Blog post? Sure!

I have no clue what the subject of this post is going to be. I felt like writing something, but I don't know what...so hopefully it will come to me.

So work has been crazy, crazy busy. About 3 months ago, the engineering manager left. Now, next week, the R&D manager (my boss) will be leaving. That's huge work load to be made up by us, non-manager people. It will be busy the next few months, and hopefully I'll make it through the end of February without hating my job much.

Another picture from my trip to the space center in Florida.

New room, new desk

I decided to move my computer from my bedroom to my living room. I removed all the cables from my computer, cleaned my desk and began to move it. Shortly thereafter, I realized I wasn't going to get it where I wanted without taking it apart. So I took it apart, took it out of my bedroom and went to Staples to find a new desk. I've had that desk since Junior year of college. I remember the morning I put it together for the first time, I was hungover like you would not believe. Since then I have taken it apart and reassembled it at least 5-6 times through all my moves. So here's the new desk and new location. I have a feeling I'm really going to like the new spot.

Perspective

Reading over my last few posts make me laugh. Yeah, it was a rough week filled with some bad news (more than what I posted) but it's not as bad as I made it sound. Yeah, I'm out a lot of money, but the worst that will do is delay my next toy purchase. It's not like I'm building up credit card debt, or struggling to pay rent. This is a benefit of the blog, I'm able to look back and see what I was thinking, and put it all in perspective.

Anyway, I was down in Orlando, FL for all of last week for work. I had one day free and went to the Kennedy Space Center. Dorky, I know, but it was really cool. I walked around there, took a bus tour, watched a 3d IMAX movie (Hubble 3d), and took a ton of pictures. I got to see the space shuttle Discovery on the launch pad, and luckily I had my 70-300 lens with me, so I got the best picture possible. Here's the shot from about a mile away (the closest I was able to get). Unfortunately, they keep a 'cover' on it until 24 hrs until it launches, so you can't see too much.

^^^---click on this picture, the full res is much better---^^^

Notice the cars under the launch pad; that shuttle is absolutely massive!!

P.S. I'm not going to stick to schedules with this blog. I've said many times in the past that I'd post 3 times a week, but I don't want to set myself on a schedule. I may post 5 times one week, then not again until 2 weeks later. I don't see any reason to force myself to a schedule; if I want to post, I'll post, if I don't, I won't....simple.

Cracked Radiator

'nuff said...

Oh, and a picture of the car; just so this post isn't too boring.

The bad with the good

I figured I might as well make blog posts on days that suck, not just worry free weekends. About 0.5 miles from my house today, I was in traffic (which is crazy in itself) and noticed some smoke coming from under the hood of my car. Fuck! was my first thought. Got home, opened the hood to be greeted by a nice even coat of antifreeze on everything. Awesome! Just what I need a week before traveling for work, then traveling for Thanksgiving, then traveling for Christmas (or winter solstice celebration, whichever you prefer). I have the joy of dropping my car off in the morning at the shop, so they can see how much they can get away with charging me. Thank you Dane Cook for already summing up my feeling about auto mechanics.

“It’s that same vibe that you get with any auto mechanic you’ve ever dealt with. Even though you’re listening and nodding, in your head you’re like “this guy is fuckin’ me big time”. You just believe whatever they say:

Mechanic: “Yeah we had to replace the roof on your car, it was peeling back.  It resented the rest of the car, so we replaced that. Also, there was a tiny unicorn in your exhaust and he was jumping and poking holes in your exhaust, and he was shitting in your filters as well. So we had to get that out of there."

Dane: “Wow, thank you very much. I did not know that there was a tiny mythological animal jumping around in there… that’s very dangerous. Shitting in filters, no way. Especially with a road trip coming up, that’s very dangerous. Shitting in filters, that little son of a b. Wow, wow. Thank you. How much is that? Seven thousand? I was going to suggest, I’d like to pay seven thousand’ish, I’d love to pay for that. Thank you for not fucking me big time!"

And now for something completely different. This music makes me smile every time I hear it. Now I want a keyboard.

Picture time

Went yesterday driving and looking for places to take pictures. The driving part was hilarious, raced an old guy in a truck. I wasn't expecting him to jump off the line, so I wasn't ready for a quick launch myself. I noticed he floored it when the light turned green, so I did the same. 1st gear, around 4k RPM turbo kicked in and I started to pull away. Had a perfect shift to 2nd and was gone. It was fun, and the first time in a long time I've actually had somebody try and race me. Thank you, old guy in a blue truck.

On the the pictures. I got some good ones, in my opinion, but they were unexpected. Let me explain...I remember taking the pictures, not because I thought they would turn out good; just to take the picture. Not looking at the picture as a final product, but rather the act of taking the picture as my goal. I expected, as has happened so many times, that I would take a bunch of pictures, then load them on the computer, and never do anything else with them.

Last night, while sitting in the living room surrounded by 5 speakers and 1 sub, I turned on some music and played a slideshow of the pictures I took (raw, unedited, straight from the camera). This blew my mind, and gave me some ideas...expect something great to come from this in the future (I'll link back to this post when it happens). Ok, ok, on to the pictures...

Wait, ADD kicking in once again. One more thing I wanted to mention. I never really appreciated my wide angle lens (16-85mm f3.5-5.6) until now. I've always found it difficult to get interesting wide angle shots. I feel like, usually, they just turn out to be 'bland' pictures anyone can take with any camera. I'd say this is probably the most difficult area of photography for me right now. It's shots like this bridge picture that help me appreciate wide angle shots, and give me inspiration to try and improve.

RP1: Been busy

So this is a post in which I don't really have anything to talk about. RP1 stands for random post 1. I have been really busy with work, trying to get a machine finished and out the door. But that is not the reason I haven't posted anything in a while. Honestly, I've just wanted to relax, catch up on some TV shows, some games, etc. I have been waiting for something meaningful to post, but have not come across anything.

I took a few pictures of my car, after walking out of work one evening (it was after dark obviously, and a Saturday). I had my D90 with the 'nifty fifty' in hand and thought this might turn out pretty nice. I was correct, it looks cool with all the parking lot lights. Glad the 50mm has f/1.8 for it's largest apaeture...I needed all the light I could get. I like how the lighting highlights the fender flares!

I've been playing a lot of Starcraft 2, Minecraft, and F1 2010. All awesome games, I just don't have the time to play all of them as much as I would like. When I try to throw blogging into that mix, it is a little difficult. The question recently has been, which game should I play, not what can I write on the blog. Hence, random post 1; hope you enjoyed it. I'm just happy to get a post out. I'm going to keep trying for an average of 3-4 posts a week, as I mentioned in my first ever blog post...but that is easier said than done.

Starcraft 2 - Game changing tip

If you saw my previous few posts about Starcraft 2, you know that I am not very good at it. To try and improve my game, I have been watching a lot of videos and replays of really good players. Yesterday, I found the tip that changes the game; always be making workers. Literally always. Workers = money and money = army. This is much easier said than done, but at least it's something to work on with the game. Prior to this, I didn't have any goal in the game except not die (which is pretty difficult). It really turns the game around, and it is obvious now that this exactly how the best players became the best. All this being said, I still suck at the game, but I now know how to get better.

Lusting after home decor

First off, I'm the type of person who prefers function over form. I appreciate something that sacrifices form to be more functional much more than something that sacrifices function to look good.

With this in mind, imagine my shock when I set my eyes on this beautiful home decor. Sure, the smallest, cheapest thing in the collection would probably cost me my right leg, 3 fingers from my right hand, and my left arm. However, that being said, I have never wanted any home furnishings so badly (and I'm right handed, so I could probably give up my left arm). Look at these lamps!

This floor lamp is an exhaust from a Red Bull Formula 1 car. As in, it is an actual exhaust manifold that was used in a race. At one point in it's life, this thing was glowing red hot, funneling gases from an engine revving to 19,000 RPM (You read that write, nineteen-thousand RPM).

This smaller lamp is made up from various components out of a gearbox. At one point, these components were trying to rip themselves apart getting 900 horsepower from the engine to the tires. 

Weight is everything in every form of motorsport, and this is taken to the extreme in Formula 1. You can be sure that these components were exactly as strong as they needed to be and absolutely no stronger. They weren't designed to look good, they were designed purely, 100%, for function. This makes them even more beautiful...they were designed for function, and they still look absolutely incredible. In the words of the great Brick Tamland, "I love lamp."

If you're in the mood for your jaw to hit the floor, check out the rest of the collection here (it's not all lamps).

Formula 1 - Singapore

This is shaping up to be an amazing weekend. With only 5 races to go, and 5 drivers still in the hunt for the 2010 title, this race could make or break for a few driver's hopes. It's a fantastic spectacle, at night under the lights, with downtown Singapore lit up in the background...it's a beautiful race to watch. The track is a pain to drive though. Every corner is slow speed, and to be quick, you need to be right on the limit of destroying your car. We'll see how it goes, the tension is definitely in the air! I can't wait! Qualifying tomorrow live at 10am eastern time!

Twitter

I started up a twitter account this weekend. I didn't think it would be something for me, but it's actually pretty awesome. It makes it easier to see really popular people as real people...not some larger than life persona. I'm not sure if I will post much on there, but we'll see. Follow me! haha. Not really. Well, you can if you want...it actually might inspire me to put relevant stuff up there.

This...is...coffee!

French press before the press

Whole bean french vanilla coffee --> grinder --> french press. So much better than the pre-ground crap I put up with for so long. This is one of the great things about the weekend...I have time in the mornings to make and enjoy an amazing cup of coffee. Now if only I could convince myself to wake up early enough during the week to do this before work. Haha, yeah right, I can't see that happening anytime soon. For now, I'll save it as one of the luxuries of the weekend. Weekends are awesome!

Artificial intelligence vs. intelligence

Tonight I played about 4 games of Starcraft 2 on hard difficulty (against the computer). I won with no problem, all 4 times. This was the first time I have ever beat the computer on hard....and I did it 4 times in a row! I was feeling confident, so I tried to play online. The first game was a training game, so the settings were on easy, and everything was pretty much in slow motion. I destroyed this guy. My army of 40 just walked all over his army of 10. It was clearly one of the first games he had ever played.

Sweet! Alright, so I'll skip the rest of the training sessions...the opponents don't seem to be on my level. I played my first game in a legitimate match. My opponent didn't seem to be able to speak good English, and I thought he was trying to say he was new to the game. Again, sweet! Maybe I can win my first legitimate match. It started out good, but then he had a small army that took me forever to kill. While I was trying to kill that army, he was busy building up a bigger one. Long story short...I got destroyed.

The easy thing about artificial intelligence is it's mostly predictable. With anything predictable (in real life or otherwise), it is easy to anticipate patterns and plan the best approach to any situation. Humans are unpredictable...much more difficult!

New poster!

I got this poster printed today at Walgreen's. 20" x 30"! I absolutely love it.

The reason I love this picture so much...

Carl Sagan

How have I not seen this interview before?!? Carl Sagan is the man.

"To live in the hearts we leave behind is to never die"

Part 1




Part 2



Part 3

Come on Motorola...really?

This past weekend I rooted my new phone. For those who don't know, it gives you access to everything in the phone. Now I'll be able to uninstall crap that I don't want (stuff that Verizon and Motorola didn't want me to uninstall). The biggest benefit so far is that I'm now able to run a new version of the operating system (Android 2.2, aka Froyo). Froyo has been awesome so far. When I got home from work today, my battery life was still at 80%! Normally I was getting about 50% battery remaining after work (with Android 2.1).

<rant>

The main reason to root though...the way Motorola handled the leaked version of Froyo. They sent cease and desist orders to all websites that had uploaded it. ANDROID IS AN OPEN SOURCE OPERATING SYSTEM!!! What does Motorola gain by alienating the most passionate members of their consumer base? The members that want to use the phone to its fullest extent. What do they have to gain by holding back an update that will benefit everyone. Moreover, what do they have to gain from wasting money on cease and desist orders? The update will always be out there. Once a file like this is on the internet, it will never (and I mean, NEVER) be removed. This is the reason I rooted my phone. Motorola handled this poorly, so I feel no remorse when I went behind their backs, hacked (rooted) my phone, and am now running the latest and greatest from Google. This is what an open source operating system is about....the community is thriving, and it won't be stopped by 'the man' trying to control everything.

</rant>

Digital vs. Analog photos

I picked up about 5 pictures that I had printed. AMAZING! I'm going to go into a picture printing frenzy. So far I have made only 8" x 10", and 4" x 6"; but I will be making a lot more, and a lot larger. Walgreen's just got a new printer which will make up to 20" x 30" prints. I can't wait to get some really big ones...I have ideas already. Check out the first 8" x 10" 's that I had printed, then framed by me.

And the one that I will make a huge poster of...

This is a picture from the end of my business trip to Aachen, Germany. Looking back on this trip, I think it really changed my life (I know it sounds corny and cliche, but it's true). I went to Germany by myself and with the extra day I had there, after all the work was done, I took a train to Amsterdam to spend a day there. It was by far the coolest thing I have ever done. I'm going to print a big copy of this (I printed an 8x10, but it's not big enough) and mount it somewhere on my wall. Not only is it an awesome picture, but it marks a big change in my life; when my self-confidence increased massively, and my ambition to achieve something great returned. No one will ever appreciate this picture as much as I do...period.

HD video with manual focus

Take a look at this video...by far the best video I've taken with my camera so far. The D90 doesn't have autofocus during video recording. So, with a short depth of field, I was able to maintain focus manually on Caleigh as she walked towards me. Good stuff.

30 seconds

Not the band (30 Seconds to Mars, I already did a post about them) but the shutter speed. Below is a picture I took while on vacation with the family off of our deck. The shutter speed was 30 seconds (it was completely dark). It looks so peaceful...I love shots like this.

1/2000th of a second

A picture from vacation, doesn't need too much explaining. That's Adam, my brother-in-law, gracefully ending his ride on the tube. Really fast, and really slow shutter speeds are my favorite...they show things that you can't see with the naked eye.

Making life a game

I saw this TED talk not too long ago, and it inspired me to do something new; and realize the reason I enjoy something I've been doing for a long time. The picture below is of all the data I have on my finances since January 2007 (without the scale for obvious reasons...although you could scale it by the linear fit in the top right corner.........if there weren't multiple Y axes....haha, I win). Ever since then, at a minimum of once per week, I have recorded all credit card balances, bank statements, savings, loans...everything that has to do with me and money. Now I have this great spreadsheet with past data and future projections. I think only an engineer would get excited by having something this detailed containing so much data.

3.5 years of data...AWESOME!

As for something new, I have started making lists for getting things done (thanks to my new phone and apps). I want to do the thing on the list just so I can cross it off the list. For the same reason that I want to get Xbox achievements or PS3 trophies...I just want to cross it off the list! It's made me more productive and it gives me another reason to use my phone (which keeps getting awesomer (yes, Firefox spell check, I know that's not a word)).

Coffee grinder

 

That's right...whole bean!

I picked up a coffee grinder last weekend and it makes amazing coffee. The best pre-ground coffee is nothing compared to a cup of freshly ground. I was surprised how much better it is. For someone who cannot go a day without coffee, this grinder was one of the best $15 purchases I've made in a long time.

The Phone

I love the FedEx guy. My phone that required an indirect signature was signed by a non-existent person at a non-existent address...which allowed him to leave it for me Thursday.  You sir, are the man...thank you!

I was afraid that I over-hyped the phone to myself and that i would be disappointed when I got it. NOPE!! This thing is amazing. This is the kind of thing that you would see in Sci-Fi movies 6-8 years ago. I have all the information I could ever want at my fingertips all the time. I've just scratched the surface of what it will do....I'm so excited about it is because I can see the potential. The hardware is so powerful, it is waiting on software to catch up. Man, so much potential......it's hard to even imagine how it will be in 2 years when it's time for me to upgrade the phone again.

I literally could not be happier about the purchase. I love this phone; period. And I've only had it 2 days!!!!

I can't wait for the future! It's going to be awesome!

New phone!

Ok, well, not yet...but it has been shipped and will be here either Thursday or Friday. It will be here Thursday, but I won't be home to sign for it, so I don't know if the FedEx guy will leave it or not. Maybe I can go to the FedEx place after work and pick it up (like I do with UPS). Anyway, the new phone is a Droid X and it's going to be awesome.

"I shouldn't do this joke because it will ruin my cover, but I like the FedEx guy; 'cause he's a drug dealer and don't even know it!...And he's always on time." Mitch Hedberg

The drive

The drive to and from vacation was awesome. The way back was more fun. On the way back, I was moving for a total of 12 hours and 34 minutes and stopped for 18 minutes. I had to get gas 3 times, otherwise I think I could have made it without stopping. I tried to take pictures of the state signs as I crossed each border, but that didn't work out so well. I got a few of them...

This is North Carolina's sign; my aim wasn't too good with the camera.




Notice how crappy New Jersey looks. Are there people that actually want to live in Jersey?


What is in this FedEx truck? Scary...it was raining at that point in the drive too.

Something between me and you

Maybe this post will get deleted in a while, if people find this blog. Anyway, one of the things I love about the blog, is the fact that nobody knows I have it. That may sound strange, and it probably is, but I like writing knowing that everyone I know has no idea that I do this. Another awesome family vacation pic below.

I love photography

I started going through my mountain of pictures from family vacation. I can't believe I took some of the pictures...they are much better than I expected. Before I saw these pictures, I thought photography was fun; but I wasn't really excited about the pictures I'd taken. Now I love it, I love my pictures, and I love photography. Sample awesome pic below. More are going on my Picasa account hopefully by the end of this coming weekend.


"Why do Koala bears...they're so fucking cute...why do they have to be so far away from me. We need to ship a few over, and I will apprehend one, and hold him...alright...and pet him on the back of his head." Mitch Hedberg

That's another thing you will learn about me...I love Mitch Hedberg's comedy...he was the man.

Back to the grind

Back into work mode. I have a ton (literally, if a ton equaled 15.1 Gigabytes) from vacation. I was trying to decide on one to post here (others will be posted on my Picasa account). I decided on the obligatory whole family vacation photo (one of the only ones I'm in).

Vacation!

I've had a big gap in the posting, but there is a good reason for it...I got Starcraft 2, which is awesome by the way. I generally suck at real time strategy games (and still do) but I'm having a good time with it.

So tomorrow at about 4 or 5 am I'm going to be driving 13 hours for vacation. Not only am I looking forward to the vacation, the drive will be awesome as well. I love road trips, even when I'm by myself. I'm going to be taking a lot of pictures so expect a lot of posts with pictures when I get back in a week and a half. Time to start packing (after all, I'm leaving in less than 8 hours).

Formula 1 - Hockenheim

And it's finished...Alonso leading a Ferrari 1-2. Done the worst way possible though. Massa was told by the team that he was slower than Alonso (while leading)...a few laps later, Massa let Alonso by. After the race he was pissed. Ferrari was fined $100,000 and must appear before the WMSC to defend themselves. Massa did the right thing, and I'm glad Alonso won, but at what cost. Hopefully everyone will get over this without too much anger.

Formula 1 - Hockenheim

First Formula 1 post of the blog. There will be many more of these to come. This weekend starts the second half of the season and Ferrari is back! Alonso missed pole this morning by 0.002 seconds! With Massa behind him, it's a Ferrari 2-3. While Vettel got pole, he's the only non Ferrari driver that I'm a fan of, so it's all good. A good start to the weekend. Looking forward to the race tomorrow. Go Alonso!


Copyright me :) I took this picture at Montreal

Moon + ?

I went out in my backyard about an 30 minutes ago to get picture of the moon, which was looking awesome. Check it out (blog exclusive!...haha, which means no one will see it).


Nikon D90, 70-300mm @ 300mm, f5.6, 1/60s, ISO 400

I was focused on testing out shutter speeds, ISO, white balance settings etc. I looked to my left to see something white, about 7 feet from me, not moving. I wasn't as scared as I was curious (whatever it was didn't seem threatening). I quickly and quietly ripped the camera off the tripod to try and get a shot. Pro tip here! Getting something in focus in complete darkness is difficult. The small light to help get focus turned on enough for me to see a skunk staring directly at me (but not enough to get focus)! I'm disappointed that I was not able to get a picture. The skunk turned away once it saw the light (I thought I was about to get a cloud of unpleasantness in my face). It nonchalantly walked away while I was frantically trying to get at least something resembling focus for a picture...It was not to be :(

Now that I think about it, I should have used f8 or f11 for the moon shot. The slower shutter speed wouldn't have hurt anything since I was using a tripod, and the image would have been sharper. Next time!

Finally...

Here is a snippet from a song by 30 Seconds to Mars titled The Kill.

"I tried to be someone else
But nothing seemed to change
I know now, this is who I really am inside

Finally found myself
Fighting for a chance
I know now, this is who I really am"

I think these few verses really sum up my thoughts about the past few months. Growing up I always tried to be the person that other people wanted me to be. I've finally just started being myself. This is the way life is supposed to be lived!

Overcomplicated

I'm sure everyone has seen that before, but it is an awesome video. I wish they would do more like that. Here's a 'making of' video. It really is an impressive video they created.

Anti-theft Blu-ray cases

So this happened to me a while ago. I went to Walmart and bought the Inglorious Bastards blu-ray. I got home and realized that the girl working the register didn't remove the anti-theft case from the movie. I had 2 choices, either go back to Walmart or play with my Dremel...obviously I chose the Dremel. (Ok, it's not a Dremel brand Dremel, but if I said Black and Decker Wizard no one would know what I was talking about).



Those things are a pain to open; which I guess is the point. It's a great movie by the way...Quentin Tarantino is the man.

The Godfather

What a great movie! I had not seen it (unbelievably) until last night. There was never a scene in that movie that made me think it was a movie. I love how everyone working for the Corleone family is so confident that what they want to happen will happen...they don't argue about it. After Jack Woltz (the movie studio head) flat out refuses to cast Don's Godson in a movie, a day or two later, he wakes up with the severed head of his prized racing horse in his bed. No arguing...the Carleone's just made him an offer he couldn't refuse...they do what they need to do to get things done. Can't wait for more. Thanks to Netflix, I have parts 2 and 3 on the way (all blu-ray!).

My biggest pet peeve about movies is when you can tell that it's a movie...it takes you out of the moment. A movie is a good movie when I can watch the whole thing and never think "they're obviously acting" or "they put that there just for the shot, it's not how it would really be".

First post!

....and we're off. This blog will be very random. I hope to update it at least 3 times a week. The posts will be short most of the time. Most posts will be pictures but there may be some text/video posts thrown in for good measure.

Picture = 1000 words
Video = 30 pictures per second = 30,000 words per second

Video's are looking better already!

First post, first picture. This is me with my new glasses! I typically wear contacts, but I think I may start wearing glasses more often.