Finding a blog... or not

In English class today, we discussed blogging, and the many reasons why people decide to pour their lives out on the internet. Now I realize that people blog for many different reasons, and that there are many different kinds of blogs, but I blog to share my thoughts and opinions with the world, or whoever feels like listening.

We were also instructed to find, and use, a notebook, in order to observe and note the world in more detail. Oddly enough, starting a notebook actually made my life more interesting without my having to invent it, as I appreciated interesting conversations and comedic occurances much more. Alas, upon putting pen to paper, I found that words could not describe my emotions. I suppose it just takes practice, and if anyone could write, well, the world would be a boring place.

For English, I am supposed to find and follow a one-person blog. I am as of yet unsuccessful, but I have managed to discover many interesting sites in the process.

Questionable Content is a VERY amusing webcomic, centered around indie rock references and a nerdy coffee shop. Definitely worth checking out.

Bunny is a webcomic I discovered yesterday. It follows the adventures of "the bunny" as he explores the universe. Bunny uses many plays on words and references life as well.

I am also addicted to MLIA (My Life is Average) and FML (I won't abbreviate that one), where people post their life's stories in either of these two categories. These two are good for a laugh, and are updated dozens of times per day.

~Annie, Gallifreyan

Back to School

Hello, faithful readers! I have been gone for the past two weeks, but I did manage to take lots of photos. The Chicago Rubber Duck Derby, where one "adopts" ducks to support the Chicago special olympics, was definitely a highlight of my trip. 30,000 ducks poured down into the Chicago river, but as the river is almost currentless, a fire boat pushed the ducks downstream until only five were left. It took about 45 minutes, but was entirely worth it to see the Columbus street drawbridge raise and an enormous stream of rubber ducks, all wearing sunglasses.

But it is over much too soon, as I head back to school in two weeks. However, Facebook advertising actually worked for me, and I discovered the Pulse Smartpen from Livescribe. Look it up on Amazon! It has lot of good demo videos. It looks very awesome, and I wish I could afford this pen, its apparent only downside.

~Annie, Gallifreyan

Review: Sigma 120-400 Lens

I recently had the opportunity to test a Sigma 120-400 f4.5-5.6 lens. I used this lens in South Texas to photograph birds, and it worked beautifully. I previously used a Nikon 70-300, but its zooming ability was just not what was necessary to photograph birds, and its autofocus speed was very slow. The 120-400 is plenty fast with my Nikon D2X. At times, the lens would have trouble focusing, but restarting the camera fixed this problem, and it happened rarely enough for it not to be a major downside. My images came out clear and high quality. The lens also sports a lens collar, making it easy to control and aim, and its light body is easy to carry and maneuver.

For $900, this lens is an easy buy, compared to the Nikon 200-400 for five times as much. The only downside to this lens is its inability to autofocus while using a teleconverter, but for mammal photography, the 200-400 focal length is perfect. Another benifit of Sigma lenses in general is that there are versions for both Nikon and Canon.

I fell in love with this lens the moment I first used it, and I hope you find it the same way. For an affordable yet effective lens, the Sigma 200-400 f4.5-5.6 is the way to go.

~Annie, Gallifreyan

Welcome!

To anyone who finds this blog, welcome! This blog is home to my musings about computers, gadgets, and technology in general. As of now, there is no consistency to my blog posts, but I hope to post at least biweekly, either about news in the technology world, my specific technology choices (go Windows!), bugs I've encountered, or just cool things to do with your computer.

I may also throw in some cool Science Fiction news posts as well, as I am a huge SciFi fan.

No worries if you're a Mac user who doesn't want to get caught up in all that "Windows" business. I'll tag posts with either Windows or Mac for easy sorting. However, be warned that the number of posts pertaining to Macs will be miniscule in comparison to Windows, as I know more about PCs. (Although PC technically stands for Personal Computer, meaning any consumer computer no matter the desktop or OS, we'll assume it to mean Windows just for ease of use.) And if you use Linux, well, you ROCK!

Enjoy my musings, and feel free to comment, but please make your comments kind and courteous. This is not a blog designed to rival different Operating Systems. This is a blog designed to marvel advances in technology today, and all are welcome.

~Annie, Gallifreyan