Tripodious Maximus

Hello Boxing Day sales, and helloooooo new tripod!

I've been looking for a tripod for a while, but haven't been sure about what features I needed and what price I was willing to pay.  But when I went shopping today I found this one at a good price, it's the height that I want it (which is my eye level!) and is easy to use and adjustable.  It even came with a carry bag!  Excitement.  I decided it needed a name and have thus dubbed it Tripodious Maximus.  Welcome aboard to the Maz Photography team!

Why do I need a tripod you ask?  I guess the main reason is night shots - when you need to take a photo without the flash and with a longer exposure and you need the camera to be perfectly still.   There have been many times when I have spotted the perfect photo opportunity, only to have been unable to capture it properly.  So I'm looking forward to lots of good times with the tripod.  Keep an eye on my photography blog to see the developments.

Merry Christmas

I was pretty excited about finding this Christmas tree for $2.50 at Spotlight :D I just wanted something small, but I had to have a Christmas tree!

Although Christmas did come pretty quickly as always (sorry for all who missed out on a Christmas card!), I did manage to feel the Christmas spirit quite a lot this year through a very simple means: music!  I have two concerts on DVD which I listened to (and sometimes watched) over and over, as well as the soundtrack for one of those concerts.  They're both Christmas with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir and Orchestra at Temple Square with guest performers Sissel, and Brian Mitchell Stokes and Edward K. Herrman respectively.

I think it was a good, solid two weeks leading up to Christmas that I pretty much listened to Christmas music only and it really helped me to focus on the joy of the season and the spirit of rejoicing in the Saviour's birth.

Another thing that helped me to focus on the true meaning of Christmas was some opportunities I had to give service.  Nothing huge, just a few little opportunities that reminded me that the reason we give at Christmas time is to celebrate the birth of Jesus.  I thought about why I was doing it, and if someone had asked I would have smiled and shrugged and said "Because the Saviour was born!" and that really was it.  God's gift to us of His Son inspires the giving spirit in us.  

You can read about some of my family Christmas traditions in my post on Jess's blog, which we were true to once again this year.

And here's the traditional prawn cocktail I was talking about with my aunt's AMAZING home-made dressing :D Even better than I remember.

Hoping you all had a joyful and meaningful Christmas this year :)

If I were a recipe, what would I be?

At my work recently for our yearbook we were each asked to come up with a personal "recipe" for ourselves, for which at first I had no idea what to write.  But weeks later, inspiration finally struck me.  They didn't end up including them in the yearbook, but here is mine for your reading pleasure...

Ingredients:
3 cups of nice
a pinch of feisty
1/2 cup of procrastination
a handful of optimism
a dash of perfectionism
3 teaspoons of creativity

Directions:
Mix all ingredients together carefully, ensuring all measurements are exact, and leave in the sun until warm.


And voila!  You have me!

What's your personal recipe?

Practise makes perfect...or does it?

It seems I have this strange ability to get better at my talents by not practising for a long time!  Take piano for example.  I would practise and practise and make only minimal progress and improvement, but after a few months of not playing a song I would sit down at the piano and suddenly play it better than ever!  So it also seems with juggling.  It was many months ago that I started teaching myself to juggle, close to a year ago even.  It took a lot of practise to get anywhere, but slowly, slowly the number of consecutive catches increased.  I think my absolute highest record may have been 18.  Well here I am a long time later without even touching the juggling balls.  I get back from the beach one afternoon, and with three tennis balls in my hands I think to myself "I wonder..."  And voila!  I can suddenly juggle!  I didn't count how many I caught as I wasn't expecting such success, I couldn't believe that I just kept going!  But my rough estimate is about 30.  Just like that!  Weird.