Beah and I are facing away from each other, looking at our computers, doing very important work to improve the Internet. You’re welcome.
Beah: How was the meteor shower?
Me: It was nice.
Beah: Was it beautiful?
Me: It was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
[pause]
Me: Beah, turn around.
Beah and I turn around and face each other. I look into Beah’s eyes, and feel compelled to revise my previous statement.
Me: It was the second most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
Tiffany
i had an emergency, but its under control now
Tiffany
i was having a craving for mc donalds
I came up with a new joke format last night. (At least it’s new to me). Here’s an example:
Me: Reid, what do you call a meteor that hits the ground?
Reid: I don’t know, what?
Me: A meteorite!
If you deliver it well, it will take your audience some time to understand that you simply gave the definition of a word, and then used the word as the punch line.
Mariya
how do you deal with yourself
I just got back from checking out the Perseid meteor shower. It’s pretty difficult to escape light pollution around here, but Reid was able to take us to a spot where we still had a pretty good view of the show. Pics below. (Click for full resolution.)
Now I just need to decide if I should try and sleep or just go to work really early.
I have a nice HD camera from Sony. It’s an HDR-HC3. It’s not cheap. I’ve had Sony cameras before, and I’m used to my camera having a standard mic input. I expect to see an 1/8″ input (or better) on anything but the cheapest models. Well, here’s how the always proprietary Sony decided to ruin my experience:
The HDR-HC3 does not have a standard microphone input. It has an “Active Interface Shoe” (AIS), which is a type of input specific to Sony that allows the connection of accessories. So what are my microphone options when it comes to AIS? Well I have three: a shotgun-like “zoom” mic, which mixes with the internal mic based on zoom level, an omnidirectional “surround” mic, and a wireless Bluetooth mic. The Bluetooth mic sounds like a good idea, but take a look at it:
Image by Dai Haruki
Yes, that large thing that looks like a flash drive sitting next to the camera is the microphone. Sony expects people to wear this. I don’t know if they realized during development that a video camera accessory might be used with a video camera that is recording images of someone wearing the microphone. Because it is ugly.
At some point Sony must have realized that people might want more than three options for microphones, as they did actually come up with the VMC-K100, an AIS to 1/8″ mic input. Unfortunately, they discontinued the item, and I was unable to find any third-party alternatives. I did find accounts of some people that were so desperate for a solution, they bought one of the Sony mics and after some disassembling and soldering, created their own inputs. Not something I’m ready to get into.
After losing an eBay auction for one that went for over $120, I was finally able to find a retailer selling it using Google’s Product Search. The seller had pretty mixed reviews and a poor website, so I’ll hold off on naming it until my order is complete. Feel free to email me individually if you’re searching for this adapter and want to know where I found it.
Now all I need to do is wait for the adapter to arrive, and then go out and buy a non-ugly wireless lavalier mic.
I’ll leave you with a Google search tip, useful for when you’re searching for something specific like [ais] and you don’t want Google to try and help you out by returning variations like [ai]: Stick a + right before the word with no space in between. For example, [+ais mic adapter] (without the brackets) should help narrow down your results. Don’t worry about memorizing this tip, since you can always cheat.
Enough complaining; I’m off to go watch some meteors shower down upon the Earth.
Update: The seller, NextTronics, emailed me this morning to say that the item was not available. A company which collects someone’s billing information before revealing that the item is out of stock does not deserve to be in business. Now I have to scramble for another solution.
Every time I wash my socks, I hate pairing them. It takes forever, and I realize how many of my socks are in poor condition. I’ve been planning for years now on just throwing them all out and buying all-new socks that are all the same, eliminating the need for pairing. This solution to the pairing problem is a little better than my alternative idea of creating socks that are always tied together.
Well, tonight was laundry night, and I realized that most of my socks have been worn to the point where I wouldn’t feel bad throwing them out. I just placed an order for 18 pairs of socks (three six packs). At least I think it’s 18 pairs. The product description doesn’t explicitly state what I’m getting eighteen of, but considering they also offer a three-pack, I’m probably not only getting 18 individual socks. This may not change my life, but it will certainly make me happier. I should have done this years ago, but at least I did it.
I didn’t get to sleep in today but I think it was worth it as few of us hit up Great America for the day. Reid got busted right at the beginning for trying to bring a bottle of Honest Tea into the park, but fortunately was not arrested. They had everyone go through metal detectors on the way in and had announcements about knives and other weapons not being allowed, so that was comforting. One ride had several announcements reminding people not to spit on each other, so that gives you an idea of the kind of people you may run into in an American amusement park.
It was my first time at Great America and it was pretty good. The park was average but the lines never got too long and the company was cool, so I was happy. It also wasn’t ridiculously hot or raining, which tends to happen at amusement parks, although in California rain isn’t really an issue. No rain in your face on the roller coasters, but you run the risk of being at the top of Drop Zone during an earthquake. Fair trade?
Actually, even though it didn’t rain I did get wet quite a few times. On any ride involving water-based risks, Koklynn’s cousin and I always got hit the hardest. I even got hit by this splash, standing in a location I believed to be outside of the designated splash zone:
Looks like the little kid was having as much fun as Reid.
I took a couple of videos with my camera for no good reason, but I have them so I’m blogging them:
This is Mike and me riding Grizzly, a wooden coaster. We wanted to try and carry on a boring conversation for the video, but I think it’s obvious neither of us have much to say. Next up is a ride that goes around in circles:
Yep, that’s how it goes. But the announcer/operator was funny so that made it more thrilling.
After the park, we ate some Korean food. Not really my favorite but it felt good to eat after a long day in the sun. A few of us wrapped up the day with a trip to the office (where else would one go on a Saturday night?) to play Rock Band. It was my first time and I enjoyed trying out the drums. I’m also glad our group had a “no singing” rule.
I hope everyone else had a fun Saturday and has a great rest of the weekend. This entry is just about over, and to play us out, here’s Ron Jenkees rocking on dual keyboards:
Rowyn
I’m going to dinner at a restaurant which allowed me to make a reservation online, which made me think of you
Rowyn
because I didn’t have to interact with anyone
Rowyn
or even pick up the phone
Rowyn
🙂
Actual email thread [with edits]:
From: [name omitted @ a well-known tech company]
To: appointments@onlinehaircuts.com
I need to take an appt. today. I am in bldg [number]. My number is [number]. Is it possible to get one today? Thanks.
[signature omitted]
—————
From: appointments@onlinehaircuts.com
To: [name omitted @ a well-known tech company]
Hi, [name omitted]
You probably meant to contact OnSite Haircuts: http://www.onsitehaircuts.com/appointments.php
OnlineHaircuts.com is not taking appointments at this time. We’re still developing the technology.
– The OnlineHaircuts.com Team