F*ck you federal reserve

Thanks you bunch of asshats for completely screwing up Christmas for planet earth, you bunch of bumbling, retarded, inbred geriatric rapists. If you're not sure of what my opinion of you is, let me make it clear... I HATE YOU! I HATE YOU ALL SO VERY VERY MUCH! Are you guys kidding me? This Madoff blows through possibly $50billion, and no one, including the SEC was the wiser? Holy cow f*ck! Are you kidding me?! And why oh why are we printing $8.5 trillion to sell off as bonds? We're now Mexico. Thanks Federal Reserve. Thanks for making the US dollar the new Peso in 4-6 months. And why the cluster F are we printing $8.5 trillion? If I were to buy all the bad mortgages in the US, it would cost around $970 billion. I'm no math wiz here like you Harvard boys, but what the hell is the other $7.5 trillion for? That much money literally pays for 80% of ALL MORTGAGES in the US.

I hate you Federal Reserve with all my heart. I hate you UAW, I hate you SEC, I hate every last hedge fund manager out there. I don't care if you're a legit fund manager, you're still scum.

$8.5 trillion. PLEEEEEEEEASE... can we put someone in the government that understands basic math. Oh, did you hear that... yeah, that was the sound of Christmas dying.

God my 2009 taxes are going to go up so much :( I may just not f*cking pay. I didn't sign up to have assholes manage my money.

8 Week underwear experiment

Week 4 - Things took a turn for the worse today, and I'm only halfway through wearing the same boxers. Never mind the unbearable itchiness at times, but certain areas have begun to heavily crust up. The moisture in the evening, combined with humid temperatures have created the perfect storm for bacteria. To make matters worse, I've run out of Febreze. Sitting down has become uncomfortable, and it's starting to sound like I'm walking on snow every time I move around. My apologies to the immigrant family at the iHop. I never heard of someone being allergic to the smell of cheese. In my desperation to make it to week 8, I'm now seeking professional advice, and am corresponding with a friend in Paris.

Wall Street confused

I just wanted to share an article that I thought was well written and insightful about one of the roots of this financial crisis.

END by Michael Lewis

Part of me thinks we're in limbo right now. A bit of a reprieve before the real bloodletting starts. Another part of me believes things will just get better again, and the illusion will continue for a bit longer until we find something better. I think Wall Street is on that same fence, and because no one knows which side we'll fall on yet, we're all a bit paralyzed.

Post black friday

So I went out like many on Friday morning to visit some shops to see if there were any deals around. I wasn't really looking for anything in particular, but just wanted to see what was out there. I made my way to an outlet mall that was packed, and traffic had to be directed by mall security guards on Segways.



After I stopped laughing, I was able to find a parking spot. The place certainly was packed. There were plenty of deals to be found, which was in contrast to what I thought was being offered at the big box stores. I was at a BestBuy and Target earlier, and wasn't really impressed. In fact, I was comparing prices in the stores to those online, and Amazon seemed consistently cheaper. The only deals to be had were the big ticket items like TVs. There was one woman in this Sony store pushing two 47" Bravias in front of her.



The outlet mall, like most malls, cater to women... and they were out in droves. I felt like a sardine in the Coach store where everything was on sale. The line for the register wrapped around the walls of the store.



In the end I really only got three toys. I went home around noon and just ended up doing my shopping online. No lines, no pressure to shop, I can take my time and they'll drop everything at your door in time for the holidays. Much easier, and you don't run the risk of killing a poor Walmart employee.

Thanksgiving

Ok, so I was a bit sick of turkey. Enough with the turkey. So this year we settled on a hot pot dinner. I haven't had one in a while, and I just couldn't have one without Peking Duck. The only problem is you have to travel to Chinatown to get it. I hate going downtown, but it seemed like there was no avoiding it. So, I started my drive down to the city through Broad street and good old North Philadelphia. As you can see below, it's like a crack addicts paradise.



I get nervous every time I'm at a red light. Always good to see the police around. We need more police.



So I make it downtown and head to the one place where I know I can get my duckies. I ask them to pull two from the window and chop them up into little bits for portability. If you've never had Peking Duck before, you're not missing anything. Stay away from it. More for me :)



So I have to make three trips back to my car from the various shops I'm raiding. I've accumulated cakes, snacks, pastries, and assorted hot pot ingredients.



I get distracted by this neony bright store front. At this point, I'm done with shopping and just wandering around. I have to admit, I do miss the city at times. I have this urge to spend a few hours here eating and drinking.



So the inside of this store looks like something out of Blade Runner. I'm expecting Harrison Ford to shoot a Replicant any moment.



The second floor is mostly a bookstore, and apparently, a repository of the largest pirated DVD operation in Philly. They're mostly Asian flicks, but there's some domestic movies as well. Someones not getting their royalties.



So after I pay my $13 for parking, I slowly make my way out of the city. I've hit rush hour. Exactly what I was hoping to avoid. Damn you shinny store front!



In the end it was worth it. We had roasted Duck for dinner that evening, and then today (Thanksgiving) we had that and more. Was pretty filling to the point where I couldn't even eat any pastries. Will have to wait for tomorrow.



By the way, these Tofu Puffs... not very good. Like eating popcorn packing. They're off my list for hot pot.



A hellish trip into the city, but in the end all was well. Good luck to everyone tomorrow on Black Friday. I've got my list ready, and will be hitting the stores early. Happy Thanksgiving!

Black friday sales

I thought I would just pass this on. This site lists all the Black Friday deals before they sometimes get released.

Black-Friday.net

There are some pretty enticing sales. For instance, say you need a new monitor, how about an Acer 22" LCD monitor for only $129 at Office Depot! And if you need a new laptop, now is the time to pick some decent ones up for about $300-$400.

I for one will be hunting for those USB wireless adaptors for only $19! They're usually in the $45+ range. And it seems most places are having a fire sale on DVDs.

Oh, and just a hint... one of these from Nissan sure would make a nice Christmas present.

Grandmother's birthday

Well, spent the day mostly at the KoP mall. It was my Grandmother's birthday, so we had lunch at the Cheese Cake Factory. For fear of having a bad meal, I ordered the Beef Stroganoff. It's hard to screw that one up. Fish n' Chips were on the menu, but I've come to terms with the fact that, unless you have British blood in you, there's no way you can pull off a decent Fish n' Chips. But I was pleased with the food there. The portions were nice and everything at the table looked good!



I was expecting the mall to be a lot more packed than it was. Even for a Sunday it was pretty thin, especially when you count the weeks left for shopping until Christmas. No crowds, no deafening noise, just a small traffic of shoppers with very few bags in tow. Went into the Disney store only to be accosted by a cheery girl telling me everything this week is 25% off. I'm expecting everything to be 50% off come next week. Maybe, dare I dream, 75% off after no one shows up for Black Friday?

Was waiting for Santa, but he never showed up. Many Polar Bears were shot and stuffed to ornate the tree.

At least gas is cheaper

93 octane is $2.499/gallon at my WAWA. This is a bit confusing when Goldman Sachs was predicting $200+/barrel prices by the end of the year. Instead we're floating around the $50/barrel price range. Airlines that hedged their fuel prices earlier in the year must be pissed.

So why is gas so cheap now? I'm not complaining, but it does make me feel like I was taken for a ride for the better part of the year. But I'm not so naive to believe that we're going to hang around this price point for any length of time. I'm going to assume that prices will shoot up again. Maybe the loss of 2 million barrels of crude from a pirated Saudi tanker will drive prices up again. See Saudi Arabia, terrorists are everyones problem... but good luck with your shipping in the region.

I'm certainly not dumb enough to think that one can buy gas guzzlers again. If anything, this year has shown us how freakishly volatile our transportation costs can be under fossil fuels. This should drive us to alternative sources, unless we're willing to accept this kind of volatility in our lives. Hurry up Tesla and make electric cars for the rest of us! I'd rather give them $25billion, then throw it into the money pit known as Ford/GM/Chrysler.

First snow

First snow has fallen! Looks like good sized chunks that are here to stay. I wonder why they didn't salt the roads? I guess they're predicting only a light sprinkle. In any case, if this keeps up it'll start to look like Christmas!

Oh, and the best Christmas song ever! This tune always puts a smile on my face, and if it doesn't do the same for you, then you're made of hippo poo.

US unemployment

I really need to stop reading the news. If it isn't about people blowing up and killing other people, it's about how crappy the current economic climate is. How bad is it? Well, I've included a handy diagram above to help illustrate. As you can see, you don't want to be in or near a purple state right now. Amazingly middle America isn't too bad, until Detroit becomes unhinged. From this map, I've deduced I really should be in Hawaii. Why am I not in Hawaii again? Seriously, anyone want to transplant to Hawaii?



Just look at that beach and crystal clear water. Even if you were unemployed in Hawaii... would you care? I wonder if I could get a job there... something with dolphins.

Daycare for adults

Ok, so when I drop the kids off at their daycare I always spend at least 15 minutes there if not more. And why wouldn't you? The rooms are colorful, full of toys, they have snacks AND nap time, and when the weather is nice you get to play outside. I'm not even going to get into the details of pizza parties and pajama day. Just know that it's pretty nice there... well, ok... it's awesome there.

So why don't we have daycare for adults? There are days when I just don't feel like going to work. I don't really want to laze about at home either. Now sure I could drive around aimlessly and end up at a mall or something. But that somehow just doesn't compare to the daycare. I've thought about spending the day at the daycare, but in the end realized it would be a bit odd. People would ask me why I was there, and I really wouldn't be able to give them a legitimate answer. The closest response would be "just wanted to see what the girls did here all day." In my head it would be, "go away, can't you see I'm playing blocks? Now get me a juice box."

Would be nice to just be able to go to a place where people would take care of me for the day. I would run up to someone with a hungry look, and they'd sit me down in front of a meatloaf. I would get all excited and tired running around playing laser tag until someone insisted I take a nap. I would be able to drink beer out of a box with a straw, play dodge ball and hit a kid named Eric (VP of Product Development) in the face, get in trouble for pantsing Christine from accounting. And at the end of this awesome day, my wife would pick me up, strap me into my seat and take me home. Now why can't they have this for adults?

Failing company

There's a reason a company fails. A lot of it has to do with the art of idiocy, as championed by one particular fellow in the White House. The rest is probably just a whole slew of stupidity and incompetence working in perfect synergy. I would also declare that people who walk into meetings using the word 'synergy' are also to blame. In any case, we've seen a good amount for corporate failures this year, and I would imagine we'll see a lot more of them in the months to come.

GM, Ford and Chrysler are looking for $26billion for operational costs for about 5-6 months. If they don't get it, we could be looking at the collapse of the American auto industry. They're looking for this cash from the taxpayers, and that has me really annoyed. First of all, why the hell would I want to give money to this loosing triumvirate of a mismanaged business? I've never purchased a car from them... ever. So why the hell would I want to give them money now? If I give them a bailout, will I see a hodgepodge of metal and scraps on wheels they'd like to call a Ford in my driveway? What does one do with a Ford Taurus anyways besides wonder why it's so ugly, or if it'll start today? Here's an idea, build cars people will want to buy instead of recycling 20 year old platforms with crappy transmissions and sedans that handle like trucks, and trucks that handle like cargo containers on wheels. Why not listen to what consumers have been begging you for the last 10 years. Better build for the money, reliability, attractive lines(YOU DO NOT BUILD SOMETHING LIKE THE PT CRUISER... EVER!), fuel economy, safety (good luck with your Cadillac airbag), resale value. It's like you're driving people to Honda and Toyota on purpose. At least their cars won't spontaneously accelerate into schoolyards!

If you won't build the products that people want, like any other company, you should be left to rot. I don't care what the impact will be if you're gone. It's a transitional pain I believe we need to go through to right the economy and auto industry in general. I don't care about the ripple you'll cause in unemployment. Things will get bad, but it won't get better with companies like this around. So go f*ck yourself till you're blue Circuit City, Sears, GM, Ford, Chrysler, Bush... but don't drag me down with you.

Where did my weekend go

My precious weekend, where did you go so fast. Seems like it was just Friday afternoon as I sped home happily. Now, I'm moping on a Sunday evening watching the minutes tick by. Soon, it's going to be Monday again. Monday, the most malicious of all days. Really Monday. Why can't you be more like Friday, or better yet, Saturday?

Hello Kitty saves Japan

Ok, maybe Hello Kitty saving Japan is a bit of a stretch, but there is some truth to it. To get what I'm saying you have to look at our own consumerist society. So much of what we buy these days, if you look for the made from identity, chances are it will be from these three countries: China, Japan, Korea. I don't recall the last time I actually purchased something made in the USA, besides my cheeseburger. If one were a consumer in Japan and you looked for the made from label, you'd find the same thing. However, they would probably see a lot more items made domestically than we would. In fact, many of their products are not exported, but for domestic consumption only. Illustrated above, you will not find the handy umbrella dryer when entering a mall, and you certainly won't find delicious Hello Kitty cookies.

This domestic manufacturing and consumption does play a part in mitigating the awful effects of a depressed global economy. After all, isn't it best to keep your money in your own pockets, than shipping said dollars to someone else? We should probably follow Japans trend of domestic consumption. So, this holiday season, don't buy a Samsung flatscreen for Christmas. Don't buy a Playstation3 or any MP3 player as none are made in the USA. In fact, don't buy a laptop, shoes, clothes, pretty much anything you see in BestBuy, Walmart or Target. Instead, give the gift that shows you care about America. The one thing that is made, and made right in the USA. Give your family and friends a cheeseburger. You'll be supporting our local economy, and helping us stave off recession.

Tent cities across america

I had a friend send me these two videos that completely ruined my morning, so I thought I would share:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7-kq2w4N4eA

http://www.liveleak.com/view?i=329_1219172915

What makes me ill are the homeless children. It also makes me angry. The most powerful nation in the world, and we accept homeless children as a norm these days. It's sickening.

I think about how we got here as a nation, and in no small part it is Americans living beyond their means. And not just a bit, but really beyond their means. For many of us, family savings just don't exist. There's no cash reserve to fall back on when things get tough. And for most Americans, you're just one paycheck away from loosing your home. And it didn't help that there was constant advertising from credit companies telling us to spend, spend, spend. Big box stores telling us to finance and buy... everything. The American dream for many is an illusion. I think we need a... and I hate this word, paradigm shift to living. A shift in belief of what is enough, and what our true needs and wants are. I think a good step would be to just start ignoring commercials. Stop window shopping. Ignore the Paris Hiltons of the world, and just concentrate on what's right in front of us. Our families, children and yes, even pets. Look at what is sustainable as a lifestyle. For some it may be too late. You've already decided to buy a new car when you didn't need to. You took out a home equity loan on your home when you didn't have that much equity to start with. You borrowed money for a vacation that you didn't need, but wanted. All these things that we aquire to make ourselves feel better. We justify them because we think about how stressed our lives are, and that we need to be rewarded once in a while. Well, all these rewards add up. I think we'd feel a lot better if we saved more, lived conservatively and in return, probably more contently. My guess is you won't need so many self indulgent rewards when you're more content (and not having to worry about money all the time). Oh well, this is my small rant for the day.

As for me, I'm trying to live within my means. I've been driving the same car for about 8-9 years now. We purchased a home we could afford, and have maybe 8 more years of payments. We don't make extravagent purchases, and I don't recall the last time I went on a plane for a vacation. We're pretty content, so in general, we're not looking for anything extra. It's not much of a paradigm shift for me, because to my core I'm a minimalist. But for those that like the glitz, I think you better make sure you can afford it, otherwise, you could loose it all in this economy.

Oh, and sorry for not posting for a while, but the future of this countries economy has me pretty worried. I'm trying to figure out what's going to be self sustaining as income for myself and family in the future.

Super holiday crash spectacular

I think the coming months might get pretty ugly. I also think the Senate should stop using the term "bailout". Maybe we should start calling it something else, like "the holiday fun and cheer bill". At this point, without some assurances to our flaky capital markets, we're going to see a pretty ugly holiday. Companies that are already on edge, say Sears, Kmart, Circuit City, may well be breathing their last breath this year. Without capital to stock their shelves full of new goodies, this could be a pretty lackluster holiday for them. Not a good thing when large retailers usually depend on these coming months to put them in the black. Then again, who can buy? Most banks may, in the coming weeks choose to cut your credit limits. By how much I'm not sure, but they're already starting to do this to retail businesses. With the closing of retail outlets or bankruptcies of entire chains ahead of us, how well will ouy local economy absorb this new wave of unemployed? Also, how well will we be able to absorb a potentially large wave of homeless in the coming months? This crisis couldn't have hit us at a worse time. This was a bulls-eye for the gods of peril.

Bank failures

There's been a bit of a financial meltdown as of late. It won't affect you if you're in a commercial bank with a savings or checking account that is FDIC insured. Lately we've seen Lehman and Wachovia fall apart in relatively short order. I think the next banks that may be in trouble are Fidelity and Soveriegn. I can't tell you what to do in these times, but I can tell you I will be moving into a cash position. I don't agree with the points on the bailout, and I know without it the markets will implode. But I still believe a massive correction will be better for us in the long run than blowing through $700billion. But unlike the last Great Depression, we are now in a globalized electronic economy. What does this mean? It means we'll be able to weather this storm much better than in the past. We have the infrastructure and mechanics to allow healthy companies to leverage their books to grow stronger, and absorb the weak. It's going to happen on a global scale... we won't be left to carry this burden alone in the US. Just understand, that in the coming 12-24 months, cash will be king. If you don't have any, you're going to be in trouble. If you have it, hold onto it until a clear path identifies itself. Until then, don't speculate on the market... you can't afford to right now.

I like rain

I guess having grown up in Vancouver, you either hated the rain or you got used to it, and in my case, even grow fond of it. I've always liked the rain. There's something very calming about it, and it gives the area a good cleaning. For me, rainy days are "indoor read a book" days. And the sounds of the rain... just love the sounds. Rain on the windows, rain on an upside down empty bucket, rain on trees... just love the sounds of rain.

St. Peter's

I spent some time out this weekend by myself in St. Peter's off route something or rather. I don't know really because truth be told, I was just driving aimlessly. I just wanted to find a place to practice taking some more pictures, and St. Peter's seemed as good a place as any. It's really not much of a town. It's about 10 buildings or so, and some parking.

It was a beautiful day, and there were plenty of bikers around. I mean, they were everywhere enjoying the weather while you still could. Cause from what I understand... it's September already. Oh where oh where did my year go.



Anyways, I ended up following the sounds of water and made my way to a small pond or grotto of some kind. I just kinda followed the people with towels. Unfortunately the path consisted of rocks. Lots and lots of rocks. And when I say path, I mean a random assortment of big and small rocks to climb over. Anyways, was a good place to experiment with shutter speeds on fast moving water.



As usual, have posted the images at Shutterfly. Oh 2008, you're speeding by a bit fast this year.

Homesick

Seems like more often than not, I'm getting more and more homesick. I miss my city of Vancouver. I miss the people.

Philadelphians can be so very exhausting to deal with. Everyone here is so angry most of the time... and it spreads like a disease. I even seem to have caught this nastiness, and it's not good. Doesn't make for a happy person. I can understand if you've lived here all your life, and you just accept that's how people are. Well, it's not normal... at least for me. After all these years, Philadelphia is still a very un-natural place for me. I've never seen such a conglomeration of rude, callous people. Trust me when I say Vancouver is the complete opposite. In Vancouver, I wouldn't even think to litter. Here... well the whole city is a trash bin isn't it?

Yeah, city of brotherly love. If this is the city of brotherly love... then, yeah... yikes.

:(

Asshole drivers

I wish I didn't have to drive. I wish we had massive bike trails to and from work and residential centers, so I could bike. I wish we had a more refined public transit system that wasn't full of hoodlums and crack heads in Philadelphia. But we don't. So I drive.

I wish I didn't have to drive. In one transit, I can experience multiple incidents. Like this morning. Why is it that people insist to stop their cars right behind you, almost touching you? Is it some kind of game to them? Hmm, how close can I get to the car in front of me, because that way, in my retarded brain I'm making up inches on my commute. In defensive driving courses, they instruct you to actually leave enough room in front of you to maneuver out of your stopped position if you need to. I guess this guy drives like an asshole because he was never instructed to drive any other way.

When you're on a highway, and there are two lanes, and you see merging traffic coming ahead and you are clear on your left... MOVE TO THE LEFT LANE you selfish idiotic moron! People drive like they're f*cking entitled to be in that position. Driving isn't about how you f*cking feel you moron, it's a serious exercise in control and situational awareness. Why do most people drive emotionally? Stop f*cking around and drive. If your brain is thinking about anything else than driving behind the wheel, then you're dangerous to everyone else. Chances are you aren't too smart to begin with, so don't you think texting and driving is a bit of a stretch for you, you pathetic ameoba with arms?

My favorite are these moronic punks behind the wheel that think they're driving superstars. They think they own the road when in reality, they probably don't even make enough money above the poverty line to pay taxes. Yet they'll drive a souped up car with big shiny rims and a ridiculous spoiler on the back. You know these dorks... we've all seen them. They're driving habits are just a clear reflection of them. No responsibility, no respect for others, no clear head for anything important. Please, get off my road. I actually make enough to maintenance the tarmac you're using.

There's no need for any of us to drive like an idiot. By weaving in and out of traffic, you may gain two car lengths... and cause an accident. It's not worth it. People need to just drive rationally, and honest to God, we'll all get to where we're going faster. It's better than being stuck in traffic because of another accident between morons. As much as I enjoy watching stupid people scratch their heads on the side of the road with one car upside down, I'd rather get to where I'm going to without incident.

Good doggy

So in Argentina, a 14 year old girl puts her newborn out to die. A stray dog hears the cries, somehow manages to get the baby to where she is nursing her own litter, and saves the baby. Now, I can't really blame the 14 year old girl. No one can imagine the stress of that decision on a child in such a religious country. And how the hell does a 14 year old girl get pregnant in the first place?! In her mind, she must have been thinking about self preservation, while I'm sure douchbag father walks. Anyways, just watch the vid... amazing story.



I'm going to choose to believe that the dogs, childs and puppies futures will be a good one. That this miracle will bestow blessings on everyone involved. Probably not, because most people are cruel in their actions and indifference, but would nice to have a good ending.

Saturday drive

Today is a beautiful day. Temperature is sitting around 80 degrees with a breeze, and no humidity at all. I started out to Home Depot this morning to pick-up some light bulbs and a replacement filter for the AC. Brought my camera along to take some pictures.

Delicious zesty sausage from the food cart in front of Home Depot. I've heard reports of people getting sick on these... but if you ask me, they're well worth the hospital trip.


So after my meal, I drove around and ended up in an industrial complex behind Pottstown. Decided to park and take some shots there.




Afterwards, I ended up making a big loop home and stopped by a corn field to take a few more shots. Again, I've uploaded the pictures to Shutterfly.

Some new pictures

Uploaded a few pictures from lunch to Shutterfly.

Eeeep! Needles

I was at a doctors appointment this morning. It was my three month re-visit I guess. Doc says I have elevated blood pressure. Not necessarily high or problematic blood pressure, but elevated and still not good. So I've been taking medication for it... which doc says I'll have to take for the rest of my life.

Anyways, as usual he planned on drawing some blood... with a needle. I'm usually ok with this but I still don't like the idea of getting stuck. So he put a needle in my right arm, and for about 30 seconds... nothing. Pushed the needle in some more, which resulted in more nothing and elevated pain. Got a bit of blood but not enough to fill the vial. Then we tried the left arm with more success. So I got double needled today.

So while this is happening, I'm actually feeling a bit light headed. In the past, you could stick a needle in me and drain away. Go ahead, make a blood smoothy if you want... got plenty of blood. Not this time. I'm not sure if the medication is making me produce less blood or thinning it out... but I've never been that queasy before drawing blood. Actually had to lie down for about 5 minutes afterwards, which made me feel oh so manly. So having my blood drawn is way down on my activities list now, next to getting sat on by a fat person.

Oh, doc says my blood pressure is more normal now and everything in my last blood work came out fine.

Opened Shutterfly site

I plan on posting my images onto Shutterfly for now. I may try to consolidate everything into a Myspace page in the future... but honestly, was confused as all beans when I looked at their interface.

For now, you can find my photos at: http://greentealunch.shutterfly.com/

Kids playing

Seems like all the kids were out front playing today. Was a good opportunity to take some more shots with the D40. One thing that did alarm me was a bright green pixel on some of the photos. I didn't even notice them until I brought the images into Photoshop. I Was scared that I had a bad pixel on the CCD sensor. Looked around Google, and apparently it's common. I had a "hot" pixel. It can happen on higher ISO settings on the cameras, and they come and go. Nothing to be alarmed about. Also, in the end it's very easy to fix in Photoshop.

I like the fast picture cycling of the DLSR cameras. You can snap picture after picture pretty quickly, so it's less likely you'll miss those perfect shots. I always hated having to wait for the slow picture cycles of the point and shoot Canon I had. So many missed smiles with that camera.

I do wish I had a better zoom on the lens. The 18-55mm that comes with the D40 is an awesome lens. Just doesn't have the reach that I want with some shots... especially for those nice depth of field shots. So looks like I'll be shopping around for an 18-135mm or 55-200mm lens soon.

Nikon night pictures

I was out around 2am on Sunday to take some pictures with my new Nikon D40. I brought my tripod along as I planned to do some shooting with longer exposure times. I also wanted to play with the aperture to get a better understanding between shutter speed and aperture.

What I got was really interesting to me. First, the night had a full moon and it was actually pretty bright. But having the exposure extended really captured so much light that it almost seemed like day. I mean, it was really much darker than what these shots make the evening to be. Unfortunately I couldn't get a good shot of the moon. It looked like a little star in the sky to the camera. I'm going to have to figure out what I was doing wrong in another night.

Anyways, if I take more images I may open a Flikr account to share. Here's some of the night shots. I took a lot more, but most were blurry. It's pretty hard to focus at night when everything looks black to the naked eye :)



Some interesting light streaks from the picture below. Again, totally couldn't see that with the naked eye.


Got this one when a car passed by.


Mandatory picture of a confused Brian.

Lack of posts

Haven't been posting for about a week. Mostly because I'm still very into 3ds Max. There's so much to the program, and I just only realized yesterday that there is a second component to the application called Character Studio. So lots of stuff to go over. Also, as the summer is ending, we're gearing up for the girls to go back to school. Well, for one, this will be her first year in Kindergarten. She's excited but scared at the same time. It's very nostalgic at times to see them go through these phases, as they would remind me of my younger years as well. My entry into the school system up to about the second grade was like a roller coaster. There are some pretty sad "little Dave" stories... but I won't bore you with them :)

Ahh, the start of a new school year. Things are going to get even more crazy. Oh well, that's what it is to be a parent.

On another note, as if I didn't have enough distractions, I purchased a Nikon D40 camera yesterday. Again, even that purchase made me feel a bit nostalgic. I remember when I was very young, my father had an SLR. Don't remember what brand it was. Odd thing is, I don't remember him ever really using it. But the camera was always around. Anyways, it's a good investment for recording these awesome years :)

I'm so very confused

So, today we went from an amazing piece of human discovery about engineering an artificial eye to this...

Clay Aiken has a baby?!? Wait, I thought he was... I mean, wasn't he like... so confused right now. I understand the principles behind the cybernetic eye... but this is just too confusing.

Artificial eye

Came across an article that struck my interest. I think it's amazing when we can replicate a human part or function. It implies that we've learned enough about said part or function to mimic it in mechanical form. In this instance... the human eye. There was something new that I learned about this article that I thought was ingenious of the human body.

The human eye apparently constantly shifts the viewing area by tiny increments to build a higher resolution image that the brain processes as a whole image. Amazing. I mean, I think I'm looking straight forward to type this blog right now, but in reality my eye is making all these micro shifts to build a better picture of what I'm looking at.

So by trying to replicate a human part, we had to decipher this very smart function first. Very cool. From a technology standpoint, you could build a much higher resolution camera with a much smaller CMOS sensor for image resolution. Something that we may have never thought of it we didn't explore this human function. Hats off to you smarties! Keep it up so you can build me a cyberbody that can last me a 1000 years.

Kids are cute

Was raining a bit by the time I got home yesterday from work. It was a nice relief from the heat that day. Anyways, everyone was outside on the front porch, and the girls with their friend from next door were all oil painting on a canvas. Was very cute. Messy, but cute. Was a really nice greeting coming home from work.

Being single and living in the city in my younger days was nice... real nice. But this was definitely better by miles. To the two of you that are about to have little ones. You're in for a great change in life... and the kids couldn't have been brought into this world by better mommies :)

Link time

There are a lot of consumer products out there... some good, some not worth your money. I don't like wasting my money on poor electronics. It's a sin. How do you know what is decent or not? Well, for me, I like real world reviews from people who have used and purchased the devices. What better way to find out if a product is crappy than from the misfortune of others.

One great place for reviews is www.testfreaks.com. It's a really useful resource.

Another place to get user feedback is www.newegg.com. Even if you don't buy from them (which they are a totally safe online retailer), they house a huge amount of user feedback from buyers.

So why are these places better than your Amazon review? These are electronic specific sites that people in the electronic know go to. I wouldn't go here for medical advice... cause they're not that kind of shopper... but for the most part, these reviewers are savvy tech purchasers. Thought I'd share for anyone planning on a tech purchase :)

Paranoid baby

For some reason... Brian always looks paranoid. Probably didn't capture it that well in this picture, but he seems to have this "look", like he's watching out for something. He'll kinda look at you at times out of the corners of his eye, like he doesn't trust you. Sometimes he'll just stare squarely at you... without blinking much. But he always seems to have, what I can only describe as a "paranoid baby stare."

Paranoid baby monologue- "What, what do you want? Why are you holding me? What was that? Was that something? OK, was nothing... but what, you still holding me? Watching you. Watching you good. You'll trip up, and I'll be right here... cause I can't move."

By the way, the camera on the iPhone is horrific. Had to adjust this image to high heaven to not make Brian look green.

IHOP lunch

Sometimes, only pancakes can cure your day.

Exxon not poor

Exxon posts record $11.68 billion profit. Wow, what a load off my mind. Was really worried about them, but then they announced that they made money last quarter... and not just a bit, but apparently a lot. Thank god. They must have been sweatin for a while, what with all the talk about electric cars and crap. Way to go Exxon! Good for you buddy! And totally awesome that you have enough money to buy back your own stock! That could only mean good things for you in the future right? Valuations gonna go up and up. Gonna just keep on pimping that oil well... and us dry. Nothin' says, hey people, get ready to be totally f*cked some more cause we're gonna make even more super crazy profits, like buying back your own shares. But I guess you want to own as much of yourself as you can seeing how you make $1,485.55 a f*cking second.

Nice old guys at Staples

So I was in Staples today to get a new laser printer. The one in our accounting office died, so naturally everyone in there went into a ritualistic freak fest. Let's just say it involves a lot of nagging... people that annooooy you Mr. Marsh.

Anyways, we couldn't wait for our contracted awesome tech people, so I went out to Staples to get a new laser printer. There I met a really nice, older gentleman that was very pleasant and helpful. It was fun because he was a bit of a technophile... which I think is rare and very cool in someone that is 50+ in years. Anyways, the person that was at the register was older too... they were like Staples buds. Very nice pair. I rarely have a nice shopping experience. Most of the people that work at these places are zombies. Really odd to find someone so into their job and be so helpful.

So after that I came back into the office to install said printer. Which by the way, for $150, it was a really nice Brother black and white laser printer with built in Ethernet and wireless! I know! $150 right? The equivalent HP was like $300+. So it was back to nag central. Kinda went like, nag, nag nag nag, nag nag, nag. Nag? Nag, nag nag. Nag nag? Nagna, nag nag. Nag?! Naaaaaag. Nag nag.

3DS Max

OK, I haven't posted for a bit because I've been distracted by a new application. Probably be boring to most, but I really like 3D applications. I've used Lightwave for a while, Caligari Truespace as well, but I've always shyed away from 3DS Max... not sure why.

Anyways, I've made the transition to 3DS. It's clearly a superior program to Truespace and... to my sadness, Lightwave (I really like Lightwave.) Anyways, as a orientation project I thought I'd make a cellphone. I haven't wrapped my head around the photometric lighting system 3DS employs through Mental Ray (yet), so I've just used old fashioned Ray Tracing for the lighting and materials system. Photometric is a far superior renderer capable of absolute real world lighting... hope to figure that out by the weekend. Still, I have a lot to get used to before I try modeling something larger like an office building.

Rock band dual

Just want to proclaim my victory at lunch today over Sung. We had a guitar dual in Rock Band where I completely crushed him. Crushed.

Eye twitching

So since last night around 9pm I've had this eye twitch in my left eyelid. Yeah, and I was fine this morning and it started up again when I got into the office. So like everyone else, I referred to the Internet before a doctor, because all doctors are useless.

Anyways, I came across this:

Causes of Eye Twitching
There are various causes of eye twitching in its serious and not so serious formats. The more common causes for eye twitching include:

• Corneal irritation or injury
• Stress
• Lack of sleep
• Fatigue
• Prolonged staring or eye strain
• Neurological disorders
• Possibly Hereditary

Of course I immediately focused on Neurological disorders. So if you have an eye twitch, it could mean there could be something wrong with your brain? Honestly I'm hoping it's stress related or something less deadly than... yeah, sorry but your brain is "f*cked up."

Then I've had this blood pressure thing, and sometimes you can kinda feel the upper hemisphere of your brain... at least I think I do. Then sometimes I get this thing where your vision gets marred by these bright strands. Not a lot, but at least once a year. Aaaargh. I can only hope I don't have a brain tumor. I'd go to a doctor, but again, they're useless.

Link time

Just wanted to share this. It's the opposite of Fox News... it's HappyNews.

Finally, a news agency that takes winning a Hemingway look-a-like contest seriously.

Need to eat less for lunch

I think lunch ends up being the biggest, least healthiest meal of my day. I really need to cut down on what I eat at lunch and where I eat. Bottom line... I need to exercise. I may have to take up my UFC training again. I really hated having to give up my octagon fighting matches in the jungles of Peru, but I just couldn't take the airline food anymore.

Nice people

So yesterday my wife had a flat tire when she and the girls got into the parking lot. Wait, reverse a bit. They were about 45 minutes from home at a church which happens to teach language classes... and that's what they were there for. Well, she got out of the parking lot and the drivers side front tire was flat. About 8 people from the church came out to help with the tire and keep the girls cool. It was 95 degrees or something out there yesterday. Nice people. I would have been a lot more worried if circumstances were different... but seems like everything was under control. I was at home watching over the pudgy little baby boy at the time.

Anyways, after the event she gets a call from a member of the church, which suspiciously ended up more like a recruiting call. I'm usually wary of "chuch people" as they always seem somewhat cultish to me. They were wonderful people, but we just couldn't think of any way to find time every Sunday. So seems like it's just too far and potentially troublesome to go that far for language class. We'll have to find something closer for the girls. Though I do wish more poeple were that nice without having to be part of a church.

Staying positive

So I found out last night that my sister-in-laws husband was just recently laid-off. They have 3 boys and a home they purchased when market prices were high. But it was a home they really wanted for the kids... and there's nothing wrong with wanting for your kids. I think in the short term it's going to be rough for them. It sucks, but it's a story you hear more often these days. I don't think our economy has ever recovered since the dot-com crash. I remember just when things were looking better, we had 9/11. It's been downhill ever since. The loss of real wealth compounded by the loss of home equity has been really harsh. Mix in the war, rising inflation and fuel costs... times are tough. I don't think the economy has ever had so many concurrent problems at the same time... serious problems.

I can only hope he gets back on his feet as soon as possible. If not, it's going to be very stressful on their family... on any family. I think my wife and I may be more paranoid than they were. We do without large vacations, opting instead for small day trips. We've tried to make vehicle purchases for the long term, because you just loose too much money in the cost of swapping out vehicles. We've invested in some commodities, things that will go up in value as things get worse. But even still, I know things can still go horribly wrong at any time. It's tough to stay positive. You could try to ignore everything that's happening to be a bit more blissful... but really at your own risk.

But it's also not healthy to dwell on these things. I know if I obsess about these things, I tend to miss the good that happens. For the most part, they're little joys like watching my little boy get into that pudgy baby stage. He looks so cute and absurdly silly at the same time. Enjoying the moment of a nice cool breeze, or finding a place to people watch. If I look closely into my little girls face, and she smiles... I can believe things will be better, and that I can net out more positive than negative in life. If I can paint a perfect stroke... I can imagine a prosperous future. But I know for my sister-in-law and her family, things are going to be hard for a while. For them, the poor economy is just too real. But I have to believe things will be better for them, because I want to believe the same thing for me and mine.

... and I want to believe the same for you too.

Cockmeat champion

OK, still a bit on the subject of douches... or in this case, just a plain old monster. So Israel did a prisoner exchange this week. They wanted back two of their fallen soldiers. In exchange, they handed over five Lebanese prisoners and about 200 bodies. Yeah, that's a lot of bodies. But people are mostly outraged over this winner below, and mind you, this is the happiest picture I could find:


Samir Kantar (cockmeat eating champ for all time), pictured right with his buddies, and oh so happy. Anyways, he's free now. He was in an Israeli prison for killing a police officer, a father and daughter of four. He shot the father and made the little girl watch, then killed her by smashing her head in with the butt of his rifle and a rock. The mother who was hiding tried to keep her two year old from crying and giving away their location, accidentally smothered her own child. The mother is the sole survivor of that night. Samir, you look like a monster and you are a monster. Way to make your mother proud.

Middle East... what the f*ck is wrong with you? Why do you consistently blanket my airwaves with these horrible, miserable, idiotic, in-human stories of just complete mind-blowing craziness? Is there any way that we can at this point just sever you from the rest of the human race, because it's clear to me that you're not going to make it anyways. I feel like investing in the Middle East is like buying a Pinto. No matter how much effort and money you pour into it, in the end it's just going to explode.

Another item. I think my standing policy now is to just stay away from people that look like psychos... because if the news channels are any indication, they probably are a psycho.

Worlds not so greatest dad

OK, just had to share this one because the irony is just so comical. Guy was arrested in a child sex sting looking like this:



Man, these child sex offenders always look like champs, don't they? High five dude! Way to be a douche.

Useless

Do you ever get one of those people that work with you and are just clearly lazy. You know, those people that always ask you a question in hopes that your answer will align with their desire to do less work or none.

I have one... and he's really pissing me off.

In fact, I'm borderline on just letting this asshat go if it wasn't for the fact that he just makes me look super awesome in comparison.

I'm not saying you should be chugging along all 8 hours of your work day non-stop. People take breaks, they browse, they do personal errands. Honestly I don't f*cking care as long as you would at least get your crap done. Hell, I'm blogging right now from work, but at the end of the day no matter how many deadlines I have, they will be done. I'm not going to avoid them, or shove my workload onto someone else.

There used to be this absolutely horrid girl that worked here. She would send me a request for something at 4:50 in the day, and jet at 5. She would come by my office at 4:55 and ask if I got her mail from earlier today. She would then claim she sent it in the afternoon. I can check all timestamps on the mail server you stupid wh*re... you sent it at 4:50. She is one of the most useless, lazy, cocaine snorting, disgusting, wasteful things on two legs I have met thus far. How she has survived life is an absolute anomaly.

Then there's the stupid moron that would go on vacation and not alert anyone of the status of their jobs. Mostly because they were all in shambles. And these are the assholes with "many accomplished years" of experience in the field. Useless. Absolutely useless. Go find yourself a railroad and lie down, because you're useless.

We've even had someone throw their company BlackBerry at a wall in frustration because they couldn't handle the stress of the job. What stress?! You had one job to look over, and you f*cked that up so much we lost the client! She apparently had accumulated 30+ years of experience in Useless. Probably graduated Cuma Lum Crybaby.

If our economy is run any longer by similarly experienced people... I'm moving to Mongolia. No, better yet, THEY should move to Mongolia, then the Mongolians can jeer at how useless they are.

No more food

Ugh... made the mistake of making 2 hamburgers on Saturday... and eating them one after the other. I haven't felt right since. No more burgers. In fact, they have doughnuts and other snacks in the break-room today. I'd usually pounce on them, but not today... not this week.

Morning cookie

So recently, we got one of those soda vending machines. It's been here for about 3 weeks and already it's out of Mountain Dew. Useless.

But I got a little surprise on the nearby table. Sometimes snacks will be left for all to share, and this morning it was a bag of Famous Amos Cookies.



By far, they have to be my favorite cookies. I like the dry cookies. I don't really care much for the- out of the oven freshness moist cookies. I like my cookies like hockey pucks... not sure why, but always have. Had to get a pathetic Ginger Ale to wash down my spectacular cookies.

iPhone Super Monkey Ball

Now I've owned my fair share of consoles and hand held game devices over the years. Most of them were pretty decent, like the Nintendo DS Lite and Sony PSP. While the DS had a slew of fun games, the PSP was able to push out much better graphics. In fact, the PSP is like having a portable PS2 in your hands. I wasn't expecting the same level of graphics or speed that the dedicated game devices were capable of. I am pleased to find that I was wrong. Ohhh Super Monkey Ball, you are fun to play. I'd say the iPhone is almost on par with the Nintendo DS. With Super Monkey Ball, you need to tilt the playing field to move the monkey around. The sensors on the iPhone are amazingly sensitive. It was actually very easy to make minute adjustments. It was almost like having a flat board in your hand, and moving a marble around on top of it. It felt that good. So, pretty excited so far into my first foray into the iPhone games downloads. Damn you Apple for figuring out more ways for me to part with my money.

UPDATE:
"Sung" just played a few games, and killed many monkeys. You'd think he'd want to save as many monkeys as he could. Bad Sung! Bad!

iPhone 2.0 day

Updating my iPhone to the 2.0 OS now. I have already updated iTunes and peaked around in the App Store. So far so good. There seems to be a good amount of useful software out there. Looks like most of the things people complained about the iPhone have been addressed by third party software makers. Very smart of Apple. Not only do they get 30% of the revenue on any app sold on iTunes... they saved their own development costs by letting the open market fill the gaps. Then they have quality assured those apps before they even allow them onto their marketplace... the only place to get software for the iPhone. I have to say, Steve Jobs is a very savvy business man.

A lot of these applications pretty much turn the iPhone into a real PDA... and potentially with the development of software, the best one on the market. If you have stock in RIM, I'd suggest you sell it now... maybe use the money to buy Apple stock, or oil futures.

UPDATE:
I have a bricked iPhone. Apparently when you update to the new 2.0 Firmware, the phone still needs to contact the authentication servers at Apple through iTunes. Well, those servers are currently flooded and you can't get a connection. So I have a paperweight until I can connect. Hate being without a phone :(

UPDATE:
Success! Have updated the phone to 2.0. But now I can't seem to sync with iTunes to get my stuff back onto the phone. Oh well, minor issue. At least the iPhone is usable again. Will try to get an app on their later if I feel lucky.

Time flies

I don't know about you, but this year has zipped by me. I can't believe we're in July already. At this rate, I'm going to blink and it's going to be Thanksgiving. I really need to figure out how to slow down time. That or find another way of life because this is getting me old, fast. I don't want to be old...

peanut gallery - Too late!

Yeah, yeah... beat you to it. We keep talking these days about sustainable energy. I wonder if there is anything like sustainable living... without being a smelly poor hippie.

iPhone for cool kids

OK, I wasn't going to obsess about this damn phone, but as the day draws nearer (July 11th) I'm thinking more about it. Now, I already have one of the first generation iPhones. It's an 8gig phone that I payed about $299 for. Let me say I have been very happy with it. For once Apple didn't make a product that sucked rocks. Actually, they make pretty nice stuff. I just wish you didn't pay such a large premium for their products.

OK, so what will I get if I stand in line for the new iPhone? Well, for one there's the 3G network. The first gen iPhone works on the EDGE network, which is about the speed of a 56K modem. According to Apple, their 3G iPhone will be about 2.4x faster than the EDGE version. So, not as big a difference as I had hoped. The 3G network is actually able to transfer more data over the air, but the hardware version of 3G that iPhone uses is in the mid range of this data band. Not sure why they didn't go all out. Alright, next up is the integrated GPS. The first gen iPhone used cell towers and a database of wireless access points to figure out where you were. And pinpoint it isn't. It draws a circle about 500ft of where you could be. It's still useful but will not be accurate to a few feet of the new GPS version of the iPhone. Item number three is a slightly better screen resolution. It's almost not worth mentioning as the DPI increase is just 3. It will use a minutely better screen used in the iPod Touch for the production of the new iPhones. I dare anyone to tell the difference. Now the last item is a bit annoying. With the new 3G iPhones you will have to pay more for your AT&T service contract. Basically instead of $20 for the EDGE network usage you can now expect to pay $30 a month for the 3G data plan. That's $240 dollars more over the life of a 2 year contract.

So in the end. I will not be getting the 3G iPhone... maybe. Data transfer rates don't seem to be that much better to justify the upgrade, and there are other things to consider as well. The new 3G iPhone is slightly fatter, and not nearly as slim as the original. And as an owner of the first gen iPhone, I will get to download the new software update, version 2.0 of the OS. So in that sense, I am not missing out on any of the new software functions. And with the new Application Download function, I'm hoping to see a new bevy of interesting software toys to play with through the iPhone. Yes, I may be a bit jealous of a new 3G user. I may feel a bit inferior standing next to someone browsing 2.4x faster than I am. But in the end I'm still using one of the best damn cell phones out there, unlike those losers with a Blackberry. Only the "Man" and people who club baby seals use a Blackberry.