Heart of Fire

Monday brought many things including a lack of a decent blip at first. I spent my first hour at work in the fitness center heaving around a comically large 32kg kettlebell. That would have made a nice subject because it looks like something out of a Popeye cartoon. But alas I keep my phone in my locker and quietly forgot all about it.

I considered the view out the windows behind my desk, but it looked grey and sterile to me this day in February. Then I thought about using my "Fast Camera" app on my phone to get a self portrait while spinning on my office chair. Pretty cool effect because the background blurs while the foreground is sharp. Ehh, not feeling like self-portraiture today.

This does bring up the fact that I no longer own a working camera other than my phone and iPad. High resolution, yes, but digital zoom? Yuck. You can do some fun things with the phone and it's always handy, but I think our eyes are fatigued from seeing iPhone photos for so many years. It's time for me to get back to a dedicated camera.

A little research brought me to the Nikon S6600 compact with a flip-out screen. I'm not the sort to carry around a bulky SLR nor will I buy something expensive so it can sit around in my closet. The S6600 is cheap and functional (like me) so I ordered it and even splurged ($4) on overnight shipping via Amazon Prime. It should arrive in time for band rehearsal tomorrow night which is a wealth of interesting subjects.

While driving home from work, I tried to use the Fast Camera to grab the setting sun through the trees. It would have worked great except the iPhone decided that the crusty salt and road grime on my car window was more worthy of focus than the landscape. Sigh. So much for me to learn.

Finally, my blip is the center of the action in my fireplace this evening. I whipped up a quick fire after dinner and realized how lovely the flames and glowing embers are at the furiously hot center of it all. It looks to me a bit like a glowing heart, hence my title. Of course, I immediately started singing the Earth, Wind, and Fire song in my head. Hopefully you will too.