Underwater cameras are cool

After months of comparison shopping, the wife and I bought a Fuji film finepix xp80.  Some of our underwater shots are pretty good. I suspect I'll get some sweet mileage out of it next summer here in Okinawa.

How to get tickets to The Daily Show with Jon Stewart

Fans of the Daily Show:

Ever thought of going in to watch them tape the show?
I just went yesterday, June 14th, and it was awesome. I was trying to research online how to go about the process of getting tickets and was appalled by 1) the amount of misinformation out there b) How old the info posted was (the most recent guide i could find was 8 months old) III) absurd conflicts between different peoples descriptions of the process. I decided my blog was a nice place to post a guide.

WHAT SHOULD I DO FIRST:

go to http://www.thedailyshow.com/tickets It will probably tell you: Unfortunately, there are no tickets available to see The Daily Show with Jon Stewart at this time. Check back soon to secure your tickets or sign-up below to receive e-mails letting you know when new dates open up.

Now, don't get discouraged. That happened to me, too. I kept trying. I had given up on the website and was on my way to get in line even without a ticket to get on the standby list when i popped into starbucks and jumped online and decided to try one last time. It was about 10:15am. I got a ticket. You have to fill out your name and email.

AFTER YOU REGISTER FOR YOUR TICKETS:

They send you an email that you should print out. You won't get a physical ticket until you check in around 3pm. However, your tickets aren't actually confirmed until you click on the link in the email. Be careful, there are two clickable links, one is to cancel your reservation the other is to confirm.

WHERE IS THE STUDIO AT?

New York City

West side of Manhattan. 11th ave. Between 51st and 52nd streets. (Subway: Columbus Circle on the A\C\E train is pretty close, you just have to walk for about ten minutes.)

WHEN SHOULD I SHOW UP WITH MY EMAIL TO GET A TICKET?

I showed up at 1:40pm and there were three girls in front of me. I have no clue when they got there. By 2pm there were 40 people behind us. By 3pm there were a lot more. At three they started passing out tickets to people who had signed up online and they confirmed your identity by asking you for your name, they had a list. If you signed up online your name was on the list then you got a ticket with a number that corresponded to your number in the line. If you don't check in by 4pm, they give your ticket to someone else (people who show up without having got tickets online - I heard through the grapevine that a few of these people usually make it in, but I've never done it myself)

They overbook the show. So people always get sent away. I don't mind standing in line. If you're like me. I'd recommend showing up good and early. I got ticket number four and an incredible seat (right in the front).

There are also V.I.P. tickets. Where these come from and how to get them, I don't know.

Once you have your ticket they let you leave and tell you to be back by 4:45. This is the time that they let you in.

WHAT ELSE SHOULD I EXPECT?

You'll be seated in the theater in the order that you got your tickets. A low number means good seats. You can't have your Cellphone on from the time you go into the studio, if they see it on, they take it. If you have a backpack or manpurse they take that too, and you pick it up after the show. You must have a govt. issued ID. No pictures are allowed in the studio. No asking for autographs. The show doesn't use a laugh track, it falls to the attending audience to laugh at the jokes. That's easy enough, though.

IS IT WORTH IT?

Yes. Jon Stewart is so hilarious. Before him there was a warm up comic, also funny. Jon interacts with the audience a ton. He takes questions and is a real cool customer. Beyond any doubt if you love the show you should see it live.

Oh....

....and did I mention.....

It's free.

X-Men: First Class ~ reviewed

I'm very much a Bryan singer fan. That he was the writer of the story of this film will be obvious to anyone who is a fellow fan of his work. The film builds and unfolds slowly, much like the first x-men film. It actually begins on some of the same shots as the first x-men film. Kevin Bacon is as good in this movie as he could possibly be imagined to be. The actors who play the younger versions of Charles Xavier and Erik Lensherr breathe an amazing amount of life into those characters.

The film is character driven. The effects are outstanding. It is not a movie for people who don't like superhero movies (obviously).

of goats and things...

This picture, in all it's glory, was taken just south of the Georgia state line (or just north of the Tennessee; in all honesty i cannot remember)

The homemade sign that is quite obviously the focal point of the picture announces the finding of two goats and gives a phone number. I have not yet called this phone number. I have every reason to believe it is in fact a real phone number. I further believe that the two goats mentioned in the sign are also real.

The sign is, i believe, intentionally vague as to the type, size, color, general manner of the lost. This is no doubt designed to discourage any kind of gambit or con involving the already forlorn creatures. I've considered calling the number and pretending that the lost goats where mine. The reason I haven't executed this plan, aside from my moral convictions and natural aversion to being deceitful, is I have no use for goats.

The sign did, however, get me thinking. If this person had found a roll of twenties bound by a yellow rubber-band would they have posted a similar sign and waited for a description of the rubber-band before returning the cash? Maybe. Was it something about the goats, the way they clearly walked a line between pet and livestock, that made them more akin to a lost child than a pile of money? Will the goats ever find their way home?

To start with...

New York Rocks.

Heads up civilized world, you've got a thing or two to learn from NYC. Chain stores that sell food: Starbucks, Dunkin' Donuts, ect. are legally required to post calorie counts next to the the price of the food. In the same size and type of font.

This came to my attention when I entered a Dunkin' Donuts, planning to get a coffee with cream and sugar and maybe a donut. I left with a medium black coffee and the feeling of having dodged a bullet.

I had no idea how many calories were in the food. A lot of us don't think about calories when we order food. We consider price, that's for sure, but we don't stop to think how much of our daily 2,000 we're eating.

The day I just described happened about a year ago. I was so sure that the rest of the country would be right on New York's heels. This program has been such an eye-opener for me. Where are you rest of the civilized world? Why don't you want to save your people from obesity?

source material:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/24/business/24menu.html

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/25464987/ns/health-diet_and_nutrition/t/new-yorkers-try-swallow-calorie-sticker-shock/