diversion This is camera-related too, although iPhone Camera related.

The Living Planet photo app. And the ProCam app.

The ProCam is a really nifty app that lets you do all kinds of manual adjustments to your iPhone camera. Which I, ummmm, have not really played with. I've played with the fliters and the effects. And they're lots of fun. Like, Kaleidoscope!!!

Which turns a normal picture (actually this isn't really "normal" - it's yet another fun app called Hipstamatic that does even more fun vintage film effects; yes I've been spending all my time playing with my phone camera apps. Obviously I haven't been spending it decluttering the bedroom):

Into ... a Kaleidoscope!!!

Living Planet and ProCam will turn things into Wormholes, like this picture of Bath which is now a scary wormhole:

Or this picture of a building on campus:

Tiny Planet will turn things into.. a tiny weird planet. This is not a very good example because I just picked it kind of at random- there are all sorts of guidelines on getting a good planet, but this does at least show a not-good example (and I like the weirdness):

Same picture with the Wormhole Effect:

This -- or a similar one, I have a bunch on flickr and one on my phone -- was the original:

Okay, enough for now. I certainly did get sidetracked. What a surprise.