As a Canadian living in Minneapolis, I get to have two Thanksgivings. Two celebrations, and twice the food. I seem to let both of them sneak up on me now. I never seem to know when either of them are. I miss Canadian Thanksgiving because no one in the US other than Canadians think that there could possibly be a day in October when you could celebrate thanksgiving. I miss the US version because as a contractor, I don’t have all the holidays marked out on my calendar (though I should as the office is closed), and it seems way too close to Christmas. I am not the only one who thinks so. Still, I am gratefull for the screaming, whining, crying, stomping and fussing my two little girls do, because it is all part of the package that comes with the hugs, the kisses, the snuggling, the walks holding my hand, the night time stories, and the hilarious things they say. I am thankfull for the two little girls I love very much.

Thought I would give the flock browser a go. It combines access to social networking sites like facebook and flickr with the firefox browser. This is published from the built in blog editor. I think the real power of the built in editor is when it comes to publishing something based on what you found somewhere else on the web, like this picture I just drag and dropped from my flickr account. 

Yesterday Kate went with her mother to the poles, waded through the lines, got a ballot that included pictures of the candidates, and voted in a booth just like her mom. She sounded quite proud of herself. Later at pre-school the whole class voted. She said she voted for Barack twice. Must have been the deal maker. There is a site here for Minnesota. They are supposed to have the results up later today.

A couple of things struck me as interesting. First is that the kids have voted for the president the same as their parents every year that this organization has been doing this. But the real interesting part is that kids do not necessarily vote the same as their parents. This is actually encouraging. I get so tired of the “my father voted for them, my grandfather voted for them, and so I am voting for them” crap. An election is about the candidate. Hopefully kids getting involved early will continue to result in engagement and participation in the future.

I didn’t get to go to Ladakh or Kathmandu, but if I had the money for a photography trip, this is the one I would go on. David took several people on this trip, and I have wanted to create an entry about it, and just never seemed to get around to it. The photographs that have come back from the trip are amazing, but the experiences of being there probably dwarf the images. Some of the picures I took way back when I went with Canada World Youth to Indonesia were pretty good (at least by memory), but it is the people and the experience of being there that you remember for ever. You can look back over the last couple of months on his blog for posts about great scenery, equipment, places, and the people he met, but this recent post finally pushed me to blog. In it he talks about kids that break stones for pennies a day, and other kids that carry piles of slate on their heads down the mountains in flip flops. In it he makes an appeal to think about them and others as we approach Christmas. As we save for gear and hope for camera related presents, it is good to have a reminder that most of the world is MUCH less fortunate than ourselves. This morning on NPR I also heard that food shelves are empty right at a time when more and more people need them. The less fortunate are not just in Kathmandu, but also around the corner. As we start to head into the Christmas season, lets remember to give a little of ourselves, our time, or our wallets this year.

Ok, this post has nothing to do with photography or computers, but I just finished the Twin Cities Marathon in 3:58 to meet my goal time of 4:00. Yea me. Here is my results page. If I was 60, I would have qualified for Boston.

I realize that you get one heck of a lot of reach with the Sigma 150-500mm lens, but would you really want to buy a lens with a minimum of 5.0 aperture? I keep thinking that I want to get lenses that are a constant 2.8, or maybe I could be convinced to get a long lens with something like a constant 4 or so, but 5.0 to 6.3? This lens is reviewed by Pop Photo, if you can call a one page a review. There is not a single negative thing about this lens aparently, and no mention of the aperture restriction. They also tell you that it is compatable with their teleconverters without mentioning that it would further limit the light entering this lens. Not really sure why someone would buy this lens, even less why someone would trust a “review”¬† by Pop Photo.

Digital Review.ca has posted some pictures taken at ISO 1600 and 3200 and even 6400 on the D90. I am impressed. I keep wanting to get around to posting a comparison of shots taken on the D40 at various ISO’s but never seem to get to it. These look very impressive.