I never realized just how dangerous digital cameras can be. Up until the beginning of 2006, I was of the mindset that film ruled all and that digital just didn’t cut it.

Then something snapped.

Since purchasing my H2 in May ‘06, I’ve managed to shoot 3700+ photos. 990 of those have been posted to Flickr. Two have been blown up into posters. One has appeared in a newspaper.

I haven’t touched my 35mm camera in a long time, even though my H2 has obscene levels of purple fringing.

Oh well, it was the 990 Flickr photos that set me off on this reflection.

In other news, looks like I’ll be buying a Honda Element soon. I’m not crazy about the MPG ratings (21/26), but we needed a second vehicle that was wheelchair capable and that would accommodate the biking and kayaking hobbies. Oh, and something that was 4WD since I grew tired of sliding around in my Ford Focus this past winter.

One of these days, we’ll have to move closer to Minitab or at least to an area with a good bike path extension so I can just bike to work. There’s no way I’d want to do that from Pleasant Gap.

I’m doing a walk to raise money towards autism research. If you would like to give up some cash to support the cause, hit my donor page. May be NWS if your workplace is anti-Chunk.

With the weather turning for the better, I’ve been biking/triking more often. Gareth and I did a 5 mile ride on Saturday. I then triked 15 miles the following Sunday, 6 miles the day after that, and a measly 4 miles on Tuesday (had to turn back due to rain). The good news is that my endurance is building. The bad news is that it’s nothing compared to my trainer who came into our session today talking about how she did 50 miles over the weekend. I’ll get there.

Thanks to the testimony of Rydain, I now have an appointment with Bob the Painter for Monday morning at 7:30AM. We’re repainting most of the upstairs (living room, hall, two bedrooms) and would much prefer that it happen magically while we’re out of the house. We need some touch-up in the kitchen, as well, but that’s easy enough to do on our own.

What else has been going on… Played/finished Phoenix Wright: AA and now have no desire to play the sequel. Purchased four tickets to see The Police in NYC when I only need two (anybody want to buy two tickets in different floor sections?). Bought GRAW2 and haven’t even booted it up yet. Picked up DDR Universe and have played it only with a controller, mostly defeating the purpose of the game. Been trying to decide which I’d rather do: put a roof rack on my car or get an SUV just big enough to hold my trike, with the price difference being 100x between the two. Oh, and I’ve been put on blood pressure meds that made me almost pass out during one of my trainer sessions.

So yeah, been doin’ stuff.

You know what’s great about hiring more folks to help you do your work? Getting things done quickly and efficiently.

You know what sucks when your role becomes managing those other folks? Feeling like you’re completely useless.

I’m already falling out of the loop on several items here at work, and it’s driving me nuts. My value is my creativity in testing, not my ability to maintain schedules for others or make charts in Excel.

I am not of the mindset that finds shifting resources satisfying. Bleh. If it weren’t for the fact I was getting a promotion for taking on this role, I’d probably tell my boss to find somebody else.

Of course, I’m no good to this company if I’m bored and/or frustrated. I have no idea what to do.

I picked up a Zune today, even though I received a perfectly good iPod mere days ago.

Too tired to write a full comparison, but iTunes wants $1 a song, Zune has Zune Pass (which is fantastically awesome) and lets me download all I can stand for $15 a month. Zune is bulky and vibrates when the HD kicks in, iPod is slim and quiet.

Zune let me put ATHF as a background image. iPod lets me play Breakout (Bricks) with the click wheel.

I much prefer the interface of the Zune. I feel as though I’m getting to my files faster. Though it’s hard to not have the click wheel once you’ve slid your thumb around it a few times.

Somebody I’ve never met sent me a 30GB video iPod. It’s only a month old and came with a 3 year extended warranty.

And Wal-Mart finally had DS Lites in stock last night.

It was a good night for me.

I oftentimes start reading a book only to discover a third of the way in that I’m really not getting much out of it. But, due to some sense of obligation (”let’s give this author a chance to redeem her/himself”), I will read the book to completion.

This baffles my wife. She has endeavored to get me to read just one book that I outright enjoy. She has even challenged me to read one that makes me laugh. That’s a tough mandate.

I recently finished Dawkin’s “The God Delusion”, which was incredibly disappointing. His arguments made sense, but the entire book was a perfect example of why the masses hate academics - they take way too long to say way too little. The end of that book was atrocious. When attacking the existence of a deity, it’s a good idea to end with a bit of a punch, not with an overly drawn out abstraction regarding the dress of middle eastern women.

Just sayin’.

Anyway, the next book I’m reading is about a family dealing with gender identity issues. It’s written by a friend of a friend, so that will give it a slightly more personal touch. I do, however, doubt this is going to be the laugh riot novel that Brandy would like me to read (though I did make her pick out my next book so she could steer me away from Freud or the Malleus Maleficarum).

I suppose this is appropriate. My spectral analysis looks like a butt print from a photocopier.

Get your own spectral analysis from Area 23®

Thank you, DARPA, for providing me a means by which to become an appliance repairman. Yes, were it not for the internet and the contents provided by the masses, I would not have known that a little gunk in an air hose could make all the difference between a washing machine operating properly and flooding your basement.

Unfortunately, it took the latter situation before I would stop to learn about such things.

The bad news is that our washing machine was out of operation for two days while we dried out the entire basement and threw away a large dumpster load of damaged goods. The good news is that the basement now has a lot less junk in it.

Yay?

Not so long ago, I worked for a doomed company. Realizing they were going to implode, I got the heck out of there and went to work elsewhere. During the last week of my employment, after the company had declared Chapter 11, they issued me a final check for business expenses.

For all I knew, that was the end of that.

Until yesterday when I received a letter from a law office in Philly stating that I owe the bankruptcy lawyer $631.80.

Awesome.

I’m pretty sure that’s the total of the expense reimbursement, but I didn’t bother keeping records of all that. How naive. Now I have to start digging to figure out exactly what the expense was, why it was paid to me, and how I can keep from having to pay it back to the bankruptcy court. 11 U.S.C. § 547(c)(2) states that payments made to creditors (which, technically, I was since they owed me money) cannot be reclaimed by the Trustee if they payment was part of normal business operations. Since it is an expense reimbursement, I’m thinking I’m covered by that clause.

Of course, I’m in trouble if I have to prove it. Fortunately, I know of someone who can perhaps get me access to those records so I can see exactly what the expense covered. Once I have that, I’ll be in a much better position.

Let this be a warning - if you’re going to work for a crappy company, get out 90 days before they file Chapter 11.