999 Years in the future...

Things will be simpler.

It's my birfdae. Also... CONTEST ANSWERS.

Today is my birfdae. I am 28 years old. I ate bbq for lunch and dinner. I also worked until 6pm and had to do more work at 9pm. The only birthday present I got to open was this:

Thanks Mom!

But then we had a crazy party. Things almost got out of hand. Here is a picture of Heather jumping out from behind a couch to yell surprise while all my friends and family sang "For he's a jolly good fellow" and shared in the commemoration of my 28th year of life.

It was a surprise party!

Now here are the answers to the contest! Only 2 people answered, so they both win. But I think Pattie actually got more right. Maurine got no credit for her comment.

1. "In" from "In God We Trust". One Dollar Bill.

2. Decorative border from a five dollar bill.

3. Also a five dollar bill.

4. A Dime.

5. Thomas Jefferson on a recent mint buffalo nickle.

6. Mississippi.

SO... Pattie got 2 answers correct. Allen got 1 answer correct (Andrew Jackson isn't on any coins). What's your prize?... Let's just say I hope you like hot cakes.

More Macro

No contest, just pretty pictures of guns and money.

Wow Greg, those are some incredible photos. How did you do it?

Answer: Used 200mm Minolta Prime lens and a Minolta Bellows III. Total cost of setup was just south of $60.

"Macro"-economics Contest!

I like looking at things very close up, and I've spent all night playing with my new toy:

As you can see it's pretty much a ghetto monstrosity but under the classy homeless person facade is a 200mm Minolta MD Rokkor-X f/4 telephoto lens (that came today in the mail) coupled to a backwards Minolta MD 50mm f/1.7 via a section of Pringles can and two plastic zip ties. The result is some awesome macro capabilities that I've attempted to take advantage of with my limited experience. Naturally one of the most interesting things to look at is money, so I'm going to have a series of contests where the first person to guess the answer to questions about the close up details of money gets a prize. Only your first guess counts. So let's start:

Question 1:

This is easy. Name the bill featured in the photograph:

Question 2:

In my opinion this is slightly more difficult: Which of our nation's currency notes is featured in the photograph?

Question 3:
Same question as above.

Question 4:
From what coin does this picture originate?

Question 5:

Whose nose is this?

Finally, here's a preview of the next challenge: Name the state from which this quarter originates. (This one is painfully easy).

What's the prize? It might involve birthday cake. Or it might not. Answers in the comments section please!

Earrings

I made these earrings out of two turquoise beads and goatskin lace. I tied the lace in a woggle/turks-head knot around the beads then secured the backings with leather cement. These took an absurd amount of time. I will not be making more for the foreseeable future.

Now, how about some macro pics. These are pretty low quality but I've got some equipment in the mail that ought to make for some sweet macro photos!

The edge of a sharp knife

 An old school can opener

Old .22 bullet

Woggle knot detail 

Earring macro

20 years later... Still the same old G.

...ain't too much changed.
...and I still got love for the game.

New Camera, various items.

In order of appearance: 

My leather laptop bag, that I made. 

A close up of the fastening mechanism employed on the bag: A perfection loop that wraps around a monkey's paw knot.

My Spyderco Dragonfly 2 pocket knife with a zdp-189 stainless steel blade that refuses to get dull no matter what I do to it (Like carve the walnut pistol grip seen on my ak in previous posts).

Finally me sans beard. I had a nice 2 month beard only 3 days prior. Don't worry, it'll be back. That is my "I just bought a camera without telling anyone" look.

Here are two pictures from my phone for comparison:

Alice and me during an Elders Quorum Meeting. (Check out the facial hair, my face is so cold now...)

This is the new camera in all it's glory. It was a floor model I bought from best buy for nearly half retail price.