Fujifilm FinePix S100FS, You're so Dreamy

I finally pulled the trigger on a camera tonight.
(Tony, this one may interest you if you are still undecided on what to get.)

I was torn between getting another Point & Shoot and a DSLR. I think I've kind of outgrown the whole P&S stuff, and have been learning about apertures and f-stops and composition and all that fun stuff, yet I didn't know if a DSLR was worth me investing in, simply because it might be more than what I need, and I certainly wouldn't be able to afford many lenses, nor would I want to lug them around.

I think I found the best of both worlds. The Fuji FinePix S100fs (Go ahead, say that 10 times fast)

This is a new camera on the market, and it's designed for people in just the dilemma I was in.
The body is very much modeled after a DSLR, and the lens is capable of a 28mm all the way to a whopping 400mm (14.3x) zoom. In DSLR terms, this is typically at least 2 separate lenses.

The 11.1 megapixel CCD sensor is different than regular point and shoots, being that it's much larger. Thats the big problem with P&S's, the small sensor gets crammed with megapixels and leads to high noise as you move up the ISO brackets, and can lead also to high artifacting in images. The S100fs has a sensor similar to DSLR's, and avoids this problem altogether.

This camera is equipped with full manual controls, as well as some presets, and has something unique to FujiFilm called 'film simulation'. These settings recreate images that mimic what you'd get using different types of film made by Fuji.

Some other key points are the ability to use the LCD or an optical(electronic) viewfinder, the LCD swivels for taking images at abstract angles, XD, SD, and SD-HC cards are supported, and RAW and JPEG image settings.

After reading a lot of reviews the only negative I could find is that images in bright sunlight with a dark contrasted subject can cause some noticeable chromatic aberrations (That purple outline between bright and dark contrast. CA is actually possible on any and all digital cameras, even the top tier DSLR's, but its easier for it to happen with the S100fs. Fortunately, should an image come out with this problem, there is a Lens Correction tool in photoshop which can fix it, as well as other dedicated CA touch up programs.

One other nifty toy I got to go along with it was a new SD-HC 8 gig card. That itself is not very cool, but the card has a slide out compact USB connector, so you can get photos on any computer with just the SD card. You can also use the SD card as a thumb drive.

Once I get the new gear and have a chance to play with it, I'll put up a review.

More on Religion

I want to write an addendum to my previous post, partly in response to Tony's reply, and partly because I'm not completely fucking infuriated like I was when I wrote it.
Indeed, re-reading it now it is no better than the vitriol spewed at me by religious extremists, and I can see that.

One quality I hope those who know me well enough would say I have is an incredible amount of tolerance and open mindedness for all things. I think being a minority such as myself kind of requires that. Another thing you likely know is that I keep most of my opinions to myself, and the last post was a rare slip you're not likely to see on here again.

What I said below was more of a venting, as I do have respect for religion, and even if I don't personally derive any usefulness from it, I understand that others do. It is simply my opinion that I think we'd be better off without religion. Concordantly, there's a huge chunk of religions that think the world would be better off without homosexuals. Yin and Yang and all that.

The main reason for my post was just a burst of anger. Anytime something about gay rights, no matter how momentous or how trivial come up. I'm subjected to religious fanatics decrying something that is built into the very fiber of my being as a sinful despicable vile thing that should be categorized with the worst and most twisted abnormalities of mankind. It's guaranteed. I've cried so many times reading what they have to say, but this time I felt like lashing out. Every time they say I am living in defiance of their gods wishes or that simply being who I am is destroying the world they twist their knife into my skin.

As unfortunate as it may be, I think my distaste in religion was brought on by what religion thinks of me.

And, though most of you know this already, I consider myself agnostic. I believe that no religion on earth is correct (They cant all be), but that doesn't mean I don't believe some of them may contain certain truths. I believe in spirituality and the afterlife and perhaps a form of god, and I think that can exist on a completely different plane than 'religion'.

I'd like a BLT, hold the Religion

If I could have just one wish, and we're talking a wish on a grand scale here - not a personal or private wish, I would wish for the destruction of any and all religious organizations on the planet.

Religion scares the hell out of me.

What prompted me to write this was reading some of the comments from people around the country today in response to the news of New York's recognizing gay marriages. New York and California have both made history in the last month by officially recognizing gay marriage as legal. This has set religious folk into a rabid frenzy.

How DARE those dirty, wretched gays try to DESTROY the sanctity of marriage. They forget that over half of all marriages end in divorce, that millions of children are born out of wedlock, and that marriage wasn't even religious in origin. They try to compare love between two people of the same sex with incest, polygamy, molestation, and bestiality. They say that recognizing a same sex couples marriage by law will lead to the destruction of our country and lead us all into hell. They dictate the wants and commands of their made up god to reflect their own personal hatred.

It's become very clear to me that religion is a form of brain washing.

Religion is responsible for the lions share of all wars ever started. Religion is responsible for hindering the progression of scientific breakthroughs. When science wants to make a bold push forward with advancing something as noble as curing diseases, regrowing limbs, improving the quality of life or exploring the wonders of our universe, religious fanatics are guaranteed to step in to stir things up because it scares them. It's not written in their fiction novel, the bible, and it may lead to proving their religion is a farce.

I recently read about a woman in France who was suffering from a rare and incurable form of cancer in her nasal passages. The disease caused her face to expand and distort in all directions, her eyes to fall out, her sense of taste and hearing to stop working, and left her living daily life in unimaginable and excruciating pain. She wanted the country to grant her the right to be euthanized because she could not bare the pain of living out her last stage of the cancer.
What did the good old religious folk think? They said that their 'god' has a path for everyone, and if she was meant to live her life in this way, she should be forced to see it through to the end because it was god's plan. Unfortunately, France agreed and the woman ended up taking her own life since she could not be allowed to die with an ounce of dignity still intact. The religious folks didn't like that either. That granted her a place on a boat straight to hell according to them.

There are 21 major religions in the world, and every one thinks they're right and the others are wrong.

Some believe that science and religion can form some kind of working relationship, but I disagree. Religion does nothing but hamper scientific breakthrough's by throwing up biblical red flags when something 'scary and new' comes along. Religion questions stem cell research and it questions space exploration. In a recent survey in the US, the majority of participants even thought nanotechnology was immoral. I'm sure most of them were religious folk. Good grief!
Religion is man-made. At what point in the proven evolutionary chain did God(s) come into existence? I'd say about the time that human beings developed the part of their brain which could imagine. In an attempt to make sense of life early on, people imagined a deity greater than themselves or their community, and developed additional imaginary beliefs around that, and here we are today. Playing this imaginary thing off as some kind of human truth.

I think human beings should exist on a level of decency and established laws, and take the religion completely out of the equation. It's done far more harm than good in my opinion. Fortunately, with each new generation of children born into this world, religion is becoming less and less of an important factor in their own lives.

Alas, I should not judge, so says the Christian's god, so I think I'll borrow their famous "Hate the sin, not the sinner.", and say Hate the beliefs, not the believer.

Happy MemOILrial day

The Iraq war is only one war's victims to be remembered on this day, but since it's the latest and one of the most disgraceful...
Please honor the memory of those who are dying in the current war, which began on false pretenses and inaccurate intelligence, started by a man who was carrying on his fathers personal vendetta, in the name of controlling the second largest oil reserves in the world and creating prosperity for companies such as Halliburton. I know gas is expensive these days, but I wonder how much loss of life each gallon of gas costs?

To all of the men who will never see their children grow up, to all the husbands and wives who leave this world with grieving spouse/ now single parent, to all the mothers and fathers, sons and daughters being sent to slaughter by our country, I will remember you.

Let us please get a Democrat into the white house so we can end this.

Holy Ballsack Batman!!

I was thinking my next blog entry would be a continuation of my last one. I was going to whine about how every show I like gets canceled, everything I collect or buy gets discontinued, every menu item at restaurants I like gets eliminated, and since the finale is upon us, every American Idol contestant I actually want to win gets eliminated.
I sat down for the finale tonight, excited because my favorite contestant, David Cook, of Blue Springs, MO. was head to head with Prince Gaspian Squinty Mc Smilesalot (David Archuleta).
Now, no Idol I've actually liked has made even made it into the top 4, so I was terribly excited for David Cook to be in the top 2, but didn't expect it to go any further. Hell hath no fury like teenie boppers, and thats David Archuleta's demographic.

So the final moments of the show tick away, the lights go down, and shit the bed, David Cook wins it! Holy Cockandballs!
For the first time, someone who I've liked and rooted for from the very beginning, AND someone who is a Rocker and not a R&B/Country/Pop artist has WON! (By 12 million votes!!!)
Congratulations David Cook!

CBS | Paramount | Viacom are Dicks

I learned a valuable lesson today. Don't EVER invest interest in a TV show on CBS.
I was a fan of the dearly departed Jericho, which was canceled, then brought back due to an uprising of never-before-seen proportions, then swiftly canceled again last month.
Today, I learned that Moonlight, a show I was quite fond of has been canceled by the douchebags as well. Moonlight recently won the people choice for best new show, and has seen a lot of positive buzz recently.
What's interesting is that in both of these examples, the shows performed far better than many shows allowed to live on on other networks. Are CBS setting their standards too high based on ratings? Are they just upset that these shows don't bring in the ratings of CSI / CSI Miami / CSI Zimbabwe / CSI North Pole / CSI Candy Land / CSI Your Mom / CSI The Early Years?
The big lesson (that was supposed to be) learned during the Save Jericho campaign was that you can't rely on archaic and outdated Neilson rating systems anymore. CBS quickly learned that a very significant portion of Jericho's viewer ship was coming from their online site which allowed people to watch the show there, as well as from viewers watching the show in syndication outside of the good 'ole USA. How quickly they forget.
I got to thinking about my experiences with CBS and its parent company Paramount and its big daddy Viacom, and realized how much douchebaggery they've performed within my circle of interests.
They've canceled two of my favorite shows despite ratings other networks would be glad to have. They dropped Blu-ray like a hot potato during the HD Format war for an exclusivity pay-out, only to have to come crawling back just recently with egg on their faces. They dropped HD DVD like a hot potato when HD DVD began it's downward spiral, instead of honoring their scheduled releases (just like they did to Blu-ray)
They canceled Star Trek: Enterprise just when the show started to become really, really good.
Additionally, the CBS logo is ugly and outdated, much like their executives.

PS: Congrats to Tony T. on your iJob!

Paramount Blu it.

Paramount finally announced that they are supporting Blu-ray with titles to back it up on Tuesday. After Universals unveiling of their upcoming Blu titles a few weeks ago, this finally means all studios are aboard the Blu train and ready to leave the station. (Except Weinstein, but they arent really 'major', and they will be releasing Blu 3rd/4th quarter)
In celebration of 2 upcoming Paramount titles which I'll be picking up for sure on June 3rd, I made these:
G'night!