I done a bad, bad thing...

So, looking around on eBay today, and after looking at my budget (since we're not running STPR due to time constraints), I saw a deal that I could not refuse...

dpreview.com

At long last, I've decided to get another camera body. With the newer EOS 30D out on the market, there's plenty of cheap EOS 20D bodies out there for the buying. The 20D will give me a huge jump in performance, particularly for my motion/motorsports work.

Real servo AF, more AF points, better/more accurate AF, higher frame rate, bigger buffer, faster memory card, stiffer body, and an extra two million pixels should help out a lot, not to mention avoiding switching lenses between long and short shots. This beast, plus my nice Sigma zoom, should make for a really good time at the Montreal Grand Prix in June.

It's a factory refurbished unit, still sealed in the box from Canon. It has a 3 year aftermarket warranty included, and all for a price lower than most individuals are selling these as private party sales. Best deal I've seen pop up in months, so I jumped on it. I figure that since I'm planning on opening up image sales on Eidetic Images in the next couple of weeks, I should be able to recoup a good chunk of the expense through event photography.

In other news, my dad's surgery is scheduled for May 12, so I'll be pretty out of touch for a few days afterward. The Focus has been repaired with a new clutch, wiper relay, ECU, and IMRC controller... it's inspected, had the oil changed, and everything was covered under warranty.

All told, it's been a decent couple of days. After all the stress lately, it's nice to finally see things going in a positive direction.

murder. death. kill.

I am, seriously, going to kill the people at Ford. Right now, it only looks like a paperwork oversight, but if I get dicked here, there's going to be calls to lawyers and attorneys general.

Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr.

omgwtfbbq

So, after waking up this morning with the distinct sensation of a large weight crushing my face, I realized that my "sniffles" on Friday, "allergies" on Saturday, and "cold" on Sunday had turned into a "vicious sinus infection" by today. Upon leaving the apartment this morning (after an extra couple of hours of fitful sleep on the couch during a History Channel marathon of "Tales of the Gun"), my zombie-like appearance was an accurate, if understated, representation of how I was feeling.

I had looked around the apartment for an old stash of Dayquil caplets before leaving, and was unsuccessful... so, I walked into CVS looking like something that had crawled out of the gutter and sought something with pseudoephedrine and acetaminophen that could be consumed with coffee and might ameliorate my symptoms.

... The PATRIOT Act is perhaps the most misguided piece of "law enforcement" legislation since the Prohibition amendment of 1919 and the Massachusetts law banning unlicensed goatees.

Let me step back for a second... this March, much to my chagrin (and that of millions of those who value civil liberties throughout this nation), President Bush signed an extension to the provisions of the USA PATRIOT Act, perhaps the most misguided piece of "law enforcement" legislation since the prohibition amendment of 1919 and the Massachusetts law banning unlicensed goatees. Embedded within the latest version was the "Combat Meth Act," in which insane restrictions are placed on so-called "chemical precursors" to the manufacture of crystal meth. Particularly, it limits where certain OTC drugs are kept, sold, and recordkeeping.

Upon approaching the "cold/allergy" aisle at the pharmacy, I was faced with an extensive selection of little tags (kind of like buying video games at Toys R Us) with nifty little photos of all sorts of cold medications, and a bunch of boxes of the new, and decidedly ineffective, phenylephrine-based decongestants (like "Sudafed PE"). So, I pull a couple of little tags from the shelf and walk up to the counter.

The guy behind the counter timidly asks for my drivers' license and slides over this massive logbook binder, and flips to the page for the first letter of my last name. I now have to write down my name, address, date, time, and how many grams of Sudafed I'm buying. The clerk informs me that I'm buying 1.8 grams of the stuff, which is only 50% of the new federal daily purchase limit of 3.6g. While he's ringing up the remainder of my sale, I scan the rest of the logbook looking for who's bought the most, and jokingly comment, "hey, I'm only halfway there... looks like I should stop by again tonight!" The poor guy didn't know whether to laugh, cry, or call the FBI.

I guess I don't know where I'm going with this. I have come to a few conclusions, though:

• It's now practically impossible to just "stop by" the drugstore and buy some Sudafed if you're in a rush. Expect a long time at the counter and to be treated like a criminal.


• It's probably a good idea to start stocking up on the stuff, since it's only a matter of time before the Sudafed baby gets thrown out with the amphetamine bathwater. Buy your 3.6 grams per day and 9 grams per month so you'll have a stockpile when the men with jackboots come through and insist that saving you from the meth heads is worth the misery of sinus congestion.

a little CSS can be a dangerous thing

I've tweaked the format of the page a little bit, again. Now it has less Flash, more AJAX, and some prettier CSS. Sign me up for a ride on the standards bandwagon!

and it begins...

Anyone who knows me is aware of my complete incapacity to remember future events and specific dates (holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, event plans, etc.). I've been meaning to find a "good online calendar" for a while now, and decided "well, I'll wait until Google comes out with one." I figured that since they didn't have one, I could use its nonexistence as an excuse to actually keeping track of things.

Well, as of today, I can't do that anymore. Google's managed to come up with a slick calendar webapp that's fully integrated with your other gServices. Best feature so far is the natural language event creation... it even detects events that you might be talking about in your emails and makes it a quick affair to add it to your calendar. Throw in easy sharing, public/private events, and RSS/XML syndication, and you've got one hell of a tool.

So, I've started adding events. If I start showing up for things on time, or confirming things with you a few days in advance, at least you'll know why.

making stuff! breaking stuff!

Since I'm something of an elitist bastard, I have a habit of ignoring most of the "tech news" and "geek news" sites. I'm really not interested in the latest Lord of the Rings movie, or some Star Trek conference, or most of the normal kitsch that comes along with being a geek. Unfortunately, I end up missing out on some very interesting and cool sites, and often find out about them weeks, months, or years after they made the rounds in the usual places.

The upshot to all of this is that, occasionally, I find one of these sites in my own travels, and am absolutely astonished and giddy that I've found "something interesting" on the internet. My latest find of this type is MAKE, a quarterly zine and daily blog. There is some absolutely ridiculously great stuff on the site. Today's entries included how to make an Enigma machine, a computer-controlled Etch-a-Sketch, and bagpipes made of PVC.

I think I'm in love.