Geek Habitat

Yes, Justin and I have done it again. We always seem to splurge for something just before the holidays that would end up on one of our wishlists, anyway! One rationalization goes like this: by keeping it off the wishlists, it prevents my parents (all too generous year-round, but particularly around the holidays) from buying it for us, and thereby spending far too much money! That, and it lets us indulge in some geek gear appreciation a month or so earlier than the holidays/birthdays/anniversary allows!

So, I am now the proud owner of a new Garmin Streetpilot 2720 GPS with WAAS, the best color touch screen on the market, text-to-speech capability and 3D maps (no more {GPS} “Go south… [pause] Rerouting!” {Me} “Damn, I thought a right turn there would have put me going south!”)

Amazon.com has the Streetpilot 2720 marked 35% off retail ($769.99 vs. a tough-to-swallow $1,184.99).

This is one of my first real no guilt geek purchases in awhile, actually. With four of my five eBay auctions paid and concluded, I had more than enough for the new Streetpilot. Once I finally find a legitimate (read: paying) buyer for my older Garmin Streetpilot III GPS with City Navigator version 6, I’ll even have some seed funds for my new computer purchase in early 2006.

Geeks that we are, we got in the car this evening after the GPS was delivered and started fiddling with its options. I’m already in love, and plan on playing chauffeur for/with it tomorrow. You know, so I can “break it in”. <grin>

Aside: UPS “Next Day” delivery means that even though your package gets loaded on the UPS truck and sent “Out for delivery” at 7 AM, you are guaranteed not to receive it until at least 7 PM that same day. Since I work at home, I know the UPS delivery schedule in our neighborhood fairly well — if I don’t get a package around 11-11:30 AM, the next likely delivery time is usually 1-1:30 PM, and after that perhaps 3-3:30 or 4 PM if they’re busy. But every single time we splurge on “Next Day” delivery, not a single UPS truck will visit our tract until 7-8:30 PM!

This is a follow-up on my initial camera tossing entry from this morning.

I’ve already gotten politely scolded on another website for not valuing my posessions as much as the elder generations — I respect the “be cautious” commentary if not the grossly inaccurate assumption. Most of us set appropriate limits on our creative exploration.

Here are the few mildly interesting images that resulted from my first foray into this weird and yes, fool-hardy to some, method of photography. The tool? A sturdy $175 existing point and shoot digital camera we own (Canon Powershot A520), with the photographs taken over a King-size matress with comforter, blankets and pillows and a toss of no more than 2.5 feet into the air. I would not, as I jokingly remarked on the other website, ever consider using our professional ($4k) digital cameras, or anything else I’d have any heartache over damaging — such as my $400 cameraphone which I already experienced anguish over due to a foolish accident involving the washing machine a couple months ago.

I’m neither rolling in money nor remotely insane, but I do know beauty and the joy of seeing something in a new/different way. I wouldn’t call myself a photographer if it were otherwise…

“Best of First Toss Attempts”:
Camera Toss – 1 and Camera Toss – 5

See Also:
Camera Toss – 2
Camera Toss – 3 (“Whiteout”)
Camera Toss – 4 (“Shell-Like”)

Brought to you by my better half, Justin, who just wandered into the room awhile ago, insistent that I check out a WoW (World of Warcraft) video.

He was right. It rocks! You don’t have to be a slobbering WoW minion to enjoy it, since it actually has a plot, soundtrack, great voiceovers and cinematography.

Title: RETURN
File format | Size: Windows Media | 37MB
Character: Voldigar & Liadov
Description: An aged soldier returns from decades of war in Kalimdor to find Stromgarde in ruins … but to what end? Learn more at www.rufuscubed.com/return

I still pop in to Bob’s Knee Board occcasionally to see how familiar names are doing in their post-op ACL reconstruction recovery and resumption of normal life and activities. There are some regulars on the board who are well beyond their post-op periods but still provide input on the boards; one such person is Michael Frind. His posts are drafted offline and are so packed with technical details that it took me a fair amount of time (and distance from my own post-op period) to really find the value in his posts, beyond their potential as a natural sedative.

Take, for example, Frind’s characteristically long but technically accurate and well-researched post on the pecularities of ACL reconstructed knees — interesting reading, particularly in light of the respect Frind’s posts garner from a bona fide orthopedic M.D. (Dr. Mark, a 21+ year orthopod based in Houston, TX; a relative newcomer to the Board, at least since my daily reads of November 2004-May 2005.) It takes an incredible amount of research and inherent knowledge/understanding of a medical topic, I should think, to be able to have a 21+ year practicing M.D. not pick your post apart on its technical or theoretical merits (or lack thereof).

I just find it interesting. I wish I had that kind of command of my brain to store such arcana. One might say that knowing any programming language, or foreign language (fluently), is similar but I’m neither a master programmer nor fluent or even vaguely so in any foreign tongue… and on most days, not even in my mother tongue (English), as is quite evident in my blog.

I know this has made the rounds of the blogosphere already, but since I just rediscovered it this morning –

Camera Toss: beautiful photos taken simply by tossing a camera in the air.

…proof that you should never stop seeing things in new ways.

Disclaimer: Beware if you try this yourself. I have been too faint of heart to try it, even with our least expensive, lowest resolution point-and-shoot digital cameras… because “least expensive” is still worth too much to gamble.

If I could find my wacky animated turkey graphic, that would go here, but since I can’t I’ll have to go low-tech:

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