The Manic Mechanic

Okay, I'm a big geek, and for better or worse, a bigger kid at heart. As such, I like toys. Toys in the traditional sense, yes, but for me, the more grown-up sort of toys are what keep me happy. Cool tools are toys, yes, but they allow me to create, build and fix. Different things that are part of my myriad hobbies are toys. Cameras, for example. There are at least a half dozen digital cameras around La Casa, not including smart phones and computers equipped with them, or the surveillance cameras and whatnot. Even my vehicles are playthings sometimes, as roads near and far that have had rubber from my tires can attest. Then again, there are things around here that can only qualify as playthings. The small fleet of various sized cheap RC helicopters I would terrorize the dogs with, for example. Snickles would bark and jump at the tiny Estes Proto-X quadrotor I would fly around the living room. That is, until he got a little too close and it bit him on the ass, eliciting a loud yipe before he hid under the living room table. Last Christmas, Jeff bought me a GoPro Hero3+ Black Edition camera, something I had been wanting for a while, after seeing what people have done with them. It's an amazing little bit of kit, I still have a time wrapping my head around a camera not much bigger than an Altoids tin able to shoot high resolutions stills, HD video, and, in the case of this model, video in 4K. Many evenings were spent browsing the internets for really creative and amusing videos shot with these things. I became especially fascinated with video shot from RC aircraft.

I think you might know where I'm going with this.

Earlier in the week, I ordered up a DJI Phantom2 quadrotor "drone." I purchased a gimbal mount to fit my GoPro as well. So far, I have just been flying the Phantom by itself, sans camera equipment, until I get the hand of it. Big kid fun was had. The thing is a delight to fly, and even a noob like me was able to maneuver the thing as if I had mad skillz. With summer deciding to get all hot and humid after a season of unusually cool and pleasant weather. I had fun flying the thing directly overhead as I walked around the field, across the street and around my yard and driveway with the most awesome fan in the world keeping me cool. No crashes either, except for a bad landing once as the battery petered out. I can attest to the thing being quite usable as a lawnmower in the field of overgrown grass.

So, while I get some flight time under my belt and become pretty sure I won't crash my precious into the ground, hang it in a tree or have it suddenly fly off to parts unknown, I will rig up the camera mount and take some aerial shots of Mayhem Acres and the surrounding area. I might take it with me to PA when we visit Jeff's parents and family, and take some bird's-eye shots of the new house. If it turns out well, I will make a nice big print and frame it as a gift. I will do the same for her too, in order to compliment the aerial photo that was taken one day over twenty years ago by a commercial outfit. It will be fun to see the contrast. Alas, any photos I would have would not show Mom and Patches, as that commercial shot had as a sort of happy accident. Mom is working in the garden, and Patches was standing guard as she always did. It is now one of my most treasured photos.

Here's a rare glimpse behind the scenes at the underground bunker at La Casa Mayhem. What am I doing, you might ask? Well, once again I am directing the full power of my fully operational battle station awesome IT infrastructure to bear on an innocent old man in hopes of making him cry again. In other words, I am fixing and printing more family photos lost to the fire at Jeff's parents' place.



He has "officially" moved in today, getting his permits signed off. Jeff's phone rang this evening, announcing the number as originating from the landline rather than dad's cell, something that made us both smile. There are some relatively minor tasks that need tending there, railings for the stairs into the basement, walkways and landscaping, some of which I will help with this weekend. The trailer gets moved back to its storage space in the driveway so the yard can be repaired and grass planted in remaining areas. Right now it's raining, and the yard is pretty much a mud bog. This is typical during construction. By mid summer, the place should be looking mighty fine. Dad can finally begin to relax and start making the new house a home.

I spent a bit of a beautiful yesterday trudging around in a junkyard auto dismantling and recycling facility yesterday helping a friend collect parts for one of his cars that recently got wrecked. I managed to find a rare item, a compass/mini trip computer out of a 2000 Chrysler Sebring convertible. This is the same JA body series as my '00 Stratus, and I had wanted to hack the computer into the Strat, as it was never offered as an option. Today I took some time to tear into the dash and wiring, splicing wires and modifying the dash to accept the computer. Success! I also lucked out in that the yard also had a section which had tractors and other outdoor equipment, and I found a steering wheel that I could adapt to my old Gravely garden tractor. The original wheel is still available from Gravely, but it goes for a downright silly $160. 12 bucks later I had a perfect replacement which also got installed today while I did yearly maintenance on the tractor. So, garage duties today were productive.

My aforementioned friend and I go way back, to the 6th grade. For years he had operated his own auto repair shop, but hard times as well as disability forced him to close down. I took a lot of the equipment off his hands and set it up here at Mayhem, and there's still more to get as I make room for it. Sadly, he's not going to be in the business anymore, even the relatively short walk through the junkyard wore him out. His health has never been stellar, at 6'8" and 400-something pounds, all that weight finally is taking a toll on his well-being. While he has tried to address some issues, old habits (and a healthy appetite) are hard to break, and the lack of income and job opportunities keep him from obtaining medical help that could help. He says he is not going to undergo surgery on his back that is the major issue. I am far from a glowing example of successful back surgery, and I am one of the many examples of people he knows that are no better if not worse off after surgery. Still, he could be better off losing the ample belly he's had ever since I've known him. I've suggested it many times with no success. I worry about his future.

A week ago Jeff and I roused the pooches before the crack of dawn and took a weekday trip to the beach. We wanted to get Snickles accustomed to crowds, walking, other pets and the beach. Well, we hit on all points but the last. As it turned out, Rehoboth beach no longer allows dogs on the beach or boardwalks between Memorial Day and Labor day, and we missed the opportunity. We could've taken a trip north to the state park where the dogs are welcome, but that is a pretty quiet area and we wanted immersion education for da Snick. We were disappointed, but rather than waste the two-and-a-half hour trip, we hung out downtown and walked the dogs while doing some shopping and eating. Snickles did pretty good once he got acclimated to the surroundings. He's naturally very friendly with people, and surprisingly good with kids. He barks loudly at anyone on a bicycle. Little does he know the next step in his preparation for a Big Gay Life with us will involve not only getting used to Jeff and I on bikes, but riding along as well. I got a new pannier carrier for my bike as well as a made-for-the-purpose pet carrier which attaches. Kodi has his front-mounted carrier on Jeff's bike, with mine being a full suspension bike the best I could do is a rear mount. I will soon be taking the little guy for rides in the neighborhood. If that is a success, he and the rest of us will be ready to ride through the streets of PTown together, where the dogs are certain to be rock stars. People got a kick out of Kodi riding with Jeff, a pair of pedaled pooches is certain to bring out the smiles of passerby. Not to mention hunk/babe magnets deluxe. ;-)

It's about time someone does this. I've always been a fan of tilt-shift photography, the method of using a special lens or a bellows on a still camera to either impart a very narrow depth of focus to a scene or used to "correct" a scene taken from an oblique angle in order to ensure parallel lines in a scene remain so (useful for taking photos of tall buildings from street level, for instance). Such a technique was easily accomplished with the big medium and large format cameras in the earliest days of photography by shifting or tilting the front part of those cameras that held the lens. In later years, special lenses were developed (heh) for 35mm cameras. It seems in recent years the art of tilt-shift photography has exploded with the availability of the special lenses and digital SLRs, and people are trying their hand at the craft. I'm one of them, and I hope to pick up a T-S lens once my finances are back in order (read: I'm back to work). But I digress a bit.

Something I can never recall seeing was any sort of motion photography using the T-S technique. It might have been done in years past for special effects in movies, but it was not widely known outside of that industry. In the last couple years, some digital SLR cameras have picked up the ability to shoot high-definition video. A lot of people poo-pooed the the feature, saying it was not needed, or that it was more suited to entry-level "consumer" point-and-shoot cameras. Well, someone has finally wedded the tilt-shift lens to video and has come up with this little ditty below. It's a very simple process, but seems to only have been easily doable with the convergence of the new lenses and HD capable SLRs. Speed things up a bit, and you have the most amazing flea circus you'll ever see. In the case of this particular movie, it was not even shot in video mode, instead the camera was set to take successive stills as fast as was possible, then combining the stills to make a HD movie. Quite a bit more involved, but with simply remarkable results.

I'm so doing this one day.

(Hat tip to wrascalbc!)

You know that pesky volcano with the awkward name that's been making life a living heck for a lot of Europeans in aeroplanes lately? Turns out, if looked at with a different perspective, it's quite beautiful.

Put that in your Eyjafjallajökull and smoke it.

wantwantwantwantwantwantWantWANTWANTWANT!

Canon has finally taken the wraps off of their successor to the full-frame 5D DSLR. And it's a beaut. From the Canon press release:

Amstelveen, The Netherlands, 17 September 2008: Canon announces the full frame, 21.1 Megapixel EOS 5D Mark II: the first EOS with full High Definition video capability.

Compact, lightweight with environmental protection, EOS 5D successor boasts a newly designed Canon CMOS sensor, with ISO sensitivity up to 25,600 for shooting in near dark conditions. The new DIGIC 4 processor combines with the improved CMOS sensor to deliver medium format territory image quality at 3.9 frames per second, for up to 310 frames.

( More pure camera pr0n! )
I've been patiently waiting for the update for this model. I knew it would be good, but this is pure sex with awesome sauce on top.

Now if I can only convince a mere 2/3rds of my friends list to send me ten bux a pop, I could have this baby. In return, you'd receive high-resolution nekkid pix of me. ;)

Busy past few days for me, but was all good. Since Friday was an off day for me, I switched hats and headed downtown to help out at the garage and do some work on Jeff's truck. New brakes front and back for the truck, with new rotors up front (the originals, along with the original front pads went over 110,000 miles), plus turning the rotors out back that I replaced ages ago and life was good again. Some other maintenance bits, checkups and minor adjustments and all is well. Dropped a new engine in a late 90s Caddy El Dorado. Actually it was more like dropping the car onto the new engine, since it all has to come out of the bottom. Once back home I cleaned my smelly, greasy self up and once Jeff got home from work, the three of us headed once again up to his parent's place. We were being followed rather closely by tropical storm Hanna on the way up as well.

By the time we got settled the rains started in earnest.. That made for better sleeping weather, but also seemed to bother my creaky joints and bones. Saturday we hung out for a while then headed all the way up to State College, PA for the Penn State football game against the Oregon State Beavers. I am sure that school gets enough ribbing about their choice of mascot name. Ironically, Penn State's place for all things football is known as Beaver Stadium, named after the school's founder. Not sure how much of a hard time he had to deal with because of his name though.

We drove up in the rain just about the entire way. Once at the stadium and parked way in a field, the rain subsided, never to return. Hanna could not keep up with us I guess. We had decent seats, 30 rows back (at least 100 feet) from the opponent's goal post. It was a good view. We proceeded to watch Penn State go real hard on the Beavs, 45-14, in some very well-played football.

Those reading this who are more sports-oriented might know that college football is more interesting overall to watch that pro. The players play for the love of the game and for the occasional prospect of a pro career and it shows. The crowd enthusiasm is contagious. And some things that take place are just, well, different. Of course, there was the crowd singing along with that excruciatingly tired song "Rock and Roll Part 2", which is to be expected at every major sporting event (I guess the child molestation thing is no longer a bother). But this is the first time I saw a stadium full of people singing along with Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline". O_o Yeah, football fans are strange. It was fun though.

Penn State boasts the biggest stadium in college sports. This game, while not a sellout, rang up 115,110 108,111 (thanks Jeff) people. Yes, over one hundred thousand screaming fans. With tailgate parties and everything else you'd find at a major game. There is no real form of public transportation, so everyone drives to the game. First thought would be: Traffic Nightmare. Especially when there is limited access to the parking areas from major highways, with everyone needing to take little surface roads right up to the vicinity of the stadium and park in lots and huge fields, along with motorhomes and tailgaters and the milling crowds. They have traffic patterns worked down to an exacting science. Instead of gridlock, there is nearly nonstop flow of traffic from the highway to your final parking spot. And leaving? With nary a cop to be found directing traffic, it was a bit over 5 minutes till we were out on the open highway. This boggles my mind. If major cities could control such large amounts of traffic like this, there'd be no traffic jams and normal blood pressure for everyone.

We found cheap but good eats on the way home in Mifflinvilleburg (same thing!), after driving a while, then we got back home and got needed rest. Poor Kodi was Separation Anxiety Dog for a bit while we were gone, but was over it in no time. Sunday we muddled about the house, I measured the shower in the one bathroom for a replacement insert (another upcoming project) before heading out for a nice lunch at a tiny restaurant near where Jeff was born 'n' raised. As you'd expect, just about everyone eating there knew one another. Afterwards was out 2.5 hour drive back here. We grocery shopped, ate dinner while Jeff watched the Cowboy's game (I am an occasional football widow this time of year), I pulled the ECM outta the Stratus to take with me to drop off at the rebuilder tomorrow, and Jeff and I gave each other haircuts. I also reined in my summer beard, which was getting out of hand again. I feel much better.

I took quite a few pics at the game with my Canon S3-IS. It's a perfect camera for the venue. I will round up pictures from my last several trips and shoots and get them onto Flickr this week, with luck.

Hope y'all have a decent week, and that no one had to contend with storm damage.

While I wasnt looking, Barack Obama added me to his Flickr contacts. He must want my vote. Should I worry? I dont want to distract him from his campaign with any of my pictures there. So far, though, it's mostly cars and bears. I guess I should watch out posting nakid pix of myself. I dont want any more sex scandals in this election year. ;)

As I have done for countless years, I will buy a 'toy' for myself as a birthday present. This will always be more of a 'want' than a 'need'. For this year, it's a Canon Speedlight 580EX. I've been wanting a good bounce flash since getting my 30D D-SLR last year. I had a nice Speedlight with my Canon A1 SLR in the early 80s, but I lost it (I believe I loaned it and it never was returned). The 580 makes anything else I used in the past seem as sophisticated as a flashcube by comparison. Full 360 bounce capabilities, flash zoom to match lens length, strobe and wireless capabilities... it's da bomb.

I can finally take pictures in darkness that dont look like flash photography:




Sadly, the flash does nothing to keep me from looking like a fat, bald, old man.

It's gonna take a lot of effort to keep from going accessory crazy like I did with the A1. A couple lenses would be nice though...

Sadly, those things will have to wait, I found out the 18 year old heat pump here has pretty much bitten the dust. It's tough to believe that 1: it's been so long ago that I built this house and 2: I had so much enthusiasm in my youth.

Sometimes I think if it weren't for bad luck I'd have no luck at all. I just took out my pampered, trusty Olympus C-5050 to take a couple shots of the PC project-in-progress and the studio. The camera is fuct. Smeared, distorted, noisy picture that looks the result of a bad CCD sensor. Camera worked fine the last I used it. I am pissed, and torn between trying to get it fixed and just sledgehammering the thing right here, right now. I can almost guarantee that the cost to fix it is the same as buying something equivalent today. It's a shame, since nothing I will find in this class nowadays will take multiple memory formats (especially type-II CF, which I have a couple Microdrives in addition to hoards of CF type-I cards I share with my little Canon S-230) and standard AA batteries. I've been jonesing for a D-SLR, so it looks like I will end up with one sooner than later. Too bad I am not made of money.

*sigh*

As far as the PC goes, it's seems so fast compared to everything I have used lately that it practically knows my next move. And I havent even begun to tune it for speed yet aside for some quick adjustments. One thing's for sure, it's gonna put the water cooling setup to good use once I set that up (everything is using the stock air cooling setups now). Launching one of the 3DMark benchmarking utilities makes everything heat up considerably while it flies through all the eye candy. Ironically, Futuremark released the latest version, 3DMark'06 today in time for me to play with it. The demand for the near-600MB download has brought all the servers and mirrors hosting it to a grinding halt, so it looks like I'll have to wait for killer graphics benchmarking goodness for another day.

In the meantime, here is the video of the song used in the 3DMark'05 closing credits. Crank your PC sound up for Poets Of The Fall's Lift. (Flash video - selectable bandwidths)