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8 hour day today. That’s more like it.

steve :: Mar.29.2006 :: Little Things :: 3 Comments »

The enlarger I bought off of ebay arrived yesterday, FedEx. I unpacked it and assembled it and ran it through a few tests and its perfect. The 50mm lens works great for 35mm negatives, but tends to leave dark corners on 6×6 negatives. The 75mm lens that also came with it, however, enlarges 6×6 fantastically well. It came with a full set of variable contrast filters as well.

I need a few more things, though. Trays, tongs, and a safelight for sure. Some dark cloth or something to seal the doors of whichever room I plan to use. Probably a timer, though that may not be strictly necessary. Definitely paper, since without that what is the point. And I’ll probably need to go take more pictures, which is totally a-ok.

steve :: Mar.26.2006 :: Photography :: 12 Comments »

For the record, the header picture on this site is not a clock. Look at the numbers!

steve :: Mar.23.2006 :: Little Things :: 4 Comments »

I put in a nice 12 hour day today, which with counting lunch and dinner means 13 hours between when I got to work this morning and when I got home tonight. I sure hope our client is happy with what they get tomorrow.

The nice thing about my job though is that I can bill that time. I’m not forced into unpaid overtime. It’s my impression that this is somewhat of a rare luxury in the working world, especially since I’m officially an exempt employee (which means no requirement for paid overtime).

Go go gadget consulting business, I guess. Still I want to avoid making this a habit. Gotta stay off that slippery slope.

steve :: Mar.23.2006 :: Uncategorized :: 7 Comments »

Figures it would snow in the first couple days of spring. Especially just a week after 75 degree weather and tornadoes. Go midwest.

steve :: Mar.21.2006 :: Little Things :: 4 Comments »

So I’m sitting in my closet. I think it may be as big as my cubicle at work. It’s sort of cozy in here.

steve :: Mar.19.2006 :: Little Things :: 2 Comments »

Let me start by stating here what I have told myself, and others, many times. I should keep my little ultra-tiny camera on my all the time. Or at the very least in my car. Grr to myself.

Our story starts at the AMC Theater in Town Center (I refuse to spell it ‘Theatre’ unless we also spell it ‘Town Centre’). I went to a matinee show of V for Vendetta. Good flick. It’s no Batman but at least it is several levels above either of the latter ‘Matrix’ movies. I was happy that they avoided falling into one of the most annoying traps one can fall into when making movies about masked men.

After the film I was going to go home but I was bored at home earlier so instead I did the ‘wander around KC’ thing. Hence the title of this post.

Today’s wandering story concerns Tower Park. It’s out on Holmes Road near 75th street (Google Maps Link). I had seen the tower before but never stopped to explore. Now Alex tells me that it is a water tower, but it looks like some kind of battle tower or something from Lord of the Rings. I wish I had pictures to show you, but I didn’t have a camera. Maybe later. Anyways it is pretty much unlike any water tower I have ever seen, and I want to climb it, though I know that would only invite trouble. I walked around that stupid park though, just staring at the thing.

I am drawn to high places, and odd places, and the combination present in that tower is awesome. There are these little window like things in the sides near the top that make you think that were this Medieval Europe someone would be up there watching for approaching enemies. There are also little pulley things all around it like for bringing things up or something. It’s just fascinating.

Just east of the tower is another big tower, but this one is a big huge radio tower. It is way taller than the water tower, and really cool in its own way. You can’t really see it on the map since it is skinny and latticed, but you can see the massive shadow it drops off to the northwest.

To top all of this off, there was a chair near the big field (marked for football or soccer, I think). It was an indoor chair, upholstered in colors you are not likely to see any more. It was a little bit beat up and fading, but still in decent shape considering it was sitting outside for who knows how long. It wasn’t placed randomly either. Instead it was set like a little throne on the sideline of the field right in the middle. Like whoever sat in it would command the troops as they lined up for inspection. I actually hope it will still be there when I go back.

There is my KC story #1. I’ll try to get pics up for the next one, and go back and get some pictures for this one as well.

And yes, I do plan on having another story before too long.

update: A little searching tells me that this is, indeed, the Waldo Water Tower. Fun stuff!

steve :: Mar.19.2006 :: Kansas City :: 14 Comments »

I don’t play all that many video games any more but I have got to say that Guitar Hero is very very fun to play. *Rocks Out*

steve :: Mar.14.2006 :: Uncategorized :: 31 Comments »

The first round of photos. There are more in the camera.

Well, a week has passed since I got home from Seattle, and like the title says, it’s time to say a few things. We’ll start with the easy stuff. The main reason I went there was to see Alex and Victoria again. Another reason I went was to meet some of the other folks I’ve been talking to on IRC but never met, including Eric, Irene, and JP. I don’t think I’ve seen Gywn on IRC but I could be mistaken.

Continue Reading »

steve :: Mar.07.2006 :: Uncategorized :: 35 Comments »

I delinked ross for no update. He claims this is unfair. Since I would like to be fair you should vote on your favorite delinking policy.

Options:
1) Delink after N days of no update (like Ross). Exceptions made for art gallery style sites like symposed.com.
2) Delink for lame as hell URL (Sam)
3) Delink for no site (Grant, Alex)
4) Delink on whim
5) Any combination of the above (explain in comments)
6) Other (write-in)

steve :: Mar.01.2006 :: Uncategorized :: 25 Comments »