SomeGuyWithA.com

I try to do a lot of home based projects.   Everything from painting, to building, to stonework and cabinetry.   I collect a few tools to do these jobs but you can never have enough of certain things.    Here are a few items I need to round out my tools for the projects I currently have on my list to complete:

• A high quality stacked dado set
• Cyclone dust collection system like this one or this one
• Larger band saw 14″ w/a 2HP motor
• Shelves, shelves, and more shelves
• An extension table for my JoinTech SawTrain system

In August of 1990 we moved to this home in Hope, New Jersey.   At the time we were told the house was about 100 years old.   After 15 years in the home we decided that it was time to move on to a slightly larger home and the house has now been for sale for a while.  Anyone interested should look on the Burgdorf website and cross linking this post on several historic home sites.

As we lived there we cleaned, upgraded and restored many features of the house and over time discovered that the home was significantly older than we had thought.  Although I haven’t dome complete deed and title search on the home I can tell you based on construction and details uncovered during restorations that the home dates back to at least 1816, but I am sure that the core construction is significantly older than that.  

I think sometimes that I have too many interests…   Anyway on the home theater from here are the top three things I am looking for…

• Nice Home Theater Receiver with upmixing to Component or HDMI.   It must have home network MP3 streaming capability.   It should have some DSP optimization tools.
• A HD display capable of 1080p and at least 56″.  Top considerations are Samsung thin DLP, Sony XSRD.
• The last item doesn’t exist yet.   I want HD Tivo for DirecTV.

Not to much

Chris Angel the illusionist swallows a coin that is marked by an observer and then cuts it out of his arm.   What devilry is afoot here?

I think fake skin and rare earth magnets are definitely involved, but how does it get from inside his mouth to inside the fake skin pocket?

My daughter showed me two videos by a ban called Ok Go on YouTube tonight.   An interesting band..,   I couldn’t get too much information on the band, but they were on Letterman on August 29th and the Video Music Awards last night.  If you’re interested the band has a website.

Can you remember the last time you actually thought that Microsoft was actually doing something cool? Well according to an article on SlashGear We might be seeing technology like this within the next year. Cool indeed! Imagine the practical implications and what this could to for the sex/porn/webcam business medical and healthcare fields.

I read this article that covers a lot of the information I’ve been looking for on how to improve not only this blog, but several others and improve their visibility.

Lenses

• First and best…  17-55m DX + hood. Basically a great “standard lens.” It’s not perfect, but it has enough quality and range and fits the focal lengths between the 12-24mm and 70-200mm reasonably.
• The a decent Tele-Converter the TC-17E. A 1.4x is not enough to really get excited about (that gives me a 100-280 zoom, only 80mm more than normal), while the 2x starts to show visible degradation.
• 12-24mm DX + hood or the Tokina AT-X 124 AF PRO DX. I lile to shoot landscapesa and need wide angle, high quality, and these are the best of the bunch right now.
• Then I want to replace my standard 70-300f4 with the 70-200mm VR f2.8 + hood. The telephoto workhorse. There’s nothing better in this range, though you do need to watch for flare issues.
• 85mm PC just because this is one of the coolest lenses of all time and gives tilt-shift capability when you need it, though not necessarily at the focal length I want that at. An interesting choice for two-shot telephoto panoramas (one shot shifted one way, second shot shifted all the way to the other side).
• 77mm filter stack. Caps on a stack that consists of IR, ND, polarizer, FLD, and CU filters.
• Note that all the filterable lenses in the kit are all 77mm

Goodies

• DR-6 Right angle finder.
• MC-30 remote.
• Extra battery(s)
• A second SB-800 flash and a diffuser
• SC-17 cable for getting flash off camera
• Nikon Coolwalker
• LensPen and microfiber cloth.

At TechEd, I am staying at the Boston Sheraton near Fenway park. Up on the corner is the oldest continuously operating firehouse in the country.  It was established in 1878. At home, I’m a firefighter and a lifelong Red Sox fan too! This shirt was too cool to pass up.