endperform.org

I’m in the final stages of a move, which is why the site has been rather quiet. On the bright side, things are almost in order, I’ve got movers to help us out, and I’m not moving 700 miles this time. I’m just going to be moving about 5-10 miles to another town. We’re escaping apartment life and moving into a nice 3 bedroom house. We’re renting for now with the economy the way it is, but we plan to stay here for a good, long time. The place has all hardwoods, a decent backyard, a nice sized kitchen, and a nice layout. I’ll be taking some photos tomorrow at the lease signing and I’ll put them up in the photo gallery. Yes, it’s back, and even though it’s slow, I’m sticking with Gallery for my needs.

In more geeky news, I’ve completed my first soldering project, which was a learn to solder kit that I got online. Amazingly enough, I didn’t screw it up and it worked. Sure, it just flashes two LEDs back and forth, but still, it worked. There’s really not a lot to soldering, it’s just a matter of enough heating, enough solder and not going overboard. I’m excited to get moved and settled so I can start working on some other things as well. As far as gaming goes, all of the consoles are packed up and ready to move, so I’ve been spending some time in Team Fortress 2, which is always fun. I have a new favorite server, hosted by Noob Gamers, which I recommend if you’re looking for fun, teamwork and some great gamers to play with. I also had the opportunity to play a couple of rounds with a friend in PA, non other than MMMMgggggooosss… err, I’m sorry, MMMwwwhhhiiiittt :)

So anyway, that’s where things are at right now. The move is on Saturday, and hopefully I should have everything in order that there’s not going to be a loss of net access.

For my birthday this year, my wife got me a soldering iron. No, it’s not lame, I actually like it as it’s giving me a kick in the butt to get moving on a hobby I’ve been wanting to start messing around with: electronics. On top of that, I have a ‘Learn to Solder’ kit coming, and an Arduino Starter Kit as well. I like the idea of building things and such, and it’s something I’ve wanted to mess around with. The Arduino board will also allow me to play with some code, too, which is nice. Right now I’m not sure exactly what I’m going to do for my first project, but with the materials included in the starter kit I should be able to find a few tutorials to go through. Who knows where this new hobby will take me, but along with photography, it should be a lot of fun.

I’ve ended the Hackintosh experiment on the laptop. While it was cool to play around with, I unfortunately found that the USB ports did not work at all, which is something I use regularly when I’m using the laptop. So I decided since I was in the experimenting mood to load Windows 7 x64 on it and mess around. I can’t really see too much of a difference between Vista and Windows 7, as I had upgraded the RAM after replacing Vista with OS X. It seems to run pretty OK so far, but time will tell what I think of it.

The new Nikon D60 camera came yesterday, and I got a bit of a chance to mess around with it. It’s easy to use, setting it up the first time wasn’t difficult, and the shots it takes are awesome. I should be getting out sometime this weekend to start taking pictures of things. Hopefully the weather will cooperate.

I’ve decided to pursue digital photography as a hobby for myself. In doing so, I’ve gone ahead and ordered a Nikon D60 camera, which from what I’ve read and heard should be a decent camera for a newbie like myself. I’m going to set up a new photo gallery, as Zenphoto while simple just didn’t work out the way I would have liked to, so I’ll be ending up going back to Gallery. Ah, good ole Gallery.

So, what am I going to take pictures of? Well, I’m thinking about older buildings / architecture, nature, vehicles, people (and I actually have one willing vict…err subject already), and other things. Basically, I’ll be taking pictures of a whole lot of things and going from there. It’s going to be a learning experience, but I’m excited about getting started. The camera should be here Wednesday, and once I read up on the features, I’m hoping to get a chance to get out this weekend and start shooting.