Listening to C’est Dans L’air by Mylène Farmer. Heard it on Area on Sirius as a part of Tiësto’s Club Life. I never used to like Tiësto’s mixes, but lately I like more and more of his stuff.0

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Vaja ivolution Top SP Case

Never posted a note about the 2nd Vaja¹ case that we ordered — ivolution Top SP. Alёna uses this case on her phone.

This is my own personal opinion of the case and since I’ve never extensively used it myself treat it as such.

I think it offers superior phone protection when compared to my case at least with regards to having all corners covered.

The leather itself is soft and very pleasant to the touch, much nicer that the shiny plastic on iPhone itself.

The screen is protected really well, but as you can see it doesn’t cover the bezels on the sides of the screen itself, which is a good thing — no issues using the screen near the edges.

Originally I thought that it would be hard or impossible to open the case with one hand, but by now I have no issue with that — just takes a little bit of practice.

Screen is fully covered when closed, yet easy to use when open.

The phone in the case can not be docked, if that’s your thing.

As you can see the wear shows after about 7 months of use, but Alёna keeps it in her purse along with all other stuff. The wear however is purely cosmetic.

Cosmetic wear on the sides. Access to the side buttons.

The cost was $85. There are a lot of color choices for the case itself and for the central stripe. This case gets thumbs up from me. A very good, functional and stylish case by Vaja.

I can’t link directly to the case because Vaja uses Flash on their site. [↩]

In: Gadgets & Gear Tags: Apple, case, custom, iPhone, ivolution Top SP, leather, review, Vaja
Time: 11:28 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment

Alёna says: Subscribed

March 3, 2010 @ 13:44

I like the case a lot — it is so nice to touch, and it makes it easier to find the phone in my huge purse (which is filled with stuff like tissues, lunch boxes, books, lipsticks, pens, keys, wallet, etc. The main bonus of course is that I am not afraid that Shublik will destroy the phone if I left unattended.

Oh, and I think it looks very cool and quite unique too! I did not see a single iPhone case like mine so far — that’s considering that I ride NY Subway and Path train twice a day, and there are plenty of iPhone owners around.

Friday, March 5, 2010

Big News

Today we had another ultrasound appointment. Alёna and I took a day off from work and went together. They did a lot of scanning (45 minutes) and took a lot of pictures. We saw the face, little palms and feet, heart beat and something else.

She confirmed it from 3 different angles and told us that we’re going to have a boy. When I asked if it was 100% certainty she said that they never give 100%, but she gave us 95%. Those are pretty good odds.

Otherwise everything looks great. The heartbeat, the size, perfect. Needless to say we’re very happy. We’re going to have a son.

In: Family Tags: boy, pregnancy, son, sonogram
Time: 16:13 Comments: 10 Comments Post a Comment

The oldest trick in the world. Like Duncan said — makes you wonder how many takes it took to get it right. If it is real to begin with. (via Duncan Davidson)0

Wednesday, March 10, 2010

CatEye V3

I have this¹ waiting for me. It can only mean one thing — I’m waiting for something else to come through really soon. So far the ETA is not clear though. I’m hoping for this or next weekend.

CatEye V3 cycling computer. Paid $138 on Amazon. [↩]

In: Gadgets & Gear Tags: CatEye, computer, cycling, V3
Time: 11:07 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

Friday, March 12, 2010

Peculiar AF Issue

This post is a place where I can refer people to about a really bizarre auto focusing issue that I’ve been having, without having to repeat it over and over again.

Introduction

I’ve been using D70 for over 5 years and I’ve taken about 50,000 shots. I’ve had D700 for 2 weeks before I exchanged it for the pricing reason¹, and B&H shipped the same camera back to me and I haven’t noticed an issue. I first noticed the problem on the day that I received this camera and a lens for the 2nd time.

The Issue

In short I believe there is an AF problem that happens in very specific conditions. It also seems to me that this must be a defect with the camera, the lens, or both. It happened so that my test subject of choice was a sticker on a Peach Snapple bottle that was on my desk. This, in fact is the one and only item that I can replicate the issue on. Continue Reading

Nikon started a rebate program 2 weeks after my order that would save me $300 when I buy the camera and the lens that I bought as a kit instead of as separate items. B&H had no issue closing out the first order and creating a new one so I would qualify. They didn’t have to do it, but they made this customer very happy. [↩]

In: Photography Tags: 24-70mm, AF, D700, false positive focus lock, focus, focus lock, issue, Nikkor, Nikon, problem
Time: 15:13 Comments: 1 Comment Post a Comment

Daniеl says: Subscribed

March 14, 2010 @ 18:14

Went to B&H today. As was recommended to me I spoke with a guy named Gerry who worked with Nikons for many years.

He hasn’t seen a thing like this before, but he spent about 30 minutes listening to me and working on the issue with me. Eventually he brought over another body and a lens (same combo) and we easily replicated the problem.

So this is the conclusion. All Nikon (didn’t test the others) bodies seem to do it. Some choice of a test subject I had, eh?

I’m satisfied to know that my copy is perfectly fine. Huge props to B&H yet again for superior customer service.

Sunday, March 14, 2010

Hurricane

Huge tree has fallen over the road. Poor car owner.

Yesterday we had some of the craziest weather in a long while. First of all the was a lot of rain. But that wasn’t the bad part. The bad part was an incredibly strong wind.

My mom called me all panicked in the middle of the day. She was home alone and needed help. You see, they have wall mounted AC units. One of those got blown out by wind into the middle of the living room. I know it sounds crazy and speaks volumes of the installation job, but still. I almost killed myself lifting that thing back into its place. Blown out by wind?

Roots of the tree sticking out from the destroyed sidewalk.

The waves where incredibly high in the canal along the Emmons avenue. And it’s an enclosed space. What was going on in the open ocean? Many thanks to Misha for picking us up and driving us back home from his own birthday party. And today I took some photos of a fallen tree on the nearby block.

In: Life In General Tags: hurricane, rain, weather, wind
Time: 19:30 Comments: 3 Comments Post a Comment

Sunday, March 14, 2010

18 Недель

Потихоньку приходит весна. Хотя последние 3 дня было очень пасмурно, дождливо и ветренно, всё равно чувствуется свежее дыхание нового сезона. У меня уже начал появляться животик, который для людей посторонних выглядит скорее как плотный ужин, чем развивающийся дитёнок.

Поправилась я за эти 18 недель почти на 5 кг. Не знаю много это или мало, но уж что есть — всё мое.

Чувствую я себя по прежнему тьфу-тьфу хорошо. Изредка появляется лёгкая тянущая боль внизу живота — врач сказал что это нормально, и что неудобства мне причиняют растягивающиеся сухожилия.

Я очень рада, что Даня ходил со мной на предудущее узи когда нам сообщили что скорее всего у нас будет мальчик. Как я уже писала, мне было всё равно кто у нас будет, и в моей голове проигрывались фантазии на тему младенцев разного пола. Даня же лёгкое предпочтение отдавал сыну, поэтому я рада, что кого заказывали — того и получили.

Теперь вот выбираем имя. Пока что на месте #1 укрепился Aaron. Continue Reading

In: Family, Life In General Tags: baby, book, name, pregnancy, son
Time: 20:30 Comments: 2 Comments Post a Comment

Таня says: Subscribed

March 16, 2010 @ 07:27

Помнится, мне в интернете очень понравилась приставка к кровати родителей. Там такое устройство, его можно приделать к краю кровати. Т.е. с одной стороны стенка как у обычной кроватки, а с другой стороны мама Писали, что очень удобно во время ночного кормления А еще столик для пеленания, всяко разно бутылочки Ой, много всего А! Еще у друзей очень понравилась шапочка для купания. они сделана типа из пенопласта и сама держит головку на поверхности воды. Зачетная вещь

Monday, March 22, 2010

Shooting Weekend

We had a good shooting weekend. Finally had a chance to take D700 into the wild and ended up with a good number of pretty decent shots. We started our Saturday with a short trip to Fort Wadsworth — a small National Park on the the Staten Island’s side of Verrazano Bridge. Besides the multitude of bridge shots I got several and what seems to be interesting perspectives.

In the evening of the same day, Misha, Sasha, Alёna and I drove to Hoboken for good perspective on Manhattan. We had to break a couple of minor laws to get into a good shooting location, but I ended up with some great shots from there.

Out of all the shots that I took I still ended up liking the HDR processed ones much more. A little tip for this kind of photography is to set the camera to small aperture and slower shutter speeds. This makes the lights turn into stars.

And somewhere on Sunday Alёna and I did some lighting experiments and ended up with this nice spontaneous celebrity wave kind of portrait. I wish it was taken somewhere out on the street having a non uniform background.

In: Photography Tags: Fort Wadsworth, HDR, Hoboken, long exposure, Mahattan, night shot, reflection, Verrazano Bridge
Time: 13:52 Comments: No Comments Post a Comment

«The Sopranos»

We just finished watching the whole series. The show for us had it’s good and bad moments. Some episodes where very good with a lot of great writing, some where more mediocre. The cast did a great job overall. Lots of great acting. However now knowing the story I probably wouldn’t want to watch it again. I don’t think it has enough substance that would make me want to come back. (1)

Monday, March 22, 2010

Salmon in Cream

I wanted to share this simple, but delicious recipe which Danya’s mom taught me a couple of months ago¹. A great thing about this recipe is that it takes very little time to cook, so it’s easily doable on a work day evening. Another good thing is that fish in cream somehow tastes less fishy than for example its grilled variety, which is a big plus for a girl whose husband is not a fish fan.

Anyhow. You’ll need: Continue Reading