This is an old one, clearly shot earlier in the fall. But I figure some green and yellow and fall beautifulness will make our transition into winter bright and cheerful.

Glowing Leaf. Canon Digital Rebel XTi, EF 85mm f/1.8@f/2.2. ISO 100, 1/800.

View larger and more in the gallery.

Since people have asked, a Christmas wishlist:

• Bruce Schneier T-Shirt. My t-shirt size is Medium or Small.
• “No Raptors” shirt from the xkcd store.
• Something from my Thinkgeek Wishlist.
• Canon EF 1.4x II Extender.
• Canon BP-511A Camera Battery
• Additional memory cards for my camera, CompactFlash format. NewEgg.com is a good source for these.
• A gift card to B&H Photo.
• Various lenses for my camera:
  • Canon EF 100mm f/2.8 Macro.
  • Canon EF 16-35mm f/2.8L II.
  • Canon EF 15mm f/2.8 Fisheye.
  • Canon EF-S 10-22mm f/3.5-4.5.
• CDs are always awesome: Especially blues, They Might be Giants, Beatles (The White Album)

If I think of more things I’ll add them.

Tomorrow, I fly to Portland, OR for a one week business trip. If you’re a total geek like me you can track my flights on FlightAware:

• United 173 leaves KBOS at 0800 EST headed for KSFO.
• United 562 leaves KSFO at 1248 PST headed for KPDX.

Once the appropriate flight plan is filed my flights will show up as “scheduled” then after wheels-up they’ll be tracked by FlightAware (like all flights conducted under Instrument Flight Rules). FlightAware’s tracking is delayed by 6 minutes.

If you’re even more of a geek just like me you can also listen to ATC all over the world at LiveATC.net which isn’t delayed like FlightAware. So you can listen to flights moving from Boston Clearance Delivery, to Boston Ground, then Boston Tower, Boston Departure, then to Boston Center and so on… across the country until NORCAL approach, and so on.

I’ll be returning next Saturday on Alaska 802. Alaska 802’s tracking seems to have some strange issues, including regularly showing up with “result unknown” while a duplicate entry shows up in FlightAware with a slightly different aircraft type code with the normal completion. I believe this may be a bug in FlightAware, perhaps due to Alaska Airlines use of Required Navigational Performance, which is what the aircraft type suffix indicates.

Except for the flights, I’ll generally be reachable via cell phone, text message, email, and IRC/Jabber as time allows.

First, a Compact Fluorescent Lightbulb. Seriously, these things are awesome. We had a very weak one in the dining room, part of a set of CFLs which were given to us by the property manager as part of an energy saving project. However, today I upgraded to a much larger lamp, a 150 watt equivalent CFL. This shot has totally been done before, but I wanted to play around with it. I used a small aperture and shot directly up at the ceiling fixture. I took this exposure almost directly after turning the light switch on, so the tube is still warming up.

Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi), Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 @ f/16.0, 1/250, Aperture Priority program mode, ISO 200.

The second shot is of a lit candle. This was shot in darkness, with all room lights off. I put the camera on a tripod and focused on the candle with the lights on. Then I set the lens to manual focus and lit the candle, then turned off the lights. I used a cable release with the “Bulb” setting to achieve a 19 second exposure. During the exposure I blew towards the candle to create a wide soft look to the flame. The photo was later cropped to a vertical orientation featuring just the candle in Adobe Lightroom.

Canon EOS 400D (Digital Rebel XTi), Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 @ f/22, 19s, manual mode, ISO 100.

I took this sunset photo on November 2nd. The clouds had incredible coloring with all these layers throughout. Lately most of my shots have been people pictures but today I figured I’d share a nice landscape shot :)

ISO 100, Canon EF 50 f/1.4 @ f/2.5, 1/125, Program mode with -4/3 EV bias.

I am in love with this photo.

Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 @ f/2.8, Canon Speedlite 580EX II. ISO 100, 1/200, manual exposure mode.

This is a variation on a recipe I learned when I traveled to Thailand in 2004. The major variation is cooking real shrimp instead of using dried shrimp, and the use of lime instead of lemon. Also dried turnip has been omitted.

Ingredients:

• 2 tbsp peanut oil
• 4 garlic cloves, finely chopped
• 1 egg
• Approximately 1/3 of a package of Thai Rice Noodles (original recipe calls for 100 grams)
• Some number of shrimp, frozen is fine, peeled and deveined. You can use as many or little as you want. It will affect the balance of the dish. You can also substitute, for example, tofu.
• 1 tbsp lime juice
• 1 tbsp fish sauce
• 1 tbsp sugar
• Approximately 4 tbsp chopped roast peanuts
• Some number of hot chilies, finely chopped. Different chilies have differing heat amounts. I use 3-4 relatively weak green chilies.
• Bean sprouts
• 3-4 spring onions/scallions, chopped into 1 inch pieces
• Coriander leaf (cilantro), coarsely chopped
• Lime wedges, to garnish

The Thai Rice Noodles need to soak, so start them early. I suggest chop everything in advance since things go quickly. In a wok or frying pan over medium high, heat the oil. If you have a lot of shrimp, use a bit more oil. Add the shrimp, and fry until they are cooked (pink). Remove the shrimp from the pan. Add the garlic and fry until it just starts to brown. Crack the egg into the pan and fry it together with the garlic.

Once the egg is cooked, add the (drained) rice noodles. Mix well. While stirring quickly: Add the lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, the shrimp, half the peanuts, the chilies, a handful of the bean sprouts, and the spring onions.

Test the noodles for tenderness. When done, put onto a serving plate and sprinkle the chopped coriander and the rest of the chopped peanuts on top. Arrange the lime wedges around and serve.

Cheers!

I’ve had my Honda for about a year now, having purchased it for a token amount from my parents in October of last year. Then it had around 143,500 miles on it and just yesterday it rolled 159,000, making for around 15.5 thousand miles driven in the past year. It has served me quite well so far, and it passed inspection with no issues this year.

I’ve had to make a few repairs, most notably some suspension components right after I bought it and an exhaust leak that showed up in the middle of the winter. The old worn Dunlop summer tires were also replaced with Uniroyal Tiger Paw tires in the spring since they were no longer suitable. At the same time the left CV joint (half axle) was replaced which fixed a longstanding problem with a clunking/clicking in turns.

I also replaced the spark plugs and distributor cap and rotor myself. The manual transmission fluid was swapped for Amsoil Synthetic MTF late last October. Additionally, the car has been improved by the addition of an Icom IC-2200h mobile 2 meter VHF radio and a VHF antenna in the center of the trunk. There is also a TomTom One GPS unit.

I have tracked fuel mileage for 12,854.24 of the last 15,500 or so (accounting for 464.65 gallons). This is an average MPG of 27.66. The median MPG achieved across all recorded fillups is 28.19. Best MPG was 30.8, worst 21.28 (in February). Based on the price paid for each fillup, total fuel cost was $1,188.13 with a fuel cost per mile of $0.0924.

If I pull off another 15,000 miles in the next year the car might make it to 175,000 miles before it fails inspection due to rust… or perhaps longer if it manages to pass another year!