w00t! The tripod I ordered from Amazon last week arrived. ^_^ Looks like it's well up to the job - might even be stable enough for the Nikkor as well. And with a hook available for additional ballast, it ought to be able to remain steady on the rooftop as well, which should afford quite a vantage point for some nighttime shots. (It's a flat roof, I should note =:) And I did have the foresight to bring along the remote shutter release, for particularly long exposures, though I doubt I'll need to go over a second, even for ISO 200. (For low light photography, any movement of the camera can wreck the shot. A remote release solves that problem, along with delayed shutter release, so the DSLR mirror goes up a second or so before the shutter's opened - that "mirror slap" results in a slight movement of the camera, unnoticeable at normal daylight shutter speeds, and is responsible for the sound a DSLR makes on taking a shot)

A track I'm very fond of, courtesy of ice_foxx: Pluto Revolts - Closure (redLymb's Devil Chasing Remix), available free from SoundCloud and Pluto Revolt's own site. I think he did particularly well with this one. ^_^

An insightful ponderance on the subject of anthropomorphism, by photographer Clay Bolt, from the perspective of the myriad of tiny socities, and perhaps even individual personalities, down in the insect world.

Have a look at the menu for Tony's Pizza.. with items like:

ROSEMARY, WHITE ROSE POTATO, & CHORIZO
(rustic medium crust) mozzarella, white rose potatoes, rosemary, calabrese peppers, cowgirl creamery’s fromage blanc, lavender sea salt

TRUFFLE
(rustic medium crust)
mozzarella, burrata, cowgirl creamery mt. tam triple cream cheese, wild mushrooms, arugula, parmigiano, shaved truffle from italy

SALSICCIA CON TREVISO
(rustic medium crust) mozzarella, house made honey calabrese sausage, treviso, roasted garlic, caramelized onions, crema di parmigiano

LAMB & EUCALYPTUS
(thin crust) mozzarella, grilled free range lamb, marjoram, eucalyptus, feta

Also consider the range of ovens they use, including a 900F wood fired, 1000F coal fired, and a NY flat-top gas-fired brick oven, with many of the key ingredients imported from Italy, it's perhaps as well I'm on a skeletal budget, else the fact they're just around the corner could be terribly dangerous.

Nonetheless, we cooked at home - as usual - for dinner, starting with a bulb of garlic separated into cloves, a few shiitake sliced medium-thin, half a large onion, a healthily generous sprinkling of herbes de Provence, and two lamb shanks from the butcher up the road, a tiny dash of Szechuan pepper, and half a bottle of Trader Joe's finest $2 Cabernet Sauvignon. Of course, with the six hours of cooking time involved, that wound up being two bottles in all.. but, my gods, what a result! Absolutely incredible. The lamb was joined in a rich chorus of flavors that had all come into perfect harmony, and just enough of a sauce to go with some rice as a side. Good cooking doesn't have to be complex, or expensive. ^_^

Now that's sorely tempting.. Topaz Labs, best known in the photography world for their DeNoise plugin, have a MacWorld offer of all their plugins - normally $401, down to $150.

And the replacement Intuos 3 pen arrived too.. it'll be a while before I can really share anything, but I'll enjoy getting back into drawing. ^_^

Ahh.. yes, there are reasons I feel I belong more in certain locales than others. Wandered out of MacWorld, had a good pint at the 4th St & Mission Grill, then up to the Apple Store to enjoy Jordan Rudess and friends make wondrous musical creations. No photography allowed, which was a bit of a pain, but I suppose that's annoyingly conventional. Still, it was quite an insight into just how rapidly musical creativity's evolving, with conventional keyboards becoming just one of a set of options, and indeed, a staple nonetheless. But when you've got such niftiness as a keytar-ish device with piezo sensors instead of mere switches, the percussion options get confused delightfully - add something like his MorphWiz iPad synth, and it becomes even more wonderful, with no reliance on any extra hardware. So many options exist. ^_^

Erf! Must update Flickr.. although, regrettably, lacking more wildlife imagery as yet. Some quite interesting architectural and industrial shots, though.. maybe the ovens of a local bakery? Quite imposing. (And such deliciously crunchy results..)