Swim Meet!

Posted by MikeyMike at 08:58 PM on July 31, 2006 in Congrats!, Kawaii, Photography.

Got to take some photos of my neighbor's daughter Denise at her swim meet this Saturday. Muy cute headgear, wouldn't you say? It was very weirdly raining that day (it NEVER rains in San Diego in July!) but at least cool then. I'm hoping to get up early enough for Denise's last few meets. Getting some experience using the D70!

2 Yeah Baby!s

Amigurumi Kingdom

Posted by MikeyMike at 10:42 AM on August 2, 2006 in Arts, Kawaii.

Too cute, or what?!? More stuff Here Another link from Dodo! ^^

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Stump the Band

Posted by MikeyMike at 03:18 PM on August 2, 2006 in Arts, Performers.

Dear Ms. Monkee wants to know the name of the singer on this song. It's on my RadioBlog called "Song". Anyone know his name??

Currently listening to: "Song"

2 Yeah Baby!s

Heat Wave

Posted by MikeyMike at 03:54 PM on August 2, 2006 in Rants, Geographica.

Back east this time... My sympathies!!




WASHINGTON - Record-breaking heat and oppressive humidity made people across the eastern half of the country miserable Wednesday and sent tourists in the nation's capital scrambling for relief in the cool marble halls of Capitol Hill.

Others forced to work outdoors guzzled icy drinks to cope with the heat wave that has sent temperatures soaring over 100 across the East and parts of the Midwest.

"This is unbelievable," said Bob Garner, a tourist from Atlanta who retreated with his family into the air-conditioned comfort of the Capitol. "They get the hottest days of the year while we're here."

By late afternoon, the temperature at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport had risen to 99, with a heat index of 106. It was even hotter on the steaming pavement downtown. In New York, the temperature rose to 101 at LaGuardia Airport and 96 in Central Park. Philadelphia and Baltimore climbed into the upper 90s.

At the Capitol, tourists filled water bottles at drinking fountains and doused themselves. Others drenched their baseball caps before putting them on. More Here

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Mika

Posted by MikeyMike at 05:29 PM on August 2, 2006 in Arts, Performers.

Ain't she lovely??


Mika Nakashima

Nana the movie was pretty good too!



Find out more about the Nana manga Here

4 Yeah Baby!s

Dog destroys Elvis' teddy bear at museum

Posted by MikeyMike at 01:33 PM on August 3, 2006 in Arts, Doggies.

Oopps!

LONDON - A guard dog has ripped apart a collection of rare teddy bears, including one once owned by Elvis Presley, during a rampage at a children's museum.

"He just went berserk," said Daniel Medley, general manager of the Wookey Hole Caves near Wells, England, where hundreds of bears were chewed up Tuesday night by the 6-year-old Doberman pinscher named Barney.

Barney ripped the head off a brown stuffed bear once owned by the young Presley during the attack, leaving fluffy stuffing and bits of bears' limbs and heads on the museum floor. The bear, named Mabel, was made in 1909 by the German manufacturer Steiff.

The collection, valued at more than $900,000, included a red bear made by Farnell in 1910 and a Bobby Bruin made by Merrythought in 1936.

The bear with Elvis connections was owned by English aristocrat Benjamin Slade, who bought it at an Elvis memorabilia auction in Memphis, Tenn., and had loaned it to the museum.

"I've spoken to the bear's owner and he is not very pleased at all," Medley said.

A security guard at the museum, Greg West, said he spent several minutes chasing Barney before wrestling the dog to the ground.

2 Yeah Baby!s

Crystal Pier - Pacific Beach

Posted by MikeyMike at 01:57 PM on August 6, 2006 in Geographica.

The Crystal Pier in Pacific Beach, San Diego, CA

Lovely to spend some nights over the ocean in your snug bungalow... They made a movie featuring them a few years ago staring Pierce Brosnan (The Heist)...

Currently listening to: the ocean

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Nikon D80

Posted by MikeyMike at 03:55 PM on August 6, 2006 in Tech, Photography.

Yes sports fans, it's that time of the year for Nikon to announce a new digital SLR camera... Should be announced very soon.

Me, I'm keep my D70... for now!



Here's the lowdown from KenRockwell.com" - always an interesting site!

FORECAST

The Nikon D80 will be announced on August 9th, 2006. It's an amalgamation of the D200's 10 MP sensor and a few other parts grafted into a D70 body. What's new is the firmware which controls it.

SPECIFICATIONS

It's almost identical to the D70s in most regards, except:

10 Megapixels, up from 6.

Works fine with old manual focus AI and AI-s lenses in A and M exposure modes. Tiny possibility it may also allow P and S exposure modes with manual lenses.

2.5" LCD, up from 2.0"

4.5 FPS, up from 3.

1/250 sync speed, down from 1/500.

Top panel illumination now switched on by twisting the power button, just like D200, D2X, etc. The D70 had a separate button. The D80 is an improvement.

Takes SD cards, not CF.

Rotary, not slider, viewfinder diopter control.

Slight rearrangement of buttons on rear.

Dedicated AF selection button on top of camera, a big improvement from D70 which required a menu to select between AF-S or AF-C.

Price: $899.

Availability: Like most new Nikons, it won't be on shelves and in stock for months. Get yourself on a waiting list and be patient. The D200 and 18-200 VR aren't readily available, and they were announced nine months ago. If you need a camera today just buy a D70s or D200 and don't worry. You'll make thousands of great photos every month with a camera you own and no photos with one for which you're still waiting. I have a whole page about managing obsolescence here.

The D80 will be announced via press release, so just look here (international) and here for Nikon USA each day. This is where all the magazines and other sites read the data, so you may as well get it from the source the day it hits.

PERFORMANCE

Most likely the same image quality or slightly better than the D200.

Identical materials and robustness to the D70.

RECOMMENDATIONS

As always, if you have something to shoot today, get a D70s from stock.
If you can wait, forget the D70 and get your order in for the D80.

2 Yeah Baby!s

'High School Musical' a Blockbuster

Posted by MikeyMike at 05:18 PM on August 6, 2006 in Arts, Kawaii, Performers.

I've seen it. It's pretty good, especially for "tweens" (8-12). You may have to be a closet watcher, especially when it's on your iPod Video! ^^
The new version has sing-along - like Karaoke when the songs come on...

Here's the Disney link Their site is awesome!



The most he and his colleagues were expecting to do with "High School Musical," a song-and-dance romance that Disney executive Gary Marsh described as "`Grease' meets `Romeo and Juliet,'" was create a hit movie for kids.
What they did instead was unleash one of the biggest children's-televisio n phenomenons since Fess Parker pulled on a coonskin cap and set a nation of kids to singing the "The Ballad of Davy Crockett" in the 1950s.

When "High School Musical" debuted on the Disney Channel on Jan. 20, it drew nearly eight million viewers, making it the top-rated basic-cable TV show that week. When it was repeated the next night, it drew more than six million viewers, according to the Nielsen Media Research group, making it the No. 2-rated cable show of the week.

Then it got bigger.

The broadcast of a karaoke version, for which people were encouraged to hold parties and sing along, was also a hit, and in March three videos from the movie were among the 12 most-popular downloads at the Apple iTunes Music Store.

The movie soundtrack, meanwhile, reached No. 10 on the Billboard pop-music charts two weeks after its release, hit No. 1 four weeks later and, after sliding down to No. 3, returned to the top spot again. At one point there were nine singles from the soundtrack on the chart in the same week.

"I knew we had something when everybody around the office was asking for a copy of the CD before the movie came out, wanting to play it in their cars and take it home to their kids," said the upbeat Marsh, president of entertainment for Disney Channel Worldwide.

"But to have ever dreamed this could go to Number One on the Billboard chart - twice no less - that was beyond my wildest dreams. And I can dream pretty big," he added with a laugh.

So much so that plans for the sequel are already in the works. The DVD of the original will be released next month along with "High School Musical - the Novel." Also, a stage show is in the works and a touring concert version is a possibility.

Cell-phone ring tones from the movie are going on sale and there will be a back-to-back airing of the film and the karaoke version on Friday, 8 p.m. More Here

Currently listening to: High School musical

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Rocky Found!

Posted by MikeyMike at 05:08 PM on August 7, 2006 in Geographica, Doggies.

Rocky, the neighbor's male Lab, was lost for almost two days this weekend! I made up some posters with his picture:



Someone called, and he was found! The girls ( 8 and 3) where so happy.

So, this drama ended happily...

7 Yeah Baby!s

Beauty Robot

Posted by MikeyMike at 03:49 PM on August 9, 2006 in Tech.

I'm waiting for the "beast" robot! ^^


'Rong Cheng', a newly-created robot, sits on display at the Institute of Automation of Chinese Academy of Sciences in Beijing August 7, 2006. Rong Cheng, dubbed as the first Chinese 'beauty' robot, is able to respond to some 1,000 Chinese words. She can dance, bow and greet people in the Sichuan dialect as she is destined for the Sichuan Science Museum to serve as a receptionist. The robot costs about 300,000 yuan (US$37,500) to make, according to Xinhua News.
REUTERS/Claro Cortes IV (CHINA)
Reuters - Aug 07 4:06 AM

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TomArma.com Baby Animal Costumes

Posted by MikeyMike at 04:49 PM on August 9, 2006 in Kawaii, Photography, Wild.

Saw his costumes in my latest Shutterbug magazine... Wanna go out and rent a baby to put in one of these things! ^^

4 Yeah Baby!s

1st Hands On D80 Review

Posted by MikeyMike at 11:59 PM on August 9, 2006 in Tech, Photography.

OK, it's offically announced now. Here's an in
depth, hands on review... Don't worry, it will be months before you get your hands on it!

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In Focus

Posted by MikeyMike at 02:36 PM on August 13, 2006 in Arts, Kawaii, Photography.

50/50... this little girl is half white and half Thai(?)

Perusing the galleries in the Nikonians website, found this cute little girl. It's super sharp at the website... Made with Nikon camera and lens!


Quote:
We used to think that a hundred million
monkeys at a hundred million keyboards
eventually could
produce the complete works of
Shakespeare.
Now, thanks to the
Internet, we know this is not true.

16 Yeah Baby!s

From Chocolat

Posted by MikeyMike at 07:33 PM on August 15, 2006 in Arts, Performers.

Père Henri: I think we can't go around measuring our goodness by what we don't do - by what we deny ourselves, what we resist and who we exclude. I think we've got to measure goodness by what we embrace, what we create and who we include.

Currently listening to: OST from Chocolat
Currently reading: Joanne Harris' Chocolat
Currently watching: Chocolat
Currently feeling: Chocolat

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Contest

Posted by MikeyMike at 03:07 PM on August 16, 2006 in Geographica, Arts, Kawaii.

Pregnant women show off paintings on their tummies during a body painting contest held at a hospital in Haikou, China

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Random

Posted by MikeyMike at 03:40 PM on August 20, 2006 in Congrats!, Kawaii, Photography.

Been a busy week! Cactus don't seem to know that it's the peak of summer and their blooms should be non-existent right now!



Went Saturday to neighbors daughters Water Polo match at the pool by the Zoo. lots of of pix taken! Over 1gb counting the raw files... Here's a couple:


Andrea ("Annie") is Denise's 3 year old sister. Cute, huh?


Denise (on the right) with her buddy planning strategy no doubt.

In other news, I got me a Sony DVD burner that does everything (except Light Scribe). So, that should be helpful.

1 Yeah Baby!s

Got new A-Mei CD/DVD

Posted by MikeyMike at 06:42 PM on August 20, 2006 in Arts, Performers.

It came yesterday. The new CD/DVD from A-Mei's I Want Happiness recording. The DVD is about 1 hour of a live concert. Not fancy, but nice, if you've never seen her perform before. (As I hadn't). Not that pricy to get this set. Plus, it has a poster and several other goodies. This is such great CD! Every song is good!!

Currently listening to: A-Mei's Chinese Girl

3 Yeah Baby!s