• Canon 270EX Speedlite = Awesome

    Today, I purchased a Canon 270EX Speedlite for my Canon EOS Digital Rebel T1I DSLR. The camera itself is great for the price, but the built-in flash results in blown out colors, especially at close range. I bought the 270EX because its rotating head allows for bounce flashing. After playing with it for an hour, I think the 270EX will take my flash photography to a whole new level, as the bounced light provides lighting without the loss of subtle differences in color. I’ve missed several good shots in low light conditions since I got the camera because I have been reluctant to use a flash. I think those days are behind me, now that I have better control over the light.

    Thus, it is without reservation that I give the Canon 270EX Speedlite the Jerry Travis guarantee.

  • Drungol the Dwarf Finally Gets His Horse

    I play World of Warcraft. I’m not addicted or anything, but I find it a welcome escape from reality. My main character is a Dwarf named Drungol. One of the rules of the game is that a Dwarf cannot ride a horse unless he or she is Exalted with the Human city of Stormwind. Without being exalted, Dwarves have to ride rams.I hate riding the rams. The horses sound cooler and look cooler. Today I got incredibly pissed and decided to gain the 3,000 Stormwind reputation I needed to become Exalted with Stormwind…It gives me great pleasure to announce that Drungol finally got his horse!

  • Mud Slinging. Oh what Fun!

    So, awhile back, I helped my buddy Mike with a website theme for TooKookyForKentucky.com, which is basically an anti-Rand Paul website. Rand (son of Ron Paul) is running for the 2011 KY gubernatorial US Senate in the upcoming 2010 election*. He claims to be a Republican but he seems more libertarian, so Mike, being the good Republican that he is, created the site to call Rand’s bluff. Mike warned me before putting a link to my site at the bottom of the theme that I would eventually be a target of Rand’s party. It took longer than expected, but it finally happened. In response to my post informing everyone that I liked my antique Snoopy book, some guy named Hightower^ had this to say:

    What about your own Web-Master, Jerry Travis, who states in his entry of November 25, 2009, “(My vampire obsession goes a long way back, and doesn’t involve a single, boring, pasty-faced Cullen “… interesting, so the guy you used to assist you in your web site design is a admires drinking the blood of human-beings, and is self-admittedly “obsessed” with this? My my, you should be careful who you collaborate with.

    That’s gotta be one of the funniest things anybody has ever said about me, especially considering the post was about my love of Snoopy!

    This is a great example of context, and what can happen when snippets are taken away from said context. The poor sap probably doesn’t even know what my Cullen reference is talking about. Furthermore, Hightower probably didn’t click on the link for the text “vampire obsession.” It was a post from way back in July 2003, where I talked about how happy I was I got to watch a lot of Buffy the Vampire Slayer during that summer. He actually believes that because I like vampire stuff that I drink human blood. By that logic, I guess that means he likes to smuggle whiskey because he watches Smokey and the Bandit every other day.

    If he’s going to sling mud at me, he’s going to have to do better than that. If Rand is anything like Hightower, he is Too Kooky for Kentucky.

    *Correction: When I first posted this, about an hour ago, I mistakenly put that Rand was running for KY Governor in 2011. He is, in fact, running for the US Senate in 2010. Everybody’s probably going to have a field day with that :)
    ^Correction 2: The comment wasn’t made by Hightower. It was a guy going by the name Lycurgus.

  • Trav on Motivation

    There are two reasons people do anything:

    1. They want to to it
    2. They are afraid not to do it

    The thing that’s wrong with America is that nobody wants to do anything, and nobody is afraid of anything because consequences have been removed.

    In education, the kids don’t want to learn and they have nothing to fear if they don’t. In society at large, nobody wants to work, and nobody is afraid of starving to death because of all the social programs we have. So, these two, simple little rules have managed to bring one of the greatest civilizations the world has ever known to its knees.

  • Cool Google Feature Removed

    Google has removed the “Show More Text” option from the “Show Options” menu. I just noticed it a day or two ago. Has anyone heard why they removed the option? I thought it was very helpful, because I often do a search and wish I could see a longer preview of the results before I actually commit and decide to follow a result.

    By the way, if you’ve been ignoring (or didn’t notice) the “Show Options” link, I think you’re missing out. On your results pages, the “Show Options” link appears here:

    Google's "Show Options" button gives a lot of features
    Google's "Show Options" button gives access to a lot of features

    I challenge you to click on it and check out all the neat new features. Happy browsing.

Categories

Archives

Scroll to Top