A new thing I learned about myself today

Namely, that I am NOT allergic to bee stings.

What happened: I was walking around at about 12:30 PM after eating my lunch, when I felt something odd on my right arm just below my shirt's short sleeve. Without thinking I swatted at with my left hand. Next thing I knew I heard a very brief buzzing sound, then OW!

A very sharp pain right at the spot I had felt the apparent bee. OW, OW, OW, OW!

I looked at the site and saw what I am assuming was the stinger. After fumbling at it a couple times I managed to get it out.

Went inside and did some web searches about bee stings. The results indicated if one is going to have an allergic reaction to a sting, it would be obvious within about 15 to 30 minutes.

Over an hour later the redness that was initially occurring had faded away, and the only real effect I was still feeling was some throbbing from the site. And a couple hours after that, even the throbbing was all gone. So, that's a relief.

To best of my recollection this is the first time I've ever been stung by a bee or any other insect. But I am certainly not going to be forgetting it!

Photographic honor

Each year at the San Diego County Fair, a juried Exhibition of Photography is held.

I decided last year to submit to this year's Exhibit a photo I had taken. Here's the story behind it:

It will be easy for me to remember the date I took it because it happened to be September 11 of 2007. After getting home from work I went out for an exercise walk, and as I try to do whenever I take such walks, took my camera with me.

So, as I was walking along my peripheral vision picked up something that registered on me as being unusual. I stopped and looked, and there was what I initially assumed was an orchid just laying on the concrete next a bunch of dead leaves that had been dropped by nearby trees. (I later learned the flower was actually a Stargazer lily.)

I immediately saw the photographic possibilities and took several exposures, the one in the link being the best of them.

At roughly that time in 2007, members of the digital imaging forum at the site I placed the photo on were firing up a project to create and sell photo calendars to benefit the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

The plan for the project was to create four calendars with different themes. As one of those themes was flowers, I submitted this photo for consideration, and was very pleased when it was included as the October image for the flowers calendar.

This reinforced my thinking that I was going to submit the photo to the 2008 San Diego County Fair Photo Exhibit.

Now, a big factor about this Exhibit is many more photos are always entered than there is space to display. So, I was very excited when mine was accepted for display in the Exhibit.

As I noted earlier, this is a juried exhibit, so there are prizes in each category, plus honorable mentions at the discretion of the judges. My photo did not receive anything beyond the inclusion in the Exhibit, but as already noted I am thrilled that it was selected for inclusion in the Exhibit.

License Plate Watch 36

Seen today on a Pontiac Grand Am, a California Arts license plate that said "7 WINK".

I can only assume that has a personal meaning.

Too true

Must admit I can really sympathize with this:


more cat pictures

Comic-Con 2008 approaches

Image by boooooooorbs via Flickr

As a follow-up to this post, and my comments in it that an option for three-day registrations would be available for the 2008 edition of San Diego Comic-Con: WRONG.

I have no idea if I misinterpreted what was written in the booklet I mentioned in the earlier post, or if there was a change in policy, but turns out three-day registrations are not being offered for this year after all. Which I think is unfortunate.

Due to various factors I won't get into here, up until recently I had thought I wasn't going to have enough free time to attend more than one day this year, but circumstances shifted. So:

• I bought a four-day membership.
• Will plan on trying to get most of my shopping done during preview night.
• Will skip going Saturday.
• And will try to plan out in advance what panels and events to go to Thursday, Friday, and Sunday.
• On top of all that I've reserved a vacation day for the Monday after to help ensure I've recovered from it all before going back to my job.