I finally bought Aperture this weekend. Damn, I've needed this for a while.

I pulled in over 6000 photos from my five different iPhoto libraries (which were all nearly impossible to navigate or sort/find photos). Now I can zip through anything, and organization in infinitly easier. The RAW processing is really quite awesome too, much better than Adobe Camera RAW, and much more flexable. It literally takes seconds to crop, adjust exposure, white-balance, and tint a photo, and then do it again to a few more shots of the same subject, then directly compare them as a stack and keep the best on top (sliding the rest of the shots away, out of the way).

Now if someone would just bring me a pair of 30" Cinema Displays...

Um, I sold my TV, fools.

A week ago or so, I sent out an email to all of the people that had inquired about my TV. One of the first people to ask me about the TV responded, quoting my email directly (including the part about scammers):

Hello There,
I am glad to inform you that anytime from now you will recieved the MONEY ORDER as i said it was sent via POST OFFICE through Regular Mail so the Post man will come and deliver it to your address. Once you recieved the Money Order make sure you have it cash out the sameday
*As soon as you have the MONEY ORDER cashed out, Deduct out your sales price then sametime Proceed Down to any WESTERN UNION MONEY TRANSFER OUTLET near you and have the Remaining Money send to my Shipping Company that will come and pick up the Item at your Base.
*Make sure you have the Remaining Money send to my Shipping Company sameday you have the cash.
*I have already gave the Shipping Company your address where they will come and pick up the Item.
*You don't have to worry about shipping the item, My shipping company will do all the Moving and Boxing up of the item themself.
Here is my Shipping Company Information which you will send the Remaning Money to:
NAME : DANNY UREN

ADDDRESS: 10 TAPLOW HOUSE
THURLOW STREET
LONDON
SE17 2UL
UNITED KINGDOM.
EMAIL; goldlarry_01@yahoo.co.uk

After send out the remaining Money the western Union information that will be given to you after sending the Money will be Email to me and my shipping company email address.
*My Shipping Company will come for the Pick up of the Item once you send the Money to their information i gave to you.
*I have been using this Shipping Company over years and they are very capeble and i have convindence in them they will do it exactly i want it. they are very nice hipping company.
*Hope you have put the Item in a save placeso that i can be easy for them to Move it.
*make sure you keep ckecking you Mail Box as from thursday.
*I wait your reply once you got the MONEY ORDER.
Hope you understand everything now???
I look forward to hear from you.
Thanks
My Regards to you and your Family.

Honestly. You idiots can't read. I replied back, because, HAY, I don't want to miss out on money:

Hello!

Can you verify the address that you sent the check to? I'm afraid that I
may have given you some bad information, and I don't want to miss the check!

A

I got a response today:

Hello,

What is really going on????? you ought to have recieved the Money Order by now..
If yes i will want you to get back to me now also make sure you take it to the bank and cash it instantly, deduct the total fees of your item plus the addition $50 promised ealier and western union the reamining funds to the shipper( DANNY UREN) sameday ok.
Here is the name address you will use to send the money via western union below:

NAME: DANNY UREN
ADDDRESS: 10 TAPLOW HOUSE
THURLOW STREET
LONDON
SE17 2UL
UNITED KINGDOM.

After the transfer of the funds you are to get back to me with the below information which i am to give to the shipper to get the money today and schedule a time for the pickup.

AMOUNT SEND AFTER WESTERN UNION CHARGES

SENDERS NAME AND ADDRESS

MTCN (MONEY TRANSFER CONTROL NUMBER)

TEST QUESTION AND ASNWER

I will want you to get back to me with the western union information asap today,
Regards.

I replied back with the question again: "What address did you send this to?" Because, you see, I never gave him my address. I really don't see what these people are getting at these days.

Unfortunately, you can see that they were only trying to scam me out of $50. What the fuck?

Done With Jury Duty

Well, for the last two days, I've been bored off my ass in the Jury Assembly room of the Kent Regional Justice Center.

I woke up bright and early Monday morning and got down to Kent by about 7:20am (I had no clue how long it was going to take to drive 30 miles south during commute times, so I left early). I hung out for a few minutes, then went through security and got up to the Jury Assembly room. Think of the Jury Assembly as an airport terminal: rows of seats, and a handful of tables. At first I packed myself into the rows of chairs because I was not sure of the layout of the room.



One of the Judges came down and gave a little speech and made a few jokes about Jury Duty. He talked about the three types of Jurors: Type 1, those who wanted to be there and were interested in the process. Type 2, those who had been there before and knew what they were in for. Type 3, those who wanted out as fast as possible and were clawing at the walls. As much as you hear people make the comments about the Type 3 person "LOL you got Jury Duty! LOL", I was leaning towards the Type 1 side... I was interested in what the whole process was about. I had made sure that I got most of my work out of the way last week, I got a vehicle software release out, and I tied up as many loose ends as possible. After the judge took off, they played a 15 minute video (with terrible acting) about the court process.

After the first half hour, I was already getting uncomfortable and went to get a drink and hit the pisser. Of course my seat was gone when I got back, so I wandered around the Assembly. They has a coffee vendo, a coke vendo, and a snack vendo, as well as a fridge and microwave. So, they were not really "uncomfortable". But in this wandering around I saw the OTHER half of the room which had tables set up with power strips on the tables. These spots were almost all taken up, but I nabbed one of them for myself. King County is smart enough to know that people need connectivity, so of course there was WiFi available.

The wait was short to the first group that got called. They gave numbers to 56 people for a case. Soon after that, they added 30 people to a case that did not have enough to make a jury. Within the next hour those two groups left and headed out to their courtrooms. They announced that they had two more cases pending, and that we should just hold tight.

So the wait began.

I emailed work a bit, I surfed a lot, and generally felt my brain go numb. By 11:30pm they said that the other two cases would not be ready for jury selection by noon, so they gave us lunch: "Be back by 1:30pm". Great! Two-hour lunch! I'm used to 30-45 minute lunches... what the hell was I going to do for two hours?

I had spied a Chipotle across the way, so I wandered over to "Kent Station", which is a pretty nice little strip mall, reminded me of Redmond Town Center, just smaller. Of course when I got over there, the Chipotle had a sign on the door that said something to the effect: "Many of our workers chose to attend the immigrant rallies today, so we did not have enough people to open. Come enjoy Chipotle another time!" Denied. I had spied an Arby's earlier, so I headed down to get some roast beast.

The whole time I was walking around the area, I thought that the whole stereotype of "Kent" was a bit overblown. There was quite an economic surge, the Kent Station area is really nice. The area is actually quite pretty (except for the construction, but you could tell that was all just more economic growth).

Then I "Crossed the Tracks".

It was the stereotype of the wrong side of the tracks. I was instantly reminded of Spokane Valley... way out Sprague. Wide busy roads, lots of crap low-density commercial. Trashy people... ugh. Luckily the immigrants at Arby's were willing to take my money. So I got my Giants, and headed back over into the "nice" area.


Once I got back after wandering around for two hours, I got my little nest set up at the table with my computer and WiFi. They called the other juries out to their cases, and told the rest of us that the other two cases were still pending. So we waited. Just before 3:00pm one other person at the table went up to the office and asked if they were going to even call us today (courts recess at 4pm, so not much sense in pulling us up). She came back with the news that they were letting us out at 3:oopm. Time came, they let us go, and told us to be back at 8:45am the next morning.


Today it was nice to sleep in an extra 20 minutes (I can't sleep in on weekdays... so I just got up). I actually ate breakfast, and wandered out of the house on time. I was there by 8:30am, and got my nest set up and started the surfing (I "discovered" digg.com for the first time, and got sucked into that, it's bumped slashdot.org from the top of my tech-site list).

Just after 9:00am, they started pulling the other assigned juries out, and told the remainder that they still had the other two cases pending. Just as the day before, I zoned and surfed until 11:00am. But then they made an announcement, one group was ready for jurors, and not only that, I got #4! They had assigned 36 numbers for Judge Jay White's court, and told us to chill out until they were ready for us. Well, just past 11:30am, we got the same message as the day before "Too close to lunch to start, take off, be back by 1:20pm sharp!"


I didn't even bother trying to waste time on lunch today. I hit Chipotle, got my Barbacoa and Corn, ate, then went back to the Jury Assembly. There's not much to see in Kent, and once you've seen it, the Jury Assembly is just about as interesting.

Of course 1:20pm came and went. But about 1:45pm they called us upstairs to line up. They got us all in order and explained how we were going to find our seats. Since I was #4, I was going to get a front-row seat in the Jury bin, yay! So, we waited. The bailiff went in and out, and kept saying "just a few minutes!". Wait. By 2:15pm she came back out and said "We're sending you back downstairs to be more comfortable. Back to the Jury Assembly nest.

By 3:00pm, they said that the last case pending would not be taking jurors today, so they released everyone else (to cheers and clapping). They told those of us in Judge White's group to stick around a bit longer.

At 4:20pm, Judge White himself made an appearance! He came down to thank us for coming, and told us what was going on. It seems that yesterday and this morning they had been doing quite a bit of pre-trial for a criminal case of phone harassment. He basically said what we were told, and that they were ready for us, but it was too close to lunch. Then they put us together, and once they were back in session after lunch, the defendant stood up and wished to change his plea to guilty. That's when they sent us back downstairs. The judge wanted to make sure that the defendant knew that he was giving up his rights to defend himself against those charges. Oh, and did I mention he did not speak English? This whole process was taking place bilingually though a translator. So, after a few hours of making damn sure that the defendant was ready to give up his rights to a trial, his plea was changed to guilty, and case was recessed until sentencing on Friday (but they don't use juries for those).

So, a few people thanked him for coming down and explaining the whole situation, and then they released us. I was going to stick around and talk to the Judge, but I would have to wait in line behind a bunch of old men doing that exact thing (does that make me an old man?).

So, I hit Jamba Juice, and made the drive back up through wonderful 405 traffic.


Until the next time! Maybe I'll get to see a case then...

Someone just BUY my TV!

This guy didn't even try:

Hello,
I am interested in immediate purchase of your
item,but before i proceed on this transaction i will
like to ask some question as follow. i can only raise
cashier check for the paymentn of your item so i will
like to know if the item is still available and also
if is in good condition Please your answer on this,
will enable
me to issue your payment to you asap
1. Do you accept a ( Cashier Check / Money Order ) as
a mode of payment?
2. What is the firm price of the item?
3) Will you let our shipping company to come to your
house for the pick up of the item?
4)Do get back to me with your contact info where you
want the payment to address to.
5) Will you be able to send the excess fund back to
the shipping company via western union money transfer
same day you recieve the check....
Regards

That got me to send an email to everyone that has asked me about the TV:

Thank you for your interest in the Hitachi 50" TV. To answer a few frequently asked questions:

* The TV is as pictured on the web link http://www.ressafamily.com/HDTV/
* It has had the light engine replaced within the last few months, it can be considered in "refurbished" condition (refurbs sell for $1350 retail on the web).
* The TV is 2 years old, and I am selling it because I upgraded to a Sony SXRD.
* Buyer arranges Shipping. I can help load it into your vehicle at my residence, but you're on your own to get it unloaded.


Due to the number of "scam" emails, I have decided to reduce the price for customers willing to pay CASH. The price is now $850, cash-in-hand. If you still wish to pay by Check or Money Order, the price remains $1000 and the following condition has been added: You will be free to take the TV after the check clears my bank and your bank. Consider the extra $150 a storage fee while your check clears.

I'm apologize in advance for being suspicious of everyone, but after getting emails containing gems of requests such as this

"5) Will you be able to send the excess fund back to the shipping company via western union money transfer same day you receive the check...."

you can understand my suspicion.

Emails that are clearly scams get forwarded to the Attorney General's High-Tech Crime Unit and deleted from my inbox, unless I really like them, then I'll post them to my blog for other people to laugh at. I'm not interested in wasting my time with scams.


Thank you again for your interest

Joys of Selling Online

I'm selling my old TV online. It's amazing the emails that come in:

The first clear scam:

Name: allen smith
E-mail Address: clearly-not-allen-smith@yahoo.com

Phone Number: 0000000000
Best Time to Contact: Morning

Message:
I am interest in purchasing your item with no delay,but first? What is the final price of the item? Is the price firm? Will you be accepting a money order or cashier check Contact me with the present state of the item and your contact information to mail out the payment to you as soon as possible. Name you want on check: Home Address: City: State: Country: Phone Number/Office Number

Honestly? You need my Country for the check? The ad was listed in the Seattle Times. Put some effort into the scam buddy. My reply:

I have a previous inquiry into the TV. I'd accept other offers, with cash taking precedence. I'd take a cashier's check for the exact amount written against a local bank. No need to mail the check, if the other offer does not go through you can bring the check when you pick up the TV.

No reply.


This one should have just put "Scam" in the subject line:

Hello,

I came across your classified post on the internet and we are in need of the product listed. My name is Johnson Kuba and I am an agent for several buyers, I help them to get seller for goods and we make payment by Cheque .So I will like you to give me the price list and the present condtion of the product listed so that I could proceed with the order.Thanks

Johnson Kuba

Pay by check, eh! Representing other buyers, eh? I know I responded to this one, I just can't find the response, I'll edit it in. Nevertheless, he did not respond back.

Name: bill
E-mail Address: bill_agent_removed@earthlink.net

Phone Number: 00000000000
Best Time to Contact: Morning

Message:
Hello,
i am interested in your Hitachi 50" HDTV and i do wish to know its current condition.Send me pictures so that i can assess its physical conditions.What is your final asking price and will you accept money order as means of payment,i await your response and get back to me with the requested informations.
Regards

Bill

"Agent" in your email address? Precise command of the english language? Paying by money order! GLEE!

http://www.ressafamily.com/HDTV/

The pictures posted are the best I have, they are a bit bigger on the web page.

I'd accept any reasonable offer, but would prefer cash or a cashier's check drawn on a local bank.

Oh, he's REALLY excited by this:

THANK YOU FOR YOUR RESPONSE.I HAVE REVISITED THE PICTURES AND I AM SATISFIED WITH WHAT I SAW AND I DO WISH TO PROCEED WITH THIS TRANSACTION.I CAM SEND YOU A CHECK FROM A LOCAL BANK BUT BEFORE THEN WHAT IS YOUR FINAL ASKING PRICE AND SEND ME YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION WHICH WILL INCLUDE YOUR NAME,ADDRESS AND PHONE NUMBER SO THAT PAYMENT CAN BE SENT TO YOU WITHOUT DELAY,I AWAIT YOUR RESPONSE

REGARDS

BILL

AAAHHHHHH!!!!! WITHOUT DELAY!!!

There is someone else that has inquired before you. I'll let you know if that transaction does not go through.

I think this upset him, that or he bought a new keyboard with a working capslock:

Thank you very much for your response and do ensure you keep me posted if the deal does not go through.

And the last clear scam:

Name: james
E-mail Address: james_matt-removed@yahoo.com

Phone Number: 000000000
Best Time to Contact: Morning

Message:
Hello Ma/Sir,

Let me know if you would be accepting MONEY ORDER as a mode of payment.If you are willing to accept this,pls contact me asap with your Fullname,Address.City,State,Zipcode and Country.The total of item available for sale and your asking prize.

Regards.
James.

At this point I had enough possibly real inquieries that I did not even respond. If the guy does not buy the TV tomorrow I'm going to send a nice update to all of these guys begging for their money orders.

E-mail Address: justinmunged@yahoo.com

Phone Number: 206-removed
Best Time to Contact: Afternoon

Message:
hello seller,
i came across this item in http://marketplace.nwsource.com i was convince that buying there is safe and being that i had fallen victims several time paying for an item with westernunion and at the end of the day was not shipped. this is why i have taken my time to shop online untill i was told by a friend that he bought a some electronics and items here and was shipped. am very glad to get to you that , i want you to get me the price excluding shipping cos i will arrange with my shipper and could you please get to me with the neccesary information

needed.[name;address,city,state,country,zipcode ,tel, etc , hope to

hear from you.
justine

Wait, what?

Resurrected Forums

A looong time ago I was a member at www.i-Club.com. After the first of what ended up being many asshole moves, those forums moved to www.nasioc.com. NASIOC lasted for a while, and I was quite involved. After the West Coast Subaru Show 3, there was great contention as to "who fucked it up", and since no fingers would point in certain directions, they all drifted towards me. That got me pushed off of NASIOC, and even off of USMB, where I hardly ever posted anyway.

So, for some reason or another all of us close friends ended up at iClub, where we were our usual, sarcastic selves. Since there was hardly any traffic on iClub, we pretty much just screwed around. Then one of the members and I kind of I kind of got into it. HiFiWRX/Jeff and I shot insults and shit back and forth for a while until everyone else got sick of the whole thing and someone had to go. Guess who that was? Not to dig up old shit, but it came down to the "old group's" view of just screwing around, and the new school and the view of The Internet Is Serious Business.

Basically, by this time in my life my internet experience was shaped heavily by SomethingAwful. But the thing was, there were 30,000 people on SA, and it was not the place to go screw around with your friends. Since I had my own server, I played around with a couple of BBSs, and ended up with YaBB (a nice little perl-based file-system-stored bulletin board).

Of course, since the drama llama was in heat, most of the guys that I fucked around with found their way over to my new site. That ended up in the first (and only) real epic thread at the forums before they pretty much trailed off to nothing. Skimming back through those threads reminded me much 0f why I quit contributing: I'm fucking busy. My job keeps me busy during the day (something that could not be said for the other two jobs), and I have two kids at home. When I get online at night, I'd rather veg out and zone on SA after cooking dinner and zoning out. Hell, half of my friends don't hear much from me any more. Really, it's not your fault guys, I love you all, but you know me, I fucking hate people!

So, today I was IM'ing Chris Shorey for the first time in probably 6 months and he asked if I still had the forums up. I told him that they had not been up since I outsourced my hosting to Bangalore. But when I got home tonight I took a look, zipped the directory, ftp'd it to the new hosting, and unziped in the webspace. What the hell, it just worked. It took me a few minutes to remember my passwords, and then a nice wave of nostalgia flowed over as I skimmed through the posts.

And, now you all get that same wave of nostalgia pushed onto you since Something Awful is down tonight (they are moving hosting out of New Orleans to Chicago, and switching over to their new 12-way PowerEdge cluster). So, here we are. The Not-A-Club Forums are back up and in order. Granted I doubt that we will get more than 10 new posts before it again gathers dust.

Maybe I'll invite the Spokane Crew over to play...

I love you guys, really!

Note about WCSS3: That was the best damn Subaru meet that I think the Northwest has ever seen. Jamie and I did a hell of a job putting the thing together. Yes, I admit that we screwed up a bunch of stuff (hell, it was my first time putting on a show, much less one that hosted 300 cars), but people, to this day, people still swear that was the best WCSS that has ever been put on. I'm no longer bitter at anyone in particular, but I am a bit put-off as to how both Jamie and I were treated the month or so after the show. Unfortunately for reasons of gender and popularity, I was the one that took the heat. Looking back at the Subaru crowd now, there is a lot that I am glad that I am not around for, but on the other hand, there are quite a few people that I have not seen in years that I would love to spend an evening around the camp-fire with again. In fact, if I can get to wherever they plan to have it this year, I might pack up the family and tag along.

Sony KDS-R50XBR1

Ok, so I mentioned that I was not going to get a new TV. Well, I figured that LCD was out, and my angry fear of Rear Projection had me conflicted.

So, we went to Fry's.

I almost bought three different TVs. They had a 46" Samsung LCD that was pretty nice looking, but was also $3800 (before the $500 extended warranty). Then I looked at the 42" Philips LCD, but then the 40" Sony LCD really had a great picture. I even looked at the box for the Sony 40" and figured that it could fit in my car. I was almost ready to walk over and buy it, but then the size issue really got to me.

I had to have 50". Period.

So, I went and looked at the beautiful Sony SXRD that I've been drooling over ever since I decided that I might be getting a new TV. They only had the 60" set up with an HD feed, but we looked at the 50" running a DVD. Either way, the 1080p final resolution of the LCoS system really looks goddamn good.

So, I broke my promise to myself about not getting another rear-projection. I picked it up on sale for $3000, and $400 for Fry's kick-ass (as in covers a shitload of stuff, in-home) 5-year extended warranty. So, after paying the government, $3675 out the door (oh, with free delivery).

So, here it is, the Sony KDS-R50XBR1

Not getting a new TV

Sharp 45" TVs don't exist (any more). Damn.

I don't want to deal with burn-in and being nice about watching habits with Plasmas.

I want a direct view LCD, which means I have to drop to 42" to get what I want, which is quite a bit down from the 50" I have.

Goddamnit.

Finally Getting a New TV

Well, the extended warranty company finally came through and is paying us off for our old Hitachi 50V500. They are giving us the market-refurb price, $1349.99, which is not too bad. What's even better is that they said that they don't care what I do with the TV, their suggestion is that I sell it to a local repair place for parts. I'm thinking craigslist, I would hope that I can get at least $750 for it, if not $1000.

Of course I need that now, because I just ordered a Sharp LC-45GD4U flat-screen LCD.



It's a bit more expensive than I wanted to pay, but I'm sick of dealing with bulbs and light engines. This is a direct-view LCD (1920x1080) with a Cold-Cathode Flourescent bulb (60,000-hour half-life). Capable of 1080p, blah blah blah. The only thing that I have read bad about them is the bad contrast ratio, but from what I've seen of the one my buddy has, it is way way better than my Hitachi.

Well, 3-day select shipping. We'll see if it gets here for the weekend.

Sitting in Schiphol Airport

This is the first chance in three days that I've had to sit down at my computer. Two hours to boarding, and then a 10 hour flight, I can't wait for my own bed.

Probably did not get much sleep last night because driving for a half-hour at 190kph (~118mph) gave me the jitters...

Last full day in Nederland

I was up for a couple of hours again last night. I watched an episode and a half of LOST, and chatted with Max for a few minutes online. Speaking of chatting with Max, I looked up what GPRS rates are and they are $0.015/kb. So far I have used 466kb in Europe, so I’ve spent $7 on internet for my phone, 7 minutes of phone calls at $0.99 a minute, and 14,99€ for 180 minutes of WiFi from McDonalds (of which I have 34 minutes left as I type up this entry offline). Connectivity is damn expensive here.

Ate breakfast downstairs again, then we were off to DAF. I spent the morning working with Erik (my evil twin) doing code stuff. It’s amazing how many of the problems we are finding with the systems independently and finding different ways to solve them. We both promised to try to communicate more so we can get better collaborative efforts on some of the problems that we both find.

The afternoon sessions sucked. The management got into quite a bit of political posturing that I just don’t care much for. I wrote up my report of the morning, just to make sure I had everything clear to myself, and then I wrote up the majority of the Sunday and Monday blogs. As I expected, we got done with meetings at 5:00pm, but did not leave the office as we talked to everyone that passed by (me included, all of the instrument integration guys are great over here, very friendly).

Back here in the hotel for a bit of downtime and to get a bit of juice back into my starving laptop battery. Marty and I are going out to dinner; I need to find a way to get to the Greek place.

Not any more pictures to contribute. I’m kind of disappointed how everything is under some sort of construction.

We just got back from this Greek place down in the Centrum. I was pretty disappointed; matters were not helped much by our Greek waiter that probably could not speak Dutch, much less English. The food was pretty good, but I did not get really the selection that I wanted, as the waiter was not much in leading us in what to order, other than miming putting food in his mouth. It took 2 minutes to communicate that my colleague wanted white wine.

I just picked up my train ticket for tomorrow back to Schiphol. I had to borrow another 20€ from Marty because they only take EuroCards, no amex or visa. (I’m in the hole now 40€; I suppose I should call STCU and try to get my PIN so I can get cash).

And I did not have the balls to use the outdoor urinals… I just could not bring myself to do it. They are an awesome idea though: Imagine a device the size of a porta-potty, except “inside out”; it’s a T with four urinals. They have these on a handful of street corners around the towns here. Definitely something that would never fly in the USA.

First day for Work

Up bright and early for breakfast at the hotel. I had eggs and sausage and a demi baguette (the baguettes here are so damn good it’s sick). We grabbed a Taxi to DAF and got in to the meetings.

This first day was just a big stack of brutal meetings. The only “fun” part of the day was when I got my Krokettes for lunch in the cafeteria. No Fritz on Mondays, I think Wednesday is Fritz day.

The afternoon meetings got pretty brutal. We were all hitting jet-lag and were asleep on our feet (or rather in our chairs). We got done with meetings at 5:00pm but we spent the next hour talking to all of our rarely seen colleagues here at DAF.

We got back to the hotel by 6:15pm and had planned to meet at 6:30pm for Italian. We pretty much opened up the restaurant; there was only one person there before we got there.

This is a good point to mention how wait service in Europe is awesome; of course from the American point of view it is the worst service in the world: We got our drinks right away, and were pretty much left alone for 15-20 minutes. By the time people were ready for another round, they asked about an appetizer, one of the guys just asked for an Antipasta sampler plate. After a while, one of the other guys (in probably an “American” view) said “what do ya bet we never get that appetizer?" Before it was even out of his mouth they brought out these two HUGE trays with Lox, French butter, gorgonzola cheese, carpachio, pickled onions, parma ham, fresh melon, and several other cheeses and meats. It was plenty to feed six alone.

They gave us plenty of time to work on the appetizer. That’s a GOOD thing about the European wait service. No matter how long it takes you to eat one course, they won’t bring the next until you make it clear that you are done with the current one.

So, after a few minutes they bring out our entrees, which were actually not that great, honestly. But that could have been just that I was comparing it to the antipasta.

When we were done they brought out the check (only by our request, they would never bring the check unless it was requested), and they brought out a complementary Sambuca. I asked to see the check because I was curious when the antipasta cost, I was blown away when I saw that it only cost 29,00€… amazing. Three hours later and only 172€ for six was not bad at all.

Marty and I stopped and played a couple of games of pool on the way back at a pub called The Tipsy Duck. We played a few games of pool there last time we were over here. It’s a great little pub (bad selection of beer… all they have in this place is Bavaria, which is a decent lager, but just doesn’t compare to good American micros that I’m used to coughStonecough ).

Thumbnails are up...

http://www.ressafamily.com/Amsterdam06

I don't want to waste expenive WiFi time, so here's just the thumbnails...

Strike that, updated with full photos.

Morning in Amsterdam, Trip To Eindhoven

We landed in Amsterdam in the fog. It’s always interesting coming into final approach, dipping into the clouds, and being on the ground a few seconds later. I think the feeling of “Where the hell did that runway come from!” was shared by the pilot because the landing was quite rough.

As usual, customs getting into The Netherlands is thirty seconds to get your passport stamped, five minutes to get your bags (baggage claim at Schiphol is awesome), and walking though the “nothing to declare” gate into the main lobby.

My boss’s back, and his boss looking perky at baggage claim:


We grabbed train tickets to Eindhoven via Amsterdam Central, and jumped on the next train to the Centrum.



It might be worth noting that I had been wearing shorts and a light jacket up to this point. Amsterdam was -5°C. I was smart enough though and packed my jeans and sweatshirt in an outside pocket of my luggage. I pulled those out and went to head to the WC to change. The closest WC was closed, and the next closest was 150m away (quite a walk), and when I got there it was 0,50€ for the opportunity to use the facilities. Shit, I forgot that they charge for public restrooms here. I ended up walking back down to the lockers (where we were stashing our bags) and changing right in the middle of the hall. Not sure why I did not do that in the first place.

For the next few hours we walked around Amsterdam.

Amsterdam Central Station down at the end of the Damrak, the very center of Amsterdam:


I need to look up what this building is (it is at the other end of Damrak from the train station), but this is a stitch of 8 bad pictures, the original picture is 27”x18” at 300dpi:


Red Light. This was only moderately amusing at 10am on a Sunday morning. There were a handful of the porn shops open, but all but three of the windows were empty. The three we saw, well, you could tell that they needed to work the extra hours… woof.


The cool thing about these old cities are all of the sculptures and statues. I’m not sure what this one was, but it had some cool dogs and critters on it:


There was a bookstore that had a book dated 1620 that was 92 engravings of anatomy and human phisyology. The book was opened to a page of stillborn babies, very odd, but amazing detail:


By Noonish local time, we were all cold to the bone and getting tired. We headed back to the central station. We collected our bags and were on a train by 1pm.





We got down to Utrect (30mins south of Amsterdam) and there was an announcement (in dutch), we asked the nice cute dutch girls near us what the announcement was, and they told us that we had to get off in Utrect and take a bus down to ‘s-Hertogenbosch. So again I got to haul my over-weight luggage around between means of transportation. We got back on the train at Den Bosch and it was another 30mins down to Eindhoven. By 3:30pm we were in the lobby of the Crown Hotel across the street from the train station. Well, they did not have our reservation. What. Oh, you are probably at the Crown INN Hotel, about a block away. So, another block of hauling our crap around, we are finally checked into our hotel.

Nap Time. Just an hour. Then a bath, gotta work this cold out of the bones.

We got together for “drinkey-poos at half-six” (gotta love those English phrases), had a beer on the square, then headed to Gaucho’s for a steak. Gaucho’s is an Argentinean steak house that is “the” place to go when you go to Eindhoven. I had a pretty good steak and a side of fries (with mayonase!). We then walked a bit around the Centrum, and then went back to bed.

The entrance to our hotel was just to the left of the McDonalds, and my room is up and behind. I’m picking up my WiFi from the McTMobile.

Flight to Amsterdam

(Sorry about the tense of this post, it was half written at the time, half a couple days later)

Here I am, on a nice new Airbus A330-200:



This plane is such a dream compared to the DC10 nightmare that has been making this run for the last 30 years.

There’s something amusing about watching the opening segment of LOST on an airplane. It reminds me of how on Airplane! they were watching FAA crash test footage as the in-flight movie.

Also, these wonderful in-seat entertainment systems are wonderful little loonix boxes. And when I say wonderful, I mean the I know that they run linux because they crash a whole lot.



I just realized that the main screens at the front of the bulkhead are locked up too.

I just hope these Tylenol PMs kick in soon…

No such luck. I got about an hour of sleep (missing the last half of the first episode of LOST in the process). It was dark when I woke up, but about 7 hours into the flight the sun started coming up:



Hour and a half to go:

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Saturday March 18, 2006

Northwest Airlines                      Flight Number: 34
Class Of Service:Coach Class B
Depart: Seattle/Tacoma, WA              01:15PM March 18, 2006
Arrive: Amsterdam, Netherlands          08:05AM March 19, 2006
Total Flight Time:                      9 Hours 50 Minutes  Non-Stop
Equipment: 332

Sunday March 19, 2006

CROWN INN
MARKT 35
EINDHOVEN NL 5611
Phone Number: 31-40-245-4545
Check In: Mar 19, 2006
Check Out: Mar 22, 2006

Wednesday March 22, 2006

KLM Royal Dutch                         Flight Number: 1873
Class Of Service:Business Class C
Depart: Amsterdam, Netherlands          02:05PM March 22, 2006
Arrive: Stuttgart, Germany              03:20PM March 22, 2006
Total Flight Time:                      1 Hour 15 Minutes  Non-Stop
Equipment: F70

Wednesday March 22, 2006

MERCURE VILLINGEN SCHWENNING4
RIETSTRASSE 27 31
VILLINGEN SCHWENNING EN 78050
Phone Number: 49-7721-2970
Check In: Mar 22, 2006
Check Out: Mar 24, 2006

Friday March 24, 2006

MOEVENPICK HOTEL STUTTGART AIR
FLUGHAFENRANDSTRASSE 7
STUTTGART DE 70629
Phone Number: 49-711-79070
Check In: Mar 24, 2006
Check Out: Mar 25, 2006

Saturday March 25, 2006

Northwest Airlines                      Flight Number: 8442
Class Of Service:Coach Class B
Depart: Stuttgart, Germany              06:20AM March 25, 2006
Arrive: Amsterdam, Netherlands          08:00AM March 25, 2006
Total Flight Time:                      1 Hour 40 Minutes  Non-Stop
Equipment: Boeing 737

Northwest Airlines                      Flight Number: 33
Class Of Service:Coach Class B
Depart: Amsterdam, Netherlands          12:40PM March 25, 2006
Arrive: Seattle/Tacoma, WA              02:05PM March 25, 2006
Total Flight Time:                      10 Hours 25 Minutes  Non-Stop
Equipment: 332

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New Glass

I went out and bought a Nikon AF 50mm 1.8D today. I knew I needed something a bit lighter to haul around in my carry-on than the crappy 22-80mm that I've had since my Pronea.

When I went into Cameras West, I asked for the 50mm, and they asked if I wanted the f1.8 or the f1.4. I had not realized that there was an f1.4, and she said "there's a significant price difference". She loaded up the prices, and it was $119 or $319. I said "Can I have a D70 for a few minutes?"

She loaded up a D70 with the f1.8, and I shot a few shots. I was immediately impressed with the f-stop. I was able to shoot in the store with no flash and get some great depth. Then I loaded up the f1.4, it looked significantly more "professional", and had a ton of glass up front. But, with just a handful of shots in the store, I could not tell RIGHT away that it was worth $200 more. Granted there was the point that I could speed up the shutter one or two more steps, but that's all I saw.

I agonized for just a few moments and went with the f1.8. With the extended warranty, it came in at just over $200, so that will be fine for what I use it for.

A note on the Ritz Expanded Service Policy. I feel that it's worth my peace of mind for a few reasons, but the #1 reason is that it covers 100% of normal damages to the equipment. If my 3-year-old drops my camera in the bathtub, a quick trip to the store gets me a whole new set-up.

So far I've shot a few shots around the house, and it's really a fun lens. 50mm is about the focal length of the human eye, so it's really easy to "frame" a shot: if you can see it, point your camera at it and you can pretty much get the shot. I've mostly been firing shots in Apature Priorty mode with the f-stop at f1.8. The light in the house is a bit low for much faster than 1/20s, but throw on the SB-600 and you can get some really nice fills.

Maybe if I have any light this weekend I'll try to post some shots. If not, I hope I can get a shitload of good ones in Amsterdam and Villingen.

DAF XF105

I climbed around one of these beasts a bit today. Holy hell they are cool. The SuperSpace Cab is enormous, even though they are not nearly as deep as the North American sleeper styles. I can stand in the middle of the cab between the seats and reach up and barely touch the roof of the cab.

The XF105 cab is quite a bit more refined than the XF95 (which I've spent a ton of time in the last two days... watch for an update on that, I can't say anthing more about that at the moment). Those european trucks are just damn cool.