Archived News starting from 06-08-2005 and earlier
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Nikon Coolpix 2100 camera is nearing the end of it's life since I've busted off the power switch and have to trick it to turn on. The camera has served me well, and I love the features in Nikon's line of sub $1,000 cameras, so naturally I'm leaning toward another Nikon. I've narrowed down my selection to the
Coolpix 4200 or the
Coolpix 4800. The 4200 is $150 and the 4800 is $275. The extra $75 buys me an 8.3x optical zoom compared to the 3x zoom on the 4200. Both have 4x digital zoom which I don't even count as useful. My question is: would you pay an extra $75 for an extra 5.3x of zoom?
Folding under high temperature and popular demand, I decided to go shirtless for my latest landscaping project. You can see me in my shirtless glory from 12:15pm - 4:00pm on todays
GnomeCam. I asked Missy to go shirtless as well to which she replied "This isn't Canada you know." Fortunately she did put on a bikini top which distracted my neighbors enough to not call the police on my tasteless display of flabby whiteness. I moved 2 cubic yards of dirt and replaced it with just under a cubic yard of rock. Once the shirtless urge strikes me again, I plan to get the second cubic yard of rock and claim victory.
Thanks to the astute observation of
Joseph, I learned my Gnome on the
GnomeCam was missing. I immediately had flashbacks to when Myrone the gnome was
stolen and feared the same for Butt. Before I was able to alert the Gnome Response Squad Missy pointed out he was not missing but in fact had fallen into the bushes below. No doubt a result of his heavy drinking the night before. As soon as he finds his coffee I'm sure he'll be back on top.
Somehow the old link is gone. Here is the new permanent link.
Buy My House!Today was an
MC-NECO mod meet in my garage. The
GnomeCam temporarily became the garage cam while I changed my brakes and intake,
Ron gutted his interior,
Pierre replaced his alternator and fan controller with Zack and
Jason lending moral support. Several burgers, pizza, and trips to Autozone later all cars started up successfully. It's always relaxing working my car for 8 hours.
Today I transitioned the
GnomeCam to the day/night wired camera now that Michigan looks like it's past the danger of freezing anytime soon. I also moved the location to increase the amount of inactive suburb you can see. Now instead of two boring houses you can see two boring houses and two driveways. If you look closely, you can finally see the Gnome in all his glory. You can also watch the plants grow. The excitement is so intense I decided to extend the captures to 11:00pm as well. If you find yourself dizzy or fatigued from the activity, remember you can always close your browser.
After getting back from vacation, my
XP Media Center was not
recording shows anymore.
Duane informed me his media center is not
playing any shows but
Steve has had no problems whatsoever. The apparently random occurences had me convinced it was a software problem so I decided to reload from a previous backup instead of trying to troubleshoot it. Once I had re-imaged the machine, I noticed live TV would randomly black out. After a few reboots it would work again. I checked to make sure I was getting consistent signal from the cable line and have decided it's a problem with the
tuner card. The blackouts would explain the lack of recorded shows since Media Center just quits when there is no signal. It could just be a faulty card, but
Steve has not had to reboot his machine for almost a month. He does not allow his machine to suspend which means it's on all the time. Bad for power bills, but apparently good for stability and possibly hardware components as well. I'm sure my machine has turned on and off at least 2 times a day for the past year and all that power cycling may have also affected the tuner card negatively. My suspend is off and a new card is on order. I'll see if this theory holds for the next year.
I came home today at 6:40pm to find the maple tree in my front yard
significantly smaller than I remembered. Fortunately Missy was still hacking away so my first thought of a tree rebellion was ruled out. I've
checked the polls and found this was a well received change with over a 90% approval rating. She did such a good job I let her trim up all the other trees and weed whip my entire yard with an electric model and a cord too short to reach everywhere.
Every year, for the past 3 years, my work gives everyone a Las Vegas vacation including hotel and airfare.
This year was the longest one yet spanning 4 days and 3 nights. I had grand plans to visit Hoover Dam and Area 51 but they were squashed by a persistant sore throat that air conditioning and desert air did not help. Fortunately
Brian suggested playing Blackjack which turned out to be some good advice. I wound up with an extra $50 in my pocket just by sitting at a table for a few hours. According to the majority of those that went, it's the game with the best odds. I found out
some people left with over $800 so my $50 victory was quickly overshadowed. The volcano didn't erupt as regular and the pirate ships in front of Treasure Island are now some kind of teen drama but other than that it's the same Vegas as before.
My GPS software told me to drive up I-77 instead of I-75 to return home. I never question technology so naturally I'm
following the route it told me to
presently. Missy has been driving for 7 hrs straight now and keeps asking for a break. I told her I have important things to do on the laptop and to shut up. Her sacrifice is bringing you this update, so appreciate it accordingly. My right rear tire is leaking air in protest of one too many SCCA races, so if I don't make it back the tire most likely blew up on a bridge and we fell 300 feet to our doom. Totals for the trip so far: 6 dead semi truck tires, 4 dead animals, 3 tanks of gas, 12 Hondas revving their engines at me and 5 vehicles with rainbow stickers (significantly less than our trip down, but we aren't north of I-80 yet).
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