Tuesday, February 28, 2006

i'm tired

I'm tired. There's no way around it.

I'm taking 17 units (including 2 deemingly "hard" programming classes), work 15+ hours a week at my job on campus, am juggling several freelance projects for various people, and I just took on a second part time job programming for a local startup. Not to bitch and moan, because I certainly brought this upon myself, but I'm just tired all the time. I'm out the door before 9 - often before 8 - and don't get home until 9 or 10 PM when I finish my homework. There's no way I could have made the ultimate team practices, although I'm going to try to go to the pick up games if they ever start again.

*sigh*

Oh yeah, going down to the parent's house this weekend to celebrate their 25th and wish them bon voyage on their trip to Italy. With my first large programming assignment due next Monday.

Heh, it's the last day to enter at Subnixus. Wouldn't it be nice to add $1300 to the "Dave is going to Europe for the month of July" fund?

Sunday, February 26, 2006

i love home movies

Paula Small: Would you mind setting the table? Dinner's going to be ready soon.
Brendon: Can I do it after dinner?
Paula Small: Sure.

I love Home Movies.

I also love Subnixus.

Wednesday, February 22, 2006

note to self

If you happen to be deuteranopic, don't ever do a website for someone with a green-based color scheme.

Tuesday, February 21, 2006

hooray for segway

Finally got to ride one at one of my dad's friend's house:





They are tons of fun and work a lot better than I would think. I was all over the grass, gravel, up steep hills, etc... and really fast at that! It's just a bit un-natural to lean forward; it takes a bit of getting used to.

Monday, February 20, 2006

weekend at the cabin

I got to spend last weekend with my parents (heh, yeah, I "got" to) (I love you mom & dad!) and go up to Redding. Lots of fun, free food, yadda yadda. We spent Saturday night up at our cabin near Trinity Center where there was snow on the ground and crystal clear skies up above - picture perfect in my opinion. We arrived pretty late and found the cabin to be a brisk 36 degrees inside and well below freezing outside. I was not to be deterred; my dad and I hopped in the car, hit the "4 wheel drive" (it's a Honda Pilot - trust me, the quotes are necessary) and went down to one of the local landmarks, the old barn. I took a few long-exposure images of the barn and the stars. The first one was shot at 400 ISO and a 180 second exposure; the second one was shot at 1600 ISO with a 225 second shutter. Neither one was photoshopped beyond what you could do in a darkroom (curves, levels, desat, etc...). I learned a lot from shooting these and can't wait to get back and try again with my newfound knowledge! Thanks dad for being a trooper in the twenty-something degree weather! (The neighbors reported the next morning that it got down to a low of 14 degrees that night)

I took a bunch of picutures of the barn and other stuff in the daylight, but I don't feel like going through them tonight... While I was out shooting on Sunday, however, I noticed a speck inside my lens. A mere piece of dust might not seem like much, but in the world of digital photography, it can mean a superb image with just a picture.

Now I've done a lot of stupid things in my lifetime, plus I like taking stuff apart, but I never thought I'd combine the two. Long story short, I took apart my 18-70mm zoom lens for a brief minute or two to get at the piece of dust, then put it back together before too much dust had a chance to settle on the glass. Everything turned out alright, and the lens works just fine. Here's a pic for your enjoyment:



Alright, I debated whether or not to post this here, but here goes. Eric over at Subnixus is giving away a trip to Las Vegas (or a handsome cash prize) to one lucky winner in about a week; the only catch is you have to link to his site to enter. I figure the odds are pretty good so I may as well enter, but after reading around his site the last few days I found some of the stuff pretty interesting. Poke around a bit if you feel so inclined.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

more skating + 50mm 1.8

So I got a new lens in the mail last Friday, more specifically the Nikkor 50mm 1:1.8D AF. I got it for two reasons: I wanted a really fast lens to play around with to get a shallow depth of field, faster shutter speeds, etc... plus, it is really cheap! (~$100) It fits nicely into my pringles can macro adapter after I cut up my old black LEVIS shirt to fill the empty space.

I took a shot of a circuitboard (by request), as well as the read/write head of an old hard drive and the headphones symbol on my ipod. The circuit board is from a disassembled samsung A620 mobile phone from sprint, and the hard drive from a disassembled powerbook from 1992 or so. I love my pringles can!

I was busy yet again photographing my neighbors skating this evening. There are a few more pics of them in this directory. I spent about a half hour merging a sequence of billie hitting a rail which turned out alright. Click below for larger image; I also uploaded a second image at 2560x1024 for a possible dual-monitor wallpaper if you're into that sort of thing :)



Let me know what you think! I really want a speedlight to help with these kinds of shots so I don't have to shoot in 800 or 1600 ISO; I even added one to my amazon wish list! I've been looking into the SB600, which is the cheaper of the nikon speedlights, so you should buy me one :)

Monday, February 13, 2006

bike ticket?

I left work late tonight as I usually do (mainly to avoid going home... but that's another story) and hopped on my bike as I have done every day so far this semester and last. While riding on warner, I see up ahead 2 cop cars with their lights on. As I neared the scene, I saw a bike off to the side of one of the cars with a couple people standing nearby. I assumed that someone got hit, but I didn't see another car around so my suspitions rose a bit. Just after I passed the first squad car, a copper jumps out right in front of me and starts yelling - literally yelling - for me to stop. I stop, jump off the bike, and look at the cop for an answer. He tells me to give him my ID. What? I told him I'd be glad to if he told me what the hell was going on. "You don't have a light, and I'll bet that your bike isn't registered." I get it. It's a bike checkpoint.

It was then I look around and see the half-dozen other kids who, bikes on the ground, were milling about waiting to get their ticket:



There was no fine for me, but I have to get a light and my bike registered before my court date. Now the best part (and the only reason I decided to post this story): The cop stops yet another unsuspecting victim riding in the dark (the third since he nabbed me), and tells him about the light law and to hand over his ID. The guy, obviously pissed off, mumbles under his breath, "What the f*ck?! this is horse sh*t!". The cop heard every word of it and asked if he was done. The guy retorted, much louder this time, "It's called 'freedom of speech', DICK!", emphasis on the last word. The cop loved it, and wrote him up for the maximum fine on both the missing light and lack of registration ($70), and then asked yet again if he was done. He said yes. Classic.

I'm just curious about one thing. I mean, the cop was really a dick, no argument there, but while I was waiting to get written up he asked me to pull my hands out of my jacket pockets because "he didn't know what was in there, and didn't want to find out". I mean seriously, I'm about as white as they come, and according to him I'm 5'10" and 140 lbs. What is the world coming to?

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

more photos

When I got home from school this evening, my neighbors were having a random skate session in the parking lot. I grabbed my camera and took a few snapshots in the uber low light. I decided that I really like high ISO black and white conversions. Probably my new favorite type of photography... Anyway, here's a few shots for your enjoyment.

click for 4 photos

I also enjoy photographing sports in general, be it snowboarding or skating or ultimate or whatever. I think I'm going to save up for a sigma 200mm f2.8 or something this summer. I just bought a 50mm f1.8 nikkor lens for my d70 today off amazon and upgraded to the super duper fast shipping, so hopefully I will see it before the end of the week. More on that when I get the lens of course...

I have recived a lot of positive feedback from the macro shots from a couple weeks ago, so thank you all! If you're interested, I got one more good one of a needle and some thread and an image for comparison. I'm racking my brain for other household items that would look cool up close, let me know if you think of any. One who shall remain nameless suggested that I take a shot of a certain plant which shall remain nameless, but the results left something to be desired. Once I perfect the process of shooting macro THC shots, I'll give 'em a post ;)

Sunday, February 05, 2006

got bots?

I love robots. I love everything to do with them, from the hardware to the electronics to the software that runs their tiny little brains. I have loved robotics since before junior high, and even did a report on them in 8th grade. So why is it so hard to get involved with them in college? At the end of last semester, I found out that my school has a club that's main focus is building and programming robots. Naturally, I was excited, and wanted to get involved right away. I went to a few preliminary meetings where apparently NOTHING got accomplished (two words: student organized), and even got on several mailing lists from which I have not heard a word. Finally, I talked to one of my programming teachers on Friday, and asked how I could get plugged in. She kind of gave me the run-around saying things like "well, you're doing the right thing taking such-and-such of class" or "glad you're interested as a sophomore". I kept asking how I could get my hands dirty - I told her I din't care what menial task the group gave me, I just wanted to start working on a 'bot, any bot! There were several large projects I asked about, which I knew needed volunteers, and still got no lovin'.

I asked some technical questions about which serial servo controller they were using to interface with the microcontroller, or how they planned on driving 12 amp motors off such a small H-Bridge - just to kind of drop a hint that I had a grasp (however small) on the subject. Nothing. I explained that I used to design surface mount printed circuit boards for an 8051 microcontroller (pretty burly...), but all I got was a spot on an email list.

This wouldn't bug me so much if I didn't know that the group is hurting for members. The grant they got a few years ago runs out within the next couple semesters, so they need to prove that there is still involvement if they want to keep the group alive, especially with such a high percentage of graduating seniors that are all going to be gone after spring. Not only that, they already have quite an assortment of 'bots: about a dozen AIBO dogs, another half-dozen or more BOE-bots, and a whole assortment of kits from various manufacturers - just sitting on the shelves. I just want to play with one, maybe take it home for the weekend and come back with some masterful creation, but of course you have to be a senior member to even think about working on one, let alone taking it home!

Sorry, it seems like I have been ranting alot on this space. Whatever, it's healthy, right?