Am I too cantankerous here? Well, today reminds us that good surprises do come up too.

Morning photo walk didn’t look promising at 8AM. Gray skies every which-way, with a forecast promising wind and showers. Imagine my surprise when, halfway across the Brooklyn bridge, patches of blue sky appeared. By the time I reached my usual photo haunts, half the sky was clear and the sun was shining enough to cause glare on my unshaded lens.

The afternoon would have been a standard (dull) affair of reading and classwork, save for the fact that scarcely an hour after I’d begun being productive, visibility dopped to a few hundred feet and a substantial amount of snow was on the ground.

Finally, it pains me to say this, but I’d like to thank (some) Republicans. Namely, a big shout out to those in Kansas, Louisiana and Washington for their ringing endorsement of John McCain who lost 2 of the 3 outright. His sole (apparent) victory? Washington, where 70% of Republicans voted against him (and 10% missed the memo about Mitt Romney quitting). Now that’s what I call momentum.

Saturday mornings are notoriously slow. Why then did I wake up at 6:30AM? No idea, really. So I spent a few more hours than I might otherwise have immersed in books. What books you ask? Oh the usual ones. My reading speed is inversely proportional to the importance of the literature in question.

Afternoon walk led to Central Park, where I discovered the overcast necessitated ISO 1600 when using the telephoto lens. Daylight is a bit of a misnomer for many of the late afternoons here. I also got myself somewhat lost, discovering the Belvedere Castle (good vistas of much of the park) and inexplicably leaving the park at Columbus Circle, instead of 5th Ave. which I’d been aiming for.

For the evening, I finally managed to watch Ocean’s Eleven (2001 edition) in its entirety, uninterrupted. Vastly better than the fun but vacuous Ocean’s Thirteen. The plot, the pacing, even the dialog was just smoother. And the ending? The snappy banter between Clooney, Robert and Pitt largely made up for its annoying predictability.

Returned from the grandparents in the morning by train. The roommate is keeping later and later hours. Not a problem since his sleeping hardly impedes my research or Arabic.

Took off for Battery Park in the afternoon, arriving just as the sun was disappearing. Still haven’t worked out the perfect ingredients for a photogenic sunset, but this did really satisfy.

Returning, I figured I’d pop by campus to see if anything was happening. Women’s basketball match at the gym, v. Case Western. Came in just before half-time. Looked like they really wanted spectators given the free admission, t-shirt and food that they had. Fun game to watch, even if NYU went from a 9 point lead to a losing by 10 in the end. Took the opportunity to exercise the camera to the tune of 400 shots. ISO 1600, wide-open, and most of the shots still came out blurred. Time for a camera upgrade? Hmm.

Scheduling is a tricky thing. What to maximize? The first hours of the day had very little tangible to show for them – thinking and brainstorming is like that. Then after class, a number of very tangible things happened – cleaned desk, did laundry, caught up on correspondence, payed bills, dealt with healthcare bureaucracy, and discovered Sigma Photo Corp.’s warranty ‘service’ isn’t.

Lunch with my grandmother at the typical spot. Managed to drop off a bunch of books, read a couple of articles and see the Apple Store’s newest occupant – the MacBook Air – after that. For the record, the MBA was surprisingly appealing, but not terribly small or light. Thus no sale (well, that and no money).

Returned with my grandparents to Westchester in the evening. Gradually adjusting to driving in New York, but my ineptness at parking is still a problem (picking up Indian take-out for my grandfather proved an ordeal, though not just for that reason). Quiet evening.

As my grandmother’s put together a bunch of albums of photos from the last few decades, we did some looking. Most of the pictures I’d seen before, but seeing them arranged together was different. Still, I’d recommend selectivity and discretion when selecting photos – not all things require reminders, and quantity can overwhelm as much as elucidate.

Stayed up waaay too late waiting for primary results. Paid for that by being very nearly incoherent during Arabic. Although I’m still not sure why our readings have to tend to the esoteric (medieval universities?).

Obviously, what I needed was some dynamic positive thinking plus sleep. Muddled through a number of semiproductive hours at the library, then at home.

Bright spots? The latest two episodes of House MD have stepped things up, so perhaps the reshuffling at the end of season 3 doesn’t spell disaster and shark-jumping as previously feared.

Oh, and a quick suggestion to the world’s movers and shakers: how about not putting several weeks worth of noteworthy events on the same day? Spread out the fun. Sticking Mardi Gras, the quasi-national primary, the parade for the Giants’ Superbowl victory and a tornado in the southern US is just asking for trouble.

This is like a bad result on Groundhog Day – six more weeks of campaigning (and so much for Tsunami Tuesday). True, the horse-race can be fun. But this is a roach-race, and it runs ’til November.

There was some sort of parade celebrating the NY Giants’ Super Bowl win. Had class then, so that’s all I know.

I’ve run out of snarky comments about Arabic grammar. Sadly, I don’t think I’ll run out of obscenely strange grammar topics for a long time to come. Thanks for nothing, diptotes.

History seminar turned into half-lecture, half-seminar. Made for a somewhat limited discussion. Of course, it’s not actually a history course, according to the prof., so my limited expertise is of even more limited use.

Finally, when stretching out the old legs downtown, decided to try out a P&S digital camera I picked up quite some time back. Substantial noise at ISO 80 (base ISO) with 1/10 second exposure. DSLRs have me spoiled. Expensive habit I guess (amusingly, the P&S was more expensive when I got it than a number of DSLRs are now).

That would be unsuper-Monday for those keeping track.

Rather than attempt to explain the Freud-1940s Baghdad connection alluded to earlier (something to do with memory), or why I’m partially translating a Wikipedia entry on an Iranian revolutionary for Arabic language class (needed an interesting biography that could use this chapter’s vocab., thanks Mirza Jahangir Khan), I’ll just say that today started late and ended later, and the stuff that was supposed to happen in between largely did.

I’d complain about the weather, but since the next week will be the same dreary gray with rain (for the variety, I’d be happier with snow at this point), I need to save some irritation for later on.

Also there’s some sort of election to-do tomorrow. County screwed up, so I can’t vote in the primary. With Clinton v. Obama, I don’t mind that so much. Both are fundamentally flawed. Neither is as likely to get people killed in pointless wars or sent to the gulag as the opposing party’s leaders (Republicans). Based on that admittedly low standard, I’ll take Obama over Clinton, and either one over any Republican, but without much enthusiasm.

(For enthusiasm, I’d need a candidate who’d promise to pursue each and every one of the Bush administration’s criminals with the same single-mindedness and creativity that said administration has applied to destroying the Constitution and rule of law in this country.)

Weather forecast finally comes through. Mostly. Sunny. Rather clear. Lots of folks out enjoying the rarity of blue skies and over-40 degree temperatures. Clouds arrived just in time to spoil the sunset.

More reading about Baghdad in the ’40s. Author (native) writes of his argument (then) with a friend over whether Iraqis are (were) ready for democracy. Sound familiar?

Congrats, NY Giants. Not really a football fan, but I do support upsets on principle. Now the newspapers can go back to pontificating about (not-so-)Super Tuesday.

Not to be overly critical, but this is the 3rd day in a row that the weather forecast (thanks weather.com) has been substantially inaccurate. Mostly sunny? Yeah right. So much for afternoon and sunset photos.

My vast and interesting life? Limited to reading excerpts of Freud and various other unreadable articles.

Desultory search for better lenses has ended. Fast glass is big, heavy and expensive. Oddly enough, I’d be willing to pay more for smaller, but hey, I’m weird. Meanwhile my unfocusable fast normal Sigma prime lens is with service (conveniently located in Ronkonkoma NY?). Yay?

What do they bring? Should know shortly since it has been deliciously soggy all day.

My printer works again, i.e. the photos printed from it look half-decent. Not sure which of the 8 million settings in HP’s Deskjet 970cxi driver did the trick, but there we are.

Meanwhile, sanity continues its losing battle against Arabic grammar. I’d guess that only English grammar is equally bizarre. Fortunately, our wonderful educational system has insured that I am blissfully unaware of either (English grammar or its craziness).

Now, waiting for the latest episode of Friday Night Lights to reach the usual suspects. Given the hopeful sounds about the WGA strike in the press, perhaps next week won’t be the end of FNL’s season?