You thought I’d miss today, didn’t you? Cutting it close, but getting my post in before midnight.
On the way back from the bay area yesterday, I was able to watch the sunset through the smoke from the wildfires. I don’t usually get to see much of anything on this stretch of highway because usually I’m the one driving, and I usually do it at night. The sunset was incredible, and I felt like I had to go back while there was still some smoke to shoot it. So I did.
I couldn’t find a place to stop on the side of the road where I really wanted to, but the place I ended up worked out just great.
There’s a few more from today, as well as some older sunset shots, in my Sunset Flickr set.
Damn, almost forgot to post today. Not really much to say, though.
Woot has a Blu-ray player for only $140. Only blu-ray 1.1, but so tempting. Dammit.
Yesterday, went to the bay area. Played some free games bingo, some board games, Rock Band 2, Gears of War 2. It was fun.
Yeah, really nothing to say. Maybe it’ll be more interesting tomorrow.
Wow, am I really halfway through the month already?
Early post for me today. In about an hour, I’m carpooling up to the bay area for a friend’s housewarming. He left my company earlier this year to go work at Google. I expect I won’t have much time later to just sit around at a computer to post, so I figured I’d get it out of the way now. Aside from driving, today will likely be spent playing a bunch of board games and probably some Rock Band. He has RB2, so I’ll finally get to see and try out the new drum kit.
Last night, I beat Gears of War 2, playing co-op with my brother. I was playing on the Hardcore difficulty level. Afterwards, I tried playing on Insane for a little while. It’s really hard, but I expect I will eventually work my way through the game playing it. Already looking forward to GoW3.
That’s all I’ve got for you today. I should finish getting ready to go, and eat some breakfast.
Deciding what to write about today became very easy last night. There’s a big fire burning in the mountains over Santa Barbara. When I drove home from work yesterday, everything was pretty much normal. A little less than 2 hours later, I left home for my softball game and something seemed a bit off. I couldn’t figure out what it was until I got on the highway towards the game, and then saw the fire in the mountains in front of me.
My reaction summed up on twitter: Holy crap big fire about 20 hours ago from TwitterBerry
I wasn’t the only one twittering about it. Twist is a website that will graph word usage on twitter, and track trends:
Got to the softball field, and unsurprisingly, the game was being postponed. Drove like a maniac home to get my camera, and then back towards downtown Santa Barbara to do some shooting. Taking pictures of a fire at night is hard. Even harder when you’re not really terribly close to it, though I suppose it’s a lot safer that way. Getting the exposures right is tricky. I got a few good shots.
About 10 minutes after I took this one, a police car drove by and announced that the area I was in was being evacuated. I wasn’t all that close to the fire, and didn’t feel like I was in any danger. I moved only about three blocks away, and stayed there for the next several hours.
The white line in there is a helicopter coming in for more water. This one was taken from the top of a parking garage. There were at least 5 other people up there with tripods and cameras doing the same thing.
You can see the rest in the flickr set: Tea Fire. I may go shoot more tonight.
I just bought tickets for the Mets home opener next year, and a plane ticket to NY for it. I spent a little more than I needed to so I could be in the front row of the upper deck. Hopefully, I’ll get a picture similar to the ones I have of PETCO and Dodger Stadium. I’ll be down the first base line instead of the third base line, but that should give a better view of the water. The sunset timing should work out so the game will be on at the right time to get the shot.
Also, Citi Field home opener!
(Hopefully, StubHub seller confirms the order, unlike the first time I tried to buy World Series tickets this year. On the other hand, that got me a $54 coupon that I applied to this order.)
Ordered a bunch of other random electronics to get me going on my intervalometer project. I think the first step needs to be cleaning my office so I can actually work in it. This will give me an excuse to actually get that done. I’m looking forward to getting all the parts, so I can get started on it. The more I look at what I need to do, the more fun it seems like it will be.
The tubes are broken. I can’t get to Google, Yahoo, Flickr… http://internetpulse.net/ shows some connections slow or critical. Looks like some internet backbone is having problems. I can still get to my website, though, so no excuse for no post today.
I figured out what my first Arduino project is going to be: an intervalometer for my camera. Similar to this, but the 40D has a different connector than the Rebel line, so it’ll have to be slightly different. Shouldn’t be too hard, though. I ordered a few generic cable releases on eBay… four for $21 here. That should give me enough room to screw up one or two of them. I’m really not sure what I’ll do with it, but it’ll be a fun project that will at least have some chance of getting used.
Tubes seem to be unclogged, now.
I got my Arduino starter kit, and a few other random pieces with it, today. I had it hooked up and downloaded one of the sample programs within a few minutes. Seems fairly easy to use. Now I just have to come up with something to use it for…
I’ve really got nothing else today, again. Posting every day is difficult.
Does anyone else think this is hilarious?
I should probably be going to sleep, but I’m not at all tired. I stayed up late last night playing Gears of War 2, and then woke up late today. A lot of today was spent doing the same, playing Gears 2. It’s a good game, but I feel like I’m going to get to the end too quickly, and then be disappointed that it’s done. The achievements and online co-op (as well as the Insane difficulty level) will add some replay value. Now that I really think about it, I’m sure I’ll play it a whole lot more. There are also some other online cooperative modes that I don’t know too much about yet.
Last night before going to bed, I hung up my framed puzzle. Gluing it together was a little strange, but worked very well.
I don’t really have much else right now. Posting every day is a bit difficult when I have nothing at all to say.
Spent most of the day today playing Gears of War 2. Yesterday after work was pretty much the same. I also glued my puzzle together and framed it yesterday. It’s getting hung up when I can pull myself away from GoW2 tonight… or maybe now, since my power just went out to cut of my online co-op game. Once it’s up, I’ll take a real picture of the framed puzzle.
My plan for tomorrow is more of the same. Fun game.
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