Devauld.ca

Another year, another revolution around the sun.  I added another click on my chronometer; doing so with a few close friends.  We collected at the Bermuda casa, and began merriment, electronic entertainment while enjoying a layout of deep fried foods.

I think it is a matter of safety that I limit these indulgences to no more than one per year.  As delicious as the food tasted, I'm sure the spread of corn dogs, tacos, cheese balls, hush-puppies, chips and frieds that all spent some time in a vat of oil did not do too much for me in the longevity department.  Mike has some photos on flickr, if you'd like to see our wares.

The remainder of the 3-6-9 festivities resulted in a trip to Ducky's Pub.  Ducky's does not fall into the 'high end' category, and is more often associated with a 'dive'.  It is a good deal of fun, and I definitely enjoyed the evening, although I did not enjoy the next morning.

Google has changed the world in which we live.  They have brought about a lot of great technological changes in the web space, and continue to give away their servies (mostly) for free.  Google suggestions isn't anything new; basically they take what you've typed into their search so far, and help out with the most common searches they service.  The results move between gut splittingly funny and downright scary.

When I started off with "Where do I find..." apparently a lot of people are looking for real vampires and Chuck Norris.  Some real fun can be had with proper nouns and the word "is".  "Apple is ", "Microsoft is ", "Firefox is", "Ford is " or the pluralized "Cows are", "People are" or "Politicians are " can each give up a short laugh, and keep one entertained for some time.  If I punch in "Wes is " (include the space) I find that the two most common searches are "Wes is a douchebag" and "Wes is legend".  Thankfully the legend returns more results.

Unfortunately, the crowd sourced suggestions show us how dumb a lot of people really are.  Punching in "Monkeys are" will give you the top two suggestions of: "Monkeys are made of chocolate" and "Monkeys aren't donkeys".  Still not convinced?  Place "What do I do when " and "What do I do if " in the search bar and have a look at what you get told.

I'm afraid I have a bit of a vice: I quite enjoy electronic gaming.  I put it on my list of vices right after pistachios and bacon.  The difference between this third place vice and the two of higher rankings is that I don't try to curb my intake of video games.

I have always preferred interactive entertainment to the passive kind.  I do not believe I'm alone in this, since some video games have generated more revenues than a lot of movies.  The challenge of these games continue to entrance me.  Sometimes a piece of software woven by a dedicated producer will keep me entranced day after day.  If you do not believe me, you can always ask my Xbox.

Today, that all changed.  My Xbox has been on the edge lately; during a recent game, it decided to give me a bit of attitude and locked up.  A few power cycles and it appeared to be good to continue fulfilling its purpose.  I even spent some time testing it the next day, thinking I was ensuring the continuation of my video entertainment experience.  After work today I thought I would spend some time wacking people with a lightsaber when the console decided to stop processing instructions.

At first I thought I was only a power cycle away from getting back into the action, although when I fulfilled my part of the bargin, the xbox decided to kick it up a notch and show me the dreaded RROD.  This is not unfamiliar territory for me, as I've already burned out my first console.

I readied myself for Microsoft Support, and sent myself into their portal.   After some time dealing with the Terminator of support websites, I managed to get to a point where I could troubleshoot my console.  The instructions were easy to follow, and led to absolutely nowhere.  The end of my online experience was a page that told me that my warranty was expired; a simple form into which I could place my credit card was displayed to me.

Phone Wes transcended the cage into which I put him and dialed customer support.  The poor indian call center employee did not know what hit him.  The other end of the phone seemed to be equipped with every answer and a plethora of questions.  Phone Wes was curious how a console manufactured less than two years ago could already be outside the 3 year manufacturer's warranty.  The unfortunate part is that Phone Wes is a bit of a prick, and can be rather aggressive towards the wrong target.

About half way through the conversation, I started to feel bad for 'Neil' as he didn't seem to have any of the answers, although he was more than willing to help.  After a severe beating, it was agreed that the big corporation would pay for the repairs.  A tentative peace was formed, and relavent details exchanged.  Very soon, I can get back to my electronic distraction from Pistachios and Bacon

Photo Friday threw up the challenge of 'Distant' and I figured I'd use one of my more recent photos from Dorothy Alberta.  The photo is taken using an infrared converted D70s.  I found the highway intriguing as it was straight for what seemed like forever, before taking a sharp turn out of the valley.

The only post processing done was to convert the RAW into a Monochrome.

Photo Friday threw out the challenge of Damaged this week.  The first ideas that came to mind were some photos I had of broken down farm equipment, and some old vehicles.  Once I was in my photo library, however, I remembered that I have photography that involves high speed captures of things getting destroyed.  This photograph was taken around the time we started moving past the technical hurdles of high speed capture into the more artistic considerations of background, lighting and composition.

The idea for this shot was to hit the top of the glass, which was filled with water.  We were successful in finding our target with the other shots of the night, but this show we fired a bit low.  If memory serves, we were launching spent batteries as they were the perfect diameter and weight to fire out of the pneumatic cannon.  The projectile was edited out of the final shot, giving an impression that the glass just descided to break.