Fireworks!
Date: Sat, Jul 5, 2008
Happy 4th of July, everybody!
The fireworks were fan-friggin-tastic this year! As usual, we went to the New Lenox, IL display, and they never fail to put on a great show. It was a full half hour long, and not a bit of it was cheapo-filler-crap. I love their show.
I shot on a tripod with a cable release, and used ISO100 and f/11 for the entire show. Most of the time, I used a 2 or 3 second exposure. I made a few shots with a 6 second exposure, when they were firing off multiples in sequence, and those turned out pretty cool too.
Here are a few of my favorite blasts:
A Letter to HP
Date: Thu, Jul 3, 2008
I've just dropped the following letter into the outgoing mail (postal mail, that is):
July 3, 2008
Customer Service
Hewlett-Packard Company
3000 Hanover Street
Palo Alto, CA 94304-1185
To Whom This May Concern,
I am writing regarding a recent experience I had with your technical support representatives (Ticket #801330xxxx). On June 28, 2008, I purchased the HP Photosmart Pro B8850 printer and several packages of Advanced HP photo paper. I ordered these items online via CircuitCity.com. The items were delivered in June 30, 2008.
I unpacked the printer and began setup. When I plugged the printer into the wall outlet, the printer received no power. After troubleshooting via telephone with one of your support representatives, it was determined that the AC power adapter was likely faulty. Your representative shipped a new AC adapter to me. It arrived on July 2, 2008.
The new AC adapter did not solve the problem. I called technical support again, and after troubleshooting, the representative determined that there was likely a problem with the printer itself. While I was disappointed, I understand that this happens. Hardware fails. It’s the way of the world, when it comes to computers.
What I was most disappointed in, though, was the solution offered by your representative. She offered to replace my brand new printer with a refurbished one. I explained that this printer was brand new out-of-the-box and was dead on arrival. I paid for a new printer. I expect replacement with a new printer. I could understand a refurbished replacement if I’d owned the printer for some time and it needed repair, but this printer was not used. The support representative agreed with me, but that she could not guarantee that the replacement would be new, and that she had no other options to offer me.
I find your policy of replacing brand new, defective items with used, refurbished ones to be completely unfair. I spent $549 on your product in good faith that it would work when I brought it home. When a brand new item is defective, I expect a brand new replacement - not just from HP, but from any company.
I am a photographer and a professor, and despite the advice of many of my colleagues to purchase an Epson (the reigning king in the professional photo printing arena), I decided to give HP a shot. The B8850 might be a fantastic printer. I did not get the opportunity to find out. Based on this experience, HP is not the kind of company I want to do business with.
As a result of my disappointment in your company’s policies, I have returned the HP printer and papers to Circuit City and instead purchased the Epson Stylus R1900 and Epson papers, and will recommend to my colleagues and students that they do the same.
Sincerely,
Shelly
Finally...
Date: Thu, Jun 26, 2008
Well, I finally upgraded my old template to a Blogger Layout to take advantage of the ease of editing with widgets. I put all of my old code sections into widgets, and was quite happy - until I tried to install a new custom theme.
Silly me thought that widgets were modular and would just transfer over from layout to layout. Apparently, that is only true if you switch between one of the lame-o default layouts that Blogger provides. If I want to switch to a custom layout, I have to re-enter all of my widgets.
Ugh.
So that will be a project for another day. Until then, my apologies for the bland layout.
KO
Date: Wed, Jun 18, 2008
Signed up for a KO sit n go on FTP. Yes, a 90 player game is a bit more of a time commitment than I usually undertake these days - but we're in the wee single digits of the evening, my friends, and I feel some productive web surfing time ahead (and maybe some productive poker winning time to go with it... especially since I missed both the Trojan Wars game AND an impromptu Forest game this weekend). I know it's lame to say, "I'm due," but... well...
60 people registered so far. Getting there...
First up, did everybody go download the new Firefox 3? Get yourself into the Guinness Book of World Records for the most downloads in a 24 hour period! Download Firefox NOW!
With that, though, I have to say that I've morphed to using a Firefox-based browser that isn't Firefox.... Their latest beta (released yesterday, based on the new Firefox) crashed like crazy on my machine, but the one based on FF2 is rock-solid, and hopefully the bugs will be squashed soon in the FF3 release. If you blog or use social news or networking sites or are into media and photography online, Flock is uber cool. I know, I can't stop gushing, but it has made my time on the web so much more productive and enjoyable.
Tourney has begun. If I'm not mistaken, it's a turbo deep stack knockout tournament. Alrighty then! Say that 5 times fast. Man, people are doing some CRAZY preflop raising. 20xBB???!??!?!
Did I miss something?
So, I finally got around to creating a WordPress theme of my own. It wasn't nearly as difficult as I thought it would be. It was for my "business" site (the one I use to represent me for web dev/consulting projects and hopefully for photography in the near future) - http://purplepenguins.com. You likes? Me likes. My logo needs work, but aside from that...
Damn it, YOU FREAKS, STOP RAISING SO DAMN MUCH!!!!!
Listening to a recording of Don't Drink the Water by Dave Matthews Band, featuring Bela Fleck, from last week's show at Toyota Park in Bridgeview. Sick. Just sick. Show was fantastic, and I'm absolutely giddy to have seen Bela Fleck! I'm downloading a new recording of the show that I hear is better quality (less wind noise) than the first recording I downloaded. The wind gusts were only 45mph. No biggie, right?!
Omg these overbets are KILLING ME.
Srsly.
At this moment, I'm checking out some pinhole photography. I made my first pinhole camera in the Experimental Darkroom class I'm taking. It is made from a Santa Claus cookie tin. I've got some work to do to get it working. I haven't figured out the right exposure times yet - partially because I used a needle that was too big when I made my pinhole. Such is life - live and learn! I'm really digging on getting a Leonardo pinhole camera. That would be mighty cool.
AKs - maybe I can play this hand? Pretty please? With a standard 3xBB preflop raise on top?
Or not. 2-3-6 flop and the PFR'er pushed all in on the flop. Sigh.
Finally won a pot - a most unlikely one! 4 diamonds onboard and no diamonds in hand, but 2 pair held up after a check-check on el flopo.
Still reading pinhole photography stuff...
Nice, doubled up with the 2nd nut flush vs a guy who pushed all in on his straight draw with 3 clubs onboard?!?! Alrighty then! The overbetting continues, though now I have some tolerance chips.
By the way, did I ever mention that I hate blog spam?
Antes have begun. I'm 17th out of 45 remaining.
Now I'm cruising MySpace, the ultimate in boredom. w00t just won a knockout bounty :)
Here's a photographer on Flickr that I really like: ScoutJ
I took some pictures today hoping to kick-start a new theme for a project I have to do for class, but they all sucked. Booo. I had a great time yesterday though, making paper negatives from magazine pages - a la "found art." My 2 faves:
Eye for Love
and
Within
Created in the darkroom as contact prints (a la paper negatives) and then scanned and processed digitally via Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop.
Break time in the tourney. I'm currently 6th of 30.
Growing bored of reading hand histories lately, I won't bore you, but let's just say I made a pretty ballsy move just now, and it paid off. I could feel my opponent agonizing and wiggling in their seat. Mwah!
Another bust-out bounty, and I'm 2nd out of 20. *pats self on back for a good read*
I'd blog more about what I'm reading, but I'm still on pinhole photography, to which most of you are probably like, "Yawn..."
How about Twitter? Like, rock star. I'm phlyersphan. Follow me!
Oooh! KK!
As in, King King, not answering my own command... anyway, no action. I'll take it. Better than losing!
I'm reading about making pinhole body caps for cameras. I have a Canon Rebel K2 film camera, and the Digital Rebel XTi. Both are EOS and use the same body cap, if I'm not mistaken. It would be pretty cool to try out. Probably more reliable than my Santa Claus tin can pinhole camera.
Wow - from top 5 to out, in 2 hands. One was carelessness on my part (acting too quickly without thinking it through), and the other was bad luck (JJ vs 77, he hit his set of 7's). Maybe I'll try again.. finished 2 out of the money. I feel like I'm playing well tonight...
July 2008 Calendar
Date: Mon, Jun 16, 2008
Download the large size -
http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3099/2582874758_783e95982e_o.jpg
Because my printer is driving me insane
Date: Tue, Jun 10, 2008
I'm playing a SnG on FTP because my printer is driving me insane.
I have a Canon Pixma printer. It was a $300 printer a couple years ago. (Today, of course, the ink inside is worth more than the machine). I bought it for the exclusive purpose of printing photos. I have one of those HP all-in-one thingamajigs for document printing.
Everything was lovely until recently. The printer has started printing random stray marks on my photos. It almost looks like stray hair marks, but very small, and generally not in the same spot twice. I do have 3 cats, so I took a can of air to the inside of the printer. Bad idea. Not only did it make matters worse, but for a while, the printer gave me an error that it needed repair service - until I smacked it a few times, and the error went away.
I did all of the built-in maintenance options - nozzle check, head cleaning, deep head cleaning, bottom plate cleaning, and roller cleaning.
No good.
Desperate, I bought one of those inkjet printer cleaning kits. I swabbed everything I could reach with alcohol. I ran the moist towel like paper through it, just like it said.
Still, there are a couple tiny stray marks printing.
I can't think of anything else to do, and it is driving me insane. I'm neck deep in photography classes right now. I need to be able to print.
Calgon, take me away.
The SnG has become a push-fest, even though most everybody still has 20xBB in front of them. Whatevs.
Any ideas on the printer? Seriously, I'm open to anything at this point. Exorcism maybe?
Why did I just limp with JTo in MP? Flop = nada. Turned a gutshot, but not enough in the pot to pursue. Boo me.
And, am I the only one who is bothered by the people who ALWAYS and ONLY make a pot-sized bet? Srsly. Do you know anything about bet sizes in relation to the pot and your intentions?
On the photography front, I got a few pieces accepted into a gallery - my first exhibition :) It's a group exhibit at a local gallery. It opens this Friday. I'm excited and nervous! I finished writing my first "artist resume" this past weekend and applied to another exhibition out of state. I'm certain I won't get in, as the photos I had that fit the theme weren't the best, but I want the experience of trying - and, kind of like in hockey, you throw the puck at the net and sometimes, it finds its way in. I'm not above taking a lucky bounce if it comes my way!
I'm very near push-or-fold status. I play the turbo SnG's because I have trouble committing more than an hour to an online SnG anymore - but boy, those levels go fast when you're card dead.
There's a Trojan Wars game this weekend. So many darned things going on this weekend.The only thing I've got in stone is the gallery opening. The rest is up in the air. Will have to figure it all out one of these days.
Out vs. a flush.
I think I've got one more SnG in me. Turbo, of course.
So, how many of you have to-do lists of things you really want to get around to doing someday, or things you've started but haven't finished? Oy. Every year, I think I'll have time over my summer "break" from work, but every year I end up working a lot more than I expect to, and spend too much of the remainder of my time off vegging out. Here are some of the things on my list:
- Finish reading Scott Kelby's Adobe Photoshop Lightroom for Digital Photographers. I only started it in like April 2007.
- Go through the now-giant stack of photography magazines next to my bed and scan the articles I want to keep into PDF files - or at least tear them out of the magazines and store them in binders or something.
- Clean my home office - I mean, REALLY... shred old paperwork I don't need anymore, file the giant stack of bills and whatnot that's been collecting for almost 2 years now, etc.
- Frame and hang the 20 some odd Dave Matthews Band tour posters I've been collecting for years. Speaking of - if anybody has an extra DMB tour poster from this past Friday's Bridgeview, IL show, I'm looking to buy one!
- Buy some tulips to plant in my front yard, and some decorative bricks to edge my landscaping.
- Re-stain my deck.
Yeah... one of these days.
Well, out again - I was ahead AK vs A7 and got the scooby all-in on the turn... and he/she/it rivered the gutshot straight.
With that, I will log off having both lost my SnG's *and* not accomplishing anything on my to-do list! Ha - procrastination accomplished :)
DMB!!!
Date: Fri, Jun 6, 2008
I'm so friggin anxious for DMB tonight! T-minus 40 minutes and counting till I go load up the truck and head out for tailgating festivities. I am stir crazy, so I am donking around a micro limit NLHE table on Full Tilt.
This will be my 25th Dave Matthews Band show tonight. I usually see no fewer than 5 shows per year, but this year I'm only slated for 3. Money's tight, and gas prices are killing me. Still, 3 will be wonderful (tonight in Chicago/Bridgeview, then 2 shows in August at Alpine Valley - Wisconsin).
While killing time this morning, I decided to try and give myself a quick French manicure. Oy. Apparently, there is no such thing as a "quick" French manicure. Oh well. So my nails look like a 4 year old colored on them. I'm seeing Dave tonight!
That is, if the weather holds out. We're at moderate risk for hail and tornado-bearing thunderstorms tonight - but who trusts the weather man, anyway? You know where I'll be: out in an open stadium with 30,000 other DMB freaks!
Wow. I've only killed 6 minutes. This is going to be a long half hour.
On the bright side, my pigtails cooperated fantastically! Totally stoked re: the pigtails today.
Haven't won a hand yet.
Twitter has been down for the past 18 or so hours for me. I see others have gotten some posts through, but not I. Sadness. I can't believe how mainstream twitter has become. For so long, it was only my geek friends on there. Now, look at you all!
Low pocket pairs in early position. It's so hard to raise them up. Flop it or drop it...
Wow. Donkey called my 1/3 to 1/2 pot bets all the way after turning the J high flush. Ummm hello, raise maybe? (I missed my gutshot straight flush draw but did have pocket 8's on a J-5-6 flop).
Ahhh, won it back on the bet-a-holic, check-the-river donk.
35 more minutes.
AKJ flop is generally not what you're looking for with 22 in the hole.
I found the negative of one of my favorite photos of my dad yesterday. I brought it to photography class and scanned it with their film scanner. I feel really lucky to have it.
Uh oh, tornado siren. Hmmm. Ya know, we hear these so often around here that people begin to NOT hear them. I should probably go scan the skies, just in case... there are tornadoes in the forecast today.
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