More w/the New Cam

That is, of course, the Texas State Capitol. In the true Texas spirit, it's taller than the nation's capitol building in DC, by a good 14 feet, and it is the largest in the US. However it's still shorter than the Louisiana state capitol. Of course now whenever anybody uses that phrase "Everything's bigger in Texas" I will retort "You've obvously never been to China!" Haha. Although I'm sure that comes off sounding really elitist ;-) In fact, when I first got to China, one of the first things I learned how to say was "Have you ever been to the US?" Ni qu guo mei guo ma? So I asked everybody that -- but I realized that asking cabdrivers and ayis that comes off sounding really, well, I dunno, like of course they've never been to America -- just like a lot of people in the US have never been to China.

I feel so lucky :-)

The pictures above use a polarizing filter that I bought alongside the camera. It's not really bright enough out today to use one, but I did anyway because I was just curious how the photos would turn out. They look pretty nice. I can't wait until a clearer day so I can really bring out the contrast in these vast Texas skies. I took lots more pictures today, but those are the ones I feel are worthy of sharing with ya'll, haha.

Randomness: I was taking pictures of the strip-mall sign outside Epoch Coffee today when this gangly guy asked "Are you a professional photographer?" I said no, not really, but I knew how to handle the camera I've got. He was like "Great, I'm looking for someone to take a picture of me, I'll pay you money, just follow me into that alley over there."

Are you fucking kidding me?? I mean this guy was skinny and whatever, I probably could have taken him (not that I'm a fighter) but he could have had a gun or a knife or something. Hahaha. I dunno. It was just a strange situation. So I left.

In other news, congratulations are in order for Joe Straus, who was elected Speaker of the Texas House the other day, becoming the first MOT to hold the position. Yeah, we're taking over the world, one state legislature at a time!!