Author Archives: Pat

A new digital camera

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Well, I’ve been waffling about whether or not to buy a Digital Rebel, and finally made up my mind that I should pick up a point-and-shoot instead, that way I can spend the difference on a few lenses for the 35mm SLR. So, I went out today and picked up a Fujifilm FinePix E550. It’s a 6.3 megapixel, 4x optical zoom unit, and what’s even better is that it’ll appear as a USB mass storage device to my Linux box, so I’ll be able to pull the JPEGs off without dealing with a Windows box.

So, look for some pics to start showing up in here now that I’ve got something decent to take them with.

New jacket

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I stopped by Moto Liberty today to look for a new cold weather jacket. The zipper on my current leather jacket, which I’ve had for somewhere around 6 years, has given up the ghost, and won’t stay zipped for the bottom 5 inches. So I started looking at Joe Rocket’s winter offerings since I’ve already got a summer jacket from them, and had pretty much made up my mind about my purchase. The only thing was that I didn’t want to buy the jacket on-line without being able to try it on first. So I started calling around to local dealers and got Matt West over at Moto Liberty who convinced me to come in and look around. I did, and I found a Fieldsheer textile jacket with armor and a nice warm liner on closeout for just a little more than it would have cost to get all of the repairs on my old jacket done. Now I can start riding again!

If you’re looking for some gear, I’d strongly suggest that you check out Moto Liberty, they treated me right and the price was certainly reasonable.

Busy day!

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Wow, it was warm today so I decided to get some more of the shack rebuild done. So, I went about stringing 200 feet of wire around the house and connecting up the AH-4 tuner. This is the first antenna that I’ve actually gotten completely hooked up. Too bad the radios aren’t ready yet or I’d be able to get back on the air.

And in the evening I met my godfather and a friend of his at an indoor pistol range for an evening of shooting. I’m a touch on the rusty side, but I’m really enjoying the Ruger Mk. 1 that he gave me. That is one sweet pistol! I shot about 60 rounds with it and then switched to the .357 and shot about 100 more. I’ve really got to start practicing more!

Happy Birthday To Me!

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Well, I turned 31 today and spent the morning fighting with ALSA quirks in order to get the line-in jack on my sound card to work. It’s the next step in the hamshack rebuild, since I’m going to be moving away from Windows.

After that I headed out to Bicycles Inc. to pick up shoes and other stuff for the new bike. I ended up with shoes, gloves, a pair of bike socks, and a helmet.

After that I had to go to PetSmart to pick up some more food for the girls, which I really should have done at some other time because the mall traffic mall traffic was really crappy.

Then I tracked down a friend and we went over to Boi Na Braza, a Brazilian churrascaria, to satisfy the carnivore in me.

Finally, I kicked back and watched Hero, the Chinese film that Quentin Tarantino was promoting in the US this past year. It was absolutely wonderful. It and Crouching Tiger have really made me want to find some more films in the same genre.

LSJC Christmas Party

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Tonight was the LSJC christmas party, and it was a blast. I watched some pretty cool wheeling videos of a trip to Moab, UT. The gift exchange was fun, and I ended up with three rolls of duct tape and a Chili’s gift certificate. Unfortunately, I didn’t win the winch the club was raffling off, but there’s always next time… I also picked up the trailer hitch bike rack, so the days of stuffing the bike in the back of the Jeep are coming to an end!

American Treasure

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I went out to see American Treasure today, and really enjoyed it. Sure, they played pretty fast and loose with history, but this is entertainment, not a documentary. There’s a few good one-liners that I’m sure will be getting some quote time soon. All in all a good flick.

I’ve got a new toy!

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I just picked up a 2004 Specialized Rockhopper Pro from a friend. I’ve been itching to get back into mountain biking, and this is the perfect excuse. But it really is like starting over because so much has changed. This thing’s got disc brakes, indexed shifting, and a boatload more gears than my old bike. It’s also got clip-ons instead of platforms, so I’m going to have to pick up a set of shoes and learn how to use them. I had toe clips on my last bike, but these are completely different animals. It’s going to be fun!

What lovely weather!

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It’s above 70 today, so I spent my Saturday doing some work on my vehicles. The Harley needed a brake job, and badly. So that was the first order of business, what with the toy run next weekend. After getting some good advice and helpful hints from the good folks over at the XL list, I got the pads changed on both the front and rear brakes. The rear were down to about 10%, while the front were at about 50%, so it was worth time time. After that I washed the Jeep. Now I’m sitting out in the back yard, drinking Woodchuck’s Granny Smith cider and posting this. This is the way winter should be spent!

School’s done

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I just finished my last assignment for this, the final week of Java Programming I. It was a pretty good class and I learned a lot about Java, a language that I really didn’t care for before this class. I’m taking the rest of the year off and will be starting my next class, Java Programming II some time in January. That one will get into GUI programming where the one I just finished was console based only. It’s going to be fun, because other than some PalmOS coding, I haven’t done any GUI development in a couple years.