Perspectives of a Canadian in the Old/Deep/New/Geographic South: This is where I ramble on about nothing in particular and post a few nice pictures.
Random mutterings
I’ve been getting lots of ideas and inspiration to work on and investigate new things at the talks I’ve been going to at SIIM 2007.
My talk went well and seemed to be very well received. Had a few people come up to me afterwards to ask for copies of my talk, including one person who was going to use it as ammo to justify storage cost projections to his higher-ups. That’s one of the things that makes you feel like your talk had an impact.
Off to another session, so maybe more later.
Well, yesterday was a bit of a wash thanks to rain from Barry. At least the lawn got some much needed rain. Got pretty breezy last night too.
Judging from the latest radar images, it looks like the remnant of Barry is passing by now so there could be more rain in store for later today.
Wow, this year’s storm season has only just started today and it’s already up to two named systems with Barry being announced by the NHC at 5 PM today.
From the 5 PM discussion:
DEEP CONVECTION HAS DEVELOPED NEAR THE CENTER DURING THE PAST HOUR AND THE STRONGEST WINDS ARE LOCATED NEAR THE CENTER…SUPPORTING A TROPICAL CLASSIFICATION. BARRY COULD RETAIN SOME NON-TROPICAL CHARACTERISTICS. THE CYCLONE IS EMBEDDED WITHIN A STRONG SOUTHWESTERLY SHEAR AND IS HEADING TOWARD COOLER WATERS. THEREFORE…NO SIGNIFICANT STRENGTHENING IS INDICATED BEFORE IT REACHES THE COAST. BARRY SHOULD BECOME EXTRATROPICAL BETWEEN 24 AND 36 HOURS.
Are you ready?
Is it weird to get a pizza just so you can have cold pizza for breakfast the next morning?
I think I found the camera that I want to get: the Panasonic DMC-FZ8K. Got my hands on one over at Circuit City and was pretty impressed with the picture quality (at least what was shown on the itty bitty display) at high zoom and (relatively) low light as well as high contrast conditions (bright sun through the door, regular light inside). Pretty wide range of shutter speeds and ISO settings so I’ll be able to play with low light imaging. I thought some of the buttons were a bit awkwardly placed, but that’s just a matter of getting used to the camera. Uses SD cards, which is a plus, but is powered by a Li-ion battery pack which means I won’t be able to use the pile of rechargable batteries I have.
I’ll have to save up a bit for it, so I likely won’t have a camera for my Providence and Minneapolis trips, but I should be able to pick one up in time for my reunion trip in September (unless I run across another camera I like better).
If I try hard enough, I might even be able to save up enough for a DSLR, but considering the price on some of them, I’ll have to be really really frugal.