My Trip to the Zoo

There's a storm raging outside and the weather alert box behind me claims that there is quarter sized hail and 60 mph winds possibly converging overhead. Yay! But earlier today, while overcast, was perfect Zoo weather.
I got to try out my new Zoom Lens and Camera Backpack thingy. Both performed splendidly and I couldn't be happier with my presents!
That sentence was punctuated by a thunder-clap.
For the people playing at home: the lens is a Canon EF 28-135mm 3.5-5.6 IS USM, and the backpack thingy is a Lowepro Slingshot 100 AW. At this point I would comfortably recommend both products to anyone interested in that sort of thing.

Here are some of the results (cropped and/or resized to 600x800 to be used as backgrounds and screensavers on my portable devices):

This first entry is part of the long-standing 'Human Caveman' exhibit. Note the unshaven face, the scruffy hair, that 'devil-may-care' smirk. Be thankful for evolution!
And here was see a more advanced form of life. No brand-labeled marketing materials on this chap! This shot was taken through inches-thick plexi-glass. Be amazed!
A duck. I'm pretty sure it's a duck. The Aviary is never really labeled properly. This one has a house made of straw. The storks had the nest of sticks on top of one of the pagodas, but I never spotted the one made of bricks. Maybe the wolf never gets past the one of sticks. It's a pretty steep climb!
This duck(?) was making neat waves. I may not know species from a hand-cart, but I know pretty neat visuals when I see them!
Here I was trying to prove to myself that a fancy lens in manual mode can be made to focus through a chain-link fence and mesh webbing. Luckily this guy was pretty patient and let me take a few shots until I found the magic settings. I'm pretty sure it's a bird.
This guy is a polar bear. Yup. He seems pretty happy to be a polar bear. Beats being the sacrificial duck in a straw house!
This fellow was just hanging out on a guard-rail. He let me get pretty close before getting nervous, and I got quite a few lovely shots of his plumage. Since he has plumage I'm again pretty certain that this is a bird.
Maybe this was an exhibit, maybe it wasn't. But there was a meadow with a bunch of these little guys hanging out. No fences, but a few park-benches and grills... so... Uhm, Iowa Short-tailed Land Beaver?
I know this one! Hold on... I never forget a face. Uhm....
Unicorn. I shall call him Sprinkles! Sprinkles the happy Unicorn! (The name gets funnier if you've ever seen them pee.)
Giraffe.
Zebra. Serious Zebra. Serious Zebra will get Sprinkles to maul you if you try make a joke about him or his friend Long-neck. So consider yourself warned, Buddy!
I love digital photography! In the few hours we were at the Zoo I took over 500 pictures. I couldn't even imagine doing something like that with a regular film camera. The backpack kept my new toy safe and secure, and was very happy to know that if the heavens HAD broken loose in the torrent that is currently bashing against my window, that the backpack has an integrated water-proof pouch that can be deployed and secured in seconds. :D
All in all... a good day!

Odds and Ends with some Recommendations.

A busy week has passed. I've tried assembling my thoughts coherently so that I could segregate the topics, but that just made me stare at the blank screen. So it is now time for a general brain purge! Find a tarp and take a few steps back...
First off... in the previous post I mentioned demoing an MSI Wind U100 netbook. Part of the deal for getting the demo unit was that our tech-team would write up some impressions that MSI could use for some internal redesign stuff. I won't bore you with the full review, since a quick google will give you many more qualified impressions. My take? I'm continually impressed with the agility of the Atom processor, but that is independent of this model. The newer netbooks all benefit from this tiny, hyper-efficient chip, and the possibilities for these improvements to begin affecting consumer tech in general feels pretty exciting. The U100 is a nice solid unit. The hinges are stiff, and you don't feel like you could break the thing just by picking it up. The touchpad is responsive and easy to use, the touchpad buttons feel a little mushy, but they seem to register consistently so I can forgive that. The keyboard kills it for me. The buttons are nicely spaced. A little compact, but we are talking about a unit that is barely 12 inches across. Touchtyping is possible, but a little tricky since the ridges between keys are fairly shallow. The killer though is the Ctrl key. For some reason the key under the left shift isn't Ctrl, it's Fn. Ctrl is next to it. Try telling that to my pinky finger. Nothing sucks worse than botching a simple Copy Paste routine. I found myself moving my hand off the keyboard to make sure that my fingers were using the right buttons. Not good!
I was also unimpressed with the battery, but the demo unit only had the 3 cell. Bigger batteries would be available. In the end I came away fairly impressed, but at the same time certain that these netbooks aren't designed for professional use. Small resolution screens and cramped keyboards outweigh cheap and portable if you're trying to use one of these buggers for an 8 hour work-day. On the other hand it was awesome having the little thing on my coffee table so I could look things up without having to switch away from what I was doing on my big screen. I'm definitely considering getting A netbook. Probably not THIS netbook, but I'm keeping my eyes open for a good deal. Recommendation: Netbooks are neat, but don't expect too much. They are cheap for a reason.

I've been spending a lot of time with my music collection lately. Now that Amazon sells DRM free MP3s I've done the unthinkable and actually purchased a few albums. The catalyst was a friend from Germany recommending a group she had seen: LaBrassBanda. An awesome little band using trumpets and tubas and such to make some excellent sound. A few minutes on youtube and I started hunting for a good place to pick up the album. One thing led to another and now I'm starting to go through my mind about albums that I miss or wish I had. My latest purchase was The Downward Spiral by Nine Inch Nails. I LOVED that album. I don't even remember how I ended up with the cassette, but the crispy, dark, industrial sound touched a part of my brain that was hungering for something and gave it sustenance. I'm burning the album off to CD at the moment so that I can give it a semi-permanent spot in my car. Recommendation: My experience with purchasing MP3s from Amazon have been positive and I would recommend it. Also, NIN is awesome and I recommend giving Reznor's latest stuff a listen. He has a distinct style which could be easy to dismiss at first listen. But give it another listen. The man has a way of weaving a tapestry with sound. Many of his compositions are bleak or angry, but they contain an emotional depth and raw energy that you rarely find in music.
Break.