NewSc2

Was pretty blown away by the whole rant. My philosophy totally differs from his (he looks at humans from an outside perspective, I’m more of a pantheist), but it’s still a great listen.

Wait for the last Sellers smile. Pretty funny video of a dog too =)

(thanks, Richard, for sending the link)

POST-PROCESSING (IN PHOTOSHOP) OF VEGAS PHOTOS

Learned some really basic post-processing photography techniques and wanted to post examples to track my progress. I took a few shots from the selection in my gallery of Vegas below, and touched them up in Photoshop. Just did some basic levels and curve adjustments, and unmask sharpened a little bit. Didn’t take more than about a minute for each one.

For the first example, a pretty underexposed picture of the Venetian Canal Square:

The image was processed straight to JPG in the camera, so I didn’t think I could grab this much more detail using the lossy file format. Lo and behold, a few tweaks and the shot looks arguably a bit better, and definitely has more detail. I know it has more distractions (people’s faces, etc.) but I was pretty impressed with the change:

———-

The next series of pics are going to be from Red Rock Canyon. The canyon was very scenic, so it was pretty hard to take a truly bad shot. But we went in the middle of the day, with the super-harsh sun, and there was a bit of dust and haze in the distance that came up on my pictures. Photoshop helped put back in some of that lost color.

———-

This was a picture that stood out to me. It has nice composition, but the colors just seem so washed out. This may have been a part of Red Rock that wasn’t so red, but the sky itself seems more gray than what I have in other pics. I might revisit this picture in the future… instead of going for the colored look, trying to tone down the image and work with its boundaries in that way. But for now, I don’t know how to do that, so here goes.

The difference isn’t huge, but the sky is more blue, and the rocks more red. The background mountain is also more clear.

And few more examples for your viewing pleasure:

And:

———–

This pair is actually one of my favorites I took. The depth of field in the image didn’t turn out the way I exactly intended to, but post-processing gives the log a better contrast and looks more lively:

So that’s it! Someday you can be a beginning post-processor too. Pardon my enthusiasm but I’m pretty pleased with the way things turned out and I’m very bored at work.

This past weekend Robert, Goldsheft, David, and I went to Vegas, and stayed at the Sahara (which is in BFE compared to the rest of the Strip):

Surprisingly, it didn’t matter much. It’s nice to walk out of the hotel and be in the middle of the Strip, but walking out of the hotel and driving for 5 minutes isn’t that bad. The only thing is that the Sahara buffet sucks. Don’t go there.

Buncha pics of Vegas from first two days, from our arrival to me walking around taking pictures (and avoiding leaving Vegas in the red for gambling — I left winning $22 — yay!). Caption is contained in the file name (hover mouse to see):

Continuing on, the four of us went to the Moon Club and Playboy Lounge at the Palms on Saturday night (pics were taken with a small point-and-shoot camera, hence the shittier quality. I do wish I brought my big camera, but club + expensive camera don’t mix):

And Luxor illuminating the moon:

Have I ever mentioned that I don’t like hip-hop clubs? People cheer for songs they’ve heard before, not for a truly good song or a good mix. I’d rather go to a house or techno club, and I might even go to a trance club for that matter, to get away from the hip-hop/pop crowd. Crass commercialism > musical genius for the loss :(. (I’ll save that rant for another day). As you can see, the club at least looked really nice, especially the illuminated bar, and illuminated floor tiles everywhere, and it was really fucking crowded.

Day 3, Sunday, saw a nice segue to an outdoor excursion, away from all the hustle and bustle of Vegas. Sadly, it wasn’t away from the heat. We got to Red Rock around 2 in the afternoon, and it wasn’t really that far away from Las Vegas. 30 min.?

(I wish Wordpress had a bulk thumbnail upload. That just took me about 10 minutes to upload those images individually)

On the way back from Vegas we hit a traffic jam — big rig flipped over the side of the 15 fwy. Sorry, no pics of that…

To pass the 6/7-odd hours the return trip lasted, we played the movie/actor game, where someone starts off with the name of the movie, the next person has to say an actor/actress that was in the movie, then the next person says another movie that actor/actress was in, and so on and so forth. No name can be said twice, so after, about, 4 hours the game got a little difficult. Especially considering I rarely watch movies anyway — my music takes up about 300 gigs on my hard drive, and movies maybe 20. Whoever says a movie or actor has to back up that name with one step more (so I can’t blindly say a movie without knowing a legit answer for the next person). The penalty for missing is a punch.

The game ended on a high note with me unofficially winning as we pulled up to Robert’s house. It somehow got from Val Kilmer to Batman Forever to Jim Carrey to Ace Ventura: Pet Detective, and it was my turn. I’ve watched Ace Ventura several times, but I’m not really a names-of-actors person. I racked my head really quickly and came up with — yep, you guessed it — Dan Marino! And I knew another movie he was in! David couldn’t get it after a couple minutes, so he challenged me, and… yep you guessed it again — Dan Marino was in Bad Boys 2. He got his car stolen before the ridiculous car chase. Whoo hoo! That $8 I spent to see the movie back in high school (and the 2 hours I wasted) actually came to fruition.

Great weekend, fun memories, Vegas, hiking, and good company. What more could you ask for?

For my first beer review on this blog, I thought I’d start with the best. Pliny the Younger. In my opinion, the best IPA to come my mouth’s way. By far the most drinkable 7+% ABV beer that’s out there, and I could argue perhaps the most drinkable 6+% beer out there. Below 6% gets into sour ale territory, so we can stop there. And it’s 11%.

*pics below were taken at Hollingshead by yours truly

PLINY THE YOUNGER
(as reviewed by me on BeerAdvocate.com) 

———-

Score: A+ (5/5)

———-

Perfect 5 you say?! Well, I’ll let you guys in on a little secret. I cheated a little bit, filling out these scores. Don’t tell anybody, though… the truth is, I may have had beers that looked better than Pliny the Younger. (/sarcasm)

Whew.

Now that’s over with, let me start the worshipping of this beer. This beer is easily in my top 3 beers I’ve ever had. I’ve had great, huge, stinging barley wines laced with wood and whiskey, but no beer comes close to Younger in terms of a big, balanced, delicious beer. This beer may be the best-looking, most easily-drinkable beer above 6% I’ve ever had. Couple that with a great taste, well, 5.

I’ve had this on tap at Hollingshead about a half dozen times over the past few months, and it really is a finicky beer. Some kegs Kenny taps seem a bit more stale than others. The pint I had today, though, was godly.

For all the gushing that the Pliny the Elder receives, Younger should get a waterfall. It actually has a pretty different mouth profile than the Elder, but a similar hop bouquet and complexity. For those of you who haven’t tried Elder, Younger, or Blind Pig, and love IPA’s, try to get your hands on these. The only experience I can compare tasting these beers with was me trying and enjoying my first glass of IPA at the Stone Brewery — that one Ruination that made me fall in love with the IPA style. Bitterness to hide the alcohol, best served cool (not warm) to enjoy on a hot day, with fruits and malts to balance it all out. I’ve since moved on from Ruination, but I get to have that falling-in-love experience every time I try one of these great Russian River IPAs.

To start, Younger is a truly different IPA. Most IPA’s pour somewhat clear — Younger is very opaque and almost looks like a Hef or Belgian ale. The head is creamy, but settles down fast.

Smell might not be as complex as Elder, but it has a very different, less pine-y, and more citrus-y and sweeter nose to it. A sign of things to come.

As you take your first sip of Younger, it becomes clearly evident that this is not Elder (which, to me, is the premier DIPA). No, this is something different. To a hophead, it’s very creamy, sweet, and yet still bitter and hoppy. To a casual drinker, this beer probably is supremely hopped but bearably so, with a deep taste and great feel. The complexity of the hops underlies the sweet nectary feel around your mouth. It’s a pretty strong beer, but it seems Vinnie almost used a hidden alcohol hotness to blend a further dimension into the hops and malts. And that creamy feel just adds even more depth. Mmm. 

Next sip — wow! This is almost the pinnacle of mouthfeel. A taste so delicious you could swish it around your mouth until it gets warm, or you could gulp down its cool soft feel.

So you take another gulp, and another, and then you go on BA because you aren’t really sure why you’re feeling buzzed off of 6oz. of a tasty medium-bodied beer. Oh, that’s why, it’s 11%.

To the negative reviews of Younger here — I can only assume the keg was stored differently or was from another batch. I had thought Younger didn’t age that well kegged, but trying it today on tap, at least 4 months after its February ‘08 release, changed my mind. This keg tastes as good as the first one I had, and much better than the couple I’ve had in between. If you like Elder, you’ll love Younger. If you’re a hophead, you’ll love Younger. If you love beer, well, you’ll probably love Younger. 

Undoubtedly, the beer that everybody will compare this one to is Pliny the Elder. Younger sacrifices some pine, grapefruit, and bitterness, and replaces it with a milky, creamy, sweeter taste and feel. Highly desirable, in my opinion.

I thought IPA’s couldn’t get any better than Elder, but after trying both Elder and Younger, Younger wins by a mile. When I talk about loving a Triple IPA, most people look at me and make a bitter face. Younger is not overly bitter, regardless of its IBU. Pliny the Younger sits at the summit of IPA and determines what else is worthy of being its kin.

Now I’ve fallen into the trap of believing a beer was great just because of its ranking (coughAbysscough), but Younger completed my search for a perfect 10 (or 5) IPA. I’ve read reviews that praise a certain beer, lifting it above its style, and tried them, thinking, “well, this it a great stout, but i was expecting cotton candy.” But for all the hype this beer gets, I think it deserves its ranking. I haven’t tried the current #1-3 beers above the #4 Younger, so I can’t argue Younger’s place, but to see it stand out up there, away from the Belgian ales, Stouts, and Barley Wines, means something to me. 

You might not like it, but I know I do. It’s the only beer I’ve tried that doesn’t taste like it holds even half the abv it really has.

IPAs I’ve had: Lost Abbey 2nd Ann, Stone 10th/11th/Ruination/IPA simcoe hopped, Avery Maharaja, Alesmith, DFH 60/90, Racer 5/X, among many, many more.

0 visitors total since I started keeping track last week

Edit (6/27/08): It turns out I just didn’t install the WordPress Stats plugin correctly. I’m getting about a dozen visitors per day now.

Well, I got my camera about a week ago (see last post), and I’ve already gone through close to 1600 photos. Like any noob photographer, I’d say maybe only 100 of them are good pictures, and about 300 more are decent. The rest I should trash — most are plain ol’ blurry, but some are overexposed/test shots/bad angles/bad lighting/bad composition/etc. My Macbook Pro’s 160gb hard drive isn’t a big fan of my new toy.

A few of us went to the Angels game last night, to see K-Rod blow a save and Speier lose the game to the Mets in extra innings (boo!). Snapped about a hundred photos with the camera; see two examples below. I’ll put together a more thorough update with my first few pictures and how I’ve started to learn the camera’s functions.

I’ve been having a lot of free time lately, with a need to focus my attention away from dwelling on things.

Piano has been coming along very well (hopefully in a couple weeks I’ll be posting songs), and I decided to make my second major purchase of the past few weeks. I’ve always wanted an SLR, and after seeing a few acquaintances’ photo albums, and images like the one below, with the nice background blur (bokeh), I decided to take the plunge.

Photo owned by Sir Mervs (cc)

I purchased a Canon EOS 40D, which is Canon’s next line up of SLR digital cameras above the entry-level Rebel series. I was initially looking to pick up the Canon Digital Rebel XTi (~$650 w/ kit lens) or Canon Digital Rebel XSi (the newest Rebel, $849 w/ kit lens), but Canon just announced a $200 instant rebate on the 40D, and the it apparently comes with a much better and more expensive kit lens, among other upgrades, like a higher quality metal body frame, dual control knobs for easier setting manipulation, and a more durable shutter. After manipulating Amazon’s Gold Box, I got the 40D down to $1079 w/ lens.

I’ve been (impatiently) waiting for the camera to (freaking) arrive, which it looks like it’ll do on Wednesday (great, I have traffic school that night). I also picked up a Crumpler 5 Million Dollar camera bag, as well as the extremely popular 50mm f/1.8 II lens (only $90 on Amazon).

In the meantime, I’ve been reading a few resources and books on the topic. Before I purchased the camera, I was reading an endless stream of gear reviews, but afterwards the impulse seems to have subsided and I’ve been reading more on the technical aspects of photography. Scott Kelby’s Digital Photography books have been good brief reads, going into basic actions needed to get certain types of shots (tripod/ball head necessary, stand here, take picture with this type of light shining this way, etc.). I also came across this website a few months ago, and re-read it all over again — Bernie’s Better Beginner’s Guide to Photography, which is an excellent brief read.

I’ll be posting photos after I get the camera, and I really do want to explore photography as a creative outlet, and not just as a snapshot-for-memories device.

I know this blog has been pretty materialistic up to this point, and I hope it’ll change. For the time being, I guess retail therapy really works. (New camera!! Yay!!)

Two weekends ago I bought a Yamaha P140 digital piano. Picked it up for a great price too — $775 plus tax at Guitar Center for their Memorial Day sale.

I’d tried out the Yamaha P70, P80, which were cheaper and lighter, but I wasn’t very fond of the touch. They ended up feeling too spongy at the end of the press. The P140 does too, compared to a real piano, but not as much as the others. Tried out some Rolands and Casios, but I guess I have an inner preference for Yamahas — I’ve heard they have the lowest return/defective rate out of all music equipment brands that Guitar Center sells. Besides, they make great acoustic pianos, so I’d assume some of that expertise probably carries over to their digital offerings.

I’ve been practicing some Chopin and video game music (Final Fantasy VI, Super Mario Bros.), and learning some Jazz. I’ll post some songs and/or videos on here when I master some pieces. Just ordered the actual stand (that piano frame pictured above costs extra), as I’ve been using just a regular folding X stand. Hopefully playing the keyboard at the proper height will cure some of these weird shoulder/forearm aches I’ve been having after playing for an extended period. Maybe I’m just getting old. Or maybe I need more practice *shrug*.

YAMAHA P140 REVIEW

I’ve been putting the P140 through its rounds since I purchased it… about a good hour per day for the past 10 days. It’s a really good emulation of a real piano, but it’s still a very far cry from being a perfect substitute.

First off, the sound is nowhere near that of a real piano. Even with headphones, the piano sound feels thin. Actually, it sounds perfectly fine, but you can really feel the vibrations of an piano strings through its keys and through the air. Not quite so with a digital piano.

Second, the keyboard action and touch is just not the same. The really high-end digital pianos ($2k+) use wood keys (like a real piano uses), not plastic ones, which can make a pretty significant difference. The P140 seems to use a harder plastic than your traditional low-end digital piano. It’s matte instead of glossy/sticky, and glides off your fingers more like what a real piano would.

There are a lot of subtleties in the spring action and the mechanism of the key and hammer inside an acoustic piano. Whenever I want to get really expressive with my Kawai upright, I can touch and massage the keys differently to produce a softer or sharper sound. There are little tricks that you can do on an acoustic piano, like pushing a key halfway to bring the hammer up, and then pressing it all the way to get a half-struck sound, that are impossible to do or feel with a digital piano.

I think my third, and biggest complaint, is its lack of dynamic capabilities. You can play pp, p, mp, mf, f, ff, and all the rest, but you need to be super-careful with your touch. The keys seem to be much less forgiving than that of an actual piano, and I’ve noticed my right hand voice has to be significantly more forceful than the left hand in many passages, especially to overpower left-handed comped chords. I don’t have a soft pedal (the left-most pedal on a piano), which I use a lot on an acoustic piano for easier dynamic expression, so I’ll edit this review if I find the soft pedal to make a big difference.

These are all  downsides that have to do with digital pianos vs. acoustic pianos in general. Among digital pianos, I feel like I’ve gotten a great deal with my Yamaha, and there are so many qualities unique to digital pianos. Volume knob (!!!), headphones (!!), portability, and connectivity (USB, MIDI, etc.). I like playing music late at night, past midnight, so this was pretty much a necessity. And truthfully the little things I stated above are just nitpicks. The most important thing is having the finger memory and skill to play specific songs. There’s a small difference in digital and acoustic piano feel, but your fingers will probably adjust very quickly to either or.

Overall it’s a solid keyboard. I truly feel like the P140 is situated at a prime price vs. features position in the digital piano market, where diminishing returns start kicking in as you look at more expensive models. The action of my P140 is almost indistinguishable from the other Rolands and Yamahas I tried that costed twice as much, and after purchasing my P140, I wouldn’t ever sacrifice the practicality of having a digital piano over the sound and inconvenience of an acoustic.