Another slow evening at our household—just relaxing after four days of training and backing up all my photos onto DVD’s as my hard drive is nearly full with RAW files. Now that I’ve been shooting more often, and many of those photo shoots involving 200+ exposures in one evening, my media drive fills up fast.

Because it takes so friggin long to burn a DVD, I’ve been poking around looking for a free version of SimCity to play and kill some time. Well in that quest, I inadvertently came upon this DOS game that I was TOTALLY addicted to back in 1997. Oddly enough, there was a period of time a few months ago that I hunted frequently for this game and COULD NOT FIND IT. Ironic that you find what you’re not looking for but were once earlier.

So the game was called Terminal Velocity and was this “3D” spaceship shoot-em game (you didn’t actually fly in space, but within the planet’s atmosphere) where you basically shoot up a bunch of crap and watch the glorious 16-bit DOS explosions fill up your screen. Oh, and the funny part is, if you don’t have a SoundBlaster 16 card, forget having any sound. Back in the day, you actually had to select which soundcard you were using; and many of us did have soundblaster 16’s then—when they were cutting edge.

Anyway, fun to have that back on my machine again and saving “the world” from a robot alien race with spaceships, tanks and various other objects intended to be destroyed. Now back to backing up photos.

Filed under: Gaming, General
1 Comment

Ok…this one made me laugh. A friend sent this to me today. VERY funny.

Personally, I can’t STAND Comcast. They’re overpriced, terrible customer service, long hold times, and have a notoriously inconsistent internet connection.

I’ve been more than pleased with Qwest and their DSL service and don’t plan on ever switching back to Comcast. They just suck all around.

Filed under: Awareness, General
1 Comment

Well, back-in-the-day when I used to work at Caribou in Hastings, I had weekly conversations with a guy named, well, Guy—I enjoyed calling him “sir” because it irritated the hell out of him by not calling him buy his name… Guy. We would banter about politics and the terrible reign of Bush & Co, and he would vigilantly work to convert me over to the dark side.

I’ve since then become a moderate—some cross-over between both the democrats and republicans—but it has more to do with other events over the course of time than being beat over the head with his “Bush Sucks” 2×4. Don’t worry Guy… I agree with a lot of your political views, so you don’t need to put me on the “must berate until blue in the face” list.

Well, apparently I’ve made his list of blogs that suck…because I don’t link to him. Truth be told, all my links on my “blog roll” or whatever are out of date and I don’t follow those anyway. Instead, I’ve moved up in the world and use an RSS feed reader and don’t bother using the links on my blog anyway.

So sir, I mean Guy, I’ll give you your link if you take me off your “blogs that suck” list. Seriously. You’re so sensitive. Must be all that cream you put in your coffee.

Filed under: Websites
1 Comment

Last week Natalie and I went to the local Carmike theater to see Oceans 13—great movie, BTW—and couldn’t help but notice all of the great trailers for up and coming films. Looks like we’re going to have a busy summer and fall season, catching up with all the good movies as they come out. Among the films I’m pretty stoked about, are Ratatouille, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, Evan Almighty, Stardust, The Bourne Ultimatum, along with a number of other films that escape my mind at the moment.

One preview had me intrigued, a film callled I Am Legend starring Will Smith. The film doesn’t show until December and seems awfully early to start hyping up a film if you ask me. But hey, it has Will Smith, is a film about the end of civilization as we know it, and involves a little heart-stopping action from what I gather. ‘Course, that also reminds me of another film of his.

So I looked into finding more information about I Am Legend, and it turns out it’s based on the book “I Am Legend”, a 1954 science fiction novel by Richard Matheson about the last man alive in Los Angeles, California; and the plot basically involves one man against a world full of blood-thirsty vampires.

The book takes place in the then-future of 1976–1979, and opens with the monotony and horror of the daily life of the protagonist, Robert Neville. Neville is apparently the only survivor of an apocalypse caused by a pandemic of a bacterium the symptoms of which are very similar to vampirism. He lives in a house fortified against nocturnal attacks by the roaming infected, and sallies forth by daylight to kill the sleeping vampires. Every day he also makes repairs to his house, boarding up windows, stringing and hanging garlic, and disposing of vampires’ corpses on his lawn.
[source: Wikipedia]

There’s one major problem that I have with this whole storyline—one normal human against a whole race of vampires in search for fresh blood—there’s only one guy left with fresh blood. How else is this race to survive without more victims to feed their thirst? In theory, anyway, that “vampire” race would all die off eventually from the lack of fresh blood.

I was hoping for something a little bit more compelling than yet-another-zombie-like-flick. But I guess you can’t expect Hollywood to come out with ideas of their own—it’s easier to use other people’s classic stories, authors that had imaginations of their own.

I think I’ll still go see “I Am Legend”, as I’m sure Will Smith will put on a great performance and there will probably be a storyline buried somewhere in the midst of the CG, scale models, and thriller sequences, but at this point my expectations aren’t that high.

<rant>

On a completely different note, can I tell you how stupid Carmike Cinema’s “digital projection” commercial is during the previews? It’s dumb on three levels:

1. For starters the video quality of said commercial SUCKS! It looked like it was made by a low-grade 3CCD camera and had poor lighting and color, bad post production work, and junior-level CG text animation during the staged testimonials about how great digital is over film. [It is, don't get me wrong...but I think we all can tell the difference.]
2. One of the staged testimonials compare the change from film projection to digital as going from records to mp3’s. That’s a poor comparison in two ways: 1) most audiophiles still prefer records and their pro-grade turntables to mp3’s, which takes quality audio and compresses it, whereby cutting the quality of the audio down exponentially; and 2) an MP3’s quality is dependent upon what bitrate you use (kbps). Even a somewhat scratchy LP will sound better than an mp3 encoded at 64 kbps. A proper comparison would have been “going from cassette tapes to CD’s”—you cannot refute that comparison.
3. And finally, why the heck do they have to waste our time with a minute-long commercial about how digital projection is better, when they already have a 15-second bumper before the film starts, clearly showing that it’s a film shown in digital. Between all the previews and the god-forsaken commercials we have to put up with, why give us more needless crap to watch? Lets get on with the film already!

Wow…did I just rant that long about something stupid? I think I did. Take a hint Carmike…pull that dumb commercial off your preview sequence before your films. It isn’t helping matters. The quality of it sucks, it’s too long, and we’re already being told later on in another bumper clip that it’s a digital film.

</rant>

Ok. I’m done.

Filed under: Culture, General
4 Comments

Today I posted another “refresher” ad on craigslist, offering a free photo shoot / portraiture sessions in exchange for prints/cd—and the primary motivation being to get more practice in and diversify my portfolio a bit. So I’m expanding my portfolio beyond just portraitures, to publicity photos for bands, artists, etc., and helping beginning models with putting together some headshots for them and general fashion photography. I figured it’d be something different to try and see how that goes.

Well, the response today alone was pretty crazy. I’ve got two sets of musicians/bands that I’ll be photographing within the next weeks, a couple entry-level fashion models, and a couple portrait sessions for whatever. This was exactly the kind of response I was hoping for—some greater level of activity to diversify my portfolio and help others to reach their goals vicariously through free pictures.

In the meantime, I’ve been studying like a bandit on posing and further studies in portraiture, with the hopes of improving my skills and becoming a better photographer.

I know one thing’s for certain—I need to get a better handle on flash photography and know what I’m doing and why I’m doing it. I’ll get there soon enough, but that’s one major hurdle that I’ve acknowledged that I have before me.

Filed under: Photography
No Comments

This morning our house is being shown and I’ve effectively been kicked out of the house (for an hour) and am hanging out in Stillwater for awhile until I have to pick up my wife and can return back home. To kill time, I’ve decided to grab a coffee and scone at Caribou and use their WI-FI connection for awhile—check the e-mail, blog a little, read the daily news, etc.

If you’ve ever used Caribou’s WI-FI connection, you know that you basically have your first hour for free with no obligation to buy; but then after that first hour you need to get a card with an access code. They’re essentially encouraging you to purchase a beverage or food item, so that you’re not just sitting there leaching off their connection and not supporting them at all.

So after ordering my small skim mocha (extra hot) and my low-fat cranberry scone I asked the young woman at the counter for a WI-FI coupon, as I was certain that I’d be here more than an hour. She hesitated and said, “sorry, I can’t just give out WI-FI coupons…and besides the first hour is free.” Miffed, I reminded her that I just made a purchase and by rights am entitled to a card.

I’m not sure what got into her, but she fronted me and said, I can’t just give these out. We don’t just give out cards because people will come and just use the internet without buying anything. Again, I reminded her that I just made a purchase—what part of that looks like exploiting their WI-FI connection to you?

After deliberating about this for a few minutes, drawing some stares from other customers, and her co-workers giving her subtly disapproving looks, the WI-FI nazi surrendered over a coupon to me, but only after saying, “if my manager were here he wouldn’t hand over a card without making a purchase.”

DOH!

I turned away with WI-FI coupon in hand and murmuring words of disgust as I made my way to my table. Now if I can only get a seat near the fireplace…it’s cold in here.

Know your rights:
** Terms & Conditions
* Participating Caribou Coffee locations only - see our Locations page for WiFi availability.
* Must be 14 years of age or older.
* One free hour of WiFi usage per customer per location per day (24 hour period) at which point customer must enter a WiFi access code. Code is obtained by making a minimum purchase of $1.50 (including tax).
* Caribou Coffee reserves the right to monitor and limit content accessed via the WiFi connectivity.
* Users must register and create a login to access WiFi.
* Customers will be notified via a pop-up 15 minutes prior to the end of their hour so they may obtain a code to continue service.
* WiFi codes must be used within 24 hours of issue.
* One free hour of usage is continuous and determined by time of login. User may not log out and continue hour at a later time.

Filed under: Culture
No Comments

Well, my cheeky little friend Jamison has gone and done it now…bum¹. He’s recently upgraded from a Powerbook G4 to the new Macbook Pro. And knowing how I’ve been day-dreaming about leaving the world of Microsoft behind and joining the Apple conspiracy, that bum’s gone and done something completely irrational!! Well, between his utmost generosity and probably a bit of pity for my soul, the bum gave me his Powerbook G4.

Bum.

So I write you this glorious evening from a Mac. It’s a whole different world from what I’m used to…all this Alt-Click, Right-Click business. Now I’ve got a whole different way of doing things to get used to. But hey, I don’t mind.

Thank you Jamison for your insane generosity. Bum.

¹ The Origin of Bum

Filed under: General
No Comments