Enthusiastically Ambiverted Hopepunk
Finally…another entry in the Vegas weekend! I just keep getting further behind…
Update: Xebeth reminded me that I’d forgotten a key part of the evening — Bite, the topless vampire show! The end of the post has been updated to correct this grievous oversight. Believe me, the erotic rock angels should not be forgotten!
Just a few months after getting my D70s, Nikon’s wrapped up their 20-day teaser campaign by introducing the Nikon D80. Overall, it looks really good — the only thing I see that doesn’t really excite me is that the D80 uses SD rather than Compact Flash (which was one of the reasons I chose the CF-based D70s rather than the SD-based D50), but it makes sense given SD’s dominance of the small camera market.
Brief specs on the D80 (vs D70s):
Looks really, really nice. Given the switch to SD, when it comes time for me to upgrade in a few years I’ll likely be looking at the D200 (or whatever the current camera at that point in Nikon’s lineup is at the time) so I can stick with the CF cards I have now, but the D80 will definitely be fun to play with when it shows up at work. Theoretically, the D80 should be available for sale in September…we’ll see how quickly Nikon can actually get these on to the shelves (the D200, announced in Nov. 2005, has just started showing up regularly on store shelves).
More detailed looks at the D80 are at DP Review, Rob Galbraith DPI and Let’s Go Digital.
Also announced were the AF-S DX 18-135mm f/3.5-5.6G IF-ED (the kit lens for the D80) and the AF-S VR 70-300mm f/4.5-5.6G IF-ED.
“MANYMEN ARE ZOMBIES” by Jadmix from the album jadmix@gmail.com (5:15).
Okay. Pictures are starting to work their way up to my Flickr account and will eventually be all in a Vegas Vacation set. While those go, a rundown of the trip — behind the cut as I tend to ramble. ;)
I was hoping to get one post for everything, but that’s not happening. Something about not wanting to devote my entire time to the ‘puter, and instead splitting the day between working on photos and enjoying the day off with Prairie. Imagine that!
Thursday, then….
We’re back! It was a wonderful trip — three days having a lot of fun bouncing around Vegas with Xebeth. I’m working my way through the (tons of) pictures I shot while Prairie naps (a multi-step process: import two flash cards of shots, one full 2Gb and one partial 1Gb; find any multi-shot panoramics and run them through Calico to assemble the final shots; name and tag all the photos as accurately as possible; sort through to determine which are worth uploading to Flickr and which aren’t; and finally, upload the final pics to Flickr).
I’ll get more ramblings up eventually (I’ve got a good start down already, actually, I just need to break away for little things like dinner)…for the moment, though, it’s just good to be back home.
It’s vacation time — a full five days off from work. Incredible!
Tomorrow morning, at some horrendous hour, Prairie’s sister is driving us to the airport where — after the requisite two-hour wait, mile-long back-and-forth line up to the security checkpoint, body cavity search, and so on — we’ll board a plane to fly down to Las Vegas for three days with Xebeth! She’s quite familiar with Vegas, so she’s got a full slate of entertainments lined up for us…most of which she’s determined not to tell us about until we’re there. All I know for sure is that we’re going to be staying at the Stratosphere, seeing one of the typical Vegas shows (the only criteria being “whichever one has the most breasts”), and apparently at some point parking me outside of the M&M’s store and not letting me go in until I whimper (or something like that).
We’ll be returning to Seattle late Saturday night (or early Sunday morning, technically), after which work was kind enough to give me two days off. Apparently, they’re expecting two days of recovery for every three days in Vegas. From some of the stories I’ve heard — and given that it’ll be just me with two gorgeous women — they may be right! ;)
Pictures, of course, will be posted all a-plenty after we get back. For now, I’m off to eat and pack (or, more likely, continue procrastinating until the very last moment, then pack).
As some barely-known, two-bit hack of an entertainer once said…Viva Las Vegas!
“Land Of 1000 Dances” by Wilson Pickett from the album Forrest Gump (Disc 1) (1966, 2:26).
“Limo Wreck” by Soundgarden from the album Superunknown (1994, 5:47).
We noticed this (not so) lil’ guy crawling along the counter at work today. Having a mild case of arachnophobia and being a camera buff, my reaction was pretty predictable: “Ugh! Eww! (cringe) … Where’s the macro lens?”
“Take the Skinheads Bowling” by Camper Van Beethoven from the album Telephone Free Landslide Victory (2004, 2:32).
“Are these real?” I asked myself as I scrolled down the row of pictures on the webpage.
Prairie started giggling. “That’s the kind of thing most guys would say while they’re looking at porn.”
I laughed. “I am!”
“I know,” she said. “That’s what makes it so funny!”
“Temptation” by New Order from the album Trainspotting (1983, 7:00).
Meh. Not a happy thing.
Reports on the decision:
This morning, the Washington Supreme Court issued a decision in Andersen v. King County, a consolidated case regarding Washington’s Defense of Marriage Act.
The Court’s lead opinion was authored by Justice Barbara Madsen, holding the Washington Defense of Marriage Act does not violate the Washington State Constitution. This decision overturns trial court decisions in King and Thurston Superior Courts in this case.
The state Supreme Court today upheld Washington’s law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman, rejecting the argument of 19 same-sex couples that they’ve been unfairly denied the right to wed.
In a splintered decision, Justice Barbara Madsen wrote that the state’s marriage law was enacted to “promote procreation and to encourage stable families.”
“The legislature was entitled to believe that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers the State’s legitimate interests in procreation and the well-being of children.”
The decision came as a sobering defeat for gays and their advocates, who’d hoped the court would strike down the so-named Defense of Marriage Act — DOMA — which restricts marriage to one man and one woman.
Writing for a 5-4 majority, Justice Barbara Madsen said DOMA is constitutional because in establishing DOMA “the legislation was entitled to believe that limiting marriage to opposite-sex couples furthers procreation, essential to the survival of the human race and furthers the well-being of children by encouraging families where children are reared in homes headed by children’s biological parents.”
As such, DOMA does not violate the state Constitution’s privileges and immunities clause, which requires that any benefit granted to one group must be granted equally to all. “Allowing same sex couples to marry does not, in the legislature’s view, further these purposes,” she wrote.
It’s all about the children. Meh. What a crappy argument. Admittedly, I haven’t read the official arguments yet (the court documents are linked to in both newspaper articles), so maybe there’s a bit more to it than that, but from what the papers boil it down to…meh.
So marriage is about procreation and the survival of the human race? What about married couples who either cannot or choose not to have children? Does this mean that according to our state Supreme Court, it’s better to be in an unhappy, unfulfilling, loveless relationship that’s pumping out another child every ten months than it is to be in a happy, committed, healthy, loving relationship that happens to be childless?
And if we’re “encouraging families where children are reared in homes headed by children’s biological parents,” then shouldn’t we be outlawing adoption? Sorry, you had the kid, it’s better for the kid if you raise it, even if you’re a teenager, unable to support yourself, on drugs, or any number of other reasons why you might not want to raise the child you just bore. Don’t even get us started on gay couples adopting children!
Sorry gays. We don’t care if you love each other. You don’t have children, and marriage is all about the children, so you can’t get married.
Meh. What a stupid, weak, cowardly cop-out. I expected better.
Apparently there’s enough to spare these days…
In South Plainfield, New Jersey: Severed hand found in nude dancer’s home.
A severed hand was found at the home of an exotic dancer who decorated her home with skulls, and she was charged with improper disposition of human remains, authorities said.
Friends said the hand had been given to the woman by a medical student.
[…]
Kay’s mother, Patricia Ann Kay, told the newspaper that her daughter bought the skulls from a mail order catalog. She said her daughter has always been fascinated with the macabre, and when she was a girl she collected animal skulls and snake skeletons.
“She has a flair for the dramatic,” Patricia Ann Kay said. “I have never tried to stop my children from doing whatever they want. As long as they are happy, aren’t hurting anyone, and it’s keeping them out of the poor house.”
In Springfield, Virginia: Customer at Market in Springfield Cuts Off His Hand
Igbal Asghar reached across the counter at Super Halal Meat market and passed two butchered chickens to the man with the familiar face. Then he ducked into the walk-in freezer to fetch the customer’s second order, goat meat.
When the butcher stepped out seconds later, the customer’s severed left hand lay on the floor by the meat saw, Asghar said. The customer ran down the Springfield store’s center aisle and into the front parking lot, leaving a trail of blood and yelling repeatedly that he was “not a terrorist.” Outside, another witness said, the man announced that he had used the meat saw to cut off his hand “for Allah.”
[…]
Asghar said the man’s son told him that evening that his father was on medication for mental problems. Dan Schmidt, a spokesman for the Fairfax County Fire and Rescue Department, said authorities believe the man had mental health problems. Schmidt said he did not know whether doctors planned to try to re-attach the man’s hand.
Bizarre.
“Star Trek: The Next Generation – Main Theme From” by Erich Kunzel; Cincinnati Pops Orchestra from the album Symphonic Star Trek (1996, 1:43).