Things to Read
(say that 10x fast! Ha!)100 Most Beautiful Places in the World - All the places I want to one day see with my own eyes.
Enneagrams...[More]
Pocket Projectors
I guess I’m getting a bit behind these days. I was just joking a few weeks ago about the possibility of having “pocket projectors” in the future. Turns out they already have them! So tiny too - I can’t believe it. 
Example:
Can’t believe something like that even exists. It might even be smaller than the mini speakers I have. Unfortunately, the pricetag is over $200… just a tad too expensive. Maybe when they start making them for under $100… and maybe if the lightbulbs were replacable.
As usual, adding this to my list of interesting gadgets and tech to buy. Always looking for interesting stuff like this - anyone feel free to send me items as well!
File Management
Tools to sort, rename, and organize your files...
Seems like the operating system would be best for managing your files, but this isn't always the case. Several times, I'd want to rename a whole batch of files, or maybe I'd want to fix the creation times of my pictures. As usual, the free stuff is always best - there's no reason to buy bloated software for essential needs as these. Below are the best I've found. Feel free to suggest more.
Programs and Tools
JPEG Timestamp Modifier
If you like to take alot of pictures like I do - better yet if you like to hoard a lot of pictures everyone else like I do - you’ll find the times don’t always match up between cameras. It kind of kills the point of having an album if the pictures don’t line.
I tried to come up with a solution with my file modifier, which works, but lacks an interface. I admit that the tool I found here by far trumps mine. If I had known it existed, I wouldn’t even have bothered making mine.
The JPEG Timestamp Modifier basically lets you set all the creation/modified times to the time picture taken (on the EXIF) or you can shift the times up and down by hr/sec increments. You can load multiple files at once as well. I don’t see anything missing from the package. Definitely something to check out.
Origami Folding
If you know any other nice tutorials, do add. I'm always wanting to learn more - and perhaps figure out a few that I used to know how to make but forgot lately.
How to Fly... or Throw Yourself at the Ground and Miss
Found this interesting site and article on how to fly. Sadly, it was the only link available on google (near the top anyways) that was actually related to flying flying - not flying with some giant overpriced piece of metal carrying you. Definitely sounds like fun - I’ll be trying that soon hehe. 
I suppose it’s another thing to add to the list of Things to Do. At some point, I do hope to get 42 of them.
Left Behind
-- Cut to door outside hallway. --
» Boy opens it and walks in with Friend1 and Friend2 (back to us).
-- Cut to front of group, angled to show only Boy's face. --
» Group walks toward camera down hallway, talking and laughing. Boy talking and laughing with them.
» Boy drops...[More]
Embedding Flash to W3C Standards
Been trying to figure out how to embed Flash the “perfect way” for a while. The conventional way, using both object and embed tags, is not actually compliant or “legal” so to speak. If you validate your site (validator.w3.org), you will run into many errors.
So for a while, everything on my site except the Flash embedding was W3C-compliant. I honestly don’t know why I care, but it just bugged me that one problem was keeping my site from being fully XHTML.
Out of all my searches, I have to say this one is most useful: In Search of… the Perfect Plugin Technique. Not only does it list all the ways to embed Flash and stay within the standards, it lists all the pros and cons of each method.
From what I’ve tried, it would appear the nested-object method is the best way to go if you want to have the most compatibility across browsers. Javascript is out of the question because, sadly, I still have people who disable javascript on their browsers. It’s also just way too much hassle to create a new SWF in order to load other Flash files; I’d have to break and redo many of the links I’ve already created (rather than just changing a few key elements of the site).
I guess really the only thing now is to see and wait. If anyone knows of issues with the nested-object technique, please do say. I’d hate to have it set up across all the sites and rely on it so blindly if it turns out not to work.
Juggling Dreams
Sometimes you feel unstoppable, great, as if the world is only beginning, and you are at the center of it all. You get ideas, schemes that you never dared consider before, and now that you have, you feel obligated to pursue them, to drive them as far as you possibly can. At first you're not sure if you're up to the task; the first step looks hard and difficult. Then you toss in the first challenge, the first dream, and then the second, and then the third.
Pretty soon, you're not only tossing and catching all three, you are actually juggling. You can juggle two at a time, worry about the third later. Or you can juggle all three at once, perhaps without even breaking a sweat. Over time, you get better; you've gone far beyond anything you ever hoped to do, juggling three when at first you dared not even juggle one. You're ready for more; you want a challenge.
And so you throw in the…[More]
Sony VCL-HGE07A Wide-End Conversion Lens
Sony VCL-HGE07A Lens at Amazon.
Been looking for a wide angle lens for my camcorder for the longest time. The recommended one (VCL-HG0737C) from Sony can cost upwards from $150 to $200. Recently, I noticed the VCL-HGE07A, a more compact wide-lens available for $230 from the Sony site, but only $80 from Amazon.
I guess really - you do get what you pay for. However, I couldn’t figure if Amazon was just mispricing the item or if it’s really worth only $80. Sony afterall priced it at $230 on their site, well above the $200 of the recommended lens.
On opening the package, it seems a fine-quality lens. Very strongly built. However, there are details that just won’t do - at least for me. First, there are no lens caps available. The pouch is nice, but remember it’s a large lens. Getting it out and avoiding touching the lens is a pain. Next is using the lens on the camcorder - the quality is nice but you cannot zoom whatsoever. I did not see this mentioned in any description of the product. It only states this on the manual - which you have to open the product to read. So in other words, I must snap off the wide lens every time I want to zoom in on something.
I guess if you want only to have wide angle - it’s an okay lens. But really, for $80 to not ever zoom, to have to snap off the lens but not have a lens cap to protect it - I’d rather save up for the $150 lens.
Falling Asleep
Why Not to Concentrate
Yet that moment sparked a curious interest in me. It made me realize that concentration, such as the concentration of all that pain in my toe, was not a good thing. When one is trapped in a cell, concentrated in a small space, he is not happy. When one is told how and what to think, to concentrate and narrow his mind, he is not happy. Even in politics, concentration is not a good thing; Americans don’t like concentration of power. Concentration means communism, dictatorship - all the things we fought to eliminate in past wars. Just...[More]