Tested out my newly-bought Nikon AF 50mm f/1.8 lens, shooting at maximum aperture. The lens is priced at $250-300 at stores and $210 on the internet; I haggled down to $218.50 at Broadway. It's more difficult to make compositions when you can't zoom... so that was interesting practice. I guess it's a good enough lens at that price - I noticed kind of bad bokeh in the photos but I don't mind that sort of thing too much.
I still fail at holding the camera straight. ;_; Even with the alignment lines in the viewfinder I still hold the camera 1-2 degrees tilted to my right.
In other news... I received a message from my friend Celky in Japan. He was contacted by a producer from TV Tokyo - they are making a segment of TV Champion (a show where people compete to be the best at particular things) for "foreign otakus". So they are looking for Americans/Aussies who are interested in anime and Japanese popular culture to go on the show and compete to be number 1 gaijin otaku. Unfortunately they're not going to pay for people's travel/living costs, but if anyone is planning to go to Japan or is currently there (and will be ok with going on tv), let me know!