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Links 4/19

Traffic in India—Wow, and I thought traffic in Mexico was bad.
Photography Companies Feeling the Pinch—All I can say is that I completely agree with the author’s last paragraph. That is definitely what has taken me this long to actually go out and purchase a camera.

It’s a been a rough century for the traditional camera kings. Many of the traditional camera makers were late to embrace the new digital upstarts, and when they did, they found themselves at a huge disadvantage.
103” Plasma Display—I know what I want for Christmas!
Table for the Pool—Is it just me, or does this have mess in the pool written all over it?

I’ve finally got a camera. I’ve been wanting to get one for a long time, but I never seemed to have the motivation to spend the money. However, after taking all that time to clean up the scanned in analog photos, I couldn’t take it anymore. Plus, a coworker wanted to take a photography class with me, so it’s a no-brainer.

Anyways, I bought the Nikon d70s kit which comes with the body and a 18-70mm lens. In addition, I purchased a 50mm f/1.8 lens. So far I’m very happy with it, but I may get the 50mm f/1.4 instead later. The 1.8 doesn’t let in a lot of light, and the flash keeps trying to be used even in good lighting areas.

I’ve also got my hands on my Dad’s old Nikon F with FTN viewfinder along with 3 lenses: nikkor 50mm f/1.4, nikkor 135mm f/3.5, and sigma 80-200 f/3.5-4. Unfortunately, all of the lenses are old enough to warrant needing an AI conversion, which they haven’t had, so I can’t use them on my new body. Unfortunately, for my camera, I don’t know if it’s even worth having it done. My Dad said I could throw them up on eBay, but I don’t if I want to do that either. Decisions, decisions, decisions.

Well, with all of this going on, there will definitely be an influx of pictures in the gallery. Speaking of which, I need to get a link up on the sidebar for that.

Update 4/18/2006 11:14 PM
Just got out of the photography class. I definitely think I’ll be paying them for the other 7 weeks. Also, after talking with a few of the people there, I’ll probably be selling the Nikon F and lenses. Basically, manually focusing with such a small viewfinder (smaller than 35mm) will be next to impossible. Be sure to keep an eye out for them on craigslist if you’re interested.

Oh, and there’s a “Pictures” link in the sidebar now, yay!

Weekend Wrapup

Wow, talk about a beautiful Friday and Saturday (and Sunday started out great). Friday evening started out with appetizers out on the patio with Erin, my parents and my brother (Jason), who came down for the weekend. It was too gorgeous not to be outside, and well the apartment was a little warm. We all headed across the street for dinner at May Street Market.

Dinner was quite appetizing, and the atmosphere was nice and modern. It appears to be a completely different restaurant than the Italian place it used to be, but that’s only from observing externally as I never actually ate there. The market also has a large lounge area where the full menu is also served. I can see going back there just for drinks and desserts sometime, especially since it’s so close.

Post diner, we headed back out on the patio with some wine. The evening was just too enjoyable not to be outside. Around 11 I brought my parents to their hotel, and Jason, Binford, and I played some guitar hero. Jason played until I told him to stop at around 3am. I think he was addicted. Maybe it was all the rockin’ out?

The next day the fam, Erin, and I strolled around Millennium and Grant park. I showed them the bean, it was a glorious day. We then hit up Portillo’s for some Big Beefs and Chicago Style hotdogs, something you can never go wrong with. The family then headed back home to Detroit, and Erin and I took a much needed nap.

The night concluded with a trip to the movies to see Thank You For Smoking. Hilarity ensued. Talk about a great movie. By far the best part is the very end, when Nick Naylor (Aaron Eckhart) talks about how the population already knows that smoking is bad for them and that a picture isn’t going to help. Also, at the same point he alludes to the fact that education should fall into the parents responsibility range, and not the governments. And for those that have seen it, “Jeff, when do you sleep?!” “Sunday.” Hilarious.

The weekend concluded with a trip to Vertical Endeavor on Sunday, and then heading over to Erin’s parents place for Easter Dinner. Except for the horrible thunderstorms that hit while we were there, it was another excellent day.

Now I just need to recover from the weekend with another weekend.

Links 4/14

Chemistry Glassware in the Kitchen—Pure genius, and not that expensive either!
Jesus in Hot Chocolate Stain

An investigation has been launched to establish the stains authenticity.

Links 4/13

Segways at the New York Auto Show—The picture and comments alone are worth a view.
Keep the Snacks in Illinois Schools—I’m guessing this didn’t get passed because of the money problem. Vending machines bring in money for ~~politicians~~ schools.

Legislators in Illinois have voted against a proposed junk food ban. The bill would have eliminated all junk foods from vending machines in elementary and middles schools, grades K-8, in the state.
McDonald’s Fattier in US than Abroad

At a New York City McDonald’s, a large fries-and-chicken-nuggets combo had 10.2 g of trans fat, Spain, Russia and the Czech Republic had a mere 3 g, and Denmark nuggets and fries came in the lowest at 0.33 g of trans fat.
Obese? Write It Off!

The cost of weight-loss programs that are part of the treatment for obesity are tax deductible, the Internal Revenue Service ruled Tuesday.
Obesity Tax

When you go to a store to buy food or anything for consumption, you’re carded—just like children under 21 are carded when they try to purchase alcohol. Upon viewing the obesity notation on your license, the cashier will add a mandatory 25% tax on your food & drink purchases on top of normal taxes.
Honey, We’re Killing the Kids

Final Puerto Vallarta Pictures

I’ve finally got all the Puerto Vallarta pictures scanned, cleaned, and uploaded. You can view them in my gallery.

Wow, talk about a pain. Since these were taken with an analog camera, I scanned in the negatives and then had to clean up the pictures because of dust and stuff on the scanner. I’m just glad that they’re finally up, a month and a half after we got back.

My personal favorite is a picture of Erin, but there are other good ones in there too.

The pictures were a little grainy on film, so that is why some of the pictures don’t look the best. Some of the coastal pictures could have been aided with a better lens filter I think too. But hopefully I don’t have to worry about scanning in negatives much more, and the gallery may have some new activity. More to come on that later.

Taxes

Unfortunately, this year I owed taxes. It was nothing too horrendous, but it’s still not fun to have to pay. Plus, while I was doing my taxes it fluctuated a lot. I put in my earnings for the University, and then for when I was a contractor, and it was telling me I was going to get $1200 back. Then I put in for my new job, and all the sudden I owe $400. Boo!

Oh well, next year should be better since I won’t be changing jobs midway through.

But anyways, why I’m writing about this is because I thought I forgot to date the check I sent in (along with date the 1040 form). This was because I had it all ready to go, and was waiting around for the 7th (payday), before sending it in. Turns out I either dated both, which I’m almost 100% sure I didn’t, or the government just doesn’t care, since the check just cleared.

And isn’t it funny how quickly they’ll cash your check, but how long it takes for you to receive your refund? Hmmm…

Update 4/14
Looking at the scanned in check, I definitely didn’t date it, which means I definitely didn’t date my tax return either. Oh well, doesn’t look like it matters.

Lottery!

Yeah to winning $150!

Virtual Host Beast

Last fall I priced out a machine to host virtual machines for a coworker of mine. Well, all the pieces finally arrived, and last night we put it together.

Holy cow, talk about a beastly machine, so much so in fact, that it is called esx-beast. The case, with the hot swap SATA hard drive bays is quite a nice touch too. Watching all those LEDs blink in unison when configured in a RAID5 was quite a treat to watch.

The megaRAID card functioned flawlessly too, which is a good thing. ESX found it without any problems, and he now has 500 GB of redundant usable space. If I had money, and didn’t have a functioning machine myself, I would definitely look at getting a similar box.

Links 4/11

Apartment Therapy – Chicago
Most Expensive Sandwich?

London’s most expensive sandwich went on sale at Selfridges today and at £85 and 2,000 Calories it promised to lighten pockets and expand waistlines.
Florida County Puts Up Resident’s Data—So glad to see that the government is with the times, as usual. From the article:

The Social Security numbers, driver’s license information and bank account details belonging to potentially millions of current and former residents of Florida’s Broward County are available to anyone on the Internet because sensitive information has not been redacted from public records being posted on the county’s Web site.
Playing with Road Signs—Take your SUV back to detroit!
Build Your Own Rack