Alexander 4, V4.

It sounds that however and how much ever sleeping I get, it is always hard to get up for some reason! I slept almost 10:30 p.m. yesterday and this is considered an early time for me, but yet, it was hard to get up this morning. Anyway, it was not so late to stuff around the house before I leave.
Still working on my experiment for working in the darkness and taking pictures of my censer (or scenter as I called it before). Still not so-good results. For this reason I went over the manual again and I think I would need some extra tools that I have to put them on my wishlist for the coming months to be purchased, and these are some tools to trigger the flash remotely (wireless or by cord). I went to check Canon store near by, and unfortunately for me, I think I came earlier than usual (as usual) and the store was closed. Anyway, I think they wouldn't have such tools, and if they do, it would be triple the original price. As for the time being I would continue to use the mounted flash as it seems.
Pointing my flash to the roof was not a bad idea, but yet, it did not give the results I'm seeking. More to that, the flames inside the censer just vanish as if the censer is turned off and no candle is burning inside. Here and there, I've summed many images taken yesterday into HDR, and the usual hard noise appeared;

Tone-mapped image of the censer made by several shutter speeds (~5 shots)

The image looks neat (somehow) when it is small, but in reality it is like my face; full of moles and pimples! The colors look smooth and nice and you wouldn't guess it was taken in a dark room (a completely dark room except of a LCD monitor in the far corner). Yet, unfortunately, the noise covered the whole area. It would be nice if I have the knowledge on how to trigger the flash as desired and when desired, and I'm still working on it, but the thing is, Auto-bracketing for exposure is not available when you connect the flash (or even when using the camera's flash itself). I think I read some where that I can separate the functioning (from Fn functions in the flash itself), so I will have to try again today and see for myself if this will allow me to use auto-bracketing.

On the other hand, there are some nice images taken with a single shot without the necessity of combining into HDR (although HDR is supposedly to have wide range of EVs), but there is always a problem with such shot, specially with my flash mounted on the camera and not placed in some angle;

The Censer taken in a single shot with flash

As you can see, it is somehow OK, but it's lacking lot of aspects that I want to put in this image. The flames inside, as a beginning, are not so bright and pale somehow. The shadows on the right hide some details and do not reveal a unique shape for the censer (as a whole). Finally, there is the annoying reflection of the flash from the lusterous body of the censer. My camera was in portrait position and for this reason, the flash would shoot on the side of the censer and drop a shadow to the right. However, even fixing the camera into landscape position, that would give off a reflection on the main body. The colors and shadows are somehow enhanced with RAW editor of Photoshop, yet, the reflection of the flash is annoying and hard to be cloned out (if not impossible).

I sound a bit lazy now for trying all these experiments and forgetting to continue the work on my collection from Ireland. Anyway, I think 3 photos to be added to the collection and get it ready is a matter that can be done in a matter of 30 minutes to one hour. Thus, I'm postponing this for the time being.

I let go of my imagination about today and wrote another poem and named it after my "beloved" image that I snapped some weeks ago, "The King of Chairs". This picture reminds me (and intended to be so) of the situation that we live here almost everyday and all the paper work that one has to do to even pick his nose off. No offence, but I started to hate administrative people by every passing day. However, posting the poem in some forums here and there seems indeed a hard task (specially if you want to link it to some image!). All these codes started to bug my heads and I had to work on 2,534,599 tabs in my Firefox.

__________

73. with some courage did the men stand up
74. and waiting for what they will be facing
75. and the march into the black heaven started
76. and Alexander viewed strange strings over the trees
77. some of them were tied and some of them were loose
78. and some of them were long and others were short
79.  some of them were made of animal hair
80. while some of them were made of plants
81. and the black birds stood on the branches
82. watching the men of valour going to their fates
83. while the silence was heavier than metals
84. a shout appeared out of no where
85. while one man went missing
86. and the screams of agony hammered
87. and men went missing one by one
88. then one villager shouted with a full mouth
89. "Dogs and Cats! Attacking our backs!"
90. the army turned to the back in a surprise
91. and found out it was in a circe of doom
92. made out by hoards of mutants
93. some of them were like cats and dogs
94. and some of them were like pigs or boars
95. and the shock paralyzed everyone
96. while Chidhwárthí mumbled "I knew it!"

 

Ávanúnú

A day that starts with a severe diarrhea is not to be counted in your life span, this is for sure. Now, I think I can make some connection between the dates (food) I take by night, and the diarrhea I get next morning. I think I over-ate those. I still feel some upset in my intestines and my body is just so tired to do anything.
No photo shots for days now, as I'm walking slowly with my life, or trying to at least, with other things on my mind. Seriously, to do everything I wish to I would need the power of 10 men... and the time of course! The traveling time is approaching and I must prepare some stuff already, and a new shoe is a prime concern! You don't wanna go to some foreign airport and the people checking your stuff go "EEEW," right? Yep, that's it.

Today, as usual, I was lucky to translate one verse of the story, but the weird thing is, I was writing down in slow motion. I couldn't speed up my pace! I kept my handwriting small relative to how I used to write down the other pages. This is why I like handwriting analysis. In such situations you wouldn't know what is really going through you, but with handwriting analysis you can discover deep within this brain the true feelings that are beamed through your fingers to your pen. Unfortunately, I didn't device a way to analyze my handwriting with Ayvarith... as I am the only speaker (and not fluent as well) in the whole world! Feels cool somehow, duh!

After I made this "simple" translation, I hit the engine and went on to pick some stuff that I need for my camera and to get a new shoe (as mentioned before). The humidity is lessened today, but the heat in general is still awful. The streets were fine though! I thought I will face such a traffic jam by 9:30 a.m., but I didn't! Ramadhan this year has a soothing effect on people, so I hope it lasts until the end of the month. People usually prefer to stay away from the streets (generally speaking despite the traffic jams in previous years), and would avoid going in this sun, but for me I think it is a sort of a challenge. It is either indeed the blessed mercy of God that befell on me to make me do my stuff today under such a heat, or it is my self-esteem and stubborness, that God bestowed upon me as well, but I felt the urge to go out and finish it even with such weather. I sweated to much and I do feel my throat like a piece of wood, but I feel relaxed in the same time. To me, it is always a matter of mood in fact. When I don't like to go out of work to do my stuff outside in normal days, it is mainly a matter of the mood itself and not the lack of strength or time, but today, I was eager to do it all! Hallelujah. I don't want to strike myself with an evil eye. Unfortunately, I didn't find a CF memory card, but at least I got myself a camera remote and got myself a new battery as well. And now I just remembered that I didn't get a plug-head for my camera charger from the TSC store, after getting my shoes from there. UGH!

On my way from the cameras store to TSC, there were some cops here and there (some in black cars and some in those clown-like cars for traffic). I passed the yellow light while a black police car was beside me, and although it passed with me I was scared that something might happen or so. You don't know the mood of those guys here! Then, Just in the next traffic light, as it turned green, a cop was flashing his lights and turning on the red and blue and the siren, I thought something was going to happen to me personally or that cop reported my pass for the yellow light, but the clown-car passed me by and blocked the way of the other road coming from the right. Did I say I hate Mondays before? Well, today is no exception, but it was that close to my mind. However, I won't feel safe and sound, until the day is completely over!

You might wonder by now about the title and the image on top. This word I encountered in the text that I've written (and forgotten), and it means "his ancestors." I liked the way the word sounded, so I decided to put it here today. Doesn't sound cute? You judge!
When I made this word, I didn't really have some specific conjugations in my mind, but in some way the words just formulate as if by magic in your brain and spelled out. Let's peek a bit into this word, Ávanúnú* [Ankh sequence: aavunwnw]**:
1. Origin: originated from the word "Avvá" [Ankh sequence: auvWa], meaning: father.
2. Singular form: Ávanú [Ankh sequence: aavunw], meaning: ancestor.
3. Plural form: Ávanún [Ankh sequence: aavunwN], meaning: ancestors.
4: Conjugates:

a. my ancestor, ancestors: ávanuwáy [aavunowaY], ávanúnáy [aavunwnaY].
b. your ancestor, ancestors: ávanúká [aavunwka], ávanúnaká [aavunwnuka].
c. his ancestor, ancestors: ávanwú [aavunww], ávanúnú [aavunwnw].
d. her ancestor, ancestors: ávanuwá [aavunowa], ávanúná [aavunwna].
e. our ancestor, ancestors: ávanuwáyun [aavunowayoN], ávanúnáyun [aavunwnayoN].
f. your (plural) ancestor, ancestors: ávanúkun [aavunwkoN], ávanúnakun [aavunwnakoN].
g. their (m) ancestor, ancestors: ávanúm [aavunwM], ávanúnim [aavunwniM].
h. their (f) ancestor, ancestors: ávanúne [aavunwne]***, ávanúnin [aavunwniN].

5. Related words: avvúnah [avvwnuH], meaning: ancestry.

While writing the pervious information I discovered that I might need to add/remove some stuff from the grammar page that I made before! Anyway, I would do it as I do the new page after GeoCities close down!

* The "v" sound in Ayvarith is a labial (done by lips only), like in Spanish.

** Ankh sequence is the sequence used by the Ankh font, which I use to type with Ayvarith. Ask me if you like to have font!

*** The original suffix for feminine plural third person is [-in], but in this case and to avoid the mix with the original plural of the word itself, an "e" is added at the end.

I need a shower... NOW!