found_drama

• 72 Ideas to Simplify Your Life
  (tags: lifehacks future goals health personal productivity philosophy todo)
• Beer Suggest
  via LifeHacker :: I never did get around to Cork’d, so I don’t know why I’m flagging this as “todo” — but we’ll see…
  (tags: food beer reference reviews todo)
• B&H Photo Video
  (tags: camera photography video shopping)

As with many “Year’s Best” type anthologies (regardless of genre), it is difficult to evaluate Gardner Dozois’ The Year’s Best Science Fiction (24th Annual Collection) as if it were a whole. Unlike a themed collection (e.g., Wastelands: Stories of the Apocalypse), you cannot easily ask how each story is helping to advance or otherwise round-out the speculation or evaluation of that given theme. But that’s OK; that’s not why we pick up and read a collection like this. And it’s a hazard we’re willing — nay: happy — to take on.

That said, the rating for the collection here is a computed average of my ratings on the individual stories themselves. Out to four decimal places, the 24th Annual Collection scores: 3.3929 Read the rest of this entry »

Well, gentle readers, yesterday I wrapped up the hemming and hawing and took the DSLR plunge.  Motivated in part by the impending baby and in part by a good Memorial Day Sale deal, I picked up a Canon XTi.

A. & I ventured out yesterday to hit a couple of stores and try our luck with the advertised sales and their not-always-advertised deals.  The main objective was to get a little bit more hands-on play time with the front-running models (i.e., the Nikon D60 and the Canon XTi) and shore up the decision.  I had found a couple of good deals online (Amazon.com to the rescue) but figured by the time we factored in shipping, there was a chance I would spent about the same amount at a brick-and-mortar store.  Plus (as mentioned above) the last thing I wanted to do was commit to one without having had another chance to get a feel for the controls.

Our first stop was out of the XTi but we did spend a few minutes with a D60.  After about 10 minutes screwing around, I decided that the D60 would be acceptable but there was something unfamiliar about the controls and the icons that bugged me out.  We left there and moved on to store #2.  They had both the XTi and the D60 in stock but neither camera was sold “body-only” — so that combined with the lack of 50mm primes combined with the less-than-great sale price…  We moved on.

Store #3…  Well, they took care of us.  The price was right, the sales person was knowledgeable and friendly and candid.  And though they carried neither a body-only kit nor the 50mm prime…  Well, she convinced me.  I’m glad I went ahead with it:

Left on the to-do list?  The kit lens is a great starter, I think but everyone keeps bringing up that fast 50mm prime.  Oh…  And does anyone have a recommendation on a good “backpack style” camera bag?

Special thanks out to Chris, John, and Justin for their feedback, recommendations, and tips.