I’ve been wanting to shoot on a cloudy day for a while now, the weather’s been nice enough that I hadn’t had a chance. Today when the clouds rolled in I headed out to Harriman State Park to take some photos. Still getting the hang of various lighting conditions, but they’re neat nonetheless. Also, the first two photos are cloud cover rolling in before a storm a week or two back. FYI: Nothing in the 2nd picture is altered but the hue and saturation – that IS a face in the clouds.
Going to the cafe to study today – tis where I am now – parking the car I managed to nail a parallel park perfectly for the first time in about 10 years. Sad to say I’m proud of it, but what can I say – I am. CAN YOU DO IT?
I’m fairly certain, that the first time I do 55mph on Pulaski Hwy I will be pulled over. Just call it Murphy’s Traffic Law.
That said, I’m a little more than irate at the complete lack of Police presence on this road.
Today I was passed by 2 cars. First, a tan Toyota RAV4 NY license plate DHV3465. This guy kept going, stupid fast. He passed me over the double yellow at 7:49am before we even reached the first passing zone. He must have cleared the 35mph zone in Goshen doing at least 70. How do I know? I TRIED TO KEEP UP! Even I’m not crazy enough to speed in certain areas.
Then I got passed by a maroon in a maroon Toyota Echo, NJ license plate LTB10V. This woman did the usual thing, WHAT I WANT TO DO, 60mph. She just sped up to 55-60mph and stayed there. She’s no real threat to society, but if there was actually something resembling enforcement on this road she SHOULD have gotten a ticket for 60 in a 45.
Lastly, I ran into a county government vehicle – the biggest hypocrites of all. These people drive vehicles with ‘official’ plates on them and think it cuts them some sort of slack or provides some special privilege. NY OFFICIAL tag L63549, vehicle #134. They ran right through the stop sign before the sporting goods place on Pulaski and kept going. That’s right, MY TAXES pay for people to speed, and those speeds to not be enforced.
EFFING BEAUTIFUL.
Well last night I sat down for about an hour and a half and got this site working on Linux. I’d been toying with the idea for some time, and after my first few dealings with Debian went south, I figured I would install Fedora Core 7 as it’s what we use at my office.
Well, I had been spoiled by Debian I suppose, as when I popped in the DVD containing the Fedora install, and attempted a very BASIC install, I was astonished at how much shit I purposefully de-selected ended up being installed anyhow. I ended up just rebooting the box and doing up Debian one last time.
I’ve still got some work to do, like getting the mail server up and running. Besides that, everything appears to be running fairly smooth for the most part. It should be interesting upgrading things on Linux after having done it on Windows for so long.
At least this gives my Windows PC a rest. For about the past 5 years I’ve been running this blog and its two sister sites (banginwednesday.com and universaldisdain.net) off my WindowsXP Desktop using Apache, it worked very well – but it took a lot MORE hardware to get things done there than it does here.
Previously, this was a Windows XP system with 2gb of PC3200 RAM, 500gb of storage, and an AMD AthlonXP 3200+ CPU.
Now – it is a Debian powered Gateway 2000 Pentium III 800mhz system with 512mb of PC133 RAM and 80gb of storage. The hardware pales in comparison but the O/S and software is blazing fast on this machine… that and it only uses 70w of power where my other system used around 300w.
Mind you – I could care less about the environment, I’m just trying to keep my electric bill low and learn something to boot.
Cheers
I’m a little bit in shock with the NASCAR coverage lately. ESPN is covering the next few races, and here are the key differences…
Same commercials, same advertisers, but unlike TNT, you actually get to see some racing… instead of enough commercials to make the race not worth watching.
Commentary? I enjoy Rusty Wallace’s commentary, but the other two can go. Frankly, I don’t want to hear commentary of a Nascar race unless you’re a current or former driver, or have a southern accent.
I’d be perfectly happy if TNT never aired another NASCAR race again. ESPN does a pretty good job minus the commentary, on par with NBC… but I wouldn’t complain if they just stayed on ESPN.
For the past few weeks I have been rallying against the speed limit change on Pulaski Highway, a heavily used thoroughfare between New Jersey, New York, and Interstate 86 / Highway 17. For as long as I can remember, it has been a very fast road with minimal traffic enforcement – with exception to the 35mph zone that passes through Goshen.
Due to a bad accident a couple years back, the limit was dropped last month to 45mph on a majority of the roadway. Over the course of my daily commute in both the morning and evening hours, I have yet to see 1 speed trap on Pulaski. I have on the other hand, photographed at least 1 or 2 cars from NJ, NY, NC, etc… passing in the 45mph zone.
Now the speed limit rises at the location of that bad accident, back up to 55mph. Apparently last week, in that zone, a Dodge Ram with a father and 3 children pulled out into the path of an oncoming Jeep Wrangler headed towards Pine Island from Goshen. Speed isn’t mentioned in the article – but this accident was either caused by speed, negligence, or the environment (blind curve, etc…).
Four injured in Pulaski Highway accident
Now I’m sure this will add credence to the call for lowering the speed limit for the rest of the highway. I don’t care, driving 10mph slower hasn’t affected my overall commute time negatively. However, it doesn’t matter how fast that Jeep was going – because the only people who could have slowed her down without ramming into her simply are not here and I blame those in charge.
I feel sorry for those involved, and the inevitable exploitation of this incident by opportunistic local politicians who simply don’t get it.
Drive safe, folks.
About 5 years ago I picked up an Apple iPod Mini at Best Buy for $150. The box was a cube, it held the player, an assortment of cables, software, charger, and ear-bud headphones with foam covers.
Today I finally got my top of the line 80gb iPod Video at Best Buy for $350. The box was about the size of 3 CD cases stacked, had only a USB cable, no charger, no software, and the ear buds came without foam.
WTF?
Now with the success of the iPhone I’m not surprised that Apple has been able to cut corners to a round of applause from the lemmings that sop up their technology blindly but this is stupid. Where I got the charger for free before, I now have to drop $30 for the accessory… mind you that’s after I’ve already dropped $30 for a protective case. I don’t even get the foam bits for the ear-buds – my ears are a little bigger than average and if I break a sweat these things are gonna fall out.
Also, I didn’t need a protective case for my $150 iPod mini. This iPod video has a paint-job about as fragile as a Bentley in the auto-wash. I wanted an arm-band, but apparently all the arm-bands end up scratching the crap out of the pretty black paint.
What Apple should do, is make a friggin iPod as tough as the Mini, screw this glossy shiny crap, with the same amount of space and capability as the top of the line video. I dropped my Mini at least a dozen times and it just kept on running – I’ll scream if I ever drop this thing. Sure it can do more, but it seems the frailty has increased in tandem with the capability.
I personally don’t give a shit about the image value of being seen with an iPod or an iPhone, I need function over form and IMHO the iPod is still the best on the market. That said, when generation 6 comes out I’m really hoping that Apple takes the lead again and releases something a little tougher than the fragile piece of art I now own.
[14:12] Kether-wk: I dig the sleeman’s cream ale
[14:14] Kether-wk: o god
[14:14] Kether-wk: The company also brews Pabst products for the Canadian market, including Stroh’s and Pabst Blue Ribbon.
[14:15] MarlinWK: pabst
[14:15] MarlinWK: holy crap
[14:15] MarlinWK: you’re a redneck!
[14:15] Kether-wk: f.o. I don’t drink that crap
[14:15] MarlinWK: shouldn’t you be at a klan meeting right now?
[14:15] Kether-wk: wow how racist sam
[14:15] Kether-wk: all rednecks are klansmen?
[14:15] MarlinWK: well
[14:15] Kether-wk: that’s pretty ignorant
[14:15] MarlinWK: historically speaking, yes
[14:15] Kether-wk: GROW UP
[14:15] MarlinWK: being the term redneck came from the rash that’d develop by wearing the hood
[14:16] Kether-wk: prove it
[14:16] MarlinWK: nice attempt, but sadly it was as flacid as you at a titty bar
[14:16] MarlinWK: its called contact dermatitis
[14:16] MarlinWK: whose ignorant now? ponce
[14:16] Sparkle: maybe they should have used a more forgiving material
[14:16] Sparkle: polyester klan hoods
[14:16] Sparkle: 😛
[14:17] MarlinWK: lol
[14:17] MarlinWK: maybe satin
[14:17] MarlinWK: but then the points couldn’t stand up
LOL
