My new lens

A few days ago I decided it's time to get a new lens for my dSLR. It's been quite some time (since the original Canon Rebel 6.3mp came out) since I got a lens. My 28-200 is a great lens but lacked the crisp quality indoor and low-light shots. When outdoor I will probably default to that but recently I've been inside quite a bit when I take my pictures.

So you may be saying.. for crying out loud, what did you get?? Thought I would write a boring entry again huh? :) OK, so what I got is a new Canon 17-55 F2.8 IS from B&H. It's about 1" longer than my 28-200, heavier and wider (77mm window instead of 72mm) but it's amazing -- and puts the kit 18-55 to shame. My first picture is of course Sam, our cat.

Image is slightly cropped but that's it. The only thing blurry from this 1/15 shot is the whiskers from him moving. IS is awesome!

So now when I want to get some very nice shots I don't need to snap on my 50mm f1.8 anymore :) Down side to this new lens is that I need a new camera bag!

Star wars: Force unleashed

So I played this game one last time on "Sith" mode (Aka "you got to be kidding/me crazy hard") after doing the previous 2 difficulties earlier. I ended up dying quite a few times as expected, most of the time it was due to blaster fire coming in from all directions and those darn Purge Troopers. I found a lot of new force powers that work MUCH better than the other difficulties. Some of which makes boss levels very easy if done correctly. At the end I almost had all of my stats completely full which is a first, probably because most levels I re-started and it carried over points from last death.

The most difficult parts were defeating Proxy (the trusty robot) and the Emperor. With Proxy I finally defeated, when he goes into his final stage, with using a specific combo, S-S-S-O (PS3: s=square, o=O) which force slams the ground and sends Proxy to the ground where he is most vulnerable. I didnt get hit once I got into that combo sequence.
Darth Vader was a pain, but using dash and push to stun and saber slam (lightning saber attack) I was able to get him quickly.
The emperor I probably spent > 2 hours trying to figure out how to defeat, I finally went online and read "attack with Saber after he does his power attacks" which I did but it had a serious side effect... once he puts on a shield and you cant catch it quickly (or you're in a middle of a combo) your life goes from >80% to <10% instantly. After trying this multiple times, since it was suggested, I gave up on it and tried different things (like lightning attacks as that worked in the past) but without success. I finally found the perfect combo, lightning attack and defense! No joke. Lightning attack does a little damage (using that strictly gets him to 50% before getting roasted) but the next step is critical to surviving and is very simple. When he attacks with the lightning let it hit you for a brief time, then block. The block will raise the saber up and capture the lightning (taking the damage away from you) and feedback it to the Emperor. Repeat this as soon as the feedback gets to him, let lightning hit you and then block... repeat. I usually got 3 of these backfires before he starts to throw stuff or send in help. My life never went below 80% when I did this. Key is never attack directly with the saber like they say online when in Sith mode or you will never "defeat" him.

Desk Building completion

So the desk is done... well a while ago actually. I got a nice good coat of stain and polyurethane to make the surfaces dark and smooth.
I had to make a last minute extension since I got a measurement wrong (or read it wrong) for the new 24ch mixer (which we have not picked up yet). Either way everything seems to fit rather well. The only minor setback that I noticed once installed was that the cabinet door didnt close properly, but that could be due to the floor sloping or something under the carpet that is pushing up somewhere.
What's not showing here is the lid that closes on top of the mixer, this keeps wondering hands from adjusting things.

Upgrade to my phone

So way back in march I got a HTC (Fuze) Touch Pro and have since 'modified' the original behavior. I finally moved away from the stock rom that the phone came with. Last night I upgraded to a new rom with a new OS version and I have to say one thing: why didn't I do this before? Besides the obvious answer that the custom roms were buggy and WM 6.5 was very beta I'm not sure why. Now 6.5 is more stable and cooked roms are better than ever.

I upgraded to a rom from ShEp found over at xda developers. This upgrade has improved the performance of the phone by at least 4x, things respond faster and even better I have more ram and rom available to me! Another surprising benefit seems that battery life remains about the same as my tweaked ATT rom, maybe better but too early to tell.

So you've heard of this 'MyFi' stuff from verizon huh? Think it's snazy that this is a mobile hotspot? Well I got that as well in my phone :) While I don't have the 'teathering' plan which is an arm+leg more I can use my phone to connect my laptop in emergencies (say @ airport and flight gets canceled) or comca$t goes down or is slower than dialup again... Yes I'm bitter about it. They probably aren't fixing it because they know our whole street will go to fios once installed.

Never again will I use an ATT rom and have the ability to use Windows Mobile!

Desk building update

After spending time in the garage and cutting and gluing lots of wood together things are coming along quickly.
The most difficult part was the curved portion. I used a long piece of aluminum stock (had a straight edge) and clamped it to the board surface to guide a circular saw. It's not the round stuff I was looking for but it's probably 95% accurate for a curve. 4 cuts seems to have done a very nice job. It helped that i sketched everything up and used that to measure... otherwise I would need to remember my geometry skills :)

I'm using some screws in special places so that they are both hidden and provide extra structural support. I'm going to fill most in with some wood filler once completed... most as in those that need to be covered. Some of the screws will be left alone, and covered by equipment anyway, so that the large flat surface can be removed for transportation.

Things left to do:
1. Large side support leg (probably more painful than the curved top)
2. Surface container stuff (lid holders)
3. Router edges so they are rounded and not sharp
4. Sand like crazy
5. Stain (got one of those dual action stainer with the poly in it)
6. Stain
7. Find a truck and install

Desk building

So I'm tasked with building a desk for my church's new mixer location. With the renovations we (band) decided to move the mixer location into the balcony where the sound is better and the operator can see the band. The desk is highly customized to fit curved railings and to hold the equipment. I used google sketchup to create the drawings based on measurements I took since I don't have the luxury to measure on the fly like I normally do and it needs to be accurate because I really only get one shot.

The idea behind the desk is simple, flat top to hold up to a 24ch mixer and a cabinet for the rack/amp and what not.The idea behind this is to hold the mixer so that it can have a cover to prevent tampering by little hands (lots of kids) and to hold a few laptops for recording/projector. Inside the well ventilated cabinet will house the conditioner/effects/compressor/amp and other components. It's a large L shaped cabinet to work with the existing railing and the post.

After going to my local Home Depot I got the supplies and wood stock (solid pine) to start building. I got most of the cabinet done to date but need to glue some pieces together since the larger surfaces exceeded the wood sizes. So far I've only used my table saw to make the rectangle pieces. Once everything is dry-fitted together to make sure it works I will begin bonding the components. The desk (mixer area) will be removable so it can be transported but most of this wont have screws to enhance the aesthetics. I may end up getting a finish nailer to help with the difficult areas since I have a compressor handy (plus it will also be useful when I redo my floor). As soon as everything is together and bonded it will be time to take out the router and round the edges and then stain+seal everything which will probably take the longest. I should take pictures as I get further along.

As for all the saw dust I'm collecting I may try to create my own fire log(s) :) Add a little water in a box and compress the pulp.

Bluetooth

So I just got a new laptop for work but unfortunately it didn't come with bluetooth! Bah, why would it not come with such a simple and low power device? Anyway I browsed amazon for a bluetooth adapter that is low profile and found the perfect solution
This thing is small... It's basically the standard USB plug plus some small plastic (antenna). I like this because I'm able to leave it in the laptop without worrying too much of it snapping off (probably the idea anyway).

When it's plugged in it extrudes a small amount but not enough to snag on things or cause issues. It does have and annoying little blue light that is somewhat bright but is tollerable in a well lit room but not so much in a dark room.

So now I can use my bluetooth mouse again without the ride-along usb dongle it came with. The best part was i got this for ~$15!