Year: 2006

Ultraviolet

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UltravioletI’m trying to figure out what this movie‘s about, or why it’s been made. I can only come up with a few possibilities:

So: Leeloo + Trinity + Selene = Violet?

Or, to put it another way: Milla Jovovich + tight outfits + promising effects + promising action = my ass is in the theatre. ;)

(Random, only semi-related trivia: In The Fifth Element, Leeloo’s full name is Leelouminai Lakatari Bali Minouchai Ekbat de Sabat [the spelling may not be precise, but I’ve done my best]. I actually took the time to learn that, so that at any given moment, I can let Leeloo’s full name come rolling off my tongue. Why? Why not?)

iTunes Ratings

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Following in the footsteps of jwz, Tim Bray, AKMA, and Paul, here’s the rating system I use in iTunes:

  • All songs start at ✭✭✭ when I import them.
  • As I listen, they’re adjusted up and down according to the following:
    • ✭ — Bad import (dirty/scratched CD or other issue), needs to be re-imported or otherwise replaced.
    • ✭✭ — I don’t like it, and don’t particularly want to listen to it.
    • ✭✭✭ — Good general listening. Won’t complain if/when it comes up in random rotation.
    • ✭✭✭✭ — A favorite. Better than most. Don’t mind hearing it more often.
    • ✭✭✭✭✭ — Almost impossible to get tired of. Also almost impossible to resist singing along to or dancing to when it pops up.

From there, the custom playlists I use (which have been updated and tweaked a bit since that post, but the basics are still good) work for daily listening.

iTunes “Work It! Dance = Life (full mix)” by Various Artists from the album Work It! Dance = Life (full mix) (1996, 1:09:44).

An’ that’s the truth!

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Just heard in a commentary on NPR (no idea who, I turned in partway through):

If those bible-thumpers really want a conundrum, how about this? If you take the word ‘presbyterians’ and rearrange the letters…it spells ‘Britney Spears’.

— Jim Hightower, at the October 2005 Annual West Colorado Congregation in Grand Junction, Colorado

Dad’s on Flickr

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After having some recurring problems with the Gallery software that we’d been using for the Hanscom Family Gallery, I decided to throw in the towel and talked dad into putting his Flickr account to use.

I’m so glad I did.

He’s been going through and scanning in a lot of old pictures that he and mom brought back from Florida after her parents died last year, and putting them up. Such great stuff in here!

Harold and Arline Ward
Mom’s parents, my grandparents, Harold and Arline Ward.

Harold teaching swimming
My grandpa teaching swimming — probably at the YMCA, if I’m remembering correctly.

Halloween Berta 5th Grade
Mom in about 5th grade, dressed up as a clown for Halloween.

iTunes “La Vie Boheme B” by Original Broadway Cast from the album Rent (1996, 1:53).

Pimp my A95

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One of the (few) downsides to my little Powershot A95 is that as a point-and-shoot style camera, it’s a touch limited as to what it can do — a standard 3x optical zoom, a fixed lens so no other lenses can be attached, no threads for filters…little things like that. Very normal for a point-and-shoot, of course, but at times, a wee bit limiting.

However, one of the nice things about the A95 is that it is possible to attach some accessories to it. Canon’s Powershot cameras include a detachable ring around the lens assembly that, when removed, reveals a mount point. Canon also supplies a few accessories that can attach to the mount: an adaptor tube, which can then have either a wide-angle or a telephoto lens attached to it. However, as the A95 is a couple years old, these items aren’t incredibly easy to come by anymore.

Last week sometime I stumbled across LensMate, a local company that makes aftermarket adapters for the A95’s mount in both 52mm and 37mm sizes. I went ahead and ordered the 37mm adapter (since I knew my work carried some 37mm filters and accessories), and it arrived in the mail yesterday.

I took the camera in to work so that I could make sure the adapter worked with the filters I wanted to pick up. It did (no surprise, but nice to have it confirmed), so I got three Quantaray filters: a UV Haze, a Neutral Density, and a Circular Polarizer.

Since 37mm is a standard size for camcorder lenses, our store carries a few accessory lenses originally designed for camcorders. Since they’re the same thread size as my new adaptor, I started experimenting with those, and as it turns out, we’ve got a set of a .5x Wide Angle Lens and a 2x Telephoto Lens that fit perfectly, so I started playing with those to see how well they worked. Verdict: not bad, and I may want to pick the set up after my next paycheck.

Then things started getting silly.

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