Anklo blog

We went to see our friend Leah’s band last night (technically it was this morning, yawn). Jam Pain Society was headlining at the Lincoln Theatre. Excellent show at a cozy venue and an interesting mix of people in the crowd. Here are some photos.

On the down side, I didn’t get to bed until 3:00 AM and the phone rang at 7:30. The security alarm at the office went off and I had to go in and confirm it was nothing, which it was. So now I feel like I’m jet lagged. It’s good to be 44.

I went to the Target at lunch today to pick up a few things we needed. Naturally they were scattered all over the store, so I ran across the halloween costumes and decorations. That’s fine. I expect them to be there. It’s fall. It’s two days from October. I should see halloween stuff.

What I shouldn’t see is Christmas stuff. That’s right Christmas. All along the back wall, at least 30 feet, every shelf, all stocked full. Fresh and new in green and red packages. Lights, tree stands, garland, all the standard stuff. ON SEPTEMBER 29TH! I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.

This is just wrong on so many levels. I haven’t been to this particular Targer in a while. They might have started stocking the shelves weeks ago. Even if they did it all last night, it’s wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong. It’s too much for me to dedicate a whole month to a single holiday. Now it’s three months? Please make it stop.

I started trying to learn some Cocoa programming today. I’m working my way through the book Cocoa Programming for Mac OS X. I had already educated myself on Objective C, and I’m glad I did. It makes the Cocoa learning curve a lot flatter.

I had delayed buying a digital SLR until recently. I had to wait for the price/performance curve to get within site of my disposable cash. That finally happened when I found a factory refurbished Nikon D50 at Overstock.com.

The best thing about a DSLR is the instant feedback. You can quickly learn what effect each adjustment has on the image, decide what you like, and get the desired shot with limited guesswork. When shooting film, you had to log each shot and hope for the best. If it was print film, then the printing process was a key variable that for which you had no data.

If you’ve been on the fence, jump off. Buy a digital SLR and don’t look back.

The story here discusses Senate hearings where recently retired officers stated the obvious. The only rebuttal from other officers was that you shouldn’t “publicly criticize U.S. civilian leadership during war.” That’s crap. At least in this type of war that doesn’t have a defined end point.

I agree that this hearing is primarily an election year stunt, but so what. That doesn’t invalidate the content.