New image gallery available

I've added more images to my Shareapic.net account. I now have images of buildings available for download.

If you're not sure how to download the images, just click on their thumbnails to get to the full view page, and then right-click to save the image to your computer. Please refer to my previous post for the Terms of Use.

Trying to get back into the swing of things

Well, back into the swing of my hobbies at least. I finally came back to World of Warcraft, working on my hunter to get her to level 70 and acquire her level 60 mount. Yes, I am that slow; I'm enjoying the adventure that comes with the endgame, thank you.

I've also come back to photography. I purchased a Canon PowerShot G9 digital camera this past Sunday, and the camera has been really cool. It's an advanced point-and-shoot with features of an entry level DSLR. The best feature about this camera is that it can take pictures in RAW format. I never got to use a digital camera that could save in RAW, so this is a first for me. AND I LURVES IT SO MUCH. I seriously do not want to go back to jpeg. The only reason I would is to take pictures of not-so-serious stuff (ie catching people being stupid). As for pictures I would seriously consider microstock-worthy, it's RAW all the way. Holy Christ, the quality of RAW. The noise in the RAW images look more like film grain captured by a negative scanner. The only exception to this is when using a very high ISO setting, which is something that plagues all DSLRs or so I've read (in a lot of camera reviews).

So by now I've taken some pics with this lovely Canon PowerShot G9 digital camera, and I'm quite happy with some of the shots I've taken. Of course the lot of them come from our front yard, but hey, my mom has a green thumb. Her roses bloomed beautifully yesterday, and I had to get some photos. I actually thought some of these would be nice to share online. Even though they are of the overly done "nature/home garden" category, I wanted upload them anyway.

I will begin adding these pictures to a Shareapic gallery (for obvious reasons), and they will be available for people to download. Even if these photos are considered a high quality by stock photo agents, nature pics are not hard to come by, so I doubt submitting them to a stock photo site will produce any noticeable revenue. So I'm offering web-sized versions of my photos for free at Shareapic.net. The images are sized to a with of 600 pixels (may be small depending on the height). It's should be a good size to work with for many designers wanting to use them for web purposes. If a designer contacts me to request a larger pic, then discussion of payment will take place. That's the name of the game, yo. Here are the "rules":

I, Alexandria Long, have given consent for all people to download and use my photos in either personal or commercial projects. What you may NOT do with these images are:

1. Resell them as your own. If I find any of my photos on a stock photo site that I'm not a member of, you WILL be hearing from me. If I find them in printed stock photo catalogues or art books, you WILL be hearing from me.
2. Upload my photos to art and photo gallery/album websites and state that you're the creator. You in fact did not create them, and any credit for them should go to me (Alexandria Long). If I find my photos on sites such as DeviantArt, etc, then you WILL be reported.
3. Simply altering one or any of my photos DOES NOT make the result your photo. Anyone with a brain can play with Photoshop/Gimp/Paint Shop Pro filters. Using a photo as a design element in a project is fine, but filtering the photo to high hell for the sake of "making it mine" doesn't cut the mustard. Sale or unauthorized distribution of any altered versions of my images is prohibited.
4. Print them on tangible products such as coffee mugs or postcards meant for sale. Slapping one or some of my photos on a CafePress item and selling it is not cool. You are in effect selling my photos as stated in the first rule, so if I catch you, I will report you.
5. If I, Alexandria Long, were to sell to anyone larger, higher quality versions of my images, that does not give the buyer the right to sell the image. The buyer merely purchased the right(s) to use a higher quality image in whatever project they need it for. The buyer DOES NOT own the purchased photo, and therefore may not sell any of my photos.
6. If my photos were to ever be used in printed materials such as magazine or book covers, then credit MUST be given to the creator (Alexandria Long). I will also be looking further compensation when it comes to book covers. If you use a web-safe version of my image for a 'zine or book cover, expect to hear from me.
7. If my photos were to ever be used in online publications such as online news or blog websites, then credit should be given to the creator (Alexandria Long).

By downloading my images from Shareapic.net or Picable.com, you are agreeing to my terms. Even if you do find other more spectacular photos for free, I still have my rights as a creator.

I'm eventually going to move the T&Cs to their own page. After adding a few more photographs to the first Shareapic gallery, I'll link to it from the sidebar. For now, you can reach it by clicking here. This is the 'Home Garden" gallery, where all of my home's flower pics will go. More galleries should soon follow.

I'm changing the locks to my home!

A while back, I had purchased a Xbox 360. All was well in the land of Lexi, as she blissfully played Gears of War, Guitar Hero, and Eternal Sonata. But soon all was not well. Some time after bringing my new computer home, I noticed that some of my belongings were on the floor - some dvd box sets that were on a shelf in my room. How odd, I thought. I put them back into their place, and as I stood upright, I noticed that my Xbox 360 has a nasty brown scuff on it. I had began thinking someone had knocked over my 360 and put it back like nothing had happened. But the scuff mark told plenty, but not everything.

I had immediately assumed that the cable guy who had been in my room a couple of days earlier had done it, and didn't bother to let anyone know he broke it. I raised my voice at my mother for not watching him while he worked. She assured me that he couldn't have done it, or else she would have heard it being knocked to the floor (the big white sucker IS heavy...). So I was stumped. It couldn't have been my brother. He assured me that no one had been in my room when he had company over. So what was I to do? I gave up on finding a culprit and accepted that my Xbox had keeled over. I called support, and in a few days, I received the packaging to send off my 360 to Microsoft's Repair Center. And then I waited...

Today was a joyous occasion, for I had finally received a repaired Xbox 360 for my troubles. I hurried to my room, set up the 360, and turned it on. As I was creating new settings for the 360, the system recognized that there were already profiles on the hard drive. I proceeded to load my gamertag as the primary profile, when...it wasn't even there. Three profiles were already on the hard drive, and NONE of them were mine - a Brett, a Keem, and a Lakeem were the only profiles on the drive, and I was stumped to how they would've gotten there. I decided to recover my gamertag anyway to speed up the setup process. A few moments later, I began combing through the system to see what was on it. My game saves are nowhere to be found. My only downloaded game, Puzzle Quest, was not on the hard drive. As a matter of fact, by the time I made it to the media section of the hard drive, I was fucking pissed off. There's so much (c)rap music on this hard drive, and some vid about the Titanic, and yet none of my stuff (save my recovered gamertag and Puzzle Quest) is on this drive. This hard drive is not mine. As a matter of fact, THE XBOX 360 WASN'T MINE EITHER. I've been swapped!!! Someone came in with their own busted 360 and took my (somewhat) brand new system. OMFG?!?!

I know I sound a bit paranoid now. I began looking for suspects again. My sister would never do such a thing to me when she has her own systems (she has a Wii and I don't -_-), my brother hasn't had company over in a long time. My mother doesn't even know what a 360 is FFS. The only one who could've done it is someone who knew my Xbox was only purchased a few months ago, has easy access to the house at all times, and obviously dumb enough to think that they had to take my hard drive with the system just to use it. I know who my prime suspect is...I'm already pissed at that person. I will not name this person in case they find my blog. But know this...the suspect is not welcome in this house while I live here. I am already consulting with my mom to change the locks to the house. The worst part of this isn't having to start all over with my games - it's the fact that someone was so trifling as to take something they knew didn't belong to them from someone they grew up very close to.