Continuing my new series “Amatuer Learns Aperture” about going outside in New York City to take a million test photos as I learn how to use my camera!
In this post:
I am having a rough time because my cell phone photos still come out better than my camera photos.
Here is the cute doggo that greets barks at you when you ring the bell to enter the building for photography class.
Welcome to part one of a new series, where I write about leaving my New York City apartment to venture outside and learn how to use my camera. I almost titled this “Bites and Sights NYC” as I will indeed be visiting some New York City attractions and sharing photos of cute restaurants, so the name fits. But I liked the idea of maybe working the amateur photography in the title so the intent here is clear.
My brainstorming session went like this:
Me: New camera, who dis?
Me: No
Me: Learning ISO taking photos like whoa?
Me: NO
Me: F-Can’t Stop, F-Won’t Stop?
Me: SHUT UP
Me: Photography school, shooting things that are cool?
Me: STOP TALKING
Me: What about Amateur Learns Aperture?
Me: WHY WON’T YOU…Wait. that’s not so terrible.
I am doubling down by also attempting to improve my mental health by not wearing pajamas in public while doing these things. This is increasing the amount of laundry I have to do, which is a downside. Continue reading
Jaipur has been wonderful. Last night I had the deepest sleep I have gotten since arriving in India. Hated myself when my alarm went off for me to get up after 5 hours to go sightseeing. I did this to myself.
I had booked a tuk tuk driver to take me around. I did not want to go anywhere that involved 398743 steps like this:
But I did want to see steps like this! Panna Meena ka Kund stepwell.
Continue reading
Las Vegas trip report day 6.
I slept HORRIBLY last night and could not get out of bed this morning. I missed my opportunity to walk all the way to Starbucks before work and ended up at The Roasted Bean, which I never knew existed.
Me: 2 large iced coffees please!
Her: We don’t have iced coffee
Me: What the fuck?!
Other Her: We have cold brew
Me: 2 large cold brews please!
I was having such a nicotine fit because I didn’t smoke before coffee. Had I not been saved by the cold brew, who knows what would have happened to me.
Lost $100 in Dancing Drums. I really need to stop playing this here.
Las Vegas trip report day 4!
I woke up just before 8:00 and showered and finished packing. My plans this morning are:
Play $100 at Four Queens
Collect my free play from the June promotion and my cash back
Go to The D and play $100 on Dancing Drums
How did it go?
Well I lost $100 in the Four Queens. Collected my $31 cash back and $120 free play. Lost the $120 on dollar video poker. Had to try one last time.
Cashed out my freeplay and found a penny on heads. Into the bra you go.
Over to The D where I was on my third hundred dollar bill when thanksfully, this saved me.
I cashed out and got another penny to put in my bra. Grabbed a McMuffin from McDonalds and went back to the room.
I am checking into to Treasure Island today for 3 nights. I had to pay $60 for the third night, which is fine by me. Makes it easier with working. Also note, I am double booked for three nights at Mirage as well. That comes with $60 free play and $100 resort credit, which will cover my meals. I would have booked just Mirage, but when working from Vegas, I really like having a smoking room so I am not vanishing during work to head down to the casino to smoke while working. I feel like that is crossing an extremely degenerate line.
Somehow I have never posted about my journey through Tibet to see Mount Everest. I did post about my 24 hour train ride to Lhasa, which you can find HERE. But never anything else about my trip, not even about seeing Mount Everest with my own eyes.
I always think this has something to do with me deleting everything I typed up in Lhasa, once I got down to sea level. The altitude in Lhasa is 11,995 feet. When I read what I had written, it seemed to day dreamy and I felt embarrassed so I deleted all of it. I wish I had not done that.
I also have no idea where to start. This was the most epic trip I have ever taken. How do you condense that into a blog post?
If you are familiar with my blog, I tend to write more diary style than travel blogger style. I don’t include history of the places I have visited. Honestly, I learn about most of the history by reading other travel blogs. It feels like cheating to just regurgitate everything on my own blog.
But I would be remiss to not encourage you to read out more about Tibet being oppresed by China.
Here is a thing about the Tibetan Autonomous Region. It is a weird place. You cannot go alone if you are a foreigner. You cannot put “Tibet” as a place you are traveling to when applying for a China visa or else it will be automatically denied.
You absolutely must not have any photos of the Dalai Lama on you. You should walk around sacred places in a clockwise fashion. You will be asked by your guide to please don’t take off and go out on your own, or vanish on your last day, assuming you can stay and get around by yourself. Your guide is responsible for you. If you do anything wrong, they get fined.
Welcome to part 5 of this Las Vegas trip report! If you are lost and want to start at the beginning, go HERE.
Day 5 in Las Vegas. More importantly, day OFF in Las Vegas. No work for me! I am up at 8:30 and a happy to be free.
I slowly go about getting ready. I am starving but I am out of reward credits. I don’t want to pay for food so I just get iced coffee to hold me over until I move Downtown today.
I put 5 $100 bills in Buffalo and leave with $500.
Remember that time there was a worldwide pandemic that put a halt on all travel? I do.
Sigh.
I spent a lot of the pandemic traveling to Las Vegas. But then I got sick of that. So I booked a month long trip on Amtrak. Guess what? That was an insanely expensive reminder that the world is so much cheaper when you are outside America. So I booked a flight to leave America. For ten weeks. And then sat back and waited to leave.
I had great plans for this trip. I was going to be working remotely, but still had time to see things during the day and on weekends. I purposely picked countries that were not too overwhelming with things to do and see. Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia and then ending in Turkey. I want to see all of Turkey but also thought this would be a great time to cross just Mount Nemrut off the list.
I was going to blog nonstop. Every day. Okay not every day. But weekly. Multiple times a week! I was going to be very conscious of the things I post on my personal Facebook page. Should I be posting this here, or on my blog, where people follow it because they want to read about your travels? Blog it is! Continue reading
If you are familiar with my blog, you may already know that every trip I take, has a bad day. It has yet to be anything tragic. I haven’t been assaulated, robbed, physically damaged, or anything like that. There just always seems to be a full day where every single annoying, not tragic, simply annoying, thing will happen to me. Well dear readers, yesterday AND today were those days.
I am on week six (?) of a ten week trip so I guess I was overdue.
Last night, I boarded an overnight train from Tbilisi, Georgia to Yerevan, Armenia. There are 2 beds per room. I was hoping for my own room. I tried to buy 2 tickets to have my own room, I was told no.
I board and so far, so good. Own room. But then in the room next to me, a couple is standing in the doorway, berating a man for sitting on one of their beds. I ask him if he is in seat #6, in my cabin. He starts to move his stuff but shows me his ticket which clearly states he belongs in the cabin the couple just kicked him out of.
The train attendant comes over and checks everyone’s tickets. The couple does not belong in this cabin, they don’t even belong in this car. This car #3 for sleeper tickets. They have row 3 seats in car #4. They do not like this and begin insisting they bought sleeper seats, which their tickets do not show.
The guy though, is a nice guy and says that he can move if they want the beds and THE TRAIN ATTENDANT LETS THEM STAY. And now I have a roommate that I don’t want.
Yet another “last day I am going home today waaaaaahhhhhhh” day in Las Vegas.
I wake up at Cosmopolitan at 7:00 AM. I am supposed to go back to Luxor for my massage but I don’t want to. I don’t. I don’t want to, can’t make me. I call and cancel and tell them they can charge it to my room since I have resort credit to cover it. They seemed to feel bad for me that their policy is to charge for it if you are a no show. It is fiiiiiiiine, just charge it. Let me off the phone. Bye bye.
I decided to walk through the casino to get to Starbucks rather than through the 3894873 mile walkway from the Chelsea Tower. I played along the way, losing money.
Armed with coffee, I head back to MY Ultimate X video poker machine. What a run I had.
