General

How many people are looking for a cheap wedding photographer. I got married 5 years ago. We looked cheap and not so cheap and landed in the middle and I think we paid $1500 and got about 15 great pictures; makes for expensive pictures, eh? By the way, we did not get a clear picture of our wedding party, no solo groom shot and no good family photos.
I have boiled down the problems with wedding photographers into three issues:

1. They just aren't good photographers, they are focused on fancy cameras or gadgetry and end up with blurry pictures
2. They don't like wedding photography, they don't want to shoot the classic wedding shoots rather they want to be "photojournalistic", "capturing the moment". As if somehow by neglecting the basics they will catch the once in lifetime picture to rocket themselves into "real" photography.
3. They don't listen to the bride and groom. I suppose this is closely tied to #2, the artist sometimes overrules the brain and results in large differences between what was ask for versus what was delivered.

It is very easy to critize. Perhap it is time to test my metal. Since I found out I will be unemployed in January I have been looking into all sorts of new possible income streams. As some may have read in previous posts I recently graduated to a big kid camera. I have been into digital photography for quite a while and finally mustered up the courage to buy a real camera. So I figured maybe I ought to put that camera to work. There are many bad wedding photographers out there and even more people that don't have the money to spend $1000 or more getting a photographer. While not experienced I am not a bad photographer nor am I lazy. Perhaps I should give it a shot. Check out my Gallery. If you are local to Seattle, preferably north Seattle, don't have a much money and are willing to take a risk drop me an email via the contact form or leave a comment with some kind of contact info. I can't promise anything but a good price and a willing attitude.

So I mentioned recently that I bought a new camera, a Nikon D40 to be specific. I also bought a Nikon 18 to 105 lens to go with it. Tonight I bought a 67mm Hoya UV filter for my lens. It seemed like a good idea to be cleaning my $18.00 filter rather than my $200 lens.

Wait, Wait.. Did I say 200 lens. Indeed, thanks to MSN live search I paid $200 for a $280 lens ($350 most places). So I heard about MSN Live Search cashback a while ago. Basically it is a deal where if you log in to your MSN Live account and go through MSN Live Search links you can get a percentage of your purchase as cashback. In most cases this works out to be between 2-6% back. Well, it turns out that Items purchased through Ebay "Buy It Now" and paid for with Paypal are eligible for much larger cashback. When I bought my lens MSN was offering 30% cash back. Yes 1/3 of the purchase price I get back by check from MSN. I have no idea how this works or what happens but it has been working for several months. Today I bought my UV filter for 18.00 with 25% cash back. This is huge. So again to my loyal readers I pass on the bliss of bargain hunting.

Here are a few details to get you underway with MSN Live Cashback.

1. You need to create an MSN Live account. You can do this easily by googling MSN live click the "sign in" link then click "sign up"
2. You need to create an Ebay account. Go to Ebay and follow the instructions.
3. You need to create a Paypal account. Again, go to Paypal and follow the instructions.

For Ebay purchases

1. You need to create an MSN Live account. You can do this easily by googling MSN live click the "sign in" link then click "sign up"
2. Go to the MSN Live search make sure you are signed in with your live account.
3. Type in a few key words associated with the product you want to purchase. Being general is good. I search "Hoya 67 UV" at the top of the search list a box of related advertisers will appear. If Ebay is listed it should have a "you may be eligible for 25% cashback". Click this ebay link.
4. Once you are in Ebay verify there is a "you may be eligible for 25% cashback" banner at the top of the screen. 
5. Refine your search and find a reputable "Buy It Now" seller.
6. Choose "Buy It Now" and Pay with Paypal. There should be some indications throughout the process indicating this is eligible for MSN Live Cash back.
7. Go and look in your Ebay mailbox to verify the cashback worked. (I have never had a problem)

One disclaimer, read the fine print cashback is not available on all purchases (cars for instance). I have heard some people have had problems on larger purchases (greater than $1000). So... Be reasonable and save some money.

For those that are not sure about using Ebay you can get the normal 2-6% (maybe even up to 10-15% in some stores) you can go to the Live Search Cashback page and simply search the item you are interested in. It will give back a list of stores with prices and the amount of cashback. Do be aware some of the store on the search are a little shady. If the price seems too good to be true it probably is. Make sure you Google search the store name to check the reseller rating.

As with all bargain hunting you good judgement.  I cannot state strongly enough If it looks too good to be true. It probably is.

As of last week I found out that my engineering group is being dissolved early next year. Apparently Quantum is redirecting its engineering resources from our product to a product developed out of California. The layoff is a little frustrating as our product is the bread and butter of the company. I guess I designed myself out of a job. But, in all honesty the company does need to refocus as the tape backup market shrinks and the disk market grows. While painful for me, it probably is the right thing in the interest of sustaining the company as a whole.

Now, however, I am on the hunt for a new job. I have a broad background in Electrical Engineering as well as a bit of experience doing web development. I am a true generalist and I feel confident I can pick up any fundamental engineering task and learn the process to success quickly. If any of you, my loyal readers, know of any good companies in the Seattle Area I would really appreciate company recommendations in the comments area. I have also attached my resume for anyone who may come upon this site looking for a good electrical engineer (BSEE) in the Seattle, WA area.

The good news is I am excited for change. I look forward to learning new things and meeting new people. Life always offers so many great chances to grow and expand my horizons. Quoting a sign I once saw "If we don't find something new, at least we will find something interesting". This always does seem to be the case.

So I decided on the Nikon D40. It is a lower end DSLR but it still has outstanding performance in low light and in general takes great pictures. I originally looked at the Canon XTi vs XSi vs Nikon D40 vs D60. Here the rationale of my choice:

1. Cheap, I paid $400 for the body and an 18-55 lens.
2. It gets great reviews, see ken rockwell's review as well as dpreview
3. Nikon has a wide variety of excellent very flexible lens particularly the 18-105VR (Vibration reduction) and 18-200 VR
4. Great low light performance, see dpreview above.
5. Super lightweight, even with my new bigger 18-105 lens
6. Nikon also makes the D90 which is in the Canon 40D 50D range that has video. I have a clear upgrade path.

The only real drawbacks this camera has I did think were that important name a CCD rather than CMOS sensor and slower continuous shooting 2.5FPS versus 3.5FPS. So far this is a great camera.

I originally got into the digital SLR market because I was tired of waiting seconds, like 5-10 or more with flash,  for my point and shooter to turn on. I also don't like the shutter lag that has caused me to miss so many shots of my kids. I originally really liked the idea of the Pentax, because the Vibration reduction is in the body it works with every lens Pentax has made for the last 30 years. However, when I tried out the camera it felt too big and the lens was really slow compared to the Nikons and Canons. I did a lot more research and changed my finalists to the Canon XTi and the Nikon D40. When Nikon released the D90 w/18-105 lens it kind of pushed me over the line for Nikon. The new 18-105 lens was pretty affordable (much less than the Canon equivalent) and there was an upgrade path to video.

 I bought my camera from PCConnection for $400 shipped and a few weeks later bought the Nikon 18-105 lens from an authorized reseller on Ebay for $200 shipped after Microsoft cashback. In retrospect I may have done a little better on the body but $600 for both body and lens is about the same as the Canon with kit lens.

Well, now I have owned the camera for a couple weeks, was it worth it? Absolutely! It is so fast, focusing and charging the flash and has almost no shutter lag. It also has this cool feature that will automatically increase the ISO to allow for faster shutter speeds in low light. (You can set the speed at which it steps as well as the max sensitivity). As the camera has pretty good performance at high iso this is a great feature it has allowed us to take a lot of pictures we never would have gotten with our point and shooter. The new lens is also amazing. It gives that extra reach you so often want and the VR lets me take much slower shots then I ever would have been able to with a normal lens.  At the end of the day this is a great camera, we get great pictures and miss so much less. What a pleasure.

As some of you may know, I love audio books. I have graduated from books on tape and cd to books on MP3. In particular I listen to books from the public domain. There is a website call librivox.org that manages the recording and storage of thousands of these books. Because the books are in the public domain (out of copyright) and the readers are voluntarily reading them into the public domain everything is free. It turns out there are hundreds, perhaps thousands, of people out there who volunteer to read books into there computer, edit them and post them online. Given some folks are better readers than others and many books have multiple readers which sacrifices some of hte continuity of professionally read audiobooks but the price is great. There are thousands of books available the vast majority of which are well read and good stories, someone was willing to take the time to read them out loud in the first place.

I have, over the last few years, listened to a lot of books on MP3. I think the count is somewhere in the 200-300 range. The last time I went on a business trip I decided I would try to give back. I recorded two chapters of The Adventures of Jimmie Dale, a slick adventure chase story. I find that while on business trips it is easy to waste a night sitting in front of a TV, so I should put the remarkable quiet of a decent hotel room to use and do a little recording. Once I got over the fear having a terrible recorded voice and sounding like a goofball the recording was pretty easy. After a few compliments I was sold on the idea that I could do this recording books business.

About a month ago I found out I would be going on a trip to Huntsville, AL for two weeks. I decided it was time to commit. I went to Project Gutenberg, a repository for books in the public domain, and found a book that was recently cataloged and looked interesting. Knowing nothing more I commit.

After two weeks of devoted reading I completed the recording of 12 chapters of The Flaming Jewel, what turned out to be a great adventure chase that takes place in the North East US. The catch is that I only completed the recording not the editing. It turns out there are hours of work listening and cutting out misspoken phrases. Hopefully over the next few weeks I will be able to wrap up the work and the world will have previously unknown access to an obscure adventure novel from the early 20th Century.

We have finally found a new church.

Evergreen Community Church - It is located in Bothell (Just North of Home Depot for you locals), is non-denominational and so far we love it. It has a great deal in common with Bethany, our previous church. The music is outstanding and offers a nice variety from loud and very contemporary to traditional hymns. They don't have a structured Choir yet but they are working on it. They have excellent Children's Ministry and a MOPS group for Sarah. The preaching is outstanding and it has been very revealing how simply having a preacher with a different style and focus can be so refreshing. I have not felt so convicted and engaged in a long time (please do not assume this as anything negative about Pastor Richard, if anything it is more my inability to live without change). About the only thing we would have different is a little more structure. Evergreen, as with most Community churches, has very little structure; I think in the church hunting process both Sarah and I discovered that we like a little liturgy, some intentional scripture reading and prayer time throughout the service. Needless to day we are very pleased to finally feel at home again.

Sarah and I have been in the process of trying to find a new church. We currently attend Bethany Community Church, a wonderful church that is unfortunately located about an hour away in evening traffic. Over the past year or so we have felt more and more strongly that God has been calling us to move to a church closer to home, somewhere it is easier to invite friends and easier to engage on days besides Sunday. We have as of this week attended three different local churches. Each of these churches are assuredly home to numerous people that love God. As we have progressed through this process we have discovered a number of things about ourselves and perhaps about church in general.

First, Sarah and I thought we had a pretty clear vision of what we liked in a church service. I think we both wanted something a lot like Bethany. Now having attended a local Baptist, Lutheran and Community church we are very confused. The Baptist church and the community church from a church format were very similar to our home church, contemporary and non-liturgical. The Lutheran church, for obvious reasons was very different. While you might expect we would find the very liturgical service a turn off, quite the opposite was true. I found that I really enjoyed the liturgy and the next week when we attended the community church I found I missed that element. I think that if we stay at a non-liturgical church I will probably continue to miss it.

Second, Where have the churches from the middle ground gone? It seems like modern churches are divided into two groups, Huge and tiny. What happened to the church of 200 to 500 people? In our hunting we have found that, on the Eastside, the churchs are either in the 1000+ or the 150- size range. As parents of a burgeoning family, building relationships with other young families is very important to us. We want to be able to spend time with other folks who are walking through the same challenges as we are. Unfortunately, it would seem that all of the young parents are, perhaps like us, dismissing the small churches in favor of the gigantic churches in an effort to find other people in the same walk of life, as well as the Christian education associated with the other families children. So again I ask, What has happened to the church of a few hundred people, a church with enough bodies to provide peers for most walks of life, as well as the talented folks who educate and train up the next generation, but not so many that you get lost in the muddle?

Lastly, for now, I have discovered how very important it is to feel welcomed by a church. As a long standing member of my current church it was very easy to lose sight of the first time visitor or newcomer. Now, as a visitor, I have experienced several different churches of various sizes and all different levels of welcome. I have found the welcome the regulars offer is probably the single largest influence on my impression of a church. As a visitor I have also found that churches, in general, need to do a better job making themselves accessible. Here is just a little advise I think churches could take to help with this process. First, make an intentional effort at every service to have members of your church tasked with hunting down newcomers. This is easy and natural in small churches but is no less important, even though it is more difficult, at larger churches. Once the newcomer is found intentionally connect them with an individual of similar age or life stage, have that person show us around the church and introduce us to their friends. Have a great website. If it is not better than mine it probably needs work. Please give us a realistic idea about what to expect when attending your church. I can enjoy a variety of worship environments but there are certainly some I am more comfortable with, please try to help me avoid feeling awkward during your worship time, an order of worship would be completely reasonable and helpful. Lastly, clearly enunciate how your childrens ministry works, both on your website and at your church, with signs and personal help where feasibly.

So this is a brief look at our church hunting Journey. I still have not determined what is the correct way to actually choose a church outside of praying and asking God to reveal where he wants us.

A while back I set up a Facebook account to see another page. (You have to have an account in order to see any real pages in Facebook). I thought nothing of it for another 6 months. Then, about a month ago, I got a friend request from a guy I knew in college. I went back on figured out who he was and added him to my friend list. Still I didn't do much with it. Then I got another two or three requests and when I went to check out my page it had recommended that I may know a bunch of other people. Lo and behold I did. Enter the magic of Facebook. Within 2 weeks I have 50 friends and probably 10 or 20 outstanding friend requests. Perhaps I need to take a step back.

Facebook is a (maybe the) social networking site. It is basically a really simple webpage you can use to keep track of a broad spread of people you know. You start by creating a page. Then you search for people. Once you have put in a few people Facebook begins to suggest that you may know. These suggestions are based on the relationships between your friends. The remarkable element of this whole thing is that it works.

So for the last week or two I have been diligently adding new friends. I have connected with old college and highschool friends and even got to chat with a friend that is currently on the other side of the planet. Sarah had been using my Facebook to poke around and look for her old friends and finally she broke down and created her own page last night. The really good news about Facebook is that you don't really have to spend much time with it. While it is kind of like a blog it is really only designed to be updated occasionally and only in very small entries, like a sentence or two.

I highly recommend checking it out. Facebook has made this massive appearance and has a really amazing breadth of users. I would be amazed if anyone could NOT find someone they knew. Give it a shot, if you are reading my blog you probably have a friend in me.

www.facebook.com

Well, I finally broke down and bought a Wii. It is great! I found it on Criagslist for $200 with some extras.

Last night it was about 90 degrees in our house and some friends brought dinner over for us. After dinner we headed downstairs where it is much cooler to play the Wii. I have discovered it is nearly as much fun watching people that have never tried a Wii play with one for the first time than it is to play with one yourself. Jeremy and Margaret, our friends, are a married couple and I could just see Margaret thinking "what a waste of my time". Ha Ha, by the end of the night she was already making plans to get one if they had extra money after Christmas.

It is really hilarious to watch people go from awkwardly waving about to understanding how the remote works then to violently stabbing at the air in an effort to knock out there spouse in Wii Boxing. By the end of the night the rec room was as hot as the upstairs and we were all sweating like pigs but we had a good time. In any case the whole evening was a hoot and we now have two more avid Wii fans. I guess I am going to have to go out and find a couple more sets of controllers.

My recommendation: Don't try a Wii if you don't want to get hooked. I did about as good as anyone. My brother bought his Thanksgiving the year they came out and I have waited a year and half. I say I was a pretty good holdout. We will see how Jeremy and Margaret do.

So, I resolved my MP3 player dilemna and so far I am happy. I ended up buying a 4GB Creative Zen. It can do most of the things you would expect, plays audio video and photos. But for all intensive purposes I just wanted an MP3 player for my audio books. To that purpose I have discovered it is quite a lot better suited than my Sandisk Sansa C250 was. Given, my Sandisk was only $40, but compared to my new player it was pretty rough around the edges. The Zen has a really nice bookmark feature which allows me to stop a book and switch to music or a lecture and return to my place in the original book later. When you plugged the C250 into a PC it effectively reset the player resulting in losing your place in the file when you unplug, the Zen does not share this problem. Speaking of PC interface I was pleasantly surprised to find that the PC interface was not bad as many reviewers had stated. While Creative players do not allow the PC to treat their memory like a flash drive they do, at least on new versions, allow you to drag and drop content from your music or video folder directly to a folder on the player. II understand Creative is just simulating this behavior but so far it has worked seemlessly. I also started using the Zencast software that came with it and so far it seems to work great. I am excited to start getting regular audio and videocasts when I plug my player in to my computer. Overall I was surprised at how seemless the interface is and I am very satisified. In general this is a fine player and certainly serves all of my purposes. At $88 from Buy.com after $10 off for google checkout it appears to be a great deal.

Wyatt