Greg

I'm actually getting the hang of this :)

I was in the middle of printing and framing some of my pictures from the trip to the aquarium and realized that I didn't have enough that I liked well enough to frame.  Solution?  Trip #2 to the aquarium!  It's encouraging that I think a bunch of them came out well, hopefully enough to fill the remaining frames :)  On the plus side, my handle on the relationship between ISO/Aperature/shutter speed is definitely improving.  I'm still relying on autofocus a fair amount but trying to wean my way off of it as well.  On the down side I don't have the fastest lens in the world so some of the pictures are a bit grainy/noisey from using higher ISO settings.

As I convert from RAW -> JPG I'll post some of the new photos later this week...

[update 4/21/06: photos online here.]

Death of a cablebox

For a while I've been not quite on the cutting edge of technology, but in the quasi-"early adopter" set.  Clodagh has been convinced that this is why I constantly have cellphone problems (no, I don't screen calls - my phones just suck sometimes :()  - ironically she recently got a smartphone as well :)

So, I've had the comcast DVR cablebox for a while - the big advantage over TiVo is that allows recording two things at once and records in HD.  There are bugs of course - like when it stops responding to remote control commands for a while.  And then responds to every button you've pressed.  All at once.

Last night, this went to the next level.  The cable box started randomly turning itself off.  And then back on.  And then ten minutes later it would turn off again.  And then turn itself back on.  Usually, the cycle occured right as the crucial dialogue in the program would come up (isn't it always the way of things?).

Talking to the cable company tonight, it turns out that they sent down some updates to the cable box that didn't take properly...  Given that I work in servicing, I've heard for a long time that customers don't want changes they didn't ask for - this is probably the first time that I've experienced it myself.  And proves the perils of trying to make things better - there's that one in a million (or more?  less?) chance that it'll screw up those things that currently work :( 

Ain't technology great?

The frustration of photography

Very cool sky with a well-defined bank of clouds rolling through the other night and I managed to get off a few shots.  Looking back outside after a while, I noticed that while the majority of the sky was still quite dark a single place over the Aurora bridge had a hot orange glow.  Some distance away the clouds must have broken enough to let the sun come through, but the clouds right in front were still in place to obscure it a bit.  Definitely  a very cool sight.

The bad news?  None of the shots really turned out very well...  The positive thing is that I feel like my eye for good photographs is getting more attuned.  Now I just need to translate that to nice pictures :)

Daylight Saving Time

My yearly reminder about the benefits of drinking coffee is back.  Have to say that this morning was super painful getting up, but the late sunset last night (~7:30pm) makes it worthwhile...  Hopefully I'll actually get out of work early and onto the golf course more often this summer.

Speaking of golf, the first couple rounds of the year are under my belt now.  I missed a heartbreaker of a putt to finish up at 100 even on Sat.  Not that it would have been a particularly great putt, just that it would have been to break 100 at the earliest point of the year for me.  I did have a golf first for me and chip into the cup from off the green :)