Bought the Nikon D40 today.

My brother and I headed up (seriously, North) to Best Buy after I finally let myself go from work.

As of a little earlier the camera is charging. If feels light and comes with 1 lens in the box. I can't remember exactly what it was except that it went up to 55mm. Living in 2 places sucks. Anyways we purchased another lens that had a floating motion correcting lens. This went from 55mm to 200mm. ( I could be entirely wrong and talking about meters. Again why having 2 houses sucks.)
My brother friend who has had experience with the D40 gave us many compliment for getting it after seeing many pictures taken by other with it. Its good to actually here someone give you the scoop on it that isn't on the internet. ;) If this camera turns out to be as good as its talked about I may purchase it too.

Here are the facts that I know:

• 6 Megapixels
• Great entry level dSLR
• Great photos for 6 Megapixels
  

Again the sunset looks great from my room and I can't wait to use my share of the camera to post some pictures of what I witness almost every evening. They will be much more once I get my hands on the D40 and I test its limits.

Fairhaven and it's goods

It was a beautiful sunset right outside my bedroom window at the house I still have yet to move into. I'm really only missing my bed. The sky bled black to blue to orange to yellow. I couldn't stop wanting to run home and get my mom's camera. Or at least blaming myself with the proof that I need my own camera. Which reminds me, my brother will be buying a D40 camera kit with a bonus zoom lens from Best Buy. I'll definitely tell you guys how that goes, as it should be a good purchase for an introductory dSLR. I've watched many a YouTube video, and read many articles on cameras to confidently say that it is a damn good 6.1 MP dSLR for $600.

I've felt the urge to go into Eclipse Book store for a long while now. My friend decided that it would be a good idea to walk through Fairhaven which I'd have to admit was a perfect idea.

Walking along the street from the East-side of Edgemoor was entirely without any hiccups. The town (or village) how ever is becoming very Seattle like which is kind of annoying. I don't in any way politically object to the city council's decisions to limit the outward growth of Bellingham, but the amount of construction everywhere in the city was at it's last and final peak (hopefully for quite a while) a year ago with construction booming over the 5 years previous to that. The city in my eyes seemed to explode with construction happening from Bakerview in North Bellingham to Harris in Fairhaven (south B'ham). Humorously and perhaps even ironic enough the business section of one of Fairhaven's newer buildings had only one renter out of the 6 or so available.

Eclipse bookstore upon arrival seemed like used bookstore you'd expect to find in a town of open-minded people. Books were strewned about all over the buildings interior which seemed to compromise mainly of shelves. The rest was books. Ranging from Marx to Hannity, the politcal spectrum was very widespread. However it was very overwhelming as you could understand from a store that specializes only in used books. This doesn't have the financial backing of Barnes and Noble. The prize lies within available to those who look though. And many a hidden gem there were. My quick eyed friend landed himself with Songs of the Beast: The History of Metal. And I found a book that contains 25 essays by majors of various sides of the spectrum of science on what the next 50 years will hold. Not as great a find as the pre-film release version of Children of Men which again my sharp eyed friend stumbled upon while I was searching feverishly for a C Sharp book or at least a book on C++ written in the last 15 years. The fact that there are 2 stories to this collection of literature is easy to get lost in. Coming to the counter after finding the bounty is complemented by the friendly owner who enforces some eye contact and small talk. Eclipse bookstore is definitely a store I am going to frequent so that one day I can find whatever I want on paper with ease, and of course take some of those hidden gems onto my bookshelf.

Just what are Wii gonna do?

Wii's have been doing plenty good for sales and games, despite their cutesiness. (Apparently not a word) Super Mario Galaxy starts a lil' slow and lame at first, but the only game that I know doesn't is Gears of War and GTA IV. Galaxy is definitely what makes that console tick. Although the fact that is processed by a compact Single Board Computer with motion sensing capabilities has little to do with it's success. I'm guessing that many designers and programmers had small glimpses of the world only after Nintendo completely changed it's mantra of how to plot the defensive against its adversaries in the Game Console World. Still kickin' it with Galaxy occasionally, I find myself challenged and justified when a level is completed.

Much is the same with Zack and Wiki though which fully exploits the motion detecting "WiiMote" for every thing. In fact I'm not as jolly as I'd think I'd be now considering I've been waiting to play the game with my lil' brother when he is finally out of school. I had my hopes too high. Then again its only a video game.

Playing Zack and Wiki as well as Galaxy has shown a screwed up conundrum occurring in the Wii console. Very rarely on the menu or any time there is few colors displayed does the screed look perfect and sharp. During action scenes though with much texture, little speckles of color from another part of the display show up. These speckles go by the name of artifacting or tearing and will begin to derive from a game the second they become visible. I've read several forums and such of this subject with many saying they believe WiiConnect24 is the problem because it leaves the Wii on, heating up the ATI "Hollywood" Video Chipset. Damn it. My Wii has rarely gotten hot. And not even close when in standby. Ughhh. I'll call Nintendo tomorrow and see what's up.

Obama baby!

So it looks like for us Democrats that the hell is finally over. And for those non-feminist, I'm more feminist than I am racists out there; Our man won. It was a long and almost annoying push just to see Obama finally have the numbers to say that he had won. Now is the time for us to party and prepare ourselves for the real fight and hopefully an easy won against McCain.

It's sad though that this did not occur earlier than it did. McCain has had free reign for quite a while to go against both candidates, saying that our side is full of bickering just like our politics. Hmm, who suddenly changed their tune about the monstrous amounts of money that go into the Political race for the White House. Now that he won his battle, why should he say he wants a balanced playing field. I guess we all do this though. Allowing morals to hide themselves from blocking our decisions when the situation had presented itself.

The most damning part that this race has left on me though is the fact that there is still an actual racist culture existing in the south. Of course the Neo-Nazis and Aryans are out there, but when you read the quotes of the average old white folk in Kentucky talking about the White House being only for white men, or the threat of even going to McCain if there is a Black Presidential Nominee for the Democratic Party. When it comes down to it, maybe the sixties and seventies will happen all over again. I don't remember any assasination attempts happening in the past 15-20 years. I really just hope it doesn't come down to that. Sadly though, Iraq is our new Vietnam. And Terrorism is the new Communism.

House season finale a bit tough for the weak to swallow

Besides spotting all of the spelling errors on my first blog, I realize that this does take work. Work enough to read the entire thing over again. Or easy enough just reviewing the last typed in sentence. I promise to correct my lack of concern of final product, into something that any English teacher will enjoy. So here we go.

This is many weeks late and may be so by the time anyone may actually read it. I must at though that the season finale for house was just a bit of a sum of the entire series drama including humor if you include the third to last episode. I in fact just hopped back in the House MD bus after a long hiatus. I completely missed out on Season 3 and for Season 2 I hopped around. However, Ironic that I earlier mentioned jumping onto the House bus. The last 3 episodes of Season 4 were phenomenally everywhere at once without being shitty. (Michael Bay movi...No, wait, CSI:Miami comes to mind.)

Starting out at episode "Living the Dream" brought back to me all the reasons this show is definitely good in my book. Sure, the episodes have a routine...

1. A patient does something weird at the start
2. Admitted to hospital, House's team to be exact.
3. They screw around, House becomes "great friends" with the patient, parents or guardians.
4. Patient almost dies after they try something
5. Lupus mentioned, but immediately wiped off dry-erase board.
6. Patient almost dies again, survives...
7. House does some last minute miracle, Patient is free to leave.

Obviously this is simplified, but it is the basis for almost every show. It works. This simplified model doesn't work for the last season finale of course. Those episodes are just too damn good. Again, when I explain the abstract of everything, you will hopefully be psyched. Unless you don't like good TV dramas starring a British actor who did comedy. This is not a soap, this is prime time goodness from America. Soap actors according to House however, are where the action is. Which is exactly why he kidnaps one.

A male Soap star walks into his Limo to only later find himself at the Hospital. House knows that something is wrong. They find out he needs Levitra and can't read lines. He might have brain cancer etc. The high points of the show do not fully rest on this situation but more so on whom Wilson is going out with. Concerned over possible conflict of interests and his own stress between him and Wilson, could possibly have caused House to have behaved so awesomely to kidnap and diagnose a Soap star all while Cuddy is having the Hospital undergo an Inspection. So tonight it looks like House is gonna get drunk.

Here is where the stuff goes amazingly well, and can only be topped by Showtime's Dexter which I see as the greatest all-sexes drama ever.

The second to last episode is where the viewer becomes entrapped. Finding House in a strip club shows that something has changed him. He too becomes convinced that something is definitely wrong when the dancer finds blood on his head. Walking outside we see that some shit has definitely gone down. Returning to the hospital, House comes across various memories that promote the cause of the bus incident outside of the strip club. Convinced the several characters had symptoms that prove a medical phenomena was the cause, House tries to get the hospital into lockdown. Eventually going to even drastic measures involving himself to unlock the memories that will explain the reason behind the weight he feels in the need to uncover what is missing. We see him setup a mock bus and having been reminded of the night's ride he passes out.

Going through the memories are all very dreamlike which I very muched liked as it added that intrique and oddness that kept me hooked. After going through some sort of weird riddle like sequence we see the meaning behind the need. House is woken up and tells off his finds which startles everyone. The rest is a downward spiral into depression as the state of things become more clear and eventually Wilson must make the most difficult choice. I don't know what New Jersey's laws are on assisted-suicide but the emotion driven (not politically skewed) choice remains in a very heart-sinking conclusion to a season, I almost never saw. Definitely a great season for a great show.

First Blog, First Roommates, Etc, etc.

Ughh, so the day has finally come where I have to move the crap out of my room at my parents house into my friends and I's (Sic?) house we're renting from his girlfriends mother. This entails many things for me and me alone. Sadly enough.

• I have never had house mates before except during a 4 day stint in OR with one of my best friends, who is actually also my neighbor.

• Some parts of the floor in my current room, haven't even seen Compact Fluorescent Light before meaning its been covered for at least 3 years. Once I got out of High School, I guess I became much more of a Pack-Rat. Several computers in my room that run under 500MHz, Radios that don't work or are soon to be working because I have yet to take a screw driver to them. I am an Electronics Technician so I do have the right to take things apart (as does everybody, except TVs and Microwave Ovens! Please don't touch those. Death!)

• I have way too many clothes. Many of which are torn or holey (not to be confused with Holy!) due to my skateboarding days. I finally threw away some boxer shorts that my dog got into. (Disgusting, I know!)
  

Oddly with moving in available now, I don't know when I will actually be able to get it over there. I do have a car. I don't have any reason to get out of my current situation except for a few annoyed glances when I am not doing something to help the house. Nothing to rush me. Still the price that is to be paid each month is damn good, now it just comes to what gets shared and the comfort of the person owning that shared item.

This afternoon...
In a hilarious if not weird note: after leaving the community pool with my neighbor, some weird possible meth-head carrying a box of beer started whistling for our attention. After making eye contact, he yelled, "do you guys smoke weed". Then noticing other people in the parking lot, quickly glanced around both side of him to see if any others heard him. Striding towards us he, queried us again. I responded with a simple no, guessing this guy just wanted to sell. "Have you ever?" he asked, anxious for a positive answer. Wondering what the hell this guy wanted, besides trying to be used car salesman, I retorted. "What the hell does it matter to..." My friend trying to be as commercially hilarious as possible and seeing the perfect situation to do so stated that we were "above the influence". This guy taken a little off-guard but still willing to make a sale had the genius idea of asking us if we ever smoked weed, again. By simply saying, "Have you guys ever smoked the Buddha?" I'm guessing I just rolled my eyes while I was saying, "No" again, for the second time, for he somehow got the idea and already started walking up the street. I remember him actually saying "See you later" which is the equivalent of saying Goodbye which nobody does anymore.

Once everything is in this new house, we'll have a house party. I would totally be down. I'll get to see if my best friend out of the house mates and also fellow employee has been stealing my lines. They aren't pickup lines or anything, but gathered social sewing needles of mine to be used by me. Of course unless they've already been plaid out by my friend. Then of course a talk will ensue, or hopefully I'll develop better material fast! Parties are always good. Virginity should only last so long. 21 is too old, well maybe not, considering all the shit I have been through. Nope, still pretty sure I'm missing out.