Aggie freshman Johnny Manziel wins Heisman, and My Life This Week

BREAKING NEWS!: Fightin’ Texas Aggie Quarterback Johnny “Heismanziel” Manziel, aka. “Johnny Football” wins the Heisman Trophy with 474 first-place votes (2,029 votes overall, to win, place, or show) becoming the first freshman to ever win college football’s most prestigious award!  The runner-up Manti Te’o was a distant second, receiving 321 first-place votes (1,706 overall).  This is awesome and very well-earned!  Congratulations Johnny and to the 2012 Fightin’ Texas Aggie Football Team on an inspiring and successful 10-2 season. Now, let’s BTHO O.U. in the Cotton Bowl!

In local news, In a moment of profligate insanity, I broke down and ordered used versions of BOTH lenses I wanted for Christmas (the SMC Pentax 21mm f3.2 AL Limited AND the SMC Pentax FA 50mm f1.4)!  It was a real struggle for me as to which one to get for Christmas and which one to wait until later, but then when I was about to order the 21mm, another one popped up on Amazon for $40 less, then, later, on a lark, I pulled up the 50mm on Amazon and another one of them had also shown up for about $50 less as well, so I then, being on a roll, ordered it too.  Keep in mind that I had been following both on Amazon for quite some time and this was indeed the best bargain I’d seen.  So, Merry Christmas to me, Merry Christmas to me! LOL  That should be all the lenses I am interested in purchasing for the foreseeable future.  I had really wanted these last two. The 200mm is very attractive because of it’s small size and pocketability.  My other pancake, the 40mm now practically lives on my camera.  I go out on shoots with it at the ready, but each time I have, I’ve found myself carrying my 18-55mm kit zoom around or else so wishing for a wider angle when I’m unable to back up far enough to shoot something important.  My bag usually remains parked in my car during street shoots and I’ve found that carrying the 18-55mm is a huge pain in the rear and I so wish I could put it in my pocket when the 40mm is on the camera.  This solves this inconvenience and now makes it possible to shoot nearly everything with one pancake on the camera and the other in my pocket and both hands now free and no bag to lug around!  Only occasionally will I need either the fish-eye, the macro, or the long zoom for planned, specialized shots, so they will stay in my bag as they have been all along. The 50mm is (almost) equally alluring due to being less expensive and actually gives me a hereto non-existent capability of shooting very tight focal-range and low-light shots with it’s very wide f1.4 aperture.  My 40mm and macro will do f2.8, but this adds a whole new dimension to my photography by allowing for shooting with one-fourth the light as those on those rare occasions when needed!  I also ordered a hood for it, since everything I’ve read indicates that a hood is necessary for this lens to get sharp photos wide open. I went to a work-sponsored Christmas party Saturday night and had a great time with some co-workers I hardly every see in person.  They provided a delicious four-course meal, including a generous helping of fillet mignon and red wine for us at the Gaylord Texan.  Getting there was a struggle with the massive road-construction between here and there, but fortunately for me they were late and slow getting started.
Cover	I also sorted through all the photos I took this last year and selected photos for, assembled, and printed my second annual photo calendar this week.  I selected what I felt was the best and most interesting photo taken each month along with an attractive cover photo and created and ordered my calendar on-line through Walgreens, same as last year.  Walgreens had them “ready” for pickup at their store within two hours of my finishing and submitting my order, but when I called to ask if they were ready, they said they were, but when I drove down to pick them up, they found out that only two were bound and no one in the store at that moment knew how to work the binding machine.  This meant that I had to come again and pick them up the next day.  At least, they gave me the employee discount, which more than paid for my gas.
“After the Rain” (January)	“A Ride through Downtown Cowtown” (February)	“Faded Dreams” (March)
“Bonnets and Brushes” (April)	“Eclipsed Sunset” (May)	“June Abloom” (June)
“Enchanted Field of Dreams” (July)	“Late Summer Sunset” (August)	“Autumn False Thistle” (September)
“She’ll be Coming Soon!” (October)	“She’s Here! BNSF Steam Engine 844 in Grandview, Texas” (November)	“Merry Christmas! to you from all of us in Turnerville” (December)

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