200,000

The odometer rolled over 200,000 miles. Not a record or anything, but also not something you see every day. This is the second one for me. The first was a 1976 Datsun Z car that I still have, now with 237k miles.

Dang...That was fast!

SandCastle Scrolls turns one!

151 posts since then... That's below my goal of one every other day, but there it is.

Thanks to my loyal followers. sitemeter shows a handful and I suspect there are more following via RSS. I'm still having fun and looking forward to year two!

- danno

Woo Hoo!

Arizona Governor Brewer signs the Guns in Restaurants bill!

http://www.kpho.com/politics/20044378/detail.html

She has until midnight to veto several more bills, SB 1168 (Parking lot storage) and SB 1243 (Defensive Display) otherwise they become law without her signature.

Update: NRA Board member Todd Rathner reports on NRANews* that Gov. Brewer signed the other two bills as well.
This has been reported by several local news outlets but still no official news from the Governor's office.

* click on Program Archive, then look for Todd Rathner under the July 13 tab.

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.