PolarLava::Blog

The Waterspout

Mon, 11 Aug 2008 20:41:47 +0100

This picture is from a few weeks ago and was taken by a coworker although I think I deserve partial credit because I alerted him to the photo op. This is a shot of a waterspout over Lake Erie and moving towards the Erie Basin Marina (of which we overlook) before it finally dissipated.

Another a couple of other coworkers took lesser quality photos as well that you will find here and here.

Falling Stream (Letchworth State Park)

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:57:42 +0100

This is another shot taken during my trip to Letchworth State Park back in April. There's four similar shots in the gallery with this one being deemed "the best", at least by me. Being I haven't shot many new pictures lately and now with my camera's death, I guess I'll be clearing out the backlog of things I've wanted to post. Hopefully a new camera will inspire me to get out take some new ones. I love doing it, but it's more of a lack of time issue.

Update: And now that I've posted it here I see it looks kind of crappy because the water detail gets squished in this format. Best to click through to see it in it's less crappy state.

Brooklyn Black Chocolate Stout

Fri, 08 Aug 2008 20:39:53 +0100

Centurion Ironman Expert

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 21:00:11 +0100

I've wanted to start riding a bike to work for a long time.  And when gas started to skyrocket I tried to setup my old Schwinn Continental II.  So I tuned it up, put a rack on it and took it for a test ride.  That lasted exactly 1/10 of a mile before the front tire blew out.  It was heavy too which didn't thrill me.  So I began to watch the Buffalo bicycles on craigslist for a suitable but affordable replacement.  A few thing that intrigued me, but nothing that was right for the right money.

So out of the blue, Rob pinged me a couple of days ago to see if I'd be interested in his old road bike.  Well, uh, yeah!  We're about the same size although his legs are a bit longer so I figured it might work out.  So he dropped it off last night and as I suspected it's a bit bigger —56cm, than what I usually ride —54cm…that's about 3/4 of an inch which is alright.  Anyhow, so now I'm the happy and proud owner of a 1987 Centurion Ironman Expert "Dave Scott" bicycle:

It's been sitting unused for a while so the tires and brake pads need to be replaced due to dry rot, but overall it's in nice shape.  And how can you possibly go wrong with that hot 80's paint scheme?

So although my initial thought was to make this my commuter bike, I've scrapped that idea now as my Schwinn LeTour is better suited for that roll primarily because it's drilled for a rack mount.  Thus the Centurion will be fixed up for duty as a replacement for the LeTour as my wind trainer bike.  But it also should be well suited to doing double duty as a secondary/foul weather bike when I don't want to get my Trek 2120 all grubby.  At least that's the plan until I can get a new primary bike to replace that one…which hopefully will be next season.

A followup post(s) will be made on the Centurion's rehab once I get some parts and start making some progress.  And always remember, one can never have too many bikes…contrary to what mothers, fathers, wives, sister, brother and others may say!!!

Canon S1 IS

Thu, 07 Aug 2008 20:38:12 +0100

8/7/08
And here we are one month shy of four years of using this camera…and I'm here to report that it died this past weekend.  It's not completely dead, but certainly unusable.  It appears that the sensor is shot as it's massively overexposing any picture you attempt to take.  Of course I discovered this out of town, outdoors and at a family reunion this past weekend.  :(  So new camera is definitely on the horizon.  Likely a Canon S5 IS which it the updated 8MP, 12x zoom version of the S1 IS which I've very much have enjoyed.  Another option would be a Canon A650 IS which is a 12MP, 6x zoom.  From doing some research the A650 has a little better picture quality, but I'm having a hard time giving up the zoom range of the S series.  We will see.

A most exciting treat arrived on my doorstep yesterday as my parents bought me a Canon PowerShot S1 IS digital camera for my birthday.  Or as I told them when I called to thank them, my "birthmas" as this should easily cover Christmas as well as my birthday for me.  I've been longing for a digital camera for a good 3 years now, but simply haven't had the cash available for such luxuries.  And a few months ago I found this gem and have been lusting after it ever since.  My best hope was that a new higher mega-pixel version would come out and force the price down.

The reason I desired this camera was the 10x optical zoom.  Most digital cameras are only 3x because you can't take handheld photos beyond that because of image blurring due to camera shake.  But with this one you can because its got this really cool image stabilization feature.  And based on some of the reviews I read (here and here), all of them give this camera very high marks.  So here it is:

And the backside…

That's all the good happy news.  Now the bad stuff…

I had a very busy evening yesterday as Colin was with me yesterday so I had to run him back and forth to his mothers.  Beyond the usual hectic post-diner cleanup, Mary Lou had gone to workout at the aquatic center, so I also needed to get the Olivia and Claire ready for bed.  Thus I didn't get to play until about 1/2 hour before I needed to go to bed.

So it's to the "Quick Start Guide" we go!  Insert batteries, insert memory card, set time and date, time to take a test picture.  Hmmm…it says to do this, then this…hmmm.  Black.  Nothing.  No view whatsoever!  I tried reformatting the memory card out of desperation, all the while knowing that it wasn't going to fix this problem.  Damn.  My guess would be that the CCD is bad.  Without it you've got nothing.  So now it needs to go out to the Canon Service Center while I wait a few weeks to get it back.  Just my luck.

9/21/04
Being I though I'd have to return the camera to Canon to be repaired, my parents mailed the reciept to me.  Being they bought it at Best Buy I took it there last night to exchange it.  I have to admit, I was fully expecting a hassle about returning.  Either because it's a manufacturer warranty issue or because it was purchased on someone else's credit card.  You, know the drill…any excuse to not deal with it.  Plus I've heard of other horror stories of dealing with them.  Well, I have to say I'm very happy with the painless, no questions asked (beyond "Is is broke") and relatively quick exchange process.  Thus I am now a very happy digital camera owner who has one very exciting picture of his living room at night!  Let the playing begin.

In Defense of Food

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 21:00:31 +0100

I'm a notoriously slow reader. I drive myself crazy because it takes me months to read most anything. But not this time! I've just finished the wondrously insightful In Defense of Food: An Eater's Manifesto by Michael Pollan. I found this book incredibly fascinating. Like, "don't want to put it down because I want to keep reading" fascinating. As well as actually staying awake and alert enough to do so at bedtime.

As those that really know me should know, I'm somewhat fanatical about health, fitness and exercise. Although I sometimes don't live up to my own standards, I try to do so and encourage others to do so as well. If you're serous about learning where we went wrong and (with the U.S. government's help) got our diets off-track (Hello there High Fructose Corn Syrup!) and you're interested in trying to eat healthier, this book is definitely for you. I really can't say enough positive things about it.

You may also find of interest my previous post of Michael Pollan at Google.

Discovering one word

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:48:25 +0100

So yesterday I came across one word. The basic premise being it gives you one word and then you have sixty-seconds to write about. Very simple, very easy. This is something I can see doing periodically. So yesterday's word was "spark". To which I came up with:

There was a spark that ignited a single flame. But that's all it took to bring the entire house down to a pile of ashes. Sadness reigns.

And today (as I literally just did this while writing this post) is "chorus". So I wrote:

The voices rang from on high. As the church hall filled with glorious sound. And there were smiles all around and much happiness. The sound of peace.

I like it. :)

One Hundred Push Ups

Wed, 30 Jul 2008 20:37:39 +0100

So a few weeks back I came across One Hundred Push Ups.  This site promotes the personal challenge to do 100 push ups.  I filed it a way, came back a couple of weeks ago and printed out the entire program.  I'm going to do this.  I need to do this.  Now I just need to get on-track and start on it.

Shockingly enough when I brought this up at work the video game addicted, junk food eating (mostly) 20-nothings that I work with…was largely a collective yawn.  Disappointing, but not unexpected.  That's OK, I'm nearly twice the age of most of them and I'm certainly in much better shape.  Now I just need to get mentally tough and raise the bar even higher.

So I've actually have started this, hopefully I'll stick with it.  Progress updates will be here as needed:

7/24/08 - Initial test.  I did 25 which ranks me a "4" for my age group. Wish it were better, but it could be far worse.  Guess that's why I'm doing this.  :)

7/27/08 - Started week #1.  I've opted for a Sunday-Tuesday-Thursday morning schedule as that's least likely to conflict with my cycling schedule.  Ironically things are a bit wacky this week and I actually did Sunday-Monday night instead of Tuesday morning.  Thinking now (7/30) that doing it in the evening might be better, at least on some days.  Trial and error I guess.  I'm already headed for another conflict because I plan on riding in the morning which is when I should also be doing push ups.  Might have to do them tonight or tomorrow night.

Stone Brewing Arrogant Bastard Ale

Wed, 23 Jul 2008 21:00:56 +0100

Lamp Standard

Sun, 29 Jun 2008 07:07:06 +0100

This is simply a shot of a lamp standard that I thought might make an interesting picture for my photoblog. It was taken during my trip to Letchworth State Park back in April. It seem rather blah to me at this point, but I haven't posted anything in a while. Largely this is because I haven't photographed much lately as I've been mostly feeding my cycling addiction in my spare time. I've got a couple more from this series I'll highlight at some point, just not right now.