Category Archives: Life - Page 15

Gadget Time!!

Posted by Steve on February 16, 2012 No comments

It’s been a while since I have posted about some interesting gadgets, and I happen to have come across a few that are post worthy! So here goes.

Having driven the MINI around for the last few months, and being a part of the DC Metro MINI club, I REALLY enjoy my car. Many of the club owners like to make videos of their drives using the GoPro brand cameras. Being a camera type guy, I thought I would check one out and have some fun. So here is my pro/con list

Pro:

Light weight – Very small for just the camera and easy to pocket.
TONS of attachments (I got the Motor-sport version)
Easy to use – Menus are quick and easy
Cool Wide Angle – Gets everything in the shot
Good Quality (Not great, but good) – Auto adjustment of speed and ISO does oddly in low light

Con:

Over Simplified – It would be great if there were a few more options and configurations.
Low light sucks – In low light it ramps up the ISO a lot so there is some significant grain. But it’s not really meant for low light so….
Ball Joint mount would rock. – All of the mounts are pivot one way, you can add pivot points in, but it increases vibration.

Overall, I like it. It is currently mounted behind my rear view mirror and is nearly invisible to my FOV while driving.

This ties into another gadget I picked up. The OBDII adapter for Blue-Tooth. This is a chip that plugs into the data-port on my MINI (and any car after 1996) and provides all sorts of information on real time data from the engine to fault codes. I connect to it using my Android phone and an app Called Torque.

Now I just need to know what all that data actually means! (I am still learning).

Now, how does this all come together? Well, there is another android app called aLapRecorder HD. This connects to the OBDII chip and then can record all of that data for a specific drive. I can then output that data into a format that can be overlayed on to the GoPro video.

I will be using this for future drives out with the MINI to record the results. Especially the upcoming MINI’s on The Dragon event. If you have any questions about the above gadgets, please feel free to ask!

On the subject of Jelly Beans

Posted by Steve on February 15, 2012 No comments

The other day Sarah was out at an event with some friends while I gleefully stayed home and slept of played video games. Sometimes we do this. Well, when she came home she was loaded down with various food stuffs that were excess from the event. Some very evil person sent her home with a jar of Jelly Belly brand jelly beans.

O_O

Yes, the most amazing jelly bean on the planet. It is taking all of my willpower to not devour the whole jar in one sitting (it’s a big jar too). To combat my desire to “eat all the things”, I decided to set up a little photo shoot. Below are the results:

No one likes the black jelly beans!

As you can see from this chart, we show 100% Deliciousness.

Both of these shots were done with my SB600 strobe mounted on the Gorilla pod stand, positioned about 2 feet away and the Lightsphere about 1 ½ feet above the subject. (Triggered remotely)

3 Years

Posted by Steve on February 13, 2012 5 comments

My life is pretty wacky. I am a pretty huge geek on a number of levels. At 37 I still love to play video games, I love comic books (Batman > Superman), I own and have worn many different costumes from Superhero Spandex to StormTrooper Armor. I sometimes collect various toys and still love to play with Legos. I can discuss the inner workings of the Star Trek Holodeck and have seen the entire run’s of shows from Firefly to Doctor Who.

Just 10-15 years ago I would have been considered an Outcast to society, (some may still think that) but, I love who I am, and I love what I do. I have many friends that think/act/enjoy like I do and those are my family. Some people may look at me and think the typically “Bro” thing of “How do you ever date?”

Well, here is the secret. Almost 5 years ago I met someone perfect. She worked at a comic book store and we had so many of the same interests. She loved to play her Super Nintendo on a tiny CRT screen and would stay up late nights playing Fallout 2. She had assembled a Teen Titans Raven costume to wear and has a Batman tattoo. It was a match made in Gotham.

3 years ago today we escaped out to Las Vegas to get hitched. Family and friends were still there and it wasn’t weird. I wore a suit, she wore a dress (which for us was still like wearing a costume). Ever since that time, I am constantly amazed that we managed to find each other and still wonder/fear that this amazing dream will end.

I hope it never does.

Happy Anniversary Sarah!

MINI Photoshoot

Posted by Steve on February 6, 2012 No comments

This last Saturday we scheduled some time with the MINI club (DC Metro MINI’s) to get a bunch of us out for a photo shoot. Turns out a lot of the MINI folks are really into photography as well! One of the folks found a really nice parking garage and we line up about 15 MINI’s to start taking pictures. After we spent about 3 hours shooting in the garage we headed out to Wolf Trap in Northern VA for some outside shots. Unfortunately it started to rain so I ended up putting my D5100 away (no weather sealing). Thankfully some of the others had the right equipment and we got some great shots.

You can see all of the shots at these flickr links, below is just a few of the shots:

Scarfs are cool.

Posted by Steve on February 1, 2012 No comments

I have been a very long time reader of a web comic called Real Life Comics. I found the series back in probably around 2002, went back and read all past strips and then have been reading ever since. Needless to say, I have been a big fan. Unfortunately, I never really got into posting on some of the forums and fan groups because I just didn’t need yet another social site to try and keep up with. None the less, I love the strip and the work that Greg does. Every now and then he would throw up a strip that nearly mirrors conversations that Sarah and I have had! (Some of them almost verbatim).

Well yesterday Greg posted about a charity auction that he was helping out with by donating his hand made 4th Doctor Who scarf! Now, Sarah already owns a 4th Doctor scarf and loves it. I have always been jealous of her massive warmth in who-dom. So I got pretty excited about the potential to have my own that 1: Was hand made by someone who I am a big fan of, 2: helps out a great charity!

So Last night I sat and watched the timer tick down on the auction waiting for the price to skyrocket out of my range and was pleasantly surprised when it didn’t! For just over $200 I am now the proud owner of Greg Dean’s Hand Made Doctor Who Scarf!

Big thanks go out to Greg for making laugh on a (nearly) daily basis!

Chili

Posted by Steve on January 24, 2012 No comments

Decided I really need to step back up my picture taking so my goal is to try and get a good shot in at least once a week. This doesn’t include the shots I take for Sarah’s food/craft blog.

Click to embiggen.

Craft Night Prep (FitBit Data)

Posted by Steve on January 23, 2012 No comments

So tonight was out usual weekly craft night so there was a lot of running around, picking up the house, general cleaning and such. Not to mention all the walking around the house while folks are over, visiting, helping out etc. I wasn’t sure exactly how much of this I was doing until after all was said and done I sat down and looked at the FitBit data that had been collected through the day.

Woah, I move around a lot!

It’s FitBit time again!

Posted by Steve on January 17, 2012 No comments

This is the Data from a Day walking around Boston

Last year I jumped on the workout/diet train with a vengeance due to my weighing in at close to 200lbs. I realize that even at 6ft 1in that 200lbs is not terrible, but I was feeling bad and wanted to get down to 180lbs. A friend of mine gave me his old FitBit and I went to town on the workout train. After using the website and clip for about 6 months I managed to reach my target of 180lbs and went into maintain mode. That is….until the holidays came around. This usually feels like the case, I will be good through September and then that last quarter I just fall off the wagon. Well it’s January and that means it’s time to saddle up and get cracking! (and a few other euphemisms)

Sarah and I both picked up the new FitBit Ultra’s and have been tracking the best we can. The new ultra has the ability to detect when you go up stairs and will display how many floors you have climbed. Because of this, I have started climbing the 6 flights of stairs at work, just for fun! (Who climbs stairs for fun!?!?!?! oh wait, I do!) We have been careful about what we eat and have even been following some of the teachings in the 4 hour body book by Tim Ferriss. The goal this time? Under 180lbs and better toning. How to go about this? Monitoring on FitBit, adjusting intake to be under my daily burn, and increase activity. I rearranged the basement for better use of the workout equipment we have, and plan to make use of the Kinect workout games. I know that last bit sounds cheesy, but you would be surprised how well it works.

Please feel free to follow my progress on my FitBit profile, and if you have a FitBit, ADD ME!

Importing the Past

Posted by Steve on January 17, 2012 No comments

The latest events on the website has gotten me in the mindset of cleaning up an making better. I had originally just had a link off to the side for the old blog that I had using Blogger. Blogger wasn’t bad, but I wanted more of what WordPress had to offer. At the time when I switched it was a huge pain to import all the old posts. Since then WP has come out with a number of tools that made the import painless. Downside being that many of the old posts didn’t have titles or tags etc. Guess what, odd are, they will continue in that state!! No offense, but that’s 8 years of old posts, I may review a few but to clean up that much would be a teh suck. Mostly I just wanted to ensure all my posts are maintained in the same place.

So enjoy the archive full of the past. More to come this week (maybe even later today!)