Macro Mode

I finally decided to read the instructions for my camera, and learn how to take close-ups. My Canon S30 has several shooting modes, and the one for focusing on something close is called "macro mode".

It turns out that macro mode is very simple to use. Just hit the macro mode button (the icon is a tulip, which didn't really jump out as the button to hit for close-ups), depress the shutter button halfway and let the camera focus, then take the picture. Next up I'll learn how to use manual focus mode. ;)

As an example of my macro-mode experiments, I present an original painting! When I was 10 or 11, I took an art class, which covered pencil drawings to oil painting. My favorite thing to paint was landscapes, especially trees. Still lifes (the proverbial bowl of fruit) were also fun. I remember doing seascapes, but those were tough to get the crash of the wave looking good. One thing I was not very good at was drawing humans, so portraits of any kind were difficult. Anyway, here is a landscape I painted, shot with normal auto-focus:

KLB Landscape


Here is the painting, shot in macro mode:

KLB Landscape (macro mode)


Another example is a souvenir from Agra, India: a marble coaster with inlaid stones.

Coaster


Coaster (macro mode)


As you can see, for close subjects, macro mode is much better than auto-focus.

Great timing, because today I received my new digital camera - the Canon SD20. This will be perfect - it is about the size of my cell phone and iPod Mini!

Mini Gizmos

My growing collection of gizmos.

Now what I need is a silver iPod Mini so it matches the other devices... ;)

Pools (Swimming and Ballroom) Night

I met Krisanne, Eric, and Sandy at the Ballroom to play a few games of pool. I was supposed to meet them for dinner, but the scheduling was tight as I had already arranged to meet Francesca and Jen for a swim workout.

The workout wasn't too bad, but did leave me tired. Part of it was probably dehydration - I forgot to bring along a water bottle to sip. The other part was just the workout itself - a typical masters swim workout includes various pool gizmos. Sometimes it is the pull buoy, which helps keep your legs floating higher, and sometimes it is the kickboard, which... is there just to thrash your legs. What you do is usually hold the kickboard in front, keep your head up, and doggie paddle back and forth. I'm not sure what the point of the kickboard is, because that isn't at all the way you swim any stroke except doggie paddle. I think years ago, somebody has success torturing their swim team with a kickboard and somehow it got ingrained as a great way to train. It probably makes sense if you plan to kick like a motorboat when you swim, but I'm positive there are other efficiency gains to be had that don't require kickboard-style leg work.

We did a few hundred yards of kickboard, and towards the end I cheated a little by sculling with my hands. I didn't feel bad because right before the kickboard drill we did 6x75 sets where the middle 25 yards was kick only, which is like the stupid kickboard drill, except without the kickboard. Bah!

The only thing good about masters swim is it is relatively social. My friend Jen was in the same lane, and Francesca and Ronan were one lane over. So you can chat a little bit here and there. Normally lap swimming is fairly isolating for me - I go to the pool alone, I don't wear contact lenses so I can't see too well, I wear earplugs to avoid dizziness so I can't hear too well - so I usually just work on my own drills or crank out the yardage. This time, I wore my contacts so I could see the others at least!

After showering I met up with Francesca, Jen, and Ronan in a little snack bar, where we all slurped up a post-workout smoothie. We chatted a bit and it was later than I thought before I left. I called Krisanne and found they were going to continue playing pool for a while, so I drove over to join them at the Ballroom in Fremont.

Sandy is up visiting from the Bay Area, scoping out possible places to live here in Seattle. Ironic isn't it, a friend is moving up here around the time I'll be moving to Florida. We teamed up to play Krisanne and Eric, and it was just not our night. We lost the first game by scratching on the 8 ball, and lost the third game by sinking the 8 ball. It was fun though!

House Survey

This morning a representative of the relocation company came by to survey my house, to determine how much packing material is needed. He walked from room to room and asked few questions, while he tapped furiously on his Palm Pilot. That is kind of cool, he and the moving company must run some custom software that records and estimates the amount needed.

As I looked around, I realized I still have a lot more work to do uncluttering my home. Primarily this means cleanup up my study, and the garage. I'm working on the garage, tackling 8 or 9 boxes stacked against the wall. I'm not sure what is in some of them, and perhaps that is a sign that the contents aren't really that important! It is difficult for me to throw stuff away, but I will try very hard this time around. I have some recreational gear I won't take with me, and instead of having a garage sale I'll look to give stuff to friends first.

The housing surveyor asked about my barbecue grill. I'm certainly not taking it with me - I'd prefer buying a new one, perhaps even a different style grill, when I'm there. I don't use it that much, but it does come in handy once in a while. I think the surveyor would buy it from me, but I'm not selling until I use it to throw myself a going away party. ;)

I also called up a landscaping service recommended by my realtor. I need some work on the front lawn: mowing, edging, but the big thing is re-sodding a portion of it. The back and side yard need to be moved as well - I'd do it, but since I'm having this guy come out for re-sodding, I'll be lazy. He'll come by early this Saturday and give an estimate on the work.

Olympia

Today I drove to Olympia with some friends, to check off another item on my to-do list. I thought as an eight year resident, I should visit the Capitol before moving away.

IMG_2173
Originally uploaded by klbarrus.

Washington State Capitol


We were surprised to find the building open on Easter Sunday. We took the tour, which covered the House and Senate Galleries, the Rotunda, and the State Room. Well, we also saw the door of the Governor's office, but not the inside.

In the State Room was an interesting flag. (Sorry about the crappy picture but it had a protective sheet over it, plus there were reflections from oddly angled lights).

42 Star Flag


This flag wasn't actually ever an official flag of the United States, but I thought it was interesting anyway. Washington was the 42nd state to enter the Union, so the residents at the time created a 42 star flag to celebrate. It was a busy time for the U.S. as in the span of 9 days, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, and Washington entered the Union (Nov 2 1889, Nov 2 1889, Nov 8 1889, Nov 11 1889, respectively). Idaho and Wyoming joined the next July (July 3 1890 and July 10 1890), so at that time a 44 star flag was adopted. By this time, Colorado (38th to enter the Union) had been a state for nearly 14 years, without a representative star on the federal flag!

Just as an interesting aside, around the turn of the century, it became custom to only add stars to the federal flag on July 4th. When Alaska entered the Union, the official federal flag added its 49th star on July 4th 1959. Hawaii entered later in 1959, so the 50th star was added on July 4th 1960.

We wandered around outside, and saw a few other things: a sunken garden, World War I memorial, Vietnam War Memorial. The Capitol is on a hill overlooking water, so the view is quite nice. By this time my friend's kids had exhausted their attention span, so we piled in and drove back to Seattle.

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Originally uploaded by klbarrus.

World War I Memorial

Fence Painting

I took some time at lunch to fix my aforementioned graffiti issue. It didn't take too long at all, but then I just painted the five vertical sections of the fence that were affected. I decided to paint today, because the last few days have been dry, while the weekend forecast calls for rain.

Last weekend, I tried to sand off the graffiti, but that didn't work very well at all. The wood was damp and that might have had something to do with it. So a few days ago I went into Home Depot, and bought some paint, latex gloves, and a brush.

I scored on the paint big time - I went with a friend who suggested I check the "oops" section, where I assume paint that wasn't the right color or otherwise mixed and abandoned, is kept. I found a quart of chocolate/dark brown, which was nearly the correct color, for $1.00 - what an enormous bargain!

I went cheap and just used a paper plate for the paint tray. Other than that, the gloves came in handy as by the time I was finished, I had paint smeared all over the fingers and palms. Cleanup was particularly easy because all I had to do is peel them off and rinse off the brush.

While I was painting, a neighbor came up and said hello, and thanked me for taking care of the graffiti. We chatted a short while before he wandered off. The whole time I was thinking that he might have been the person who complained to the city about the graffiti. ;)

Timeline

My local real estate agent talked to her counterpart in Florida and found that I need to make a "non contingent" offer on a house there. This basically means my current house needs to have a sale pending, before I can make an offer on another one.

This pushes out my timeline here, because I'll need to list my house and get an acceptable purchase offer before I move. Since it will take a week or two to get the house ready - I need to have some landscaping done, and unclutter a few rooms - about the earliest I can list it will be week of April 10th. Once listed, I'll wait at least two weeks, and possibly longer, to get purchase offers. Closing will take another two weeks after that, according to my realtor. Add in a week long house hunting trip, and that brings me to the third week of May at the earliest - possibly the last week of May depending on how the offers on my home go.

I contacted my boss and the relo people at work, with the above information, and they were fine with it. The fact is, since I have to sell a house, this is how long it will take.

This is actually good, the more time the better, for many reasons.

New Camera?

I'm thinking of getting a camera to replace my Canon S30. It has served me well and still works great, but I am interested in either a smaller camera, or one with more features. My only complaint is the original battery is lousy - from a full charge, it takes about 5 pictures before flashing the low battery warning, and then croaks around 10 or 15 pictures. Maybe the battery is defective, because that seems really short. Fortunately, the backup battery I got lasts much longer, about 40 or 50 pictures.

One contender is the Canon A95. This camera is nicer: it has more shooting modes, and a twisty "vari-angle" screen which is useful for odd angle shots. Plus, my friend and shutterbug Gail has this camera (or a previous version of it), and if it is good enough for Gail, it will certainly be good enough for me.

Another contender is the Canon SD400 (or the smaller SD20). This camera is very compact, which is something I think about every single time I take my current camera with me somewhere, because a smaller camera would stuff better into a pocket. The SD20 is available in three other colors besides silver, but I'm not sure I'm willing to pay much extra for that.

I am leaning towards the Elph models (the SD400 or the SD20). I'm not a sophisticated camera user, so the fancier features of the A95 would likely go unused. Plus, I would definitely appreciate the smaller size. The SD20 is the smaller of the two Elphs, but would require purchasing new storage media, since it takes secure digital cards instead of compact flash.