Just as a fair warning, posting will likely be slacking off considerably, if not stopping all together, starting today.  Better Half gets in this evening, and then we start our cross-country jaunt on Friday.  I promise I will do a write-up of all of the interesting parts (if not all of it) once we complete it, but I will be too busy enjoying myself to worry about writing it down while we are doing it.  And, yes, there will undoubtedly be a crapton of pictures to go along with the posts...  I have an account with both Flickr and Picasa, so the images will probably end up on one or both of those two places, but I will certainly let you all know regardless.  Between our two cameras, as well as our new tripod and Gorillapod (something I strongly recommend any photography enthusiast look into - more on it when I get the inclination), Better Half and I should be able to manage some good stuff. 

In light of me moving, as well as my spiffy new camera, I went ahead and took a few night shots of my soon-to-be past city, and have posted a few of them below...  It is amazing what a tripod and variable-setting shutter can do for you...  Though, while this camera has an ISO rating up to 3200, with the tripod it is completely unnecessary, and in an urban environment, more than a little detrimental with all of the background and scatter light.  Regardless, enjoy - it was certainly fun to take them. 

And in completely unrelated news, I have decided that I do not, at all, like the new Linkin Park CD - Minutes to Midnight.  This is their third original CD, and while the first two were characterized by delicious offbeat rhythms, unique music generation, a wonderful blending of rock and rap lyrics, and a completely unique sound and feel; this particular album was... well... none of the above.  I feel almost dirty saying this, but it just about sounded like something a boy band would generate.  Linkin Park was a band that was not only able to carve out their own niche in the music world - hard enough to do, these days - but they also successfully redefined music itself.  Now?  Now they have mellowed (if not gone completely limp) to the point that they pretty much sound like all of the other "alternative rock" bands there are out there, and considering just how many of those there are, the odds of this CD simply blending into the background and disappearing are quite good.  If you are looking for the same Linkin Park that produced Meteora and Hybrid Theory, as I was, you should stand by to be horribly disappointed.  This is not to say that it is not a bad CD - in fact, it is rather acceptable by the standards of modern music, especially considering its release price was only ten bucks.  But it definitely will not scratch your Linkin Park itch, if that is what you are looking to accomplish, and I confess that seeing this outstanding, ground-breaking band regress to just another rock band was a little... disheartening. 

So there you have it.  I make no guarantees concerning the open trackback posts...  If I get my act together enough to prepost all of the ones that would be normally occuring while I am gone, they will exist - otherwise, do not hold your breath.  Catch you on the flip side.