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[ED: Slight edit.]

Chatted with Kawipilot this morning. He told me that a co-worker was helping him to work on some stuff, when all of a sudden the guy blurts out, "Man, one more week of this and I'm gonna quit!"

"Why," asked KP, slightly perplexed. "It's easy. Just sit here, obtain, measure and assemble the data. Then when you're finished, ship it out. If it returns with a seal of approval, everyone's happy." [ED: or something along those lines.]

Buddy replies. "No way. I'd rather be digging ditches!"

Which got me thinking. What I'm doing now is really no more important than what I was doing before. Let's face it, there are only three types of people in The Company. Those who dig ditches (me), those who stand around in the ditches saying "Good job" or "Not deep enough", and the third, who crap in the ditches after its been dug.

...in the end, we're all just building latrines for somebody more important than us. posted by losir at 8:23 PM

Here are two random pictures taken with my camera.

My helmet.

Darth Maul holding a helmet like a shrunken head trophy.

....ain't technology grand?! posted by losir at 3:42 PM

Here's a slice of my life.

Imagine you have a problem with your car. There's not one time where you can drive that car from point A to B. Sure you might get it started, and you can put it in gear. Heck, you can even drive it sometime to the point where you can see where you want to go, but it invariably dies before it gets there, and stutters to a halt. Right, the magical car with a magical problem.

So you hire a magician mechanic (aren't they all??), who promises to help you figure out the problem so you can fix your car. Only, each time the mechanic sits in with you, the car has no problem. None, it starts up, it drives, you arrive. Even the stupid AM station you thought you could never get can be heard clear as a whistle.

What do you do? Pop quiz, what do you do?! And no. Jumping off the nearest tall free standing structure is not an option, although at this point, it sure as heck sounds good....

....sigh. I miss being ignorant. posted by losir at 3:37 PM

I'm proud to say that I go to a barber. Not a hair stylist, not a coif artist, but a good ol' fashion barber.

I just can't stomach the idea of paying $40 for a wash, cut and style. Sure I want to look good as much as the next guy, but I can't justify the idea of spending cash just to feel like you got a better haircut.

My hair is heck hard to cut. Even "professional" stylists have told me in the past, but my barber seems to do okay.

So I'll never be a runway model strutin' my stuff and flexing my hiney. But to be frank, after sticking your hair in a helmet for a couple of hours, who cares about the hair?

Yeah, call me cheap, but at least I admit it.

....so maybe it does look like a $6 haircut, bite me. posted by losir at 8:07 PM

[ED: updated. AGAIN]

Flipping through channels last night, I caught a sniplet of Politically Incorrect with Bill Mahr. One of the guest said, to paraphrase: "I just don't think anyone should be making a buck off the WTC plane crash. I mean, people are selling t-shirts with the twin towers on it, just don't make money off this."

Which is the most stupid statement I've ever hread* in a long time. What about this grand idea of "The American Dream (TAD)". Their whole society is based on making a buck on other's stupidity or misfortune. How did the early American settlers con the natives out of their land? By giving them worthless beads and blankets. Why were the cotton and sugar plantations so successful? Because they enslaved Africans, forced them to do their work, and treated them like animals. How was the freaking Trans-Atlantic railway built?? By suckering Chinese people to emigrate to the States and work for literally next to nothing. All this on the backs and ignorance of others.

You want modern examples? What about the junk bond king Michael Milken? Heard of Mr. Infomercial Tom Vu? He's in jail now for fraud ain't he? How about a company's stock going up 50% all on nothing but a rumor and an internet post? I mean, money is made every day through deception and sleigh of hand. If "TAD" is really based on free capitalism and democracy, what's wrong with people selling a couple of lousy T-shirts saying "I survived the WTC plane crash on 9/11...."?? No one's telling you to buy the stinking thing. If you detest the merchandise, vote with your dollar and just say "No, thanks." As Wonderboy stated "It's not like they're setting up a fake charity and then milking the public." How true. Sure, toiling at McDogs for minimum wage is honest work, and I applaud them for their work ethics. So too will I support those who's conniving and brave enough to sell T-shirts bearing the WTC, or references to it.

The rappers have it right. "It's all about the Benjamins."

....Bring it here, I'll buy two.

* hread (h'read) - verb: To either have heard and/or read. posted by losir at 5:13 PM

I have a nasty canker sore in me mouth. Right at where the gums meet the front lip. Hurts like mad. Ouchie.

I think it's from eating too many of these macadamia nuts.

What makes me laugh is that they actually have a website. Geez.

Anyhow, I'm really busy today, so that's the end of my report.

....like you really need to hear about cankers. posted by losir at 9:42 PM

Here are pictures of my little rendevous with my brother and his "friend".

Now that I have a digicam, I'm going to be wasting a lot more webspace and your time, if you choose to look at it all. A lot of pointless shots. hahaha.


LINK

....joy of joy. Talk about a waste of time. posted by losir at 11:40 AM

Here's a review of my camera, the FujiFilm Finepix 6800 Zoom; only after using it for one day. I hope it won't be too boring, but I do have stuff to say about it, not heard of from other review sites. Maybe because this is my very first digital camera, therefore I'm not jaded, but I expect a lot. Bear in mind this is a very good camera, but I love to nitpick, so expect some negative comments. This does not detract from the overall experience of the camera, but it doesn't mean my cam is perfect.

There are several features I've not seen or read from other review sites. That is not to say they are unique to my camera, but I still find it very neat.

The camera isn't as big as everyone thinks. I know that many people with the cannon S100, S300 and S10 complain about the size of the camera, but let's face it, I'm packing more features than them, so footprint has got to be compromised. I get software 6MP out of the camera, 3x optical zoom, and a sturdy feeling camera. The weight isn't heavy, and it is still big enough for me to put in my pocket. In my pair of jeans, I put it in my backpocket when walking, then switch it to my front when sitting. Still small enough to be an ultra compact cam.
From power on to taking a picture, it's quick. Some cameras take a long time to powe on. This one took less than 2 seconds. Awesome. Okay, maybe not less than 2 seconds of real time. But fast enough to NOT be an issue, and still quicker than the average digi. cam.

The camera has a "startup screen" feature. It is a Powe on Splash screen. Choose a picture you like, and it will display briefly at each start up. Cheesy feature, but still kinda neat. It's not a big thing.... little nice touches don't hurt though.

The 6800z has a slideshow mode that will nicely scrow horizontally, showing every picture, movie clip, and audio in sequence. With it's audio/video (A/V) out, I can directly plug it into a TV (or PC) and have a quick slideshow presentation. What I would like to have seen was a setup feature so that the user has control how long it pauses before each picture scrolls.

The Navigation of menus is not piss poor, but not very consistent either. They give you this really nifty LCD screen to display icons of what the four arrow buttons do at any given time, and yet they are not always used to select/set features. Very odd, and not as intuitive as I like. The icons are nice, and fairly easy to decipher, but there are still one or two that I have no idea as what it's doing without
looking at the manual.

Even set at 3.3MP-Fine, it still requires a very steady hand in order for the picture to be clear. I'm not sure if this is indicative of all digital cameras, certainly the 640x480 first gen digi. cam from work was like this. I took some indoor night pictures not extremely well lit, and there was so much motion blur (due to me eager to capture the moment) that a lot of the pix did not turn out well. Time and technique will solve most of this. But then it means the camera can't be used for motion and/or oppotunity shots. It still needs to be set up. I think some of it also had to do with the poor lighting. The flash was used, but because the background were mirrors, the flash really made the picture turn too red. Oh well.

When disconnecting the AC adapter directly into the camera while it's on, the camera will powe off, but leave the lense still exposed. Not a big thing at all. Just a slight annoyance.

The camera comes in a cool PC Camera mode, which means it can act as a webcam. However, unlike a generic webcam, it appears it is NetMeeting specific. It refused to work until I've installed NetMeeting. Although I don't intend to use it as a web cam much, it's still odd that there's a limitation to how the webcam feature can be used.

Speaking of webcam, the camera's setup mode allows one to choose between DSC and PC Camera mode. DSC allows the camera to download its picture via the USB Cable. However, to switch from one to the other, the USB cable must be disconnected in order for the modes to be reset. Hardware limitation? I don't know. Again, an annoyance.

The LCD screen is absolutely huge, and shows extremely vibrant colours when viewed. However, the design of the camera is such that there are always thumbmarks smudged on the screen. Also, I wish the LCD was a little mor recessed, because short of always placing the camera standing up, which could invite being knocked over a lot, placing it flat on the back may scratch the screen or viewfinder. Placing the camera on it's fron face, where it seems like a good idea at first, is also dumb, because the viewfinder lense and light sensor lense is totally flush with the front, which means it WILL for sure scratched if placed thus. I tried putting the camera on its side, thereby lessening the vertical space in which it could be accidently knocked over, not good. On one side, there's the AV in/out, USB and DC in holes, which BTW, are not covered (that was a concern of mine initally.... still is). This will promote gunk and foreign dirt into the holes. I don't want them clogged. The other side of the camera would be ideal, except there's that little nub for placing the camera strap into. So really, the only way to place the camera is at its base, where it's intended to be, all along.

Also the placement of the viewfinder in relation to the LCD screen invites smudges from a greasy nose. Hey, it happens.

That's it really. Nothing critically wrong with the camera, and its feature and unique design is so much better than most of the cams out there (IMO), really it outshines all faults I could find with this camera. The batteries are absolutely fabulous and seem to last for quite a while. I know, it's only one day of use. But my brother and cousins took it for a test drive, and they didn't have to recharge it once. My brother seemed impressed with its battery life. Maybe I don't need a second battery. I just don't know.

Having 128megs of storage for the camera is awesome. It means I can take enough pictures without having to verify each picture to see whether its "capture worthy". So I can take a lot more silly pictures. Of course, there's that motion blurring thing.... but not a big deal.

We sat in the car and drove around, while taking little movies. The camera was good enough to not notice severe blur. Then again, at 10fps, we're not exactly shooting Oscar short films. Still the length of each movie is 2min 20sec, which is longer than the average time allowed for most digi cams of its class. It also had a nice counter showing you how many seconds you have left before the internal buffer fills up. Remember, the capture length is limited to how big the buffer is in-camera, and not by the size of the storage space.

I will post pix when I can.

....very, very happy man. posted by losir at 10:57 PM

Well, I had a good little visit with my brother and his friend on Saturday at Windsor. I'm glad I drove the 3 hour trip to see him.

Windsor is such a puny little town. From what I saw of it anyway. There wasn't much of a skyline, and the only landmark of note unfortunately was the casino. There wasn't even a major shopping center in the downtown area! Coming from a major city T.O., Windsor feels like Hicktown, Milbury.

No wonder Americans think of Canada as backwater. Looking over the Detroit river into the ol' Yu Ess of Eh, it felt like a big city. Now, remember it's Detroit. If you've never been there, picture yourself in the most ghetto part of your town, and then imagine getting carjacked. That's Detroit. By the way, here's another tip. If you're in Detroit, don't drive Japanese. If you happen to be in your hopped up Civic, try not to stop for red lights. There might be drive-by brick throwings at your Rice-Mobile. I've heard of people getting the beats simply for not driving Oldsmobiles or whatever.

Anyway, there's a really funny postcard that my brother bought. I wish I had bought one too as a show and tell piece. But whatever, let me describe it. It's a scene of the skyline, with the word "Windsor" clearly printed on the postcard. However, the skyline is of Detroit! The only "Canadian" thing about it was a little Canadian flag in the center of the picture. I mean, it's not even a real picture of Windsor. How sad.

Walking along a little part of the riverfront, there were hotels and "condos". I use that term so very losely, because the idea is that any property by water should be reserved for the rich and privilged. (Well, T.O. and H.K. is anyway.) This couldn't be further from the truth though in Windsor. There were several apartment buildings that thrusted against conventional wisdom, by being fairly rundown but with a great view of the river. I couldn't believe it! How odd is that? It really looked like public housing apartments, not that there's anything wrong with that.... it's just normally, public housing doesn't usually get a fresh coat of paint by the government, and this was the case with this "condo", it just looked so tattered and old.

Daylife as it were in the heart of downtown on a Saturday was non-existent. I hear that Detroit also have casinos now, so the Windsor Casino has become rather redundant. Maybe I was in the wrong part of town, (or the right part as it were, since there were more police presense per square block than I've ever seen in my life....) but it was so dead. There was literally no fear of jay-walking anywhere. Incredible. This was Sat high noon on one of the most beautiful weekends in recent September memory. It was just totally weird. "You've entered into another dimension.....The Twilight Zone."

Anyway, good to see my brother. Can't believe the little bugger is all grown up. Geez. Still short as ever, but O so hairy, like a midget sasquatch!

....Have camera, will travel. posted by losir at 2:17 PM