My wife and I going to London soon. Does anyone have any travel advice? We're gonna be there for a week.

I got my Nikon Coolpix SQ to work! It had the hardest time focusing before. About 90% of the photos I took I had to focus the camera at least 5 times. Probably about 25% of the time it didn't want to take the picture at all! Unfortunately, Andrea and I had to put up the the stupid camera all through our trip to Vegas last year.

I have been considering buying the super nice Nikon Coolpix 8800 (just in time for out trip to London) since the SQ was having serious issues. And the battery on my Sony DSC-P5 is almost dead. (A charge lasts for about 15 minutes of picture-taking).

Ironically enough, I was reading an article on the Nikon Coolpix 8800 and I thought of a way to fix the SQ. Most digital cameras have two different ways of focusing:

1. Single-shot focus: the camera will not focus until you press the main button half-way. If the camera is not focused a subject, then it will not take the picture.

2. Continuous AF: AF means Auto Focus. The camera will always focus on whatever it is pointed at.

I had the SQ set to single-shot focus all along. I guess that's the default setting. I had to press the trigger button half way to focus on my subject. Now that doesn't explain why it didn't take the picture. It should have taken the picture when I was focusing.

I changed the setting to Continuous AF. Now it works. Even the AF lamp works. That's the green light that helps illuminate subject when lighting is low. It helps the camera focus on its subject. When I had the camera in single-shot focus mode, the AF lamp would never turn on. I wonder if there is a firmware update for the SQ. hmmmm... I'll have to check out Nikon's site.

SIDE NOTE
I would have loved to give the link to the SQ via dpreview.com, but they never reviewed it. I find they have the best camera reviews because they will compare cameras side by side in great detail. And you could compare full-resolution photos from the camera of choice with another camera. Here's an example of my Sony DSC-P5 (from 2001) compared to its competitor, the Nikon Coolpix 880. There's another site that lets you manually select cameras to compare in full detail. I can't seem to find it at this moment.

and here's a cool 360 degrees photo taken of the SQ. Just click and drag on top of the image to make it move.

Quark is claiming it will release XPress 7.0 late 2005. They also claim that it will be "the most significant upgrade in the product's history." Suuuuuuure. It just sounds like quark is getting desperate.

This article gives a tiny peek into the release. Nothing terribly juicy. Basically the type engine will be rebuilt and the QuarkXPress file format will be opened for XML reading. Keep in mind that this sneak peek was at the TypoTechnica conference so the amount of info released on 7.0 is limited.

Perhaps Frank Gehry's deconstructive, explosive architechtural aesthetic has gotten the best of him. This link shows Frank disturbingly excited about hoisting some Polish hockey trophy.

don't we all know someone we have met at some point in our lives who looks like this guy?

sick and wrong.
Bang!

The U.S. Army has redesigned their uniforms. Here's a short article that compares the new army fatigues with fashion designer, Bryan Bradley's new camoflage digs.

And here's the Army's full explanation of the new unis.

some excerpts.
"No added cost to Soldiers for additional sewing due to the use of hook and pile or pin-on patches, nameplates, and badges". That means the nametags and badges will be velcro. They won't be sewed on any more. That seems kinda lame.

It costs 88 bucks to make each uniform (jacket and pants only. Not included is the patrol cap, moisture wicking t-shirt and Army Combat Boots). That seems like alot of money. Are they lined with the finest French silk or somethin'?

"A permanent press treatment that eliminates the need for Soldiers to pay for costly dry cleaning of their uniforms." Costly dry cleaning? Our nation was paying for our soldiers to use dry cleaning? Ummm... there's something called washer & dryer.

And just for kicks, here's a hi-res photo of soldier wearing some creepy tech gear.

Judo rocks. I think some day i will add a Judo page to my MORE section. I got hooked on Olympic Judo, I'm considering collecting the comic book, "Judo Master" from the 1960s.

And now there is Dog Judo! There are four episodes of Dog Judo featuring 'Ruff' Rex Hunter and 'Barking' Bob Bones. They have english accents too. BRILLANT!

About a month ago, I did some sketches of the unlikely moose playing judo. There is no relation between Dog Judo and Unlikely Moose Judo.

Happy Birthday to Abraham Lincoln!
Actually, I'm wishing this happy birthday a day early. But I bet if Lincoln were still alive, he would be partying the entire weekend.

I've been surfing the web looking for some inspiration for some paintings. I think I found it.
CascadeToys sells puppets of famous world figures. Two of which are Christopher Columbus and Leif Erikkson. These are great! They are pointing at each other as if to say, "That punk didn't discover America. I did!"

I'm also digging the megamouth moose.

And get a load of Jonah and the Whale.

4 new paintings on ebay! These 4 paintings are from the "Lincoln's Contemporaries, Cartoon Style" series. The four featured figures are: Ward Hill Lamon, John A. Dahlgren, Isaac Arnold, and Edward Everett.

These auctions end Tuesday, February 8th, at about 7:00p.m.

Prices start at $9.98 each.

Search for "UNMOOSE" on ebay. Or you can click here.

There's alot of crazy stuff that people associate with Abe Lincoln. At the time of this blog post, there are 61 auctions for "lincoln fry". Remember that french fry that looked like Abe Lincoln in the Super Bowl commercial? People are going crazy!

passwords are funny

I have another set of paintings for sale on ebay. It is my "U.S. Presidents Enjoying Coffee" series. These auctions are set to end Tuesday 2/8/2005 around Noon. Prices range from $9.98 to $20 with $5 shipping for each painting. Search for "UNMOOSE" on ebay. Or you can click here.

January 1984
There's Steve Jobs with a full head of hair and a green bow tie introducing the very first Apple Computer. He looks as giddy as a little school girl. And that "insanely great" tag was part of the splash screen. They should bring that back... or maybe not.

I'm sure all the Apple sites will be swarming with this link soon. I only found one site that has the link. (well, two now.)
Here's the video. It's 20MB so it may take a while to load up.