Category Archives: Rants & Reviews

Nikon Coolpix P100 – Real world, non-photographer use and examples.

Posted on by
8

This summer I picked up the Nikon Coolpix p100 digital camera. I wanted something decent, but not overly challenging for an average, non-camera savoy user. I had been using the Cannon PowerShot A540 with fair results, but after it took a swim in a local river as I pulled my kayak out – it just hasn’t been the same. Besides, the Cannon was old technology. I wanted something a little newer.

I pondered getting a real camera (dSLR), but truth be told… I’m just not that into it. I figured I would do better getting decent pictures from a good point-and-click, rather than getting frustrated and crappy pictures with an expensive “do it all yourself” SLR. I went to a Ritz Camera and talked to a salesperson for like an hour over what I should get. We settled on the Nikon Coolpix p100.

It has 10.3 megapixels, full 1080p HD video, and a crazy 26x zoom. What the heck would I need more camera than that for? All I’m going to be doing is catching birthdays, random wildlife sightings, or events. For the price, it made sense.

Continue reading →

Amazing Nascar Finish at Talladega – Carl Edwards last lap wreck

Posted on by
Reply

Any race fan will tell you – Talladega is known for its white-knuckle, bumper grinding, bump-drafting, giant pileup, last-lap-pass racing.

This week’s Aaron’s 499 at Talladega was no exception.

Nascar drivers generally don’t like restrictor plate racing because the plate limits the amount of horsepower these cars have, thus making it near impossible to pull away. The cars drive around in a huge pack, wide open, using the “draft” to find the speed needed to get around the other cars. This means that any mistake by a driver who is drafting in the big pack of cars, creates a chain-reaction – collecting all the cars around them. Wrecks like this can gather up half the field and are referred to as the “big one”.

The fans love restrictor plate races for precisely the same reason drivers don’t. We love watching the cars race around at over 200mph, like three inches apart. They bump each other, race four wide at times, and put on an “edge of your seat” show for us sitting at home.

Continue reading →

Caribbean cruise on the ship "Freedom of the Seas"

Posted on by
Reply

My wife and I recently took a Caribbean cruise for our honeymoon. Neither of us had ever been on a cruise before, and figured now was as good a time as any to do it.

Shopping for a cruise line was actually way more difficult than I had expected. There was Princess, Norwegian, Carnival, Royal Caribbean, Celebrity, Disney – they all look really nice. After doing a lot of research, and asking as many people as we knew who had taken cruises, we settled on Royal Caribbean. Our friends had great experiences with them, and the reviews were generally very favorable.

Picking the cruise line was only the beginning; then we needed to pick the ship and where we wanted to go. I liked this part of the planning very much. In fact, it was way easier than settling on the cruise line. Clearly I wanted the biggest, most lavish ship available. Royal Caribbean has some pretty awesome ships, including: “Adventure Of The Seas”, “Liberty Of The Seas”, “Jewel Of The Seas” and more. All of these looked spectacular, but I wanted the biggest and the best – it had to be the “Freedom of the Seas”.

The Freedom was available to board the day after our wedding! We booked an eight-day, seven-night western Caribbean tour aboard “the worlds biggest cruise ship.” I was incredible exited, yet reserved. I mean, I didn’t want to seem “too” excited. After all, I was getting married – the cruise was just a bonus. But, I’d be lying if I told you it didn’t pretty much occupy my mind in the weeks and days leading up to our wedding.

Continue reading →

The Band Ra releases their long-awaited (studio) follow up to Duality – Black Sun.

Posted on by
5

I have been a big fan of the band Ra since I first heard of them in the fall of 2000. Their first major release “From One” was a constant in my car stereo for at least a year. The guitar work is tight and heavy, and the riffs have those “hooks” that seem to get stuck in your head for a week. Some highlights off From One are “Do you call my name”, “Rectifier”, “Parole” and “Sky”. I highly recommend this record.

After From One came “Duality”. While not as fundamentally heavy as From One, Duality offered a more refined, produced sound that seemed to blend more into mainstream rock. Personally, I think Duality is outstanding and every song on that record is a hit. The guitars are not as “hooky” as From One, but the vocals make up for it. I find my self singing songs off Dually all the time. Tracks like “Take me away”, “I lost everything”, “Got me going”, “Undertaken” and “Tell me” have lyrics that I can relate to. It confuses me as to why this record was not an enormous hit, it’s clearly better than 80% of the crap out there. Needless to say, once again I highly recommend this record.

Now.. enter the latest “Black Sun”

Continue reading →

Sony Playstation 3

Posted on by
Reply

Until recently, I thought I had a truly kick-ass home theater system setup. I mean honestly, it was freaking awesome. I was sporting a 50inch Hitachi LCD television, Denon high-power surround receiver, Definitive Technologies speakers and a ground-pounding subwoofer. The houses next to me hated it, but I loved it. It was expensive to build up, but not once did I regret the cost.

Well, I recently cashed out a Google Adsense account that I had been saving up and decided to get the final component I needed to complete my system – a Blue-ray player. I have high-def cable(1080i), but my DVDs were still old-school. It was time to step up, spend the money and get the best…

So, cash in hand, I headed to the local Best Buy. I had done a bunch of research and found a couple of models in the $250 to $350 range that had all the features I wanted. The only issue is, I’m a terrible shopper. Driving up there, I half expected to do what I always do – walk up and down the isle about a hundred times until I get frustrated and leave without buying anything. After all, I do this all the time when pondering any substantial purchase.

Continue reading →

PHISH – A Live One – One of the Best live records ever!

Posted on by
Reply

Any band can spend a week in the studio, recording take after take until they capture that perfect track. With today’s software, you can just about make anyone sound like a rock star – but give them a stage, a huge audience and a set of complex songs and you see just what sort of musicians they are – or more importantly, are not!

Anyone will tell you that some bands just need to be seen live to really get an honest impression of how good they really are. Personally I’ve seen a lot of bands live, and a few come to mind as being incredible on stage. Bands/performers like Billy Joel, Ra and Dave Matthews just need to be experienced in concert.

Of all the live concerts I’ve seen, Phish is clearly the best live band. It’s funny actually. You mention the name Phish to anyone that is not a fan and all they conjure up are images of Dead-heads and Phish-heads smoking grass and dancing around in a field. Granted that is clearly the case at most concerts, but you can’t judge the band by their fans. Phish is one of the most talented bands I have even known.

I’m a musician, and I became a Phish fan after another guitar player I know dragged me to a concert at “Great Woods” (now the Tweeter Center) in Mansfield Massachusetts. It was a free ticket, so I went because I had nothing else to do that night. I literally sat there, glossy eyed as Trey Anastasio tore the roof off that place for like three hours. I was in instant fan, for all the right reasons. Trey, Mike, Page and John are all masters of their own instruments.

Continue reading →

Amesbury Ma – life is good in the carriage town!

Posted on by
Reply

Living in New England is just awesome. The weather is never boring, the people are generally decent, and I love the fact that I can sip coffee on the beach in the morning, take a hike in White Mountains in the afternoon, and catch a movie in the city at night. New England rules. I’ve lived in the Amesbury, Newburyport area most of my life. Now that I’m married, with family on the way, it somehow seems “right” that I own a home here.

I took advantage of the spring weather today, and wandered around town for a couple hours after work. While walking, I got a renewed appreciation for all the cool things I have in walking distance. I took some pictures:

I started the night with a quick three miles on my bike. This shot is from the top of the big hill at Woodsom Farm:

woodsom-farm

Continue reading →