I saw an ad on Craigslist for an inexpensive 55-200mm Nikon lens, and fell down a rabbit-hole. Reading up on the lens I need to buy vs. a lens I could buy yields the ubiquitous (and knowledgable) Ken Rockwell, who has a great primer on How to Use Ultra-Wide Lenses. Until I can afford that $2,000 piece of glass, I’ll settle for the recommended 18-200mm VR instead.
Cameron Crowe’s website features a collection of his journalism from the early 70’s up until the present day. There’s lots of great stuff here.
Subtle Patterns: Free textures for Photoshop. Nice!
I’ve had the liner in for a total of two weeks, and here’s my report.
- Don’t let it get too old. I’ve had this kit sitting in a climate-controlled cool, dark corner for two (three?) years while I got my act together to spray it in. In that time, the primer hardened to a solid in the bottles, the main component skinned over about 1/2″, and the black activator component looked like it was beginning to go bad. The folks at Al’s were very helpful and suggested I buy more activator when I ordered replacement primer. When I got the order they even threw in a spraycan of mold release, which helped when cleaning the spray gun out (the excess basically peels right out).
- Mix it really well. I used the mixing attachment they supplied with the kit, which probably works fine for brand-new materials, but I could have used something with a wider paddle to really get things mixed well. I sprayed the primer on the bed as instructed and then mixed the first batch of liner. When I test-shot it on some spare door panels, I got a white foam for the first 30 seconds or so and then the liner started coming out–some of the C component may have been bad as well. This was after 5 minutes of mixing. My liner looks good but there are little boogers here and there where the main component hadn’t dissolved all the way, and they’re still sticky.
- Dial the pressure in early. The pressure on my compressor was set very low to begin with (around their recommendation) and I got a very thick, gloopy spray at first. It was so bad that I was getting random puddles in different areas as I tried to clear the nozzle. I shot about 1/2 the hopper worth of liner before I got wise and increased the pressure, and at that point the spray went on smoother. I’d also recommend having a thick-nap roller handy to smooth out the puddles; I wasn’t thinking ahead that far but in hindsight it would have made a big difference.
So it’s in; I’m relatively happy with the results but I wish I’d had more time to experiment with the compressor and think through the application.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
I’m happy to know the Postal Service is commemorating the 10-year anniversary of Give Up by touring again. Here’s a short documentary about them:
For a while, I’ve been thinking that iPhoto has been messing with my head. I have it set up to display images in descending order (newest first), and every time I pulled photos off the D7000 I couldn’t find them. I’d have to scroll all over the place to hunt them down. This morning, frustrated, I rebuilt the iPhoto database to try and fix the problem. When it had finished chugging through all the photos (I have to bite the bullet and disconnect iPhoto from Flickr at some point soon so that I can remove a ton of photos from my hard drive) they were still all screwed up. Then I peeked at the EXIF data on some recent photos and realized the problem: My camera’s date was set to 2012.
Now I’ve got to find a way to
- Comb through EXIF data to find all the files shot with the D7000
- Replace 2012 with 2013.
There are several applications that can do this, most of which are for sale. I’m told Lightroom can do it easily, and I’ve been considering an upgrade from iPhoto for about, oh, five years.
On the positive side, one of my shots from last summer (a tossed-off iPhone pic) may wind up on a poster for a client. I’ve requested a full-size copy as payment.
At Carlisle this weekend, I picked up my new Rallye steering wheel from Mike Moore. We fooled around with it a little bit at the show, going so far as to buy a $6 wheel puller at a tool tent and pull the cover off my current wheel. Where I stopped was when we compared the guts of the full-size wheel to the Rallye wheel; there are two wire leads entering my current wheel, one for a ground and one for power to the horn.
The Rallye wheel has one obvious connection point for what I’d assume is power at the 12 o’clock position; there is no other lead on the plastic at all.
I started looking through the Binder Planet to see if anyone else has blazed a trail for me to follow, and found this Steering Wheel Replacement thread with a link to some more pictures which illustrate how to use the wheel puller. It also reveals that I’ll need to get two 1/4″ x 28 thread bolts to fit the pull holes; most likely the ones I have are metric. This thread is even more helpful, as it’s got commentary with excellent pictures.
What I’m gonna have to do is pull my current wheel apart and dick around with it for a little bit to see if what I have will work with what I bought. If not, it’s a call to Super Scout Specialists for the stuff I’ll need.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.