DJ's randomly arranged words pretending to be ideas.

-----Summary----
My sister's graduation was on June 3rd. I recorded it and took pictures of Gloria with class mates and staff. She had a great time. We also witnessed a train accident that seemed like it was only a train malfunction from our point of view.
----------------------

( Read more... )

Still don't feel up to posting about anything. I've been feeling a little better, but still very depressed. I'm going to try posting here more often.

(The two people who have _ever_ read my journal rarely read them. So, I am talking to myself for the most part.)

In summary: I've been depressed to the point of confusion, so no working on the car. I 'googled myself' (othermusketeer) and found a German page with my dog's picture!? I might have found an old friend. There are lot of old friends/aquaintances that I've wondered how they are doing. Insomnia sucks.

( Click here for the full (long winded) post. )

Well, I've wasted plenty of time on this entry (and editing a picture in a forum thread elsewhere). My tiredness should now outweigh my insomnia.

My sister had me start a deviantart.com account several months ago. So far I only have a few quick sketches in the scraps section, and some photos of a hermit crab birthday cake I made my sister.

My car failed a month ago. Massive amounts of coolant in the oil caused a mayonaise like substance to spread through out the engine. We were already experiencing some financial problems before it happened, so its only recently that I could get the parts for replacing the head gaskets.

Lots of stress has made my work on the car inefficient and infrequent. I have some pics of the inside of the engine (don't look if you just ate) in my flickr account, and I have some threads where I was discussing the repairs in at  a-body.net. It looks like it may be a blown intake manifold gasket rather than a blown head gasket. However, there is so much coolant goop everyewhen, that I have to keep dismantling it anyway... TO clean it up at the very least, if not check the head gaskets too.

Boy am I sore from working on the car for the past couple days (4-6 hours each day).

This is an incomplete entry. I didn't think I was going to finish it anytime soon, so I posted it unfinished.

-----------------------

Its been a while since I've posted to my journal. However, someone on Flickr was asking about more information on a photography topic, so I decided to use my livejournal to answer it.

To obtain macro shots there are a number of ways:

• Dedicated macro SLR lens
• Macro filters/adapters
• Extension tubes (purchased or Do-it-yourself)
• Reverse mount wide angle lenses

Reverse Mounts

This first option, which I will likely be trying first (but probably not till summer), is relatively cheap if you happen to have a wide angle (a focal length less than 55mm) SLR lens that you are not using while taking pictures. At its most simple form, it involves hand holding the extra lens, backwards, in front of your camera's lens. Ideally, you will want to use a male-to-male adapter, sometimes called a "macro coupler", to attach the extra lens securely to your camera lens. They are inexpensive at around $8 on line (not including S&H), but you can make your own as well. You can glue (I'd suggest epoxy, and not superglue) two step-up rings face to face. If you don't already own them, you are looking at around $5 each at the local camera shop.
I will list some links on the topic in a moment, but to summarize, macro photography using a reverse mount is not as easy as it first sounds (or at least, so I've read).
For the best effect, you need to have the extra lens' aperture open, but most newer lenses (even my old AE-1's lens) do not allow you to normally change the aperture off-camera. I've been studying the "aperture hold" mechanism and I think I might be able to rig a way to keep it open off-camera.
The DOF (depth of field) is very, very thin. You can reduce the aperture of the camera lens (the one taking the picture) to increase your DoF slightly, but that reduces light even more than the setup does to begin with. While some say you can use the focus (they did not say if you use the extra lens' focus too) to bring it into focus, most people said it is easier to just move the camera back and forth in TINY amounts until you obtain the desired focus.
The magnification makes camera shake very noticeable, so you will want to use a tripod. A person combining two 50mm lenses said you don't want to use a shutter speed less than 1/100th. It sounds like the focal length to shutter speed may remain the same as normal, and you add the lengths despite the inversions. Does anyone find it to be true? While high shutter speeds may eliminate the shake, those paper thin DoFs mean a tripod is probably still a good idea.
Reduced light from both the optics and the reduced aperture (for more DoF) mean you will need lots of light. You can refer to The Strobist for cheap lighting options (off-camera flashes, hot lights, ring lights, etc).

• A Flickr discussion about "reversed lens macro"
• dsluser forum thread
• This forum thread claims that a Canon G3 (a Point and shoot that accepts filters) with a +4 diopter (a macro filter) combined with a reverse mounted 50mm lens lets them photograph an ant's eye.

A forum show various people's macro setups. Some of them are reverse mounts on Point and Shoot cameras. Once of them is even a Powershot S3 with a reversed 50mm tapped to the lens adapter!

Here you can see the results of two extension tubes and a macro SLR lens. (equipment details)


Here is a point and shoot setup (Canon G3) and the resulting images and techniques.

Here are a couple of amusing videos I saw today. A word of caution, the first and second videos have some moderately crude language about body parts/etc.

A parody of cheesy videos about "The dangers of Sexual Harassment in the Workplace."

Apple's new product, the iPad. (Originally on MadTV)

Apple's new product, the iRack. (Originally on MadTV. Political satire with humor peaking at the end)

This one is a funny BBC show sketch where a person censors gangsta rap for a kid in real time.

I stumbled upon a web site, TV in Japan, and saw this video. Children are entered into a sit-up contest, and a chimpanzee joins the competition with a bulldog trainer. I don't know why, but I could not stop laughing.

Edit: Apparently, Pankun and James (I'm guessing James is the dog) are the main characters of a show. This video here shows more of their adventures. There are a lot of YouTube videos with them.

some funny video clips I stumbled upon online

Bill Gates vs Steve Jobs (Mac commercial parody)

Father teaches child how to pick up chicks; Fails miserably

Gollum (Lord of the Rings) sings Barry White song

I found this in my bookmarks from a long time ago. Even though I had read it before, it gave me a chuckle again.

Girls Gone Wild Released Back Into Civilization   SOUTH PADRE ISLAND, TX-The Wild Life Rescue Foundation continues to restrict the girls' access to D-List celebrities and songs by Poison.

I was browsing around YouTube, looking at some people's favorites, when I stumbled upon this video below.

Compared to all the other countries that are crudely (and I'm not even sure if correctly) lumped together as the Middle East, this is very... Umm. Not conservative. I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it; It's just more provocative than I would have imagined.

I knew Indian music video often have shaking hips, mid rifts tops, and bodies pressing together, but I had never seen more than that in an Indian music video.


(Original page)