./janella.com

I received the following IM:

Lil' Gordon (8/1/2005 11:34:00 AM): i got my lisence
Lil' Gordon (8/1/2005 11:34:02 AM): license i mena
Lil' Gordon (8/1/2005 11:34:09 AM): how eva u spell it'

So congratulations Gordon on passing the driving tests.  And to everyone one else, watch out! (I’m joking…or am I?!?!?!)

I know it’s difficult to tell in the image above, but when searching for ‘janella’ on Yahoo! this web site is the first result now! This makes janella.com the #1 result on Google and Yahoo! now. Who was ranked #1 before on Yahoo!’s search engine?

The item currently listed as #8

"[ I Will Only Love You ] Open this result in new window

... Best Viewed In 1024 x 768. Name: Janella_Lee. Age: 19. ...

www.sweetangelmissyou.blogspot.com - More from this site - Save - Block"

The Governor of California visited work today to make a little speech.  We waited in line, hopeful to get in, but fell about 50 people short of the door.  Oh well, I didn’t vote for him (or the recall) anyway.

Here’s some photos from outside (with a few more @ my Flickr page):

I’m recovering from this damn cold still.  I got the stuffy head thing going right now.  Hopefully it will be gone soon so I can enjoy the rest of the weekend.

Right now as I’m writing this I am watching the the Live 8 concert feed on [AOL.com]  I know the Internet has been around for a while now, but I’m just amazed that I am able to jump back and forth between the feeds in London, Berlin, Toronto, Philadelphia and Rome.  It’s coming across pretty good too with no jumps or jitters.

Oh well, time to clean up some of this computer room.  It’s a mess!

Its official: I got some kind of bug.  Aching back. Runny nose. Hacking cough.  Ugh, I hate this stuff.

Of course, I decided to go out yesterday after work and spread my germs! No, I had to pay a bill at the mall. So Farrah and I grabbed dinner at [Alexander’s Steakhouse] - more on that later - and headed around the very dead Vallco Mall. I started to feel progressively worse. When I got home I knew I was just going straight to bed.

I break out the cold & flu medicine we have and check the label. Get this: “Tylenol Cold Nighttime with Cool Burst”? What the heck is ‘cool burst’? The box says Tylenol Nighttime with Cool Burst “gives you the multi-symptom relief you need to rest-plus an instant cooling sensation you’ll feel right away.” Well, it was like taking a mint for medicine but it was effective. It knocked me right out for a very good nights sleep.

But I still feel like s@!t this morning. I think I’ll be wiping my nose and coughing away all weekend.

This sucks.

Most of the postings lately have been about birthdays.  Let’s see, birthday’s this month were for Skylar, Little Gordon, Yen, Lotte, Doug and Kevin this month. Did I miss anyone?

A lot of photo opportunities present themselves at birthdays. So I took it was an opportunity to take photos with the D70s.  Pictures of Yen’s birthday (when we took her out to dinner at Straits @ Santana Row) and of Lotte’s birthday (at [Buca di Beppo’s] in the City) will be posted on the [Photos] janella.us.  Fina took most of the photos at Lotte’s birthday.  The photos out of focus are the ones I took :)  It was funny see Fina with a Nikon since she’s such a Canon person.  (Man, should have taken a picture of her holding the camera!)  I still need to post photos from Lotte’s and Skylar’s parties.  Remember to log in to see the ‘big picture’.

Podcasts

iTunes 4.9 was released earlier this week.  With 4.9 it now makes it easier to download Podcasts.  What are Podcasts?  Short and simple, it’s like a radio broadcast you can listen to on your digital music player (see [Podcasting])  Podcasts can be anything from news to business reports to independent music programs and beyond.  I don’t think Podcasts are bound by any FCC rules so content can be almost anything.  You don’t need to have an iPod or use iTunes to listen to a Podcast, so do a search on the Net and check one out.

Current Podcasts I’m listening to:

• KCRW's The Treatment
• Cinecast
• digital photography tips from the top floor

Apple did announce one this week that sucked:  iPods now come with color screens by default!  Ugh!  Oh well, the price you pay for wanting an iPod.  You knew it was going to happen.

Feeling blah

I’m a little under the weather.  Tuesday morning I woke up with a dry throat and my nose felt dry as well.  Wednesday found me staying in bed most of the day.  Today my nose is just running here and there.  I thought it was allergies, but usually my eyes itch, which is currently not the case.  What makes it worse is that it really isn’t comfortable staying in bed with the weather being so damn hot!  I had a little ramen in Mt. View last night that helped out.

Ugh.  I hate summer colds.

Etc.

Plans for the weekend?  Still working on it.  Farrah’s lucky to have a four day weekend.  Me?  Three days, which I’m not complaining about (or am I?)

Today we had Father’s Day breakfast/brunch at Aloha Kitchen in San Jose on 1041 East Capitol Expressway..  Uh, the food was so good.  I had the Samin with BBQ Chicken and it was delicious!!!  Farrah’s dad had Samin as well, her mom Portuguese Sausage and eggs, and Farrah had Hawaiian Pancakes.

Farrah’s dad struck up a conversation with another customer.  The talk started off normal - How you doing?  Where you from?  The guy talked about what street he used to live on.  Funny thing was that Farrah’s dad new exactly where that was  and the neighborhoods' residents specifically!  So the guy would say, “Yeah, there is this short guy who lived in a house down the street…” and Farrah’s dad would reply, “Oh, you mean at 1084?"  Amazing.

Later that day Farrah and I took my mom to visit my dad’s grave.  It’s been over ten years, but still…

Rating: **** out of 5

Quick shot: The movie chronicles the Batman’s beginnings.

What I liked about the move:

It’s back to the serious Batman.  The storyline is very well structured, good acting all around, and Gotham City looks like an actual city.  Plus Batman’s toys are pretty cool as well.

What I didn’t like: 

Bale’s Batman voice didn’t do it for me, except for one scene where he was very effective.  Go catch this movie either in primetime or a matinee.  Worth seeing!

Well, I have had the D70s for two weeks. I’m loving the freedom of taken the shot and seeing the results right away, but with an SLR type camera! I know that’s how it is supposed to be with a DSLR but I’m still getting used to the feeling.

I have been messing with [aperture priority] and shutter speed the last week. The reason I have been is I want to take photos at Kayla’s dance recital. Taking photos has been a hit and miss affair. The conditions are:

• dark theater - only stage lighting
• no flash allowed
• no tripods allow (I've seen monopods though)
• distance to stage varies seats are all over

I have had various success and failure in taking photos. I’ve used high speed film (1600), opened up the aperture, steadied my hand various ways, all with mixed results. This year will hopefully be different.

What I am planning to do is take photos during the practice session. Susana said I can bring a tripod during that session and set it up - as the practice isn’t video taped. The lighting conditions will be the same. From what I understand of the advice given by the [nikonians.org] messageboard I should:

• use the fastest lens I have (which is the 50mm 1.8)
• have the aperture wide open
• and hope the shutter speed is around 100 or so

I can adjust the ISO as needed.  We’ll see how it works.  I’ll post some results later.

This photo of drinks was taken under low lighting conditions, no flash, aperture wide open - using the 18mm-70mm lens. The shot was taken hand held, steadied against the table. Farrah took the photo:

Anyway, wish me luck.

Rating: *** out of five

Quick shot: Boy and girl meet. Boy and girl get married. Boy and girl are spies for competing agencies and don’t know it. Boy and girl must kill each other, or die trying. Will this have a happy ending

What I liked about the movie: Good action - gun play, hand-to-hand combat, and car chases. Good chemistry between Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie. Fair and snappy dialog

What I didn’t like: The distracting choice of hand held camera movement during some quiet moments during the film. The latter third of the film had issues resolved suddenly.

Overall a good matinee movie. 

I’ve been able to get some more reading and shots in the last day.  Last night Farrah, Yen, and I went out to look at fabric and dinner.  I was able to take a few outdoor shots - around dusk) and indoor restaurant shots with the D70s' built in flash.  The flash photos look a little saturated, and the outdoor photos needed adjusting as well.  The results are the adjusted photos here:

You can see more photos by logging into the Flickr album.  Of course you need to be a ‘friend or family’ to see those extra photos, so sing up for a Flickr account today!!!

I’ve been also messing with shutter speed.  These shots have the aperature wide open and the shutter speed very slow.  Check the EXIF data for more info.

Well, I’ve finally started some shots with the D70s. I haven’t read all of the instruction manual. In fact I have probably read less then 10 pages of a 100 page manual!!! I just wanted to get out and start shooting.

Yesterday, I got a 1GB 80x Corsair Compact Flash card.  I was hoping to get the [Lexar 1GB 80x Compact Flash card].  Now the Corsair is not on the test and approved list of cards, but it is working and I hope it lasts me for a while. If it starts freakin' out on me I’ll need to go to Costco to pick up a SanDisk Ultra II card which is tested and approved.

I took some test shots yesterday of Farrah while she was talking on the phone with Yen.  You can see some feet shots on the [Flickr] album.

Today I took some shots of Lucky and Bixby and Tigger too! I also took a few shots of cars that were on display at the Sunnyvale Art and Wine Festival in downtown Sunnyvale.

I’m shooting in the RAW format which is new to me. Take a look at the pictures and please make any comments on the photos you can. I’ll need to read up more about it. Ok, I’ll go read the manual now.

It’s been a pretty quiet day so far.  Not heavy on the work stuff.   I’m using the time to study some photo techniques.  Problem with studying it is wanting to apply it after reading, which I can’t do.

We had a BBQ for lunch here at work. Burgers, ribs, salad, dessert.  Not too bad, though I know I can cook better ribs :)

Plans for the weekend? A lot of picture taking.