Happy SysAdmin Day 2010!!!

If you know a SysAdmin go and say thanks for all their work, after all you're reading this because some SysAdmin is taking care of his Network.

I love being a SysAdmin and helping my users to which I also thank for keeping me busy and with work.

The Mundial (World Cup) fever is at its highest! With the Groups Round almost done and some dramatic games that we've seen this week (the last USA game comes to mind) and that are yet to be seen (Brazil vs Portugal), the Vuvuzela has been in something everyone talks about. Love it or hate it, it's here for the whole thing. 

It's so big now that YouTube put a Vuvuzela button so you can watch your YouTube videos with the World Cup feel, just click on the little soccer ball and enjoy :D

Viva Mexico!!!!!!

I had been looking for a HDTV for the house for some time. The main reason was to go bigger and better quality. Don't get me wrong the CRT that we got as a Wedding Gift from my Brother-in-Law worked great but it was a tad small, specially when watching movies that are in Widescreen mode.

So 3 weeks ago my beautiful Wife and I bought a 50" Samsung PN50C550 Plasma TV. Let me just say, I'm loving it!
I went with Samsung because recently some surfaced on the Panasonic Plasmas and their color of black fading. So I got a great deal for this TV and it's been worth it. I love the clarity of the picture and I'm amazed how clear everything looks. I had to replace the cable box that we had since it didn't have HDMI connections or the HD channels available. Brighthouse swapped it for free and I'm super happy with it since now I have the best possible picture from the TV. HD channels rule! 

Also I got an up convert DVD player and now our movies are looking awesome! I can't wait for the 2010 World Cup to start to see how awesome Mexico and Italy look playing in South Africa!

Me-xi-co! Me-xi-co!

I got the Canon EF 50mm f/1.4 Camera Lens from my beautiful wife for my BDay and I must say that I'm really, really happy with it.

First off, I really like how crisp the images come up and how beautiful the Bokeh  this lens produces. I can focus on something and makes sure that only that is in focus, this is one of the reasons I really wanted a DSLR camera.  Secondly I love the speed! Hot diggty dang, this lens is fast! 

I'm still getting used to frame my compositions with this lens since it's a prime lens so I have to move back and forth myself to frame the picture the way I like it. Basically I've chosen image quality over practicality but I just can't get over the quality of the pictures I can produce with this puppy!

Here are some examples of pictures I've taken thus far:

Well it was my Birthday yesterday and I turned... the Big 30! WOOT!!!! Finally people will take me seriously :P

At the Loop we had cheesecake which was delicious and a cool Bday card that everyone signed. At home Chiara gave me the best surprise ever. First I got a very funny Bday card that made me laugh a lot. Hops and Yoyo are the best! She also got me 2 new awesome shirts from Sesame Street. We then went to dinner in the Hibiscus Restaurant in the Fort Harrison Hotel and it was delicious!

Chiara has me very spoiled since today I got the new Canon 50mm f1.4 I've been longing for. This is gonna make me post so much more pics now that I have this, I can't wait!!!!

Thanks to my beautiful Wifey and al

Here's to 30 more years!

On March 17th I came home to pick up something for Chiara. I put the bicycle outside for less than 2 minutes and when I came out the bike was gone. Just like that. I was in a bit of shock since it had just happened. I looked for it on my lunch hour and the search turned fruitless. The great irony of this is that I had just bought a lock from Amazon to keep my bike safe since the last one was stolen too. I had a laugh about it and I did what I needed to do; Flourish and Prosper.

So now I wanted to buy a bicycle again since I really like to ride it to work and anywhere in downtown since I'm so close. I did my research and I decided to buy a Windsor "The Hour" from bikesdirect.com. It's a great bicycle for the price and I really like the bike. I had fun putting it together and learning more and more about bicycles.

By this time I had learned a lot more about gearing and the geometry of bicycles. I bought a smaller chain ring (44 toothed) and a 17t cog wheel and a new lock ring. This has made the bike much easier, and fun, to ride since it's a track bicycle and it had a super-duper gearing of 48-15 which would get me to super speeds but would make it very difficult for stop and go traffic.

As a side note I've been buying some tools and I can tell you that it makes a world of difference to work on your bicycle, or anything for that matter, with the right tools. Of course if you don't have the tools and you have to jury-rig it to get going it's fine but nothing works better to tighten a lock ring with a lock ring wrench as opposed to banging it with a screw and hammer. A world of difference and you have the peace of mind that what you did it correctly as opposed to having a thought in the back of your mind that you'll have to retighten.

I found a great bicycle mechanic near my house. He owns Hands on Bicycles and it's a great place to go and fix up your bike. He basically has a couple of stations there so you can work on your bicycle and use his tools. The price is quite reasonable to use the tools, $5, and you learn about your bicycle. I'm really enjoying the learning process and have tons of fun riding it.

Look out for further updates on the Windsor. Until then ride on amigos! 
:{D

I wanted to go check out taking pictures of Clearwater at night time. I've always loved how they light up buildings and bridges to make them stand out in the night. So I grabbed my gear (my Canon XSi, my tripod and my Canon Remote Switch RS60 E3) and went on a little excursion.

I was very interested in taking pictures of the bridge that connects us to Clearwater Beach. So I went to both sides and took some shots. I ran into an issue while taking these pictures. I had the UV filter on my lens and that was making some reflections of the lights on the lens, looked like some lights were ghosted. So I took the filter off and the pictures looked great. The remote switch makes it very easy to use the Bulb mode on the camera and allows me to play with the length I leave the shutter open.

Another thing that I've always loved to photograph is fountains in the night time. My favorite is the Trevi Fountain in Rome, I didn't have a DSLR but it was worth carrying a tripod with me because I was able to take very night shots of Rome. Back to fountains; I love how white and flowey the water looks when you take your photographs with a slow shutter speed (I was doing about 1 second for the fountain shots) and makes it look very professional.

Hope you enjoy the pictures, I enjoyed composing these and tell me which one you like the best.

Full Album can be found here: Clearwater at Night

Wednesday Feb the 10th my awesome DK Helio BMX was stolen. You'll be missed my friend.
I had come in early to work since we had a Release at the Office and I left late because I was going to update our servers with their MS Updates. I came out at 7:45pm and I saw something strange; my bike was not in the bike rack. I thought, "Oh, I must've come in the car today" but unfortunately I remembered the ride that morning I was freezing my hands because it was so cold. Then it hit me, the bike has been stolen. I had it locked up with my combination lock (not the best I know but better than nothing) to the bicycle rack. I was lucky to find a Policeman near the office and reported it stolen knowing that I would never see it again.

Here was the dilemma, I could just forget about buying a bike and just start walking, how boring is that? So I decided to get something a bit more useful this time. Don't get me wrong, I love my BMX but if I was to ride it for more than 30 minutes to actually go somewhere it was a pain since the seat is so low and I couldn't pedal and sit at the same time.

Enter the fixed gear bicycles. I knew of fixed gear bicycles for a while and what I liked about them is their simplicity. Just like a BMX they only have one gear so there's no derailleur so there's less parts to break which sounds good to me. So I looked around and searched the Internet and found a couple places where I too could get one of these bikes. I had many choices and I finally came up with the Torker U-District. I like that it's simple and that it has a Flip-Flop hub which means I can go Fixed or Freewheel (don't have to pedal all the time) by simply flipping the back tire. I decided to buy at my local bike shop since I thought I give them the business and I can always go to someone for help if some happens to the bike.

So far it's been a blast to relearn who to ride the bike. It's been, literally, a pain in the ass since I wasn't used to sitting down and pedaling but I'm really loving it. One of the reasons I got a fixed gear it's because it's fun, I can certainly use it as a mode of transportation but why not travel and have fun at the same time, right?

I'll keep posting stuff on anything I do to my new bike and what I what I plan to do.

This Saturday I went with my friend Karn to the Full Automotor Sports event that at the Tropicana field parking lot.

Had a blast with him and with the opportunity to keep learning my camera and enjoy an awesome ride on Karn's yellow Honda S2000.

Vids:
Ride with Karn Oh Snap!

Karn's last ride for the day

Pics:
Full Motorsports Event

Recently I did a photoshot for a friend of mine that wanted some new Headshots. I was very lucky to have a friend like Spencer who lent me his awesome Canon ES 50mm f1.4 for this shoot. This lens takes portrait photography to the professional level.  

Here are some examples of the pictures I took:

Here's the pictures I liked the most: Julia's Headshots