For your viewing pleasure, last night’s 207 video game review of Rock Band 2 where we jam out with Pat “The Strat” Callahan.

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Keep this on file for the next Commute Another Way Day here in Maine.

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I’m a big potato chip fan.  I’ve always been.  But I am picky.  I hate the greasy ones, the vineager ones and the over-salted ones.  Not a big fan of the flavored ones either.  Some years ago, Lays came out with a Natural chip, made with: potatoes, salt and corn oil.  They are quite yummy, not greasy and I have to keep them away from my kids otherwise, there are none left for me. 

Well, sometime over the summer, maybe July…I noticed that they were out of stock at my local Scarborough Hannaford. They are always in the same section of Nature’s Place.  I thought it was a fluke and kept checking…weeks go by and there is still the empty place on the shelf.  One day in August, I happen to chat up the fellow restocking some shelves nearby (noticed his name tag said Steve) and ask about the chips.  He promises to look into it and jots down the item number.

Another month later and I see Steve again, and we chat about those chips, and perhaps they were discontinued…bummer because they are the best chips ever!  But he’ll follow up with the Frito Lay guy who is due in the next day, he assures me.

Low and behold, last week, as I make my rounds through Nature’s Place, I see my friend Steve again…and just as I’m about to ask him if he ever found out what became of my favorite chips, he pulls down a bag and hands it to me!  Oh JOY!  I thank him profusely for his help.

I wonder if they would have turned up again if I had not asked the question.  Oh well.  Now, if only I can get them to restock my favorite pickles…Vlasik Snack Umms!  Out of stock since summer as well.

Can’t have a good sandwich without my pickles and chips!

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Tall Chairs at the Abromson Center

Last week I had my first class of Introduction to the SLR Camera at the University of Maine’s Center for Continuing Education. Since my buddy Dave “Sully” Sullivan couldn’t make it to class, he asked me to take notes for him.

This brought back to my jr. high school days when I would do the cool kids homework, surrender my lunch money to the football team and spent a lot of time contemplating my life from the inside of my locker.

But I digress…Dave, this is for you.

There are three variables for taking pictures, no matter your camera:

• F-stop: how wide your camera aperture opens. F-stop is often confused w/aperture; the difference is that aperture is the physical opening while F-stop is the designation of the scale.
• Shutter speed: how fast your aperture opens and closes.
• ISO: the film speed, which current digital camera mimic by increasing the voltage in the camera…which, oddly enough, increases the heat in the camera, causing more noise, which is the same effect of using very fast speed films.

With photography there’s always a trade off. By changing one of these variables, you often have to change another.

Common F-stops include: 2.8, 4.0, 5.6, 8.0, 11.0, 16.0, 22.0 and 32.0. The lower the number the more light the camera lets in. Confusing, I know. Also, the smaller the f-stop the larger the depth of field (meaning more of your picture–near and far–will be in focus.) The F in F-stop most commonly stands for fraction, not full.

Shutter speed is all about how much time the film/sensor is exposed; new cameras often go to 1/2000 of a second. Common full stops include 2000, 1000, 500, 250, 125, and 60. The shutter speed is often related to how much blur the photo has; faster shutter speeds mean less blur, but that may be an artistic decision.

ISO (International Standards Organisation) is all about film speed, even though digital cameras have no film. Common speeds include 100, 200, 400, 800 & 1,600. The higher the speed, the grainer the picture. The less light you have, the faster the film speed you need. Our substitute–you weren’t the only one missing–said that he prefers grainy over blurry any time, because you can fix grainy in the lab. Another way of taking pictures in low light is…add more light! (Lights, flash, etc.)

Your DSLR will have an automatic setting. Automatic = average. In an average setting, automatic is often fine. However, great photos often fall outside of an average situation. To get more out of your camera you’ll need to start exploring the other settings on the camera.

• Auto: All control is given to the camera. (All your base are belong to us.)
• P - Program: Same as auto but with some options and no auto-flash.
• S - Shutter (sometimes listed as Tv): You choose the shutter speed and the camera does the rest.
• A - Aperture value (sometimes listed as Av): You choose the aperture and the camera does the rest.
• M - Manual: You’re on your own.

Focus is controlled separately through the lens; you can have auto-focus on a manual setting or manual focus on an other automatic setting.

White Balance: In the old days you had to use the right filter for specific types of light (indoor vs. outdoor vs. cloudy, etc.) Now you just need to choose the right icon. You can access the WB menu from the screen on the back of your camera.

One of the big benefits is that you don’t need a filter, so you’re not trading f-stop or shutter speed when using digital.

If you have your camera saving photos on the RAW setting you can actually apply the white balance after you take the shot, during development. Crazy.

One of the WB settings is PRE; this will allow you to set the balance on something specific in the photo as white. The other colors should line up.

The camera can save photos in many different formats.

• RAW: Best file, but huge and needs special software to develop.
• JPG: Common Web-friendly format. Comes in compression levels of Fine, Normal, Basic and Strawberry.
• Images can also be saved as large, medium or small.

Best thing you can do when you get a new camera is RTFM!

HOMEWORK:

• Aperture: Find a scene that shows off depth. Play around w/f-stop and take several pictures w/different settings.
• Shutter: Find a scene that shows off movement and do the same.
• ISO: Find a scene in low light, esp. if there’s highlights and dark shadows and do the same.

See you in class, Sully!

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I wasn’t planning on visiting the new Apple Store in the Maine Mall on opening weekend, I really wasn’t. In fact, I almost blew off my trip to the mall because I thought it would be a mad house.

However, this is Maine where you can show up 15 minutes before a movie starts on opening weekend and still grab a great seat, and where White Stripes tickets are still available day of the show. Apparently there was a long line when the store opened, but by 3pm when I showed up there was just steady traffic in and out.

I saw my friend David Sliwinki of Fulcrum Digital Media wearing an Apple shirt, so I walked in and said hello. He helped me get a couple of iPhone accessories I needed, and was able to ring me up w/o even taking me to the register. Pretty cool.

I realized after I left I didn’t even really look around; couldn’t tell you where they put the Genius Bar. I’m just glad that we finally have an Apple store here in Maine.

By the way, this photo was taken before the nice security guard told me that you can’t take photos in the mall.

The Apple Store - Maine Mall

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For you Stephen King fans out there, and you graphic novel fans, you should check out N is Here, an “original video series” which appears to be an adaptation of a graphic novel which is an excerpt from an upcoming King novel. Which perhaps is based on the Broadway musical that was based on the original movie which came from the non-musical off-Broadway play. Adapted from the Shakespearean play, Taming of the Shrew, or the movie Dial N for Nurder.

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In the Op/Ed section of the Maine Sunday Telegram (aka the Sunday edition of the Portland Press Herald) read the headline:

The newspaper industry’s demise has been exaggerated, but current conditions do mean we must offfer less.

Ouch. I guess one place in which they are cutting back is in their spellcheck. Perhaps they could save money by only using two “f’s” in offer.

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I’ve settled back into work after a week camp hopping around the state of Maine. I visited 3 camps of different friends and we had a great time, but there is one lake that is closer to my heart since I spent a couple weeks there every summer growing up. It was with much pleasure then that I learned some friends of mine had a camp on the same lake (albeit the other end of the lake)

This camp is so cool I just had to share some of the photos.

Now, let it be said, if you are reading this post from anywhere other than in Maine, you’re probably thinking to yourself “Why did she go to a kids summer camp”….

So let’s define “Camp”.

If you grew up in Maine, camp is what most of you would call a cottage - probably but not always on a lake. There are some that are quite sophisticated, but to me a camp often means a much older building, with or without lake frontage but preferably with (no lake frontage probably means it’s a “hunting” camp.)

In this case the camp has it all (except a decent inside bathroom…oh, and “all” includes a resident chipmunk, the occasional mouse, and on one visit/occasion a bat - though thankfully nothing spotted on this visit). It was originally a hunting camp as evidenced by the deer and moose heads both inside and out. (Andy, my apologies to the vegetarian in the crew).

It also has great lake frontage with the sand beach going up under the porch and about 15 feet of beach between the camp and the lake. I also include a photo of the sink….an odd thing to take a picture of you say? Take a closer look….that sink and counter top is all carved out of one great big tree/log. Hope you enjoy these pictures of a good old fashioned Maine camp!

Many Thanks for the camp hospitality go out to Eirwen and Lane (Lake Cobbosseecontee near Augusta); to Doug and Linda - with a shoutout to Martha and Kevin (Beach Hill Pond near Ellsworth - the pictures are from here); and to Mary and Andrew (Cold Stream Pond near Lincoln).

Note the Bird’s nest in the antlers……circle of life?

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Hot on the heels of my last food review comes ‘The Bob’. I like the pizza at One-Eyed-Jack’s and had thought that the only vegetarian fodder until noticing “The Bob” Taco tucked away in a quiet corner of the Blackboard
(Chalkboard (AmE)).

Packed with freshly sauteed veggies (green pepper, onions, mushrooms), lettuce, slaw (red cabbage) and dressed with fresh Cilantro and a chili-lime sauce it beats the Bo Jangles out of the Hobo Pankcake I had earlier this week. Several varieties with dead animal flesh are also available.

Today’s Bob pictured opposite, it looked better before I started in on it.

For any restaurant owners out there that find this post, I am willing to write reviews in exchange for food. You know where to find me.

My rating, 4 flying rats out of 5

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Word out on the street is there is a new Taco/Burrito vendor frequenting the corner of Market and Commercial. Today we managed to get a first hand report on the quality of the 3 bean soft taco with fresh salsa. The overall visual impression was favourable and the sprig of fresh Cilantro (Corriander (Eur.)) and slice of lime made for an appealing presentation.

Unfortunately this is one taco that didn’t score highly on the taste test despite a catholic measure of what the vendor was touting as a Salsa Picante and a dolop of Daisy. Your own reports on “Street Food” are welcomed, so let’s have ‘em.

Overall rating 2.5 flying rats out of 5.

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