So I went on a consumo-binge, again.

For years I've wanted a Leica. Any leica, it didn't matter. I just wanted one. Then I found out that the many of the panasonic lumix branded digital cameras are in-fact leica cameras! Oh joys of joys.

Now that I've had some time to adjust to the camera (leica version). I gotta say it was the best $407 I've ever spent. Yes that number is a little high but here's what you get:

- 10 MP
- 16:9 aspect ratio
- *small*
- huge 3" screen
- long battery life
- 30fps video at 720p
- leica lenses

It's just a point and shoot. It works great as a point and shoot. The manual mode relatively simple once you get used to it. All adjustments are done via the thumb-stick and not a traditional lens barrel rotate thingie. I've been using the RAW setting to take HUGE pictures that I can then edit in the (included and free) SilkyPIX software. SilkyPIX works better than the photoshop noise reducer plugin thingie.

All that is left for me to do is to learn how to take good pictures... It's hard, but w/ a 4GB SDHC card I can take about 170 raw photos which is plenty for me to just waste a couple of dozen. When I have some that I'm particularly proud of I'll post them somewhere.

My name is timball and I'm a consumer. I've been consuming for almost 30yrs now and I've learned that buying completes me. Amen.

Oh I should mention I got the all black model. It's _WAY_ cooler looking than the silver one.

Panasonic Lumix DMC-LX2

Outgoing Majority Leader Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) announced Wednesday that he will not run for president in 2008, further winnowing a Republican field that has contracted since the Nov. 7 elections.

Frist, who did not seek re-election to another term this year, said he intends to take a sabbatical from public life, return to his professional roots as a physician and explore other ways to serve outside of politics.

Yeah we all knew this on November 7th it just took him this long to figure it out.

Frist Announces He Won’t Run for President

I'll admit to a bit of ancestor worship going on (take that babtist upbringing!)...

Oh Machine Gods on the High Councel of Turing,
elegant be thy designs.
Thy algorithm come.
Thy project be done,
on x86 as it is on PowerPC.
Give us this day our daily code,
and forgive us our build breaking check-ins,
as we forgive them of others.
And lead us not into management;
but deliver us from bad engineers.
Amen.

alternatively...

Oh Machine Gods, grant me the serenity to accept the code I can not rewrite, the courage to rewrite the code I can, and the wisdom to know the difference.

Today's Prayer to the Machine Gods

So I woke up early on sunday (6am) and drove all the way out to the Toys'R'Us in beautiful Frederick MD to buy a wii. I was the 23 person in line and I shared a bit of early morning zen w/ my wii buying brethren.

It's been over 2days now w/ my wii. I bought zelda (I strongly believe that owning a wii implies owning zelda), monkey ball, and madden '07. And I'm completely blown away by the game play.

Even the wii-sports game that *comes* with the system is totally addictive and awesome. wii-bowling simply rocks. I broke a sweat playing both wii-tennis and wii-boxing.

I'm waiting for ship-it day on all the online stuff (including the webbrowser opera) as it looks like nintendo is doing it right (aka not charging money for getting online, but only for the licensing of the game content itself).

So sad. I'm now playing video games once again.

The Official Wii Site for North America in English

The painting was insured for only $1 million, the museums said. The insurer is offering a reward of up to $50,000 for information leading to the recovery of the painting, they added. Their statement urged people with information about the theft to contact the Philadelphia division of the F.B.I. at (215) 418-4000.

Heist went down during the election week!

Goya Painting Stolen on Way to Guggenheim - New York Times

What Sun is due to announce Monday is the open-sourcing of both its Java Platform Standard Edition (Java SE) and its Java Platform Micro Edition (Java ME) under the GNU general public license version 2 (GPLv2).

Woah!

Macworld: News: Sun open sources Java under GPL

On Thursday, Vilsack established a presidential campaign committee by filing documents with the Federal Election Commission, the AP reports.

First on the block.

All Headline News - Iowa Governor Kicks Off Dem. Race For White House - November 9, 2006

"Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, architect of an unpopular war in Iraq, intends to resign after six stormy years at the Pentagon, Republican officials said Wednesday.

Officials said Robert Gates, former head of the CIA, would replace Rumsfeld. The development occurred one day after midterm elections that cost Republicans control of the House, and possibly the Senate, as well. Surveys of voters at polling places said opposition to the war was a significant contributor to the Democratic victory. "

Rumsfeld is GONE - Resigning and not voluntarily!

At least six chartered buses carried mostly poor, black men from as far as Philadelphia to hand out inaccurate voter guides in Baltimore and Prince George's County yesterday as part of an effort by backers of Gov. Robert L. Ehrlich Jr. and U.S. Senate candidate Michael S. Steele to woo black voters.

The glossy voter guide, paid for by the Ehrlich and Steele campaigns, pictured three of Maryland's most prominent black Democrats above the words "These are OUR Choices," even though two were not on yesterday's ballot and the other was running unopposed. Inside, under the heading "Democratic Sample Ballot," it listed mostly Democratic candidates as the preferred choices -- along with Ehrlich and Steele, who were not identified as Republicans.

Several people who distributed the fliers said they were recruited at a Philadelphia homeless shelter and told they would be paid $100, plus two meals, for the day.

Shareese DeLeaver, an Ehrlich spokeswoman, said the group "Democrats for Ehrlich" arranged for distribution of the fliers. She said she did not know how the people were chosen or where they came from.

How much do you have to believe in your cause to think that confusing voters is a valid tactic? This coupled w/ Micheal Steele's blue "DEMOCRATS" bumper stickers are misleading and hurt democracy. Why would you want to win a race that way? I guess it's always easier to win a race if you have no ethics. It's not that I hate republicans, I just think that republicans patronize US.

Misleading GOP Handouts Called a Political 'Low Point' - washingtonpost.com

WASHINGTON, DC—After months of aggressive campaigning and with nearly 99 percent of ballots counted, politicians were the big winners in Tuesday's midterm election, taking all 435 seats in the House of Representatives, retaining a majority with 100 out of 100 seats in the Senate, and pushing political candidates to victory in each of the 36 gubernatorial races up for grabs.

Politicians Sweep Midterm Elections