Well, we finally bit the bullet and got ourselves a more than decent camera. Ever since the birth of our son, we've been scheming/plotting/saving to get a DSLR. He's only going to be a baby once, so we figure we owe it to him to document his early days utilizing the best 21st century tech we can vaguely afford to get our hands on.

We had a very nice Leica camera my Dad lent us, but we've learned one very valuable lesson with cameras and kids: speed is everything. Most non-SLR cameras simply aren't fast enough for little tykes, and the older they get, the faster they get.

Meaning: he's doing something cute that you want to document,  so you grab the camera and press the shutter. It better fire off a picture that exact instant. A second on the shutter, two seconds, three seconds, six seconds… no picture and he's not only not doing the cute thing anymore, he's gone. Toddled onward to something else. You missed it.

For the past three months or so since Leo's been more mobile, for every one cool moment we've managed to capture of him, there were 4 or more we missed. As he gets more and more mobile, that ratio can only get worse. Life's too short, man!

A good DSLR with a fast lens not only won't take 7 crucial seconds to take a photo, it'll take more than 7 photos in a single second. Now that's more like it!

We looked at several models, narrowed it to a choice between Nikon (D5100?) and Canon, and finally decided we're more Canon folks than Nikon. (We've had a couple nice point and shoots from Canon that served us well.) So after a bit of research, we decided on the Canon T3i body. 

The body is important, and I love the T3i, but a good lens is everything. Put a crappy lens on a good body=crappy photos. Put a decent lens on even a crappy body: you can still get good results. Probably like every shutterbug that's ever lived, it soon hits you: it's all about the glass. And it's lifelong: there's always better glass.

And so off we go. Always on the lookout for something that meets every qualification: wide open f stop, quality optics, lots of blades, and perhaps the most important thing: we can actually afford it since if it's really all that, it'll cost five, six, seven times what the camera body did. Put it this way, if the camera body and a good lens were about to go over a cliff and you could only grab one: you'd grab the lens. That's the kind of lens I'd love to have. Of course, I likely never will. 

So for now, (and far into the  foreseeable future or so) the type of lens mere mortals can afford is what we'll be using. So far, I'm in love with the 50mm 1.8 prime we got. I don't care for zooms much. I can tell I like primes.

Another thing I was happy to discover is the M42 mount. This lets you screw-mount old film camera lenses on a DSLR body. I picked up a 1960's vintage Pentax 55m lens from the Pasadena camera show for $25. The same lens would have cost $400+ in Canon EOS form. Older lenses are not only solidly built, but the optics are often stellar (ditto the blades) and you can get extreme wide f-stops like 1/4 and even 1/2. Some friends of mine at work have camera lenses from the 1940's and 50's they use on their modern DSLR cameras. I've seen some amazing results with them.

There are even some people that use 100 year old lenses on modern cameras! Great optical technology is far older than I would have guessed. I'm intrigued by the whole concept. Of course, the main compromise with using all older lenses is it's strictly manual, no auto-focus. But then, as the pros chide us mere noobs: who in their right mind buys a decent SLR to use it in auto mode anyway?

We went with our son to a New Year's Eve party at the home of our friends Marcus, Kristi, and Jonathan. We only stayed up to see the New Year in the central time zone… we were home in bed by the time it was 2012 in California. 

Our New Year resolutions this year? The same as every year: don't make New Year resolutions!

Last year, Leila and I went for a Christmas trip to Long Barn, CA. This year, we went on a similar trip, this time in nearby Strawberry, CA. Just like last year, our friends Irene and Tofique -and their three kids Evelyn, Erik and Emil- invited us up to share a cabin they rented, along with our mutual friends Kristi and Kalmer. 

Leila went to grade school with Irene and Kristi- they've known each other over 30 years, since first grade! We all got together in Los Angeles back in June, 2005 when Irene and Tofique's daughter was very little.

Leila and I took Leo for a stroll around Pinecrest Lake- this time of year it was mostly empty and what little water remained was partially frozen over. 

Enjoying nature next to the Stanislaus River in Strawberry, CA. 

On a forest hike with Leo.

Pop and Leo relax back in the warm cabin. 

At the Strawberry Store, complete with a statue of Bigfoot. I was hoping we might catch a glimpse of the real thing. It's said there have been many sightings in this part of the Sierra Nevadas- but no such luck for us. Or could it be that not encountering Bigfoot is actually a good thing?

The kids got to enjoy a second Christmas during the evening as we were fortunate to find a small Christmas tree, and everyone put presents they had brought under it. Having had a blast opening his gifts that morning at our house, Leo was stoked to have a go at it again.

We all piled into our cars and struck out for the Sonoma Pass- the 2nd highest elevation of the Sierra Nevadas at 9600 ft above sea level. Here, Tofique, me and Kalmer pose at a look off beside the road at a mere 8900 ft.

Leo- in his winter gear- enjoys his very first meeting with snow.

Later, he got his very first experience on ice, at the edge of a frozen pond high in the mountains.

With Pop- venturing out onto the ice.

Everyone poses for a group photo: Leila, Leo, Me, Evelyn, Erik, Tofique, Emil, Irene, Karina, Liisa and Kalmer. Missing is Kristi, who took the photo. 

Leo, Leila and I are hitting the road bright and early tomorrow morning (Christmas Day). We plan to spend our Christmas holidays with good friends in a cabin way up in the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the small hamlet of Strawberry, California. 

Wishing all our family and friends a very Merry Christmas!

Once again we're at Pershing Square in Los Angeles for Christmas Eve.  This year the first with our baby son, Leo. Joining us, our friends Kristi and Kalmer and their daughters.

Or should I wait to get excited for Green Wednesday? Orange Thursday?

Ugh. We get it already, retailers want us to shop, and every single day from here on is a new 'color-event' day. Black Friday coming right after Thanksgiving was one thing, but now it's devolved to an every.freaking.day thing all the way to Christmas Eve. No, I take that back, right after New Years it'll start back up again with all the 'color-event' sales for everyone that didn't get what they wanted for Christmas. 

I can understand there might really be unheard of deals during an event that happens once a year and you had to wait in line since 4am before the store opened to get it. But how could these possibly be unheard of deals every.stinking.day? THEY AREN'T!

Someone told me today, breathlessly, how they got a 'Cyber Monday' (seriously??) deal on a 42" LED HDTV for a mere $699. I congratulated them and kept it to myself that 42" LED HDTVs of the same class generally run from $550 to $800. Paying $700 for one isn't a rip-off, but it's nothing you couldn't find during the colorless days of the year. 

Granted, Leila and I stood in line for a few festive hours during 'Grey Thursday', 2006. It was a lot of fun. If my Dad happens to read this- one of the 160GB hard drives I nabbed for $20 back then is hopefully still spinning away happily in your computer. 

I saw a related image today pointing out a very funny irony. Camp out in front of businesses as part of a political protest and cops are likely to show up, club you in the head, pepper spray you, and drag you off to jail. Camp out in front a business the day before 'Brown Tuesday' and it's "Welcome, brother! The more the merrier!"

Here’s the product, both in raw form and packaged for the mules to strap to their bodies…

Okay, it’s really just gingerbread made fresh in our kitchen by Leila and Katre, but its funny how it resembles a whole other type of enterprise.

In the latest chapter of the ongoing "Great Storage Conundrum", recently flooding in Thailand has literally crippled the world supply of hard drive storage. The largest manufacturers of hard drives operate in Thailand: Seagate, Western Digital and Toshiba.

Looked at drive prices recently?

If you can get a 1TB hard drive these days for less than $140-$150 bucks, do so. Consider that just two months ago, one could be had for a third of those prices.

The supply chain isn't expected to catch up until early next year, so more than ever, alternate backup is crucial.

I recommend singing up for an account on all forms of online storage. Currently, one can sign up for:

1. Dropbox – 2GB of storage free, accessible from your PC/Mac, iOS or Android device.

2. Sugarsync – 5GB storage free, accessible from your PC/Mac, iOS or Android device.

3. 4 Shared – 10GB storage free, accessible from your PC/Mac, iOS or Android device.

4. Box.com- If you're an iOS user (iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch) you can sign up for 50GB of free storage that's then accessible from anywhere. Granted, the online-only interface isn't great, but 50GB for free is silly to pass up.

5. Use online photo sites like snapfish.com, shutterfly.com, smugmug.com, etc. to not only print your digital photos, but store them securely online as well.

6. Use lulu.com and blurb.com to print hard copy of your important documents and photos.

7. Utilize cheap local storage options like USB flash drives to back up your most invaluable documents. Up to around 32GB, count on roughly $1 /GB, though prices vary either way.

8. Luckily DVD media is still very cheap and hard to beat. 4.2GB of storage per DVD for literally pennies. The downside is the time it takes to burn DVD media, and space requirements to store and catalog it.

Don't rely on just one backup for your most important photos and documents, use multiple online and local storage options. Above all, don't count on easily replacing your current hard drive(s) until mid-2012 without paying a small fortune.

It's been great having Leila's sister Katre and our niece Kadri visiting us from Estonia. Today, Leila, Katre and the kids went to Santa Monica and the Third Street Promenade. 

As it happened, the Estonia vs. Ireland soccer match was on TV at the local English Pub. No word if these two would have been carded or not. 

Leila and I are so excited that Leila's sister Katre will be coming to visit us starting tomorrow, bringing with her our little niece (and Leo's cousin) Kadri!

While Katre and Kadri are here, Leo will be in our room. On Sunday evening,  Leila and I moved his crib into our room and then rearranged Leo's room as the guest room. (His crib just barely wouldn't fit out the door of his room and into the hallway, so we had to take it apart to move it.)

We should be picking up Katre and Kadri at the airport tomorrow. We're both looking forward to having them here. It's been quite a few years since Katre last visited us with Artur and Iti Mina. (I think it was 2005).