"sometimes the whole guy is out of focus" - Seinfeld, how pharmacutical companies see us
Mood:  happy
Topic: photography
I'm quite happy because, although I'm not perfect yet, I've gotten much better at focusing my photo camera. Up until last spring I never had a camera that allowed me to manually focus the lens. Even though my current camera allows me to enable autofocus for snapshots, I have the option of turning it off. Last night while I was taking some pictures with Danielle, I was able to manually focus the camera for the first time. The reason for my troubles thus far is that, for some reason, it's very hard for me to tell when looking through the viewfinder if the subject is in focus.

I used to have that problem in HS when I would have to autofocus the video camera. However, one utility on my camera, along with some practice has allowed me to finally be able to manually focus - a utility that zooms in on the center of the image so that I can use it for focusing.

I've also learned two techniques recently. First of all, last night I was able to tell when the image is in focus by looking for the letters on Danielle's tshirt to focus. Second, I have learned that an f-stop with a higher number has a higher depth of focus. This means that more of the objects in front and behind of the focus point are in focus. I think this gives me some lattitute when focusing because if I'm slightly off, it shouldn't matter. The downside is that higher fstops mean smaller shutter size which means more light is needed or I need to shoot at a slower speed. This isn't a problem when I have a tripod, but for snapshots, it becomes harder.

Google is the best site in the world
Mood:  chatty
Topic: The Web
I wrote (I think) sometime on this blog about how google is awesome for finding song lyrics. Almost every time I look, I find what I'm looking for. But last night was the final proof for me that Google is the best way to diagnose what's wrong with your computer.

I've been using www.google.com/linux for quite some time to solve my linux problems because the program's documentation is not always that great. Also, each person's computer is a little different so there isn't always one solution.

My dad had been complaining for months that the windows picture tool was not loading up on his computer. It used to come up and he loved it, but he couldn't figure out what was wrong. So we checked some of the autoplay settings and couldn't figure it out. We had just about given up when I decided to Google it. I typed something like "digital camera no autoplay" and by the second page I found what I needed. Apparently, installing realplayer - for some weird reason - causes this to stop working. I didn't believe it until I found that same solution on a couple of web pages on Google. So I told my dad to do it. He was a little unbelieving, but tried it. And it worked! He was overjoyed after months of frustration.

In fact, I think that people should probably be taught good search strings because of how important it is to be able to find the information you need on google. I tried about three different search strings yesterday before I finally got the results I wanted. It's a true artform and I think people should get some tips.

squirrels
Mood:  chatty
Topic: random
While doing work today with the shades drawn I noticed a squirrel's tail flapping in the wind. I got curious about it so I took a closer look, the squirrel seemed to be periodically shaking. I grabbed my camera to see if I would be fortuitous enough to get a picture instead of it running away like it always does.

I was able to get around 20 pictures, but many of them were dark due to the fact the my window faces west or at least South-West so that the sun was in the way. Fortunately, photoshop now has an amazing filter for removing shadows. In my experience, 90% of the time it does this without making the photos look too grainy. The 10% of the time that it hasn't worked, I'm sure there's some combination of settings that I could use to get the best results. But it does indeed work very well.

I also learned why the squirrel had been convulsing. Apparently a certain sound I heard over the summer that I thought was originating from a bird was actually coming from the squirrel. It does a kinda of "click click click BAH!" or something like that. Maybe one day I'll be able to record it for your listening pleasure.

Boy, this has become somewhat of a photo-blog recently, hasn't it?

Psalm 23
Mood:  chillin'
Topic: Bible
I have had this Psalm stuck in my head for the past week. I couldn't remember anything but the first line and the famous verse 4. Finally today I took a quick second to look it up. It's a wonderufl Psalm to memorize if you're at Cornell. It will definitely keep you on the correct side of the bridge.

Psalm 23
A Psalm of David who became King of Israel

The Lord is my shepherd, I shall not be in want.
He makes me lie down in green pastures,
he leads me beside quiet waters,
he restores my soul.
He guides me in paths of righteousness
for his name's sake.
Even though I walk
through the valley of the shadow of death,
I will fear no evil,
for you are with me;
your rod and your staff,
they comfort me.

You prepare a table before me
in the presence of my enemies.
You anoint my head with oil;
my cup overflows.
Surely goodness and love will flollow me
all the days of my life,
and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
----
I just realized for the first time the deep shepard/sheep metaphors in the first paragraph. q:o)

dan's blog is back
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: other blogs
not sure if it was ever gone, but it seemed that way for a while. Dan, my brother, has his blog up again. Link has been reinstated on the left there.

To dan - I also sometimes find random pieces of clothing throughout campus and wonder who could be shedding them. The most mundane - a pair of mittens. The strangest - a bra.

breaking news! (kinda)
Mood:  celebratory
Topic: News
US Secretary of State Colin Powell has submitted his letter of resignation to Bush. This IS breaking news according to the MSNBC website, but the reason that I wrote "(kinda)" on top is that my fiancee and I have known that he would resign ever since everyone else started dropping like flies.

We didn't think he'd leave because it seemed that everyone else was leaving. We thought he would leave because he has had a very tough couple of years. Ever since the Iraq problem began, he has always seemed to be on the wrong page. He was the stooge for the government and Colin Powell has too much integrity and pride for that.

For example, practically on the eve that we went to war with Iraq, Colin was still sayin that we weren't going to war. He was also talking a lot abou the weapons of mass destruction. Like those weapons, both things blew up in his face when he found out that no one had sent him the memos about how wrong this was. I can't think of all of the examples off the top of my head, but I can remember in the past few months that he has been on the wrong page nearly every time.

If you know anything about Colin, you know he's not purposely going against Bush. He's a military man and a man with a lot of integrity, he wouldn't do that. He would respect his leadership and do what he needed to do to get the job done. No, this has been the Bush team consistently using Powell to quiet down critics while they schemed away.

Leave Powell, leave and go have some peace in your life. I am proud of the work you have done.

Ying and Yang: One Good Thing and One Bad Thing About Linux
Mood:  caffeinated
Topic: Linux
Good Thing: I used K3B, a CD/DVD authoring tool, yesterday to burn my mix from the PSP AIDS Ball and I was very, very impressed. K3B is the perfect blend of the simplicity of Roxio and the informative aspects of Nero. (Both of these, if you don't know, are Windows CD/DVD burners)

What I hate when I'm using Nero is that I don't have the nice drag/drop of Roxio. Also, the interface is not very intuitive. However, when it's burn time, Nero gives a lot more detailed information about what's going on and keeps a log. So I know exactly what the program is doing. Roxio has the overly simplistic CD that turns golden as it is authored.

K3B, on the other hand, has both of these aspects. It is awesome! Last night I hooked up my external DVD burner to the laptop for the first time, started up K3B and it worked perfectly on the first time. It is also chock-full of a ton of options which I have only begun to understand.

Bad Thing: I am 99% ready to migrate fully to Linux with just a backup computer running Windows for when I need a certain capability for work or school. But there is one last thing keeping me from doing this: installation of programs is horrid. Well, this needs qualification - if I install from yum (I'm using fedorda) then everything works dandy. But if I have to download from the internet and ./configure and make and make install and all that crap then it is horrible. It almost never works for me and it takes forever and you have to go find things to satisfy dependencies. Why can't there be an installer like Windows? This is the only thing that gets me ticked about Linux. If I find a windows program online I just download the file and click on the .exe and everything is installed. Can it be so hard to incorporate something like this for linux? I guess that's what an RPM is, but there aren't RPMs for everything. Am I wishing for something impossible?

extending the offer once again...
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: "Kobrakai" - Lost Prophets
Topic: The Web
Anyone out there with a blog who wishes to exchange links, just let me know. This last month alone I've had 2003 visitors to my blog. So if you would like for me to have a link to your blog, just let me know and, if you put one up to mine, I will reciprocate. Not only is this good for getting more readers, but the more links you have in and out of your page, the higher you are ranked on google. q:o)

sdrawkcab
Mood:  don't ask
Now Playing: "Some Fantastic" - Barenaked Ladies
Topic: School Stuff
Argh! I hate when stuff is backwards in ECE and then it just confuses the crap out of you. For example, current is caused by electrons, but the direction that we conventionally use for current is backwards to the flow of electrons.

Most recently, in my simulation lab I am working on CMOS capacitors. I was going nuts for the past 15 minutes because all of my graphs were backwards. Then I suddenly had a flash of insight...nmos capacitor is p-type and pmos capacitor is n-type. I have no idea why this is and it drives me nuts! I could have saved so much time if they had named these things correctly the first time!

mmhmm track 1
Mood:  caffeinated
Now Playing: "Things of This World" - dc talk
Topic: Music
Here's part one of the awesome relient k lyrics from their new album, mmhmm. This one always makes me think it belongs in a teen movie.

"The One I'm Waiting For"
Relient K

The way that girl can break a heart
It's like a work of art
And this is the worst part
She knows it

And she's so confident
That she's what everybody wants
But nobody wants
Her to know that

So fall back on all of your premonitions
And just learn to listen
To those that have more wisdom than you
And just stop
Putting so much stock
In all of this stuff
Live your life for those you love

And I'm still waiting for
You to be the one I'm waiting for

The way that girl can turn a head
Well she is such a threat
But don't ever forget
She knows it

And she's got it all
All figured out
And she won't let you doubt
She knows it

I'm still waiting for
You to be the one I'm waiting for

Something tells me that this is going to make sense
Something tells me it's going to take patience
Something tells me that this will all work out in the end