New camera

Last week I finally broke down and bought the new camera I've been pondering for quite a while. I don't think the DSLR is going to replace my point-and-shoot entirely -- it's a lot clunkier to carry around, for one thing. But it should give me more flexibility in terms of lenses, time-exposures, etc.

Monday evening I went walking in Shelby Bottoms for about two hours, and brought the camera along to play with. I'm still learning how to use it, and I don't think anything I took is really that great. But it was fun to experiment. I've already decided that I need to get a longer lens than the 18-55mm it came with. (Actually more like a 28-90mm lens due to the smaller digital image sensor.)

The only problem with buying lenses is that the good ones are really expensive. Like more than the camera. I think I'm probably going to let my checkbook cool down for a bit before I send more money over to B&H.

Personal Enrichment

Our company has an Internet station set up in the cafeteria, mainly so that employees without computers can access the intranet, benefits website, etc. I was at work late, and went down to get a Diet Coke. There was a guy sitting at the machine surfing, while his friend microwaved a bag of popcorn. "Check this out," he says to his friend. "Decapitations by helicopter." I glanced over his shoulder. Sure enough, there were pictures.

Daily Yearly Bread

Continuing this weekend's theme of "all kitchen, all the time," I will now tell you about the loaf of bread. Not just any loaf of bread. The loaf of of Harris-Teeter brand "Premier Selection 9-Grain Enriched Bread" that I purchased last September or October and then accidentally left in a cabinet until now.

I'm sure you're expecting a scary-sounding description of mold and decay. But the actual result of this little inadvertent science experiment was even scarier. The bread looks and feels just like it did the day it left the supermarket. No mold. No staleness. Just plain old spongy American-style mass-produced bread.

Apparently they pump this stuff so full of preservatives now that it can basically stand decades in storage with little loss of its basic bread nature. Let's contrast this to bread from the local bakery, which tastes great, but basically starts going bad after a day or two.

So obviously store-bought bread has some powerful chemical juju going on. For all we know, Harris-Teeter just made one giant batch of super-durable bread made in 1987, and they've been selling it ever since. Kind of scary, if you ask me.

Truck Balls

I'm thinking about building a new Linux box to use as a media center/development server/web server/file server/etc. Ideally I'd like to get one that can just fit under my desk rather than taking up a whole shelf in my storage room. So I did a google search for "small form factor." It came back with helpful links to a variety of small PC vendors. But one of the adword results did't quite seem to fit:

I ask you, my friends, is this a great country or what?

My kingdom for some soap

Speaking of better living through chemistry, what I wouldn't give right now for some Boraxo. This morning I went to painting project sponsored by Hands on Nashville, and managed to cover my hands with latex paint. Boraxo is the only thing I know that gets this stuff off without a fight. Maybe I'll go on a soap expedition in a few minutes.

Kitchen declared federal disaster area

In addition to the Grape-Nuts fiasco (see below), I am also dealing with a massive ant infestation in my kitchen. When they first showed up, they just went after some hard candy that had been sitting in a mason jar on my windowsill for a few months. I got rid of that temptation, but new they were interested, and immediately commissioned ant-explorers to forage in new areas. Like the cabinets, the toaster, the sink, and just about everywhere else.

So yesterday morning I made an emergency trip to Cumberland Hardware. If you're imagining Home Depot, think again. This is the sort of old-school hardware shop that has been exterminated by the big boxes in most places. The moment you walk into the tiny shop, one of the proprietors quizzes you about what you're looking for. They then instantly locate it from amidst the floor-to-ceiling clutter. Once I asked for a lightbulb that they didn't have, but helpfully they sent me to another shop two doors down. I'd give you a web address, but they apparently don't have one. Which figures -- their main concession to modern technology is a cash register powered by a metal crank on its side!

Anyway, they sold me this stuff called Terro. It's a little bottle filled with clear goop that looks sort of like sugar syrup. And from what I understand, that's basically what it is, albeit with a dollop or two of boric acid thrown in for good measure. The idea is that you leave this stuff laying around, the ants go into a feeding frenzy on it, take a bunch of it home to the missus, and the die a horrible death. So far they're definitely snarfing it down as fast as I can ladle it out, but I haven't noticed a marked decrease in the number of ants marching in.

Too bad there aren't more of these guys around here.

A major Grape-Nuts related incident

For breakfast this morning, I was going to open a new box of Grape-NutsTM cereal. But the plastic liner in the box was very stubborn and refused to open. In hindsight, I guess using a pair of scissors would have been a good idea. But being a manly-man, I instead opted for the brute force method. And it worked -- sort of. The bag suddenly tore wide open, causing a massive Grape Nut explosion the likes of which have never before been seen. There are now Grape Nut nodules embedded in every nook and cranny of the kitchen. There should be a warning label on those things.

Graduation Day

Close, but not quite...

A guy in our department just got a phone call from someone asking if this was the Special Ed. Department. He had to think about it about it for a minute before he decided that it was a wrong number.

More on new Blogger features

I just tried enabling Blogger's new built-in comment feature. I then disabled it and went back to YACCS.

The new commenting interface seems to be headed toward the livejournal model, where commenters are either members of Blogger and post under their username, or must post as "Anonymous." I have never liked this, since I don't think it's fair that blog-less friends, Movable Type users, etc. should have to suffer the indignity of being known as "anonymous." The YACCS model allows anyone to enter contact info in on the fly, which is more democratic.

On another note, I also turned on the new "post by e-mail" feature, which sounds pretty cool. If this works, it means I should be able to blast out blog entries from my SmartPhone. (I've tried to do this before in other ways, but it's never been very reliable.) I'll give it a try in a bit.

I don't blog for a day...

... and they change everything! Not sure how I feel about this freaky new version of blogger, but it does seem to have some interesting features.

gak

Since I'm just about done with classes, I was totally looking forward to a weekend of freedom. I had been thinking all about what to do with it. For example, finally going to see that Frist Center exhibit that will be disappearing in a few days. Or maybe trying to watch some horses. Or maybe just running some errands around town.

Instead I spent today in orbit between the bed and the futon, feeling like crud warmed over. I seem to have picked up some sort of nasty head cold that is sapping my will to live. Hopefully with a lot of sleep it will blow over soon.

On the good side of the scale, the brother who was laid off back around Thanksgiving, finally found another job -- and it sounds like it's a pretty good one. Yay.

The Song

Ok, you've suffered long enough. The lyrics below were from "The Cranes," sung by Patty Larkin on the album "Red = Luck."

Name that tune...

Inspired by Danielle, who was, in turn, inspired by someone else, we will now play a fun game.

1. Grab the nearest CD.
2. Put it in your CD-Player (or start your mp3-player, I-tunes, etc.).
3. Skip to Song 3 (or load the 3rd song in your 3rd playlist)
4. Post the first verse in your journal along with these instructions. Don't name the band, nor the album-title.

On their wings they are returning.
On their wings they fly.
Shadows fade; the sun is burning... high.

Every day the light stays longer.
Every day you sigh.
Shadows fade; you start to wave goodbye.

If you're thinking of leaving, you're leaving at a very bad time.

No Googling Allowed. Which performer performed this song on which album?

On the brighter side of life...

We just handed in our group paper for the biotech class, which was the last major assignment left before graduation. I have a few more little weekly position papers, but by and large I am done. Yay.

Why else would they put the stage in the middle of a river?

From today's paper:

''I'm drinking alcohol,'' explained Julian Casablancas, lead singer of red-hot rock band The Strokes, to the packed River Stages audience Sunday night.

''I'm not drinking water, I'm not drinking juice. I'm drinking liquid cocaine.''

Casablancas' explanation seemed somewhat necessary, and not entirely unexpected, given that he and guitarist Nick Valensi had urinated minutes before into the Cumberland River.

Charming... Now pardon me while I go and refill my Brita with premium grade Cumberland River tap water.

But it's non-GMO cirrhosis...

Came across this while working on my paper:

Emulating the food industries, Japanese breweries have also joined the competition to offer GM-free products. In 1998, Paarlberg said, the Kirin Brewing Company announced that starting in the year 2001 it would use only GM-free corn starch in its beer. Only one day after Kirin’s announcement, its competitor, Sapporo Breweries made similar promises that its beer would be as GM-free as its competitors. Recognizing this commendable display of health consciousness among beer drinkers, Paarlberg pointed out that even Japanese smokers made the decision some years ago to consume only non-GM tobacco leaves.

-- Robert Paarlberg, "Asia’s Response to Genetically Modified Food

Mexico in old school 35mm

Here are a few of the photos I snapped on my first day in Mexico city using my trusty Pentax K-1000. These are inside the Mexico City Cathedral, and then outside where they were rehearsing the passion play for later in the week. (They may be a bit distorted by the scaling, but I don't feel like messing with Photoshop right now.)

  

Or not...

When you roll out of bed midmorning on a Saturday, walk into the kitchen in your boxers, look out the window, and see people jogging past the 20 mile mark of a marathon, it sort of makes you feel a bit lazy.

Hoofin' It

This morning I decided to walk to work. I've done this a few times before, but never on a regular basis. I'm thinking about trying to start doing it more often. The (relatively) new Shelby pedestrian bridge makes it a much nicer walk.

It's about two miles from there to here, and there's some nice scenery along the way. The only drawback is having to allow enough time to get here, and having to do it again at the end of the day whether I feel like it or not. (There's always cabs and buses in a pinch, I guess.)

I figure the walking is an easy way to help make up for the computer screen I stare at much of the rest of the day. We'll have to see if this idea survives once the mercury tops 90, though.