I’ve wanted to get a REAL camera for ages. The last real camera I had was a Minolta SRT101 SLR 35mm film camera. I’ve had lots of toy cameras since then with the closest to real being my Olympus C-785 Ultra Zoom. It has a 10X Optical lens and it’s got some manual control but it isn’t SLR.

I finally decided it was time so last week I bought a Nikon D5000.

It’s not quite professional grade but it’s very close. Professionals would say it’s a great starter camera but for me it’s great.

To show the power of a real SLR I took a few pics the other night. This one is taken outside at night when it was completely dark. I used the built-in flash so you can see just how dark it was. The F-stop was 3.5 and the shutter was 1/60 second.

This next one was taken at the same time except it was on a tripod and the F stop was 3.8 with a 25 second shutter speed.

You can see some lights in the shot but you would almost swear it was daylight. Look around the middle on the left side of center and you can see some trails from a car.

Here’s a pano made with photos from the new camera and Autostitch. Richard first showed me Autostitch. Pretty cool free program to make Panoramas.

I think I’ll be happy with this camera for a long time to come.

Camera/Photography, Life | 9 Comments »

Google has finally gotten to the Rawson Rd farm. Here’s some screen shots I just got. They also have some in Cuba but none on Hill St. They do have View Rd which goes right by the house I think although I don’t remember which one was ours.

Note: Added Cuba Cheese Shop

Cool Stuff, Life | 5 Comments »

A friend of mine sent me this. Not sure where he found it but I’m thinking it would make my commute easier.

Cool Stuff, Motorcycle, Work | 6 Comments »

Heading out soon. If I remember I’ll post some photos.

Here’s some video I took. It’s so amazing to me how fast these pro category vehicles go. Here’s a couple of Pro Stock motorcycles. They typically run low 7 seconds to high 6 seconds.

And here’s a couple of Pro Stock cars. These run in the mid to high 6 seconds.

A couple of Alcohol Funny cars. These run in the mid 5 seconds.

And finally a couple of Top Fuel Funny Cars. These run 1000 ft in around 4 seconds.

The Top Fuel cars used to run a whole quarter mile but because of an accident that killed a driver last year they backed off to 1000 ft. They still hit over 300 MPH. Yesterday we saw the fastest 1000 ft run ever for a Top Fuel dragster at 321 MPH in 3.8 seconds. They could probably improve on that today. These cars are the fastest accelerating vehicles in the world. Here’s some interesting facts about them.

Cars, Cool Stuff | 6 Comments »

This weekend our whole family minus a couple of grandchildren got together in Tempe. This is the first time I’ve seen my brother Dale in about 38 years. We also got to meet his daughters and son. The missing people were Darin(Richard and Dianna’s son) and Jocelyn(my daughter). I’m hoping the next one will get us all together.

Here’s a picture taken Saturday morning.

In the back from left to right: Dale, Me, Dave, Mark, Brian, Robin, Karen, Richard, Daryl. In the middle it’s Betty, Heather, Donna, Jenny, Dayna, Dianna, Giselle. And the four in the front are Carsten, Camden, Grandma, and Nathan.

Here’s another pic of the grand kids with Grandma.

From left to right behind Grandma it goes Dave, Heather, Brian, Robin, Jenny, Karen, and Dayna. Devon and Derek were around but didn’t get up in time to get in the picture.

We had a great time catching up on so many years. We really hope it happens again in the not too distant future.

Life | 5 Comments »

There’s a store a mile or so away called Mr. Stuff. It’s got all kinds of one of a kind and small amounts of well, stuff for sale. A few weeks ago I was in there and they had a rice cooker for $15. I was on my bike so I had no place to put it. Today Betty and I were out getting a new light for out front and I suggested we should see if they still had the rice cooker. They did. We bought it and I cooked some rice when we got home. I think we got a good deal.

Food, Life, Personal | 12 Comments »

I’m headed back to work tomorrow. I’ve accepted a job with ThinKom down in Torrance. They make antennas that are small and lightweight and fairly low cost compared to similar performing antennas. The founder of the company invented this antenna while he was working at Hughes in the early 90s. He formed ThinKom in 2000 and they have been growing since then. They finally got some larger contracts and decided they needed a Test Engineer. I interviewed with them on July 23rd and they made me the offer around the beginning of September.

I would have preferred to find something in the valley but I think ThinKom has a potential to be a pretty good thing for us. The fact they are growing at a time when everyone else is shrinking is a really good indicator.

Life, Work | 11 Comments »

Life | Comments Off