Real

Still playing BF3. But going to be migrating over to iRacing around the new year. Gotta utilize this new computer upgrade and huge monitor now for racing.

The best rides on Magnum are late night when a low fog/cloud obscures the horizon AND the water. I have been on it when the second hill plunges into absolute darkness. I could barely make out the back of the persons head in front of me let alone anything 20ft out. Those are rides Ill never forget, much like the rides Ive had on Voyage in similar ERT sessions.

You could have rode any Intamin steel coasters and gotten the same effect as El Toro. Toro and the Intamin Plug n plays are special in their design. They will ride just like a steel coaster and at heart, thats what it is. It even rides on poly coated wheels, something no regular wooden coaster does not to mention the computer controlled and fabricated track as well and the trains/wheels. Its more like a steel hyper disguised as a woodie. Makes for a fantastic product but comparing to a traditional woodie its hard to do - at least for me. You could have ridden any other newer GCI and then that statement would be smack dab on.

64 here. I have a nifty app on my Bionic that I got for .10 cents that uses the camera and light to get your heartbeat. Its been validated by several physicians and its accurate. Mine has been between 62 and 67 everytime I check it at work. Not to bad. Expecting it to drop over the winter as I hit the gym.

My Christmas present this year (and my birthday present for next year, lol) is related to cars but in a super awesome way. My dad is taking me on a Gotham Dream Car Tour and I get to drive! Ill be driving Lambo's, Ferarri's (PLEASE 458 PLEASE!) and other exotics for about 3-4hrs. To quote Bart Scott:

VERY nice! Some look a bit noisy, or if they were HDR, youve got some pixels blown out. Do they take your picture in Rip Ride Rocket in the building you pass through? It looks like your time lapse was strobed because I see the train inside the building clear as day.

why no Nissan Juke R? lol jk

Not when the place the cable breaks is oh, 200ft BELOW me. And another hundred feet or more from any foot traffic. There is no safety concerns from a cable lift breaking. Only concerns are on cable LAUNCHes as seen with the snaps where the people got shards. But thats a completely different type of break. MF is only going 22mph. Not 122.

If we had a playoff system in place, and Alabama made it back to the title game through that process, no one would complain because it would be clear that they earned it. The way the system is now leaves whether or not they earned it up for debate. How can they be the best team if there is debate as to who was their most worthy oppenent? Most notably, we're all still waiting for a USC vs. LSU matchup...among all the other questionable #2 teams that made it through. Bingo.

Saban is a tool as well. Taken from TheSportingNews: BROKEN. SYSTEM. What a joke this has all turned out to be.

I am wondering how it got off center. I used lightroom to fix that. Yea. I have the 100-400L and love it. For not being calibrated, its pretty dang sharp at 400. from 100-300 is very good. Im going to send it away this winter though and have it calibrated to my 40D since I dont have the microadjustment of the newer bodies. I expect very good results after that. But yea, the 400 x 1.6 crop @ 5.6 is so much fun. I plan to do a lot of motorsports photography next year so its basically a given that I need telephoto. I love shooting wide but I find I do it more for pleasure. Im thinking of trying to find a few niche areas here around town to photography different sports at different levels and sell some pictures. I found 1 niche already, looking for more

Invertalon: Is the lights at Columbus Zoo pretty sweet? We have some at Toledo each year at the Toledo Zoo and they are quite good. I never knew Columbus Zoo did the same thing and Im always up for a trip down there. Worth the trip? Heres a recent one from Cleveland Zoo. Finally got the "eyes" shot I had wanted for so long.

I think in both cases of Raptor and GB it was a matter of element spacing. Same for this ride. I think too much can be read into it for Raptors case and especially the section between loop and immelman on Great Bear. Its just there to space out the two elements. If you enjoy it, awesome. If not, too bad, lol. I like the exiting from the loop and going to a STRAIGHT section though. I think it looks cool and will ride cool. Going from the straight segment into the immelman will increase the G load making the onset G's more intense into the pull up.

I have Halo 3 for one reason - to Betray. Nothing is more fun than having some annoying 8yr old running his mouth in the pre-game lobby on our team. And then its Team rockets and no one vetoes. Ut Oh. Guess what happens next? LOOK DOWN AND FIRE! FIRST ONE TO JESUS WINS! Boom. -5 to start the game. Friend gets booted. Well all respawn again, then I look down and fire. -3 for me, -8 for the team. Darn. Now Im booted. Then our other friend does it. -2. -10 total. He gets booted. Now that little annoying kid is -10 in the hole and 2 on 5. LOL GG KID! Want proof? Some of the funniest photos ever for me: LOOK DOWN AND FIRE! One grenade, 6 betrayals. EVERYONE IN THE WARTHOG!

Many people jumped on G+ and lately - because they don't have all their friends over there, they think its dead. Which is so far from the truth. For now, certain sectors are absolutely booming and I think the largest one is Photography. Most professional Photogs hated Facebook for its interface and that it didn't protect your work (Google doesn't assume it as its own property - only that if its offensive/etc it may remove or edit it - and I doubt they'd edit a photo, they'd just remove it) So when G+ came out, this area EXPLODED because Photogs were both unsatisfied with Facebooks TERRIBLE image quality and also FB's privacy issues. If you are into Photography you owe it to yourself to create a G+ account and start searching for Photo circles. If not, you can PM me and Ill circle you and share my photography circle which has like about 200 people in it. I am astounded daily by the content that is in that stream and more importantly, the conversations about photography and the knowledge that is shared there. I have learned more in the last few months with G+ than in years before. Its an ocean of information all right there in one place. From within the Circle of Photogs I have there's always someone sharing their circle of photographers and its not uncommon for people to have 1,000s of people in multiple circles all for photography. (I think 500 per circle is the max). There's a few pro's who have circles dedicated to helping starving artists make it big. There's one pro - Trey Ratclif who is famous for his HDR work and he has a hangout every week it seems. Explaining how he works, his work and taking questions and answers. I've seen a few hangouts get to 200 people. Simply put if you love photography you should be over there. If even just to browse the pictures that some of these people come up with (Some of the wedding stuff Ive seen is mind boggling good - some incredible work out there) or to gain knowledge and understanding of photography. Its pretty crazy how fast this part of G+ exploded. You can find me at https://plus.google.com/u/0/107203122441051099654/posts//p/pub Its as much a tool now to me as Google.com is and just searching.

They aren't people...they're pixels. I had no problem doing that in that level. I left no one standing. People that make video games out to be "real" or more than what they are - bits of code, textures and polygons really need to remind themselves what it is - NOT real life. AT no point since that game did I ever want to walk into an airport with bullet proof vests, an RPK and just mow down everyone. With that said. BF3. ROCKS.

HDR Panorama of my city, Toledo OH from our suspension bridge. Its comprised of 25 photos. 5 deep for exposure and 5 across. Its my first attempt to do this. very meticulous and not the best outcome but its my first effort at this kind of HDR Pano. Definitely click for larger image.

I do not remember the water on our Freedom Class ships being anything but normal water with the standard chlorine.

And sad that he only did the bare minimum to get away from that. The first offense he didnt know about but that was just improper touching. The second case, the one he knew about - that was rape. And he only told people with enough power to get him off the hook but not the right people to handle it. All that was done to Sandusky was took away his keys to the locker room. Joe should have severed all ties with him, friendship and all. Pursued legal action and gotten this man tried for the atrocities he committed. Really is sad, this is what Joe Pa will be tarnished with. Makes NCAA violations look mighty weak by comparison.

lol if that's what I am, that's what I am Glad to see Robb and the Stig have my back - I mean, c'mon guys, ITS THE STIG! Unfortunately, I live on the Piedmont, and not in Ohio (wait, scratch that - FORTUNATELY ) I can tell you that I have tried before and gotten slightly worse mileage (maybe 1 mpg worse, but still worse!) Cruise will suck in areas with hills and mountains because you or I could gradually adjust the speed to compensate for the hills. The cruise will let the revs go way down, then offer a burst of power that in any car, new or old I can just see the gas meter move (hypothetically of course). So if you live somewhere its not flat, I completely understand. I however have lived here in Ohio all my life - the upper northwest which is all old swamp area so its insanely flat. I imagine across the plains you would get great mileage as well in cruise. And yea...only thing flat areas are great for IMO are storms. But here we dont get cool ones like the plains. So Id rather live in the hilly areas and deal without Cruise Control. Mines been broken for years.

Cruise control most certainly does not take AWAY from fuel economy. Letting a computer control your speed (and in the flat lands of Ohio, no worries of hills) that means your car runs at the most optimal revs possible. Your foot will not be able to hold it as steady and revving the engine up and down will hurt fuel mileage. Studies have shown up to 14% increase in mileage, average of 7%. Now, if you are using it in mountainous or hilly areas - 1 that's just stupid and 2 duh, its not going to help because it doesn't anticipate the slow downs like a driver with a pair of eyes can. But on flat ground, it most certainly does save gas. However, I find that it can make me tired faster since there is less interaction. In a way, less connection with the road and car. I still prefer to have it when I can. Though I haven't had it in my car for almost 3-4 years.

Same here. Someone posted that 50mm 1.4 that I want for like 250 (absolute steal) gone within like an hour. I work almost 40hrs a week! LOL I need to script a program to scour the site every 10min and report back to me. Well, going out for some macro fun. Going to search for creepy crawlies and maybe some flowers if anything is left.

So far I have gotten it all off ebay but I am VERY particular about the product. I typically ask several questions, make sure they supply me with enough pictures of the lens (and not crappy phone pictures...come on, if you're a photog, you have something else nice laying around), I want dates for the lenses if applicable, etc. Ill probably get the flash new since its so cheap. Glad you said what you did about the 430. I'm the same way, I prefer natural light. That's why i spent good money on my tripod. Ill take a long exposure over flash 99/100 times. But as I get into more sports simply because people will pay me and I enjoy it, I need that flash to stop the action. I have looked through the Fred Miranda stuff. I always check there but deals literally last only hours there. So I havent been able to be lucky enough to catch a deal there.

The 1.4 is the one I am eyeing up the most. Simply for the reasons you stated. The gap between the 70 and 100 - I'm not sure how it would work. Maybe Ill rent it first, see how the gap feels. Weight isn't an issue with me. I carry around a 100-400 which weighs 3lbs by itself. I just get used to it. Plus my tripod goes everywhere I go and its carbon so its not holding me down. There are way too many options though. Its ridiculous. Just when I think this is the lens I want to save for, something else comes into the picture and starts to play games with me. First thing I need is a good flash. Looking like the 430 EX II is the one for me. I cant justify the 400-500 USD pricetag on the 580. Plus, the 430 has virtually all the same features and considering I don't need 58m of reach, I think 43m will be ok. That's a LONG way. Plus I can get one of those, new or used from 200-250 and that's in my window. Everything I have other than my 100mm Macro is used. I figure when I start making money off my work Ill use that to purchase new or barely used equipment. For now, I make do on the small budget I have.

That's what I thought it was. I've seen those calibration machines in use. I manually calibrate at least the whites and blacks on my TV and wow. The colors and such may not pop like on some peoples where the contrast levels and levels are all maxed out but I hate that. I want it to look real. When I had HD Cable for sports, they looked like I was there in 120hz when calibrated. Ill keep that in mind. Still debating over the 24-105L. The 24-70 f2.8 would be nice but then Id have a gap from 70-100 since my telephoto is the 100-400. That and the 24-70 is way more expensive on average. I also own a 100mm 2.8. Thinking of getting the 24-105 f4 and then a 50mm 1.4 or 1.8 and calling it for awhile. I also need an external flash and that's my next buy. But the 28-135 kit lens, its nice, but its not cutting it for quality. Funny you'd link me to B&H. Just got their catalog in the mail today.