January 2008 – The Rogers News

29 January, 200812 December, 2012

Online Vice: Photo Browsing

Looking at photographs online is a huge time suck for me. Once I start looking at the flickr Explore – 7 Days Interesting I’m lost for an hour or more. I could flip through the pages endlessly. I recognize that 95 percent of the pictures on there are rubbish, but every once-in-a-while I’ll find a good one worth favoriting.

Right now, I’m finding the photos on The One’s We Love similarly addicting.

The Ones We Love is a project highlighting young and talented photographers from around the world. Each artist contributed six photographs of the person(s) who is most important to them, taken outdoors in a natural setting. The goal of the website is to portray the people who are loved, cherished, and inspirational to these artists, and also showcase the differences and similarities in the photographs each of them took within the same guidelines.

29 January, 200812 December, 2012

Instapaper

Instapaper is the best site I’ve come across thus far in 2008. The basic premise is:

1) You come across substantial news or blog articles that you want to read, but don’t have time at the moment.

2) You need something to read while sitting on a bus, waiting in a line, or bored in front of a computer. Instapaper solves both of those problems.

I suppose the same task of saving a news story for later could be accomplished by posting it to a social bookmarking service (E.g., del.iciolus) with the tag, “to read.” But, the interface and simplicity of Instapaper are what set it apart form a general bookmarking service, email, or other form of saving online articles.

Once you’ve read an item, it’s marked as read. You can edit titles and URLs, the later of which is good if you want to replace a URL with a permalink.

I have two stories posted to my Instapaper, and I plan on posting many more. Time to say goodbye to the “To Read” folder on my Mac.

23 January, 200824 February, 2009

Legal Capacity to Make a Will

“Legal capacity to make a will requires a greater mental competency than is required for marriage.”

~ WT&E Textbook

17 January, 200824 February, 2009

Blogging vs. Personal Communication

Many times when I post to tumblr, my action is replacing a direct communication I could be making with one or more people. Often, what I’m posting (a thought, observation, link, picture, etc.) is of interest to my friends and family and could be sent directly.

Is the quality of the personal message diluted by posting the same message to my blog?

I think it is and I try to keep my personal communications unique and private – at least until they become bloggable. At that point, all hope of maintaining “place” is lost and I just want to get the conversation out into my (limited) tumblr world.

The funny thing is that I can’t really explain why. All of this is like self-induced micro-paparazzi. Intentionally placing one’s private life in front of strangers.

Very weird.

15 January, 200819 October, 2013

Gun Blued Wilson 8802

I received my gun blued Wilson 8802 in the mail today. It looks amazing. The top-line and back are matte black. The face and sole are polished. The original putter was satin chrome. I played with it throughout high school, and it showed a great deal of wear (and abuse).

Kevin at Colbert Putter Plating did the work. There are several finishes you can choose from and you can have custom engraving and paint jobs done. I am very impressed, and can’t wait to have the putter re-shafted.

15 January, 200825 February, 2009

First Day Back

Two of my three classes were canceled due to heavy snowfall on my first day back from winter break.

My courses this semester are:

* Antitrust
* Federal Courts
* Criminal Procedure
* Wills, Trusts & Estates

The only class held today was Antitrust, which has to do with the regulation of anti-competitive activities in the free market. As is common, the first day was a general overview of the topic. Notes were taken, but nothing that will likely be tested.

The real learning as well as the full schedule will begin on Wednesday!

10 January, 200825 February, 2009

Pocket Tees

“I need some pocket tees to hold my new iPod.”

~ woman sitting behind me on plane.

7 January, 20086 September, 2011

Regarding My Email Habits

Me: i like having zero messages in my inbox… iphone doesn’t allow for that… always has 25, 50, or more. even if you delete it just loads more.
Russ: 0 in your inbox?
Russ: how can you have no mesages in your inbox?
Me: i always keep my inbox at zero
Russ: yeah i know you do
Russ: but it’s not healthy when these things don’t even physically exist
Russ: you’ve created some new form of anal retentive disorder

7 January, 200812 December, 2012

My Cameras

I own six cameras:

1. Canon PowerShot SD800 IS (link)
2. Casio Exilim
3. Sony MiniDV Handycam
4. iPhone (link)
5. Diana+ (link)
6. Macbook Pro iSight (link)

I just got the iPhone and Diana+ this Christmas and have limited experience with both.

The Diana+ uses medium format 120 film. I’ve only shot in color. You can see my first three rolls here. Having to wait for the local camera shop to develop my film highlights how convenient immediate feedback on digital cameras is. And how impatient I am.

The iPhone seems to take great pictures (for a “phone”). There is no flash, so it is a poor substitute for my Canon PowerShot during nighttime outings. Otherwise I’m thrilled with it.

The Canon PowerShot has given me what I expected – portability and above average pictures. The lack of shutter control is frustrating, but otherwise a good compact camera. I also love the video capabilities and recently upgraded to a 4GB SD memory card that allows 33 minutes of video.

The Casio Exilim was my main camera before the Canon PowerShot. It has 4.1 mega-pixels and takes good pictures, but is slow to shoot.

I rarely use the Sony Handycam. I will make a point of shooting more higher quality video with it this year, although it is not HD. That leaves me somewhere in between the Canon video quality and HD.

The MacBook Pro iSight is used almost exclusively for goofy shots and video chatting.

3 January, 200824 February, 2009

Preparing for My iPhone

I ordered an iPhone and it should arrive on Friday. I’ve been working feverishly (relatively speaking – it is holiday break) to prepare my sync-able data for the iPhone.

I beefed up my Address Book, which included downloading v-cards from LinkedIn and categorizing people in groups – high school, college, law school, Ruckus, K12, and family.

I also exported my bookmarks from FireFox, my preferred browser, trimmed them down to the most used, and imported them into Safari.

It’s not clear how the iPhone mail.app works, so I haven’t done much with my email.

What excites me most about the iPhone is the compactness of it. Not only is the device itself slim, but it will eliminate the need for me to carry a cell phone, camera, iPod, and laptop.

I’m very excited, and again, as with the Wii, horribly delinquent with my technology purchase.

2 January, 200824 February, 2009

Wii for Me

I got a Wii for Christmas. It has reignited my long-lost passion for video games. The only reason for this is the high level of interactivity. It is impossible to not be immersed in the game you’re playing. Even bowling is incredible.

Yes, these comments are stale – the Wii came out over one year ago. But, this is my first chance to play and, well, I’m a believer.

I own the following games:

Super Mario Galaxy – Fun and frustrating.
Tiger Woods 2008 – My current favorite, although even on the hardest setting it’s still pretty easy for me.
Wii Sports and Wii Play – Bowling and Tennis are a couple family favorites. A little different than sitting around a table playing cards. Nice to break a sweat.