Logic & Sanity

Back from the hiatus!

I've been busy helping the economy out by going out and spending money on food, drinks, and other good time inducing activities. Oh, and built a new PC. My geeky needs are now being satisfied by:

- 2 24" NEC LCDs
- i7 960 processor (running stock @3.2ghz
- 12 gigs of ram
 

My photography equipment has went through an even more drastic upgrade. Goodbye APS-C, hello full frame! My Canon XSI has served me well, but I had to move on. I am not a fan of the flash - mainly because I find it to be too intrusive - affecting the situation instead of just documenting it. Unfortunately, there's just so much the smaller sensor can do. I've been underexposing while shooting at 1600 iso, and then brightening things up in Picasa, but alas, the noise is just too evident. 

My new Canon 5D Mark II solves that problem. I can now shoot at 3200 ISO and not worry about the noise. I do lose a fair amount of  reach with my lenses due to the full frame, but that is being offset by the 21 megapixels - I can now crop a whole lot more. It's like buttah... 

And ofcourse there's an added plus of the 1080p video that it takes. The quality has to be seen to believed, and in fact the 5DM2 is now being used by some independent filmmakers to shoot full features... Anyway, my dual 24" LCD's are going to be useful with all this media work I am planning to do... Stay tuned.

Brittany Murphy dead at 32

Not that I've been closely following her life but I didn't see this one coming. She's anorexic, as this photo makes quite obvious - her had looks way too big for her body . Very sad.

 

USPS sucks... Still...

I've said it before, and I'll say it again. USPS sucks! I've pre-ordered Modern Warfare 2 from Newegg, then cancelled it, because I figured the shipping would be faster from jr.com - big mistake! J&R shipped on monday and the package still didn't get to my office which is right across the river in Jersey. WTF? Never again!

President Stupidly

What does our president have to say about yesterday's terrorist attack?

The president made the comments as the commander of Fort Hood, the US’s largest base for deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan, quoted witnesses as saying the suspected gunman, Major Nidal Malik Hasan, shouted the Muslim declaration “Allahu Akbar” – God is great – as he opened fire. Speaking at the White House, Mr Obama said: “We don’t know all the answers yet, and I would caution against jumping to conclusions until we have all the facts.”

So a person of the muslim faith, who's known for prior anti-American statements, kills a dozen American soldiers while yelling "Allakh Akhbar", and we shouldn't jump to conclusions. Yet Obama didn't extend the same consideration to the Cambridge police back in July. Quite telling.

Malik Nadal Hasan - "good American"

Authorities have not identified the gunman publicly, but official sources have named Major Malik Nadal Hasan, a psychiatrist who reportedly didn't believe in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and wanted out of the military before he was set to be deployed overseas.

Federal law enforcement officials say Hasan had come to their attention at least six months ago because of Internet postings that discussed suicide bombings and other threats.

11 dead and 31 are wounded. Some would have you believe that poverty is the root cause of terrorism, but that's, obviously, just some cuddly politically correct bullshit that the left would have you believe. Malik Nadal Hasan is a doctor. Osama Bin Laden is from a wealthy family.  The 9/11 hijackers were college educated. The problem is the backward, medieval mentality which no amount of money or education seem to fix. The citizens of the West have sent tens of billions of dollars to feed, clothe, educate, and provide medicine and care for the poor Muslims world wide and none of it means anything to them. For as soon as there an accusation of a westerner mistreating the Koran, they go wild,  burn our flags, and kill. Ironically, the very group that's so sensitive about its beliefs, offers absolutely no consideration for the beliefs of others. Next time they burn our flag, perhaps we should send over a few rockets. And next time there's a beheading, perhaps we should go nuclear. I am sure they will understand, for they know what its like to be disrespected.

Nader Hasan, the shooter's cousin, stresses that Malik - the shooter - is a good American here.  His definition of that term is less than standard, I am sure.

Tekken 6 - meh

I was looking forward to the release of  Tekken 6 for months, unfortunately I've been nothing but disappointed from the moment my copy arrived. First disappointment came from reading the box - the game is 720p. How in the world did Namco decide to downgrade the graphics after giving us Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection which ran at silky smooth rates @ 1080p? Unfortunately, the resolution downgrade, is not the only issue. Soul Calibur 4 runs at 720p and has great graphics and audio, Tekken 6 does not. The textures and the backgrounds are poor and are highly compressed - you won't have to pixel peep to see this. Same goes for the sound effects and music. Tekken 6's audio, both music and effects, comes out muffled due to, probably, high compression. 

On its own, Tekken 6 is not a horrible game - it's an OK game, but when compared to the previous entry in the series it's one big disappointment. Namco has failed here. They gave us an amazing 1080p game in 2007, with amazing sound track/effects - truly arcade quality production values, only to come back two years later with a game that's worse in every aspect. Bottom line, you should only get this game if you are a diehard Tekken fan and absolutely must have everything that's Tekken related.

 Otherwise, if you already have a game in this genre and are on a budget - skip this one.

A child molester dies...

So, Michael Jackson died a few days ago and now there's non stop coverage of people crying. At first I thought they were his creditors, but apparently the world is full of people who think that having a music talent somehow negates one's desire for sleeping with children. Sad.

Camel Club - crap.

I got the kindle edition of this book and after forcing myself to read the first 35%, I just couldn't go on. Besides the lack of realism, I was annoyed with the author's blatant agenda. Granted every author has his own opinion on things, but David Balducci does not even try to work his into the plot. Out of place rants by some characters read more like blog posts than anything else. Djamila, the nanny, is presented as a reasonable, honorable, and a G-d fearing woman (you know, besides the killing people stuff), while her american boss - Lori Franklin is presented as a money hungry adulterer who doesn't care to spend time with her children. Their exchange, in the beginning of the book, is rather unrealistic and serves no other purpose than to advance the author's agenda - instead of the plot's. Another example is Tom Hemingway's exchange with Carter Gray, that, again, read more like a Huffington Post blog post than an intelligence update prepared for our country's intelligence czar. I've made it a bit further and then gave up on this one.

Renato Men's Wilde-Beast Diver

I own four pairs of watches that I regularly wear, but it's just not enough. I've been seriously obsessing over the Renato Wilde Beast DIver watch over the past few weeks. It comes in different face/bracelet combinations and  the one I am liking the most is the white face/black ionic plated stainless steel bracelet combo. The case is a hefty 47mm, the date window is pretty original - you can also see yesterdays', but more important - tomorrow's date. That could come in handy if you are not sure if there are 30 or 31 days in the current month, I'ld imagine.  I've been thinking of getting this one as a new year's gift to self, but from what I understand only 75 pieces are made in each color, so I might want to hurry up... Decisions, decisions.

Chase-Durer Men's Pilot Commander II Chronograph

I've became a bit of a watch aficionado as of late, giving preference to big watches. As a software engineer I look at everything from a functionality point of view, so I like watches that are substantial and manifest themselves more as an instrument rather than a piece of jewelry.

Here's my latest acquisition that's arriving on Tuesday.
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        At 48mm, this watch will be quite prominent on my wrist and the rubber strap screams utility. This is something I would wear with jeans in the summer and with sweaters in colder seasons.