Sad video: Children with Diabetes

I stumbled upon this video this morning accidentally, and I admit it cut me pretty deep. Yeah, Diabetes can be a pain in the ass for me, but I've only had to put up with it for 1 year, as an adult. I cannot imagine how hard it is for the children out there who have to do finger pricks ~4 times a day, who have to take shots with every meal, and have an A1c done every 3 months. It's bad enough for a grown man, but for a child to have to bear that... it breaks my heart.

Watch the video, but only if you have some Kleenex nearby and you don't mind having puffy read eyes and nose for a while.

New photographic endevors

With turn from winter to spring and summer, my interest in photography has sprung back to normal. How can you not want to take pictures when the world is so bright and colorful? Snow just seems to kill it for me.

10-22mm Test 2

First, I became obsessed over a Canon 10-22mm wide-angle lens. I took a few test shots with one at Best Buy, but haven't purchased one yet.

I really like the way it creates leading lines, and you can do some pretty creative things with a close-up subject too.

I've also been thinking about trying to get into real-estate photography for some extra income. A wide lens would be very helpful.

However, my interest in a new lens went to the backburner again after I started reading strobist.blogspot.com. It's a site full of information on using off-camera lighting. "LESS GEAR • MORE BRAIN • BETTER LIGHT" is their motto. And so after reading everything on the site, I purchased a starter kit.

I have been loving it.

IMG_0164

There are too many pictures to post here, so check my recent flickr posts to see just how much I have been enjoying the flash. I've even had a few people ask me to take portraits and/or engagement photos of them.

From March til Now

Health Insurance + Diabetes
Ever since I was diagnosed with Diabetes (almost a year ago), I have been fighting with Anthem to get them to pay for such things as blood-glucose test strips (Anywhere from $.50 to $.86 apiece, 4-6 strips a day), and my initial education from the hospital on how to dose insulin/etc.

After calling them every week for about 10 months, they finally conceeded that Diabetes was NOT pre-existing, and so they will "cover" all my expenses.

What they didn't mention is that by "cover" they really meant "apply to deductible." So in the end, the fight was for jack shit. They owe me $0, it seems.

Erin moved in
On July 1, Erin moved out of her old apartment and into mine. The transition was subtle; she had already been spending all but a couple nights a week at my place. We just moved her computer and her clothes over, and bought a new dresser.

It's been great so far :)

That seems like about it, for big events.

Back at it

As it turns out, I suck at blogging. I figure, the people in my life like friends & family already know what is going on in my life, and does the world really need one more guy writing about his Exciting Thursday? I never could get the hang of Thursdays anyway.

But then from time to time something happens that really would make a good blog entry. I suppose I should write a few posts filling the world in on what's been goin on since March 22nd (my last post). ....