no. 2942

So after some tinkering and doctoring (which amounted to me buying batteries and spitting on the terminals), it turns out that the 35mm Minolta X370 works. One of the flashes works, but the big one seems to be on the fritz. My dad said that he thinks there is something wrong with the big lens, but it might just be the macro function. This is no big deal because I don't think I'll be taking any photos of insects any time soon, so getting that repaired can wait. I haven't checked the motordrive yet (the damn thing takes eight AA batteries), but that too can wait. Considering the point of the thing is to take pictures in quick succession and automatically wind the film, I think it would defeat the purpose of me having a manual camera at this neophyte stage of manual picture taking. Oh, and can someone briefly explain the f-stop/shutterspeed relationship? The brief, brief version if you can.

I went up to Publix to buy some film and had a hell of time finding it, at first thinking that perhaps they didn't sell such arcane objects there. I was going to go to a CVS but figured I'd ask the girl ringing up my batteries if they sold film and just perhaps I was looking in the wrong place. By the look on her face you'd have thought I asked the square root of something. Two managers later and an adventure around the store located a lonely Kodak kiosk selling rolls of 200, 400, and 800 speed film. They all had a layer of dust on them. The good thing is that film is super cheap (but then again you have to get it developed) so I bought a couple of rolls of the cheap stuff to play with this weekend.

Hopefully I can get into the Photojournalism class next semester. Already having the camera saves me a couple hundred bucks in materials.

no. 2941

Awesome chair from Contraforma:

NOTE: Drinking and this chair probably wouldn't mix.

no. 2,940

Via Techno Tuesday:

no. 2939

MadTV is rarely laugh-out-loud funny, but this is a gem.

no. 2938

This is going to be fantastic.

(Trailer – QT)

no. 2937

My dad handed me down this old-school Minolta X370, seen here with the optional motordrive, the telephoto lens and the most ridiculous flash I've ever seen. I've been thinking about getting into photography more because, well why the hell not. My dad used it for years so it is need of some repair. It should be fun to mess with once I understand all of the inner-workings of it and learn more about f-stops and aperture speeds. I plan on taking a trip to Costa Rica during either the summer or at the end of the year and it would nice to take some decent pictures while there.

However I am still a child of the digital era so I also plan on buying this Fuji S9100 from Newegg.com next month. I've had my eye on it for a while and Newegg has a good combo deal that is still less than $500. Anyone know anything about either of these and can offer any thoughts.

????

no. 2936

Warren Ellis laying it down:

The next person to wish me a happy St Pat’s Day will have their ISP anonymously informed that they download pictures of dogs fucking babies. I’ve slept with Irish girls and gotten drunk in Belfast, which makes me more Irish than 99% of you — and, whoops, here’s the clue train pulling up to the station, and it says I’m not Irish and neither are 99% of you so you can stick St Pat’s Day up your arse.

If you want to celebrate St Pat’s today, eat a raw potato, build a house out of peat and get yourself shot by an Englishman.

And guess what? If you were born in America, you’re not Irish, you’re fucking American. Deal with it.

Damn, I believe that is point, game and match.

no. 2935

Well with the exception of the job and the 'ain't got shit to do' thing. Yeah, this is my Friday; the news, a movie and the latest CJR. Something has got to give. Something has got to change. Change ebbs and flows, it comes and goes as quick as the wind.

As petty and simple as it sounds, all I've got to say to you people out there is enjoy the company and the connections you have. Those of us that seem the most connected, the most informed and enmeshed in the world,we are usually the most distant. The reason I can ingest and digest so much material; movies, books and games, is because I have no other people to distract me. No one else to slow down my processes but myself. It sounds good, but it's not.

You may bitch and moan about your job, your co-workers, yet even in the dark of all of that–most of you still go home and get asked how your day was. Even if it was the shittiest ever, you get asked. Even if you don't want to talk about it, someone still wants to know.

Imagine if you (they) didn't.

Just be appreciative. Love those that love you, and really fucking hate those that hate on you. Day after day, night after night, remember that when you get home and someone asks you how your day went, it matters. Even if you don't want to talk about it, it matters. Go home without it for a long time and you'll realize how much it matters. Spend each and every day with barely a shred of real conversation, without an utterance to one person that listens and understands you without obligation, then you'll realize how much it matters.

Be grateful, be mindful and be good. Be thankful for what you have, because there are those without. There are those without food, without shelter, without freedom and even love. Be grateful. Be good. Good night, and good luck.

no. 2934

I really love the last line, I want that shit on a bumper sticker.

Via Warren Ellis:

no. 2933

In thinking about my movie list on the way to work this morning, which I have been obsessive about over the last few days and is now hovering around the 1,716 mark, I thought about how many movies begin with numbers or are number related. So I started to count from one and beyond using movie titles. I lost track how high I made it when I got to work, but this is what I've come up with so far.

The One (or One Hour Photo)
Two If by Sea (or Two Brothers)
Three Kings
Four Brothers (or Four Weddings and a Funeral)
The Fifth Element
The Sixth Sense (or Six Days, Seven Nights)
Se7en (or The Magnificent Seven)
Hard Eight (or 8 Heads in a Duffel Bag or 8 Mile)
Nine Months
10 (or 10 Things I Hate About You)
Ocean's Eleven (or 11:14)
Twelve Monkeys (or The Dirty Dozen or Ocean's Twelve)
Thirteen Days (or Assault on Precinct 13)
Saturday the 14th
15 Minutes
Sixteen Candles
Stalag 17 (I had to look this up, I didn't have anything for 17)

Eighteen
K-19: The Widowmaker
20 Dates
21 Grams
Catch-22
The Number 23
24 Hour Party People
25th Hour
(I've got nothing for 26. Suggestions?)
27
28 Days Later (or 28 Days)
29 Palms
13 Going on 30
(Got nothing for 31)
Thirty Two Short Films About Glenn Gould
Naked Gun 33 1/3: The Final Insult (close enough)
Miracle on 34th Street
35 Up (not really a movie and part of a larger series, but the best I could do)
36 (I didn't have anything so I had to look this up, it's still in pre-production)

After this it gets kind of hazy. There are the odd ones that jump out of course:

The 40 Year-Old Virgin
48 Hours
Ladder 49
50 First Dates
Forumal 51 (aka The 51st State)
Gone in Sixty Seconds
Around the World in 80 Days
United 93
101 Dalmations
300 (that was easy)
Mr. 3000
Millions

Feel free to cut in and add a suggestion. You know, if you don't have anything better to do on a Friday night before a drunken St. Paddy's Day weekend.

no. 2932

Courtesy of the Center for American Progress.

no. 2931

Donald Trump is about to be on The Situation Room weighing in with Wolf Blitzer on politics, issues, the Democrats, the Republicans and the 2008 Presidential race.

One question: Um, why?

no. 2930

Concert sauvage dans le métro !
Uploaded by lapapsprod

No instruments, just human beat machines. This is Bobby McFerrin for the new millenium.