Harry Potter - The Deathly Hallows

Last evening, for the first time in my thirty-something years, I went and stood in a line to do something like a movie, book, or whatever. I wasn't as die-hard as many Harry Potter fans... I didn't stop in to get my "bracelet" (to get a book at midnight) early in the morning or afternoon BUT I did get to Borders in Harrisburg around 9:30. And yes, even then, there was a line going out of the bookstore just for those of us who had pre-ordered the book.

I saw a number of amusing sites last night... Harrisburg has now apparently become Harrysburg. :) How cool is that?!?

 

There were loads of interesting folks there at the Grand Ball...

One of the questions everyone asks is "is Severus Snape good or evil?" Although I have read the book, I will not give out spoilers. (Go read the book and quit googling it...)

Okay, so for the first time, I tried a few different varieties of Bertie Bott's beans. The Booger flavor was not too hot... Earthworm tasted a little like dirt (yes, umm, I HAVE tasted dirt before)... But although I thought earthworm was bad, I absolutely stopped trying them after rotten egg. In fact, that one stayed with me till I got in line for a coffee to scald out my mouth (and with the crowds present at the store, it took about a half an hour just to get one large black coffee).

There were fun and games... Obviously costume prizes given away, and a 'Great Snape Debate'.

The last photo here, I took at midnight, almost on the dot... The store was packed, people being lined up inside to buy the book - and this line outside - for people who hadn't even gotten a bracelet to get in line to buy the book (no this was NOT the book-buying line, just the line to check in if you were going to buy a book).

I got there around 9:30, but by the time I got my book it was a few minutes before 2AM.

Now it's 1:15am the next night, and yes, I read the book. Awhile back, I read the last Lemony Snicket 'Series of Unfortunate Events' book and there were tons of loose ends. I will have to commend J.K. Rowling on the lack of obvious loose ends... And, yeah, unlike Douglas Adams 5 book "trilogy" of the Hitch Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy, I did not throw the book across the room in disgust - but at the same time, I just spent over $20 on it, so ...

I won't say whether I was happy with the ending or not, but I will tell you that it was well-written and kept me entertained for many of the last 22 hrs (Yes, I did stop and sleep for a few hours last night... )

Sony Cybershot DSC H7/B Review

My aging Olympus C765UZ is still going strong - despite the battering I've given it over the past two years. With it's 10x Optical zoom, it's actually gotten a lot of great shots for me...

But... I've actually sold a print or two here and there, and there are limitations to what a 4 megapixel camera can produce. I thought it's time to upgrade.. My ultimate goal, I suppose, is to invest in a nice DSLR camera, but with the expense of additional lenses right now it's out of the question.

Olympus, a few months ago, came out with a new 18x Optical zoom, 6MP camera (SP-550UZ). Now, it's a nice camera, but with a list price of $499, has some drawbacks... Reviews show a somewhat grainy picture at high ISO's... the video mode is similar to that of my current camera - not great, but not terrible either.

But Sony a few weeks ago released a pair of new cameras.. The DSC-H7 and H9 series. Both are 8.1MP, with a 15x optical zoom. The camera is faster with the memory stick duo cards than the Olympus XD format, and you can shoot 'burst mode' for an extended number of shots... With the higher resolution and other benefits, it's a nice pair of cameras.

The differences are primarily in the display screen. The smaller H7 has a display screen that is fixed on the back of the camera - very similar to the Olympus SP-550UZ. The H9 has a larger, swivel screen. It also sports a night-shot mode that uses infrared lighting - but which is good only for short distances.

And oh yeah, both cameras sport a wireless remote control - allowing you to compose the shot, then go and join the family or whoever, and push the button remotely.

At $499 list, the H9 is comparable in price to the Olympus, but the H7 is more in line with the Olympus in terms of functionality (the smaller, and non-swivelable, display screen.) But at a hundred dollars cheaper, ... well, that's where I decided to put my money.

Through Dell's website, they had a special discount plus free shipping, so that pushed the price down under $350... So 15x Optical, Nice even if not movable display screen, 8.1MP resolution, sounds great...

I got it yesterday - still waiting on the memory card, but this camera DOES have built-in memory, enough to store about 11 8MP shots.

So far, so good, BUT. (Isn't there always one of those).

One thing I didn't really know - till I got the camera and started using it... is that the format of the images is probably the camera's weakest point.

I now have 8MP shots, that average about 2.3MB each. On my Olympus, at 4MP, I was averaging 2.6MB per shot in highest quality JPG setting, and a LOT more per shot in TIFF mode. The Sony does not allow you to change format. Period.

What I see as the biggest problem with this is that the images that I am getting - if I use a higher ISO value especially - when viewed at 100% resolution on-screen, have a noticeable pixelation/distortion... I think this is at least in part due to the compression used by Sony in storing the images. I think this camera has a TON of potential - if Sony would release a software/firmware update for the camera that allowed us (camera enthusiasts) to change the default settings - I'd give up the speed anyday for higher quality images. It's nice that I can shoot 100 shots in a row in under a second each... BUT... Hey I'd love to shoot 10 in under a second each with say, 8MB files with more embedded color/light/pixel data than to have the data compressed so much that the images become grainy or pixelated at larger sizes.

I can conquer some of these issues by keeping the ISO low, and keeping the camera super-steady (time to invest in a better tripod). This camera IS a keeper - for the money, a better point-and-shoot with a great zoom, may not be available...

The zoom, the price - and yes, the speed, make me keep the camera. I look at it this way, I can get a nice 11x14 at least out of it. The zoom has a 35mm equivalent of around 465mm range. Most "kit" lenses that come with a higher priced DSLR type camera are maybe up to 70-80mm. Even the 2nd kit lens offered with some models may only go up to 200mm. To reach 465mm, we'd be talking say $600-800 for the camera, and several hundred more for the optional lens.

But I can see it not being the do-all end-all of cameras for me. One of these days when I make a million with this camera, I will definitely be investing in DSLR technology. As it is, I will live with this camera's shortcomings - because despite them I have seen scenes through this camera's eyes, that I never saw through my old camera's eyes.

An old farm's grain silo is just down the way from my back porch. I see it almost every day - and I've taken a number of photos of it over the past few years, but until yesterday, I had no idea that the silo looked like this, with the alternating patterns on the metal of the roof. You can also see greenery growing out of some of the cracks between blocks in the wall of the silo.


Silo by =arkansawyer on deviantART

If it looks like a duck, don't worry, it's probably a dragon.

Back some time ago, I did a post where I quoted a spam message I had recieved. It was almost garbled and incoherant - the sentences were fragmented and changed mid-sentence to new subject lines.

Nowadays, as the spam wars rage, our inbox is flooded with ever more garbage. I got a solicitation for me to buy a certain stock whose price is rising dramatically (so they claim).

At the end of the plug for the stock, the following text is appended - paragraphed as I have pasted into this post. I only point this out because as the spam filter people at gmail, microsoft, and spambayes, among others, get smarter, so do the spammers.

This solicitation was the first of it's type in a while to land in my inbox instead of my spambox, and I think it is due to the fact that there really were complete sentences. Even, perhaps, complete thoughts. Although it would appear that this person (if he existed - instead of being some computer generated cr--), suffers from ADD or ADHD, or some other hyperactivity disorder that causes him to jump from thought to thought.

I post this here for your amusement... It's a whim I guess. You can almost, if you try, find a pattern in this, but certainly it would be a waste of time to put that much effort into it. It actually reminds me of a movie, where space aliens are 'scanning' earth television signals and picking up random sentences here and there, each separated by bursts of static.

The first part was an attempt to get you to buy a certain stock then
this follows:

Puzzling out stuff like this is good for your brains, people, and if you do
it right, it's a he-- of a lot of fun. Finglonger now that's funny.

Two news items about the book: I did the math, and decided to do a limited edition of signed, numbered hardcovers, inspired by John Scalzi's The Sagan Diary. Speaking of voiceovers, I'm curious as to whether the guys over at Fox ever asked you to do some voices for their animated shows?

If we're keeping count you can mark me down for a signed edition.

I'm sure you'll be missed by all the cast and crew that do make it up there.

Congrats to Ryan, and to his family. Geez, I'm out of it today. It's a win-win situation! Ever since August Wilson left, there's been a void in the universe. WHAT TO DO Please, please pass this information along so that we can reach someone who knows any more details about Donna's disappearance or about the suspect, John Burgess. Any help would be great. She is a student in Santiago Canyon College in Orange California where she is currently taking summer classes. I processed way more orders than I thought I would, and definitely enough to stress test this system, in about two hours. Our shipping center is my living room, and our warehouse is my garage.

It's doubtful that the network will ever air the final two episodes, but it's possible they'll show up one day on Drive's MySpace page.

If the backyard were beautifully landscaped, would you feel more inclined to spend time keeping it beautiful and well taken care of?

" I wasn't sure to put this in a comment to the Floyd post or here, and not sure if someone else has already sounded the alarums, so. I'd still do it even though it's more expensive than media mail, but you might ask the WWdN readers in another post for that one. I can't wait for it to come out.

Our shipping center is my living room, and our warehouse is my garage.

that just blew my mind.

I'll pay extra and everything! If the backyard were beautifully landscaped, would you feel more inclined to spend time keeping it beautiful and well taken care of? Your parents borrowed my parents's camera?

It was always a grand affair, and I looked forward to spending each Independence Day listening to Sousa marches, swimming in their enormous pool, and watching a fireworks show on the back patio.

If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then treat it like a duck and don't
worry so much about if it is really a dragon. Any help would be great.

I think your natural voice is very unique.

Now, the only thing here that really tickled my fancy - and yes, sometimes you can find a treasure even in a trashheap, was the quote: "If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then treat it like a duck and don't worry so much about if it is really a dragon."

Not for those weak of heart

This is a midnight ramble... My mind started composing whilst I was laying there, trying to go to sleep. If I didn't go write it down, chances are it'd never get recorded, so up I got and in here did trot. Don't read it if you're easily offended. I fear it may forever change your perception of me, but it's not intended to disgust you - it's just my attempt to relate a memorable event of several years ago.

This is a midnight ramble... My mind started composing whilst I was laying there, trying to go to sleep. If I didn't go write it down, chances are it'd never get recorded, so up I got and in here did trot.

I actually started to tell the tale a few minutes prior to passing the sign shown on the preview photo - when I saw the sign, I turned back, took the photo, then continued telling the story to my kids.

Talk about a coincidence. Or do you believe in coincidence? Fate, perhaps?

Office Trouble

This is a sad tale of woe and misfortune... Those of you faint at heart, please stand back. Those easily offended or disgusted, I'd advise the same....

The tale begins years ago, in the early days of my life. My family wasn't wealthy. Some years, we didn't even own a television. And even when we did, it was liable to be black and white (although color models had been available for years).

But this isn't about television... This is about diet. You see, we might not have had a television, and never had such things as cable, but... on the other hand, we were never hungry, either.

We didn't eat out often.. I can remember the occasional McDonald's or even better, Wendys, when we were travelling to a relative's house at Thanksgiving, but those stops were few and far between, once a year at best and sometimes not then.

But at home, we always had food. Somehow, Mom always managed to throw something together. It might be a tasty meatloaf, or some fish we caught in a pond or river, or more often than not, pinto beans. Don't groan, pinto beans are good. Served with cornbread sometimes, and cooked with bacon or hamburger meat, or just beans, we had them many ways.

This isn't about my childhood, though. Rather it's about an incident which occurred in my life as a young adult. My love affair with pinto beans continued into adulthood, but ... I joined the Air Force, went to basic training and then tech school, was served the bland foods of the chow hall as a single airman. And gradually my body forgot the old diets, and accepted the new.

Still, I did live there on the border of Mexico, and there were a number of places in Del Rio, not to mention Acuna across the river, where Mexican food was served with great pride and gusto, not to mention a lot of great spice. And later, when I could cook at home, I'd cook many a pot of beans, too.

But, my body didn't seem to accept them quite as readily as in years gone by. I don't know, but I think that perhaps after awhile your body gets used to your diet, and major changes sometimes wreak havoc. At any rate, one hot, summer lunchtime, I got back from lunch, and was sitting alone in the office - the others had gone out to eat when I got back.

And the phone rang. Over at Deana's desk. I went over and answered the phone, and of course, it was a customer with a problem. I signed onto the system from the terminal at her desk (an old MS-DOS based PC - not that most people now even know what DOS is... this was years before the Windows revolution). As I chatted with the customer, I felt this disturbance churning within me.

I looked around, and no one was there, so .. I let the pressure which had been building go.

--- skip ahead 15 years or so... I was telling this story to my kids the other day, and as I told them, they haven't ever smelled anything like that, in the whole of their lives. I am not stretching the truth here, or trying to be crude, it's just the truth. It was BAD.

I finished the problem call, and went back to my desk. A half hour or so later, Deana came back in, and set down at her desk... She got the funniest look on her face, "What IS that smell?" ... Shamefacedly, I fessed up.

Although the odor lingered in the fabric of the chair for a short time, the incident was soon forgotten. I thought.

But the story did NOT end there, for about two weeks later, Deana sneezed. Granted, it was a big sneeze, but still. Her chair, a pedestal-type office chair, snapped at the base, right under the seat cushion, and down she went... flat on the floor, on her back.

They (everyone in the office) swore up and down that it was all my fault. That there must have been something there that caused the metal to weaken to the point where this accident happened. And honestly, I wouldn't doubt it. Thank goodness she wasn't hurt.

Somewhere after that, I started slowing down on the Mexican food, and beans... and in recent years, I do still occasionally enjoy burritos, tacos, or a bowl of beans, but it's consumed at a rate far less than in those days. I have not caused any office accidents, train derailments, or other catastrophes in years.

Getting better with time...

A little girl was sitting on her grandfather's lap as he read her a bedtime story. From time to time, she would take her eyes off the book and reach up to touch his wrinkled cheek. She was alternately stroking her own cheek, then his again. Finally she spoke up, "Grandpa, did God make you?"

"Yes, sweetheart," he answered, "God made me a long time ago."

"Oh," she paused, "Grandpa, did God make me too?"

"Yes, indeed, honey," he said, "God made you just a little while ago."

Feeling their respective faces again, she observed, "God's getting better at it, isn't he?"

(not my story... just passing it along because I liked it).

happy 4th and virus alert!!

First of all, wishing you all a Happy 4th of July!!!



be warned: http://cbs13.com/local/local_story_184090653.html

Even the skeptical me clicked on one of these but killed it before permanent damage was done... Don't EVER click on anything if you don't know who the source is...

They all seem to bypass gmail and my company's virus/spam filters.... by the time the antivirus software detects it the damage is already done.

A sad state of affairs...

Resolute Wal-Mart shopper attempts to self-checkout

$5 plasma - less-than-reasonable fellow managed to snag a 42-inch Sanyo plasma, replace the $984 pricetag with a slightly less burdensome $4.88 sticker , and carry it to the front where he utilized a self-checkout register to all but steal a brand new PDP.

--- Some comments left by users on this 'digg.com' article (note, most of the quotes I selected here are from thieves who feel justified in their thefts because of who Wal Mart is... There were plenty of other quotes on the referenced site that shot these guys down - but it seems strange to me that all these people are sitting there telling about how they like to steal things....... I guess it's a sign of where our society is these days - whether you're a Wal Mart fan/customer or not, stealing is stealing. Period. Maybe justified if you're starving and your kids have no clothing, but even then, there are ways to get the things you need without having to resort to this.

User comments:

--Pretty weak effort. I once bought a whole season of 24 for five bucks by switching the tags with one of the DVDs from the bargain bin (I think it was Ernest Goes to Jail). Then I just chatted up the cashier while she was working and she didn't even flinch when it rang up as "DVD $4.88." Take that Wal-Mart.

--Stealing from an evil retailer is just pushing resistance to an higher level than refusing to shop there.When Walmart shut down a store in my province for trying to unionize, i went to the nearest Walmart (for the first time in my life) wearing the oldest pair of snow boots i could find - i needed new ones for the coming winter - and switched them with the most expensive pair they were selling, left the old ones in the boots box, and left. Sure, it was theft. It was also legitimate resistance - albeith quite limited, but you do what you can and are willing to risk - to Walmart's economic warfare and refusal to abide by the spirit of the trade laws of my country. If I was a politician, i'd have outlawed them. Considering I had more limited means, i fought them the way I could. Its nothing to be ashamed of. Try it sometimes.

--Wow, some people on here are so hung up with the law that they justify calling people 'thieves' for taking something from an organisation that treats its employee's terribly, that ruins local economies by moving into a town, and that sells goods made by sweatshops in china... Personally, I think someone going in and gutting their stores would be justified. I think people need to stop thinking laws are the be all and end all of civilisation and start thinking for themselves.

--And the fact that you think stealing is a bad thing when it comes from Walmart just makes me think that you have no ability to think for yourself. Look through history, every struggle against an oppressive regime, company, etc... involves 'lawbreaking' - but for a good goal. Would you say that the suffragettes were wrong with their lawbreaking? Or black rights? etc...

Ok, this is on a slightly lesser scale but the concept is the same.

--So don't shop at Wal-Mart. If you're there, steal from them, so the prices rise for everyone, so everyone stops shopping there.Yeah, sounds like a sort of Robin Hood to me. I'm all for it.
------ If you're going to be a thief, at least be honest about it. Quit lying to us, and yourself, about 'sticking it to wal-mart'. Maybe I could break in your home and steal your computer, TV and the like. Since you should have homeowners or renters insurance, I'd really just be sticking it to the insurance company right? I'd be helping you get new electronics, wouldn't I? Your buying new electronics would help people in the manufacturing and distribution fields, correct? I could tell myself that, but you-and everyone else-would call me a scumbag, a burglar and a thief.

--I used to do this to get beer in college. Bring in the UPC from a 12 pack of cokes, tape it to the beer case. no ID needed.

--I did this with a grill my freshman year in college. I bought a $379 grill for $99. I just tore the sticker bar code off of a cheaper grill by the same manufacturer and of course the idiot that rang me up didn't know any better! Steaks on a grill that you ripped off from WalMart just taste so much better!
---- Yes, thank you for making the prices higher for everyone else due to your theft. Way to go.

--Those da-- hillbilly's with mullets that shop at wal-mart need the hi-def view of Nascar.

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