Kodachrome

"I've got a Nikon camera and I'd love to take your photograph.
Oh Mama don't take my Kodachrome away."
Paul Simon

I've really enjoyed my Nikon D50. It's definitely a great starter camera for people who've never owned a digital SLR. I've always liked Nikon equipment because you can beat the hell out of it and it tends to keep working. This camera has been no exception. In my experiments I've done some damage to the thing, and after some simple self-repairs it has held up like a champ.

But I find myself wanting more features than a strictly amateur camera can deliver. Nikon has a Pro line, currently the D2x and soon to be the D3, which is hotly anticipated as the first Nikon Full Frame (non crop) digital camera ever. Those bodies, however, are out of my league price wise. I don't have $5-7K to drop on a camera I use purely for a hobby.

That leaves the Nikon Pro-sumer line. The D100, D200 and D300 are Nikon's Pro-sumer lineup. The D300 came out days ago, making the prices on used D200's VERY attractive.

I love the furor when a new gadget comes out. The buy/sell message boards are all covered with messages by people who "accidentally" bought more than one D300 because they were frothing at the mouth so much to be the first person on their block to get one. One person even ended up with three! "I thought I could buy one at the store and race home to cancel my online orders, but both of them already shipped!" What morons.

So I'm camping the online outlets for a D200 with the right price. I don't know if they are going to level off at the ridiculously low level they are right now, or if they are going to drop even lower as more and more of these gadget freaks get their deliveries. Perhaps all the "early-adopters" have gotten their new toys and dumped their previous "latest-and-greatest." But I doubt it. I see the prices dropping even further and people get desperate to pay for their very expensive digital hobby.

Sometimes the hunt is the most entertaining part.

Marketing

Don't put bumper stickers on the back of your vehicle telling me who you think I should vote for, then DRIVE LIKE A COMPLETE IDIOT.

That is all.

Night Fun

Here's the dock outside the house I'm staying at in Jacksonville Florida. It's dark as a pitch out there but I caught the moon pretty full with a nice reflection on the river water. I used a six second exposure and I ran out there and flashed the tree and the flag to freeze the action. The long exposure makes it look more like dusk even though it was really the dark of night. You can't see me standing in the middle of the frame because no light was hitting me. I ran out there to fire the flash handheld. In some of the shots you can see a ghostly image of me, but this one I didn't let any light reflect back at me by aiming the flash higher into the air.

Click on the photo to see a larger version.

Floriduh

I'm in Florida for Thanksgiving and I haven't even thought about poker for about a week...and happier of it. After Vegas I might try not thinking about poker full time.

I'm amazed at all the Ron Paul signs I have been seeing around Florida and elsewhere. I think maybe the Tennessee folks are in a funk because they'd be Thompson supporters if he wasn't coming off like a total old fart. He might pick up some steam yet but the Tennesseans aren't jumping on the bandwagon until there's some indication he might have a shot.

Anyway, my final thought is that it's really been nice hanging around with successful positive thinking people. If all you do is hang around with unemployed losers and assholes, you will eventually become one of them. It's the transitive property of human beings. Surround yourself with intelligent positive successful people and you will find yourself being more like them.

I can't remember the last time I sat at a poker table that didn't have at least one loser or asshole at it. Probably Okie-Vegas or Cincinnati. Otherwise the game pretty much puts you in constant contact with people who will drag you down with them if you get too close to them. Be careful about that. Poker is definitely entrenched in the world of losers and users. Try to just visit it when you play. Don't take up residence there.

Of Course...

It's not coincidence that I'm the greatest movie ever made...

What Classic Movie Are You?
personality tests by similarminds.com

The Best Thing

The very best thing about being a New York Yankees fan is that you never EVER lose a player on your team that they really wanted to keep but had to let go for "economic" reasons.

Poker Comic #172

Poker Comic presented by Free Poker Money. Some places offer $25 Free Money. Some offer $50 or $75 Free Money. Here you get $100, with No Deposit Required and No Credit Card Required. (New Players Only, Must be 21 or older.)

Click HERE to view the Comics Archive

Business Idea

I think an interesting online business opportunity exists. There seems to be a market for the services of preventing intellectual property from being reproduced on the internet by non-copyright holders.

The only problem with such a business is that it simply isn't possible to prevent intellectual property from being taken. Fortunately, that would not be a requirement for our business.

You see, no reasonable person actually thinks you can prevent their intellectual property from being stolen. So what are they actually expecting when they hire someone to try to do this for them? They want somebody to do something. Anything.

Prince (the artist formerly and currently known as) actually hired the "Web Sheriff," John Giacobbi, to try to prevent his music from being traded on the internets.

This guy has the ultimate scam going. I see a great opportunity if anyone wants in on the scam.

All you do is claim you've prevented the music from being "stolen" by some sites (you can just make up the names of some sites that sound fairly "piratey") and then you charge this naive artist that has no idea about technology a SHIT TON of money for your "services." Maybe set up your own shill "pirate music" sites, then SHUT THEM DOWN with EXTREME PREJUDICE.

Maybe make a few unrealistic legal threats against existing pirate sites, or really just threats of making legal threats. Feed a few bogus stories to the media saying that you're going to "bring down the pirates." Television "news" shows and other media outlets LOVE that sensationalist garbage. They get to drop flashy celebrity names and repeat idle threats. It's quite a racket.

I really think this business could work. Who's in?

Poker Comic #171

Poker Comic presented by Free Poker Money. Some places offer $25 Free Money. Some offer $50 or $75 Free Money. Here you get $100, with No Deposit Required and No Credit Card Required. (New Players Only, Must be 21 or older.)

Click HERE to view the Comics Archive

Poker Comic #170

Poker Comic presented by Free Poker Money. Some places offer $25 Free Money. Some offer $50 or $75 Free Money. Here you get $100, with No Deposit Required and No Credit Card Required. (New Players Only, Must be 21 or older.)

Click HERE to view the Comics Archive

Vegas in December

Checking out Google Maps, I found out that I actually live geographically closer to Huntsville Alabama than I do to Nashville Tennessee. That puts me closer to the Huntsville Airport than the Nashville Airport, and that's not even counting the traffic which is horrendous up there, because I40, I24 and I65 all converge near there. It's your basic nightmare if you're trying to make a flight. Either you're two hours early because the traffic is lighter than you thought, or you're driving on the shoulder to try to get there in time to run to your gate.

I then discovered that Allegiant Air flies to Las Vegas for $99 per flight several days a week out of the Huntsville Airport. If you haven't checked out Allegiant Air you should...they don't fly from a lot of huge airports, but if you happen to be close to a smaller alternative airport, you can get to some really cool locations like the Caribbean and Orlando VERY cheaply. Including of course, Las Vegas. It's basically a vacation airline so you don't get many business fliers on the planes, just a bunch of people who are there to have fun. For example, they don't fly from the Nashville Airport, but they fly from Knoxville and Chattanooga. $198 plus fees is a pretty unbeatable deal for me.

It's been over a year since I've been to Las Vegas, and I'm feeling the itch. Since there's no live poker here in Tennessee, I haven't played live since I met up with Surflexus and Tripjax in Tunica. A six hour flight to Vegas beats a four hour drive to Tunica any day.

So I'm seriously considering the Blogger Gathering in Las Vegas. If I go I'll have to lay low since there will be some people who seek to do me harm, but hopefully I can meet up with the people who would be happy to see me, and that I'd be happy to see again. I think I'd be leading a contest of "Poker Bloggers who have received the most death threats," so I'll probably try to avoid too large a crowd. No big deal since I mostly just park my ass at a poker table and play for the bulk of the time I'm there anyway.

Also fuck them. I'd never let them influence whether I attend a blogger gathering or not.

Now I'm off to find a cheap room. Any ideas would be welcomed in comments.

Graceful Exit

When you get knocked out of a tournament on a bad beat, that's when your true character comes out.

Some people seem to think that when they lose their temper and start calling names, that's somehow acceptable because there's some sort of grace period after they lose.

But they've got it backwards. They'd have you believe that they are actually very nice people, but once in a while an asshole part of them comes out under some circumstances.

But they're actually full of shit. They are REALLY that asshole. That's their real self, hiding behind the facade all that time. The nice guy act is so that people will interact with them at all. This is especially true if they want something from you.

Just remember, when someone acts like a real jerkoff after getting a bad beat, they're not acting.