Panoramic Shots

I remember when we used physical film, there was a type of film that allowed panoramic shots. Nowadays, I would take three or four shots for a scene, but never found the way to easily merge them into a panoramic shot. With the Dell, I got a cool photo editing software called Adobe Photoshop Elements that actually does the merging for me. Here's a selection, they did end up something like what I thought they would!

Gold Coast Beach


Times Square


Spit Bridge


Yankee Stadium


Great Ocean Road


Pyrmont


Palm Beach


Tokyo

New XPS Laptop

It's ironic that I'm writing this entry about my new XPS M1330 Dell on an Apple Macbook in the Apple store in Soho. I got delivery of the new XPS last week, on a deal that was pretty impressive. In total, I got around $900 off the retail price of the XPS (there was a big discount on the Dell website, and my company also offer an employee discount) so definitely was a bargain, compared to the hardware specs of a Macbook.

Dell have done better with their packaging nowadays, with a swanky leather book to keep all the installation CDs that come with the system. Plus it's all originals as well.

Of course, with these originals, the first thing I did was to reinstall the system. Yes, there were lots of things that were pre-loaded with the system that I really didn't need and made the computer a bit slow on startup, but upon reinstallation, it's very snappy.

Dell have actually included some decent software with the system, I was able to get Adobe Premier Photo Elements (full version) for free, which adds another $100 to the deal. So I've been porting my pics out of iLife and into Elements, which in itself is a bit of a learning curve.

The main things that have impressed so far:

1. HDMI output to the LCD at home works like a charm, and getting a 42-inch TV to edit photos will be awesome.
2. SD Card slot, so no need to plug in the camera anymore
3. Vista I think is not too bad, but just need a few tweaks to remove so of those stupid popup notifications. Aero interface looks slick.
4. Editing photos is so fast!! The 3Gb of RAM is so good for Elements.

I want to see how the computer handles games!

So no post-purchase dissonance, Dell has done a very good job with the XPS. Vista does take a bit more work to get to a state that works well, but I think MS will continue to improve it.

It's funny that at a stage when a lot of people are moving to Mac, I'm moving back to Windows.

On another note, that Mac Air is pretty sweet as a secondary laptop to run around with :)

Fantastic Vail

Wow, Vail is enormous! I went up with a work friend after visiting Denver for the week and have two picture perfect days in the snow. Highlights of the trip:

1. The roads to Vail being closed off because of too much snow the day before we left, causing a backlog of people at Denver International airport. We got out of there one hour late
   
2. Seeing Vail (as a European style snow town) and then being disappointed in Beaver Creek, where we stayed (as a fairly industrial looking place with dive bars and the like). Still can't complain, as it was 1/3 of the price.
   
3. Booking a hotel that wasn't the one we got dropped off at. Luckily no problems getting a room at the new place. It was confusing, Comfort Inn as opposed to Comfort Suites!
4. The weather was so good. Didn't get to see/feel much powder as my friend was of only an beginner level, but the groomed runs were so easy to ski on. They even groom some of the black runs!
5. We covered only 1/4 of Vail in the days we were there. It's big. Looking forward to going back and doing the back bowls in mid-March.
   
6. Being allowed to take a day to get back home, instead of having to do a red-eye flight. I swear I did some work on the plane.
7. I can still do black diamond runs!
8. Still too scared to do trickz :)
   

Attempted panoramic shot:

Love and Memory

I watched "The Notebook" the other day with Bec. Not a bad story, it's got a few funny parts and the overall film was very endearing.

*spoiler alert, for those that haven't seen in*
One part that did strike me was the tension between Noah and his kids when they come to visit Ali, who does not remember them at all. The kids were telling Noah "come home, we miss you" to which Noah replied "this (the nursing village) is my home now."

I had always wondered why Grandpa was move into the nursing village with Grandma even though he was in fairly good health at the time. Grandma, similar to Ali, was at the mid-late stages of Alzheimer's and was in need of constant care. Perhaps in his mind he could help her remember those things that she had forgotten, to "bring her back" to a world where she knew who Grandpa was.

It must be devastating to know that your wife of 50ish years cannot remember you. And to have those moments when all the memories and lucidity comes back to them (I don't know if this is true or not) and for it to leave again was be immensely painful for him.

I think I respect Grandpa a lot more as a husband now, and that his love and devotion to his wife was something wonderful.

Love and Memory

I watched "The Notebook" the other day with Bec. Not a bad story, it's got a few funny parts and the overall film was very endearing.

*spoiler alert, for those that haven't seen in*
One part that did strike me was the tension between Noah and his kids when they come to visit Ali, who does not remember them at all. The kids were telling Noah "come home, we miss you" to which Noah replied "this (the nursing village) is my home now."

I had always wondered why Grandpa was move into the nursing village with Grandma even though he was in fairly good health at the time. Grandma, similar to Ali, was at the mid-late stages of Alzheimer's and was in need of constant care. Perhaps in his mind he could help her remember those things that she had forgotten, to "bring her back" to a world where she knew who Grandpa was.

It must be devastating to know that your wife of 50ish years cannot remember you. And to have those moments when all the memories and lucidity comes back to them (I don't know if this is true or not) and for it to leave again was be immensely painful for him.

I think I respect Grandpa a lot more as a husband now, and that his love and devotion to his wife was something wonderful.