New Camera

My new camera came a few days ago. I've been really busy with trying to get all set up for school, so I haven't had a lot of time to mess around with it. I did get a chance to take these two pictures right outside my college house, though.

Moved In

It's been a while since I last posted here. Things were crazy at work this past week. Friday was my last day, and I had a lot to finish up before they would unlock my shackles. When Friday rolled around, and it was time to go, everyone was really nice. I went out to lunch with some co-workers on Thursday, and then again with different co-workers on Friday. Everyone at work was so nice, and wished me well this year at Lehigh. I'm going to miss all of them.

Saturday morning was intense. I don't think you realize how much junk you have until you try to cram it all into a car and move it from one place to another. Thankfully, I had already made a couple trips out here, so it really wasn't that bad. As of right now, I have no desk, so I'm using this cabinet as a computer desk. Today, I think I'll do some desk shopping.

(Damnit, my door keeps opening itself. The doorknob on it is such that the springy latch thing doesn't go into the door frame. In fact, there's not even a hole for it on the door frame. There might as well not be a doorknob at all. I think I'm going to have to solve that with a latch of some sort.)

Sorry for that tangent. So I got most of my stuff into my room, and made my bed, so it's starting to feel more and more like my room instead of just a random room that happens to have all my stuff in it. I took some quick pictures to give you guys an idea of what it looks like.

Google Talk

Today, Google announced a new program called Google Talk. There's been a similar program out for a long time, called Skype, but now that it has the Google name on it, I'm predicting it will take off. It's basically an instant messaging client with the ability to make voice "calls" over the internet. All you need is a Gmail account (Which is no longer invite only, I might add.) and a microphone and speakers. A cheap headphone/microphone headset would work even better. Kind of interesting, if anyone wants to give it a try, add me to your list.

Junkmail Haiku

I know this isn't actually a haiku, but I thought this piece of junk email I got this morning was kind of interesting... Here's the body of the message:

you miserable letters steps
added find wife
fascinate sandwich or development respect reading

Crazy spammers...

Archives

Just a quick note, I noticed that some of my posts are no longer on the front page. I could make it so they all stay there, but it's just going to get way too long if I do that. Instead, you can see the old posts by clicking on the links for each month in the right side bar under the Archives section.

Max's Triumphant Return!

It's been a long and hard winter/summer without our favorite goofball. Max has been trekking across the Australian outback, in search of wild eyed koala bears (you know, the eucaplyptus...) and boxing kangaroos. It sounds like he had a great time, and we were glad to have him back, even if it was for one night and one night only. The evening began with a listening session at Riddleberger's, progressed into a visit to Vanessa at the Office, and finished off with many bottles of beer at Charlie's house. What a great night! Max, you'll be missed, have a great time in Ithaca this year!

On another note, guess who I talked to last night? Elliot! Funny story, actually... Earlier that night, I was telling my family that Max was coming home after a long time of being all over the globe. They asked where Elliot was, and I said I had no idea, I hadn't heard from him in about a year or so. Well, apparently the Druckers were kind enough to send my family a post card when they moved, and their phone number was on it. My mom called up Elliot, and before I knew what she was doing, handed the phone to me. He's now living with the 'rents in Scottsdale, Arizona, and is going to college. Anyone down for a road trip to AZ?

Concert Photos and Ness

I finally got the pictures from Wednesday night developed over the weekend. They came out blurrier than I was hoping for, but I kind of expected it. In low light, you have to use longer shutter speeds, so you tend to get motion blur or camera shake in your photos. Next time I'll have to use a more sensitive film, so I can use shorter shutter times but still get the right amount of light. Most of the pictures are up on my Flickr page, but all of them are here.

I also snapped this great shot of Vanessa on that same night. I'm really happy with how this one turned out, I think it's one of the best photos I've taken. I think I'll call it, "Waiting."

Intense

The show at the Bowery Poetry Club was awesome last night. I took a whole bunch of pictures, but I have yet to get them all developed. As soon as I do, the good ones will be up on my Flickr page, and I'll probably post them here, too.

I had a pretty intense night. I don't even know how to describe it. Someone close to me is going through some very tough times right now, and there's nothing I can really do but let her know that I'm here for her. I look at the way I feel, and how intense it's been for me, and I just can't even imagine what she's going through right now. I don't really want to get into it, for the sake of her privacy, but I just want to let everyone that reads this know that I hold all my friends near and dear. If any of you guys ever need anything, you know where to find me. There are few things I won't do for a friend that's truly in need.

"One Last Hurrah"

Summer's winding down. I have only a week and a half left before I venture back out to PA for school. Everyone else seems to be leaving quite soon, as well. Mike's band, Quintus is playing at the Bowery Poetry Club again tonight. When I talked to Vanessa yesterday, she called this "our last hurrah." So let's make it awesome. Let's have tons of fun. Let's get a little drunk. I can't wait to see you guys tonight!

Now With More Pretty!

The blog needed some spicing up, so I took to the CSS mattresses and busted out that cool header you see above. It'll probably change some more until I decide on something that's cool enough, but for now, I think it's a definite improvement over the previous drab header.

Charlie's Suggestion

So I was hanging out with Charlie on Saturday night, and somehow the topic of this "blog" came up. He thought it was a pretty cool idea, but suggested that I let everyone post to it, rather than just me. Now, I don't think anyone's really reading this thing on a regular basis yet, but I do want this to eventually become a place that people look forward to checking regularly. I think that I have to make it more interesting and let more people know about it before it becomes that, though. But I digress. We can use this post as a test to see who is actually reading it. You can leave your opinions on whether or not I should allow this in the "comments" section of this post. It doesn't require you to register or anything, just click "other" where it says "choose your identity" and write in your name or a nickname or something. If people decide that they want to make posts in addition to mine, then I'll create an account for each of you, and we can turn this into more of a community thing, rather than a Snoots thing. Let me know what you all think!

Amazon hacked, Mike cries... :o(

Well, this morning I was browsing Amazon.com, when I came upon the digital camera that I'd been wanting for a while for a very, very nice price. I assumed that they had maybe made a mistake on the price, but that I might be able to get it for that price anyways. So I ordered it. Stupid, stupid, stupid...

After watching my order get canceled, I called Amazon to ask what was up. Their outsourced Indian support guys told me to call the vendor. Amazon has now become so big that they use secondary vendors to sell some of their products. Now, I should've known this was strange when I ordered it, but the vendor was "Hilltop RV Superstore." What's an RV store doing selling digital cameras? I don't know, and I don't care, that shit is cheap, man! Stupid, stupid, stupid...

"Hilltop RV Superstore, how maybe I help you?"
"Yes, I ordered a digital camera from you guys through Amazon.com earlier this morning, and it appears my order has been canceled?"
"No you didn't. We deal exclusively in RV sales. Amazon was hacked."
"Excuse me?"
"Amazon was hacked. We don't sell digital cameras. I would've thought that was obvious."

Stupid, stupid, stupid...

So is my credit card number now in the hands of some nefarious punk about to go on a shopping spree with my chump change bank account? I don't know, let's call Amazon's customer support again and see what's up. After speaking with another outsourced Indian guy, he told me that they don't transmit the credit card data to the secondary vendor and that my credit card information is "quite safe." He also had no clue that Amazon was hacked, and couldn't supply me with a record of the hack in case my bank needed it. Right...

Time to call the bank. I explained this whole situation to a very nice man by the name of Mark Lewis. Mark explained the whole credit/debit card transaction thing to me and assured me that he personally would check to make sure that my account was not charged. In fact, he's calling me tomorrow, a Saturday morning, to let me know the status of everything, and if I have anything to worry about. Top notch customer service if you ask me, much better than those guys over at Amazon.

So what's today's lesson? If it's too good to be true...

A Few of my Favorite Sites

Just thought I'd share a few of my favorite web places with all of you.

Geeky:

http://www.slashdot.org
http://www.engadget.com
http://www.digg.com
http://www.theregister.co.uk/
http://www.tomshardware.com
http://www.anandtech.com
http://www.gamegirladvance.com/
http://www.joystiq.com
http://www.firingsquad.com
http://www.techbargains.com
http://www.woot.com


Automotive:

http://www.autoblog.com
http://www.vwvortex.com


News:

http://www.cnn.com
http://news.bbc.co.uk/
http://www.newyorktimes.com

Yeah, there was really no point to this post. Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments.

The object of my desire...

My car is beginning to die. She's getting weak in her old age. At this point, I think she needs more money put into her for repairs than I could get if I sold her. After college, if I'm lucky enough to get a job that will support me fairly reasonably, I hope to get one of these bad boys. Either in silver or black, who knows. Yum... :)

RSS Feeds

RSS, or Really Simple Syndication, has taken off all over the internet. You've probably seen RSS buttons on websites, but didn't really understand what they did. If you're using Firefox (an alternative to Internet Explorer), which I really hope you are, then adding RSS feeds is as easy as using bookmarks. Simply click on the orange button that kind of looks like a satellite dish in the bottom right hand corner and click "Subscribe to 'snoots'..." You'll then get a handy stream of posts that I make right in your bookmarks sidebar (to open the sidebar, press "Control-b"). Lots of sites have these now, as you can tell by my screenshot. It's really useful for tracking news and articles on your favorite web sites. And thus ends today's lesson. If you have any questions, let me know.

A Sampling of Photography

So we were on the train to see Riddlerberger's band play at the Bowery Poetry Club in the city. It was me, Liz, and Charlie. I began to rant and rave about how much I wanted to get into photography after we passed a particular interesting building at the Newark Broad Street station. They both acknowledged my desire, but I think they both secretly thought I was nuts.

Well, I did it guys. I actually worked up enough initiative to dig out my grandfather's old camera. It's a Minolta SR-7. I'm not sure of the exact date, but I'm guessing it's from sometime around the early 1960's. Anyways, I've decided that anyone looking to get into photography should start off with something like this. Everything is manual on it. The only electronics within it is the built in light meter. I absolutely love it. Until I save up some more money for this bad boy, it's been serving me quite well. Here are a few of the pictures I've taken with it so far:







Man, Blogger's image adding scheme is HORRIBLE! I'm going to have to try to work my way around that. Adding just those images took nearly a half hour. Anyways, if you want to see all of my photos, you should visit my Flickr page. It's presented much better there, as well. I hope you all enjoyed my sampling of pictures, there will be more to come.

Introduction

First thing's first, I want to say welcome! If you're visiting this site, it's probably because you're friends with me or you somehow stumbled across it while floating through the ether of cyberspace.

Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Mike, I'm 21, and I'm a student. I'm currently studying mechanical engineering. If you're one of my friends you probably already know all this, so I don't think I need to explain much more about myself.

Ok, now onto what this page will be. Right now I'm broke. Like, seriously broke... I dropped off my tuition check not too long ago, and my school promptly cashed it. This put a serious dent in my bank account. Before that check got cashed I had visions of my own domain (something like "www.snoots.com" which has already been taken, I might add...) on my own server. This proposition is expensive, however. Dedicated hosting costs at least $100 per year, not to mention the absurd cost I'd have to pay to bribe whoever stole snoots.com...

Before my hopes and dreams of my very own customized web space were dashed by the cruel hand of my hideously expensive private university, I had planned on creating a web space where I could host pictures, ideas, rantings, cool things I've found, interesting things that are happening in my life, etc... Basically just a place where those who know me can get inside my brain a little bit. I'd also planned to share this space to some extent with those who are close to me so that we'd have a place on the web where we could congregate and discuss matters of interest. I was planning a format much like my old website, which I might add was also crushed by the hand of the very same private university... Now that I'm going back there, I might get my webspace back, but who knows if I'll implement it or not.

So that's what this is right now. This is Snoot's page. Please feel free to leave comments or send me suggestions. I look forward to hearing from anyone who checks this out!

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