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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Seahawks 34, Panthers 14

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Y’know, I don’t care about football. Never have.

But even I can’t be a complete curmudgeon about the Seahawks’ win today. First time in thirty years…I guess it was about time.

So…yay. Go Seahawks.

I might just have to pay some small amount of attention to the Superbowl this year. Weird.

Heh — I can hear fireworks going off somewhere outside. Seattle’s going to be a pretty happy city tonight.

Seattle Nightlife

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…as summarized by Cor Tenebrarum on the SeaGoth message board:

  • The Mercury: OMG THE THIRD DRINK I HAD ON AN EMPTY STOMACH WAS DOSED!1!11!1!!111ONE
  • The Vogue: You can’t smoke.
  • Noc-Noc: You can’t smoke, and OMG THE FIFTH $1 SPECIAL I HAD ON AN EMPTY STOMACH WAS DOSED!11!111ONE
  • The Catwalk: Sorry, our drinks are too weak now, we have to shut down.
  • The Phoenix: Come to Pioneer Square! If you don’t get beat up and called a queer by sailors on weekend leave, you’ll have a great time!

iTunes “Bad Medicine” by Bon Jovi from the album New Jersey (1999, 5:16).

(Another) iTunes Meme

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Ganked from spikesandstuds:

  • How many total songs?

    15,906 (72.3 GB; 86 days, 12 hours, one minute and nine seconds if played beginning-to-end with no breaks).

  • Sort by song title — first and last?

  • Sort by time — shortest and longest?
    • Shortest: 0:04 — An untitled ‘hidden track’ that consists of a girl yelling “Let’s hear it for Nine Inch Nails! Woo! They’re good!” off of NIN‘s Head Like A Hole single.
    • Longest: 1:18:18 — The full mix version of The Kleptones’ A Night at the Hip-Hopera.
  • Sort by Album — first and last?

    (This doesn’t include all the downloaded tracks that don’t have album names assigned.)

  • Sort by Artist — first and last?

  • Top five played songs?

    1. Break by The Kleptones, off of A Night at the Hip-Hopera
    2. Going, Going, Gone (Razed in Black mix) by Information Society, off of InSoc Recombinant
    3. Da Da Da by Out of the Ordinary, off of Welcome to the Future
    4. Take California and Party by the Propellerheads (featuring the Jungle Brothers), off of Take California
    5. Pleasant Smell (Rethought by Clint Mansell and Keith Hillebrandt for the Nothing Collective) by 12 Rounds, off of Pleasant Smell
  • Find the following words. How many songs show up?
    • Sex: 189
    • Death: 155
    • Love: 859
    • You: 1302
    • Home: 107
    • Boy: 533
    • Girl: 339

iTunes “2525” by Laibach from the album N.A.T.O. (1994, 3:48).