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June 30, 2007
Radioactive Remains of ELO in McKinney!
Tonight Leo and I went to see The Orchestra at the Third Monday Day Trade flea market, sponsored by Sidebar Entertainment and KLAK-FM. For those who don't know, The Orchestra is composed of two former members of ELO (Mik Kaminski and Kelly Groucutt) and Lou Clark, the man whom Jeff Lynne hired to do the arrangement for ELO starting with Eldorado. The other members of The Orchestra are the former members of ELO II, an earlier Bev Bevan band.
I had a blast! I can finally say I've seen an ELO concert, even if Jeff Lynne wasn't there. Kelly's vocals, along with the other lads, were spot on. Their harmony was excellent for a live concert. Even the venue, as tacky as it was, worked. Just before breaking into Standing in the Rain Kelly commented on "tempting fate" (I had the same notion as the opening bars of the song started), but it never rained on us. Leo really enjoyed the show, too. He knows the whole ELO catalog and sang along with many of the tunes.
I got the program guide and their new album No Rewind. Joe Bob sez check it out. (The images were taken with my new iPhone camera.)
Posted by Steven at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 29, 2007
I Got One!
Ok, ok, yes, yes, it's true. I stood in line (for a little under two hours) today and I Got One!
One what? Why, the new iPhone what else?
The most talked about piece of tech this year has at last gone on sale, and after much planning and waiting, I bought one on the opening day. Many of you may think this happens all the time for me, that I bought the original 5Gb iPod when it first came out (nope: waited until the third generation model, four years after introduction to buy one), the Nikon D70 when it first came out (nope: bought the follow on D70s eighteen months after introduction), or the iBook (nope: got my first Mac OS X capable computer in Dec. 2004, five years after Mac OS X shipped). So this is the first time I've ever been able to buy a new Apple product the day it was introduced.
So how is it?
It does everything I wanted it to do, with an elegance that makes the Treo 650 I was using look like a wooden cart. All the elements work together smoothly, creating a seamless cell phone, web browser, e-mail client and iPod. Even the applets for world clock, camera, photos and YouTube work very well and are surprisingly useful. The fact that it renders the browser and e-mail exactly as one sees it on the Mac is just incredible. Reading web pages becomes a treat instead of a chore, and monitoring my company servers, for instance, takes seconds instead of minutes on the Treo.
I've been discrete with it, not waving it around or showing it off. I will be putting the Band photos and video I take in the Fall on it so I will have access to the previous week's media when at games, so look forward to that kind of "hey, wanna see my grandkid's photos" action if you go to Boyd HS football games. Otherwise, I just use it like a miniature laptop, which is what it is ... plus a phone.
Click here to see the full Opus from last Sunday ... and what some of you think I'll be doing next year when iPhone Mark II comes out ...
Posted by Steven at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 24, 2007
Weatherby Lake Regatta (Summary)
Just got back from the long drive from Weatherby Lake, MO (WL) where my Dad lives. Leo and I drove up Friday to participate in the weekend Regatta held at WL each year. Small Laser, and larger Sweet 16, Sonar and Santana sailboats race in the Weatherby Lake Yacht Club (WLYC) over the two days, with the trophies handed out Sunday at noon.
I had a couple of goals in mind before leaving. I wanted to see if I could get the higher mileage my Golf used to get when I drove on the highway all the time. Of late, it's been dropping into the mid-thirties, which has alarmed me. Another goal was to use the new camera equipment I have acquired to film and photograph the Regatta in much higher quaility than I did two years back. At that time, the only digital camera I had was the Coolpix, and the only video I had was the Sony handicam.
I was able to achieve both goals and also be involved in the actual sailing. In fact, Leo crewed on two of the three runs, as did I. He started off Sat. morning in the boat with Dad, and largely held the tiller while Dad managed the rigging. Sunday morning, both Leo and I were on board, with Leo taking the photos (below).
The Golf got superb mileage on the whole drive. I went up US-75 and US-69 the whole way (well, with a short jaunt up I-44), which took seven and one-half hours of driving (480 mi.), and one and one-half hours of stopping time. We drove through a lot of small towns, some of which bearing large "Speed Trap" signs for out-of-town motorists, to the annoyance of the cops. We drove down I-70 and I-35, crossing at US-380 which took eight hours of driving (550 mi.) and an hour and one-half stopping. The Golf averaged 45 MPG for the whole drive, which gave me much relief as I feared that the little diesel had lost its mojo.
I did videography and photography on the first run Sat. morning, including the captain's meeting. I think I got some good footage of the race, but I'm still fiddling with the editing process. I shot over 900 images, some quite good of the boats. The new zoom VR lens allowed me the freedom of not needing a tripod to shot across the lake. That lens is amazing.
Friday night I took Dad and Leo out to the Zona Rosa shopping center steak house (Hereford House). Saturday night we ate at the WLYC dinner and dance. I setup my telescope, but was only able to see the Moon with it before the clouds rolled in. Leo and I packed it in early around 9:40pm while Dad stayed out until 11:30pm. He's the party animal (and I have photos to prove it).
Sunday we stayed until the awards ceremony, and then Dad took us to lunch at the local '50s diner-themed restaurant. We left shortly after that and got home around 11pm.
Leo took these photos using my Nikon Coolpix 5400, which has an alarmingly slow shutter, but which can take very good landscape photos. The shots taken during the Sunday morning race are quite good:
I am very pleased with his efforts here, and I try to encourage him to take more photos in the hope that he will develop more than a passing interest in the art.
Posted by Steven at 11:00 PM | Comments (0)
June 18, 2007
Lake Weatherby Regatta
I'm taking Leo up to Missouri this Friday to participate and photograph my Dad's annual Yacht Club Regatta. (There are no actual yachts in this "yacht club" -- just sailboats.) I took Leo up a few years back, and we all went in '05. This will be a chance for me to film some real events using the new Canon, and hopefully get some highlights for the Sat. night party.
Posted by Steven at 10:47 PM | Comments (0)
NTTA Moves Forward on SH-121 Tollway
The Regional Transportation Board has decided to endorse the NTTA proposal instead of the deal offered by Spanish Cintra, S.A. What this means is that the TxDOT is likely (though not absolutely required) to agree and the tollway conversion of SH-121, which runs from Central Expressway in south McKinney all the way to the north end of D/FW Airport, won't be a privately held tollway like the 407 is in Toronto. As a result, the tolls aren't likely to rise as fast, and the proceeds from the tollway will be reapplied to other road projects in Texas, if not North Texas.
Mind you, this is not a great outcome -- merely a less awful one. Gov. Perry is trying to privatize existing roads to pay for their expansion, as well as pay for new roads that the State Republicans know they should fund but won't (all to make sure that the privatization effort seems like our only resort -- fait accomplait as it were). Having the NTTA convert SH-121 into a tollroad means that Plano, TX will be surrounded on three sides by a tollroad, and there is even talk of turning Central into a tollroad, which would also cut McKinney off from Dallas except via tollways.
You'd think the entitlement caste of Republicans living in North Texas would be furious, but they seem to be ignorant of the long term implications, or just so desperate for more roads to office jobs in Dallas and Irving that their normal judgement (government = bad) isn't kicking in. I'm shocked to see public roads and thouroughfares being converted into alternate-tax zones. That's what this is, and it's grossly unfair to working folks as the tolls cost them proportionately more.
I drove on the Cintra-built 407 highway in Canada. It was great -- if you could afford it. And the traffic on it was light -- because Canadians avoided it in protest. We won't be so lucky in northern Collin County -- SH-121 will be the fastest, shortest route to Irving, D/FW and for many, jobs. And paying $10 in tolls round trip everyday -- that will take 10% out of an office worker's salary (5% out of a teacher's). I certainly hope the NTTA doesn't charge that rate (Cintra was talking about 25 cents/mile; NTTA charges around 15 cents/mile making a round trip to Stonebriar Mall something like $1.50 vs. $2.50 for me from Lake Forest Dr.).
This whole kerfuffle is because of the decimation of local rule. The choice of NTTA is a mild step back towards that principle.
Posted by Steven at 09:25 PM | Comments (0)
MISD Cheerleader's New Leader
The MISD has selected a person to oversee the entire cheerleading program in McKinney, largely in response to last year's "Fabulous Five". Let's hope this works better than the previous solutions.
Posted by Steven at 09:23 PM | Comments (0)
June 08, 2007
I Don't Watch the "Sopranos" But ...
This "Alternate Ending, No. 2" from Berkeley Breathed is priceless:
Posted by Steven at 03:44 PM | Comments (0)