Expressing Opinions

Today I continued to be a tourist and toured the U.S.S. Missouri. Saw where the Japanese surrendered and read the documents. I had a fun day.

Yesterday I visited Pearl Harbor and took the tour to the Arizona. There were survivor’s of the attack there who chatted with the people and retold their account of the attack. Pretty amazing. I will post photos when I return home and process them.

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Finally American truckers are protesting high fuel prices and demanding change. Today the truckers are protesting in Washington D.C. to express their plight.

Stated in an AP article: Truckers protest in Washington, seeking lower gas prices

The truckers are calling on Congress to stop subsidizing big oil companies, release oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserves, and end exports of oil from Alaska, among other things.

Many of the truckers drove to Washington from Harrisburg, Pa., and other areas to the north. One passenger held a sign that read “Enough is Enough.” The sound of so many semi-truck horns blaring was deafening.

If the truckers would realize like the European truckers, how much power they have they could put a crippling grip on the American economy and truly effect change.

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Hey, I am not making this up. The description below comes from the web site for the Massage Pants.

• Infrared heaters
• Temperature control
• Super vibration massage with a scientific and rational allocation
• High-performance rechargeable batteries

They must be purchased in lots of 500 and are made in China. Most likely there will be a recall because someone will realize the emanating glow from their crotch area isn’t from the warmth of the pants, but from the radiation in the heat source.

It’s a shame the pants do not have an iPod port. It could give new meaning to getting your groove on. Need I say more? I will leave that up to your imagination.

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For years I have always chosen to vacation alone, but on this trip I let my nephew come along for the ride. He is fun to have around, however I am having a difficult time adjusting to someone around waiting for me to come with ideas on things to do.

Waves were big on the North Shore yesterday and the beaches and parking filled up fast. Sunset Beach is where I ended up and spent most of the day making friends with a couple of locals. One guy had one arm missing, surfed better than most… and no I did not ask how he lost his arm.

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Do you have a DSLR camera? Do you get dust specks on your images? Even though I have handled my camera with extreme care when changing the lens, I have managed to get dust on the sensor. I checked into having the camera clean, but a local camera shop wanted $105 to clean it. I did some research and decided to do it myself, so I purchased my cleaning kit through Amazon for $33. The kit I bought came with instructions and enough supplies to do several sensor cleanings. And most importantly it was easy to do.

Now that I am on vacation I can appreciate not having those annoying dust specks and thus no longer need to Photshop the specks away. In case you are interested here is a link to Digital Camera Cleaning Kit w/SensorWand & Rocket Blower for Nikon and 1.6X Sensor on Amazon.

And no this is not a paid endorsement or referral. Thank you for visiting Expressing Opinions.

I recently purchased a video camera. As I continued my journey into the consumer dizzying electronics world I realized the choices are mind numbing, thus it would be easy to fall prey to impulse buying. These are just a few of the questions I asked myself during the process of buying a camera.

• What am I going to use it for?
• Who is my audience?
• Where will I primarily use it.. indoor, outdoors, or both?
• What kind of video camera do I really need?
• Do I want a camera which uses tape or has a hard drive to store the video?
• What is the difference?
• Is it practical to buy an HD (High Definition) camera?
• What will it take to produce a quality dvd to share with friends and family?
• How much do I really want to spend and how much am I willing to spend?

After a significant amount of research and reading hundreds of owner reviews I chose the highly rated Sony DCR-HC96 standard definition Mini DV tape camera. Here is the reasons which lead me to my final choice.

• Excellent low light ability.
• High quality video.
• Large CCD chip which makes the above possible.
• Mini DV tape has better image quality than hard drive cameras.
• Easier and less expensive to produce a DVD in standard definition.
• Blu-Ray burners are still expensive.
• HD camera are still improving and I do not want to invest the amount of money it would take to get a quality HD camera at this time.
• I got a great deal online and the Sony DCR-HC96 with the accessories of wide angle lens attachment, lens filter, wireless external bluetooth mic, battery, and film cost less the an HD camera.

Those are a few of my reasons for making the purchase I made. Did I make the right decision? Currently I am in Hawaii for two weeks and thus far the video I have taken has been excellent. The wireless mic has been wonderful for capturing dialog on the windy coastline and the wide angle lens has made the scenes stunning. I am definitely happy with my choice.

I can see where HD is appealing, but for now I am not ready to make the investment I need to make to produce quality HD home movies. With that said, I do look forward to the upgrade in the future.

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Yesterday I was out of bed at 4am and headed to the airport. I stood in line for the so called security check and they let me go through. I had my normal carry on camera bag, DVD player, book, notepad, and 4 sharpened #2 pencils.

It bothers me they let the pencils pass by. I keep them specifically should the occasion arise I need to defend myself. I don’t know about you, but if someone decides they are going take control of the plane I am prepared to do what it takes to defend myself and stop their plan. I do not know of any recent plane hijackings where the people survived, so the least I can do is ruin the hijackers plan.

For the most part I am prepared for an uneventful, uncomfortable, and boring flight. Flying reminds me of riding a city bus. Cramped for space and being stuck within inches next to someone you prefer to be several feet from if not more. I don’t know why they have flight attendants. What do they do? Sell overpriced stale sandwiches and serve coffee? I can get that at the local convenience store.

And what about the air quality inside the plane? The cabin is pressurized, the air is recirculated, but is the air filtered? Have you ever farted on a flight and wondered what happens to the gas? Is it simply moved from your part of the plane to another part?

Another thing that gets me wondering is the “water landing” the flight attendant talks about. I was flying over the Pacific and prior to takeoff the flight attendant said I could use my seat cushion for a flotation device. I did not see any pontoons on the plane, so does she know something I don’t know, is she really optimistic, or has she been smoking something I think she should share with me? It sure would make my trip a whole lot more fun.

And one more thing about the seat cushion as a flotation device. Do I want to survive a “water landing” and end up clutching a seat cushion bobbing in the water? It sort of reminds me being a piece of bait dangling on a bobber waiting for a large predatory fish to come along.

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What are you doing for Earth Day? You are already recycling, right? Are you driving less and consolidating trips? Have you switched to energy saving compact fluorescent light bulbs? These bulbs are getting cheaper to buy and retailers like Costco’s is offering very good prices. In the long run, you will be saving more than money.

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Tomorrow is Earth Day. What are you going to do?