J. Jason Lazarus Blog

It’s been a while since I updated the non-blog side of this site - so it’s way overdue that I finally announce that I have. There’s a pretty decent amount of new material on the site, as I’ve gotten rid of a lot that doesn’t truly apply to me anymore (mostly collegesque stuff). I have made it more.. personalized - at least that’s what I think.

Gaming - I’ve got a whole page now dedicated to all my video game systems and their games. I’ve been toying with the idea of doing a weekly blog on the “worst games ever” - showcasing one game a week that’s just too painful to waste your time playing anymore - no matter how fond you may have been of it back in the day. Either way, I seriously doubt I’ll start that anytime soon - as with anything on this site, it takes forever to get an update going.

Cameras - I’ve started a page to showcase all my different cameras that I’ve got, my challenges with each of them and some examples of work from the more oddball ones. Limited info here for the time being as I continue to work on it - God knows I’ve got a ton of cameras. Let’s hope I keep this one updated.

Movies - in years past, I’ve tried to keep a slice of my site dedicated to movie reviews and each time that I have, I’ve failed miserably. It’s far too much dedication to do anything to the site, no matter how easy logging into the database may be to add an entry. I just never, never updated the thing. Recently I’ve had quite a few of my friends mention how impressive my collection of movies are - calling me a literal “Blockbuster” of home rental stores. That being said, I usually get people “renting” movies from me. Without the needed business license, late fees, and calls to creditors to keep friends vigilant on returning loaned movies, I’ve had to rely on scraps of paper and my own failing memory to remind me that - hey - so-in-so has that movie. And then, I found Delicious Library. Odd name for a solution, but it is probably the best cataloging system for home collections I’ve ever seen. With built-in functions including iSight and webcam ISBN/UPC scanning, data extraction from Amazon.com, Borrower’s Lists inputted from iCal and Address Book complete with due date reminders - what could you ask for that you’re not getting here? Input Books, Cd’s, Video Games and Movies and have a catalog for all! Never lose a movie again! It’s the best $40 I’ve ever spent - the only downside is that it is Mac Only - and that it doesn’t allow a html export of the entire album. After getting all my movies in the catalog, I’ll admit, I did want to show it off online - and found the ability lacking. Finally, yesterday I found Deliciweb - which takes your Delicious Library database and puts it into a pretty snazzy HTML website. Right now I’ve got the images a bit too big so the site is a bit slow, but I’m hoping to have that fixed by the weekend. All of this, between Delicious Library and Deliciweb, is pretty much completely automated - two hours in front of the computer scanning barcodes got my catalog completely fleshed out. I’m hoping in the following months to go ahead and expand it to CD’s and Books - not to mention, the collection of over 320 movies I’ve got in it now ONLY covers my DVD’s - add a couple hundred more probably for Laserdiscs and VHS. Yes, I do have quite a few Laserdiscs.

Anyways, enjoy the update - if my Deliciweb Catalog is too big at the moment for your slow connection, come back in a few days.

So - our trip to the OB today was really good for us - put some concerns to rest and, to top it all off, we managed to hear the baby’s heart beat! Deanna’s now going into her fourth month and everything seems fine so far - and the heartbeat just helped us along - gave us a little less to worry about.
That being said, through the use of *modern technology* we recorded the heartbeat on my Mac. I swear, I’m really starting to understand how awesome the prepackaged software is with Macs - as I’ve been using quite a bit of it to edit video and capture audio these last few weeks. Although it is a bit crackily, here’s the Baby’s Heartbeat (mp3 format)!

Last weekend we were finally able to get out of town for a weekend where it didn’t involve photography or SCA or a crazy trip to Anchorage. Although we didn’t get far - only about 20 miles out of town - it was well worth it. The physical distance from any number of distractions was nice and even though we managed to go out into the woods and bring distractions with us, it was still worth it just to focus, center ourselves and zen.
Yes, we did bring both the Gameboy Micro and Nintendo DS and yes, I progressed over three and a half hours in Final Fantasy II and Deanna apparently got quite far in Rune Factory. Even so, we still did quite a bit of reading, spending time together, walking around as well as roasting hot dogs, cursing a pavilion we had issues erecting and making smores. Deanna made one of the best campside breakfasts that I have ever had. What was a bit depressing is that we both realized that this summer has truly slipped away from us and that it is August - and as of this week, there’s (cover your ears - er.. eyes) yellowing leaves in the trees. We, of coarse, hope to get a few more stabs in at enjoying what has been an outstandingly cooperative summer - lets hope we make use of it.
Other than that, this week has been hectic with work and a couple of our friends having a personal crisis that we’ve been helping out with. We’ve got another OB appointment later on today (no ultrasound, though).
Today is also my 4th anniversary with Deanna - I can’t believe that this has been four years. Although we’ve both matured and changed, we’re both still madly in love with each other and can’t live without one another. Our rings from last year are holding up far better than those much-more-expensive ones from Freds did and I think we’ve grown to really like them. Although this baby will change our lives together, I am determined to not make it significantly alter (read:ruin) like so many people say it will. I am ultimately convinced that there are millions of ways to live your life with a baby and still have as wonderful a marriage and life as you did before. People, in my belief, simply use the child as an excuse not to do what they once did - you can still get out there, you’ve just got to try! So that’s what Deanna and I are up to at this moment - making sure we keep ourselves strong through this transitional period - and this week marks her entry into the 4th month of pregnancy and she’s doing wonderfully. I can wait to be a dad!

I swear one of these days I’ll do an update that doesn’t have anything to do with the baby. Life has been managing to get quite busy lately even though I do find ample time to do virtually nothing. I’d like to manage to blame it on the fact that I’m gearing up for my gallery show out at the Grange for First Friday of September - but I haven’t been working nearly as much as I should on it. That being said, I do have a gallery show upcoming. Shocking, I know, right?
Anyways, on other things, we tried for the third week to get the baby in the right position - no luck again. Granted, we got a wonderful profile shot of it and it is growing well according to the doctor - so there’s no complaints there!
But, after three weeks of no luck, we decided it was probably a sign that we weren’t supposed to do the testing - so we decided to just go ahead and stop - no more weekly videos, but it does get pretty frustrating trying to get Deanna’s time off approved between these weekly appointments. That being said, here’s the Week 12 video

Another week, another video. The baby is apparently being a bit difficult for getting some tests done that require it to be in a particular position for testing - so we keep on getting weekly updates on the baby until it decides to squirm a certain way. Nonetheless, within the last 6 days, it’s grown from 3cm to over 5cm! Whoo Hoo! We’re still really hoping that it decides to hide its gender so that we get the ultimate surprise later on - we’ll see!
Week 11 Ultrasound
I guess what I’m really psyched about as well, completely off the baby topic, is that I’ve actually been using iLife’s iMovie and iDVD to limitedly edit (block out names) and post all the videos on dvd’s for the parental units. I’ve been meaning to have a reason to get to use these programs and even plan soon enough to possibly even get working in Final Cut Express HD. Hopefully.
Another weekend, another weekend-focus class to teach. This’ll be my last for the season and in less than two weeks I’ll be back to the daily staff grind. Summer’s gone far, far too fast.