2006 – The Bald Heretic – Short, bald dude with a goofy beard

The hero of 3700 Main

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In my time I have saved the computer at the Continental Club on a few occasions and bailed out Thomas over at Sig’s Lagoon. It’s my contribution to the “scene”, I suppose.

This week I got a call from the proprietress of Taco’s-A-Go-Go. Seems their PC was misbehaving and needed some tender loving nerd care. I was surprised to get the call since I had never given them my number. I assume it was acquired via my friend Nick or someone else who had access to my digits. I said I would have a look the next time I was in the area.

With the new 9/80 schedule I had this Friday off and felt I could afford the lack of sleep and headed off to go see Beetle perform their usual Thursday night happy hour gig at the Continental. Since Taco’s-A-Go-Go is right next door I popped in to have a look at their ailing PC. Turns out the wireless adapter driver was in need of a re-install. I had it up and running in about 10-15 minutes. No big deal.

Enjoyed the Beetle show, as always. After they were done playing I was talking to Jim and he suggested heading over to a party at “Bongo” Jane’s place.

I was of a mixed mind about the whole thing. I know Jane and I knew I would know some of the people there and Jim was just so darn insistent about it I headed on over. Glad I did. I saw some old friends I had not seen in over 15 or so years and just enjoyed hanging out.

Jane’s place is quite interesting. She has the best entertainment center you can imagine. It’s a sound stage right in the main living room. Jane has a lot of musician friends and they were coming and going from the stage all night.

click for full size

Sorry to say, I don’t know this singer’s name. She was performing with Steve Candelari on the drums and Aaron Loesch of Jug O’ Lighnin fame on guitar.

The geek who saved Christmas

Over 120 comments thanking me for the solution I provided in my Helpline blog item “My screen is sideways”. The closest runner up is “Double-click opens search instead of folder” with 60+ comments.

This comment received from a reader in the UK tickled me to death:

Daughter aged 11 hit unknown key combination turning screen sideways. Thought had virus, after an hour and much upset, decided to google. You saved our xmas as pressies depend on the computer working.

Wide and fast

Since I have begun to dangle off the deep in when it comes to photography, I have found myself frequenting the camera stores more and more.

Always on the prowl for the right accessory and taking every opportunity to pic the brains of other photographers so I can better educate myself and improve my technique.

It’s very reminiscent of when I first took a sincere interest in computers. Who knows, maybe I will have the same success if I am lucky. I have already started to ponder working in a segment on digital photography into the radio show. The idea is quite nascent but I am pondering it sincerely.

As I was poking around the Camera Exchange and talking with Charlie the subject of used lenses came up. One of the things that did not occur to me when determining which camera to buy was the second hand market. It’s obvious now that I think of it. The two most popular brands of digital SLR cameras are Nikon and Canon. Regardless of whether they are superior or inferior to any other brand is not the point. The point is that since there are so many on the market there tends to be more used lenses for these cameras than any of the others.

What this means to me is that there are practically NO used Sony lenses and relatively few used Minolta or Minolta mount third party lenses available. This is something I would encourage anyone looking to purchase a camera to consider. Being able to buy a used lens can save you a bit of money when you want something maybe a bit more specialized and you don’t want to plunk down the full price for it.

Of course I can buy anything I need brand new and heaven knows there are some damn fine lenses available for this platform. I hungrily lust for the just released Sony Carl ZeissÂ® SonnarÂ® T* 135mm f/1.8 Telephoto Lens and when and if I can ever justify the $1500 price tag I’ll just run down to the camera store and pick one up. Then I’ll show you all! Muahahahahaha!

Ahem, but I digress.

As I was saying, second hand lenses. Not many interesting lenses to be had on the second hand market (yet). None at the Camera Co-Op and a very limited number at The Houston Camera Exchange, and the ones they had were not terribly exciting with the exception of one that caught my eye. It was the Sigma 20mm f/1.8 EX ASP DG RF prime lens. What I found interesting was the high speed and the wide angle.

The Sony 50mm 1.4 has been my go-to lens and my favorite by far of any of my lenses. That being said, the limitations of the 50mm lens really reveal themselves in a small space or when trying to get a good group shot of a band or similar.

The idea of having a fast wide angle lens was very appealing and the price of this one used was way more affordable than buying it new in the box so after contemplating it for a week I went back and purchased it.

I’ve not taken the definitive photo yet. Most of the pics from the last few blog entries are using that lens and I did take it to the Big Top for the Light Rock Express show and the debut of Disco Expressions. If you’ve ever been to the Big Top you’ll know what a photographer is up against in this space. Very dim lighting and what lighting there is tends to be red. Thank heaven for good custom white balance settings.

I like it. I can get up close and personal and still capture a lot of what is going on. And not having to use a flash makes me far less irritating to the performers.

Of course now it’s going to be a more difficult decision when I trying to determine which lenses I will travel with to any given destination.

Give me coffee! (and electronics, hardware and food)

This has been the year of the gift card.
Between Cynthia and myself we have received the following:

(5) Starbucks gift cards
(3) Best Buy gift cards
(1) Pappas gift card
(2) Lowes gift cards

I’m not complaining.
That’s probably coffee for the entire year of 2007 plus a dinner and some things for around the house.

Thank you Santa!

Christmas eve was spent in the company of two of our bestest friends, Jim and Greg Henkel.

I forgot to get a good picture of it, but Greg is wearing a shirt that Cynthia made for him as an Xmas gift. The fabric is Hawaiian and has pictures of islands, palm trees and BATTLESHIPS. Greg’s a huge fan of the dreadnought so it was the perfect gift for him.

Cynthia had great gift from her sister waiting under the tree on this chillsome Xmas morn.

It’s a giraffe marionette.

It’s a pretty well known fact that Cynthia loves giraffes and some of you may might recall her adventures/antics/shenanigans at the Texas Renaissance Festival as the “Crazy Puppet Lady.”

And I got the coolest present EVER!

It’s a collectible set of GI JOE Xmas ornaments that are replica pieces from “The Secret of the Mummy’s Tomb” set which came out in 1971. This is what the original looks like:

It was a gift from Cynthia’s mother. She has the idea that I should have a GI JOE tree if Cynthia has a giraffe tree. We’ll see. For now I have them in my collectors case with the REAL GI JOE’s. I especially like the back of the ornament box which features the actual graphic from the original box.

Here’s hoping Santa brought you something nice this Christmas!

Traditions

This is the second year in a row that we have spent part of our holidays with Carl and Suzanne. They visit annually from Holland to visit Carl’s family.

They were our most gracious hosts when we were in Amsterdam a few years back and it’s always nice to have the chance to catch up.

Oh Tannenbaum, oh Tannenbaum

In my swinging batchelor days I didn’t decorate for the holidays in my own space. I was happy enough to see the familiar trapings of the yuletide season when I visited friends and family but never took the time to trim a tree with tinsel or anything sentimental like that.

I am of the age and background where whenever I hear the song “Oh Christmas Tree” I think of the Saturday Night Live “Killer Trees” skit. I especially loved the episode where Frank Zappa was in the lineup of trees as a “suspect” …

Cynthia, on the other hand, LOVES to decorate for Christmas.

In our living room we have our main tree as well as the tree made from Xmas postage stamps that you can see above the fireplace.

It was conceived when Cynthia was hunting giraffe stamps to create something for the giraffe room. She collected the stamps and did the layout and numbered the stamps to match a diagram she created and then handed the materials to our framer to put together.

Of course it doesn’t end there. At some point a few years ago Cynthia either bought or was gifted a giraffe Xmas ornament. Since the primary tree is deocrated in a mouse theme there was no real place for the ornament to go and the giraffe tree was born.

Giraffe ornaments are hard to find, but we have managed to find a few.
In fact next year we are thinking we’ll need a bigger tree.

Merry Xmas everyone!

IÂ´m stuck in Folsom prison, and time keeps dragginÂ´ on

Best if viewed at full size

Camera: Sony Alpha 100
Lens: Tamron AF 28-75mm f2.8 XR Di

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