Fireworks Foto Flubs

The camera (Sony DSC-H9) has a "fireworks" setting. It does a nice job of capturing fireworks. It uses a ~3-4 second exposure to capture the image. That means getting the images is a somewhat a matter of luck in aiming, timing, etc.
In this case, I accidentally bumped the camera during the exposure. Still it's an interesting effect, where the Red explosion is completely bumped, the rising shell on the left documents the dampening of the bump.

This is the Grand Finale. The volume of fireworks and proximity completely washes out the shot. Lesson: this setting is works well for most fireworks, but the grand finale really requires the video setting.

These shots require a tripod to hold the camera still during the multi second exposure and a remote shutter release to avoid bumping the camera during exposure. I was having trouble with the remote trigger* and instead used the release on the camera. This shows the unfortunate result.

* I suspect the problem with the remote release is that it works via Infra Red and the sensor is on the front of the camera. But the camera display which you have to monitor because it takes 8-10 seconds per shot is on the back of the camera.

Visual Flub

Apparently the animator used on the Sun Tzu program is not a gunnie. Note the closed dust cover amidst the full auto fire. The left hand position on the mag well is also a bit odd.

What R U thinking?

Relaxing tonight watching Sun Tzu on History International. This ad is on fast rotation. What are you thinking?

It's July. The desert home of the SandCastle is pushing daily high temps of 110F and even the night time lows are in the high 80s/low 90s. Heck the water in the unheated pool is north of the 90F mark this time of year!

Ok, it's satellite TV so the ad is targeted at a country wide audience. But this time of year, even the occasionally frozen parts of the country are pushing the century mark with humidity to match. Your message of "wrapped up cozy and warm in a blanket on the couch" just doesn't fit. It's only the multiple C-notes per month to the local utility keeps temperatures down to the tolerable range.

What market are you targeting? On what planet does this make sense and how is the weather there?

Update: The SCQueen tells me Target is pushing these hard in the local stores. In other news the local forecast calls 116F on Saturday.

Independence Day Fireworks

Happy Independence day! (As always, click on pics for full size). The red and green lights at 4 O'clock outside the explosion radius is an airplane -green left position light and red beacon.

I really hate to hear stories

like this. Really short version: 5YO finds gun in home, shoots self in stomach, now dead.

[Engage rambling speculation completely devoid of any first hand facts. ]
Why is these things always seem to happen when dad is at home babysitting the kids? Last one of these was back in February. Allow me to quote from back then:

Why does this smell like dad was screwing around cleaning his gun, shot junior, then blamed it on the 2YO? IFF this is the case, I don't know how he can live with himself. I can't imagine enough alcohol BP Meds in the world would drown this memory.

Same question here, 'cept no 2YO in the picture. Instead the trigger-pulling blame is on the now deceased 5YO. Latest reports say the sheriff investigators are still investigating who exactly pulled the trigger, but quickly add "The dad is not a suspect". The follow on "at this time." was just an echo in my head.

The present story, 5YO finds gun and shoots self in stomach, is bad enough. But if inflicted by dad, how devoid of a soul do you have to be to get over that? I simply cannot fathom.

I recall back to NRA Hunter safety back in 7th grade (I think Dick Nixon was prez) and the "Rule #2" admonition - never point a gun at anything you do not want to destroy. I was thinking at the time, "that's stupid, the gun has a safety, it CAN'T go off. Why not? Sounds like great fun!" (Ok, I was far more trusting/naive back then. By the end of the course I was a believer). This was reinforced several years later taking a class in statistics (sadistics) and learning about what they called a "Type II" error. That is an error where the cost of being wrong far outweighs the benefit of being right. The book used the example of taking a picture of your child with their head in the open jaws of a live alligator (or was it a Lion?). Ok, it's a cool pic if it works. But if the 'gatorCarnivore senses the tender morsel and snaps the jaws shut on said loved one's head with several thousand pounds of force, was it worth the risk?

Pointing guns at trusting loved ones falls squarely in the same category. The "reward" (what reward, a laugh?) cannot possibly outweigh the risk. One-in-a-million?, one-in-a-billion, trillion, quadrillion, qintillion. It's just not worth it. There simply are not enough zeros in this world to put the risk/reward ratio into positive territory.

Dang! How low can they go?

This Sunday's paper included a Target insert offering the ASUS 10" EEE netbook for $249.99 including Windows XP.

Dang! My "travel laptop" is a 4-5 year old Dell with a battery that better approximates a capacitor.

Q: What do you call a laptop with a worn out battery?
A: A desktop with a lousy keyboard!

So do I spend the the better part of a C note for a new battery in a 9 lb laptop (that doubles as a DVD player), or $250 (3.5x) on a new sub 3lb unit (but no DVD capability)

It would be strictly a travel unit... The office here at the SandCastle is well flooded with CPU cycles (2.1 GHz triple core processors, x2 excluding said laptop) but a lightweight travel unit might be nice.

A couple weeks ago, Fry's Electronics had the same unit for ~$350. Now Target has the same system for nearly 30% less. How low can they go? (guessing)The Winder's-XP license is probably half of said C-note. How inexpensively can they assemble the electronics and still make a profit?

Given the current economy and infrequency of use, plus the DVD capability, I may opt for the battery. But I wonder how inexpensive can these laptops go? The Dayjob(tm) apparently requires about $15 worth of shipping containers to ship the smallest item. Run that through the profit equation and effectively nothing can sell for less than about $40. I wonder how that applies to ASUS? The shipping container is bound to be more complex, but the profit margins may be considerably thinner.

So how low can they go?

June ePostal Entry

I finally made it back out to the range to shoot this month's ePostal contest. This month Sebastian conjured up an imaginative one: Flying Aces. This was my best result.

There are 10 hits, unfortunately one is a duplicate which doesn't score and 3 are on my plane so all ace bonus points are forfeit. That leaves just 6 on the "target" planes (Since most of the "target" planes are silhouettes of domestic General Aviation planes, calling them the "enemy" causes a bit of grief. But I'm sure Sebastian didn't mean it that way, so no offense taken.)

Score: 6
Class I entry, Rimfire/Iron sights
Ruger .22/45
Distance: 11 Yards (Range minimum)