Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix

I went to see the new Harry Potter movie, Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, and I think it's awesome. In ways, it's my favorite movie of the series so far. Dumbledore rules in this one! I also love Luna.

Truly good stuff; highly recommended. It's tempted me even more to read the series. I bought the first two books on Monday; I'll start the first when I'm done with the book I'm reading now: Robert Heinlein's For Us the Living.

My second drawing class has been canceled...

Aww, I was looking forward to more drawing instruction. My second drawing class has been completely canceled.

My instructor is still sick. I hope she gets better soon.

I just need to work harder now to get practice on my own. And maybe I should enroll in a semester-long class. Hmm.

A busy, nice, long weekend

I took Friday off and slept the morning away. Nice! I bought a tabletop easel and a couple drawing boards, and started working with them. Ah, yes, my previous post has a picture of my setup.

I stayed up late Friday night cleaning my camera's sensor in preparation for my photography trip Saturday.

It was fun. It was tiring. I learned a lot. I took almost five hundred pictures. I'm about 60% through the first pass, and some are good. Many need work, as I got dust on my sensor, even before the first and only lens change. Only two specks though; one on the upper right and another on the lower left.

It'll take me a few more days to get through them, but I'll post some soon. I'm thankful for the experience.

Gladdie and the easel

Gladdie and the easel
Originally uploaded by wesleyt

I got a new easel and drawing boards today. I really enjoyed playing with them. I took a few pictures; this is the first of them. The rest are here:

My new drawing easel

Galadriel

Arwen

fragile

fragile
Originally uploaded by norwego

My friend Kim took this picture while in Norway. I love it!

Bible passage of the day

13 "For from the least to the greatest of them,
   everyone is greedy for unjust gain;
and from prophet to priest,
   everyone deals falsely.
14 They have healed the wound of my people lightly,
   saying, 'Peace, peace,'
   when there is no peace.
15 Were they ashamed when they committed abomination?
   No, they were not at all ashamed;
   they did not know how to blush.
Therefore they shall fall among those who fall;
   at the time that I punish them, they shall be overthrown,"
   says the LORD.

Jeremiah 6:13-15 (English Standard Version)

This is so true of much of our society today.

Mom's new lamp

Mom's new lamp
Originally uploaded by wesleyt

I am really proud of this photo. The subject is my Mom's new tiffany lamp. My Mom did the design, and I adjusted the lighting and took the picture. I also took a detail picture of the shade.

now this is cool...

show atm all

ATM port status    : Cell delineation achieved
Rx data rate (bps) : 6160384
Tx data rate (bps) : 786432

I went from 1.5Mbps down/384 Kbps up to that. Very nice. And my bill went down too, because I gave up my routed DSL for DHCP. No big deal; I don't host anything at home anymore.

It's so fast! Uploading photos shouldn't take forever and a half now.

Welcome to the 21st century, self.

PS: for those that aren't geeks, I've now got 6M down/768K up.

New Eisley single

Eisley recently released a new single on iTunes called Invasion from their forthcoming album Combinations. It's really good, and I'm looking forward to the new album; it'll be released August 14. They're coming to town soon too; I'm looking forward to it.

Oh, and Over the Rhine will be in town in September. Excellent!

My second good drawing.

My second good drawing.
Originally uploaded by wesleyt

Here's the good drawing I managed to create tonight.
Here is my entry about my first drawing, and here is a picture of my first drawing on the wall.

the tubes they are full

My iPhone is having trouble accessing the InterTubes (Internet) here at work. It is even failing getting weather updates. It had no trouble at home this morning. My guess is that AT&T's data service is overwhelmed in this Geek Mecca that is Cisco's San Jose campus.

Side note: did a quick experiment with the Jawbone on the way in. Rolled the window down while on the phone; my caller couldn't hear me, nor I them. Hmm... More experiments necessary.

First Impressions on the Jawbone Bluetooth Headset

I decided that I needed to get a new Bluetooth headset for my iPhone. I have a Jabra JX10, but I've, let's say, not been gentle with it.

Yesterday I decided on a whim to go to the Apple store to get Apple's Bluetooth headset. They didn't have one in stock and I didn't have a second choice, so I left with only a case for my iPhone (the Griffin Elan Holster).

I did my research last night and I decided to give the Aliph Jawbone a try. I tried it around the house today, while running the sink and standing in front of my clothes washer while it was filling. My caller couldn't hear the background noise when I was standing two feet away from the noise sources. I'd say that's a great success for a first test.

The next test will be in the car tomorrow. I've had a background noise problem in the car with every Bluetooth headset I've owned, which is two: the Jabra BT250, which I sold to a friend when I got the JX10. I once had a wired Jabra with built in noise cancelling; it was the only good in-car headset I've owned.

My friend told me he talked to a guy while the guy was wearing the Jawbone going down the freeway at speed with the windows down, and my friend said he heard no background noise. I'm looking forward to a similar test.

My only complaint so far is the same as I've read in other reviews: the on-headset volume control is a bit clunky; you use one button to cycle through five volume levels. The headset is supposed to automatically adjust volume level with change in ambient noise, but it didn't adequately compensate when I turned on the washing machine; I needed to bump it up two or three levels. The user's manual says to use the phone to turn up the volume, but my phone was in a different room.

Which brings me to Bluetooth performance. It seems the connection between the Jawbone and the iPhone is very strong. I went 20+ feet away with a wall in between, and I didn't notice any packet loss. I'm impressed.

One more thing: this is the most comfortable cellular headset I've ever worn. That's saying something, as I really liked the comfort of the BT250. This one's better because it's lighter.

I hope to write more when I've had a bit more experience with it.