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December 29, 2005
Renaissance Festival: The Knights
I looked through some more of my Renaissance Festival pics the other day. I realized that I haven't posted any pics from the Knights' Tournament. So here you go. Enjoy!
I Challenge You to a Duel...
Mighty Knight and his Steed...
A Shielded Attack...
Posted by aeon3 at 06:43 PM | Comments (0)
December 23, 2005
Happy Holidays!
Well it's the holiday season again. I just finished (for the most part) all of my Christmas shopping and UPSing gifts off to my out of state relatives. I am the definition of procrastination, what can I say. But don't worry, I didn't forget about you guys. I picked us (you, the reader/photography buffs, and myself) up a couple of presents. They are both like in nature, but each serves a distinctly different function. "What are they", you ask. Well the first is the heavily back-ordered 18-200mm f/3.5-5.6 G ED-IF AF-S VR DX Nikkor Zoom Lens and the second is the popular 50mm f/1.8D AF Nikkor Lens. Now I can imagine what's going through your mind right now, "Wow, but I don't even have a Nikon camera body, and I don't think he even has my address. How/why is he going to get me this present?" Well the present to you will be received in a little less direct manner than that. The thought is that I will hopefully be taking more and better pictures with these lenses, thus you will be given a larger amount of joy through my photography. I know you guys are asking, "but they are kinda pricey, are we, the readers, really worth it." The answer is, "YES!" Your happiness is priceless in my book and I will do whatever it takes to acheive it.
I wish all of my faithful readers/fans/critics/hata's a warm and safe holiday season. May your family time be full of laugher, dinners be fulfilling, and presents be all that you had hoped for.
Merry Chrismahanakwanzika, and a Happy Festivus for the rest of us!
Posted by aeon3 at 04:26 PM | Comments (1)
December 13, 2005
Duluth: Ship in Canal
A couple of pics of one of the ships passing through the canal.
Under the bridge...
And into the bay...
Posted by aeon3 at 12:38 AM | Comments (0)
December 10, 2005
Help! I've been MAME'd!
I'm feeling pretty good after drinking my fair share of Icehouse and Jag last night. My friend MojoJojo threw a stellar party last night. It was an "Arcade Warming" party. His arcades are exactly what you think (check the pic); he has stand up and cocktail style arcade machines. These ones are much sweeter, though. Why? Because 1) he made them himself and has them customized to his liking, and 2) because they are running THOUSANDS OF GAMES! Seriously, if there is any old arcade game you can think of, he has it in there. He does this using MAME (multiple arcade machine emulator). I played Altered Beast, Shinobi, some 1942-style fighter jet game that I can't remember the name of, and the classic PacMan. I played until my hands felt like they wanted to fall of... and I hadn't even touched the tip of the iceberg! It definitely made me consider making one or buying one from him. If anyone is interested in one, let me know and I'll get you in touch with him. They are a bit pricy (around $1600), but they are well worth it considering all of the hard work and materials that go into them. Look at it this way, you probably wouldn't think twice about spending that kind of money on a pool table for your rec/bar room, right? Well you would get way more variety and a lot more hours of fun out of an arcade than you would out of a pool table, all for the same price and less floor space. Plus, it can be set up to take quarters, too (it usually plays for free). Honestly, no rec room or basement bar is complete without one. Once I finish off my basement (if I ever start), I'll most likely be putting one down there. There's nothing like that nostalgic feeling of standing at the arcade for hours.
Posted by aeon3 at 11:42 AM | Comments (0)
December 07, 2005
Punny: Rudov and his wife...
There was a man, Rudov, who lived in St. Paul with his wife. Being from Russia, he earned the nicknamed "the Red". Well one warm December day Rudov and his wife were enjoying a delicious breakfast. His wife looks out of their kitchen window and notices some precipitation. His wife says, "Look, Honey, it's snowing out!" Rudov looks out the window and protests, "That is obviously not snow, it's rain!" The wife mumbles under her breath, "I guess 'the Red' can't tell the difference between snow and rain." Flustered and insulted he turns to his wife with a stern face and says, "Rudov 'the Red' knows rain dear!!".
Posted by aeon3 at 12:17 AM | Comments (0)
December 04, 2005
Duluth: North Shore Style Comp Weekend
Just got back from a good weekend in Duluth. Spent most of Saturday at the North Shore Style Rock Climbing competition. It was a well put-together, well sponsored, and well attended comp. Yours truly came in third place in the men's intermediate category. Unfortunately, they only gave out prizes (for some odd reason) to the 1st place finishers of each of the 6 categories (instead of to the top 3 finishers of each). Although I didn't win a prize from my climbing skillz, I did manage to walk away the winner of a long sleeve shirt during one of the raffles. Congrats to all of the other 17 top finishers.
Saturday night was spent eating and drinking at Old Chicago's and chilling out at our hotel, the Inn on Lake Superior. I tried out the new Leinenkugels Apple Spice brew. It was pretty good, though I'd only recommend drinking it in small (12oz) quantities. It had much more of a tart apple flavor than I was expecting/hoping for.
The Inn was pretty nice. They have a small heated pool on the roof outside. That, mixed with about a -10ºF wind chill, made for many a funny frozen hair-do. I also learned a new mathematical formula:
-10ºF wind chill + cold/icy concrete roof + me in just a swimsuit + stuff in my pockets + a wonderful 102ºF heated pool = "me pulling a Chris Anderson" (Note: pulling a Chris Anderson consists of jumping into a body of water (hot tub, Lake Superior, etc.) with your cell phone still in your pocket).
Fortunately for me I realized right away that my phone was in my pocket (it started vibrating, begging for air, about 5 seconds after I jumped in). So I pulled it apart and set up on a towel by the pool deck to dry (a.k.a. freeze). After being submerged, then frozen, then dried out, my phone works like a charm *knock on wood*.
So here's my advice of the week! If you ever drench your phone, remove the phone from water ASAP, pull out the battery, and place all of its pieces into the freezer. After about an hour (or until frozen), remove the phone's components and let dry in ambient (72ºF) air over night. Then Presto!, you're phone is magically working again. This is what worked for me, so I'm sure it'll work for you. (Disclaimer*: Don't listen to me... I'm obviously an idiot who just got lucky!)
I guess you can say all's well that ends well. I leave you with a couple of pics from the beautiful, sunny, 12ºF afternoon on Sunday...
A Cold Wait...
Navigating the Canal...
*Additional note to disclaimer: Being an electrical engineer I highly recommend NOT letting your phone freeze while full of water. Why? Because water loves to expand when it freezes, causing all of your phone's nifty hi-tech components, solder joints, and LCDs to flex and crack in ways they aren't supposed to. What I would recommend is to remove your cell's battery and place all pieces into a warm, dry environment to dry. (no, not your oven)
Posted by aeon3 at 08:41 PM | Comments (2)
December 01, 2005
Grain Belt Premium... Delicious!!
I was checking out my friend Pete's blog and came across a nice river picture from cascade state park. After seeing this picture I got inspired. Yes, I know, I should go into advertising. Check out my mad creative microsoft paintshop handiwork.
Posted by aeon3 at 12:45 AM | Comments (1)