Author: Isaac

I downloaded DOSBOX the other day, big mistake… It’s an emulator that allows me to play all of those games that I can play forever.. All those early 90’s games like Railroad Tycoon, Civilization, Master of Magic, Master of Orion, Romance of the Three kingdoms, etc. I’ve been spending some time with Neuromancer, I used to play that on my Commodore 128! Anyway, this is worse than my Commadore emulator, the games are much more engrossing. The only downside is that I’ve had to remember my MS DOS commands. It wasn’t difficult, not as difficult as remembering the Commodore commands! Anyway, it’s a free program and it’s available on most platforms, including Mac OSX, Win XP, BeOS(!), and Linux. Go get it, it’s fun!

Isaac

OK, I’ve bit the bullet and have made the appointments for the vaccinations I need. No, it wasn’t the getting shots part that made me hesitate, it was the price. I gotta have these, and some of them (the rabies) take a while to administer all of them. SO it starts next month. Lucky for me I get paid three times next month instead of the usual 2. That’ll take care of the shots… For some reason, this makes my trip seem much closer, I’m really excited! I’m going to try to nail down an exact date for my departure by the end of next month. That way I can bu my tickets and give my official notice at work. Horay!!!!

Isaac

“It” being order a new macbook from Apple. They released them yesterday, and they look sweet. I had been planning on taking my mini and 20″ monitor with me, but I can’t escape the obvious, it would be much more practical to take a notebook than a desktop system. I’m going to wait a while, if I get one, it’ll be right before I go. There’s bound to be some price reductions or something in the meantime…

I haven’t had a notebook in a while, I sold my old iBook about 3 months ago since I was only using my new mini at the time. Don’t get me wrong, this has been a great computer, but I think having the laptop for the trip will be the best choice. Plus the new Macbooks are much more powerful, so why not get a new computer?:-)

Isaac

I couldn’t take it anymore. I got rid of all the Bauhaus in my collection. I had originally downloaded 2 of their albums via emusic. As another one of their songs came up, it occurred to me that I think that they are insufferable, pretentious pricks. Plus they were giving a bad name to one of my favorite types of architecture, if not art in general. So click click, away they went. It’s fairly rare that actually get rid of music, but this was past due.

Isaac

The station that was originally an “oldies” station when I first came up here has now shifted its programming to so called classic rock. At one time, this station was amazing, they played all sorts of obscure doo wop, b sides, etc. It really broadened my music awareness. Now they just suck. It’s a nonstop barrage of Steely Dan, The Doobie Brothers, Boston, Styx, Kansas, and REO Speedwagon. Honestly, it’s about the worst combo I’ve ever heard, and they seem to play the same 60 songs all day long. I woke up the other day with “Babe” from Styx going through my head, boy was I pissed.

The other classic rock station is actually worth listening to. This weekend they’re only playing live performances. It strikes me that without the visuals, the physical sensations, and the excitement o live rock, a lot of it sucks. But when they manage to get it right, there’s nothing else like it. I’ve heard some amazing stuff this weekend. “Pinball Wizard” from Tommy at Isle of Wight literally gave me goose bumps. I’ve never really understood what the big deal was with the Who, they just never really clicked with me. Now I’ve got a better idea why they were so popular. I had always heard that the Isle of Wight concert was one of the better live albums ever, I believe it.

On the way home I heard a scorching version of “Fortunate Son” by CCR. I consider that song one of the greatest rock and roll songs of all time, and this version was incredible, gotta find out where that recording came from… Anyway, it’s been fun listening to the this station, almost makes me wish that I had FM hooked up to my stereo…

Isaac

“The elimination of profit, whatever methods may be resorted to for its execution, must transform society into a senseless jumble. It would create poverty for all.”

I gotta use this in an essay on profit. It’s from Ludwig von Mises, basicly the founder of the so called Austrian school of economics. I’ve got two of his books on the way to me. I’ll report back after I’ve read them…

Isaac

I’ve finally put some graphs up on my demand curves page. Other than my occasional for sale items, my demand curves page gets the most hits of any on my site. I keep meaning to put up a companion piece on supply curves and an exploration on the concept of price, but I haven’t had the motivation to do so yet…

Isaac

I asked for some more hours at work, so I’ll be working the next two weekends. I usually have both sunday and monday off, but for the next two weeks I’ll only have monday off. I like the idea now, but I;m sure that when sunday rolls around I’ll be wondering what I was thinking..

Isaac

It’s amazing what a few well placed ads will do for traffic to your website. I’ve got my two cameras up for sale. I’m sad to see them go, they’re so cool (in a camera geek kind of way). There’s something great about having something that no one else does, having something that was made for you… SIGH. If I had loads of money, I wouldn’t get rid of these, Dean did a great job. Oh well, things change I guess…

Isaac

And it looks like I’ll need to get a little more familiar with it before doing any sort of real shooting with it. Not only did I not have the lens in the proper position to shoot with it, but I never removed the dark slide from the film holder. What that means is that even if the light could have somehow gotten through the darkslide, the pictures would have been all out of focus.. I’ve put up my other cameras on my website to sell them. Never really got a chance to use the 4×5, it’s been back and forth to Australia. First to fix a wonky shutter and the next time due to a weird miscommunication. Oh well, it seems to work just fine. After shooting with the 6×12, I realized that it’s a format that you really have to want to shoot with, it’s tough to just make a scene work with that wide an aspect ratio. I don’t think I’ll have any trouble selling them though, they really are nice cameras, and a God send for anyone that is sick of carrying around big, heavy cameras…

Isaac