posting pictures in pMachine is a pain in the butt. i long for the days when i did it all by hand. there’s got to be a better way to do it. oh well, i guess this’ll do for now. some of the borders are messed up in the pictures below, but i’m too lazy to fix it. i’ll have to make new photoshop actions for the s400’s images. *sigh*
i also fixed the HTML for the main index page now after adam mentioned that it rendered funny. i guess you can’t use the templates out of the box…
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’tis the season to be spending uncontrollably…fa la la la la la la la la.
no, but seriously, it IS a time to go christmas shopping, isn’t it? with the new camera, i got a new card reader and some batteries for it. i love [url=http://www.sterlingtek.com]sterlingtek[/url]. they always have GREAT deals on camera batteries. If you need a digital camera battery, i highly recommend them. prompt, courteous service all the time.
sometimes the camera is just sitting there on my desk and it looks so pretty. what can i say? it just is begging to be used. i’ll have to find some more opportunities to take pictures with it.
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my mom’s birthday is coming up. the last time i saw her last week she was complaining about a potentially partially torn rotator cuff. (is it rotator cup or rotator cuff?) anyway, she was complaining about how heavy the new vacuum is. so i decided that she shouldn’t be doing all that heavy lifting. now, what kind of a son would i be if i were to buy her a vacuum for her birthday? probably not a very good one. BUT, still, i couldn’t resist this little gem. it will make her life easier because she won’t have to vacuum. that kind of a vacuum is ok, right? i don’t know. hopefully she’ll like it. i got her the roomba robovac. i tested it out last night and i have to say that i was pretty impressed with it. the charge time on the batteries take FOREVER though. i think that my dad will have to invest in a few batteries and a quick charger for that thing.
risky business
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[/url]over the weekend, geoff, nelson, mike, and i got together to play risk. we haven’t played in a long, long time and it was fun to be able to get together and play again. it definitely brought back some good memories. there was the usual onslaught of name calling, paranoia, and finger pointing, but at the end of the day it was all good fun. geoff had some very unorthodox strategies that actually proved him to be quite a threat. each of us became a threat at one point and i thought it was a fun round all along. i actually snuck by at the end and lead a surprise attack that won the game. ahh, world domination.
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hakone garden
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i also went to hakone garden this weekend with ann, long, and michelle to check out the grounds. it wasn’t my first time there, but it was still nice. it was quite cold that day so we didn’t really stick around for very long.
i heard on NPR today that the atkins foundation and TGIF have [url=http://www.waff.com/Global/story.asp?S=1555567]formed a partnership where the atkins foundation is licensing their name to new menu items on TGIF’s menu[/url]. TGIF says that by targetting atkins’ dieters they will reach a new demographic.
this all sounds great and all…except what about the uninformed patron who doesn’t know what the atkins diet is all about? what if they just see these new high protein items and the word diet and think, “wow this is too good to be true!” and they eat these menu items thinking that they are eating “healthy”.
great marketing, though…but i think that in the end, it’ll actually be bad for people.
but then again, no one REALLY goes to TGIF’s when they are dieting, i suppose.
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so after using the canon s400 for a while, i have a few thoughts. in fully automatic mode, this camera sure has a strong propensity to use its flash. it really doesn’t like low light environments at all. this is all to be expected.
i guess it’s a great snapshot camera. i’m now debating whether or not i REALLY want to keep it or not. it’s hard to decide. when i try to compare my pictures with the 10D…well, there really isn’t a comparison. but as a small snapshot camera, i still love it.
…and it says “CLICK” when it takes a picture. how cute is that?
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when i had first heard about [url=http://www.sunherald.com/mld/sunherald/news/state/7417986.htm]this story[/url] i couldn’t believe it. sometimes i forget that i live in a very liberal state where things like this are just absolutely absurd.
you know, i consider myself to be pretty conservative. when i think of liberals, i think of raving lunatics who want to legalize crack so that whoever abuses the stuff will end up killing themselves so we won’t have to deal with them…i forget that there are places outside of california that are so conservative.
every time around this year i always laugh whenever i hear the expression “christmas carol”. why? for whatever reason, i’m reminded of something that [url=http://www.geocities.com/sushisis/]carol[/url] wrote a long, long time ago. she was saying how one of her new year resolutions was going to be to stop being so critical of people. she said she wanted to stop being “critical carol.” it’s funny because whenever i hear “christmas carol” i now envision the new carol wearing some kind of christmas costume singing songs to everyone.
stupid, i know…but funny nonetheless.
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banana republic didn’t honor the friends and family code online! what a sham! i guess too many “friends and families” were trying to redeem the code and they had to put a stop on it. kind of lame, if you ask me. oh well, no coat for me. i guess it’ll have to wait for some other day.
oh well, it was worth a shot.
today, i cut my toenails on my second toes for the first time in months. why? because they have FINALLY grown back from the time that they fell off after the crazy hike up halfdome. i missed them.
but it was nice not having to worry about clipping a toe.
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i participated in a volleyball clinic today. the clinic went over the basics, passing, setting, serving, and hitting. surprisingly, i got the most coaching from serving, which i thought was one of the stronger aspects of my game. i guess it was because the drills we were doing for serving felt the least comfortable for me.
the setting drills and coaching was very helpful, i’m hoping that i’ll be able to apply some of these new techniques in my game. i had a lot of fun with the open gym play afterwards. it was very different from the play that i’m usually used to, the overall skill level was pretty good. it was surprising to see so many good players at this clinic going over the basics. i guess brushing up on the basics can never get old.
there were quite a few stanford coaches or stanford players who were helping us out with our form. it was overall pretty cool. i think my body isn’t able to take this kind of punishment for long though, and i’m going to rest up for the rest of this weekend. there are two playoff matches next week for me!
oh yeah, my thursday night team made playoffs! pretty cool. i can’t wait to play.
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