8627
Ok, so here's a quiz for you. If you've forgotten, I've just gotten back from my vacation to Alaska. (Ok, "just" may be stretching it, but it feels like I just got back. Except when I'm at work, and then I feel like I haven't had a vacation in years.) So, anyway, here's a quick little quiz that requires no studying, but is good for bonus points.

The number 8627 is relevant to my vacations because it is;

A) the number of frequent flier miles I accrued, based on air travel, sea travel, and credit card usage on my vacation

B) the actual number of miles travelled, counting the distance from Phoenix, AZ to Anchorage, AK, plus stops in Whittier, Sitka, Juneau, Skagway, Ketchikan, Vancouver, and Seattle.

C) the average number of calories consumed per day at on the all you can eat, all the time, cruise ship

D) the number of photos taken during my 7 day trip

Speaking of which, while you make up your minds, I would strongly recommend AVOIDING Carnival Cruise Lines, if at all possible. And it certainly should be. I've heard great things about Carribean Cruise Lines, although I haven't personally sailed with them. But, Carnival is horrible.

They have only two interests; sucking the maximum number of dollars out of each passenger and moving "units", a designation that covers both passengers and their baggage, as efficiently as possible, with no other considerations, such as comfort, convenience, or even courtesy. Oh, and never, EVER book a shore excursion through the boat.

It will cost you 30% to 100% more than booking it yourself, and all the pressure they put on you to purchase by warning you that they sell out is a steaming pile of There is NO chance of that happening. The excursion people know exactly how many potential customers are sailing into town on each day, and they know this months in advance, and they're more than ready to accommodate every single one of them.

So, what answer did you pick? If you picked C, the calories, you may not be far off. But surprisingly, although my cholesterol may have shot up, my weight did not. I weigh slightly less than I did before the cruise, according to the scale at the gym. (How did THAT happen?!?)

But, the correct answer is D. I came home with 8627 photos. If you think that's insane, well ... ok, I can't really argue with that, but it's not as bad as it sounds. Maybe. Cuz, a good number of them are sort of duplicates. I used auto-bracketing for many of them, and I always save both a RAW and a JPEG version of each shot. I use small JPEGs so I can identify the shots without opening the RAW files, since even Vista can't display Canon's CR2 Raw format.

So far, I've been through all of them once, and eliminated ... well... some. Not enough. I'm not sure how many, because I don't feel like doing the math, again. Those files are scattered amongst 24 different folders, so it's a pain to total them up.

The good news is that there are some that are actually worth looking at! Unfortunately, they don't include any shots of bears or whales. (I did SEE plenty of whales, but they were mostly in the buffet lines, and not very photogenic. Ahab would have been ecstatic.) But, they do include some utterly spectacular scenery, some rarely seen sights, lots of eagles (which are NOT rare, up there), and Sea Otters Oh, and a Raven or two, for us Corvid lovers They're quite common, up there, too.

So, bear with me (no pun intended, for a change), and I'll have something to show you, soon. I hope. The hard part is going to be picking the ones to upload, so I don't overdo it.

Thanks!
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As always, all your comments, positive or negative, are welcome but, if you want me to see them, don't leave them on this page. Send me a note or comment on a photo, and I'll see it much sooner. Feel free to link to anything of yours that I've faved, from this page, though.

And, if you dropped by to say thank you,

You're Welcome!

If you said something nice about me,

Thanks!

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Take Off...
for the Great White North, as Bob and Doug MacKenzie recommended, with a little help from Geddy Lee, oh so long ago. Well, that's what I'm doing. I'm off to Alaska very, very, very early in the morning. (I'm not looking forward to that part, in case you couldn't tell. The reason they shoot people at dawn is because most of us would rather die than be up that early.)

So, forgive me for not thanking you all individually for the recent s. But, thank you all! They are definitely appreciated. And, I apologize for not being able to look at all your deviations. I know I'll be missing some great art, but I also know I'll never catch up, so why even pretend?

I'll be back in a week or so, assuming I don't fall off the boat or get eaten by a bear. Take off, eh! Hoser!

Thanks!
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As always, all your comments, positive or negative, are welcome but, if you want me to see them, don't leave them on this page. Send me a note or comment on a photo, and I'll see it much sooner. Feel free to link to anything of yours that I've faved, from this page, though.

And, if you dropped by to say thank you,

You're Welcome!

If you said something nice about me,

Thanks!

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Cluckin' A!!

Ok, so "cluckin" isn't really the correct word, but it does rhyme with the right word, and I don't like to offend people who haven't offended me. (Unlike people who HAVE offended me. Them I love to offend ) So, anyway, what's the excitement? A new keyboard.

Why is that exciting? Because I can type, again! It's not one of those pathetic, mushy, godawful, useless, carpal-tunnel-inducing pieces of crap that have become standard in the last ten years. As someone who makes his living typing, and is old enough to remember primo keyboards, they are a subject I take seriously. Unfortunately, most manufacturers don't, these days.

Those horrendous membrane-based piles of foetid, festering feces that have become the standard simply because they can be manufactured cheaper than a worthwhile, ergonomically superior keyboard that uses mechanical switches, are the worst thing that's happened to computing since viruses were invented. It's no coincidence that carpal tunnel syndrome became an epidemic shortly after mushboards became the norm.

Mushboards force typists to exert more force on each keystroke, or keyJAB really, than a good keyboard, because there's no tactile feedback unless the key jolts against the board. Mechanical switches don't have that problem. There's both an audible click (usually...there doesn't have to be), and a tactile cue that tells the typist's finger that the key has been successfully pressed long before the key bottoms out. The result is a much less stressful typing experience.

Luckily, there are some manufacturers who still make good old-fashioned mechanical switch keyboards. Generally, they're ridiculously expensive, these days. Not because they have to be, but because they've become a niche market. BUT, there is an exception! I recently found an IOne Scorpius M10 keyboard, brand new, for sale on eBay for $49.99, as a Buy It Now deal. No bidding. It appears to be that seller's standard price, and he has more, if you're interested.

That may sound like a lot, compared to the bottom of the barrel $10 or $15 mushboards, or even the $30 middle of the road, "web-enabled" boards, but it will outlast those by a factor of 10, and it makes typing SOOOO much more pleasant that it's a whole different experience. A good keyboard also allows most people to improve their typing speed dramatically. I HIGHLY recommend one.

So, it arrived today, and I'm happily typing this on it, loving the click and feel. It has no bells and whistles, no special butons that launch a web browser or play music, but damn, I'm loving it. Cluckin' A, bubba!

Remodelling News

Hmm. Well, my replacement medicine cabinet showed up today, too. In one piece, this time, although the hinges are so loose they're barely attached. But, that's minor. I can tighten the screws. I hadn't noticed, before, that the cabinet doesn't have any provision for mounting it on the wall.

That's kind of annoying. What good is it, if you can't mount it? It's not that it will be all that difficult to do, but they could have made it much easier by supplying mounting holes. Oh, well. It will look good when I get it mounted. Then I can do the last few touches and I'll be ready to take some photos to share with those who may be curious, after all this time.

Thanks!
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Well, several of my biggest fans and best friends, here, have featured some of my work. I wish I could do the fancy links back to them, but that seems to be another limitation of the free accounts. So, I hope they'll understand that I truly do appreciate the support.

As always, all your comments, positive or negative, are welcome but, if you want me to see them, don't leave them on this page. Send me a note or comment on a photo, and I'll see it much sooner. Feel free to link to anything of yours that I've faved, from this page, though.

And, if you dropped by to say thank you,

You're Welcome!

If you said something nice about me,

Thanks!

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