Monthly Archives: April 2005

photographic

Canon 20D and ISO 3200

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i have been pretty reluctant to shoot in ISO 1600 ever. on my D30, shooting at anything over ISO 400 was already getting pretty noisy, especially in low light conditions. ISO 800? you were hurting.

on my 10D, i felt that i could take pictures at ISO 800 without compromising image quality too much. ISO 1600 had too much noise in low light and i avoided it like the plague. as for the custom function-enabled ISO 1600? forget about it!

so imagine my shock when i shot a volleyball game a couple of weeks ago at ISO 1600. i figured that the new DiGiC II chip should really clean up the images enough that i should get decent results at ISO 1600. what i found instead was a beautiful image with little noise compared to my previous cameras.

this week i was a little more adventurous and i shot at ISO 3200. i figured that i could run the images through some of the better noise reduction filters i have and the results would be acceptable.

what i found instead shocked me.

mike hitting the ball

sure, there’s some detectable banding in the raw JPG, but with a little smoothing out, the image is more than just usable. i won’t hesitate shooting in high ISO anymore. virtually all of photos shot at citybeach this night were shot in ISO 3200.

i think this really opens up a whole new world of possibilities for me. we’ll see what happens from here on out.

entertainment

dr. who

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dr. who continues to impress me. the last episode i saw was about where rose and the doctor travel to the end of the world. as they were preparing to watch the earth meet its demise, they decided to listen to one of the planet’s classic songs: britney spears’ toxic!

that was just hilarious.

i really do like the show, though.

general ramblings

computer…on!

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i have this voice activated light switch in my room. it’s like the clapper, but instead of clapping, it’s voice activated and it is also a dimmer switch.

the way you activate it is by saying “computer”, wait for the beep and then tell it either “low”, “medium”, “high”, “off”, or “on”. i have caught myself a few times now in public places shouting out, “computer!” and then expecting to hear a beep. when i don’t hear the beep, i realize that i’m not in my room and i must semm really, really weird that i just shouted “computer!” with no apparent reason.

oops.

rants

you should have known better

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by in large, i think that generally speaking, i’m a pretty straight-forward kind of a person. i do what i say i will do and i mean what i say. this usually isn’t a problem because most people then aren’t left guessing about what is really going on.

it’s the people who don’t say what they mean that really frustrates me. sometimes i get into these heated discussions about something to realize later that what they were really saying isn’t what they had meant. if they had done that from the beginning, none of these misunderstandings, hurt feelings, and general pains would have occurred in the first place.

and then there are those people who continue to make mistakes beyond what i would consider as reasonable. these are the people who don’t really consider other people’s feelings before they act, and often hurt those around them. they don’t learn from their past mistakes, or they choose not to learn.

is it too hard to ask of people in general to maybe think about the repercussions their actions may have before just blindly doing whatever they want?

maybe it is. and maybe that’s why i’m left wondering why it is that i still care about these people who just don’t learn.

why is that?

general ramblings

pizza hut is cool

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i have always enjoyed pizza hut’s pizzas. i like their crunchy crusts, the thick crusts and the great balance of sauce and toppings. i was hungry last night and i went to order a pizza, but i checked the web site to see what i should order. they have coupons online!

this was like a gold mine for me. i never remember to save the mailers so i always end up missing a coupon. but now, you can get a pizza hut coupon anytime you want. it shaved the price from $19 to $13. pretty good deal for a large combo.

i think it’s hilarious that you can order pizza from pizza hut while playing everquest 2. man, what will they think of next?

general ramblings

how do you do

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how do you do
-roxette

I see you comb your hair
and gimme that grin.
It’s making me spin now,
spinnin’ within.
Before I melt like snow,
I say Hello
How do you do!

I love the way you undress now.
Baby begin.
Do your caress, honey, my heart’s in a mess.
I love your blue-eyed voice,
like Tiny Tim shines thru.
How do you do!
Well, here we are crackin’ jokes in the corner of our mouths
and I feel like I’m laughing in a dream.
If I was young I could wait outside your school
cos your face is like the cover of a magazine.

How do you do,
do you do,
the things that you do.
No one I know could ever keep up with you.
How do you do!
Did it ever make sense to you to say Bye
Bye Bye?

I see you in that chair with perfect skin.
Well, how have you been, baby, livin’ in sin?
Hey, I gotta know,
did you say Hello
How do you do?
Well, here we are spending time in the louder part of town
and it feels like everything’s surreal.
When I get old I will wait outside your house
cos your hands have got the power meant to heal.

How do you do…

photographic

sleepy me

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sleepy mike

i really do need some good sleep. i haven’t been getting much of any and i’ve been going into work late as a result. i’m going to try and go to sleep early tonight. we’ll see how that goes.

general ramblings

jamba juice fun

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me: i’ll have a razzmatazz, no bananas, sub blueberries, with a vita-boost, please.
cashier: ok, razzmatazz, no bananas, sub blueberries. and what’s your name?
me: josiah.
cashier: what?
me: josiah.
cashier: how do you spell that?
me: uhhh.. J-O-S-I-A-uhhh…H?
cashier: that’s a pretty name.
me: thanks!

i never had anyone ask me how to spell it before. i almost got caught with my fake name. why wouldn’t you know how to spell your own name? good question!

general ramblings

if you know me as…

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if you know me as josiah, jonathan, stuart, bob, or george, you must work in the food industry because the only times i use those names to refer to myself is when i have to leave a name with an order.

if you know me as roger wilco, wilco42, or wilco, you must know me only online.

if you know me as michael, you must be a family member.

if you know me as jackal or willy, you must know me from a MUD.

if you know me as tatanka, you are a cruel high school friend of mine.

if you know me as tadashi, you must be miho.

if you know me as tamago, you must be annie.

if you know me as mike, we’ve probably met.

if you know me as mike t., you must know my other friend mike c.

if you know me as tanaka, you must be a co-worker or in the company of mike c.

if you know me as tiger tanaka, you must be either adam or randy.

if you know me as that “hot, sexy dude”, i might want to know you.

general ramblings

speaking of daylight savings…

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is it too much to ask that my camera that retails for $1500 to know to adjust the time for daylight savings? i know, i know, it isn’t a computer, so i guess i shouldn’t whine so much, but i just found out that my timestamps have been all wrong since the weekend.

that isn’t that big of a deal, except that i’ve decided that i’m going to make today the day that i do “the hourly project.” this project will basically be a project where i take a picture once an hour throughout the day to document what an average day is like. now that i realized that the time on my camera is wrong, i changed the time, but now i’m positive when i look at the pictures i’m going to get all confused as to how i missed an hour.