Start

So, it's been about an age since I last wrote an actual journal entry, so, here it is.
Expect this journal to be pretty long, since, obviously, I haven't updated in quite a while.
Just so you guys are aware, I am writing this journal in reverse order of the events occurring (if they're not events or they're in the future, then, I'll likely tack them on the end, or something), of course, very likely, I'll forget the order, so what I just said probably won't mean much anyway

Anyway, let's get on with it.

Avatar: The Last Airbender

So, yeah, most recently, I've been a bit absent from dAmn, and Avatar is the reason why, I've watched the entire series twice in the last four days.

...

Yeah.

I mainly decided to watch it on a whim, which is the same reason why I decided to read the Twilight books (and watch the film) as well as read the Harry Potter books and watch all the Harry Potter films.
I think I decided to watch it (and read the aforementioned) as 'research'.
Naturally, as an MN@, I interact with a lot of people, and I logically come in contact with quite a few meme's and fandoms, so, to me at the least, it makes sense that I actually learn about them.
Instead of using second hand sources, in this case (as is the case with Twilight and Harry Potter), I decided to see it for my self, so I can form my own opinion on the subjects.

As it stands, and as it may be evident, I actually like Avatar.
Avatar isn't the sort of thing I would tend to be interested in, Cartoons aren't really my thing and Anime certainly isn't (yes, yes, I know, it's not 'Anime', so stop your rabid typing in the back).
It's also not really a cartoon that is targeted at my specific demographic.
Nonetheless, I have already watched through it twice.

There are plenty of reasons why, the story (the overarching and individual stories) is compelling, if not done before, the characters are believable, and, importantly, they are human and not, necessarily superhero messiah types.
The action scenes are very well choreographed and the art direction is good.

About the only issue I have with it is the shortness of the episodes, being, on average only 24 minutes long.
This has both good and bad points, the good point is that the stories themselves are condensed and focused, you hardly ever find your attention wandering, because there are few 'boring bits'.
The bad point is that the characters and places aren't fleshed out as much, and the individual stories tend not to be that complex.

That having been said, the show wasn't, initially, targeted at my sort of demographic so the complexity issue could be forgiven on that part.

Either way, it gets a hearty thumbs up for me.
To any who wouldn't normally be interested, I encourage you to watch at least the first few episodes, watching just two will only 'waste' about 50 minutes of your life, and, if you do get hooked, there is the fortune in that running through the entire show only takes 24.4 hours

Canon A470 - A Short Review

I've been looking for a halfway decent compact camera for over a year now.
Initially, I set my targets high: it had to have a wide angle lens, it had to record RAW files, it had to record video at a minimum of 640x480, it had to produce clean images at moderate ISO settings (400 and 800, specifically), it had to have at least some degree of manual control, and, finally, it had to actually be compact.

This essentially set my targets on cameras like the Canon G9, Panasonic LX2, Ricoh GX100, and, later, the G10, LX3 and the GX200.
The downside was that these cameras cost the proverbial arm and leg.

The main reason why I wanted to get a compact camera was because, frankly, my Nikon D50, while it produces excellent images, isn't that practical, thus, I tend to leave it at home because it's just too big and heavy.
A compact camera fixed the issue by being small, I knew I wouldn't get all the advantages, such as an interchangeable lens (that being said, the Olympus E-P1, is about the size of a Canon G10 and has interchangeable lenses), or clean high ISO files, or short depth of field, but I was willing to make that sacrifice to be able to have a camera on me at all times.

As mentioned, the cameras I wanted were out of my price range, but the cameras I could afford generally didn't tend to have the features I needed, obviously.
Why then, did I choose the A470?

The A470 is the cheapest camera in Canon's line up, costing £50. It has some degree of manual control, a 38-132mm equiv zoom lens, records video at 640x480, and has a 7.1MP sensor.

The main reason why I chose the A470 over its more capable brothers was because of that price tag. £50 is pretty hard to beat.
I also critically looked at my normal photography habits with my D50.

For a start, I don't really need a wide angle lens. My 50/1.8 tends to be permenantly attached to my camera, on my camera that 50 has the same field of view as a 75mm lens. In other words, 38mm is decidedly expansive compared to what I am used to. In addition, the times I need wide angle are the times I take panorama images anyway, in which case, I prefer longer focal lengths anyway, since it leads to a higher resolution out put file for the resulting stitch.

As such, the only critical feature the camera misses, is the ability to record RAW files (it fulfills/avoids the ISO issue, primarily because it's not crammed with pixels).

Fortunately, I know of CHDK.
This little piece of software opens up the camera to lots of new features, including, but not limited to, the ability to record RAW files.
As such, I have a £50 camera that effectively behaves like a camera costing five times that, at least for me, anyway.

Suffice it to say, I like the A470,
For a start, it produces good quality files (both JPEG and RAW), thanks to it's 7.1MP sensor. It's responsive and quick (RAW saving takes two seconds, which is pretty quick in my opinion, particularly for such a cheap camera, and fast enough for me).
It being a compact means I can take it with me practically anywhere, I like it because it gives me the freedom to be able to bring a camera so I can take photographs, as opposed to wishing I could have taken a camera.
With CHDK it's also very versatile, and I've hardly scratched the surface when it comes to this.
Finally, at £50, it's fairly disposable, by that I mean, simply, with my D50, I tend to coddle it, because it'd be expensive to replace. The A470, on the other hand only costs £50. While that amount isn't to be scoffed at, the fact is that that pill would be a lot easier to swollow than the pill I'd have to swollow if I had to replace my D50

In short, if you're looking for a compact camera compliment to a dSLR, or general walk about camera for when you can't or don't want to take your dSLR, consider one of Canon's cheaper compact cameras, as long as you're willing to play with CHDK, you could get similar features as much more expensive cameras.

Upgrades

My second PC is finally an actual PC now, it now has a hard drive that doesn't worryingly click or grind for every action, and it also has an Nvidia 7300 LE, which, while not a top end card, does free up a little system RAM and increase the graphics performance of the system by many times.
It feels nice to have a competent back up to my main PC, it's also nice to be able to test Windows 7 proper, as the GMA 950 in the system and the dodgy hard drive made testing difficult with the system previously.

HQ Meet

It's been just over two weeks, and I can honestly say that I am still mentally recovering from it.

The largest devmeet ever, at 350 deviants, and my third devmeet, the previous largest one I attended was the Brighton 06 meet with about 15 in attendance.

Anyway, I practically followed my journey plan there to the letter (I did shave off three minutes from the predicted walking time that google gave me ).
It felt strange going to London and walking around it on my own, having been the first time in London, for me, on my own, I felt decidedly out of place, stuck in this humongous metropolis.
In Brighton, the 1.7 mile walk I did from the station to the park would have gotten me from Brighton station to the out skirts of the city.
As always, and as expected, I got a headache as a result of the train journey (I always get headaches when travelling, I don't know why), which was exacerbated by the fact that I forgot to take my sunglasses, meaning I had to deal with glare all day as well.

It was all worth it, however, by being hugged by @leaf-lover, twice (first when I arrived, and second when I left)

I have to say, during the meet, I was quite introverted, which is not surprising, since I am a wall flower type, but still, I probably should have gone out of my shell a little more, particularly after being dragged up in front of everyone just before taking the group photo.

That being said, I did get into a good back and forth with $zilla774, @leaf-lover, =whitesidevampire and *kafine about the features of the site, the development of the site, and the perceptions of popularity on the site.
I also got to see, and hear, $zilla774 squee. Complete with an animated swipe of hearts behind him.
Alas, there is no visual evidence of this

I was disappointed to leave so early (I had to leave at 8pm, to get the train home, to make sure I was in time for the last Sunday buses), but, I foresee, with this first experience, that I will have plenty of opportunity to watch other deviants get drunk while I sip on a coke or something .

All in all, it was an Awesome day (with a capital A) and I definitely intend to do it again .

Oh, and here's my photo's from the Devmeet



Brighton 09 Devmeet

This devmeet will be on the 18th of July (a Saturday) at 1pm at the Brighton station.
I'm going to be there, as at least a few of those listed on =Alomie's journal at [link]

If you live anywhere near Brighton, I encourage you to turn up

Other Odds and Ends

Err, you know, I can't actually remember them
Don't worry, I'll probably have these by tomorrow, if not, then, well, this bit won't be here tomorrow