The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

Category: General

  • Chef Update

    It has been a while since mentioning Chef here, and I’ve had a few people ask me about it.  So here’s a quick update.

    No, no sales yet.  I am getting a few downloads per week, which I’m pleased about since it is a 260MB download.  Maybe one of these days someone will take the plunge and purchase.

    I have for the most part been taking a break from development, although I do have a decent amount of fixes ready for 1.1.  The big thing left to do is to tackle the download/install process.  I’m going to take the SQL Express install out of the installation package and let it get downloaded after the user installs.  This should kill two birds with one stone: a less intimidating, smaller download; and a simple way to verify the number of installs.  I’m really dreading going through the testing of the installation process since it takes so damn long, but I need to get on it.

    Meanwhile, we’ve started to use it more and more at home even though we’ve yet to get a pc into the kitchen (pending an island or bar or something).  It’s proving to be a nice piece of software to have – if nobody else ever uses it, that’s their loss!

  • New Category

    I’m creating a new category here for photography so those uninterested can tune it out if they wish.

  • Slow PC?

    Last night I was in the middle of doing something on my computer when I realized that it was behaving quite sluggishly – it was even skipping when playing mp3s.  What the heck, I have a pretty good machine (Core 2 Duo, 2GB RAM), I thought.  Surely Vista isn’t bogging the system that much?!

    Then I looked around on my 3 monitors and realized I was actually doing quite a bit of work: Burning 1000 files (4GB) to a DVD, burning a lightscribe DVD label, deleting 12GB from the hard drive, listening to music, and organizing photos in my Adobe Lightroom trial.  Yeaaaah, so with all that going on (plus the regular email, IM, etc.), it’s no wonder that the machine got a little slow.

    With my computer setups at work and home (dual core, multi-monitor), it’s all to easy to forget that you’re taxing the system.

  • Sangamon County Fair

    One of my photos received a 1st place ribbon at the fair this year.   It’s one that I like the least of the ones I entered, go figure.  Here it is:
    Flower small.jpg

    Ana entered a few items and received 2nd for a dress, a cake, and some breads.  She conceded defeat to the 1st place dress but we’re stumped on how the best chocolate cake on the planet gets 2nd place 🙂

  • Gateway Grizzlies

    We attended an Independent League baseball game over the weekend  – the Gateway Grizzlies versus the Evansville Otters.  It was a fun evening topped off with great weather and an awesome cheeseburger.

     

    And just for fun, happy early Father’s Day:

     

     

     

  • Michigan

    We made it back safely from our vacation in Michigan.  We had a great time, and there are plenty of photos to bore you to death.  At least check out the Favorites.

  • Vacation starts….soon

    Tomorrow afternoon we’ll be leaving for a relaxing vacation in Michigan.  It has been a couple years since our last real vacation so it is long overdue.  Unlike most of our other travels, we’ll be taking it easy and don’t have a packed agenda.

    More to come as we’re on our way.

  • Camping: Check.

    We made it back from camping in one piece and had lots of fun while we were at it.  Best line of the trip occurred at Starbucks drive-thru on Saturday morning before leaving:

     

    Cashier (after looking in the bed of Justin’s truck): Oh, going camping?

    Justin: Yep, sure are.

    Cashier (and two others): With a lawnmower?!?

    Justin: Yeah, we have to mow the campsite.  This is serious!

     

    Here are a few photos.

  • Camping

    This weekend I’ll be heading out into the local “wilderness” for some camping.  For the event I’ll be getting out my telescope, something that hasn’t happened much in the last year (once actually) so I’m really looking forward to it.

    Just last weekend I got the scope out and stayed up late and remembered how much I enjoyed the hobby.  That evening I was able to get setup, view, and tear down in well under 2 hours so it proved that I shouldn’t use the excuse of it taking too long.  Which is good, because in 7 months time will not be in my favor 🙂

    I’ve purchased another filter for my camera (a neutral density one for those interested).  Hopefully it’ll arrive before we leave on vacation; it sure would piss me off if it arrives 5 hours after we depart.  Anyway, I wonder why my hobbies include high precision optics (astronomy and photography)….  sure isn’t cheap.

  • Camera Equipment

    Today I should be receiving the last shipments of my camera purchases in preparation for our trip to Michigan at the end of the month.  The inventory will then be:

    • Canon EOS 30D Camera Body
    • Canon 28-135mm IS USM lens
    • Canon 10-22mm USM UltraWide lens & Hood
    • Bogen-Manfroto 3021B Tripod with 3030 pan-tilt head
    • Some cleaning materials
    • UV filters for the two lenses

    I’ll probably (hopefully) spend the weekend outside taking pictures and playing around with this stuff.  Every now and again I’ll put a picture or two in the gallery.